Friends at Court

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLVIII, Issue 35, 1 September 1921, Page 3

Friends at Court

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'B CALENDAR. September 4, Sunday.—Sixtenteenth Sunday after Pentecost. ~ 5j Monday.—St. Laurence Justinian, Bishop and .Confessor. „ 6, Tuesday.—Of the Feria. ~ 7, Wednesday.—Of the Feria. ~ 8, Thursday.—Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. ~ 9, Friday.—St. Gorgonius, Martyr. „ 10, Saturday.—St. Nicholas of Tolentino. Si? SJS SjE Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been from very ancient times the occasion of a special feast in the Church. Conceived without stain, she was brought forth into the world pure, holy, and beautiful — with all the most precious graces which became her who was chosen to be the Mother of God. The Church finds an additional reason for rejoicing in the fact that, as the aurora heralds the sunrise, so the birth of the Blessed Virgin announced that the advent of the promised Redeemer was nigh. St. Nicholas of Tolentino, Confessor. St. Nicholas receives his surname from a small town in the Papal States, where he spent the greater part of his life. He was remarkable for his austerity, being accustomed to fast on bread and water several days in the week. In the pulpit and in the confessional his zeal and prudence were productive of an incalculable amount of good. He died in 1306.