15 DECEMBER – FERIA

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This, the eighth day from that on which we kept the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, is the Octave properly so called, whereas the other days were simply called days within the Octave. The custom of keeping up the principal Feasts for a whole week is one of those which the Christian Church adopted from the Synagogue. God had thus spoken in the Book of Leviticus: “The first day will be called most solemn and most holy, you must do no servile work therein... The eighth day also will be most solemn and most holy, and you must offer holocausts to the Lord, for it is the day of assembly and congregation; you must do no servile work therein” (Leviticus xxiii. 35, 36). We also read in the Book of Kings that Solomon having called all Israel to Jerusalem, for the dedication of the Temple, suffered not the people to return home until the eighth day. We learn from the Books of the New Testament that this custom was observed in our Saviour’s time, and we find Him authorising, by His own example, this solemnity of the Octave. Thus, we read in Saint John that Jesus once took part in one of the Jewish Festivals, about the midst of the Feast (John vii. 14) of Zachary opened, and He prophesied, saying, and the same Evangelist relating how our Lord cried out to the people: “If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink”: observes, that it was on the last and great day of the festivity (John vii. 37).

In the Christian Church, there are two kinds of Octaves: Privileged Octaves and Non-privileged Octaves. The first are so solemn that no feast of a Saint, occurring during them can be kept, but must be transferred to some other time out of the Octave. Neither, during these Octaves, can a Mass De Requiem be said unless the corpse be present for burial. Non-privileged Octaves admit the Feasts of Saints which occur during them, provided they are semi-doubles or of higher class. But a commemoration of the Octave must be made both in the Office and the Mass of the Feast, which thus takes precedence of the Octave, unless this Feast be itself one of a first or second Class. The Octave of the Immaculate Conception, the first that occurs in the Liturgical Year, is not privileged. It gives place, not only to the Sunday, but also to the feasts of Saint Damasus and Saint Lucy, and to the various local feasts which are of a double or semi-double rite.

Let us once more devoutly reverence the Mystery of Mary’s Immaculate Conception: our Emmanuel loves to see His Mother honoured. After all, is it not for Him and for His sake that this Bright Star was prepared from all eternity, and created when the happy time fixed by the divine decree came? When we honour the Immaculate Conception of Mary, it is really to the divine Mystery of the Incarnation that we are paying our just homage. Jesus and Mary cannot be separated, for Isaias tells us that She is the Branch, and He the Flower (Isaias xi. 1).

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We give you thanks, O Jesus our Emmanuel, because you have granted us to live during the time that the privilege of your Blessed Mother was proclaimed on this Earth: the glorious privilege with which you enriched the first instant of the life of the happy creature from whom you took upon yourself our human nature! This Definition of your Church has given us a clearer knowledge of your infinite holiness. It has taught us to see more distinctly the harmony there is in all your divine mysteries. But it also has impressed upon us the great truth that we ourselves, being destined to the most intimate union with you here, and to the face-to-face vision of your infinite Majesty hereafter, must labour without ceasing to purify ourselves from the smallest stains of sin. You have said: “Blessed are the clean of heart for they shall see God” (Matthew v. 8) and you show us by the dogma of your Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Conception, what is the purity which your sovereign sanctity demands of us. By the love which led you to preserve her from every stain of sin, have mercy on us who are her devoted children. You are so soon to be among us! Before many days are past, we will have yielded to yourinvitations and have presumed to approach your sacred crib. We are not yet ready, dear Jesus! The effects of original sin are still so plainly upon us, and, what is worse, there are so many of our own sins which we have added to this of our first parent: Oh prepare our hearts and our senses, for we will not approach to Bethlehem unworthily. The sinless purity of your Mother is not for us. We ask not for that , but we ask for forgiveness of our countless sins, for conversion, for hatred of the world and the world’s maxims, and for perseverance in your holy love.

O Mary! Created Mirror of divine Justice and purer than the Cherubim and Seraphim, in return for the homage paid you by this our generation, on that blissful day when the glory of your Immaculate Conception was proclaimed throughout the world, give us that abundant richness of your protecting love which you reserved till now. The world is shaken to its very foundations: your hand can help it to rest again. Hell has let loose upon mankind the most terrible of its spirits of wickedness who breathe but blasphemy and destruction, but at the same time the Church of your Jesus feels that her youth has been renewed within her, and that the seed of the divine word is broadcast and healthy in a thousand fresh portions of the Earth. Never was the battle more fierce on both sides: so that we need all our hope to make us feel that Hell will not prevail. Is this the great struggle which is to be followed by the day of judgement ?

O Blessed Mother of Jesus! O Queen of the universe! Can it be that the Star of your Immaculate Conception has shone in the heavens only to light up the ruin and wreck of this Earth? The sign foretold by the Beloved Disciple Saint John of the Woman that appeared in the heavens clad with the Sun, bearing on her head a crown of twelve stars, and crushing the Crescent beneath her feet (Apocalypse xii. 1) — has it not more brightness and power than that other which appeared in the heavens telling men that God’s anger was appeased, and that the deluge was over?

The light which shines upon us is from a Mother. It is our Mother that comes to console and heal us. It is Heaven that smiles upon poor guilty Earth. We have deserved the chastisement we have received, and more than we have received but the anger of God will give way, and He will spare us. The graces which God poured out upon the world on that great Day of the Church's Definition of Mary’s Immaculate Conception were not to be without their effect: a new period then commenced. Mary, on whom heresy had heaped its blasphemies for [four] hundred years, will again reign in the love of those whom her Son redeemed. Countries will abandon those errors which have made them slaves and dupes of men’s doctrines. The old serpent will again writhe under that crushing pressure which God set up from the beginning, and the divine Sun of Justice will pour out on the regenerated world the floods of a light more than ever dazzling and resplendent. We may not live to see that time but we have signs of its near approach.

It was in the last century that your devout servant whom the Church has placed upon her altars, Leonard of Porto-Maurizio, predicted that when this dogma of your Immaculate Conception should be defined, the world would enjoy a long period of peace. The troubles of the present time in which we are living are, we doubt not, a prelude to that happy peace during which the divine word will traverse the whole world unimpeded, and the Church Militant will reap her harvest for the Church in Heaven. Sweet Mother of our Jesus! The world was also in agitation in those times which preceded the birth of your divine Son, but peace reigned throughout the whole Earth when you gave it its Saviour in Bethlehem. Until that grand time comes when you will show to the world the magnificence of the power which God has given to you, assist us, each year, to prepare for the glorious solemnity of Christmas: pray for us that we may be cleansed from all our sins when that splendid Night comes, during which will be born of you Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Light eternal.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The consecration of St. Eusebius (315‒371 AD), bishop of Vercelli, whose birthday is commemorated on the first of August. His feast is kept on the sixteenth of this month by order of Pope Benedict XIII.

At Rome, the holy martyrs Irenaeus, Anthony, Theodore, Saturninus, Victor and seventeen others, who suffered for Christ in the persecution of Valerian.

In Africa, the martyrdom of the Saints Faustinus, Lucius, Candidus, Caelian, Mark, Januarius and Fortunatus.

In the same country, the holy bishop Valerian, who, being upwards of eighty years old, in the persecution of the Vandals under the Arian king Genseric, was asked to deliver the vessels of the church, and as he constantly refused, an order was issued to drive him all alone out of the city, and all were forbidden to allow him to stay either in their houses or on their land. For a long time he remained lying on the public road, in the open air, and thus, in the confession and defence of the Catholic verity, closed his blessed life.

In the diocese of Orleans, St. Maximinus, confessor.

In Georgia, beyond the Euxine sea, St. Christiana, who, though a slave, was so gifted with the power of working miracles that she converted the inhabitants of that country to the faith of Christ in the time of Constantine.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.

15 DECEMBER – FRIDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xxiv. 1‒15

Behold the Lord will lay waste the Earth, and will strip it: and will afflict the face thereof, and scatter abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it will be as with the people, so with the priest; and as with the servant, so with his master; as with the handmaid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower as with him that calls for his money, so with him that owes. With desolation will the Earth be laid waste, and it will be utterly spoiled: for the Lord has spoken this word. The Earth mourned, and faded away, and is weakened: the world faded away, the height of the people of the Earth is weakened. And the Earth is infected by the inhabitants thereof: because they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore will a curse devour the Earth and the inhabitants thereof will sin, and therefore they that dwell therein will be mad, and few men will be left. The vintage has mourned, the vine has languished away, all the merry hearted have sighed. The mirth of timbrels has ceased, the noise of them that rejoice is ended, the melody of the harp is silent. They will not drink wine with a psalm: the drink will be bitter to them that drink it. The city of vanity is broken down, every house is shut up, no man comes in. There will be a crying for wine in the streets: all mirth is forsaken, the joy of the Earth is gone away. Desolation is felt in the city, and calamity will oppress the gates. For it will be thus in the midst of the Earth, in the midst of the people, as if a few olives that remain should be shaken out of the olive tree: or grapes, when the vintage is ended. These will lift up their voice, and will give praise, when the Lord will be glorified, they will make a joyful noise from the sea. Therefore glorify ye the Lord in instruction: the name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the sea. From the ends of the Earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Thus was the Earth in desolation when the Messiah came to deliver and save it. So diminished, so decayed, were truths among the children of men (Psalm xi. 2) that the human race was bordering on its ruin. The knowledge of the true God was becoming rarer as the world got older. Idolatry had made everything in creation an object of its adulterous worship. The practical result of a religion which was but gross materialism, was frightful immorality. Man was for ever at war with man, and the only safeguards of what social order still existed in the world were the execrable laws of slavery and extermination. Among the countless inhabitants of the globe, a mere handful could be found who were seeking God. They were as rare as the olives that remain on the tree after a careful plucking, or as grape-bunches after the vintage is ended. Of this happy few were among the Jewish people those true Israelites whom our Saviour chose for His disciples and, among the Gentiles, the Magi that came from the East, asking for the new-born King, and later on, Cornelius the Centurion, whom the Angel of the Lord directed to Saint Peter.

But, with what faith and joy did they not acknowledge the Incarnate God! And what their hymns of glad gratitude when they found that they had been privileged above others, to see, with their own eyes, the promised Saviour! Now, all this will again happen when the time draws near of the second Coming of the Messiah. The Earth will once more be filled with desolation and mankind will be again a slave of its self-degradation. The ways of men will again grow corrupt and this time the malice of their evil will be the greater because they will have received Him who is the Light of the world, the Word of Life. A profound sadness will sit heavy on all nations, and every effort for their well-being will seem paralysed. They and the Earth they live on will be conscious of decrepitude, and yet it will never once strike them that the world is drawing to an end. There will be great scandals. There will fall stars from Heaven, that is, many of those who had been masters in Israel will apostatise and their light will be changed into darkness. There will be days of temptation and faith will grow slack, so that when the Son of Man will appear, faith will scarce be found on the Earth.

Let it not be, O Lord, that we live to see those days of temptation. Or, if it be your will that they overtake us, make our hearts firm in their allegiance to your holy Church, which will be the only beacon left to your faithful children in that fierce storm. Grant, O Lord, that we may be of the number of those chosen olives, of those elect bunches of grapes, with which you will complete the rich harvest which you will garner forever into your house. Preserve intact within us the deposit of faith which you have entrusted to us. Let our eye be fixed on that Orient of which the Church speaks to us, and where you are suddenly to appear in thy majesty. When that day of yours comes and we behold your triumph, we will shout our glad delight and then, like eagles which cluster round the body, we will be taken up to meet you in the air, as your Apostle speaks, and thus will we forever be with you (1 Thessalonians iv. 16). Then we will hear the praises and glory of the Just One, from the ends of this Earth, which it is your good will to preserve until the decrees of your mercy and justice will have been fully executed. Jesus! We are the work of your hands: save us and be merciful to us on that great day.

14 DECEMBER – THURSDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xix. 1‒2

The burden of Egypt. Behold the Lord will ascend upon a light cloud: and will enter into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt will be moved at His presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt in the midst thereof: and I will set the Egyptians to fight against the Egyptians, and they will fight brother against brother, and friend against friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Egypt which the Lord is here represented as visiting, and whose idols and empire He will overthrow, is the City of Satan which is to be destroyed and give place to the City of God. But how peaceful is the divine Conqueror’s entrance into His conquest! It is on a cloud, a light cloud, that He comes, as on His triumphal chariot. How many mysteries in these few words! “There are three Clouds,” says Peter of Blois, “the first, the obscurity of the Prophets. The second, the depth of the divine Decrees. The third, the prodigy of a Virgin Mother.” First, as to the obscurity of the Prophets, it is essential to every Prophecy that it be thus veiled, to the end that man’s free will may not be interfered with. But under this cloud the Lord comes at last, and when the day comes for the Prophecy to be accomplished, all things are clear enough. Thus was it with the first Coming, so will it be with the second. Then, as to the Decrees of God, as they are ordinarily made manifest by second, that is, by created causes only— it almost always happens that the extreme simplicity of the means employed by the divine Wisdom takes men by surprise. Never was this so observable as in the grand event of the Incarnation. Men would naturally expect that, in restoring a fallen world, a power equal at least to that which first created it would be displayed, and all they are told about the portent is: “You will find the child wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger!”

O almighty power of God, how dazzling is your light through this Cloud! How strong are you in this apparent weakness! But there is the third Cloud: it is the Virgin Mary. A light cloud, “for,” says Saint Jerome, “neither concupiscence, nor the burden of earthly marriage, weigh upon her.” A Cloud, too, laden with a refreshing Dew, since it holds the Just One who is to be rained down on us that our seething passions may be quenched and the soil of our spiritual life made fertile. How sweet is the majesty of our divine King when seen thus through this beautiful Cloud! O incomparable Virgin! The whole Church of God recognises thee in that mysterious Cloud which the Prophet Elias (3 Kings xviii. 42, 43) from the summit of Mount Carmel, saw rising up from the sea, little, at first, like a man’s foot, but sending at last such a plentiful rain that all Israel was refreshed by its abundance. Delay not, we pray you. Give us that heavenly and divine Dew which you possessed within you. Our sins have made the heavens as brass, and we are parched. You alone of creatures are just and pure! Beseech our Lord, who has set up His Throne of mercy in you, to come speedily and destroy our enemies and bring us peace.

13 DECEMBER – SAINT LUCY OF SYRACUSE (Virgin and Martyr)

Lucy, a virgin of Syracuse, illustrious by birth and by the Christian faith which she had professed from her infancy, went to Catania with her mother Eutychia who was suffering from a flax of blood, there to venerate the body of the blessed Agatha. Having prayed fervently at the tomb, she obtained her mother’s cure by the intercession of Agatha. Lucy then asked her mother that she would permit her to bestow upon the poor of Christ the fortune which she intended to leave her. No sooner, therefore, had she returned to Syracuse, than she sold all that was given to her and distributed the money among the poor. When he to whom her parents had, against her will, promised her in marriage came to know what Lucy had done, he went before the Prefect Paschasius and accused her of being a Christian.

Paschasius entreated and threatened, but could not induce her to worship the idols. The more he strove to shake her faith, the more inflamed were the praises which she uttered in professing its excellence. He said therefore to her: “We will have no more of your words when you feel the blows of my executioners.” To this the virgin replied: “Words can never be wanting to God’ servants, for Christ our Lord has said to them: When you will be brought before kings and governors, take no thought how or what to speak for it will be given to you in that hour what to speak. For it is not you that speaks, but the Holy Spirit that speaks in you.” Paschasius then asked her: “Is the Holy Spirit in you?” She answered: “They who live chastely and piously are the temple of the Holy Spirit.” He said: “I will order you to be taken to a brothel, that this Holy Spirit may leave you.” The Virgin said to him: “The violence with which you threat me would obtain for me a double crown of chastity.”

Paschasius being exceeding angry, ordered Lucy to be dragged to a place where her treasure might be violated but, by the power of God, so firmly was she fixed to the place where she stood that it was impossible to move her. Then the Prefect ordered her to be covered over with pitch, resin and boiling oil, and a fire to be kindled round her. But seeing that the flame was not permitted to hurt her, they tormented her in many cruel ways, and at length ran a sword through her neck. Thus wounded, Lucy foretold the Peace of the Church which would come after the deaths of Diocletian and Maximian, and then died. It was the Ides of December (Dec. 13) in 303 AD. Her body was buried at Syracuse, but was translated first to Constantinople, and afterwards to Venice.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

There comes to us today the fourth of our Wise Virgins, the valiant Martyr Lucy. Her glorious name shines on the sacred Dyptich of the Canon of the Mass together with those of Agatha, Agnes and Caecilia, and as often as we hear it pronounced during these days of Advent, it reminds us (for Lucy signifies Light), that He who consoles the Church, by enlightening her children, is soon to be with us. Lucy is one of the three glories of the Church of Sicily. As Catania is immortalised by Agatha, and Palermo by Rosaly, so is Syracuse by Lucy. Therefore, let us devoutly keep her feast. She will aid us by her prayers during this holy season, and will repay our love by obtaining for us a warmer love of that Jesus whose grace enabled her to conquer the world. Once more let us consider why our Lord has not only given us Apostles, Martyrs and Bishops as guides to us on our road to Bethlehem, but has willed also that we should be accompanied there by such virgins as Lucy. The children of the Church are forcibly reminded by this, that, in approaching the crib of their Sovereign Lord and God, they must bring with them, besides their faith, that purity of mind and body without which no one can come near to God.

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We present ourselves before you, Virgin Martyr, beseeching you to obtain for us that we may recognise in His lowliness that same Jesus whom you now see in His glory. Take us under your powerful patronage. Your name signifies Light. Guide us through the dark night of this life. O fair Light of Virginity! enlighten us. Evil concupiscence has wounded our eyes: pray for us, you bright Light of Virginity, that our blindness be healed, and that rising above created things, we may be able to see that true Light which shines in darkness but which darkness cannot comprehend. Pray for us that our eye may be purified, and may see, in the child who is to be born at Bethlehem, the new Man, the second Adam, the model on which the life of our regeneration must be formed. Pray, too, O holy Virgin, for the Church of Rome and for all those which adopt her form of the Holy Sacrifice, for they daily pronounce at the Altar of God your sweet name, and the Lamb, who is present, loves to hear it. Heap your choicest blessings on the fair Island which was your native land, and where grew the palm of your martyrdom. May your intercession secure to her inhabitants firmness of faith, purity of morals and temporal prosperity, and deliver them from the disorders which threaten her with destruction.

13 DECEMBER – WEDNESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xvi. 1‒5

Send forth, O Lord, the Lamb the ruler of the Earth, from Petra of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Sion. And it will come to pass that as a bird fleeing away, and as young ones flying out of the nest, so will the daughters of Moab be in the passage of Arnon. Take council, gather a council, make your shadow as the night in the midday: hide them that flee, and betray not them that wander about. My fugitives will dwell with you: O Moab, be a covert to them from the face of the destroyer. For the dust is at an end, the wretch is consumed, he has failed that trod the earth under foot. And a throne will be prepared in mercy, and one will sit on it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgement, and quickly rendering that which is just.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“Send forth to us, Lord, the Lamb”: “It is the Lamb,” says Peter of Celles, “it is the Lamb we need, and not the Lion. The Lamb that knows no anger and whose meekness is never ruffled, the Lamb that will give us his snow-white wool to warm our coldness and cover our nakedness, the Lamb that will give us his flesh to eat lest we faint with hunger on the way. Send Him full of wisdom, for in His divine prudence He will vanquish the spirit of pride. Send Him full of strength, for it is written that the Lord is strong and mighty in battle. Send Him full of meekness, for He is to come down as dew that falls on the fleece. Send Him as a victim, for He is to be sold and immolated for our ransom. Send Him the pardoner of sinners, for He is come to call them, and not the just. Send Him to receive power and divinity, He that is worthy to loose the seven seals of the sealed book, the unspeakable mystery of the Incarnation.”

You are King, then, O Divine Lamb! You are, even now in your Mother’s womb, the sovereign Ruler. This virginal womb is a throne of mercy on which you are seated in humility, ready to avenge our rights and confound our cruel enemy. O most dear King! Our eyes cannot yet behold you, but our hearts tell us you are near us. We know that it is for our sakes that you have put on this strange royalty. Suffer us to approach you and offer your our homage and loyalty, even now that a cloud hides you from our sight. A few days more, and you will be seated on another throne, your Mother’s arms, and then all the Earth will see the salvation that is sent to it.

12 DECEMBER – TUESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xiv. 1‒15

Her time is near at hand, and her days will not be prolonged. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose out of Israel, and will make them rest upon their own ground: and the stranger will be joined with them, and will adhere to the house of Jacob. And the people will take them, and bring them into their place: the house of Israel will possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they will make them captives that had taken them, and will subdue their oppressors. And it will come to pass in that day, that when God will give you rest from your labour, and from your vexation, and from the hard bondage, with which you served before, you will take up this parable against the King of Babylon, and will say: “How is the oppressor come to nothing, the tribute has ceased? The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of the rulers, that struck the people in wrath with an incurable wound, that brought nations under in fury, that persecuted in a cruel manner. How are you fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, who rose in the morning? How are you fallen to the Earth, that wounded the nations: and you said in your heart: I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the North: I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. But yet you will be brought down to Hell into the depth of the pit.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Your ruin, Lucifer, is irreparable! You refused to humble yourself before God, and you were cast into Hell. Your pride then sought a compensation for this your deep humiliation, and you caused the ruin of the human race out of hatred for God and His creatures. You succeeded in inspiring him who was formed out of dust with that same pride which had caused your own destruction. By you sin came into this world, and by sin death: the human race seemed now a victim which never could escape your vengeance. Forced to give up your hopes of a heavenly royalty, you aimed to reign in Hell and destroy the creatures of God as they came from His creating love. But again you are foiled and conquered. Your reign was in pride. Pride alone could form your court and give you subjects. Now see how the Sovereign Lord of all things uproots your kingdom: He Himself comes to teach His creatures humility, and he teaches it not by laws given with awful majesty as once on Sinai, but by Himself meekly practising that heavenly humility which alone can raise up them that had fallen by pride. Tremble, proud Spirit, your sceptre is to be broken!

In your haughty wisdom, you disdain this humble and lovely Virgin of Nazareth who holds within herself, in adoring silence, the mystery of your ruin and our salvation. The child she carries in her womb and is so soon to be born has long since been the object of your contempt. Know, then, that God does not disdain this unborn child, for this child is also God, and a single act of adoration and devotedness to His Father, which He is making in the womb of Mary, gives more glory to the Divinity than all your pride could rob it of, even were your pride to increase for eternity. Henceforth, men, taught by the lessons of a God the immense power of humility, will have recourse to it as their great remedy. Instead of exalting themselves, as you did, by a mad and guilty pride, they will humble themselves with love and pleasure: the lower they humble themselves, the higher will God raise them: the poorer they own themselves, the richer will He make them. It is the glorious Virgin that tells us this in her exquisite Canticle. May she be ever blessed, Mother so gentle and sweet to her children, and so terrible to you, Lucifer, that writhes beneath her as she crushes and conquers you.

9 DECEMBER – SATURDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias vii. 10‒14

And the Lord spoke again to Achaz, saying: “Ask a sign of the Lord your God, either to the depth of Hell, or to the height above.” And Achaz said: “I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord.” And he said: “Hear ye, therefore, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to be grievous to men, that you are grievous to my God also? Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, a Virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and his name will be called Emmanuel.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let our hearts be filled with hope and joy at hearing this fair and sweet prophecy: “A Virgin will conceive and bear a Son.” These words contain the salvation of the world, as these others express its perdition: “The woman took of the fruit of the tree, and did eat, and gave to her husband.” This Virgin promised to us is at length come: the divine Fruit is in her womb. By her, Eve’s disobedience is repaired, the world is raised from its fall, the head of the serpent is crushed, God Himself is more glorified by the fidelity of this second Virgin than He had been outraged by the disobedience of the first. The consent of Mary exercises an immense influence in the saving of the world. It is true that the Word Himself is coming, “but,” says Saint Bernard, “Mary is the way by which He comes. It is from her virginal womb He issues, as the Bridegroom from the nuptial chamber. Let us endeavour, therefore, to go up to Jesus by Mary, for Jesus came down to us by her. By you, O Blessed one that found Grace, O Parent of Life, Mother of Saltation, may we have access to your Son! May He who was given to us by you, receive us by you. May He admit your purity and, for its sake, forgive our impurities. May He give us the pardon of our pride, because of the pleasure He took in your humility. May your abundant charity cover the multitude of our sins. May your glorious fruitfulness get us fruitfulness of merit. Our Lady! Our Mediatrix! Our Advocate! Reconcile us to your Son, commend us to your Son, present us to your Son. By the grace you found, by the prerogative you merited, by the Mercy you brought forth, grant, O Blessed Virgin, that Jesus who deigned to become, through your maternity, partaker of our weakness and misery, may through your intercession make us partakers of His glory and bliss.”

4 DECEMBER – MONDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xiii. 1‒11

The burden of Babylon, which Isaias the son of Amos saw. Upon the dark mountain lift ye up a banner, exalt the voice, lift up the hand, and let the rulers go into the gates. I have commanded my sanctified ones, and have called my strong ones in my wrath, them that rejoice in my glory. The noise of the multitude in the mountains, as it were of many people: the noise of the sound of kings, of nations gathered together. The Lord of hosts has given charge to the troops of war, to them that come from a country afar off, from the end of Heaven: the Lord and the instruments of His wrath, to destroy the whole land. Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is near, it will come as a destruction from the Lord. Therefore will all hands be faint, and every heart of man will melt, and will be broken. Gripings and pains will take hold of them, they will be in pain as a woman in labour: every one will be amazed at his neighbour, their countenances will be as faces burnt. Behold, the day of the Lord will come, a cruel day, and full of indignation, and of wrath, and fury to lay the land desolate, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven, and their brightness will not display their light: the sun will be darkened in his rising, and the moon will not shine with her light. And I will visit the evils of the world, and against the wicked for their iniquity: and I will make the pride of infidels to cease, and bring down the arrogance of the mighty.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church puts before us again, in the office of today, the terrible spectacle of the last Coming of Jesus Christ. The sinful Babylon, of which Isaias speaks, is the world grown old in its crimes. The cruel day, full of indignation and wrath, is that on which the Messiah will return to judge the world with His Sign glittering in the clouds. The words used by the Prophet to describe the terror of the inhabitants of Babylon are so expressive that it is difficult to meditate on them seriously and not tremble. You, then, who, in this second week of preparation for the Birth of our Saviour are still wavering and undecided as to what you intend to do for the day of His Coming, reflect on the connection that there is between the two Comings. If you receive your Saviour in the first, you need be in no fear for the second. But if you despise the first, the second will be to your destruction, nor will the cries of your despair save you. The Judge will come on a sudden, at midnight, at the very time when you persuade yourself that He is far off from you. Say not, that the end of the world is not yet come, and that the destinies of the human race are not filled up — it is not the world that is here in question, it is you individually. True, the Day of the Lord will be terrible, when this world will be broken up as a vessel of clay and the remnants of creation will be a prey to devouring flames. But long before that day of universal terror your own day of judgement will come. The inexorable Judge will come to you, you will stand before His face, you will have none to defend you, and the sentence He will pass will be eternal. And though the nature of that sentence, whether for or against you, will not be known to the rest of the world until the last and general judgement, still is this His Coming to you, at your own judgement, terrible above measure. Remember, therefore, that what will make the terror of the Last Day so great is, that then will be solemnly and publicly confirmed what was judged irrevocably, though secretly, between your own soul and her Judge, just as the favourable sentence, which the good receive at the happy moment of their death, will be repeated before the immense assembly of men and Angels on the Last Day. Is it wise, then, Christians, to put off your conversion, on the plea of the Day of the Lord not having to come for ages, when it might be “this night that your soul were required of you” (Luke xii. 20). The Lord is coming: lose no time, prepare to meet Him. A humble and contrite and converted heart is sure to find acceptance.

1 DECEMBER – FERIA

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church of Rome does not keep this day as a feast of any Saint. She simply recites the Office of the Feria unless it happen that the first Sunday of Advent fall on this first day of the month, in which case, the Office of that Sunday is celebrated. But should this first day of December be a simple Feria of Advent, we will do well to begin at once our considerations upon the preparations which were made for the merciful Coming of the Saviour of the world. Four thousand years of expectation preceded that Coming, and they are expressed by the four weeks of Advent, which we must spend before we come to the glorious festivity of our Lord’s Nativity. Let us reflect upon the holy impatience of the Saints of the Old Testament, and how they handed down, from age to age, the grand hope which was to be but hope to them since they were not to see it realised.

Let us follow, in thought, the long succession of the witnesses of the promise: Adam, and the first Patriarchs, who lived before the deluge. Then, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the twelve Patriarchs of the Hebrew people. Then Moses, Samuel, David and Solomon. Then, the Prophets and the Maccabees and, at last, John the Baptist and his disciples. These are the holy ancestors of whom the book of Ecclesiasticus speaks,where it says: “Let us praise men of renown, and our fathers in their generation” (Ecclesiasticus xliv. 1), and of whom the Apostle thus speaks to the Hebrews: “All these being approved by the testimony of faith, received not the promise. God providing some better thing for us, that they should not be perfected without us:” their faith was tried and approved, and yet they received not the object of the promises made to them. It was for us that God had reserved the stupendous gift, and therefore did not permit them to attain the object of their desires (Hebrews xi. 39, 40).

Let us honour them for their faith. Let us honour them as our veritable fathers, since it was in reward of their faith that our Lord remembered and fulfilled His merciful promise. Let us honour them, too, as the ancestors of the Messiah in the flesh. We may imagine each of them saying, as he lay on his dying bed, this solemn prayer to Him who alone could conquer death: “I will look for your salvation, O Lord!” It was the exclamation of Jacob, at his last hour, when he was pronouncing his prophetic blessings on his children: “and then,” says the Scripture, “he drew up his feet upon his bed, and died, and he was gathered to his people” (Genesis xlix. 32).

Thus did all these holy men, in quitting this life, go to await, far from the abode of eternal light, Him who was to come in due time and re-open the gate of Heaven. Let us contemplate them in this place of expectation, and give our grateful thanks to God who has brought us to His admirable Light without requiring us to pass through a Limbo of darkness. It is our duty to pray ardently for the Coming of the Deliverer who will break down by His Cross the gates of the prison, and will fill it with the brightness of His glory. During this holy season the Church is continually borrowing the fervent expressions of these Fathers of the Christian people, making them her own prayer for the Messiah to come. Let us turn to those great Saints and beg of them to pray that our work of preparation for Jesus’ coming to our hearts may be blessed by God.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The prophet Nahum, who was buried in Begabar.

At Rome, the holy martyrs Diodorus, priest, and Marian, deacon, with many others, who by the command of the emperor Numerian, were made partakers of the glory of martyrdom.

In the same city, the martyrdom of the saints Lucius, Rogatus, Cassian and Candida.

The same day, St. Ansanus, martyr, who confessed Christ at Rome and was cast into prison in the time of the emperor Diocletian. Being afterwards conducted to Siena in Tuscany, he there ended the course of his martyrdom by decapitation.

At Amelia in Umbria, St. Olympias, ex-consul, who was converted to the faith by blessed Firmina, and being tortured on the rack, consummated his martyrdom under Diocletian.

At Arbele in Persia, St. Ananias, martyr.

At Narni, St. Proculus, bishop and martyr, who after performing many good works, was beheaded by order of Totila, king of the Goths.

At Casale, St. Evasius, bishop and martyr.

At Milan, St. Castritian, bishop, who was eminent for virtues and the practice of pious and religious deeds in very troubled times for the Church.

At Brescia, St. Ursicinus, bishop.

At Noyon, St. Eligius, bishop, whose life is rendered illustrious by a considerable number of miracles.

At Verdun, St. Agericus, bishop.

The same day, St. Natalia, wife of the blessed martyr Adrian, under the emperor Diocletian. For a long time she served the holy martyrs detained in prison at Nicomedia, and when their combats were at an end, she repaired to Constantinople where she went peacefully to her repose in the Lord.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.

26 NOVEMBER – SAINT SILVESTER (Abbot)

Sylvester was born of a noble family at Osimo in the Marches of Ancona, and in his boyhood was remarkable for his love of study and his good conduct. As a youth he was sent by his father to Bologna to study jurisprudence, but was admonished by God to devote himself to sacred learning. This incited his father to anger, which Sylvester patiently endured for 10 years. On account of his remarkable virtue, the Canons of Osimo elected him an honorary member of their chapter, in which position he benefited the people by his prayers, example and sermons. While assisting at the funeral of a nobleman, his relative, who had been remarkably handsome, he looked into the open coffin, and seeing the corpse all deformed, said to himself: “What this man was, I am now. What he is now, I will be hereafter.” As soon as the funeral was over, reading these words of our Lord: “If any one will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” he retired into solitude to attain greater perfection. There he gave himself up to watching, prayer and fasting, often eating nothing but raw herbs.

The better to conceal himself from men Sylvester frequently changed his place of abode and at length settled at Monte Fano which, though near to Fabriano, was at that time a desert. There he built a church in honour of the most holy father Benedict, and founded the Congregation of Sylvestrians under the rule and habit shown him by Saint Benedict in a vision. Satan, roused to envy, strove in many ways to terrify his monks, making assaults by night at the monastery gates. But the man of God repressed the enemy’s attack with such vigour that the monks, recognising their father’s sanctity, were more and more confirmed in their holy purpose. Sylvester was remarkable for the spirit of prophecy and other gifts which he guarded by deep humility. This so stirred up the devil’s envy that he cast the saint headlong down the oratory stairs and almost killed him, but the Blessed Virgin at once graciously restored him to health. In gratitude for this benefit, Sylvester showed her the tenderest unfailing piety to the end of his life. He died at the age of about 90 years, renowned for sanctity and miracles, on the sixth of the Calends of December in 1267. Pope Leo XIII extended his Office and Mass to the universal Church.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

God often brings the world to those who see from it, as Sylvester Gozzolini among others experienced. In the thirteenth century the world, all in admiration at the sanctity and the eloquence of the new Orders, seemed to have forgotten the monks and the desert. God, who never forgets, led his elect silently into solitude and the wilderness began again to rejoice and flourish like the lily. Strength was restored to the weak hands and feeble knees of the sons of the cloister. The austerities of olden days and the fervour of prolonged prayer were revived at Monte Fano and extended into 60 other monasteries. The new religious family of the Sylvestrians was approved by Innocent IV in 1247. Though originated seven centuries after Saint Benedict, and distinguished from the elder families by its blue habit, it claims the Patriarch of Cassino for its legislator and father.

Death, by revealing to you, O Sylvester, the vanity of noble birth and beauty, opened to you the path of life. The frivolous world, deceived by the mirage of false pleasures cannot understand the Gospel which defers beatitude to another life, and paves the way to it with renunciation, humility and the cross. With the Church, we ask of our merciful God, in consideration of your merits, the grace to despise, as you did, the fleeting joys of this world, that we may partake with you of true and eternal happiness. Deign to support our petition with your own supplication. We beseech Him who has glorified you to bless and multiply your sons, to sustain them and the whole monastic Order, and every religious family, under the sufferings of the present time.

11 NOVEMBER – ARMISTICE DAY/REMEMBRANCE DAY/VETERANS' DAY

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

Eternal rest give to them, Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them.

5 NOVEMBER – TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

For the years when the number of the Sundays after Pentecost is only twenty-three, the Mass for today is taken from the twenty-fourth and last Sunday, and the Mass appointed for the twenty-third is said on the previous Saturday, or on the nearest day of the preceding week which is not impeded by a double or semi-double feast.

But under all circumstances the Antiphonary ends today. The Introits, Graduals, Communions and Postcommunions are to be repeated on each of the Sundays till Advent, which may be more or less in number, according to the Years. Our readers will remember how in the time of Saint Gregory Advent was longer than we now have it, and that in those days its weeks commenced in that part of the Cycle which is now occupied by the last Sundays after Pentecost. This is one of the reasons which explain there being a lack of liturgical riches in the composition of the dominical Masses which follow the twenty-third.

Even on this one, formerly, the Church, without losing sight of the Last Day, used to lend a thought to the new season which was fast approaching, the season, that is, of preparation for the great feast of Christmas. There used to be read as Epistle the following passage from Jeremias, which was afterwards, in several Churches, inserted in the Mass of the first Sunday of Advent:

“Behold! The days come, says the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch: and a King will reign, and will be wise: and will execute judgement and justice in the earth. In those days will Judah be saved, and Israel will dwell confidently: and this is the name that they will call Him: The Lord our Just One. Therefore, behold the days come, says the Lord, and they will say no more: The Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt! But: The Lord lives, who has brought out, and brought here, the seed of the house of Israel, from the land of the north, and out of all the lands, to which I had cast them forth! And they will dwell in their own land” (Jeremias xxiii. 5‒8).

As is evident, this passage is equally applicable to the conversion of the Jews and the restoration of Israel which are to take place at the end of the world. This was the view taken by the chief liturgists of the Middle Ages in order to explain thoroughly the Mass of the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost. First mentioning to our readers that originally the Gospel of this Sunday was that of the multiplication of the five loaves, let us listen to the profound and learned Abbot Rupert who, better than anyone, will teach us the mysteries of this day, which brings to a close the grand and varied Gregorian Melodies that we have been having during the whole year. “Holy Church,” says he, “is so intent on paying her debt of supplication, and prayer, and thanksgiving, for all men, as the Apostle demands (1 Timothy ii. 1), that we find her giving thanks also for the salvation of the children of Israel who she knows are one day to be united with her. And, as their remnants are to be saved at the end of the world (Romans ix. 27), so on this last Sunday of the Year she delights at having them just as though they were already her members! In the Introit, calling to mind the prophecies concerning them, she thus sings every Year: My thoughts are thoughts of peace, and not of affliction. Verily, His thoughts are those of peace, for he promises to admit to the banquet of His grace the Jews who are His brethren according to the flesh, thus realising what had been prefigured in the history of the patriarch Joseph. The brethren of Joseph, having sold him, came to him when they were tormented by hunger. For then he ruled over the whole land of Egypt. He recognised them, he received them, and made, together with them, a great feast. So too our Lord who is now reigning over the whole earth, and is giving the bread of life in abundance to the Egyptians, (that is, to the Gentiles), will see coming to Him the remnants of the children of Israel. He whom they had denied and put to death will admit them to His favour, will give them a place at His table, and the true Joseph will feast delightedly with his brethren.

The benefit of this divine Table is signified in the Office of this Sunday by the Gospel which tells us of our Lord’s feeding the multitude with five loaves. For it will be then that Jesus will open to the Jews the five books of Moses which are now "being carried whole and not yet broken — yes, carried by a child, that is to say, this people itself, who, up to that time will have been cramped up in the narrowness of a childish spirit. Then will be fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremias, which is so aptly placed before this Gospel: They will say no more: The Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt! But, the Lord lives, who has brought out the seed of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands into which they had been cast.

Thus delivered from the spiritual bondage which still holds them, they will sing with all their heart, the words of thanksgiving as we have them in the Gradual: You have saved us, Lord, from them that afflict us!”

Epistle – Philippians iii. 17‒21; iv. 1‒3

Brethren, be followers of me and observe them who walk so as you have our model. For many walk, of whom I have told you often (and now tell you weeping) that they are enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame: who mind earthly things. But our conversation is in heaven, from where also we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of His glory, according to the operation by which also He is able to subdue all things to Himself. Therefore, my dearly beloved brethren, and most desired, my joy, and my crown: so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beg of Evodia, and I beseech Syntyche, to be of one mind in the Lord. And I entreat you also, my sincere companion, help those women that have laboured with me in the Gospel, with Clement and the rest of my fellow labourers, whose names are in the book of life.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Clement whose name is here mentioned by the Apostle is that of Saint Peter’s second successor. Very frequently the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost comes close upon the feast of this great Pope and Martyr of the first century. Disciple of Paul and, later on, in close intimacy with Peter, and named by the Vicar of Christ as the fittest to succeed him in the apostolic chair, Clement, as we will see on the 23rd of November, was one of those Saints who in those early times were the most venerated by the Faithful. The mention made of him in the Office of the Time, just before his appearance on the Cycle of holy Church, excited the Christian people to joy and roused its fervour. It reminded them that one of their best and dearest protectors would soon be visiting them. At the time when Saint Paul was writing to the Philippians, Clement, who was long to survive the Apostles, was prominently one of those men spoken of in our Epistle, that is, one of the followers of those illustrious models who were called to perpetuate in the flock confided to their care (1 Peter v. 3) the pattern of holy living, and that, not so much by their zealous teaching, as by the force of example. The Church, the One true Bride of the divine Word, was known by the incommunicable privilege of possessing within her the Truth — not only its dead letter, but its ever living self, and this by her holiness. The Holy Ghost has not kept the books of sacred Scripture from passing into the hands of the sects separated from the centre of unity, but He has reserved to the Church the treasure of tradition which transmits, surely and fully, from one generation to another, the Word who is light and life (John i. 4). Yes, this tradition is kept up by the truth and holiness of the Man-God. They are ever existing in His members, they are ever tangible and visible in the Church (1 John i. 1). Holiness, which is inherent in the Church, is tradition in its purest and strongest form because it is the truth, not only preached, but reduced to action and work (1 Thessalonians ii. 13), as it was in Christ Jesus, and as it is in God (John v. 17). It is the deposit (1 Timothy vi. 20) which the disciples of the Apostles had the mission to hand faithfully down to their successors, just as the Apostles themselves had received it from the Word who had come upon the Earth.

Hence Saint Paul did not content himself with entrusting dogmatic teaching to his disciple Timothy (2 Timothy ii. 2). He said to him: “Be you an example to the Faithful, in word, and in living” (1 Timothy iv. 12). He said much the same to Titus: “Show yours elf an example of good works, in doctrine and in integrity of life” (Titus ii. 7). He repeated to all: “Be followers of me, as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians iv. 16). He sent Timothy to the Corinthians that he might remind them, or, where it was necessary, might teach them not only the dogmas of his Gospel, but, likewise, his ways in Christ Jesus, that is, his manner of life. For this manner of life of the Apostle was, in a certain measure, his teaching every where in all the Churches (1 Corinthians iv. 17), and he lauded the Faithful of Corinth for their being mindful to imitate him in all things, which was a keeping to the tradition of Christ (1 Corinthians xi. 1‒2). As for the Thessalonians, they had so thoroughly entered into this teaching, taken from their Apostle’s life, that, as Saint Paul says of them, they had become a pattern to all believers. This silent teaching of Christian revelation, which they showed forth in their conduct, made it superfluous for the messengers of the Gospel to say much (1 Thessalonians i. 5‒8).

The Church is a magnificent Temple which is built up, to the glory of God, by the living stones which let themselves be set into its walls. The constructing of those sacred walls, and on the plan laid down by Christ, is a work in which all are permitted to share. What one does by word (1 Corinthians xiv. 3), another does by good example (Romans xiv. 19). But both of them build, both of them edify the holy City. And as it was in the Apostolic Age, so always, example is more powerful than word unless that word be backed by the authority of holiness in him who speaks it: unless, that is, he leads a life according to the perfection taught by the Gospel. But, as the giving edification to those around him is an obligation incumbent on the Christian, an obligation imposed both by charity he owes to his neighbour and by the zeal he should have for the house of God,so, likewise, under pain of presumption, he should seek his own edification in the conduct of others. The reading of good books, the study of the Lives of the Saints, the observing, as our Epistle says, the respectfully observing those holy people with whom he lives — all this will be incalculable aid to him in the work of his own personal sanctification and in the fulfilment of God’s purposes in his regard.

This devout intercourse with the elect of Earth and Heaven will keep us away from men who are enemies of the Cross of Christ and mind earthly things, and put their happiness in carnal pleasures. It will make our conversation be in Heaven. Preparing for the day which cannot now be far off —the day of the Coming of our Lord — we will stand fast in Him, in spite of the falling off of so many among us who, by the current of the world’s fashion, are hurried into perdition. The troubles and sufferings of the last times will but intensify our hope in God, for they will make us long all the more ardently for the happy day when our Redeemer will appear and complete the work of the salvation of His servants by imparting, to their very flesh, the brightness of His own divine Body. Let us, as our Apostle says, be of one mind in the Lord. And, then, as he bids his dear Philippians do, let us rejoice in the Lord always, yes, let us rejoice, for, the Lord is near (Philippians iv. 4, 5).

Gospel – Matthew ix. 18‒26

At that time Jesus was speaking to the multitude. Behold a certain ruler came up and adored Him, saying: “Lord, my daughter is even now dead. But come lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus rising up followed him, with His disciples. And behold a woman who was troubled with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind Him, and touched the hem of His garment. For she said within herself: “If I will touch only his garment I will be healed.” But Jesus turning and seeing her, said: “Be of good heart, daughter, your faith has made you whole.” And the woman was made whole from that hour. And when Jesus was come into the house of the ruler, and saw the minstrels and the multitude making a rout, He said: “Give place: for the girl is not dead, but sleeps.” And they laughed Him to scorn. And when the multitude was put forth, He went in and took her by the hand. And the maid arose. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that country.

Praise to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Although the choice of this Gospel for the twenty-third Sunday has not great antiquity on its side, yet is it in most perfect keeping with the post-pentecostal Liturgy and confirms what we have stated, relative to the character of this portion of the Church’s Year. Saint Jerome tells us, in the homily selected for the day, that the Hemorrhoissa healed by our Lord is a type of the Gentile world, while the Jewish people is represented by the daughter of the Ruler of the Synagogue. This latter is not to be restored to life until the former has been cured. And this is precisely the mystery we are so continually commemorating during these closing weeks of the Liturgical Year — the fullness of the Gentiles recognising and welcoming the divine Physician, and the blindness of Israel at last giving way to the Light (Romans xi. 25).

We have celebrated, during this Year of Grace, all the grand Mysteries of the Redemption, and this ought to enable us to appreciate the glorious economy, as the Fathers love to call what we admire under another name. The spirit of the Church’s Liturgy at this close of her and our Year, lets us see the world as though its end were come. It looks as though it were sinking away down into some deep abyss — and yet, no. It is only that it may shake off the wicked from its surface, and then it will come up again blooming in light and love. All this has been the divine reality of the Year of Grace we have had put before us, yes, and in us, by our sweet Mother the Church. And now we are, or ought to be, in a mood to feel a thrill of admiration at the mysterious yet, at the same time, the strong and sweet ways of eternal Wisdom (Wisdom viii. 1). At the beginning, when Man was first created, sin soon followed, breaking up the harmony of God’s beautiful world and throwing man off the divine path where his Creator had placed him. Time and wickedness went on till there was a family on which God’s mercy fell. The light which beamed on that privileged favourite only showed the plainer the thick darkness in which the rest of mankind was vegetating. The Gentiles, abandoned to their misery — all the more terrible because they had caused it and loved it — saw God’s favours all bestowed on Israel, while themselves were disregarded and wished to be so. Even when the time came for original sin to be remedied, it seemed as though that was just the time for the final reprobation of the Gentiles — for the salvation that came down from Heaven in the person of the Man-God was seen to be exclusively directed towards the Jews and the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew xv. 24).

But the people that had been treated with so much predilection, and whose Fathers and first Rulers had so ardently prayed for the coming of the Messiah, was no longer up to the position made for it by the holy patriarchs and prophets. Its beautiful religion, founded as it was on desire and hope, was then nothing but a sterile expectancy which kept it motionless and unable to advance a single step towards its Redeemer. As to its Law, Israel then minded nothing but the letter and, at last, turned it into a mummy of sectarian formalism. Now, while in spite of all this sinful apathy it was mad with jealousy, pretending that no one else had any right to Heaven’s favours, the Gentile, whose ever increasing misery urged him to go in search of some deliverer, found one and recognised him in Jesus the Saviour of the world. He was confident that this Jesus could cure him, so he took the bold initiative, went up to Him, and had the merit of being the first to be healed. True, our Lord had treated him with an apparent disdain, but that had only had the effect of intensifying his humility, and humility has a power of making way anywhere, even into Heaven itself (Ecclesiasticus xxxv. 21).

Israel, therefore, was now made to wait. One of the Psalms he sang, ran thus: “Ethiopia will be the first to stretch out her hands to God” (Psalm lxvii. 32). It is now the turn for Israel to recover, by the pangs of a long abandonment, the humility which had won the divine promises for his Fathers, the humility which alone could merit his seeing those promises fulfilled. By this time, however, the word of salvation has made itself heard throughout all the nations, healing and saving all who desired the blessing. Jesus, who had been delayed on the road, came at last to the house towards which He first purposed to direct His sacred steps. He reached, at last, the house of Judah where the daughter of Sion was in a deep sleep. She is in it still! His almighty compassion drives away from the poor abandoned one the crowd of false teachers and lying prophets who had sent her into that mortal sleep, by all the noise of their vain babbling: He casts forth forever from her house those insulters of His own divine self who were quite resolved to keep the dead one dead. Taking the poor daughter by the hand, He restores her to life, and to all the charm of her first youth, proving thus that her apparent death had been but a sleep, and that the long delay of dreary ages could never belie the word of God which He had given to Abraham, His servant (Luke i. 54, 55).

Now therefore, let this world of ours hold itself in readiness for its final transformation, for the tidings of the restoration of the daughter of Sion puts the last seal to the accomplishment of the prophecies. It remains now but for the graves to give back their dead (Daniel xii. 1, 2). The valley of Josaphat is preparing for the great meeting of the nations (Joel iii. 2). Mount Olivet is once more (Acts i. 11) to have Jesus standing upon it, but this time as Lord and Judge! (Zacharias xiv. 4).

27 OCTOBER – FERIA

 On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

The Vigil of the holy Apostles Saints Simon and Jude.

At Avila in Spain, the Saints Vincent, Sabina and Christeta, who were first stretched on the rack in such a manner that all their limbs were dislocated. Then stones being laid on their heads, and their brains beaten out with heavy bars, they terminated their martyrdom under the governor Dacian.

At Tilchatel, St. Florentius, martyr.

In Cappadocia, the holy martyrs Capitolina, and Erotheides, her handmaid, who suffered under Diocletian.

In India, St. Frumentius, bishop. While he was a captive there he was consecrated bishop by St. Athanasius and preached the Gospel in that country.

In Ethiopia, St. Elesbaan, king, who, after having defeated the enemies of Christ and sent his royal diadem to Jerusalem in the time of the emperor Justin, led a monastical life, as he had vowed, and went to his reward.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.

8 JUNE – THE CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Who is this who comes up, embalming the desert of the world with her clouds of incense and myrrh and perfumes unnumbered? The Bride has awakened of her own accord today. Full of desire to please Him, and very lovely, the Church is standing round the golden litter on which is throned her Spouse in His glory. Near Him are drawn up the valiant ones of Israel, the Priests and Levites of the Lord who are strong even with God. Go forth, daughters of Sion! Fix your gaze on the true Solomon, so beautiful in the diadem with which His mother crowned Him on the day of His espousals, the day of the joy of His heart! (Canticles iii. 5-11)

That diadem is the Flesh received by the divine Word from the Virgin Mother when He took our human nature for His Bride. By this most perfect of Bodies, by this sacred Flesh, there is every day continued in the Eucharistic banquet the ineffable mystery of the marriage between man and eternal Wisdom. For our true Solomon, then, each day is the day of the joy of His heart, the day of nuptial rejoicing: could anything be more just than that once in the year holy Church should give full freedom to the transports of the love she has for her divine Spouse who resides with her in the Sacrament of Love, although in a hidden manner? It is on this account that in today’s Mass the priest has consecrated two Hosts, and that after having received one of these in Holy Communion, He has placed the other in the glittering Ostensorium which is to be carried in his trembling hands beneath a canopy while hymns of triumphant joy are being sung, and the Faithful in prostrate adoration are being blessed by their Jesus, who thus comes among them.

This solemn homage to the sacred Host is a later institution than the Feast itself of Corpus Christi. Pope Urban IV does not speak of it in his Bull of the Institution in 1264. Twenty-two years later, Durandus of Mende wrote his Rational of Divine Offices in which he several times mentions the Processions which were then in use. But he has not a word on that of Corpus Christi. On the other hand, Popes Martin V and Eugenius IV, in their Constitutions (May 26, 1429; May 26, 1433), plainly show that it was then in use, for they grant Indulgences to them that are present at it. Donatus Bossius of Milan tells us in his Chronicle that on Thursday the 24th of May, 1404, “there was carried, for the first time solemnly, the Body of Christ in the streets of Padua, which has since become the custom.” Some writers have concluded from these words that the Procession of Corpus Christi was not in use before that date, and that it first originated at Padua. But the words of Bossius scarcely justify such an inference, and the words he uses may be understood of a local custom.

Indeed, we find mention made of this Procession in a Manuscript of the Church of Chartres in 1330, in an Act of the Chapter of Tournai in 1325, in a Council of Paris in 1323, and in one held at Sens in 1320. Indulgences are granted by these two Councils to those who observe abstinence and fasting on the vigil of Corpus Christi, and they add these words: “As to the solemn Procession made on the Thursday’s Feast, when the holy Sacrament is carried, seeing that it appears to have been introduced in these our times by a sort of inspiration, we prescribe nothing at present, and leave all concerning it to the devotion of the clergy and people.” So that the initiative to the institution of today’s Procession seems to have been made by the devotion of the Faithful, and that this admirable completion given to our Feast began in France, and from there was adopted in all the Churches of the West.

There is ground for supposing that at first the sacred Host was not carried in these Processions as it is now. It was veiled over or enclosed in a sort of rich shrine. Even so far back as the eleventh century it had been the custom in some places to carry It in this way during the Processions of Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday morning. We have elsewhere spoken of these devotional practices, which, however, were not so much for the direct purpose of honouring the Blessed Sacrament, as for that of bringing more forward the mystery of those solemnities. Be this as it may, the use of ostensoria, or monstrances, as they are termed in a Council held in 1452 at Cologne, soon followed the institution of the new Procession.

They were made at first in shape like little towers. In a Manuscript Missal dated 1374, the letter D, which is the first of the Collect for the feast of Corpus Christi, gives us a miniature illumination representing a Bishop, accompanied by two acolytes, who is carrying the Host in a golden tower which has four openings. But Catholic piety soon began to offer to its Lord all the exterior honour it could: to that Lord who hides Himself and His glory in the Mystery of Love. And to the Sun of Justice thus shrouded it suggested the compensation, poor though it must necessarily be, of a crystal sphere surrounded by rays of gold, or of other precious material, and of exposing the sacred Host within it. Not to mention other, and more ancient records, we find a very marked instance of the rapidity with which this use of the monstrance was adopted: it occurs in a Gradual of the period of Louis XII (1498–1515): the initial letter of the Introit for Corpus Christi has within it a sun or sphere, like those in present use. It is being carried on the shoulders of two figures vested in copes, who are followed by the King and several Cardinals and Prelates.

And yet the Protestant heresy which was then beginning gave the name of novelty, superstition and idolatry to these natural developments of Catholic worship prompted, as they were, by faith and love. The Council of Trent pronounced anathema on these calumnies and, in a Chapter apart, showed how rightly the Church had acted in countenancing these practices. The words of the Council are as follows: “The holy Council declares that there has been most piously and religiously introduced into God’s Church the practice that each year, on a certain special feast, the august and venerable Sacrament should be honoured with singular veneration and solemnity, and that It should be reverently and with every honour carried in processions through the public roads and places. For it is most just that certain holidays should be appointed on which all Christians should, with special and unusual demonstrations, evince their gratitude and mindfulness towards their common Lord and Redeemer for this so unspeakable and truly divine favour in which is represented His victory and triumph over death. And it was also necessary that thus invincible truth should triumph over lying and heresy, and that her enemies, seeing all that splendour and being in the midst of such great joy of the whole Church, should either grow wearied and acknowledge their being beaten and broken, or, being ashamed and confounded, should be converted.”

25 MAY – SAINT URBAN (Pope and Martyr)

Urban, a Roman by birth, governed the Church during the reign of the emperor Alexander Severus. By his learning and holy life he converted many to the Christian Faith. Among these were Valerian, the husband of Saint Caecilia, and Tiburtius, Valerian’s brother, both of whom afterwards courageously suffered martyrdom. Urban wrote these words regarding property that is given to the Church: “Things that have been offered to the Lord by the Faithful should not be put to any other use than such as is for the benefit of the Church, the brethren in the Christian faith, or the poor: because they are the offerings of the Faithful, the return made for sin, and the patrimony of the poor.” He reigned 6 years, 7 months and 4 days. He was crowned with martyrdom and was buried in the Cemetery of Praetextatus on the eighth of the Calends of June (May 25). In five ordinations held in the Decembers of different years, he ordained 9 priests, 5 deacons and 8 bishops.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This day is beautified by the triumph of two sainted Popes, and the Seventh Gregory, when he quitted this Earth, was introduced into the court of Heaven by one of his predecessors. Urban was a martyr by the shedding of his blood. Gregory was a martyr by the sufferings he had to endure during his whole Pontificate. Both fought for the same glorious cause. Urban laid down his life, rather than obey an earthly potentate who bade him degrade himself by adoring an idol. Gregory preferred to endure every temporal suffering rather than allow the Church to be the slave of Caesar. Both of them adorn the Paschal Season with their beautiful palms. Our Risen Jesus said to Peter: “Follow me!” (John xxi. 19), and Peter followed Him, even to the Cross. Urban and Gregory were Peter’s successors and, like him, they were the devoted disciples of the same Divine Master. We honour them both on this day and in their triumph we have a proof of the invincible power which, in every age, the Conqueror of death has communicated to them whom He appointed to bear testimony to the truth of His Resurrection.

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Holy Pontiff, the joy of this day of your triumph is enhanced by its being the anniversary of the entrance into Heaven of your illustrious successor Gregory. You had watched his combats here on Earth, and his courage delighted you as being equal to that of the martyrs. He, when dying at Salerno, thought of your martyrdom, and the thought inspired him with energy for his last trial. How admirable is the union that exists between the Church Triumphant and Militant! How sublime the brotherhood that exists between the Saints! What a joy it is for us to know that we may share in it! Our Risen Jesus invites us to be united with Him for all eternity. Each generation is sending Him its elect, and they cluster around Him, for He is their Head, and they are the Members that complete His mystical body. He is the first-born of the dead and He will give us to share in His life in proportion to our having imitated Him in His sufferings and Death. Pray, O Urban, that we may become more and more inflamed with the desire of being with Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John xiv. 6), that we may be detached from earthly things and comport ourselves here below as men who believe themselves to be exiles who are absent from the Lord (2 Corinthians v. 6).

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Florence, St. Mary Magdalene, virgin, of the Order of the Carmelites, illustrious by the holiness of her life. Her feast is kept on the twenty-seventh of May.

At Dorostorum in Mysia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Pasicrates, Valentio and two others, crowned with them.

At Milan, the holy bishop Denis, who for the Catholic faith was, by the Arian emperor Constantius, banished to Cappadocia where he yielded his soul to God in a manner almost like that of the martyrs. His sacred body was sent to the blessed bishop Ambrose at Milan by bishop Aurelius with the assistance, it is said, of St. Basil the Great.

At Rome, Pope St. Boniface IV who dedicated the Pantheon to the honour of blessed Mary of the Martyrs.

At Florence, the birthday of St. Zenobius, bishop of that city, renowned for holiness of life and glorious miracles.

In England, St. Aidhelm, bishop of Sherburn.

In the territory of Troyes, St. Leo, confessor.

At Assisi in Umbria, the translation of St. Francis, confessor, in the time of Pope Gregory IX.

At Veroli in Campania, the translation of St. Mary, mother of James, whose sacred body is rendered illustrious by many miracles.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.