Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, 24 April 1919, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK’S CALENDAR *—■ —l> I April 27, Sunday. Low Sunday. ~ 28, Monday. —St. Mark, Evangelist. ~ 29, Tuesday. —St. Peter, Martyr. ~ 30, Wednesday. — St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin. May I, Thursday. —SS. Philip and James, Apostles. ~ 2, Friday. — St. Athanasius, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor.

~ 3, Saturday.—Finding of the Holy Cross.

St. Mark, Evangelist,

St. Mark, who was a Jew by birth, wrote his Gospel at the request of the Romans, who wished to have set down in writing the Divine truths, which they had learned from St.* Peter by word of mouth. Writing for Gentiles, he represents Christ, not in His character of Messias promised to the Jews, but as “the Lord of all . . . Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed by the devil." St. Mark was sent by St. Peter to preach the Gospel in Egypt, where he received the crown of martyrdom in 69. His remains are said to have been transported, in the ninth century, to Venice, where a magnificent Cathedral bears his name. SS. Philip and James, Apostles. St. Philip was a native of Bethsaida in Galilee, and was called to the A postdate on the day after the vocation of St. Peter. Prom several facts mentioned in the Gospels, he appears to have been specially dear to his Divine Master. After the descent of the Holy Ghost, he preached in Scythia and Phrygia. He lived to an advanced age, and finally received the crown of martyrdom at Hierapolis, in Phrygia. St. James, surnamed the Less, on account of his stature or youth, was a brother of the Apostle St. Jude, and a relation of the Blessed Virgin, being a sou of her sister or cousin. lie was called to the Apostolate in the second year of our Lord’s public ministry. After Pentecost, St. James became the first Bishop of Jerusalem, and took a prominent part in the Council of the Apostles held in that city in 51. lie was stoned to death by the Jews, A.D. 62. The Finding of the Holy Cross. This festival has been celebrated in the Latin Church since the filth or sixth century. , It commemorates the discovery of St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, A.D. 326, of the Cross on which our Blessed Saviour suffered. In the words of St. Jerome: “If the ark was held in such high veneration by the Jews, how much more ought Christians respect the wood of the Cross whereon our Saviour offered Himself a bleeding victim for our sins ? Christ selected the Cross to be the glorious instrument of His victory, and the Cross is the standard under which all His followers must fight His battles." GRAINS OP GOLD. ECCE CRUCIS. I met with the Cross in a wayside place, And I bowed my head at the sign of grace, And I knelt at its foot for a holy space. The form of the Cross o’er my path lay spread, And I turned me aside with,, a pious dread Lest ever my foot on the Cross should tread. I met with the Cross in the living - dav. And I gazed at it full and I turned away. And I bowed not my head nor stopped to pray. It lay o’er my pathway pleasure-bound, And I looked on the Sacred Sign and frowned, And I trampled it there on the flower-strewn ground. Ah, would, dear Lord, that the faith were mine To honor each moment the Holv Siem For every cross in life is Thine!