One Year in the Catholic Church

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 22, 4 June 1908, Page 33

One Year in the Catholic Church

Mr. Henry C, Granger, formerly pastor of a leading Protestant church in Evanston, 111., contributes the following to the ' New World ' of Chicago :— - In view of the sacrifices made • in order to enter the Catholic Church, it is perhaps natural at the close of one year in the same to ask ourself this question : What has been gained by reason of the change ? ' Particularly is this so when the. previous thirty years of ministerial life in totally different surroundings is "** taken into consideration. There has been a positive gain. In what/ direction does this lie ? Certainly no money value can be placed upon much that has been acquired. The laws are not for sale in the market place. Spiritual riches are not quoted on the stock exchange in these days, if ever they were. Says the inspired writer": ' I know thy tribulation, and thy poverty, but thou art rich.' If not in the material— as the result of the changeassuredly then in things spiritual. Here we must look for the gains. What are some of these ? One is that inner peace of soul which must be experienced to be fully realised, the quiet harbor, after the storm, the anchorage sure and steadfast. It has not been quiet in the soul because there was nothing to disturb, or annoy, or try ; but owing to the fact that there was a power superior to all these ; consequently they were kept in their proper place. We need not enumerate the crosses, since there has been grace sufficient to carry these. Another gain has been a growing appreciation of what Our Lord intended His Church to be— the visible abode— on earth— of His Real Presence. In the sacrament of the altar, the Holy Eucharist, He is with His children— actually— though mysteriously. This sublime fact of all facts comes home with a peculiar and a constantly growing force to one who has been but a short time comparatively in the Church of Christ. It —this Real Presence— is the centre about which everything else revolves. With this goes, of necessity, the worship, the spiritual communion, the vocal silences of the Mass, all that serves to impress one with the fact. This is Holy Ground ! Bow down ! Cover thy face ! Call in thy wandering thoughts ! God is here ! To have gained any slight realisation of such a truth is truly a ' gain ' to be cherished, cultivated, and prized far, far beyond any sacrifice that may have been made to attain unto it. Another gain has been in the line of coming to see the various devotions of the Church in their right proportions. Those ' outside ' make so much and wrongly of the honors paid to saints, martyrs, angels, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Why is this ? Simply, and largely owing to the fact that not standing ' within,' and with Christ in the centre of everything, they fail to grasp the proportions that all these others sustain to Him. Difficulties hitherto insurmountable in these particulars have vanished ; changed into the riches of divine grace— coming to the soul by means of these holy presences round about us, and especially that of the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of God. Helps all to lead us whither ? To Our Lord Himself in a way and with a definite reality not to be found save in the Catholic Church. The one other gain of which mention is to be made now is the spiritual strength that sprang from being under the shadow of a certain authority. The tones are clear, the position is assured ; there need not be any misunderstanding as to what the Catholic Church believes and teaches and enforces. The successor of St. Peter and Vicar of Christ on earth is not afraid to speak out in the defence of the faith ; nor is there any hesitancy in demanding for that faith a timely, loyal obedience. This applies alike to all classes and conditions of believers. From what a multitude of ' opinions,' .' isms,' ' vagaries,' and one knows not what, such an authority delivers us ! Gains of the character indicated are vital parts in true, spiritual riches ; consequently sources of renewed and daily increasing strength, to live as we find it necessary day by day.