The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 18, 10 May 1923, Page 53

The Family Circle

MY ROSES. ; For my Lady I’ve counted my roses, The sweet perfumed roses of May, My fingers are sweet with their fragrance As I hold in my hand the loved spray. And my soul has drunk in all their rapture, My heart goes no longer unfed I counted my roses for Mary— too, I wet them with tears for my dead. For my Lady my chaplet of roses, My Lady who’s Queen of the May, They’ll blot out the sins that are blackest, When she begs my Saviour to-day ; They will rise in sweet perfume to heaven, And ’ere they shall wither and fade, I’ll know that my prayer has been answered, Will feel the heart-pangs all allayed. Ah, how that each rose seems the sweeter 1 As treading the length of the chain, And how it doth soften the sorrow And taketh the sting from life’s pain. I will fondle my roses for Mary,. She who walks in the light of God’s day, The Mother, the Queen of her children Who crowneth her Queen of the May, She walks in the Springtime, the fullness, The fields all are dr est' for her feet, And where she doth pass there is reverence, The' sod she doth press it is sweet ; And flowers spring, a chaplet, a garland To mingle in one loving spray, With roses, to lay on her altar, For Mary is Queen of the May. —Dr. James Henderson, in the Catholic 'Bulletin. A MAY SAINT. St. Paschal Baylon (May 17), known ns the Saint of the Eucharist, and the appointed Patron of Eucharistic Congresses, is one of the group of holy men and women who illustrated the Church of Spain in the latter half of the sixteenth century, and of whom St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, and St. Peter of Alcantara are types. They lived lives of exceptional penance and austerity, and their work for their neighbor . was chiefly the Apostolate of Prayer. The trial of holy souls in Catholic countries at the time was the falling away into Protestantism of Northern Europe, and their spiritual aim to make reparation for the wrong thus done to Almighty God. St. Paschal was a lay-brother in a Franciscan Convent- of very strict observance situated in a lonely district of the Province of Valencia. & He died at the age of fifty-two, May 17, 1592, and was canonised about a hundred years later. The keeping of his anniversary, with Mass and Divine Office as a double feast, is everywhere of obligation. This is one of the frequent instances in which the Church shows us that, after the example of her Divine Master, in the honors she has to bestow she ever gives the preference to the lowly and otherwise forgotten ones among Christian heroes. SALUTARY ADVICE. It is a striking characteristic in the lives of great men that they were devoted to one great idea. When they are successful in the carrying out of that single life purpose, they rank also as.famuos men. Most of us fritter away our energies in too many directions. We have too many ideas and not sufficient devotion to any one of them. Optimism is not the spineless acceptance of things as they are. It is a firm conviction that things can be better and that, therefore, they ought to be improved. l Many indulge the fond hop© that time will do for them what they themselves neglect to do. But time is no creative or productive force it does not do anything itself,, but affords the active and energetic the opportunity to accomplish things— The Messenger, Belleville, 111.

INCONSIDERATE CATHOLICS. Strangely inconsistent is the attitude which Catholics sometimes display towards their own journals. From the secular newspapers which they patronise, remarks Ave Maria, they will bear all sorts of insult and injustice, -but let a Catholic paper publish anything that displeases them, express an opinion on any subject that does not coincide with their own, and immediately they begin to disfavor or to despise it. “I know how useless it is to try to please everybody,” writes the publisher of a Catholic paper; “but it seems quite as useless to try to avoid displeasing everybody. ‘ Stop my paper,’ is sure to be the order, not only when we are guilty of a mistake or an omission, however unintentional, but when we insert anything that in the- slightest way wounds the feelings or combats the prejudices of a certain class of subscribers. We must never say a word against those they approve of, or in favor of those they are in opposition to. As soon as the paper is stopped, as demanded, a campaign of injury and insult begins. ...” HOW-TO ASSIST AT MASS. According to the Rubrics of the Missal, all assisting at low Mass should kneel during the whole ceremony except at the Gospel. Custom, however, has modified the law as follows : 1. When the celebrant enters the sanctuary all rise and remain standing until the priest descends from the altar to begin Mass, when all kneel. 2. They remain kneeling until the Gospel, All rise and remain standing during the Gospel (and during the Credo, should it be said). 3. While the priest is making the announcements, or preaching, the people should be seated. If the Gospel is read to the congregation, they should stand. 4. Should the Credo be said, the congregation genuflects with the priest at the words et incarnatus est . . . ct homo factus est. 5. After Cominus Vohiscum all sit till the San tins, when they reverently kneel. 6. After the blessing, all rise and stand during the last 'Gospel, genuflecting at Ct Verlmm, enro factum. est. 7. When the priest descends from the altar, they kneel and recite with him the prayers after Mass. 8. Not until the priest has retired from the sanctuary should any person leave the church or his place therein. HOW GOSSIP GROWS AND SCANDAL SPREADS. “ 1 I hear ’ or ‘ They say ’ becomes by the time it has passed over a few lips a full-fledged indictment, garnished and trimmed with imaginary circumstances. A story that began ‘ I wonder ’ or ‘ perhaps ’ takes the shape of ‘ Everybody says ’ or ‘ It is the common report,’ or ‘ It is understood.’ The first gossip says, ‘I wonder now’; the second says, ‘ I heard ’; the third says, ‘lt is reported ’; the fourth says, ‘ People are saying ’; the fifth asks with surprise, ‘Didn’t you hear? Oh, yes, everyone says so’; the sixth says, ‘lt is so.’ Long before the victim of the charge has a chance to deny it, if he ever gets such «a chance, the thing is settled. Someone ventures to suggest that perhaps there is no truth in it and mildly asks for some proof. He is laughed at. It is hinted to him that he is soft, credulous, easily deceived. A dozen reasons are produced, founded on nothing, why the charge is probably true. One objects that nothing was ever said against this person. The others pounce on him: That is always the way the sly ones are the worst. But I always had my doubts about that person,’ etc., etc., etc. Do you not recognise the procedure? Of course, you do. It is as familiar as breakfast, dinner or supper, almost as common as the wearing of shoes.” BLESSING. God keep thee when the sunset glows Adown the golden west; God bless thee when the shadows fall And all the world’s at rest! God bless thee, when sunrise glad Proclaims the bright, new day ! __ At dawning or at evening God bless thee, dear, alway! . - -

OUGHT TO KNOW. The young teacher was trying to make a class of very small children understand a sum in subtraction. “Now listen,” she said. “If I had ten shillings in my purse, and went into a shop and bought a hat for five shillings and a pair of gloves for three-and-six, how much should I have left?” Nobody answered but little Ikey, who inquired in a disgusted tone; “Vy didn’t yer count yer change?” NOT COMPULSORY. A haughty customer, entering a restaurant, was accosted by a waiter with the inquiry, “Soup, sir? Soup, sir?” The customer took no notice and calmly removed his overcoat, on which the waiter repeated his question. Becoming angry, the man said, “Is it compulsory?” “No,” was the reply. “It’s oxtail, sir.” <^hJh}hXhJhsh> PAST HIS BEST. The master had been talking at length on the lessons of the historic past and applying them to the living present. Eventually he entered into a long explanation of the part Alfred the Great had played in the making of English history as the founder of our Navy and the first father of the Fleet. “Now,” he said, “if Alfred the Great had been alive to-day, what practical part would he have played in presentday politics, judging from the past?” 4 One member of the class thought he saw a way out. “Please, sir,” he said, hopefully, “wouldn’t he be too old?” SMILE RAISERS. The Doctor (looking at thermometer) : “Hum! I don’t like your temperature.” The Invalid (fretfully): “Then why did you take it?” Small Child (at breakfast): “Mummy, my egg is horrid.” Busy Mother; “Nonsense; eat it up, every bit of it.” Small Child (after a pause); “Mummy, need I eat the beak?” 8? Mabel had sent her lonely soldier boy a present of a mouth-organ. He wrote—“ Thanks, dear Mabel, for your mouth-organ. It fills a great gap.” * A six-year-old, who seems to have in him some of the makings of a philosopher, suddenly said to his father: “I know how to learn to whistle.” r“How’s that, son,” the father asked, “Why, just this way,” was the prompt reply. -“You whistle and whistle and whistle, and after a. while you can.” * “When was Rome built?” asked the teacher. “At night, ma’am,” was the surprising .reply of one little girl. , “How did you get that idea?” “Please, ma’am, I’ve heard ray dada say that Rome wasn’t built in a day.” * John’s wife complains that John discourses And thinks of nothing else but horses. Whilst John, a caustic wag, Says it’s wonderful to see How thoroughly their tastes agree For that his wife, as well as he, Most dearly loves a nag.