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PAGE 4—THE BULLETIN, September 20, 1958 JOSEPH BREIG Lady Of Our Love other married is that we are I have never seen a medita tion — although that doesn’t mean that nobody ever wrote one — on the fact that Mary the Mother of God was born of the two-in-one-flesh union of St Joachim and his wife St. Anne. No one, to my know ledge, has brought forth the deep meanings of this fact for couples. The trouble all troubled with puritanism to some extent. We just can’t quite get a firm mental hold on the truth that the body, like the soul, is holy. God, being incapable of im patience, does not become an noyed with us for this weakness, but if He were anything less than God, I think He would. He has tried to make everything plain to us. HOW COULD HE EXPRESS the sanctity of the flesh more strongly than by Himself tak ing up a human nature becom ing incarnate, becoming a man? And what more do we need in the way of emphasis on the nobility of marriage than the fact that God formed His Mother through the consummation of the vows of a husband and wife? Let us go back and see what happened. Here was Joachim, a Jewish young man, and here was Anne, a Jewish maiden. And they took each other in wedlock, and lov ed each other. Did they have any intimation that from their love would come forth the woman promised by God to Adam and Eve, the Vir gin who would mother the Re deemer who would crush the head of Satan? WHETHER THEY KNEW or not, I do not know. What mat ters to us is that God does work His wonders through us; that marriage is so holy that He sent His Mother to Himself and to us through the embrace of husband and wife. Since the sanctity of this state is as exalted as that, how can we for one moment, be deceived about it, or tempted by the pag- anistic modern debasement of it? Joachim and Anne came to gether with faith and trust in the Lord; and He made them the parents of Mary, whose birth we celebrate, whose name we hail and to whom this month is dedicated as Queen of Martyrs. ETERNALLY, Anne and Joachim will walk together in the glory of God, honored by angels and saints; and why? Be cause they put their trust in their Creator, and humbly loved under His overshadowing love. We who have seen such splen dors—what have we to do with the cheapening of love into lust that we see all around us, in films and advertising; in degrad ing books and magazines; on the stage and in night clubs? St. Paul put it well when he suggested that we not so much as let such things be mentioned among us. For we are caught up in Christ, we are reborn, we are lifted to another plane al together. Mary our beloved, our Queen, Mother and Sister; our proudest boast—Mary was born of clean love, of the fidelity of wife to husband and husband to wife of their faithfulness to God and His grace. SHE OWES her existence, and we owe her, to the cooperation of Joachim and Anne with God in the act by which God has given us power to bring forth new immortal beings. Joachim is her father, and she salutes him so. Anne is her mother, and she honors her as mother. Out of their love Mary arose, and out of their solicitude for her education in the things of God and religion came her pre paration for the central moment of all history, when she brought forth her Son and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger for the rejoic ing of all men of good will. Such is the holiness, such is the soaring everlasting import ance of the good life of man and woman in marriage. Theology For The Layman Sh *anoe but t r o .title.K nown By M. J. MURRAY Fact* for Catholic* IW, N.C.W.C, Net* bnto E (By David Q. Liplak) Q,: Is there any special obli gation for Catholics to practice the corporal works of mercy? Or are they only a matter of counsel? Is there any specific command on the subject in the Bible? A.: The practice of the cor poral works of mercy is not elective, but mandatory upon Christians in general. These works, so-called because they pertain to the corporal (Latin corpus: “body”) or material re quisites of men, are traditional ly enumerated as seven: 1) to feed the hungry, 2) to give drink to the thirsty, 3) to clothe the naked, 4 to visit the imprisoned, 5) to shelter the homeless, 6) to visit the sick, and 7) to bury the dead. Although all these works are mentioned many times in Scrip ture, the first six are grouped together in the closing verses of St. Matthew’s twenty-fifth chap ter (Christ’s description of the Last Judgment. The seventh is especially emphasized in the Old Testament Book of Tobias. THE SPECIFIC MANDATE enjoining all Christians to the performance of the corporal works was issued by Our Divine Lord. Its seriousness follows from His warning that those who refuse to fulfill it according to their circumstances would be liable to condemnation on the last day: “Then he will say to those who are on his left hand . . ., Go far from me, you that are ac cursed, into that eternal fire which has been prepared for the (Continued on Page Five) How Do You Rate on Facts of Faith Vv'VM 1 1. Who was the (b) St. Julius? (By Brian Cronin) one Pope born a Jew? (a) St. Marcus? (c) St. Peter? (d) St. Linus? 2. A person who is undergoing instruction before reception into the Church is called a: (a) Convert? (b) Cathecist? (c) Apologist? (d) Cathecumen? 3. Father Patrick Peyton is well-known for his Crusade on behalf of: (a) The Legion of Decency? (b) Catholic Chari ties? (c) The Family Rosary? (d) Catholic labor unions? 4. Martin Luther was originally a monk in which of these orders?: (a) The Jesuits? (b) The Dominicans? (c) The Franciscans? (d) The Augustinians? 5. Jesus during His life on earth spoke: brew? (c) Greek? (d) Latin? (a) Aramaic? (b) He- 6. The circular dish on which the priest holds the bread to be consecrated is called the: (a) Purificator? (b) Pyx? (c) Paten? (d) Pall? 7. Who said: “Indeed this was the Son of God” at the scene of the Crucifiction?: (a) Pontius Pilate? (b) Dismas, the thief? (c) The Roman Centurion? (d) Mary Magdelan? 8. The convert who founded the Paulist Fathers was: (a) St. Paul? (b) Fr. Hecker? (c) Cardinal Newman? (d) John Calvin? Give yourself 10 marks for each correct answer below. Rating: 80-exeellent; 70-Very Good; 60-Good; 50-Fair. ANSWERS: 1 (c); 6 (c): 2 (d); 7 (c); 3 (c); 8 (b) 4 (d); 5 (a); (By F. J. Sheed) The Trinity being the supreme mystery of our religion, this is a good moment to clarify our no tion of mystery: which does not mean a truth that we cannot know anything about, but a truth that we cannot know e v e r y t hing about. The first step is to see why it must be, and this happily does not call for any vast insight. The moment our mind has to cope with a mind superior to itself, the pro cesses and the products of the superior mind must be largely shrouded in mystery to the less er. We cannot see how the other mind arrives where it does, we can comprehend only part of what it has arrived at. Nor do we see this as any reason for re jecting the other’s insights. If we are sane, we are delighted that the world should contain greater minds than our own: it would be a poor prospect for the world, if it did not: it would be a poor world in which your mind or mine was the best mind existent. Given that God exists at all, it is clear that His ways are even less our ways than Einstein’s or Shakespeare’s, and that howev er much their minds may tower over ours, they still bear no pro portion at all to infinite mind. A Shakespeare wholly compre hensible by us would be not worth reading; a wholly com prehensible God would be no God, and no use. Of the ocean of intellectual light which the mind of God is, we can receive but flashes and gleams, and im measurably luminous they are in our poor darkness. But it would be a gross error to mis take them for the whole ocean, and a gross folly to wish that they were. In studying God — we begin with darkness, knowing nothing, we progress into light and revel in it, and at last we find our selves face to face with darkness again, but very different dark ness from the first, a darkness richer than our light. It is the experience of all who have set themselves to a real study of divine revelation, that as the mind begins to take hold of the great realities proposed to it, they seem to be all light; and it is only as they come to live in the light that they are aware of the mightier darkness, which must be because God is infinite and we are not. The theologian sees far more “difficulties” in the doctrine of the Blessed Trin ity than the beginner, and it would be strange if he did not. Nor does he repine at this, but rejoices. It was one of the great est of theologians who created the phrase caligo quaedam lux — the darkness is a kind of light. It is a kind of light in two ways, a lesser and a greater; the lesser because it involves seeing why the mind can see no fur ther, it is not merely baffled by mystery, but to that extent en lightened by it; the greater be cause of the very richness of the felt darkness — if the light that they can see be such, what must the darkness be which is light ' too bright for human eyes. Mystery presents itself to us not only as something we cannot see because the light is too strong for our eyes; but also, and sometimes worryingly, as the appearance of contradiction in the things we do see. As we come to grasp what God has taught us through His Church, we find certain ele ments at which our intellects cry a challenge, certain others which stir our feelings to some thing very much like revolt. We find the notion of eternal suf fering so painful that we cannot reconcile it with a loving God; or we find the doctrine of hu man freedom impossible to rec oncile with God’s omniscience. The answer, of course, is that all these elements are reconcil ed in the whole, and we do not see the whole. But we know that God is not only all-wise, but all good. What He does and what He reveals is supreme truth and supreme love. In that confidence we can ask God for light to see how it is truth or love; but our trust is not diminished by one iota if our prayer for that extra gleam of light is not granted. The smiting qravedigget PLAGUE MEMORIAL at MITTEL-LLWGENOLS, SlLEElR, is O. curious Way . Of Commemorating tfus BLACK t>EATH urfuck : rat/agcd. Europe in. ike Middle Ages. ^ sF” ‘dne lieaSureS of AACHEN CATHEDRAL] GERMANY; include: the cloak: OF OUR, LADY; SWADDLING CLOTHES Zr A LOIN'CLOTH OF OUR LORD; AND THE CLOTH ON WHICH THE SEVERED HEAD SAINT JOHN" THE BAPTIST. iWAS PLACED. Alcohol—An Instrument Of The DeviI? THE BACKDROP 'f:-7t[is is a. /6ik CENTURY GERMAN CRUCIFIX CLOCK. C7Ae eagles beak points zb ike time. IT IS IN THE ILBERT COLLECTION, LONDON «Ti,i SUS/NEi J CENTER, a SHARING OUR TREASURE Explains Faith To Sweetheart —Wins Convert By REV. JOHN A, O'BRIEN. Ph. D. (University of Notre Dame) „ Mrs. Clarence L. Struckman, 232 10th Ave S.W., Oelwein, Iowa, believes that the greatest gift which a Catholic can help to secure for non-Catholic friends is membership in the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ. Such membership comes through baptism, which makes one a child of God and an heir to heaven. That Mrs. Struck man has puti belief into I practice is ev ident from the I fact that she has led three non- Catholics to the baptis- ' mal font and reclaimed a fallen-away. “When Clarence and I were keeping company,” related Mrs. Struckman, “I realized how much it would mean to the hap piness of both of us if we could worship together and receive the sacraments together. My greatest treasure is the, holy Catholic faith. How ardently I longed to share that treasure, the greatest source of my hap piness, with the man I loved. “I decided that we shouldn’t talk merely about moonlight and roses and the other frivo lous topics which engage the at tention of lovers, but should al so talk about religion. I explain- . ed to Clarence how much my religion means to me, how it is an integral part of my very life. “I told him that mixed mar riages are far from the ideal, since they lack the powerful re enforcement of a common faith and practice. I asked him to look into our religion and especially to examine the evidence of its divine origin and of its authority to speak and teach in the name of its divine Founder. “Clarence’s father had been reared a Lutheran and his mo ther a Methodist, but their five sons and five daughters were reared in no faith. It illustrates perfectly the point that mixed marriages often lead to the loss of faith on the part of the chil dren and even of the parents. Clarence listened attentively but said nothing. I gave him a cate chism and another book ex plaining the Faith. “One evening while we Were out for a ride, Clarence turned to me and said, ‘Look what I’ve learned to do.’ He then made the sign of the cross on himself. He had been driving seven miles each week to take instructions from Father Collins at Waverly, the priest nearest his home, lat er he got work at Oelwein, fin ished his instructions with Fa ther O’Connor here, and we were married with a Nuptial Mass at Sacred Heart Church in June. “Our common faith has in creased our happiness and has enabled us to rear our three children as devout Catholics and set the proper example for them. That’s what counts. “Perhaps I should have men tioned that my first convert was my father, David Howard. I used to ask him to hear me re cite my catechism lesson and my prayers. That got him inter ested, and mother and I took him to a Mission and to Sunday Mass. One day he said to us, ‘I’ve got a surprise for you. I’m going to be baptized tomorrow morning.’ “We have an excellent dio cesan newspaper, The Witness, and after reading it I would pass it on to a non-Catholic neigh bor, Nellie Dempsey. That got her interested in the Catholic religion and she asked me many questions. Then I arranged for her instruction at Sacred Heart rectory and served as godmother at her baptism. “That brought her husband Frank, who had been out of the Church for 25 years, back to the sacraments. My little experience shows that we of the laity can do much in sharing the Faith if we only make the effort. God will give the needed grace if we do our part. Prohibition lobbies were more active than usual in the recent session of Congress, but they failed to achieve any of their goals. A case can be made out that alcoholism is becoming a serious problem not - only in the United States but in Canada a n d in many Eu ro pean countries. But the profes sional dries, having learn ed nothing, apparently, since the repeal of the 18th Amendment, are not content to state a case. As always they insist on over stating it, thus weakening the force of arguments that other wise would merit consideration. For the most part, the pro fessional dries are not interested in temperance. They look upon alcohol as an instrument of the Devil and demand nothing less than prohibition of its use by statute. Although their experi ence with prohibition should have taught them that people cannot be made to change their habits by repressive legislation, the statutory banning of drinks is still their aim. “Our children are getting al coholism education rather than alcohol education,” said a spokesman of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union at a recent convention of the dries. “Alcoholism education cannot contribute to the health and hap piness of the child, nor to an at tainable solution of the alcohol By JOHN C. O’BRIEN problem.” ALCOHOLIC HAZE? A yet more fanatical advocate of total abstinence, speaking at the same meeting, called for the banning of liquor at all interna tional conferences, including presumably the United Nations. “National leaders must enter conferences with a clear head,” said the speaker. “They must not permit themselves to be drugged or befuddled by alco holic beverages. “Living in a Sputnik age, as we are, important decisions must be made suddenly and the statesman under the influence of alcohol will ‘miss the bus’ if his mind is deranged by even a slight amount of alcohol.” Whether or not the speaker so intended it, his suggestion leaves the clear influence that the heads of governments of the western world and their foreign ministers conduct international conferences in an alcoholic haze. On its face the suggestion is preposterous. None of the states men who have participated in international conferences before or after the end of the Second World War have been fond of the bottle, except Former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, whose liking for brandy has been widely publicized, and vodka-guzzling Nikita Khru shchev. But no one who has dealt with these men at the con ference table would dare to say that either one ever “missed the bus” because of a derangement of mind due to alcohol. ANCIENT CUSTOM As though the absurdity of suggesting that international conferences are conducted in the atmosphere of the cocktail par ty was not enough, the same champion of abstinence .volun teered the astounding informa tion that “drinking is really a carryover from the .Middle Ages.” As if he never had read the injunctions against overin- dulgence in wine in the Old and New Testaments or the orgies of the Bachanals in Rome. Although the use of alcoholic beverages is as old as the re corded history of man, he would have us believe that drinking was an invention of the Middle Ages — that time in history which is made the whipping boy for so many things that dis please the modern mind. It was, in a measure, because the demands of the professional dries were so extreme and their arguments so overlaid with sheer nonsense that they failed to make an impression on the lawmakers. Many Congressmen are deep ly concerned over the mounting evil of alcoholism. They would like to curb excessive use of al cohol, which is responsible for so much misery and so many deaths on the highways. They appropriate $700,000 for alcohol ism research. But they turned a deaf ear to the proposal of the dries that no funds be provided the State Department for enter tainment, for fear that an American statesman might go into an international conference so befuddled by liquor that he would “miss the bus.” Plan OFM Midwest Centennial Pictured during his visit to Home, Father Pius Barth, O.F.M. (right), Minister Provincial of the Franciscans’ St. Louis-Chicago province is shown with the Order’s Minister General, Father Augustine Sepinski, O.F.M. The centennial observance of the coming of the brown-robed Franciscans to the Middle West, has just been opened at the novitiate in Teutopolis, 111., first foundation in the midwest. Other celebrations will be held throughout the next two months. (NC Photos) Church Nature In Shrine's (N.CW.C. News Service) LOURDES, France — The 28- year-old cure of a tuberculosis- stricken pilgrim to Lourdes has officially been recognized as miraculous by the Church and entered as such in the archives of the medical bureau here. The case, which became the 55th cure proclaimed as miracu lous by ecclesiastical authorities in the shrines’ 100 years of ex istence, dates back to October 10, 1930. Lydie Brosse was a 41-year- old bedridden pilgrim who suf fered from intestinal tuberculo sis and tuberculosis of the bone. She made a pilgrimake to Lourdes from her home in St. Raphael on the southeast coast of France. Doctors judged her condition desperate. Owing to her state of weakness, nurses at the shrine decided against the customary immersion in Lourdes water. They merely applied compres ses soaked in the water to the sores that covered her body. On the train on her way home Miss Brosse’s condition improv ed with dramatic rapidity. She sat up on the stretcher for the first time in 18 months. Her sores healed, leaving only small scars, as she started walking around the train carriage. In St. Raphael the patient as tounded nurses who had comfl to meet her by jumping off th@ train and walking with com plete ease around the platform. The doctor who treated Miss Brosse examined her immedi ately and found her recovered from her illness. The following year she returned to Lourdes where the doctors of the medical bureau again declared she was in perfectly good health. In 1955, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of her cure, Miss Brosse made a pilgrimage of thanksgiving to Lourdes, where she presented herself once more before the medical bureau. Thirteen doctors then declared her cure to be medically inex- plainable. According to the usual pro cedure, the case was submitted to the International Medical Commission of Lourdes. The commission confirmed the con clusions of the medical bureau and declared that there were sound reasons for turning the case over to the authority of the Church, who alone could qualify the cure as miraculous. A canonical commission was established in the Diocese of Coutances, in northern France, where Miss Brosse now lives. The commission examined the case and declared that her cure Recognizes Of Lourdes Miraculous Cure: 55th 100 Year Existence presented all the characteristics of a true miracle. A report issued in recent weeks by the ecclesiastical com mission stated that: — nothing either in the man ner or in the circumstances showed the least impropriety that might cast any doubt as to the divine character of the cure. — the cure was obtained through prayers during a pil grimage to Lourdes. — the primary aim of the mir acle, which is the glory of God, had been attained in the highest degree. — secondary aims had like wise been assured: proof of the holiness of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the power of her intercession in particular. — other supernatural effects can legitimately be supposed: strengthening of the faith of the witnesses and an increase in their devotion. While thousands of “cures” are recorded in the archives of the medical bureau of Lourdes as scientifically unexplainable only 55, including Miss Brosse’s, have so far been recognized as miraculous by the Church. Services For Mrs. Goepper ATLANTA, Ga. — Funeral services for Mrs. Dan (Manie) Goepper were held August 26th ai the Cathedral of Christ the King, Msgr. Joseph Cassidy officiating. Survivors are her husband; four daughters, Mrs. Joseph D. Thompson of Atlanta; Mrs. Dewey F. Cheeks of Atlanta; Mrs. Robert T. Blackwell of Phil., Pa. and Mrs. Joseph W. Hale of Birmingham, Ala.; two sisters, Mrs. F. H. Jarrell of Little Rock, Ark., and Mrs. L. J. Martin of Chicago, 111.; 14 grandchildren and one great grandchild. DECATUR SERVICES FOR J. J. JOYCE DECATUR, Ga. — Funeral services for Mrs. James J. Joyce were held Sept. 4th at St. Thomas More Church, Rev. T. J. Roshetko, S. M. officiating. M rs. Ted Minahan Services Held ATLANTA, Ga. — Funeral services for Mrs. Ted (Meta Shinholser) Minahan were held August 22nd at the Sacred Heart Church, Rev. Matthew Faschan officiating. Survivors are Mother M. Canisius, C. S. C., St. Mary’s Notre Dame, Ind.; Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Margeson, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Bindewald, Green ville, S. C., and Mr. and Mrs. H. A. Kane, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. luiirtut 416 8TH ST., AUGUSTA, GA. Published fortnightly by the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia, Inc., with the Approbation of the Most Reverend Arch bishop-Bishop of Savannah, The Most Reverend Bishop of Atlanta and the Right Reverend Abbot Ordinary of Belmont. Subscription price $3.00 per year. Second class mail privileges authorized at Monroe, Georgia. Send notice of change of address to P. O. Box 320, Monroe, Georgia. REV. FRANCIS J. DONOHUE REV. R. DONALD K1ERNAN Editor Savannah Edition Editor Atlanta Edition JOHN MARKWALTER Managing Editor Vol. 39 Saturday, September 20, 1958 No. 8 ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1957-1958 GEORGE G1NGELL, Columbus President E. M. HEAGARTY, Waycross Honorary Vice-President MRS. DAN HARRIS, Macon . Vice-President TOM GRIFIIN, Atlanta Vice-President NICK CAMERIO, Macon Secretary JOHN T. BUCKLEY, Augusta Treasurer ALVIN M. McAULIFFE, Augusta Auditor JOHN MARKWALTER, Augusta Executive Secretary MISS CECILE FERRY, Augusta Financial Secretary