The only obstacle to this grand result which we see is in the timidity, in the lack of energy on the part of Catholics in the assertion and defence of their religion, or in their want of courage to confide alone in God for success. Adversity, we think, can hardly fail to reform and reinvigorate them, and to direct their attention to their true source of strength as Catholics or the children of God. They will learn from it to adhere more closely to the Chair of Peter, and to rely more on the internal direction of the Holy Ghost, and less on the aid of the secular order. No doubt, the present state of things imposes additional labors as well as sufferings on the bishops and clergy in old Catholic nations, and requires some modifications of the education of the priesthood now given in our seminaries. Our Levites must be trained for a missionary world, not for an old Catholic world; but this need alarm no one; for the greater the labors and sacrifices in the service of God, the greater the merit and the reward.
A MEMORY.[77]
’Twas only a prayer I heard
In that vast cathedral grim,
Where incense filled the air
And vesper lights burnt dim.
’Twas only a woman’s form,
Kneeling with upturned face,
That looked through the pictured altar
Up to the throne of grace.
Clasped in her small white hands
An amber rosary telling;
While from her glorious eyes
Teardrops fast were weelling.
No thought for the world without,
No thought for the stranger near,
As pausing and sobbing she murmured,
“O Mother of sorrows, hear!”
And I, in a land of strangers,
Joined in the pleader’s prayer:
Praying for her that I knew not,
To Her who I felt was there.
[77] By one who is not a Catholic.