The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 30, 12 August 1925, Page 61

The Family Circle

‘THE LITTLE FLOWER.” r - «h, Little Flower that bloomed in heavenly • peace Behind the cloister walls of quaint Lisieux, The gardens of. Child Jesus hold to-day ; No fairer or,more youthful flower than you. TV'’’- . ■ - " At thy first breath a holy mother prayed ‘ Ml? That God might keep you from the world away, . And in His holy service find a place Where you would labor lovingly and stay. In ’ thy own childish heart that yearning •:||| ; grew, ; v - pf'. And Little Jesus was your playmate then; His infant, smile divine shone forth on you From every flower that decked your native glen. * * L ■ lv. ‘ • , And when, at last the golden morning ' dawned, > The sweetest moment of your life, yet young, In great huihility and holy joy - You nursed the infant Jesus on your V' tongue. And then 'to Rome, where-at the Pontiff’s . . feet, 1, 4 ; t You prayed as though your pure young !'V"t heart would break, And begged the Holy Father let you go — //-■ ’ A prisoner of Carmelfor God’s sake. The convent gates were opened and you bade .. A farewell to the world you scarcely knew, And found the better, happier world within— Your lonely cell in quiet old Lisieux. Ahff who can tell what secret joy you found - In all your solitude and suffering there ? $ A little flower that grew more beautiful Through pain-racked hours of sacrifice and / prayer. But hush While yet the holy Sisters keep 'fy-s Their faithful vigil, ©re thy young life closes, Your whispered promise comes —“Upon the world ■V ! Prom Heaven I’ll send a shower of won- - -i' drous rosea.” Your virgin life was God’s Hi's pathway yours; And every sorrow was to you a gain That brought you nearer to your heavenly home, f . And kept your young soul free from sin V' - or stain. Fair Saint of France! the Christian world rejoices, Arid suppliant hearts are turned to thee ’ this hour; Theilowly and afflicted love and honor 4* Teresa of Child —Little Flower, s ' And in the heavenly gardens, rich and fragrants ' ' The Infant’s smile shines- forth • again on fm, ; -4 . S 5 / v i JFV&r Jesus is ’a’ Child and you are ’ still ’• *'* VHis Little ‘Flower that once , bloomed ' , in ■ X • r '■ .•.' ■' ■- ' '■ *,• « j> /-Lisieux. : V:V/v'-. ;■ \:> ; — Frank Harkin, in the Irish Weekly. ! : , ... ... . .... , : V • • ■■■ .

, ; THE ART OF TALKING. What are the great faults of conversation? Want of ideas, Avant of words, want of manners are the principal ones, I suppose you think. I don’t doubt it, but I will tell you what I have found spoil more good talks than anything else long arguments on special points between people who differ on the fundamental principles upon which thesepoints depend. „ No men can have satisfactory relations,.. with each other until they have agreed on,> certain “ultimata” of belief not to be disturbed in ordinary conversation, and unless they have sens© enough to trace the secondary questions depending upon these ultimate beliefs to their source. , .., In short, just as a written constitution is, essential to the best social order, so a code of finalities is a necessary condition of profitable talk between two persons. Talking is like playing on the harp; there is as much in laying the hand on the . strings to stop their vibrations as in twanging them to bring out their music.—Oliver Wendell Holmes. G'OOO'OOO MARY IN THE CATACOMBS. The Virgin Mother of Jesus is no pagan idea, i no Christian Demeter or Astarte. From the earliest days •of Christianity, in the Scriptures, in the first essays of scientific theology, in the maiden efforts of Christian art and poetry, we trace the affectionate veneration of the Christian world for the sweet Mother of the Redeemer. It is a spontaneous growth.When in the course of the third century many of the family burial-places passed into the hands of the Church, the ecclesiastical authorities gladly chose for their decoration scenes in which she occupied the most prominent place. Th© furniture of the catacombs bears her venerated image. It is sculptured on the most imposing tombs, and when Christian piety forbad© further interments in the catacombs, it gathered carefully all the art-traditions concerning the Mother of God and enshrined them lovingly in enduring mosaic on the walls of her favorite temple. . Far from ■ being an idolatrous outgrowth, the early Christian art clings most timidly to. the cycle of Gospel subjects, scarcely daring to introduce a , detail foreign to the letter of Scripture. Its canons were formed at an early date, and have held their own, East and West, in all the subsequent centuries. The fury of th© Iconoclast and the fanaticism of - Islam did not avail to destroy or modify the sweet and dignified artistic type of the Virgin in Byzantine art. In spit© of the; pagan trend of , th© Renaissance, th© same type has preserved in the West all the sweet grace and tender wist-. ful love with which the; mediaeval Virgin in the catacombs, the mediaeval Master Dei of St; Luke, .and,the Madonnas of Raphael are th-e .products of epochs wide apart, of different | stages ■of ■ culture and intellectual development. Yet they only differ in details of pose and execution, and Raphael himself would have been proud to take up and ,per-J

feet the conception of th© unknown artist of the Madonna and the prophet Isaiah in the __ , ~■•-*'• f* *■ “ '■* ■•"•>** *• • •v; Catacomb of.: Priscilla. Right Rev. Thomas J. Shahan, D.D., in Salve Begina, '■ ■ WMMJOOO . ; DEVOTION TO ST! JOSEPH. ‘ It will always be lovingly remembered of Pope 'Pius X that he 3 gladdened the hearts of , millions of Catholics, who love St. Joseph, by increasing the liturgical honors with which the Saint’s two feasts are celebrated. The words of the Pope have enhanced the tender gratitude and filial* devotion of the whole Catholic world towards the Foster Father of Jesus, and Patron of the Universal Church. In that intimate union of the Holy Family the Catholic heart loves to consider the interest and intercessory power with which St. Joseph is-'ever 1 mindful of the workingman, living and dying. Living faith is always prompting in th© individual soul some special holy affection and attachment. Th© thought of the carpenter doing hard work ’ with his hands to provide for his loved ones th© essentials of home life, and with his work done sinking to rest with his head pillowed on the Heart of his God, may here atad there have much of legend interwoven with the meagre annals, of the Gospel., Faithful hearts, however, for long ages have found solace and help in this ennobling thought; they have done hard work more cheerily and more patiently, and have faced eternity with greater peace, because they have added the name of Joseph to their invocation of Jesus and Mary. All such Catholics will , know how to use the month of March, St. Joseph’s month, with its beautiful -and solemn days of Holy Week and of the Annunciation, with special thought and hope that he who cared for our Brother, Jesus, and our Mother, Mary, will be mindful of the later-born of this twentieth century into that Holy Family. . , fVtKMMKKV THE GOOD INTENTION. * You tried and you failed; you wanted to be A someone who did, and now look and see! You’re nothing but grief; it’s hard to be fair ; You tried and you lost, and now you don’t . care! , j w i( / _ )* Oh, rouse yourself, boy! There’s honor to you !'■/•■ ; - ' ; • 1 You gave all your best if you didn’t get through! The victor’s not always the wearer of stars; It’s often the on© who can’t leap o’er the 'bars, ■ kiV '- %>*■■■s., ' '■■■.• But who doesn’t give up and go round by the gate, .. • ’• Nor lean on the fence and patiently wait; He fails but he leaps again and again, And strives to be first of' the world’s greatest men. . You failed when # you promised Heaven you’d try J:.. , .; # To live like the Saint who feared not to die But somehow you failed and now you give in; It’s hard to be good : in 1 this world that is sin; Don’t * say lit I With victory " right in your ! $ hands; tl? 1...-.-;-- n. You had the intention and God understands. -t-Maisie F. ’ Birmingham, in Sunday Companion.: *

HARD LUCK. ’'•■ . . • • ' Sandy was engaged to a girl who, a few days before her nieteenth birthday, succumbed to the prevailing craze and had her hair shingled. All her girl friends, congratulated her on her improved appearance, and it was therefore without any misgiving that she showed herself to her sweetheart. - - But Sandy viewed her with grave disapproval. . “It . is hard on me, lassie,” he wailed, “verra hard! After I’ve just bought ye a packet o’ hairpins for your birthday.” j, THE DIFFERENCE. The teacher wanted to know why Jim had absented himself from school for a whole week. “But he’s past his fourteenth year, ain’t he?” said Jim’s mother. “And me and his father think he’s had schoolin’ enough.” > “Nonsense,” said the teacher. “I didn’t - finish my education till I was eighteen!*’ i “Oh,” said Jim’s mother, “but Jim’s got brains.” SMILE RAISERS. > “. . . And your age is . . . ?” asked the woman lawyer. “Oh, about the same as yours,” replied the woman witness. * “Maud seems to be a thoroughly up-to- , date girl.” “Well, she isn’t. She’s six years behind in the matter of birthdays.” ' „ 4- * Mrs. Henpeque: “It says that this new elixir of life will make a man live for two hundred years!” Mr. Henpeque: “If I was a bachelor I’d buy a bottle!” V V- A man in a hospital for mental cases sat fishing over a flower bed. A visitor approached, and, wishing to be affable, remarked: “How many have you caught?” “You’re the ninth,” was the reply. W Mrs. Smithson dropped in the other afternoon to chat with Mrs? Brown, and was sur- : prised to find Brown adorned with an apron, washing the dishes. f -j, “Where’s ' the wife?” the visitor asked cheerily. - . J / “Over at the barber’s shop,” came the grumpy reply. , « , ; A ; Parliamentary, candidate wound up a frenzied oration as follows:^ ; “Gentlemen, the glorious victory, which will swamp our opponents when the eve of the election dawns upon us will re-echo in words of gold through the; corridors of , time, until ' the last grand- trump 1 1 shall | sound . through the valleys on the mountain-tops.” i »