Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 27 April 1911, Page 747

Friends at Court

CILEANSNOS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR April 30, Sunday Second Sunday after Easter, St. Catherine of Siena. May 1, MondaySS. Philip and James, Apostles. . , 2, Tuesday—St. Athanasius, Bishop, Confessor, and ; Doctor. , ~ 3, Wednesday— Finding of the Holy Cross. ~, 4, Thursday— St. Monica, Widow-. ~ 5, Friday—St. Pius V., Pope and Confessor. ~ 6, SaturdaySt. John at the Latin Gate. St. Monica, Widow 7 . St. Monica was a native of Africa. Having been given in marriage to a pagan, she succeeded, by the sanctity of her conduct and the meekness of her disposition, in bringing about bis complete conversion from idolatry and vice. Her son, the great St. Augustine , having been led in his youth to embrace the errors of the Manichaeati heretics, owned his subsequent conversion to her prayers. St. Monica was seized with her last illness at Ostia, in Italy, A.D. 387. When her second son, Navagius, expressed a wish that she might not die abroad, but in hex 7 ' own country, she said to him and St. Augustine : ‘ Lay this body anywhere; be not concerned about that. The only thing I ask of you both is that you make remembrance of me at the altar of the Lord, wherever you arc.” St. Pius V., Pope and Confessor. On the death of Pius IV., in 1565, Cardinal Ghisleri, a native of Northern Italy, and a member of the Order of St. Dominic, became Pope under the name of Pins V. His pontificate was signalised by the brilliant victory gained by the Christians over the Turks at Lepanto. The expedition was organised mainly through the efforts of St. Pius, and its success is attributed no less to the prayers which he caused to be offered up throughout Christendom than to the valor of the Christian soldiers. As Pope, St. Pins lived the same simple and frugal life which he had adopted when embracing the religious state. He died in 1572 in the sixty-ninth year of his age.

GRAINS OF GOLD LOVE’S PRISONER. Reposing in His altar-home Imprisoned there for love of me— My Spouse aits me ; and I come To visit Him awhile, and be A solace to His loneliness— If aught in me can make it loss. But is He lonely? Bend not here ■Adoring angel's as on high? Ah, yes! but yet, when we appear, A softer glory floods His eye. ’Tis earth’s frail child He longs to see; And thus He is alone —for me! His Heart, how- pin!ugly it aches With love unheeded, love despised ! O happy soul! that comes and takes The gift as something to be prized ; The lavish graces it receives From that full breast its prayer relieves 1 Then, best of lovers, I’ll draw near Each day to minister relief, For tho’ the thought of year on year Of sin should make me die of grief. Yet day by day my God I see ‘ Sick and in prison ’ —all for me! Rev. E. Hill, C.P. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best. People who are calumniated are like fruits. They are bitten; therefore they are good. — Abbe Roux. They are truly peaceful who, in all that they suffer in this world for the love of Our Lord Jestts Christ, preserve peace of mind and heart. —St. Francis. Smiles are as indispensable to true success in life as money, mind, and might. As long as a man can smile he is not beaten. It is by the little acts of our lives that character and disposition reveal themselves. A severe test is not at all necessary to find out the character of your companions the slightest will do. Observe their common daily actions, and you will have, all the evidence for safe judgment. If you cannot be happy in one way, be happy in another. This facility of disposition wants but little aid from philosophy, for' health and good humor are almost the w-hole affair. Many run after felicity, like an absentminded man hunting for his hat while it is in his hand or on his bead.