THE POWER OF THE MASS

New Zealand Tablet, 29 May 1919, Page 13

THE POWER OF THE MASS

. I • n=r —" •—■ &<s&■& & tf do M ' • v Manna*®* Z4AS/T tnea» 'tsSßsiE&SaJ . |i - .... | ,„In,,.the;-course, of a .sermon at the,mission conducted recently f by the Marist Fathers at 1 St. Joseph’s Church, * Buckle Street, Wellington, Father.Ainsworth said.. that the life of almost" every priest "was full of incidents, and he proceeded to relate an incident of his early days in the priesthood to illustrate the subject of his sermonthe Mass. . - He was attached (he said) to the parish of Te Aro, which in those days .included i St. Mary’s, St. Joseph’s, and St. Anne’s. The greater part of his duties was in the care of souls in the Wellington Hospital. | One day he proceeded from the presbytery on his bicycle to pay a visit to a parishioner in Newtown. He cycled _ along, and suddenly found himself at the Hospital. He thought to himself that he- must have been dreaming, as he had no} intention of visiting the Hospital, but as, he' -had reached there it occurred to him that he might as well take aan&opportunity of seeing the secretary on a matter he desired to discuss with him. He went to the secretary’s office, but found that official out, which was most unusual. On inquiring as to the secretary’s whereabouts, he was directed to one of the wards. While there he saw a case being brought in. rg Going- over to investigate, he found the patient was past human aid, and so he determined to stay, in case-the man was a Catholic and desired the consolations of our holy religion in his last moments. When the patient was. placed in the ward Father Ainsworth went , over to the bedside and found he bore a name which was unmistakably Catholic, but the card over his - bed indicated that he professed no religion. One of I the rules of the hospital is that no clergyman is to approach a patient other than of his own denomination,~on religious matters. Recorded as having no religion, therefore, the priest, entertaining a suspicion that the patient was a Catholic, spoke to the man, but received a very hostile reception. The priest’s presence seemed to irritate the man, and he gave expression to some of the vilest language it was possible for a man to use. Persevering, however, the priest at last got the man into a more reasonable frame of mind, and .he admitted that he was brought up, a Catholic but had given up the practice of his religion. The poor fellow was filled with despair, but after much exhortation, he at last consented to make his confession. Father Ainsworth immediately left to procure the essentials, and arrived in time to administer the last Sacraments.

| Reflecting on the remarkable manner in which this man was converted, the priest asked him whether he had continued some practice of his holy religion. The man replied that he had not practised his religion for years. He then requested Father Ainsworth to take charge of a .letter which he had received a few days before from his aged mother in Ireland, and to acquaint her of his death. The letter was from an anxious mother who hoped her son was regular in the performance of his religious duties.' She had had (she wrote) the Holy Sacrifice ,of the Mass offered up for him that he would not die without God’s . priest to administer the last Sacraments, and to die a happy death. The end came, the penitent dying with the priest holding his hand.

Father Ainsworth _ wrote to the mother in Ireland conveying the news of her son’s death, and informed her that owing to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass-' offered up for his happy death, he p had died fortified by all the rites-v-of . Holy} Church. People might say that this episode of his (the speaker’s) life was a coincidence, --.but his deviation unconsciously from the road he set out for, and subsequent happenings at : the hospital, were something more than a coincidence'.* It was undoubtedly the guiding hand of Divine Providence in response to the mother’s offer

of the Holy Sacrifice in far away Ireland for the spiritual welfare of her son. -I