Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/89

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TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.
3
The Conversion of St. Paul Jan. 25.
St. Matthias Feb. 24.
St. Mark Apr. 25.
St. Philip and St. James May 1.
St. Barnabas June 11.
St. John the Baptist June 24.
St. Peter June 29.
St. James July 25.
St. Bartholomew Aug. 24.
St. Matthew Sep. 21.
St. Simon and St. Jude Oct. 28.
St. Andrew Nov. 30.
St. Thomas Dec. 21.
St. Stephen Dec. 26.
St. John Dec. 27.


On these days we are instructed to seek encouragement in our Christian warfare, by remembering the triumphant issue of that warfare in the cases of those eminent followers of their Lord, the Apostles, the Baptist, and the first martyr. In the graces bestowed upon them, we behold the most striking illustrations of God's merciful promises of support to His servants; and in striving to confirm our own faith by the example of theirs, we are following the advice of one of themselves—of one "not a whit behind the chiefest of them,"—St. Paul. See his Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. xi.

The Holy Innocents. On this day we commemorate the infants of Bethlehem, whose blood, shed by Herod, was the first spilt by the enemies of Christianity in opposition to its progress. Mourning this, and all similar events, the Church yet directs our praises to Him, who made infants to glorify Him by their deaths; and who, while receiving to His mercy, these and millions of other infant souls, has declared for the instruction of those more advanced in years, that "of such" as little children "is the kingdom of heaven." (Dec. 28.)

St. Michael and all Angels. Sept. 29.

All Saints. Nov. 1.