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The Pious Advice
(Der fromme Rat) - 1815
The story accompanying the illustration
above needs few words;
otherwise, one risks spoiling it. Namely:
An 18-year-old lad, still inexperienced, Catholic and devout, set out on
his first journey away from his parents’ home. In the first large town,
he stopped on the bridge and wanted to look around a little to the right
and left, for he feared he might never again come across such bridges,
with towns built up on both sides, as this one. But as he looked to the
right, a priest came along from one side, carrying the most holy object
before which every humble Catholic who is sincere kneels. But when he
looked to the left, a priest also came from the other side of the bridge,
carrying the most holy object before which every Catholic who is humble
and sincere kneels, and both were already very close to him, and both
were about to pass him at the very same moment, one coming from the left,
the other from the right. Then the poor man did not know what to do,
before which holy object he should kneel, and which he should greet with
prayer and love, and it was also difficult for him to decide. But when
he looked at one of the priests with distress, and as it were asked and
pleaded with his eyes what he should do, the priest smiled kindly at the
devout soul, like an angel, and raised his hand and index finger up
towards the high, sun-drenched sky. Namely, he is to kneel before the
figure up there and worship him. The family friend knows how to praise
and hold this in high esteem, even though he has never prayed a rosary;
otherwise, he would not have written the Lutheran calendar.
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