NEW CONVENT OF MERCY, WREY’S BUSH

New Zealand Tablet, 15 May 1913, Page 29

NEW CONVENT OF MERCY, WREY’S BUSH

THE CEREMONY OF BLESSING AND OPENING

(From our own correspondent.) - - ~f : His Lordship Bishop Verdon, who had been for five weeks visiting the parishes of Southland and ad- ; ministering Confirmation,,: arrived here on Friday, May 2,.f0r the purpose. of making a visitation of the parish, administering Confirmation, and especially to open the new convent. The Sisters /of Mercy were established at Wrey's Bush about fifteen years ' ago. The late Father Walshe procured V- for them about twenty acres of land and the homestead of the run owned by Mr. Johnson. Lately, the dwelling was becoming: inadequate for the purposes 6of the community, hence twelve months ago the generous people of this parish and their worthy pastor, Very Rev. Father - Lynch, resolved to build a new and more suitable home for the nuns. The hew building, which is of ferro-concrete, commenced six months ago, was ready for opening on Sunday, May 4. The pastor and'people, especially some of the more energetic ladies, had been, for some weeks, making preparations for Sunday's ceremonies: >" A large number of people was expected. Visitors were looked for from the surrounding districts, and as the ceremonies would necessarily last for several hours the Children of Mary undertook to provide luncheon for all who attended. The weather conditions were not all that one would desire. The morning broke dull and showery, still the people were not kept back from coming. When the hour for Mass arrived,: all the seats in the church were filled. The choir had been practising the Gregorian 31 ism de Ariyelis for some time and, for a country choir, acquitted themselves very well. The Mass was sung by . the ~ Very Rev. Dean Burke, who also preached the sermon. The preacher took for his text, 1 Tim. iv., 8, and spoke of the benefits of the Christian religion. What good is religion? Of what benefit is it to me? Why should I put myself to so much trouble and expense for it?' Some may ask. The preacher set himself to answer these questions, to show that not. only "the promises of the life which is to come, but also the blessings of the life that now is are all derived from religion. All our true civilisation and genuine culture, all that distinguishes Christian from non-Christian nations, Europe from Asia-all is owing to our religion. He showed how it gives the Christian all that he needs and all that he has of real worth — to his feeble mind, moral guidance to his passion, worried will, solid consolation to his depressed spirit. X Going into details, the preacher showed how religion has been - the inspiration and the theme of the greatest men of the past 17 or 18 centuries, arid the reason and source of all the institutions best promotive of benevolence and learning during the long centuries, that have passed since the Christian Church was emancipated, and came forth from the Catacombs. He contrasted the religious darkness of heathen peoples and those groups and sects of post-Christians who, in our time have turned away from Christianity, with the knowledge possessed even by simple Christians as to God, as to man's soul, his bodily faculties and passions, his fall, the mysteries of Redemption, . Sanctification, and Grace, as to the power of prayer, and of the wonderworking Sacraments, and as to God's providence and man's final destiny. He contrasted the errors of the old pagans and the vagaries of our neo-pagans, as to morals and conduct, with the sure guidance of the Sacred Scriptures and of Christian tradition, precisely explained by the authorised : teachers of the Catholic

Church. He contrasted the despair and pessimism shown by materialists, agnostics, and atheists with the cheerfulness and buoyant optimism 'f. of the devout Christian. Passing from individuals', to society, the preacher pointed out the wonderful effects of our religion on the world at large. It has been the mother of the great Apostles and ;; missionaries of the nations,' the teacher of saints and doctors, the inspirer of thejaeroic army of the martyrs, the school of the statesmen-founders of the religious Orders and the home of their multitudinous disciples, the garden of Paradise where ever grow those beautiful flowers of [ virtuevirginity, :? female modesty; chastity, . obedience, -humility, ; self-denial, -love of labor, generosity,; and charityvirtues unknown and impossible elsewhere. Our religion has been the softener and -refiner of law, civil and criminal national and international y, the founder of true i- family .- life, ? the enactor of : relations between husband arid wife, parents and offspring, masters and servants, set up according to; an ideal fitted to lift the weak and the poor to a plane of equality and brotherhood based on fraternal charity arid respect for our human nature ideal peculiar to Christianity alone. And will those who toil and those who suffer, and those Who are weak ask, What has religion done for us ? . And will those who are in power arid bear rule ask what has'.religion done for the world and for civilisation ? Why ! it has done almost everything. Recall, said the preacher, all the multiplied and magnificent foundations of charity, religion, and education which for so many centuries have been % the work, exclusively of the, Christian Church hospitals, the churches, the monasteries, the schools, colleges and universities, the homes of benevolence and light and wonder at the fruitfulness of the Creed you recite,: the moral laws and counsels you observe, of .the prayers you recite, the Sacraments you receive, and the devotions you practise. Your religion, then, is profitable to all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. Religion is your possession most worthy of your admiration, effort, and enthusiasm., A grand vocation is yours in this new land. Your vocation is not merely to people this place, to make roads and bridges, to build farmhouses, villages, and towns all over the waste; it is much more and higher,, to establish here the city of God over against the city of the world—the flesh and the devil, to save this country from vice and falsehood, from agnosticism and infidelity. It is your vocation, by word and example, by your uncompromising Catholic principles, by your self-denying lives and your high • unselfish aims, to be witnesses and missionaries of the glories and triumphs of the Faith. It is your duty, by your generosity and unselfish labors to build these churches and schools, these convents and colleges which will be the agencies for the propagation of the faith. Your part it is, as they do in all Catholic countries, to show the cross on tower and spire and gable-end, to make the standard of Jesus Christ wave over village and town and country hamlet all through this land. What a noble destiny, to be called to do "battle for the True, the Pure, the Exalted, the Eternal and Immutable against everchanging error, vice, mammon-worship, and the degrading pursuit of mere animal comfort! Rise, then, above the prevailing pursuit of excitement, movement, and bodily pleasure rise above absorption in the petty personal interests of your little circle; rise to that higher plane which faith spreads before you. Be self-denying, unselfish, generous, uncompromising", and decided in your principles, = and fear not; you will accomplish in this new land great things such as your fathers in the faith achieved in the past, great things such as are being done at present by your relatives and by those bearing the same family names as you, throughout the British Empire and the vast provinces of America. The Apostle might appeal to you more forcibly than he appealed to his Ephesian converts, ' I therefore,beseech you that you walk worthy of/the vocation in which you are called. ." . . This then I say and testify in the Lord, that henceforward you walk "not as the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having their ; understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, . .'..- .who despairing, have given

themselves up to lasciviousness, unto the working of all uncleanness, v unto covetousness. ~°; But, you! you -have, not^so 1 -learned of Christ.' Would he make appeal in l your case -to dull minds and ~cold,-/indifferent hearts. No! you exclaim; ' a thousand time, ; no; we ; have sw.>rn and resolved, with the help of ..GodJ" to be equal to our vocation and destiny.? V ' ,'■*- . "v; At the end of Mass a procession was formed from the church to the new The cross-bearer .Mr. John Boyle) led the way,l followed by the school children,; the Children of Mary,; fifteen members •; of '.':_ the ■■■; community of the Sisters of Mercy, the Young Men's Society, the Hibernian Band of Invercargill, thegeneral congregation, : and / his Lordship i the Bishop, clergy; and acolytes. On arrival at the convent, his Lordship proceeded with the blessing of the different apartments, the band meantime playing, some sacred motets outside. '■ ■: ;, , , .: At the end of the blessing of the building his • Lordship, standing- in cope-and mitre, jaddressed the assemblage from the steps of the front entrance. r He congratulated 7 the ' congregation on the progress the parish had made since its inception 17 years ago. The church had been enlarged and improved, a Catholic school had been provided, and the Sisters of Mercy had been introduced. No doubt, these religious teachers had been a great blessing to the parish...-.■ The members of this Order were scattered throughout the whole British Empire; they approved themselves to bishops, clergy, and people by their unselfish and whole-hearted devotion to works of charity among the sick and poor, and to the religious education and Christian character-build-ing of the coming generations.- He was pleased that their labors in this parish -had produced so marked an effect on the children and young girls of the district, that the fathers and mothers of families were anxious to show their appreciation of it by generously providing them with the means necessary for the efficient carrying out of their work. Hence, they were here in such large numbers at the day's ceremony. A new and more spacious building was deemed necessary, and so those large and airy apartments, just blessed by him, and so necessary for the health of hard-worked teachers, were constructed. He need hardly say that he hoped that the generosity of the people and their desire to see the institutions of religion progressing year by year in this parish, as indeed he had to say they were in a very remarkable way, would result to-day in contributions so generous as would clear the new. convent of debt and so save their zealous and energetic pastor and the good nuns from all anxiety, and set them free for further improvements in the schools, churches, and religious' societies of this parish. The collection taken up came to £167 10s, which, when added to sums previously given, would go a good way towards clearing off the debt. At the conclusion of this part of the ceremony the congregation retired to the school and in relays partook of the good things to which the Children of Mary helped them, the band enlivening the feast all the time. At 3 o'clock the people came again to the church, when the Sacrament of Confirmation was administered. . About 50 children were confirmed. At the conclusion of the ceremony his Lordship explained the effects of the Sacrament, put before the children the dangers they were likely to meet during life, the necessity of avoiding the dangers of bad books and newspapers, the prevalence of vice, luxury, and . intemperance, whilst he impressed on his young hearers the advantages of following the lessons and advice given them by pastors, parents, and teachers, and the fruits of daily prayer and of the Sacraments. In concluding he asked the children to make a solemn promise to avoid bad companions, to shun the reading of bad books, to take upon themselves the obligation against intemperance imposed by the pledge of the League of the Cross. ... . ; : "/'-—./' Very Rev. Father Lynch here thanked the Bishop, the preacher,- the Children of Mary, the band, the choir, the contributors, and all who had helped to make the opening of the new convent such a pronounced success. , .Benediction, of the Blessed Sacrament concluded a memorable day in the parish of Wrey's Bush. - *