CALENDAR.—MARCH 11—17.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 45, 9 March 1894, Page 16

CALENDAR.— MARCH 11—17.

Sunday llth— * Passion Sunday. Mooday 12th — Si Oregory tb« Grca*, Bishop, Conftssor, Doctor. Tuaiay 13th — Espousals B.Y M. Wednesday 14th— 8t Hilaiv, Bishop, Conftswr, Doctor. Thursday 15th— 8t Zanh»tiae, Bishop, Confessor. Friday 16th— -f Sevtn Dolours B.V.M. Saturday 17th— J 8. Patrick, Bishop, Confeeßor, Patron of Ireland.

* Passion Bond ay is so called because of the special consideration given to the Sicred Passion of our Divina Lori for i^e next two weeks from this Snnd&y. Passion Sunday recalls the decree of the Jewish Council adjadging Christ worthy of death. Oq Saturday, tbe Sabbalb, word was brought U ttio Temple that JJ c «ms bad raised 1/Jzarus from the death. Sibbath ended at sjnimu. Towards evening the priests assemble i, and filled with consternation at the thought that the whole nation wou.d run aCter Him whom they envied and hated, determined to quickly secure his arrest and death. Because of the commencement on ibis day of the proceedings which ended in the crucifixion of our Lord this day is called Passion Sunday. It has other names : 1. " Judica " or " Judge Me " Sunday, from the first words in the Introit. 2. The Sunday of the Pi9chal mooD. and (3), and among the Greeks, the fifth Sunday of the 11 jly Feasts.

f There are, during tbe year, two feasts of the Seven Dolours of the B.V.M. That which is kept on tbe Friday before Palm Suuday had its origin in Cologne in 1423, when Archbishop Thierry commanded Saturday of Passion week, to be dedicated to the seven sufferings of Mary. Tbe observance of this feast was extende-i by Pjpe Benedict XIIF. to the universal church. Our blessed Saviour, as related in tbe book of tbe revelations with which St. Bridgid was favoured, promised His Holy Mother that whoever should piously commemorate and effec. tionately compassionate her dolours and invoke her assistance through the merits thereof, should not quit this world without a true compunction for his sins ; that in his afflictions, particularly at tbe hour of his death, be should find aid and relief; and, moreover, to that those who invoked her intercession through the memory of her dolours, should be refused no favour which was for the real good and advantage of her clients.

%" Where Croagh Patrick towers over the western wave the interest of our Saint-s Oonnaugbt mission centres, A very miracle of penance at all times, Patrick is about to rival the fasts of Moses and Blias' It is Shrovetide when he goes up to his lonely mountain of prayer. It will be Eaater-tide when he comes dowo. He goes up there, that in that high solitude, with the deseit of ocean on one side and the scarcely less deserted land-tract on •he other, be may fast and pray for Erin. It is the culmination of bis life-struggle ; bis crowning victory over the foul spirits that were striving with him for tbe land be loved. His arms for the fight are prayer Rnd penance, the " strong cry and tears " with which his Master, in His dark hour of dereliction, conquered for all mankind. To understand that awful wrestling— 'now {with the evil one, like Anthony, now wih tbe Almighty, like Jacob — we must remember bow great was tbe prize, and bow wonderful the saint's demands. The island where demons seemed to have their fullest liberty, like tbe envenomed reptiles which in strange multitudes fou >d tbere a northern home, was to become the island of sanctity and learning. The people that sat in darkness were to shine brightest of all on earth, aaJ to cmy the ligbr, -not only to the eastward connneu*, bat, in long centuries to come, to the unknown lands that lay beyond tbe western wave. It was to be a victory won for hundreds of millions of souls ; anl we need not wonder that the hittle raged fierce and long. Patrick's cowl was drenched with rears. God's kngel made him off :r of souls innumerable as the wavelets on the ocean belosv ; he would have m <re — the sands of tbe shore should be added. Tbe angel bade him go— hi h%d been promised enough. Enough? No, not though tbe promises of salvation for his own, upon tbe judgement day, were multiplied sevenfold for every hair upon his habit. That mount he would not quit, nor stay his fast or prayer, until G jd should promise to give into his hands upon that last day the fate of the men of Erin, it was a mysterious jeqaest. seeming above God's power to grant Bat. we are told, the angel brought at eventide the answer that this too was granted to the intrepid mm of prayer. His joy was fait His struggle over, Patrick, at the angel's word, knelt and blessed the land for which he'had prayed. Every poisonous presence fled before ibnt potent benediction ; and his hermit's beP. as he descended from the mount that Easter evening, proclaimed the new birth of a Catholic Ireland. His was ibe victory of confident, psrsevering prayer ; and that great lesson, far more than the miracle that accompanied it, h s through the ages fired tht eyes of Christians on Cro»gb Patrick, and on him who there strove against Hell and Heaven witb the oaiy sword and the ool? breastplate that could in such a strife prevail." — From ' tit. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland ; ' by the Rdv A. Ryan.