Men united in the Name of God found the Master in their midst. Their union must have been dear to His Divine Heart; and with infinite affection must He have blessed the laborers and their work. or vain would have been the efforts of His priests, however heroic; vain, as St. Paul said, would have been our preaching. While passing these thoughts over in our minds let us not forget to ask ourselves whether the priests of the next two or three generations will have, in so far as it depends on us. as good material to work with as we have had through the efforts of the saintly priests who have gone to their eternal reward. Let us also incessantly invoke God's benediction on the work, without which the blessing of development and permanence of the Holy Name Society in America will not be granted.
This leads me to a subject dear to my heart, and that is the organization of our boys and young men into Holy Nam.e Societies. We are living in a day of organization. !Men in all walks of life are reaching out to bring everything under organization. Our young men see this and desire it, and if they can not have organization within the Church, they will seek it outside. Let not our boys and young men get away from us. Let the hand of religion ever hold them gently but firmly. If we show interest in our boys and young men. as we can in a hundred ways: if by solidly practical instruction, suited to the temperament of their years, we prove to them that religion is the best thing in the world and that without religion they can not be men in the truest and best sense; if our priests will only study their boys and young men and. according to circumstances, locality, and conditions of parishes, devise methods of interesting them in religion, success will attend their efforts. Thus will our successors in the royal line of the priesthood of Jesus Christ have material to work with in organizing and keeping the men of America devout Catholics.
History of the Society
The Holy Name Society owes Its origin to the Second Council of Lyons in 1274. when it was enjoined that the faithful should "demonstrate more reverence for that Name
