The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-18
BISHOP OF MOBILE DED|CATES CHURCH Solemn Ceremony at Our Lady
 of Sorrows MANY PRIESTS PRESENT Rt. Rev. E. p. Allen 5Iesses the Church and Dean Meurer Celebrates
 Mass-Father Bonifaee
 the Preacher.


 Avenue F and Fourteenth street, of which the Very Rev. Dean J. A. Meurer is pastor, was dedicated yesterday morning by the Right Rev. E. P. Allen, bishop of Mobile.
 The ceremonies, according to the old Roman ritual were rich in color and singularly impressive. The following clergy participated: The Very Rev. Dean, the Rev. Father Galland. the Rev. Father canepa, the Rev. Father Boniface. o. S. B., of St. Bernard Abbey, the Rev F ather Hugh, S. J., of Spring HiIl, the Rev. Father Coyle. the Rev. Father Maurice, o. S. B., and the Rev. Father Raymond, O. s. B.
 Bishop, priests, acolytes. little girls in white and nuns in black, moved in pro cession from the deanery to the portal of the church, where the solemn services were begun. The congregation, number ing thousand or more, stood massed in front of the edifice. The bishop, wearing a cope of cloth of gold and white mitre. studded with precious stones, read a prayer, after which the procession moved round the church, the clergy chanting the Miserere and the right reverend prelate sprinklng the walls with. holy water The procession then entered the church and the more important ceremonies fol- lowed. First came the Litany of the Saints. After this the procession moved through the side aisles, the bishop sprinlS- ling the interior walls with holy water while three Psalms were chanted. The ceremony of blessing the church being concluded the congregation was admitted and as soon as the members were seated the bishop and clergy proceeded from the sanctuary to the front part of the church and blessed the Pieta-a representation of the dead Christ, just after He had been taken from the cross the body attended by Mary. This group of statuary is a copy of Michael Angelo's famous work in St. Peters at Rome and was recently pre- sented to Our Lady of Sorrows church by woman of the congregation.
 The clergy having returned to the sanc- tuary a Missa Solemnls Coram Episcopo-- solemn mass in the presence of the bishop-was sung. The officers of the mass were Dean Meurer, celebrant; Fath- CT Galland deacon, and Father Canepa, sub-deacon. Father Boniface, o. s. B.,
 
 honor to the bishop, and Father Maurice and Father Raymond acted as masters of ceremony.
 Father Boniface preached an eloquent sermon, his text being as follows:
 And He brought me again to the gate of the house, and behold waters issued out from under the threshold. came down to the right side of the temple" Ezech xvii 1.
 The Sermon.
 The speaker said in part:
 Among the various images under which the abundant and continual graces of Gods church are represented, that of the fountain gushing forth from the threshold of His temple. and refreshing the earth with It's waters, is just and familiar, as well as most cheering and eonsoling. In picturing the Catholic church, the wisdom of its design, the vastness of it's extension, the solidty of it's structure, as well as the beauty of its decorations, the prophets of the old, and the evangel- ists of the new law have copiously enl- ployed inspired eloquence.
 All creation lay before them. from which to borrow most fitting objects of compar- isons, such as the sun. the moon, the run ming stream, the winding valley, and
 
 itself failed to give an adequate idea of that spiritual edifce with It's treasures, which will only be properly viewed when this very creatioi. shall have passed away and time shall be no more. But even though inadequate to give to the mind a complete idea of those blessings, they are a help to raise it in holy con temptation.
 Those material objects adapted to un- derstandings that received their knowl- edge through the senses always have been suitable vehicles for conveying informa- ton to the soul They are. as St. Paul expresses 1t, that glass through which we imperfectly see God in the present life, glass thickly smoked and dimmed. for no mortal eye can view such ineffable light without being overpowered by It's lustre. Do not wonder then at the pro- fusion of imagery with which the sub finest truths of our holy religion are set forth.
 They were not exclusively the mediums of instruction in the old law; they passed, too, into the service of the new as Is frequently shown by our Redeemer's parables, clothing it's mysteries. but with far more light which the descent of the Holy Ghost has thrown around them. Hence those magnificent types, the City of God, the City of the Great King, the Em- pire of Christ, and the Mountain of the Lord of Hosts, so familiar to the writers of the ancient law, and which the fol- lowers of the new dispensation have not discarded
 Whilst the simple and unlearned, as well as the most intellectual and cul- tured are forcibly struck with those characters of magnificence which the finger of God has drawn of Himself in the outstretched heavens, 1t is in the minute works of creation. almost imper- vious to the naked eye, that the infinite wisdom and power of the divinity are so wonderfully displayed.
 The vast and immeasurable expanse of the vault of heaven, studded over with countless globes of light and fire, are after all but the natural creations of the Being whose power has no limit. "who beheld and melted the nations
 Excited Admiration. What, however, excites our admiration is the perfection with which beings in- visible to the naked eye are not only endowed with life but equipped with all the intricate machinery of the largest animals. And thus, too. 1t is with the church. Its hierarchy lift up their heads round Gods most holy temple like the Cedars of Lebanon, objects of holy ven- eration clothed with the dignity of Aaron. What impresses us with greater awe is the complete development of the plan of redemption in all the smaller churches scattered over the earth. each and every one being perfect type of her. who is but one bride, furnished with perfect or- ganization in harmony with the head, to bring for all times, in the countries In which they are planted, the fulIness of all graces which were so dearly bought