The times., 1899-05-31

her life is passed in cheerfulness, for her
life is absorbed in the contemplation of
God; her vocation calls her to virtue, sac
riflce. love.
Freely stepping aside from the broad
ways that lead to earthly honors, she
walks in the narrow way that leads to
I heaven. Freely she has immolated on the
altar of her God and for her God the am
bitions of life, because she desires to make
sure the happiness of eternity. Freely she
has cast off all the trappings OF earthly
vanity that she may devote herself to a life
of charity and humanity. The daughter of
wealth, she gives up wealth and freely
adopts poverty; the daughter of fondness
and home love, she rises to higher thoughts
of life with God. and she gives up father
and mother that she may be the devoted
child of God to serve him without hin
drance- Gifted with intelligence. trained
in the ways of scholarship. she eopse-
crates her life to the instructing of the
ignorant, lifting up the fallen. giving hope
to the despairing, begging bread for tne
starving nourishing the sick, caring for
the leper, mothering the outcast.
The nun, properly understood, is as the
sunshine of our life. the very salt Of our
society, the aroma of our existence. No
wonder the child loves her, for he finds
in her something more than earthly love;
no wonder the tears drop from the SOL
dier's eyes as she lifts his dropping head
and administers sweet charity to him, for
he has never seen elsewhere such charity;
no wonder the scoffer ceases his scoffing
as she passes, for she is purity religion,
life, love-she is indeed an angel of God
in our sinful world. Men and women who
know her not cannot understand her.
Those who know not the spiritual life.
who do not appreciate to the depth the
characteristics of Christ and Christianity
cannot understand the spirit of religion
which prompts the nuns sacrifice. She is
an enigma to them, because the superna-
tural Is unknown, misunderstood by them
| Let linen know Christ better touch to
the yitals. the spirit of Christianity, and
they will realize the meaning of virginity,
they will understand the nobility of the
religious celibate, they will see that in
| virginty is saving grace for society. Ii
! they will but fathom the depths of the
true ideals of religious devotion, they will
understand the steps that led to the priest
and the nun, consecrated virgin children
of virgin Saviour, who has forbidden
his followers to give up all things and fol-
| low him.
| The world seems to have a peculiar
| hatred for the evangelical counsels; it
calls obedience slavery, poverty degrada-
tion, chastity unnatural Not so the Chris
tian. The virtues of obedience chastity,
! pONtTly are lOunudllOH virtues III the
/ Christian life; their perfection are found
in the vows of the religious life Obed-
ience to God is true freedom of will for
| i; leads to the perfection of life.
| Chastity, as st. Ambrose says. makes
angels, and he who observes it is an angel;
st. Thomas teaches that its source is not
on earth, but in heaven. This virtue is
peculiarly Christian. The life OF Christ
was the embodiment OF the most Gustere
| dEN rNrt rrff Il rts lass
| virgin for his mother, and made his
favorite of the one apostle who was a
| virgin The apostles left everything to
follow Christ
Men and women in the different cen
| turies of the Church have assumed the
spirit OF poverty that they might be free
| from the cares and worries Of worldly
goods; to be detached from all earthly af-
! fection for them. and thus giving their
lives wholly to the service of God, feeling
their reward in the words of the Saviour.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven"
| Such dearly beloved brethren. is the
answer the Church gives in vindication of
the life of her religieuse; such the inspira-
| ton which began and carried on the work
CT the Sisters of the Visitation at George
town. What historian can write the his
tory of hundred years of such an institu-
tion which finds its soul in such life?
God alone knows the full value of of such
an institution among men; yet passersby
| who in the hundred years they have looked
upon this institution, who have read the
story of its life who have witnessed it's
rise into the prominence which 1t today
possesses, these can express but feebly an
appreciation of its real worth.
You aluInnae of the Visitation, you
whose young lives were passed within the
sacred precincts of the academy halls of
the Visitation, you who have seen the daily
lives of the nuns. who have watched them
coming in and going out. who have felt
the sweet influence Of their sanctified lives
who have been trained by them in the
ways of womanliness OF virtue, of social
strength-you, indeed, are witnesses TO the
world of the value of the nun in our
modern life.
A hundred years, How much they con-
taini Beginning with the century. reach
ing to its close. seeing the rise of the
Church in this new land, witness TO the
development and progress and glory of the
Republic, almost cosval and coexistent with
the Republic which has had its trials and
its glory. the Visitation Convent deserves
we'll of the people. she hath not eaten
her bread idle" Today we commemorate
its glorious life with its deeds of goodness
In the presence of its success it may well
exclaim with the royal prophet: What
shall / render to the Lord for all that he
hath rendered unto me-" What. indeed.
shall be the thanksgiving for the graces of
God. which for a hundred years have in
cessantly fallen on this community 3?
What shall be our gratitude for all that
this community has been to religion. to
country, to the individual? Il will take
the chalice of salvation and I will call on
the name of the Lord Yes. / viii take
the chalice. and 1 will fill it with the pri-
vations cheerfully borne. the deeds of mer-
cy lovingly done. the obedience of will. thu
purity of life, the poverty of spirit the
humility of action of the generations of
nuns who have passed through these clio s.
tered walls, the word of God gently
spoken. the souls won TO God, the lives
sanctified-aH these deeds done for the
glory of God may well he placed in that
chalce, and holding it up before heaven by
the merits of him whose spouses they are
we will call upon the name of the Lord
Honored name of the Visitation. honored
servants of Mary devoted children of ST.
Francis de Sales, st. Jane de Chantal. and
the venerated Neale. a hundred years give
tribute to you. Visitation Convent thou
art the joy of Israel, the pride of our
Church in America. and the glory of the
people. Blessed art thou by the God in
every tabernacle of Jacob, for in every
nation that shall hear thy name. the God
of Israel shall be magnified on account of
thee "Prospere, .procede ct regna"-
prosperously proceed and reign. May thy
days lengthen into the centuries, may
blessings attend thee. may prosperity re-
| ward thee. mayest thou rule in sweet re-
ligion over many homes. and mayest thou
ever be honored by men and beloved by
God, the valiant woman whose children