THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF THE HOLY ROSARY, For Catholic Households and Readers of all Classes. Under the Direction of the Dominican Fathers. I. ANNUAL VOLUME. NEW SERIES. AUGUST, 1872-JULY, 1873. With Copious Index. Sancte Pater Dominice, ora pro nobis.-LIT. SS. LONDON: BURNS, OATES, AND COMPANY, 1873. PREFACE. S. PAUL says, "Brethren, I would not have you ignorant;" and then proceeds to say of what he would not have his brethren ignorant "how our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea," &c. (1 Cor. x. 1). When S. Paul wrote these words he established a principle or rule to remain in force for the Christian people as long as the world should last, namely, that they should always seek diligently for knowledge about all things pertaining to their faith. To Hebrews this knowledge inculcated by the Apostle was becoming on the double ground of both nationality and faith. It was not only their own national history that they were required to know, but the history of the dealings of God with their nation. To the Christian people of the nations, however, this knowledge could only be becoming on the second ground, because it would be shameful in them not to know the great works of God, by which He had prepared the way for their faith in the mission of Jesus Christ and in His redemption of the world by His sacrifice of Himself on the Cross. But these works of God upon earth have never ceased, and never will cease upon the earth. "The God who keepeth Israel," says the psalmist, "neither slumbers nor sleeps." If the wise king speaks of the powerlessness of men in his time either "to add to or to take away from the works which God had done that He may be feared" (Eccles. iii. 14), the reasons remain unchanged why God should continue to make Himself feared by His works. He is the selfsame God now, as regards power, that He was in the days of Moses. The difference, therefore, between an intelligent and well informed Christian and a supposed well informed Infidel, will consist in this-besides the departments of knowledge possessed by both in common-that the Infidel will see in the world nothing but the strife of men and what he calls the operations of the powers of nature, whereas, the Christian will see and recognize in the world the present action and interposition of God. If, unhappily, Catholics are to be found to whom the Apostle's rule is little else but a dead letter, and who are quite satisfied with the state of ignorance which the Apostle condemns, should such as these chance to come into the company of the infidels, it will most likely not take a great deal to make them feel ashamed of themselves and of their faith. Who does not see, however, that it is the very reverse that ought to be the case? It is the infidels who ought to feel abashed and ashamed in the presence of those who believe, but, then, it is impossible for us not to suffer in the way that our neglect of Apostolic rules, whatever it may be, justly brings upon us. God certainly never intended that His people should be abashed in the presence of any infidels. The object, then, of our Magazine of the Holy Rosary is to offer to all our fellow Catholics, and particularly to members of the Confraternity of the Rosary, in conformity with the Apostle's rule, such select information about the works of God, in the midst of which we live, as our space permits, varied with passages from the past history of the lives of Saints, and other similar matters of current interest And while we hope to be able to continue a labour the need for which can never cease as long as faith continues upon earth, we hope also, as regards our past efforts, that they have proved not altogether unacceptable. Hinckley Feast of SS. Peter and Paul. A.D. 1873. 169 Half Hours with the Saints-No. II., The Story of S. Patrick, in Verse The Prayer of Pope Urban VIII. . 2.1 |