Life of Father Hecker

Life of Father Hecker

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Father Hecker, by Walter
Elliott This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Life of Father Hecker
Author: Walter Elliott
Release Date: April 29, 2006 [EBook #18283]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF
FATHER HECKER ***

Produced by David McClamrock

THE LIFE OF FATHER HECKER
BY REV. WALTER ELLIOTT ________________________
NEW YORK: THE COLUMBUS PRESS 1891
________________________

Nihil obstat: AUGUSTINUS F. HEWIT, Censor Deputatus.
Imprimatur: M. A. CORRIGAN, Archiepiscopus Neo-Ebor.
________________________
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
THE reader must indulge me with what I cannot help saying, that I
have felt the joy of a son in telling the achievements and chronicling
the virtues of Father Hecker. I loved him with the sacred fire of holy
kinship, and love him still--only the more that lapse of time has
deepened by experience, inner and outer, the sense of truth and of
purity he ever communicated to me in life, and courage and fidelity to
conscience. I feel it to be honor enough and joy enough for a life-time
that I am his first biographer, though but a late born child and of merit
entirely insignificant. The literary work is, indeed, but of home-made
quality, yet it serves to hold together what is the heaven-made wisdom
of a great teacher of men. It will be found that Father Hecker has three
words in this book to my one, though all my words I tried to make his.
His journals, letters, and recorded sayings are the edifice into which I
introduce the reader, and my words are the hinges and latchets of its
doors. I am glad of this, for it pleases me to dedicate my good will and
my poor work to swinging open the doors of that new House of God
that Isaac Hecker was to me, and that I trust he will be to many.
WALTER ELLIOTT ________________________
CONTENTS ________________________
CHAPTER I.
--CHILDHOOD II.--YOUTH III.--THE TURNING-POINT IV.--LED
BY THE SPIRIT V.--AT BROOK FARM VI.--INNER LIFE WHILE
AT BROOK FARM VII.--STRUGGLES VIII.--FRUITLANDS
IX.--SELF-QUESTIONINGS X.--AT HOME AGAIN
XI.--STUDYING AND WRITING XII.--THE MYSTIC AND THE
PHILOSOPHER XIII.--HIS SEARCH AMONG THE SECTS
XIV.--HIS LIFE AT CONCORD XV.--AT THE DOOR OF THE

CHURCH XVI.--AT THE DOOR OF THE CHURCH--(Continued)
XVII.--ACROSS THE THRESHOLD XVIII.--NEW INFLUENCES
XIX.--YEARNINGS AFTER CONTEMPLATION XX.--FROM NEW
YORK TO ST. TROND XXI.--BROTHER HECKER XXII.--HOW
BROTHER HECKER MADE HIS STUDIES AND WAS ORDAINED
PRIEST XXIII.--A REDEMPTORIST MISSIONARY
XXIV.--SEPARATION FROM THE REDEMPTORISTS
XXV.--BEGINNINGS OF THE PAULIST COMMUNITY
XXVI.--FATHER HECKER'S IDEA OF A RELIGIOUS
COMMUNITY XXVII.--FATHER HECKER'S SPIRITUAL
DOCTRINE XXVIII.--THE PAULIST PARISH AND MISSIONS
XXIX.--FATHER HECKER'S LECTURES XXX.--THE
APOSTOLATE OF THE PRESS XXXI.--THE VATICAN COUNCIL
XXXII.--THE LONG ILLNESS XXXIII.--"THE EXPOSITION OF
THE CHURCH" XXXIV.--IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH
XXXV.--CONCLUSION
APPENDIX ________________________

INTRODUCTION
BY MOST REV. JOHN IRELAND, D.D., Archbishop of St. Paul.
LIFE is action, and so long as there is action there is life. That life is
worth living whose action puts forth noble aspirations and good deeds.
The man's influence for truth and virtue persevering in activity, his life
has not ceased, though earth has clasped his body in its embrace. It is
well that it is so. The years of usefulness between the cradle and the
grave are few. The shortness of a life restricted to them is sufficient to
discourage many from making strong efforts toward impressing the
workings of their souls upon their fellows. The number to whose minds
we have immediate access is small, and they do not remain. Is the good
we might do worth the labor? We cannot at times refuse a hearing to
the question. Fortunately, it is easily made clear to us that the area over
which influence travels is vastly more extensive than at first sight
appears. The eye will not always discern the undulations of its

spreading waves; but onward it goes, from one soul to another, far
beyond our immediate ranks, and as each soul touched by it becomes a
new motive power, it rolls forward, often with energy a hundred times
intensified, long after the shadows of death have settled around its point
of departure.
Isaac Thomas Hecker lives to-day, and with added years he will live
more fully than he does to-day. His influence for good remains, and
with a better understanding of his plans and ideals, which is sure to
come, his influence will widen and deepen among laymen and priests
of the Church in America. The writing of his biography is a tribute to
his memory which the love and esteem of his spiritual