GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 24, 18 June 1908, Page 3

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

June 21, Sunday.— Second Sunday after Pentecost.' St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Confessor. „ 22, Monday.— Blessed Innocent V., Pope and Confessor. „ 23, Tuesday.— St. Mark, Evangelist. „ 24, Wednesday.— St. John the Baptist. „ 25, Thursday.— Octave of Corpus Christi „ 2&, Friday.— Sacred Heart of Jesus. „ 27, Saturday.— St. William, Abbot. Nativity of St. John the Baptist. St. Augustine remarks that while the Church celebrates the feasts of other saints on the day of their death, as being that of their entrance into eternal hfe, she keeps as a festival the day of St. John the Baptist's birth, because he came into the world, not as a sinner, but as a saint, having being sanctified in his mother's womb by Our Blessed Lord. Of St John the angel foretold, • He shall be great before the Lord, amd shall drink no wine nor strong drink, aoid he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb. And he shall convert many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he shall go hefore them in the spirit and power of Elias ... to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people.' The Son of God, speaking of St. John, says : ' There hath not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the JBaptist.' The glorious martyrdom of St. John is commemorated on August 29. St. William, Abbot. St. William, a native of northern Italy, inspired with the desire of leading a penitential life, retired to a lonely spot named Monte Vergine, near Benevento. Having being followed by many persons desirous to place their souls under his guidance, he established a religious congregation, which was afterwards united to the Benedictine Order. St. William died in 1142.