Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 24 July 1919, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK’S CALENDAR. July 27, Sunday.—Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. ~ 28, Monday.—SS. Nazarius and Celsus, Martyrs. ~ 29, Tuesday.—St. Martha, Virgin. „ 30, Wednesday.—SS. Abdon and Senen Martyrs. ~ 31, Thursday.—St. Ignatius, Confessor. August 1, Friday.—St. Peter’s Chains. ~ 2, Saturday.—St. Alphonsus, Bishop, Confesfessor, and Doctor. St. Peter’s Chains. This feast commemorates the miraculous deliverance of St. Peter from the prison into which he had been cast by order of King Herod Agrippa. The circumstances of this miracle are narrated by St. Luke in the twelfth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. St. Alphonsus, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. St. Alphonsus Liguori was born at Naples in 1696. At the age of 30 he abandoned the legal profession, in which he had already made a name for himself, and, in spite of the opposition of his father, he became a priest. Applying himself zealously to the duties of his sacred calling, he touched by his fervent discourses the hearts of the most inveterate sinners. Still more abundant was the fruit which he gathered in the tribunal of penance, where he joined a singular prudence and firmness to the most tender sentiments of paternal affection. He founded and for a long time governed the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. For eight years he was Bishop of St. Agatha, but at length obtained leave to resign this responsible office, which he had accepted only very reluctantly. In the midst of his labors he found time to compose a number of doctrinal and devotional works, which have earned for him the title of Doctor of the Church. St. Alphonsus died in 1787, at the age of 90. GRAINS OF GOLD PLEADINGS OF THE SACRED HEART. I ox-get Me not! ’t is thus My Heart is pleading With you for whom I fain again would die ; Forget Me not! for oh! this Heart once broken Still loves you from Its glorious throne on high. Forget Me not! upon the silent altar f They pass Me by and leave Me all alone : They’ve love enough for all, for every other, For Me, their Godtheir hearts are cold as stone. Forget Me not! for oh! I’m ever waiting For friends who will My bitter wrongs atone; Forget Me not! for I am ever craving Devoted hearts who’ll make My woes their own. Forget Me not when desolation tempts thee To plunge into the world’s tempestuous sea; Remember how the sin-laden and weary My Heart invited, saying: “Come to Me.” Forget not lest one day I thus reproach thee ! “When I came in thou gavest Me no kiss,” And oh ! no thought in bitterness can equal The self-reproach agony of this. Forget not in the weariness of sorrow, _ There is a Home for theethy Saviour’s breast; Be comforted— day is ever nearing When there thou’lt find thy longthy endless rest.