The Young Priest's Keepsake Part 1

The Young Priest's Keepsake.

by Michael Phelan.

PREFACE

This little book is written in the hope that it may a.s.sist young priests and ecclesiastical students to meet the demands which the life before them has in store.

Works specially suited to the priest, the layman and the nun are happily abundant; but to the young man standing on the threshold of his career as a priest, how few are addressed. Yet it is while his character is in the formative stage, and his weapons are still in the shaping, that advice and direction are of most practical value.

The writer brings to his task only one qualification on which he can rely--his own personal experience.

After having gone through a long course of preparation in Irish ecclesiastical colleges, he lived for nearly thirteen years on the Australian mission, and is now completing a decade spent in giving missions and retreats in all parts of Ireland. Of the college, therefore, and of the foreign and home missions he can speak with whatever authority a long experience and ordinary powers of observation are supposed to give.

In dealing with the foreign mission he does not rely solely on his own judgment. Many matters here treated of he heard repeatedly discussed by priests abroad, who bitterly deplored that, while in college, they knew so little of the life before them, and regretted that there was then no kind friend to take them by the hand and show them what was in store when the day came for them to plunge into a life that was strange and entirely new. It is to be hoped that this modest volume will, in part at least, discharge the office of that friend.

It may appear, at first sight, that when writing the fourth chapter, "On Pulpit Oratory," the author had before his mind an elaborate discourse, such as is expected only on great occasions.

This is not so.

It is true that the various parts of a sermon, when detailed in a.n.a.lysis, may seem, like the works of a watch spread out on a table, bewilderingly numerous and complex. But when we come to construct, it will be found that in synthesis the distracting number of small parts will disappear, to coalesce and form the few main principles on which either a sermon or a watch is built.

These principles are essential to every discourse, no matter how brief. As the humble seven-and-sixpenny "Waterbury" requires its springs and levers equally with the hundred-guinea "repeater," so the twenty minutes' sermon, to be effective, must have a fixed plan and definite sequence as well as the more ambitious effort.

Most of these chapters were written originally for the "Mungret Annual," with a view to a.s.sist the apostolic students who are now, as priests, rendering such splendid service to the Church of G.o.d abroad. And it was the very generous reception accorded the articles in the ecclesiastical colleges that suggested the idea of presenting them in the more lasting form of a book.

Sacred Heart College, Limerick, _March_ 17, 1909, Feast of St. Patrick.

PREFACE

TO THE SECOND EDITION

The rapid sale of the first edition of this work surprised no one more than the author. It was not addressed to the public in general, but to a limited section; the price, while moderate, could not be called cheap; yet within a little over two months the entire edition was exhausted.

It is impossible to express my deep grat.i.tude to the reviewers.

From them the book met with a chorus of approving welcome, without even one jarring note. To all I now tender my grateful thanks; but the author of "My New Curate" has placed me under a special obligation for his thoughtful critique in the _Freeman's Journal_, and Ibh Maine for his friendly review in the _Leader_.

Nor should I omit to thank the ecclesiastical colleges, that not only pardoned the blunt candour of some of the chapters, but gave the book a more than cordial reception.

The present edition includes two entirely new chapters--the two last--extending over 45 pages. It is hoped that the added matter will prove of as much interest as those chapters of the first edition which received such a hearty welcome.

College of the Sacred Heart, Limerick, _September_ 29, 1909, Feast of St. Michael.

CHAPTER FIRST

CULTURE: ITS NECESSITY TO A YOUNG PRIEST

If you question any priest of experience and observation who has lived on the foreign mission, and ask him what const.i.tutes the greatest drawbacks, what seriously impedes the efficiency of our young priests abroad, without hesitation he will answer--First, want of social culture; and, secondly, a defective English education.

To the first of these this chapter will be exclusively devoted, while the subject of English will be dealt with in the chapter to follow.

[Side note: The case stated]

One of the great disadvantages of living in an island is that we get so few opportunities of seeing ourselves as others see us.

When you seriously attempt to impress the necessity of culture on the student preparing for the foreign mission he generally pities you. In his eyes culture is a trifle, suited perhaps to the serious consideration of ladies and dancing masters, but utterly unworthy of one thought from a strong-minded or intellectual man.

But you tell him that without it the world will sneer at him. He then pities the world, and replies--"What do I care about the world's thoughtless sneer; have I not a priestly heart and a scholar's head?"

That reply, if he were destined to live in a wilderness, would be conclusive. An anchorite may attain a very high degree of sanct.i.ty and yet retain all his defects of character--his crudity, selfishness, vulgarity. While grace disposes towards gentleness it does not destroy nature. There is no essential connection between holiness and polished manners.

Nor does scholarship either require or supply culture. A mastery of the "Summa" will not prevent you from doing an awkward action.

Dr. Johnson's learning was the marvel of his age, but his manners were a by-word. So, if your only destiny was to be a scholar or a hermit, manners need give you little trouble.

But your vocation is to be an apostle; to go out amongst men; to be the light for their darkness, the salt for their corruption; the aim and goal of your operations are human hearts. This being granted, are you not bound to sweep from your path every impediment that prevents your arm from reaching these hearts? But the most effective barrier standing between you and them is ill-formed manners.

The laws of good society, the refinement of gentlemanly culture may, from your standpoint, be the merest trifles; but they become no trifles when without them your right hand is chained from reaching human souls.

The only remaining question is, Does the world to-day place such a high value on good manners that if I go into it without them my efforts will be in a large degree neutralised? Entertain not a shadow of doubt on that point, such is the fact.

[Side note: Protestants and Catholics demand culture in the Priest]

Proud and pampered society will never bend its stubborn neck and submit itself to the guidance of a man who, judged by its own standard--the only one it acknowledges--is far from being up to the level; an object of contempt perhaps, at best of pity. In its most generous mood it is slow and cautious to take you on trust; its cold a.n.a.lysis searches you; your unplaned corners offend its taste; and except in every detail you answer to its rule and level you are disdainfully thrust aside.

Catholics, while they esteem a mere fop at his just value, expect their priest to rise above the sneers of the most censorious and, if possible, to challenge the respect of all. They are proud of their priest; and surely it is not too much to expect on his part that he will do his best not to make them ashamed of him.

Their Protestant neighbours know of this pride; and if they can but lay a finger on his evident defects they will glut their inborn hatred of the Church by hitting the Catholics on the sensitive nerve, by galling them by caricature and derision of the _gauche_ manners of the priest.

Protestant young men, too, will appeal to the pride of their Catholic companions; and an appeal to pride is generally a trump card. They will ask--"Is it possible that gentlemen could submit themselves to the guidance of a clergyman whose manners are unformed and whose English is marred by provincialisms and defective accent?"

In speaking of accents, let me say here I do not ask the young priest to commit the signal folly of attempting to ingraft an imported accent on his own native one. No! He should speak as an Irishman, but as an educated Irishman.

[Side note: By foreign Canons you will be judged]

The fatal mistake on the part of a young priest would be to take Irish opinion as the standard by which he will be judged outside Ireland. In Ireland we call these things trifles, because the people whose eyes are filled with the rich light of warm faith see the _priest_ alone, and are blind, or at least generously indulgent, to the defects of the _man_.

Reverse this, and you have the accurate measure by which you will be judged abroad. The _man_ and his defects alone are seen; the _priest_ and the sublimity of his state are entirely lost sight of. The world judges what it can understand--the _man_ alone.

Hence the student preparing for the foreign mission may take this as an axiom:--_If people cannot respect you as a gentleman, on the non-Catholic world your influence is nil; and even on your own Catholic people it will sit very lightly_. But he replies-- "This is not logical, for a man may be an excellent priest, a good scholar, without social accomplishments." All that I admit, but age and experience will teach him that logic does not rule the world; some of its greatest actions could not bear the pressure of a syllogism. We must meet the world as it is, not as we would make it. Is it not you who show logical weakness in preparing for this ideal world that has no existence outside your own dreams and ignoring the world of hard facts you will have to face?

[Side note: No argument to be drawn from the Apostles]

You then appeal to facts and say, Look at the apostles. Let me answer--first, you do not attempt to imply that crudity was a help to them. If so, how? Now, the most you can say is that in spite of it they succeeded. But you forget that they had the gift of miracles, and a sanct.i.ty so evident that their pa.s.sport was secure despite their defects.

Unless you can produce the same sanct.i.ty and miracles your argument falls to the ground. But to the statement itself--Were not the apostles men of manners? Some, it is true, before their call had little connection with schools, but we may rest a.s.sured that three years under such a teacher as they had did wonders.

They must be dull indeed not to read the living lesson their Master's character daily taught. His tenderness, His courteous dignity, and gentle consideration for others were such that in a man we would say they almost bordered on weakness; this was the living model on which they daily gazed and pondered.

This Master then sent them forth to "all nations." They were to mix with the white-robed senators in Rome, and dispute with the highest intellects of polished Athens, to force an entrance into every circle of social life. Could we imagine G.o.d sending them forth to that task enc.u.mbered with defects that would paralyse their mission if not ensure its defeat.

We must also take into account the gifts of Pentecost. What a change these wrought! The Holy Spirit enriched their intellects and perfected their moral virtues; their trembling wills became braced as iron pillars. For what purpose? To prepare and equip them for their destined mission. Is it not natural to suppose that the same Divine Power swept their characters free from every impediment that could hamper their ministry? So the appeal to the apostles is gratuitous.