Foundation Day – 154th Anniversary
1867 We then drove to John’s Church where the people were all assembled to meet us. His Lordship gave us Benediction assisted by Frs Phelan and Doyle. The Te Deum was sung …
We were then brought out of the Church through the sacristy, walked round the ground of the Church which was nicely laid out, to the entrance gate, which was so surrounded by people, that Fr Phelan could with difficulty make a passage for us to the cars. Old women etc exclaiming Oh and Ah and showing they were from the good old land. Some went so far as to take a sister’s hands and kiss them, crowds came to the windows of the vehicles saying, “God bless you”. Every place we went there were crowds at the doors. Many of them dipped to the ground as we passed along. Five minutes took us up to the Convent from St John’s through all the apartments to which we were brought by His Lordship, accompanied by Fr Stone and O’Carroll, then round the plot of ground and back again to the Parlour when His Lordship said: “You are home now at last.”
We knelt down to get his blessing … … …
God, yesterday, today and tomorrow,
You call us to journeys where the lighthouse is not yet visible,
where the maps are not fully drawn.
Give us the faith we need to launch out into the deep with courage,
as our pioneer women did, believing your hand is firmly on the tiller.
May the God who fashions all journeys dwell with each of us
in the unfolding of our own. Amen
