MISSION AT ST. PATRICK’S

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 November 1940, Page 2

MISSION AT ST. PATRICK’S

SERMON ON PRAYER. The Redemptorist Mission which will conclude to-morrow at St. Patrick’s Church, Greymouth, again Attracted large congregations yesterday when the Novena for peace was continued. The Novena - will conclude to-morrow morning with a General Communion of all parishioners, there being four Masses at 6 a.m., 7 a.m., £.30 a.m. and 10 a.m. The final Mission sermon will be preach.ed to-morrow evening by Rev. Father Selleck, after which the Papal Blessing .will be given... i. .. On Monday morning Requiem Ma'cc •urill SOlllS

of parishioriers who have died, since the last Mission. “Watch and Pray that you enter not into Temptation” (St. Matthew), was the text of Father Selleck’s. sermon, last evening. “By this stage of the 'Mission, I am sure you . haye made many good resolutions,” said Father Selleck. “It is riot so necessary to exhort you to make new resolutions as it is to confirm you in the resolutions you have already made. You have reflected on. what God has done for you and what He requires you to do. You have stood in spirit by the bed of death; you have seen the soul trernbling before the' judgrhent seat of God waiting for that sentence which will decide its fate for all eternity, and by the grace of God you have decided to do all in your power to receive a favourable judgment. “But there is one thing, and one thing alone which is necessary,” he continued. “It is prayer. It is easy to do well during a Mission when God pours down His grave in abundance; it is easy enough to make strong .promises and holy resolutions; it is not so easy to keep up to them when the enthusiasm of the Mission has passed away, and when your feelings of piety and devotion have begun to grow weak. Therefore, it is important to consider the great necessity of prayer and fidelity to its practice. “In the life of Christ there is no lesson that He taught more constantly than the lesson of constant prayer. By His own example He set us a beautiful model. Before beginning His public life He retired into a desert, where for 40 days and 40 nights He poured forth His soul to His Eternal Father in prayer. When the crowds had followed Him from Gallee, from Jerusalem, and from the parts beyond the Jordan, to. hear the words which fell from His sacred lips, He went up to a high mountain that He might speak to them with more effect, and finding a level spot, He stood and preached the mightiest sermon that has ever been preached on earth, for it was the Eternal Son of God Himself who spoke. In that solemn discourse, with that immense crowd before Him, He took the occasion to teach the multitude how to pray. He even gave them the very form of prayer that they should use—- “ Our Father Who are in Heaven.” “But prayer is no less necessary on the part of man,” continued Father Selleck. “To see how much we are still in need of prayer, we must remember our helplessness in this life. Our Lord has described our state exactly when He said, ‘without Me ybu can do nothing.’ Did He mean that we can do nothing at all, even physical movements? No, we all know that we can work, walk, run, play and do all these physical things, but He meant that without Him we can do not the least supernatural thing. “Therefore,” concluded Father Selleck, “let us grasp the mighty lesson contained in this exhortation to prayer. Christ’s words, ‘you ought always to pray and not to feint,’ should be ever in our minds. Prayer will be a powerful means to overcome all enemies that strive to drag our souls to Hell. Let us.be convinced of the solemn words of St. Alphonsus, the great Doctor of prayer, that prayer makes all the difference between salvation and damnation. Let us spend every effort in making ourselves faithful to our morning and night prayers; to prayer in temptation, and to prayer, above all, for the blessing of a holy and happy death.

COUNTRY MISSIONS. • To-morrow evening, Rev. Father G. V. Gartlan, C.SS.R., will commence a week’s mission at the Church of the Sacred Heart, Runanga, where a Mass at 5.30 a.m. daily will enable Catholic miners to attend before proceeding to work. On Monday, Father Selleck will open a Mission at Te Kinga, where the exercises will continue until Thursday morning. On. Thursday evening he opens a Mission at Kotuku, continuing until the following Sunday.