Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 31 March 1910, Page 483

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK’S CALENDAR April 3, Sunday.—Low Sunday. „ 4, Monday.—The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. ~ 5, Tuesday.—St. Vincent Ferrer, Confessor. „ 6, Wednesday.—St. Sixtus 1., Pope and Martyr. „ 7, Thursday.— Celestine 1., Pope and Confessor. *,, 8, Friday.—St. Benedict, Abbot. ~ 9, Saturday,—St., Frigidian, Bishop and Confessor. Low Sunday. This Sunday is styled in liturgical language Dominica in Albis, or Sunday in White, because in olden times the neophytes, whom it was customary to baptise on Holy Saturday, wore their white robes for the last time to-day. The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a Virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, and the Virgin’s name was Mary. . . . And the angel said to her: “Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus.” ’ (Gospel of St. Luke.) GRAINS OF GOLD HOLY COMMUNION. O Gracious —Dearest Lord, This morn have I communed with Thee: And now with heartfelt gratitude, I thank Thee for this mystery.^ This perfect Gift of perfect Love, To me, unworthy sinner given: Under this mean and lowly roof, Entered the Lord of Earth and Heaven 1 Absorb my soul in thoughts of Thee, And hear my praise from day to day: With all the company of Heaven; My thankful adoration pay. My sweetest Guest! abide with me, My God, and Everlasting Friend: Ever remain within my soul, Continue with me to the end. Engrave my name upon Thy Heart, And on my forehead set Thy Seal; Then when the sting of Death is past, To me Thy unveiled Face reveal. Boston Pilot. The dangers that we know are many, but many more those that are unknown. We pray God to deliver us from our secret sins we have need to pray that He may deliver us from our secret dangers. There is a shield over us which is turned every way, as the assault comes from all sides when we least know it to be near. —Cardinal Manning. Day-dreams are the mothers of ideals. The reaching out for ideals; the striving to achieve them, and the failure to do —these are part and parcel of every life that lifts itself the least above the grind of mere existence. And •what shall be the final ideal? asks the seeker, earnest in the search and wearied with the insufficiency of those already grasped and grieved over ? What shall be the final ideal? If there be many great questions unanswered in the Sermon on the Mount, they have not as yet become apparent. And in this divinest of utterances that ever passed the lips of man we find an answer to this universal question : ‘ Be ye perfect, therefore, even as your Father Who is in Heaven is perfect.’ It is very obvious to say that if we always knew what God wished, it would be a great help to us in serving Him. We should not surely throw ourselves into open rebellion against the express will of God. Yet practically, in by far the greatest number of our actions, we do not know this and in all of them, if we do not know what He would have us do, we know at least the motive from which He would have us act, whenever we act at all. ‘Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.’ St. John tells us that God is charity. Thus in the whole of the almost infinite and complicated system in which we live, God has contrived all things, quite wonderfully, for these two ends, if they might not more properly be called one end than two; He has arranged everything first, so that He may be loved; and, secondly, so as to enable us to love Him. If we may dare thus to speak of the Almighty, He seems to have no other end in view at all; and He manages things by artifices of Almighty power in order to bring this about. This is His rule by which He has done everything. The hearts of His creatures are the only treasures He will condescend to accept from His own —Father Faber.