The Cardinal Manning Society

[There is a new blog I  just found that is dedicated to Cardinal Manning. He had a profound effect on the Catholic Church in England. I look forward to this society correcting the slander and liable heaped on him by liberals--Bill]
http://cardinalmanning.wordpress.com/about-manning/

About Manning

Henry Edward Cardinal Manning is sadly a well kept secret in the Catholic world today. Although well known throughout England in the mid to late 19th century for feeding the poor, educating children of lesser means, resurrecting Catholicism in England, being one of the instrumental theologians at Vatican I, and standing up for the Catholic faith against the new wave of modernism, he was quickly dismissed by the following new crop of modern theologians as being rigid and Ultramontane. When the great Cardinal went to his repose on Jan 14th, 1892 Victorian London had never witnessed such a large funeral. What happened in the short time after his death that virtually erased his memory from the minds of the Catholic world? How did his reputation become so controversial? Often accused of being self centered, Ultramontane and rigid, he quickly fell under the shadows of other English converts such as John Henry Newman, who had nowhere near the influence or reputation that Manning had when the two were alive.

Russian Prince, Convert, and Priest -- AUGUSTINE GALLITZIN

 [A convert who is a Russian Prince should be extraordinary enough but one that also becomes a Catholic Priest and missionizes the USA is astounding! Here we see the Providence of God seeking his lost sheep. Below is the introduction to the book "LIFE AUGUSTINE GALLITZIN, PRINCE AND PRIEST", by Sarah M. Brownson. (free e-book link here) The introduction was written by another famous convert and member to the USA's forgotten Catholic  past. He makes interesting historical comments of the times-- very interesting.  The short preface is by Sarah outlining this remarkable priest. CFT--editor Bill Strom]

P R E F A C E.
IN the following pages will be.found the account of a young
prince, wealthy, brilliantly educated, of splendid appearance,
fascinating address, and full of genius, who, from the purest
and highest motives, became a Catholic priest, devoting his
life, and all it contained, to the salvation of souls.

Winning Converts

This is the first book of two, The White Harvest"[link] the second book "Winning Converts" [link]has been reprinted and has a lot of practical advice.

"Did you ever hear of a priest who has made more than 6000 converts, and
who is still busy winning more souls for the Master? That priest is the
Rev. Bertrand L. Conway, C.S.P. who has probably made more con-
verts than any other man, lay or cleric, in America."

This was during the 1950's. His method was simple and could be employed by anyone with knowlege of the Faith especially parish priests.

Develop an Inquiry Class with no strings attached. Just so they can hear the Church and what it teaches and meet devout Catholics.

Father Conway developed a carefully planned technique for the presentation of
Catholic doctrine to the non-Catholic mind.

The various steps in the methods,
-a series of special lectures for the non believer

-advertising, the inquiry class,

- question box feature-The Question Box enables the lecturer to form a fair estimate of the intellectual and 
                                religious make-up of his audience.

-Informative books distribution during and after the lectures

-the follow-up letter

- possible personal interview

A system and a definite plan can bring rich returns.

While local conditions in a parish may render advisable some slight modifica-
tion, every priest, seminarian, and catechist in America can be effective in securing practical results.

Great-martyr Irene of Thessalonica (4th c.) -- divinely revealed faith in Christ.

Please read the saint for the day on the Byzantine Calendar. If this is not a testimony for salvation by water baptism only, I don't know what is. She raised her father from the dead and THEN he was baptized. Also, she was divinely revealed faith in Christ.

http://www.abbamoses.com/months/may.html

May 5

Great-martyr Irene of Thessalonica (4th c.)

"Saint Irene was the daughter of a princelet called Licinius; named Penelope by her parents, through a divine revelation she was brought to faith in Christ and at Baptism was renamed Irene. In her zeal for piety she broke in pieces all the idols of her father, who commanded that she be trampled underfoot by horses. But while she remained unharmed, one of the horses rose up and cast down her father, killing him. By her prayer she raised him to life again, and he believed and was baptized. Afterwards, in many journeyings, Saint Irene suffered torments and punishments for her faith, but was preserved by the power of God, while working dread miracles and converting many thousands of souls. At last she came to Ephesus, where she fell asleep in peace, in the first half of the fourth century. Two days after her death, her gravestone was found lifted off, and her grave empty. At least two churches were dedicated to St Irene in Constantinople, and she is the patroness of the Aegean island of Thera, which is commonly called Santorini, a corruption of "Saint Irene." (Great Horologion)   Note: The most famous Agia Irene church in Constantinople is not named after her, but for the Holy Peace (Greek Irene) of God, which is Christ.   The Prologue's account differs in several details. St Nikolai places St Irene in the Balkans in the town of Magedon, in apostolic times rather than the 3rd-4th century. In his account Irene learned the Christian faith from her teacher, Appelianus, and was baptised by the Apostle Timothy himself. He attributes the anger of Irene's father to her refusal to marry rather than her smashing the family idols (though of course she might have done both).