ocument, including detailed
accounts of supernatural occurrences, and also quotations from the
works of Goerres, St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, St. Bonaventure,
Father Rigoleu, Richard of St. Victor, Scaramelli's _Directorium
Mysticum,_ and other mystical writings. These references he had
collected to certify to the reality of his experience.

Throughout all these three years of trial he had employed what he
calls his "lucid intervals" of mental power in studying in his own
way, God aiding him in _His_ own way to the destined end, as He had
hindered him from choosing any other way. These intervals seemed so
slight in his memory that the reader has seen his statement that he
had not studied at all. When he had been a year at Clapham he was
found, on examination, to be well enough prepared, as he had promised
he would be. Having been ordained sub-deacon and deacon at old Hall
College, by Bishop Wiseman, he was ordained priest by the same
prelate in his private chapel in London. The event took place on the
23d of October, 1849, the feast of the Most Holy Redeemer. Father
Hecker said his first Mass the following day at Clapham, that being
the feast of St. Raphael the Archangel: one year from the date of his
account of conscience written out and given to his superiors.

The following is from a letter to his mother announcing his
ordination:

"DEAR MOTHER: You have been doubly blessed by Almighty God within the
past few weeks. Your youngest son has been ordained priest in God's
one, holy, Catholic Church, and prays for you daily when he offers up
to God the precious body and blood of His beloved Son, our Lord; and
besides you have received, by the marriage of another of your sons
[George], a new daughter, who, being also a child of the Holy Church,
must be kind, dutiful, pious, fearing God, and loving above all
things our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Are not these, dear
mother, blessings? Do they not convey to your heart joy and
consolation? They ought and surely do. Your latter days dear mother,
will be your happiest."

The remainder of the letter is filled with exhortations to enter the
Church, and arguments drawn from Scripture.

We may mention a letter written to Father Hecker by Father Heilig on
the eve of the former's departure for America; a message full of
affectionate good wishes and claims of friendship and union in prayer
with the singular young pilgrim from the Western World.

The following extracts