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Show m n m Diocese o? Denver. DENVER. Review of Easter Services in Catholic Churches. (Special Correspondence.) The usual Holy Week services were held in the pro cathedral, and were particularly par-ticularly well attended. On Holy Thursday solemn pontifical mass was celebrated b Bishop Matz, assisted by Fathers Callanan. O'Malley and White. Father Phillips was master of ceremonies. The repository in Logan avenue chapel was one of the most beautiful in the city. St. Leo's and the Sacred Heart were also very beautiful. The evening service in Logan avenue chapel were very impressive. Father O'Malley preached on the institution of the blessed sacrament. On Friday morning the bishop again officiated. In .the evening the usual devotion, known as "Adoration of the Cross" took place. A portion of the true cross, which w-as brought from Rome last year by Bishop Matz, was exposed for adoration. adora-tion. The sermon on "The Passion" was preached by the Right Rev. Bishop. The blessing of the Paschal Candle, Easter water, etc., took place on Saturday. Sat-urday. Father Phillips officiated. The Easter services in St. Leo's were the most beautiful ever held in that church. The altars were handsomely decorated with lilies and palms. The music was very fine. Haydn's mass in C was rendered by a double quartette and full chorus. Hundreds of people were turned away unable to gain admittance. ad-mittance. ' The new pine organ built expressly for St. Joseph's church was used for the first time on Sunday. An excellent choir sang Gounod's "Messe Qolonelle." Bishop Matz celebrated mass in Logan Lo-gan avenue chapel at 11 o'clock. He was assisted by Fathers Callanan, Phillips, O'Malley and White. Father Callanan preached the ser$on, saying, in part: "This is the day he Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. "This, my brethren., is the exhortation exhorta-tion addressed to us by the church on the great feast which is today celebrated. cele-brated. No more harrowing picture was ever presented to human sympathy than that of the Alan-God so taint ana dying for the sins of his people. The outrages of the judgment, hall, the agonizing journey to Calvary's mount, the bleeding form expiring on the gibbet gib-bet amid the jeers and scorn of an in-furiated in-furiated people. "These were scenes that during the j week now passed wrung with sorrow the Christian heart. But now all is changed, and the church invites her children to lay aside the garb of mourning and to don the . vesture of joy. Her liturgy is a paeon of victory that stirs the world to its very depths, with all the choirs of hallelujahs. This is not surprising, when we reflect that the resurrcetion of Christ is the hinge on which turns the Christian fate, the foundation of stone on which rests the doctrine of the cuhrch, and so true is this that St. Paul does not hesitate to say: "If Christ be not risen, then our preaching is vain, and vain your faith.' " Father Callanan then recounted the testimony of the apstles and those near to the Master during the trying hours which are observed in anniversary in the Easter celebration. "But why suspect the testimony of the apostles," he'eontinued. "Who are they; what were they? They were men in the first place who cannot be charged with an over-large imagination. They were slow of belief, cautious; men who refused to believe in the resurrection themselves until it was forced upon them by evidence the most overwhelming. overwhelm-ing. They were, indeed, men rude and illiterate, but of common sense and endowed with minds which best qualified quali-fied them to judge of a matter of fact I like that of the resurrection. In selecting select-ing our juries, we are not accustomed to choose them exclusively from the lea: ned professions, but from men of sound judgment, without any regard to their literary atfainments. "Such as these were the witnesses of the resurrection. "Now, what interest, I ask, could these men have in imposing on the credulity of their hearers. They had nothing to gain by deceiving the public, pub-lic, and everything to lose, for their lot was a hard one. They could each say with St. Paul: 'If. in this life alone we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable, even unto this hour we hunger and thirst, and are naked and have no fixed abode, and we labor, we revile and we bless we are made as the refuse of this world." "Of a truth, then, they had no human hu-man interestjn publishing the resurrection resur-rection of Jsu.s. They sacrificed everything. every-thing. They devoted themselves to toil, ignominy, death. Of the "00 ocular wit-nepses wit-nepses of the resurrection, almost all suffered death, and a cruel, agonizing death, to render testimony to its truth. Neither the rod, nor sword, nor gibbet, not dungeon, nor the beasts, nor boiling boil-ing oil, nor burning pitch, nor scorpion whips could deter them from proclaiming proclaim-ing to the world that Christ had risen. 'Can any sane man. then, doubt their sincerity and good faith, or call, in question their disinterestedness? They had as strong belief in the resurrection as in their own existence. "Enough has been said to make you understand why it is that the church is s joyous today, for the resurrection . of Christ is the pledge of her triumph. i if Christ is risen, then he is God, and I the church he has founded is divine. Indeed .there is a marked resemblance between her career and that of her I Immaculate Snonsor. Before his pas-.'ion pas-.'ion he foretold her: 'The world will hate i-ou. even as they hated me,' and his words have been too literally fulfilled." |