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Show i " CJ)UPCf) the victory ) 1 which oyer- zrn s V Cometh the j , universal CHURCH CALENDAR, Mar. 1 (First Sunday of Lent). Pas dial Time opens. Mar. 2 (Monday). St. Simplex; Pope I and Confessor. ! Mar. 3 (Tuesday). "The Choir of St. Peter at Home."-Mar. Home."-Mar. 4 (Wednesday). St. Lucius, Pone and Martyr. (Quarter Tense Fast.) Mar. 5 (Thursday). St. Casimire j King, Confessor. Mar. 6 (Friday). Feast of the Sacred Lance and Nails. (Quarter Tense Fast.) Mar. 7 (Saturday). St. Thomas of Acjuin, Confessor and Doctor. (Quarter Tense Fast) i With Thee. (By Eliza Allen Starr.) How shall I follow thee, my heart's beloved. be-loved. Dear soul, the twin of mine; How cross these dismal wastes of separation sep-aration And round thy pathway shine? j How lift to thy sad lips the. cup of comfort, How be thy oil, thy wine, How meet the swift temptation at the I threshold I With shield of faith divine? Talk not of written word or lightning 1 message Too slow for love's behest; Upon that wasted moment may be pending i Life, heaven, all graces blest. Not occult science, aught of man's invention. in-vention. Can keep thy hand in mine; I My prayer must track thee through the weary distance And sign thee with its sign. Although wild snow drifts block the mountain passes, Though storms lash ocean's brine, My still persistent prayer shall win an answer For each sore need of thine. ! . My cry shall conquer distance, all sad forces Which fallen nature boasts; For heaven will send to thee, in sweet attendance, Its beatific hosts. O'er treacherous death itself, all foresight fore-sight mocking, Shall thus prevail my prayer, For Jesus, Mary, Joseph will be with thee However, when, and where. Children's Day in Rome. (Special Correspondence Freeman's Journal.) Rome has many characteristic and picturesque traditions connected with certain feasts of the church. On St. Aloysius' day, for instance, thousands of youths and maidens address sealed letters to the saint; on the titular feast of St. Mary Major's, that of Our Lady of the Snow, a continual shower of rose petals, resembling a gentle fall of snow, descends noiselessly from the dome of j the Lady Chapel during the vesper service; at Christmastide little children I do all the preaching in the church of I Ara Coeli; during the octave of the I Epiphany sermons are preached in all I tongues and services gone through in I . all rites in the church of Saint' Andrea I della Valle: on the day dedicated to St. Anthony Abbot animals of all kinds are I publicly blessed in front of one of the I ld churches of the city, and all that J morning the stranger is surprised and I edified to see the churches crowded with coachmen, cabmen, carters, cattle dealers, in short with all classes of men who have to deal with animals in their avocations. Not only do they go to mass on this feast, but they make a special resolution not to commit even a venial sin during that twenty-four hours. But perhaps the most picturesque pictur-esque and interesting of Roman functions func-tions is that which takes place every year on the feast of St. Agnes. Th morning the famous old basilica of the girl saint was thronged to the door to witness the ceremony of the blessing of two white lambs, adorned with ribbons rib-bons and flowers. After the ceremony the lambs were handed over to the chapter of St. John Lateran's, as the ; s annual tribute due from the lower ba- ,: silica to the Mother of all the churches. if Next they were taken in charge by I , two functionaries who conveyed them j in a carriage to the Vatican, where I they were offered to the Holy Father, j who in his turn had them sent to the j convent of St. Cecilia in Trastevere. Here they are carefully guarded by the I good nuns until they are supplanted I next year by two newly blessed lambs. I Meanwhile, their wool is, shorn and I fashioned into the palliums worn as a I sign of jurisdiction by the holy father, I the patriarchs, archbishops and, by 1 special privilege, by a few bishops of 1 the Catholic church. Jesus to the Soul Oppressed. I cannot take three yet, my child; the journey Is still a little longer; nerve thy heart To meet with fortitude the weary hours That oft confront three In the great world s mart. Rest on my love, wha-te'er thy trials be The most affli cted heart is most be-lov'd be-lov'd by me. I know each pang with which thy soul is wrestling, . And fain would take three, had I not in store I A crown of light for all thy brave I endeavors j Each cloud surmounted makes its ! beauty more. I Amidst the harsh world's tumult and I the fret, i Abide awhile, my child; I cannot take !thee yet. Not yet. poor soul! A few more darksome dark-some hours, And sore temptations met and over- J come, " A few more crosses bravely, meekly carried, Ere I can proudly call the tired one home. ! Nerve, then, thy heart; the toil will soon be done, i The crown of self-denial nobly earned ! and won. . For soon will come a day when all thy conflicts. As waves receding on a stormy sea, Will vanish from thee, and some fair, glad hour ? ; -y-jU bring the tried and chosen unto I " me. , , , Then thou'lt be freed from ev'ry pain and smart, -And rest thy tired head upon my wounded heart. La2y People's Mass. j The Mass at the hour (9 o'clock) is principally for the children in order I 'hat their parents may be able to get Jem away to church at the proper Ira? that pastor and teachers may ?berve their presence or absence, and I :hat by assisting in a body, under the I supervision of their teachers, they may J earn practically, what to do at Mass, I - when no longer at school, says The Le Couteulx Leader. For adults to crowd the church to such an extent as to make it uncomfortable for the children chil-dren Is, to say the least, uncharitable. Of course there are, most probably, individuals in-dividuals in every parish, who would not be able to hear Mass, at times at least, were it not for this Mass at 9 o'clock. But if we closely observe those adults who crowd the church at 9 o'clock Mass it will be quite easy to see that the majority have not been brought to that Mass by any spiritual influence. We once knew an old, experienced priest, who never called that Mass by any other name than "the lazy people's peo-ple's Mass." Look well at them. Who are they? Mostly young men and young girls who have not other care but themselves. There may be some older ones, especially men, among them. For these a Mass at 7 o'clock even is too soon. To be in time for that Mass they would have to shorten their sleep, or be obliged either to lose or postpone their breakfast. But whence the need of a longer sleep on Sunday morning? Oh, they had so little lit-tle sleep last night. They were at the theatre, or a Saturday night's dance, or with some company in a beer saloon, sa-loon, and did not get home until after midnight. Thus it is from week to week, from Sunday to Sunday. As to the late Mass, that is entirely too long for those people. They must have that time to read the fifty-page Sunday paper, pa-per, or the novel taken yesterday from the library. Such are the majority of those who attend the 9 o'clock Mass on Sunday. Need we be astonished that people such as these, when they hear their church maligned in the workshops and elsewhere, must stand by like "dumb dogs," unable to account for the faith that is in them. Calumnies that have been heaped upon their religion for centuries, though so often refuted, they cannot contradict. How could they? They never, or but seldom, hear the word of God from the pulpit. The Catholic weekly even, is ignored. The "yellow journal" alone can give satisfaction. satis-faction. Catholic Citizen. |
