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Show : Diocese of Betwer i ELIZABETH KELLY, Correspondent. The lntcrmountain and Colorado Catholic is placed on sale at the James Clarke church goods house, 627 Fifteenth street, Denver, Colo. CITY OF DENVER. Fvetreat Brings Religious Affairs to a StandstilL The annual diocesan retreat, which open' d on Monday of this week, has practically brought to a standstill religious re-ligious affairs in Kcneral. On account 1" all of the priests being in seclusion th-re has been during the week nothing of especial interest transpiring, but there will possibly be some interesting information for the public at the close of the synod, which will be held the last of the week. The retreat began at sundown on Monday and will close at the same hour Friday evening. About fifty priests are in attendance, including Bishop Matz. The retreat is being conducted by Rev. Father Dowling, S.J., formerly rector pf the Jesuit university at Omaha and a man with a reputation for zeal and earnestness. The sermons given daily by Father Dowling are an interesting and devout feature of the retreat. besides the secular priests who are expected annually at the retreat, there are a number of those from religious orders who it re interested in the sub-, jeets which come up for meditation. The retreat is one of the largest ever held in the city for the reason that : ? the clergy of "Wyoming are also in al- tendance. All of the priests of that diocese, with the exception of Bishop J. J. Keane. re on retreat, for the first time 'with the Denver clergy". f Sermon at rather H&gus' First Solemn Sol-emn High Mass. Dunns' the week the newly ordained j-'iests. Father Louis F. Ilagus and Father Dubble, have been in c harge of the cathedral parish. Father "Wolohan, : who went to Leadville to celebrate his i first solemn high mass remained there ! caring fo rthe Church of the Annuncia tion, while Father Gibbons came to .Denver for retreat. Rev. L. F. Hagus celebrated his first olemn mass on Sunday morning at 10:30 o'clock at the Logan Avenue ohapeL During the week he said the jnorning mass at various churches and chapels, but the congregation gathered for the first high mass was a large one. The sermon was preached by Rev. Cornelius Cor-nelius O'Farrell SERMON AT FATHER HAGUS FIR ST HIGH MASS. After the Gospel, Father O'Farrell ascended the pulpit and delivered the following eloquent and appropriate sermon: ser-mon: "Every high priest taken from among men is ordarined for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer of-fer up gifts and sacrifices for sins." lleb. v, J.) My Dear Friends On last Sunday it ' was your great privilege to be present jit one of the most beautiful ceremonies of the church, when two young men prostrated themselves before this altar . and in action and in word, most solemnly solemn-ly pledged their lives to continue the work of the Nazarene. You were all overpowered by the solemnity of the occasion, so much so that many wept, j for what reason they could not well ex- I plain. On Monday morning these two I young souls ascended the altar of God I and there they presented the first fruits 1 of thejr ministry to Him who said: 1"Do this in commemoration of me." Transport yourselves, dear friends, into the situation of this young priest on I last Monday morning, when the awful moment arrived, to pronounce the solemn sol-emn words of consecration, and when his anointed hands held for the first time the pure virginal flesh of the God made Man. and you will realize the vivd faith, the profound adoration and I the glowing, rapturous love with which I h at that moment flung his heart at 1 , tho feet of his Redeemer. But no, dear I friends, you cannot realize the feelings, I tb emotions that pass through a young ! priest's soul, as, vested with priestly j mbes. lie stands for the. first time with 1 extended hands before his Lord and I Cod. whom he has just called down 1 vpon the altar. Oh. great indeed is the dignity of the priesthood. Behold in what honor and esteem God in the old dispensation held i - His prophets, who were the teachers . - ., j and expounders of the law, the vindi- ! t -a tors of Jehovah's rights and domin- ' I ion anion gthe people and the watch- I men on the tower of Israel. Thev were I endowed with gifts which were not 1 ""( stowed on conquerors of nations. In I response to their prayers He suspended I the laws of nature and wrought stupen- d,ms miracles. He proclaimed their ! persons sacred and inviolable, so that I be ""'ho touched them touched the ap- M of His eye. "Touch not," he said, j . ' "my anointed, and do no evil to mv I prophets." King Jeroboam raised hfs I i'l'tn to strike one of the prophets and I straightway his arm fell withered bv I bis side. But, my friends, the priest- I hood of the new law is as high above that of the old. as heaven is above I earth. He Himself has told us that we I should treat His priests as we would I His own person, for He says: "He that I harcth you, hareth me. and he that I despiseth you despiseth me." He who j honors a priest, says St. John Chrvsos- t torn, honors Christ, and he who insults I a priest insults Christ. Through re- i ppect for the sacerdotal dignity the 1 venerable Mary of Ogna used to kiss I the ground on which a priest had I walked. Wherefore this profound re- j Fpoct? "Why this lowly reverence? I "Why but because of the exalted na- tu re of the office of the priesthood? I Yes, dear friends, high above prince I and president, high above czar and I pasha, high above king and emperor, I aye indeed, and high above angels and I archangels, the priest, stands forth on I the watehtower of the City of God, I giving honor, as he alone can give, to 1 the majesty of the Divinity. For by 1 the celebration of a single mass in I which he offers Jesus Christ in sacri- 1 I'fc, a priest, gives greater honor to I the Lord than if all men by dying for 1 God offered to Him the sacrifice of I their lives. j Christ died on Calvary. Vliv? To I " institute the priesthood. It was not I . necessary for Him to die in order to I save the world. One drop of His pre- I eious blood, or a single tear, was suf- I , lioient to procure salvation for all !l : mankind. But to institute a sacrificial I priesthood the death of Jesus Christ I ,vas necessary. Had He not died, I where .should we find the victim which I this young priest will soon offer in the I Mss? Had He not died, we would j have amongst us the Divine Pris- 1 oner of the Tabernacle. Alter the power of consecrating the Body and Blood of our Lord, the highest high-est privilege ever conferred on man. is that of pardoning sin in the tribunal of penance. The prerogative is clearly xpressed in the scriptural words: "lieceive ye the Holy Ghost; whose I f'.i's you ehall forgive they are for- I given them, and whose sins you shall j retain they are retained." Herein once J more the priest excels in dignitv and I J" Power the mightiest potentates on ;rth. A king can question, but the I outward acts of mat), but the priest' penetrates into the sanctuary of the foul. Karthly judge.? punish crime, ovr" though the criminal detests his puj.lt: it is the priestly privilege to par- i j don the sinner who repents. The sen-: ; tenee of the earthly judge is restricted to the temporal life of man; that of ' ! be Lord's, anointed extends into the region of eternity. Ah, yes. dear friends, beautiful in-; in-; deed is the office, and great the dig amy of the priesthood, but the life of a priest, aye and his life "before beeom-; beeom-; ing a priest, is by no means a path of roses. Long, weary years of arduous , study within the college walls, coupled ! with the many hours of inward quee-"tionings quee-"tionings as to whether in truth God has called hint to the ranks of the priesthood, make up the miniature biography bi-ography of a student's Me. At last he is ordained and he goes forth into the world to fight the 'battles of the Lord. He voluntarily leaves his father's fa-ther's home and bursts asunder all human hu-man ties to labor for the eternal welfare wel-fare of his fellow-man. Tenderly he has been raised; his education has been ihe best that the universities can give; hut, like his Divine Master, he must henceforth be a man of sorrows. Day after day the tales of troublous consciences con-sciences are whispered into his ears. When misery find misfortune overtake his people thev wend their way to their pastor and ask him to share the bur-' bur-' dens of their souls, but when prosperity prosper-ity is their portion they keep well away I from him. They ask him to. drink deep of their sorrows, but their joys they will not allow him even to sip. Another great sorrow of a priest's life arises from the sins of his bad people. peo-ple. In this again he is like his Master, Mas-ter, whose lifelong mental sorrow came from His dailv contact with the sins of 4he world. What the priest is building up wicked people are constantly tearing tear-ing down; and the priest goes about the busy street apparently happy and cheerful, but within his soul there may be a hum ing sorrow which he cannot confide to anyone. It is the sorrow of the Good Shepherd for his straying sheep while he is powerless to restrain them. ..-..! Yes, dear friends, a priest's soul is so overwhelmed with sorrows at times that they would almost cause his death . if he had not within him the conscious- I ness that he is endeavoring to do his best. Moreover, he has an antidote in the many consolations of which the j world knows nothing. For hours and hours he sits in the confessional, untying un-tying the knots which bind so many souls to Satan, and bidding these souls go forth with their hearts bounding with joy that they are now 'freed from the slavery of hell. In the burning summer's sun, in the cold winter's night, in sleet and snow and storm, the priest of God can be seen hurrying along the busy street, or mayhap picking pick-ing his steps through the fastnesses of the mountains, hastening to take part in the death scene of one of his flock. No place presents an obstacle to his determination to get that soul and transmit it to the bosom of its God. He can be seen by -the bed on which lays dying a man consumed by cancer, smallpox, or any of the other malignant malig-nant diseases, but they possess no terrors ter-rors for him, for he values the soul of his fellow-man at a higher price than his own life. The faithful, zealous priest is par excellence the friend of humanity. The unconscious babe he clothes in the robe of purest innocence in baptism. His childhood's days he guards with jealous jeal-ous eye. He leads him along the pathway path-way of virtue and truth up to manhood's man-hood's threshold. He teaches him to know and serve his God and to be a man in every sense of the word. He introduces him to his Master in his First Communion; and time and time again he encourages him to resist and , conquer his three arch-enemies the j world, the devil and the flesh. He lis-tens lis-tens to him pledge his life in holy matrimony, or perhaps he holds his I hands over him while the bishop calls down the Holy Ghost upon him in holy orders. Many and many a time in the silent hours of night his gliding form , may be seen by the aid of the dim light of the sanctuary lamp approaching approach-ing the altar to bear to some departing soul the bread of life's last journey. Oh, you say. the life of a priest is harder than we thought it was. Yes. Question it not. It is hard to stand by a bed, where all the horrors of wretchedness, wretch-edness, disease and death are centered, to hang over the couch of infection, inhaling in-haling its contagion at every pore, to administer comfort and strength to a mind racked with anguish and to a frame convulsed by the throes of death. It is hard, yes, it is hard, to flesh and blood, but to the zealous, true, Christ-like priest this is a scene of consolation and of triumph. With his life landmarked of such heart-thrilling heart-thrilling episodes, he will not fear the hour when the Great Master will demand de-mand an account of his stewardship. At that last hour the many-sinners he j has slaved, the unbelievers he has instructed, in-structed, the just whom he has prevented pre-vented from leaving the path of rectitudeall recti-tudeall these will rush between his soul and the bar of divine justice. And then, accompanied by the prayers of the poor, the tears of the orphan and the blessings of the widow, he will enter en-ter into the joy of the Lord. Dear Reverend Father, to you I now address myself. You are young in years. The holy oils are scarcely yet dry on your hands. I, too, am not much ahead of you, hut I feel that at this moment you look to your fellow priests for a word of comfort and encouragement. encourage-ment. Of the gold of wisdom and the silver of experience I have not much to give, but what I have I gladly give unto you. Whatever you do, do it for God. Labor zealously for the salvation of your people, but look not for an earthly return. When you are dead and gone, notwithstanding that you have spent and respent your life in the service of your flock,, be assured that in a very short time you will be forgotten except by a handful of friends, who will have a few Masses said for your soul. Proceed now. dear Reverend Father; -roeeed with the solemn sacrifice which I hope I have not too long interrupted, and in this propitious moment of grace, when you offer up on this altar the first fruits of a life of zeal, forget not before God those who have made this day possible for you. Forget not this diocese in which you are called to labor, la-bor, and those who are your fellow-workmen fellow-workmen in the ministry. The New-Year' Bock. Although still in its infancy, the diocesan dio-cesan year-book is a publication of considerable merit and will be a valuable valu-able acquisition to .every Catholic household. Thousands of copies have come from the press and will be distributed dis-tributed from every parish in the diocese dio-cese next Sunday. The compilation of the book is the work of James Phelan Cuddy, an old and well known-newspaper man, and it is regarded by Bishop Matz and the priests of the diocese as in every way complete. This is only the second year the diocese has attempted the publica- 1 tion of a year-book, but the work has j attracted considerable attention and I will doubtless be continued. The book is much larger than the one issued for ' J!03. and contains much reading matter ! of interest aside from the fact that it I is plentifully illustrated. The front J page is adorned with a picture of the old cathedral on Stout street, taken the day of the last services in that temple. tem-ple. The title page carries a portrait of Bishop N. C. Matz in his full robes, and there are dozens of pictures of other clergymen known to the diocese of Denver. The introduction is written j by Mr. Cuddy, and conveys the thought-, ! that a book of the character of the I year-book should find its way into every home and be of constant use. Right Rev. Joseph P. Machebeuf, the I "Apostle of the Rockies," and tne fitst bishop of the diocese, is paid a glowing tribute in the opening chapter, and ! with him is pictured his zealous co-laborer. co-laborer. Father Raverdy. Church rules and regulations are given three pages and contain a complete summary of rules' and obligations resting upon ; Catholics. "The History of the Dio- eese," in two parts, is given at some length, the first chapter being devoted to the life of the church under the regime of Bishop Machebeuf, and the second under the present incumbent, Bishop Matz. This story embodied sketches of a number of charitable in-Ftitutions, in-Ftitutions, notably St. Vincent's " orphanage. or-phanage. Several pages are devoted to' the work' of .St. Vincent's, and a complete history of the home, from the date of its completion is printed. St: Clara's orphanage receives lengthy consideration. con-sideration. . "The House of the Good Shepherd is the title of a chapter, reviewing the trials through which that institution has passed during the twenty years of its life. Grours of the officers of the Catholic fraternal orders are given, and altogether alto-gether the book possesses artistic as well as literary merit. There are plenty plen-ty of the books on hand and these will be distributed generously next Sunday. Sun-day. Already the publisher has had numerous encomiums showered upon him by the press of the city. The work has met with high praise from Bishop j Matz. . ' j |
