OPENING OF NEW DOMINICAN CONVENT, OAMARU.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 51, 19 December 1901, Page 6

OPENING OF NEW DOMINICAN CONVENT, OAMARU.

(From our special reporter )

In spite of the very unfavorable weather on Saturday and the threatening appearance on Sunday morning a large congregation was present at the oeremonies in connection with the dedication of the uew Dominican Convent of the Holy Rosary at Oamarn. Pontifical High Macs was celebrated by his Lordship Bishop Verdon, with the Right Rev. Monsignor Mackay as assistant priest, and Rev. Fathers Ma mane (Christchurch) and Tubman (Timarn) as deaoon and fenbdeacon respectively. His Graoe the Archbishop of Wellington and his Lordship the Bishop of Christchnroh were also present. The choir was strengthened by visitors from Timaru, Waimate, and Dunedin, and by an efficient orchestra composed mainly of local musicians. The Mass selected for the occasion was Farmer's in B fiat. The soloiats were Mrs Lynch (Timaru"), soprano ; Mrs W. S. King, alto ; Mr McDonald (Timarn), bass ; and Messrs Eiby (Timaru) and Goldstone (Waimate), tenors. Mrs O'Meeghan (Timaru) and Miss McGuinness (Timaru) gave valuable assistance to the sopranos. The latter young lady gave a splendid rendering of Gounod's ' Aye Maria,' with violin obligato by Hon. G. Joneß. The orchestra consisted of tbe following instrumentalists : — Hon G. Jones, Ist violin ; Mr Fred Jones, 2nd violin; Mr W. Miles (Dunedin), clarionet; Mr N. Meldrum, trombone; Mr C. Jones, 'cello ; Mr H. Pheloung, bass ; Mr E. Schnack, Ist cornet ; Mr G. Pheloung, 2nd cornet. Miss K. Hannon, as organist, carried out her duties most efficiently. The amsiduous labors of the director, Mr W. S. King, were manifested by the high status of excellence shown by the choir at, both the morning and evening services. His Grace Archbishop Redwood preached the dedication sermon. NeedleßS to say that his hearers, amongst whom were many nonCatholic-, were spellbound, for never within the walls of St. Patrick's Baeilioa was heard po masterly 'a sermon. The following is a summary of his Grace's discourse :—: —

THE SERMON

Archbishop Redwood preached from the following text : 'Everyone that hath le f t house, or brfthren, or sisters, or fa'her, or Blither, or wife, or children, or lands for My Name's sake shall re-o.-ive »n hundredfold, and shall possess hie everlasting ' — (Matt. XIX , 29) After a brief reference to the solemnity of the day, which (s»id his Grace) deserved the highest appreciation, deepest sympathy, and most liberal f-upport of his htarers, the preacher jrweeried to sketch for them the life which is led by the Sistern who are to make the fine new convent their home.

A Nun

(s«id his Grace) is a Christian woman who has bound herself to God in order to tend to peifection by the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and by the observance of a common rule. Th re ia a true and essential perfection in this world which is strictly required of all men as a means of eternal salvation. It corflists in the union of the soul with God by charity which pioves itself by keeping 1 the commandments of God. But, as the d< grefs of charity are variable, so also are the grades of perfection. It suffices, for our present purpose, to distinguish two such grades which divide good people into two distinct clashes When the of God oame into the world to be our model, He opened before ub two ways to Heaven, the one, within the reach of everybody, which consists in keeping the commandments, and without which there is no salvation for those who have attained the use of reaFon. 'If thou wilt enter into life,' He says, ' keep the commandments.' (Matt, lit, 17) ; the other, more narrow and Bteep, adds to the keeping of the commandments tbe practice of the Counsels, and it is proposed only to nobler minds and more generous hearts, eager to attain a higher perfection in the Church of God, and a brighter crown in Heaven. 'If thou wilt be perfect, 1 He says, 'go sell what thou hast and give to the poor and then tbou shalt have treasure in Heaven' (Matt, lit, 21). He had just been pointing out to His disciples tbe excellence of chas i'y, and, by exhibiting to them its great reward, had exhorted them to embrace perfect continen< y ; He had declared it to be a way bo sublime that, without a special gift, men could neither understand its merit, nor embrace its constant lifelong pn.cticp. ' All mm take not this word, but they to whom it is given ' (Matt. 19, 11 . And again : 'He that can take, let him take it' (ib, 12). Then to the good young man who had asked Him what he should do to have life everUsting, and whom He had told to keep the commandments, He finally said : 'Come, follow Me ' (ib., 21) ; that is, walk in that way of obedience which I require in my more perfect disciples ; imitate Me Who became obedient unto death ; die to your own will, that you may lead a higher life with Me. His Grace here quoted from the works of St. Eusebius, St. Cyprian, and St. Jerome to show that there had been two distinct ways of living instituted in the Church of God : the one voluntarily rsroances marriage, posterity, fortune, and out of an immense love of heavenly things dedicates itself entirely to God ; the other is less elevated and more accessible to human weakness, it engages in lawful wedlock, is busy with public or private affairs, together with the practice of religion.

The Religious State.

Many persons — and their number is far larger" than is generally believed — who have well-grounded fears that, owing to their weakness, they would lose their souh in the world, are strictly bound to f mbrace the religious state. And oh I how excellent and how happy is that state ! First of all it partakes of the excellence of tbe apostolate ; for, the vocation of the apostles was the model of the religious vocation ; and it ia even of faith that Christ promised

to the religious life what He promised to His apostles, since H« concluded in general and without exception, that ' everyone that hath left house or brethren, or wife or children, or lands for My Name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess life everlasting ' (Matt 19-29). Everyone who renounces the world like the apostles shall receive with them a hundredfold. This hundredfold consists in the incomparable spiritual happiness which the true religious enjoys. The nun ia bound by vow to perpetual poverty.- chastity, and obedience under a common rule approved by the Church of God. These three vows, together with charity, constitute the happiness of the nun — a happiness so great that our Saviour calls it a hundredfold. Jesus Christ had spent almost thirty years of his life as a poor carpenter in the solitude of Nazareth. The time bad come for His manifestation to the world, and the revelatiou of His great truths. He climba a mountain near the city of David and opens His mouth to speak, and what are His first words ? ' Blessed are the poor.' What an astounding assertion; sooontrary to the universal opinion of men 1 Yet it was true, being the utterance of Divine wisdom. And if it was true of any poverty of spirit, any genuine Christian poverty, how muoh more of the perfection of poverty — religioas poverty 1

What ia Religious Poverty 1

It is, according to St Thomas Aquinas, the voluntary abdication of temporal goods both in heart and in effect. By the vow of poverty the nan positively and absolutely deprives herself of all right to the use of her property ; she can neither retain, nor give, nor lend, nor buy, nor sell, of her own independent will. Now thin spoliation constitutes real happiness. How ? Because it saves the religious from the bitter pains, the dark chagrin, the racking anxiety attendant on wealth ; it saves from the ' thorns of riches,' as our Saviour rightly calls them — cruel thorns, universal thorns — thorns of 'toil in their acquisition, thorns of fear in their preservation, thorns of grief and despair in their loos. Detachment from worldly goods, or poverty of heart, is necessary for salvation — for we cannot serve two masters, God and mammon ; but it is extremely hard to be detached from them while we actually possess and enjoy them ; therefore the safest and happiest way is to renounce their possession and use, by embracing voluntary and actual poverty. The best ship afloat cannot move onward, when fastened to the ground with many cables : break tbe cables, and away ehe sails in glorious career. Moreover, by poverty the religious resemble the apostles — for the virtue of poverty is msentially apostolic. To become apostles the discpleH of Chrirt had to leave all thing*. And the missioner of our day albo — what wealth has he but the poor cross which he p antd on a foreign strand ? But look especially at the mendicant orders — the poorest of the poor — bow great the glory of their apostolic ennqutbts! Again, by poverty the nun resembles tbe antrelH. Where are their vast domains, their stately palaces, their coff. rs of silver and gold, their sparkling jewels, their wardrobes of silk and ( urple, their treasures in gems and diamonds ? They are poor in earthly wealih — but they are rich in knowledge, rich in grace, rich in hive, rich of the wealth of God. So, to a great extent, is the truly poor religious. The next spring of happiness for the nun is

The Vow of Chastity

Where shall I find words for so great a theme ? 0 the beauty of that celestial gem ! Open the Scriptures and the Fathers and read their transports and admiration for tbis virtue. ' How beautilul in the chaste generation! Its memory is immortal before God and man.' And i gain : 'He that loveth. cleanliness of heart shall have the King — that in, G- d — for hit* friend.' But above all, ponder the words of Our Divine Lord : ' Mes-ed are the clean of heart for they shall t-ee Gort.' What in piomised to them? The light of ar.K'la, the light of God, 'What can be more beautiful than chastny ' — exclaims St. Bernard — 'which transforms man into an angel? But with a difference all in favor of man : in the angel, chastity i-» the happy endowment ot his nature ; in man, it is the conquest of virtue.' The angels burn with divine love, so does the nun if she is faithful to her vow. Look at St. Teresa : was ehe not an angel, a seraph in human frame? Besides, the angels ever Bee the face of the Father who is in heaven ; so the nun's pure heart will see God in the light of faith, in the contemplation of His mysteries. Her prayer will become more ardent, continual, incessant, like that of tue cherubim who encircle the Almighty's throne.

The Third Element of the Nun's Happiness is Obedience.

All mcD, without exception, ought to be the children of obedience, since all have masters and duties. But in an age when our ears are dinned with the words ' rights of man, liberties of man,' there are but few who do not aspire to command rather than to obey True obedience is hard to find outeide the cloister, and hence there alone are found true peace and happiness, the precious fruits of order and discipline. Obedience delivers the religious from all perplexity, and she is sure to do good, as long as she keeps the command given in the name of God. Like Jesus Christ she always does the will of her Heavenly Father. There is still another wonderfully consoling thought in obedience — I mean, the peculiar merit which the vow of obedience superadds to the life of the religious. And the same holds good in regard to the other two vows. The fourth and last main element in the nan's happiness is charity. ' Quam bonum et guam jucundum habitare fratres in unum.' The happiness of mind is the knowledge of truth, the happiness of the will is power, and* the happiness of the heart ia love. Love and union produce happiness, aa hatred and division beget misery. A charitable community is a picture of heaven. What is the bliss of heaven ? Essential blits is the vision and love of God ; accidental blibs, the vision and love of creatures in God. In like manner all good nuns in a community are united iv peace and joy, because they all behold the same God, by the eye of faith, in the person of their superiors ; they love and obey her

orders as those of ftod, and henoe their wills being conformable to the will of God, they partake of ita unity, rectitude, and blis*. Again, they find their j<y in the knowledge and love of the virtues and srood qualities of their Sisters. For when religious orders are charitable, they ure powerful like a well-ditciplined army ; their infioenoe is multiplied a hundredfold, for union in strength ; they astonish the worl-i by their conquests in science, in virtue, in every line of true human progress and civilisation. I come now to what the world at large will understand and appreciate better,

The Usefulness

of the nun's life. First by her voluntary poverty she enhances the dignity of our human nature and renders immense services to the State and to society. She is content 'm follow the common rule of her community, to use worn clothes, refrain from costly diversions, rise early, wait upon herself, and transmit, as a perfect communist, the whole fruit of her labor to the community. She is no parasite, she works and makes a suitable return for her daily bread. Alrm Bhe receives sometimes for the support of the works of mercy or public utility which she pursues ; but the mainspring of her resources is her constant labor combined with skilful economy. In matters of morals, the world is taught far less by books than by example. Tell the world to curb its desires and despise riches, and. it will laugh you to scorn. But show it men and women possessed of wealth, or competent to acquire it, cheerfully and voluntarily renouncing it and choosing instead a life of hardship, poverty, and toil in the service of their fellow-men, and believe me, this mute eloquence will win all generous hearts. Realising the grandeur and nobility of sacrifice, they will gain strength to resist at least the illicit seductions of pleasure. The poor will learn of them fruitful resignation instead of rebellious despair, and the rich the nothingness of the baubles by which they are seduced. Equally advantageous to the world at large iB

The Example of Chastity.

No Christian can doubt the great value of virginity, after Christ's invitation to embrace it, and its strong recommendation by the Church. Even pagan philosophers admitted its nobility, but trembled for our weakness. Even in our day many elevated souls, totally unaware of the divine strength imparted by the Supernatural to human frailty, are apt to say : 'It would indeed be beautiful, were it possible.' They are entirely wrong ; chastity is not only a possibility but a fact, a fact on a grand scale, wide as the universe. Anyone who understands the meaning of the words sacrifice and self-mastery must see that religious render by chastity to Bociety an eminently moral and material service. Now we come to the vow of obedience. First we must remember exactly what religious obedience is ? It is a perfectly reasonable submission to one who is a representative of the Church and of God. It is also noble, since it seeks no reward here below ; and fruitful, since its object is to do more good ; moreover, it is strictly limited to what is not sin. And now, who can enumerate all the advantages which religious have conferred on the Church and on society, not only as regards religion, but as regards arts, sciences, industry, and every branch of civilisation? Angels of peace, they bring down from heaven, by the ardor of their prayers, the choicest blessings upon the Christian people ; voluntary victims, they appease the wrath of God kindled against men for their crimes, and stand as a wall of brats between God and sinner ■< ; depositaries of profane sciences, they preserved in their precious manuscripts the masterpieces of ancient literature, Grecian and Roman ; untiring workers, they cleared the forests and drained the swamps of Europe, and made agriculture flourish in the barren wilderness ; watchful sentries in he house of God, they gave'the alarm when the enemy strove to bow cockle in the wheat field, and heresy endeavored to beguile the faithful and lead them astray from tbe path of eternal life ; the patrons of literature and arts, they enriched the various departments of human ltarning with immortal works, in which science flowed from pure, limpid, and untainted sources ; zealous apostles of that faith which, in the swtets of contemplation, they had learned to admire and enjoy, they fearlessly preached it to kings and peoples, with the twofold power of doctrine and example ; disinterested witnesses, free from the hindrance of family ties and the cares of fortune, they assumed tht tenderness of the parents whose place they took ; ' and from their hallowed lips dropped into the child's pliant mind the honey of holy doctrine, the love of country, and that piety which so wonderfully comforts aud strengthens the human heart in the woes of life. And now, referring especially to the Dominican Nuns, whose convent we bless and open to-day, under the auspicious title of the Holy Rosary, they, too, have

A Noble Record of Usefulness

Bince they came, thirty years ago, to this Colony. What varied services they have rendered throughout the length and breadth of this diocese to the vital cause of Catholic education ! What, indeed, could have been done without them, particularly in the beginning of the hard struggle against the invasion of State-aided and Statepampered secularism ? It is no exaggeration to say that thousands upon thousands of the Catholic women and girls of this diocese owe them a deep debt of gratitude for the thorough and Christian education which they have received at their most competent hands in the primary and secondary schools conducted by them with faultless zeal and conspicuous success, combining solidity of instruction, religious and secular, with the refinement and accomplishments which become a polite and cultured Christian society. May God's most copious blessing ever rest upon them 1 May they continue to spread and flourish ; may their virtues and services attract to their cloister an ever-increasing number of the elite of the Catholic girls of this Colony, so that their blessed community, * under the auspices of the Queen of the Holy Roeary, and the potent protection of their gre&t founder, St. Dominic, may be in this twentieth century fraught with so many hopes and apprehensions, and in the centuries to come, an unfailing joy and strength to the

Churoh, a priceless boon to society, and an honor to the whole Catholic body ir> New Zealand. The collection which was ma^e at the close of the High Maaa was responded to generously. The lists are not yet complete, as many were prevented from being present owing to the very unfavorable weather. The total of Snnday's collection reached upwards of £200, but this will be considerably increased when the lists are complete.

STYLE AND DIMENSIONS.

The new convent will, when completed, be one of the best of the many such inßtitntiona in New Zealand. Tt is built on a very commanding site on the high ground which bounds the western Bide of tbe town, with a fine view of the white stone oity and out to sea, and is well sheltered. The building ia constructed entirely of stone on oonorete foundations, the outer walls being hearted with cement concrete to insure their absolute dryness. This is the name ey;*tem of construction which has been used in conjunction with the Oamaru stone in the Oamarn Basilica and many other buildings in different parts of the Colony. The main front of the building is approached by means of a donble sweep of oonorete steps, with stone newels, and landing on the terrace which inns round three sides of the building. The principal entrance, which is protected by a verandah and balcony 36ft x 7ft, is immediately opposite to the middle landing of the front steps, and opens on to an entrance hall 19ft z Bft, at the further end of whioh are the glats doors and screen that mark off the enclosure. On either side of this wall are the two parlors, each 14ft z 19ft. On the ground floor the space is divided into accommodation for the community and the school, the latter being on the left side of the main entrance, and consists of children's refectory, 19ft z 19ft, class-room 19ft x 25ft, kindergarten 19ft x 24ft, and three music-rooms. The entrance to this part of the building is through a porch 7ft x 9ft from the terrace on the left of the building, and which gives access to a stair lobby 27ft z Bft 6in from which a wide stair in two flights gives access to the first floor which contains a dormitory 50ft z 19ft 6in, a small bedroom 10ft x 12ft, two other bedrooms each 9ft 6in z 20ft, a lavatory 16ft x 32ft fitted up with marble basins, hot and cold water, etc , two bath rooms, wardrobes and all proper sanitary arrangments. In the community division on the ground floor is the choir 25ft x 1 9ft at the right front of the building, nun's refectory 12ft x 18ft, community room 23ft z 19ft, lay Sisters' room 12ft 6in x 15ft, with bath rooms, etc., in addition, kitchen 25ft x 16ft, and scullery 15ft x 10ft. The kitchen range is one of Barningbam and Go's sft 6in, high pressure ranges with a hot water circulator sufficient to give an ample supply to all parts of the building. These rooms are all approached by means of two wide corridors, one 50ft x 6ft and the other containing the stairs 32ft x 9ft. This stair is similar to that described as being in the school side. The accommodation for the community on the first floor is most complete, consisting of 14 separate bedrooms of an average size of 10ft x 12ft together with two bath rooms, linen rooms, etc. The whole of the interior of the building is finished in a plain but substantial manner, the two parlors and the ohoir having the ceilings finished with Wunderlich's embossed metal, making a permanent and effective finish. All the public rooms are well ventilated, and tbe drainage, water supply, gas are brought into the building through a concrete tunnel which pasßes from the outside of the front under the building to a centre court yard from whioh the various pipes branch off. This arrangement renders the work of inspecting and repairing the pipes very simple, avoiding opening ground or lifting floors, etc. The whole of the drainage from the building flows into a septic tank for treatment. The roof of the building ia covered with Marseilles tiles, which take away the somewhat cold effect of the white stone walls. The recess between the two wings of the front is finished with both verandah and balcony having ornamental cast iron brackets to tbe posts and cast iron frieze to the balcony roof. A similar balcony is carried along the whole of the right side of the buildup. Tlu two balconies are entered rrom the top floor of the community division by means of two g!asf» doors, and the verandah by means of two French windows besides the side entrance and front entrance door This will enHure the nuns obtaining plenty of exercise in any weather. The buildii gis from the designs ot Mr. F. W. Pet^e, architect, l^unedin, and has been erected by Mr. Alaxander Gillin, contractor, Oamaru.