ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH, TEMUKA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 461, 10 February 1882, Page 7

ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH, TEMUKA.

(From an occasional correspondent.)

January 31, 1882. Last Sunday his Lordship Bishop Redwood made his first official visitation to this district since his return from Home. Crowded congregations assembled both at Mass and Vespers, many people coming from Timaru ; not a few members ot other churches were also present. At the end of the second Mass, his Lordship administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to about 20 children, after preaching to them a very instructive sermon explanatory of the Sacrament. At Vespers he preached again, taking for his subject Faith. The discourse was able and particularly felicitous in its illustrations. Three fatal errors were pointed out and forcibly refuted— that Faith is irrational, that it is vnnecessarv and that it is alone sufficient. A bare outline, such as our present Bpace might allow, would, however, convey a very inadequate notion of this remarkable sermon. In conclusion, the Bishop warmly congratulated the Catholics of Temuka on the erection of their large and handsome stone church, with its noble tower and spire, its merry Deal of bells, its glorious procession of Saints on its stained glass-windows its beautiful and solid altar, and last, but not least, its iour-dial t lock 1 " ™ e . Bt^}f' was - he said » a Rreat proof and monument of their Faith When he had spoken to aowded congregations in London about the zealous and devoted manner in which the Catholics of Temuka had carted gratis, and from a distance of 11 miles the •tone to build it, his description was received with the liveliest approbation. He thanked them most heartily for tbeir generous offer-

nigs and successfnl exertions, while he exhorted them to be still more diligent m building up the temple of their souls. He was happy to tell them that on the previous day he had consecrated their peal of bells, and he hoped that as often as their sweet tones gladdened their ears, their hearts would waim with the love of God, and their minda be renewed m Faith. He then gave them the Apostolic Benediction, this being his first visit to the pariah after his return from Rome.