Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLVI, Issue 18, 1 May 1919, Page 3

Friends at Court

CLEANINGS for next week’s calendar

May 4, Sunday.—Second Sunday after Easter. ~ 5, Monday.— Pius V., Pope and Confessor. ~ 6, Tuesday. —St. John at the Latin Gate. ~ 7, Wednesday.—Solemnity of St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin and Patron of the Universal

Church.

„ 8, Thursday. Apparition of St. Michael. ~ 9, Friday.—St. Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. ~ 10, Saturday. — St. Antoninus, Bishop and Confessor.

St. John at the Latin Gate.

In this feast the Church, commemorates the miraculous deliverance of St. John the Evangelist, when, •having been cast, by order of the Emperor Domitian, into a cauldron of boiling oil, he emerged uninjured. This miracle happened in Rome in the year 95, near the gate of the city through which passed the road to Latium,

Apparition of St. Michael, Archangel. The feast which we keep to-day was instituted by the Church to commemorate a famous apparition of St . Michael on Mount Gargano, in the kingdom of Naples. This was the origin of a noted pilgrimage, and gave occasion to the erection of a magnificent church in honor of the great Archangel.

Solemnity of St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church.

This feast was instituted by Pius IX. shortly after his elevation to the pontificate. Later on, in 1870, the same Pontiff placed the Universal Church under St. Joseph's patronage. Few, if any, of the saints, with the exception of the Mother of God, appeal more strongly to our love and veneration than St. Joseph spouse of the Blessed Virgin, and foster-father of our Redeemer. As the Son of God was subject to him on earth, so we believe his intercession to be most efficacious in heaven. St. Thomas of Aquin says of him: "Some saints are privileged to extend to us their patronage in certain cases with peculiar efficacy; but to St. Joseph is given to assist us in all cases in every necessity, in every undertaking." .j GRAINS OP GOLD. ■ a OUR TRUST IN MARY. Thy fair month is dawning, O sweet Mother Mary, The flowers are rushing to greet its sweet day, Thy children all cluster about thee in fervor To lovingly call thee, the bright queen of May. I O bless us, we pray thee, and be the sweet guerdon, Through storms that assail us, and perils that rise; And hasten the day that the world may look upward To read the grand message of peace in the skies. Oh, grant us this boon, blessed Mother, as -round thee We gather to beg thy assistance to-day ; No refuge but thine can we seek in this moment, No surer response our petition repay. Thy children have never implored thy protection, Without being comforted Mother, by thee ; Wit" no less devotion to-day we have sought thee, And tranquilly trust what thy answer shall be. (Helena Prances O'Hara in Catholic Columbian.)