FEAST OF ALL SAINTS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 43, 25 October 1900, Page 7

FEAST OF ALL SAINTS.

Though we are apt to look upon the saints as the far-off citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, we must not forget that we can still communicate with them, and that they are united with us by the most tender ties. They are our fellow members in Christ Jesuß, and though already glorified, continue to form one body with us under the same head. At any time we can converse with them in prayer, for they know and see all things in God. On their part they continue to take the most lively interest in our welfare, for they know that we also are called to be saints and companionf with them for all eternity in the heavenly kingdom. They know, too, by their own experience the dangers that beset us, the craft and cruelty of our deadly enemies, the weakness of our corrupt nature ; and they are full of tender compassion and solicitude in our regard. Hence they never cease to pour out their supplications to God in our behalf, and they intercede in a special manner for those who have chosen them for their patrons or who invoke their prayers. Nor can they ever meet with a refußal from Him Whom they served bo faithfully upon earth, and Who has now gathered them about His throne to reward and glorify them.

The saints are the most faithful copies of Jesus, and therefore in imitating them we imitate Him, and become gradually conformed to our Divine Model. Moreover, on account of the weakness of our nature, we find it easier t© form our lives on the model of those who had the Bame weaknesses, frailties, and temptations as ourselves, than to regulate them only by the sublime example of the Incarnate God. Hence it is of the greatest advantage to read assiduously and meditate seriously on the lives of the saints, whereby our souls will become imbued with the same contempt of the world, the same spirit of prayer and self-denial, and the same ardent love for God and zeal for His glory and the salvation of men, with which the saints themselves were animated.

ST. MALACHI.

The long and sanguinary struggle between the Danish invaders and the Irish caused a ruinous dissolution of the civil laws, blunted the moral feelings of the people, and sullied the religious reverence which the Irish people paid to their Church and its pastors. Even the final overthrow of the Danes at Clontarf in 1014 did not rerestore peace to Ireland or to the Church, for a spirit of war had animated the chieftains, and degrading intrigues to secure the succession followed. Such was the state of Ireland and the Irish Church after the bloody ordeal through which they had passed when a new light blazed upon her blood-stained, clouded horizon— a man whose genius promised to restore peace to the country, whose virtues, piety, sanctity, and great ability promised to restore to the Church her ancient purity and stability. This man was St. Malachi, the apostle of the twelfth century, and the friend of the great St. Bernard. Malachi was born at Armagh in the year 101)4. The parents of our saint were persons of distinction, and, according to St. Bernard, were even more distinguished by the gifts of piety and good works than by those of birth or fortune. His mother in particular, who had destined him from his early youth for the Church, was careful to implant the maxims and precepts of virtue and piety in his young mind, and the holy life of her son well repaid her labor of love. When a youth he waa remarkable for his obedience, docility of manners, and for the noblest qualities both of heart and mind. The spirit of religion, sown by a good pious mother, seems to have grown with his growth and strengthened with his strength. These holy dispositions of childhood gave promise of his future saintly life and greatness. The humility of Malachi was such that he resisted for a long time the solicitations of his instructor, Imar, and Celsus, then Archbishop of Armagh, to receive ordination. But at their entreaties he yielded and received the orders of deaconship and those of the priesthood about the year 1119, when about 25 years of age. Immediately after his ordination Malachi applied himself to works of piety— such as the care of the poor and attending to their spiritual and temporal wants. St. Malachi was to enter upon a new field of spiritual glory, and was destined to restore the ancient monastery of Bangor to something of its former glory. After the destruction of thiß monastic establishment by the Danes in 812, it gradually decayed, and its large possessions became the ■polls of lay usurpers. They had now passed into the hands of a maternal uncle of St. Malachi, who resolved to devote himieli and fcia possession to the service of God. Our saint was called from Lisynore by his friends to undertake the rebuilding of the ancient monastery and preside over it. There is some difference of opinion among historians as to the time St. Malachi undertook the building, but the most reliable place at in or about the year 1120. St. Malachi passed to his reward in the year 1148.