ch a man, whose illness
forbade action and whose interior trials made contemplation an agony,
he chafed sometimes at his enforced inactivity, though he was never
heard, as far as we can get evidence, openly to complain of it.

Time and stagnation of bodily forces did not alter his progressive
ideas.

"Is it not wiser," he said, "to give one's thought and energy to
prepare the way for the future success and triumph of religion than
to labor to continue the present [state of things], which must be and
is being supplanted? Such an attitude may not be understood and may
be misinterpreted, and be one of trial and suffering; still it is the
only one which, consistently with a sense of duty, can be taken and
maintained."

A bishop on his way to Rome once called on Father Hecker. "Tell the
Holy Father," he said to him, "that there are three things which will
greatly advance religion: First, to place the whole Church in a
missionary attitude--make the Propaganda the right arm of the Church.
Second, choose the cardinals from the Catholics of all nations, so
that they shall be a senate representing all Christendom. Third, make
full use of modern appliances and methods for transacting the
business of the Holy See." Sometimes he discussed the activity of
modern commerce as teaching religious men a lesson. He once said:

"When Father Hecker is dead one thing may be laid to his credit: that
he always protested that it is a shame and an outrage that men of the
world do more for money than religious men will do for the service of
God."

No glutton ever devoured a feast more eagerly than Father Hecker read
a sermon, a lecture, or an editorial showing the trend of
non-Catholic thought. After his death his desk was found littered
with innumerable clippings of the sort, many of them pencilled with
underlinings and with notes. These furnished much of the matter of
his conversation, and doubtless of his prayers. Once he wrote to a
friend:

"Nobody is necessary to God and to the accomplishment of his designs.
Yet at times I wish that I had the virtue that some creatures have;
when cut into pieces each piece becomes a new complete individual of
the same species. I should cut myself into at least a dozen pieces to
meet the demands made upon me. What a splendid thing it is to think
of our Lord going about doing wonders, eternal and infinite things,
and all the time seeming to be unoccupied. The truly simple soul
reduces all occupations t