FRIENDS AT COURT

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 6, 11 February 1925, Page 3

FRIENDS AT COURT

GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK’S , CALENDAR

r y 1 Feb. 15, Sun. — Sexagesima Sunday. ~ 10, Mon. — Office of the Day. ~ 17, Tut*. —Office of the Day. „ 18, Wed. St, Simeon, Bishop and Martyr, ~ 19, Thur. — Office of the Day. ~ 80, Fri. Office of the Day. ~ 21, Sal. — Office of the Blessed Virgin.

<XK><X>\xS> GRAINS OF GOLD ROMANCE. When I was young, my fancy strayed In realms enchanted, fair to see, Where Love was King, and Love was clad In armor, and his eyes were glad. He courted perils undismayed— I could not think of him afraid — He was the perfect knight, and he Would deign at last to look on me. I travelled by the common road. My common day-dreams dimmed with time; But still the youth within my heart Cried out, and claimed some little part In high romancein all that glowed And burned, in all that stirred and flowed. Not stagnant would I waste my prime, I asked that life should be sublime. Then God made answer to my prayer. My days rolled onward as of yore; He led me by the beaten track, And laid new burdens on my back. r . * T glimpsed no vision strange and rare, Each trifling task, each paltry care Continued changeless as before, And yet He opened wide a door. The dullness of each common day He touched with radiance fair to see;. He shoved me Love, but Love wai3 crowned With thorns, and beaten to the ground'; A King, indeed, but One whose eyes. Shone with the light of sacrifice. A King, indeed, but One who prayed For strength to meet death unafraid: A- pilgrim King, who came to bless; By sharing it, our loneliness, And left on earth, since earth He trod , The splendid high romance of God, The perfect Knight of chivalry Hath not disdained to look on me.

DEATH RATHER THAN MORTAL SIN. When Queen Blanche became the mother of St. Louis, she received him from God as a treasure to be guarded with the utmost care. From his earliest years she kent one great thought before his mind—to love'above all things his Heavenly Father, and never to offend Him by sin. Often when the little rhoy was playing by her side or sitting on ,;.,-fher knee, she would say to Him: “My dear child, God knows how much I love you, yet ■ sooner would I see you lying dead at my feet than know that you had offended God.: by a mortal sin.”