FRIENDS AT COURT

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 46, 2 December 1925, Page 3

FRIENDS AT COURT

I • GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S L > CALENDAR. % Dec. 6, Sun. —Second Sunday of Advent. ~ 7,. Mon. —Vigil of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Vir(3 gin Mary. •* „ 8, Tues. —Feast of the Immaculate Conception. „ 9, Wed.— the Octave. '; ~ 10, Thurs. —Octave of St. Francis Xavier, fessor. ~ 12, Sat. —Of the Octave of the Immaculate Conception. . * The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her Immaculate Conception was the first of the privileges by which the Blessed Virgin was prepared for the dignity of Mother of God. This privilege signifies that Mary never contracted the stain of original sin ; that her soul, in the first moment of its union with her body, was pure and spotless. She was thus excepted from the universal doom in virtue of which every member of the human race enters the world stained by Adam's sin. This doctrine, so admirably in keeping with what the holiness of Mary's Son required, though expressed more or less explicitly in every age of the Church's history, was not formally defined until the year 1854. GRAINS OF GOLD IMMACULATE. Unworthy I, who fain would weave a song Of human praise. Can tongue of clay proclaim The glory of Our Lady's spotless fame, ' Earth's only one unstained by primal wrong? E'en choiring Seraphim in high estate, Scarce find meet praise for one Immaculate Then I, unfit, durst nave a mind disposed To hymn the grandeur of Earth's purest one, The lily-petals of whose heart enclosed ; ;.. God's sinless Lamb, His Co-Eternal Son! :| Unworthy, I, to name the peerless grace ; Of Mother-Maid, Chaste Spouse of Spotj; less Dove, k Great miracle of God's eternal love. Which gave new hope to man's degenerate J race.' Ah me! how may I know the priceless worth Of Heaven's Queen, Blest Mother of its King; Beneath whose feet God's snow-white lilies spring, I".- ; Sweet Stainless One, Immaculate of birth ! .: ---' Oh lend, seraphic choirs, thy tuned lyres, Inflame my heart with love's consuming p ' fires; 7X And then all glad, with grace rejuvenate, Low bowed, I'll trembling chant, " Immaculate!"