GRAINS OF GOLD

New Zealand Tablet, 24 December 1908, Page 3

GRAINS OF GOLD

A LEGEND OF THE NATIVITY. The chilly, wind-swept stable-home A noly Temnle hath become. And Mary worships at the shrine Of Emmanuel Divine. Prostrate, adoring, kisses meet She presseth te His sacred feet Who lieth where the boasts have trod, While in great awe she doth repeat — 'My God! my God!' The cattle's straw-strewn stable-home A Royal Palace hath become; Before Him, throned upon the mow, Again Our Lady sweet doth now, Jn homage kissing His dear hand Who earth and heaven doth command, While in great rapture doth she sing With all the choiring angel band — 'My King! my King!' But now the stable hath become The Holy Infant's earthly home, And Mary stoops to lift and hold, And fondly to her bosom fold, This Child of glory and. of grace And shower soft kisses on His face : 'My Love ! My own most precious One ! Come to Thy Mother's dear embrace — 'My Son! my Son!' — Rev. David Bearne, S.J. No man nan make a habit in a moment or break it in a moment. It is a matter of development, of growth. But at any moment one may begin to make or begin to break any habit. — William G. Jordan. More abundantly, perhaps, than any other season of the ecclesiastical year, the Christmastide furnishes valuable and graphically presented lessons well worth pondering over by religious, the young, penitents, and all who are immediately subject to legitimate superiors. Not the least important and practical among these lessons is one which that eminent master of the spiritual life, St. Francis of Sales, thus succintly formulated in a discourse on the virtue of obedience ' I take for my model,' he said, ' the little Babe of Bethlehem, who knew so much, could do so much, and yet allowed •^Himself to be managed without a word.'