Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIII, Issue 18, 4 May 1916, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT/WEEK'S CALENDAR

/Mayi7/Sunday.—Second "Sundayßafter Easter. ": ' .„ 8, Monday.—Apparition* ''of St. Michael, Archangel. '/./ „ 9, Tuesday.—St. Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop, Coni . '-/--■ Pressor, and Doctor. / „ 10,. Wednesday.-—Patronage of St. Joseph. ; ' • /'" :/:%>'''' 11/Thursday. the Octave. :-/,.< */ . / „", 12, Friday.—SS. Companion's, Martyrs. ',,/. 13, Saturday.-Of the Octave./ ~ / : ; /"/ Apparition of ; St. Michael, Archangel. /. ' ;.' , The, feast which we keep to-day was instituted by the Church to commemorate a famous apparition of St. Michael on Mount Gargano, in the kingdom of Naples. This' was the origin of a noted pilgrimage, and gave occasion to the erection of a magnificent church in honor of the 'great Archangel. - •• -"->"■ ' „ .<" St. Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. - St. .Gregory derives his surname from his birthplace, Nazianzum, in Asia Minor. 'He - belonged to a very pious family, his father, mother, brother, and sister being numbered by the : Church" among the saints. Through humility, St. Gregory for a, long time refused to take upon himself the responsibility/Jbf. the priestly office: .g Elected Bishop of Constantinople, for many years had , been ; dominated by the Arian "heretics, he. deemed it his 4 duty to : accept the position, and thenceforth labored With zeal and /success for the ■ conversion of,' those ;:whbin\ ; heresy had led astray. . He did not hesitate for* a moment, however, to resign the fepiscopal dignity when altered circumstances seemed to render that course advisable. His eloquence j and/ learning, joined ■- to/ the sanctity j of a his : life, have earned for him the title/bf- Doctor of k the Universal Church. —ss

GRAINS OF GOLD. /

' TO MARY, REFUGE OP SINNERS. V / ;. To-night my hands can hold no wreath of gladness ■-: ' , '''.W *To lay ,upon thy prayer-haunted shrine; , ; ;:V'/.*-•./ \ '/Nay, I must bring to thee a cup of sadness, Albeit, 'tis a gift most truly mine; / ~; /-My sorrow for the sins of other years, < / //"',/My Rosary of tears./ . - '■ ~- To-night my hands can v hold, no bloom of beauty, -v- ---// To lay full eagerly at thy feet; -- - : ;- . •. - Nay, 'lf. am come on errand of stern duty; ' '/"'-/-/•'/ ? To ; beg of thee thy -.consolation sweet ' Yea/ I : am sick and troubled with old fears For sin done in past years. To-night mine eyes are'thirsty/ for thy greeting, /../-. ;t Mine ears are hungering to hear thy song, '-.- : './ ' > Ah,/this shall be for me a wondrous meeting, The world has sought?and conquered me too long. Let fall on me thy smile, whose music cheers ".-; All sinners, through the years. • ;//t ■/'///: ■-;/;/ " - / J ' .<>:. The Magnificat. . / *, Liberty means responsibility.' . Some young people want liberty in the mistaken idea that it means freedom from .everything in the nature of obligation. But that is licence, not liberty. "■'-' Liberty always fulfils, and respects, • and exalts law. It shoulders burdens and marches against evil. Eternal vigilance is its price, and those unworthy of it ! cannot keep it a day. . _ - ,- ;.■"• .•'. : viTTb become a Catholic one is not required to abandon any truth which he already believes, because this is the , very-nature of the Catholic faith that it includes all truth; hence it is called Catholic. To become a Catholic, is to complete one's belief .: by, embracing in/ addition to those truths already acknowledged 1 •; others taught by our Lord with equal certitude and plainness.— Hecker. / !.:■. /Prayer for the dead prolongs the tenderest affections beyond the gloom of the grave. It infuses the inspiring /hope that the assistance v. which we/on earth -can affordto; our. suffering brethren will be amply repaid when thev have reached the place of rest, and makexof?them! friends , , when we in turn shall fail, receiving /us : into the everlasting mansions.—Cardinal Wiseman. '- / '*£&< "■"/'.-;" '/•' Do we think' sufficiency of ; this —that- devotion to our;"■•. Blessed/Lady' is not a thiyag which, like, the possession of -* a book or 1 a rosary, have once for all, s :' final and com-. . plete? It x would be no less /untrue to ■, say I that when ( we : had received ".. fr.pm God the > grace of ,humility, we ■ have simply to hold 1 fast v what we ■ have ;got,/ and s .never dream/ of getting more, than ; to say/ devotion to Mary ' was an /ungrowirig i thing." « I repeat it -must/ grow. like - a virtue," / ■ ana strengthen like / a habit, — +',■* \~ ' > ■' ;. < ■".. ' • ■ • ' --.