THE SACRED HEART.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 10, 4 July 1890, Page 11

THE SACRED HEART.

(By the Rev. A. J. Ryan, poet priest of America.) Two lights on a looely altar, Two snowy cloths for a feast, Two vases of dying roses j The morning comes from the East ) With a gleam for the folds of the vestments And a grace for the face of the priest. Tbe sound of a low, sweet whisper Floate over a little bread, And trembles around a chalice, And the priest bows down his head — O'er a sign of white on the altar, In the cup o'er a sign of red ■ As red as the red of roses, As white as the white of snow I But the red is the red of a surface Beneath which a God's blood flows ; And the white is tbe white of a sunlight Within which a God's flesh glows. Ah I words of the olden Thursday I Ye come from tbe far away I Ye bring us the Friday's Victim In his own love's olden way 1 In the hand of the priest at the altar His heart finds a borne each day. The sight of a Host uplifted ! The silver sound of a bell 1 The gleam of a golden chalice — Be glad, sad heart I 'tis well ; He made and he keeps love's promise, With thee all days to dwell. From his hand to his lips that tremble, From hiß lips to his heart a thrill, Goes the little Host on its love-path, Still doing tbe Father's will ; And over the rim of tbe chalice The blood flows forth to fill The heart cf the man anointed With the waves of a wondrous grace, A Rilence falls on the altar, An awe on each bended face, For tbe Heart that bled on Calvary Still beats in the holy place. The priest comes down to the railing, Where brows are bowed in prayer, In tbe tender clasp of his fingers A Host lies pure and fair, And the hearts of Chiist and the Christian Meet there, and only there I O love that is deep and deathless 1 0 faith that is strong and grand ! O hope that will shine for ever O'er the wastes of a weary land I Christ's Heart finds an earthly heaven In the palm of the priest's pure hand.

Profi-ssor Pettenkofer, of Munich, till lately one of the leaders cf the Old Catholic sect, has renounced his errors, and has been publicly reconciled to the Chuicb,

As result of the four weeks' mipsi^n at St. Gabriel's Church, New York, conducted by th*> Pauliat Fathers, twenty converts weie confirmed by Right Rev. John J. Conroy, Bishop of Curium.