Page 162 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

INVITATION TO AMERICA I4I

of the Jesuits who had no intention of withdrawing
from Louisville.
On July third, Brother Nicholas, acting for the Su-
perior, wrote the Baroness Ghyseghem: "I received your
letter. Our Father Superior is in England. I thank you,
Baroness, for the newJ fro- America. That news is very
agreeable to us because we are all anxious to receive
good tidings from the dear American Mission and es-
pecially myself who has the firmest hope that I will be
sent there next year."
After his visit to England, during which Brother Nich-
olas was the acting Superior, Brother Ryken returned to
Bruges for a short rest and then went on to the Rhine-
land as was his yearly custom in search of recruits.
On October 21, 1853, Willy Bradley wrote his mother:
"Our Reverend Superior has been a little indisposed on
account of the fatigue of his journey but he is getting
on well as is also the Reverend Master of Novices,
Brother Nicholas. They are both so fatherly and kind
that one cannot help loving them."
The "tired" Brother Superior was up and around.
He had much to do. The School of Our Lady with its
300 pupils needed quarters that bespoke progress and
success. A short distance away from its present location,
across the street from the side of the Church of Our
Lady, was the Van der Plancke residence in Nieuwstraat,
the finest private residence in the neighborhood. It
was available. The Brothers rented it and installed
their school there. This was October, 1853.
Nothing had come of that school for the deaf and
dumb that was to be opened in Bruges, but Brother
Ryken was still interested in that field. On C)ctober
twenty-fourth, he notified a priest-friend in Dusseldorf,
who was contemplating a similar project for Germany,
that he had learned from Count Von Spee of the ap-