Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 25 February 1915, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK’S CALENDAR February 28, Sunday.—Second Sunday in Lent. March 1, Monday.—Of the Feria. „ 2,'Tuesday.— the Feria. ~ 3, Wednesday.—Of the Feria. ~ 4, Thursday.—St. Casimir, King. • ~ 5, Friday.—Of the Feria. ~ 6, Saturday.—SS. Perpetua and Felicitas, Martyrs. SS. Perpetua and Felicitas, Martyrs. , These holy women were martyred at Carthage, in Africa, in 202. Their station in life was very different, Felicitas being a slave, while Perpetua belonged to an important family, and was married to a nobleman of the city. At the time of their apprehension they had not yet been baptised; nevertheless, they bravely endured many tortures rather than abjure the faith. They were finally put to death by the sword. GRAINS OP GOLD. PRAYER. How beautiful a thing is prayer ! To turn Unto the Mighty God and, bending low In homage, ask: ‘My King, Oh wilt Thou bestow Some mission on Thy waiting knight?’ To burn With zeal to serve to feel thy whole heart yearn To combat thy Lord’s foes. Then haste to know Thy station on life’s battlefields; then go Unto that Royal Liege that thou mayst learn Commands Divine. No prayers are wrong. But say ‘My Lord ! a soldier of the Cross awaits . Thy mandates.’ He will hear. No prayers are lost That wing their way to heaven, and the day Must dawn when thou shalt know within the gates Of Paradise each fell. No prayers are lost. —Angela Hastings. Dunedin. All of us would have larger lives if we had but higher thoughts. We grow by overcoming : the force we conquer becomes our own. The lazy person waits for something to turn up; the ambitious one goes out and turns it up. Faithfulness and constancy mean something more than doing what is easiest and pleasantest to ourselves. Don’t allow yourself to get into a habit of doing or saying unkind things. A habit once formed is difficult to break. The first beginning of culture is humility. Give an opinion about the things you know, but refuse to give an opinion about the things of which you know nothing. If you want to be great, be good. Be good in your work and in your play. Be good in the place and part you now are filling. To be good you must be kind, true, and helpful. Whatever our station, there will be trials to bear and responsibilities to shoulder; and commensurate with our bearing of them will be our satisfaction, our happiness, and our peace. The life without regret is the life without gain. Regret is but the light of fuller wisdom from our past, illuminating our future. It means that we are wiser to-day than we were yesterday. It is not great calamities' that embitter existence; it is the petty vexations, the small jealousies, the little disappointments, the ' ‘ minor miseries ’ that make the heart heavy and the temper sour. To make the best of any given moment of life, favorable and unfavorable alike; to improve that moment, whether it be' dealt us from Fortune’s right hand or her left, this is the art of life and the true prerogative* of a rational being.