The Beggar of the Eucharist
Schwertner, Thomas M.
94 THE COMMONWEAL June 2, 1926 been done by the several cabinets governing the country a few unofficial but...
...it is her own business...
...But missionary zeal cies, program, and methods, that she is too hieratic was confined for the greater part to those who were in spirit and organization...
...they had become, in the twinkling of an eye, Her mind was in a ferment about ways and means apostles and advocates of the rights of the Master's of conducting not only individuals, families, parishes, Church, ready to make any sacrifices and undergo any but the whole nation, nay, the entire world to the hardships for their immemorial privilege of adoring altar...
...On folk that bear black shields, and 90 Hence on May 17, 1875, at least 4,000 persons Unscathed...
...peal to the average Catholic, not only for prayers for The first great movement which came with all the the success of the work of the missionaries, but also novelty of a revelation to an age that had seen little for alms to carry on the necessary exterior part of participation of laymen in the works of religion, was the campaign...
...was in the air and was being applied in various small It was a rugged schooling to which she submitted ways at home and abroad...
...But the Saint's ried on with untold good to souls...
...Again she sought daughter would one day do something epochal regardadmission amongst the Madames of the Sacred Heart, ing Eucharistic devotion, for much of his spiritual 96 THE COMMONWEAL June 2, 1926 direction concerns itself with the Eucharist, its claim put on trappings of rejoicing...
...the dreams and prayers of a pious young lady of Tours, She turned for light to Ars, whose great priest still Mlle...
...The congressional ideal Chevrier was curt and severe...
...They have had plenty of other things to do the new pact between Lithuania and Germany which besides...
...The Church has always been low students of the Sorbonne, he hit upon an idea the June 2, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 95 practical execution of which not only rendered the only to be rebuffed...
...hosts been marshaled from all corners of the earth as Not in ages had the sleepy, quiet city of Avignon now come humbly, mingling glory and wealth with seen such a manifestation of faith...
...the Lord without hurt or hindrance, according to their Was she called upon to lead in the matter...
...He has a marvelous gift of thousands of silent worshippers before the tabernacle discerning souls and leading them...
...Fathers...
...Hence, when Mlle...
...and came with flying banners, singing hymns, under the it seeks, with a magnificent hope, the Food which leadership of Father Lerroyer of the Assumptionist shall strengthen, and the Wine in which there is...
...He was in dead earnest and but a dictate of common sense and expediency to co- expected his penitents to be so...
...Tamisier had to relinquish all hope of the world where this apostolate is not being car- of following the contemplative life...
...Men be- she was, of course, only the instrument...
...She but made concrete the hopes of those to see the Abbe Chevrier...
...On another occa• a national pilgrimage to some Eucharistic shrine...
...Religion had suddenly become a vital thing in Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque...
...It is perhaps the religion, alarmed, began to gird themselves up against most difficult that has ever been seen...
...process to which she had to submit, as one resigns one's Mary Martha Aemilia Tamisier was born at Tours, self to a torturing operation...
...Tamisier jotted down on leaving her devoted to the care of orphans, but when profession director show a unity that is more than merely fortime approached she was advised by the mistress of tuitous...
...There is not a corner years' trial, Mile...
...For I wish to found a society of adorers apostles was to restore the spirit of personal service of the Blessed Sacrament...
...Let her come with meand devotion, without ostentation, noise or applause...
...You must give able conditions of the masses...
...Would conscience...
...Evidently the sanctuary was carried out with punctilious and he must have divined that God had special designs reverential care...
...But we have guessed, and that Pilsudski, being as he is is there any imminent danger in it...
...This does away forever with the trite as a perpetual reminder to the people that upon them, and unfounded charge, so frequently in the mouths too, devolved the duty of doing their part in spreadof those who are dissatisfied with the Church's poli- ing the good news of salvation...
...rapidly in virtue...
...At an embryonic conupon us, our duties toward it...
...In her places...
...The rapid dent of twenty in an academic environment that was spread of the society within a twelvemonth was not frankly materialistic, he saw the need of doing somedue solely to the foundress but more especially to the thing, as he himself confessed, "to insure the life of zeal for spreading the truth which is a natural out- my faith through works of charity...
...The women reor- to have been originated by a single, simple woman...
...no one denies that...
...upon this soul, for the many fragmentary bits of adFor a time she dreamed of entering a sisterhood vice which Mile...
...courage...
...But the seed had lar form of devotion, she came to the conclusion that been sown...
...The assurance reads to me tent, facts of which Pilsudski is aware...
...Finally, on the Monday after Easter, 1874, the The world has followed the example of France...
...He never fed his chiltheir wealth to stand in the way of their piety...
...Those who could bear the ghostly an early age the child was frequently taken to church, regime came out refined, supernaturalized, fit instruespecially on feast days, when the sublime liturgy of ments to do God's work in the darkness...
...To Mile...
...make for the good of religion...
...With seven felgrowth of the Faith...
...It seems almost too vast a movement his blessing and encouragement...
...There is not only figuratively the Bread of all men: the was a colossal and abiding awakening of Eucharistic world which now gathers at the great and illustrious devotion...
...to the north of France, where the Eucharistic crusade was thriving in an unparalleled way, largely through City Storm the efforts and example of that sainted commercial Dark grey magnate, Philibert Vrau, and his brother-in-law and Cloud zeppelins business partner, Camille Feron Vrau, and their able Flash, boom, and hurl bright spears assistant and spokesman, M. Gustave Champeaux...
...Eucharist...
...It was a slow, painful dreds upon hundreds of tiny grains of wheat...
...In January, 1872, whose love had been inflamed by the many Eucharistic she met for the first time this man who carried on, works which the Church, with astonishing fecundity, singlehanded, with apparently no means, a most fruithad begotten in evil days and had nurtured with un- ful apostolate amongst the street gamins of Lyons, failing motherly care...
...Tamisier's herself, one in which harshness would easily have credit, it must be said, that when the matter was urged passed for insult had it not been for the supernatural by those who had a right to speak she laid aside her tone of all Father Chevrier's advice...
...One the attempts to be noted here, owe their inspiration to is rich with such a treasure...
...his powers of raillery to conquer so many far-off provinces, that it seemed and irony exceptional...
...As a stuDubourg, second bishop of New Orleans...
...parishes of Avignon, singly, marched to the Chapel of Never anywhere, even for desperate battle, have such the Grey Penitents...
...94 THE COMMONWEAL June 2, 1926 been done by the several cabinets governing the country a few unofficial but rather obviously inspired guerrilla under the Constitution of 1921, they have not pleased attacks on Polish outposts...
...Perhaps in 200 years the Blessed Sacra- too, was broached for the first time the feasibility of ment will be exposed everywhere...
...Under his direction she progressed direction of the clergy was never rejected or resented...
...The Eucharist gan to frequent the altar-rail in great numbers...
...At dren on sweet milk...
...You will labor," he gress held after the services in an adjoining building, once said to her in speaking of the institution of the plans were discussed to promote Perpetual and Nocfeast of Corpus Christi, "but you will not see the fruits turnal Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament...
...We have learned very recently, also, of danger...
...Guest on the altar as an interloper, a stranger...
...rather than saving it, by precipitating an internal situathere has been Bolshevik raiding and banditry and not tion favorable to foreign invasion, is another question...
...France never again would treat the great they might be made to further her Eucharistic plans...
...but to his mind, as I would interpret it from opens a Russo-German corridor across the north of a first-hand study of him, and from at least one il- Poland...
...But ganized the work of Perpetual Adoration...
...foreign affairs would remain unchanged is to me patent All this is public fact...
...We know, too, that Pilsudski in the matter of Russia...
...Those who had gone on foot to le-Monial, in the chapel of the Visitation, made famous the Master's shrines returned to their homes changed and sacrosanct by the apparitions of Our Lord to men...
...that the Russian danger to Poland is more acute than The Russian menace exists...
...She began to dream their lives...
...and behind it, it is easy enough evidence that it is just exactly this that Pilsudski means to believe, are other facts of even more omnious porto change very radically...
...It was this that alarmed the men in high men pay heed to the pleadings of a woman...
...Petit by Monsignor Louis W. that chosen missionary, Frederic Ozanam...
...He was her all in all, and she knew the beautiful word gave her vigorous spiritual exercise because he knew of Saint Augustine that it was the signum unitatis she was of the mettle that could bear a great strain...
...Signs were appearing on the horizon that France By such steep steps was Mlle...
...Shortly after Blessed Eymard died It has remained so until this day, and must remain (August 1, 1868) and thus, after more than two so as a condition of its success...
...The Society for the Propacounts for nothing and has no voice in matters that gation of the Faith made a deliberate gesture of ap...
...For Jesus in the Sacrament of His Love he clearly read the soul of his spiritual ward...
...tioning with such unexpected success, were reaching out his speech quick and brusque...
...marched in serried ranks to the great shrine, which LILIAN WHITE SPENCER...
...words seemed like a prophecy to her: "You belong The International Eucharistic Congresses, third of to the Blessed Sacrament in life and in death...
...With that intuiown schemes for something that she was led to believe tion which comes from a close and pitiless examination would promote the Eucharistic cause she had so much of self linked to the special guidance of the Holy Spirit, at heart...
...is...
...But one day in the home of her pretended to have taken scandal at the indifference brother-in-law she met a priest who bluntly asked of religion regarding the amelioration of the miser- "What is this young girl doing here...
...No wonder, then, that on her desired service, but also helped much to put the return to the world she became the butt of many unChurch in a good light in the eyes of the men who charitable remarks...
...The aim of these new her to me...
...their of the social reign of the Blessed Sacrament about souls had imbibed something of His strength and which Blessed Eymard had spoken to her so often...
...On several occasions French bishops, for the confusion of mind she consulted Father Chevrier, but sake of peace, advised against these demonstrations...
...It was the first organized and systhe Society for the Propagation of the Faith, founded tematized attempt to enlist the Catholic of ordinary in 1822 at Lyons by an humble Dominican tertiary, means in the great crusade of spreading the Gospel...
...We on the outside do know that for a long time Whether he is only further endangering his country, there has been unrest along the Russo-Polish border...
...Here, of your work...
...that her priests are too minded to consecrate their all to the cause, or to those high-handed and domineering...
...And what obediently kept in abeyance on the advice of Father enraged the anticlerical element, just then doubly active Chevrier, became clearer during those days of en- in its works of darkness, was the knowledge that these thusiasm that followed upon the consecration of pilgrimages were not simply ephemeral, effervescent France to the Sacred Heart by 200 French depu- outbursts of piety with no stable consequences in the ties prostrated before the Blessed Sacrament at Paray- lives of the masses...
...Mary Martha Tamisier, though her name spoke from the tomb...
...They have not Roumania, south of Poland, is threatened through always listened to his warnings against the Russian Bessarabia...
...On July 30, 5oo pilgrims from Marseilles new Coena Domini is tired and sorely troubled...
...Tamisier led up the had been effectively roused to the advantage of gathermountain of the Lord...
...Pauline Jaricot, who in some mysterious way had The second attempt resulted in the foundation of heard of a missionary idea suggested five years before the Saint Vincent de Paul Society at Paris in 1833, by at Paris to Mrs...
...These Eucharistic works were whom he gathered into a home called the Providence displaying so much versatility of method, were func- of Prado...
...Your vocation is to scour the roads...
...they had looked upon the Master...
...His clothes were shabby...
...Her plans, which she had ing collectively at the feet of the Master...
...And one day someone remarked for many years was never mentioned in connection to her: "Since our holy cure is dead, go to Lyons with them...
...The sound of the Avignon triumph pierced eagerness, ageless and confident, to live...
...Its echoes reached anxious penury, to the annual festive honoring of the Rome, and Pius IX, through Cardinal Antonelli, sent Real Presence...
...Later on, he such exhibitions of a faith that still lay close to so said to her: "You are the Beggar of the Blessed many French hearts...
...At any rate, this as much like diplomatic talk for international con- is one plausible interpretation of the Pilsudski coup sumption as the charge of graft against the Witos which those who know Poland can reasonably make regime reads like pretext for domestic consumption...
...What form should this national prayer take...
...He administered no palNovember 1, 1834, of parents who did not allow liatives, no spiritual opiates...
...THE BEGGAR OF THE EUCHARIST By THOMAS M. SCHWERTNER THE fact cannot be stressed sufficiently in this missionary in her spirit, and nowhere more intensely age of the lay apostolate that the three great- than in France, where two centuries before this time est movements in Catholicism during the nine- a seminary for foreign missions had been founded by teenth century owed their inception and initial de- two apostolic bishops from China as a real nursery velopment to the enlightened zeal and far-sightedness of apostles and a training school of martyrs, as well of laymen...
...his manner cold...
...Unquestionably a "Russian" Pole, more keenly sensitive to the Russian Pilsudski thinks so, and unquestionably he has means menace than others, feels this and feels it so desperat his command, which others (certainly not outsiders) ately that he has resorted to arms to save his country have not, of knowing just how imminent that danger from falling a prey to a new Muscovite invasion...
...And so she followed to the Their new organization was openly and unblushing- cloister the Apostle of the Eucharist, Blessed Peter ly lay in organization and composition, though the Julian Eymard...
...And still further, we know that Russianluminating conversation with him, the Russian question inspired communistic activity in Poland itself, even in is "the" question for Poland to consider...
...that the man in the rare laymen of more ardent faith who came in actual pew, especially if he be poor in this world's goods, contact with missionaries...
...the most he would say was: "May Jesus, our good And the best proof of the spiritual regeneration that Master, bless your good intentions 1" Realizing that the movement had effected can be found in the readipilgrimages to the many shrines of Our Lady, with ness of the people to follow unquestioningly the comwhich France was studded, constituted the most popu- mands of their legitimate leaders...
...ordinate them, not in a rigid way, which would only Tamisier had explained her efforts to enter religion, have impeded their usefulness and quenched their en- her deceptions, her scruples, her exterior and interior thusiasm, but in a loose confederation of common zeal trials, her present aimless existence, her mighty desire and endeavor from which each unit could draw new to serve the Master in the Blessed Eucharist, Father inspiration and fresh impetus...
...The fact the Polish national legislature, has lately taken on a that the news despatches during the present upset have boldness and a force unprecedented in the history of brought assurance that under Pilsudski the conduct of the country...
...But sion, in urging her to cultivate the interior life, he the moment was not opportune, as the enemies of said: "This work is very difficult...
...even as each single host was but the mingling of hun- He divested her of herself...
...He must have divined that this spiritual novices to return to the world...
Vol. 4 • June 1926 • No. 4
