Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 23 March 1911, Page 507

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK’S CALENDAR March 26, Sunday,—Fourth Sunday in Lent. ~ 27, Monday.—St. Rupert, Bishop and Confessor, „ 28, Tuesday.—St. , Sixtus 111., Pope and Confessor. ~ 29, "Wednesday. John Damascene, Confessor and 1 Doctor. ~ 30, Thursday.— St. John Capistran, Confessor. ~ 31, —Feast of the Most Precious Blood. Apjil 1, Saturday. —St. Gregory 1., Pope and Confessor, and Doctor. St. Rupert, Bishop and Confessor. St. Rupert, a Frenchman, illustrious for his noble birth, but still more §o for his many virtues, was Bishop of Salzburg, in Bavaria, the inhabitants of which country he had converted to the true faith. He died about the beginning of the seventh century. Feast of the Most Precious Blood: This is one of the many feasts by which the Church endeavors to recall to our grateful remembrance the sufferings of Christ for our redemption. St. Gregory the Great, Pope, Confessor, and Doctor. St. Gregory was born in Rome about the year 540. In 690 he endeavored in vain to decline the dignity of Supreme Pontiff, -to which he was elected on the death of Pelagius 11. In the calamities which befell Italy in consequence of the invasion of the Lombards, St. Gregory showed himself a father to all in distress. He was most successful in maintaining the purity of Catholic doctrine in some of the countries where heresies had arisen. In 597 he sent a number of monks, with St. Austin at their head, to preach the Gospel in England. He died in 604, having by his eminent holiness, great erudition, and illustrious achievements earned for himself the title of ‘ The Great.’ GRAINS OF GOLD A PRAYER. List to my prayer. Oh, Father! Be Thou my strength and guide, In Life’s unending battle Be ever by my side. Guide my faltering footsteps On Lire’s uncertain path , Oh, Almighty Father I Spare me from Thy wrath. Fill me with strength, for I need it, Help me to work and to pray Be with me, Oh, my Father! Unto my dying day. Help me when nights are lonely, Help me when days are gray Oh, Omnipotent Father! Be Thou my strength and stay. Guide me safe through the struggle, And when the fighting is done, Take Thou my soul in keeping, In the name of Jesus, Thy Son. Christianity in a nutshell is simply Love thy God; love thy neighbor,’ We can only prove that we love Cod by loving our neighbor. While we are commanded to fear God, I maintain that love is the most important motive force in ; Christianity. The great difference in religion is that while the pagan feared and worshipped his gods, he did not love them. They were top far away and too vague. Christ, on the other hand, not only loves and came to save the world, but He loves every man and every woman individuallyHe loves each of you just as if you were the only person in the world. Cardinal Gibbons. All of us at times are afflicted more or less with the feeling that we have accomplished much less in the world than we might Have accomplished had we tried harder. We have done nothing to attract the attention of mankind; we are filling, day by day, positions as humble as they are apparently unimportant; we have looked constantly, daily, hourly, for some great work or noble opportunity for brilliant service, and it has not come ; we feel that we are almost failures. And yet, if we have not attracted the attention of the world, we have at least, by our care in doing our duty, led the man who has the desk next to us to do his, when otherwise he would probably have failed. Our positions may be humble, but in them we are like pieces'of the mechanism of a great machine. If we were not there and did not do our part, then the work of the machine would be imperfect. No man need be termed &n absolute failure this side of the grave.