Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 18 May 1916, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

May 21, Sunday.—Fourth Sunday after Easter. „ 22, Monday.—Of the Feria. „ 23, Tuesday,—Of the Feria. „ 24, Wednesday.Of the Feria. , „ 25, Thursday.—St, Gregory VII., Pope and Conr fessor.

„ 26, Friday.—St. Philip Neri, Confessor. ■ „ 27, Saturday.—St. Bede the Venerable, Confessor and Doctor.

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. Ordained 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.

BEFORE A CRUCIFIX IN BELGIUM.

O, by that bowed and thorn-crowned head, those pierced hands out-stretched ! O by the bloody sweat that from that furrowed forehead drips, Have pity on this warring world so ruined, and so wretched,

And let the cry of ' Peace' again fall from those parched lips!

To whom, O Jesus, may we turn in' this dark hour of sadness ?

To whom, O Saviour, from this storm of battle may we flee ?

But Thou wilt cleanse us of our sins and cure us of our madness,

And make us be as brothers, once again, O Christ, in Thee!

—Denis A. McCarthy in Rosary Magazine.

Always fear God, and flee from everything that offends Him, with an absolute resolution of never wilfully consenting to any known sin, upon any account whatsoever; and renew this resolution every day. Be ever firm in your faith in the Blessed Trinity, Father, .Son, and Holy Ghost, three Persons in one God; and in Jesus Christ the Son of God, true God and true man, incarnate for the love of us, and crucified for the love of us; and in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church: and reject with horror all suggestions contrary to any point of the belief and doctrine of this Church; and daily beg of God to increase your faith.' '

Be firm also in your hope in the infinite goodness and mercy of God, Who has created you for Himself, out of pure love, and desires to make you happy for ever; and in the merits of the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,- your Redeemer, which He has shed for the love of you, to wash you from your sins, to deliver you from the power of Satan, and to bring you to heaven. -