A story for every day...
Napoleon’s altar.
When Napoleon was about to die on St. Helena, he ordered that a beautiful altar for the Blessed Sacrament be erected in his room. General Bertrand took the liberty of observing that this wish was good for a monk but not for a soldier and an emperor. But Napoleon, rising on his bed, said to him in that voice which commanded kings, “I am the master in my own house.” The emperor was perfectly right, for no one has the right to prevent us from performing our religious duties, especially when we are at home.
A long dissolution.
In an assembly of freethinkers in Frankfurt am Main a speaker was talking about the increasing dissolution of the Papacy and the Catholic Church. An old, bald-headed follower remarked, “What you say is very nice; but the same song was repeated in my youth; this dissolution goes on too long.”
Church robbers and Satan.
While the famous “Kulturkampf” was rumbling in Germany, some Catholic artists published various engravings symbolizing the situation of the Church and which were quite encouraging for the Catholics exposed in the struggle. They showed the sea in fury, hurling its foaming waves against a huge rock. On the shore, several men in work clothes were passing ropes around the rock and pulling breathlessly to overturn it. In the background was the devil, mocking their impotent efforts. Under the painting was the following inscription: “I, Satan, have been working with all my retinue for 2000 years to bring down this rock, but in vain. That is why I find your efforts ridiculous.”
This painting is a beautiful commentary on the Savior’s words, “Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell (the devil) shall not prevail against it.”
