LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
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STUMBLING-BLOCKS 
 
 MADE 
 
 STEPPING-STONES 
 
 ON THE ROAD TO THE 
 
 CATHOLIC FAITH. 
 
 Rev. JAMES J. MORIARTY, A.M., 
 
 Pastor of St. Patrick' l s Churchy Chatham Village, New York. 
 
 "DIVERSO STYLO, NON DIVERSA FIDE." 
 
 " Sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, being always ready to satisfy 
 every one that asketh you a reason of that hope which is in you." 
 
 i Epist. St. Peter iii. 15. 
 
 1 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY CO, 
 
 9 Barclay Street. 
 
 1880. 
 
 7T 
 
Copyrighted by 
 Rev. JAMES J. MORIARTY, A.M. 
 
 1880. 
 
MY PROTESTANT FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS, 
 
 WHOSE 
 
 CANDOR, LOVE OF TRUTH, AND OPENNESS TO CONVICTION 
 
 HAVE ALWAYS WON MY ADMIRATION, 
 
 THIS HUMBLE WORK 
 
 IS SINCERELY DEDICATED, 
 
 WITH THE HOPE 
 
 THAT IT MAY SERVE TO DISPEL THE MISTS OF PREJUDICE 
 
 AND LEAD THE WAY 
 
 TO A 
 
 GREATER ILLUMINATION FROM THE FATHER OF LIGHT, 
 
 "THE GIVER OF EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT." 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Preface, 7 
 
 The Sacrifice of the Mass and its Ceremonies, . 13 
 The Confessional, . ... . . . .58 
 
 The Invocation of Saints, 101 
 
 Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, . . . 139 
 
 Purgatory, . . ^ 185 
 
 Infallibility, . . • • . . . . . .235 
 
PREFACE 
 
 FEW words with my kind 
 readers may not, I hope, 
 be deemed out of place. In- 
 structed by an experience of fourteen 
 years in a widely-extended mission — with- 
 in the limits of which the members of 
 the Catholic religion are in a marked 
 minority — the writer of this little work 
 has found, during his frequent and almost 
 daily intercourse with those not of the 
 household of faith, that most of the ob- 
 jections against the Church are grounded 
 on mistaken notions concerning those sa- 
 lient points of her teaching which he 
 here endeavors to elucidate. 
 
8 Preface. 
 
 To many persons the "Mass" seems 
 an unmeaning sort of pantomime, the 
 " Confessional " a huge imposition, the 
 " Intercession of Saints" an unwarranted 
 innovation, " Devotion to the Blessed 
 Virgin" despicable idolatry, " Purgatory" 
 an impious fraud, and "Infallibility" ab- 
 solute despotism. Therefore it is that 
 he has selected these in preference to 
 other doctrines, as they have been more 
 assailed and more misunderstood. 
 
 The writer puts no faith in mere con- 
 troversy. He believes in the necessity 
 of clear, simple, earnest explanations of 
 Catholic dogmas, with the absence of 
 every expression that could possibly 
 wound or offend. Controversies are sel- 
 dom or never productive of good results. 
 They only serve to stir up bad feeling, 
 to excite still more bitterly the prejudices 
 
Preface. 9 
 
 of both sides, and to render the disputants 
 still more tenacious of their own ground. 
 
 Explanation enlightens and does not 
 disturb, removes difficulties and does 
 not wound, softens asperities and leaves 
 no trace of bitterness behind. 
 
 Much as we may, and do, differ on 
 points of faith, and fundamental ones too, 
 it is no reason that we should bear ill- 
 feeling to one another. We should hate 
 error, heresy, and every compromise of 
 truth with falsehood, but we should by 
 no means hate those in error or in he- 
 resy, but embrace them all in the charity 
 of Christ, praying for their conversion 
 and removing all obstacles from their 
 path. 
 
 A great and glorious destiny not only 
 in the material, but also in the spiritual, 
 order is in store for this nation. This 
 
io Preface. 
 
 is the great country of the future, not 
 only for liberty but also for religion. 
 Here the great battle between faith and 
 infidelity is to be waged. 
 
 The principles of the Catholic religion 
 are in full harmony with those enunci- 
 ated in the Declaration of Independence. 
 There is no danger of incompatibility ; 
 and if our priests and people be but fully 
 alive to a sense of their great responsi- 
 bilities, long before the next centennial 
 of our national existence 'shall dawn this 
 grand Republic will be the stronghold of 
 the Church of God. 
 
 Animated with these views, and trust- 
 ing in the goodness of that God who 
 wishes all men to be saved and to ar- 
 rive at the knowledge of truth, I calmly 
 let loose this little venturesome craft on 
 the dangerous ocean of the literary 
 
Preface. 1 1 
 
 world, hoping that it may serve as a 
 temporary help and support for some 
 poor mariner tossed about on the sea 
 of doubt and carried away by every wind 
 of doctrine, until he may be able to 
 give true signals and hail the precious 
 life-boat of Peter and be wafted in safety 
 to the everlasting shore. 
 
 J. J. M. 
 
 Chatham Village, N. Y., 
 Feast of St. Martin of Tours, 
 November n, 1879. 
 
THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS, AND 
 ITS CEREMONIES. 
 
 HE Mass is the key to the en- 
 tire Catholic worship — the sun 
 or centre of the whole Catho- 
 lic system. Understand it fully and clear- 
 ly, and everything connected with the 
 ceremonial of the Church becomes per- 
 fectly plain and full of divine meaning. 
 
 Be in ignorance with regard to its pro- 
 per explanation, and everything in Catho- 
 lic worship becomes unintelligible — a mere 
 pantomime, a senseless jargon. 
 
 Comprehend it, as the Church under- 
 stands it and wishes it to be understood, 
 
 and it is the grandest action that can be 
 
 13 
 
14 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 possibly performed in the universe. God 
 himself, with all the unlimited capabilities 
 of His omnipotence, could not bestow on 
 man the power to perform a nobler, ho- 
 lier, or more important function. 
 
 There is not a single motion, a minute 
 ceremony, an apparently insignificant vest- 
 ment, not the slightest change of posture, 
 not a movement nor a prayer, that has 
 not its deep mystic meaning, that carries 
 not with it its useful lesson, its cheering 
 thought, its consoling promise, or its earn- 
 est exhortation. 
 
 How sublime, and even divine, is the 
 Mass! 
 
 No matter how retired the locality, how 
 miserably poor the surroundings, or how- 
 humble the roof under which it is cele- 
 brated — there is an action performed 
 which rivets the attention and claims the 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 1 5 
 
 worship of even the highest of those bless- 
 ed spirits who watch over this material 
 world of ours. 
 
 Behold the priest vested for the Holy 
 Sacrifice — the priest another Christ {Sa- 
 cerdos, alter Christus), as he has been well 
 termed. Hear him giving forth the mov- 
 ing forty-second psalm, "Judica"; see him 
 bowed down in the profound humiliation 
 of the " Confiteor " ; then, ascending the 
 Holy of Holies, thrice begging pardon of 
 each of the three Divine Persons of the ado- 
 rable Trinity at the " Kyrie," intoning with 
 joyous strain the glorious anthem of the 
 angelic "Gloria," announcing the sublime 
 doctrines of the " Gospel," proclaiming aloud 
 the potent " Credo," offering up the pre- 
 cious elements at the " Offertory," raising 
 his heart and those of his hearers at the 
 " Sursum corda " of the Preface, and the 
 
1 6 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 exultant "Sanctus" ; witness the worship- 
 ful adoration at the " Consecration," the 
 silent absorption of the " Memento," the 
 prayer of the Incarnate God, the divine 
 u Pater Noster," the humble centurions 
 " Domine, non sum dignus," the soul-ab- 
 sorbing consuming of the Sacred Species 
 at the Communion, and the last blessing, 
 in the name of the omnipotent God, of 
 the assembled prayerful multitude ! 
 
 What possibly could be grander or 
 more soul-inspiring than this tremendous 
 mystery — tremendum mysterium, as it is 
 called by the Council of Trent? 
 
 Before entering on an explanation of 
 what the Mass is, on what foundations it 
 rests, the meaning of its sacred ceremo- 
 nies, and the vestments used in its cele- 
 bration, a few words on the nature and 
 history of 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 1 7 
 
 SACRIFICES 
 
 in general will not, I trust, be out of 
 place. 
 
 A sacrifice is an offering, by a legiti- 
 mate minister, of something which falls 
 under the senses and which undergoes 
 destruction or change, in acknowledgment 
 of the supreme dominion of God over all 
 creatures. 
 
 From the very beginning of the world 
 sacrifices were offered to the Almighty, 
 and can certainly be traced back to the 
 immediate sons of Adam, Abel and Cain 
 — the former offering to God the first- 
 lings of his flock, and the latter the first- 
 fruits of the earth. Noe offered his 
 sacrifice after coming out of the ark ; 
 Abraham, his beloved son Isaac, the type 
 of Christ ; Melchisedech, bread and wine 
 
1 8 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 — the figure of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, 
 or the Mass. Melchisedech, " the king 
 of justice and of peace/' was a true type 
 of Christ. He was called " Priest of the 
 Most High," and to him Abraham paid 
 tithes of all the spoils gained by his vic- 
 tory over the kings. Sacred Scripture 
 gives no genealogy of Melchisedech, who 
 rejoiced in the priestly office, inherited 
 from no one and not succeeded to by 
 others. 
 
 In all times and countries, even when 
 and where the worship of the true God 
 was abandoned, sacrifices were offered by 
 all tribes and peoples to their divinities. 
 Being no doubt a part of the primitive 
 revelation made to mankind, it seems to 
 have been a natural instinct of the hu- 
 man heart to offer up some sacrifice — 
 such as the blood of animals or the first- 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 19 
 
 fruits of the earth — in acknowledgment 
 of the supreme dominion of God over 
 life and death. 
 
 Amongst the Greeks, the Romans, the 
 Persians, and even amongst the most 
 barbarous and uncivilized people in our 
 own times, this custom prevailed and still 
 prevails. By all it was looked upon as 
 an essential act of worship, as a neces- 
 sary act consequent upon mans depend- 
 ence on God, and also as the most effi- 
 cacious means of appeasing an angry 
 Deity. 
 
 Such has been the constant and inva- 
 riable belief even of those left to their 
 own natural light and not gifted with 
 that superior light of divine faith illum- 
 ining from on high. 
 
 All the sacrifices under the Law of 
 Moses were more or less symbolical of 
 
20 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 the great Sacrifice of the New Law. All 
 were commanded by God Himself, who 
 prescribed the various ceremonies to be 
 performed during the holy functions. 
 
 THE SACRIFICE OF THE NEW LAW, 
 
 which was once offered up in a bloody 
 manner on Calvary's Mount by Jesus 
 Christ Himself, who was both High- 
 Priest and Victim, is ever since conti- 
 nued and renewed, though offered up in 
 an unbloody manner, on all our altars, and 
 shall so continue unto the end of time. 
 
 The Sacrifice of the Mass and the 
 Sacrifice on Calvary are not two diffe- 
 rent sacrifices, therefore, but one and the 
 same, having the same High- Priest and 
 the same adorable Victim. In the Sa- 
 crifice of Calvary Our Blessed Saviour 
 suffered a real death ; in that of the 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 2 1 
 
 Mass, a mystical death, represented by 
 the separate consecration of the sacred 
 species, the bread and the wine. This 
 sacrifice has, consequently, the same ef- 
 fect as that of Calvary, and the figu- 
 rative death of our Lord, together with 
 the participation of His Sacred Flesh and 
 Blood, is as wonderfully productive of 
 grace and power as the real, true death 
 once consummated on the ignominious 
 gibbet of the Cross. His sacrifice was 
 not to be transitory or of short duration, 
 but intended to continue during all time, 
 in every age and country, as may be 
 clearly seen from the prophecies of the 
 Old Testament and His own unmistaka- 
 ble declarations in the New Testament. 
 
 The x^Vlmighty, expressing Himself dis- 
 pleased with the sacrifices of the Jews, 
 foretold, through 
 
22 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 THE PROPHET MALACHIAS, 
 
 the new oblation which would be offered 
 among the Gentiles, and which would 
 render glory to His Name. He announces 
 this new and great Sacrifice — one en- 
 tirely worthy of Him — which would not 
 be offered in one particular place, but 
 amongst all nations " from the rising to 
 the setting of the sun." " I have no 
 pleasure in you, saith the Lord of Hosts, 
 and I will not receive a gift of your 
 hand. For from the rising of the sun 
 even to the going down, My Name is 
 great among the Gentiles ; and in every 
 place there is sacrifice, and there is 
 offered to My Name a clean oblation : 
 for My Name is great among the Gen- 
 tiles, saith the Lord of Hosts " (Mala- 
 chias i. 10, 1 1). 
 
and Its Ceremonies, 23 
 
 The same oblation was prefigured in 
 the old law, as we learn from the Book 
 of Genesis, xiv. 18: " Melchisedech, 
 the king of Salem, bringing forth bread 
 and wine, for he was the priest of the 
 Most High God." 
 
 The Psalmist testifies to the same 
 (Psalm cix. 4) : " The Lord hath sworn, 
 and He will not repent: Thou art a 
 priest for ever according to the order 
 of Melchisedech." 
 
 The great Apostle St. Paul, in his 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, thus gives his 
 testimony : " It is impossible that with 
 the blood of oxen and goats sins should 
 be taken away. Therefore, coming into 
 the world he saith : Sacrifice and obla- 
 tion thou wouldst not ; but a body thou 
 hast fitted to me ; holocausts for sin did 
 not please thee. Then said I : Behold, 
 
24 The Sac7'ifice of the Mass, 
 
 I come ; in the head of the book it is 
 written of me, that I should do Thy will, 
 O God. . . . He taketh away the 
 first, that he may establish that which 
 followed!" (x. 4-9). 
 
 Then we have the Evangelists testi- 
 mony, than which nothing can be more 
 clear: " And taking bread He gave 
 thanks, and brake : and gave to them, 
 saying: This is My Body which is 
 given for you. Do this for a commemo- 
 ration of Me. In like manner the cha- 
 lice also, after He had supped, saying : 
 This is the chalice of the new testa- 
 ment in My Blood, which shall be shed 
 for you" (St. Luke xxii. 19-22). 
 
 It is evident from this last text that our 
 Blessed Saviour commanded the apos- 
 tles, and in them their successors in of- 
 fice, to continue to offer up this saving 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 25 
 
 Victim until the end of time. His sa- 
 crifice was to be offered but once in 
 that terribly painful and bloody manner, 
 as it was on Calvary's mount for the 
 sins of all mankind; but it is His inten- 
 tion that the same great sacrifice should 
 be continued as long as His Church 
 should last — that is, unto the consumma- 
 tion of ages — and be offered up, in an 
 unbloody manner, in order that the 
 merits of redemption should be applied 
 to our souls. In other words, the grand 
 offering for the sins of the human race 
 was made in the sacrifice of Calvary, 
 but the application of the same infinite 
 merits is effected through the Sacrifice 
 of the Mass. 
 
 St. Paul says (Heb. xiii. 10) : " We 
 have an altar, whereof they have no 
 power to eat who serve the tabernacle." 
 
26 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 What use would there be for an al- 
 tar without a priest? And what utility 
 to be derived from both priest and al- 
 tar, if there were no sacrifice to be of- 
 fered ? 
 
 The same great apostolic teacher 
 warns the Christians to beware of par- 
 ticipating in the sacrifice offered to idols, 
 as they would then be unworthy of par- 
 ticipating in the Christian sacrifice. 
 
 " I would not that you should be made 
 partakers with devils. You cannot drink 
 the chalice of the Lord, and the chalice 
 of devils : you cannot be partakers of 
 the table of the Lord, and of the table 
 of devils" (i Corinthians x. 20, 21). 
 " The chalice of benediction, which we 
 bless, is it not the communion of the 
 blood of Christ? And the bread, which 
 we break, is it not the partaking of 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 27 
 
 the body of the Lord?" (Ibid. 16). Also 
 in the eleventh chapter of the same 
 beautiful epistle: "For I have received 
 of the Lord that which also I delivered 
 unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the night 
 in which He was betrayed, took bread, 
 and giving thanks, broke and said: Take 
 ye and eat : this is My Body which 
 shall be delivered for you ; do this for 
 the commemoration of Me. In like 
 manner also the chalice, after He had 
 supped, saying: This chalice is the 
 new testament in My blood ; this do 
 ye, as often as ye shall drink, for 
 the commemoration of Me. For as 
 often as ye shall eat this bread, and 
 drink the chalice, ye shall show the 
 death of the Lord, until He come. 
 Therefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, 
 or drink the chalice of the Lord un- 
 
28 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 worthily, shall be guilty of the body and 
 blood of the Lord. But let a man 
 prove himself: and so let him eat of 
 that bread and drink of the chalice. 
 For he that eateth and drinketh un- 
 worthily, eateth and drinketh judgment 
 to himself, not discerning the Body of 
 the Lord." (All these texts are sub- 
 stantially- the same in the Protestant 
 version of the Scriptures.) 
 
 The Sacrifice of the Mass derives all 
 its merit, power, and efficacy from the 
 Sacrifice of the Cross, the latter being 
 the source of grace, and the former the 
 channel through which it comes to us. 
 On the Cross the infinite merits of Jesus 
 Christ became our property, but in the 
 Mass this inexhaustible wealth is distri- 
 buted throughout the world. On the 
 Cross He died for all men in general ; in 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 29 
 
 the Mass, special application is made to 
 individual souls. 
 
 The Mass, being a supreme act of 
 worship, can only be offered to 
 
 GOD ALONE. 
 
 " Deus, cui offertur ; Deus, qui offer- 
 tur ; Deus, a quo offertur." As St. 
 Augustine says : " God, to whom it is 
 offered ; God, who is offered ; God, by 
 whom it is offered." 
 
 It cannot be offered to any created 
 being, not to the highest saint or the 
 brightest angel; no, not even to the 
 Blessed Virgin. Mass may be, and often 
 is, offered to the Almighty in honor of 
 the Blessed Virgin, the angels, or the 
 saints, in order to thank Him for the 
 great graces and glory bestowed upon 
 them and to beg their intercession, that 
 
30 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 we may follow in their footsteps and cul- 
 tivate those virtues which they possessed 
 in so high a degree; but the Mass is 
 never offered to any saint, howsoever 
 elevated, for this would be an act of 
 idolatry — the giving to a creature the 
 worship due only to the Creator. 
 
 " Idolatry," says Dr. Jeremy Taylor, 
 the great divine of the Church of Eng- 
 land (in his book entitled Liberty of 
 Prophesying, section 20, m. 26), "is 
 a forsaking the true God and giving 
 divine worship to a creature, or to an 
 idol — that is, to an imaginary god. 
 Now, it is evident that the object of their 
 [the Catholics'] devotion in the Blessed 
 Sacrament is the only true and Eternal 
 God, hypostatically joined with His holy 
 humanity, which humanity they believe 
 actually present under the veil of the 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 31 
 
 sacramental signs. And if they thought 
 Him not present, they are so far from 
 worshipping the bread in this case, they 
 themselves profess it idolatry to do so. 
 Which is a demonstration that their soul 
 has nothing in it which is idolatrical ; 
 the will has nothing in it but what is 
 a great enemy to idolatry ; and nothing 
 burns in hell but proper will." 
 
 The Mass, then, is an offering made to 
 the Almighty of the Body and Blood of 
 Jesus Christ, or an action in which bread 
 is consecrated into the Body and wine 
 into the Blood of Christ by the sacred 
 ministry of the priest, using the very 
 words of our Saviour, and gifted with 
 His authority, in commemoration of the 
 sacrifice of Calvary, " to show the death 
 of the Lord until He come," 
 
 From all that has been said the con- 
 
v) 
 
 2 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 elusion is evident that the value of the 
 Mass is infinite. St. Alphonsus Liguori 
 declares that " all the honor which an- 
 gels by their adoration, men by their 
 good works, austerities, and even martyr- 
 dom, have ever rendered or ever shall 
 render to God, never could and never 
 will give him so much glory as one 
 single Mass ; for while the honor of 
 all creatures is only finite, that which 
 accrues to God from the Holy Sacri- 
 fice of the altar is infinite, insomuch as 
 the Victim which is offered is of infi- 
 nite value. The Mass, therefore, offers 
 to God the greatest honor that can be 
 given Him ; subd.ues most triumphantly 
 the powers of hell ; affords the great- 
 est relief to the souls in purgatory ; 
 appeases most efficaciously the wrath 
 of God against sinners, and brings 
 
and Its Ceremonies. $$ 
 
 down the greatest blessings on man- 
 kind. " 
 
 " This is truly the corn of the elect, 
 and the wine springing forth virgins " 
 (Zach. ix. 1 7). 
 
 St. Bonaventure calls the Mass " the 
 compendium of all God's benefits " — 
 compendium quoddam beneficiorum suo- 
 rum. St. John Chrysostom says that 
 the Mass has as much value as the 
 death of Christ on the cross: Tantum 
 valet celebratio Missce quantum valet 
 mors Christi in cruce. 
 
 * Oh ! how greatly to be revered the 
 dignity of priests," says the great St. 
 Augustine in his commentary on the 
 twenty-seventh psalm, " in whose hands, 
 as in the womb of the Virgin, the 
 Son of God takes unto Himself flesh " 
 — O veneranda sacerdotum dignitas Y in 
 
34 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 quorum manibus velut in utero Virginis 
 Filius Dei incarnatur 
 
 CEREMONIES OF THE MASS. 
 
 In all ' public worship ceremonies have 
 always been considered necessary for the 
 proper performance of sacred functions, 
 and for the maintenance of greater de- 
 cency and propriety. Some form of cere- 
 monial law has ever been in use from 
 patriarchal times, and still more so un- 
 der the law of Moses; the various vest- 
 ments and ceremonies having been or- 
 dained by God Himself. Nor did our 
 Blessed Saviour disdain the use of cere- 
 monies, as we perceive from those He 
 employed when He cured the man born 
 blind (John xv. 6) and the deaf and 
 dumb (Mark vii. 33). They are calcu- 
 lated, first, to preserve uniformity, so de- 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 35 
 
 sirable in divine worship ; secondly, to 
 demonstrate, by exterior action, the in- 
 terior dispositions of the soul, owing, as 
 we do, the worship of both body and 
 soul to the Almighty; moreover, in the 
 third place, these outward ceremonies 
 bring to mind, and more deeply impress, 
 the truth of Christian mysteries, the dis- 
 positions required for the proper recep- 
 tion of the sacraments, and the corre- 
 sponding obligations which they impose. 
 
 Many of the ceremonies were ihstitut- 
 ed by the Apostles and their immediate 
 successors, "for the edification of the 
 body of Christ" (Eph. iv). " Let all 
 things be done decently and according 
 to order," says St. Paul (1 Cor. xiv. 40). 
 " The rest I will set in order when I 
 come" (1 Cor. xi. 34). These words 
 show that the apostle no doubt establish- 
 
36 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 ed regulations for the proper mainten- 
 ance of divine worship. 
 
 Now let us come to an explanation of 
 the vestments of the priest and the cere- 
 monies of the Mass. 
 
 THE PRIEST 
 
 is dressed in vestments every one of 
 which is symbolical, having reference 
 chiefly to the Passion of Christ, whose 
 representative he is, more especially dur- 
 ing the Holy Sacrifice. 
 
 The first article which he puts on is 
 a small, white, oblong linen cloth, which 
 he first places on the back of his head 
 and allows to fall on his shoulders close 
 to the neck. This is the amid, and rep- 
 resents the rags with which the Jews 
 muffled our Saviours face. The alh (the 
 long white garment extending to the feet 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 37 
 
 and covering the cassock or soutane, 
 the priests ordinary ecclesiastical dress) 
 is emblematic of the white garment put 
 in derision on our Lord by Herod. 
 The cincture, or girdle, signifies the 
 cords and bands by which He was bound. 
 The maniple (from the Latin word ma- 
 nus, the hand) is worn on the left 
 arm in memory of the cords with which 
 His hands were tied to the pillar during 
 the scourging. The stole, worn round 
 the neck with the extremities crossed 
 over the priests breast, signifies the 
 heavy yoke of the cross to which He 
 submitted for our sakes. The cha- 
 suble, the full outer vestment, the 
 purple garment with which our Sav- 
 iour was clothed in mockery in the court 
 of Pontius Pilate. On the chasuble is 
 always a large embroidered cross, to re- 
 
38 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 mind both priest and people that the effi- 
 cacy of the Sacrifice of the altar is deriv- 
 ed from that of the Cross on Calvary. 
 The berretta, or square black cap of the 
 priest, is symbolical of the crown of 
 thorns. 
 
 The altar represents Mount Calvary; 
 the chalice, the sepulchre; the altar linens, 
 the winding-sheets ; the paten or silver 
 plate, the stone rolled against the en- 
 trance of the sepulchre; and the candles, 
 the light of faith, " without which it is 
 impossible to please God." 
 
 The vestments have also a mystic 
 meaning in reference to the priest him- 
 self. The amict denotes divine hope, " the 
 helmet of salvation " ; the alb, innocence 
 of life; the cincture, holy purity; the 
 maniple, patience in suffering; the stole, 
 the yoke of Christ — "My yoke is sweet 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 39 
 
 indeed and my burden light " ; and the 
 chasuble, covering all the rest, the great 
 mantle of charity. 
 
 The vestments are of different colors. 
 White, emblematic of purity, is used on 
 the joyous feasts of our Lord, the Bless- 
 ed Virgin, the confessors and virgins. 
 Red, significative of fortitude, on the 
 feasts of the Holy Cross, the instruments 
 of the Passion, during the octave of Pen- 
 tecost, and on the feasts of the martyrs. 
 Purple is used in Lent and other peni- 
 tential seasons. Green (expressive of 
 hope) is used on ordinary Sundays from 
 octave of Epiphany to Septuagesima and 
 from octave of Pentecost to Advent, 
 when there is no special feast. Black is 
 used in Masses for the dead and on 
 Good Friday. 
 
40 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE MASS. 
 
 The Mass, as well as every office of 
 religion, begins with the sign of the 
 cross : In nomine Patris et Filii et 
 Spiritus Sancti. Amen. — " In the name 
 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost." Amen. The Unity and 
 Trinity of God, the Incarnation, Passion, 
 and Death of our Saviour are all express- 
 ed by this one saving sign. No wonder, 
 then, that it has been in such constant 
 use from the time of Christ and His 
 Apostles. 
 
 Tertullian, who wrote in the second 
 century of our era, thus speaks of it : 
 " At every moving from place to place, 
 at every coming in and going out; in 
 dressing, at the baths, at table; on 
 lighting candles, going to rest, sitting 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 41 
 
 down; in whatever action we are en- 
 gaged, we sign ourselves on the fore- 
 head with the cross " (De Corona Mil.) 
 
 The priest then recites the forty- 
 second psalm, "Judica" (the forty-third 
 in the Protestant version), expressing the 
 joy and desires of a soul approaching 
 the altar of God. Bowing down, he says 
 the " Confiteor," or general confession, in 
 humble acknowledgment of his sinful- 
 ness before God, and the clerk or acolyte 
 does the same on behalf of the people- — 
 showing the necessity of true repentance 
 in order to derive the fruits of the Great 
 Sacrifice. 
 
 Ascending the altar steps, he begs of 
 God to take away our iniquities, that we 
 may be fit to enter His sanctuary. 
 
 He then begins the Mass of the day 
 at the "Introit" (an anthem from some 
 
42 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 part of the Scriptures, with verse of 
 psalm and Gloria Patri), after which he 
 returns to the middle of the altar, where 
 he " says " Kyrie eleison " (the Greek for 
 " Lord, have mercy ") thrice to God the 
 Father, " Christe eleison " thrice to God 
 the Son, and "Kyrie eleison" thrice to 
 God the Holy Ghost. 
 
 He then (except in penitential times, 
 votive Masses, and Masses for the dead) 
 intones the "Gloria in excelsis" — u Glory 
 be to God on high." This hymn of 
 praise being concluded, he turns to the 
 people and says : " Dominus vobiscum " 
 — " The Lord be with you." This salu- 
 tation is made seven times during the 
 Mass, and is the same as was addressed 
 to Gedeon by the angel (Judges vi. 12), 
 to the reapers by Boaz (Ruth ii. 4), and 
 to Asa by Azarias (2 Paral. xv. 2). 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 43 
 
 After one or more prayers at the left- 
 hand side of the altar, he then reads the 
 " Epistle," which is selected from some 
 one of the various epistles of the New 
 or from some book of the Old Testa- 
 ment, which being concluded, the aco- 
 lyte says: "Deo gratias," or " Thanks to 
 God," for these salutary instructions. 
 
 The missal or mass-book is then 
 changed to the gospel side of the altar, 
 denoting the change from the Old to the 
 New Dispensation, and the people always 
 stand while the Gospel is being read, to 
 show their firm belief in the word of 
 God and their readiness to obey it. 
 
 Before the reading of the Gospel both 
 priest and people make the sign of the 
 cross on their foreheads to testify their 
 open profession of the faith, on their lips 
 to show that they are willing to give 
 
44 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 testimony to the same by their words, 
 and on their breasts that they wish to 
 cultivate it with their heart's best affec- 
 tions. At the conclusion of the Gospel 
 the acolyte says, or the choir chants, 
 " Laus tibi, Christe," " Praise to Thee, O 
 Christ," for vouchsafing to teach us such 
 heavenly doctrines. 
 
 Then (on Sundays and special feasts) 
 the " Creed" is intoned, that creed 
 which has been recited in the Church 
 since the time of the Councils of Nice and 
 Constantinople, and when the celebrant 
 says the words "et incarnatus est," he 
 and all present bend the knee in honor 
 of the Incarnation of the Divine Word. 
 
 At the " Offertory" of the bread and 
 wine the priest begs of the Almighty to 
 accept the sacrifice, which he is about to 
 offer, for the remission of his own sins 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 45 
 
 and those of the people, and for the re- 
 freshment of all those souls who departed 
 this life in the peace and friendship of 
 God. He blesses the bread and wine, 
 and beseeches the Holy Spirit to sanctify 
 them unto His Holy Name. 
 
 Proceeding to the epistle side, he 
 washes the tips of those fingers which 
 are to hold the Sacred Host, at the same 
 time reciting the " Lavabo " (the twenty- 
 fifth psalm), denoting the purity of body 
 and soul with which we should assist at 
 so holy an action. 
 
 Returning to the middle of the altar, 
 he there bows down, begging of the 
 ever-blessed Trinity to receive this offer- 
 ing in honor of the Passion, Resurrec- 
 tion, and Ascension of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, making remembrance also of the 
 Blessed Virgin and all the saints, that 
 
46 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 they may intercede in heaven for us who 
 strive to honor their memory here on 
 earth. 
 
 Turning towards the people, he recom- 
 mends them to pray that his sacrifice 
 and theirs may be acceptable in the 
 sight of the Almighty; after which he 
 intones the " Preface " or introduction to 
 the Canon of the Mass, calling upon 
 those present to raise their hearts — " Sur- 
 sum corda" — and join their praises of 
 God with those of the nine choirs of 
 angels, concluding with the " Sanctus " 
 (Holy, Holy, Holy) in honor of the 
 Blessed Trinity. 
 
 Then we come to 
 
 THE CANON OF THE MASS. 
 
 Canon is a Greek word meaning 
 u rule," and is applied to this most so- 
 
and lis Ceremonies. 47 
 
 lemn part of the Mass, which never 
 changes, remaining substantially the same 
 in all ages and liturgies. 
 
 It is always read by the priest in a 
 very low voice, symbolizing the silence 
 of our Saviour during the trials of His 
 Passion. 
 
 A translation of the Canon is to be 
 found in all English missals for the use 
 of the laity.. 
 
 The priest beseeches the Father of 
 Mercies in behalf of the whole Church, 
 the Pope, the bishop of the diocese, the 
 Rulers of the country, and all orthodox 
 believers. A commemoration is made 
 for the living, for those in particular for 
 whom the priest offers the Mass, making 
 remembrance also of all present at the 
 Sacrifice. A solemn commemoration is 
 made of the saints in order to honor 
 
48 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 their memory and beg their intercession, 
 after which the priest spreads his hands 
 over the bread and wine, as the priests 
 of old used to place their hands on the 
 heads of the victims to be sacrificed to 
 God (vide Book of Leviticus), begging 
 of the Almighty to accept the offering 
 made to Him, imploring His peace in 
 this life, and eternal salvation in the 
 next. 
 
 We then come to the very essence of 
 the Mass, the 
 
 CONSECRATION, 
 
 when the priest makes use of the very 
 words used by Christ Himself, pronounces 
 them in His name with His power and 
 authority, and thus changes the bread 
 into the Body of Christ, and the wine 
 into His Blood — the separate consecration 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 49 
 
 of the sacred species constituting a mys- 
 tic immolation. 
 
 The Sacred Host is then elevated, and 
 after the Host the Chalice, in memory 
 of Christ's elevation on the cross, and in 
 order that all the faithful in the church 
 may adore Jesus Christ there present 
 with his Body and Soul, Humanity and 
 Divinity, all under the sacramental veils. 
 "As often as ye shall do these things, 
 ye shall do them in memory of me." 
 
 After begging of Cod to accept the 
 sacrifice from the hands of His High 
 Priest, the priest makes a memento for 
 the faithful departed, that they may ob- 
 tain a place of refreshment, light, and 
 peace through Christ our Lord — per 
 Christum Domimtm nostrum — all prayers 
 in the Mass concluding precisely in the 
 same manner, to testify our belief that 
 
50 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 it is only by virtue of His merits that 
 we can obtain any favor whatsoever. 
 
 Then follows the "Pater Noster" — the 
 Lords Prayer — always read aloud or 
 chanted, after which the celebrant says 
 a prayer that we may be delivered from 
 all evils, past, present, and to come, and, 
 through the intercession of the Blessed 
 Virgin and all the saints, be favored with 
 peace in our days and secured from all 
 sin and disturbance, through Christ our 
 Lord. 
 
 The priest breaks the Host, in memory 
 of Christ breaking bread before giving it 
 to His disciples, and puts a particle in the 
 chalice, to represent the reuniting of 
 Christ's Body and Soul after the Resur- 
 rection, saying : " The peace of the Lord 
 be always with you." He recites after 
 this the " Agnus Dei" three times: "O 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 5 1 
 
 Lamb of God, who takest away the sins 
 of the world, have mercy on us." Before 
 consuming the Sacred Species, he says 
 three more preparatory prayers and re- 
 peats the centurions " Domine, non sum 
 dignus" — "Lord, I am not worthy that 
 thou shouldst enter under my roof; but 
 only say the word, and my soul shall be 
 healed." 
 
 After the Communion, the priest takes 
 a little wine into the chalice (which we 
 call the first ablution), in order to con- 
 sume therewith whatever little drops of 
 Sacred Blood may be adhering to the 
 chalice, and the second ablutions of wine 
 and water, for fear of any sacred particle, 
 be it never so small, adhering to his 
 fingers. 
 
 When a priest celebrates two Masses, 
 he does not take any of the ablutions 
 
5 2 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 until the end of the second Mass, as a 
 priest must be always absolutely fasting 
 from midnight whenever he celebrates 
 Mass. 
 
 After saying one or more prayers, he 
 blesses all present — "May the Almighty 
 God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 Ghost, bless you " — and generally concludes 
 the Mass by reading the sublime be- 
 ginning of the Gospel of St. John. Then 
 all finishes by the acolytes saying, "Deo 
 Gratias," in thanksgiving to God for all 
 the graces received during the Holy Sacri- 
 fice. 
 
 The Mass is said in the 
 
 LATIN LANGUAGE, 
 
 as it is the ancient language of the 
 Church. Moreover, it preserves uniformi- 
 ty of worship, and is not, like a living 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 53 
 
 tongue, subject to change or corruption. 
 Nor is this of any injury to the faithful, 
 as they may always follow the priest, in 
 the celebration of Mass, by making use 
 of their missals or prayer-books; or, if 
 they be unable to read, by meditating on 
 the different stages of our Saviour's suffer- 
 ings. Hence, no matter what part of the 
 world a . Catholic may travel, he is al- 
 ways at home, so to speak, in any Catholic 
 church during the celebration of Mass. 
 
 Here I thought it would not be out 
 of place to quote the beautiful sentiments 
 of Johann Ka^par Lavater (a Protestant 
 minister of Zurich, who died January 2, 
 1 801) on finding himself in a Catholic 
 church : 
 
 " He does not know Thee, O Jesus ! who 
 dishonors even Thy shadow. I honor all 
 things where I find the intention of 
 
54 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 honoring Thee. What, then, do I behold 
 here ? What do I hear in this place ? 
 Does nothing under these majestic vaults 
 speak to me of Thee? This cross, this 
 golden image : is it not made for Thy 
 honor? The censer which waves around 
 the priest, the * Gloria ' sung in choirs, the 
 peaceful light of the perpetual lamp, 
 these lighted tapers — all is done for Thee ? 
 Why is the Host elevated if it be not 
 to honor Thee, O Jesus ! who hast died 
 for love of us ? Because it is no more 
 bread, it is Thy Body, the believing 
 church bends the knee. It is in Thy honor 
 alone that these children, early instructed, 
 make the sign of the cross, that their 
 tongues sing Thy praise, and that they 
 thrice strike their breasts with their lit- 
 tle hands. It is for love of Thee, O 
 Jesus ! that one kisses the spot which 
 
and Its Ceremonies, 55 
 
 bears Thy adorable Body, that the child 
 who serves the altar sounds the little bell 
 and performs all that he does. The 
 riches collected from distant countries, 
 the magnificence of chasubles — all that has 
 relation to Thee. Why are the walls and 
 the high altar of marble clothed with 
 becoming tapestry on the day of the 
 Blessed Sacrament ? For whom do they 
 make a road of flowers ? For whom are 
 all these banners embroidered ? 
 Oh! delightful rapture for Thy disciples to 
 trace the marks of Thy finger where the 
 eyes of the world see them not. Oh ! 
 joy ineffable for souls devoted to Thee 
 to behold in caves and rocks, in every 
 crucifix placed upon the hills and on the 
 highways, Thy seal and that of Thy love. 
 Who will not rejoice in the honors of 
 which Thou art the object and the soul ?" 
 
56 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 Such are the sentiments with which 
 every Christian should be imbued on 
 entering a Catholic church, more parti- 
 cularly when the Holy Mass is being 
 celebrated. In this great Sacrifice we 
 have a standing memorial of the Passion 
 and Death of our Saviour, the fruits of 
 which are applied to our souls. By 
 means of these sacred mysteries we are 
 kept united to Christ, and we render to 
 the Almighty an unceasing, supreme act 
 of worship. 
 
 "When we sacrifice/' says the great 
 St. Ambrose, "Christ is present, Christ 
 is immolated." 
 
 Hence the splendor of our churches, 
 the beauty of our vestments, the impos- 
 ing grandeur of our ceremonies, the dis- 
 play of lights, the profusion of flowers, 
 the religious awe and devotion of the 
 
and Its Ceremonies. 5 7 
 
 people; all, all have in view the greater 
 honor and glory of Jesus Christ, whom 
 we believe to be truly and really present 
 on our altars, the " Lord to whom be- 
 longs the earth and the fulness there- 
 of." 
 
II. 
 
 THE CONFESSIONAL. 
 
 HERE is no subject more uni- 
 formly or more persistently 
 abused than the "Confes- 
 sional." It has been a shining target 
 for the shafts of ridicule as well as of 
 calumny for the past three hundred and 
 fifty years. There is now, and always 
 has been during this long period of 
 time, an immense amount of ignorance 
 displayed whenever this important point 
 of Catholic teaching has been discussed 
 by those outside the Church. 
 
 With a considerable number of per- 
 sons, especially in our time and in this 
 
 58 
 
The Confessional. 59 
 
 country, the difficulty arises from a mis- 
 understanding, or rather from want of 
 proper knowledge on the subject If, 
 instead of reading the works of our 
 enemies, who always misrepresent the 
 Church and its doctrines, inquirers would 
 consult some authorized Catholic work, 
 or take in hand and read carefully, with 
 unprejudiced mind, one of even those 
 little catechisms to be found in posses- 
 sion of our Catholic children, much bit- 
 ter and unjust prejudice would be re- 
 moved, and we would be seen in our 
 true light. 
 
 Now let us enter calmly and thought- 
 fully, like earnest men and Christians, 
 into an examination of the " Confes- 
 sional," the grounds on which it rests, 
 the authority on which it is based, the 
 wants and desires of the human heart 
 
6o The Confessional. 
 
 which it so abundantly supplies and ful- 
 fils, the immense benefits it confers, not 
 only on individuals in particular, but on 
 society in general, and we shall learn to 
 esteem it according to its true and per- 
 fect value. 
 
 Baptism, as is well known, washes 
 away all sins from the soul, not only 
 original sin, but also all actual sins pre- 
 vious to its reception, and remits the 
 punishment due to the same. It makes 
 a man a child of God and heir to the 
 kingdom of heaven, and renders his soul 
 pure and spotless in the sight of the Al- 
 mighty. But as, unfortunately, the vast 
 majority of those once purified in the 
 saving waters fail to preserve in after- 
 life their baptismal innocence, if there did 
 not exist some other remedy, the human 
 race would be in as sad a state as be- 
 
The Confessional. 61 
 
 fore. Our Blessed Saviour, knowing full 
 well our poor, frail human nature, and 
 that " man is prone to evil from his 
 youth," in His infinite goodness and 
 mercy instituted another sacrament — " a 
 second plank of safety after shipwreck" 
 — on which we may lay hold and be 
 saved from everlasting ruin. 
 
 Our Divine Lord, as we learn fron\ 
 the 1 8th chapter of St. Matthew, after 
 denouncing the sin of scandal and com- 
 manding that every incorrigible sinner 
 should be reported to the Church; "and 
 if he will not hear the Church, let him 
 be to thee as a heathen and a publican," 
 then and there conferred on His Apos- 
 tles the divine power of binding and 
 loosening ; " Amen I say to you : what- 
 soever you shall bind upon earth, shall 
 be bound also in heaven ; and whatso- 
 
62 The Confessional, 
 
 ever you shall loose upon earth, shall be 
 loosed also in heaven." He said the 
 same to St. Peter in particular (ch. xvi. 
 18, 19). This wonderful power He con- 
 ferred on the Apostles, and, in them, 
 their successors, in still stronger terms 
 after His glorious resurrection and ascen- 
 sion into heaven : " All power is given 
 to Me in heaven and on earth " (St. 
 Matt, xxviii. 18); or, as St. John ex- 
 presses it (St. John xx. 21): "As the 
 Father hath sent Me, I also send you. 
 When He had said this, He breathed 
 on them; and He said to them: Re- 
 ceive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins 
 ye shall forgive, they are forgiven them ; 
 and whose sins ye shall retain, they are 
 retained." 
 
 No human language could be plainer, 
 clearer, or more expressive. The same 
 
The Confessional. 63 
 
 wonderful power and godlike attributes 
 received from His Heavenly Father, and 
 possessed by Him as the Incarnate God, 
 He bestowed on those who were to con- 
 tinue His work and govern His holy 
 Church after His ascension, and until the 
 end of time, when He would come again 
 " to judge the living and the dead." 
 The most wonderful and most divine of 
 all these powers was that of absolving 
 from sin : " Whose sins ye shall forgive, 
 they are forgiven." This is their war- 
 rant, this their authority. It is impos- 
 sible, absolutely impossible, to take any 
 other meaning from the words of Christ, 
 or to twist them to a contrary sense. 
 
 No one can doubt that Christ, as 
 God, possessed this power ; but we 
 must bear in mind, and He Himself 
 tells us most emphatically, that He pos- 
 
64 The Confessional. 
 
 sessed it also as the " Son of Man," 
 when, in confirmation of this declaration, 
 He worked a miracle on the paralytic: 
 "And behold they brought to Him a 
 man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed. 
 And Jesus seeing their faith, said to the 
 man sick of the palsy: 'Son, be of 
 good heart, thy sins are forgiven thee.' 
 And behold some of the Scribes and 
 Pharisees said within themselves : ' This 
 man blasphemeth/ And Jesus seeing 
 their thoughts, said : ' Why do you 
 think evil in your hearts ? Which is 
 easier to say, Thy sins are forgiven 
 thee; or to say, Rise up and walk? 
 But that you may know that the Son of 
 man hath power on earth to forgive sins, 
 then saith He to the man sick of the 
 palsy : ' Rise up, take thy bed and walk/ 
 And he rose up and went into his 
 
The Confessional. 65 
 
 house. And the multitude seeing it, 
 feared, and glorified God, who had given 
 such power to men" (Matt. ix. 2-8). 
 
 Every one will admit that no man of 
 himself has such power. No one can 
 deny that God has it; and if God has it, 
 is He not omnipotent, and cannot He 
 delegate this power to whom He plea- 
 ses ? What sane man can refuse to be- 
 lieve it?- Had not Christ the power of 
 forgiving sins? and, if so, had He not 
 the power also of delegating it? That 
 He had this power and thus used it is 
 evident from His own divine words al- 
 ready quoted, and which could not pos- 
 sibly be expressed in clearer terms : 
 " And heaven and earth shall pass away 
 before My words shall fail." 
 
 But some one may say: " Yes, it is 
 true, we cannot deny it, the words are 
 
66 The Confessional. 
 
 too clear ; He conferred this power on 
 the Apostles, but on no one else." 
 
 Ah, indeed ! was the Church, then, to 
 begin and end with the Apostles ? Was 
 there to be no salvation for the count- 
 less generations that were to come after 
 them? What says Our Blessed Saviour? 
 Surely He will give us the answer : 
 "All power is given to Me in heaven 
 and on earth. Go ye, therefore, teach 
 all nations : baptizing them in the name 
 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe 
 all things that I have commanded you : 
 and behold I am with you all days, even 
 unto the consummation of the world " 
 (St. Matt, xxviii. 18-20). The Protes- 
 tant version is precisely the same. The 
 Apostles were not to live during all 
 time ; therefore what was said to them 
 
The Confessional. 67 
 
 was evidently intended also for their suc- 
 cessors in office, who were to continue 
 the apostolic work of instructing all na- 
 tions, tribes, and peoples. These were 
 to have the same power, and to speak 
 with the same authority, handed down 
 in regular succession in that divine 
 Church which Our Lord founded, with 
 which He promised to remain during 
 all time, directing, guiding, sustaining, 
 and enlightening it, and against which 
 He most solemnly declared " the gates of 
 hell shall never prevail" 
 
 Such was the true, natural, and obvious 
 sense in which Our Lords words were 
 accepted in His time by the Apostles 
 and in every succeeding age by their 
 successors, the Fathers and Doctors of 
 the Church. As St. Paul said: " Let 
 men so look upon us as the ministers of 
 
68 The Confessional. 
 
 Christ, and the dispensers of the mysteries 
 of God" (i Cor. iv. i). And do we not 
 read in the 19th chapter of the "Acts 
 of the Apostles " that " many of those 
 who believed came confessing and de- 
 claring their deeds"? 
 
 Consult the annals of the Church in 
 every age from the very beginning of its 
 history, and you will find the same be- 
 lief as to the divinity of its institution. 
 
 If the people did not believe that it 
 had been established by Christ Himself, 
 they never would have received it, would 
 never have submitted to such a yoke. 
 If it be a human institution, when, where, 
 and by whom was it invented? Surely 
 these are very important questions, and 
 such an event as its invention, did it 
 ever happen, would have been altogether 
 too important to have passed without 
 
The Confessional. 69 
 
 notice — too important not to have left 
 some trace behind it in the history of 
 the times in which it was supposed to 
 have taken place. But no such trace 
 can be discovered. 
 
 What class of persons, moreover, could 
 possibly have any interest in such an 
 invention ? Whom could it profit ? The 
 priests ? Well, no, for many reasons. 
 
 1st. If the priests, bishops, or popes 
 had been the inventors, they would cer- 
 tainly have contrived to exempt them- 
 selves from the painful and humiliat- 
 ing ordeal of confessing their own sins. 
 Priests, bishops, and even popes, have 
 to submit to the same law like the 
 humblest and lowliest of their flock. The 
 only difference is that they go to the 
 holy tribunal more frequently than the 
 members of the laity, as they stand in 
 
Jo The Confessional. 
 
 need of greater purity for the perform- 
 ance of their, sacred functions. 
 
 2dly. It is the most painful, the most 
 laborious, the most fatiguing of all the 
 priests' duties, more especially in the 
 larger parishes. But perhaps some very 
 ignorant or very malicious person may 
 say ; " They get paid for it." A more 
 diabolical falsehood was never uttered. 
 Never, in the history of the Church, 
 was it lawful to accept any money what- 
 soever for the hearing of confessions and 
 the granting of absolution. It would be 
 justly considered one of the most hein- 
 ous crimes and sacrileges that could be 
 committed, and would be visited by the 
 heaviest penalties the Church could in- 
 flict. I never read or heard of such a 
 case, and it is too ridiculous to treat 
 seriously. 
 
The Confessional. 71 
 
 Suppose then that, at any given period 
 of the history of the Church, the ecclesi- 
 astical authorities took it into their heads 
 to establish the Confessional and then 
 announced it to the body of the faithful ; 
 select any age you like, or a particular 
 year in any century. Do you think that 
 the people would ever have submitted 
 to such a heavy burden, would willing- 
 ly have subjected themselves to such a 
 humiliating ordinance ? Whoever does, 
 has a far different idea of human nature 
 than the most of intelligent persons. 
 
 Those who lived in the third, the 
 sixth, the tenth, or the thirteenth century 
 had the very same passions, as much 
 human pride as the men of this nine- 
 teenth century, and would have been 
 just as rebellious under what they would 
 have believed to be an ecclesiastical im- 
 
72 The Confessional. 
 
 position. Hence they would never have 
 bowed down to such a law, did they 
 not know and believe that it was es- 
 tablished by Christ Himself. 
 
 Some individuals have gone so far as 
 to say that the Confessional was estab- 
 lished by the Church in the Fourth 
 Council of Lateran, a.d. 12 15, but that 
 Council only fixed the limit of time 
 beyond which it would be reckoned a 
 grievous sin to neglect the Sacrament of 
 Penance. 
 
 In the first ages of the Church, the 
 piety and zeal of the faithful needed no 
 spur to the performance of their duty 
 in this respect, since they approached 
 the Sacraments every day, or at least 
 every week ; but when the fervor of the 
 people diminished and their charity grew 
 cold, it was deemed necessary to estab- 
 
The Confessional. 73 
 
 lish the law of Confession and Com- 
 munion, to be complied with at least 
 once a year, and then at Easter or 
 thereabout, under pain of excommunica- 
 tion. 
 
 That the Confessional existed from the 
 time of Christ and His Apostles, the 
 
 TESTIMONIES OF THE FATHERS 
 
 and Doctors of the early Church, which 
 I shall now quote, will clearly and amply 
 demonstrate. 
 
 In the first few centuries of the Chris- 
 tian era, so great was the piety of the 
 faithful that they generally made their 
 confessions publicly and underwent public 
 penance for their sins. This was the cus- 
 tom until thirty years after St. Augus- 
 tine's time, when Pope Leo abolished it, 
 for fear of scandal and disedification. 
 
74 The Confessional. 
 
 Let us begin with the twelfth century, 
 and select a testimony here and there 
 among the different ages until we reach 
 the immediate disciples of the Apostles. 
 
 Pierre de Blois (who died a.d. 1200) 
 thus speaks; "Let no one say to him- 
 self, I confess in secret and I do pen- 
 ance in the sight of God ; if such a 
 confession were sufficient, ' the keys ' 
 were in vain given to Peter. Does 
 shame prevent you from confessing? If 
 so, remember that your conscience will 
 be exposed before all men in the day of 
 judgment' {Tract* de Conf. Sacrani). 
 
 The very essence of the Sacrament of 
 Penance is given in very few words by 
 Richard of St. Victor (died a.d. 11 73): 
 "Vera pcenitentia est abominatio peccati 
 cum voto cavendi, confitendi, satisfaci- 
 endi " — having a horror for sin, with 
 
The ConfessionaL 75 
 
 the resolution of being more watchful, 
 making confession and rendering due 
 satisfaction. 
 
 " Of what advantage is it," says the 
 great St. Bernard, "to declare but a 
 certain number of your sins and to con- 
 ceal the remainder ? All things are nak- 
 ed and open to the eyes of God, and 
 how dare you conceal anything from 
 Him who holds the place of God in so 
 great a sacrament ?" 
 
 " Non salvemini nisi confiteamini " — you 
 will not be saved unless you confess — 
 says Hugo of St. Victor. 
 
 St. Anselm, who was Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury in the beginning of the twelfth 
 century, declares that " we should go to 
 the priests and beg absolution." The 
 great Doctor of the Church, St. Peter 
 Damian, says that " to be ashamed of 
 
J6 The Confessional. 
 
 confessing our sins is to fear God less 
 than man." 
 
 " We have observed," declared the 
 Fathers of the Second Council of Cha- 
 lons, a.d. 813, "something which needs 
 to be corrected, namely, that certain in- 
 dividuals in making their confession do 
 not do so with necessary integrity. 
 They should examine their sins with 
 care and attention in order that it 
 should be full and entire." 
 
 The Venerable Bede, who flourished in 
 the beginning of the eighth century in 
 England, thus discourses : " We should 
 distinguish between slight faults and sins 
 of more weight; as to the former, we 
 may usefully confess them before our 
 equals in order to obtain their prayers 
 and receive correction ; but as for the 
 latter, in order to fulfil the law, we 
 
The Confessional. jy 
 
 should necessarily confess them to the 
 priest." 
 
 FATHER CONFESSORS IN THE EARLY AGES. 
 
 St. Viron was confessor to King 
 Pepin ; St. Aidan, to King Brandubh ; 
 St. Martin, a monk of Corbia, to the 
 great Charles Martel ; St. Aldric, Bishop 
 of Mans, to Louis le Debonnaire ; St. 
 Udalric, Bishop of Augsburg, to the Em- 
 peror Otho; and Arteldulf, prior of St. 
 Oswald, to Henry I. of England. 
 
 Charlemagne made it a rule that every 
 regiment should have its father confessor. 
 
 William of Somerset, a monk of Mal- 
 mesbury, praises the Normans for having 
 spent the night before battle in confess- 
 ing their sins. 
 
 A council held in Kent, a.d. 787, for- 
 bade prayers to be said for those who, 
 
78 The CofifessionaL 
 
 through their own fault, died without 
 confessing their sins. 
 
 " Let each one prove himself," says St. 
 Paulinus (eighth century), ''before receiv- 
 ing the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. 
 Before approaching let us have recourse, 
 as is our duty, to confession and pen- 
 ance ; let us examine with care all our 
 works, and if we remark in ourselves 
 whatever is capable of causing us to ab- 
 stain from receiving, let us hasten to re- 
 move it by confession and true penance, 
 for fear that, like Judas the traitor, har- 
 boring the devil within us, we may 
 perish." 
 
 Lactantius declares that "That is to be 
 known as the true church in which are 
 to be found confession and penance." 
 
 Alcuin, the preceptor of the Emperor 
 Charlemagne, wrote a work against; the 
 
The Confessional. 79 
 
 heretics of his time who denied the ne- 
 cessity of confession. 
 
 Tertullian, who lived in the age follow- 
 ing that of the Apostles, says ? in his 
 great work De Pcenitentia : 
 
 " I think that many decline confessing 
 their faults, or delay it from day to day, 
 more moved by fear of shame than care 
 of their salvation ; like unto those who, 
 afflicted with secret diseases, conceal their 
 malady from the physicians, and perish 
 from false modesty and bashfulness. 
 What advantage can be derived from 
 the hiding of our crime ; for if we 
 succeed in having it escape the know- 
 ledge of men, can we conceal it from 
 God ? " 
 
 That man of wonderful learning, Ori- 
 gen, says: "We must have recourse to 
 confession in order that we may be freed 
 
80 The Confessional. 
 
 from our sins" (Second Homily on 
 Thirty-seventh Psalm). 
 
 St, Basil (who died in the year 378) 
 gives a similar testimony: "We should 
 confess to those to whom the dispensation 
 of the mysteries of God is accredited," 
 
 It is related in the life of St. Ambrose 
 that when he heard the confessions of 
 his penitents, he wept so much over the 
 recital of their sins as to cause them- 
 selves to weep. We shall conclude these 
 testimonies by the declarations of the two 
 great Doctors of the Church, St. Augus- 
 tine and St. John Chrysostom, the former 
 the greatest light of the Western, as the 
 other was of the Eastern Church: "Let 
 no one say," says St. Augustine, "that 'I 
 do penance in private and in the sight of 
 God. God who pardons me knows the 
 sorrow of my heart/ Was it therefore 
 
The Confessional. 81 
 
 said in vain: 'Whatsoever ye shall bind 
 upon earth shall be bound also in hea- 
 ven'? Were the keys given in vain to 
 the Church of God? Shall we render 
 fruitless the Gospel of God and the 
 words of Christ?" (Horn. 49). 
 
 " God granted unto the priests of the 
 New Law," says St. Chrysostom, in his 
 work " De Sacerdotio," "what was never 
 granted to angels or archangels, for never 
 was it said to them, ' Whatsoever ye 
 shall bind on earth shall be bound also 
 in heaven/" 
 
 So we perceive very clearly what 
 ample proof we find in the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures and in the writings of the fathers 
 of the Church for the Catholic doctrine 
 of the Confessional. We see also from 
 the very words of the divine commission, 
 " Whose sins ye shall forgive, they are 
 
82 The Confessional. 
 
 forgiven them, and whose sins ye shall 
 retain, they are retained," that the 
 power thus conferred is a discretionary- 
 one, not, therefore, to be exercised ac- 
 cording to the whim, fancy, or caprice of 
 its possessors, but according to prudence 
 and judgment. 
 
 How may this be done? By no other 
 possible way than through the Confes- 
 sional ; for the case of each one must be 
 carefully examined, his sins and the num- 
 ber of them, their gravity, their malice, 
 the character and dispositions of the pen- 
 itent; and then, and only then, is judg- 
 ment to be pronounced. 
 
 THE PRIEST IN THE CONFESSIONAL 
 
 is a spiritual judge and spiritual physi- 
 cian. No judge worthy of the name 
 will ever pass sentence without examin- 
 
The Confessional. 83 
 
 ing the whole case in all its bearings; so 
 the priest must make himself, as much 
 as possible, acquainted with his penitent, 
 his passions, his inclinations, the causes 
 of his fall, and all this under the seal of 
 the most inviolable secrecy. 
 
 He is also a spiritual physician. No 
 good physician will prescribe for his 
 patient without making a proper diag- 
 nosis, or, in other words, without knowing 
 clearly what is the disease, how far it has 
 developed, what are all the symptoms, what 
 remedies it is necessary to order, what 
 diet and what mode of living he should 
 counsel. So, likewise, the penitent should 
 make known to his spiritual adviser the 
 state of his soul, its hidden sores, its 
 weaknesses, its failings and perverse in- 
 clinations, in order that he may receive 
 such counsel and advice as will be neces- 
 
84 The Confessional. 
 
 sary or beneficial for the welfare of his 
 immortal soul. 
 
 Even if God and his Church had not or- 
 dered it, nature itself would seem to demand 
 the institution of such a tribunal. When 
 the poor, weary, overburdened heart feels 
 itself oppressed, it instinctively seeks for 
 an outlet to its grief and sorrow in some 
 such channel as is thoughtfully prescribed 
 by Holy Mother Church. 
 
 How beautifully and truthfully is this 
 
 great need of the human heart portrayed 
 
 1 
 
 in 
 
 hawthorne's " marble faun," 
 
 where the heroine of his story, after suf- 
 fering untold anguish, is irresistibly im- 
 pelled, Protestant though she be, to enter 
 a confessional box in St. Peter's Church, 
 Rome, and there unburden herself of 
 
The Confessional. 85 
 
 the terrible secret that was eating into 
 her very life. 
 
 "THE WORLD'S CATHEDRAL. 
 
 " Gliding onward, Hilda now looked 
 up into the dome, where the sunshine 
 came through the western windows and 
 threw across long shafts of light. They 
 rested upon the mosaic figures of two 
 evangelists above the cornice. These 
 great beams of radiance, traversing what 
 seemed the empty space, were made visi- 
 ble in misty glory by the holy cloud of 
 incense, else unseen, which had risen into 
 the middle dome. It was to Hilda as 
 if she beheld the worship of the priest 
 and people ascending heavenward, pu- 
 rified from its alloy of earth, and ac- 
 quiring celestial substance in the golden 
 atmosphere to which it aspired. She 
 
86 The Confessional. 
 
 wondered if angels did not sometimes 
 hover within the dome, and show them- 
 selves, in brief glimpses, floating amid the 
 sunshine and the glorified vapor, to those 
 who devoutly worshipped on the pavement. 
 " She had now come into the south- 
 ern transept Around this portion of 
 the church are ranged a number of con- 
 fessionals. They are small tabernacles of 
 carved wood, with a closet for the priest 
 in the centre ; and, on either side, a 
 space for a penitent to kneel, and breathe 
 his confession through a perforated au- 
 ricle into the good father's ear. Observ- 
 ing this arrangement, though already fa- 
 miliar to her, our poor Hilda was anew 
 
 impressed with the infinite convenience 
 
 » 
 
 — if we may use so poor a phrase — of 
 the Catholic religion to its devout be- 
 lievers. 
 
The Confessional 87 
 
 " Who, in truth, that considers the 
 matter, can resist a similar impression ? 
 In the hottest fever-fit of life they can 
 always find, ready for their need, a cool, 
 quiet, beautiful place of worship. They 
 may enter its sacred precincts at any 
 hour, leaving the fret and trouble of the 
 world behind them, and purifying them- 
 selves with a touch of holy water at 
 the threshold. In the calm interior, fra- 
 grant of rich and soothing incense, they 
 may hold converse with some saint, 
 their awful, kindly friend. And, most 
 precious privilege of all, whatever per- 
 plexity, sorrow, guilt, may weigh upon 
 their souls, they can fling down the 
 dark burden at the foot of the Cross, 
 and go forth to sin no more, nor be any 
 longer disquieted; but to live . again in 
 the freshness and elasticity of innocence. 
 
88 The Confessional. 
 
 ' Do not these inestimable advantages,' 
 thought Hilda, 'or some of them, at least, 
 belong to Christianity itself? Are they 
 not a part of the blessings which the 
 system was meant to bestow upon man- 
 kind? Can the faith in which I was 
 born and bred be perfect, if it leave a 
 weak girl like me to wander, desolate, 
 with this great trouble crushing me 
 down ? ' A poignant anguish thrilled 
 within her breast; it was like a thing 
 that had life, and was struggling to get 
 out ... In this vast and hospit- 
 able cathedral, worthy to be the religious 
 heart of the whole world, there was room 
 for all nations ; there was access to the 
 Divine Grace for every Christian soul ; 
 there was an ear for what the overbur- 
 dened heart might have to murmur, speak 
 in what native tongue it would. When 
 
The Confessional. 89 
 
 Hilda had almost completed the circuit 
 of the transept, she came to a Confes- 
 sional — the central part was closed, but 
 a mystic rod protruded from it, indi- 
 cating the presence of a priest within, 
 on which was inscribed : ' Pro Anglica 
 Lingua/ It was the word in season ! 
 If she had heard her mothers voice from 
 within the tabernacle calling her, in her 
 own mother-tongue, to come and lay her 
 poor head in her lap, and sob out all 
 her troubles, Hilda could not have re- 
 sponded with a more inevitable obedi- 
 ence. She did not think, she only felt. 
 Within her heart was a great need. 
 Close at hand, within the veil of the 
 Confessional, was the relief She flung 
 herself down in the penitents place, and, 
 tremulously, passionately, with sobs, tears, 
 and the turbulent overflow of emotion 
 
90 The Confessional. 
 
 too long- repressed, she poured out the 
 dark story which had infused its poison 
 into her innocent life. . . . And, ah, 
 what a relief! When the hysteric gasp, 
 the strife between words and sobs, had 
 subsided, what a torture had passed away 
 from her soul! It was all gone; her 
 bosom was as pure now as in her child- 
 hood." 
 
 No Catholic could give a more per- 
 fect picture than this of the natural 
 longing of the human heart for sich a 
 divine institution as the Confessional. 
 
 Count De Maistre, speaking on the 
 same subject, says: "The stomach which 
 contains poison and which throws itself 
 into a convulsion in order to reject it, 
 is the natural image of a heart into 
 which crime has poured its venom. It 
 suffers, it labors, it contracts itself until 
 
The Confessional. 91 
 
 it reaches the ear of friendship, or at 
 least that of benevolence. " 
 
 How beautifully and faithfully the Holy 
 Church of God accommodates itself to 
 the wants and desires of the human soul, 
 no want being left unsatisfied, no desire 
 unfulfilled. Gifted with the divine wis- 
 dom of its Holy Founder, it comes to 
 our rescue in every difficulty, it provides 
 a remedy for every disease of the soul ; 
 it is a source of strength for every 
 weakness, and of comfort for every sor- 
 row. It has none but words of cheer in 
 all our sadness and discouragement, and 
 advice and consolation in all our trials 
 and temptations. It has a salve for 
 every hidden sore, a soothing balm for 
 every affliction, a refreshing bath of 
 soul-cleansing waters in the holy Sacra- 
 ment of Penance. 
 
92 The Confessional. 
 
 In this Sacrament, besides Confession, 
 there are two other essential parts, 
 namely, contrition and satisfaction. 
 
 Contrition is a sincere, deep, and heart- 
 felt sorrow for all our sins, because they 
 are displeasing to God, who is infinitely 
 good in Himself and infinitely good to 
 us; and, moreover, because by them we 
 lose all right to heaven and deserve 
 eternal punishment. This sorrow neces- 
 sarily includes a firm purpose of amend- 
 ment. Without this sorrow or contrition 
 no absolution pronounced by a priest is 
 of any value whatsoever. So necessary is 
 it, that not even God Himself can dis- 
 pense us from this requisite disposition. 
 
 When the sorrow is perfect, or proceeds 
 from the pure love of God, and is joined 
 with the expressed or implied desire of 
 sacramental absolution, it justifies the 
 
The Confessional. 93 
 
 sinner immediately. Such has always 
 been the teaching of the Church, as may 
 be clearly seen from the decrees of the 
 (Ecumenical Council of Trent, session 
 14, ch. iv. 
 
 Besides contrition, the other requisite 
 quality is satisfaction. Hence, if any injury 
 have been done to any one in character, 
 person, or property, full reparation must 
 be made to the entire extent of the peni- 
 tent's ability. If the penitent be in un- 
 just possession of any property whatso- 
 ever, there is no forgiveness, and no 
 hope of it, until that property be re- 
 stored to its rightful owner. Even were 
 the confessor deceived in such a case, 
 so as to give absolution, it would be 
 absohttely null and void. Nor would it 
 suffice to give the property or its equiva- 
 lent in charity or for any pious object, 
 
94 The Confessional. 
 
 if the real owner were known or could 
 be easily discovered. Restitution should 
 then be made to him and to him only 
 — to satisfy the law. 
 
 God alone knows the countless resti u- 
 tions that have been made through the 
 Confessional, the innumerable reparations 
 effected, the causes of scandal removed, 
 private enmities overcome, revenge sub- 
 dued and heinous crimes prevented. 
 
 It is the great guardian of the morals 
 of the youth of both sexes. Rising pas- 
 sions are checked or kept under control, 
 and vice is nipped in the bud. Inno- 
 cence is preserved from many fatal snares, 
 or, if it have been unfortunately lost, 
 the penitent is saved from despair and 
 headlong ruin and restored to God's 
 grace and friendship. The young man 
 is warned on the very threshold of life, 
 
The Confessional. 95 
 
 the young woman is rescued from the 
 proximate occasion of sin, and the dan- 
 gers of a sinful life are pointed out 
 to all. 
 
 Preaching from the altar or pulpit has 
 not and cannot have the same powerful 
 effect as the word spoken in season, 
 and whispered into the ear of the indi- 
 vidual penitent by the Minister of God 
 in the sacred tribunal. That is the place 
 for special warnings and instructions 
 adapted to the widely different wants, 
 dangers, and necessities of the penitents. 
 There the means are pointed out and 
 the remedies prescribed for the preven- 
 tion or cure of the maladies of the 
 soul. 
 
 " I look upon a pious, earnest, and 
 discreet confessor," says the eminent 
 Protestant writer Leibnitz, "as a great 
 
96 The Confessional. 
 
 instrument in the hands of God for the 
 salvation of souls ; for his counsels serve 
 to direct our affections, to enlighten us 
 as to our faults, to help us avoid occa- 
 sions of sin, to dissipate doubts, to raise 
 the downcast spirit — in fact, to remove 
 or mitigate all diseases of the soul ; 
 and if we can hardly find anything on 
 earth more excellent than a faithful 
 friend, what happiness to find one who 
 shall be bound by the inviolable religion 
 of a divine Sacrament to preserve the 
 faith and to succor souls." 
 
 Never yet in the long history of the 
 Church, has there been found one case, 
 well authenticated, of the seal of the Con- 
 fessional having been violated. Priests 
 have fallen from grace and even abandon 
 ed the faith ; but no matter how low they 
 have fallen, they were never yet known 
 
The Confessional. 97 
 
 to reveal the secrets of the Confessional. 
 A priest can never make any use what- 
 ever — to the slightest detriment of the 
 penitent — of any revelation made to him 
 through the sacred tribunal. No law, 
 human or divine, can oblige him to 
 make the slightest disclosure. 
 
 St. John Nepomucene suffered a glori- 
 ous martyrdom, and is thereby honored 
 on our altars, because he would not 
 make known to the king the confession 
 of his spouse the queen. He preferred 
 a cruel death to the violation of the 
 sacred seal. 
 
 The very infidels themselves are forced 
 
 to give their testimony in favor of the 
 
 Confessional. Voltaire says : " It is a 
 divine institution, which has had its 
 
 origin only in the infinite mercy of its 
 
 Author " (tome xxxiv. page 36). He said, 
 
98 The Confessional. 
 
 moreover, that "the enemies of the 
 Roman Church, who have opposed so 
 beneficial an institution, have taken from 
 man the greatest restraint that can be 
 put on crime " (Diet. Phil., art. "Cate- 
 chisme de Cure "). 
 
 " A well-informed man," says Gibbon, 
 " cannot resist the weight of historical evi- 
 dence which goes to establish that con- 
 fession was one of the principal points of 
 papist doctrine in all the period of the 
 four first centuries." 
 
 Lord Fitzwilliam {Letters of Atticus) 
 says that "it is impossible to establish 
 virtue, justice, and morality on a solid 
 basis without the tribunal of penance." 
 
 Now let us give the testimony of one 
 of our own, the truly Catholic Eugenie de 
 Guerin, from her famous Journal: "The 
 world does not know what a confessor is 
 
The Confessio7iaL 99 
 
 to one : the man who is a friend of the 
 soul, its most intimate confidant, its phy- 
 sician, its master, its light; he who binds 
 and looses, who gives us peace, who 
 opens the gates of heaven ; to whom we 
 speak upon our knees, calling him as we 
 do God, our father; nay, faith makes him 
 in very deed God and Father to us, 
 When I am at his feet, I see in him only 
 Jesus Christ listening to the Magdalen 
 and forgiving her much because she has 
 loved much." 
 
 It is said in the Divine Book that 
 "there is joy before the angels of God 
 over one sinner doing penance" How the 
 angels of God then must cluster around 
 the Confessional, watching with . eager 
 joy their precious charges emerge from 
 the holy tribunal with happiness beaming 
 on their countenances and "a peace that 
 
ioo The Confessional. 
 
 surpasseth all understanding" filling their 
 minds and hearts to overflowing, with 
 those words of divine cheer ringing in 
 their ears, the words of God's own sacred 
 minister to each penitent soul : " Beloved 
 child, thy sins are forgiven thee. Go in 
 peace and sin no more." 
 
III. 
 
 THE INTERCESSION OF SAINTS. 
 
 HE most consoling of all the 
 doctrines of the Catholic 
 Church is the Communion of 
 Saints. How perfect the accord, how 
 grand the harmony, of the whole system 
 of dogma ! No discord, no jarring, no 
 contradiction, but a complete nexus be- 
 tween all the parts of the divine whole 
 — a marvellous unity and a perfect chain 
 of connected truths. 
 
 What a grand and sublime idea we 
 cannot but form of the Church — one body 
 of which Christ Our Lord is the Head, 
 and all its members in their different 
 
102 The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 states joined together by the bonds of 
 an unbroken, undying charity ! 
 
 How deeply affecting and powerfully 
 encouraging is the thought and the be- 
 lief that our present course in this 
 weary, sinful world, is being momenta- 
 rily watched by the blessed spirits, who 
 reign with God in the heavens above ; 
 that they take the deepest interest in 
 our eternal welfare, more especially 
 those disembodied spirits of "the just 
 made perfect " who once passed through 
 the same struggles on earth ; that they 
 pray for us and intercede for us with 
 the good God ! How we also, weak, 
 frail mortals that we are, can be of help 
 to others, more particularly to those who 
 departed this life in the friendship of 
 the Almighty, and who are not yet 
 sufficiently purified to enter the " Holy 
 
The httercession of Saints. 103 
 
 of Holies," where nothing the least 
 defiled can gain access, as we are told 
 by St. John in the Apocalypse. 
 
 Behold, then, the bond — the wonderful, 
 divine bond of charity, which unites us 
 all, whether in heaven above, the earth 
 beneath, or the expiatory prison-house of 
 purgatory. 
 
 I shall now endeavor to explain one 
 part of this admirable communion — that 
 is, the relations existing between us and 
 the Saints of God ; the foundations upon 
 what this pure and consoling belief rests, 
 and the wonderful advantages it confers 
 on the faithful Christian. 
 
 After some preliminary remarks, we 
 shall see what warrant there is for this 
 dogma in the Sacred Scriptures. 
 
 The chief idea of this doctrine is that 
 the Saints of God, being purer and holier 
 
104 The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 than we, and having attained their eternal 
 happiness in an everlasting union with the 
 Almighty, we believe that their prayers 
 on our behalf are more pleasing and ac- 
 ceptable in His sight than our own poor, 
 unaided petitions can expect to be. 
 
 The clear, unmistakable words of the 
 Church itself on this subject, in the 
 celebrated Council of Trent, leave nothing 
 to be desired as to the meaning of the 
 dogma: 
 
 "It is good to consider," says Bossuet 
 (in his Exposition of Catholic FaitJi), 
 " the words of the Council itself, which, 
 wishing to prescribe to bishops how they 
 should speak of the 'Intercession of 
 Saints/ obliges them to teach that ' the 
 Saints who reign with Jesus Christ offer 
 to God their prayers for men ; that it 
 is good and useful to invoke them in 
 
The Intercession of Saints. 105 
 
 a suppliant manner, and to have recourse 
 to their aid and succor, in order to be- 
 seech God for His favors, through His 
 Son Jesus Christ, who alone is our Sa- 
 viour and Redeemer/ " Per Filium ejus 
 Jesum Christum Dominum Nostrum, qui 
 solus noster ~Redemptor et Salvator est: 
 these are the very words of the Council, 
 than which nothing can be plainer or 
 clearer, or farther from the idea of idola- 
 try or superstition. 
 
 No injury is done to the Creator, 
 there is no derogation from His laws, no 
 abridgment of His rights, in the honor 
 and reverence we pay the Holy Ones 
 of God. 
 
 SUPREME WORSHIP 
 
 is due to God alone, and to offer it to 
 any creature, no matter howsoever ele- 
 
106 The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 vated, be it to the highest of the Sera- 
 phim or to the Mother of God herself, 
 would be the fearful crime of idolatry. 
 
 We adore God alone, as He is the 
 Author of life, the Creator of all things, 
 the Supreme Master, Director, and Go- 
 vernor of the universe. We adore not 
 the Angels, we adore not the Saints, we 
 adore not the Virgin Mother. We never 
 offer the Sacrifice of the Mass to them, 
 
 but to the Eternal, Living, and True 
 God — " ^Eterno Deo, vivo et vero." Mass 
 
 may be said, and is often said, in honor 
 of the Saints, but is never offered to 
 them. 
 
 In reverencing them, in paying them a 
 certain limited homage or worship, we 
 but reverence the very gifts of God Him- 
 self. Whatever they have or possess in 
 the way of virtue, grace, or glory they 
 
The Intercession of Saints. 107 
 
 have received from Him who is " the 
 Giver of every good and perfect gift." 
 
 In praising the saints we honor the 
 very creations of God. "Mirabilis Deus 
 in Sanctis suis" — "God is wonderful in his 
 saints," says the Psalmist. They are His 
 friends — " I call you no more servants, 
 but friends"; they are His intimates. 
 They " fought the good fight " in His 
 cause here, they triumphed over the 
 world, over the evil ones in high places, 
 and over their evil passions, with the help 
 of God's grace; now their salvation is 
 secure, now . their labors are rewarded ; 
 they have already received their crown, 
 and now they glory in the presence of 
 their Lord and their God. They have 
 no longer any anxiety for their own 
 souls' salvation, but they take the deep- 
 est interest in ours ; they are ever ready 
 
io8 The Intercession of Saints, 
 
 to help and assist us, and to beseech the 
 Almighty in our behalf. 
 
 Nor is it displeasing to Him, but, on 
 the contrary, most agreeable in His 
 sight, that we should invoke their aid. 
 
 The Almighty, as a rule, never seems to 
 work directly either in the natural or the 
 supernatural wprld. He ordains or per- 
 mits, as the cases may require, secondary 
 agents to carry out His designs. He 
 has His ministering spirits, His angels, 
 His messengers, constantly accomplishing, 
 throughout the whole universe, His most 
 merciful and beneficent designs. 
 
 As in the natural order, so also in the 
 supernatural — we all depend on one an- 
 other for mutual aid, assistance, and sup- 
 port. Each one has his appointed work 
 to do ; as in the human frame all the 
 members form but one body, and though 
 
The Intercession of Saints, 109 
 
 each has its own function to perform yet 
 they are mutually dependent. This is 
 beautifully described by St. Paul in his 
 First Epistle to the Corinthians (ch. xii. 
 
 H-3o). 
 
 There is a hierarchy in heaven, there 
 is a hierarchy on earth. There are dif- 
 ferent orders having different offices, and 
 a mutual dependence existing between 
 them. 
 
 How many persons there are whose 
 salvation and sanctification may depend, 
 to a considerable extent, on our prayers 
 and good example ! How much we our- 
 selves owe to others for the many graces 
 we have received we shall never know 
 until we stand before Gods tribunal. 
 
 " There are many things," says the 
 great St. Augustine, " which God does 
 not grant without a mediator and inter- 
 
I io The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 cessor." The Almighty has so willed it ; 
 it is the order of His Divine Providence, 
 to which we are all subject, and we know 
 and believe that u He doth all things well." 
 
 If we consult the Old as well as the 
 New Testament, we shall find ample 
 proofs of this doctrine. 
 
 In the Book of Genesis (ch. xx. 7) we 
 read that God warned Abimelech, King 
 of Gerara, that he was to obtain his par- 
 don only through the intercession of 
 Abraham — " He shall pray for thee, and 
 thou shalt live." 
 
 When God was about to destroy the 
 people of Israel on account of their idola- 
 try they were saved only through the 
 prayers of Moses (Exodus xxxii.) 
 
 The friends of Job could only obtain 
 pardon after he should pray for them. 
 (i Go to my servant Job, and offer for 
 
The Intercession of Saints, 1 1 1 
 
 yourselves a holocaust, and my servant 
 Job shall pray for you ; his face I will 
 accept, that folly be not imputed to you" 
 (Job xlii. 8). 
 
 The angel who appeared to Josue (v. 
 14) said that he was " The prince of the 
 host of the Lord," and commanded him 
 to loose the shoes from off his feet, which 
 Josue did, falling on his face and worship- 
 ping him, as the Scriptures declare. (" Fell 
 on his face and did worship," according 
 to the Protestant version.) Of course it 
 was not divine worship, but that kind of 
 inferior worship or homage which we 
 Catholics pay to the angels and saints. 
 
 The blessed spirits are ministers and 
 counsellors of God. " Thousands of thou- 
 sands ministered unto Him; and ten thou- 
 sand times a hundred thousand stood be- 
 fore Him" (Daniel vii. 10). " All the 
 
1 1 2 The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 army of heaven standing by Him on the 
 right hand and on the left" (xxii. 19). 
 
 Cities, provinces, and kingdoms are 
 placed under their guardianship and pro- 
 tection. " The prince of the kingdom of 
 the Persians resisted me one-and-twen- 
 ty days; and behold Michael, one of the 
 chief princes, came to help me," said the 
 angel to the prophet Daniel (x. 13). 
 " I will tell you what is set down in the 
 scripture of truth, and none is my help- 
 er in all these things but Michael, your 
 prince" (verse 21). St. Michael has al- 
 ways been considered as the Guardian 
 Angel of the Church of God. 
 
 St. Paul declares that the Lord Jesus 
 " shall come to be glorified in His saints, 
 and to be made wonderful in all them 
 that have believed " (2 Thess. i. 10). 
 Our Blessed Saviour said to His Apostles 
 
The Intercession of Saints. i T3 
 
 that " all those who followed him in the 
 regeneration, when the Son of man shall 
 sit on the seat of His majesty, shall sit 
 on twelve seats judging the twelve 
 tribes of Israel" (Matt. xix. 28). 
 
 The angel Raphael declared to Tobias 
 (xii. 12) that he was the spirit who of- 
 fered his prayers and good works to the 
 Almighty. 
 
 St. John gives the following testimony 
 in the Apocalypse : " Another angel came 
 and stood before the altar, having a gol- 
 den censer; and there was given to him 
 much incense, that he should offer of the 
 prayers of all saints upon the golden al- 
 tar, which is before the throne of God. 
 And the smoke of the incense of the 
 prayers of the saints ascended up before 
 God, from the hand of the angel " (viii. 
 3> 4). 
 
1 14 The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 The Apostle St. James tells us (ch. v) 
 that " the continual prayer of a just man 
 availeth much," and we have proofs of it 
 in the cases already cited of Abraham, 
 Moses, and Job. If their prayers avail- 
 ed much .when they were here upon 
 earth, how much more so now that they 
 are in an immeasurably closer union 
 with God in the land of the blessed ! 
 If asking the intercession of saints be 
 injurious to God and the infinite merits 
 of Christ, much more so would it be to 
 ask the prayers or beg the intercession 
 of our fellow-men on earth, poor, miser- 
 able sinners like ourselves, or, if they be 
 just men, certainly liable at any time to 
 lose their justice; and yet St. Paul dis- 
 dained not, time after time, to ask the 
 prayers of his fellow-Christians: " I be- 
 seech you, therefore, brethren, through 
 
The Intercession of Saints. 1 1 5 
 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the cha- 
 rity of the Holy Ghost, that you assist 
 me in your prayers for me to God " 
 (Romans xv. 30). 
 
 The Book of Ecclesiasticus, from the 
 forty-fourth to the fiftieth chapters inclu- 
 sively, is filled with the praises of the 
 saints. ■ 
 
 See also the fifteenth chapter of the 
 Second Book of Machabees, wherein it 
 is related that Onias the high-priest 
 and Jeremias the prophet appeared in a 
 vision to Judas Machabeus. " Now the 
 vision was in this manner : Onias, who 
 had been high-priest, a good and vir- 
 tuous man, modest in his looks, gentle 
 in his manners, and graceful in his 
 speech, and exercised from a child in 
 all virtues, holding up his hands, prayed 
 for all the people of the Jews. After 
 
1 1 6 The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 this there appeared also another man, ad- 
 mirable for age and glory, and environed 
 with great beauty and majesty. Then 
 Onias answering, said : This is a lover 
 of his brethren, and of the people of Is- 
 rael : this is he that prayeth much for 
 the people, and for all the holy city, Je- 
 remias the prophet of God." 
 
 Thus the sacred Scriptures afford a 
 solid foundation for the reverence we pay 
 to the saints and the utility of invoking 
 their intercession. 
 
 We have the testimonies also of the 
 Holy Fathers showing 
 
 THE BELIEF AND PRACTICE OF THE EARLY 
 
 CHURCH, 
 
 and proving, moreover, how the Almighty 
 favored this doctrine, by most wonder- 
 ful miracles, attested and authenticated 
 
The Intercession of Saints. 1 1 7 
 
 by irreproachable witnesses, by some of 
 the greatest lights that ever appeared 
 above the horizon of this earth — men 
 who were noted no less for their pro- 
 found erudition and vast acquirements 
 than for their wonderful holiness and 
 apostolic virtues. 
 
 The language which they used is much 
 stronger than ours in reference to the 
 power of intercession of the saints and 
 the deep reverence to be paid their re- 
 lics. If we are to be accused of idola- 
 try, much more so may they be accused 
 of the same, and we would then be ob- 
 liged to come to the conclusion that our 
 Blessed Saviour had scarcely left the 
 earth before that Church, which He pro- 
 mised to sustain until the end of time 
 against all the assaults of hell, fell into 
 an idolatry as deep as that in which 
 
1 1 8 The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 the Gentiles were plunged before His 
 advent. 
 
 The holy Fathers believed, exactly as 
 we do now, that whatever honor, what- 
 ever reverence, whatever worship, in its 
 more restricted sense, was paid to the 
 saints redounded to God's greater glory 
 — that His honor suffered no diminution, 
 that confidence in Jesus Christ and His 
 infinite merits was by no means lessened 
 or impaired, but, on the contrary, increas- 
 ed, as the saints could never have merit- 
 ed were it not for the Sacrifice of Cal- 
 vary. 
 
 Let us give a glance at the testimo- 
 nies of the Fathers from the very dawn 
 of Christianity, and we shall see that 
 the teaching of the Catholic Church has 
 never varied on this important point of 
 doctrine. 
 
The hifercession of Saints. 1 1 9 
 
 St. Polycarp, the first bishop of 
 Smyrna, was a disciple of St. John the 
 Evangelist, the cherished apostle of the 
 Lord. We find the account of his mar- 
 tyrdom related in the Epistle of the 
 Church of Smyrna to the Church of 
 Pontus, and contained in the history of 
 Eusebius, who is called the " Father of 
 Ecclesiastical History/' We there read 
 that Polycarp having been sentenced to 
 be burned, the flames, by a miracle of 
 God, suspended their activity in his re- 
 gard; whereupon the executioner, becom- 
 ing impatient, plunged his sword into 
 the body of the martyr, whose blood 
 rushed out in such a stream as to ex- 
 tinguish the fire. For fear that the 
 Christians might take away his body 
 and worship it, as the governor was 
 told by the Jews who were present, he 
 
I2G The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 ordered it to be reduced to ashes, and 
 there were left but a few remnants of 
 the bones, which the faithful gathered 
 with the greatest reverence and with 
 far greater care than if they had been 
 gold and precious stones — " Gemmis 
 pretiosissimis cariora et quovis auro po~ 
 tiora." Removing the remains to a 
 proper place, where they were reverent- 
 ly deposited, the faithful assembled there 
 every year to celebrate with every de- 
 monstration of joy — "cum hilaritate et 
 gaudio" — the anniversary of the glorious 
 martyr (lib. iv. Hist. EccL cap. 15.) 
 We there see devotion to the saints, 
 veneration of relics, celebration of feast- 
 days, the same in the very first age of 
 the Church as we behold now in the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 The same author relates the conver- 
 
The Intercession of Saints. 1 2 1 
 
 sion and martyrdom of St. Basilides, 
 which took place in his own age (the 
 third century). Basilides was one of the 
 pagan guards who led St. Potimiana to 
 martyrdom, and having, on the way to 
 the place of execution, shielded her from 
 insult, she promised him that after her 
 death she would beg of God a reward 
 for his kind service. Three days after 
 her martyrdom she appeared before him, 
 placing a crown upon his head and in- 
 forming him that the Almighty heard 
 her prayer on his behalf. Whereupon^ 
 finding himself suddenly converted, he 
 asked for instruction, embraced the faith, 
 and shortly afterwards obtained the crown 
 of martyrdom. 
 
 The great St. Cyprian, Bishop of Car- 
 thage, made an agreement with Pope 
 Cornelius that whoever of them should 
 
122 The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 die first would intercede for the other 
 and help him by his prayers. In his 
 work De Virginibus he beseeches the 
 holy virgins, that when they reach the 
 next life and obtain their reward, not 
 to be unmindful of him in their pray- 
 ers. 
 
 St. Gregory Nazianzen relates of St. 
 Justina, who was a virgin and martyr 
 in the third century, that, in order to 
 overcome a terrible temptation arising 
 from some diabolical influence brought 
 to bear against her virtue by a young 
 pagan enamored of her beauty, she had 
 recourse to the Virgin Mary, and by 
 prayer and fasting was thereby delivered 
 through her intercession from the well- 
 nigh fatal snare. 
 
 St. Basil, the most exact of all the 
 Greek theologians of the early ages, in 
 
The Intercession of Saints. 123 
 
 his profession of faith addressed to the 
 Emperor Julian the Apostate, says : 
 
 " I acknowledge the holy apostles, pro- 
 phets,- and martyrs, and I invoke them 
 in order that they may pray for me to 
 God, and by their intercession obtain 
 his mercy for me." In his homily on 
 the forty martyrs he thus speaks : " He 
 who is weighed down with anguish flies 
 to them, he who is in joy also has re- 
 course to them ; the former that he may 
 be freed from his sorrow, and the lat- 
 ter that he may be all the more es- 
 tablished in his prosperity. Here may 
 be found the mother praying for her 
 children and the wife begging for the 
 safe return and good health of her hus- 
 band." 
 
 What was deemed not only innocent 
 but even salutary by the fervent Chris- 
 
124 The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 tians of the second, third, and fourth 
 centuries cannot with reason be con- 
 demned in the nineteenth. The great 
 saints and doctors whom I quote did 
 not introduce these pious customs, but 
 found them already existing in the 
 Church. " Be mindful," says St. Basil 
 in his thirty-sixth homily, ''of the holy 
 martyr Memmas, whom many of you 
 now present have found a helper in your 
 needs, bringing you success in serious 
 difficulties, ensuring a safe return, re- 
 storation to health, or even the raising 
 to life of some of your children already 
 dead — " Filios jam mortuos ad vitam re- 
 ductos reddidit." 
 
 St. Gregory of Nysse appeals to the 
 martyr St. Theodore: "It is to your in- 
 tercession that we owe our present tran- 
 quillity ; be our protection likewise in 
 
The Intercession of Saints. 125 
 
 the future. If more powerful advocacy 
 be necessary for us, call on all your 
 brother martyrs, solicit Peter, persuade 
 Paul, prevail on John, the Beloved Dis- 
 ciple, not to forget the churches which 
 they established with so much labor and 
 suffering-. " 
 
 St. Cyril of Jerusalem (who died a.d. 
 386) speaks of the custom that pre- 
 vailed in the East : " When we offer 
 the Holy Sacrifice we make remembrance 
 of those who have gone before us — first 
 the patriarchs, then the apostles and the 
 martyrs — in order that God, moved by 
 their prayers, would hear ours more fa- 
 vorably." 
 
 " Obsecrandi sunt angeli, obsecrandi 
 sunt martyres " — " We should beseech the 
 angels, we should beseech the martyrs," 
 says the eloquent St. Ambrose. 
 
126 The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 The learned St. Jerome wrote an en- 
 tire work against Vigilantius, who op- 
 posed the doctrine of invocation of saints. 
 
 St. John Chrysostom declares that not 
 only in Rome, but also in his own capi- 
 tal at the East, kings and emperors con- 
 sidered it an honor to be buried in the 
 very vestibules of those churches where 
 reposed the bones of the martyrs and 
 apostles, so satisfied were they to be- 
 come, as it were, "the very doorkeepers 
 of the fishermen " — " Fiantque piscato- 
 rum ostiarii reges." 
 
 A very ample testimony as to this im- 
 portant doctrine, given by the great St. 
 Augustine, may be found in the eighth 
 chapter of the twenty-second book of his 
 most celebrated work, The City of God. 
 As it would be too long to quote, I shall 
 merely give here an extract from his 
 
The Intercession of Saints. 1 2 7 
 
 writings on the Gospel of St. John (86th 
 tract.) : " At the Lord's Table we do not 
 make mention of the martyrs, as we do 
 of others who rest in peace, to pray for 
 them, but rather that they should pray 
 for us" — " Sed magis ut orent pro nobis." 
 In this short quotation we find mention 
 of two important doctrines — namely, the 
 invocation of saints, and prayers for the 
 dead. 
 
 Prudentius, the great Latin poet of the 
 Christian era, wrote a beautiful poem on 
 the vast concourse of people that 'were 
 accustomed to visit the tomb of St. Hip- 
 polyte; the rich and the poor, the patri- 
 cians as well as the peasants, blocking 
 up the very roads in their anxiety to 
 venerate the martyrs remains, and in 
 search of health for soul and body 
 through his intercession : 
 
128 The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 " Hie corruptelis animique et corporis seger, 
 Oravi quoties stratus, opem ferui." 
 
 In every age the greatest reverence 
 was paid to the 
 
 RELICS OF THE SAINTS, 
 
 more particularly to those of the mar- 
 tyrs. Their bones, the ashes of their 
 bones, or their blood carefully preserved 
 in vials or sponges, were all treasured 
 up by the early Christians, and esteemed 
 beyond all price. 
 
 We see innumerable instances of this 
 in the writings of the Fathers, and I 
 have already quoted the account given 
 by the Father of Ecclesiastical History 
 of the special homage paid to the re- 
 mains of the blessed martyr Polycarp, 
 who was a disciple of St. John the 
 Evangelist. 
 
The Intercession of Saints. 1 2 9 
 
 St. John Chrysostom relates, in a let- 
 ter to his sister Marcellina, the great re- 
 spect and reverence paid to the relics of 
 the holy martyr St. Ignatius (who was 
 bishop of Antioch about one hundred 
 years after our Saviours time) when his 
 remains were brought back, in glorious 
 triumph, from Rome, and honored with 
 the highest marks of veneration as they 
 were carried through the various cities 
 en route to their destined resting-place. 
 
 The Sacred Scriptures teach us what 
 reverence is due to the relics of the 
 holy ones of God ; for do we not read 
 in the 4th Book* of Kings (ch. xiii. 21) 
 how a dead man was raised, suddenly 
 and unexpectedly to life when his body 
 was cast into a grave where reposed the 
 remains of the great prophet? "And 
 
 * 2d Book of Kings according to the Protestant version. 
 
130 The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 some that were burying a man, saw the 
 rovers, and cast the body into the se- 
 pulchre of Eliseus. And when it had 
 touched the bones of Eliseus, the man 
 came to life, and stood upon his feet." 
 How powerful are the relics of a great 
 saint ! 
 
 The same is proved from the Acts of 
 the Apostles xix. n ? 12: " And God 
 wrought special miracles by the hand of 
 Paul. So that even there were brought 
 from his body to the sick handkerchiefs 
 and aprons, and the diseases departed 
 from them, and the wicked spirits went 
 out of them." Nothing can be clearer; 
 and if we did not find this testimony in 
 Holy Writ it would be looked upon, by 
 those outside the Church, as the most 
 degraded kind of superstition to believe 
 that miracles could ever be wrought by 
 
The Intercession of Saints. 131 
 
 the " handkerchiefs " and " aprons " of St. 
 Paul, or of any other saint in the calen- 
 dar. A number of people were healed 
 of their infirmities, and unclean spirits 
 were expelled by the very " shadow " of 
 Peter, the Prince of the Apostles (Acts 
 v. 15, 16). 
 
 As it is closely connected with the 
 subject of relics, a few words on 
 
 IMAGES 
 
 may not be out of place. They were 
 not absolutely forbidden in the Old Law, 
 for God Himself gave orders for some to 
 be made — for instance, the figures of the 
 Cherubim that were to be placed on 
 each side of the Mercy-Seat in the 
 Sanctuary (Exodus xxxvii.), and by di- 
 vine ordinance also in the Temple, of So- 
 lomon (1 Paral. xxviii.) 
 
132 The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 What was forbidden was to make any 
 graven thing so as to make an idol of 
 it, or to worship it. 
 
 The Catholic Church teaches, and 
 commands pastors to teach, that there 
 is no inherent virtue in statues or ima- 
 ges by which they can hear or help us, 
 and that we are not to expect any aid from 
 them — all of which would be gross idolatry. 
 
 Any respect or reverence we pay to 
 them is only a relative honor, and is 
 referred to their prototypes, or the be- 
 ings represented by them. We venerate 
 the cross, but whatever homage we pay 
 it is intended for the person of Jesus 
 Christ Himself. When we bow before 
 a statue it is not to the lifeless statue 
 we offer any reverence, but to the liv- 
 ing Saint in heaven whom it was meant 
 to represent. 
 
The Intercession of Saints. 133 
 
 How sovereignly reasonable, then, is 
 devotion to the Saints ! how strongly 
 supported by Holy Scripture and by the 
 testimonies of the brightest and best 
 Christians of all ages since the time of 
 Christ ! 
 
 How eminently consoling and encour- 
 aging is such a belief ! What a hap- 
 py feeling it engenders in our hearts to 
 think and to know that, no matter how 
 poor, how miserable, or how forsaken we 
 may be in this life, how sorely tempted 
 or oppressed with fear and sadness, that 
 there are 
 
 BLESSED SPIRITS 
 
 hovering near us, that they take the 
 deepest interest in our well-being, that 
 they are ever ready to help and assist us 
 
134 The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 by their prayers and intercession, and 
 to lead us in the paths of truth and 
 righteousness ! 
 
 How instructive, also, when we propose 
 them to ourselves as models for imitation ! 
 — knowing full well that there was no 
 station in life, from the humblest to the 
 most exalted, which they did not adorn 
 with the highest Christian virtues ; that 
 they had the same, and even greater, 
 difficulties than we to overcome ; they 
 had the same trials and temptations to 
 undergo, the same passions to subdue, 
 and the same real yet invisible enemies 
 to war against — the powers of darkness 
 in the high places. 
 
 " That which we have seen and heard 
 we declare unto you, that you may have 
 fellowship with us, and our fellowship 
 may be with the Father, and with His 
 
The Intercession of Saints. 1 3 5 
 
 Son, Jesus Christ" (1 John i. 3). This is 
 the fellowship or 
 
 SWEET COMMUNION 
 
 of which I speak, and in which we all 
 believe. " Giving thanks," says St. Paul, 
 " to God the Father, who hath made us 
 worthy to be partakers of the lot of 
 the saints in light" (Colossians i. 12). 
 
 St. Augustine says that " the honor 
 rendered to heroes is the best encourage- 
 ment to heroism "; so I may say with 
 equal truth that the honor rendered to 
 Saints is the best encouragement to 
 sanctity. 
 
 Whether we live in a kingdom or a 
 republic, we cherish the memories of the 
 great men who flourished before our 
 time, especially those who were of lasting 
 service to their country, who successfully 
 
136 The Intercession of Saints, 
 
 fought its battles, who did honor to its 
 name, who spread its reputation abroad, 
 who conferred benefits on society by 
 their great learning, their useful inven- 
 tions, their warlike genius, their states- 
 manlike qualities, or by their notable 
 benefactions to the whole community. 
 
 We hold their memories in veneration, 
 we erect statues in their honor, and we 
 cherish with peculiar pride and affection 
 whatever relics they have left behind, in 
 order to remind a grateful posterity of 
 their noble lives. 
 
 What American worthy of the name 
 can recall the memory of Washington 
 without feelings of affection, and even 
 reverence ? And how dearly he would 
 prize even the slightest memento of the 
 Father of his Country ! What fond 
 mother but presses to her heart the 
 
The Intercessioit of Saints. 137 
 
 portrait of a long-lost, beloved son — pre- 
 serving, with the deep reverence of 
 motherly affection, the smallest token of 
 that life that has gone out from her ; 
 of that light which is extinguished ; of 
 that flower which has withered away in 
 its fair young morn of existence? 
 
 These are the feelings and instincts of 
 the human heart, and we do but trans- 
 fer them to that life still dearer to us — 
 still more real as it is also more spirit- 
 ual — the life of the soul and everything 
 that tends to render more vivid the great 
 truths of the supernatural order. 
 
 Not only the unlettered, the poor and 
 the ignorant, need these helps to devo- 
 tion, which supply the place of books 
 and sermons ; but let a man be never 
 so intellectual or well instructed, and, if 
 he be possessed of any Christian faith 
 
138 The Intercession of Saints. 
 
 or feeling, the vivid representation, on 
 wood or on canvas, of his crucified 
 Redeemer will often have more effect 
 in moving his heart and soul than the 
 most polished writing or studied dis- 
 course. 
 
 Our holy Church is a most tender 
 and affectionate Mother. She knows all 
 the wants of our nature, and most ef- 
 fectively does she supply them, raising 
 our souls to God, attracting them from 
 the things of earth to bid us fix our 
 gaze on something higher, something 
 holier, something far more worthy of our 
 sighs and labors — the Heavenly Jerusa- 
 lem, towards which we should always 
 tend, knowing that "here we have no 
 lasting city, but we geek one for to come." 
 
IV. 
 
 DEVOTION TO MARY. 
 
 DEVOTION TO MARY BEGAN AT THE FOOT OF 
 THE CROSS ON CALVARY. 
 
 |HE grand work for which the 
 Divine Word, the Second Per- 
 son of the Adorable Trinity, 
 came down from heaven and became in- 
 carnate, was now near its full and com- 
 plete accomplishment. But a few moments 
 yet remained before His visible presence 
 should be withdrawn from the earth, be- 
 fore the Sun of eternal justice should 
 set, and set with a most bloody setting. 
 The terrible drama of Calvary was 
 drawing to a close. The material sun 
 
 of our world was preparing to hide it- 
 
 139 
 
140 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 self at the approach of the most awe- 
 inspiring* event that ever happened in the 
 universe, at which all nature felt the ter- 
 rible shock. The reckless, cruel, sight- 
 seeing multitude were on their way back 
 to the city of Jerusalem, satiated, as they 
 were, with the scene of blood they had 
 that day witnessed. A small band of sol- 
 diers remained on guard, whilst the faith- 
 ful few lingered on Calvary's mount. 
 
 The Sacrifice was well nigh complete. 
 The Saviour was nailed to the Cross, 
 and was hanging in dreadful agony. 
 His treasure of Sacred Blood was fast 
 oozing away, and His cup of bitterness 
 and desolation was being rapidly drained. 
 He had offered up His life for the sal- 
 vation of men, and in a few moments 
 more all would be consummated. 
 
 Our Lord had one more legacy to be- 
 
Devotion to Mary. j 4 1 
 
 queath — a legacy most precious, a lega- 
 cy most dear to His Divine Heart, of 
 which the world was not worthy; but 
 His charity knew no limits. But one 
 member of the apostolic band was pre- 
 sent at the Crucifixion, and he was the 
 Beloved Disciple — the virginal apostle, 
 John the Evangelist To him, then, as 
 the representative of all the faithful, Our 
 Saviour left the most precious legacy He 
 had then to bestow — His own dear 
 
 VIRGIN MOTHER, 
 
 the Mother of Sorrows — Mater Dolorosa 
 — standing there, in mute agony, at the 
 foot of the Cross: " Son, behold thy 
 Mother; Mother, behold thy son." 
 
 By the death of Jesus on the Cross we 
 became His brethren, adopted children of 
 His Heavenly Father, and co-heirs with 
 
142 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 Him of the eternal kingdom. Giving us 
 God for our Father, He made His Mo- 
 ther our Mother also, wishing us to be 
 like unto Himself in all things, so far 
 as it is possible for creatures so to be. 
 
 All devotion to Mary, all the teaching 
 of the Catholic Church with regard to 
 her dignity, her prerogatives, her power 
 — all springs from the incarnation of Our 
 Lord, the sacred pivot on which all his- 
 tory, whether sacred or profane, must 
 turn ; all events — the rise and fall of 
 kingdoms, the spread of literature, the 
 progress of science, the advancement of 
 civilization — all revolving around that one 
 grand central point of the moral uni- 
 verse. 
 
 To understand the Incarnation as it is, 
 as the Catholic Church understands it 
 and wishes it be understood, is to have 
 
Devotion to Mary. 143 
 
 the key to the whole edifice of Christian 
 dogmas. When we have a clear and 
 exact idea of it, all doctrines having any 
 reference to the Blessed Virgin, the in- 
 conceivable dignity to which she was 
 raised, the astonishing height of virtue 
 and sanctity which she attained, and 
 her wonderful power of intercession, 
 which are but its natural consequences 
 — all become perfectly clear and in- 
 telligible. 
 
 In this mystery of the Incarnation we 
 believe that the Second Person of the 
 ever-adorable Trinity, the perfect image 
 of God the Fathers infinite beauty and 
 sovereign excellence, and the infinitely 
 perfect expression of His uncreated wis- 
 dom and intelligence, in the fulness of 
 time descended to this earth in order 
 to assume our human nature, to become 
 
144 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 man, to take unto Himself a human soul 
 and a human body. 
 
 He descended, in order that we might 
 ascend. He condescended to our infirm- 
 ity, in order that we might rise to His 
 higher life and happiness. The end 
 which God had in view, in the Incar- 
 nation of the Word, was the deification 
 of the creature — that man might be ele- 
 vated to a supernatural order of exis- 
 tence and participate in His own di- 
 vine life and beatitude. 
 
 The great instrument, chosen by God 
 from all eternity to carry out His most 
 holy design, was the Virgin Mary. What 
 a destiny ! A creature to bring forth a 
 Creator, a servant her Lord, the redeem- 
 ed one her Redeemer ! How favored 
 and peculiarly blessed beyond the count- 
 less millions of maidens that ever in- 
 
Devotion to Mary. 145 
 
 habited or ever should dwell upon the 
 earth ! How pure, how holy, how per- 
 fect must she have been ! The Almighty 
 must have showered His most special 
 graces and favors upon her, in order to 
 make her a worthy recipient of such an 
 honor. 
 
 No other created being was ever so 
 holy, ever so perfect. Always free from 
 every fault and imperfection, not the 
 slightest shadow of sin ever flitted over 
 her soul. Purest, loveliest of virgins, 
 humblest of maidens, given to retirement, 
 rapt in contemplation, constantly engaged 
 in prayer, object of delight to the 
 whole heavenly court, she remains for 
 evermore the most privileged, most bless- 
 ed, most glorified of God's creatures. 
 She was perfect in every virtue, un- 
 rivalled in purity, incomparable in inno- 
 
146 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 cence. Such was the one destined in 
 the eternal counsels to be the Mother of 
 the God- Man. 
 
 What dignity in the universe, outside 
 the Godhead, can compare with Mary s ? 
 Conceive all that is grand and sublime 
 in creation ; let fancy take its flight on 
 angelic wings beyond the confines of the 
 earth ; let man be gifted with the deep- 
 est and most luminous intelligence of the 
 brightest of the Seraphim, and he could 
 not possibly imagine anything greater or 
 more sublime than to be the Mother of 
 Jesus ! 
 
 It would be impossible, absolutely im- 
 possible ! The Almighty could not bestow 
 on any created being any dignity to sur- 
 pass it, for no one can attain to any- 
 thing higher than to be the Mother of 
 the Incarnate God. 
 
Devotion to Mary. 147 
 
 No one ever reached before, no one 
 ever shall reach again, the dignity with 
 which Mary has been blessed — a position 
 and dignity that shall remain for ever. 
 As Jesus was born and Jesus died, never 
 to be born, never to die again, so no 
 other created being shall ever have the 
 same claim on Him as to be called 
 His Mother. She alone rejoices in that 
 most beautiful of titles, that grandest of 
 dignities — 
 
 THE MOTHER OF JESUS. 
 
 This it is that elevates her above the 
 whole world, above the entire universe — 
 next to God Himself — far above the pa- 
 triarchs and prophets, the virgins and 
 confessors, the martyrs and apostles, and 
 even far above the Angels and Archan- 
 gels, the Powers and Dominations, the 
 
148 Devotion to Mary, 
 
 Cherubim and Seraphim, as the Queen- 
 Mother of the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 The chief cause, then, of all her glory, 
 the source of all her sanctity, the origin 
 of all her power, is the divine maternity. 
 " That man cannot be right at heart," 
 says Dr. Nevin, a Protestant divine, " in 
 regard to the faith of the Incarnation, 
 whose tongue falters in pronouncing Mary 
 the "Mother of God." 
 
 We call her, and justly, the ° Mother 
 of God"; and here is how we reason, 
 according to the clear, syllogistic form, 
 than which nothing can be more forci- 
 ble : 
 
 Jesus Christ is God ; but Mary is the 
 Mother of Jesus Christ; therefore Mary 
 is the Mother of God. 
 
 The premises are perfectly plain, in- 
 telligible, and undeniable to any one who 
 
Devotion to Mary. 149 
 
 believes in the divinity of Christ ; that 
 the conclusion naturally follows no logi- 
 cian can deny. 
 
 We do not say that Mary was the 
 Mother of the divinity in Christ, no 
 more than we say that such a wo- 
 man was the mother of such a child's 
 soul. Man is composed of body and 
 soul, both of which are necessary to the 
 formation of him as a man. We all 
 know, when we speak of a woman be- 
 ing the mother of such a one, that she 
 did not create his soul, which God alone 
 could do ; yet we say with perfect truth 
 she is the mother of such a person. The 
 body and soul do not form two distinct 
 personalities, but one simply. So, also, 
 there are two distinct natures in Jesus 
 Christ, the divine and the human, but 
 there is only one personality. If there 
 
150 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 were two persons in Christ (which would 
 be heresy to admit), then we should 
 say that Mary is the mother of the 
 human and not of the divine person. 
 But this is absolutely untrue, for the 
 Divine Word, in assuming a human 
 body and a human soul — in other 
 words, becoming man and a perfect 
 man — retained His own personality and 
 did not assume another. He whom we 
 call Jesus Christ is really and truly God 
 as well as man — not two persons, but 
 one person with two natures hypostati- 
 cally joined. Hence, Mary being the 
 Mother of Jesus, and Jesus being God, 
 Mary becomes ipso facto Mother of God. 
 This is her title by just right, and it is 
 consequently no sign of idolatry to give 
 her this appellation. Nestorius, who de- 
 nied it to her, was solemnly condemned 
 
Devotion to Mary. 151 
 
 by the Fathers of the Church in solemn 
 council assembled at Ephesus a.d. 431. 
 
 When the Divine Word left His hea- 
 venly throne — the bosom of the Eternal 
 Father — to take flesh in the womb of 
 Mary and to become man, He did not 
 assume our nature merely for a time, say 
 thirty-three years, and then cast it off for 
 ever. No ; having assumed it once, and 
 having really become perfect man as he 
 was already true God, for ever after- 
 wards, and during the never-eroding ages 
 of eternity, human nature remains as 
 truly His nature as the divine. He has 
 made it his own, and He will preserve it 
 as such — immortal, glorious, and impassi- 
 ble — at the right hand of the Eternal 
 Father, where He, the God-Man ; shall 
 never cease to be the source of endless 
 delight to the whole court of heaven. 
 
152 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 His Sacred Humanity, all of which He 
 received from the pure, untainted blood 
 of the blessed Virgin Mary, and in 
 which He suffered unto death — a death 
 most cruel for the sins of men — that 
 Sacred Humanity shall shine with a splen- 
 dor and* a glory that would cast millions 
 of suns far more brilliant than ours in- 
 to an ignominious shade, and His Sacred 
 Wounds shall send out for ever a light 
 which countless firmaments could not 
 possibly equal. 
 
 Too many are apt to forget the sub- 
 lime part of 
 
 MARY IN THE REDEMPTION. 
 
 and the honor and glory which of right 
 belong to her in consequence. Let such 
 persons take the Bible, and ponder over 
 its sacred words in relation to the mys- 
 
Devotion to Mary. i 5 3 
 
 tery of the Incarnation — that great mys- 
 tery hidden in the bosom of God from 
 all eternity, revealed to the patriarchs, 
 announced hundreds of years in advance 
 by the prophets, the object of the desires, 
 prayers, and sighs of countless millions 
 from the fall of Adam. 
 
 To whom was it announced, and by 
 whom was it to be accomplished? Not 
 to any of the great ones of the earth, its 
 lords or princes, its literati, scientists, or 
 philosophers, but to a poor and humble 
 Virgin of Nazareth. "The weak ones of 
 this world doth God choose that He 
 might confound the strong." 
 
 Wonderful to relate, the Almighty con- 
 descends so much as to ask the consent 
 of this humble and unknown maiden. 
 Yes, in the wonderful order of Divine 
 Providence, the consent of Mary was ne- 
 
154 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 • 
 
 cessary for the accomplishment of the 
 great mystery of the Incarnation (St. 
 Luke i. 27-35). The Almighty com- 
 missions one of His highest messengers 
 —the Archangel Gabriel — to announce 
 this wonderful mystery to Mary, and to 
 inform her that she is the instrument 
 chosen by God for its accomplishment. 
 
 The angel salutes her with the deepest 
 reverence: " Hail, full of grace! the 
 Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou 
 among women." She, in her great hu- 
 mility and spotless virginity, was troubled 
 at his saying; but he still further as- 
 sured her: " Fear not, Mary: for thou 
 hast found grace with God. Behold, 
 thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and 
 shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt 
 call his name Jesus." 
 
 Not yet was she fully assured; for, 
 
Devotion to Mary. 155 
 
 from her most tender years, she had 
 vowed her virginity to God, and this 
 priceless treasure not even for the most 
 exalted of dignities was she willing to 
 lose or renounce. " How shall this be 
 done, since I know not man ? " Most 
 wonderful of miracles, in the omnipotence 
 of God she was to preserve her vir- 
 ginity and yet become a mother, as was 
 foretold, eight centuries before, by the 
 prophet Isaias : " Behold, a virgin shall 
 conceive and bring forth a Son, and they 
 shall call his name Emmanuel, which, 
 being interpreted, is, God with us." 
 
 "The Holy Ghost," says the Arch- 
 angel announcing the coming miracle 
 to her, " shall come upon thee, and the 
 power of the Most High shall over- 
 shadow thee, and therefore also the Ho- 
 ly One that shall be born of thee shall 
 
156 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 be called the Son of God." Then it was 
 that Mary gave her consent to the Incar- 
 nation of the Divine Word in her womb, 
 and the consequent redemption of the 
 human race: " Behold the handmaid of 
 the Lord: may it be done to me accord- 
 ing to thy word" — Ecce ancilla Domini: 
 fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. 
 
 Shortly after Mary visited her cousin, 
 St. Elizabeth, and at the very sound of 
 Mary's voice John the Baptist leaped for 
 joy in his mother's womb: "And Eliza- 
 beth was filled with the Holy Ghost, and 
 said: ' Blessed art thou among women, 
 and blessed is the fruit of thy womb ' 
 (exactly as Catholics have been repeat- 
 ing ever since, and. since the Holy 
 Ghost inspired it, they certainly cannot 
 and should not be condemned for follow- 
 ing His inspiration). Elizabeth then con- 
 
Devotion to Mary. 1 5 7 
 
 tinues: "And whence is this to me, that 
 the mother of my Lord should come to 
 me ? " (The same words are to be found 
 in the Protestant as well as the Catholic 
 version of the Scriptures.) 
 
 Why, then, object to us for styling 
 Mary, as St. Elizabeth did whilst acting 
 under an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 
 "the Mother of my Lord"? Wherein lies 
 the difference, "the Mother of the Lord" 
 or " the Mother of God " ? 
 
 If Mary be Mother of the Lord, she is 
 the Mother of God. If Jesus Christ is 
 God, Mary, then, is Mother of God; 
 
 The late Rev. Dr. Wm. Faber, one of 
 the loveliest characters that ever lived, 
 had a great devotion to Mary, and 
 wrote the following poem in her honor 
 while he was a member of the Episco- 
 pal Church of England : 
 
1 58 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 MARY. 
 
 " But scornful men have boldly said 
 
 Thy love was leading me from God ; 
 And yet in this I did but tread 
 The very path my Saviour trod. 
 
 " They know but little of thy worth 
 
 Who speak these heartless words to me ; 
 For what did Jesus love on earth 
 One-half so tenderly as thee? 
 
 " Get me the grace to love thee more ; 
 Jesus will give, if thou wilt plead ; 
 And, Mother, when life's cares are o'er, 
 Oh ! I shall love thee then indeed. 
 
 " Jesus, when his three hours were run, 
 Bequeathed thee from the Cross to me ; 
 And, oh ! how can I love thy Son, 
 Sweet Mother, if I love not thee?" 
 
 Well indeed might Mary exclaim, after 
 hearing the inspired words of St. Eliza- 
 beth : " Behold, from henceforth all gene- 
 rations shall call me blessed." Genera- 
 tion after generation have since appeared 
 upon the earth, millions upon millions 
 
Devotion to Mary. 159 
 
 * 
 
 of mortals — differing in race, education, 
 manners, and dispositions — and they have 
 vied in honoring her name and extol- 
 ling her virtues. 
 
 Wherever Jesus was adored in spirit 
 and in truth, there likewise was rever- 
 enced His Holy Mother. The Fathers 
 and Doctors of the Church in every age 
 have published her praises and the 
 power of her intercession. Kingdoms 
 and provinces were placed under her pro- 
 tection, and countless millions felt the 
 salutary influence of her life and exam- 
 ple. Well indeed might she give utter- 
 ance to that prophetic declaration: "From 
 henceforth all generations shall call me 
 blessed"; for blessed, in truth, she is, by 
 reason of her exalted sanctity, her sub- 
 lime prerogatives, and her great glory in 
 the Church of God. 
 
160 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 The Almighty, destining Mary to be 
 the Mother of the Incarnate Word, des- 
 tined her likewise for the possession of 
 all those graces and virtues, and that 
 eminent sanctity, so necessary to support 
 with becoming fitness this most exalted 
 of dignities. Hence we believe that no 
 human mind, not even an angelic intel- 
 ligence, can conceive an adequate idea 
 of the unsurpassable height of holiness 
 which she has reached. 
 
 It is only natural to suppose that a 
 loving son would do all in his power to 
 show his affection for the mother that 
 bore him. Consider, then, such a Son 
 and such a Mother ! Having it in His 
 power — a power to which there is no 
 limit — He must have absolutely lavished 
 His gifts and graces on Mary. 
 
Devotion to Mary. 1 6 1 
 
 The first of these gifts and graces, in 
 the order of time, was her 
 
 IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, 
 
 whereby she was preserved, by the pre- 
 venting grace of the Redeemer, in the 
 very first instant of her existence in her 
 mothers womb, from the stain of original 
 sin. Had it never been proclaimed by 
 the infallible Church, I, for one, cannot 
 see the slightest shadow of a difficulty in 
 believing such a dogma, but, on the con- 
 trary, far more difficulty in the other hy- 
 pothesis. For it would seem a disgrace 
 to our Blessed Saviour, and the host of 
 hell might taunt Him with it for all eter- 
 nity, if ever, even for one instant, Mary, 
 His Mother, had been in the power of 
 Satan — and such undoubtedly would have 
 
1 62 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 been the case had she been stained with 
 the taint of original sin. 
 
 Hence the honor of the Incarnate God 
 demanded her exemption, and His Own 
 infinite merits purchased it for her. 
 Mary, of herself, could not possibly merit 
 such a favor, such a privilege. It was 
 accorded to her only in view of Christ's 
 merits. She owes her redemption to 
 Him, as well as do other Christians, but 
 there is this difference : in her case 
 it was a preventing grace — that is, a 
 grace going before, according to the 
 original meaning of the word pre- 
 vent ; in our case it is subsequent. It 
 would have been altogether unbecom- 
 ing in her, whom the Divine Word 
 chose for His Mother, to have been thus 
 stained. 
 
 Impressed with a like idea, the charm- 
 
Devotion to Mary. 163 
 
 ing poet Wordsworth, though not of the 
 Catholic Faith, thus expresses it : 
 
 " Mother ! whose virgin bosom was uncrossed 
 With the least shade of thought to sin allied ; 
 Woman ! above all women glorified, 
 Our tauitcd nature's solitary boast ; 
 Purer than foam on central ocean tost, 
 Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn 
 With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon 
 Bafore her wane begins on heav'n's blue coast, 
 Thy image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween, 
 Not unforgiven, the suppliant knee might bend 
 As to a visible power, in which did blend 
 All that was mixed and reconciled in thee 
 Of Mother's love with maiden purity, 
 Of high with low, celestial with serene." 
 
 Whatever honors were conferred upon 
 her, whatever privileges and graces — and 
 they were exceedingly great — were all 
 granted on account of her Divine Son, 
 to make her, in so much as any created 
 being could be made, a worthy Mother 
 of such a Son. 
 
 Is it surprising, then, that we should 
 
164 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 venerate her whom the Eternal Father 
 has so exalted as to choose her for His 
 adopted daughter, whom the Divine Word 
 selected for His Mother, whom the Holy 
 Spirit made His own spouse? "Thou 
 art all fair, my dove, and there is no 
 stain in thee" (Canticle of Canticles). 
 
 All the homage we render to her 
 redounds to the greater glory of God, 
 and more especially to the glory of that 
 Sacred Humanity of Our Lord Jesus 
 Christ which He took whole and entire 
 from her pure, spotless, untainted flesh 
 and blood. 
 
 To invoke her 
 
 INTERCESSION 
 
 is, therefore, not displeasing to God, is no 
 derogation from the divine worship due 
 
Devotion to Mary. 165 
 
 to Him, nor, in any way, prejudicial to 
 His Divine Mediatorship. 
 
 We believe that Christ is the sole 
 Mediator between His Heavenly Father 
 and us, our sole Redeemer, our Lord 
 and our God. But we believe also, as 
 I explained in the foregoing treatise, 
 that it is in the order of His Divine 
 Providence, that it is His wish, His 
 desire, that we should beg the interces- 
 sion of His faithful servants, of those 
 near and dear to Him on account of 
 their long -tried fidelity and approved 
 sanctity. We believe, and we oftentimes 
 even feel, that the blessed ones of God 
 hear us, watch over us and sympathize 
 with us, for does not the Gospel teach 
 us that " there shall be joy before the 
 angels of God over one sinner doing 
 penance." Our Blessed Lord, moreover, 
 
1 66 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 assures us that His saints, His chosen 
 ones, shall be like the angels in the king- 
 dom of heaven. 
 
 The greater the sanctity the nearer 
 to God : the nearer to God the more 
 powerful the intercession. As St. Paul 
 assures us, there is a glory of the 
 sun, and a glory of the moon, and a 
 glory of the stars, and " star differeth 
 from star in glory." Among all beati- 
 fied spirits Mary stands pre-eminent, as 
 she is pre-eminent in holiness and pre- 
 eminent in dignity. ♦ 
 
 If asking her intercession or that of 
 the other saints be a reflection on the 
 divine Mediatorship of Christ, with at 
 least as much reason is the practice of 
 asking the prayers of one another upon 
 earth. What earnest, sincere Protestant 
 who sends his note of petition to his 
 
Devotion to Mary, 167 
 
 minister in the pulpit, asking his pray- 
 ers and those of the congregation, ever 
 thinks that he is thereby offering an insult 
 to the Mediatorship of the Saviour? His 
 action in such a case is but a natural 
 consequence of the principle which we 
 advocate. 
 
 Do we not read in the Gospel how 
 some of the Gentiles, desirous of an au- 
 dience with our Blessed Saviour, did not 
 go directly to Him, but laid their pe- 
 tition before Philip, because he was one 
 of the Apostles ; and Philip addressed 
 himself to Andrew, whom he believed to 
 be deeper in the confidence of Our Lord ? 
 What is this if not intercession ? 
 
 Who, then, can estimate, with any- 
 thing like an approximation to the truth, 
 the wonderful and well-nigh unbounded 
 influence which Mary has with her Divine 
 
1 68 Devotion to Mary, 
 
 Son ? Did ever son love a mother as 
 Jesus Christ, the God-Man, loved His 
 spotless Mother? Never; and the bright- 
 est angel in the kingdom of heaven 
 shall never be able, during all eternity, 
 to fathom the intensity of that affection. 
 His will and hers formed but one on 
 earth ; they form but one now in hea- 
 ven. 
 
 Did she ever refuse Him anything 
 while He was subject to her upon earth, 
 and can He refuse her anything she asks 
 of Him now that they are joined together 
 in the kingdom of His glory ? 
 
 Mary gave Him every particle of His 
 Sacred Flesh and Blood ; she suckled Him 
 in infancy, she guarded His infant foot- 
 steps, she watched over His youth, she 
 fondly gazed on His opening manhood ; 
 she saw herself in His features that caused 
 
Devotion to Mary, 169 
 
 Him to be everywhere recognized as 
 her Son ; she was the first to behold 
 Him on His entrance into this world, 
 the last to linger by His Cross and to 
 receive His last sigh. How powerful, 
 then, must be her influence over His 
 Divine Heart ! 
 
 Search Holy Writ and you will there 
 find sufficient proof of the power of her 
 intercession. Read attentively the Gos- 
 pel of St John with regard to the mar- 
 riage feast of Cana in Galilee (John ii. 
 1-11). It is easy to perceive that it was 
 through her intercession that Our Bless- 
 ed Saviour, although declaring that His 
 time had not yet come, worked the great 
 miracle of changing water into wine. 
 This was His very first miracle and pub- 
 lic manifestation of His divine power. 
 
 Our adversaries quote some of the 
 
1 jo Devotion to Mary, 
 
 words contained in this relation as not be- 
 ing over-respectful on the part of Christ 
 to His Mother, v. g. : "Woman, what is 
 that to Me and to thee ? My hour is 
 not yet come." 
 
 There is an old axiom which reads, 
 " Quod nimis probat, nihil probat" — What 
 proves too much, proves nothing. If, 
 by the Scriptural words just quoted, you 
 prove that Christ was disrespectful to 
 His Mother, then surely He was not 
 the divine person we believe Him to be; 
 for did he not, as God, lay down the 
 commandment in the Old Law, " Honor 
 thy father and thy mother " ; and do you 
 think He would afterwards give us an 
 example in direct violation of His own 
 command — He who declared that He 
 came to fulfil the entire Law, and not to 
 disregard it? 
 
Devotion to Mary. i 7 1 
 
 The tone of voice in which He uttered 
 the words in question would change the 
 meaning very materially ; and if we go 
 back to the original language in which 
 they were uttered — the Chaldaic — they 
 have a totally different signification : " Man 
 bain anta uni ana'' — There is but one 
 thought between us. 
 
 Leaving the words, however, as they 
 stand, and their meaning is to be judged 
 from the context. If Our Blessed Saviour 
 thought that His Mother's request was 
 presumptuous or ill-timed, He certainly 
 would not have granted it. After those 
 words of supposed rebuke, what does the 
 sacred text tell us? That His Blessed 
 Mother undoubtedly knew the issue, is 
 evident from what she said to the wait- 
 ers : " Whatever He shall say to you, do 
 ye." Whereupon He Himself gave or- 
 
1 7 2 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 ders to the waiters to fill the water-pots 
 with water, to draw out and carry them 
 to the chief steward, who, on tasting, 
 found it to be the best of wine. " This 
 beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana 
 of Galilee," at the request of His Holy 
 Mother and through her special inter- 
 cession, although there did not seem to 
 exist any necessity for such a display of 
 His power, more especially since He 
 Himself declared that "His time had 
 not yet come." Facts speak louder than 
 words. He waived all these reasons in 
 favor of Mary, and thus u manifested His 
 glory, and His disciples believed in 
 Him." This 
 
 FIRST MIRACLE, 
 
 worked in honor of Mary, the Mother of 
 God, and through her special intercession, 
 
Devotion to Mary, 173 
 
 was but the beginning of that series of 
 miraculous events which have since trans- 
 pired in the world, and have been witness- 
 ed and authenticated by trustworthy, com- 
 petent witnesses, in every age of the 
 Christian era, 
 
 " Her maternal charity," says Bossuet, 
 "having contributed so powerfully to our 
 salvation, in the mystery of the Incarna- 
 tion, which is the principle of all grace, 
 she will contribute thereto eternally in 
 all the other operations which are its 
 dependencies. " 
 
 The greater devotion we have to 
 Mary, the more shall we love her Son ; 
 the more reverence we pay to her, the 
 deeper shall be our adoration of the God- 
 Man. One leads to the other infallibly ; 
 were it otherwise, then devotion to Mary 
 would be condemnable. As the great 
 
1 74 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 Bossuet — the Eagle of Meaux — declared, 
 "Toute notre devotion pour la Sainte 
 Vierge est inutile et superstitieuse, si elle 
 ne nous conduit a Dieu " — AH our devo- 
 tion to the Blessed Virgin is useless and 
 superstitious if it conduct us not to God, 
 in order that we may possess Him eter- 
 nally and enjoy our heavenly inherit- 
 ance. 
 
 Or, as St. Francis de Sales, the most 
 amiable of men, says: "He who is anx- 
 ious to please God and Our Blessed 
 Lady does well, very well indeed ; but 
 he who would wish to please Our Lady 
 as much as or more than God would be 
 guilty of an unpardonable disorder." 
 
 All her glory, all her virtue, all her 
 wonderful sanctity and well-nigh bound- 
 less power, she has received from 
 her Divine Son, and by reason of His 
 
Devotion to Mary. 175 
 
 infinite merits. Nor is He jealous of any 
 honor we pay her; as well might it 
 be said that the sun is jealous of the 
 moon which shines with his reflected 
 light. 
 
 The strangest and most unaccountable 
 fact that I have ever noticed in religi- 
 ous differences is, that good, honest, and 
 sincere persons, outside the Catholic 
 Church, pay due reverence to the memo- 
 ries of the special friends and intimates 
 of Our Lord — His disciples and apos- 
 tles, to Martha, Mary, Lazarus, and even 
 Mary Magdalen; to Sts. Peter, James, and 
 John the Beloved Disciple (although I 
 must say that they are sometimes chary 
 of their praises of St. Peter), and yet, 
 mirabile dictuJ they withhold the slight- 
 est veneration and, so to speak, even 
 the most common civilities from her 
 
176 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 who was undoubtedly elevated above all 
 others, and who was the nearest and 
 dearest to Our Divine Lord. 
 
 I have read hundreds of sermons, 
 preached by ministers of different deno- 
 minations, and yet not in one of every 
 hundred have I seen the name of Mary 
 mentioned. The very name of Mary, 
 the Mother of Jesus, instead of inspir- 
 ing the deepest respect and love, seems 
 to shock . them, so that it would appear 
 that they are in constant dread lest, if 
 they were to utter it with the slightest 
 mark of respect, they would be imme- 
 diately condemned as Papists and Mari- 
 olatrists. 
 
 Not of this class is Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes, who, although not a Catholic, 
 yet beautifully speaks of that name : 
 
Devotion to Mary. i 7 7 
 
 " Is thy. name Mary, maiden fair? 
 Such should, methinks, its music be, 
 The sweetest name that mortals bear 
 Were best befitting thee ; 
 And she to whom it once was given, 
 Was half of earth and half of heaven." 
 
 I believe that many are hardly to 
 blame for the sad and unfortunate senti- 
 ments which they hold, so deeply have 
 they been imbued, from their earliest 
 childhood, with the most unfounded and 
 even ridiculous 
 
 PREJUDICES AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 
 
 and all its doctrines, accusing us of 
 idolatry, superstition, and kindred abomi- 
 nations, which we detest and abhor as 
 much as, and even more than, they do. 
 
 The late Dr. Orestes Brownson, a 
 convert to the Faith, and one of the 
 deepest and most powerful minds America 
 
1 78 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 ever produced, thus expresses himself on 
 this subject : 
 
 u We can well remember the time when 
 our belief in the slanders against Catho- 
 lics, forged in the heart of the Reforma- 
 tion, and handed down unimpaired to our 
 day, was as implicit and religious as it 
 was in the denunciations of our Lord 
 against the Scribes and Pharisees. We 
 had drawn these things from the very 
 breasts of our mother. They were min- 
 gled with our first ideas ; were articles 
 in our infant creed. As we grew up we 
 had no more doubt of their truth than 
 we had of the events of Redemption. 
 And we remember, too, what astonishment 
 we felt when a suspicion of their false- 
 ness had forced itself upon us ; and how 
 when this suspicion expanded into clear 
 conviction our faith was shaken in al- 
 
Devotion to Mary. 1 79 
 
 most everything, how we trembled lest 
 upon examination we should find the tra- 
 ditions in favor of Christianity itself as 
 baseless as we had found those against 
 Catholicity ; and it was only through an 
 interposition of the great mercy of God 
 that we did not fall a victim to the scep- 
 ticism thus produced, so firmly had these 
 poisonous roots of false tradition en- 
 twined themselves with the earliest shoots 
 of our belief in essential truth. Our ex- 
 perience teaches us a lesson of Christian 
 sympathy and forbearance. It furnishes 
 to our minds a plain reason, and almost 
 an excuse, for that which often appears 
 unaccountable, if not criminal, to old 
 Catholics. They, having always enjoyed 
 the light, cannot comprehend how Pro- 
 testants should mistake it for darkness ; 
 or mistake the nature of things which it 
 
180 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 freely reveals. But to us who have seen 
 things from the Protestant point of view 
 this is by no means wonderful. We can 
 well understand how people in the dark 
 should commit blunders, how if a man 
 walk in the night he stumbleth, ' because 
 there is no light in him/ " 
 
 An unbiassed meditation on many pas- 
 sages of their own version of the Scrip- 
 tures, or a calm and unprejudiced perusal 
 of the simplest Catholic Catechism, would 
 remove many of their strongest objections. 
 
 There is one thing certain : No one 
 can really adore Jesus Christ " in spirit 
 and in truth," and not love and reverence 
 His Blessed Mother. Any dishonor or 
 insult to her must necessarily rebound on 
 Him. On leaving the earth, the scene of 
 His labors, the most precious legacy, after 
 that of His own most Precious Blood, 
 
Devotion to Mary. 181 
 
 which He bestowed upon the world 
 was His own pure, Immaculate Virgin 
 Mother, to whom we may fly in time 
 of need, whose succor we should ask in 
 time of danger, under whose protection 
 we should place ourselves and all our 
 interests, in order that she might lead 
 us, by her powerful intercession, safely 
 and surely to the feet of Jesus — " the 
 way, the truth, and the life." 
 
 When Columbus, a good and faithful 
 Catholic, discovered America he named 
 the first island on which he set foot 
 San Salvador, in honor of our Redeemer. 
 (The English, who came afterwards, 
 looking upon this as a mark of super- 
 stition, changed the name to " Cat 
 Island.") The second island he dis- 
 covered he named in honor of the Im- 
 maculate Conception of Mary : Santa 
 
1 82 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 Maria de la Concepcion. The vessel in 
 which he sailed for the new world was 
 called the "Santa Maria. ,, 
 
 The town of St. Augustine, Florida, 
 forty years older than any other in the 
 United States, according to Bancroft, was 
 founded on the Feast of the Nativity 
 of the Blessed Virgin, after the celebra- 
 tion of a High Mass in her honor. 
 
 The Chesapeake Bay was first called 
 St. Mary's. Father James Marquette, the 
 Jesuit, who first explored the Mississippi 
 to the mouth of the Arkansas, called it 
 the Immaculate Conception a.d. 1673, one 
 hundred and eighty-one years, therefore, 
 before it was proclaimed as a dogma, 
 which shows that it was not a new 
 doctrine, but one always believed in the 
 Catholic Church. 
 
 Montreal, founded over two hundred 
 
Devotion to Mary. 1 83 
 
 and forty years ago, was first called Ville- 
 Marie — City of Mary. In November, 
 1653, Father Chamount erected the first 
 Catholic Church in the State of New 
 York, and called it St. Marys. 
 
 Thus it is easy to perceive that devo- 
 tion to the Blessed Virgin is not new 
 even in this country, placed as it is by 
 our prelates under the patronage of the 
 Immaculate Conception. So we may 
 truly say, in the beautiful words of our 
 gifted American poet, Longfellow : 
 
 " This is the Blessed Mary's land, 
 Virgin and Mother of our dear Redeemer. 
 All hearts are touched and softened at her name ; 
 Alike the bandit with the bloody hand, 
 The priest, the prince, the scholar, and the peasant ; 
 The man of deeds, the visionary dreamer, 
 Pay homage to her as one e'er present. 
 And e'en as children who have much offended 
 A too indulgent father, in great shame, penitent 
 And yet not daring unattended 
 
184 Devotion to Mary. 
 
 To go into his presence, at the gate 
 Speak with their sister, and confiding wait 
 Till she goes in before and intercedes : 
 So men, repenting of their evi4 deeds, 
 And yet not venturing rashly to draw near 
 With their requests an angry father's ear, 
 Offer to her their prayers and their confession, 
 And she for them in heaven makes intercession. 
 And if our faith had given us nothing more 
 Than this example of all womanhood, 
 So mild, so merciful, so strong, so good, 
 So patient, peaceful, loyal, loving, pure, 
 This were enough to prove it higher and truer 
 Than all the creeds the world had known before." 
 
 — The Golden Legend. 
 

 • V. 
 
 PURGATORY. 
 
 URGATORY is a state of suf- 
 fering for such souls as have 
 left this life in the friendship 
 of God, but who are not sufficiently 
 purified to enter the kingdom of heaven 
 — having to undergo some temporal pun- 
 ishment for their lighter sins and imper- 
 fections, or for thejr grievous sins the 
 eternal guilt of which has been remit- 
 ted. In other words, we believe that 
 the souls of all who depart this life — 
 not wicked enough to be condemned to 
 hell, nor yet pure enough to enjoy the 
 Beatific Vision of God — are sent to a 
 place of purgation, where, in the cruci- 
 
1 86 Purgatory. 
 
 ble of suffering, the lighter stains of their 
 souls are thoroughly removed, and they 
 themselves are gradually prepared to en- 
 ter the Holy of Holies — where nothing 
 defiled is permitted to approach. 
 
 Jesus Christ, we doubt not, made satis- 
 faction for all by offering Himself a 
 willing victim on Calvary's mount to ap- 
 pease the offended majesty of the Deity; 
 otherwise heaven would remain for ever 
 closed against all the children of men 
 Though this sacrifice was offered for all, 
 yet it does not avail unto their salvation 
 unless each individual co-operate with the 
 grace and mercy of God, and unite his 
 efforts, feeble though they be, with the 
 labors and sufferings of Our Blessed 
 Saviour. 
 
 The Almighty will not save us in spite 
 of ourselves, or without our heartv con- 
 
Purgatory. 187 
 
 currence. Hence, we must make use of 
 the means which He so generously pro- 
 vides for the earnest working out of our 
 eternal welfare. These means are the 
 Sacraments of His Holy Church — insti- 
 tuted by Jesus Christ Himself for the 
 purpose of conveying grace to our souls. 
 As we have already seen, in the trea- 
 tise on the Confessional, we may obtain 
 pardon of all our sins — committed after 
 baptism — in the tribunal of Penance if 
 we have true sorrow for our evil deeds 
 and a firm purpose of amendment, if we 
 humbly confess our transgressions, and 
 receive the absolution of the priest, who 
 stands in the place of God and is vest- 
 ed with His authority. The eternal guilt 
 is then washed away, and the eternal 
 punishment due to mortal sin is remit- 
 ted ; but there generally remains some 
 
1 88. Purgatory. 
 
 temporal pains to be undergone, either 
 in this life or the next. 
 Moreover, there are many 
 
 VENIAL FAULTS 
 
 which the majority of persons commit 
 (such as anger, vanity, " white lies," etc.), 
 and for which they have little or no sor- 
 row — sins which do not deprive the soul 
 of Gods friendship, and yet are displeas- 
 ing to His infinite holiness. For all these 
 we must suffer either in this life or the 
 next. Divine justice weighs everything 
 in a strict balance, and there is no sin 
 that we commit but for which we shall 
 have to make due reparation. Faults 
 which we deem of little or no account 
 the Almighty will not pass unnoticed or 
 unpunished. Our Blessed Saviour warns 
 
Purgatory. 1 89 
 
 us that even for "every idle word that 
 man shall say he shall render an account 
 in the day of judgment. " 
 
 We know full well that no man will be 
 sent to hell merely for an "idle word" 
 or for any venial fault he may commit ; 
 consequently there must be a place where 
 
 such sins are punished. If they be not 
 satisfied for here upon earth by suffer- 
 ing, affliction, or voluntary penance, there 
 must be a place in the other life where 
 proper satisfaction is to be made. That 
 place cannot be either heaven or hell. 
 It cannot be heaven, for no suffering, no 
 pain, no torment is to be found there, 
 where "God shall wipe away all tears 
 from their eyes, where death shall be no 
 more, nor mourning nor weeping." It 
 cannot be hell, where only the souls of 
 those who have died enemies of God are 
 
190 Purgatory. 
 
 condemned to eternal misery, for " out of 
 hell there is no redemption." 
 There then must be 
 
 A MIDDLE PLACE 
 
 where lighter faults are cleansed from the 
 soul and proper satisfaction is rendered 
 for the temporal punishment that still 
 remains due. The punishment of every 
 one will vary according to his desert. 
 Our Blessed Saviour, according to the 
 Gospel of St. Luke (chapter xii. 40-48), 
 mentions different grades of punishment 
 for sinners — those whose portion shall be 
 appointed "with unbelievers/' those who 
 " shall be beaten with many stripes," and 
 others "with few stripes." 
 
 Here is the text in full : 
 
 11 Be ye then also ready, for at what hour 
 you think not, the Son of Man will come. 
 
Purgatory. 1 9 1 
 
 And Peter said to Him : Lord, dost thou 
 speak this parable to us or likewise to all ? 
 And the Lord said: Who (thinkest thou) 
 is the faithful and wise steward, whom his 
 lord setteth over his family, to give them 
 their measure of wheat in due season? 
 Blessed is that servant, whom when his 
 lord shall come, he shall find so doing. 
 Verily, I say to you, he will set him over 
 all that he possesseth. But if that ser- 
 vant shall say in his heart : My lord is 
 long a-coming, and shall begin to strike 
 the men-servants and maid-servants, and 
 to eat and drink and be drunk : the lord 
 of that servant will come in a day that 
 he expecteth not, and at an hour that he 
 knoweth not, and shall separate him, and 
 shall appoint him his portion with unbe- 
 lievers. And that servant who knew the 
 will of his lord, and hath not prepared, 
 
•192 Purgatory. 
 
 and did not according to his will, shall 
 be beaten with many stripes. But he 
 that knew not, and did things worthy of 
 stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." 
 
 Our Divine Lord warns us to make 
 necessary reparation whilst we have the 
 time and opportunity : 
 
 " Make an agreement with thy adver- 
 sary quickly whilst thou art in the way 
 with him ; lest, perhaps, the adversary de- 
 liver thee to the judge, and the judge 
 deliver thee to the officer, and thou be 
 cast into prison. Amen I say to thee, 
 thou shalt not go out from thence till 
 thou pay the last farthing " (St. Matthew 
 v. 25, 26). 
 
 This expresses the doctrine of purga- 
 tory most admirably. The Scriptures 
 always describe our life as a pilgrimage. 
 We are only on our way. We have to 
 
Pur 'gator y. 193 
 
 meet the claims of divine justice here be- 
 fore being called to the tribunal of the 
 everlasting Judge ; otherwise, even should 
 we die in His friendship and yet have left 
 these claims not entirely satisfied, we shall 
 be cast into the prison of purgatory : 
 And "Amen I say unto thee that thou 
 shalt not go out from thence until thou 
 pay the last farthing. ,, 
 
 Mortal sin destroys the image of God 
 in the soul, severs the bond of friendship 
 that connects it with the Creator, and to- 
 tally effaces every trace of divine beauty 
 imprinted on it by the sanctifying grace 
 of the Holy Spirit. This sin, moreover, 
 renders the soul subject to eternal pun- 
 ishment and misery. Venial sin does not 
 destroy sanctifying grace, deprives us not 
 of the friendship of God, but it displeases 
 Him, disfigures the beauty of the soul, 
 
1 94 Purgatory, 
 
 and leaves upon it stains from which it 
 must be purified before enjoying the im- 
 mediate presence of God: " There shall 
 not enter into it anything defiled " (Apoc. 
 xxi. 27). 
 
 When a soul leaves this world with true 
 and perfect sorrow for all past sins, whether 
 light or grievous, being thus united to God 
 by perfect charity, it has no purgatory to un- 
 dergo, but is immediately admitted to the 
 enjoyment of its eternal reward. Consid- 
 ering, however, human nature as it is, we 
 have sufficient reason to think that there 
 are few so blessed ; yet there are many 
 whom we consider good, faithful Christians 
 and who are nevertheless stained with light 
 sins and imperfections, for which they 
 shall have to do penance here or here- 
 after. Nor is it unreasonable to suppose 
 that there are many such who depart this 
 
Purgatory. 195 
 
 life without sufficient sorrow or due satis- 
 faction being made for these delinquencies. 
 
 Our Saviour declares (St. Matt. xii. 32) 
 that " whoever shall speak a word 
 against the Son of Man, it shall be for- 
 given him ; but he that shall speak 
 against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be 
 forgiven him, either in this life or in the 
 world to come " ; which shows, as St. 
 Augustine says in the twenty-first book 
 of his work, " The City of God," that 
 there are some sins (venial, of course) 
 which shall be forgiven in the next world 
 and that consequently there is a middle 
 state or place of purgation in the other 
 life, since no one can enter heaven having 
 any stain of sin, and surely no one can 
 obtain forgiveness in hell. 
 
 The testimony of St. Paul is very clear 
 on this point of doctrine : " For no man 
 
196 Purgatory. 
 
 can lay another foundation, but that 
 which is laid ; which is Jesus Christ. 
 Now if any man build on that founda- 
 tion, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, 
 hay, stubble : every mans work shall be 
 made manifest; for the day of the Lord 
 shall declare it, because it shall be reveal- 
 ed by fire ; and the fire shall try every 
 mans work, of what sort it is. If any 
 mans work abide, which he had built 
 thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If 
 any mans work burn, he shall suffer loss ; 
 but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by 
 fire " (quasi per igneni). 
 
 No man can lay any other foundation 
 than on true faith in Jesus and all that 
 he has taught — a lively, ardent faith ; not 
 a dead faith, but a faith working through 
 charity, for " faith without good works is 
 dead," St. James declares. 
 
Purgatory. 197 
 
 Having the sure foundation thus laid, 
 every true Christian builds his own spi- 
 ritual edifice thereon — his salvation and 
 sanctification. These spiritual buildings 
 vary in size, in strength, and in beauty, 
 according to the greater or lesser spiri- 
 tual knowledge, zeal, and holiness of the 
 builders. Some build with "gold, silver, 
 and precious stones " ; these are the great 
 Saints of God, who build with the pure 
 gold of burning love, the shining silver 
 of good, modest example, and the pre- 
 cious stones of heroic virtues. Others, 
 not quite so elevated and holy in the 
 sight of the Almighty, have but little 
 silver, less gold, and scarcely any pre- 
 cious stones, but with no small quantity 
 of wood, hay, and stubble. This is the 
 class of ordinary good Christians, who 
 strive to serve God, who perform many 
 
198 Purgatory. 
 
 good actions during the course of their 
 life, but who spoil them with wood, hay, 
 stubble — that is to say, they perform them 
 with negligence or with some vain and 
 worldly motives mingled with the good, 
 seeking after human applause or refrain- 
 ing from some holy deed for fe&r of 
 worldly censure. 
 
 "The day of the Lord" — that is, the 
 particular judgment after death — will make 
 all this manifest, of what sort each man's 
 work is; if he have built on a sure 
 foundation and died in the friendship of 
 God — although there might have been 
 some " wood, hay, and stubble " by way 
 of venial sins and imperfections — his soul 
 will be saved, yet "so as by fire," and 
 cleansed from all its dross and stains by 
 the purifying fire of purgatory, and thus 
 rendered fit for the presence of God. St. 
 
Purgatory. 199 
 
 Ambrose, commenting on this text, says : 
 " Whereas St. Paul saith ■ yet so as by 
 fire/ he showeth, indeed, that he shall 
 be saved, but yet shall suffer the punish- 
 ment of fire; that, being purged by fire, 
 he may be saved and not tormented for 
 ever." 
 
 The gifted and deeply-learned Origen 
 — a Greek Father of the second century — 
 thus discourses on the same text : " For 
 this cause, therefore, he that is saved is 
 saved by fire ; that if he happen to have 
 anything of the nature of lead com- 
 mingled with him, that the fire may burn 
 and melt away, that all men may become 
 pure gold, because the gold of the land, 
 which the Saints are to preserve, is said 
 to be pure ; and ( as the furnace trieth 
 gold, so doth temptation try the just* 
 (Eccl. xxvii.) All, therefore, must come 
 
200 Purgatory, 
 
 to the fire — all must come to the furnace. 
 But, also, when we shall have come to 
 that place, if any one shall have brought 
 many good works and some little ini- 
 quity, that little is melted away and puri- 
 fied in the fire like lead, and all remains 
 pure gold. And if any one have carried 
 thither more lead, he suffers the fire 
 more, that he may be the more refined, 
 in order that, although there may be 
 some little gold, the residue may still be 
 pure. If any one should come thither 
 all lead, that will be done to him which 
 is written ; ' He shall be swallowed down 
 into the deep, like lead into the mighty 
 waters ' (Exodus xv.) 
 
 " There are sins which, when we com- 
 mit them in ignorance, there is, I believe, 
 decreed and prepared for us, by the com- 
 mand of God, a place where we must 
 
Purgatory. 201 
 
 • 
 dwell for a certain time. . . . For 
 
 be it that, after the foundation, Christ 
 Jesus, in whom thou hast been instruct- 
 ed, thou hast built no abiding gold and 
 silver and precious stones ; thou mayest 
 have gold, either much or l little, even 
 silver and precious stones, but also wood, 
 hay, and stubble; what wouldst thou wish 
 to become of thee after thy departure ? 
 Wouldst thou enter the holy places with 
 thy wood, and thy hay, and thy stubble, 
 thereby to defile the kingdom of God? 
 Or, on the other hand, wouldst thou, on 
 account of the wood, hay, and stubble, 
 remain in the fire and receive nothing 
 for the gold, silver, and precious stones ? 
 This is not just. The fire will consume 
 the wood, the hay, the stubble ; for God 
 is a consuming fire." 
 
 In the First Epistle of St. Peter (iii. 
 
202 Purgatory. 
 
 1 8, 19) we learn that Christ "being put 
 to death, indeed, in the flesh, but brought 
 to life by the spirit, in which also He 
 came and preached to those spirits who 
 were in prison." 
 
 Our Blessed Saviour, immediately after 
 death, descended into that part of hell 
 called Limbo, and, as St. Peter informs 
 us, "preached to the spirits who were in 
 prison." This most certainly shows the 
 existence of a- middle state. The spirits 
 to whom our Lord preached were cer- 
 tainly not in the hell of the damned, 
 where His preaching could not possibly 
 bear any fruit; they were not already in 
 heaven, where no preaching is necessary, 
 since there they see God face to face. 
 Therefore they must have been in some 
 middle state — call it by whatever name 
 you please — where they were anxiously 
 
Pttrgatory. 203 
 
 awaiting their deliverance at the hands 
 of their Lord and Redeemer. 
 
 Belief in purgatory is more ancient 
 than Christianity itself. It was the belief 
 among the Jews of old, and of this we 
 have clear proof in the Second Book of 
 Machabees xii. 43. After a great vic- 
 tory gained by that valiant chieftain, Ju- 
 das Machabeus, about two hundred years 
 before the coming of Christ, " Judas mak- 
 ing a gathering, he sent twelve thousand 
 drachmas of silver to Jerusalem for sac- 
 rifice to be offered for the sins of the 
 dead, thinking well and justly concerning 
 the resurrection. ... It is, therefore, 
 a holy and wholesome thought to pray 
 for the dead, that they may be loosed 
 from their sins." 
 
 It is customary, even in our days, in 
 Jewish synagogues, to erect tablets re- 
 
204 Purgatory. 
 
 minding those present of the lately de- 
 ceased, in order that they may remember 
 them in their prayers. Surely if there 
 did not exist a place of purgation no 
 prayers nor sacrifices would be of any 
 avail to the departed. We find the cus- 
 tom of praying, of offering the Holy Sa- 
 crifice of the Mass for their spiritual 
 benefit, more especially on their anni- 
 versaries, an universal practice among 
 the primitive Christians of the Eastern 
 and Western Churches, of the Greek, 
 Latin, and Oriental rites. 
 
 Even if we did not find strong war- 
 rant, as we do, in the Scriptures, the 
 authority of 
 
 APOSTOLIC TRADITION 
 
 would be amply sufficient for us ; for, 
 remember, we Catholics hold the tradi- 
 
Purgatory. 205 
 
 tions, handed down from the Apostles, 
 to be of as much weight as their own 
 writings. 
 
 Our Blessed Saviour did not build His 
 Church on the Scriptures, but on the 
 preaching of the Apostles. He wrote no- 
 thing Himself, nor did He command them 
 to write. He did not say to the Apostles : 
 Go and write the New Testament, and 
 spread copies of it throughout the world ; 
 but "Go, teach all nations, instructing 
 them to observe all things whatsoever I 
 have commanded you ; and, behold, I am 
 with you all days, even unto the consum- 
 mation of the world." 
 
 The different portions of the New Tes- 
 tament were written at different times, 
 in different places, by different authors, 
 and to suit the exigencies of different oc- 
 casions. It was never intended to contain 
 
206 Purgatory. 
 
 a complete system of the truths of reve- 
 lation. It is undoubtedly the 
 
 WORD OF GOD, 
 
 and we revere it as such ; but the Church 
 had spread over a considerable part of 
 the known world before the last Epistle 
 of St. John the Evangelist was written — 
 about the close of the first century, a.d. 
 99, according to Baronius. The different 
 parts of the Bible were not joined to- 
 gether in . one volume until the fifth cen- 
 tury, when their canonicity was decided 
 by a Council held in Rome under Pope 
 Gelasius I., a.d. 494. 
 
 We revere the apostolic traditions pre- . 
 served in the Church just as much as the 
 apostolic writings. But some of our Pro- 
 testant friends may say: u We do not 
 want any of your traditions ; we adhere 
 
Purgatory, 207 
 
 to the Bible, and the Bible only, as it is 
 the Word of God; and that is sufficient 
 for us." 
 
 Well, we answer, How do you know 
 that the Bible is the Word of God, that 
 you have it pure and unadulterated as it 
 left the hands of its inspired writers? 
 
 The oldest Protestant denomination 
 only dates back three centuries — namely, 
 to the sixteenth. The Bible was not 
 written then, nor did it drop down from 
 heaven. It must, then, have been from 
 the Catholic Church, that you received it 
 — that Church in whose possession it was 
 carefully preserved for the preceding fif- 
 teen centuries. It was copied year after 
 year, and century after century, by pious 
 and laborious monks, before the art of 
 printing was discovered. 
 
 If ' bishops, priests, and monks were so 
 
208 Purgatory. 
 
 wicked as to invent the dogmas of "con- 
 fession," the "intercession of Saints," and 
 last, though not least, "purgatory," they 
 could easily have corrupted the texts of 
 the Bible. 
 
 There were no Protestants for fifteen 
 centuries, and, under the circumstances 
 supposed, there would have been none to 
 protest against the corruption of the 
 Word of God. Therefore there is at 
 least one tradition (and that a Catholic 
 one) you must hold — that the Bible is a 
 divinely- inspired work — for you have no 
 other possible way of discovering the fact. 
 St. Augustine assures us that he would 
 not believe in the Gospel, were it not for 
 the authority of the Catholic Church. 
 
 Hence it is that we have recourse to 
 sacred tradition as well as to Scripture for 
 the proof of our teaching. With refe- 
 
Purgatory. 209 
 
 rence, then, to the doctrine of " purgatory," 
 we are guided by the belief that prevailed 
 among the primitive Christians. 
 
 That the custom of praying for the 
 dead was sanctioned by the Apostles them- 
 selves we have the declaration of St. 
 John Chrysostom : " It was not in vain 
 instituted by the Apostles that in the cele- 
 bration of the tremendous mysteries a re- 
 membrance should be made of the de- 
 parted. They knew that much profit and 
 advantage would be thereby derived." 
 
 Tertullian — the most ancient of the 
 Latin Fathers, who flourished in the age 
 immediately following that of the Apos- 
 tles — speaks of the duty of a widow with 
 regard to her deceased husband: "Where- 
 fore also does she pray for his soul, and 
 begs for him, in the interim, refreshment, 
 and, in the first resurrection companion- 
 
210 Purgatory. 
 
 ship, and makes offerings for him on the 
 anniversary day of his falling asleep in 
 the Lord. For unless she has done these 
 things, she has truly repudiated him so 
 far as is in her power." All this sup- 
 poses a purgatory. 
 
 44 The measure of the pain," says St. 
 Gregory Nyssa, "is the quantity of evil 
 to be found in each one. . . . Being 
 either purified during the present life by 
 means of prayer and the pursuit of wis- 
 dom, or ? after departure from this life, by 
 means of the furnace of the fire of purga- 
 tion." 
 
 What more to the point, and at the 
 same time what more touching, than the 
 last charge of St. Monica to her noble and 
 holy son, St. Augustine ? " Lay this body 
 anywhere; let not the care of it anyway 
 disturb you ; this only I request of you, 
 
Purgatory. 2 1 1 
 
 that you will remember me at the Altar 
 of the Lord, wherever you be." 
 
 In St. Augustine's beautiful prayer for 
 his mothers repose we find a strong- tes- 
 timony to the doctrine of which we are 
 treating: 
 
 " Although she, having been vivified in 
 Christ, even when not as yet released 
 from the flesh, so lived as that Thy Name 
 is praised in her faith and manners, yet 
 I dare not say that, from the time Thou 
 didst regenerate her by baptism, no word 
 has issued from her mouth against Thy 
 precept. And it was said by the Truth, 
 Thy Son : Whosoever shall say to his bro- 
 ther, Thou fool, shall be guilty of hell 
 fire. And woe even to the praiseworthy 
 life of men, if, laying aside mercy, Thou 
 examine it. ... I, therefore, O my 
 praise and my life ! having laid aside for 
 
212 Purgatory. 
 
 a while her good actions, for which I give 
 thanks to Thee with joy, do now beseech 
 Thee for the sins of my mother; hear 
 me through the Medicine of our wounds, 
 Who hung upon the Wood, and Who, 
 sitting at Thy right hand, maketh inter- 
 cession for us. I know that she dealt 
 mercifully, and from her heart forgave 
 her debtors their debts; do Thou also for- 
 give her her debts, if she contracted any 
 during so many years after the waters 
 of salvation. Forgive, O Lord ! forgive, 
 I beseech Thee." 
 
 In order to have a clear understanding of 
 the doctrine of purgatory, a true idea of the 
 teaching of the Church with regard to 
 
 SATISFACTION 
 
 is very necessary. 
 
 As was remarked before in one of the 
 former papers, there is a close connection 
 
Purgatory. 2 1 3 
 
 between all the truths of the Catholic 
 system ; and the principles laid down in 
 one series of doctrines are carried to 
 their legitimate, logical conclusion in the 
 other. Speaking on the subject of con- 
 fession, we said that there were three 
 essential parts in the Sacrament of Pen- 
 ance — namely, contrition, confession, and 
 satisfaction. Satisfaction in connection with 
 that sacrament means or implies a fulfil- 
 ment of whatever salutary penance the 
 priest or confessor may impose, and it 
 necessarily includes also something still 
 more important — namely, that whatever 
 injury may have been done to ones 
 neighbor in person, property, or char- 
 acter must be fully repaired, or, at least, 
 to the full extent of the penitents ability. 
 There is no forgiveness otherwise. 
 
 Stolen property must be restored to 
 
214 Purgatory. 
 
 its owner, injured character must be re- 
 paired, calumnies should be withdrawn 
 even at the cost of the calumniators own 
 reputation, all just debts should be paid 
 and all damage made good ; otherwise 
 the penitent need not expect forgiveness 
 either here or hereafter. 
 
 Besides these satisfactions there is a 
 general one incumbent on all who have 
 sinned, even after having received par- 
 don and remission. 
 
 Our Divine Lord offered up an infinite 
 satisfaction for all, but, in order that it 
 may be applied to our own individual 
 souls, we must do our share, must show 
 our appreciation of His infinite service 
 by offering up our own penances and 
 satisfactions. This has always been con- 
 sidered necessary by holy men in every 
 age of the Christian era. 
 
Purgatory. 2 1 5 
 
 We believe that all the satisfactions 
 of men and of angels for endless ages 
 could never satisfy for one mortal sin or 
 blot out the punishment due to it. This 
 Jesus Christ alone can do ; yet we be- 
 lieve at the same time that when, through 
 His infinite merits, our sins are par- 
 doned and their eternal guilt is washed 
 away, there generally remains some 
 
 TEMPORAL PUNISHMENT 
 
 to be undergone in consequence. Adam 
 and Eve sinned, and their sin was for- 
 given, yet what terrible calamities, by 
 way of temporal punishment, fell on them 
 and their descendants ! This action of 
 God goes to show, in a slight degree, 
 how terrible all sin, especially grievous 
 sin, is in His sight. 
 
 Moses and Aaron were dearly beloved 
 
216 Purgatory. 
 
 of God, and yet, in consequence of what 
 we might consider a venial sin, a want 
 of perfect confidence, they were obliged 
 to undergo the punishment of not be- 
 holding the promised land: "And the 
 Lord said to Moses and Aaron : Because 
 you have not believed Me, to sanctify Me 
 before the children of Israel, you shall not 
 bring these people into the land which I 
 will give them." And again : " Where the 
 Lord spoke to Moses : Let Aaron, saith 
 He, go to his people; for he shall not 
 go into the land which I have given the 
 children of Israel, because he was incred- 
 ulous to my words at the waters of con- 
 tradiction " (Numbers xx , Deut. xxxiv.) 
 
 So, in like manner, with regard to holy 
 David, a man after God's own heart, who 
 had the misfortune of committing two 
 great sins; the Almighty sent His pro- 
 
Purgatory. 2 1 7 
 
 phet Nathan to upbraid him for his 
 crimes: "And David said to Nathan: I 
 have sinned against the Lord. And Na- 
 than said to David : The Lord hath also 
 taken away thy sin; thou shalt not die." 
 Here we find that David sinned and was 
 forgiven, and his pardon was announced 
 to him by a prophet of God. His sins 
 were remitted ; so, also, was the eternal 
 punishment due to them ; yet we know 
 that he had to undergo a great temporal 
 punishment for those very same offences 
 the remission of which he obtained. 
 " Nevertheless," says the prophet, " because 
 thou hast given occasion to the enemies 
 of the Lord to blaspheme for this thing, 
 the child that is born to thee shall surely 
 die" (2 Kings xii. 14). 
 
 When David committed a sin of vain- 
 glory in numbering his people, he re- 
 
2 1 8 Purgatory. 
 
 pented of it; and, by way of temporal pun- 
 ishment, the Lord gave him his choice of 
 three evils. David chose pestilence, and 
 there died of his people seventy thousand 
 men (2 Kings xxiv.) 
 
 The Scriptures inform us that David 
 ate ashes like bread, mingled his tears 
 with his drink, watered his couch by his 
 weeping on account of his past sins, not- 
 withstanding the divine assurance which 
 he received that they were forgiven : " My 
 sin is always before me " — Peccatum me- 
 um contra me est semper. 
 
 Thus sincere penitents in every age — 
 before the coming of Christ and more es- 
 pecially since — have done rigorous pen- 
 ance for their past sins, bearing in mind 
 the Scriptural injunction : " Be not with- 
 out fear for sins forgiven." 
 
 They who have the highest apprecia- 
 
Purgatory. 219 
 
 tion of the sufferings and infinite merits 
 of Jesus Christ are those who always 
 make their utmost efforts to unite with 
 His their own sufferings, satisfactions, 
 works of penance and alms-deeds, in or- 
 der that these may be rendered more ac- 
 ceptable in the sight of the Almighty, 
 and thus avert those temporal afflictions 
 He has in store for the sins we have 
 committed, even though He has blotted 
 out their eternal guilt. They who, in 
 consequence of their holy lives, needed 
 not such penance for themselves, offered 
 it up, in union with the Sacrifice of their 
 Saviour, for the benefit of their brethren ; 
 thus following the noble example of the 
 Apostle Paul : i; I now rejoice in my suffer- 
 ings for you, and fill up those things that 
 are wanting in the sufferings of Christ, 
 for His body, which is the Church" (1 
 
2 2 o Pu r gator y. 
 
 Colossians i. 24). Certainly there is no- 
 thing wanting in the sufferings of Christ 
 Himself, as our Head; but His members 
 are in need, and if they wish to enjoy 
 the glory of their thorn-crowned Chief 
 they must suffer with Him: ''Through 
 many tribulations we must enter the king- 
 dom of heaven." 
 
 No one can be a true follower of Jesus 
 Christ unless he follow Him on His way 
 to Calvary : " If any man will come after 
 Me, let him deny himself, take up his 
 cross, and follow Me." It is one of the 
 greatest and saddest of mistakes to im- 
 agine that, because our Saviour suffered 
 for all men even unto the death of the 
 Cross, we are thereby freed from the law 
 of suffering or the obligation of doing 
 penance. He calls us not to a life of 
 ease and comfort, because He led a life 
 
Ptcrgatory. 221 
 
 of pain and ignominy for our sakes. He 
 offered for us an infinite ransom, without 
 which all the penance we might be able 
 to do for ages could not avail, nor could 
 it possibly bear any comparison with His 
 infinite satisfaction ; and yet we are not 
 therefore dispensed from the duty of do- 
 ing our own share, and offering it up to 
 the Almighty in union with all that Jesus 
 has done for up. 
 
 Even if this obligation existed not, we 
 would be very ungrateful were we to lead 
 a life of ease when He, the sinless One, 
 led a life of hardship ; to lead a life of 
 pleasure, comfort, and luxury when He 
 chose the rough way of the Cross, the 
 hard and thorny road that led up to Cal- 
 vary's mount, Calvary's torment, and Cal- 
 vary's ignominy. 
 
 It has always been the belief of the 
 
222 Purgatory. 
 
 Church in every age that we all owe, in 
 proportion to our sins, their number and 
 grievousness, our own portion of satisfac- 
 tory labor. This does not in the slightest 
 degree detract from our Saviour's merits 
 and infinite satisfaction, nor does it imbue 
 the penitent with false notions in regard 
 to his own self-sufficiency, as the Council 
 of Trent expressly declares: "The satis- 
 faction which we make for sin is not so 
 ours, as if it were not through Jesus 
 Christ; for we who can do nothing of our- 
 selves, as of ourselves (2 Cor. iii. 5), can 
 do all things in Him who strengthens us. 
 Man, then, has nothing wherein to glory ; 
 but all our glory is in Christ, in whom we 
 live, in whom we merit, in whom we make 
 satisfaction, bringing forth fruits worthy of 
 penance" (Session xiv. chap, viii.) 
 
 The farther we go back in ecclesiasti- 
 
Purgatory, 223 
 
 cal history and the nearer we approach 
 the apostolic age, the more proof we find 
 of the existence and practice of this belief 
 among the earliest Christians, Besides 
 confessing their sins publicly, they were 
 obliged to undergo the most rigorous and 
 prolonged penances. Sometimes for one 
 grievous sin they had to perform public 
 penance for three, five, ten,, and twenty 
 years, and even for a whole lifetime ; to 
 fast on bread and water, to remain out- 
 side the church doors, and to be deprived 
 of the Sacraments unless in danger of 
 death. The great Emperor Theodosius, 
 for example, was stopped at the door of 
 the Cathedral of Milan by its noble bi- 
 shop, St. Ambrose, and was commanded 
 to remain outside and do public penance 
 for an act of great cruelty to a portion 
 of his subjects. 
 
224 Purgatory. 
 
 So we see how deeply connected is the 
 teaching of the Church on the necessity 
 of satisfaction with the dogma of purga- 
 tory. They who fully satisfy here, who 
 receive full and entire pardon of their sins, 
 do penance in proportion to their of- 
 fences, or suffer with Christian resigna- 
 tion, as coming from the hands of God, 
 great trials and afflictions in this life, 
 escape the punishment of purgatory in 
 the next 
 
 I have no difficulty in believing that 
 there is a goodly number of faithful Chris- 
 tians here below who lead lives of pover- 
 ty, ignominy, and contempt, who enjoy 
 none of the good things of life, who are 
 subject to misery from the cradle to the 
 grave, who bear up under every hard- 
 ship, trial, and affliction, serving God, at 
 the same time, with " clean hands and 
 
Purgatory. 225 
 
 pure hearts." I doubt not that they pass 
 through their purgatory here, and will 
 be immediately received after death into 
 the loving embrace of their Lord and 
 their God. 
 
 It would be unreasonable to suppose 
 that others, believing Christians as they 
 may be, but leading totally different 
 lives, should have the same exemption 
 or the same reward. They spend their 
 days here in the enjoyment of the good 
 things of this world ; they have its com- 
 forts and its luxuries ; they make little 
 or no sacrifices ; they fulfil their religious 
 duties occasionally, or even frequently, but 
 with little fervor; they sin, and some- 
 times grievously, and yet they deny 
 themselves in nothing, but give them- 
 selves up to the vanities of life. They 
 certainly do not pass through their purga- 
 
226 Purgatory. 
 
 tory here, and they may rest assured that, 
 even if they have the good fortune of 
 escaping hell, a long and painful purga- 
 tory awaits them in the next life before 
 they shall be permitted to enter the 
 abode of the blessed. All this stands to 
 reason, and it becomes all the more 
 clear when we consider another class to 
 be found in every community. 
 
 Our Divine Lord declared that "it is 
 easier for a camel to enter the eye of 
 a needle than for a rich man to enter 
 the kingdom of heaven." What is im- 
 possible to men is possible with the 
 grace of God. All of which shows that 
 it is only with great difficulty that such 
 men may be saved. Riches are very 
 frequently an occasion of sin to their 
 possessors, since by them they may 
 easily procure for themselves pleasures 
 
Purgatory. 227 
 
 that are unlawful ; and, moreover, since 
 they render them often hard-hearted 
 towards the poor. "Woe to you, ye 
 rich!" says our Lord, "for you have your 
 consolation here." 
 
 Let us consider some persons of this 
 class, or of the class who make their 
 whole life consist in the mere pursuit 
 of sensual pleasures. They may have 
 the true faith, and a certain amount of 
 reverence for God and the things of 
 God. They lead careless, and even sin- 
 ful, lives. They indulge in many ex- 
 cesses. They constantly postpone their 
 conversion from day to day, from youth 
 to manhood, from manhood to old age, 
 and even in old age itself until their 
 death-bed. A real conversion then is 
 indeed very rare. Many delude them- 
 selves with an imaginary conversion, and 
 
228 Purgatory. 
 
 only find out their mistake when it is 
 too late; that is, when they appear be- 
 fore the tribunal of God and are for 
 ever condemned. 
 
 However, let us take it for granted 
 that God, in His infinite mercy, bestows 
 the grace of true conversion on one of 
 the class of which we have been treating ; 
 that he dies in the grace of that Supreme 
 Being to whom he had been an enemy 
 the greater part of his life. Dying in 
 His friendship, he of course escapes 
 eternal damnation ; but could any reason- 
 able man say that such a one were fit, 
 sufficiently pure to enjoy immediately 
 the vision of God face to face — that All- 
 holy Being before whom all that' is im- 
 pure must fly away, and into whose 
 presence nothing defiled can enter? 
 
 Oh ! no. God is a God of justice as 
 
Purgatory. 229 
 
 well as of mercy. Long, weary years 
 shall pass, and even centuries, before 
 some souls will be sufficiently purified 
 by the fiery bath of purgatory, before 
 they will be cleansed from all dross and 
 alloy of sin and passion. 
 
 All our satisfactions here are volunta- 
 ry, and consequently meritorious; a little 
 here suffices for much hereafter, for there 
 no one can possibly merit. " Amen, I 
 say to thee, thou shalt not go out from 
 thence until thou pay the last farthing." 
 The doctrines of satisfaction and purga- 
 tory are productive of the most benefi- 
 cial results. They teach us how to shape 
 our lives accordingly. We learn to know 
 the value of prayer, almsdeeds, penance, 
 and more especially of suffering. Afflic- 
 tion is the great crucible for the refin- 
 ing, purifying, and spiritualizing of our 
 
230 Purgatory. 
 
 immortal souls. No matter how or 
 whence they proceed, we acknowledge 
 all our trials and sorrows as coming 
 from the hands of Him who "doth 
 all things well"; and if we but bear 
 them in the proper spirit, as satisfaction 
 for our sins and in union with Christ's 
 sufferings, we may rest assured that 
 we are shortening the time of our 
 purgatorial banishment. We become sat- 
 isfied with whatever position in which 
 we are placed by God; we bear with 
 toil and hardship, the inconveniences 
 as well as the miseries of life; and 
 even in what appears our very mis- 
 fortunes we kiss the hand that strikes 
 us and bow down to the will of Him 
 who afflicts us. We know full well 
 that " God chastises those whom He 
 loves," and that it is far better to be 
 
Purgatory. 231 
 
 chastised here than hereafter ; for here 
 His mercy reigns, hereafter His justice. 
 
 Most miserable and truly to be pitied 
 is the man who seems happy and pros- 
 perous in this life, and who, at the same 
 time, lives a stranger to God and His 
 grace, adding sin to sin, and treasuring 
 up " wrath against the day of wrath." All 
 his punishment is before him, and eternal 
 misery awaits him. On a sudden the 
 wrath of God shall come upon him, and 
 darkness shall be his portion for ever 
 
 Truly blessed is he who, after he has 
 done grievous wrong in the sight of the 
 Almighty, is visited immediately with 
 chastisement, and is thus recalled to a 
 sense of his duty, bemoans his sinfulness, 
 and turns once more to God with greater 
 earnestness than before. Then may it be 
 said of such, as of Mary Magdalen : 
 
232 Purgatory. 
 
 " Much hath been forgiven her, because 
 she hath loved much." 
 
 If we desire to escape purgatory we 
 should spend holy lives here, mortify our 
 passions, subdue our appetites, deny our- 
 selves in many things, even though per- 
 mitted, in order that we might the more 
 easily control our inclinations in what is 
 unlawful, thus making at the same time 
 some satisfaction for our past offences. 
 
 Not only deeply instructive but also 
 
 EMINENTLY CONSOLING 
 
 is the doctrine of purgatory. We need 
 not " mourn as those who have no hope," 
 for those nearest and dearest who have 
 gone hence and departed this life in the 
 friendship of God. 
 
 How beautifully our Holy Mother the 
 Church bridges over the terrible chasm 
 
Purgatory. 233 
 
 of the grave ! How faithfully and ten- 
 derly she comes to our aid in the saddest 
 of our griefs and sorrows ! She leaves 
 us not to mourn uncomforted, unsustained. 
 She chides us not for shedding tears over 
 our dear lost ones — a beloved parent, a 
 darling child, a loving brother, affection- 
 ate sister, or deeply-cherished friend or 
 spouse. She bids us let our tears flow, 
 for our Saviour wept at the grave of 
 Lazarus. 
 
 She whispers words of comfort — not 
 unmeaning words, but words of divine 
 hope and strength — to our breaking 
 hearts. She pours the oil of heavenly 
 consolation into our deepest wounds. She 
 bids us cast off all unseemly grief, assur- 
 ing us that not even death itself can sever 
 the bond that unites us ; that we can be 
 of service to those dear departed ones 
 
234 Purgatory. 
 
 whom we loved better than life itself; 
 that we can aid them by our prayers and 
 good works, and especially by the Holy 
 Sacrifice of the Mass. Thus may we 
 abridge their days of banishment, assuage 
 their pains, and continue to storm heaven 
 itself with our piteous appeals until the 
 Lord deign to look down in mercy, 
 open their prison-doors, and admit them 
 to the full light of His holy presence and 
 to the everlasting embrace of their Re- 
 deemer and their God. 
 
VI. 
 
 INFALLIBILITY. 
 
 AN was created in original jus- 
 tice, and with the full and per- 
 fect use of all his faculties. 
 Having fallen from his high estate, his 
 intellect became weakened and his will 
 disordered. The faculties of reason had 
 no longer their legitimate control over 
 the faculties of sense. Man, depending 
 solely on himself, fell to his lowest state. 
 For four thousand years the world, with 
 the exception of the Jewish people — the 
 depositaries of God's revelation and pro- 
 mises — tried the experiment of living 
 
 without God or a true knowledge of the 
 
 235 
 
236 Infallibility. 
 
 relations existing between the Creator 
 and the creature. Slowly but surely did 
 the nations of the earth lose their earli- 
 est traditions of religion and sink into 
 the most fearful corruption of soul and 
 body. It became evident that man could 
 not be saved by science or art, statesman- 
 ship or even philosophy. The fulness of 
 time, no doubt, had come for God to 
 assume our nature and manifest Himself 
 to His creatures. Jesus Christ, the Divine 
 Word Incarnate, came on earth for no 
 other purpose than to offer up an infinite 
 ransom for our souls, and to point out 
 the true path that leads to everlasting 
 happiness. In His infinite goodness and 
 mercy He condescended to our low es- 
 tate, to become man like unto us, in 
 order that He might secure us the 
 means by which we could surely follow 
 
Infallibility. 237 
 
 in His footsteps and become partakers of 
 His unspeakable reward. 
 
 For this purpose He established a 
 Church, which He made the depository 
 not only of the infinite merits acquired 
 by His sufferings and death, but the de- 
 pository likewise of all those truths which 
 He came to announce unto mankind — not 
 simply to one race or people, or age or 
 country, but to all tribes and nations and 
 all succeeding ages unto the end of time. 
 
 Had He not come to show us the way, 
 then we would be free to choose our 
 own ; but having come, out of infinite 
 condescension, it is evidently His inten- 
 tion that we should all select the path 
 which He so clearly marked out for us. 
 " Wishing all men to be saved and to 
 arrive at the knowledge of truth," as the 
 Apostle declares, He no doubt places 
 
238 Infallibility. 
 
 means within their reach for attaining 
 this knowledge and saving truth. 
 
 We all believe that Jesus Christ, being 
 the Incarnate God, must be infinitely 
 wise, as He is also infinitely powerful. 
 Desiring to attain the end which He 
 proposed unto Himself, He must neces- 
 sarily have adapted the means unto the 
 end. Hence He must have established 
 a rule of faith that would suit all ages, 
 all characters, all dispositions, that would 
 be applicable to every people and suit 
 the exigencies of all time. 
 
 THE RULE OF FAITH 
 
 should be a plain one, easily discerned, 
 easily grasped, adapted to the weakest 
 as well as the strongest minds, as bind- 
 ing on the learned and powerful as on 
 the uneducated and lowly. It should be 
 
Infallibility. 239 
 
 not only a plain rule but also a com- 
 prehensive one, embracing all necessary 
 truths, all important doctrines ; and a per- 
 fectly safe and sure rule, so that no one 
 might be led into error on points of faith 
 or practice. 
 
 Isaias prophesied that when the Re- 
 deemer should come He would point out 
 the way — the way of holiness, a certain 
 and sure way, which no one could mis- 
 take, and even fools could not fail to 
 perceive, and leading to eternal happi- 
 ness ; " And a path and a way shall be 
 there, and it shall be called the holy 
 way ; the unclean shall not pass over it, 
 and this shall be unto you a straight 
 way, so that fools shall not err therein. 
 And the redeemed of the Lord 
 shall return, and shall come into Sion 
 with praise, and everlasting joy shall be 
 
240 Infallibility. 
 
 upon their heads ; they shall obtain joy 
 and gladness, and sorrow and mourning 
 shall flee away " (xxxv. 8, 10). 
 
 They who believe in the divinity of 
 Christ and His mission cannot but admit 
 that He was wise enough to institute 
 a religion, establish a Church or system 
 of divine truth, which would suit the re- 
 quirements of every age, be a rule to 
 all classes of men without distinction, and 
 a sure and infallible guide for all gene- 
 rations unto the end of the world. That 
 He was wise enough to devise such a 
 Church, and powerful enough to carry out 
 His design, no Christian can call into 
 doubt. 
 
 The sure rule of faith was to be 
 
 A LIVING, INFALLIBLE TEACHER. 
 
 For our Saviour, as we said in the pre- 
 
Infallibility. 241 
 
 ceding treatise, did not found His Church 
 on the Sacred Scriptures, but on the 
 preaching of His Word by the Apostles. 
 The Bible is the infallible Word of God; 
 it is the rule of faith, but not the only 
 rule. It does not contain all revealed 
 truth, nor was it intended ever so to do. 
 Christians, as a body, believe many things 
 for which they can find no proof in the 
 Bible ; for instance, you cannot prove by 
 the Bible why you observe Sunday and 
 keep it holy, instead of the Sabbath, or 
 seventh day, commanded in the Sacred 
 Scriptures. 
 
 2. The Apostles strictly forbade the eat- 
 ing of blood or things strangled (Acts 
 xv. 29), and you cannot prove from their 
 writings that you are dispensed from the 
 obligation. 
 
 3. You cannot prove from the Bible 
 
242 Infallibility. 
 
 itself the canonicity or the divine inspi- 
 ration of its component parts. 
 
 Our Blessed Saviour no doubt said : 
 " Search the Scriptures," or, according to 
 the more correct version: "You search 
 the Scriptures." But these words were 
 addressed to the Scribes and Pharisees, 
 who denied His divine mission, and whom 
 He consequently referred to the Old Tes- 
 tament, to the writings of Moses and the 
 prophets, "who gave testimony of Him." 
 He certainly did not refer to the New 
 Testament, not one word of which was 
 written until several years after His death. 
 He Himself wrote nothing, nor do we 
 anywhere find that He commanded any- 
 thing to be written. The majority of the 
 Apostles left no writings after them; and 
 those of them who did write, it was only 
 after they had founded their churches, to 
 
Infallibility. 243 
 
 satisfy particular requests or to meet cer- 
 tain emergencies. All the early Christian 
 churches were founded by the preaching 
 of the Gospel, and not by the diffusion of 
 copies of the Scriptures. As St. Irenaeus, 
 who lived in the age immediately fol- 
 lowing that of the Apostles, declared : 
 Gentes barbarae sine litteris fidem didice- 
 runt — " Foreign nations learned the faith 
 without the aid of letters." 
 
 The vast majority of people, in all ages 
 of the Christian era, were unable to read; 
 and, even if they had been able, it would 
 have been impossible, except for the most 
 wealthy, to procure a copy of a large 
 work like the Bible — in manuscript, of 
 course, as the art of printing was not 
 discovered until the middle of the fif- 
 teenth century. It is only four hundred 
 and twenty-four years since the Bible 
 
244 Infallibility. 
 
 was first printed by the Catholic Guten- 
 berg. 
 
 So we see most clearly that the Bible 
 
 was not, and could not possibly have 
 
 been, the only rule of faith for 
 
 SO MANY GENERATIONS 
 
 who were obliged to receive their faith 
 from the oral instructions of their pastors, 
 who explained to them the Word of God 
 and the different mysteries of the Catholic 
 Religion. If the Almighty intended that 
 the Sacred Scriptures should be the only 
 rule of faith, He would not have permit- 
 ted the discovery of the art of printing, 
 so necessary for His supposed design, to 
 have been kept in the dark so many hun- 
 dreds of years. 
 
 And now that, by reason of the print- 
 ing-press, copies of the Bible are spread 
 
Infallibility. 245 
 
 with greatest profusion over the face of 
 the earth, it does not prove itself to be 
 the sure, certain, and unmistakable rule, 
 since even the learned differ so much as 
 to its interpretation. 
 
 How can those who believe not in the 
 Catholic Church be sure that they have 
 the Bible pure and unadulterated, neither 
 added to nor diminished from what it 
 was when it left the hands of its inspired 
 writers ; that the translation they possess 
 is a faithful rendering of the original ? An 
 examination of this kind would take the 
 most of a mans lifetime; would require 
 immense labor, very deep study, and no 
 small amount of ability, as well as a cor- 
 rect knowledge of various different lan- 
 guages. Surely such could not have been 
 the means adopted by an All-wise Re- 
 deemer for the salvation of the human race, 
 
246 Infallibility. 
 
 No sure faith can be derived from the 
 Bible without a sure teacher. Of what 
 practical use could be the infallible Word, 
 the dead letter of the law, without the living 
 voice of an infallible interpreter? What 
 advantage was to be derived from the 
 coming of Christ upon earth to establish 
 but one true Church, if every Christian 
 were free to form his own creed, to draw 
 his own faith from the Bible, to be guided 
 by no authority but his own judgment, to 
 receive and accept what he liked, to reject 
 what he disliked — whatever did not agree 
 with his fancies, his whims, his pet theo- 
 ries, or even his passions and prejudices? 
 
 Erect private judgment as the stand- 
 ard, the rule of faith, and there is no 
 authority on earth to which a man is 
 obliged to submit. All other churches 
 except the Catholic confess that they are 
 
Infallibility. 247 
 
 fallible, or liable to err ; and, in making 
 this admission, they cannot reasonably 
 demand for their various creeds or pro- 
 fessions of faith the perfect assent of 
 mind of their followers. 
 
 Admit the right of private judgment 
 in the interpretation of the Scriptures, 
 and you concede at the same time the 
 right to every man to establish a church 
 of his own, if he be not pleased with 
 any of those already founded. For most 
 certainly, if one man have the right of 
 seceding from the Church and forming a 
 creed of his own, a sect or denomina 
 tion, every other individual has the same 
 right. Hence it is now almost impossi- 
 ble to count the number of so-called re- 
 ligions. We hear of some new one be- 
 ing invented nearly every month. It was 
 only a few years ago since the body 
 
248 Infallibility. 
 
 styling itself the Reformed Episcopal 
 Church separated from the Protestant 
 Episcopal Churches of England and 
 America; and it was only very lately 
 we learned from the public journals that 
 Dr. Gregg, who became bishop of that 
 church, separated from that also and 
 formed a new one of his own, of which 
 he constituted himself the Primate. In 
 fact, he intends to be Pope of it — and 
 small blame to him ; for if he have the 
 power of establishing a new religion, no 
 one can very well dispute his title to 
 be its supreme pontiff. 
 
 So it will be unto the end of time. 
 New sects will constantly arise to lead 
 men far away from the truth so long 
 as poor, weak, erring mortals will at- 
 tempt to improve on the work of God 
 in the establishment of a church. 
 
Infallibility. 249 
 
 Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 
 established but 
 
 ONE TRUE CHURCH, 
 
 "the pillar and ground of truth," and 
 He founded it on a Rock that was 
 never to fail, never to be submerged 
 amid the waves of error, heresy, or cor- 
 ruption — the imperishable Rock of Ages, 
 which no storm can shake or move 
 from its unshifting, unchangeable foun- 
 dations, and against which, He most 
 solemnly declared, all the powers of 
 hell shall never prevail: "And I say 
 to thee: Thou art Peter [a rock], and 
 on this rock I will build my Church, and 
 the gates of hell shall not prevail against 
 it" (St. Matthew xvi. 18). 
 
 What is meant by the* "gates of hell" 
 
250 Infallibility. 
 
 but the powers of darkness, all errors, 
 heresies, schisms, all efforts of human as 
 well as diabolic malice? 
 
 That Jesus Christ made this solemn 
 promise no one can doubt, since it is 
 found in all versions of the Bible. He 
 likewise promised to send, for the guid- 
 ance of the Apostles and their succes- 
 sors, His Holy Spirit, who would teach 
 them all truth and recall to their minds 
 whatsoever He had taught them ; and 
 that He Himself would remain with them 
 all days, "even unto the consummation 
 of the world." 
 
 Was Jesus Christ able to fulfil His 
 promises, or was He not? If not, then 
 He was not the divine person He claim- 
 ed to be ; and quod nimis probat, nihil 
 probat — what proves too much proves 
 nothing for our adversaries, as in that 
 
Infallibility. 2 5 1 
 
 case all Christianity falls to the ground 
 as the hugest of impositions. 
 
 If Christ were able to fulfil his pro- 
 mises, then the Catholic Church stands 
 on the same foundation it ever did, and 
 so shall it remain unto the end of time, 
 the infallible Teacher of mankind, to 
 whose instructions all men, whether learn- 
 ed or unlearned, should immediately sub- 
 mit. 
 
 If error or heresy ever crept into its 
 authoritative teaching, if ever for any 
 period of time, be it a century or be it 
 simply one moment, it fell away from the 
 true faith of Christ, then most undoubt- 
 edly "the gates of hell" prevailed against 
 it and the promises of Christ most mise- 
 rably failed. If His promises failed, then 
 He was not a divine person ; if not a 
 divine person, then not even a good man, 
 
252 Infallibility. < 
 
 but the most successful of deceivers and 
 most arrant of impostors. There is no 
 logical standing ground between the two 
 parts of this proposition. 
 
 We believe, then, that the Catholic 
 Church was gifted with 
 
 INFALLIBILITY 
 
 by its Divine Founder — that is to say, 
 it never erred and never can err in mat- 
 ters of faith or morals; it can never pro- 
 pose or define any doctrine as a dogma 
 that has not been handed down from 
 Christ and His Apostles, and contained 
 explicitly, or at least implicitly, in the 
 original deposit of faith. 
 
 We believe, moreover, that with what- 
 ever infallibility the Church is endowed, 
 so is its visible head, the Bishop of 
 Rome, 
 
Infallibility. 253 
 
 THE SUCCESSOR OF ST. PETER. 
 
 In other words, the Pope, the Vicegerent 
 of Christ, when speaking ex cathedra, as 
 Head of the Church, in defining dogma 
 or morals, cannot err in his teaching. 
 
 A great many persons mistake infalli- 
 bility for impeccability. There is a vast 
 difference between them. Impeccable 
 means that a person cannot sin. Now, 
 no Catholic, be he never so little instruct- 
 ed in the faith, believes that the Pope 
 cannot sin. The Pope is a weak man 
 like ourselves, subject to the same pas- 
 sions, the same evil inclinations, the same 
 temptations as we. He has to make use 
 of the same safeguards, and, in fact, 
 greater safeguards than the majority of 
 Christians, for he is placed higher, " in 
 alto positus," and has more fearful respon- 
 sibilities. Popes may sin, and some 
 
254 Infallibility, 
 
 have sinned. Nor is this wonderful ; for 
 since there was one faithless Apostle 
 among the twelve, we need not be sur- 
 prised that there were a few — very few 
 indeed — among the Sovereign Pontiffs 
 who were unworthy of their exalted posi- 
 tion. 
 
 So a Pope is liable to sin, and, as a 
 private teacher, in ordinary conversation 
 or in familiar discourse he is also liable 
 to say what may be erroneous. 
 
 He is infallible or preserved from error, 
 through the promise of Christ and the 
 gracious assistance of the Holy Spirit, 
 only when he addresses the whole 
 Church, as its Head, on what appertains 
 to faith or morals. 
 
 The Pope cannot invent any new doc- 
 trine, cannot promulgate as a dogma what 
 has no foundation in Sacred Writ or in 
 
Infallibility. 255 
 
 apostolic tradition. He decides or defines 
 what has been always believed in the 
 Church from the very beginning, when- 
 ever it seems necessary or exceedingly 
 beneficial to make a dogma of a truth 
 already believed, but subject to discussions 
 or controversies injurious to the piety or 
 obedience of the faithful. Three examples 
 of this may here be given : The divinity 
 of Christ, for instance, was undoubtedly 
 believed by all true Christians from the 
 very foundation of the Church, and yet 
 it was not declared a dogma until the 
 Council of Nice, a.d. 325, and then only 
 because of the injurious and seductive 
 teaching of the Arians. So also the Im- 
 maculate Conception of the Blessed Vir- 
 gin Mary and the Infallibility of the 
 Pope are doctrines that have always been 
 believed in the Church, with but few dis- 
 
256 Infallibility. 
 
 senting voices, and still they were not 
 declared dogmas, under pain of excom- 
 munication, until our own time. 
 
 The vast majority of Catholics believe 
 now, and always did believe, that the 
 Blessed Virgin immediately after death 
 was taken up, body and soul, into heaven, 
 and yet it is not a dogma of faith. Sup- 
 pose that in a hundred years from now 
 it should be proclaimed a dogma, it could 
 not be then said that it is a new doctrine. 
 
 Let us now examine the grounds on 
 which the dogma of 
 
 PAPAL INFALLIBILITY 
 
 rests, and give a reason for the faith that 
 is in us. 
 
 Destining His Church to last during all 
 time, our Divine Lord built it on such a 
 foundation as would resist all the storms 
 
Infallibility. 257 
 
 of ages and all the machinations of its 
 enemies. He commissioned twelve Apos- 
 tles to preach His Gospel unto every peo- 
 ple: "Go, teach all nations"; and He 
 endowed them with all the powers and 
 faculties necessary for the successful ful- 
 filment of His most holy design. The 
 like powers that were given to Him by 
 His Heavenly Father He bestowed on 
 them and their successors : " As the 
 Father hath sent Me, I also send you." 
 Giving unto them this wonderful and 
 divine power, He knew full well, for He 
 knew all things, that the Church was not 
 to end with His Apostles, but, through 
 their successors, to continue unto the con- 
 summation of ages. He consequently 
 determined on establishing 
 
 A CENTRE OF UNITY 
 
 for the whole Christian world, and thus 
 
258 Infallibility. 
 
 prevent any schisms, heresies, or spirit 
 of disunion from ever sundering that 
 bond of union which was to be during 
 all time the distinguishing mark or cha- 
 racteristic of the One True Church. 
 
 Granting full and ample powers to all 
 the Apostles in order to carry out their 
 mission of converting the nations, He 
 conferred the Primacy, with all its honor, 
 authority, and prerogatives, on St. Peter 
 alone, whom He constituted the Head or 
 Chief of the Apostolic band. This is 
 fully proved from Christ's own words as 
 contained in the Gospel, the testimony 
 of all Christian antiquity, and the prac- 
 tice as well as belief of the universal 
 Church. 
 
 Three different times, and in the most 
 solemn manner, did Christ bestow this 
 special authority and exalted privilege on 
 
Infallibility. 259 
 
 St. Peter: 1. When St. Peter, first of 
 all the Apostles, confessed his faith openly 
 in the divinity of his Master : " Jesus 
 saith to them : But whom do ye say that 
 I am ? Simon Peter answering, said to 
 Him: Thou art Christ, the Son of the 
 living God. And Jesus answering, said 
 to him : Blessed art thou, Simon Bar- 
 Jona ; because flesh and blood hath not 
 revealed it to thee, but My Father who 
 is in heaven. And I say to thee: that 
 thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will 
 build My Church ; and the gates of hell 
 shall not prevail against it. And I will 
 give to thee the keys of the kingdom of 
 heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt bind 
 upon earth, it shall be bound also in hea- 
 ven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose 
 upon earth r it shall be loosed also in hea- 
 ven " (Matt. xvi. 15-19). 
 
260 Infallibility. 
 
 To St. Peter alone were given 
 
 "THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM," 
 
 which words, according to the manner of 
 speaking among the people of the East, 
 most forcibly denoted the conferring of 
 supreme power and authority. This is 
 the sense in which it is used by Isaias, 
 xxii. 22: "And I will lay the key of the 
 house of David upon his shoulder: and 
 he shall open, and none shall shut : and 
 he shall shut, and none shall open." Also 
 by St. John in the Apocalypse, or Reve- 
 lations, iii. 7 : " These things saith the Holy 
 One and True One, who hath the key of 
 David : He that openeth, and no man shut- 
 teth; and shutteth, and no man openeth." 
 On account of his noble confession of 
 faith the Lord changed Simons name 
 to Peter — Kipho in Syriac, Cephas in 
 
Infallibility. 261 
 
 Greek, and Petrus from the Latin 
 petra, which signifies a rock; thus merit- 
 ing to become the rock on which the 
 Church was to be built — the immovable 
 rock of the Papacy, impregnable against 
 all the storms of error and heresy. 
 "And the rain fell, and the floods came, 
 and the winds blew, and they beat upon 
 that house, and it fell not, for it was 
 founded upon a rock" (St, Matt. vii. 25). 
 
 Origen, who lived in the third cen- 
 tury, says that " Peter was by the Lord 
 called a rock, since to him is said : 
 1 Thou art Peter, and on this rock I 
 will build My Church/ The chief au- 
 thority as regards the feeding of the 
 flock was delivered to Peter." 
 
 4< Who can be ignorant," says St. Au- 
 gustine, "that the most blessed Peter is 
 the Chief of the Apostles ? " 
 
262 Infallibility. 
 
 The second time to which reference is 
 made is as follows : We know full well 
 that Christ's prayer is always heard, as 
 He Himself declared: "Father, I give 
 Thee thanks that Thou hast heard Me, 
 and I know that Thou hearest Me al- 
 ways" (St. John xi. 41). There is no 
 doubt that He prayed most particularly 
 for Peter and all his successors in office, 
 that his faith and theirs might be always 
 constant and true, so that they should 
 be the leaders and confirmers of their 
 brethren during all time : " Simon, Si- 
 mon, behold Satan hath desired to have 
 thee that he may sift thee as wheat : but 
 I have prayed for thee that thy faith 
 fail not ; and thou being once converted, 
 confirm thy brethren " (St. Luke xxii. 
 
 3h 32). 
 
 The faith of the See of Peter has 
 
Infallibility. 263 
 
 never failed and never shall fail ; for on 
 the Rock of Peter, as on a sure, solid, 
 enduring foundation, Christ built His 
 Church. 
 
 3. After our Lord's glorious Resurrec- 
 tion, and immediately before His Ascen- 
 sion, by the Sea of Galilee He gave full 
 charge to St Peter of the whole Church 
 — the entire flock, both shepherds and 
 sheep — to feed them with the heavenly 
 food of true doctrine, to dispense the 
 mysteries of God, to watch over, govern, 
 direct, and guide the one true fold for 
 whose salvation He, the Good Shepherd, 
 laid down His life. 
 
 There and then he required a triple 
 affirmation from St. Peter of his love 
 towards Him, and with a triple charge 
 did the Saviour command him to feed 
 His whole flock : " Jesus saith to Simon 
 
264 Infallibility. 
 
 Peter : Simon, Son of John, lovest thou 
 Me more than these ? He saith to Him : 
 Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love 
 Thee. He saith to him : Feed My 
 lambs. He saith to him again : Simon, 
 son of John, lovest thou Me ? He saith 
 to Him : Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that 
 I love Thee. He saith to him : Feed 
 My lambs. He saith to him the third 
 time : Simon, son of John, lovest thou 
 Me ? Peter was grieved, because He said 
 to him the third time, Lovest thou Me ? 
 And he said to Him: Lord, Thou know- 
 est all things : Thou knowest that I 
 love Thee. He said to him : Feed My 
 sheep" (St. John xxi. 15-17). 
 
 This comparison of His Church to a 
 flock was a favorite one of our Lord, 
 as we may see from the tenth chapter 
 of the Gospel according to St. John : 
 
In/a I lib ility. 265 
 
 "And other sheep I have, that are not of 
 this fold : them also I must bring ; they 
 shall hear My voice, and there shall 
 be one fold and one shepherd." Such 
 was to be for ever the distinctive mark 
 of His Church, by which it may be 
 infallibly known from all others: "There 
 shall be one fold and one shepherd!' 
 
 The words of our Saviour constituting 
 St. Peter the visible head of the Church 
 and the shepherd of the one fold were 
 well understood by the Apostles them- 
 selves. In their sacred writings they in- 
 variably give the first place to St. Peter 
 whenever they mention him in connec- 
 tion with the others ; he is always the 
 spokesman — the organ, so to speak — of 
 the Apostolic College: "Now the names 
 of the twelve Apostles are these : the first, 
 Simon, who is called Peter " (St. Matt. 
 
266 Infallibility. 
 
 x. 2.) But some one might say that the 
 Evangelist enumerated them in the order 
 in which they were called to the faith. 
 In that case St. Peter should not be 
 named first, but his brother, St. Andrew ; 
 therefore this objection falls to the 
 ground. There are a number of other 
 texts in this connection: "And Simon 
 and they who were with him" (St. 
 Mark i. 36); "Peter and they who were 
 with him " (St. Luke ix. 32). 
 
 St. Peter was the first to preach to 
 the people after the descent of the Holy 
 Ghost on the apostolic band the day of 
 Pentecost: "Peter standing up with the 
 eleven, lifted up his voice and spoke to 
 them " (Acts of Apostles ii. 14). 
 
 Again, chapter v. 29: "Peter then an- 
 swering and the apostles, said." So also 
 at the first council of the Church, held 
 
Infallibility. 267 
 
 • 
 
 at Jerusalem, when " the Apostles and 
 ancients came together to consider of 
 this matter. And when there was much 
 disputing, Peter rising up, said, etc. . . . 
 And all the multitude held their peace" 
 (xv. 7, 12). 
 
 Our Saviour taught the multitude from 
 the bark of Peter (Luke v. 3), and con- 
 tinues so to do during all succeeding 
 ages. We learn from St. Matthew (xvii. 
 26) that our Lord paid tribute for Him- 
 self and Peter. 
 
 Most assuredly all this did not happen 
 without design, and that design the evi- 
 dent intention of Christ to constitute Pe- 
 ter, and his successors in the Apostolic 
 See, the centre of unity and the source 
 of all power, authority, and jurisdiction 
 for the entire Church. 
 
 St. Peter was the first of the Apostles 
 
268 Infallibility. 
 
 to whom the Lord appeared after His 
 Resurrection; the first to open the coun- 
 cil, to work the first miracle, and the 
 first to call both Jews and Gentiles to 
 the faith. 
 
 The primacy of honor and jurisdic- 
 tion, and the prerogatives attached there- 
 to, were always acknowledged in the 
 Church from the very beginning as be- 
 ing the inherent rights of the occupant 
 of the See of Peter. 
 
 That St. Peter established his See at 
 Rome, and from there exercised rule over 
 the whole Church, is as well established 
 a fact as any other important event in 
 history. St. Irenaeus, who flourished in 
 the second century, enumerating the bish- 
 ops of Rome, says : " St. Peter succeeded 
 Linus; to Linus, Anacletus; then, in the 
 third place, Clement." Besides other his- 
 
Infallibility. 269 
 
 torical proofs we have the testimonies of 
 Eusebius, the Father of ecclesiastical his- 
 tory; of the learned St. Jerome, and the 
 most ancient Calendarium Romanum. 
 
 Eusebius thus speaks: "The providence 
 of the Universal Ruler led, as it were 
 by the hand, to Rome Peter, the great 
 one and most powerful of the Apostles, 
 and, on account of his virtue, the mouth- 
 piece of the others against that sad 
 destroyer of the human race (Simon 
 Magus). He (Peter), like a noble gen- 
 eral appointed by God, armed with hea- 
 venly weapons, brought the precious mer- 
 chandise of intellectual light from the 
 East to the dwellers in the West." 
 This fact is admitted by the most learned 
 of our opponents — Pearson, Usher, Cave, 
 and others. 
 
 St. Jerome, writing to Pope Damasus, 
 
2 jo Infallibility. 
 
 thus expresses himself on this point: " I 
 am following no other than Christ, united 
 to the communion of Your Holiness — that 
 is, to the Chair of Peter. I know that 
 the Church is founded on that rock. 
 Whoever eateth the Lamb out of that 
 House is a profane man. Whoever is 
 not in the ark shall perish by the flood. 
 . . . He that gathereth not with you, 
 scattereth." 
 
 St. Augustine declared that what kept 
 him in the Catholic Church was " the 
 succession of priests from the very Chair 
 of Peter — to whom the Lord, after His 
 Resurrection, committed His flock to be 
 fed — down to the present bishop." 
 
 "In the city of Rome," says St. Opta- 
 tus (fourth century), " on Peter was the 
 episcopal chair first conferred, that, in one 
 chair, unity might be preserved by all." 
 
Infa llibility. 2 7 1 
 
 Whoever, then, would dare deny this 
 fact would obtain as little credit as he 
 who should deny that Washington was 
 the first President of the United States. 
 One is as much an absolute fact of his- 
 tory as the other. 
 
 All acknowledge that the Jewish Syna- 
 gogue was but a figure of the Church 
 of Christ, and that the figure can bear 
 no comparison in perfection with the 
 reality. In the Old Law, then, a special 
 direction and assistance were vouchsafed 
 to the High-Priest (Deut. xvii. 9). How 
 much more is this special guidance due 
 to the chief representative and Vicar of 
 Jesus Christ in the New Law — the law 
 of grace and perfection ! 
 
 1. It is a matter of history that never 
 since the foundation of the Church has 
 any Pope (no matter what his private 
 
272 In/a llibility. 
 
 character may have been) broached any 
 heresy when speaking ex cathedra, as 
 Head of the Church universal. 
 
 2. Papal decisions on matters of faith, 
 morals, or even discipline have been re- 
 ceived in all ages with the greatest re- 
 spect, reverence, and obedience by the 
 great body of pastors of the Church. In 
 the early ages Pope Clement corrected 
 abuses in the Church of Corinth, Pope 
 Victor in that of Ephesus, and Pope 
 Stephen in that of Africa. 
 
 3. Heresies in different ages were 
 condemned by Popes acting on their own 
 authority and without the aid of councils. 
 
 4. No council has ever been consid- 
 ered oecumenical unless it was presided 
 over by the Pope or his delegates, or 
 had his approbation as to its decrees. 
 The Fathers of the Council of Chalce- 
 
In/a I lib ility. 273 
 
 don, on hearing the letter of Pope Leo 
 read to them, exclaimed : " This is the 
 faith of our fathers: Peter has spoken 
 through Leo." 
 
 5, In difficulties of any magnitude ap- 
 peals from bishops, and even patri- 
 archs, were always laid before the Pope. 
 Pope Julius restored Paul, Patriarch of 
 Constantinople, and Athanasius, Patriarch 
 of Alexandria, to their respective sees ; 
 and Pope Innocent reinstated the great 
 St. John Chrysostom. 
 
 Never was there a time when 
 
 THE PAPACY 
 
 attracted so much attention and was the 
 object of so much investigation as at 
 present. All eyes are turned towards it. 
 Every part of its history, every minute 
 particular, is examined. Learning, science, 
 
2 74 Infallibility. 
 
 history, and research have made their 
 utmost endeavors to solve the mystery 
 of its existence. Love and hatred, con- 
 fidence and mistrust, have been exercised 
 in its favor or disfavor, and yet it stands 
 the wonder of all, the miracle of the 
 universe. 
 
 Without the Papacy there would be no 
 Catholicity, as there would be no Catho- 
 licity without unity. The centre of uni- 
 ty is the Chair of Peter, the Apostolic 
 See, the fountain of ecclesiastical authori- 
 ty, the source of spiritual jurisdiction. 
 It is a 
 
 DIVINE ORGANISM, 
 
 living its own life, and imparting light 
 and heat to the whole world. It is the 
 creation of God. It derives not its power 
 from men ; it owes not its existence to 
 any agreement or compact. It is the 
 
Infallibility. 275 
 
 heart as well as head of the Church. 
 Life and light radiate from that divinely- 
 appointed centre. Any member not united 
 with that Head, not animated by that 
 Heart, is dead— cannot live its true life 
 or attain its true destiny. Ubi Petrus^ 
 ibi Ecclesia — where Peter is, there is the 
 Church — says St. Ambrose. No one can 
 be a member of the Catholic Church who 
 is not in communion with the See of 
 Peter. This is an indispensable requisite. 
 Whoever is not in accord with the 
 faith of Peter — for Peter lives in each 
 of his successors — cannot be a member 
 of Christ, who is the invisible Head of 
 the Church, as the Pope, the Bishop of 
 Rome, is its visible Head and His Vice- 
 gerent : " He who will not hear the 
 Church," says our Lord, " let him be to 
 thee as a heathen and a publican. " "For 
 
276 Infallibility. 
 
 the lips of the priest," says the prophet 
 Malachy, " shall keep knowledge, and 
 they shall seek the law at his mouth ; 
 because he is the angel of the Lord of 
 Hosts" (Mai. ii. 7). "He that knoweth 
 God, heareth us : he that is not of God, 
 heareth us not ; by this we know the 
 spirit of truth, and the spirit of error," 
 says St. John (1 Epistle iv. 6). 
 
 " There are other sheep," our Blessed 
 Saviour says, " not of the fold," whom 
 He is anxious to lead in, that they may 
 be made one fold under the one shepherd. 
 
 There are many, I believe, outside the 
 fold not through any fault of their own. 
 They have been brought up in ignorance 
 of, and oftentimes embittered against, that 
 faith into which, although unconsciously 
 on their part, they have been baptized. 
 For, let it be well understood, when a 
 
Infallibility. 277 
 
 person is validly baptized, no matter by 
 whom, he becomes ipso facto a member 
 of the Holy Catholic Church, and such 
 he remains until, by some act of his 
 own free will, he rejects the known truth 
 and adheres to some heresy. 
 
 Hence I trust that there are many 
 joined with us in spiritual, who are, to 
 all appearances, far from us in bodily, 
 communion. And yet it is their duty to 
 enquire, to investigate, to examine on 
 what grounds they rest their faith; and, 
 above all, to pray frequently to the Al- 
 mighty, to implore most earnestly the 
 light of the Holy Spirit, that He may 
 discover to them the whole truth as it 
 is in Christ Jesus, and that he may give 
 them the grace to follow whithersoever He 
 may lead. Let them live lives of purity 
 and prayer, and exercise generous chari- 
 
278 Infallibility. 
 
 ty towards the poorer members of Jesus 
 Christ, and they may rest assured that 
 He will forsake them not in the time of 
 need nor leave their prayers unanswered. 
 
 In conclusion, let me beg of all who 
 differ from us to cast aside all prejudice 
 and bigotry, and to examine calmly, like 
 earnest men and Christians, the claims 
 of the Catholic Church on their studious 
 attention. I assure them, with all the sin- 
 cerity of my soul, that there is no study 
 in the world of deeper interest or more 
 worthy of their consideration. 
 
 No other investigation can bring forth 
 so rich a fruit, so happy a result. The 
 deeper we advance into that Holy of 
 Holies the more the clouds that seemed 
 to shadow its entrance vanish from sight 
 and disappear, until the full splendor of 
 Gods truth and God's light shine upon 
 
Infallibility. 279 
 
 our souls, dispelling all doubt, and every 
 shadow of doubt, and holding our minds 
 entranced beyond power of resistance. 
 
 Such is the Catholic Church to those 
 who know it as it is, and who love it 
 as the 
 
 EVER FAITHFUL SPOUSE 
 
 of Jesus Christ, without " spot or wrinkle," 
 stain or imperfection — " Thou art all fair, 
 my dove, and there is no stain in thee, :> 
 as the Divine One says to His beloved 
 in the Canticle of Canticles. 
 
 The more I study the Catholic Faith 
 the more and more am I ravished with 
 its beauty all divine, its heavenly dogmas, 
 its sublime moral code, its eminent rea- 
 sonableness, and perfect adaptability to 
 all the needs of man's nature, all the 
 aspirations of his immortal soul. 
 
280 Infallibility. 
 
 Therefore it is that, being so deeply 
 convinced of its divine mission unto the 
 whole human race, I long with the souls 
 inmost longing for others to enjoy the 
 same inestimable privileges, to be bless- 
 ed with the same divine faith, to be 
 brought by God's all-powerful grace into 
 that one true fold at the gate of which 
 Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, stands, 
 anxiously waiting to embrace them in 
 His outstretched Fatherly arms. 
 
 " The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and the charity of God, and the com- 
 munication of the Holy Spirit be with 
 you alL ,, Amen. 
 
(in