CORONATION MASS.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 36, 11 August 1902, Page 2

CORONATION MASS.

Solemn High Mass was celebrated at the Church of the Sacred Heart, Hillstreet, yesterday in honour of the Coronation. The Rev. Father Holley was celebrant, the Rev. Father Mahoney being dea on, and the Very Rev. Father Lewis sub-deacon. Haydn's No. 3 Imperial Mass was sung by the choir, assisted by on orchestra of which Mr. S. Cimino was conductor. "This mass," says a distini;ui*hed writer, "the coronation service of *n Emperor of Auhtria, specially composed for taut august celebration, is still kno;ivn as the Imperial Mass, and represent* one of the most favourable moods oi the genius of Haydn. The movements in genorul are strongly impressed by his peculiar 2haractoribtics ; but while the pomp and circumstance of the solemnity and the joyous sympathy of beholders are suitably displaced in the music, it contains much that does not belong to the superficial or popular — pieces new in their construction, and imbued with solemn religious feeling, which appeal to the hearer at all times, and remain to this day the most honourable testimuuy to the genius which produced them." Such was the music chosen for an occasion more Imperial in some of the essential respects of Empire than anything in the history of the Houso of Austria. The soloists wore— Soprano, Misses Pendor and E. Corrigan and Mrs. J. P. Kelly | alto, Misses M. Corrigan and M. M'Sherry ; tenor, Messrs. J. (Jarr and J. Rowe; bass, Messrs. R. A. Loughnan and Flanagan. A solemn "Te Deum" was sung at the conclusion of the Mass, the congregation remaining standing. The sermon waa preached by Archbishop Redwood, who took for his text "Render therefore to Cwsar the things Uiat are Crosar's, and to God the things that are God's." In the course of an interesting and instructive address his Grace said these words not only conveyed to us the duties of the people to the* Kiag and' of the King to the people, and of both people and King to Almighty God, but they were also most appropriate' for the present ocoasion, for they were connected with the coronation of ov'.r ancient British Kings; the oldest form of coronation extant in Britain, d/ating from 737, took these words for ftbe Gospel sung at the Coronation Mfass. True genuino loyalty did not look at the characteristics of the person but -at the validity of the authority e,nd its divin* status, and our Divine Lord, in uttering the above words, made this one exception and the orrly one, to the obedience we owe to the civil authority. Whenever the claims of God utimt into conflict with the claims of tpie State then they wore bound to say they must obey Qod rather than man. If tjhey ignored the claims of God the civil power degenerated 5 if they ignored t,he divine sanotion of the civil authority it Would sink into socialism, which was the high road to anarchy. That waa the spring of the marvellous loyalty 'which had lieen shown again and again by Catholic* under the most trying circumstances towards the civil power. He would take one example, the Spanish Armada. There the loyalty of Englishmen was tried to the fullest degree, and a loyalty that could survive tbac /could survive anything. Yet tho English Catholics' of that day bore themselves J moat nobly. Why, the very Admiral Mio commanded the victorious English fleet was a Catholio, and they read in Hajlam, a non-Catholic historian, that Catholcs flocked from every county, to the standard that their allegiance might not be doubted, even at the expense of their religious interests, btill more conspicuous, perhaps, was the exhibition of loyalty given by the Catholics of Ireland to the Houso Uf Stuart, and tho base requital they received in the end. And in our day, who flocked with greater enthusiasm to the aid of the Empire in Souh Africa than our Catholic youth in New Zealand, Canada, and Australia? It was quite natural and appropriate, therefore, that in Christian ll i n^i u h \ inftU «uw«ion of Sovereigns should be brought about by religious and impressive ceremonies, such as were carried out the previous day with such solemnity and success in refqrence to their Gracious Majesties King Edward VII. and Queen Alexandra. The coronation of a Sovereign was always momentous, even in any nation, but when they hud to deal with a vast, world-wide Empiro hke that of the British they had to consecrate a Sovereign who would rule over a fifth of the human race. Might His

Majesty Edward VII. have a long, prosperous, and happy reign. The admirable sentiments expressed by him with such simplicity' and candour in his messuge to his people were a promise, iiji earnest, that he would be a good and virtuous Sovereign, that he would emulate the reign of his illustrious mother. Might our new monarch combine law and justice with mercy ; might truth and gentleness be the brightest gems of his crown, and might he love to emulate the virtue, the piety, the justice, the magnanimity of his great predecessor Edward the Confessor. And while they tendered their expressions of loyalty to His Majesty, they did not forget to associate with- him Her Majesty Queen Alexandra, who for many years already had gained the hearts of all her subjects and lived in the affections of hundreds of millions of her subjects in the British Empire, because she hnd given to the world an example of every quality, every grace, and every virtue that becomes a, queenly throne. Might her reign, too, be great, gloriQUß, and happy, and might she so live and die that we would associate her name with that of Victoria the Good. We live, Said his Grace, under a great constitution, we were proud of it, and we must be ready to defend it with oui blood and our lives if need be, and we Catholics also are bound by the most sacred ties of religion to love the brotherhood, to fear God and honour the King.