Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 21 May 1914, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK’S CALENDAR

May 24, Sunday .—Sunday within the Octave. Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary Help of Christians. „ 25, Monday.—St. Gregory VII., Pope and Confessor. „ 26, Tuesday.'St. Philip Neri, Confessor. ~ 27, Wednesday.St. John 1., Pope and Martyr. v ,, 28, Thursday.—Octave of the Ascension. • „ 29, Friday.—St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, Virgin. „ 30, Saturday.—Vigil of Pentecost. Fast day. No abstinence. St. Gregory VII., Pope and Confessor. St. Gregory, or Hildebrand, as he was called before his elevation to the Papacy, was a native of Italy. Of the great men who have sat in the chair of Peter, he was one of the greatest. He was a strenuous reformer of abuses, and a fearless upholder of the rights of the Church against the encroachments of the civil power. Imprisoned by a rebellious noble whose crimes he had censured, besieged in the castle of St. Angelo by Henry IV., of Germany, rescued by the Norman Duke of Calabria, he died in exile at Salerno, A.D. 1085, after a pontificate of nearly twelve years. St. Philip Neri, Confessor. St. Philip was born in Florence, of parents who belonged to the wealthiest families of Tuscany. Feeling himself called by God to a more perfect life, he renounced all his worldly prospects, and went to Rome, where he engaged in ecclesiastical studies. Through humility, he long hesitated to become a priest. Or dained in 1551, he labored so zealously and so successfully to revive the fervor of the inhabitants of the Eternal City that he received the name of ' Apostle of Rome.' He died in 1595, at the age of ninety-two. GRAINS OF GOLD. SALVE REGINA. Hail, Heavenly Queen! Mother of pity, hail! Hail, thou, our life, our hope, our solace, —hail! '_ Children of Eve, exiles from heaven, To thee, in languishment, we cry To thee, with groanings and with tears, 1 From out this land of tears we sigh. 1 Therefore, O Advocate our own, Thine eyes of mercy on us bend, And show us Him, thy womb's blest Fruit, s When exile's night shall have an end. i O merciful and kind and sweet Virgin Mary, thee we greet 1 — Ave Maria. Do you think that God, Who made everything in the heavens, and Who made all the earth, does not know where to place you and what is the best for you? ~. It is a world we need be careful how we libel. Heaven forgive us, for it is a world of sacred mysteries, and its Creator only knows what lies beneath the surface of His lightest imape. , - Don't rush your prayers. Don't shorten or omit them on the pretext that duty calls you to some other task. The highest of all duties commands you to make ample provision for this daily communion with God.