from the memoranda may be of interest as
embodying Father Hecker's views of how to study divinity, resulting
from his own experience in preparing for the priesthood:

"March, 1884.--I told Father Hecker, in course of conversation, about
my reading the life of the Cure of Ars. He said: 'A saintly man
indeed, and one gifted with a supernatural character to an
extraordinary degree. But it seems to me that his biographer
misunderstood him somewhat. He seems to admit that the Cure of Ars
had a naturally stupid mind, because he had so much difficulty in
getting through his studies for the priesthood. The truth, probably,
was that just at that time the supernatural action of the Holy Spirit
came upon him and incapacitated him for his studies. But everything
about his after life shows that, though a rustic man, he had a good
mind, a keen native wit, quick and clear perception. I had something
the same difficulty myself.

"During my novitiate and studies one of my great troubles was the
relation between infused knowledge and acquired knowledge; how much
one's education should be by prayer and how much by study; the
relation between the Holy Ghost and professors.

"In the novitiate they were all too much on the passive side--
unbroken devotional and ascetic routine. In the studentate, too much
on the active side--leaving nothing for infused science and prayer as
a part of the method of study. They soon broke me down. I told them
so. If I went on studying I would have been driven mad. Let me alone,
I said. Let me take my own way and I will warrant that I will know
enough to be ordained when the time comes. They said I was a scandal.
Then they sent me to England to De Held. I am persuaded that in the
study of divinity not enough room is given to prayer and not enough
account made of infused science."

________________________

CHAPTER XXIII

A REDEMPTORIST MISSIONARY

"I WOULD not have become a priest had I lived in Europe, for I never
had or could have any strong attrait for sacerdotal functions. But I
felt that the Church in America was in need of all the help that
could be given by her children for the work of the priesthood."
Father Hecker said this when near his end, and a full knowledge of
his character bore him out in it. The sacerdotal, the ecclesiastical,
were qualities which he had assumed with full consciousness of their
sanctity, yet they united with his other characteristics in a way to
leave traces of