Catholic Problems in Western CanadaDaly, George Thomas
Religion
Catholic Problems in Western Canada
Daly, George Thomas
Catholic Church -- Canada
The spiritual aids will be the prayers, Masses, sacrifices of all kind
offered for our Home Missions. Nothing strengthens faith and
stimulates genuine piety, as prayers and sacrifices for the great cause
of our missions. They are so disinterested, they reveal true love for
our Blessed Lord.
Only a chosen few are called to go into the field at home and afar and
reap the ripening harvest. But all are commanded by the Master to pray
the Father for harvesters. This sublime apostleship of prayer is the
privilege and duty of every Christian. Is there anything more
instructive and more pathetic than the invitation of the Saviour to
co-operate with Him in this great work of the Redemption. "And seeing
the multitudes he had compassion on them: because they were distressed
and lying like sheep that have no shepherd. Then He said to His
disciples: the harvest indeed is great but the labourers are few. Pray
ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he send labourers into the
harvest." (Math. IX, 36, 37, 38.)
The Divine Master cannot but hear the prayer asking Him to send
"labourers to the ripening harvest." And could we give better proof of
devotion to Church and Country?
Great is the seriousness of the present hour, tremendous the task that
confronts us after the war. Never has any generation in history been
so freighted with the responsibilities of the future as ours is,
marching home from the battlefields of Europe. We are living in
stirring and changeful times. Nowhere in the Dominion of Canada will
the period of reconstruction have more far-reaching effects than in the
West. The after-war problems will meet there with rapid and very often
radical solutions. To understand this issue that faces our country, to
grasp it in all its breadth and fulness, should we not broaden our
vision, readjust it, we would say, to the new scale of changing
conditions? Only then will we be able to marshal our forces and throw
the weight of Catholic principles into the solving of the social,
economic and religious problems of the hour. "The Church cannot remain
an isolated factor in the nation. The Catholic Church possesses
spiritual and moral resources which are at the command of the nation in
every great crisis. The message to the nation to forget local
boundaries and provincialism is a message likewise to the Catholic
Church. Parochial, diocesan and provincial limits must be forgotten in
the face of the greater tasks which burden our collective religious
resources." (Card. Gibbons.) Let us give to the people that broad,
Catholic vision of our present duty to our country and to our Church.
The broader the outlook, the deeper the insight. The measure of their
vision will be the measure of their action. No leader can meet with
success without a certain receptivity to work upon. This receptivity
is formed by spreading ideas, by an educational propaganda.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account