Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 20, 21 May 1908, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINQS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

May 24, Sunday.— Fifth Sunday after Easter. Blessed Virgin Mary, Help of Christians." „ 25, Monday. — St. Gregory VII., Pope and Confessor. Kogation .Day. „ 26, Tuesday.— St. Philip Neri, Confessor. Rogation Day. „ 27, Wednesday.— St. John 1., Pope and Martyr. Rogation Day. „ 28, Thursday.— Ascension of Our Lord. Holiday of Obligation. „ 29, Friday.— St. Boniface IV., Pope and Confessor. „ 30, Saturday.— St. Felix 1., Pope and Martyr. Rogation Days. The observance of Rogation ' Days— Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday — owes its origin to a variety of calamities that befell the city of Vienne in Dauphine. For more than half a century, not a year, not even a season, passed without Dauphine and Savoy being afflicted with some new evils. So many misfortunes had reduced these provinces to a state of extreme desolation. Mamertus, Bishop of Vienne (and who> is honored, as a- saint), in the liveliness of his faith and charity, offered up prayers and tears to appease the wrath of God. He was heard. Whilst contending with a conflagration in his cathedral, on Easter night (469), he made a vow to institute the ' Rogations.' The Rogations are litanies, or supplications, which consist in solemn procession, accompanied with public .fast and prayer. With the general consent of the clergy and people, the three days preceding Ascension Day (Thursday) were chosen for the fulfilment of this vow. This example was soon followed everywhere. A decree of the First Council of Orleans, in 544, established the Rogations in Gauil, and other countries. Feast of the Asoension. Christ risen from the dead remained forty days on earth, instructing His Apostles, and proving beyond' all doubt the truth of His Resurrection. At the end of that time He ascended into heaven from Mount Olivet, in full Aiew of His Apostles.

GRAINS OF GOLD

O LOVE DIVINE. ■ How canst Thou here, O Thou Eternal One, Find Thy delights among the sons of men Who wound Thy Heart, and grieve Thy spirit o'er And o'er again. , ■ i O L,ove Divine ! O Love of loves not loved ! Who yearns alone our faithless hearts to fill, Unsought, unasked, unheeded, and unpraised, Yet yearning still. The world's true Light ! Bright Sun of Righteousness, Thy noonday beams upon my darkness pour, Enlighten me, that I may ever kno,w And love 'ihee more . We should call a man who could sit on a barrel of gunpowder smoking a pipe a rather unbalanced sort of main ; so is the man who lives in this world thoughtless of the next. A Vanity of vanities ' is the verdict of the higher as well as the lower experience of life. That we are dSssatisfied with all that the world could ever give us, is the proof that there is a higher -love-power within us which must seek its object elsewhere. ' Man must work and woman weep,' the poet says. But we kinow that poets dream, and woman must needs do other than weep ; she must be strong ; " so strong that her heart may break, her soul be strained, a.nW" yet "h^r " soul's; peace remain undisturbed, her kindness unchanged, her compassion, her pity, and her love unddmmed, unlessened, unimpaired. What the angels are in God's Heaven, women should be in His bieaiutiful world — the ministering spirits, strong in their weakness, unfaltering industry,, and, like their angelic kindred, always bound omi missions of comfort and hope. If sweetly low, their paths may run through' the years, crowded with the little things which make life's joyful crown or bitterest consecration ; or, if th»e years lead them' as hiph as woman's amibition cam. soar, still they mustf always be women, women of Mary's type who can climb Calvary with its pain., Its agony of shame, its torture, and finally its glory.