AN IRISH MONASTERY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 196, 5 January 1877, Page 14

AN IRISH MONASTERY.

A writer in the Cork • Examiner' says some pleasant things about the great Cistercian Abbey of Melleray which will be read with I satisfaction not alone by the old students of Mount Melleray in America, but by all our Catholic people to whom nothing Catholic is alien : — I have just made a prolonged stay in Mount Melleray Abbey, County Waterford. I went to the Abbey without uuich knowledge of monastic life, or without at all knowing the noble objects that the good fathers of Melleray had in view. Perhaps a shade of prejudice may have dimmed my judgment in their regard. Belonging to a class of people — supposed to be essentially practical in their view of all things — I was a little inclined to think that monastic life was not much better than a pleasing and poetical speculation. Experience soon convinced me that whatever is romantic or theoretical or enthusiastic or exaggerated is very alien to the habitual modes and practices of the occupants of Melleray. A moment's view of the issue of their undertakings places this beyond all doubt. And now, briefly for the proof. Father Lacordaire remarks that the most astonishing claim which Christ urged upon all mankind was the claim of their love. Hardly, he observes, does love exist without peril of decay amongst members of a single family ; hardly even does wedded love retain through the lapse of years its original fervor ; yet Christ commands the eternal, undivided love of each individual in all the families of the earth ! Father Lacordaire proposed this to unbelievers as one proof of the truth of His mission. He calls attention to the fact that none of the heroes of the human x'ace ever conceived this idea. An Assyrian monarch might insanely bid all men worship him, and a conqueror, going forth from a province of Greece, might force all men to fear him ; but which of the world's rulers ever thought cf commanding all men to love him ? Now turn to the humble occupants of Melleray, and see them from two every morning in the year till eight o'clock every evening 1 praying and laboring that blessings may be bestowed on mankind without exception of clime or creed. What is the motive that cheers them on through this ordeal ? What sustains them and secures them I a place which the world can neither give nor take away ? Their ', love of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. See them passing ' noiselessly to labor in the fields, or to sing the praises of God in their choir. Observe them at the various and incessant duties of 1 the day, and you can perceive from their countenances that their souls are altogether absorbed in God and fed only by the waters of ' life which flow out from beneath His throne. What can have so transformed men and made them models of true charity, as de- ; scribed by the Apostle in the First Epistle to the CorinthiaDs ? Only the love of God could have done so, But their labor of love 1 docs not end here. The cry throughout the world now — the universal watchword — is " educatoni." 1 An ancient philosopher lays down in liis politics three rulws

for a good education, a standard of which h " attainable," " moderate," and " suitable." Go to Melleray and see the beautiful school for the children living within a circuit of three or four miles around the abbey. The school building is a model for neatness, furniture, ventilatiou, warmth for the cold winter, and for its surroundings. The children are taught gratuitously. They are educated so as to fit them for the occupation in which they are likely to be engaged during life. Their comforts are cared for with that refined and bright personal sympathy for which the Lord Abbot has been so remarkable during his long and happy career. But so zealous for the salvation of souls are these faithful sons of St. Bernard that they have undertaken a higher and holier work, in which they have achieved a great success. They have wrought into thorough working order a system of education for young boys intended for the priesthood. Reflection on the sad need of priests and the limitless good the^.can effect on the foreign missions must call forth many aMarty prayer for blessings on Mount Melleray Seminary This institution has long labored and is still doing bo, to supply the pressing want. It is not long since Cardinal Manning appealed for means to found a diocesan seminary, in which to prepare priests for the diocese of Westminster. And his appeal was answered at once by the receipt of some .£16,000. One of his remarks applies an hundred fold to the present subject. He said, " No one can tell the amount of good effected by the ministry of one priest. Those whom he instructs will continue the good work, and so the salvation of souls and the glory of God will be promoted to an extent of which we can form no idea." If this be true (and who can doubt it ?) of one diocese— what shall we say of the want of priests in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, in India and Great Britain ? What may be the amount of good to be done for the present and future generation in those vast regions —if priests should minister in them ? The efforts eagerly made by the bishops in those countries to secure young men at Melleray for their missions prove the existence of this great want. The immense majority of their congregations are Irish, or of Irish descent. They have left the " Isle of the Saints." " Isle of the Saints," cries out the great French historian in admiration — " Isle of the Saints, gem of the seas, all fruitful Ireland, where thy sons sprin<* from thy purity, multitudinous as the flower of the fields !" They have left us, and across the seas they call to vs — " Have pity on us, have pity on us, at least you, our friends." Send us priests to watch over our little ones, and, when flesh and heart are failing us, to whisper peace into our ears, and cheer our passage to eternal life. Can we remain unmoved by— shall we be unmindful of this appeal ? Many have gone forth— nobly gone forth, and are lalormg successfully in the far-off vineyards of the Lord. But the want of priests cannot be exaggerated. Mellaray is meeting the want, and meeting it well, but is desirous and able to do more. Want of means hampers its efforts. Funds should be forthcoming to second these efforts. All its professors are members of the community. What they profess to teach they teach thoroughly. The students, after finishing, their philosophy, enter the home or continental colleges in order to complete their course. The principal of Melleray College, through many years of labor and success, has proved what one man^of ability can do whose heart and soul are in the work. Out of one hundred and twelve students at present there, nearly all are for the foreign missions Five new buildings now afford room for thirty additional students! But before receiving them means must be supplied. There is no difficulty in selecting most promising lads. The selection continues to be made— considering the state to which the students aspire— from the creme de la creme of the country. In the atmosphere of piety that surrounds the abbey, Melleray becomes a fitting place to train up apostolic missionaries, and hence many of its former students are distinguished and holy priests in the United States and in Australia. Notwithstanding the great drawbacks in primary schools and in intermediate education in Ireland, her sons carry off the palm at the Propaganda and at the competitive examinations in London. Truly, the poet says, Ireland " Magna pnrens frugum, Magna virurn." It remains for those vho are blest with; means' to assist according to their ability in supplying priests to their kindred scattered over the earth, and to promote this, the greatest of all the works of charity. St. Dyomsius says, "Of Divine works the most Divine is to co-operate with God in the salvation of souls." Happy for those who are inspired to do so. Glorious privilege of Ireland The great historian has written that Ireland is destined to regenerate the earth. °