Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 22, 29 May 1902, Page 7

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

June 1, Sunday. — Second Sunday after Pentecost. „ ' 2, Monday.— St. Eugenius 1., Pope and Martyr. „ 3, Tuesday.— St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi. „ 4, Wednesday.— St. Francis of Carraciolo, Confessor. „ 5, Thnrsday. — Ootave of Corpus Christi. „ 6, Friday.— Feast of the Sacred Heart. „ 7, Saturday.— St. Augustine, Bishop and Confessor.

BT. MARY MAGDALEN DE PAZZI. St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi was born in Florence, in 1566. She was of an illustrious family, which was allied to the Mediois. At the ace of 16 she took the veil. She died in 1607, and was canonised in 1669. FEAST OF THE SACRED HEART. After many devout souls had venerated the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with .-incere dpvotion, in the solitude of quiet life, our divine Saviour willed that His heart's infinite love should be recognised by all men, and be enkindled in cold hearts by a new fire of love. For this end He made use of a feeble, obpeure instrument, that all the world might know, that the devotion of His loving heart, previously almost entirely unknown, was His own work. This instrument, disregarded by the world, was one who shone before God in all the radiance of the most sublime virtues, the nun Margaret Alacoque, of the Order of the Visitation of Mary, atParay, in Burgundy. In the year 1675, whilst she was one day in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, our Lord appeared to her, and pointing to His heart which He showed to her, surrounded with flames, surmounted by the Cross, enriched with a crown of thorns, and pierced with a gaping wound, He said to her : ' Behold this heart which has loved mankind so much, and which receives only ingratitude and coldness in return for its love. My desire is that you should make reparation to My heart for this ingratitude, and induce others also to make reparation.' Our Lord then designated the Friday afuer the Octave of Corpus Christi as the special day for this duty. In several subsequent apparitions our divine Lord repeated this injunction and made the most unbounded promises in favor of all who would apply themselves to this office of reparation of His Sacred Heart. This devotion soon spread from the conv< nt throughout the adjoining rlioce-es, where confraternities in honor of the Sacred lle;.rt of Jesus arose, and Pope Clement XIII., after caching the t-t:icteht investigation to be made, commanded the Festival of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to be observed throughout the Catholic Church, on the first Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi. ST. AUGUSTINE, BISHOP AND CONI'EBSOR. St. AuguHtine, the Apostle of England, who died in 605, was sent by Pope Gregory 1., in 5%, with 3 ( J of his brethren, to undertake the conver-ion of Anglo-Saxons in Britain. The effect of their preaching was accompanied with most wonderful success ; on the following Christmas, ten thousand, following the example of King Ethelbert ot Kent, were baptised. On learning of the wonderful and pioriperous misbion of Augustine, Pope Gregory appointed him the first bishop, and, in 001, metropolitan of the Anglo-Saxons with the authority to found 12 suffragan sees, and when the Northern English should have embraced the faith, also to cousecrate a bishop for York, which should, likewine, be a metropolitan with 12 suffragan f-ees. St. Augustine ditd, after Laving chosen Lawrence, one of his faithful fellow-laborers, to fcucceed him in the See of Canterbury.