Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

living writer. A sunless, colourless February morninghow often have we looked out upon such, and seen nothing worth looking at, much less worth talking of. But Alice Meynell looked out upon it, and this is what she saw:

A poet's face asleep is this grey morn.

What a reading of nature is there; what a probing of the soul, heart and possibilities of that dull first hour! Truly, as William Blake said, a fool does not see the same tree that a wise man sees." No telescope can elevate his eye to make its own the vision of nature enjoyed by the poet-seer.

"The method of the Poet": we said above. Is the phrase an apt one? Our considerations so far have suggested little of method; and assuredly the mechanical, the conventional, the arbitrary are incompatible with the nature and needs of those two forces-imagination and passion--which are the life of poetry and whose life involves a large freedom. These two wings will always rebel against any entangling and hampering yoke. But not to speak of higher and more comprehensive laws that rule all human action and must be supposed in aesthetics as elsewhere-poetry has her own natural laws; she has her intrinsic discipline, to which imagination and passion must reconcile themselves, if they would become free of her enchanted realm. These regulations are summed up as "the laws of beauty." Of the laws of beauty, then, and of the conditions they impose on the poet, we shall next have to say something.

[ocr errors]

A VALIANT WOMAN

TRIBUTE TO A GREAT IRISH NUN IN AUSTRALIA

A

By the VERY REV. J. RYAN, S.J.

[ocr errors]

TOUCHING letter of farewell to her dearest children' -and these may be counted as the Loreto pupils of Australia for more than a generation past-appearing in Eucalyptus Blossoms, the school periodical of the Loreto Abbey, Ballarat, reveals something of the great qualities of mind and heart of its author, the remarkable nun who has recently gone to her reward, Mother M. Gonzaga Barry. She reminds them of two promises she had made: one that she would write them a yearly letter in the Blossoms' (the periodical is now in its twenty-ninth year), and this she had performed; again," that if you were in any personal trouble or distress I would do my best to help you; that promise I think I have fulfilled also." She goes on to impress on them certain valuable lessons, and she does it so admirably that we regret we have not space to quote her words in full: the obedience and respect they owe to parents and superiors; the deference and respect due to many, especially to the aged and the poor; zeal for good works: "Dear children," she says earnestly, "I would have you gently and unostentatiously join in every Catholic movement, and help it. Do not, however, aim at being leaders; seek rather to be faithful followers of Our Lord. I recommend specially, in the first place, local good works-those of your own parish, then Catholic Federation, Catholic Truth Society, the Propagation of the Faith, the Holy Childhood." Lastly she speaks of the solid and the old-fashioned' devotions, love of Our Divine Lord and His Mother, devotion to St. Joseph and the Angels; and then she bids good-bye: "Now, my dear children, I say farewell. I feel at present somewhat of a fraud; I have said so many farewells, yet here I am. I know I may die in half-an-hour, or I may live two months-they tell me they are asking years for me. I am quite satisfied, I am in God's hands, and you VOL. XLIII.-No. 504.

[ocr errors]

29

will agree, I cannot be in better keeping. Be your lives long or short, my children, think often of heaven, where Our Lord went on Ascension Day, to prepare a place for you. Think of it! What kind of a place would a person with unlimited means at his disposal prepare for one he loved? Such a place is being prepared for each of us. Oh, how the thought helps in trial, cheers in sorrow; how it brightens life-why, we should be smiling always, even in our sleep!"

These words were published on the 14th of last February; and early in March Mother Gonzaga, the Irish foundress of the Australian branch of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary and its first Provincial, breathed her last. She had done a notable and enduring work for Catholic education in Australia; like the valiant woman of the Book of Proverbs, she had put out her hand to strong things," and so, "let her works praise her in the gates."

"

Mother Gonzaga was born in Co. Wexford and was educated first at the Loreto Convent, Gorey, and later at the Mother House at Rathfarnham, and after a short interval at home, during which she devoted herself to works of charity among the poor, she entered the Loreto Novitiate at Gorey in her nineteenth year. This was in 1853. When still quite young she was appointed Mistress of Novices; later she was Superior for several years, and was foundress of the Loreto Convent at Enniscorthy. Providence was thus preparing her for the great work that lay before her. We take the following account of her career in Australia and of the characteristics she there displayed from the tribute paid to her on the occasion of her obsequies by the Very Reverend John Ryan, S.J., Superior of the Jesuits in Australia.

"In 1874 this new diocese of Ballarat was established, and Dr. Michael O'Connor was appointed its first Bishop. As he had been parish priest of Rathfarnham he was well acquainted with the zealous nuns of Loreto Abbey, and asked the Superiors for a community to help him in the pioneer work of his distant mission. His request was granted; Mother Gonzaga was chosen Superior of the new foundation and on the 20th May, 1875, the little band, consisting of eight rns and two postulants (several of these generous souls are,

thank God, still with us), left the shores of Ireland, and sailing from Plymouth on the 24th of the same month, landed at Melbourne on the 19th of July. The Presbytery at Ballarat East was placed at their disposal as a temporary residence; but within a few weeks, this most suitable and charming property on the shores of Wendouree was purchased. Mother Gonzaga dedicated it to Our Lady under the title of Mary's Mount, and her life-work in Australia, for which she had been chosen and prepared, began.

As in all great works, undertaken for God's greater glory, difficulties and crosses were not wanting. The new foundation was penniless, and a crushing debt had to be incurred in the purchase of this valuable property, and in the building and appointments of a superior school suitable to the needs of the times. But Mother Gonzaga's confidence in God, which was one of her chief characteristics, never failed her. She spared no expense in making the school a first-class educational institution, and pupils came in, not only from the Diocese of Ballarat, but from various other places of Australia, and within a short time the high reputation which has been maintained and increased up to the present day, was established. And what was of still more importance, many excellent postulants entered the noviate, and as the community increased, many offshoots were sent out not only through the diocese, but also to Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and Western Australia. It is unnecessary to say that all this extraordinary activity and expansion were due, under God, to the wonderful foresight and management of Mother Gonzaga, who was the heart and brain of every new development not only in the Mother House at Mary's Mount, but in every one of the convents under her jurisdiction.

So far we have only been considering the external activities. of Mother Gonzaga in laying the foundations broad and deep of her institute in this new land. But what shall I say of herself and of those rare gifts of hers both natural and supernatural, which she possessed in such an eminent degree? I can say, with all truth, I have never known a woman of more varied gifts, and all so admirably blended that it is difficult to analyse them. She had the rare faculty of assimilating and retaining all she learned. From a child she was

endowed with powers of observation of a peculiarly refined order. Nature was to her an open book, and she looked from Nature up to Nature's God. She found tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. She delighted in poetry, and as a child learned by heart many passages of the most beautiful and inspiring poems of our language. She read deeply all her life, and each one of her thousands of letters testify to the literary treasures of her well-stored mind. Her language was always simple, graceful, elevating, and appropriate to the subject. If she had written books, they would undoubtedly have found a very wide circle of sympathetic readers. Her letters to her old pupils especially are gems of epistolary foresight. She seemed instinctively to anticipate the wants of the times. I have heard she was one of the first, if not the first, in Australia to introduce into her schools the Kindergarten system which is now so universal. Years before the law for the registration of teachers was introduced in Australia she foresaw that registration was sure to come, and brought out an expert from Cambridge to instruct her nuns in all the latest and most improved methods of education. Thus when the registration of teachers became law, she was already prepared for the emergency. As early as 1884 Mother Gonzaga established a training college at Dawson-street for the Catholics, which supplied excellent teachers to many Catholic schools in various parts of Australia, and also gave many excellent subjects to various religious orders. In 1905 the Bishops of the State of Victoria entrusted her with the work of establishing the Training College at Albert Park, which is now so well known as one of the foremost educational institutions of the kind in Australia.

Another striking characteristic of the revered Mother was her sympathy. Who ever conversed with her even casually and did not feel it? Her hand went out to all God's creatures, especially those in trouble. "The human heart," she would say, "is capable of great expansion. There is room in it for all God would have us love, if only He holds the first place.” This golden sentence, which is worthy of St. Teresa, gives us a true picture of her all-embracing sympathy. Is there one of all her nuns or pupils that has not felt the magnetic in

« AnteriorContinuar »