Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 16 May 1918, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS Poft NEXT WEEK’S CALENDAR -—■■l- <4 May 19, Sunday.—Pentecost Sunday* ~ 20, Monday.—Whit Monday. ~ 21, Tuesday.-Whit Tuesday. ~ 22, Wednesday.—Of the Octave. Ember day. Fast. ~ 23, Thursday.Of the Octave. ~ 24, Friday.—Of the Octave. Ember day. Fast. „ 25, Saturday.—Of the Octave. Ember day. Fast, no abstinence. The Feast of Pentecost.

On this clay, in accordance with the promise of Christ, the Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the Adorable Trinity, descended, on the Apostles. “This day/’ Butler remarks, “is the birthday of the Church. Christ had indeed begun to form His Church during His ministry on earth, when He assembled His disciples, selected His Apostles, and placed St. Peter at their head. But by the descent of the Holy Ghost He completed His Revelation, and gave to His Apostles a special and extraordinary assistance, by which they were directed and preserved from all error in teaching. He thus, as it were, infused a soul into His mystical body—the Church—and endowed it with a vigorous principle of life and action. From this time its rulers, ministers, and officers, being completely commissioned and qualified by the miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost, set themselves to exercise their respective functions in governing and propagating the spiritual kingdom of Christ, which was then perfectly settled and established.” GRAINS OF GOLD. THE QUEEN OF MAY. Ave Maria, the sweet bells are chiming, They sound on the mountain, the lakeside, and lea, And up through blue ether the echoes far climbing, Melodious ring o'er the charmed turquoise sea. Ave Maria, the soul knows the power Of mystical bell in the grey tower high, Whose notes wake the day and the rose in her bower, And forth with the lark at the Angelas fly. Ave Maria, we hasten to render The honor God’s Mother Immaculate claims; Thy heart, the pure seat of love regnant and tender, The love of thy children with ardor inflames. Ave Maria, with deep veneration, We ever would come to thy privileged shrine; Devoutly presenting the truest oblation, Hearts worth to thy Son more than gems of a mine. Ave Maria, the chiming is ended And jewel-tipped tapers thy altar adorn ; May the prayer rise as pure, with- the sweet incense blended, As dew on the rose or the breath of the morn. —Father Benjamin F. De Costa. When you give, take to yourself no credit for generosity unless you deny yourself something in order that you may give. - Working, thinking, solitude, are amusements to a soul in health men’s vices, and not their occupations, render them weary of life. We should try and understand that the most productive work in the whole of the day, both for time and eternity, is that involved in hearing Mass. Daily resolutions to fulfil at all cost every duty demanded by God is the lesson we must learn if we would overcome our corrupt nature and reform our lives.