Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 9 August 1917, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR August 12, Sunday. —Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. ~ 13, Monday.—SS. Hippolyti and Cassiani, Martyrs. ~ 14, Tuesday.—Vigil of the Assumption. Fast Day. ~ 15, Wednesday.—Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Holy Day of Obligation. „ 16, Thursday.—St. Joachim, Confessor. ~ 17, Friday.—St. Hyacinth, Confessor. ~ 18, Saturday.—Of the Octave.

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Church has always believed that the body of the Immaculate Virgin was, after death, assumed into heaven, and reunited to her spotless soul. Without being an article of faith, this belief, first expressed obscurely by the early Fathers, has gone on developing, like so many other truths ; so much so that it is now formally held by all Catholics. It seems indeed appropriate that the reunion of soul and body, which, in the case of the generality of men, will take place on the day of final resurrection, should have been anticipated on behalf of her who had been, by Divine intervention, preserved from that original sin of which death and corruption are the consequences. To-day, therefore, we honor the glorious Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, both body and soul, into heaven, where her intercession is a power to succor us in our wants, comfort us in our trials, and protect us from the dangers to which we are exposed during the course of our mortal pilgrimage.

St. Hyacinth, Confessor.

St. Hyacinth, called by the Church 1 (he Apostle of the North,’ was born in Silesia, then a part of the kingdom of Poland. As a missionary he visited Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, traversed Russia from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and even penetrated through Turkestan to Thibet and China. His labors were crowned with success, due to the eloquence of his preaching and the example of his life, as well as to the numerous miracles which everywhere marked his presence. He died in Cracow in 1257, in the seven!vsecond year of his age.