St. Marry of the Angels, Wellington

New Zealand Tablet, 30 March 1922, Page 18

St. Marry of the Angels, Wellington

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(By our Special Reporter.) On last Sunday (the 26th inst) the stately church dedicated to St. Mary of the Angels, erected on the historic site of the pioneer church in Boulcott Street, Wellington, was solemnly blessed and opened in the presence of an immense gathering. Three members of the hierarchy, headed by the Venerable Metropolitan, together with a large number of the clergy, took part in the ceremonies. The noble building, of which the citizens of Wellington, and, indeed, the whole Catholic population of the Dominion, may well feel proud, occupies a central and prominent position, and its graceful proportions and lofty towers form a land-mark visible from almost every part of the Empire City. The responsibility for its erection was undertaken some four years ago by Rev. S. Mahony, S.M., and the manner in which he carried out his strenuous task, the unwearying energy, tact, resourcefulness, and unremitting attention to the minutest details exercised by him, amid increasing difficulties, won universal admiration. In 1874, the little church built by Rather O’Reilly the first in Wellington was found too small for the growing population, and on the same site in Boulcott Street, the second St. Mary’s was erected. Improved and enlarged from time to time, this building remained a centre of Catholic life and energy for the people of St. Mary’s parish, until it was destroyed by lire in May 28, 1918. Catholics as a whole, and especially those of the older generation, mourned the loss of the church that had been endeared to them by sacred and tender associations. Steps were at once taken to replace the loss. At a meeting hold on the Sunday following the fire, about C 1000 was raised for the purpose of building a. new church. From that day, under the inspiration and direction of Father Mahony, the work never flagged, until on Sunday last the harvest of so much labor and devotion was gathered in, when the beautiful new Gothic church was solemnly opened by the Archbishop.

THU CEREMONIES.

The ceremonies began with the Solemn Blessing which Archbishop Redwood performed at half past nine in the morning. By eleven o’clock the church was full of the faithful who assembled for the Pontifical High .Mass. in* celebrant was Bishop Liston; assistant priest, Dean Holley; deacon, Rev. T. Gilbert, S.M.; subdeacon Rev. G. Mahony, S.M. ; MM.C., Rev. Fathers Murphy and Buckley, S.M. The Archbishop presided on the throne, and in the sanctuary were: the Bishop of Dunedin, Right Rev. Dr. Whyte, Mgr. McKenna, Deans Binsfeld and T. McKenna Archdeacon Devoy, Fathers Mitchell, C.SS.R., Conolly, Smith, S.M., .S. Mahony, S.M., N. Moloney, S.M., T. Walsh, M. Devoy, S.M., Ainsworth, S.M., O’Donnell, Spillane, SAL, Butler, and the Faculty of St. Patrick’s College.

“Church and Art”

OCCASIONAL SERMON PREACHED BY THE VERY REV. T. Me GARTH S.M.

“I have loved, 0 Lord, the beauty of Thy House and the place where Thy glory dwelleth.”—Ps. XXV. The first great mission of the Catholic Church on this earth is to apply the infinite merits of the Passion and Death of Her Divine Founder to the sanctification and salvation of souls. Another great work entrusted by Jesus Christ to His Divine Spouse— the Church— that springs naturally from the first, is the uplifting of human society to the highest pitch of civilisation and culture. All that is best in the civilisation of the world to-day can be traced to the Catholic Church, as to its source, its fountain head.

Among the many potent influences availed of by the Church for elevating mankind above the gross and material for developing the mighty faculties of the human soul and giving them ideals in keeping with their spiritual nature, must be reckoned in a foremost place, the cultivation, the' fostering of the liberal or fine arts: music, painting, poetry, sculpture, oratory, architecture. Who is there who has

not felt the softening, the ennobling, the refining influences of these stealing into his soul? How awe-in-spiring to gaze on a structure of white marble rising from the earth and rearing its lofty pinnacles to the sky: sparkling in the sunlight decorated with all the richness and grandeur that earth can yield Who has not been stirred with emotion by the solemn, sad, or joyous strains that music, with its magic spell, awakens in the soul? The dull canvas, the dead marble quicken into life and speak with the eloquence of the human voice under the touch of the master hand of the painter and the sculptor. And the Catholic Church is the fostering-mother of all these arts, aye more, she is the very soul and inspiration of them all. The fine arts owe to her their very existence in the world to-day; the most renowned artists of all time were trained in her cloisters; the grandest edifices that were over reared, were designed and erected by her consecrated sons: the most sublime strains of music that ever fell in so It cadence on the human ear, expressive of every emotion of the soul, all are the divine creations of the Spouse of Christ, the output of the genius and the inspiring influence of the Catholic Church. The greatest painters that ever lived came from her bosom, animated with her heaveniused genius. The most celebrated orators of the world’s history were her anointed priests, whom she commissioned to preach the saving truths of Eternal Life, committed by Jesus Christ into her keeping. She it was that gathered together the scattered fragments of the arts of Greece and Rome, raised them from the depths of sensuality to which they had fallen in pagan days, refined them by her holy influence, and pressed them into her service to aid her children in the worship of the one true God. Here is the secret of the triumph of Christian over pagan arta difference of ideal. The pagan mind knew no higher conception of beauty than to reproduce in marble or on canvas the form and figure of some sensual god or goddess. The Christian artist was a son of the cloister; a man that had grown out in the contemplation of divine things. For an ideal, he lifted his thoughts, his imagination, his soul to the Kingdom not made with hands, and sat in contemplation at the foot of the “Great White Throne.” His masterpieces speak of a religion of unerring faith and infinite hope and all-embracing charity; speak of a living God, whose perfections are reflected in angelic hierarchies lull of nameless mysteries of glory; of a sublime immortality crowned by the vision and the possession of the Eternal ruth and Infinite Beauty. They speak of an Ideal Womanhood, in which all nature is summed up and glorified: and best of all, of an ideal Manhood, — of One who is man and yet more than man, God, —yet, in whose bosom throbs a human heart, listing to every appealing cry that rises from the earth. The ambition of the Church’s artists was not merely to awaken and arouse the sense of the beautiful, but, above and beyond this, to educate and influence for good, the minds of the people: to explain to the rude and unlettered, in a language more eloquent than words, the sublime mysteries of Holy Faith; to raise the mind and the heart of man above the sordid things of earth and set them a-longing for the splendors of the Heavenly Sion. But to carry out this great mission successfully, it were necessary that art be idealised in its highest form. It were necessary that no taint of earthliness should mar the artist’s soul. To fling round the productions of his genius a ray of light divine, the artist must needs be a man of God. To catch the divine expression of the Christ, to depict the halo that wreathed the Madonna, as, she nestled her God-child to her bosom, to show forth in material colors the immaterial splendors that thrill the souls of the elect before the Throne of the Most High, it were necessary that by long contemplation, the purity of these scenes should grow into his very life. The Church alone, could do this. She alone could train her sons in the science of heavenly wisdom. She alone, as the testimony of ages has abundantly proved, could unlock from the treasure house of her powers and give to her worthy children the art of reproducing ideals, which had hitherto not entered into

the minds of men, and which till the end of time, will be the admiration of the world, THE CATACOMBS AND AM. Christian art dates back to the time of tho Catacombs. In these underground vaults and passages the first Christians for well nigh three hundred years oft hid themselves from the fury of their persecutors. Here they were wont to gather to pray and adore and listen to the Word of God and the Law of Christ. Yet, even in these dull and depressing surroundings, the Church’s sense of the beautiful asserted itself, and she bade those of her children possessed of artistic skill to beautify the cold, dank walls with endless frescoes representing scenes from the life of) their Divine Master, and the sublime doctrines taught by Him, thus filling the hearts of the faithful with more lively sentiments of faith and hope and love. Their chapel might, indeed, be a poor one, for they were themselves, a poor and persecuted race; but the Great Lord Himself, the object of their adoration, had not disdained to be born in a cave on a cold winter’s night, and could his followers pretend to a more glorious beginning of the Church’s life? But they knew that Christ had come as Master of this world, and that a day would yet dawn when the earth would not hold marble and gems enough to honor Him, Who, in His Eucharistic state, now lay enshrined on the tomb of one of their martyred brethern. They knew that all the rich and picturesque imagery of the Old Testament, describing the glories of the New Jerusalem, had its fulfilment in the Church, and with time, it grew clear to them that a day was coming when the “Gentiles would walk in her light and kings in the brightness of her rising” : when the children of them that afflicted her, would come bowing down to her, and all that slandered her would worship the steps of her feet, and call her the city of the Lord, the Sion of the Holy One of Israel. How the souls of these early Christians must have thrilled with a holy joy when there echoed through the dim silent corridors of the Catacombs the impressive words of Isais: “The glory of Libamis shall come to Thee, tho fir tree and the box tree and the pine tree together, to beautify the . place of My sanctuary, and I will glorify the place of My feet. For brass, I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood, brass, and for stones, iron, and I will make Thy visitation peace and Thy overseers justice.” (Is. LX.) Thus did the spirit of devotion to the beauty of God’s House begin to rise uppermost in the minds of the believers. They carved in marble the tombs of the martyrs, on which the Holy Mass was celebrated, and enriched their low and narrow chapels with all the; decorations which nature, or art, could furnish, TUB CHURCH UNFETTERED. And, when, at last, after three long centuries of persecution and martyrdom, the Roman Emperor became Christian, and the edict of freedom of worship went forth, suddenly throughout the length and breath of the mighty Empire there arose magnificent churches in honor of the Crucified Saviour. Now, unfettered from the yoke of the tyrant, the Church begins in earnest her second great mission, the uplifting, the ennobling of human society, and the fostering of the fine arts, through the medium of which she will enhance the worship of the Most High, and give culture and refinement to the minds of her children. The eyes of Constantine the Great, were, no sooner opened to the light of the true wisdom, than, acting on the advice, and under the inspiration of the Church, lie dedicated a magnificent temple to the true God at Constantinople, under the title of “The Sacred Wisdom” —Sancta Sophia. This edifice, being destroyed by fire, was rebuilt by the Emperor Justinian, from material supplied from every part of the Empire, comprising the remains of almost every celebrated temple of ancient paganism. And, as at Constantinople, so also at Rome, at Antioch, at Alexandria gorgeous temples were reared to the honor of the One True God, on the adornment of which the people eagerly poured forth, with munificent generosity, the treasures of their wealth. The ancient Roman 1 basilica, a model of regularity and massive strength, but cold and hard and unsympathetic in its outlines, like the Roman justice dealt out in it, had long since been transformed, under the direction of the Church, and adapted to the sacred purposes of religion. The sculptor carved graceful columns and lifelike statues of the Christ, and hewed out superb sepulchres,

for the faithful desired to bo buried near the martyrs and within the shadow of the altar. The painter illustrated the doctrines of tho Church and immortalised the invincible martyrs in whose blood the foundations of the Church were hut too often laid. The mosaic workers traced out those imperishable creations that still look down upon us with unspeakable majesty from the walls and cupolas of ancient churches. Thus, we see that just as the arts were on the verge of perishing from the face of the earth, they were all pressed into the service of the Church, and from that period, she has ever been their only, their great unfailing, their inspiring, and prompting protectress. From the day they entered her service, they were transformed. Whereas, formerly, they flattered the baser passions and seduced the souls of men through the innate love of the beautiful, they now became the handmaids of the Church, the heralds of all that was good and grand and inspiring in Christianity, and they learned from her how to instruct, elevate, and delight our tainted nature, without yielding to' its unhappy and unholy instincts. Tho artist learned from the Church that in art, as in all things else, there is no enduring success, without a basis of morality; that what is opposed to Christian truth and morality cannot be worthy of the painter’s brush or the sculptor’s chisel. Here, as in so many other things, the Divine Philosophy of Christ indicated a remedy for an age, suffering like our own, from corruption of refinement and excess of luxury and wealth. Meanwhile, there were seen rising up on every side, as if by magic, magnificent trophies of the Church’s power and beauty in the triumphant temples, evolved by her creative genius, dazzling tho eye without, by their splendor; enriched within by priceless wealth of frescoes, sculpture, and mosaic. THE BARBARIANS. But, evil days were threatening. Even as the storm cloud bursts and sweeps the earth in its relentless fury, so from the barbarous lands of Northern Europe, savage hordes of Goths and Visigoths, Huns and Vandals, began to sweep down over the fair plains of Italy and threaten destruction to all that was best in the civilisation of the world, for their path was pillage and their wake misery and desolation. The glories of civilisation began to fade before them even as the grass of the field falls witheringly under the scythe of the mower. Every splendid monument of the ancient world was being ruthlessly destroyed. It seemed that no power on earth could withstand the might of Attila, who sped with 500,000 savage warriors to the gates of Rome, swearing to raise her to the ground and wipe her from the face of the earth. The Emperor, Valentinian, was a weak and incompetent ruler. In despair, the eyes of all Romo turned to the Vicar of Christ, the illustrious Leo I. Attired in his pontifical robes, Leo, going forth, bravely faced tho mighty Attila, and quietly told that haughty tyrant, who called himself the Scourge of God, that he would neved set foot in Rome. And this is the most remarkable fact in history: the fierce warrior, who had hitherto known no fear, who never had been thwarted in a single plan, quailed at the voice of the aged, grey-haired, Pontiff, and forthwith gave orders to his stnpified followers to retrace their steps to the forests of Pannonia. Rome was saved; tho priceless treasures of the literature, the architecture, the painting, the sculpture, of the ancient world were saved for the admiration of succeeding ages. But this was not all. The Church followed these unruly savages to their forest home; converted them into meek and pure-minded Christians, taught them to look on every woman as they would on God’.s own sweet Mother, and applied all the human agencies in her power to their civilisation and refinement. Society was formed under her fostering care; free republics sprang under her guidance; schools and libraries were opened in every town, and under the training of the Church there sprang into being that gallant army of Christian Knights, who swore on their swords, to avenge with death, any insult to the sex of the Mother of God, When, in the fifth and sixth centuries tho civil order of Europe was utterly broken and helpless, it was within the precincts of the churches, that poetry, eloquence, music, and painting found a welcome shelter, and that' the classic traditions of ancient art were preserved for ages that could appreciate and utilise them. Nor was it the fine arts alone that sought in the Church a shelter. Poor suffering humanity crept in beneath the folds of her mantle. It was around these . great

Christian centres that were built the first hospitals and refuges for orphans and widows, for the blind and the aged. Here the slave, the debtor, the threatened virgin, and the oppressed matron, found an inviolable asylum. The Church was truly, in every land, the city of God amongst men, the last resort in the dark night of revolution and strife, of all that was lovely and unworldly, pure and elevated, pitiful and, self-sacrificing. What wonder then, that even the Protestant historian, Gibbon, is forced to admit: “All that the world has to-day of ancient art was treasured for 1000 years in the cloisters of the Catholic Church.” “The Popes,” says Ilpscoe, another Protestant historian, “were the patrons of the arts. They were men vastly superior to their time. Learning was on the eve of perishing from the face of the earth; civilisation was about to be swallowed up in the overwhelming deluge of barbarism. The Church, alone, survived the universal wreck. She alone, by her powerful influence, stemmed the rushing torrent and prevented learning and art from being utterly and hopelessly destroyed.” THIS RENAISSANCE. Yes, the Church struggled manfully on through the bleak winter of opposition and persecution born of ignorance and malice, and the spring-time came, the renaissance, when she put forth into leaf and flower, a thousand forms of her artistic fertility. It was an age of poetry, of painting, of sculpture, of architecture, of religious enthusiasm, for the Church was enthroned with the nations at her feet and she was free to exercise her heaven-sent mission. It was the age of Fra Angelico, of Boticelli, of Raphael, the protege of Leo X, of Fra Bartolomeo, Andrea del Sarto, of Dante, of Leonardo di Vinci, of Tintoretto, and towering above all, of Michael Angelo , the greatest artist of all time. And, as the ages sped along, new sons of the Church arose in every country of Europe, filled with the inspiring genius their Mother had breathed upon them, and in gratitude hastening to pour out the wealth of their talents in the adornment of her sanctuaries. But, there is one art, the first of arts, which is pre-eminently the Church’s art, the Church’s pride ,and her crowning glorythe architecture, now called Gothic,—but which, more correctly should be called Church architecture, for it was not conceived in the frozen North, but comes to us from the Syrian Orient, where its elements and the laws of its being are first met with in the ecclesiastical buildings of that ancient Christian land. True, the ancients had their mighty temples and palaces, but they were not the Church’s ideal. They were of the earth, earthly; inspired by pagan ideals they could not rise above the ideals that inspired them. Then, let there be a new, and, as yet, undreamed of, style of architecture, a monument, which in every detail will proclaim that the ultimate term of Christian hope, is the vision of the Eternal Truth and Ancient Beauty in the Heavenly Sion. GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Was the Church at last found wanting in realising this mighty project No! a thousand times, no ! for look across the face of the earth, and see springing up, as in the fable the palaces sprang up, when the earth was struck with the magic wand, the magnificent Gothic cathedrals and chinches, with their pointed arches and their vaulted roofs, with then fretted domes and living buttresses; a thousand sculptured statues of the Church’s heroes—her virgins, her martyrs, her doctors, crowning countless turrets, and surmounting all, the emblem of the Church, the secret of her power, the fountain of her grace, the token of her divine espousals, the Cross of Jesus Christ. “The undying glory,” says Cardinal Newman, “of giving Gothic architecture to the world belongs indisputably to the Catholic Church, and it will never bo surpassed till we attain the Celestial City. What beauty and mystery in the long-drawn aisles, where the evershifting lights of day recall the solemn march of life, from the cradle to the grave. What loftiness and inviolable sanctity in the great white walls that loom up from afar, and emphasise the purity of Christian life! What stability and permanence about these structures, whose foundations are knit into the bedrock of the world, as those of the Church itself are inseparably cemented upon the rock, which is Christ.”

MOTHER OP THE ARTS. But, while the Church built up the Avails of the city of God amongst men, and especially whilst doing so she

cherished the greatest of all the arts, their mother and their mistress, she did not neglect the others. The painter, the sculptor, the jeweller, the goldsmith, the engraver, the illuminator, the carver, the worker in glass, and the weaver of delicate tissues and embroideries, in and through the Church, all these found employment, sympathy, and encouragement. One art, the Church especially fosteredthe divine art of music. To her anxiety to brighten her ceremonial, and lift the hearts of her children heavenward, we possess to-day the thrilling music of the “Te Deum,” the “Exultet,” the majestic Prefaces, than which no holier, sublimer, note ever echoed among mortal men: the tuneful, piercing chant of the “Libera,” and the countless masses and canticles that exhaust the gamut of human feeling and evoke from us all, that is tragic or tender in human experience, and all that is sacred and sublime in divine revelation. Who can describe the glories of the Church’s temples? The grandest triumph of the world’s architecture is fittingly St, Peter’s at Rome. But to behold the Church’s triumphs in the realms of architecture and art, you must cross every line of latitude, every meridian that encircles the globe, you must traverse every year of every century of her longdrawn history, and one and all will raise its voice and proclaim the truth, that Catholicity has in itself the secret of the highest art and the purest morality, that Catholicity is the summing up of all the art, of all the history, of all the uplifting and regenerating influences of the world for the last 1900 years. When Northern Europe threw off the yoke of allegiance to the Church’s authority, the chisel and the palette dropped from her hands. When the scourge of Jansenism afflicted the Church in France, priceless stained glass windows were removed from the churches; the frescoed walls were plastered; paintings were ruthlessly destroyed. Art advances or declines with the advance or decline of Catholic Faith. Whenever liberalism and irreligion gain control of a country, their first acts are to suppress the monasteries which have ever been the nurseries and the schools of art. Whenever there has been a revival of Catholicity, art has never failed to receive a quickening impulse. It was a handful of converts from Lutheranism that at the beginning of last century started the now famous art schools of Munich and Dusseldorf. In England, where there had been practically no art since the days of the so-called Reformation, the Oxford movement was quickly followed by the pre-Raphaelite movement in art, which derived all its inspiration from mediaeval Catholic ideals.

ST. mart’s —old and new.

But why go so far afield? Have Ave not here in your own city a further proof of the undiminished power of the Catholic Church, to inspire in her worthy sons a sense of what is most grand, most artistic, most worthy of the Great God, who, in His boundless love for human souls, has condescended to dwell a Prisoner of love on our altars. Well nigh four years have passed since old St. Mary of the Angels was destroyed by fire. And, as we gazed on the ruins of that venerable pile round which for so many of us were wreathed sacred and most tender memories, a sense of loneliness came o’er us, and a pang ot grief tore at the fibres of our heart, akin to that which death inflicts, when it wrenches from our embrace the soul of a friend. But wonderful are the designs of God. In the very hour of seeming disaster, there arose before the mind of onethe pastor of this parisha vision radiant and fair, the vision of a stately temple rising from the ruins, richer and more resplendent than any in the land, dedicated to the living God, under the patronage of His August and Immaculate Mother. This vision he communicated to hi? eccesiastical superiors, who approving the work of its realisation, bade “God-speed” to the noble, if hazardous enterprise. The Society of Mary, rejoicing in the prospect of a glorious monument to their Queen and first Superior, gave ready sanction and hearty encouragement. Catching a spark of the holy enthusiasm that radiated from the pastor’s soul, a devoted and generous people rallied to his side. For all but four long years, the task of realising that lofty >■ ambition has gone on. Never for an instant did the vision fade from the sight of him, to whom, as to Solomon of old, had God entrusted its materialisation. Never for an instant did he falter, never did he despair. Difficulties, disappointments; thwartings of innumerable kinds, and from incredible sources, these did hut plum© his courage, did hut steel his determination to achieve what

might humanly be called the impossible, \ and lo! to-day we have gathered on this hallowed spot, from every part of this fair Dominion, bishops, priests, and laity to behold the glorious achievement s of his noble ambition, to witness the splendid realisation of the hopes, the aspirations and the prayers of the priests and the people of St. Mary’s. From every corner of the land we have hurried to congratulate from our hearts, Father Stan. Mahony, his fellowpriests, and his loyal parishoners, on this eminently successful termination of their gigantic undertaking, happy in the thought that we are privileged to rejoice with them in their triumph, and to join with them in a spirit of humble gratitude to tho good God and to His Immaculate Mother, to join with them in the solemn and imposing ceremonies, whereby this temple, yesterday a profane edifice, now, having been solemnly blessed by your illustrious Archbishop and dedicated by him to the exclusive worship of the Most High, is a Catholic Church, the House of God and the vestibule of heaven. And here I pay my tribute of appreciation to the architectMr, Clere, of Clere ami Williams —on his conception of noble design of this stately temple and its call into being in plans, skilful, detailed and harmonious in all their parts, it was the conviction, born of lively faith and ardent love that nothing was too good for God, that prompted the heroic pastor of this parish to erect in His honor and for His worship, a magnificent artistic Gothic temple, and thus set another sparkling gem in the diadem that encircles the brow of Holy Mother Church. And surely that resolve was a laudable one, one according to the Heart of God Himself. For of old, under the expressive command of Almighty God, all nature and all nations were laid under tribute to furnish the material and the embellishments for the erection and the adornment of the Temple of Solomon. The hills of Paros yielded their purest marble, the mines of Ophir their finest gold, the forests of Libanus their cedar-scented woods, the sea gave up her pearls, the bowels of the earth their diamonds, their sapphires and amethysts; the very leaves and flowers of the forest gave their form and beauty to be reproduced in ornaments of exquisite marble and wood carving; 70,000 men were appointed to provide the material; 80,000 to prepare and shape the stone, while 3600 were set to be overseers of the work; the stones were solid blocks of sculptured marble the roofs were sheets of purest gold; the altar was of brass adorned with ten golden candlesticks and a hundred golden vases “even as the Lord had comm'andcd.” And yet, this temple of gorgeous splendor was destined to contain but. the types, the figures of the great realities entrusted to the Church to-day. Surely then the decision of your pastor to canvas the world, reckless of trouble and expense, to provide the most artistic embellishments, the most precious adornments for this sanctuary of tho Most High, this tabernacle of God with men, surely it was commendable, harmonious with the spirit of the Church throughout the ages, and surely this heroic tribute of loving adoration must draw down showers of divine benediction upon the souls of all who are privileged to associate themselves in this sublime enterprise of self-sacrificing effort! Father Mahony, in the name of the Catholics of the archdiocese, aye in the name of the Catholics of New Zealand, I congratulate you and all who have been associated with you in magnanimous co-operation in the labors, self-sacrificing and persevering, that to-day are so gloriously consummated. I. thank you for what you have done for the glory of God and the triumph of Holy Church, and I confidently promise you in the name of the vast concourse of people assembled here this morning, and in the name of those whom they represent, that when in a few moments you call upon us to assist you in reducing the heavy debt that still burdens the gift we offer to God this morning, willingly, cheerfully, generously, will we respond, regarding it as a privilege and a joy to set one stone in the memorial of our gratitude to God for all his tender mercies towards His people. Shall the Jews surpass us in a spirit of generosity to God? When God commanded Moses to build a tabernacle in His honor, He bade the people bring towards its construction the first fruits of all they possessed. Mark you, the first fruits not what remained after all other needs had been provided for ; not the superabundance of their wealth; that was God’s already; His ’ sanctuary was to be their first concern. Shall it be said that the Jews did more for their Ark, that contained but the, shadows, than we, the

heirs of the promise, for the sanctuary that is filled with the unspeakable majesty of God and that echoes to the adoring whispers of the angelic throng? Then, I charge you, one and all, rich and poor, come forward “with a ready and most devout mind” with your first fruits to free this House of God from debt and present it unentailed to your Lord and King. Give of your substance, like the widow in the Gospel not of your superfluities these already belong to God. Give, and give again, and yet again, till your offering begins to represent a sacrifice to you of necessary things. Wealth is a menace to one’s salvation; Hardly snail a rich man enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, says Jesus Christ, “for wealth is a prolific source of sin; of pride and sloth and sensuality, but we have it in our power to rob it of its sting, and convert it from an occasion of evil to a powerful agent of good, of merit, of eternal salvation.” “Make friends of the mammon of iniquity”transform this natural enemy into a \alerble friend; regard wealth as a trust, yourselves as stewards of that trust for God, turn it to good account, and to what better account than to the holy purpose for which I this morning plead? Will you be poorer for what you give to God? or will God be unmindful of your sacrifice? Give then, that it may be a memorial before the Lord, that He may be merciful to the souls of His people. Give every one of you, a price for your soul to the Lord. As the golden grains of corn fall into the hungry furrows, the earth seems, indeed, to swallow ,up and devour them, and they seem destined but to rot and perish; but 10, in the springtime, they shoot forth and yield the rich harvest a hundred and a thousand fold that shall be joyously reaped in autumn. So each golden coin or its equivalent you drop into the recopticles destined lor them this morning, may seem to the eyes of sense to represent a loss, but with our spiritual vision, we see them springing forth again, a spiritual harvest that one day will be garnered in the granary of heaven. May God inspire you how to act and may His sweet Mother and St. Joseph counsel you. And in return for the love-tribute you offered the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, this morning may tho Great God increase in you all the spirit of Faith; may He multiply in you the virtues of piety, humility, and charity; may He preserve you all from the contagion of this world and its cankering spirit; may He grant you the crowning grace of final perseverance! Having reared tho shining white walls of this city of God on earth, may He insert your purified souls in the immortal walls of the New Jerusalem, and in the Heavenly Sion; may you all stand in the eternal sanctuary of the Most High, round Whom radiates all art and splendor and beauty ; may you be entranced with the joy and gladness that the vision of His eternal perfections awakens in the souls of His elect, and may you all, bishops, priests, and people be haloed with the resplendent glory reserved for those, who, throughout the ages of time, have spent themselves in the glorious work of erecting and adorning and dedicating temples to tho living God.

EVENING DEVOTIONS : SERMON BY BISHOP WHYTE.

At 7 o’clock in the evening tho church was again filled to its utmost capacity. After devotions his Lordship the Bishop of Dunedin, taking for his text the words of the “Magnificat” : “Henceforth ell genorations shall call me blessed” (Luke, 1.48),

spoke of the great prerogatives of the Mother of Goa, hailed as blessed by the angel Gabriel and by St. Elizabeth. He dwelt on her influence on womanhood all through the history of the Churchon the women of early times, who were emancipated and raised to their proper dignity by Christianity, having been hitherto regarded as slaves by the pagans. Mary, the Mother of God, was the model of true Christian womanhood. She was the model set before our holy sisterhoods, our pious sodalities, and before all good Christian mothers of families. Eloquent passages from the Fathers of the Church were quoted in proof of the high dignity of Mary, and testimonies from Protestant writers showed how love and devotion for her was not confined to Catholics alone. 4 ln an eloquent peroration, the preacher implored the protection of Our Blessed Lady on the vast concourse assembled that night in the stately shrine erected in her honor, invoking special blessings for the revered Archbishop, whose long and great life had been a hymn of praise to the Mother and her Divine Son, on the Marist Fathers, who bear her name and have, therefore, a particular

claim on her patronage, and on all our nuns and priests that they might have grace and light to protect the in-

<- terests of her Divine Son as jealously as she herself (Jid in the days of His earthly sojourn, and on all our teachers that in their daily strivings after perfection and in their great and noble work for education, the love of Jesus might ■ be conveyed from their hearts to the hearts of their young . pupils.

PONTIFICAL BENEDICTION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT.

His Grace Archbishop Redwood pontificated at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, during which the “Te Deum” was sung by a special male choir. The musical arrangements throughout the day’s ceremonies were of a distinctly high order. In the morning a choir of 70 voices, with Mr. E. J. Healy as conductor and Mr. W. MeLaughlan at the organ, gave a very fine rendering of Gounod’s “Messe Solennelle.” „

Contributions towards the cost of erection of the splendid new church on the occasion of its solemn opening amounted to just upon £IBOO, thus providing an additional proof of the wonderful generosity of the parishioners.