What is the significance of isaac hecker in literature

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Be the first to start one ». About David J. The three Hecker boys poured enormous energy into the political campaign of They purchased a hand printing press, distributed leaflets, publicly challenged the banks and distributed party literature. The political maneuvering weakened both the traditional and Democratic forces and the Loco-Foco faction in which the Heckers remained steadfast. As this hopeless intra-party battle raged, Isaac, aware of imminent defeat and disgusted at political chicanery, often sat beneath the night sky a the East River wharf.

On the lecture platform he never used manuscript or notes; his thoughts flowed out spontaneously in good, pure, strong, forcible English. As Isaac entered his twenties, his interior life grew ever more intense.

In an attempt to analyze his inner turmoil, he buried himself in the works of the abstruse German philosophers, Fichte, Hegel and Kant. Beginning in June , he experienced a series of mystical experiences, very often in his dreams. In May , he wrote about a vision he had ten months previously. And it was if our bodies were luminous and they gave forth a moon-like light, which I felt sprang from the joy that we experienced. Experiences like this distracted Isaac noticeably from his business duties.

His absorption in the mystical worried John, leader of the Hecker enterprise, which now boasted a six-bakery chain plus its own flourmill. Now beginning to doubt the reality of his inner life and fearing insanity, Isaac grew more and more depressed.

The family doctor suggested that he involve himself socially, do some manual labor and get married. But none of these solutions addressed his internal fears. Was God really communicating with him in his dreams and mystical experiences? Or were all these simply figments of his imagination? Brownson, father of eight children, received him warmly. George Ripley, a scholarly and idealistic Unitarian minister, had founded the farm in the spring of to organize a community of intelligent and cultivated people dedicated to an uncompromising search for truth.

An impressive array of scholars, writers, artists, intellectuals, farmers, tradesman and preachers lived, worked, studied, meditated, and recreated at the Farm. So prestigious was the Brook Farm faculty that Harvard University approved its curriculum. He practiced his baking skills at the farm. A Mrs.

I was conscious that God was preserving me innocent with a view to some future providence. Here he began to accept his mystical life as real and beyond his ability to control. He gave up the struggle to find the work God wished for him and accepted his inability to discern the Spirit moving within him. I feel as impersonal as a stranger to it. For the first time since the beginning of his mystical experiences, Isaac achieved a measure of peace.

Leave results to God. Isaac returned to the bakery. His brothers encouraged him to involve himself as a worker in the unsuccessful campaign for the nomination of John C. Calhoun as the Democratic candidate in the presidential election. Baking and politics, however, distracted him from his life of interior prayer and meditation.

He detested the competitive spirit permeating the Hecker enterprises. After his Loco-Foco experience, he found it difficult to trust politicians. His brothers, sympathetic to his needs, agreed that, if he worked all morning, he could spend the rest of the working day in study and prayer.

Isaac devoted his scholarly efforts to English, German, Latin grammar and philosophy. He grew confident that the unnamed Spirit that moved within him was the Holy Spirit of God, the same Spirit who animated Christ. His prayers took a clear focus. As assurance that his mystical experiences were rooted in God increased, his fear of madness decreased.

Yet, he suffered a cruel loneliness. It is inconceivably painful to live. I am totally alone. In desperation, he threw himself into politics and causes for the working class to satisfy his hunger to serve his fellow man. His external activity failed, however, to satisfy the needs of his spirit.

In Boston, the indefatigable Orestes Brownson, combating fellow scholars who rejected organized religion, was writing and lecturing on its role in future society.

He called institutional religion the only effective means for generating society and bringing about the social reforms so sorely needed in America. By uniting themselves to the church, men and women share the life of Christ.

Hecker corresponded with Brownson regularly. Brownson, overwhelmed with work, answered tardily. Accepting that God acts through the church and determining to serve the church as a minister, Isaac felt his long quest to find out what God wished of him was coming to an end.

As a minister, he would spend all his energies in the service of souls. Thus he would harmonize his need to serve God with his need to serve his fellow man. He informed his brothers of his plan. John and George were not surprised.

Brownson approved his plan to study Greek and Latin at Concord, Massachusetts, under the famous Harvard classical scholar George Bradford.

During the spring of , before leaving for Concord, Isaac tried to discern which church he should join as a minister. Seabury, candid and gentle, admitted that Roman Church discipline and ritual were attractive, but expressed reservations about papal power and claims of infallibility. Seabury advised Isaac to consider all of his objections to either church before making a decision. He asked the prelate what would be required of him to become a Roman Catholic priest.

It is principally made up of adopted and foreign individuals. By May , Hecker had settled in Concord and was well into his studies. The room featured a comfortable straw bed, a large table, washstand, bookcase, chairs, two windows facing a street covered with a canopy of trees and one window shaded with honeysuckle.

He divided his time between study and prayer. He experienced such deep peace and joy during prayer that he resented the time required for study. Brownson responded immediately to this letter. He strongly urged Hecker to continue his studies. I will enter the Roman Catholic Church, if she will receive me. Isaac returned to New York, advised his family of his decision and once more joined the business. The Brooklyn-born prelate discovered that Isaac, after years of study, possessed a profound knowledge of Catholic doctrine.

Bishop McCloskey, who continued as a spiritual director of the new convert, urged him to continue his Greek and Latin studies in New York City. Hecker, desirous of surrendering his life to Christ, felt inadequate for the priesthood. He considered entering a contemplative order in Europe.

Bishop McCloskey, convinced that God would in his own time make clear what he willed for Isaac, encouraged the new Catholic to cultivate his spiritual life with daily Mass, silence, meditation and prudent penitential practices.

Be a priest. Be a Dominican. We need American priests as fast as we can get them! He considered the Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans and the diocesan clergy. God has promised to give me a response to all of these. God did respond. The spirit of the two young Americans encouraged Isaac to join the Redemptorists. On July 29, , he advised Bishop Hughes of his decision.

Isaac immediately adapted to life at the Redemptorist novitiate at St. Trond, a little town southeast of Antwerp, Belgium.

Bishop Nicholas Wiseman ordained him a Redemptorist priest on October 23, Hecker began his parish mission career in Liverpool, England, in May , under the direction of the veteran Redemptorist missionary preacher Father Vladimir Petcherine. In March , after six years abroad, he returned to New York City as a member of the newly established Redemptorist province. The memories of the joys and sorrows, triumphs and defeats he had experienced on those wharves and in those streets nearly overwhelmed him.

His Redemptorist brothers met him at dockside; later, he had a reunion with his family. It was evident to the Heckers that Isaac had developed inner self-confidence and outer poise.

His anxiety had yielded to tranquility; his inner uncertainty to maturity. His European travel, religious training and pastoral experience had matured him.