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Show 18 . THE INTERMOUNTAIN CATHOLIC Hardly had his boyhood passed when that Voice that speaks unto great men spoke to him and called him from his place in the world unto a participation in the ministry of Jesus Christ. He listened to that still, small Voice and Began his long and arduous preparation for the priesthood of Jesus Christ. In those years he learned the full counsel of God; in those years he grew in the fullness of the age of Christ, and then the day came when he stood at the altar and offered unto the Most High the holiest gift, the sacrifice once offered on the holy road, the sacrifice that gives glory to God and makes reparation for sins. His superiors, seeing in him-mothan the usual promise, sent him to Rome, and there, in the heart of Christendom, there where mighty men have lived mighty lives, he rounded out his discipleship and prepared himself to be master to the minds of others. I take it for granted that the teachers vocation is the noblest that God gives unto the children of men; for the teacher takes God s living image and moulds it untq knowledge and unto power; and I take it for granted, also, that in the galaxy of teachers he is highest who prepares men to stand at the altar and minister to God through Jesus Christ. While in the quiet haunts of wisdom he grew unto power and infused his spirit unto others, the world was passing through the mightiest crisis that the world has ever known. Soon that crisis touched our beloved land. Turning aside from the quiet quest of knowledge and wisdom, he became veritably a soldier of his country; he left the peaceful place of wisdom for the crash of cannon and the clang of arms. The months and years passed in a manner that no man may describe, and I am proud to say that he was a brave soldier in the army of his country because he had been a brave soldier in the army of Jesus Christ. When from the battlefield he came back, he was sent by his beloved superior up to a place along the beautiful Hudson and he made that place of God flourish as a rose. He was then brought back to the city of his birth, and while he was building the spirit of Christ in the hearts of his children he was called to a more difficult task. Instinctively he shrank from the dignity, but when he found that dignity meant new labor, new toil and greater sacrifice, he accepted the new duties and today we enthrone him as your Bishop and commend unto you his gracious personality. On this day, when we place a new high priest over a chosen people, will you bear with me while I ask you to contemplate the office of the Bishop as it has appeared in history across the centuries? One of the mightiest sentences that ever fell from the lips of man was that sentence of Christ when He spoke to His apostles and said: All power is given to me in heaven and earth. Going, therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded, and behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. Therefore, those who teach in the name of Christ teach with a commission divine. As the Father hath sent me, so I send you. You will be witnesses to me in Judea and Samaria and even unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Whatsoever you bind upon earth shall be bound in heaven; whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Blessed are thou, Simon Bar Jona, because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to you, but My Father Who is in heaven. Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. I will give to thee the keys of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven. In virtue of this command of divine authority the first Bishops of Gods Church, the chosen twelve, went forth to the ends of the earth, bringing with them Christs message of love and peace for the uplifting of the world. After a tifhe they failed in power and strength, and before they dropped their hands they lifted them over others and sent them forth to continue the work of Christ. For one moment, stop and think of the nature of the conflict upon which the first Bishops entered. They were going forth to preach a gospel, grew in years. re Many Specials in Wall Paper WE SELL FOR LESS See Us for New Patterns and Designs We specialize in draperies, pictures and framing ARMSTRONG-ENGBER- G 29 West First South WALL PAPER CO . Was. 5281 |