“When you were reading Ezechiel last night, oh, you cannot understand what thoughts I had!  During the past six months I have learned how to understand him.  I say within myself:  ’O Ezechiel!  Ezechiel! no one understands, no one understands you in this world, except one here and there.’”

Next to Scripture came St. Thomas and St. John of the Cross, the one for dogmatic and philosophical, the other for devotional uses.  It must have been soon after returning to America as a Redemptorist that he procured a copy of Alagona’s Compendium of St. Thomas, submitted it to Bishop Neumann, whose learning was in high repute, and obtained his assurance of its accuracy.  That little book is a curiosity of underlining and various other forms of emphasizing.  It was with him till death.  From it he referred to the full works of St. Thomas for complete statements, but he loved to ponder the brief summary of the abridgment and work the principles out in his own way.  St. John of the Cross and Lallemant, as already stated, were his hand-books of mysticism and ascetic principles.  The former he caused to be read to him in regular course over and over again, enjoying every syllable with fresh relish.  In later days the Life of Mary Ward, by Mary Catherine Chambers, and The Glories of Divine Grace, by Scheeben, afforded him special pleasure.  Books which told of the religious tendencies of minds outside the Church were sure to interest him.  He studied them as Columbus inspected the drifting weeds and the wild birds encountered on his voyage of discovery.  Those who served him as readers sometimes found this kind of literature pretty dry, just as Columbus’s crew doubtless found it idle work to fish up the floating weeds of the sea.  The following sentences occur in a diary written while in Europe in 1875.  It is a statement of his opinion of the objective points at which Catholic teachers and writers of our day should aim: 

“In dogmatic theology, when treating of the doctrine of the fall of man keep in view the value of human nature and the necessity of divine grace preceding every act of Christian life.

“In moral theology, stimulate the sense of personal responsibility.

“In ascetic theology, fidelity to the Holy Spirit.

“In polemic theology, develop the intrinsic notes of the Church.”

As to novels, he fully appreciated their power over minds, but we believe that he did not read half a dozen in his whole life, and these he treated as he did graver works:  he studied them.  “To read is one thing, to study is another,” says Cardinal Manning; but all reading was study to Father Hecker.  We remember one novel which he read, slowly and most carefully, underlining much of it and filling the margins of every page with notes.  “Why don’t you read novels, as other people do?” he was asked.  “Because life is more novel than any fiction, for fiction is but an attempt to paint life,” he answered.  No