Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 7 November 1918, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR - ii< November 10, Sunday.—Twenty-fifth Sunday after ',, Pentecost. -7 „ 11, Monday.—St. Martin, Bishop and Confessor. ' „ 12, Tuesday.—St. Martin 1., Pope and Martyr. ~ 13, Wednesday.—St. Didacus, Confessor. „ 14, Thursday.—St. Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr. „ 15, Friday. St. Gertrude, Virgin. „ 16, Saturday.—Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr. St. Josaphat, a native of Poland, displayed, while 6till in his boyhood, such piety and fraternal charity as to excite the admiration of all who knew him. After having been for some years a monk of the Order of St. Basil, he was raised to the dignity of Archbishop. The zeal and success with which he preserved his flock from heresy and schism drew upon him the hatred of some sectarians, who compassed his death in 1623. St. Gertrude, Virgin. St. Gertrude was for many years Superioress of a community of Benedictine Nuns in Saxony. By fasting, perfect conformity to the rule of her* Order, constant denial of her own will, and frequent meditation on the Passion of our Blessed Redeemer, she endeavored to check the growth of any inordinate affection, and unite all the powers of the soul in a pure and intense love of God. She died in 1292, after having enriched the Church with writings which are of incalculable utility to all who aim at spiritual perfection. GRAINS OP GOLD. j THE LEGEND OF ST. MARTIN OF TOURS. St. Martin was a soldier brave In France of long ago, And riding on his prancing steed Along the road he'd go. One day he met a beggar man, Forlorn, and meanly clad ; St. Martin checked his charger's pace— The vision made him sad. No gold or food the soldier had, But then a purpose woke: He drew his sword and cut in twain His handsome riding-cloak. Half of his cloak he laid upon The shivering beggar's back, And then, with sunshine in his heart, Rode down the winding track. That night in dream he saw Our Lord Wearing in Paradise The half-cloak he that day had given To Him in beggar's guise. The poor they are God's very own, And when we give to them xii is as ii we gave DO Christ Homeless in Bethlehem. C. L. O'D., in Are Maria. Prayer will in time make the human countenance its own divinest altar; years upon years of true thoughts, like ceaseless music shut up within, will vibrate along the nerves of expression until the lines of the living instrument are drawn into correspondence, and the harmony of visible form matches the unheard harmonies of the mind.—James Lane Allen. <