Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 9 January 1913, Page 3

Friends at Court

CLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK’S CALENDAR January 12, Sunday. —Sunday within the Octave. ~ 13, Monday.—Octave of the Epiphany. ~ 14, Tuesday.—St. Hilary, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. ~ 15, Wednesday.—St. Ita, Virgin. ~ 16, Thursday.—St. Fursey, Abbot. ~ 17, Friday.Of the Second Sunday after the Epiphany. , ~ 18, Saturday.—The Chair of St. Peter at Rome. . St, Ita, Virgin. St. Ita was born in the South of Ireland. She has always been held in great esteem in the district in which she lived, but, unfortunately, few details of her life have come down to us. She died in 570, and is styled by Colgan the second St. Brigid of Ireland. The Chair of St. Peter at Rome. This feast commemorates the residence and pontificate of St. Peter at Rome. At first he had fixed his See at Antioch, but, thinking it advisable that the Supreme Head of the Church should reside in the capital of the then known world, he came to Rome. His residence there extended, according to the more, commonly received opinion, from A.D. 42 to his martyrdom in 67. GRAINS OF GOLD IF I COULD KNOW. If I could know, when each day dies, I had brought joy to tired eyes; If I could know when falls each night, I’d helped to make some child’s life bright If I could know, at set of sun. The fruit of some good deed I’d done — I’d count my life of purer mould Than if I’d gathered mounds of gold. —Ave Maria. The Church has been the best guardian of liberty, because she has been the best guardian of law.—John Ayscough. The road to heaven is narrow. He, then, who would walk along it with greater ease should cast aside every encumbrance, and set out leaning on the staff of the —that is, resolved in good earnest to suffer in everything for the love of God.—St. John of the Cross. The cross is the gift of God to His friends. There is no need of discovering the origin of our crosses: they come from on High. ’Tis always God Who gives us this means of proving our love for Him.—Cure d'Ars. The way some persons act, and the way they speak, too, they try to prove to us that at times it is impossible to overcome temptations: that we must follow our impulses, and cannot overcome overpowering temptations. Each life has its own besetting temptations, its own share of trials, and is menaced somewhere by danger. Strength is got through all this strain. That is the natural environment for growth in grace and virtue. It is the common human experience for the training of character, for the making of pure manhood and womanhood. He who is not tried and has nothing to overcome cannot be a soldier. And there is no one who is exempt from this battle, whether man or woman. To refuse to see the moral significance is to empty life of any meaning at all. But when we have a glimmering of the great and inspiring thought that this IS the will of God for us, even our sanctification, and we manfully try to overcome ourselves, we begin to see how it must be, that God is faithful. Fie will not suffer us to be tempted above or beyond our powers, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that we may be able to bear it. .