Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 3 October 1918, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK’S CALENDAR October 6, Sunday.—Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost. ~ 7, Monday. —Feast of the Holy Rosary. ~ 8, Tuesday.—St. Brigid, Widow. ~ 9, Wednesday.—SS. Denis and Companions, Martyrs. ~ 10, Thursday.—St. Francis Borgia, Confessor. ~ 11, Friday.—Of the Feria. ~ 12, Saturday.—Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Feast of the Holy Rosary. On the first Sunday of October, 1571, was fought the great battle of Lepanto, which saved Europe from the Turks, and gave the death blow to the Ottoman power. In memory of this victory, gained at the very moment when the faithful were reciting the Rosary for the success of the Christian arms, Gregory XIII. ordered the present feast to be celebrated. St. Brigid, Widow. St. Brigid belonged to the royal family of Sweden. From childhood she was remarkable for charity, love of retirement, and a distaste for worldly enjoyments. On the death of her husband she divided her property amongst her children and withdrew into a convent which she herself had founded. She died in Rome in 1373, at the age of 71, on her return from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. SS. Denis and Companions, Martvrs. St. Denis, the first Bishop of Paris, and one of the most illustrious writers of the early Church, is believed to have been identical with Denis the Areopagite, converted by St. Paul, lie was martyred, with several companions, on the hill of Montmartre, in Paris, about the year 119.

GRAINS OF GOLD. OUR LADY’S ROSARY. Upon the garden hill of Heaven * The Mother stands ; Her blessed feet are riveted With golden bands To Earth that lieth far below, Yet not so far Love doth not know. About those feet the lilies raise Their stateliness, And fragrant roses throw their bloom And crowd and press, And thorns that once their whiteness tore Now rain in golden showers before. Within each link that binds her feet A rose is set, So that She, until Time be past, May not forget,— In memory of Joy and Pain And Glory ever to remain. Within each rose a drop lies deep Of crystal dew; The prayer as old as heart of man, Yet ever new ; In vain the powers of Hell do strain—They can not break that steadfast chain. Wrapped in green tender leaves of Hope Faith flourisheth ; And Sorrow can not blight nor fade, Nor Life nor Death. Through all the coming years to be Rloometh Our Lady’s Rosary. —Mary J. Malloy.