Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 30 June 1910, Page 1003

Friends at Court

3LBANFNQS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR July 3, Sunday.— Sunday .after Pentecost. The - "- - - Most Precious Blood. - ~ 4, Monday.St. Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr. - „ 5, Tuesday.—St. Anthony Zaccaria, Confessor. „ 6, Wednesday. Octave of SS. Peter and Paul. „ : 7, Thursday.St. Benedict XI., Pope and Confessor. ~ 8, Friday. Kilian,. Bishop - and Martyr. „ 9, Saturday.—Prodigies of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This feast commemorates the intense love which led the Son of God to shed His Blood for the salvation of men. 1 Oh, my soul! redeemed by the Blood of Christ, give thy heart to Him by whom thou art so loved seek Him who seeks thee love Him who raised thee out of the depths of misery.'....'. : •-.-. St. Kilian, Bishop and Martyr. St. Kilian, an Irish monk, having been consecrated Bishop, was sent to preach the Gospel to the German idolaters in the north of the present kingdom of Bavaria. After having labored very successfully for nearly two years, he was martyred in 688. His remains were placed in the Cathedral of Wurzburg. -* -

GRAINS OF GOLD THY ATTRIBUTE OF LOVE. My Lord and God, beneath this form so low, Thee X, adore, . Who, in Thyself Divine, Didst joy, ere sun or moon, began to shine, Or starry spheres; ere this fair world", we know Had in its orbit yet begun to go. E'en 'midst this silence of eternity, Thou, God of love, didst think of man —of me, And how, on us, Thou wouldst Thyself bestow.

The circling spheres, and spaces vast proclaim Thy might, Thy power, and Thy immensity; In all that charms the eye—whate'er we name, We only glimpses of Thy beauty see. But truly, on the altar blessed above, We see, 0 God I Thy attribute of love.

Austral Light.

Leisure is sweet to those who have earned it, but burdensome to those who get it for nothing. A good disposition, virtuous principles, and industrious habits are passports to happiness and honor. No man need have any fear but God sees and. records all his good deeds, however friends or foes may misjudge his motives. ' Prayer is the gold key which opens Heaven. The tree of the promise will not shed its fruit unless shaken by the hand or prayer. Sincerity is to speak as we think, to do as we pretend and profess, to perform and make good that which we promise, and really to be what we appear to be. The gold in human nature remains gold, whatever its alloys from base contacts; and it is worth the mining, though there be but a grain of it to the ton of _dross. The crucifix is the meaning of everything. We must view all things in its light and judge all things by its principles. -"■■ It must be the object of our imitation, and to be so it must be the subject of our daily meditations. The growth of grace is like the polishing of metals. There is first an opaque surface; by and bye you see a spark darting out, then a strong light, till at length it sends back a perfect image of the sun that shines upon it. That the Commandments of God are possible to be kept is an article of our Faith, and therefore not to be questioned by any who call themselves Catholic. If it be necessary to observe them in order to be saved it is but reasonable that the means of keeping them should be within our power.,_ Prayer and the Sacraments, these are the means! This world which we inhabit is a great battlefield on which we are surrounded by most stubborn and watchful enemies. Hardly ., have we come into it and have reached the use of reason than the fight begins. These enemies aim at the soul; the life of the body is nothing to them: they wish to ruin the soul. They are powerful enemies, against whom we can do nothing of ourselves. We can easily see, then, that we need the assistance of the Holy Spirit very much. _ . . J The. secret of their long lives is frequently given by men and women who have passed ..the Biblical limit, but the best and truest rule not only for length of days, but peace as well, is that offered by Private John Clancy, of the Soldiers' Home, Milwaukee, who on May 1 completed his century. There is but one way to live,' he said, when asked what men should do to reach his number of years. /Have the will of God about you.' If his name were unknown, the answer would announce him to be a son of Holy Ireland. - - ,;;'■'■ t „ i;--^ -•