The Catholic bulletin., 1922-07-22
TO BLESS OUR HEROES|LETTER TO THE EDITOR
A WORkINGMAN WRITES ON THE
GREAT EUcHARISTlc SILENCE.
st. Paul, MINI.
July 18, 1922.

| July 10, lJEI.
To the Editor:
While attending one of st. Paul's
churches during the Exposition of the
Blessed Sacrament on the Sunday
session in Rome, the writer felt
| pleased when he saw the many young
men filing in that afternoon, paying
homage to Him 10 whom all homage
is due. During those moments, a
thought came to him, that he should
write you, explaining what that great
presence once brought him, it being
his desire that you, in turn, could use
it if you so wished, to show some of
his fellow workers what God allowed
a man, almost stranger to good
Mother Church's great teachings to
do, the crude method, the resulting
effects on the doer-the whole pro-
gram being worked out by the man
himself.
Having been out of work for some
time, the thoughts of the privations
| the little family would have to bear
were making the man, what people
term, crazy Finally one morning,
a new thought came to him, and put
ting on his coat, he started on foot
to make a tour of the churches of
Minneapolis, having one lonely five
cent piece and pair of beads in his
pocket. The first church was but five
blocks away-he entered, said his
lc o,,l vie +oI o.
to sixteen churches, stopping only to
say the beads in each church. Finally,
he became SO tired that further walk
ing was impossible, it was dark, he
was at Our Lady of Lourdes church,
he had to admit his defeat in not being
able to visit the remaining few
churches in order to pray for "that
job" So he walked to the car, spent
his last nickel, and when he got home,
the good wife helped pull the shoes
from the bleeding feet, a little was
eaten and then to bed, but the aching
feet allowed no sleep. The next two
days he was unable to walk, and was
laughed at, but he started to think.
He had visited sixteen churches, in
each of which, but two, he had found
Our Dear Lord alone, only the tick
took of the clock measuring Off that
profound silence, and the thought of
that loneliness bothered, and bothers
yet today, so a longer and more COM
plete pilgrimage was planned.
Holy week arrived, still no job, but
on Holy Thursday, few nickels were
borrowed and the second start made.
With comparative ease and an outlay
of but forty cents, twenty-four
churches were visited, the Cathedral
in St. Paul being last; then tired and
contented, his mission ended, home
ward he turned
Although some years have come and
gone since then, no rush of work or
play can erase the thoughts of those
two days from mind, no amount of
| noise or commotion cover up the in
| tensity of the silence surrounding
| Him of Eucharistic love; and even to-
| day, when at Mass, a feeling of that
| great aWe-inspiring silence fills the
very heart during the moments sur
IIAS .ooLoCSloIlOli, IL SduoCo
feeling of happiness to know and
| to feel that one Friend is always at
| hand, always ready to listen, and back
| to mind comes that holy silence of
those days of years ago.
| Perhaps some skeptic will ask, "how
about the job?" Well, he got it;
humble at the start, hard tits true,
but honest. He has been injured
severely a few times, but each time
that same Lord has seen fit to allow
his daily wage to come his way, no
complaints can be registered and new
er will, the family is intact, the young
sters, hale and hearty, in a Catholic
| school, the man in question, still a
working man, proud to be known as a
Catholic, ''K of c." and a friend of
Him, by whom the greatest institution
ever known, our Holy Church, was
built; and he hopes that many more
will see fit to trust to Him and not
entirely to themselves, look to Him in
whose honor the Eucharistic Congress
was concerned; then theirs will be a
life worth while.
Thanking you kindly, Father, fol
your patience, beg to remain.
Most respectfully yours,