CORPUS CHRISTI AT NAPIER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 10, 26 June 1885, Page 13

CORPUS CHRISTI AT NAPIER.

(From an Ocasional Correspondent.) Confiding in tbe feelings which have always made the Tablkt the organ of Catholic news in New Zealaud, I send you the following lines from this little city of Hawke's Bay, hoping yon will find space for them in your next issue. The beautiful feast of Corpus Christi has passed away in Nap,ier, but not without leaving behind it some very consoling remembrances. On the morning of the festival the church was crowded at both Masses, and many went to Holy Communion. In the evening tnere were Vespers and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, with a very earnest and eloquent discourse by the Rev. Father Grogan, who dwelt at great length on the words of consecration, but more particularly on the text, " Do this in commemoration of Me," which he termed the stumbling-block of Protestants. The rev. gentleman forcibly proved that at that moment the eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ went out on all His apostles round about Him, and at that instant they were empowered to do the same as their Divine Master— that is, to consecrate the bread and wine into His sacred body and blood, and perform the other duties of the sacred prie&thood. Hence the golden chain, he said, of the highest power ever given to man commenced at the table of the Last Supper, from which it went out all over the world, and is to terminate only on the altar of the la-t sacrifice offered by the last priest at the dissolution of the world — " I shall be with you all days to the consummation of the world." The Rev. Father then— showing that the Blessed Sacrament was the bond of Christianity, the centre of the Christian lie, the source of the virtues and riches of the Christian— strongly exhorted his congregation to approach it worthily and frequently. There was Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament every

evening daring the Octave, before and after which the children of the conveat sang some very appropriate hymns. Bat what is a more convincing proof of the piety and zeal of the priests and people of Napier, -wa9 the beautiful consecration which took place in the Oatave of Corpus Christi, and eve of the Feast of the Sacred Heart. On tin Sunday evening previous, as a preparation, Father Grogan preached a beautiful sermon, on what he called the philosophy of the Sacred Heart. He took his text from St. John's Gospel—" In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word was made flesh." This gospel, he said, was written by the " Apostle of love," in his old age, and through, the persuasion of the whole Church of Asia, against Cerinthus, - Bbion, and others. He then vividly developed the inconsistent doctrines of the principal heresies relating to the doctrine of the Incarnation — maintaining that the Arians, Nestorians, Eutichians, etc., merely paved the way for modern Rationalists, and they in their turn were now assisting the Unitarians in their inveterate -, battle against the Athanasian Creed, because that Creed so clearly enunciates the true doctrine of the divinity of Christ. The Rev. - Father having clearly explained the various doctrines of the different ' . heresies that have troubled the Catholic world in nearly every century of her bißtory, forcibly set forth the true Catholic doctrine on the apostolic union in* the God-man. He dwelt at great length • on the two natures with all their perfections under the central and ■■ supreme action of the divine person, showing that as the heart is the centre of man, the fountain and the spring of the morality of his ■ action, so was the heart of Christ the centre of the combination of all the perfections of the Divine and human natures. All the omnipotence of the intelligence and the sanctity and the love and the mercy of the Eternal were there, all the ardour of the sympathy and the tenderness and the compassion of the human heart were there. Hence, as the very object of its existence was mercy for man, it is th? source of all the mercies at all times bestowed on man. Is it wonderful, then, he continues, that the love of the Sacred Heart is as old as Christianity itself 1 This be would show them on Thursday evening, when the consecration would take place, in which he intended to include not only the church, but the schools and the entire parish. The ceremony on Thursday evening was very impressive. A beautiful statue, life size, which was presented by the ladies of the Living Rosary, and procured from Lyons, was placed behind and above the high altar, — the place previously furnished with a large crucifix. The church was crowded, and the statue, with the lighted candelabra and beautiful flowers at its feet, presented a living appearance, and inspired every heart with high and holy thoughts. In the sanctuary were Fathers Grogan, Ejckham, Walsh of Kumar? , . and Melu. After the singing of a hymn by the Convent cbildren, _ the Rev. Father Grogan resumed bis subject of the Sunday previous, taking for his text the following :—" Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (St. Mat. 11 eh.) Vain, indeed, would any attempt of mine be to describe the explanations of this text, or the effect prodaced by the preacher when he described the nature of the Sacred Heart of Our Dear Lord, showing that it never refused to reveal itself to those who studied or loved it. Many quotations were given from the Holy Fathers, especially Sr. Augustine, and we were told that the love of the Sacred Heart was the ruling principle in the hearts of St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bernard St. Francis of Sales, St. John of the Cross, St. Ignatius, St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Rose of Lima. »nd all the great servant* of God. But though the devotion to the Sacred Heart was familiar to the saints of the Church at all times, yet it was formally and explicitly revealed only in the early part of the seventeenth century, when He who employs the weak to confound the strong made use of a weak sister to be the Apostle of the Sacred Heart. In less than 30 short years after this formal revelation of the greatest source of God's mercy <o sinners made known at Paray-le-iionial, no less than 300 confraternities were established all over the world, each able to count its members by the thousand. No devotion ever spread ' so fast, and no country, said the Rev. Father, was more instant and earnest in its development than Catholic Ireland, which in the spiritual warfare, like a trained soldier, after trying every source of spiritual assistance, at last made her way to the fountain-head and there, by a great public act on that memorable Passion Sunday, by which she consecrated herself for ever to the Bacred Heart of her Divine Bedeemer, has since found relief and rest. The Rev. Father then encouraged the congregation, amongst whom were many PrGtestaots, to unite their intentions with his and in presence of their Divine Lord on the Altar before them, to consecrate their Church, their schools, themselves and their children to the Sacred Heart for ever, and that henceforth they should look upon themselves as the cbildren of the Sacred Heart. Nor did he doubt but the love and mercy of the heart oE Our Diviue Lord would in return, — as with the Israelites in the desert, — cast a mantle of protection over thorn, because of their love to the Sacred Heart, and that many in this parish will yet look back and be able to flay when in the presence of God, that their salvation will in great measure be due to the consecratiou made iv this church to-night, after the singing of the O Salutaris, Father Grogan again asking all to form this intention., read a beautiful act of consecration, which very much edified all present. Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament then continued and the beautiful Octave of Corpus Ohristi was brought to an end.