Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Issue 3, 6 August 1908, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR

August 9, Sunday.—rNinth Sunday after .Pentecost. St. Emyg- - dius, Bishop and Martyr. „ ' 10, Monday. —St. Lawrence, Martyr. „ 11, Tuesday. —St. Sixtus 11., Pope and Martyr. „ 12, Wednesday. —St. Clarej Virgin. „. 13, Thursday.—St. Philomene, Virgin and Martyr. „ 14, Friday. —St. Hormisdas, Pope and Confessor. Fast Day. „ 15, Saturday. —Assumption of the Blessed Virgin "Mary. Holiday of Obligation. St. Philomene, Virgin and Martyr. • ' . St. Philomene was one of those countless martyrs who sealed their faith with their blood in the persecutions of the Roman Emperors. The date and manner of her death are uncertain. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church has always believed that the body of the Immaculate" Virgin was-, after death, assumed into Heaven, and reunited to her spotless soul. Without being an article of Faith, this belief, first expressed obscurely by the early Fathers, has gone on developing, like so many other truths ; so much so that it is now formally held by all Catholics. It seems indeed appropriate that the reunion of soul and body, which in the case of the generality of men will take place on the day of final resurrection, should have been anticipated on behalf of her who had been, by Divine intervention, preserved from that original sin of which death and corruption are the consequences. To-day, therefore, we honor the glorious assumption of the Blessed^ Virgin, both body and soul, into Heaven, where her intercession is a powers to succor us in our wants, comfort us in our trials,~and protectus from the dangers to. which we are exposed during the course of our mortal pilgrimage. ' »