Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 25 January 1917, Page 3

Friends at Court

January 28, Sunday.— Sunday after the Epiphany. ;„:f 29, Monday.St. Francis de Sales, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. ' ~ 30, Tuesday. —St. Martina, Virgin and * > Martyr. ~ . 31, Wednesday. —St. Peter Nolasco, V Confessor. February 1, Thursday.— St. Brigid, Virgin. / ~ 2, Purification of the Blessed Virgin • ;; Mary. • ~ 3, Saturday.—St. Blase, Bishop and Martyr. St. Peter Nolasco, Confessor. This saint was a native of France. He founded the Order of Our Lady of Mercy for the ransom of Christians enslaved by the Moors, and to this object he devoted the considerable property which he had inherited from his father. Pie died on Christmas Day, .1256, in the 67th year of his age. St. Brigid, Virgin. St. Brigid, one of the three patron saints of Ireland, was born about 455, of illustrious parents, at Faugher, near Dundalk. She received a good education, and to singular modesty and simplicity of manners united great charity. At the age of 16 she.took the veil. Collecting a number of young girls like herself, she established a religious retreat in the county of Meath. Her reputation for sanctity increased daily and crowds of young women and widows applied for admission to her institution. To establish similar monasteries she visited Limerick, Roscommon, and other parts of Ireland. Between 480 and 490 she removed to Kildare, which will ever be associated with her name. Her charity was only equalled by her humility; occasionally she used herself to tend the cattle belonging to the nunnery, while to poor people she was known to give away the rich vestments of the institution. To meet the religious requirements of the place, Conlaeth, a recluse, was elevated to the bishopric. She died at Kildare about 525, aged about 70, and was buried in the Cathedral. The Purification of the Blessed Virgin. The festival of the Purification, which is common to the Latin and Greek Churches, is rendered peculiar by the blessing of wax tapers which axe carried burning by those who form the procession which takes place afterwards. The symbolical meaning attributed to this ceremony is that the faithful should, with the holy Simeon, recognise in the Infant Jesus the salvation which, the Lord had prepared before the face of the people— ‘ A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of the people of Israel’ (Luke ii., 31-32) and be admonished by the burning tapers which they are carx-ying in their hands, that their faith must be fed and augumented by the exercise of good works, through which they are to become a light to shine before men (Matt, v., 14-16). GRAINS OF GOLD. THE . ANGEL REAPERS. A light of pallid gold is oix the plain 1 I see a vision solemnly unrolled, A blaze of beauty dazzling to behold. The world is ripe to harvest— Thy reign, A blessed Jesu, Lamb for sinners slain, • Is taking on its splendoi's manifold! Great angels swing their scimitars of gold In fiery flashes o’er the billowy grain. In sudden flight the Holy Reapers smile ; The windrows run beneath their lightning stroke ! ‘ Fair is Thy gathered grain, O Lord !’ they cry. •* Fair are the souls that love Thee, free of guile! Whose blessed prayers, like sweetest incense smoke, Have fitted them for garners of the sky.’ —lrish Catholic.