31 JANUARY – SAINT JOHN BOSCO (Confessor)

John Bosco was born in 1815 in Becchi, Italy, to the farmhands Francesco Bosco and Margherita Occhiena. Francesco died when John was two years old and he was brought up by his mother and two older brothers, Antonio and Giuseppe. Poverty kept John from going to school and he spent his early childhood as a shepherd, receiving instruction only from his parish priest. Continuous quarrels with his brother Antonio forced him to leave home and look for work as a farmhand. In 1830 John finally attended school and in 1835 he entered a seminary. Six years later in 1841 he was ordained as a priest by the Archbishop of Turin. John dedicated his life and ministry to the improvement and education of street children, juvenile offenders and other needy young people. John was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady Help of Christians and to Saint Francis de Sales. In 1859 he founded the Society of Saint Francis de Sales, and 1870 he founded the lay movement, the Association of Salesian Co-operators. He died in 1888 and was beatified in 1929. In 1934 Pope Pius XI canonised John, who is popularly known as “Don Bosco.”

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

On the Via Ostiensis at Rome, the holy martyrs Cyrus and John, who were beheaded after suffering many torments for the name of Christ.

At Alexandria, in the time of the emperor Decius, the birthday of St. Metran, martyr, who, because he refused to utter blasphemous words at the bidding of the pagans, was scourged until he was covered with bruises and pierced through the face and eyes with sharp-pointed reeds. He was then driven out of the city, overwhelmed with stones and killed.

In the same place, the holy martyrs Saturninus, Thyrsus and Victor.

In the same city, the holy martyrs Tharsicius, Zoticus, Cyriacus and their companions.

At Cyzicum in Hellespont, St. Triphenes, martyr, who overcame various torments, but was finally killed by a bull, and thus merited the palm of martyrdom.

At Modena, St. Geminian, bishop, made illustrious by his miracles.

In the province of Milan, St. Julius, priest and confessor, in the reign of the emperor Theodosius.

At Rome, St. Marcella, a widow, whose meritorious deeds are related by St. Jerome.

In the same place, blessed Louisa Albertoni, a Roman widow, of the Third Order of St. Francis, distinguished for her virtues.

The same day, the translation of the Evangelist St. Mark, when his sacred body was brought from the city of Alexandria in Egypt, then occupied by barbarians, to Venice, and with the greatest honours placed in the large church dedicated to his name.

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

Thanks be to God.

31 JANUARY – WEDNESDAY OF SEPTUAGESIMA WEEK

Lesson – Genesis iii. 1‒20

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman: “Why has God said you must not eat of every tree of the garden?” And the woman said to the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said: You must not eat of it, neither may you touch it, lest you die.” And the serpent said to the woman: “you will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes will be opened, and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil.” And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired: and she took of its fruit and ate, and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. And the eyes of them both were opened. And when they knew that they were naked, they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amidst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called to Adam, and said to him: “Where are you?” And he said: “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” And He said: “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree whereof I commanded you that you should not eat?” And Adam said: “The woman whom you gave me to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” And the Lord God said to the Woman: “Why have you done this?” And she said: “The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.” And the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. Upon your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. She will bruise your head, and you will bruise her heel.” And to the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrows and your conception: in sorrow you will bring forth children, and you will be in the power of your husband, and he will rule over you.” And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying: You must halt not eat of it — cursed is the ground on which you will labour. In sorrow you will eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns also and thistles will it bring forth to you, and you will the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground; for out of it were you taken; for dust you are, and to dust you will return.” And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The guilty pair appear before the great God whom they have offended, and instead of acknowledging their guilt they would palliate and excuse it. But Divine Justice pronounces their condemnation, and the sentence will be felt by their posterity, even to the last generation. The two beings that had committed the heinous crime had been enriched with every gift of nature and grace. It was not with them, as it is with us. Concupiscence which gives us an inclination for what is wrong. Ignorance and forgetfulness which cloud the intellect of fallen man — these miseries had nothing whatever to do with the fall of our First Parents. They sinned through sheer ingratitude. They began by weighing the proposal of revolt when they ought to have spurned it with indignation and conquered by flight. Then, by degrees, the proposed crime seemed no great harm because, though God would lose their obedience, they would gain by the disobedience! And at length, the love of God was made to give place to the love of self and they declared their independence!

Yet, God had mercy on them because of their posterity. The Angels were all created at one and the same instant, and each of them was subjected to the trial which was to decide his eternal future. Each Angel depended on his own act — on his own choice between fidelity to his Creator or rebellion against Him, so that they who rebelled drew on themselves the eternity of God’s chastisement. The human race, on the contrary, existed not save as represented in its two First Parents, and was plunged by and with them into the abyss of God’s reprobation. Therefore God who spared not the Angels, mercifully spared the human race.

But, let us listen to the three sentences pronounced by God after the fall of Man. The first is against the serpent, and is the severest. The curse which is already upon him is deepened, and the pardon which is about to be promised to the human race, is to be given in the form of an anathema against that wicked spirit that has dared to war with God in the work of his hands. “I will put enmities between you and the woman: she will crush your head” (Genesis iii. 15). Thus does God avenge Himself of His enemy. The victory won over the woman is made to turn against the proud conqueror and become his humiliation and his defeat. In his fiendish craft, he had directed his first attack not against the man, but against the woman. She, by nature, was weaker and more credulous. And if he conquered her, he hoped — too well, alas! — that Adam would be led to turn against his Creator in order not to displease the creature. All happened as he willed it: but now, see how God uses the woman to foil and punish him. He kindles in her heart an implacable hatred against his and our enemy. This cruel serpent may raise his proud head and, here and there, find men that will adore him: the day will come when a woman’s foot will crush this head which refused to bend before God. This daughter of Eve whom all generations are to call Blessed (Luke i. 48) will be prefigured by other women: by Deborah, Judith, Esther and others, all celebrated for their victories over the Serpent. She will be followed, until the end of time, by an uninterrupted succession of Christian Virgins and Matrons who, with all their weakness, will be powerful in co-operating with God’s designs and, as the Apostle says, “the unbelieving husband will be sanctified by the believing wife” (1 Corinthians vii. 14).

Thus will God punish the serpent’s pride. Before pronouncing upon our First Parents the sentence they have deserved, He promises to bless their posterity and pours into their own hearts a ray of hope.

30 JANUARY – SAINT MARTINA (Virgin and Martyr)

Martina, a noble virgin of Rome, was the daughter of a consul. Having lost her parents while a child, and being exceedingly fervent in the practice of the Christian religion, she was singularly charitable to the poor and distributed among them her immense riches. During the reign of Alexander Severus she was ordered to worship the false gods, but most courageously refused to commit so detestable a crime. She was several times scourged. Her flesh was torn with iron hooks and nails and potsherds, and her whole body was cut with most sharp swords. She was scalded with boiling oil, and was, at length, condemned to be devoured by wild beasts in the amphitheatre. But being miraculously left untouched by them, she was thrown on a burning pile from which she also escaped unhurt by the same divine power. Some of the men that had inflicted these tortures on her, being struck by the miracle and touched by the grace of God, embraced the Christian faith and, after suffering many tortures, gained the glorious palm of martyrdom by being beheaded. The prayers of Martina were powerful with God. Earthquakes shook the city, fire fell from the heavens in the midst of loud thunder, the temples and idols of the gods were overthrown and destroyed. More than once, milk flowed from her wounds together with the blood, and a most sweet fragrance was perceived by the bystanders. Sometimes she was seen raised up and placed on a beautiful throne, and singing the divine praises surrounded by heavenly spirits. Vexed above measure by these prodigies and, above all, by her constancy, the judge ordered her to be beheaded. Which being done, a voice from Heaven was heard calling Martina to ascend. The whole city trembled, and many of the idolaters were converted to the faith of Christ.

Martina suffered under the Pontificate of Urban I and under that of Urban VIII her body was discovered in an ancient Church, together with those of the holy Martyrs Concordius, Epiphanius and companions, near the Mamertine prison at the foot of the Capitoline Hill. The Church was restored and decorated, and the body of the Saint was again placed in it, with much solemnity, in the presence of a great concourse of people, and amidst shouts of joy from the whole city.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

A third Roman Virgin, wearing on her brow a Martyr’s crown, comes today to share the honours given to Agnes and Emerentiana, and offer her palm to the Lamb. Her name is Martina, which the pagans were wont to give to their daughters in honour of their god of war. Her sacred relics repose at the foot of the Capitoline Hill in the ancient temple of Mars which has now become the beautiful Church of Saint Martina. The holy ambition to render herself worthy of Him whom she had chosen as her divine Spouse gave her courage to suffer torments and death for His sake, so that of her, as of the rest of the Martyrs, we may say those words of the Liturgy, she washed her robes in the Blood of the Lamb. Our Emmanuel is the Mighty God (Isaias ix. 6), the Lord that is mighty in war (Psalm xxiii. 8), not, like the Mars of the pagans needing the sword to win his battles. He vanquishes His enemies by meekness, patience and innocence, as in the martyrdom of today’s Saint whose victory was grander than was ever won by Rome’s boasted warriors.

*****

Thus does Christian Rome hymn your praises, O generous Martyr! And while praising, begs you to protect her with your loving care. She is safe from danger if shielded by such watchfulness as yours. Hear her prayers, and drive far from the Holy City the enemies that would plot her ruin. She has foes more to be dreaded than they that attack her walls with the cannon of their fierce artillery — she has them who plot the destruction of her independence. Disconcert these plans of perfidy, and remember, Martina, that the city which now asks your aid was the Mother that trained you to be a Martyr.

Obtain for us from Jesus, your Spouse, the courage to destroy those idols of our affections to which we are so prone to offer the sacrifice of our hearts. The enemies of our salvation are untiring in their attacks upon our frailty — Oh stretch out to us your helping hand, that hand which made the idols of Rome tremble, is not less powerful now to stay the violence of the world that threatens to destroy our souls. Your own brave combats have given you a place of honour near our Redeemer’s crib: if, like you, we will but resist and conquer, this Mighty God will welcome us, too, and bless us. He came into this world that He might vanquish our enemies, but He requires of us to share with him the toils of the battle. Pray for us, O Martina, that our confidence in our God may ever be accompanied by diffidence in ourselves, and we will never be cowards in the great contest for Heaven!

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Antioch, the passion of the blessed priest Hippolytus, who, for a short time deceived by the Novatian schismatics, was converted by the grace of Christ and returned to the unity of the Church for which and in which he afterwards underwent a glorious martyrdom. Being asked by the schismatics which was the better side, he repudiated the doctrine of Novatus and affirming that the faith ought to be professed which the Chair of Peter taught, he presented his neck to the executioners.

In Africa, the passion of the holy martyrs Felician, Philappian and one hundred and twenty-four others.

At Edessa in Syria, in the reign of Trajan, St. Barsimaeus, bishop, who converted many Gentiles to the faith, sent them before him to be crowned, and followed them with the palm of martyrdom.

In the same place, St. Barsen, bishop, renowned for the gift of curing diseases. For the Catholic faith he was banished by the Arian emperor Valens into the remotest parts of that country and there ended his days.

Also blessed Alexander, a man of venerable aspect and advanced age, who was apprehended in the persecution of Decius and after gloriously and repeatedly confessing the faith, gave up his soul to God in the midst of torments.

At Jerusalem, the birthday of St. Matthias, bishop, of whom are related wonders and actions inspired by faith. After having endured many trials for Christ under Hadrian, he passed away in peace.

At Rome, Pope St. Felix, who laboured much for the Catholic faith.

At Pavia, St. Armentarius, bishop and confessor.

In the monastery of Maubeuge in Hainaut, St. Aldegundis, a virgin, who lived in the time of king Dagobert.

At Milan, St. Savina, a most religious woman, who went to rest in the Lord while praying at the tomb of the holy martyrs Nabor and Felix.

At Viterbo, the holy virgin Hyacintha de Mariscotti, a nun of the Third Order of St. Francis, distinguished for the virtues of penance and charity. She was inscribed among the blessed by Pope Benedict XIII, and among the saints by Pope Pius VII.

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

Thanks be to God.

30 JANUARY – TUESDAY OF SEPTUAGESIMA WEEK

Lesson – Genesis ii. 15‒24

So the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it. And He commanded him, saying: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you must not eat of it: for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.” And the Lord God said: It is not good that the man should be alone. Let us make him a help meet for him. So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them to Adam, to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called every living creature, that was the name of it. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to every fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a help meet for him. the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. And while he slept, He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead of it. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from Adam made He a woman, and brought her to Adam. And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she will be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man must leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife. And they joined will be one flesh.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The serpent’s promises had stifled, in Eve’s heart, every sentiment of Love for the God that had created her and loaded her with blessings: she ambitions to be god like Him! Her Faith, too, is wavering. She s not sure but what God may have deceived her by threatening her with death should she disobey His command. Flushed by pride, she looks up to the Forbidden Fruit. It seems good to eat, and it is fair to her eyes (Genesis iii. 6), so that her senses too conspire against God, and against her own happiness. The sin is already committed in her heart. It needs but a formal act to make it complete. She cares for nothing but self. God is no more heeded than if He did not exist. She stretches forth her daring hand. She plucks the Fruit. She puts it to her mouth and eats! God had said that if she broke His commandment, she should die. She has eaten, she has sinned, and yet she lives as before! Her pride exults at this triumph, and convinced that she is too strong for God’s anger to reach her, she resolves on making Adam a partner in her victory. Boldly she hands him the Fruit which she herself has eaten without any evil coming to her. Whether it were, that he was emboldened by the impunity of his wife’s sin, or that from a feeling of blind affection he wished to share the lot of her who was the flesh of his flesh and the bone of his bones — our First Father, also, forgets all he owes to his Creator and, as though there had never been anything of love between him and his God, he basely does as Eve suggests — he eats of the Fruit, and by that act ruins himself and all his posterity.

No sooner have they broken the tie which united them with God than they sink into themselves. As long as God dwells in the creature whom He has raised to the supernatural state, his being is complete. But let that creature drive his God away from himself by sin and he finds himself in a state worse than nothing — the state of evil. That soul which a moment before was so beautiful and pure, is a hideous wreck. Thus was it with our First Parents: they stand alone. Creatures without God, and an intolerable shame seizes them. They thought to become gods, they aspired at Infinite Being. See them now: sinners, the prey of concupiscence. Hitherto their innocence was their all-sufficient garb. The world was obedient to them. They knew not how to blush, and there was nothing to make them fear. But now they tremble at their nakedness, and must needs seek a place in which to hide! The same self-love that had worked their ruin had made them forget the greatness and goodness of God and despise His commandment. Now that they have committed the great sin, the same blindness prevents them from even thinking of confessing it, or asking the forgiveness of the Master they have offended. A sullen fear possesses them. They can think of nothing but how and where to hide!

29 JANUARY – SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES (Bishop and Confessor)

 

Francis was born of pious and noble parents in the town Sales, from which the family took their name. From his earliest years he gave pledge of his future sanctity by the innocence and gravity of his conduct. Having been instructed in the liberal sciences during his youth, he was sent early to Paris that he might study philosophy and theology, and in order that his education might be complete, he was sent to Padua where he took, with much honour, the degree of doctor in both civil and canon law. He visited the sanctuary of Loreto where he renewed the vow he had already taken in Paris, of perpetual virginity, in which holy resolution he continued till death despite all the temptations of the devil and all the allurements of the flesh. He refused to accept an honourable position in the Senate of Savoy and entered into the ecclesiastical state. He was ordained priest and was made Provost of the Diocese of Geneva, which charge he so laudably fulfilled that Granier, his Bishop, selected him for the arduous undertaking of labouring, by the preaching of God’s word, for the conversion of the Calvinists of Chablais and the neighbouring country round about Geneva. This mission he undertook with much joy. He had to suffer the harshest treatment on the part of the heretics who frequently sought to take away his life, caluminated him and laid all kinds of plots against him, but he showed heroic courage in the midst of all these dangers and persecutions and by the divine assistance, converted, as it is stated, 72,000 heretics to the Catholic faith, among whom were many distinguished by the high position they held in the world and by their learning.

After the death of Granier who had already made him his Coadjutor, he was made Bishop of Geneva. Then it was that his sanctity showed itself in every direction, by his zeal for ecclesiastical discipline, his love of peace, his charity to the poor and every virtue. From a desire to give more honour to God he founded a new Order of nuns which he called the Visitation, taking for their Rule that of Saint Augustine, to which he added Constitutions of admirable wisdom, discretion and sweetness. He enlightened the children of the Church by the works he wrote, which are full of a heavenly wisdom, and point out a path which is at once safe and easy to Christian perfection. In his fifty-fifth year, whilst returning from France to Annecy, he was taken with his last sickness, immediately after having celebrated Mass on the Feast of Saint John the Evangelist. On the following day his soul departed this life for Heaven in 1622. His body was taken to Annecy and buried with great demonstration of honour, in the Church of the nuns of the Order of the Visitation. Immediately after his death miracles began to be wrought through his intercession, which being officially authenticated, he was canonised by Pope Alexander VII and his Feast was appointed to be kept on the 29th of January.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The angelical Bishop Francis of Sales has a right to a distinguished position near the crib of Jesus on account of the sweetness of his virtues, the childlike simplicity of his heart and the humility and tenderness of his love. He comes with the lustre of his glorious conquests on him — seventy-two thousand heretics converted to the Church by the ardour of his charity, an Order of holy servants of God, which he founded, and countless thousands of souls trained to piety by his prudent and persuasive words and writings.

God gave him to his Church at the very time that heresy was holding her out to the world as a worn-out system that had no influence over men’s minds. He raised up this true minister of the Gospel in the very country where the harsh doctrines of Calvin were most in vogue, that the ardent charity of Francis might counteract the sad influence of that heresy. “If you want heretics to be convinced of their errors,” said the learned Cardinal Du Perron, “you may send them to me. But if you want them to be converted, send, them to the Bishop of Geneva.” Francis of Sales was sent, then, as a living image of Jesus, opening his arms and calling sinners to repentance, the victims of heresy to truth, the just to perfection and all men to confidence and love.

The Holy Spirit had rested on him with all his divine power and sweetness. A few days back we were meditating on the Baptism of Jesus, and how the Holy Ghost descended on Him in the shape of a dove. There is an incident in the life of Francis which reminds us of this great Mystery. He was singing Mass on Whit Sunday at Annecy. A dove, which had been let into the Cathedral, after flying for a long time round the building, at length came into the sanctuary and rested on the Saint’s head. The people could not but be impressed with this circumstance, which they looked on as an appropriate symbol of Francis’s loving spirit, just as the globe of fire which appeared above the head of Saint Martin when he was offering up the Holy Sacrifice, was interpreted as a sign of his apostolic zeal. The same thing happened to our Saint on another occasion. It was the Feast of our Lady’s Nativity and Francis was officiating at Vespers in the Collegiate Church at Annecy. He was seated on a throne, the carving of which represented the Tree of Jesse, which the Prophet Isaias tells us produced the virginal branch from which sprang the divine flower on which there rested the Spirit of love. They were singing the Psalms of the Feast when a dove flew into the Church through an aperture in one of the windows of the choir on the epistle side of the altar. It flew about for some moments and then lighted first on the Bishop’s shoulder, then on his knee, where it was caught by one of the assistants. When the Vespers were over, the Saint mounted the pulpit and ingeniously turned the incident that had occurred into an illustration which he hoped would distract the people from himself. He spoke to them of Mary, who, being full of the grace of the Holy Spirit, is called “the dove that is all fair, in whom there is no blemish” (Canticles vi. 8, iv. 7).

If we were asked which of the disciples of our Lord was the model on which this admirable prelate formed his character, we should mention, without any hesitation, the Beloved Disciple, John. Francis of Sales is, like him, the Apostle of charity and the simplicity of the great Evangelist caressing an innocent bird is reflected with perfection in the heart of the Bishop of Geneva. A mere look from John, a single word of his, used to draw men to the love of Jesus. And the contemporaries of Francis were wont to say: “the Bishop of Geneva is so amiable, what, Lord, must not you be!”

A circumstance in our Saint’s last illness again suggests to us the relation between himself and the Beloved Disciple. It was on the 27th of December, the Feast of Saint John, that Francis, after celebrating Mass and giving Communion to his dear Daughters of the Visitation, felt the first approach of the sickness which was to cause his death. As soon as it was known, the consternation was general but the Saint has already his whole conversation in Heaven, and on the following day, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, his soul took its flight to its Creator and the candour and simplicity of his spirit made him a worthy companion of those dear little ones of Bethlehem. But on neither of these two days could the Church place his Feast, as they were already devoted to the memory of St. John and the Holy Innocents. But she has ordered it to be kept during the forty days consecrated to the Birth of our Lord, and this 29th of January is the day fixed for it.

Saint Francis, then, the ardent lover of our new-born King, is to aid us, like all these other Christmas Saints, to know the charms of the Divine Babe. In his admirable Letters, we find him expressing, with all the freedom of friendly correspondence, the sweetness which used to fill his heart during this holy Season. Let us read a few passages from these confidential papers — they will teach us how to love our Jesus. Towards the end of the Advent of 1619, he wrote to a Religious of the Visitation, instructing her how to prepare for Christmas:

“My very dear Daughter, our sweet Infant Jesus is soon to be born in our remembrance, at the coming Feasts. And since He is born on purpose that He may visit us in the name of His Eternal Father, and is to be visited in His crib by the shepherds and the kings, I look on Him as both the Father and the Child of our Lady of the Visitation. Come, then, load Him with your caresses. Join all our Sisters in giving Him a warm welcome of hospitality. Sing to Him the sweetest carols you can find and, above all, adore Him very earnestly and very sweetly and, with Him, adore His poverty, His humility, His obedience and His meekness, as did His most holy Mother and Saint Joseph. Take one of His divine tears which is the dew of Heaven, and put it on your heart so that you may never admit any other sadness there than the sadness which will gladden this sweet Infant. And when you recommend your own soul to Him, recommend mine also, for you know its devotedness to yours. I beg of you to remember me affectionately to the dear Sisters whom I look upon as simple shepherdesses keeping watch over their flocks, that is, their affections, and who, being warned by the Angel, are going to pay their homage to the Divine Babe and offer Him, as an earnest of their eternal loyalty, the fairest of their lambs, which is their love, unreserved and undivided.”

On Christmas Eve, filled by anticipation with the joy of the sacred Night which is to give the world its Redeemer, Francis writes to Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, and thus invites her to profit by the visit of the Divine Infant received from the contemplation of the great Mystery:

“Oh the sweetness of this night! The Church has been singing these words — honey has dropped from the Heavens. I thought to myself that the Angels, not only come down on our Earth to sing their admirable Gloria in excelsis, but to gaze also on this sweet Babe, this Honey of Heaven resting on two beautiful Lilies, for sometimes He is in Mary’s arms, and sometimes it is Joseph that caresses Him. What will you say of my having the ambition to think that our two Angel Guardians were of the grand choir of blessed Spirits that sang the sweet hymn on this night? I said to myself — oh happy we if they would deign to sing once more their heavenly hymn and our hearts could hear it! I besought it of them that so there might be glory in the highest heavens, and peace to hearts of good will. Returning home from celebrating these sacred Mysteries, I rest awhile in thus sending you my Happy Christmas! for I dare say that the poor shepherds took some little rest after they had adored the Babe announced to them by the Angels. And as I thought of their sleep on that night, I said to myself: How sweetly must they not have slept, dreaming of the sacred melody with which the Angels told them the glad tidings, and of the dear child and the Mother they had been to see!”

We will close our quotations by the following passage of another of his Letters to Saint Jane Frances de Chantal in which he speaks of the Most Holy Name of Jesus which the Divine Child of Mary received at His circumcision:

“O my Jesus! fill our hearts with the sacred balm of your Holy Name so that the sweetness of its fragrance may penetrate our senses and perfume our every action. But that our hearts may be capable of receiving this sweetness, they must be circumcised: take, therefore, from them whatever could displease your divine sight. O glorious Name! Named by the heavenly Father from all eternity, be you forever written on our souls that, as you, Jesus, are our Saviour, so may our souls be eternally saved. And you, O Holy Virgin, that were the first among mortals to pronounce this saving Name, teach us to pronounce it as it behoves us, that so we may merit the salvation which you brought into this world! My dear Daughter! it was but right that my first letter of this year should be to Jesus and Mary: my second is to you, to wish you a Happy New Year and exhort you to give your whole heart to God. May we so spend this year as that it may secure to us the years of eternity! My first word on waking this morning was: Jesus! and I felt as though I would gladly pour out on the face of the whole Earth the oil of this sweet Name. As long as balm is shut up in a well-sealed vase, no one knows its sweetness, save him who put it there: but as soon as the vase is opened and a few drops are sprinkled around, all who are present say: what sweet balm! Thus it was, my dear daughter, with our Jesus. He contained within Himself the balm of salvation, but no one knew it until His divine Flesh was laid open by the fortunate wound of that cruel knife. And then people knew Him to be the Balm of the world’s Salvation, and first Joseph and Mary, then the whole neighbourhood, began to cry out: Jesus! which means Saviour.”

*****

Peaceful conqueror of souls! Pontiff beloved of God and man! We venerate you as the perfect imitator of the sweetness and gentleness of our Jesus. Having learnt of Him to be meek and humble of heart, you did, according to His promise, possess the land (Matthew v. 4). Nothing could resist you. Heretics, however obstinate; sinners, however hardened; tepid souls, however sluggish — all yielded to the powerful charm of your word and example. We love to see you standing near the crib of our loving Jesus and sharing in the glory of John and the Innocents, for you were an Apostle like John and simple like the children of Rachel. Oh that our hearts might be filled with the spirit of Bethlehem and learn how sweet is the yoke, and how light the burden of our Emmanuel! (Matthew xi. 30).

Pray for us to our Lord that our charity may be ardent like yours; that the desire of perfection may be ever active within us; that we may gain that introduction to a devout life which you so admirably taught; that we may have that love of our neighbour without which we cannot hope to love God; that we may be zealous for the salvation of souls; that we may be patient and forgive injuries, in order that we may love one another, not only in word and in tongue, but as your great model says, in deed and in truth (1 John iii. 18). Bless the Church Militant whose love for you is as fresh as though you had but just now left her. You are venerated and loved throughout the whole world.

Hasten the conversion of the followers of Calvin. Your prayers have already miraculously forwarded the great work and the Holy Sacrifice has long since been publicly offered up in the very city of Geneva. Redouble those prayers, and then, even we may live to see the grand triumph of the Church. Root out too, the last remnants of that Jansenistic heresy which was beginning to exercise its baneful influence at the close of your earthly pilgrimage. Remove from us the dangerous maxims and prejudices which have come down to us from those unhappy times when this odious sect was at the height of its power.

Bless with all the affection of your paternal heart the holy Order you founded and which you offered to Mary under the title of her Visitation. Maintain it in its present edifying fervour, give it increase in number and merit and direct it that so your family may be ever animated by the spirit of its father. Pray, also, for the venerable episcopate of which you are the ornament and model: ask our Lord to bless His Church with pastors endowed with your spirit, inflamed with your zeal, and imitators of your sanctity.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, on the Via Nomentana, the birthday of the holy martyrs Papius and Maurus, soldiers under the emperor Diocletian. At their first confession of Christ their mouths were bruised with stones and they were thrown into prison by order of Laodicius, prefect of the city. Afterwards they were beaten with rods and with leaded whips until they expired.

At Perugia, in the time of Marcus Aurelius, St. Constantius, bishop and martyr, who together with his companions, received the crown of martyrdom for the defence of the faith.

At Edessa in Syria, the holy martyrs Sarbelius and his sister Barbea, who were baptised by the blessed bishop Barsimseus, and crowned with martyrdom in the persecution of Trajan under the governor Lysias.

In the territory of Troyes, St. Sabinian, martyr, who was beheaded for the faith of Christ by the command of the emperor Aurelian.

At Milan, St. Aquilinus, priest, who was crowned with martyrdom by having his throat pierced with a sword by the Arians.

At Treves, the demise of the blessed bishop Valerius, a disciple of the blessed Apostle St. Peter.

At Bourges, St. Sulpicius Severus, bishop, distinguished by his virtues and erudition.

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

Thanks be to God.

29 JANUARY – MONDAY OF SEPTUAGESIMA WEEK

Lesson – Genesis i. 27‒31; ii. 1‒10

So God created man in His Own image. In the image of God He created him: male and female He created them. And God blessed them, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the Earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the Earth.” And God said: “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of the Earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it will be for meat. And to every beast of the Earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creeps upon the Earth in which there is life [I have given it] for meat.” And it was so. And God saw everything that He had made, and it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the Sixth Day. Then the heavens and the Earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made. And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all His work, which He created and made. These are the generations of the heavens and of the Earth, when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the heavens and the Earth, and every plant of the field before it sprung up in the Earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the Earth, and there was not a man to till the ground; but there rose up a spring from the Earth and watered the whole face of the ground. So the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And the Lord God had planted a garden earlier in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food: the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The serpent said to the woman: “Why has God commanded you that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?” (Genesis iii. 1). Thus opened the conversation which our mother Eve so rashly consents to hold with God’s enemy. She ought to have refused all intercourse with Satan. She did not and thereby she imperils the salvation of the whole human race. Let us recall to mind the events that have happened up to this fatal hour. God, in His omnipotence and love, has created two beings upon whom He has lavished all the riches of His goodness. He has destined them for immortality, and this undying life is to have everything that can make it perfectly happy. The whole of nature is made subject to them. A countless posterity is to come from them and love them with all the tenderness of grateful children. Nay, this God of goodness who has created them deigns to be on terms of intimacy with them, and such is their simple innocence that this adorable condescension does not seem strange to them. But there is something far beyond all this. He, whom they have hitherto known by favours of an inferior order, prepares for them a happiness which surpasses all they could picture with every effort of thought. They must first go through a trial, and if faithful, God will bestow the great gift as a recompense they have merited. And this is the gift: He will give them to know Him in Himself, make them partakers of His own glory, and make their happiness infinite and eternal. Yes, this is what God has done, and is preparing to do for these two beings who, but a while ago, were nothing!

In return for all these gratuitous and magnificent gifts, God asks of them but one thing: and it is that they acknowledge His dominion over them. Nothing, surely, can be sweeter to them than to make such a return. Nothing could be more just. All they are, and all they have, and all the lovely creation around them, has been produced out of nothing by the lavish munificence of this God. They must, then, live for Him, faithful, loving and grateful. He asks them to give Him one only proof of this fidelity, love and gratitude: He bids them not to eat of the fruit of one single tree. The only return He asks for all the favours He has bestowed on them is the observance of this easy commandment. His sovereign justice will be satisfied by this act of obedience. They ought to accept such terms with hearty readiness and comply with them with a holy pride, as being not only the tie which will unite them with their God, but as the only means in their power of paying Him what He asks of them. But there comes another voice, the voice of a creature, and it speaks to the woman: “Why has God commanded you that you should not eat of every tree?” And Eve dares, and has the heart, to listen to him that asks why her divine Benefactor has put a command upon her! She can bear to hear the justice of God’s will called in question! Instead of protesting against the sacrilegious words, she tamely answers them! Her God is blasphemed and she is not indignant! How dearly we will have to pay for this ungrateful indifference, this indiscretion!

“And the woman answered him, saying: Of the fruit of the trees that are in Paradise we do eat, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of Paradise, God has commanded us that we should not eat, and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die” (Genesis iii. 2, 3). Thus Eve not only listens to the serpent’s question: she answers him. She converses with the wicked spirit that tempts her. She exposes herself to danger. Her fidelity to her Maker is compromised. True, the words she uses show that she has not forgotten His command, but they imply a certain hesitation which savours of pride and ingratitude. The Spirit of Evil finds that he has excited, in this heart, a love of independence, and that if he can but persuade her that she will not suffer from her disobedience, she is his victim. He, therefore, further addresses her with these blasphemous and lying words: “No, you will not die the death, for God knows that in whatever day you will eat thereof, your eyes will be opened and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis iii. 4, 5). What he proposes to Eve is open rebellion. He has kindled within her that perfidious love of self which is man’s worst evil, and which, if it be indulged, breaks the tie between him and his Creator. Thus the blessings God has bestowed, the obligation of gratitude, personal interest — all are to be disregarded and forgotten. Ungrateful man would become god. He would imitate the rebel Angels. He will fall as they did.

28 JANUARY – BLESSED CHARLEMAGNE (Emperor)

The father of the Blessed Charles was Pepin who was the son of the Duke of Brabant (afterwards elected to the throne of France) and of Bertrade, daughter of the Greek Emperor. He merited, by his glorious deeds and his zeal for the Christian religion, the surname of Great. And by one of the Councils held at Mayence he was called the Most Christian Monarch. Having driven the Lombards out of Italy, he was the first to have the honour of being crowned Emperor by the Vicar of Christ, Pope Leo III. At the request of Adrian, Leo’s predecessor, he entered with an army into Italy and restored to the Church her patrimony, and to the West the Empire. He avenged the injuries done to Pope Leo by the Romans during the chanting of the Litany, and he expelled from the city such as had taken part in this sacrilege. He passed many laws tending to the honour of the Church. Among the rest, he re-established the law which provide that civil suits should be referred to the judgement of the Church in case of one of the parties demanding it. Though of a most gentle disposition, he was very severe in suppressing vice, more especially adultery and idolatry, for which he established special tribunals vested with extraordinary powers.

After having waged war for 33 years with the Saxons, he at length brought them into subjection, imposing no other law upon them, than that they should become Christians. He obliged all land owners to erect a cross of wood in their fields as an open confession of their faith. He rid Gascony, Spain and Gallicia of idolaters and restored the sepulchre of Saint James to what we see it at this day. He upheld the Christian religion in Hungary by an eight years campaign, and in fighting against the Saracens, he always made use of the victorious spear with which with one of the soldiers opened our Saviour’s side. God seemed to favour, by many miracles, all these efforts made for the spreading of the faith. Thus the Saxons who were laying siege to Sigisburgh were struck by God with fear and took to flight. And in the first rebellion of the same people, there sprang up from the earth a plentiful stream with which was refreshed Charles’ whole army, which had been without water for three days. And yet, this great Emperor could scarce be distinguished by his dress from the rest of the people and almost always wore a hair-shirt, never appearing in his gilded robes save on the principal Feasts of our Lord and the Saints.

He gave alms to the poor and to pilgrims, not only at his regal residence, but in every part of the world, by sending them money. He built 24 monasteries, to each of which he sent what is called the Golden Letter, weighing 200 pounds. He founded two Metropolitan and nine Episcopal Sees. He built 27 churches and founded two universities, one in Pavia, the other in Paris. As Charles himself was fond of study, in which he had Alcuin as his master, so, likewise, would he have his sons trained in the liberal sciences before he permitted them to turn either to war or to the chase. In the sixty-eighth year of his age, he had his son Louis crowned king, and devoted himself wholly to prayer and alms-deeds. Each morning and evening he visited the Church, and often he repaired there also in the night, for he was exceedingly fond of the Gregorian Chant and was the first to introduce it into France and Germany. He had obtained cantors from Pope Adrian I and took care to have the hymns of the Church copied in every place. He made copies of the Gospels with his own hand and collated them with the Greek and Syriac versions.

Charlemagne was extremely sparing in what he took to eat and drink. If he fell sick, he sought a remedy in fasting, which he sometimes observed for seven continuous days. At length, after suffering much from malicious men, being then in his seventy-second year, he fell sick. He received the consolation of Holy Communion at the hands of Bishop Hildebald. He signed his whole body with the sign of the Cross, singing the words, “Into your hands,” which done, he rendered to God his soul rich in merit, on the fifth of the Calends of February (January 28th). He was buried in the Basilica of Aix-la-Chapelle which he had built and enriched with relics of the Saints. There he is honoured by the devotion of numerous pilgrims and by the favours granted by God through his intercession. His Feast is kept in most of the dioceses of Germany by the consent of the Church ever since the time of Pope Alexander III. It is kept as the Feast of the principal propagator of the faith in the North.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

In many Churches, especially in Germany, there is kept, on the second Feast of the Martyr Agnes, the Feast of the pious Emperor Charlemagne. The Emmanuel who is come into this world is to receive the title of King of kings and Lord of lords. He is to gird Himself with the sword and bring all nations into subjection. What could be more fitting than that He should lead to His crib the greatest of Christian princes who ever made it his glory to use his sword in the service of Christ and His Church? Charlemagne was held as a Saint by the people, and the decree of his canonisation was given by the Antipope Paschal III in the year 1165, at the request of Frederic Barbarossa, on which account the Holy See has permitted this public veneration to be continued in all those places where it prevailed, though it has never given its approbation to the informal procedure of Paschal, nor made it valid by its own sentence, which it would, in all probability, have done had the request been made. At the same time, the many Churches which, now for [nine] centuries have honoured the memory of Charlemagne, keep his Feast under the simple title of Blessed out of respect to the Roman Martyrology where his name is not inserted.

Before the Reformation the name of Blessed Charlemagne was inscribed in the Calendar of a great many of the Churches in France. The Breviaries of Rheims and Rouen are the only ones that have retained it. The Church of Paris ceased to keep his Feast in order to satisfy the prejudices of several Doctors of the University in the early part of the sixteenth century. Protestantism had, naturally enough, an antipathy for a man who was the noblest type of a Catholic prince, and they who were tainted with the spirit of Protestantism defended their blotting out the name of Charlemagne from the Calendar, not so much by the informality of his canonisation, as by the scandal which they affected to find in his life. Public opinion was formed on this, as on so many other matters, with extreme levity. And among those who will be surprised at finding the name of Charlemagne in this volume, we quite expect that they will be the most astonished who have never taken the trouble to inquire into the holiness of his life.

More than 30 Churches in Germany still keep the Feast of the great Emperor. His dear Church of Aix-la-Chapelle possesses his relics and exposes them to the veneration of the people. The University of Paris, strange to say, chose him for its patron in 1661. But his Feast, which had been given up for more than a century, was only restored as a national holiday without the slightest allusion being made to it in the Liturgy. It does not enter into the plan of this work to discuss the reasons for which public veneration has been paid to the Saints whose feasts we keep during the year. Our readers must not, therefore, expect from us anything in the shape of a formal defence of the saintly life of Charlemagne. Nevertheless, we cannot refrain from making a few remarks which our subject seems to require. And firstly, we affirm, with the great Bossuet, that the morals of Charlemagne were without reproach, and that the contrary opinion, which is based on certain vague and contradictory expressions of a few writers of the Middle Ages, has only gained ground by Protestant influence.

Dom Mabillon, after having given the history of the Emperor’s repudiation of Hermengarde and his return to Himiltrude his first wife, concludes his account of Charlemagne in his Benedictine Annals by acknowledging that this Prince’s plurality of wives has never been proved to have been simultaneous. Natalis Alexander and Le Cointe — authors who cannot be taxed with partiality and who have gone into all the intricacies of the question — prove most clearly that the only reproach to be laid to Charlemagne’s charge on the subject of his wives, is his having repudiated Himiltrude, out of complaisance to the mother of Hermengarde, a fault which he repaired the following year in compliance with the remonstrances of Pope Stephen IV. We grant, that after the death of Luitgarde, the last of his wives who was treated as Queen, Charlemagne married several others whom Eginhard calls concubines, because they did not wear the crown and their children were not considered as princes of the blood. But we say with Mabillon that Charlemagne may have had these wives successively, and that it is difficult to believe the contrary, regarding so religious a Prince, and one who had a singular respect for the laws of the Church.

But independently of the opinion of the grave authors whom we have cited, there is an incontestable proof of Charlemagne’s innocence on the score of the simultaneous plurality of wives, at least from the time of his separation from Hermengarde. The Prince was then in his twenty-eighth year. The severity of the Roman Pontiffs relative to the marriages of sovereigns is too well known to require proof. The history of the Middle Ages abounds with the struggles they had, on this essential point of Christian morals, with the most powerful monarchs, some of whom were most devoted to the Church. How, then, we would ask, would it be possible that Saint Adrian I who governed the Church from 772 to 795, and whom Charlemagne treated as a father, asking his advice in everything he undertook — how, we repeat, would this holy Pontiff allow Charlemagne to indulge in the most scandalous crimes without remonstrating, while Stephen IV who only sat three years and had not the same influence on this Prince, could induce him to dismiss Hermengarde? Or again, would Saint Leo III who reigned as Supreme Pontiff from 795 till after Charlemagne’s death, and who recompensed his virtuous conduct by crowning him Emperor — would he have made no effort to induce him to abandon the concubinage in which some writers would make us believe he lived after the death of his last Queen Luitgarde? Now, we find not the shadow of any such remonstrances made by these two Popes who governed the Church for more than forty years, and have been placed on her altars. The honour of the Church herself is at stake in this question, and it is the duty of every Catholic to suspect the imputations cast on the name of Charlemagne as calumnies.

It would seem, from the letter of Pope Stephen IV, that the marriage with Himiltrude was suspected, though falsely, of nullity. And it is not improbable that this suspicion may have satisfied Charlemagne’s conscience when he divorced her. However this may be, we find Charlemagne afterwards legislating against public immorality with all the zeal and energy of a man whose own life was not tainted with anything of the kind. We will cite but one example of this Christian firmness in repressing scandal, and we put it to the conviction of any honest heart, if a Prince whose life had been a series of public scandals, could have dared to express himself with the simplicity and confidence of an innocent conscience in an assembly of the Bishops and Abbots of his Empire and in the presence of the princes and barons whose licentiousness he wished to repress, and who might so justly have excused their own disorders by the lewd example of the very man who exhorted them to virtue and threatened to chastise their vices?

In a Capitulary given during the Pontificate of Saint Leo III, he thus decrees: “We forbid, under pain of sacrilege, the seizure of the goods of the Church, and injustices of whatever sort, adultery, fornication, incest, illicit marriage, unjust homicide, etc, for we know, that by such things kingdoms and kings, yes and private subjects, do perish. And whereas, by God’s help and the merit and the intercession of the Saints and Servants of God whom we have at all times honoured we have gained a goodly number of kingdoms and won manifold victories, it behoves us all to be on our guard lest we deserve the forfeiture of these gains by the aforementioned crimes and shameful lewdnesses. We know, of a truth, that sundry countries in which have been perpetrated these seizures of the goods of the Church, these injustices, these adulteries, and these prostitutions, have lost their courage in battle, and their firmness in the faith. Anyone may learn from history how the Lord has permitted the Saracens and other peoples to conquer the workers of such like iniquities. Nor doubt we that the like will happen likewise to us unless we abstain from such misdeeds, for God is wont to punish them. Be it therefore known to all our subjects that he who will be taken and convicted of any of these crimes will be deposed of all his honours if he has any, that he will be thrown into prison till he repents and make amends by a public penitence, and, moreover, that he will be cut off from all communication with the faithful, for we will grievously fear the pit in which we see others be fallen.” Again, we ask, would Charlemagne have spoken such language as this if, as has been asserted, his old age was being disgraced with debauchery at the very time that he passed this Capitulary, that is, after the death of Luitgarde?

Granting, then, that this great Prince had sinned, we must allow that it was only in the early part of his reign, and we ought to remember that the remainder of his life was so holy as to be more than an ample penance. Is it not a sight worthy of our admiration to see this brave warrior when he had become the mighty Sovereign unceasingly practising not only sobriety, which was a rare virtue among his countrymen, but fastings which would bear comparisons with those of the most fervent anchorets — wearing a hair-shirt even to the day of his death, assisting at the Offices of the Church day and night even during his various campaigns when he had the Divine services performed in his tent — and giving abundant alms (which, as the Scripture tells us, covers a multitude of sins), not only to all the poor of his dominions who besought his charity, but likewise to the Christians of Africa, Egypt, Syria and Palestine, for whose sakes he more than once exhausted his royal treasury? But what is above all this and, in the absence of every other proof, would testify to Charlemagne possessing every virtue that could adorn a Christian Prince, is his making no other use of his sovereign power than that of spreading the Kingdom of Christ on the Earth. It is the one single end he proposed to himself in every battle he fought, and every law he made.

This monarch, to whom were subject France, Catalonia, Navarre, and Aragon; Flanders, Holland, and Friesland; the provinces of Westphalia, Saxony, as far as the Elbe; Franconia, Suabia, Thuringia, and Switzerland; the two Pannonias (that is, Austria and Hungary) Dacia, Bohemia, Istria, Libumia, Dalmatia, and even Sclavonia; and finally, the whole of Italy, as far as southern Calabria — this Monarch signs himself, in his glorious Capitularia: “I, Charles, by the grace of God and the giving of His mercy, King and governor of the Kingdom of the French, devoted defender of God’s Holy Church, and her humble Champion.” So many other Kings and Emperors — who are not to be compared with him in power, and yet are objects of men’s admiration in spite of all their crimes which are artfully palliated by every possible excuse — have made it their one grand aim to enslave the Church. History tells us of even some otherwise pious kings who were jealous of her Liberty and sought to curtail it: Charlemagne ever respected that Liberty as though it were his own mother’s honour. It was he, that, following the example of Pepin, his father, so nobly secured the independence of the Apostolic See. Never had the Roman Pontiffs a more devoted or a more obedient son. Scorning petty political jealousies, he restored to the clergy and people the episcopal elections which were in the hands of the sovereign when he began his reign. He waged war mainly with a design to favour the propagation of the faith among infidel nations. He marched into Spain that he might free the Christians from the yoke of the Moors. He brought the Churches of his kingdom into closer union with the Apostolic See by establishing the Roman Liturgy in all the States that were under his sceptre. In the whole of his legislation, which he framed in assemblies where Bishops and Abbots had the preponderance, there is not a single trace of what have been called Galilean Liberties, which consist in the interference of the Sovereign or civil Magistrate in matters purely ecclesiastical. “So great was Charlemagne’s love for the Roman Church,” says Bossuet, “that the main point of his Last Will was the recommending to his successors the defence of the Church of Saint Peter, a defence which was the precious heirloom of his house, handed down to him by his father and his father’s father, and which he was resolved to leave also to his children. It was this love of the Church which prompted him to say, and the saying was afterwards repeated in a full Council held during the reign of one of his descendants, that “if the Church of Rome were, by an impossibility, to put on us a burden which was well near insupportable, we ought to bear it.”

What could prompt this spirit of Christian moderation which made Charlemagne so respectful to the moral power of the Church — what could temper down the risings of pride which, as a general rule, increases with the increase of power — what save a most saintly tenor of life? Man, unless he be endowed with the help of a powerful grace, cannot attain, much less can he maintain himself his whole life long in such perfect dispositions as these. Charlemagne, then, has been selected by our Emmanuel Himself to be the perfect type of a Christian Prince, and we Catholics should love to celebrate his glory during this Christmas season during which is born among us the Divine Child who is come to reign over all nations and guide them in the path of holiness and justice. Jesus has come from Heaven to be the model of kings, as of the rest of men. And so far no man has so closely imitated this divine model as “Charles the Victorious, the ever-August, the Monarch crowned by God.”

*****

All hail faithful and beloved servant of God, Apostle of Christ, Defender of His Church, Lover of justice, Guardian of the laws of morality, and Terror of them that hate the Christian name! The hand of the Vicar of Christ purified the diadem of the Caesars and put it on your venerable head. The imperial sceptre and globe are in your hands. The sword of the victories won for God is girt on your side. The Supreme Pontiff has anointed you King and Emperor. Bearing thus in yourself the figure of Christ in His temporal Kingship, you so used your power as that He reigned in and by you. And now He recompenses you for the love you had for Him, for the zeal you had for His glory, and for the respect you ever evinced to the Church, His Spouse. He has changed your earthly and perishable royalty into that which is eternal, and in this heavenly kingdom you are surrounded by those countless souls whom you converted from idolatry to the service of the one true God.

We are celebrating the birth of the Son of that Virgin-Mother in whose honour you built the glorious Church which still excites the admiration of all nations. It was in that sacred edifice that you placed the swathing-clothes with which she clad her Divine Babe. And it is here, too, that our Emmanuel would have your own relics enshrined, so to receive the honour they deserve. admirable imitator of the faith of the three Eastern Kings, present us to Him who deigned to be clothed in these humble garments. Ask Him to give us a share of your humility which made you love to kneel near His crib — of your devotion for the Feasts of the Church — of your zeal for the glory of His divine Majesty — and of the courage and earnestness with which you laboured to spread His Kingdom on Earth.

Pray for our Europe which was once so happy under your paternal rule and is now divided against itself. The Empire which the Church confided to your care, has now fallen in just punishment for its treachery to the Church that gave it existence. The nations of that fallen Empire are now restless and unhappy. The Church alone can satisfy their wants, for she alone can give them Faith. She alone has not changed the principles of justice. She alone can control power and teach subjects obedience. Oh pray that nations, both people and their governments, may return to what can alone give them liberty and security, and cease to seek these blessings by revolution and discord. Protect France, that fairest gem of your crown, protect her with a special love, and show her that you are ever her King and her Father.

28 JANUARY – SAINT AGNES (Second Feast)

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Five days after the martyrdom of the Virgin Emerentiana, the parents of the glorious Saint Agnes visited the tomb of their child during the night, there to weep and pray. It was the eighth day since her martyrdom. While they were thinking upon the cruel death which, though it had enriched their child with a Martyr’s palm, had deprived them of her society — Agnes suddenly appeared to them: she was encircled with a bright light and wore a crown on her head, and was surrounded by a choir of virgins of dazzling beauty. On her right hand there stood a beautiful white lamb, the emblem of the Divine Spouse of Agnes. Turning towards her parents, she said to them: “Weep not over my death: for I am now in Heaven together with these virgins, living with Him whom I loved on Earth with my whole soul.” It is to commemorate this glorious apparition that the holy Church has instituted this Feast which is called Saint Agnes’ Second Feast (Sancte Agnetis secundo.) Let us pray to this fervent spouse of the Divine Lamb that she intercede for as with Him, and present us to Him in this life until it be given to us to possess Him face-to-face in Heaven.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, St. Flavian, martyr, who suffered under Diocletian.

At Apollonia, the holy martyrs Thyrsus, Leucius and Callinicus who were made to undergo various torments in the time of the emperor Decius. Thyrsus and Callinicus consummated their martyrdom by being beheaded. Leucius, being called by a heavenly voice, yielded his soul to God.

In Thebais, the holy martyrs Leonides and his companions, who obtained the palm of martyrdom in the time of Diocletian.

At Alexandria, the commemoration of many holy martyrs, who, while they were at Mass in the church on this day, were put to death in various manners by the followers of Syrian, an Arian general.

Also St. Cyril, bishop of the same city, a most celebrated defender of the Catholic faith who rested in peace with a great reputation for learning and sanctity.

At Saragossa, St. Valerius, bishop.

At Cuenca in Spain, the birthday of St. Julian, bishop, who went to his God with the reputation of working miracles after bestowing the goods of the Church on the poor, and, like the Apostles, supporting himself by the work of his hands.

In the monastery of Rheims, the demise of a holy priest named John, a man of God.

In Palestine, St. James, a hermit, who hid himself a long time in a sepulchre to do penance for a fault he had committed, and being celebrated for miracles, departed for Heaven.

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

Thanks be to God.

28 JANUARY – SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY

Epistle – 1 Corinthians ix. 24‒10, 5.

Brethren, know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain. And every one who strives for the mastery, refrains himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty; I fight not as one beating the air; but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection; lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all in Moses were baptised, in the cloud and in the sea; and all did eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink (and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ). But with most of them God was not well pleased.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

These stirring words of the Apostle deepen the sentiments already produced in us by the sad recollections of which we are this day reminded. He tells us that this world is a race in which all must run, but that they alone win the prize who run well. Let us, therefore, rid ourselves of everything that could impede us and make us lose our crown. Let us not deceive ourselves: we are never sure until we reach the goal. Is our conversion more solid than was Saint Paul’s? Are our good works better done or more meritorious than were his? Yet, he assures us, that he was not without the fear that he might perhaps be lost, for which cause he chastises his body and keeps it in subjection to the spirit. Man in his present state has not the same will for all that is right and just which Adam had before he sinned, and which, notwithstanding, he abused to his own ruin. We have a bias which inclines us to evil, so that our only means of keeping our ground is by sacrificing the flesh to the spirit. To many this is very harsh doctrine, hence they are sure to fail —they never can win the prize. Like the Israelites spoken of by our Apostle, they will be left behind to die in the desert and so lose the Promised Land. Yet they saw the same miracles that Joshua and Caleb saw! So true is it that nothing can make a salutary impression on a heart which is obstinately bent on fixing all its happiness in the things of this present life. And though it is forced, each clay, to own that they are vain, yet each day it returns to them, vainly but determinedly loving them. The heart, on the contrary, that puts its trust in God, and mans itself to energy by the thought of the divine assistance being abundantly given to him that asks it —will not flag or faint in the race, and will win the heavenly prize. God’s eye is unceasingly on all them that toil and suffer.

Gospel – Matthew xx. 1‒16

At that time Jesus spoke to His disciples this parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. And having agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the marketplace idle and said to them, ‘Go you too into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.᾿ And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hours, and did in the like manner. But about the eleventh hour, he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no man has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘Go you also into my vineyard.’ And when evening came the lord of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the labourers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last to the first.’ When therefore they came who had come about the eleventh hour, every man received a penny. But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more; and they also received a penny each. And receiving it, they murmured against the master of the house, saying, ‘These last ones have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the heat.’ But answering, he said to one of them, ‘Friend, I do you no wrong: did you not agree with me on a penny? Take what is yours, and go your way: I will give to the last as I gave to you. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is your eye evil, because I am good?’ So will the last be first, and the first be last. For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

It is of importance that we should well understand this Parable of the Gospel, and why the Church inserts it in today’s Liturgy. Firstly, then, let us recall to mind on what occasion our Saviour spoke this Parable, and what instruction He intended to convey by it to the Jews. He wishes to warn them of the fast approach of the day when their Law is to give way to the Christian Law, and He would prepare their minds against the jealousy and prejudice which might arise in them at the thought that God was about to form a Covenant with the Gentiles. The Vineyard is the Church in its several periods, from the beginning of the world to the time of God Himself coming to dwell among men, and form all true believers into one visible and permanent society. The Morning is the time from Adam to Noah. The Third Hour begins with Noah and ends with Abraham. The Sixth Hour includes the period which elapsed between Abraham and Moses. And lastly, the Ninth Hour opens with the age of the Prophets and closes with the birth of the Saviour. The Messiah came at the Eleventh Hour when the world seemed to be at the decline of its day. Mercies unprecedented were reserved for this last period, during which salvation was to be given to the Gentiles by the preaching of the Apostles. It is by this mystery of Mercy that our Saviour rebukes the Jewish pride. By the selfish murmurings made against the Master of the House by the early Labourers, our Lord signifies the indignation which the Scribes and Pharisees would show at the Gentiles being adopted as God’s children. Then He shows them how their jealousy would be chastised: Israel, that had laboured before us, will be rejected for their obduracy of heart, and we Gentiles, the last comers, will be made first, for we will be made members of that Catholic Church which is the Spouse of the Son of God.

This is the interpretation of our Parable given by Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory the Great, and by the generality of the Holy Fathers. But it conveys a second instruction, as we are assured by the two Holy Doctors just named. It signifies the calling given by God to each of us individually, pressing us to labour, during this life, for the Kingdom prepared for us. The Morning is our childhood. The Third Hour, according to the division used by the ancients in counting their day, is sunrise: it is our youth. The Sixth Hour, by which name they called our midday, is manhood. The Eleventh Hour, which immediately preceded sunset, is old age. The Master of the House calls his Labourers at all these various Hours. They must go that very hour. They that are called in the Morning may not put off their starting for the Vineyard under pretext of going afterwards when the Master will call them later on. Who has told them that they will live to the Eleventh Hour? They are called at the Third Hour. They may be dead at the Sixth. God will call to the labours of the last hour such as will be living when that hour comes. But if we should die at midday, that last call will not avail us. Besides, God has not promised us a second call if we excuse ourselves from the first.

THE HISTORY, MYSTERY AND PRACTICE OF SEPTUAGESIMA

The Fall (Septuagesima) The Flood (Sexagesima) Abraham's Sacrifice (Quinquagesima)

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The History of Septuagesima

The Season of Septuagesima comprises the three weeks immediately preceding Lent. It forms one of the principal divisions of the Liturgical Year, and is itself divided into three parts, each part corresponding to a week: the first is called Septuagesima; the second, Sexagesima; the third, Quinquagesima.

All three are named from their numerical reference to Lent which, in the language of the Church, is called Quadragesima — that is, Forty — because the great Feast of Easter is prepared for by the holy exercises of Forty Days. The words Quinquagesima, Sexagesima, and Septuagesima tell us of the same great Solemnity as looming in the distance, and as being the great object towards which the Church would have us now begin to turn all our thoughts, and desires and devotion.

Now, the Feast of Easter must be prepared for by a forty-days’ recollectedness and penance. Those forty-days are one of the principal Seasons of the Liturgical Year, and one of the most powerful means employed by the Church for exciting in the hearts of her children the spirit of their Christian vocation. It is of the utmost importance that such a Season of grace should produce its work in our souls — the renovation of the whole spiritual life. The Church, therefore, has instituted a preparation for the holy time of Lent. She gives us the three weeks of Septuagesima during which she withdraws us, as much as may be, from the noisy distractions of the world, in order that our hearts may be the more readily impressed by the solemn warning she is to give us at the commencement of Lent by marking our foreheads with ashes.

This prelude to the holy season of Lent was not known in the early ages of Christianity: its institution would seem to have originated in the Greek Church. The practice of this Church being never to fast on Saturdays, the number of fasting-days in Lent, besides the six Sundays of Lent (on which, by universal custom, the faithful never fasted) there were also the six Saturdays which the Greeks would never allow to be observed as days of fasting: so that their Lent was short, by twelve days, of the Forty spent by our Saviour in the desert. To make up the deficiency they were obliged to begin their Lent so many days earlier.

The Church of Rome had no such motive for anticipating the season of those privations which belong to Lent for, from the earliest antiquity, she kept the Saturdays of Lent (and as often, during the rest of the year, as circumstances might require) as fasting days. At the close of the sixth century Saint Gregory the Great alludes, in one of his Homilies to the fast of Lent being less than Forty Days, owing to the Sundays which come during that holy season. “There are,” he says, “from this Day (the first Sunday of Lent) to the joyous Feast of Easter, six Weeks, that is, forty-two days. As we do not fast on the six Sundays, there are but thirty-six fasting days... which we offer to God as the tithe of our year.”

It was therefore after the pontificate of Saint Gregory that the last four days of Quinquagesima Week were added to Lent in order that the number of Fasting Days might be exactly Forty. As early, however, as the ninth century, the custom of beginning Lent on Ash Wednesday was of obligation in the whole Latin Church. All the manuscript copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary which bear that date call this Wednesday the In capite jejunii, that is to say, the beginning of the fast. And Amalarius who gives us every detail of the Liturgy of the ninth century, tells us that it was, even then, the rule to begin the Fast four days before the first Sunday of Lent. We find the practice confirmed by two Councils held in that century. 1 But out of respect for the form of Divine Service drawn up by Saint Gregory, the Church does not make any important change in the Office of these four days. Up to the Vespers of Saturday, when alone she begins the Lenten rite, she observes the rubrics prescribed for Quinquagesima Week.

Peter of Blois who lived in the twelfth century, tells us what was the practice in his days. He says: “All religious begin the Fast of Lent at Septuagesima. The Greeks, at Sexagesima. The Clergy, at Quinquagesima, and the rest of Christians who form the Church Militant on Earth begin their Lent on the Wednesday following Quinquagesima.” The secular Clergy, as we learn from these words, were bound to begin the Lenten Fast somewhat before the laity, though it was only by two days, that is, on Monday, as we gather from the Life of Saint Ulric, Bishop of Augsburg, written in the tenth century. The Council of Clermont in 1095 at which Pope Urban II presided, has a decree sanctioning the obligation of the Clergy beginning abstinence from flesh-meat at Quinquagesima. This Sunday was called, indeed, Dominica carnis privii, and Carnis privium Sacerdotum (that is, Priests’ Carnival Sunday) — but the term is to be understood in the sense of the announcement being made, on that Sunday, of the abstinence having to begin on the following day. We will find further on that a like usage was observed in the Greek Church on the three Sundays preceding Lent. This law, which obliged the Clergy to these two additional days of abstinence, was in force in the thirteenth century, as we learn from a Council held at Angers which threatens with suspension all Priests who neglect to begin Lent on the Monday of Quinquagesima Week.

This usage, however, soon became obsolete and in the fifteenth century, the secular Clergy and even the Monks themselves, began the Lenten Fast, like the rest of the faithful, on Ash Wednesday. There can be no doubt, but that the original motive for this anticipation — which, after several modifications, was limited to the four days immediately preceding Lent — was to remove from the Greeks the pretext of taking scandal at the Latins who did not fast a full Forty days. Ratramnus, in his Controversy with the Greeks, clearly implies it. But the Latin Church did not think it necessary to carry her condescension further by imitating the Greek ante-lenten usages which originated, as we have already said, in the eastern custom of not fasting on Saturdays.1

Thus it was, that the Roman Church, by this anticipation of Lent by Four days, gave the exact number of Forty Days to the holy Season which she had instituted in imitation of the Forty Days spent by our Saviour in the desert. While faithful to her ancient practice of looking on the Saturday as a day appropriate for penitential exercises, she gladly borrowed from the Greek Church the custom of preparing for Lent by giving to the Liturgy of the three preceding weeks a tone of holy mournfulness.

Even as early as the beginning of the ninth century, as we learn from Amalarius, the Alleluia and Gloria in excelsis were suspended in the Septuagesima Offices. The monks conformed to the custom, although the Rule of Saint Benedict prescribed otherwise. Finally, in the second half of the eleventh century Pope Alexander II enacted that the total suspension of the Alleluia should be everywhere observed, beginning with the Vespers of the Saturday preceding Septuagesima Sunday. This Pope was but renewing a rule already sanctioned in that same century, by Pope Leo IX, and which was inserted in the body of Canon Law.

Thus was the present important period of the Liturgical Year, after various changes, established in the Cycle of the Church. It has been there upwards of a thousand years. Its name, Septuagesima (Seventy) expresses, as we have already remarked, a numerical relation to Quadragesima (the Forty Days), although in reality there are not seventy but only sixty-three days from Septuagesima Sunday to Easter. We will speak of the mystery of the name in the following Chapter. The first Sunday of Lent being called Quadragesima (Forty), each of the three previous Sundays has a name expressive of an additional ten: the nearest to Lent, Quinquagesima (Fifty); the middle one, Sexagesima (Sixty); the third, Septuagesima (Seventy).

As the season of Septuagesima depends upon the time of the Easter celebration, it comes sooner or later, according to the changes of that great Feast. The 18th of January and the 22nd of February are called the Septuagesima Keys, because the Sunday which is called Septuagesima cannot be earlier in the year, than the first, nor later than the second, of these two days.

The Mystery of Septuagesima

The Season upon which we are now entering is expressive of several profound mysteries. But these mysteries belong not only to the three weeks which are preparatory to Lent: they continue throughout the whole period of time which separates us from the great Feast of Easter.

The number seven is the basis of all these mysteries. We have already seen how the Holy Church came to introduce the season of Septuagesima into her Calendar. Let us now meditate on the doctrine hid under the symbols of her Liturgy. And first, let us listen to Saint Augustine who thus gives us the clue to the whole of our Season's mysteries. “There are two times,” says the Holy Doctor: “one which is now, and is spent in the temptations and tribulations of this life; the other which will be then, and will be spent in eternal security and joy. In figure of these, we celebrate two periods: the time ‘before Easter,’ and the time ‘after Easter.’ That which is ‘before Easter,’ signifies the sorrow of this present life. That which is ‘after Easter,’ the blessedness of our future state... Hence it is that we spend the first in fasting and prayer, and in the second we give up our fasting, and give ourselves to praise.”’

The Church, the interpreter of the Sacred Scriptures, often speaks to us of two places which correspond with these two times of Saint Augustine. These two places are Babylon and Jerusalem. Babylon is the image of this world of sin, in the midst of which the Christian has to spend his years of probation. Jerusalem is the heavenly country where he is to repose after all his trials. The people of Israel, whose whole history is but one great type of the human race, was banished from Jerusalem and kept in bondage in Babylon.

Now, this captivity which kept the Israelites exiles from Sion lasted seventy years, and it is to express this mystery, as Alcuin, Amalarius, Ivo of Chartres and all the great Liturgists tell us, that the Church fixed the number of Seventy for the days of expiation. It is true, there are but sixty-three days between Septuagesima and Easter, but the Church, according to the style so continually used in the Sacred Scriptures, uses the round number instead of the literal and precise one.

The duration of the world itself, according to the ancient Christian tradition, is divided into seven ages. The human race must pass through seven Ages before the dawning of the day of eternal life. The first Age included the time from the creation of Adam to Noah. The second begins with Noah and the renovation of the Earth by the Deluge, and ends with the vocation of Abraham. The third opens with this first formation of Gods chosen people, and continues as far as Moses, through whom God gave the Law. The fourth consists of the period between Moses and David in whom the house of Judah received the kingly power. The fifth is formed of the years which passed between David’s reign and the captivity of Babylon, inclusively. The sixth dates from the return of the Jews to Jerusalem, and takes us on as far as the birth of our Saviour. Then, finally, comes the seventh Age. It starts with the rising of this merciful Redeemer, the Sun of Justice, and is to continue till the dread coming of the Judge of the living and the dead. These are the Seven great divisions of Time after which, Eternity.

In order to console us in the midst of the combats which so thickly beset our path, the Church — like a beacon shining amidst the darkness of this our earthly abode — shows us another Seven which is to succeed the one we are now preparing to pass through. After the Septuagesima of mourning we will have the bright Easter with its Seven weeks of gladness, foreshadowing the happiness and bliss of Heaven. After having fasted with our Jesus, and suffered with Him, the day will come when we will rise together with Him, and our hearts will follow Him to the highest heavens, and then after a brief interval, we will feel descending upon us the Holy Ghost, with His Seven Gifts. The celebration of all these wondrous joys will take us Seven weeks, as the great Liturgists observe in their interpretation of the Rites of the Church: the seven joyous weeks from Easter to Pentecost will not be too long for the future glad Mysteries which, after all, will be but figures of a still gladder future, the future of eternity.

Having heard these sweet whisperings of hope, let us now bravely face the realities brought before us by our dear Mother the Church. We are sojourners on this Earth. We are exiles and captives in Babylon, that city which plots our ruin. If we love our country — if we long to return to it — we must be proof against the lying allurements of this strange land, and refuse the cup she proffers us and with which she maddens so many of our fellow captives. She invites us to join in her feasts and her songs, but we must unstring our harps, and hang them on the willows that grow on her river’s bank till the signal be given for our return to Jerusalem (Psalm cxxv.) She will ask us to sing to her the melodies of our dear Sion, but how will we, who are so far from home, have heart to sing the Song of the Lord in a strange land? (Psalm cxxxvi) No, there must be no sign that we are content to be in bondage, or we will deserve to be slaves forever.

These are the sentiments with which the Church would inspire us during the penitential Season which we are now beginning. She wishes us to reflect on the dangers that beset us — dangers which arise from our own selves, and from creatures. During the rest of the year she loves to hear us chant the song of Heaven, the sweet Alleluia, but now she bids us close our lips to this word of joy because we are in Babylon. We are pilgrims absent from our Lord (2 Corinthians v. 6). Let us keep our glad hymn for the day of His return. We are sinners, and have but too often held fellowship with the world of God’s enemies. Let us become purified by repentance, for it is written that praise is unseemly in the mouth of a sinner (Ecclesiasticus xv. 9).

The leading feature, then, of Septuagesima is the total suspension of the Alleluia, which is not to be again heard upon the Earth until the arrival of that happy day when, having suffered death with our Jesus and having been buried together with Him, we will rise again with Him to a new life (Colossians ii. 12).

The sweet Hymn of the Angels, Gloria in excelsis Deo, which we have sung every Sunday since the birth of our Saviour in Bethlehem, is also taken from us. It is only on the Feasts of the Saints, which may be kept during the week, that we will be allowed to repeat it. The night Office of the Sunday is to lose, also, from now till Easter, its magnificent Ambrosian Hymn, the Te Deum. And at the end of the Holy Sacrifice, the Deacon will no longer dismiss the faithful with his solemn Ite, Missa est, but will simply invite them to continue their prayers in silence, and bless the Lord, the God of mercy, who bears with us notwithstanding all our sins.

After the Gradual of the Mass, instead of the thrice repeated Alleluia which prepared our hearts to listen to the voice of God in the Holy Gospel, we will hear but a mournful and protracted chant called, on that account, the Tract. That the eye, too, may teach us, that the Season we are entering on is one of mourning, the Church will vest her Ministers (both on Sundays and the days during the week, which are not Feasts of Saints) in the sombre Purple. Until Ash Wednesday, however, she permits the Deacon to wear his dalmatic, and the Subdeacon his tunic. But from that day forward they must lay aside these vestments of joy, for Lent will then have begun and our holy Mother will inspire us with the deep spirit of penance by suppressing everything of that glad pomp, which she loves, at other seasons, to bring into the Sanctuary of her God.

The Practice of Septuagesima

The joys of Christmastide seem to have fled far from us. The forty days of gladness brought us by the birth of our Emmanuel are gone. The atmosphere of holy Church has grown overcast, and we are warned that the gloom is still to thicken. Have we, then, for ever lost Him, we so anxiously and longingly sighed after, during the four slow weeks of our Advent? Has our divine Sun of Justice that rose so brightly in Bethlehem now stopped His course and left our guilty Earth?

Not so. The Son of God, the Child of Mary, has not left us. The Word was made Flesh in order that He might dwell among us. A glory, far greater than that of his birth, when Angels sang their hymns, awaits Him, and we are to share it with Him. Only, He must win this new and greater glory by strange countless sufferings. He must purchase it by a most cruel and ignominious death: and we, if we would have our share in the triumph of His Resurrection, must follow Him in the Way of the Cross, all wet with the tears and the blood He shed for us.

The grave maternal voice of the Church will soon be heard inviting us to the Lenten penance. But she wishes us to prepare for this laborious baptism by employing these three weeks in considering the deep wounds caused in our souls by sin. True, the beauty and loveliness of the Little Child born to us in Bethlehem, are great beyond measure, but our souls are so needy that they require other lessons than those He gave us of humility and simplicity.

Our Jesus is the Victim of the divine justice, and He has now attained the fullness of His age. The altar on which He is to be slain is ready, and since it is for us that He is to be sacrificed, we should at once set ourselves to consider what are the debts we have contracted towards that infinite Justice which is about to punish the Innocent One instead of us the guilty.

The mystery of a God becoming Incarnate for the love of His creature has opened to us the path of the Illuminative Way, but we have not yet seen the brightest of its Light. Let not our hearts be troubled. The divine wonders we witnessed at Bethlehem are to be surpassed by those that are to grace the day of our Jesus’ Triumph: but that our eye may contemplate these future mysteries, it must be purified by courageously looking into the deep abyss of our own personal miseries. God will grant us His divine light for the discovery; and if we come to know ourselves, to understand the grievousness of original sin, to see the malice of our own sins, and to comprehend, at least in some degree, the infinite mercy of God towards us, we will be prepared for the holy expiations of Lent, and for the ineffable joys of Easter.

The Season, then, of Septuagesima is one of most serious thought. Perhaps we could not better show the sentiments with which the Church would have her children to be filled at this period of her Year than by quoting a few words from the eloquent exhortation given to his people at the beginning of Septuagesima by the celebrated Ivo of Chartres. He spoke thus to the faithful of the 11th century: “‘We know,’ says the Apostle, ‘that every creature groans and travails in pain even till now: and not only it, but ourselves, also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God, the redemption of our body’ (Romans viii. 22, 23). The creature here spoken of is the soul that has been regenerated from the corruption of sin to the likeness of God: she groans within herself, at seeing herself made subject to vanity. She, like one that travails, is filled with pain, and is devoured by an anxious longing to be in that country which is still so far off. It was this travail and pain that the Psalmist was suffering when he exclaimed: ‘Woe is one, that my sojourning is prolonged!’ (Psalm cxix. 5) Nay, that Apostle who was one of the first members of the Church and had received the Holy Spirit, longed to have, in all its reality, that adoption of the sons of God which he already had in hope. And he too thus exclaimed in his pain: ‘I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ’ (Philippians i. 3). During these days, therefore, we must do what we do at all seasons of the Year — only, we must do it more earnestly and fervently we must sigh and weep after our country from which we were exiled in consequence of having indulged in sinful pleasures. We must redouble our efforts in order to regain it by compunction and weeping of heart... Let us now shed tears in the way that we may afterwards be glad in our country. Let us now so run the race of this present life that we may make sure of the prize of the supernal vocation (Philippians iii. 14). Let us not be like imprudent wayfarers, forgetting our country and preferring our banishment to our home. Let us not become like those senseless invalids who feel not their ailments and seek no remedy. We despair of a sick man who will not be persuaded that he is in danger. No: let us run to our Lord, the Physician of eternal salvation. Let us show Him our wounds, and cry out to Him with all our earnestness: ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak: heal me, for my bones are troubled’ (Psalm vi. 3). Then will He forgive us our iniquities, heal us of our infirmities, and satisfy our desire with good things” (Psalm cii. 3, 5).

From all this it is evident that the Christian who would spend Septuagesima according to the spirit of the Church must make war upon that false security, that self-satisfaction, which are so common to effeminate and tepid souls, and produce spiritual barrenness. It is well for them if these delusions do not insensibly lead them to the absolute loss of the true Christian spirit. He that thinks himself dispensed from that continual watchfulness, which is so strongly inculcated by our Divine Master (Mark xiii. 37), is already in the enemy’s power. He that feels no need of combat and of struggle in order to persevere and make progress in virtue (unless he have been honoured with a privilege, which is both rare and dangerous), should fear that he is not even on the road to that Kingdom of God which is only to be won by violence (Matthew xi. 12). He that forgets the sins which God’s mercy has forgiven him, should fear his being the victim of a dangerous delusion (Ecclesiasticus v. 5). Let us, during these days which we are going to devote to the honest unflinching contemplation of our miseries, give glory to our God and derive, from the knowledge of ourselves, fresh motives of confidence in Him who, in spite of all our wretchedness and sin, humbled Himself so low as to become one of us in order that He might exalt us even to union with Himself.

1The Gallican Liturgy had retained several usages of the Oriental Churches, to which it owed, in part, its origin: hence, it was not without some difficulty that the custom of abstaining and fasting on Saturdays was introduced into Gaul. Until such time as the Churches of that country had adopted the Roman custom, in that point of discipline, they were necessitated to anticipate the Fast of Lent. The first Council of Orleans, held in the early part of the sixth century, enjoins the Faithful to observe, before Easter, Quadragesima (as the Latins call Lent) and not Quinquagesima, in order, says the Council, that unity of custom may be maintained. Towards the close of the same century, the fourth Council held in the same city repeals the same prohibition, and explains the intentions of the making such an enactment by ordering that the Saturdays during Lent should be observed as days of fasting. Previously to this, that is, in the years 511 and 541, the first and second Councils of Orange had combated the same abuse, by also forbidding the imposing on the Faithful the obligation of commencing the Fast at Quinquagesima. The introduction of the Roman Liturgy into France, which was brought about by the zeal of Pepin and Charlemagne, finally established, in that country, the custom of keeping the Saturday as a day of penance. And, as we have just seen, the beginning Lent on Quinquagesima was not observed excepting by the Clergy. In the thirteenth century the only Church in the Patriarchate of the West which began Lent earlier than the Church of Rome, was that of Poland: its Lent opened on the Monday of Septuagesima, which was owing to the rites of the Greek Church being so much used in Poland. The custom was abolished, even for that country, by Pope Innocent the fourth, in the year 1248.