DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 12, 12 November 1908, Page 22

DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND

(By Telegraph from our own correspondent.) November 9. Rev. Father Carran, who was recently ordained in Ireland by his Lordship Bishop Lenihan for this diocese, arrived here on Sunday night. He was welcomed by his mother and brother. The net result of the Sacred Heart parish bazaar was which will more than free the parish from all debt. Fathers Edge and Doyle and their parishioners have done exceedingly well, and deserve commendation. Very Rev. Dean Gillan addressed the congregation at the Cathedral on last Sunday morning, and explained the financial position of the parish. Nearly had been paid in reduction of the debt since the Bishop left last February. The details of expenditure and receipts were given. According to recent advices his Lordship Bishop Lenihan leaves on his homeward journey at the end of the present month. He is expected to arrive here in the first week in January. A meeting will be called at an early date for the purpose of extending to him a hearty welcome. One of the religious here has received a letter from Home which" contained the interesting story that the monstrance used by the Papal Lpgate at Benediction in the balcony of Westminster Cathedral at the time of the Eucharistic Congress was the one presented by Henry VIII. to a convent in Brussels, and from this convent it was sent over for the occasion. The annual mortuary services were held at the Symond street cemetery last Sunday afternoon, when Very Rev. Dean Gillan, Rev. Fathers Edge, Brennan, and Doyle, and large numbers from the surrounding parishes were present. St. Benedict's choir, under Mr. Jackson, rendered very appropriate music. Rev. Father Edge delivered the following discourse : — ' If we

look around the cemetery in which we stand we see the great harvest reaped by that indiscriminating angel of death, the young, the old, the rich, the poor, the strong, the weak all ranged around bear silent testimony to the process of the impartial harvestman, the Angel of Death. Bui "it is appointed unto all men once to die and after this the judgement." Scripture also tells us that " every man's work shall be tried by fire." Death, then, is the lot of all men, and what is more awful still, the judgment of the Great Judge follows. What shall we say of those who assure us that all their dead dear ones have gone instantly to rest in the arms of Jesus ; those who cry to their Saviour and their Judge, " Nothing but myself I bring, closely to Thy cross I cling.'* Do they not stand self-condemned? In the parable of the " talents " Our Lord condemns them with the lazy servant. He who having got five talents, earned other five, Christ declared received a blessed reward ; the earner of two talents also met with a reward ; but what of the one who, getting one talent, buried it and returned it to his master. Our Saviour says this talent was taken away, and himself cast out for punishment. And yet was not the lazy servant at least just? We, Catholics, believing the word of Our Lord, and following the teaching of His Church, know that a time of purgation follows our death and our judgment. We dare not — the very best of vs — hope recklessly that, with all our stains and frailties at death, we all go instantly to the arms of Him Who said, " Nothing defiled shall enter Heaven." The soldier who, fighting in the front rank, receives his wounds and is stained with the stains of battle where the conflict wages fiercest, is least fit just then to enter the august presence of his king. He must be cleansed and made ready ; so we, who made the bravest stand amid the press of battle, are stained the most for that, and need Ihe cleansing fire of purgatory to prepare us for our Master's presence. And have we any of our dear dead calling on us today, " Have mercy on me, at least you my friends have mercy on me, for the hand of the Lord hath touched me.' Perhaps a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, perhaps a soul in punishment because of our fault or example, perhaps these call so on us to-day. What can we do to aid them? What would they have us do? We can pray for them, receive holy Communion and offer it for them, but above all we can do what blessed St. Monica begged her great son, St. Augustine, to do as she lay dying. She had wept for his return to God's true fold for thirty years, and now she had Him by her dying bed. He was of wonderful intellect ; the world lay before him, soon to resound with his name. And what did she beg of him — ' Remember me at the altar of God.' Do you, dear brethren, do likewise ; remember your dead at God's altar, offer the holy Mass for their repose ; join with the priest as he beseeches GoJ for mercy for them. There is one other little point I commend, to your attention : your dear dead lie here around ; make and keep this place sacred, as it is a fitting resting place for them ; be generous in your contributions, for its upkeep ; have it such a place as you will like to come to pray for your dead ; much there is to be done for that end, do what in you lies out of respect and reverence for the dear dead.' At the conclusion of the sermon a procession was formed, and went through the cemetery, at the same time reciting prayers for the repose of the souls of the faithful departed.