Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 12 August 1915, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANING* FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR August 15, Sunday.—Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. „ 16, Monday.—St. Joachim, Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary. „ 17, Tuesday.—St. Hyacinth, Confessor, ~ 18, Wednesday.—Of the Octave. - „ 19, Thursday.— the Octave. ~ 20, Friday.—St. Bernard, Confessor and Doctor. „ 21, Saturday.—St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Widow. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church has always believed that the body of the Immaculate Virgin was, after death, assumed into heaven, and reunited to her spotless soul. Without being an article of faith, this belief, first expressed obscurely by the early Fathers, has gone on developing, like so many other truths; so much so that it is now formally held by all Catholics. It seems indeed appropriate that the reunion of soul and body, which, in the case of the generality of men, will take place on the day of final resurrection, should have been anticipated on behalf of her who had been, by Divine intervention, preserved from that original sin of which death and corruption are the consequences. To-day, therefore, we honor the glorious Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, both body and soul, into heaven, where her intercession is a power to succor us in our wants, comfort us in our trials, and protect us from the dangers to which we are exposed during the course of our mortal pilgrimage. St. Jane Frances de 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 cooperation of some other ladies of rank, the religious Order of the Visitation. She died in 1641. GRAINS OP GOLD. r THE TEST OF FAITH. Thy hand pressed hard, O Lord, and I Bent low beneath the heavy cross; I murmured, doubting, with a sigh ' Why must I bear this care and loss ? 1 What have I done, O Lord V I cried, ' That I must suffer? Spare Thou me My plea insistent was denied, Sin-blind, the end I could not see. But time has proved Thou knowest best, And I have found to my surprise, The pain endured was but a test Of faith—a blessing in disguise ! And what I deemed a loss is gain : My faith is strong. No longer blind, Ah! never more will I complain— Thy hand that holds the rod is kind. Life's heavy cross I gladly take Upon my shoulders, Lord, for Thee! The crown of thorns for Thy dear sake Is upw accepted cheerfully ! It is sometimes easier to do the proper thing than the right thing. Too many men measure success by tile standard of their own littleness.