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APPINESS is the element of life towards which every one strives. Young and old, rich and poor, seek this blessing, and in every action this is their ultimate desire. Sin, no matter how much gratification it may effect, never produces happiness, which is the result only of something noble. The effect of sin may be termed pleasure, but it is pleasure that never reaches the stage of happiness. The pleasure of sin is short-lived, while the happiness of noble deeds lives forever. Just as virtue is its own reward, so sin is its own punishment, for the joy of wrong converts itself into the sorrow of remorse.

Man, through the spirit of God that is in him, is naturally endowed with the desire for promoting good. When he acts according to his better self, according to the dictates of his conscience, good deeds flow from him in abundance. No one was ever sorry for performing a good act, for despite all bad actions that may have followed, the earned happiness of good acts always remains. Every Catholic has the desire of leading an upright, favorable, manly life, and if he does not succeed it is not because the desire is lacking, but because of the absence of an intrepid will to persevere. When one is daily encountering unscrupulous persons, hearing even against his will talk of a depressing nature, and surrounded with alluring inducements to unlawful pleasures, there is required not only a strong will but the grace of God to emerge from the strife unscathed. To resist these trials to the utmost, and to implore divine assistance is the duty of every Catholic.

God never denies His grace to those who love Him, who strive to do His holy will, who seek His blessing by prayer. "The Lord led the just man along the right ways and He showed him the kingdom of God." "Blessed is the man who meditates on the law of the Lord; his will shall remain day and night, and all things whatsoever he shall do always shall be prosperous." Our Lord Himself assures us that whatsoever is done in His name shall never go unrewarded. To be learned in the science of the saints, to continually adore God with prayer, and to go through life in the performance of holy deeds, means not only the highest kind of happiness and contentment in this world, but the assurance of a blessed eternity in the home of our heavenly Father.

There is no better way of showing our reverence for God than through devotion to His blessed Mother. We would not be true children of our holy religion if we did not love the Blessed Virgin, who has done so much for our salvation in cooperating with her divine Son for the redemption of the world. As God is the Father of the world, so Mary is the Mother of Christians. Holy Church has ever held Mary in deepest veneration, honoring her with pomp and splendor, and inspiring a devotion to her surpassed only by that given to our Lord Himself. In psalms and canticles, in litanies and in the Mass, in hymns and special devotions, Mary is praised and her assistance implored. She is especially honored and loved through the medium of her Rosary, for throughout the Catholic world her beads are known and recited with an ardent fervor. By

means of her Rosary our Blessed Lady strengthens the ties that bind us to her divine Son, and the stronger our devotion the closer we draw in love, and blessings, and happiness.

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The Rosary Confraternity was established to spread and strengthen devotion to the Mother of God. It has come down through the ages blessed by succeeding Popes, growing richer in indulgences, and always a mighty power for promoting the true reign of Christ on earth. Where our Lady's beads are loved, there Catholicity flourishes. Today the Rosary Confraternity is growing on all sides, its members being counted by the hundreds of thousands, and spreading from one end of the world to the other. How pleased must be our divine Lord to see His Mother so lovingly honored! What a rich inheritance these faithful Rosarians will have in their powerful intercessor before the throne. of the Most High! When they shall have closed this mortal career, she to whom they were faithful in life, will protect them in death. Let every Rosarian help propagate the Confraternity by urging friends to enroll themselves under Mary's banner. In this way Rosarians will bring upon themselves and. their Confraternity the blessings of God and the special protection of His Holy Mother. On another page are given full directions for becoming members of the Rosary Confraternity.

In the days of the first conquests of Christianity, St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians: "Put you on the armor of God that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand,

therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplace of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace; in all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit-which is the Word of God" (Eph. vi. 10-17).

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We have in the Rosary every spiritual weapon mentioned here by St. Paul. We have in it the shield of Faith, for is it not in its fifteen mysteries a compendium of the whole Gospel teaching in which we make an implicit act of faith every time we tell our beads, meditating devoutly on the life and sufferings and glories of our Saviour?

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We have in the Rosary "the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spiritwhich is the Word of God," for its mysteries being, as we have said, a compendium of the Gospel, it is in truth the Word of God. Even in its vocal part it is the Word of God, for it is made up of the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory be to the Father.

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We have in the Rosary also "the breastplate of Justice" and "all the armor of God." The holy names of Jesus and Mary are repeated in every Hail Mary, and are not these names our only hope, our only salvation-the veritable armor of God? To invoke them devoutly is enough to put all the legions of darkness to flight. A Christian may be assailed with all the power of the evil one, but as long as he has the holy names of Jesus and Mary on his lips and in his heart, in earnest prayer, he can never succumb to temptation. Let us then never put away from us this divine armory with which God has provided us in the Rosary, and which has confounded so many legions of the enemy of mankind.

EVEN years have passed since one of the greatest pulpit orators of the Catholic Church in France was by a sudden death ruthlessly taken from the scene of his splendid activities. On the 12th of March, 1900, the Church of France and the entire Dominican Order stood sorrowing at the bier of the unforgettable Pere Didon. And now one of Pere Didon's fellow religious and one of his comrades in the heated struggle for religious ideals, a man once mighty as he in apostolic speech, has been called to the land of peace. Pere Monsabre, the most illustrious disciple of Lacordaire, is dead.

Pere Monsabre was born at Blois on the 10th of December, 1827. While still a young priest he entered the Order of Preachers. He was ordained for the diocesan clergy, but very soon after his ordination he felt within himself the stirrings of a religious vocation. More and more firmly did he become conIvinced that his life-work should fall, not within the sphere of a parish priest, but within the more active domain of some apostolic Order. He doubted not that he had a vocation for the religious life,

NOTE-This paper, or at least the substance of it, appeared originally in German over the signature of Fr. Liborius, O. P. It was published in the excellent "Markishes Kirchenblatt," a weekly periodical issued by the German Dominicans in Berlin.

but as yet he was undecided as to which Order to enter. On the 31st of July, 1851, the Feast of St. Ignatius, he celebrated his first Mass and thought seriously of making application to enter the Society of Jesus. But on the Feast of Saint Dominic, four days later, he decided to become a Dominican, and immediately wrote a letter of application to Pere Lacordaire. A favorable answer was duly received and Pere Monsabre's heart was filled with joy.

But now from an unexpected quarter came obstacles that sorely tried the patience of the young priest. When P. Monsabre presented himself to his Bishop and asked for release from the diocese, he was informed that four years must elapse before such permission. could be granted. The Holy See had authorized the Bishop to withhold his permission for four years from all priests who, like P. Monsabre, had received their education at a Jesuit seminary and who, subsequent to ordination, desired to embrace the religious life. With a heavy heart P. Monsabre submitted to this enforced delay and heroically tried to possess his soul in patience. The first two years he spent laboring zealously in the cause of souls. The remaining two he spent as private tutor in the vicinity of Lille. At length, during the month of May, 1855, the Bishop gave him his dimissorials.