"The Rev. Henry J. Wessling, S.J., the first blind man to be ordained a Catholic priest in 300 years, preached his first sermon last night in giving a novena to Saint Francis Xavier in St. Michael's Church on Washington St.

"When the chimes in the tower rang out at 7:30 o'clock there were less than a dozen pews vacant in the rear of the church. ...

"Into the sanctuary, just at the stroke of the quarter hour, faintly heard in the interior of the church, altar boys moved to their places on each side of the high altar. Father Wessling followed them, his hands clasped before him. At his side another priest walked, guiding the steps of the blind Jesuit.

"Guided then to the steps, Father Wessling made his own way to the pulpit, his right hand guiding him. All his movements were sure. He rested both hands for a moment on the railing of the pulpit. He stood there, a broad shouldered man in the white surplice. The glasses, he wore, were black. The congregation noted the high, wide bulging forehead and the dark full cheeks and marked in the countenance a masculine strength which played a kindly, patient benignly characteristic of the priest who waited, worked and prayed that after the accident here at Canisius which robbed him of his sight, might not be denied the privilege of the priesthood.

"It was a simple sermon he preached, ... He did not talk ... in sharp staccato phrases, but in a soft and mellow voice, richly modulated. His phrases had a rhythm and a grace of diction singularly pleasing to hear. His thoughts were expressed as clearly and as simply as the statement of the text, quoted from the Acts of the Apostles. He sought emphasis in a low persuasive tone, rather than in a higher inflection of the voice. And he used gestures, just a few of them, filling the appeal of the moment. He absorbed attention. The church was so silent that his lowest tones were heard in the choir loft.

"The sermon over, Father Wessling turned with the ease and certainty of a man whose sight is not impaired and walked slowly down the steps of the pulpit."

The source for this material is an article from the Buffalo "Morning Express" which appeared in the 1918 edition of the "Woodstock Letters". No date of the article had been indicated.