Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 4 March 1920, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK’S CALENDAR. March?, Sunday. —Third Sunday in Lent. s „ 8, Monday. St. John of God, Confessor. ~ 9, Tuesday. —St. Frances of Rome, Widow. ~ 10, Wednesday. Feast of the Forty Martyrs. „ 11, Thursday.—Of the Feria. ~ 12, Friday.— St. Gregory the Great, Pope, Confessor, and Doctor. ~ 13, Saturday.- the Feria. St. Frances of Rome, Widow. St. Frances, a native of Rome, exhibited from her childhood a remarkable love of solitude and prayer. As she grew up these qualities became more marked, though she never, under pretext of engaging in private devotions, neglected the duties of her state of life, her motto being : “A married woman must, when called upon, quit her devotions to God at the altar to find Him in her household affairs.” After the death of her husband, St. Frances entered an Order of nuns which she herself founded. She died in 1440, being then in the 56th year of her age. 4 Feast of the Forty Martyrs. The Forty Martyrs were a party of soldiers who suffered a cruel death for their faith, near Sebaste, in Lesser Armenia, victims of the persecution of Licinius, who, after the year 316, persecuted the Christians of the East. The earliest account of their martyrdom is given by St. Basil, Bishop of Caesarea (370-379), in a homily delivered on the Feast of the Holy Martyrs. The feast is consequently more ancient than the episcopate of Basil, whose eulogy on them was pronounced only 50 or 60 years after their martyrdom, .which is thus historic beyond a doubt. According to St. Basil, 40 soldiers who had openly confessed themselves Christians were condemned by the prefect to be exposed naked upon a frozen pond near Sebaste on a bitterly cold night, that they might freeze to death. Among the confessors, one yielded and, leaving his companions, sought the warm baths near the lake, which had been prepared for any who might prove inconstant. One of the guards set to keep watch over the martyrs beheld at this moment a supernatural brilliancy overshadowing them, and at once proclaimed himself a Christian, threw off his garments, and placed himself beside the 39 soldiers of Christ. Thus the number, of 40 remained complete. St. Gregory the Great, Pope, Confessor, and Doctor. St. Gregory was born in Rome about the year 540. In 590 he endeavored in vain to decline the dignity of Supreme Pontiff, to which he was elected on the death of Pelagius 11. In the calamities which befell Italy in consequence of the invasion of the Lombards, St. Gregory showed himself a father to all in distress. As Pope, he was incessantly active in promoting the conversion of the heathen, and the welfare of the oppressed people of Italy. He labored for the strict observance of the laws of the Church, for the celebration of religious services in a worthy manner; and, notwithstanding the delicacy of his health and his manifold occupations, ho found time to conduct personally the instruction in choral chant, of which ho is the author. GRAINS OF GOLD BENEDICTION: IN NOMINE CHRISTI. God’s Angel, Time, stoops down and kisses thee; Then fondly looks into thy tear-dim eyes. Bidding thee think on God’s Eternity, That waits to give thee many a glad surprise. Rejoice and smile, the loneliest moments hold God’s Saints and Angels close around thy bed; So, with this knowledge, pray. Heaven’s stairs of gold Are strewn with mystic Passion-flow’rs blood-red ! Receive the Christ-child’s blessing hour by hour! His Love and Peace of everlasting pow’r Enwreathe the Cross' He sent thee! May the Grace 1 Of God be with thee, till Christ’s Royal Face To thee appears, and His lips call thee hence To where all bask in Love’s omnipotence! George Joseph Evatt. Christchurch.