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PAGE 2—The Southern Cross, November 15,1973
BISHOP LESSARD SAYS
Meeting i Renewed Passover’
Bishop Raymond Lessard, speaking at
a solemn Mass at a three-day Congress
on Worship in Savannah, urged delegates
to view the activities and atmosphere of
the meeting as “a renewed Passover,
when together, we solemnly reaffirmed
that (the) new Covenant of
Brotherhood through Christ, the
covenant that is proclaimed in his word,
that is sealed in his flesh, is something
we take very seriously.”
Bishop Lessard was the principal
con-celebrant and speaker at a solemn
Mass in the Cathedral of St. John the
Baptist officially bringing to a close a
meeting which drew more than 1,200
participants from the Archdiocese of
Atlanta and the dioceses of Savannah,
Charleston, Charlotte and Raleigh. The
worship congress began last Thursday
(Nov. 8) and closed on Saturday (Nov.
10).
The bishop quoted the prophet
Isaiah, speaking the words of God:
“I will heal him and console him. I
will comfort him to the full. Both him
and his afflicted fellows, bringing praise
to their lips. Peace. Peace to far and
near. I will, indeed, heal him.”
The purpose of the closing Mass,
Bishop Lessard, declared, “is to rejoice
in the fulfillment of that promise - to
celebrate the presence of Christ in our
midst as healer, as comforter, as our
peace. For in this action we encounter
the same Christ who heals us of our
afflictions and makes us whole and
holy.”
According to the Apostle Paul, he
said, it is “God’s eternal, loving plan to
bring everything -- everything -- together
under Christ.”
St. Paul, in his letter to the
Ephesians, the bishop continued, spoke
of Christ as “the instrument, or rather
the embodiment of peace and
reconciliation between us. It is he who
makes us into one, and he does so by
breaking down the barriers keeping us
apart.”
He characterized the “barrier” about
which Paul spoke as “the stone wall that
separated the outer court from the inner
in the Jewish temple. And that was a
divider that was there, supposedly, to
protect the holy and consecrated chosen
people from any outside defiling
influences.”
He suggested that Paul had much
more in mind, however, “I’m sure that
he was thinking of you and me and all
our little barriers that we have erected
in our little worlds - the stone wall of
our personal hostilities, our alienations,
the wall of our selfishness and our pride,
of our prejudices and our ‘hangups’.”
“Aren’t we always building these
ramparts, supposedly to protect us?” he
asked.
These barriers, he continued,
“separate us one from another and they
even divide us within ourselves. So what
do we end up with? We find ourselves in
an estranged and atomized condition, so
that our main concern is to be
unconcerned about the other, and our
principal malady is isolation and
alienation.”
As a result, he said, people are
divided from one another and “in
effect, separated from our one and only
Father.
“And there we would remain if it
were not for a word that burst onto the
scene -- a Word that was Light, a Word
that was Peace - the Word of God made
flesh. And in that flesh and by his
blood, he broke down every barrier,
every dividing wall that has isolated and
imprisoned us. Christ, that Word, is our 1
liberator. He is our healer.
“He is our peace and he is our unity.
He takes us all, without the barriers, and
he makes of us a new humanity,
bringing us into the intimacy of God’s
family, so that we are truly members of
God’s household. Through his sacrifice,
and it is the one, same sacrifice we offer
this morning, he brings us nearer to God
in a covenant of brotherhood ...”
Recalling the events of the worship
congress, which included lectures,
workshops and prayer services, Bishop
Lessard observed that delegates had
been “talked to. . .preached at, but
you’ve responded. You’ve prayed and
you’ve sung your hearts out.”
“You brought with you,” the bishop
continued, “the precious gifts of joy
and peace, of fellowhsip and of unity. I
think we could indeed call this congress
on worship a ‘happening.’ But I should
like to think it was something much
more, because a ‘happening’ is
something just too momentary.
“I would like to think it was
something like a new Passover, or
perhaps more accurately, a renewed
Passover, when, together, we solemnly
reaffirmed that this new Covenant of
Brotherhood through Christ, the
covenant that is proclaimed in his Word,
that is sealed in his flesh, is something
we take very seriously.
“This covenant is something that is
both real and very relevant in our lives.
It is something that we so ardently
yearn to share with our brothers and
sisters everywhere. ”
Bishop Lessard closed his remarks by
expressing the hope that “our
celebration of this Eucharist (may) be a
solemn renewal of that covenant as well
as a pledge of its fulfillment in each and
every one of us.”
Cathedral to Mark Centenary
Historic Cathedral of St. John The
Baptist, whose twin spires dominate the
Savannah skyline, will pause Sunday,
Nov. 18th, to mark the centennial of
the cornerstone laying. qjf t^e^present
church structure. 1 ' '
The Most Rev. Raymond W. Lessard,
Bishop of the Diocese, will be the
celebrant of a Solemn High Mass at 10
a.m., while the Rev. Lawrence A.
Lucree, a former rector, will deliver the
homily at the centennial observance.
Representatives of other parishes in
Savannah and throughout the diocese,
as well as civic dignitaries and officials
of fraternal organizations which
participated in the 1873 event, have
been invited to attend the Mass and a
reception following at St. Vincent’s
Hall. Parish members will be on hand to
receive the congratulations and good
wishes on the important event in the life
of the mother church of Georgia
Catholics.
The James B. Copps Memorial Choir
will sing the Mass. Also participating in
the event will be members of
Immaculate Conception General
Assembly of Fourth Degree Knights of
Columbus.
Msgr. Daniel J. Bourke, Rector, said
the centennial of the cornerstone laying
is purposely being kept low key for the
Cathedral plans to make a major
celebration out of the 100th anniversary
of the dedication of the Cathedral
which occurs in 1976 in conjunction
with the bicentennial of the nation.
The Cathedral of St. John the
Baptist, the parish church of Georgia’s
most historic congregation, has a history
that spans more than 170 years.
On May 30, 1799, the Mayor and
Aldermen of Savannah passed a
resolution reserving a lot for the
erection of a house of worship. On that
lot on Liberty Square at State and
Montgomery Street was erected a small
frame church dedicated to God under
the patronage of St. John the Baptist.
In 1801, a petition for incorporation
was presented to the legislature of the
state by the Roman Catholic Church in
the City of Savannah. The act was
signed on November 30, 1801, by
Governor Josiah Tattnall, Jr.
In June, 1804, the little congregation
had begun to experience growing pains
and petitioned the city for an extra lot.
None being available, the petition was
rejected.
On April 26, 1811, another petition
was presented to the Mayor and
Aldermen, and on August 2, 1811, they
deeded to the Roman Catholic
congregation lots 17 and 18 in Elbert
Ward, Montgomery and Hull Streets.
On February 22, 1819, Council
granted the congregation lots No. 33
and 34, Brown Ward, the block to the
rear of the present Catholic Chancery.
Since the church on Liberty Square was
inadequate for the needs of the people,
the trustees petitioned for permission to
sell the lots in Elbert Ward and to use
the money to erect a church at Drayton
and Perry Streets.
Council gave permission April 5,
1819, to sell the Elbert Ward lots, and
on May 16, 1822, a deed was executed
to the Roman Catholic Church for the
two lots in Brown Ward. The
cornerstone for the new church was laid
by Bishop England in 1835.
Bishop Ignatius Persico, later to be
made a Cardinal inaugurated plans for
building a new Cathedral and
accordingly purchased land from the
Sisters of Mercy on Abercorn Street,
running back along Harris to Lincoln.
The great building task devolved on
Bishop William H. Gross. During his
episcopate, he laid the cornerstone of
the Cathedral on November 19, 1873,
and on April 30, 1876, dedicated the
completed edifice to the service of God.
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DELEGATES TO WORSHIP CONGRESS register as three-day meeting gets underway at Savannah’s Civic
Center last Thursday (Nov. 8).
SCRIPTURE SCHOLAR
T ells What to Pray F or and How
LUNCH 12-3 A
DINNER 5-12 A
CLOSED 3
SUNDAY A
^SS^SSSSSS:^
The model for Christian prayer life in
the modern world, Monsignor J. Warren
Holleran told delegates to the fourth
Worship Congress of the Atlanta
Province (dioceses of Atlanta, Savannah,
Charleston, Charlotte and Raleigh), is
the prayer life of Jesus, Himself.
Speaking on the topic “The
Prayerfulness of Jesus,” Msgr. Holleran
examined both the conditions under
which Jesus prayed and the content of
His prayer.
Msgr. Holleran is Professor of Sacred
Scripture at St. Patrick’s Seminary,
Menlo Park, Calif, and holds a doctoral
degree in Biblical Theology from the
Gregorian University in Rome.
In his talk, the speaker cited the
frequency of Jesus’ prayer, its
lengthiness, and the fact that he always
prayed alone and mostly at night.
Msgr. Holleran quoted St. Mark’s
Gospel as saying: “rising early the next
morning, Jesus went off to a lonely
place in the desert; there He was
absorbed in prayer.” Considering the
context of Mark’s Gospel, he said, the
writer was “exhibiting a quality that he
would have us recognize as
characteristic of the daily life and
ministry of Jesus.”
To document his assertion with
regard to the lengthiness of Jesus’
prayer, the scripture scholar referred to
other instances reported by Mark
concerning the crossing of the lake in
chapter 6 and Jesus’ prayer in the
garden at Gethsemane in chapter 14.
In the first case, Msgr. Holleran said,
the disciples started their journey across
the lake in broad daylight. Meanwhile,
he said, Jesus dismissed the crowd and
“went off to the mountain to pray.”
It was not until somewhere “between
three and six in the following morning”
that Jesus rejoined His disciples in their
boat, he declared.
With regard to the prayer at
Gethsemane, the Monsignor said that
given the fact that Jesus departed from
the disciples three times, prayed three
times and returned to the disciples three
times, and that three times the disciples
fell asleep, the prayer of Jesus that night
“obviously (took) place over a long
period of time.”
The speaker used the same scriptural
references to show that Jesus had a
habit of praying at night and, except for
community synagogue services on the
sabbath and in the temple liturgy in
Jerusalem, almost always alone.
There are three characteristics, he
said, which mark the content of the
prayers of Jesus throughout the New
Testament. The prayer of Jesus, Msgr.
Holleran continued, is “a prayer of the
Son - to the Father - for his brothers.
Jesus addressed his Father, he said, in
the way in which children speak to their
father within the family circle, and
Jesus’ use of the word Father would be
rendered by modern day people as
“Pappa” or “Daddy.”
He cited the “deep confidence with
which Jesus” prayed: “‘O Father, you
have the power to do all things, as he
asks for the removal of this cup, and
with which he surrendered himself to
the Father’s designs for him in the
words which follow: ‘But let it be as
you would have it, not as I.’”
Nevertheless, Msgr. Holleran,
contended, even though he prayed with
trust, his struggle was no less real. It was
not easy for him to accept the suffering
he knew was coming, he said.
of Jesus have given a power to his
prayer that it did not possess before,”
he continued, “not in relation to the
Father but in relation to us. Now he
prays not only FOR us, but with us and
in us and through us.”
The content of Christian prayer
today, the California priest declared, is
embodied in the prayer he taught the
Apostles, the Our Father.
We address God as “the children of
one family in a common Father,” he
said.
“Secondly, we center ourselves in
Him, surrendering ourselves to His
designs and purposes for us: ‘May your
name be held holy, your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.’
“Thirdly, only then do we pray for
our own and our brothers’ needs,
because only then are we opened and
surrendered to be fashioned by God
into genuine instruments for the
accomplishment of the very prayers we
pray to Him.
“We ask for bread for ourselves and
for all our hungry brothers
everywhere .. .We ask for mercy for
ourselves, but also for them.”
The conditions under which Jesus
prayed, he said, could be reduced to
“faith, perseverance and honesty.”
He cited the admonition of Jesus,
“Knock and it will be opened to you”
and the story of the epileptic boy,
found in Mark’s Gospel, as examples of
faith. The boy’s father seemingly was
not convinced that Jesus could cure his
son, even though he asked him to. When
Jesus chided the man, he blurted out, “I
do believe! Help my lack of trust.”
“Even though his faith is anything
but perfect,” noted Father Holleran,
“the honesty of his admission is enough
to gain for him the favor he
perseveringly asks of God. ”
“Possibly,” he said, “we could do no
better than to end our considerations on
this final note of a man so like ourselves
in the condition of his prayer, a man
who, because there is someone he loves
who is desperately ill, is willing to grow
in persevering prayer from the
defensiveness of challenge through the
hope of half-hearted belief to the naked
trust of faith, until finally his honesty
wins an answer from the ever waiting
love of God as manifested in the
compassionate and healing power of
Jesus Christ His Son.”
Belief in Jesus—
(Continued from Front Page)
himself to be ‘baptized again’ by the
Holy Spirit.”
The Norbertine priest declared his
personal belief that “these
developments are indicative of a
religious revival in the ‘70s” even
though they are sometimes marred by
overzealousness and the introduction of
such “trivia” as Jesus T-shirts and
“Christ” wristwatches.
Nevertheless, he said, “I sincerely
believe that we have something to learn
by what’s going on in this movement.”
Asserting that he could not speak for
the Jesus People or the Protestant
Evangelicals, he said the Catholic
Pentecostals “seem to be saying to us,
‘don’t become so entranced and
enchanted by the visible forms of Faith
that you never get behind them and
meet the Jesus you talk so much
about.”
A church organization “can become
so interested in the organization,” the
speaker charged, “it forgets the Jesus on
whom it is built.”
He illustrated his charge by observing,
“I can run into a liturgical expert who
really is so absorbed by the exterior
form that he has begun to forget what
the form is supposed to point to.
“I can meet a Bible man who can
exegete from Genesis to Apocalypse,
but get a terrible feeling of ‘where’s my
Lord?’
“I can meet someone who is terribly
anxious to be a Christian servant to the
world, but has succumbed to the life of
‘busy-ness’ to the point where you get a
terrible suspicion that all that action
that’s going on is simply a ‘stroking of a
need’ that has never been satisfied in his
own heart.”
Rather than by the institutions in
which it is enshrined, said Fr. McBride,
the substance of the “faith- experience”
is indicated by the “first words of
Christ’s ministry -- ‘The kingdom of
God is within you’.”
“The gift of God,” continued Fr.
McBride, “is that he had made man with
an irrespessible desire to be with him,
and to know him.”
For the Christian, he said, this desire
finds fulfillment in the knowledge that
through Christ’s sacrifice of himself for
the sins of men, he has “implanted
man into a world where God is ready to
say, ‘I like you. You’re O.K.’”
“The result of this,” the speaker said,
“is a radical joy that should be our daily
bread, even in darkness and tragedy.
Therefore, it would be a terrible pity to
see an auditorium full of ‘grit’
Christians. We were not made that way.
We were made to combine truth and
goodness into something called beauty.
And beauty is that which brings
goodness and truth together so that you
can have a little joy in your life.”
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“The passion, death and resurrection