Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 12 October 1916, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK’S CALENDAR October 15, Sunday.—Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost. ~ 16, Monday.—Of the Feria. ~ 17, Tuesday.—St. Hedwiges, Widow. ~ 18, Wednesday.St. Luke, Evangelist. ~ 19, Thursday.—St. Peter of Alcantara, Confessor. ~ 20, Friday.—St. John Cantius, Confessor. „ 21, Saturday.— Blessed Virgin. On Saturday. St. Peter of Alcantara, Confessor. St. Peter was born at Alcantara, a town in Spain. While still a mere youth, he entered the Order of St. Francis. His life in the Order was a perfect example of humility, meekness, obedience, and almost incredible austerity. He died in 1563, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. St. John Cantius, Confessor. St. John was born at Kenti, in Poland. Ordained priest, he exhibited the most ardent zeal for souls, and a boundless charity—in a word, all the virtues of a good pastor. Severe to himself, he was ever indulgent to others, who were sure to find in him a generous friend in all their necessities. He died in 1473, being then seventy years of age. GRAINS OF GOLD. A PILGRIM’S PRAYER. Lord, make me gentle. Since the ways Of earth are filled with needless strife, Let me be gentle all the days Of this my life! Let me go softly, so my feet, Noiseless, their mission may fulfil— A tranquil farer in the street And on the hill. Let me speak low, that they who hear May listen, glad of tender tone, And they who answer, drawing near, May claim their own. Make me touch light so what I touch May take my mark and bear my sign Yet be not branded over much With name of mine. With temperate joy when blessings flower, With quiet grief when sorrow falls, With wordless conflict, when the hour Of battle calls— Lord, though a tumult of distress And noise and clamoring be rife, Let me move down with gentleness My path of life. ‘ If we work upon marble, it will perish,’ said an instructor of youth ; ‘ if upon brass, time will efface our labor; if we rear temples they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal minds we imbue them with right.principles, with the fear of God, and the love of mankind, we engrave upon them something which will remain to all eternity.’ Society is a more level surface than we imagine. Wise men or absolute fools are hard to be met with, as there are few giants or dwarfs. The heaviest charge we can bring against the general texture of society is that it is. commonplace. Our fancied superiority to others is in some one thing which we think most of because we excel in it, or have paid most attention to it; whilst we overlook their superiority to us in something else which they set equal and exclusive store by.— Hazlitt.,