Ten 'Cornet' Sisters of Charity are in
charge of this Unit, which is almost wholly Catholic in its membership
and which has been recruited from hospitals conducted by these Sisters
in the South and West.

"At six-thirty, Chaplain George T. McCarthy, U. S. A., of Chicago,
celebrated Holy Mass. A congregation which numbered, besides the Unit,
our own Sisters of Charity, many overseas Nurses attached to other units
and a goodly quota of our parishioners was present. All received Holy
Communion. At the conclusion of the Mass, the "Star-Spangled Banner" was
sung, and after he had blessed a large American flag--the colors of the
Unit--Father McCarthy bade the nurses farewell."

SERMON

"In this holy hour and place, while Jesus, the gentle Master, still
lingers in your Eucharistic hearts, we are met for a two-fold
purpose--to bless the starry banner of the free--the colors of your
Unit--and to wish you Godspeed on your heroic way.

"Here within these historic walls of St. Stephen, the Proto-Martyr,
whose every stone and pillar and vaulting arch is richly storied with
the memories of surpassing men and women and their splendid
achievements--here, as it were, on the shore of the far-flung billows of
the Atlantic, you are gathered from the length and breadth of our
beloved country. With all the sacred courage of an Agnes of Italy, an
Ursula of England, a Joan of France, you have, during the past few days
and weeks, been called upon to bid your loved ones at home a fond and
tender farewell, as you go to follow the trail of the Crimson Cross to
service overseas.

"Our first and most holy purpose here, indeed, is to bless this flag
that is to lead you on your way; but most truly may the question be
asked: 'Can the flag of our beloved Country be blessed more fully than
it already is?' Its red is consecrated by the blood of countless heroes;
its white is stainless and unsullied as the Truth and Justice for which
it has forever stood; its blue is of the mid-day heavens, lofty in its
purpose to point the way of freedom to all mankind, that 'Government of
the people, for the people, and by the people' may not perish from the
earth!

"As we unfurl it to the breeze, it speaks with an eloquence irresistible
and it tells a story of heroism and patriotism unsurpassed. It brings
memory of Lexington and Concord; it tells of suffering at Valley Forge,
and of Victory at Yorktown. It was waved in triumph on the hills of
Gettysburg; and