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.

24 MAY – OUR LADY HELP OF CHRISTIANS

 

The Faithful have frequently seen it proved by miraculous intervention that the Mother of God is ever ready with her Help to repel the enemies of religion. It was on this account that after the signal victory gained by the Christians over the Turks in the Gulf of Lepanto, through the intercession of the most Blessed Virgin, Saint Pius V ordered that to the other titles given to the Queen of Heaven in the Litany of Loreto, there should be added this of Help of Christians.

 

But one of the most memorable proofs of this her protection, and one which may be regarded as an incontestable miracle, is that which happened during the pontificate of Pius VII. By the intrigues and armed violence of certain impious men the Pontiff had been driven from the Apostolic See of Peter and was kept in close confinement, mainly at Savona, for upwards of five years. During this period, by a persecution unheard of in any previous age, every possible means was resorted to in order to prevent his governing the Church of God. When suddenly and to the surprise of men he was restored to the Pontifical throne to the great joy, it might be almost said, with the concurrence, of the whole world. The same thing happened also a second time when a fresh disturbance arose and compelled him to leave Rome and go, with the Sacred College of Cardinals, into Liguria. Here again the storm that threatened great destruction was appeased by a most prompt interference of God’s providence, and the Pontiff’s return to Rome filled Christendom with new joy. Before returning, however, he would carry out an intention which his captivity had until then prevented him from doing: with his own hand he solemnly placed a golden crown on the celebrated statue of the Mother of God that was venerated at Savona under the title of Mother of Mercy.

 

The same Sovereign Pontiff, Pius VII, who was so thoroughly acquainted with every circumstance of these events, rightly attributed their happy issue to the intercession of the most holy Mother of God whose powerful help he himself had earnestly besought, besides urging all the Faithful to obtain it by their prayers. He therefore instituted a solemn feast in honour of the same Virgin-Mother under the title of Help of Christians. It was to be kept every year on the twenty-fourth of May, the anniversary of his own most happy return to Rome. He also sanctioned a proper Office for this feast, in order that the remembrance of so great a favour might ever be vividly on the minds of the Faithful, and secure the thanksgiving it deserved.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Ever since our entrance upon the joys of the Paschal Season, scarcely a day has passed without the Calendar offering us some grand mystery or saint to honour, and all these have been radiant with the Easter sun. But of our Blessed Lady, there has not been a single Feast to gladden our hearts by telling us of some mystery or glory of this august Queen. The Feast of her Seven Dolours is sometimes kept in April — that is, when Easter Sunday falls on or after the tenth of that month, but May and June pass without any special solemnity in honour of the other of God. It would seem as though Holy Church wished to honour, by a respectful silence, the forty days during which Mary enjoyed the company of her Jesus after His Resurrection. We, therefore, should never separate the Mother and the Son, if we would have our Easter meditations be in strict accordance with truth — and that, we surely must wish. During these forty days, Jesus frequently visits His Disciples, weak men and sinners as they are: can He, then, keep away from His Mother, now that He is so soon to ascend into Heaven and leave her for several long years here on Earth? Our hearts forbid us to entertain the thought. We feel sure that He frequently visits her and that, when not visibly present with her, she has Him in her soul, in a way more intimate and real and delicious than any other creature could have.

No feast could have given expression to such a mystery, and yet the Holy Ghost who guides the spirit of the Church, has gradually led the faithful to devote to the honouring Mary in an special manner the entire month of May, the whole of which comes, almost every year, under the glad season of Easter. No doubt, the loveliness of the May month would, some time or other, suggest the idea of consecrating it to the Holy Mother of God, but if we reflect on the divine and mysterious influence which guides the Church in all she does, we will recognise in this present instance a heavenly inspiration which prompted the Faithful to unite their own joy with that of Mary’s, and spend this beautiful month, which is radiant with their own Easter joy, in commemorating the maternal delight experienced during that same period by the Immaculate Mother when on Earth.

Today, however, we have a feast in honour of Mary. True, it is not one of those feasts which are entered on the general Calendar of the Church, yet is it so widely spread, and this with the consent of the Holy See, that our Liturgical Year would have been incomplete without it. Its object is to honour the Mother of God as the Help of Christians — a title she has justly merited by the innumerable favours she has conferred on Christendom. Dating from that day, whose anniversary we are soon to be celebrating, and on which the Holy Ghost descended on Mary in the Cenacle in order that she might begin to exercise over the Church Militant her power as Queen — who could tell the number of times that she has aided, by her protection, the Kingdom of her Son on Earth?

Heresies have risen up one after the other. They were violent. They were frequently supported by the great ones of this world. Each of them was resolved on the destruction of the True Faith. And yet, one after the other, they have dwindled away or fallen into impotency, or are gradually sinking by internal discord. And Holy Church tells us that it is Mary who “alone destroys all heresies throughout the whole world.” If public scandals or persecutions, or the tyranny of secular interference, have at times threatened to stay the progress of the Church, Mary has stretched forth her arm, the obstacles were removed and Jesus’ Spouse continued her onward march, leaving her foes and her fetters behind her. All this was vividly brought before the mind of the saintly Pontiff Pius V by the victory of Lepanto gained by Mary’s intercession over the Turkish Fleet, and he resolved to add one more title to the glorious ones given to our Lady in the Litany: the title he added was Auxilium Christianovum, Help of Christians. [The nineteenth century] had the happiness of seeing another Pontiff, also named Pius, institute a feast under this same title — a feast which is intended to commemorate the Help bestowed on Christendom, and in all ages, by the Mother of God. Nothing could be happier than the choice of the day on which this feast was to be kept.

On the 24th of May 1814 there was witnessed in Rome the most magnificent triumph that has yet been recorded in the annals of the Church. That was a grand day on which Constantine marked out the foundations for the Vatican Basilica in honour of the Prince of the Apostles. Sylvester stood by and blessed the Emperor, who had just been converted to the true Faith. but important as was this event, it was but a sign of the last and decisive victory won by the Church in the then recent persecution of Diocletian. That was a grand day on which Leo III, Vicar of the King of kings, crowned Charlemagne with the imperial diadem, and by his apostolic power gave continuance to the long interrupted line of Emperors. But Leo III by this did but give an official and solemn expression to the power which the Church had already frequently exercised in the newly constituted nations which received from her the idea of Christian government, the consecration of their rights, and the grace that was to enable them to fulfil their duties. That was a grand day on which Gregory IX took back to the City of Peter the Papal Throne which had been pent up at Avignon for seventy sad years. But Gregory IX in this did but fulfil a duty, and his predecessors, had they willed it, might have effected this return to Rome, which the necessities of Christendom so imperatively called for.

Yes, all these were glorious days, but the 24th of May 1814 surpasses them all. Pius VII re-entered Rome amidst the acclamations of the Holy City, whose entire population went forth to meet him, holding palm branches in their hands, and greeting him with their hosannas of enthusiastic joy. He had been a captive for five years, during which the spiritual government of the Christian world had suffered a total suspension. It was not the Allied Powers, who had made common cause against his oppressor, that broke the Pontiff’s fetters. The very tyrant who kept him from Rome had given him permission to return at the close of the preceding year, but the Pontiff chose his own time and did not leave Fontainebleau till the 25th of January. Rome, to which he was about to return, had been made a part of the French Empire five years previously, and by a decree in which was cited the name of Charlemagne! The City of Peter had been reduced to a head town of a Department, with a Prefect for its administrator. And with a view to making men forget that it was the City of the Vicars of Christ, its name was given as a title to the heir-presumptive of the imperial crown of France. What a day that 24th of May, which witnessed the triumphant return of the Pontiff into the Holy City from which he had been dragged during the night by the soldiers of an ambitious tyrant!

But what we have so far said is not sufficient to give an adequate idea of the greatness of the prodigy thus achieved by our Lady, the Help of Christians. In order to have a just appreciation of it we must remember that the miracle was not wrought in the age of Sylvester and Constantine, or of Saint Leo III and Charlemagne, or of the great prophetess Catherine of Siena who made known the commands of God to the people of Italy and to the Popes of Avignon. The age that witnessed this wondrous event was the nineteenth, and that, too, when it was under the degrading influence of Voltairianism, and there were still living the authors and abettors of the crimes and impieties that resulted from the principles taught in the eighteenth century. Everything was adverse to such a glorious and unexpected triumph. Catholic feeling was far from being roused as it now is — the action of God’s providence had to show itself in a direct and visible manner: and to let the Christian world know that such was the case, Rome instituted the annual feast of the 24th of May, as an offering of acknowledgement to Mary, the Help of Christians.

Let us now weigh the importance of the two-fold restoration which was wrought on this day by the intercession of the Holy Mother of God. Pius VII had been forcibly taken from Rome and dethroned. On this 24th of May, he was reinstated in Rome, both as Pope and as Temporal Sovereign. On the respective feasts of Saint Peter’s Chair at Rome and Antioch, we gave our readers the doctrine of the Church which teaches us that the succession to the rights conferred by Christ on Saint Peter belongs to the Bishop of Rome. From this it follows that residence in the City of Rome is both the right and obligation of the successor of Saint Peter, save in the case of his deeming a temporary absence to be demanded by circumstances. Whoever, therefore, by means of physical force keeps the Sovereign Pontiff out of Rome, or prevents him from residing there, is acting in opposition to the Divine Will. For the Pastor ought to be in the midst of his flock, and Rome having been made by Christ the head of all Churches, these have a right to find in Rome him, who is both the Infallible Doctor of Faith, and the source of all spiritual jurisdiction. The first blessing, therefore, for which we are indebted to Mary on this day is that she brought back the Pastor to his flock, and restored the supreme government of holy Church to its normal state.

Let us then give thanks to the Blessed Mother of God on this feast of the twenty-fourth day of May, which has been instituted in commemoration of the two-fold blessing she thus brought upon the world, the preservation of the Church and the preservation of society. Let us unite in the fervent acclamations of the then loyal citizens of Rome, and like them sing with all the glad joy of our Easter Alleluia, our greetings of Hosanna to the Vicar of Christ, the Father of that dear Land, our common Country. The remembrance of Saint Peter’s deliverance from prison and his restoration to liberty must have been vividly on the minds of that immense concourse of people, whose love for their Pontiff was redoubled by the sufferings he had gone through. As the triumphal chariot, on which he had been placed, came near the Porta Flaminia, the horses were unyoked and the Pontiff was conveyed by the people to the Vatican Basilica where a solemn thanksgiving was made over the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles.

But let us not close the day, without admiring the merciful intervention of our Lady, the Help of Christians. If the protection she gives to the faithful sometimes necessitates her showing severity to them that were the tyrants, her maternal heart is full of compassion for the vanquished, and she extends her Help even to them. Thus it was with the haughty Emperor over whom she triumphed on the twenty-fourth of May. She would then bring him back to humble repentance and to the practice of his religious duties. A messenger from the Island of Saint Helena was one day ushered into the presence of Pius VII. The exiled Napoleon whom he had consecrated Emperor in the Church of Notre Dame, and whose after conduct brought him under the ban of excommunication, now besought the Pontiff, the true and only King of Rome, to allow him to be re-admitted to those spiritual blessings of which he had been justly deprived. Our Lady was preparing a second victory.

Pius VII whose name the fallen Emperor could never pronounce without emotion, and whom he called “a lamb” — Pius VII, who had so courageously braved public opinion by giving hospitality at Rome to the members of the unfortunate Napoleon family — readily complied with the request thus made to him, and the holy Sacrifice of the Mass was shortly afterwards offered up in the presence of the illustrious exile of Saint Helena. Our Lady of Help was advancing her conquest. But before granting pardon, the Justice of God had required a full and public expiation. He, who had been the instrument of salvation to millions of souls by restoring religion to France was not to be lost, but he had impiously imprisoned the Sovereign Pontiff in the castle of Fontainebleau. And it was in that very castle that he had afterwards to sign the deed of his own abdication. For five years he had held captive the Vicar of Christ. For five years he himself had to endure the sufferings and humiliation of captivity. Heaven accepted the retribution and left Mary to complete her victory. Reconciled with the Church, and fortified by the holy Sacraments which prepare the Christian for eternity, Napoleon yielded up his soul into the hands of his Maker on the 5th of May — the month that is sacred to Mary, and gives us the feast we are keeping today. The day chosen by God from all eternity for Napoleon’s death was the feast of Saint Pius V, on which same feast Pius VII was receiving the congratulations of his faithful Romans. The name Pius signifies compassion and mercy. It is one of the names given to God in the Sacred Scripture: Pius et misericors est Deus: God is compassionate and merciful (Ecclesiasticus ii. 13). Mary too is compassionate. It is the title we give her in one of our favourite prayers: clemens, Pia, dulcis Virgo Maria! She is ever ready with her aid, be the danger one that affects the Church at large, or a single individual soul: she is the Help of Christians, and as such we honour her on this feast. God has willed her to be so, and we are but complying with His wishes when we have an unreserved confidence in the protection of this powerful Queen, this loving Mother.

Let us now read the account, as given in today’s liturgy, of the great event that prompted the institution of our feast:

“The Faithful have frequently seen it proved by miraculous intervention that the Mother of God is ever ready with her Help to repel the enemies of Religion. It was on this account that after the signal victory gained by the Christians over the Turks in the Gulf of Lepanto, through the intercession of the most Blessed Virgin, the holy Pope Pius V ordered that to the other titles given to the Queen of Heaven in the Litany of Loreto there should be added this of Help of Christians.

But one of the most memorable proofs of this her protection, and one which may be regarded as an incontestable miracle, is that which happened during the Pontificate of Pius VII. By the intrigues and armed violence of certain impious men, the Pontiff had been driven from the Apostolic See of Peter, and was kept in close confinement, mainly at Savona, for upwards of five years. During this period, by a persecution unheard of in any previous age, every possible means was resorted to in order to prevent his governing the Church of God. When lo! suddenly and to the surprise of men, he was restored to the Pontifical Throne, to the great joy, it might be almost said, with the concurrence, of the whole world.

The same thing happened also a second time when a fresh disturbance arose and compelled him to leave Rome and go, with the Sacred College of Cardinals, into Liguria. Here again the storm that threatened great destruction was appeased by a most prompt interference of God’s providence, and the Pontiff’s return to Rome filled Christendom with new joy. Before returning, however, he would carry out an intention which his captivity had until then prevented him from doing: with his own hand he solemnly placed a golden crown on the celebrated statue of the Mother of God that was venerated at Savona, under the title of Mother of Mercy. The same Sovereign Pontiff, Pius VII, who was so thoroughly acquainted with every circumstance of these events, rightly attributed their happy issue to the intercession of the most holy Mother of God, whose powerful help he himself had earnestly besought, besides urging all the Faithful to obtain it by their prayers. He therefore instituted a solemn feast in honour of the same Virgin-Mother under the title of Help of Christians. It was to be kept every year on the twenty-fourth of May, the anniversary of his own most happy return to Rome. He also sanctioned a proper Office for this feast in order that the remembrance of so great a favour might ever be vividly on the minds of the Faithful, and secure the thanksgiving it deserved.”

“I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from where help will come to me: my help is from the Lord, who made Heaven and Earth” (Psalms cxx. 1, 2). Thus prayed the Israelites of old — thus also prays the Church — though, for her, the help is nearer and comes more speedily. The Psalmist’s petition has been granted: the heavens have bowed down, and the divine Help is now close by our side. This Help is Jesus, Son of God, and Son of Mary. He is unceasingly fulfilling the promise made us by His Prophet: “In the day of your salvation, I have helped you” (Isaias xlix. 8). But this King of kings has given us a Queen, and this Queen is Mary His Mother. Out of love for her He has given her a throne on His right hand, as Solomon did for his mother Bethsabee (3 Kings ii. 19), and He would have her also be the Help of Christians. It is the Church that teaches us this by inserting this beautiful title in the Litany. And Rome invites us on this day to unite with her in giving thanks and praise to our Blessed Lady of Help, for one of the most signal of her favours.

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QUEEN of Heaven! Our Paschal joy is increased on this the anniversary of you giving back to Rome her Pastor and her King. Yes, it was your intercession that achieved the grand victory, and we offer you the homage of our grateful rejoicings. This Month is your in a special manner, but its twenty-fourth day makes us redouble our devotion. It encourages us to entreat you, with all the earnestness of our souls, that you would protect Rome and its Pontiff, for new dangers have arisen.

The Rock, set by your Jesus, has again become a sign of contradiction, and the billows of impiety and violence are beating against it. We know the great promise: the Rock can never be swept away, and on it safely stands the Church. But we know, too that this Church is one day to be taken up to Heaven, and then the Judgement! Meanwhile, you, Mary, are our Help: Oh stretch forth that arm of yours which nothing can resist. Be mindful of Rome where you are so devoutly honoured, and where your glory is proclaimed by so many sumptuous sanctuaries. The end of the world is not yet come. The holiest of causes requires your aid. Never permit the Holy City to be desecrated by her falling into the power of impious men. Suffer her not to be deprived of the presence of her Pontiff, and uphold the independence which the Vicar of Christ must possess, if the Church is to be rightly governed.

But Rome is not the only spot on Earth that needs your powerful Help, O Mary. The Vineyard of your Son is every where being laid waste by the wild beast (Psalms lxxix.) Vice and error and seduction are everywhere. There is not a country where the Church is not persecuted, and her liberty trampled upon. Society has lost its Christian traditions. It is at the mercy of revolutions against which it has no power. O you that are the Help of Christians, aid the world in these its perils! You have the power to save it from danger! Will you permit the people to be lost, who were redeemed by the Blood of Jesus and whom He, from His Cross, entrusted to your care?

You, O Mary, are the Help of each Christian soul, as well as of the entire world. That same enemy who is bent on the destruction of the whole human race is seeking to drag each one of us into perdition. He hates the image of your Son which he sees reflected in our human nature. O come to our assistance: save us from this roaring lion of Hell. He knows your power, and that you can procure our deliverance, so long as we are left in this present life. You have gained the most stupendous victories for the salvation of your clients. Tire not, we beseech you, in aiding poor sinners to return to their God. When Jesus spoke of them that were invited to the marriage-feast and told us how the king said to his servants: “Compel them to come in” (Luke xiv. 23), it was you that He had mainly in view. Lead us then to our King! Our supplications to you, O Help of Christians, are thus earnest because our wants are great. But we are not on that account the less mindful of the special honour that we owe you at this holy Season of Easter when the Church contemplates the joy you had in your Risen Jesus’ presence. She congratulates you on the immense happiness that thus repaid you for your anguish on Calvary and at the Sepulchre. It is to the Mother consoled by and exulting in her Son’s triumphant Resurrection that we offer this sweet month, whose loveliness is so in keeping with your own incomparable beauty, dear Mother! In return for this homage of our devotion pray for us that our souls may persevere in the beauty of grace given to them by this year’s union with our Jesus, and that we may be so well prepared for the Feast of Pentecost, as to merit to receive the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, who comes that He may perfect the work of our Paschal Regeneration.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Antioch, the birthday of St. Manahen, foster-brother of Herod the Tetrarch. He was a doctor and prophet under the grace of the New Testament, and his remains now repose in the city of Antioch.

Also blessed Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, mentioned by the Evangelist St. Luke.

At Porto, the birthday of St. Vincent, martyr.

At Brescia, St. Afra, martyr, who suffered under the emperor Hadrian.

At Nantes in Bretagne, in the time of the emperor Diocletian, the blessed martyrs Donatian and Rogatian, brothers who, because of their constancy in the faith, were sent to prison, stretched on the rack, and lacerated. Finally, they were transpierced with a soldier’s lance and beheaded.

In Istria, the holy martyrs Zoellus, Servilius, Felix, Silvanus and Diocles.

The same day, the holy martyrs Meletius, military officer, and two hundred and fifty two of his companions, who achieved their martyrdom by various kinds of deaths.

Also the holy martyrs Susanna, Marciana and Pallada, wives of the soldiers just mentioned, who were put to death with their young children.

At Milan, St. Robustian, martyr.

At Morocco in Africa, the passion of blessed John de Prado, of the Order of the Discalced Friars Minor of the Strict Observance who, while preaching the Gospel, was bound, imprisoned and scourged, and after enduring with fortitude many other torments for Christ, terminated his martyrdom by fire.

In the monastery of Lerins, St. Vincent, a priest eminent for learning and sanctity.

At Bologna, the translation of St. Dominic, confessor, in the time of Pope Gregory IX.

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

Thanks be to God.

24 MAY – WEDNESDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF THE ASCENSION

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us now look upon the Earth, for our eyes have until now been riveted upon the Heaven into which our Jesus has entered. Let us see what effects the mystery of the Ascension has produced on this land of our exile. These effects are of the most extraordinary nature. This Jesus, who ascended into Heaven without the City of Jerusalem’s even knowing it, and whose departure, when it was known, excited no regret or joy among the men of that generation — this Jesus, we say, now, [two thousand] years after His departure from us, finds the whole earth celebrating the anniversary of His glorious Ascension. Our age is far from being one of earnest faith, and yet there is not a single country on the face of the globe where if there be a church or chapel or even a Catholic home, the Feast of Jesus’ Ascension is not being now kept and loved.

He lived for three and thirty years on our Earth. He, the eternal Son of our God, dwelt among His creatures, and there was only one people that knew it. That one favoured people crucified Him. As to the Gentiles, they would have thought Him beneath their notice. True, this beautiful Light shone in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it (John i. 5). He came unto his own, and His own received Him not (John i. 11). He preached to His chosen people, but His word was that seed which falls on stony ground and takes no root, or is cast among thorns and is choked. It could with difficulty find a plot of good ground in which to bring forth fruit (Matthew xiii.) If, thanks to His infinite patience and goodness, he succeeded in keeping a few disciples around Him, their faith was weak, hesitating, and gave way when temptation came.

And yet, ever since the preaching of these same Apostles, the name and glory of Jesus are everywhere. In every language and in every clime He is proclaimed the Incarnate Son of God. The most civilised, as well as the most barbarous, nations have submitted to His sweet yoke. In every part of the universe men celebrate His birth in the stable of Bethlehem, His death on the Cross by which He ransomed a guilty world, His Resurrection by which He strengthened the work He came to do, and His Ascension which gives Him, the Man-God, to sit at the right hand of his Father. The great voice of the Church carries to the uttermost bounds of the earth the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, which He came to reveal to mankind. This holy Church, founded by Him, teaches the truths of faith to all nations, and in every nation there are souls who are docile to her teaching.

How was this marvellous change brought about? What is it that has given it stability during these [two thousand] years? Our Saviour Himself explains it to us by the words He spoke to His Apostles after the Last Supper: “It is,” said He, “expedient to you that I go” (John xvi. 7). What means this, but that there is something more advantageous to us than the having Him visibly present among us? This mortal life is not the time for seeing and contemplating Him, not even in his Human Nature. To know Him, and relish Him, even in His Human Nature, we stand in need of a special gift or element: it is Faith. Now, Faith in the mysteries of the Incarnate Word did not begin its reign on the Earth until He ceased to be visible here below. Who could tell the triumphant power of Faith? Saint John gives it a glorious name. He says: “It is the victory which overcomes the world” (1 John v. 4). It subdued the world to our absent King. It subdued the power and pride and superstitions of paganism. It won the homage of the Earth for Him who has ascended into Heaven — the Son of God and the Son of Mary — Jesus.

Saint Leo the Great, the sublime theologian of the mystery of the Incarnation, has treated this point with his characteristic authority and eloquence. Let us listen to his glorious teaching:

“Having fulfilled all the mysteries pertaining to the preaching of the Gospel and to the New Covenant, our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven, in the sight of His Disciples, on the fortieth day after His Resurrection, hereby withdrawing His corporal presence, for He was to remain at the right hand of His Father until should be filled up the measure of time decreed by God for the multiplication of the children of the Church, and He (Jesus) should again come, and in the same Flesh with which He ascended, to judge the living and the dead. Thus, therefore, that, which in our Redeemer had hitherto been visible, passed into the order of Mysteries. And to the end that Faith might be grander and surer, teaching took the place of sight; which teaching was to be accepted by the faithful with hearts illumined by heavenly light.

This Faith, increased by our Lord’s Ascension, and strengthened by the gift of the Holy Ghost, was proof against every trial so that neither chains, nor prisons, nor banishment, nor hunger, nor fire, nor wild beasts, nor all the ingenuity of cruelty and persecution, could affright it. For this Faith, not only men, but even women — not only beardless boys, but even tender maidens — fought unto the shedding of their blood, and this in every country of the world. This Faith cast out devils from such as were possessed, cured the sick, and raised the dead to life. The blessed Apostles themselves — who, though they had so often witnessed their Master’s miracles and heard His teachings, turned cowards when they saw Him in His sufferings, and hesitated to believe His Resurrection— these same, I say, were so changed by His Ascension, that what heretofore had been a subject of fear, then became a subject of joy. And why? Because the whole energy of the soul’s contemplation was raised up to Jesus’ Divinity, now seated at the right hand of His Father ; the vigour of the mind’s eye was not dulled by the bodily vision, and they came to the clear view of the mystery, namely — that He neither left the Father when He descended upon the Earth, nor left His Disciples when He ascended into Heaven.

Never, then, was Jesus so well known, as when He withdrew Himself into the glory of His Father’s majesty, and became more present by His Divinity in proportion as He was distant in His Humanity. Then did Faith, made keener, approach to the Son co-equal with his Father. She needed not the handling of the bodily substance of her Christ — that bodily substance, I say, by which He is less than His Father. The substance of His glorified Body is the same, but our faith was to be of so generous a kind as that we were to go to the Co-equal Son, not by a corporal feeling, but by a spiritual understanding. Hence, when Mary Magdalene, who represented the Church, threw herself at the feet of the Risen Jesus, and would have embraced them, He said to her: “Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father,” as though He would say: “I will not that you come to me corporally, or that you know me by the testimony of your senses. I have a sublimer recognition in store for you. I have prepared something far better for you. When I will have ascended to my Father, then will you feel me in a higher and truer way, for you will grasp what you touch not, and believe what you see not.”

The departure of our Emmanuel was, therefore, the opening of that reign of Faith which is to prepare us for the eternal vision of the Sovereign Good. And this blessed Faith, which is our very life, gives us, at the same time, all the light, compatible with our mortal existence, for knowing and loving the Word Consubstantial to the Father, and for the just appreciation of the Mysteries which this Incarnate Word wrought here below in His humanity. It is now [two thousand] years since He lived on the Earth, and yet we know Him better than His disciples did before His Ascension! Truly was it expedient for us that He should go from us. His visible presence would have checked the generosity of our Faith, and it is our Faith alone that can bridge over the space which is to be between Himself and us, until our ascension comes, and then we will enter within the veil.

How strangely blind are those who see not the superhuman power of this element of Faith, which has not only conquered, but even transformed, the world! Some of them have been writing long treatises to prove that the Gospels were not written by the Evangelists: we pity their ravings. But these great discoverers have another difficulty to get over, and so far they have not attempted to grapple with it. We mean the living Gospel which is the production of the unanimous faith of [twenty] centuries, and is the result of the courageous confession of so many millions of martyrs, of the holiness of countless men and women, of the conversion of so many, both civilised and uncivilised nations. Assuredly, He, who after having spent a few short years in one little spot of earth, had but to disappear, in order to draw men’s hearts to Himself, so that the brightest intellects and the purest minds gave Him their Faith — He must be what He tells us He is: the Eternal Son of God. Glory, then, and thanks to you, Jesus, who to console us in your absence has given us Faith by which the eye of our soul is purified, the hope of our heart is strengthened, and the divine realities we possess tell upon us in all their power! Preserve within us this precious gift of your gratuitous goodness. Give it increase and when our death comes — that solemn hour which precedes our seeing you face to face — give us the grand fullness of our dearest Faith!

23 MAY – TUESDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF THE ASCENSION

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Lord of glory has ascended into Heaven and, as the Apostle says, “He has gone there as our forerunner,” (Hebrews vi. 20), but how are we to follow Him to this abode of holiness, we whose path is beset with sin — we who are ever needing pardon, rather than meriting anything like glory? This brings us to another consequence of the exhaustless mystery of the Ascension. Let us give it our closest attention. Jesus has gone to Heaven not only that he may reign as King, but also that He may intercede for us as our High Priest, and, in this quality, obtain for us both the pardon of our sins and the graces we need for following Him to glory. He offered himself, on the Cross as a victim of propitiation for our sins. His Precious Blood was shed as our superabundant ransom: but the gate of Heaven remained shut against us until He threw it open by His own entrance into that sanctuary where he was to exercise His eternal office of Priest according to the order of Melchisedech (Psalms cix. 4). By His Ascension into Heaven His priesthood of Calvary was transformed into a priesthood of glory. He entered with the veil of His once passible and mortal flesh (Hebrews vi. 19; x. 20) within the veil of His Father’s presence, and there is He our Priest forever.

How truly is he called Christ, that is, “the Anointed!” for, no sooner was His Divine Person united to the Human Nature than He received a twofold anointing: He was made both King and High Priest. We have already meditated on His Kingship: let us now contemplate His Priesthood. He gave proofs of both during His life among us on Earth, but it was only by His Ascension that their unclouded splendour was to be declared. Let us then follow our Emmanuel and see Him as our High Priest.

The Apostle thus describes the office of a High Priest. He is taken from among men (Hebrews v. 1) and is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God that he may offer tip gifts and sacrifices for sins: he is appointed their ambassador and mediator with God. Jesus received this office and ministry, and He is fulfilling it in Heaven. But, that we may the better appreciate the grand mystery, let us study the figures given of it in the Holy Scriptures and developed by Saint Paul in his sublime Epistle. They will give us a precise idea of the grandeur of our Jesus’ Pontifical character. Let us go, in thought, to the Temple of Jerusalem. First of all, is the spacious uncovered court, with its porticoes. In the centre there stands the altar on which are slain the victims of the various sacrifices, and from the altar there radiate a number of conduits through which flows the blood. We next come to a more sacred portion of the edifice. it is beyond the altar of holocausts, is covered in, and is resplendent with all the riches of the East. Let us respectfully enter, for the place is Holy, and it was God Himself who gave to Moses the plan of the various fittings which adorn it with their mysterious and rich beauty: The Altar of Incense, with its morning and evening cloud of fragrance; the seven- branched Candlestick, with its superb lilies and pomegranates; the Table of the Loaves of Proposition, representing the offering made by man to Him who feeds him with the harvests of the earth. And yet, it is not here, though the walls are wainscoted with the bright gold of Ophir, that is centred the great majesty of Jehovah. At the extreme end of the Temple there is a Veil of precious texture, richly embroidered with figures of the Cherubim, and reaching to the ground: it is there, beyond this Veil, that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has fixed the abode of His presence. It is there also that rests the Ark of the Covenant over which two golden Cherubim spread their wings. It is called the “Holy of Holies,” and no one, under pain of death, may draw aside the Veil, or look or enter within the hallowed precinct where the God of Hosts deigns to dwell. So then, man is banished from the place in which God dwells: he is unworthy to enter into so holy a presence. He was created that he might see God and be eternally happy with that vision, but because of sin he is never to enjoy the sight of God. There is a Veil between himself and Him who is his Last End. Neither can he ever remove that Veil. Such is the severe lesson given to us by the symbolism of the ancient Temple.

But there is a merciful promise, and it gives a gleam of hope. This Veil will one day be raised up and man will enter within: on one condition, however. Let us return to the figurative Temple, and we will learn what this condition is. As we have already noticed, none were allowed to enter the Holy of Holies. There was but one exception, and that was in favour of the High Priest who might once a year, penetrate beyond the Veil. Yet even he had certain conditions to observe. If he entered without holding in his hands a vessel containing the blood of two victims previously immolated by him for his own and the people’s sins, he was to be put to death. If, on the contrary, he faithfully complied with the divine ordinances, he would be protected by the blood he carried in his hands, and might make intercession for himself and all Israel. How beautiful and impressive are these figures of the first Covenant, but how much more so their fulfilment in our Jesus’ Ascension! Even during the period of His voluntary humiliations, he made His power be felt in this sacred Dwelling of God’s Majesty. His last breath on the Cross rent the Veil of the Holy of Holies, hereby signifying to us that man was soon to recover the right he had lost by sin, the right of admission into God’s presence.

We say soon, for Jesus had still to gain the victory over Death by His Resurrection. He had to spend forty days on earth during which He, our High Priest, would organise the true Priesthood that was to be exercised in His Church to the end of time, in union with the Priesthood He Himself was to fulfil in Heaven. The fortieth day came, and found all things prepared: the witnesses of the Resurrection had proclaimed the victory of their Master; the dogmas of faith had all been revealed; the Church had been formed; the Sacraments had been instituted: it was time for our High Priest to enter into the Holy of Holies, accompanied by the holy souls of Limbo. Let us follow Him with the eye of our faith. As He approached, the Veil that had closed the entrance for [thousands of] years, was lifted up. Jesus enters. Has He not offered the preparatory Sacrifice? Not the figurative Sacrifice of the Old Law, but the real one of His own Blood? And having reached the Throne of the Divine Majesty, there to intercede for us His people, He has but to show His Eternal Father the Wounds he received, and from which flowed the Blood that satisfied every claim of Divine Justice. He would retain these sacred stigmata of His Sacrifice in order that He might ever present them, as our High Priest, to the Father, and so disarm His anger. “My little children,” says Saint John in his first Epistle, “I write these things to you, that you may not sin; but, if any man does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Just” (1 John ii. 1). Thus, then, beyond the Veil, Jesus treats of our interests with His Father. He gives the merits of His Sacrifice their full efficacy. He is the eternal High Priest whose advocacy is irresistible.

Saint John, who was granted a sight of the interior of Heaven, gives us a sublime description of this twofold character of our Divine Head — Victim and yet King, Sacrificed and yet Immortal. He shows us the Throne of Jehovah, round which are seated the Four-and-Twenty Ancients, the four symbolical living creatures, and then the seven Spirits burning like lamps before it. But the Prophet does not finish his description here. He bids us look at the right hand of Him who sits on the Throne. There we perceive a Lamb standing and as it were slain — slain and yet standing, for He is radiant with glory and power (Apocalypse iv. 5). We should be at a loss to understand the vision had we not our grand mystery of the Ascension to explain it, but now all is clear. We recognise in the Lamb, portrayed by the Apostle, our Jesus, the Word Eternal, who, being consubstantial to the Father, is seated on the same Throne with Him. Yet is He, also, the Lamb, for He has assumed to Himself our flesh, in order that He might be sacrificed for us as a victim. And this character of Victim is to be forever upon Him. Oh, see Him there, in all His majesty as Son of God, standing in the attitude of infinite power, yet withal, He will not part with His resemblance of the Immolated. The sword of Sacrifice has left Five Wounds upon Him, and He would keep them for eternity. Yes, it is identically the same meek Lamb of Calvary, and He is to be forever consummating in glory the immolation He perfected on the Cross.

Such are the stupendous realities seen by the Angels within the Veil (Hebrews vi. 19), and when our turn comes to pass that Veil, we also will be enraptured with the sight. We are not to be left outside, as were the Jewish people when, once each year, their High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies. We have the teaching of the Apostle: The Fore-runner, Jesus, our High Priest, has entered within the Veil for us (Hebrews iv. 20). For us! O what music there is in these two words: For us! He has led the way. We are to follow! Even at the commencement He would not go alone. He would have the countless legion of the souls of Limbo to accompany Him, and ever since then the procession into Heaven has been one of unbroken magnificence. The Apostle tells us that we, poor sinners as we are, are already saved by hope (Romans viii. 24), and what is our hope, but that we are one day to enter into the Holy of Holies? Then will we blend our glad voices with those of the Angels, the four-and-twenty Ancients, the myriads of the Blessed, in the eternal Hymn: “To the Lamb that was slain, power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and glory, and benediction, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Apocalypse v. 12, 13).

19 MAY – SAINT PUDENTIANA (Virgin)

The virgin Pudentiana was daughter of the Roman Senator Pudens. Having lost her parents, and being most exemplary in her practice of the Christian religion, she sold, with her sister Praxedes’ consent, her possessions, gave the money to the poor and devoted herself to fasting and prayer. It was through her influence that her whole household, which consisted of 96 persons, was baptised by Pope Pius I. In consequence of the decree issued by the emperor Antoninus which forbade the Christians to offer sacrifice publicly, Pope Pius celebrated the holy mysteries in Pudentiana’s house, and the Christians assembled there to assist at the celebration. She received them with much charity and provided them with all the necessaries of life. She died in the practice of these Christian and pious duties and, on the fourteenth of the Calends of June (May 19), was buried in her father’s tomb in the Cemetery of Priscilla Cemetery on the Via Salaria.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This same nineteenth of May has another glory attached to it: it is the day on which died the noble virgin Pudentiana. That name carries us back to the very first Age of the Christian Church. She was a daughter of a wealthy Roman called Pudens, who was a kinsman of the Pudens spoken of by Saint Paul in his second Epistle to Timothy (2 Timothy iv. 21). She and her sister Praxedes had the honour of being numberedamong the earliest members of the Church, and both of them consecrated their virginity to Jesus Christ. Upon their father’s death, the two sisters distributed their fortune to the poor and devoted their whole time to good works. It was the eve of the Persecution under Antoninus. Pudentiana, though scarcely 16 years of age, was ripe for Heaven and winged her flight to her Divine Spouse when the storm was at its height. Her sister survived her many years. We will commemorate her saintly memory on the 21st of July. Pudentiana’s house which, in her grandfather’s time, had been honoured by Saint Peter’s presence, was made over, by the holy virgin herself, to Pope Pius I, and the divine mysteries were celebrated in it. It is now one of the most venerable Churches of Rome, and is the Station for the Tuesday of the third week of Lent.

Pudentiana is a tender flower offered to our Risen Jesus by the Roman Church. Time has diminished nothing of the fair lily’s fragrance, and pure as her very name, her memory will live in the hearts of the Christian people, even to the end of the world.

*****

Like the dove of Noah’s Ark that found not where to rest her feet on the guilty earth, you took your flight, O Pudentiana, and rested in the bosom of Jesus, your Spouse. Thus will it be at the end of the world when the souls of the elect will have been re-united to their bodies: they will fly like eagles to their King, and will cluster around Him as the object of all their desires (Matthew xxiv. 28). They will flee from this sinful Earth as you did from the abominations of pagan Rome that was drunk with the blood of the martyrs (Apocalypse xvii. 6). We celebrate your departure, dear youthful Saint, with a feeling of hope for our own future deliverance. We honour you reaching your Jesus, and we long to be there together with you. Oh get us detachment from all transitory things, intenser love of the New Life which came to us with Easter, and indifference as to what concerns that other lower life, which is not that of our Risen Lord.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In the same city, St. Pudens, senator, father of the virgin just mentioned, who, being clothed with Christ in baptism by the Apostles, preserved unspotted the robe of innocence until he received the crown of life.

Also at Rome, on the Via Appia, the birthday of the Saints Calocerus and Parthenius, eunuchs. The former was chamberlain to the wife of the emperor Decius, and the latter chief officer in another department. For refusing to offer sacrifice to idols they were put to death.

At Nicomedia, the martyr St. Philoterus, son of the proconsul Pacian, who after much suffering under the emperor Diocletian received the crown of martyrdom.

In the same city six holy virgins and martyrs. The principal one, named Cyriaca, having freely reproved Maximian for his impiety, was most severely scourged and lacerated and then consumed with fire.

At Canterbury, St. Dunstan, bishop.

In Bretagne, St. Ives, priest and confessor, who for the love of Christ defended the interests of orphans, widows and the poor.

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

Thanks be to God.