The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1934-02-06
MISSION ATST.
MARY'S PROVED
GREAT SUCCESS
SERIES OF SERMONS PREACH
ED BY REV. McGRATH
ENJOYED BY LARGE AUDI
ENCE ON EACH NIGHT

! lIlOH anu d opCllUOuHu duuiNhNS
! marked the closing of the eight.
day mission at St. Ma"y's Cath
Ollie church Sunday evening when
the Rev. Thomas ]. S. McGrath
S. j., of Shreveport, La, took fol
| his final discourse "And the Bark
of Peter Sails On"
After thanking those who had
contributed to the success of the
mission, with high tribute of sp'
probation to The Key West Citi-
zen, and L. P. Artman. the speak
er said that any one desiring fur
Their information about the Cath
Ollie church and it's teaching could
call on Rev. F. X. Dougherty, Rev.
A. Maureau or Rev. VIM. J. Pow
er at the local rectory, as it was
impossible to cover the whole field
in eight days.
With "They shall perish but
thou remainest they shall be
changed. But thou art always
the selfsame, and the years shall
not fail" psalm 101, 81 and 28)
Father McGrath began his sermon
by referring to the bed rock fouIl-
dation of the Empire State Build
ing that towers more than 1900
feet above the city of New York,
and said that this building, resting
on bed rock, defied the winds and
rains and the storm.
"But there is another structure,
also built upon a rock, built by
hands divine, that will still defy
the winds and the rains and the
storms long after the Empire
State Building has tottered on its
base and crumbled into ruins; and
that structure is the indestructible
church of Jesus Christ" he said.
Calling Jesus Christ the Divine
Architect" and the "Omnipotent
Builder" who had spoken of the
man who built his house upon a
rock and the foolish man who
built his house upon the sand. the
visiting Jesuit said we must look
for solid and indestructible
church that would challenge the
winds and the rains and the
storms.
"And they beat upon that
church in undated fury-the
storms of persecution and the
winds of false doctrines" he add
ed. The speaker here rehearsed
the different prosecutions against
the Catholic church under the diff
ferent emperors and rulers, and
followed this enumeration, which
he graphically portrayed, by what
he called the winds of false doc
trines," starting with Manichae-
ism of the third century and end
ing with Modernism of the twen-
tieth. y"
"And although millions, through
the centuries, were lost to the
church, the Bark of Peter sailed
on, bringing into the church,
founded on the rock, souls from
other lands to replace those who
had been swept away" he said.
Father McGrath closed his dis
course with an apostrophe to the
Bark of Peter, saying: 81 stand
in the spirit tonight on the. shore
of eternity and behold hundreds
of banks upon the sea of life; but
there is one that towers above al
the rest. 1t is the grand Bark Of
Peter that has weathercd the TEN.
pestuous seas of the centuries
And 1 trust my spiritual fortune:
to none other that rides the waves
"See. across her noble prov i:
written. in letters of gold, hel
God-given name of Catholic; fol-
there is no sea she has not known
no shore she has not touched. lIel
stalwart beams are strong will
the strength of immortality. Hel
seamless hull knows no crack mol
crevice. Proudly she bears on hel
gallant top mast the cross of Je,
sus Christ. Her full-flown sail.
stand ready to bear her mes sage
of eternal truth and eternal love
wherever there are immortal soul,
to be saved. Staunch and strOns
is that gallant bark; nor wind:
nor waves may ever bear thes
down. 1t was not made by hu.
man hand, but fashioned by tht
arm of the Most High.
30 Happy bark! Gods mes
senger Of truth and love to men
thee do we hail with joy! Filled
with the effusion of the Saviour:
love, rich with His outpourinq
blood. ! ask none else, seek none
else but thee.
'Let others choose whatever
bark they will. In thee. by thee
through thee / live and die. For