This united action will manifest itself first and above all in prayer.  The preservation of the Faith, and the conversion of souls are supernatural works depending primarily and in the final analysis on the grace of God.  Never has it been more necessary to emphasize this trait of the Catholic Aspostolate.  Confronted with elaborate schemes of finance and the co-operative action of various denominations, we may take lessons from them, but should never forget that there is something more fundamental; we mean, the grace of God.  Our prayer—­the prayer of every child, the prayer of every man and woman within the fold, the prayer of every nun and priest, should be the prayer of the Master to the Heavenly Father:  “Send harvesters into the fields!” How powerful should not that prayer be!  How strong a binding link between the East and the West!

But prayer, like faith, without works is dead.  The Extension, therefore, not only solicits our prayers, but also our help to meet the needs of our home-missions—­Men and money, financial aid and apostolic vocations, these are the needs of the hour.  Money to build chapels, schools, orphanages, hospitals; money to help the Catholic press, the spreading of Catholic Literature; money to forward the great and vital cause of higher education.  This organized financial assistance of the Church in the East, as a whole, as a corporate body, is the best expression of the reality and sincerity of Catholic solidarity.  To boast of our beautiful churches and sumptuous cathedrals in the East and to leave our priests in the West without a decent chapel to say Mass denote either painful ignorance of actual facts or the fallacy of our Catholicity.

Great is the need of money, but greater still the need of men.  The principal work of the Extension is to foster, develop and bring to fruition missionary vocations for the West.  Burses are founded to assist young men in their studies, and in a few years, it is the hope of the Extension to be able to send to every diocese of the West zealous harvesters for the harvest that is awaiting them beyond the Lakes.  Could we be invited to share a more noble task than to contribute to the education of the heralds of the Gospel, of the ambassadors of Christ to that Western Kingdom of ours?

Let us conclude.

These are the principles on which rests the Church Extension Society; this is the policy it pursues.  The adoption of these principles and the furtherance of this policy will, we are confident, develop the true type of the Catholic Laity.  The parish, its works, its pastor, will be the first to benefit by this missionary spirit of the laity.  Long enough has the priest, the missionary, laboured alone in the harvest field and borne the heats of the day; long enough have but a few loyal and generous souls shouldered the burden of the missionary work in Canada; long enough have our Catholics limited their zealous efforts to the confines of their parish or their diocese.  The time has come for every Catholic in Canada to answer the call of the Master, to take his place in the harvest field, to share the responsibilities of the present and prepare a glorious future for the Church in our great and prosperous Dominion.