Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 26, 1 July 1909, Page 1003

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR July 4, Sunday. — Fifth Sunday after Pentecost. Feast of the Most Precious Blood. „ 5, Monday. — St. Anthony Zaccaria, Confessor. „ 6, Tuesday. — Octave of Saints Peter and Paul. „ 7, Wednesday. — St. Benedict XI., Pope and Confessor. „ 8, Thursday. — St. Kilian, Bishop and Martyr. „ 9, Friday. — The Prodigies of the Blessed Virgin Mary. „ 10, Saturday. — The Seven Brothers, Martyrs. Prodigies of the Blessed Virgin Mary. God, who rewards. His saints with perfect happiness in heaven, often honors them before men by miraculously assisting those who invoke their intercession. The Blessed Virgin being, as Mother of God, the greatest of all the saints, her devout clients have most frequently been the recipients of such miraculous favors. From the changing of the water into wine at the marriage feast of Cana to the miraculous cures that are yearly effected at Lourdes and other celebrated shrines, God has in every age exercised His power on behalf of those who appeal to Him through his Blessed Mother. In the feast of to-day, instituted on the occasion of some miraculous events which took place in Rome at the close of the eighteenth century, we express our gratitude for this display of God's power and mercy, and we honor her whom He has condescended to thus honor. The Seven Brothers, Martyrs. The seven saints whose glorious death is commemorated to-day were the sons of St. Felicitas, and suffered at Rome about the middle of the second century. They were exhorted to constancy in suffering by their heroic mother, who herself soon after received the crown of martyrdom.