Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 14 August 1913, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR August 17, Sunday.—Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. St. Joachim, Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary. „ 18, Monday.—St. Hyacinth, Confessor. „ 19, Tuesday.—Blessed Urban 11., .Pope and Confessor.. „ 20, Wednesday.—St. Bernard, Confessor and Doctor. „ 21, Thursday.—St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Widow. -• ~ 22, Friday.—Octave of the Assumption. „ 23, Saturday.—St. Philip Beniti, Confessor. Blessed Urban 11., Pope and Confessor. Blessed Urban was born near Rheims, in France Having been elected Pope in 1088, he employed his energies in putting an end to the unwarranted interference of the civil power in purely ecclesiastical affairs, and securing for the Church that liberty of action which is required for- the efficient discharge of her divinely appointed duties. To the wisdom and zeal of Blessed Urban was due the initiation of those expeditions for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre which are known as the Crusades. Blessed Urban died in 1099, in the twelfth year of his pontificate. St. Joachim, Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary. - The Fathers of the Church unite in extolling the sanctity of St. Joachim and St. Anne, whose privilege it was to be the parents of the Most Pure Mother of (jrOd. St. Jane Frances of Chantal, Widow. This saint was born at Dijon in 1573. She was ' married at the age of twenty to the Baron de Chantal, but eight years later she had the misfortune to lose her husband through an accident. Having completed the education of her children, she founded, under the direction of St Francis de Sales, and with the co-operation Of some other ladies of rank, the religious Order of the Visitation. She died in 1641. GRAINS OF GOLD AVE MARIA! Ave Maria ! Oh, dry were the fountains, Dull the gray mist on the face of the sea, Sombre the clouds that enfolded the mountains Dreary the shadows that swept o'er the lea All through the ages since Adam had broken' Pact with his Maker, gloom gathered apace Down to the day when, in reverence spoken Soft fell the message sweet, 'Hail, full of grace!' Ave Maria! Lo ! shadows uplifted Billows of light flooded forest and lawn • Now, at long last, were the gates of sin rifted, Earth smiled to welcome creation's new dawn Vanished the grief which our errant first mother -Lett as a legacy sad to her race, Joy unrestrained came to men with this other Virgin low-greeted with, 'Hail, full of grace!' — Ave Maria. Maintain a holy simplicity 'of mind, and do not smother yourself with a host of cares, wishes and longings under any pretext.-St. Francis de Sales. & «f r „ What . aT t thou, O human life? Thou art the way of life and not life itself. We must traverse thee with* out dwelling in thee-no one dwells on a great road ; we .but march on through it to reach the country *- yond.—bt. Columbanus. J Let us never voluntarily dwell upon the faults of others when they present themselves to our minds; instead of onSS g -° n + i bhem US at ° nCe Conside r what there is ' of good in these persons . . . No one should think or say anything of another which he would not wish thought or said of himself.— St. Teresa.