REDEMPTORIST MISSION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 241, 20 March 1915, Page 5

REDEMPTORIST MISSION.

DRAWING TO A CLOSE. The mission at St. Joseph's will k bl'ought to a close on Sunday evening. The /Missionaries must be delighted to see their labors bearing such magnificent fruit. Nearly three hundred received Holy Communion cn St. Patrick a Day, and a large number approach the Holy Table daily. Notwithstanding the heavy downpour of rain, there was a decent crowd in the church St. Patrick's night, when Father Roche preached a. fine sermon on the life and labors of Ireland's Apostle. Last night there was a splendid celebration in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Father flrogan occupied the pulpit, and his eloquence kept the large congregation spell-bound for three-quarters of an hour. English literary geniuses are at one with the Catholic Church in honoring Mary as the one _ perfect type of human excellence that' is less than God. "I have always envied," said Nathaniel Hawthorne, "the Catholics their faith in the sweet, sacred Virgin Mother who ••lendsbetweenthe.n and the Deity, intercepting somewhat of his awful splendour but permitting his love to stream upon the worshipper more intelligibly to human comprehension through the medium of a woman's tenderness." Buskin has said, "There has probably not been an innocent cottage throughout the h.sigth and breadth of Europe during the whole period of vital Christianity in 'which the imaged presence of the Madonna has not given sanctity to the humblest duties and comfort to the .sorest trials of life, and every bright and lofty achievement of the Arts and chivalry of manhood, nay, every golden deed performed which is recorded in the writings and traditions of nations, has been the fulfilment of the assured prophecy of the Isrnelitish maiden: 'From henceforth all nations .shall call me blessed.' After the most careful examination, neither as friend nor as adversary, I am persuaded that the wojship of the Madonna has been one of Catholicity's most noble and vital graces, and has never been otherwise than productive of true holiness of life and purity of character." Similar thoughts were expressed by the great poets, Robert Brownii.- and Longfellow, by the great historian, W. H. Leckv, by Kcble, the greatest of English hymn writers, and a host of others.