Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 48, 1 December 1904, Page 31

Friends at Court

GLEANBNGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

December 1, Sunday. — Second Sunday of Advent. „ 5, Monday.— St. Martin, Pope and Martyr. „ G, Tuesday. — St. Nicholas, Bishop and Confessor. „ 7, Wednesday — St Ambrose, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. „ 8, Tlnnsday. — lhc Concoption o[ the Blessed Virgin Mary. „ 9, Friday.— St. Eutychian, Pope and Martyr. „ 10, Saturday.— Octave of the P'east of St. Francis Xavier.

St. Martin, Pope and Martyr

St. Martin, who was Pope from 649 to 655, formally condemned the Monothelites and the two imperial*odicts, u,hich Lorbo.de all controversy on the subject of two wills in Christ. For this opposition Pope Martin, by the order of Emiperor Constans 11., was forcibly carried to Constantinople, and, after many sufferings, died a nyaityr un exile. St. Ambrose, Bishop, ponfessor, and Doctor of the

Church

St. Ambrose was born at Treves in the year 340 and died Archbishop ot Milan in 397. He was a Roman governor when, upon the death of the Anan Auxentius, he was, though then only a catechu men, chosen Bishop of Mila>n in .^7l. Rising at once to the full height of in.-* ollice, Ambrose distributed all his goods among the poor, a!nd with unwearied ?eal devoted himself to the perlormiance of his pastoral duties. Such was his zeal and success in rooting out heresy and propagating the oithodox faith, that it caused St Jerome to write that, when Ambrose became Bishop of Milan, all Italywas com>vertcd to the taith. To him, also, in part, is to b(- ascribed the conversion of the great St. Augustine

TJie Immaculate Conception

The veneration which the Church renders to the Blessed \ lrgin Mary is founded upon the same reasons and 'motives as that which she renders to other saints, with the difierencc that the irrst is sinpenor, although it essentially diners trom the wo ship Aye owe to (kid. In tact, when all the saints can intercede for us, and when God fs pleased to listen to their prayers, with much moie reason docs she merit our confidence, who was blc^cd among all women, and who, in consenting to become tiho Mother ot God, luls become, says St. Irenaeus, the cause ot salvation for all mankind. She is also the object ot a pa'iUoular veneration in tihe Cihiurch, which lias <ilwav,s regarded her as our advocate with God, celebrating her title-., virtues, and glory All the generations have called her, and will call 'her, blessed, because the Almighty has clone great things in her : Mary is the Mother of God and this title elevates her above the saints and angels, above all creatures. She is the Mother ot God \n the full sense ot the word : she corceived and brought forth, as to the humanity, Jesus Chnst, the Son ol G,od nxade man ; in her bosom the Word was made flesh Mary, in becoming the Mother of (iod, never ceased to be a virgin , she was a virgin when the angel announced to her the mystery to be operated on her , she remained a virgin in conceiving the One who is holy ' par excellence.' She conceked through the operation ot tiie Holy Ghost She remained a virgin after childbirth, which, having been done in a supernatural manner, could not impair her virginal integrity. The Ciiurch believes that the Blessed Virgin Mary never committed any sin, not even a venial one , the exemption from all actual sin is a privilege which we acknowledge in Mary, and which has never been contested among Catholics. The Council of Trent declaied that nobody (\ui, during his whole lite, avoid all sin, without a special privilege of (iod, as the Church belie vefi in regard to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is an article of faith that, Mai> has been even exempt from original sin. By his ' Apostolic Constitution ' of December Bth, 1854, the immoital Pius IX has solemnly defined a,nd proclaimed as dogma of beliot the Immarulate Conception of the glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of God. By the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary we understand that the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first moment when her soul was united to her body, was preserved from origiinal sin and exempted from every stain by a Divine privilege, in view of the future merits of Jesus Christ.

St. Eutychian, Pope and Martyr

St tJutychian, who was an Etruscan by birth, was Pope from 275 to 28.5. He sullered martyrdom under Numerian.