Desiring to make known, through the medium of the Journal, the many benefits I have received through Christian Science, I must first solicit time and space, the giving of which I shall consider a great favor.
Born of Irish Catholic parents, and being blessed with an exceedingly devout mother, my earliest teachings were such as to inculcate in my young mind a firm conviction that there was nothing outside of the Church. At a very early age I commenced to serve mass, and assist in other duties dear to every Catholic heart. As time wore on I aspired to the priesthood; over which my dear mother's heart went out in gratitude. She came of a family which had contributed largely to the clergy, and here was her opportunity to do likewise. But unforeseen circumstances changed my entire plans, which eventually resulted in my coming to America. After spending some time in New York I came to California, where I met a young lady whose parents, through the advice of physicians who were among the best lung specialists in New York, had brought her here in search of health.
Although differing widely in our religious views, our friendship ripened into a warmer sentiment which suggested a question that I alone could settle. I must either renounce my love for the cloister and the earliest anticipations of my boyhood, together with the fondest desires of my sainted mother, or abandon forever the idea of making this lady my wife. Questionable as it may be, it was not without many struggles that I chose the latter. At the same time I felt it to be my imperative duty to convert her to Catholicism before we were married, which at that time seemed an impossibility, as she was an Episcopalian of the highest order. But with untiring effort, and striving to blind her eyes to her own religion by holding up the beauties of my mother's church, I eventually succeeded in winning her over to the faith, which led to her receiving instruction from the parish priest; and she was received into the Church before our marriage.
