Palmerston North

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 3, 21 January 1925, Page 29

Palmerston North

. r (From our own Correspondent.) •: \ January .16. >■:- His Grace Archbishop Redwood came this ; way last week; soon, very soon he will return P ■«- to bless and open the new church. d ~ A little while ago a letter bearing the Dnn- ( f edin postmark found its way up to this part V!*, of the island. It came from Mr. Denis

O’Sullivan; said he: “My best wishes to all inquiring friends.” Air., Mrs. and Mi ss Watson have returned from abroad; and so have Air. and Mrs. Totman and- family. Both families were on holiday bent; but after all is said and done “there’s no place like home”even if it is little Palmerston. Retreats have been a prominent subject of conversation lately. ■ Some of the ladies set the ball rolling by departing' for Island Bay to take part in the ladies’ Retreat at the Sacred Heart Convent. Then Father Francis Chine, of the Passionist Order, conducted the Sisters’ Retreat, and at present the Children of Mary are enjoying a short one. Next week the priests enter into Retreat at, St. Patrick’s College, and when they return our men folk will have an opportunity of attending the Retreat for laymen to be given there. The exterior of the new church is almost completed now; the leadlights are in; the doorways have doors; the scaffolding is gone from the greater part of the tower; and, to use a racing term “we are coming up the straight.” Most of us have spent so much time “spire-gazing” that we forgot the church had a back to it; and a trip round there last Sunday showed everything finished and “tidied-up” ready for the opening. We Palmerston people are looking forward with eagerness to that day of days when our Eucharistic King w ill take up His residence in the new home that we have built for Him. Think of the weather we “suffered” for thefoundation stone ceremony! and pray, good Christians, pray! “Father Francis Chine will preach at the evening devotions” was the announcement made at the various Masses on the first Sunday of the month. The mention of the name took the minds of many parishioners back over a span of 18 years to a mission—a mission of missions—when “Father Francis” as many of us called him, worked and prayed amongst us, so hard and so earnestly. Father Francis’s brother (now Archbishop of Perth), labored here during a mission given by the Redemptorist Fathers about February, 1909. -Two years later (note the coincidence !) last year at the laying of the foundation stone of the church Archbishop Chine was - herethe field of past laborsand this year, only a few weeks before the opening of the church, Father Francis Chine again visits the parish to.conduct the Sisters’. Retreat. On New Year’s Day Miss Mary Mull an, a much esteemed member of this well-known local family, closed her eyes for ever uponthis world of sorrow; and clothed in the blue cloak and white veil of a. Child of Mary she went to her last resting place, after much suffering. Several years ago the Angel, of Death gave warning to Miss Mull an of his impending visit; but even though her death was expected, and long expected, it came as a great shock - to her family and friends for whom the sincerest sympathy is felt. But the Afullan family’s loss is also their gain, for their* departed one led an, exemplary life. Her long illness was really; a long preparation for death; and to. her death came ns a happy release from this vale of tears. May sheerest in "peace! . , ...