FATHER GILBERT

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 58, 2 December 1930, Page 13

FATHER GILBERT

Beloved Pastor’s Memory REQUIEM MASS ■ The memory of Father T. Gilbert, late rector of St Bede’s, Christchurch, and formerly of St Patrick’s College, Wei- '• lington, was honoured yesterday when a solemn requiem mass for the repose of Ids soul was celebrated at the Basilica, in Hill Street His Grace Archbishop Redwood and his Grace Archbishop O’Shea were present in the sanctuary. The celebrant was the Rev. Father P. Kane. S.M.; deacon, Rev. Father T. Cleary, S.M., of St. Bede’s College; subdeacon, Rev. Father P. J. Smyth, S.M.; master of ceremonies, Rev. Father J. A. . Higgins, SAI.; and there were also present the following members of the clergy: Rev. Father D. Kennedy, S.M., Provincial of the Society of Mary; Her. Father J. Gilbert, of Sydney, brother of the deceased; Rev; Father Cahill, C.S.S.R.; Rev.-Father Garden, C.S.S.R.; Rev. Fathers McCrae, Dillon, Power, Fitzgibbon, Finnerty, J. Kelly, V. Kelly, L. Daly, Fisher, Griffin, Evans; and the following clergy of the Society of Mary, Very Rev. Dean Holly, Rev. Father Timmins, Rev. Father Dowling, - Rev. Father F. J. Kennedy, Rev. Father S. Mahony, Rey. Father McHardy, Rev. Father Stewart, Rev. Father J. Bell, Rev. '‘Father Lysaght, Rev. Father Geaney, Rev. Father Moore, i Among those also present were Professor Rankine Brown, New Zealand University and Victoria College; Messrs. W. A. Armour, Wellington College; Brother Fergus, Sacred Heart College; representatives of St. Bede’s College, Dr. P. F. MeEvedy, president St- Patrick’s Old Boys’ Association, and others. The Bev. F. S. Bartley, S.M., M.A., delivering the panegyric, said they were not met to mourn the loss of Father Gilbert nor yet with barren words to praise him, but in friendship and gratitude they remembered him where remembrance was best, before the altar of God, there to pray that his soul might be vouched that peace which passeth all understanding. It was a coincidence passing strange that on the day that brought the news of his death he read in the daily paper the verse:—

I hold it truth with him who sings To one clear harp in. divers tones,. That men may rise on stepping-stones ' Of their dead selves to higher things.

Almost thirty years ago on a Hawke’s Bay hillside his dear friend Father Gilbert unlocked his heart to him with those lines. The “In Memoriam” murmured in his mind and heart, as the song of the sea dwelt ever in the shell from the shore. The quotation was the late Father Gilbert’s favourite, and. “to higher things’’ marked him in the beginning, as it stayed with him to the end. As boy and man, as student, schoolmaster and priest, his aim was the best that material and circumstances could allow. The very good never contented him, as long as he felt that it was not his very best. All his life was a pilgrimage to perfection. That was the secret of all his success. He was a great headmaster because he threw heart and soul into his work; because he was a man of vision and explored every avenue of possible betterment. The history of education in New Zealand would know few brighter pages than those that told of the life work of Thomas Andrew Gilbert. The music was supplied by the choir of St. Patrick’s College, and among the congregation were the students of St. Patrick’s College. The service was concluded bv the playing of the “Dead March in “Saul.”