Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 28 June 1917, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK’S CALENDAR July 1, Sunday. —Fifth Sunday after Pentecost. Feast of the Most Precious Blood. ~ 2, Monday.—Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. ~ 3, Tuesday.—Of the Octave SS. Peter and Paul. ~ 4, Wednesday.—Of the Octave. ~ 5, Thursday.—St. Anthony Zaccaria. ~ 6, Friday.—Octave SS. Peter and Paul. ~ 7, Saturday.—SS. Cyril and Methodius, Bishops and Confessors.

The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The event which this feast commemorates is the visit of congratulation paid by the Blessed Virgin to her cousin, St. Elizabeth. The circumstances of this visit, as narrated in' the Gospel of St. Luke (chap. 1., 36, etc.), reveal to us the greatness of Mary’s charity, and teach us that we ought to rejoice at the favors which God bestows on our neighbors, as if we ourselves had received them.

SS. Cyril and Methodius, Bishops and Confessors

These saintly brothers having evangelised with remarkable success the Slavonian tribes that had settled near the river Danube, were consecrated Bishops by Pope Adrian 11., about 870. St. Cyril died soon afterwards, but St. Methodius labored for many years in Hungary, Bulgaria, Dalmatia, Poland, and Russia.

GRAINS OF GOLD. UNRECOGNISED. O Son of Man ! that little hillside town Wherein Thy tender bud of youth did flower, Looked all unheeding on as hour by hour The perfect life was lived, unguessed, unknown. The bud was fair— fairer when full-blown. The heart lay open with its golden dower Of fragrance and of beauty, love and power, ’Whose perfume lingers through the ages down. iStrange that those simple folk should not divine Incarnate wisdom dwelt beneath their eyes 'Veiled in their fellow-peasant’s homely guise? Met if that fair Ideal now should shine Through the dim form of some poor fellow-clod Sayshould we recognise the hidden ' God.? —Muriel E. Graham.

MAXIMS. When depth is lacking in any work, the most it can claim is outward appearance ; and where there is only outward appearance, the work is vain. When man lacks obedience, he falls into pride; and when man falls into pride, misery sits down at his hearthstone.

When truth is lacking, man disputes about truth ; and when man disputes about truth, hearts and fields lie sterile.

When religion is lacking, the flesh rebels ajid rules; and when the flesh rebels and rules, men live like beasts.

Why desire license if you thereby lose the freedom of the spirit ?

TO OUR LADY. Moons and suns and the midnight stars Are beggars’ jewels for thy breast; O make our world of crimson wars A ruby better than the rest George Whitfield.