His First Year As A Passionist.
Shortly after his profession, Father Ignatius was sent out on
missions. The first mission he gave, with Father Gaudentius, was to
his old parishioners of West Bromwich. Crowds came to hear him; some
to have another affectionate look, and hear once more the well-known
voice of their old pastor; others from curiosity to see what he had
been transformed into by the monks. This mission was very successful,
for, besides the usual work of the reconciliation of sinners, and the
helping on of the fervent, there were fifteen Protestants received
into the Church before its close. He gives another mission somewhere
in the Borough, London, with the same companion. During this mission
he hears that his style of preaching is not liked much by the Irish;
he feels a little sad at this, as he fears the work may fail of
success through his deficiency.
The preaching of Father Ignatius was peculiar to himself; he cannot be
said to possess the gifts of human eloquence in the highest degree,
but there was a something like inspiration in his most commonplace
discourse. He put the point of his sermon clearly before his audience,
and he proved it most admirably. His acquaintance with the Scriptures
was something marvellous; not only could he quote texts in support of
doctrines, but he applied the facts of the sacred volume in such a
happy way, with such a flood of new ideas, that one would imagine he
lived in the midst of them, or had been told by the sacred writers
what they were intended for. Besides this, he brought a fund of
illustrations to carry conviction through and through the mind. His
illustrations were taken from every phase of life, and every kind of
{362} employment; persons listening to him always found the practical
gist of his discourse carried into their very homestead; nay, the
objections they themselves were prepared to advance against it, were
answered before they could have been thought out. To add to this,
there was an earnestness in his manner that made you see his whole
soul, as it were, bent upon your spiritual good. His holiness of life,
which report published before him, and one look was enough to convince
you of its being true, compelled you to set a value on what he said,
far above the _dicta_ of ordinary priests.
His style was formed on the Gospel. He loved the parables and the
similes of Our Lord, and rightly judged that the style of his Divine
Master was the most worthy of imitation. So far as the matter of his
discourses were concerned, he was inimitable; his manner was peculiar
to himself, deeply earnest and touching. He abstained from the
rousing, thundering style, and his attempts that way to suit the taste
and thus work upon the convictions of certain congregations, showed
him that his fort did not lie there. The consequence was, that when
the words of what he jocosely termed a "crack" preacher would die with
the sound of his own voice, or the exclamations of the multitude,
Father Ignatius's words lived with their lives, and helped them to
bear trials that came thirty years after they had heard him.
Towards the end of his life, he became rather tiresome to those who
knew not his spirit; but it was the tiresomeness of St. John the
Evangelist. We are told that "the disciple whom Jesus loved" used to
be carried in his old age before the people, and that his only sermon
was "My little children, love one another." He preached no more, and
no less, but kept perpetually repeating these few words. Father
Ignatius, in like manner, was continually repeating "the conversion of
England." No matter what the subject of his sermon was, he brought
this in. He told us often that it became a second nature to him; that
he could not quit thinking or speaking of it, even if he tried, and
believed he could speak for ten days consecutively on the conversion
of England, without having to repeat an idea.
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He got on very well in the missions: he took all the different parts
as they were assigned him; but he was more successful in the lectures
than in the great sermons of the evening. His confessional was always
besieged with penitents, and he never spared himself.
The late Cardinal, who was the chief mover in bringing the Passionists
to England, wished to have a house of the order in the diocese of
Westminster (then the London District), to which he had been recently
translated. Father Dominic entered heartily into the project, and
Father Ignatius with him. After a few weeks' negotiation, they took
possession of Poplar House, in the west end of Hampstead, towards the
end of June, 1848. A new foundation was, in those days, as it is
still, a formidable undertaking. The ground has generally to be
bought; a church and house built upon it; the necessary machinery to
set it going to be provided, and all this from nothing but the
Providence of God, and the charity of benefactors. Under a more than
ordinary pressure of their difficulties, the house was opened, and
after many changes and removals, it has finally fixed itself on the
brow of Highgate Hill, under the name of St. Joseph's Retreat.
He notes in his Journal that the place in Hampstead brought some sad
thoughts into his mind, as it was within sight of where his sister,
Lady Georgiana Quin, died in 1823. He tells us also that he was
benighted somewhere in London, and had to beg for a bed for the first
time in his life. On a fine summer's day he sauntered leisurely
through the grounds of Eton, ruminating over the scenes of forty years
before, when he first became a child of what proved to him a novercal
institution.
He was not destined to labour much, this time, for the London house.
Father Dominic took the charge of it, and appointed Father Ignatius
Rector of St. Michael's, Aston Hall, a post that became vacant by the
death of Father Constantine. Father Ignatius thus mentions the matter
in one of his letters:--
"It was just such a death as one might expect of him (Father
Constantine). I was thinking and saying to some one before, he would
be attending to his duties and giving directions in the house to the
last. In his {364} agony, he heard the clock strike, and, mistaking
the hour for another when some bell has to ring, he asked why the
bell did not ring for such a duty. It is recorded that what was most
remarkable in him was his gentleness and patience; and that indeed
was very striking. He must have suffered heavily to die in a
lingering way by a cancer, but he never was disturbed, and went on
saying mass, and doing all that was to be done, as long as he could
stand to it. His loss makes, as you have heard, a great change in my
position. I never dreamt of being a Superior for years to come, and
thought I had come to an end, almost for life, of keeping accounts
and ruling household affairs. But God's will be done. It is a great
comfort, as I find, to be in the rule of good religious, to what it
would be to have people under one who seek their own gain and
pleasure."
Ruling, even thus, did not turn out so easy a matter; for it is
recorded in the Journal, that Father Dominic gave him "a long lecture
about the proper way of ruling," which he seems to have drawn down
upon himself by some mistakes.
In the beginning of September, this year, he gave his first retreat.
It was to the students of Carlow College. This event gave him a fresh
start in his great work. Since 1844, when he made the tour on the
Continent, procuring prayers for England, his zeal in the cause seems
to have slumbered somewhat. Not that he was the less anxious for the
return of his countrymen to the faith of their fathers, but he did
not, perhaps, see any opportunity open for moving others in a general
way to help the work by their prayers. It is rather a wonderful
disposition of Providence that his energies should be renewed in
Ireland, and that, too, in '48. Extracts from a few letters will show
how it happened. In a letter to Mrs. Canning, he says:--
"My last journey to Ireland was, in the first place, to preach a
retreat in Carlow College, which was the first and only retreat I
have been on alone; secondly, to beg in Dublin for our church and
house; thirdly, I got full into the pursuit of prayers for England
again. I had hardly expected anything could be done in this last way
under the excited state of feelings in Ireland against England. I
began, {365} however, speaking in a convent in Carlow, and so warm
and beautiful was the way in which these nuns took it up, that I
lost no occasion after of saying mass in some convents every
morning, and preaching to them upon it; and the zeal which they
showed has given me a new spring to push it on in England.
Accordingly, I have been preaching many times on it since I have
been this time in Lancashire. I only ask now _one Hail Mary_ a day
to be said by every Catholic for the conversion of England. Here is
a great field to work upon. You want to be doing something for
England, I know; why not take up this object, and in every letter
you write abroad or at home make people promise to do this, and make
every man, woman, and child do it too. If millions would do as much
as this, we should have thousands who would offer themselves up as
victims to be immolated for the object, and we should have grand
results. Above all, let it be done in schools at home; so that all
the young may be trained to pant for this object, as young Hannibal
for the destruction of Rome; and a foundation will be laid for the
work to go on after we are all dead, if no fruit appears before."
In a letter to Father Vincent, he writes almost in the same strain:--
"My journey to Ireland was satisfactory in several respects to a
certain degree. It answered well for begging purposes. With all
their poverty, they are so generous that I made one of my best
week's begging in Dublin. I hope for a great deal more in November,
when I am going again to preach in Dublin, and will stay as long as
I can. I picked up also one novice, not a cleric, but, I hope, a
very promising lay brother. I think there will be many good subjects
for us in Ireland, when we are better known there.' (In this his
expectations were most signally realized.) "I also got into the
pursuit of prayers for England again. I said mass, and preached
after mass ten times in convents on the subject, and the zeal and
charity with which it was taken up by the good religious quite gave
me a new spring in that cause. I have begun preaching in England for
prayers. Will you help me in this? I have been writing, with Father
{366} Dominic's approval, to our General, to obtain some indulgences
for those who will join in those prayers."
In this year, Father Ignatius lost two great friends by death, Dr.
Gentili and the Rev. Wm. Richmond. He had several conversations with
the former, who was then giving his last mission in Dublin, and
assisted on his return to England, at the death-bed of Mr. Richmond.
He used to relate how this worthy man became a Catholic, as an
instance of the ways of God in conversion. When Richmond was a boy, he
went to see an uncle of his, who was a priest. One day he saw candles
lit in the church in clear daylight. On entering, to satisfy himself
that nothing was wrong, he saw his uncle issuing from the sacristy, in
the most fantastic garb he ever beheld. He ran out of the church in a
fright, and scarcely came near his uncle for three days. He did sum up
courage enough to approach at length, and the end was that he became a
priest himself, and outshone his uncle.
During the visit Father Ignatius paid to Ireland, according to
promise, in the November of this year, he preached in several places
on the conversion of England. He went to Maynooth, and addressed the
junior students at night prayer and the seniors at morning prayer, on
the same subject. He remains nearly a month in Ireland this time. He
meets a few secular people who are not so kind and generous in
listening to him as nuns and students. One day he begged of a
gentleman, who immediately began to grope in his pocket for a coin
which he should consider worthy of offering. Whilst the search was
going on, Father Ignatius ventured to ask prayers for the conversion
of England. "England!" said the gentleman; "I pray for England! Not
I." And he turned off with a refusal, and left his petitioner to find
another benefactor.
When he returned to England, he preached everywhere, to priests, nuns,
and people; he wrote and spoke continually for prayers for England.
The only change in his system since the former crusade was, that the
prayer he asked for was defined. It was only _one Hail Mary_ daily.
This prayer he was especially fond of using; he said it for every
person and everything. The antiphon of the Church, {367} "Rejoice,
Virgin Mary, thou alone hast destroyed all heresies throughout the
world," was continually in his heart. The devotion of the people of
Ireland to our Blessed Lady brought this out; and it was remarked by
himself and others, that when once he had put the great object of his
endeavours under the protection of Mary, he never cooled or slackened,
but always progressed with blessings.
The last day of this year was spent as all such days of his life,
since he turned thoroughly to God's service, in being awake and in
prayer at midnight.
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