LENTEN PASTORAL

New Zealand Tablet, 6 February 1913, Page 22

LENTEN PASTORAL

DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH JOHN JOSEPH, By the Grace of God and favor of the Apostolic See, BISHOP OF CHRISTCHURCH. To the Clergy, Secular and Regular and Faithful of the said Diocese, Health and Benediction in the Lord. Dearly Beloved Brethren and Children in Jesus Christ: —Holy Writ tells us in its opening pages that when! the Almighty had brought forth the heavens and the earth and the fulness thereof He created man to His own image and likeness and placed him in a garden of delights giving him undisputed possession of all therein. Looking down upon the masterpiece of His creation 'God took compassion on man's solitude, and pronounced these touching words:''' It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto himself. Then the Lord cast a deep sleep upon Adam; and when he was fast asleep, He took one of his ribs, and filled up the flesh for it. And the Lord God built the rib which He took from Adam, into a woman: and brought her to Adam. And Adam said: This now is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of mast. Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh.' (Gen. 11, 18, 21-24.) Such is woman's divinely appointed mission. To be man's ' help mate. A help like unto himself.' To help him in his toils and labors, in his sorrows and distress, in his joys and longing aspirations. But man was not created for the earth; heaven is his true home and country. His hopes and aims and longing aspirations must lead towards heaven. Woman has been given to help him herein. To be a ' help like himself.' This gift of woman was one of the first and greatest gifts bestowed by the Almighty on His masterpiece man. Alas ! hardly had this gift been given than woman forgot her sublime mission, and used it with the power she held over the heart of man to turn him from God and from the end of his creation. In punishing her, the Almighty did not withdraw from woman her lofty mission. She was still to be a ' help like unto himself '; and never was that help more necessary. To enable her to fulfil her sublime destiny as man's help, the Almighty endowed her with extraordinary gifts, with the power and means for the fulfilment of her mission. To realise the grandeur of this mission, one must not only gaze on the beautiful type of Eve with her matchless grace and purity made to charm the heart of man, and rise with him to the Most High, nor the other no less admirable type of Eve fallen, but weeping over her fall, which she longs to expiate, to be the first in every good work, as she had been the first in evil. To understand the daughter, the wife, the mother of man, one must rise higher. One must rise to the wondrous woman at once Virgin and Mother, whose name was Mary. She is woman with the sublimest of sublime vocations. This new and greater Eve, though a spotless Virgin, was a mother who bore a God within her womb. She brought forth the Incarnate Word, Who for three and thirty years of His mortal career loved and obeyed her as His Mother, and honored and revered her as the best, the noblest of His creatures. In her and through her woman) may learn to fulfil her mission to uplift, purify and console man, to detach him from earth and lead him to heaven. This is the secret of the universal respect, the chivalrous love, the honors lavished on woman for the last two thousand years. This, too, is the secret of the dazzling purity, the aureola of modesty, the grave beauty, the amiable liberty, the generous virtue and the longing to charm the heart of man, to lift him up to heaven and go there with him, so characteristic of not a few of the gentler sex. -

Oh, the marvellous dispensations of Providence! At the last day only shall we know how many a man would have forgotten his God, his soul, his eternity, •were it not for a pious wife, a devoted daughter, a fond sister or mother ! Sad indeed were the state of society and individuals were the efforts of atheists to succeed in banishing from the mind and heart of woman the love" of God and duty! To bring home to ourselves what woman owes to the Church of Jesus Christ, we must understand her position before and since the advent of Christianity. One of the saddest sights presented to us in the history of the human race is the ' frightful condition of woman before the coming of Christ Jesus.' Among all pagan nations she was regarded as a slave, a vile thing, at most a plaything ! Surely. the lords of creation, men, had the power of life and death over her. Everywhere the condition of woman was of the lowest, the most infamous degradation. Man's slave whilst living, she was taught that her highest honor was to be slain on the tomb of her husband that she might have the privilege of serving him 'in the next world. This was the brutal legislation of ancient Germany and Gaul. Even amongst the civilised Greeks and Romans of old, her lot was one of cruelty the most revolting. From the very cradle to the grave her life was well nigh one unbroken course of humiliation, sorrow, and suffering. The selling of woman was admitted by all ancient peoples. Sold by her parents to the man who was to marry her, she, at once became his property, and he could sell or slay her as he thought fit. Amongst nearly all the people of Asia, matrimony itself, which for the woman was but a long and painful martyrdom, always ended in the immolation of the victim. Had she the misfortune to grow old, whilst living with her husband, or rather tyrant, he had the right to put an end to the trouble by strangling her as he would slay a beast no longer able to serve him. Should the husband die all his wives were slain upon his tomb, or at least, the one whom he loved the most. Often her own father cut her throat over the grave of his son-in-law, her husband. The inhabitants of, Tartary obliged the wife to suffer herself to be burnt alive on the funeral pile, where the husband was being consumed. In some places she was buried alive with the corpse of her husband. This cruel custom recently existed in many parts of the South Sea Islands. Among the Parthians, the killing of one's sister or daughter was thought no more of than the killing of an insect. In general among nearly all pagan people the right of life and death was recognised and warranted by law to the husband over his wife, as to the father over his daughter. Among the Arabs, when a tribe had more girls than they wanted, they put to death all the newlyborn, burying them alive in a ditch dug out on purpose. Among the Gauls and Germans, married women were in the eyes of the law slaves of men, as they, are, this very day, among the unconverted South Sea Islanders. Forced to work for them during life, they were slain over the tombs of their dead masters, to go and work for them and serve them in the next world. This horrid legislation was but a reflex of the still more horrible religious dogma ' professed by the Gauls: ' Woman is an impure being, and therefore for ever excluded from Valhalla, or the paradise of Odin, unless she slew herself to go and rejoin her dead husband.' In Athens, among the Greeks, so greatly vaunted 1 for the wisdom of their laws, the condition of woman was no less deplorable than elsewhere. She was there bought to bear children, with the faculty of sending her away immediately afterwards to be thrown upon the streets or destroyed as a useless piece of furniture. She was looked upon as a piece of movable property, or at most there was no legal difference between the wife and the female slave. In imperial Rome when the laws granted man the right of divorce, the wife was often dismissed for the most frivolous pretext. Meeting his wile, with un-

covered head outside the door, Sulpicius pitilessly drove her from his hearth and home. Paulus Emilius, being asked why he dismissed his wife, gave this cynical answer: 'My shoes are new and well made, but who knows where they pinch me Cicero repudiated his wife Terentia merely because he wanted a fresh dowry. Augustus compelled the husband of Livia to cast her aside that he might marry her himself. May we not sum up the "relations of the married life among the pagan upper classes in these words: ' Brutality on the one side and servile fear on the other?' The woman of the working class was. condemned to tortures even more atrocious, that of seeing her own offspring done to death before her very eyes ! Hardly was the child born than the midwife laid it at the father's feet. Should he raise it from the ground and take it in his arms to restore it to the nurse or its mother the child was kept, though the father always had the right to sell or slay it with his own hands. Should the father refuse to look upon the child and leave it on the ground, it was strangled or exposed to die on the roadside or hurled into the river. Should the' husband set out for a long journey, leaving his wife with child, he did not forget to say to her with horrible coolness: ' Should you, during my absence, give birth to a girl, destroy it.' The poor often exposed or killed all their children. Were any exception made, it was in favor of the boys. Generally speaking there was no favor for girls, who were considered a heavy burden, worthy only of the utmost scorn and contempt. When the rich and noble already had two or three sons the rest were inexorably put to death. The religion of Jesus Christ has lifted up and ennobled woman. Open the very first page of the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. Do we not there read how an Angel came down from the throne of God and prostrating, himself before one whose name was Mary revealed to her the mind of the Most High in the wondrous work of, saving the world, laying at her feet the homage of heaven and earth united, greeting her as no other creature was ever greeted before. ' Hail full of grace, blessed are thou amongst women,' and asking her consent to become the Mother of an Incarnate God, the world's Redeemer? What a revolution ! Woman hitherto the most degraded, or despised suddenly becomes the most exalted. Well may she under the influence of the Holy Spirit cry out in her immortal canticle the 'Magnificat,' 'My soul doth magnify the Lord—He that is mighty hath done great things to me. Henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.' Not only is woman, through her whose name is Mary, restored to a life of innocence and glory in the person of a Virgin Mother, the Mother of the Incarnate Word made man in her chaste womb, there is something no less wonderful still. , Long centuries of sorrow, of shame and affliction had made woman lose her primitive innocence and holiness. How touching the sight of the woman prostrated at the feet of Christ Jesus bathed in tears of repentance wherewith she washes the feet of the forgiving Saviour who restores her to her lost innocence! Not only does Tie say: 'Woman, thy sins are forgiven.' He accepts her ardent faith, proclaims her exalted love, suffers her to increase in holiness by actual contact with His Divine person, and gratefully receives the loving services of her devotedness. Purified and truly holy, she is allowed to reach the most exalted heights of heroism. During the awful hours of His Passion, when the flock is dispersed, and strong-minded men, aye, even the very Apostles shamefully flee away from their Divine Master, woman takes her stand on the bleeding heights of Golgotha, and fearlessly faces the brutal deicides and religiously, Oh, how religiously! gathers up the last drops of the Precious Blood of her murdered God ! Ennobled at the foot of the Cross, woman comes down from the summit of Calvary to astonish the world by the heroism of her wnnHiwis st™™"+!> «>,„ n „ n „ the scornful sneers of proud Rome. She crosses without alarm the threshold of the tribunals, and she bears on her brow the aureola of the martyr and often very often that of 'Virgin Martyr.' The pages of history are there to record such heroines under the name of

an Agatha, an Agnes, a Lucy, and a Cecilia, . No longer dishonored as the slave or toy of brutal man, she is tne virgin victorious and free, the Mother triumphant, the matron glorified by the power of her virtues, though it call for. the blood of the martyr! Once ennobled and restored to her long lost place in the world, we find the Christian woman at the head of every good and noble work. She truly becomes the ' help of man.' Constantine the Great is powerfully helped by his mother, St. Helena. Eudoxia and Pulcheria adorn the palace of the Caesars. A Monica prepares the works of a genius by helping the great Augustin. At- the foot of the Throne, a Clothilda brings Clovis to the faith, a Blanche of Castile makes of her son Louis a warrior, a statesman, and a saint. Christian heroines are found in every walk of life. Out of thousands and thousands recorded, the names of the royal Elizabeth of Hungary, Genevive the lowly Shepherd of Paris, and Joan of Arc, the valiant Maid of Orleans, readily come before us. All Christian virgins have not been called to the way of martyrdom. Having escaped the lust and cruelty of tyrants, many have been chosen by Jesus Christ to embrace another life no less holy and meritorious. He has called them to the inviolable asylums of the religious life, a life wherein they become very angels on earth. Removed from the gaze of men, for tneir heavenly Spouse Christ Jesus, : they live a life of piety, prayer, and mortification mingled with intellectual or other useful labors. Should human • passions, like the tyrants of old come in search of their prey, they find between them the Christian virgin, the impassable barrier of the triple vows of religion. Beneath the modest garb of her voluntary virginity, in the depth of a protecting cloister woman appears as a beautiful vision of a heavenly world. But it is chiefly around the domestic hearth in the home that woman finds her greatesjt honors. Of man it is written, ' Man . shall go forth to his work, and to his labor .until the evening,' Ps. ciii, 23. Man is not only king at home, he is its providence, the very life of the household. What care and anxiety, and weariness does not = his office entail ? What a trial for his piety ? On the other hand, woman is queen, of the household, surrounded therein by her rights, prerogatives, and duties. The. more she confines herself to the duties of home and the family the more she seems to act in harmony with her sublime mission, the lofty position to which God has destined her. For her, the noise and tumult and bustle abroad are often as fruitless as fatal. For her the calm peaceful silence of home is most favorable for the practices of piety for which woman is so remarkable. Her mission is to transmit this piety to her children. She should be their first teacher, their first doctor in the law. From her lips the science of God must first flow upon them. Her knees should be the first pulpit whence they learn the truths of revelation. Sad indeed the fate of the children who find in their mother carelessness and lack of devotion! Nothing in the world can supply for them this formation of their infancy and childhood, whereof a pious mother is the holy instrument. No wonder the Almighty seems to have endowed woman for this with a nature far more sensitive, gentle, and attractive than that of man; a nature leading her easily to God and the things of God. Speaking of the mission of a mother in the home, the illustrious Cardinal Gibbons says: ' The pious Christian home is the.best and most hallowed of all academies, and the mother is the oldest and the most cherished of all teachers. The devout Christian mother is called to be an apostle. The family circle is her field of labor; the members of the household are the souls committed to her ministry.' No teacher can adequately supply the place of the mother. No one has the same hold that she maintains on the intellect and affection of her child. She is not only an authority whose right to rule is never questioned, but also an oracle that is implicitly believed. The words and example of a parent, especially of a mother, exert a life-long influence on the child. The

seed of righteousness sown in the youthful mind by the maternal hand, usually bears abundant fruit. The salutary lessons the mother taught are seldom, effaced from the memory. They are engraven on. tbA, heart in luminous characters, and the .sacred image or the mother herself stands before us silently, but eloquently, pleading the cause of God. ' that woman have written no Iliad, nor Jerusalem Delivered, nor Hamlet, nor Paradise Lost. They have designed no church like St. Peter's Basilica, composed no Messiah, carved no Apollo Belvidere, painted ,no Last Judgment; they have invented neither Algebra, nor telescope, nor steam engine; but they have done something far greater and better than all this, for it is at tneir knees that upright and virtuous men and women have been trained,the most excellent productions of the world.' Anthusa, the mother of St. John Chrysostom, .became a widow at the age of twenty years. , She divided her time between the care of her family and her exercises of devotion. She instilled into her son from the first dawn of reason the most exalted maxims of Christian piety. His future teacher, a. celebrated pagan sophist, was so profoundly impressed with the infiuenoe exerted on Christendom by his mother, that he exclaimed : What wonderful women the Christians possess!' / ••■' • l St. Basil refers with admiration and gratitude to his childhood's days, spent under the guidance of his excellent parents and saintly grandmother. The pure and invigorating atmosphere he then breathed, the order and tranquillity that reigned in the household, and the lessons of heavenly wisdom he imbibed, were a powerful antidote against the moral and intellectual poison of the schools of Athens, which he afterwards frequented. They moulded the character and conduct of his whole life. -The parents of St. Gregory of Nazianzen are both honored in the Calendar of the Church. Gregory profited as much as did his friend Basil by the hallowed environments in which his youthful days were spent, and by the living models of virtue he daily contemplated. George Washington exhibited in an eminent degree during his public life the natural virtues of heroic courage, love of truth, magnanimity, pure patriotism, and a rare disinterestedness. He glories in confessing that he was indebted in a large measure for these traits of character to the assiduous vigilance and methodical habits, to the wholesome instructions and example of his excellent mother. The celebrated American, John Randolph, is quoted as having once remarked: 'I should have been an atheist, if it had not been for one recollection; and that was the memory of the time when my departed mother used to take my little hands in hers, and cause me on my knees to say "Our Father Who art ; .n heaven." ' The eminent Judge Gaston, well known and revered in the "United States of America, always and fondly referred to his pious Christian mother, to whom under God he attributed not only the heritage, of his faith, but also those sterling virtues, moral and civic, which had endeared him to his fellow-citizens. Chief Justice Taney pays this beautiful tribute to his mother: 'She was pious, gentle, and affectionate, retiring and domestic in her habits. I never in my life heard her say an unkind word to any of her children, nor speak ill of any one. I remember and feel the effect of her teaching to this day.' Would to God that this eulogy could be pronounced on all Christian mothers! Dearly beloved brethren and children in Jesus-V Christ, it is a well known • historical fact that of all ancient nations, the Jews alone, belonging to the true revealed religion, considered woman to be of the same nature and rank as man, whose equal she was intended to be. In the first pages of the Bible we see something of the grandeur, the dignity, and mission of woman. Is it not there recorded that woman was created not to be the inferior nor yet his superior, but the companion—-

the help-mate of man ? Do we not there find that her noble mission is to develop the rich faculties, the beau-, tiful talents wherewith God hath endowed her to save her own and lead man's immortal soul to the throne of their loving Creator? But we have also seen that it is to the religion of Jesus Christ and of the Church of Jesus Christ that woman owes her true emancipation, her true ennobling. One of the greatest triumphs of Christianity is the victory it has won, after a long, hard, but glorious struggle over the vile and gross inclinations and brutally disordered passions of savage and semi-civilised nations. Thanks to this triumphant struggle, woman can lift up her head and fearlessly proclaim herself an integral part in God's great work of the creation. Thanks to this triumphant victory woman is everywhere surrounded with honor and veneration. Everywhere she is expected to rule supreme in her sphere.' All this and more, we unhesitatingly repeat, she owes to the successful efforts of Christianity in her. behalf. Whilst extolling woman's mission, the Church is careful to remind her. that the world has a right to expect great things of her. If she is endowed with so many graceful qualities, especially with indomitable love and strength of will, she is reminded that she possesses them for the better fulfilment of her grand mission. Man may boast of greater physical strength, his intellect in many ways may be more vast, his thoughts forsooth deeper. He may use mightier weapons to enforce his will, his commands may be more absolute, his voice more penetrating. He is made for public life, and in the bosom of his family, he is felt to be very king and master. But is he gifted with greater moral strength, greater powers of persuasiveness? No! No! We have already seen how God Himself has given a proof of this assertion. When earth and. hell united in the most violent fury against the Incarnate God in the hour of His direst need, strong-minded men fled in dismay, denied Him, or apostatized. And Lo! at the foot of the Cross a woman stood erect, heroic, unconquerable Mary the Mother of Jesus, Mary the type and guardian in all Christian nations of the wife, the virgin, and the mother. Nor was Mary alone in her heroism; other noble-hearted women followed her and triumphed with her. Have you not noticed, dearly beloved in Christ Jesus, that when woman has an end in view, some great object to obtain, when her noble nature leads her to the fulfilment of a mission, the more difficult that mission, the greater the obstacles, the more tenacious she becomes. When man gives up in despair, woman persists, combats, and wins. Have you not often marvelled admiring how ingenious in resources, how persistent is the Christian mother, spouse, or daughter in the treatment of cases seemingly lost Men proclaim her the weaker sex, but Christianity has made this very weakness her strength —a strength more august and respected than any other springing from mere brute force. ' When I am weak, then I am strong,' may the Christian woman boldly exclaim. It were a woeful day for our hearths and homes when women forget what they owe to Christianity. A woeful day for themselves when they forget the gulf of shame and sorrow, whence Christianity has uplifted their sex. Forgetfulness of this would soon drive them back to pagan bondage, to a state of savagery, or the still more shameful debasement of civilised depravity. Jesus Christ is the most perfect type of man. Mary, His Immaculate Mother, is the perfect type of woman. Now Mary in heaven is called by some of the Fathers of the Church 'Almighty suppliant.' She obtains all she asks by the omnipotence of her prayers, the irresistible charms of her matchless perfection. Assuerus represents man in the fulness of his power, king ruler. Esther is woman in the utmost expression of her weakness. Yet when Esther speaks, she obtains from the conquered monarch all she asks, though it be half his kingdom. Such is the empire of woman, such her lofty mission. Where open force is denied her she triumphs by the persistency of her insinuating will. Generosity, heroic patience, are virtues characteristically a woman's own. But what shall we say of her loving devotedness? Is it not part and parcel of

her being ? Does it not seem to be innate with her, the want of her soul, the very breath of her life? Is not loving devotedness the very heart of woman Man indeed possesses this virtue. But with man it is but half his being. With woman it is her whole being. \ More superficial than man in all else,' says a Christian philosopher, ' woman is far more profound when it is question of love.' ' ' Love,' says a witty French writer, 'is but an episode in the life of a man, in the life of a woman it is her whole history.' If man displays more strength and perseverance in the ordinary transactions of life, woman reveals '"far more greatness of character, more fortitude and "constancy in the midst of sorrow and suffering." And, alas! our life is so full of sorrow and suffering. Herein it is that woman reveals her true greatness of character. How often are men cast down by the mere sight or thought of adversity, whilst the sight of the same appears to lift up woman and give her redoubled strength and powers of endurance. It is rare for man to be wholly unselfish in the midst of disasters,' or suffering. Woman seems quite forgetful of self, and wholly thoughtful of others in sickness and distress.' It is especially in others' grief and affliction that woman shows real nobleness of soul, above all if that woman is a mother. Who ever set bounds to a mother's love and devotedness ? Who, in the daily routine of the domestic circle, could fathom the devotedness of a wife, sister, or daughter ? Who, in a higher sphere, could follow the lofty heights of devotedness among the consecrated spouses of Christ? Great is the mission of woman at home or in the cloister, but no less great and fruitful in the homes of the poor. The visit of a Christian woman is a very treasure, a source of blessings untold to the poor and afflicted. To the charity of alms or food she knows how to add that of sweet soothing words to comfort and console, whilst bringing back hope to the suffering, often humiliated, and embittered soul. If the saying be true that men make the laws and women the morals of a people, is it not also true that, in the course of time, laws exert a gr eat * influence upon morals, whilst morals react upon the laws?. Does not history show us that a nation without faith is doomed to perish sooner or later, because nations, like individuals, cannot live without a principle of l'fe to animate and sustain them ? Now what other principle of life can there be for a nation than faith, or well-settled religious convictions calculated to mould its legislation and give a divine aim to its history ? Is it not a sad fact that faith has grown weak among many, and that as the. Prophet puts it, Truths are decayed'? (Ps. xi. 2). Has not this decay among nations, heretofore the foremost among the most Christian of the world, led to the most frightful corruption ? Has not respect for woman there diminished, as it is always the case among corrupt people? Who therein knows aught of her dignity and mission? Their source being from on high, how can they be perceived by those who never gaze beyond the things of earth? Even amongst nations with a lingering spark ,of faith, even among ourselves do we not deplore the decadence of family life? Is it not sad to see .sound morals, which can only be formed in the family, gradually undermined or give way to conventional habits and usages, which have no foundation in the true nature of man, no bearing upon his eternal destiny, merely subjecting him. to a system of capricious and humiliating formalities? When morals are once vitiated, is not legislation deprived of its only efficient counterpoise and naturally bound to become corrupt itself? Is it not right well and meet, dearly beloved brethren and children in Jesus Christ, that seeing the awfui power in the hands of the pious female sex, we 'should' 'urge them to dwell upon the dignity and obligations of their mission and so prevent the return to that barbarism which is the offspring of a depraved intelligence and corrupt morality, and preserve in the midst of an unbelieving generation, engrossed with earthly" interests, religious faith and the hopes springing therefrom. Her mission is to restore to family life the important place it should occupy in the thoughts 'and happiness ii of mankind.

If woman possessed a true sense of her lofty mission, and of the qualifications necessary for its accomplishment immense would be her power for good. Every year, on Whit Sunday, a collection is made in our diocese for the Seminary Fund, that is to say, for the educating of priests. Hitherto the amount received has been wholly inadequate for the purpose intended. Elsewhere bursaries are established for this great object. We have only one which we owe to the generosity of a diocesan who is unwilling that his name be revealed. Would that his noble example were followed by others anxious for the' privilege to share in the work of preparing students for the sacred ministry ! \ What a consolation, what a joy it would be if you could say, seeing a priest standing at the foot of God's altar: ' Thank God I have helped to place him there!' We trust that our appeal this year will meet with a more liberal response than heretofore. Dearly beloved brethren and children in Jesus Christ, you are doubtless aware that the next Eucharistic Congress will be held towards the end of April in the historic island of Malta. As we propose with the blessing of God to leave New Zealand about the end of February, to make our visit ad limina Apostolorum, we hope to have the satisfaction of taking part in that Congress. We need not ask you to accompany us in spirit, and by your fervent prayers we know that you will not forget us and our mission. On our part we promise to be mindful of you not only at the holy shrines it may be our privilege to visit, but in our daily prayers, and especially in the Adorable Sacrifice of the Mass. The Fathers of the Society of Mary have consented to give missions throughout the diocese this year. We can bespeak for them a most cordial welcome and wholehearted co-operation on the part of priests and people. In May, 1887, Leo XIII. of glorious memory erected the new diocese of Christcurch, and despite our unworthiness, placed the burden of the episcopate on our shoulders. Last year the jubilee of the diocese and of its first Bishop were celebrated with the greatest solemnity in our episcopal city, and most of the parishes in ' Canterbury and Westland. Congratulatory messages and good wishes and gifts poured in upon us from all. parts of the world. The New Zealand press, secular and religious, united in a grand chorus of congratulations. Every diocese in the Dominion was represented at the jubilee functions carried out with unparalleled splendor in Christchurch. Our Holy Father Pius X. was graciously pleased to bestow upon us signal marks of his favors;— which we fully appreciate as coming from the Apostolic See—but more especially as honors conferred on the diocese and the Society to which it is our privilege to belong. Far from us the thought that the extraordinary celebrations were intended for us personally. They were a noble manifestation of the well-known faith and loyalty of devoted priests and people towards the Church and its divinely appointed chief pastors. «We are deeply grateful to the organisers, the several committees, and to all who, in any way, contributed to make our jubilee celebrations so memorable a. success. ; Our constant prayer shall be that they may receive Heaven's choicest blessings in time and eternity. /The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God, and the communication of the Holy Ghost; be with you all. Amen.' 2 Cor. 13, 13. The following are the Lenten and other regulations to be observed in the diocese of Christchurch: : , In virtue of special faculties received from the Holy See, we hereby grant the following dispensations: Ist.—Permission for flesh meat, at dinner only, on all Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and also on all • Saturdays. 2nd.—Lard and dripping may be used at dinner on days of fast and abstinence during Lent and throughout the year, except on the first and last Wednesdays of Lent and Good Friday.

3rd. Butter, milk,;cheese, and eggs are allowed on all days at dinner and collation, with the exception of Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. ; "■* 4th.—Fish and flesh are not allowed at the same meal during Lent. There is neither fast nor abstinence on Sundays in Lent, nor on March 17. All who have completed their twenty-first year are bound to fast and abstain, unless excused by the state of their health or the nature of their employment, according to the regulations stated above; and all who have arrived at the use of reason, though not bound to fast before the completion of their twenty-first year, are nevertheless bound to abstain from the use of flesh meat on the days appointed, unless exempted for a legitimate cause, of which the respective pastors are the judges. All who have arrived at the years of discretion are bound to go to Communion within Easter time, which in this diocese commences on Ash Wednesday and ends on the Octave of SS. Peter and Paul. The collection for the Holy Places will take place on Good Friday. The collection for the Seminary Fund on Whit Sunday, or on the Sunday or Sundays following, when there are two or more churches in the district. The collection for the Diocesan Charities will take place on the first Sunday in October, or on the Sunday or Sundays following, when there are two or more churches in the district. The collection for Peter's Pence on the Sunday within the Octave of the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul. N.B.—According to instructions received from Rome, the special collection for the Holy Places should be made on Good Friday, or the first available occasion afterwards in every church or chapel where the Holy Sacrifice is offered in the presence of the faithful, and the whole proceeds be immediately forwarded to us. Given at Christchurch, the Feast of the Commemoration of the Passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and appointed to be read in its entirety, and afterwards to be placed conspicuously inside all the churches, chapels, and convents of the diocese. * JOHN JOSEPH GRIMES, S.M., Bishop of Christchurch.