GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 7, 15 February 1906, Page 31

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

February 18, Sunday.— Sexagesima Sunday. 19, Monday.— St. Titus, Bishop and Confessor. „ 20, Tuesday. — Commemoration of the Passion of Our Lord. „ 21, Wednesday.— St. Paul, the First Hermit. „ 22, Thursday.— The Chair of St. Peter at Antioch. „ 23, Friday.— St. Peter Damian, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. „ 2-1, Saturday.— St. Mathias, Apostle. St. Titus, Bishop and Confessor. St. Titus was a Greek by birth, and the son of a Gentile father and a Jewish mother. lie accompanied St. Paul to Jerusalem to the Council, and on his various extensive journeys, and was finally established by him Bishop of Crete, about the year G2. lie died about 105, at the advanced age of i)l yeais. St. Paul wrote an Epistle to him, which contains instructions for his disciple. Commemoration of the Passion of Our Lord. There is no practice more constantly or more earnestly recommended by spiiilual writers" as a means of awakening in our hearts a tender love for the Son of (iod than meditation on His sufferings and death, which can best be done by making the Way of the Cross. St. Paul, the First Hermit. St. Paul, the first hermit and surnamed the 'Father of Hermits,' was bom at Thebes in Upper Egypt in 228. During the Decian persecution he fled into the desert of the Thebaid, and lived there in a cave to the great age of 113 years, practising austere penance and occupied in prayer and contemplation. Chair of St. Peter at Antioch. On this day we commemorate the establishment by St. Peter of his Episcopal See at Antioch, where for seven years he ruled the Church as Universal Pastor, before finally fixing the scat ol' his spiritual government at Rome. St. Peter Damian, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. St. Peter was born at Ravenna, in the north of Italy, about 988. After a youth of hardship, he entered a Benedictine monastery at the foot of the Appenines, where for many years he led a life of austerity, prayer, and study. His great piety and learning having brought him under the notice of his ecclesiastical superiors, he was employed by more than one Pope in important affairs, and displayed great zeal and prudence. In 1057 he was created Cardinal and Bishop of Oslia, but, five* years later, he succeeded in obtaining permission to resign his bishopric and return to his monastery. His death occurred in 1072. St. Mathias, Apostle. After the ascension of Our Lord, St. Mathias was chosen by lot to fill the place which the treachery and suicide of Judas had left vacant. Tradition assigns as the place of Ins labors and martyidom Cappadocia and the countries bordmng on the Black and Caspian Seas.