The rector paused and then, shaking his clasped hands before him, went on:
—He had the faith in him that moves mountains. Ten thousand souls
won for God in a single month! That is a true conqueror, true to the
motto of our order: AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM! A saint who has great power
in heaven, remember: power to intercede for us
in our grief; power to obtain whatever we pray for if it be for the
good of our souls; power above all to obtain for us the grace to repent
if we be in sin. A great saint, Saint Francis Xavier! A great fisher of
souls!
—We are assembled here today, my dear little brothers in Christ,
for one brief moment far away from the busy bustle of the outer world to
celebrate and to honour one of the greatest of saints, the apostle of
the Indies, the patron saint also of your college,
Saint Francis Xavier. Year after year, for much longer than any of you,
my dear little boys, can remember or than I can remember, the boys of
this college have met in this very chapel to make their annual retreat
before the feast day of their patron saint.
Time has gone on and brought with it its changes. Even in the last few
years what changes can most of you not remember? Many of the boys who
sat in those front benches a few years ago are perhaps now in distant
lands, in the burning tropics, or immersed in
professional duties or in seminaries, or voyaging over the vast expanse
of the deep or, it may be, already called by the great God to another
life and to the rendering up of their stewardship. And still as the
years roll by, bringing with them changes for
good and bad, the memory of the great saint is honoured by the boys of
this college who make every year their annual retreat on the days
preceding the feast day set apart by our Holy Mother the Church to
transmit to all the ages the name and fame of one of
the greatest sons of Catholic Spain.
—Now what is the meaning of this word RETREAT and why is it allowed
on all hands to be a most salutary practice for all who desire to lead
before God and in the eyes of men a truly Christian life? A retreat, my
dear boys, signifies a withdrawal for awhile
from the cares of our life, the cares of this workaday world, in order
to examine the state of our conscience, to reflect on the mysteries of
holy religion and to understand better why we are here in this world.
During these few days, I intend to put before
you some thoughts concerning the four last things. They are, as you
know from your catechism, death, judgment, hell, and heaven. We shall
try to understand them fully during these few days so that we may derive
from the understanding of them a lasting benefit
to our souls. And remember, my dear boys, that we have been sent into
this world for one thing and for one thing alone: to do God's holy will
and to save our immortal souls. All else is worthless. One thing alone
is needful, the salvation of one's soul. What
doth it profit a man to gain the whole world if he suffer the loss of
his immortal soul? Ah, my dear boys, believe me there is nothing in this
wretched world that can make up for such a loss.
—I will ask you, therefore, my dear boys, to put away from your
minds during these few days all worldly thoughts, whether of study or
pleasure or ambition, and to give all your attention to the state of
your souls. I need hardly remind you that during
the days of the retreat all boys are expected to preserve a quiet and
pious demeanour and to shun all loud unseemly pleasure. The elder boys,
of course, will see that this custom is not infringed and I look
especially to the prefects and officers of the sodality
of Our Blessed Lady and of the sodality of the holy angels to set a
good example to their fellow-students.
—Let us try, therefore, to make this retreat in honour of Saint
Francis with our whole heart and our whole mind. God's blessing will
then be upon all your year's studies. But, above and beyond all, let
this retreat be one to which you can look back in
after years when maybe you are far from this college and among very
different surroundings, to which you can look back with joy and
thankfulness and give thanks to God for having granted you this occasion
of laying the first foundation of a pious honourable
zealous Christian life. And if, as may so happen, there be at this
moment in these benches any poor soul who has had the unutterable
misfortune to lose God's holy grace and to fall into grievous sin, I
fervently trust and pray that this retreat may be the
turning point in the life of that soul. I pray to God through the
merits of His zealous servant Francis Xavier, that such a soul may be
led to sincere repentance and that the holy communion on Saint Francis's
day of this year may be a lasting covenant between
God and that soul. For just and unjust, for saint and sinner alike, may
this retreat be a memorable one.
