# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1855_S271
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On the History of the Roman Catholic Associations, etc. 271

divine grace, the righteousness of God, the admonition of eternity, the necessity of conversion, the dreadfulness of sin, the last things, hell, its existence and its eternity, and finally the terrors of damnation. If — so speaks Dr. Buß, who is filled with the effectiveness of the popular missions — the soul of the sinner is thus plunged into the anguish of damnation and made contrite, then a second priest, ready of speech, depicts, in the full richness of Christian love, the boundless mercy of God, the means of grace of the church, above all the sacrament of penance, contrition, resolve, the confession of sins, the new life and union with Christ in the holy Communion, worthy reception, reconciliation with one's neighbor and love of one's enemies, love for the holy church and its institutions; the priest exhorts to the renewal of the baptismal vow and to steadfastness in the good. Thus, Buß holds, the softened soul of the people is led and guided from the height of its calling down into the depths of the fall into sin, and from there up to the luminous height of the eternity that brings blessedness, so as to weigh its own condition at this great, earnest waystation. There, in the time of the mission, all the voices of eternity and of conscience and of the church that mediates between the two resound together in this great procession of souls; the one spirit that speaks out of all the mission sermons — the thunder of judgment, the sorrowful lament of conscience, and the shining-in of divine grace — are meant to work so shatteringly that seldom does a sinner resist. To these Masses and sermons are added the hours-long "confessions of one's life and general confessions" of individuals, which are heard from thousands by a large number of clergy. The solemn granting of the mission indulgence is finally meant to awaken the gratitude of the converted toward God and the church.

With the business of the popular missions were entrusted eloquent, experienced members of religious orders, preferably, for the most part, disciples of Loyola still standing in the full vigor of manhood. To give an idea of the extent of these Jesuit missions, it may be mentioned that in the period from 1849 until toward the end of last year, demonstrably by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus alone, no fewer than ninety-odd popular missions were carried out in the Prussian state. Besides this, public papers report a more or less persistent missionary activity of Jesuits in Austria, Bavaria, Hanover, Württemberg, Baden, the two Hesses, Nassau, and so forth. Alongside this, numerous missions for the "inner conversion" of the people were carried out in the German lands by Franciscans, Capuchins, Lazarists, Minorites, and the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, through Redemptorists and Liguorians. With full wrath this troop of religious priests thundered from the pulpits against everything that, in the present century, had done harm to the influence of the church and the priesthood, and condemned the masters of French literature, Voltaire and Rousseau, and the unbelief so devastating in the most recent times.