The Irish standard., 1915-04-03
THE FIRST MASS IS CELE-
DRAFTED IN THE NEW
CATHEDRAL.

another priest would stand on that
same spot and lift the Adorable Host
not above the heads of few followers
In the wilderness, but above kneeling
thousands beneath the shelter of an
episcopal basilica worthier, because of
the love and piety spent on its build
ing, of the loving Savious mystically
sacrificing Himself not on a transitory
altar but daily year after year for cen
turtles to come. Father Hennepin's
countenance shone with the hope that
his prayer would soon be vouchsafted,
nor was his hope in vain. Soon was
it granted, for If you count by ages,
Gods units, it is but brief span from
1880 to 1915. And SO it was granted
through Heavens gracious mercy that
in the fulness of time there should
stand on that hill beside the same
Mississippi at an altar set up in a
Cathedral as majestic as Father
Hennepin had ever gazed on in his
beloved Belgium an Archbishop, the
counterpart of any of those master
men whose ef1gies are gazed on in
generation as they lie carved in stone
In the glorious edifices they lifted up
to tibet everlasting honor and worship
of God-as they lie there with mitre
on and crozier in hand, not prone even
in death, but alert for the trumpet call
when they will marshall again their
people to present them all, century
after century, sanctified by prayer and
the sacramento stream of grace
poured into their souls within the
same walls that their zeal and
magnanimity had raised and their con-
secrated hands had blessed.
To look on the features of the great
bishop as for the first time he gazed
from the altar th1 Hennepin had fore
seen in estate vision and which he
had fastened into being with prayer
and self-sacrific, was to see a soul
made visible by heavenly exaltation
and enlarged beyond itself with
prophetic sight of the future. 1t was
the moment of lifetime-nay, it was
the thrill of millennium. A thousand
years hence when those white stones
are wather-worn and when millions
have knelt in alteration beneath that
same spreading dome, and the impress
of their knees has been carved in
those new altar steps, another bishop
will stand there with the same words
of Faith on his tongue, the same Hope
in his heart and the same Charity in
his soul-the same doctrine, the same
ritual, the same Sacrifice, and as he
looks backward over the centuries he
will be moved at the thought of the
First Mass said in that chancel, he
will dwell in contemplation on the
men whose minds and hands planned
his cathedral, and turning his soul
from its time-toned magnifcence he
will raise his heart to God while he
remembers in holy generation the
first prelate and it's founder, Arch.
bishop Ireland.
How could any one Of the thousands
who filled the great church at o'clock
mass last Sunday morning, Palm Sun
Gay, look over the great spaces en-.
closed by towering walls and crowned
by encircling dome, all ablaze with
row over row of electric lights, how
could any one who saw thousands re.
ceive the Bread of Life, the first com.
pany Of the vast army of faithful souls
to be fed there daily for time uncount
able, how could such a one not be
moved to tears as he listened to the
words ever apt to the occasion OF
their eloquent archbishop as he
exalted, not in his efforts, but in their
piety in filling the church and proving
that their life was such as would
merit the eternal abode of which the
beautiful house of God was, after all
only the humble and inadequate fore
shadowing.
How wonderfully, how sapiently
Gods Province takes up in turn the
golden beads of design formed in his
mind from the beginning; Hennepin
discovers the site and offers the un
blemished Sacrifive thereon and thus
makes it holy ground; Galtier puts TO-
gether humble hut and adors God
therein; Cretin and Grace offer the
same Sacrifice in nobler buildings;
and Ireland erects a temple large
enough to hold the ever increasing
children of the Faith, inspiring in its
outlines, enduring in its structure!
What will be the next golden bead to
be set in place? Not material thing,
indeed, will it be, but the living soul
of religion now dwelling in it's fit
abode, a beacon light of faith and of
doctrine, a rock-founded hope of ever.
lasting life, consuming charity for
God and for man, store house of
good deeds, an mistaken stepping
stone to heaven, a glorious crown of
virtue and an eternal canticle of
praise and of joy and unending bliss.
CATHOLIC INDIAN CHIEF DEAD.
Dennie Meuse, a full-blooded Indian
and member of the Micmac tribe, died