The Henson Journals

[267]

5th Sunday in Lent, March 29th, 1925.

I finished in bed the reading of Huysmans' "The Crowds of Lourdes". It is a curious blend of acuteness & superstition, and gives one a very poor impression of French Catholicism. The artist is outraged by the vulgarity of the whole setting and method of the great Shrine: the fanatick is swept away by its vehement & intoxicating fervour: the man is profoundly moved by the pageant of human misery which it exhibits: the thinker is paralyzed by the paradoxes it parades. He ends on the note of an almost imbecile devotion, in which Eve & the Virgin are brought together, the last making amends for the first, & rectifying the disasters she occasioned:–

"And you, though you wrought no miracles while living here on earth, You work them now both for her and for yourself, O Light of goodness that knows no setting, O Haven of the miserable and weeping, Mary most compassionate, Mother of pity!"

I celebrated the Holy Communion in the Chapel at 8 a.m. Ernest assisted, and we mustered 8 communicants in all. We motored to All Saints, Preston[–on–Tees], and I preached at Mattins. The fineness of the morning made it possible for us to have the car open. We walked with the dogs after lunch in the Park, and when we returned to the Castle, I wrote to George and William.

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