The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 8, 21 February 1924, Page 53

The Family Circle

POEM. Little heart! list to my telling When the tears within are welling, " If, upon your ills you’re dwelling, Grief and anger never quelling, Then, the Grief of Life you’re feeling, Grace and joy and peace expelling! Little Heart! you must bo learning. Steadily all self love spurning ; Good in evil e’er discerning, Keep the fires of Courage burning, Leaden woes to gold thus turning, Whilst for Heav’n, dear Heart! you’re yearning. My heart is strangely fickle here, Toward shallow pleasures loved of earth, For even this life’s tiny mirth Enthralls, then chills with sudden fear . i Oh, should success my failures crown, The dear Saints welcome even me, Can vagrant soul e’er learn to be In changeless joy, no more borne down? But Mary whispers, “Child of Him, Whose thought formed Heaven, thee, and me; I, too, have known life’s shifting sea, — Deep joy, then days with sorrow dim. “Think but of dawn, or star-strewn sky As soon shall these lack mystery, Familiar grow, or tiresome be, As bliss with Christ in Heaven die.” THE SECRET OF SUCCESS. Success is the most sought thing in the world. It is seldom attained because most people stumble over the two simple rules governing its attainment. Plan Your Work. Work Your Plan. Planning means thinking, analysing, systematising—making things possible. Working means despising case, forgetting hardships, laughing at discouragements— until possibilities are turned into achievement. These rules are basic, fundamental, necessarythey are the universal laws of success. There never was a time when concentrated thought and diligent work were not regarded by a full measure of success, and there never will be. v THE FIRST SATURDAY. Pope Pius X., in order to increase the devotion of the faithful towards the Immaculate Mother of God, and to make , reparation for the blasphemies of criminal men who speak against the highest prerogative of the Blessed Virgin, granted a plenary Indulgence applicable to the dead to all those who confess and receive Holy Communion in a spirit of reparation on the first Saturday of the month. The intention of the first Friday is reparation to Our Divine Lord for the outrages offered to Him; that of the first Saturday reparation for the insults offered to Our Blessed Lady. So, accordingly, many of the faithful have adopted the pious custom of receiving Holy Communion on the first Saturday as well as the first Friday. Very often these two days follow each other, and the first Sunday as well, so that the opportunity is availed of by many to make a Triduum of Communions. Mgr. Villard, who was Bishop of Antun at the time of the promulgation of this Decree of Pope Pius X., wrote to his flock:“As the dawn is

united to daylight, Mary is united to-Jesus. So does devotion to the Heart of the Son call forth devotion to the Heart v of the Mother. Through St. Margaret Mary Our Divine Lord Himself selected the first Friday as a day of reparation. The Church has selected the first Saturday for the clients of Mary to offer prayer and. reparation to their Heavenly Mother.” A writer in the French Messenger of the Sacred Heart has also written:—“We shall receive many' graces and favors by making the Eucharistic Triduum at the opening of the month. Communion received through a love for Mary will bring love for Jesus into our hearts, Who can teach us better than Mary how we should receive her Divine Son? Since Our Divine Lord takes as done to Himself what we do to the least of His little ones, what a royal reward may we not hope He will have for those who offer consolation to His Immaculate Mother?” The Triduum of Communions at the opening of the month leads many souls on to the holy practice of frequent and daily Communion. NUTS TO CRACK. Why are the tallest people always the laziest ? Because they are longer in bed than others. Who was the fastest runner in the world? Adam, because he was first in the human race. Why is a watch like a river? Because it won’t run along without winding. What is the largest room in the world? . The room for improvement. What is that which lives in the winter, dies in the summer and grows with its roots upward? An icicle. When will water stop running down hill? When it gets to the bottom. Why is a drawn tooth like a thing forgot? It is out of the head. ; What is the difference between a man going upstairs and one looking up ? One is stepping up the stairs, the other staring up the steps. What is the difference between an engine driver and a schoolmaster? One minds the train and the other trains the mind. CLERICAL CURIOSITIES. The meaning of the word “curate” is, nowadays, a very different one from that of former times. Previously the curate was the person responsible for the cure of the souls of the parish; to-day he is simply that hard-worked individual, the assistant clergyman. “Parson” means “person,” the parish “persona”; while the “vicar” originally did the work of the parish on behalf of another. At the present time, however, he is the minister of a parish who is not in receipt of great titheswhere, for instance, the tithes belong to a Layman. The original name for a clergyman was “clerk,” so when we speak of a “clerical error” by an individual whom "e now call a “dark,” we are using a word which formally applied only to the clergy. <*XK*X*X*X> A TRAGEDY. I knew a little boy, not very long ago, Who was as bright and happy as any boy you know; He had only one fault, and you will all agree That from a fault like this a boy himself might free. “I wonder who is there, oh, see! now why is this?” And “Oh! where are you going?” and “Tell me what it is.” Ah! “which” and “why” and “who” and “what” and “where” and “when.” We often wished that never need we hear those words again. He seldom stopped to think he almost always knew The answer to the questions that around the world he threw, To children seeking knowledge a quick reply we give, But answering what he asked was pouring water through a sieve. Yet you’ll admit his fate was as sad as it as strange. Our eyes we hardly trusted, who slowly saw him change, More curious grew his head, stem-like his limbs, and hark! He grew at last a mere interrogation mark!

THE REASON. In the smaller American towns, houses in which there are cases of infectious disease are put under quarantine and a notice to that effect is posted outside. In one such case,' when the illness had been checked, the health officer came to remove the board, but the old mammy was emphatic in her demands for it to be left alone. “But why don’t you want me to take it down?” said the officer. “Wall, suh,” she replied, “eber since dat dere board was put up dere ain’t been a bill collectah near dis yeah house, so you let it alone!” * HOPELESS. A man who was very short-sighted went to have his eyes tested. After asking him to repeat the letters on the test card without success, the specialist grew impatient and left the room. Five minutes later he returned with the lid from a dustbin. He put it near the short-sighted man, and said, “Here, can you see this?” “Yes,” said the man. “What is it?” asked the specialist. “Well, it’s either a half-crown or a two-bob piece,” was the unexpected reply. WON THE BET. “Look her, boys!” said young Dareby, the pride of his form; “what will you bet me I won’t smack old Juggins in the back and say ‘Hallo!’ to him?” Silence reigned for a moment, for Juggins was the head master, and about as likely to put up with familiarity ns a. Lord Mayor’s footman. “Well,” exclaimed a sullen youth, known as Pickles, “I’ll bet my fishing-rod against your new knife that you won’t do it!” Other lads made similar offers. hen school met that afternoon every boy watched Dareby with bated breath as he advanced to his principal, and, sure enough, smacked him hard on the back, ejaculating “Hallo!” Juggins turned fiercely. “What do you mean by doing that?” “There was the biggest spider on your back I ever saw, sir,” explained Dareby. “Oh, was there?” said the head master. “Then I thank you for knocking it off, my boy.” And Dareby smiled, while the unfortunates who had accepted his bets gnashed their teeth. SMILE RAISERS. Jack (insinuatingly): “How would you like to lend a friend five pounds?” Tom: “I’d be only too glad, old fellow, but I haven’t a friend in the world.” v Virginia : “George says ill-health always attacks one’s weakest spot.” Friend (sweetly): “You do have a lot oi headaches, don’t you, dearie?” * Young Man (to jeweller): “Will you take back this engagement ring?” Jeweller: “Doesn’t it suit?” Young Man: “Yes—but I don’t. *P Last night I woke up with the strange impression that my watch was gone,” said Jack, “so I got up and looked.” ‘And had it gone?” asked Tom. “No; but it was going!”