GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

New Zealand Tablet, 12 August 1909, Page 1243

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

August 15, Sunday. — Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. „ 16, Monday.— -St. Roch, Confessor. „ 17, Tuesday. — Octave of St. Lawrence. „ 18, Wednesday. — St. Hyacinth, Confessor. „ 19, Thursday. — B. Urban 11., Pope and Confessor. „ 20, Friday. — St. Bernard, Confessor and Doctor. „ 21, Saturday. — St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Widow. St. Roch, Confessor. Montpellier, in France, was the birthplace of St. Roch, as well- as the scene of his death. The devoted charity which he displayed in assisting, at the risk of his ownlife, persons suffering from a virulent and contagious disease, has caused him to be regarded as a special patron in time of pestilence. He lived in the 14th century. The Assumption of the Blessed "Virgin Mary. The Church has always believed that the body of the Immaculate Virgin wasj^after death, assumed into Heaven, and reunited to her spotless soul. "Without being an article of Faith, this belief, first expressed obscurely by the early Fathers, has gone on developing, like so many other truths; so much so that it is now formally held by all Catholics. It seems indeed appropriate that the reunion of soul and body, which in the case of the generality of men will take place on the day of final resurrection, should have been anticipated on behalf of her who had been, by Divine intervention, preserved from that original sin of which deatJi and corruption are the consequences. To-day, therefore, we honor the glorious assumption of the Blessed Virgin, both body and soul, into Heaven, where her intercession is a power to succor us, in our wants, comfort us in our trials, and protect us from the dangers to which we are exposed during the course of our mortal pilgrimage.