Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 16 March 1911, Page 459

Friends at Court

/ GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR March 19, Sunday. Third Sunday in Lent. St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church. „ 20, Monday. — St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. „ 21, Tuesday. —St. Benedict, Abbot. ~ 22, Wednesday.—St. Frigidian, Bishop and Conlessor. „ 23, Thursday.— Holy Winding Sheet of Our Lord. ~ 24, Friday. — Commemoration of the Five Wounds of Our Lord. ~ 25, Saturday. The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. Born at Jerusalem, St. Cyril became Bishop of the See about the year 350. He suffered much from the violence of the Arian heretics, who twice succeeded in driving him into exile. He died in 386. Commemoration of the Five Wounds of Our Lord. 'He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His bruises we are healed ' (Isaias). Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, and the virgin's name was Mary. . . . And the angel said to her: "Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus"' (Gospel of St. Luke).

GRAINS OF GOLD JESUS, MIGHTY LOVER. Jesus, mighty Lover, Victor all sublime, Bright Thine armies cover All the coasts of Time! Lords of earthly empery Rule not, nor are loved like Thee. Throngs of martyrs dying In Thy dearest name, For the tortures sighing, Flying to the flame Prove the fire's most fierce excess Than their eager love is less. Hosts of virgins, living Angel lives for Thee, Rich in utter giving, \' In Thy bonds most free, Join Thy sinless choirs above In their ecstasies of love. Jesus, patient Lover, Bid us love Thee more; All Thy charms discover, s All Thy grace outpour, Till our utmost heart's desires Kindle with Thy love's sweet fires! " — Ave Maria. The Church has a fascination men cannot escape. They love her or hate her according to the spirit that moves them. They praise or they revile her, but they cannot keep silence about her. The modern world can ignore anything rather than the Catholic Church*. This it knows to be a living power, the only power it fears. Let each of us be diligent in offering thanks to God for the individual blessings we have received, and then we may hope to be more abundantly refreshed at the Fountain of Grace, for the prayer of thanksgiving is a heavenly stream that flows into the ocean of divine love and returns to us again ,in showers of benediction.—Cardinal Gibbons. Faith is not a dream an inlet from the real world into shadow-land; but the very gate of reality. As it is something deeper than sense, subtler than fancy, keener than intuition, wider than reason, it plunges farther than these four powers o? mind into the things that meet our sight, or our insight'. It is a two-edged sword cleaving through phenomena or the things we see and touch, to the very frontiers of soul and spirit, and therefore rejoicing the truer reality. For reality is not with the things of the world'which are seen and pass away, but with those inner unseen abiding forces that give the world of fact and phenomena its worth and strength and coherence, changing it from, a pastime or a puzzle into a song of creation. . Faith is the 'Te Deum' of Time chanting to the Eternal.