Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 7 April 1910, Page 523

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK’S CALENDAR April 10, Sunday. Second Sunday after Easter. ~ 11, Monday.St. Leo the Great, Pope, Confessor, and Doctor. ~ 12, Tuesday.—St. Julius 1., Pope and Confessor. „ 13, Wednesday.—St. Hermenigild, King and Martyr. ~ 14, Thursday.—St. Justin, Martyr. ~ 15, Friday.—St. Rupert, Bishop and Confessor. ~ 16, Saturday.St. Benedict Joseph Labre, Confessor. St, Leo the Great, Pope, Confessor, and Doctor. St. Leo, born in Rome of a distinguished Tuscan family, was chosen. Pope in 440, after he had already made a name • for himself as a scholar and a diplomatist. Besides many epistles, he has left us over a hundred sermons, which show him to have been a man of great genius and lofty natural eloquence. In 451 he convoked and, in the person of the legates, presided over the general council of Chalcedon, at which the errors of Eutyches were condemned. In the following year he induced Attila, the ferocious leader of the savage Huns, to desist from the invasion of Italy. St. Leo died in 461. St. Hermenigild, Martyr, This saint was the son of Leovild, a king of the Visigoths, who was infected with the Arian heresy. Having embraced the Catholic religion, St. Hermenigild was deprived of the right of succession to the , throne, and cast into prison. There, attempts to shake his constancy having failed, he was put to death by order of his own father about the beginning of the seventh century. St. Justin, Martyr. St. Justin was born of Greek parents in Palestine.' After having devoted himself to an exhaustive study of pagan philosophy, he embraced Christianity, when he was in his thirtieth year. His fame for learning rests principally on two Apologies, or defences of the Christian religion, addressed, the one to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, the other to Marcus Aurelius. His vigorous and successful championship of Catholicity earned for him the martyr s crown, A.D. 167. « GRAINS OF GOLD . BENEDICTION. Glimmer of candles and shimmer of gold, Centred midst flowers and beauty and light, Enthroned in a cloud of omnipotent glory, The Lord of the Angels is present to-night. Silence of midnight and gladness of dawning, Blessings untold on each bended head fall; Deep from the heart goes the cry to the Saviour, * Jesus, my Lord, my God, and my all.’ Chiming of silver bells, clear through the silence, High above all is the Sacred Host raised, * Father of mercy, of goodness, of greatness, Hail to Thy name, may it ever be praised! ’ Gone are the worshippers, softly departing, Enriched with the blessings bestowed by our Lord; Deserted the altar, the red lamp is burning, There’s only the silence, the shadows, and God. —Boston Pilot. Not to enjoy life, but to employ life, ought to be our aim and aspiration. A wise man will desire no more than he can get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly. Some birds are typical examples of human attributes the dove symbolises innocence and the eagle represents majesty, but the robin redbreast teaches the best lesson or all, for he sings as joyously in the dark, dreary winter days, when the earth is frost-bound and snow-covered, as in pleasant summer days, when food is plentiful and lire is merry. Thus, in his humble way he teaches the lesson or patience and gratitude. There is beauty to be seen in everyday surroundings, and the joy which beauty brings may be ours for the looking for it. There is the beauty of nature, be it only typified tv a green tree flourishing in the sequestered corner of a city courtyard; there, is the beauty of noble architecture, though the public buildings displaying it are not innocent of soot or smoke ; and there is the beauty of God-made humanity, hidden though it be beneath rags. ■ ■■■ Our home influence is not a passing, but an abiding, one, and all-powerful for good or evil, for peace or strife, for happiness or misery. Each separate Christian home has been likened to a central sun, around which revolves a happy and united band of warm, loving hearts, acting, thinking, rejoicing, and sorrowing together. Which member of the family group can say : I have no influence . V hat sorrow, or what happiness, lies in the power of each!