Friends at Court.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 25, 27 October 1898, Page 6

Friends at Court.

COMMEMORATION OF ALL SOULS.

BIOGRAPHICAL GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR. (Written for the N.Z. Tablet.) October 30, Sunday.— 22nd after Pentecost. „ 31, Monday. — Vigil of All Saints. November 1, Tuesday. — Feast of All Sainte. „ 2, Wednesday.— Commemoration of All Souls. „ 3, Thursday.— St. Malachy. „ 4, Friday. — St. Charles Borromeo. „ 5, Saturday. — St. Augustine. FEAST OF ALL SAINTS. The Commemoration of all human hearts that have found their Eternal Anchorage. — In old Catholic England, as now in Belguim, there were some holidays — Christmas, Easter, and All Saints — which were ' high days,' on which English kings wore their crowns. All Saints seems to gather up in itself so many thoughts of sanotity and its reward, that we need not wonder it was chosen out for the highest rank. ' Sense is so strong in all of us, and the things of sense do bo press upon and beguile us, that it is a good thing to have our attention fixed on things invisible, as is done in this, and in the solemnity of All Souls. . . The world is always making great mistakes ; but there is no mistake more profound than that by which its followers persuade themselves that people are happy in proportion as they have the natural desires of their hearts fulfilled. There iaa happiness which comes from detachment, of which the world knows nothing. The Psalmist alludes to it, when, after describing those who have all which this world can give them, he adds : " They have called the people happy that hath such things ; but happy is that people whose God is the Lord." Who are the Saints ? The friends of God, ' out of all the tribes of the children of Israel, out of all nations, without any distinction of Greek or barbarian ; persons of all ages, for there ia no age which is not ripe or fit for heaven : and out of all states and conditions ; in the throne amidst the pomp of worldly grandeur ; in the cottage ; in the army ; in trade ; in the magistracy ; clergymen, monks, virgins, married persons, widows, slaves, freemen . . . and they were all made saints by the very occupations of their state, and by the ordinary occurrences of life ; prosperity and adversity ; health and sickness ; honour and contempt ; riches and poverty, all which they made the means of their sanctification by patience, humility, meekness, charity, resignation, and devotion.' In the course of His Divine Providence God supplies to the souls He lov* and wills to sanctify ' the deep heart-crossings sternly kind, the thwarting of our desires, and the grinding down of our pride which are grievous at the time, but afterwards it will yield to them that are exercised by it the most peaceable fruit of justice ' (Heb. xii-ii). This festival leads us to those green meadows where we see the servants of God resting after their labours among the verdant pastures of eternity. In some of the old Roman basilicas this beatitude is represented under the figure of the ' place of pasture where He sets us.' You see in the roof over the altar a painting, a mosaic, in which Our Lord, as the Lamb of God, stands on a mound, from which streams of wa'.er flow down into the green meadows ; and there, standing around Him, or lying on the grass, are the sheep of His fold, at rest, with all their desires satisfied to the full, with their eyes fixed ou Him, Whom to know is life eternal, and Whose presence is itself their beatitude.

The communion of saints is the union that exists between the members of the true Church on earth with each other, and with the blessed in heaven, and with the suffering souls in purgatory. Through this communion of the saints, which is an article of the Apostles' Creed, the faithful on earth assist each other by their prayers and good works, and are aided by the intercession of the saiuts in heaven. The souls in purgatory are children of God, and still members of the Church, and are relieved, in their penal sufferings, also by the pruyers and good works of the faithful on earth and by the intercession of the saints in heaven. The Church has no more consoling dogma than that which places us in relations with our beloved departed.

Cardinal Newman, in his Dieavi of Gerontiws, encourages us to offer prayers and have Masses said for the souls in Purgatory, when he makes ' The Angel ' say :—: — ' Softly, and gently, dearly ransom 'd soul, In my most loving arms I now enfold thee, And, o'er the penal waters, as they roll, I poiee thee, and I lower thee, and hold thee. And carefully I dip thee in the lake, And thou, without a sob or a resistance, Dost through the flood, thy rapid passage take, Sinking deep, deeper into the dim distance. Angels, to whom the willing task is given, Shall tend, and nurse, and lull thee as thou liest ; And Masses on the earth, and prayers in Heaven, Shall aid thee at the throne of the Highest. Be brave and patient on thy bed of sorrow, Swiftly shall pass thy night of trial here.'

Had Another Name. — She : ' Did you see that bird of paradise on Mm. Styles's hat at the theatre last night ?' He : ' That wasn't what the fellow who sat behind her called it. 1

, May : ' What's the matter, dear V Clara : •My engagement with Charlie is broken.' May : ' But I thought you intended to break it ?' Clara : 'So I did, but the wretch went and broke it himself.'