HOLY CROSS CONVENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 638, 15 April 1929, Page 12

HOLY CROSS CONVENT

“POWER-HOUSE OF GOD” NEW BUILDING OPENED Last September fire destroyed the Holy Cross Convent, Sisters of Mercy, at Epsom. Yesterday afternoon a new convent was opened on the old site in The Drive. Bishop Cleary performed the ceremony before a large attendance. The new convent is a single-storeyed wooden structure of 12 rooms, and a small chapel. Father O’Byrne, after welcoming the bishop, referred to the work of the Msters, who spent their lives in teaching the children. Appealing to those present for assistance, he stated the cost of the convent was £2OO or £3OO above the amount of the insurance on the old building. The bishop said he looked upon the new convent, us upon all other convents and schools, as places of light and illumination—illuminated like Him who was the Light of the World. They were places filled with the presence of God.

Next month, he said, would see the beginning in the district of the distribution of the electric energy from Arapuni. Every convent and school was a great power-house of God. Vast sacrifices had been made by the people of the Dominion for Catholic education, and none more than that made in Auckland. They gloried in this sacrifice. But the people were making the sacrifice of things external, while the sacrifice of the Sisters and Brothers was that of their lives. If he were called upon to say parting words, they would be. “Look after the souls of the children. Set an example to them.” “It would be a calamity for any family or home if good instruction and training were to be spoiled by carelessness or indifference.’** Reference was also made by Fathers McKeefry and Hirley to the work of the Sisters.