29 FEBRUARY – THURSDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – Jeremias xvii. 5‒10

Thus says the Lord: “Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord. For he will be like tamarick in the desert, and he will not see when good will come; but he will dwell in dryness in the desert, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed be the man that trusts in the Lord, and the Lord will be his confidence. And he will be as a tree that is planted by the waters, and spreads out its roots towards moisture; and it will not fear when the heat comes. And the leaf thereof will be green, and in the time of drought it will not be solicitous, neither will it cease at any time to bring forth fruit. The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable; who can know it? I am the Lord that searches the heart, and proves the reins; who gives to everyone according to his way, and according to the fruit of his devices,” says the Lord Almighty.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Epistle and Gospel for today are intended as instructions on Christian morality. Let us, for a moment, turn away our eyes from the sad spectacle of the plot which is being got up against our Redeemer by His enemies. Let us today think of our own sins, and how to apply a remedy. The Prophet Jeremias here gives us the description of two classes of men: to which class do we belong? There are some men who make flesh their arm; that is to say, they only care for this present life and for created things; and this disposition of mind necessarily leads them to frequent violations of the commandments of their Creator. It was so with us, when we sinned: we lost sight of our last end, and the threefold concupiscence blinded us. Let us lose no time, but return to the Lord our God; a delay might bring on us that curse which our Prophet says overtakes the unrepenting sinner: he will not see good, when good will come. The holy Season of Lent is fast advancing. The choicest graces are being daily offered us; woe to the man whose mind is distracted by the fashion of this wolrd that passes away, (1 Corinthians vii. 31) and takes no thought for eternity and heaven, and, even in this time of grace, is like tamarick, a worthless weed of the desert. Oh! how numerous is this class! and how terrible is their spiritual indifference! Pray for them, O ye faithful children of the Church, pray for them without ceasing. Offer up your penances and your alms-givings for them. Despair not and remember that each year many straying sheep are brought to the fold by such intercession as this.

The Prophet next describes the man that trusts in the Lord: his whole hope is in God, and his whole care is to serve Him and do His blessed will. He is like a beautiful tree that is planted near a stream of water, with its leaf ever-green, and its fruit abundant. I have appointed you, says our Redeemer, that you shou1d go, and should bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain (John xv. 16). Let us become this favoured and ever fruitful tree. The Church during this holy time is pouring out on our hearts rich streams of God’s grace. Let us faithfully welcome them. The Lord searches the heart: if he find that our desire to be converted is sincere, what an Easter will not the coming one be to us!

Gospel – Luke xvi. 19‒31

At that time, Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, and no-one did give him: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the Angels into Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died, and he was buried in hell. And lifting up his eyes, when he was in torments, he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried, and said: ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.’ And Abraham said to him: ‘Son, remember that you received good things in your lifetime, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is fixed a great chaos; so that they who would pass from hence to you, cannot, nor from there come here.’ And he said: ‘Then father, I beseech you that you would send him to my father’s house; for I have five brethren that he may testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torments.’ And Abraham said to him: ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ But he said: ‘No, father Abraham: but if one went to them from the dead, they will do penance.’ And he said to him: ‘If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, if one rise again from the dead.’”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The commandments of God cannot be broken with impunity. He that sins will be punished. This is the teaching of today’s Gospel, and after reading it, we exclaim with the Apostle: How fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God! What a terrible truth is here told us! A man is in the enjoyment of every comfort and luxury this life can give when suddenly death surprises him, and he is buried in hell! In the midst of those eternal burning, he asks far a drop of water, and that drop is refused him. Other men, who he knew on earth a few hours ago are now in the abode of eternal happiness, and a great chaos separates him from them forever.

Oh what misery to be in despair for endless ages! And yet there are men that live and die without giving so much as one day to think upon hell! Happy, then, are they that fear! for this fear will aid them to lighten that weight of their sins which would drag them into the bottomless pit. Alas! what strange darkness has come upon the mind of man as a consequence of sin! People that are shrewd and prudent and far-sighted in everything that regards their temporal concerns, are mere idiots and fools in every question that regards eternity. Can we imagine anything more frightful than their surprise when they awaken in the next world and find themselves buried in hell!

Observe too, that our Saviour in order to make his instruction more impressive, has not here described the condemnation of one of those whose crimes scandalise the neighbourhood, and make even worldlings look upon him as a sure prey of hell. The history He gives us is that of a man who led a quiet life; he was agreeable in company, and sought after; he was respected, and did honour to the position he held in society. He is not accused of any public scandals; there is no mention made of any atrocious crime; our Saviour simply says of him: he was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted sumptuously every day. It is true, he was not charitable to the poor man who lay at his gate; but he did not ill-treat him: he allowed him to lie there, and did not even insult his misery.

Why, then, was this rich man condemned to burn eternally in that fire which God created for the wicked? It is because a man who leads a life of luxury and feasting, such as he lived — never thinking of eternity — caring for nothing but this world, which we are told to use as though we used it not (1 Corinthians vii. 31) — with nothing about him of the spirit of the Cross of Christ — such a man as this is already a victim to the triple concupiscence of pride, avarice and luxury. He is their slave and seems determined to continue so, for he never makes an effort to throw off their tyranny. He has yielded himself up to them, and they have worked their work in him the death of the soul. It was not enough that he should not ill-treat the poor man that sat at his gate, he ought to have shown him kindness and charity, for such is God’s commandment. His very dogs had more compassion than he. Therefore, his condemnation and perdition were most just. But had he been told of his duty? Yes, he had the Scriptures. He had Moses and the Prophets. Nay more, he had Jesus and the Church.

Men who are leading a life like him, are now surrounded by the graces of the holy Season of Lent. What excuse will they have, if they so far neglect them, that they do not even give themselves the trouble to think of them? They will have turned their Lent into judgement against themselves, and it will have been but one great step nearer to eternal misery.

28 FEBRUARY – SAINT GABRIEL OF THE MOST SORROWFUL VIRGIN

Saint Gabriel of the Most Sorrowful Virgin (Francis Possenti) was born on 1 March 1838 in Assisi, Italy, to Sante and Agnes Possenti. He was one of thirteen children, several of whom died in infancy. His mother died in 1842 when he was only four years old. Francis was educated at a Jesuit college in Spoleto.

While still a student he became dangerously ill and promised to enter a religious order if he recovered. He did not keep his vow and after a few years he became seriously sick again. He renewed his promise and was again cured. Believing this to be a miracle which he attributed to the intercession of the Polish Jesuit priest Blessed Andrzej Boboba (1591–1657), he applied to the Society of Jesus and was accepted. However, he delayed entering the Jesuits. Then his sister Maria Louisa was stricken with cholera and died. After seeking the advice of a priest, Francis decided to join the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ (the Passionists). In 1856 he entered the noviceship at Morrovalle in the Marche and was given the religious name of Brother Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows:

“The rest of Gabriel's career is simply a record of an extraordinary effort to attain perfection in small things. His brightness, his spirit of prayer, his charity to the poor, his consideration for others, his exact observance of every rule, his desire (constantly checked by wise superiors) to adopt forms of bodily mortification which were beyond his strength, his absolute submission in all matters in which he could practise obedience evidently made an ineffaceable impression upon all who lived with him. Their testimony in the process of his beatification is most convincing. It was a life of continual self-surrender, but the most charming feature of the whole was the cheerfulness with which the offering was made”.

(Butler's Lives of the Saints, Vol 1, page 430)

After four years in the Passionists, Gabriel became ill with tuberculosis. He died on 27 February 1862 at the age of 23 at Isola di Gran Sasso near Teramo in the Abruzzi. He was beatified by Pope St. Pius X in 1908 and canonised by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. St. Gabriel is a patron saint of Catholic youth, of students, and of those studying for the priesthood.

In leap years, his feast day is observed on 28 February.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, the birthday of the holy martyrs Macarius, Rufinus, Justus and Theophilus.

At Alexandria, the passion of the Saints Caerealis, Pupulus, Caius and Serapion. In the same city, in the reign of the emperor Valerian, the commemoration of the holy priests, deacons and other Christians in great number who encountered death most willingly by nursing the victims of a most deadly pestilence then raging. They have been generally revered as martyrs by the pious faithful.

In the territory of Lyons, on Mount Jura, the demise of St. Romanus, abbot, who was the first to lead the heremitical life there. His reputation for virtues and miracles brought under his guidance numerous monks.

At Pavia, the translation, from the island of Sardinia, of the body of St. Augustine, bishop, by Luitprand, king of the Lombards.

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

Thanks be to God.

28 FEBRUARY – WEDNESDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – Esther xiii. 8‒17

In those days Mardochai besought the Lord, and said, “O Lord, Lord, Almighty King, for all things are in your power, and there is none that can resist your will, if you determine to save Israel. You have made heaven and earth, and all things that are under the cope of heaven. You are Lord of all, and there is none that can resist your majesty. And now, O Lord, O King, O God of Abraham, have mercy on your people, because our enemies resolve to destroy us, and extinguish your inheritance. Despise not your portion, which you have redeemed for yourself out of Egypt. Hear my supplication, and be merciful to thy lot and inheritance, and turn our mourning into joy, that we may live and praise your name, O Lord, and shut not the mouths of them that sing to you, O Lord our God.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This petition, which Mardochai presents to God, in favour of a whole nation that was doomed to destruction, represents the prayers which the saints of the Old Testament offered for the salvation of the world. The human race was, to a great extent, in the power of Satan, who is figured by Aman. The Almighty King had given sentence against mankind: Ye shall die the death. Who was there, that could induce him to revoke the sentence? Esther made intercession with Assuerus, her lord, and she was heard. Mary presented herself before the throne of the Eternal God: and it is she that, by her Divine Son, crushes the head of the serpent, who was to have tormented us for ever. The sentence, then, is to be annulled; all will live that wish to live. Today, we have the Church praying for her children, who are in the state of sin. She trembles at seeing them in danger of being eternally lost. She intercedes for them, and she uses Mardochai’s prayer. She humbly reminds her Divine Spouse, that he has redeemed them out of Egypt and, by Baptism, has made them His members, His inheritance. She beseeches Him to change their mourning into joy, even into the great Easter joy. She says to him: Oh! shut not the mouths of them that sing to you! It is true, these poor sinners have, in past times, offended their God by word, as well as by deed and thought; but now they speak not but words of humble prayers for mercy, and, when they will have been pardoned, how fervently will they not sing to their divine deliverer, and bless Him in canticles of grateful love!

Gospel – Matthew xx. 17‒28

At that time, Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart and said to them: “Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and will deliver him to the Gentiles, to be mocked, and to be scourged, and to be crucified, and the third day he will rise again.” Then came to Him the mother of the sons of Zebedee, with her sons, adoring and asking something of Him. Who said to her: “What wilt thou?” She said to Him: “Say that these my two sons may sit, the one on your right hand, and the other on your left, your kingdom.” And Jesus answering, said: “You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I will drink?” They said to Him: “We can.” He said to them: “Of my chalice, indeed, you will drink; but to sit on my right hand, or left hand, is not mine to give to you, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father.” And the ten hearing it, were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But Jesus called them to him, and said “You know that the princes of the gentiles lord it over them; and they that are the greater, exercise power on them. It will not be so among you, but whoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister; and he that will be first among you, will be your servant. Even as the Son of Man is not come to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give his life a redemption for many.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This is He that gave his own life in order to appease the anger of the Almighty King, and redeem His people from death. It is Jesus, the Son of the new Esther, and the Son of God, who comes forward to humble the pride of Aman, at the very time that this perfidious enemy of ours is making sure of his victory. He goes up to Jerusalem, for it is there that the great battle is to be fought. He foretells His Disciples all that is to happen. He will be delivered up to the chief priests, who will condemn Him to death, and hand Him over to the Roman Governor and soldiers. He will be mocked, scourged and crucified, but He will rise again on the third day. The Apostles heard this prophecy, for the Gospel says that Jesus took the twelve apart in order to tell them these things. Judas, consequently, was present; so were Peter, James, and John, the three that had witnessed the Transfiguration of their Master on Thabor, and had a clearer knowledge of His Divinity. And yet, all abandoned him. Judas betrayed Him, Peter denied Him, and the whole flock fled away in fear, when the Shepherd was in the power of His enemies. Not one of them recollected how He had said that on the third day He would rise again; unless it were Judas, who was perhaps encouraged to commit his crime by the reflection, that Jesus would soon triumph over His enemies and be again free. The rest could see no further than the scandal of the Cross; that put an end to all their faith, and they deserted their Master. What a lesson for all future generations of Christians! How very few there are, who look on the Cross, either for themselves or for others, as a sign of God’s special love!

We are men of little faith; we cannot understand the trials God sends to our brethren, and we are often tempted to believe that He has forsaken them, because He sends them the cross. We are men of little love, too; worldly tribulation seems an evil to us, and we think ourselves hardly dealt with at the very time that our God is showing us the greatest mercy. We are like the mother of the sons of Zebedee: we would hold a high and conspicuous place near the Son of God, forgetting that we must first merit it by drinking of the chalice that He drank, that is, the chalice of suffering. We forget, too, that saying of the Apostle: That we may be glorified with Jesus, we must suffer with him! (Romans viii. 17) He, the just by excellence, entered not into His rest by honours and pleasures ― the sinner cannot follow Him, save by treading the path of penance.

27 FEBRUARY – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, the birthday of the holy martyrs Alexander, Abundius, Antigonus and Fortunatus.

At Alexandria, the passion of St. Julian, martyr. Although he was so afflicted with the gout that he could neither walk nor stand, he was taken before the judge with two servants who carried him in a chair. One of these denied his faith, but the other named Eunus persevered with Julian in confessing Christ. Both were set on camels, led through the whole city, scourged and burned alive in the presence of the people.

In the same city, St. Besas, a soldier, who was denounced to the judge, because he had reproved those who insulted the martyrs just mentioned. As he continued to proclaim his attachment to the faith, he was beheaded.

At Seville in Spain, the birthday of St. Leander, bishop of that city, by whose preaching and labours, with the assistance of King Recared, the nation of the Visigoths was converted from the Arian impiety to the Catholic faith.

At Constantinople, in the time of the emperor Leo, the holy confessors Basil and Procopius, who fought courageously for the worship of holy images.

At Lyons, St. Baldomer, a man of God, whose tomb is made illustrious by frequent miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

27 FEBRUARY – TUESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – 3 Kings xvii. 8‒16

In those days the word of the Lord came to Elias the Thesbite, saying, “Arise and go to Sarephta of the Sidonians and dwell there, for I have commanded a widow woman there to feed you.” He arose and went to Sarephta, and when he was come to the gate of the city, he saw the widow woman gathering sticks, and he called her, and said to her, “Give me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” And when she was going to fetch it, he called after her, saying, “Bring me also, I beseech you, a morsel of bread in your hand.” And she answered, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread but only a handful of meal in a pot, and a little oil in a cruse; behold I am gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it, for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” And Elias said to her, “Fear not, but go and do as you have said; but first make for me of the same meal a little heart cake and bring it to me; and after make for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord the God of Israel, ‘The pot of meal will not waste, nor the cruse of oil be diminished, until the day on which the Lord will give rain on the face of the earth.’” She went and did according to the word of Elijah, and he ate, and she, and her house. And from that day the pot of meal wasted not, and the cruse of oil was not diminished, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke in the hand of Elijah.

Thanks be to God.

Gospel – Matthew xxiii. 1‒12

At that time, Jesus spoke to the multitudes and his disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have sat on the chair of Moses. All things therefore whatever they will say to you, observe and do; but do not do according to their works, for they say and do not. For they bind heavy and insupportable burdens and lay them on mens’ shoulders; but with a finger of their own they will not move them. And all their works they do for to be seen by men, for they make their phylacteries broad and enlarge their fringes. And they love the first places at feasts and the first chairs in the synagogues, and salutations in the market place, and to be called by men Rabbi. But be not you called Rabbi; for one is your master, and all you are brethren. And call none your father on earth, for one is your father, who is in heaven; neither be called masters; for one is your master, Christ. He that is the greatest among you will be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he that will humble himself will be exalted.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Saint Jerome:

Was there ever man gentler and kinder than the Lord? The Pharisees tempted Him; their craft was confounded, and, in the words of the Psalmist, “The arrows of babes have pierced them,” (Psalm lxiii. 8) and nevertheless, because of the dignity of their Priesthood and name, He exhorts the people to be subject to them, by doing according to their words, though not according to their works. By the words “Moses’ seat” we are to understand the teaching of the law. Thus also must we mystically take, “Sits in the seat of the scornful,” (Psalm i. 1) and likewise, “overthrew the seats of them that sold doves,” (Matthew xxi. 10) to describe doctrine.

“For they bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.” This is generally directed against all teachers who command things hard, and themselves do not even things easy. But it is to be remarked that the “shoulders,” the “fingers,” and the “binding” of the burdens, have a spiritual interpretation. “But all their works they do for to be seen of men.” Whoever therefore does anything for to be seen of men, the same is, so far, a Scribe and a Pharisee.

“They make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments. And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi.” Woe to us miserable sinners who have inherited the vices of the Pharisees! When the Lord had given the commandments of the law to Moses He added afterwards: “You will bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they will be as frontlets between your eyes” (Deuteronomy vi. 8). The sense of these words is: “My Law will be in your hand to order whatever you do, and ever before your eyes that you may meditate therein day and night.” But the Pharisees, by a bad interpretation, were accustomed to write on pieces of parchment the Decalogue of Moses, that is, the Ten Words of the Law, and to tie these pieces of parchment, plaited in a peculiar manner, on their foreheads, so as to make a sort of crown round their heads, which projected in front of their eyes, and always moved before them.

26 FEBRUARY – SAINT MARGARET OF CORTONA (Penitent)

Margaret of Cortona (so called from the town where she died) was born at Alviano in Tuscany. In her early youth she was a slave to the pleasures of this world and led a vain and sinful life in the city of Montepulciano. Her attention was one day attracted by a dog which seemed to wish her to follow it. She did so, and it led her to a pile of wood which covered a large hole. Looking in, she saw the body of her lover whose enemies had murdered him and thrown his mangled body into that place. She suddenly felt that the hand of God was upon her, and being overwhelmed with intense sorrow for her sins, she went forth and wept bitterly.

Margaret returned to Alviano, cut off her hair, laid aside her trinkets and, putting on a dark-coloured dress, she abandoned her evil ways and the pleasures of the world. She was to be found in the churches with a rope tied round her neck, prostrated on the ground and imploring pardon of all whom she had scandalised by her past life. She shortly afterwards set out for Cortona and there, in sackcloth and ashes, she sought how she might appease the divine anger. For three years she tried herself in the practice of every virtue and at the end of that time she obtained permission from the Friars Minors (under whose spiritual guidance she had put herself) to receive the habit of the Third Order.

From that time forward, her tears were almost incessant and the sighs which deep contrition wrung from her heart were such as to leave her speechless for hours. Her bed was the naked ground and her pillow, a stone or piece of wood so that she frequently passed whole nights in heavenly contemplation. Evil desires no longer tormented her, for her fervent spirit was so prompt that the weak flesh was made to labour and obey. The devil spared neither snares nor violent assaults by which to lead her from her holy purpose but she, like a strong woman, detected him by his words and drove him from her. This wicked spirit having tempted her to vain glory, she went into the streets and cried out with a loud voice that she had been a great sinner and deserved the worst of punishments. It was obedience to her confessor that alone prevented her from disfiguring her features, which had been the cause of much sin: for the long and severe penance she had imposed on herself had not impaired her beauty.

By these and such like exercises of a mortified life, Margaret cleansed her soul from the stains of her sins and gained such a victory over herself that the allurements of the world had not the slightest effect upon her, and our Lord rewarded her by frequently visiting her. She also received the grace she so ardently desired, of being allowed to have a share in the sufferings of Jesus and Mary: so much so, indeed, that at times she lay perfectly unconscious as though she were really dead. All this made her be looked up to as a guide in the path of perfection, and persons would come to her, even from distant countries, in order to seek her counsel. By the heavenly light granted her she could read the hearts and consciences of others, and could see the sins committed against our Lord in various parts of the world, for which she would offer up, in atonement, her own sorrow and tears.

Great indeed was the good Margaret effected by the ardent charity she bore to God and her neighbour. She healed the sick who came to her and drove out the devil from those possessed. A mother besought her, with many tears, to restore her child to life, which she did. Her prayers more than once averted war when on the point of being declared. In a word, both the living and the dead experienced the effects of her unbounded charity. While engaged in these manifold holy works, she relented not in the severity of her bodily mortifications, or in her contemplation of heavenly things. The two lives of Mary and Martha were admirably blended together in her, and rich in the merits of each, she besought our Lord to take her from this valley of tears and give her to enter the heavenly country. Her prayer was heard and the day and the hour of her death were revealed to her.

Laden with meritorious works and divine favours, her bodily strength began to fail. For the last seventeen days of her life her only food was that of conversation with her Creator. At length, after receiving the most holy Sacraments of the Church, with a face beaming with joy and her eyes raised lip to Heaven, her happy soul fled to its divine Spouse on the eighth of the Calends of March (February 22nd), in the fiftieth year of her age, the twenty-third of her conversion, in 1297. Her body, which even to this day is fresh, incorrupt and unaltered and sheds a sweet fragrance, is devoutly honoured in the Church called after her belonging to the Friars Minors. The many miracles which have been wrought at her shrine, have induced the Sovereign Pontiffs to promote devotion to Saint Margaret by the grant of many spiritual favours. She was canonised with great solemnity by Pope Benedict XIII on the 16th of May, which was the Feast of Pentecost in 1728.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Close to the faithful Virgins who form the court of Jesus, there stand those holy women whose repentance has merited for them a prominent place in the Calendar of the Church. They are the bright trophies of God’s mercy. They expiated their sins by a life of penance. The tears of their compunction wiped away their guilt. He that is Purity itself has found them worthy of His love, and, when Pharisees affect to be shocked at His allowing them to be near Him, He warmly defends them. Foremost among these is Mary Magdalene to whom much was forgiven because she loved much (Luke vii. 47), but there are two on the list of Penitent Saints whose names shine most brightly on the Calendar of this portion of the year and were, like Mary Magdalene, ardent in their love of the Divine Master whom they had once offended: these are Mary of Egypt and Margherita of Cortona. It is the second of these who today tells us the consoling truth, that if sin separate us from God, penance has the power of not only disarming His anger, but of forming between God and the sinner that ineffable bond of love which the Apostle alludes to when he says: “Where sin has abounded, grace has more abounded” (Romans v. 20).

*****

If the Angels of God rejoiced on the day of your conversion, when Margherita the sinner became the heroic and saintly Penitent, what a grand feast must they not have kept when your soul left this world and they led you to the eternal nuptials with the Lamb! You are one of the brightest trophies of Divine Mercy, and when we think of the Saint of Cortona, our hearts glow with hope. We are sinners. We have deserved Hell. And yet when we hear your name, Heaven and mercy seem so near to us. Yes, even to us, Margherita of Cortona! See how we are like you in your weakness and your wanderings from the fold, but you force us to hope that we may, like you, be converted, do penance and reach Heaven at last. The instrument of your conversion was death, and is not death busy enough around us? The sight of that corpse taught you, and with an irresistible eloquence, that sin is madness, for it exposes the soul to fall into infinite misery. How comes it that death is almost daily telling us that life is uncertain and that our eternal lot may be decided at any hour, and yet the lesson is so lost upon us? We are hard-hearted sinners, and we need your prayers, O fervent Lover of Jesus! The Church will soon preach to us the great Memento. She will tell us that we are but dust, and into dust must speedily return. Oh that this warning might detach us from the world and ourselves, and man us to the resolution of Penance, that port of salvation for them that have suffered shipwreck. Oh that it might excite within us the desire of returning to that God who knows not how to resist the poor soul who comes to Him, after all her sins, throws herself into the bosom of His mercy, and asks Him to forgive! Your example proves that we may hope for every grace. Pray for us, and exercise in our favour that maternal charity which filled your heart, even when you were living here below.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Pergen in Pamphylia, during the persecution of Decius, the birthday of the blessed bishop Nestor, who, praying night and day for the preservation of the flock of Christ, was put under arrest. As he confessed the name of the Lord with great joy and freedom, he was most cruelly tortured on the rack by order of the governor Pollio, and still courageously proclaiming that he would ever remain faithful to Christ, he was suspended on a cross and thus triumphantly went to heaven.

In the same place, the passion of Saints Papias, Diodorus, Conon and Claudian who preceded St. Nestor to martyrdom.

Also the holy martyrs Fortunatus, Felix and twenty-seven others.

At Alexandria, the bishop St. Alexander, an aged man held in great honour, who succeeded blessed Peter as bishop of that city. He expelled from the Church Arius, one of his priests, tainted with heretical impiety, and convicted by divine truth, and subsequently was one of the three hundred and eighteen Fathers who condemned him in the Council of Nicaea.

At Bologna, the bishop St. Faustinian, whose preaching strengthened and multiplied the faithful of that Church, which had been much afflicted during the persecution of Diocletian.

At Gaza in Palestine, in the time of the emperor Arcadius, St. Porphyry, bishop, who overthrew the idol Marnas and its temple, and after many sufferings went to rest in the Lord.

At Florence, St. Andrew, bishop and confessor.

In the territory of Arcis, St. Victor, confessor, whose eulogy was written by St. Bernard.

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

Thanks be to God.

26 FEBRUARY – MONDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT

 Epistle – Daniel ix. 15‒19

In those days Daniel prayed to the Lord, saying: “O Lord our God, who has brought forth your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and has made you a name as at this day; we have sinned, we have committed iniquity, O Lord, against all your justice. Let your wrath and indignation be turned away, I beseech you, from your city Jerusalem, and from your holy mountain. For, by reason of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are a reproach to all that are round about us. Now, therefore, our God, hear the supplication of your servant, and his prayers, and show your face on your sanctuary which is desolate, for your own sake. Incline, my God, your ear and hear; open your eyes and see our desolation, and the city on which your name is called; for it is not for our justifications that we present our prayers before your face, but for the multitude of your tender mercies. Lord, hear; Lord, be appeased; listen, and do; delay not for your own sake, my God; because your name is invoked on your city and on your people, Lord our God.”

Thanks be to God.

Gospel – John viii. 21‒29

At that time Jesus said to the multitude of the Jews: “I go, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.” The Jews, therefore said: “Will He kill himself, because he said: ‘Where I go, you cannot come?’ And He said to them: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I say to you that you will die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am He, you will die in your sin.” They said therefore to Him: “Who are you?” Jesus said to them: “The beginning, who also speak to you. Many things I have to speak, and to judge of you. But He that sent me is true; and the things I have heard of Him, the same I speak in the world.” Now they understood not that He called God His Father. Jesus therefore said to them: “When you will have lifted up the Son of man, then will you know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father has taught me, these things I speak: and He that sent me is with me, and He has not left me alone: for I do always the things that please Him.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Saint Augustine of Hippo:

The Lord spoke to the Jews, saying: “I go My way”—for, to the Lord Christ, death was a departure to that place from where He had come, and from which He had never departed. “I go My way,” says He, “and you will seek Me"—not from love, but from hatred. Yes, after He had withdrawn Himself from the sight of men, two classes sought Him, even they that loved, and they that hated Him; the one because they longed for His presence, the other because they were fain to hunt Him down. In the Psalms the Lord Himself says by His Prophet: “Refuge failed me, and no man cared for my soul.” (Psalms cxli. 5) And again He says in another Psalm: “Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul." (Psalms xxxiv. 5)

Thus does He blame them that seek not, and condemn such as seek. Yes, it is a good thing to seek the soul of Christ, as the disciples sought it; and an evil thing to seek it, as the Jews sought it; the first sought it to possess, the second to destroy it. What then does He bid us know will be the reward of such as seek it evilly in a perverse heart. “You will seek Me, and”—lest you think that you will do well so to seek Me, I tell you that you will die in your sins.” To seek Christ with bad intent, is as much as to die in sin, for it is to hate Him through Whom alone we can be saved.

Whereas men whose hope is in God ought to return good even for evil, those men returned evil for good. The Lord therefore told them beforehand, and, because He knew it, He let them know their coming end, how that they should die in their sins. Then He said further: “Where I go, you cannot come.” This He said in another place (xiii. 33) to His disciples, but He never said to them: “You will die in your sins.” What said He? The same words as to the Jews: “Where I go, you cannot come.” Yet, to the disciples, these words only deferred, they cut not away hope—for they, though for a little while they could not come where He was to go, were yet in the end to go there. Not so they to whom He foretold and said: “You will die in your sins.”

25 FEBRUARY – SAINT MATTHIAS (Apostle)

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

An Apostle of Jesus Christ, Saint Matthias is one of the Blessed choir which the Church would have us honour during the Season of Septuagesima. Matthias was one of the first to follow our Saviour, and he was an eye-witness of all His divine actions up to the very day of the Ascension. He was one of the seventy-two Disciples, but our Lord had not conferred on him the dignity of an Apostle. And yet, he was to have this great glory, for it was of him that David spoke when he prophesied that another should take the bishopric (Psalm cviii. 8; Acts i. 16) left vacant by the apostasy of Judas the Traitor. In the interval between Jesus’ Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the Apostolic College had to complete the mystic number fixed by our Lord Himself, so that there might be “The Twelve” on that solemn day when the Church, filled with the Holy Ghost, was to manifest herself to the Synagogue. The lot fell on Matthias (Acts i.). He shared with his Brother-Apostles in the Jerusalem persecution and, when the time came for the Ambassadors of Christ to separate, he set out for the countries allotted to him. Tradition tells us that these were Cappadocia and the provinces bordering on the Caspian Sea.

The virtues, labours and sufferings of Saint Matthias have not been handed down to us: this explains there being no proper Lessons on his Life, as there are for the Feasts of the rest of the Apostles. Clement of Alexandria records in his writings several sayings of our holy Apostle. One of these is so very appropriate to the spirit of the present Season that we consider it a duty to quote it. “It behoves us to combat the flesh and make use of it without pampering it by unlawful gratifications. As to the soul, we must develop her power by faith and knowledge.” How profound is the teaching contained in these few words! Sin has deranged the order which the Creator had established. It gave the outward man such a tendency to grovel in things which degrade him that the only means left us for the restoration of the likeness and image of God to which we were created is the forcibly subjecting the body to the spirit. But the spirit itself, that is, the soul, was also impaired by Original Sin and her inclinations were made prone to evil: what is to be her protection? Faith and knowledge. Faith humbles her, and then exalts and rewards her, and the reward is knowledge. Here we have a summary of what the Church teaches us during the two Seasons of Septuagesima and Lent. Let us thank the holy Apostle, in this his Feast, for leaving us such a lesson of spiritual wisdom and fortitude. The same traditions, which give us some slight information regarding the holy life of Saint Matthias, tell us that his Apostolic labours were crowned with the palm of martyrdom.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, St. Primitiva, martyr.

At Caesarea in Cappadocia, St. Sergius, martyr, of whose life a beautiful account still exists.

In Africa, the holy martyrs Montanus, Lucius, Julian, Victoricus, Flavian and their companions. They were disciples of St. Cyprian and suffered martyrdom under the emperor Valerian.

At Rouen, the passion of St. Prætextatus, bishop and martyr.

At Treves, St. Modestus, bishop and confessor.

In England, St. Ethelbert, king of Kent, converted to the faith of Christ by St. Augustine, bishop of the English.

At Jerusalem, the first finding of the head of Our Lord’s Precursor.

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

Thanks be to God.

25 FEBRUARY – SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The subject offered to our consideration on this Second Sunday is one of the utmost importance for the holy Season. The Church applies to us the lesson which our Saviour gave to three of His Apostles. Let us endeavour to be more attentive to it than they were.

Jesus was about to pass from Galilee into Judea, that He might go up to Jerusalem and be present at the Feast of the Pasch. It was that last Pasch, which was to begin with the immolation of the figurative lamb, and end with the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus would have His disciples know Him. His works had borne testimony to Him, even to those who were, in a manner, strangers to him. But as for His disciples, had they not every reason to be faithful to Him, even to death? Had they not listened to His words which had such power with them that they forced conviction? Had they not experienced His love, which it was impossible to resist? And had they not seen how patiently He had borne with their strange and untoward ways?

Yes, they must have known Him. They had heard one of their company, Peter, declare that He was the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matthew xvi. 16). Despite this, the trial to which their faith was soon to be put, was to be of such a terrible kind that Jesus would mercifully arm them against temptation by an extraordinary grace. The Cross was to be a scandal and stumbling block (1 Corinthians i. 23) to the Synagogue, and, alas, to more than it. Jesus said to His Apostles at the Last Supper: “All of you will be scandalised in me this night” (Matthew xxvi. 32).

Carnal-minded as they then were, what would they think when they should see Him seized by armed men, handcuffed, hurried from one tribunal to another, and He doing nothing to defend Himself! And when they found that the High Priests and Pharisees, who had till now been so often foiled by the wisdom and miracles of Jesus, had now succeeded in their conspiracy against Him — what a shock to their confidence! But, there was to be something more trying still: the people who but a few days before greeted him so enthusiastically with their hosannas would demand His execution, and He would have to die, between two thieves, on the Cross, amid the insults of His triumphant enemies.

Is it not to be feared that these disciples of His, when they witness His humiliations and sufferings, will lose their courage? They have lived in His company for three years, but when they see that the things He foretold would happen to Him are really fulfilled — will the remembrance of all they have seen and heard keep them loyal to Him? Or will they turn cowards and flee from Him? — Jesus selects three out of the number, who are especially dear to him: Peter, whom He has made the Rock, on which His Church is to be built, and to whom He has promised the Keys of the kingdom of heaven; James, the son of Thunder, who is to be the first Martyr of the Apostolic College; and John, James’s brother, and His own Beloved Disciple. Jesus has resolved to take them aside and show them a glimpse of that glory which until the day fixed for its manifestation He conceals from the eyes of mortals. He therefore leaves the rest of His disciples in the plain near Nazareth and goes in company with the three privileged ones, towards a high hill, called Thabor, which is a continuation of Libanus, and which the Psalmist tells us was to rejoice in the Name of the Lord (Psalm lxxxviii. 13) No sooner has He reached the summit of the mountain than the three Apostles observe a sudden change come over Him: His face shines as the sun, and His humble garments become white as snow. They observe two venerable men approach and speak with Him upon what He was about to suffer in Jerusalem. One is Moses, the lawgiver. The other is Elias, the Prophet, who was taken up from earth on a fiery chariot, without having passed through the gates of death. These two great representatives of the Jewish Religion, the Law and the Prophets, humbly adore Jesus of Nazareth. The three Apostles are not only dazzled by the brightness which comes from their Divine Master, but they are filled with such a rapture of delight, that they cannot bear the thought of leaving the place. Peter proposes to remain there for ever and build three tabernacles, for Jesus, Moses, and Elias. And while they are admiring the glorious sight and gazing on the beauty of their Jesus’s human nature, a bright cloud overshadows them, and a voice is heard speaking to them: it is the voice of the Eternal Father, proclaiming the Divinity of Jesus, and saying: “This is my beloved Son!” This transfiguration of the Son of Man, this manifestation of His glory, lasted but a few moments. His mission was not on Thabor.

It was humiliation and suffering in Jerusalem. He therefore withdrew into Himself the brightness He had allowed to transpire, and when He came to the three Apostles, who, on hearing the voice from the cloud, had fallen on their faces with fear —they could see no one save only Jesus. The bright cloud was gone. Moses and Elias had disappeared. What a favour they have had bestowed on them! Will they remember what they have seen and heard? They have had such a revelation of the Divinity of their dear Master! — is it possible that when the hour of trial comes they will forget it and doubt His being God? And when they see Him suffer and die, be ashamed of Him and deny Him? Alas! the Gospel has told us what happened to them. A short time after this, our Lord celebrated His Last Supper with His disciples. When the Supper was over, He took them to another mount, Mount Olivet, which lies to the east of Jerusalem. Leaving the rest at the entrance of the Garden, He advances with Peter, James, and John, and then says to them: “My soul is sorrowful even unto death: stay here and watch with me.” He then retires some little distance from them and prays to His Eternal Father. The Heart of our Redeemer is weighed down with anguish. When He returns to his three disciples, He is enfeebled by the agony He has suffered, and His garments are saturated with blood. The Apostles are aware that He is sad even unto death, and that the hour is close at hand when He is to be attacked are they keeping watch? Are they ready to defend Him? No: they seem to have forgotten Him. They are fast asleep, for their eyes are heavy (Matthew xxvi. 38). Yet a few moments, and all will have fled from Him, and Peter, the bravest of them all, will be taking his oath that he never knew the man.

After the Resurrection our three Apostles made ample atonement for this cowardly and sinful conduct, and acknowledged the mercy with which Jesus had sought to fortify them against temptation, by showing them his glory on Thabor a few days before His Passion. Let us not wait till we have betrayed Him. Let us at once acknowledge that He is our Lord and our God. We are soon to be keeping the anniversary of His Sacrifice; like the Apostles, we are to see Him humbled by His enemies and bearing, in our stead, the chastisements of Divine Justice. We must not allow our faith to be weakened when we behold the fulfilment of those prophecies of David and Isaias, that the Messias is to be treated as a worm of the earth, (Psalm xxi. 7) and be covered with wounds, so as to become like a leper, the most abject of men, and the Man of sorrows (Isaias liii. 3, 4). We must remember the grand things of Thabor, and the adorations paid Hhim by Moses and Elias, and the bright cloud, and the voice of the Eternal Father. The more we see Him humbled, the more must we proclaim His glory and divinity. We must join our acclamations with those of the Angels and the Four-and-Twenty Elders, whom St. John, (one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration), heard crying out with a loud voice: “The Lamb that is slain, is worthy to receive power and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and benediction!” (Apocalypse v. 12).

The Second Sunday of Lent is called, from the first word of the Introit, Reminiscere; and also Transfiguration Sunday, on account of the Gospel which is read in the Mass.

Epistle – 1 Thessalonians iv. 1‒7

Brethren, we pray and beseech you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us, how you ought to walk, and to please God, so also you would walk, that you may abound the more. For you know what precepts I have given to you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the passion of his lust, like the Gentiles that know not God: and that no man overreach nor circumvent his brother in business; because the Lord is the avenger of all these things, as we have told you before, and have testified. For God has not called us to uncleanness, but to sanctification, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Here the Apostle shows what manner of life should be followed by Christians, and the Church, by repeating his words, exhorts the faithful to profit of the present season of grace, and regain all the beauty of the image of God, which the grace of Baptism first gave them. A Christian is a vessel of honour, formed and enriched by the hand of God; let him therefore shun whatever would degrade his noble origin and turn him into a vessel of dishonour, fit only to be broken and cast with the unclean into the sink of hell. The Christian religion has so far ennobled man, that even his very body may share in the soul’s sanctity. On the other hand, she teaches us that this sanctity of the soul is impaired, yes altogether effaced, by the loss of the body’s purity. The whole man, therefore, both body and soul, is to be reformed by the practices of this holy Season. Let us purify the soul by the confession of our sins, by compunction of heart, by the love of God. And let us give back its dignity to the body by making it bear the yoke of penance, that so it may be, henceforth, subservient and docile to the soul, and, on the day of the general Resurrection, partake in her endless bliss.

Gospel – Matthew xvii. 1‒9

At that time, Jesus took Peter, and James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain apart. And He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as snow. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with Him. And Peter answering, said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, let us make here three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” As he was speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice spoke out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” And the disciples hearing this fell on their faces and were very much afraid. Jesus came and touched them, and said to them, “Arise, and fear not.” And they lifting up their eyes saw no-one but Jesus. As they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, “Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man has risen from the dead.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Thus did Jesus encourage His Apostles when the time of temptation was near. He sought to impress them with His glory that it might keep up theirfaith in that trying time when the outward eye would see nothing in His person but weakness and humiliation. Oh! the loving considerateness of divine grace, which is never wanting, and shows us, in so strong a light, the goodness and the justice of our God! Like the Apostles, we also have sinned. Like them, we have neglected to profit of the help that was sent us from heaven. We have shut our eyes against the light. We have forgotten the fair vision that was granted us, and which made us so fervent and happy — and we fell. We have not, then, been tempted above our strength (1 Corinthians x. 13), and it is indeed our own fault that we committed sin. The three Apostles were exposed to a terrible temptation when they beheld their Divine Master robbed of all His majesty, but how easy for them to resist the temptation by thinking of what they had seen but a few days before? Instead of that, they lost their courage and forgot prayer which would have brought their courage back ; and thus the favoured witnesses of Thabor became cowards and deserters in the Garden of Mount Olivet. There was but one thing left them to do — throw themselves on the loving mercy of their Jesus, as soon as He had triumphed over His enemies; they did so, and His generous Heart pardoned them.

Let us imitate them here too. We have abused the grace of God and rendered it fruitless by our want of correspondence. The fountain of this grace, is not yet dried up. As long as we are in this world we may always draw from this source which comes from the Blood and merits of our Redeemer. It is grace that is now urging us to the amendment of our lives. It is given to us in abundance during the present time, and it is given mainly by the holy exercises of Lent. Let us go up the mountain with Jesus. There we will not be disturbed by the noise of earthly things. Let us there spend our forty days with Moses and Elias who, long before us, sanctified this number by their fasts. Thus, when the Son of Man will have risen from the dead, we will proclaim the favours He has mercifully granted us on Thabor.

We may close our Sunday by reciting the following beautiful prayer taken from the Mozarabic Breviary:

O JESUS, our God, eternal first beginning of light, who willed that your servants should devote the seventh day to sanctification rather than to work, we come seeking how we may find you, but we are prevented by the habitual darkness of our conscience. We make efforts to arise, but we fall back again and are dejected. Therefore, we beseech you, cast not away from your face those who seek you, for you deigned to show yourself to those who did not seek you. Now is the season of the year when we are offering to your holy Name a tithe of our days. And of these days, seven have passed. Grant us your assistance in the path of this fatiguing journey, so that our proffered homage may be without blemish. Sweeten our toil by filling us with an ardent love of your Majesty, and awaken us from the sluggishness of the body by the fervent abundance of your charity. May our life, being thus in you, know no faltering, and our faith find its reward. Amen.

24 FEBRUARY – EMBER SATURDAY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This day was called Twelve-Lesson-Saturday, because, formerly, twelve passages from the Holy Scriptures used to be read, as on Holy Saturday. The Mass during which the Ordinations were given was celebrated during the night, so that by the time it was over, the Sunday had begun. Later on the Ordination Mass was said early on the Saturday as we now have it, but, in memory of the ancient practice, the Gospel for Saturday is repeated on the Sunday. The same is observed on the Saturday in the Advent Ember Week because the Ordination Mass of that Season was also anticipated.

Epistle – Deuteronomy xxvi. 12‒19

In those days Moses spoke to the people, saying: “When you have made an end of tithing all your fruits, that they may eat within your gates, and be filled; and you will speak thus in the sight of the Lord your God: ‘I have taken that which was sanctified out of my house, and I have given it to the Levite and to the stranger, and to the fatherless and to the widow, as you have commanded me; I have not transgressed your commandments, nor forgotten your precepts. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and have done all things as you have commanded me. Look from your sanctuary, and your high habitation of heaven, and bless your people Israel, and the land which you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ This day the Lord your God has commanded you to do these commandments and judgements, and to keep and fulfil them with all your heart, and with all your soul. You have chosen the Lord this day to be your God, and to walk in His ways and keep His ceremonies, and precepts, and judgements, and obey His command. And the Lord has chosen you this day to be His peculiar people, as He has spoken to you, and to keep all His commandments; and to make you higher than all nations which He has created, to His own praise, and name, and glory; that you may be a holy people of the Lord your God, as He has spoken.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

God here assures us that a nation which is faithful in observing the laws regarding the Divine Service will be blessed above other nations. History is one long illustration of the truth of this promise. Of all the nations which have fallen, there is not one that has not brought the chastisement on itself by its neglect of the Law of God. At times, the Almighty delays to strike, but it is only that the chastisement may be the more evident and produce a more salutary effect upon mankind. When we would know the future of a country, we need only observe how it comports itself with regard to the Laws of the Church. If its own Laws are based on the principles and practices of Christianity, that country is sound, in spite of certain weaknesses here and there: Revolutions may disturb its peace, but it will triumph over all. If the bulk of its people is faithful in the observance of external practices prescribed by the Church; for example, if they observe the Lord’s Day, and the holy Fast of Lent — there is a fund of morality in that country which is sure to draw down on it the blessings of heaven. Irreligious men will scoff at all this and call it superstition, prejudice of weak minds, and out of date for an age of Progress like ours; but if their theories were to rule, and a country, which up to this time had been practically Catholic, were to seek progress by infringing the law of Christian Ritual, it would, in less than a hundred years, find that public and private morality had lost ground, and its own security would be menaced. Man may talk and write as he likes — God wishes to be served and honoured by His people, and it is for Him to prescribe what are to be the forms of this service and adoration. Every injury offered to external worship, which is the great social link, is an injury to the interests of mankind. Even were there not the word of God for it, it is but just that such a consequence should follow.

Gospel – Matthew xvii. 1‒9

At that time, Jesus took Peter, and James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain apart. And He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as snow. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with Him. And Peter answering, said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, let us make here three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” As he was speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice spoke out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” And the disciples hearing this fell on their faces and were very much afraid. Jesus came and touched them, and said to them, “Arise, and fear not.” And they lifting up their eyes saw no-one but Jesus. As they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, “Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man has risen from the dead.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This Gospel, which, as we have already explained, is to be repeated tomorrow, is the one that is read in the Mass of today’s Ordinations, The following is the interpretation given by the ancient liturgists, among whom we may especially mention the learned Abbot Rupert.

The Church would have us think upon the sublime dignity which has been conferred on the newly ordained Priests. They are represented by the three Apostles who were taken by Jesus to the high mountain, and favoured with the sight of His glory. The rest of the disciples were left below; Peter, James and John were the only ones permitted to ascend to Thabor, and they, when the time should come, were to tell their fellow Apostles, and the whole world, how they had seen the glory of their Master, and heard the words of the Father declaring the Divinity of the Son of Man. This voice, says St. Peter, coming down to him from the excellent glory: This in my Beloved Son, in whom I have pleased myself; hear him. And this voice we heard, brought from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mount (2 Peter I. 17, 18).

In like manner, these Priests, who have just been ordained, and for whom you have been offering up your prayers and fast, will enter into the cloud with the Lord. They will offer up the Sacrifice of your salvation in the silence of the sacred Canon. God will descend into their hands, for your sakes, and though they are mortals and sinners, yet will they, each day, be in closest communication with the Divinity.

The forgiveness of your sins, which you are now preparing to receive from your Heavenly Father, is to come to you through their hands; their superhuman power will bring it down from heaven upon your souls. It is thus that God has cured our pride. The Serpent said to us, through our first parents: “Eat of this fruit, and you will be as gods.” We unfortunately believed the tempter, and the fruit of our transgression was death. God took pity on us and resolved to save us, but it was to be by the hands of men that He would save us, and this in order to humble our haughtiness. His own Eternal Son became man, and He left other men after Him, to whom He said: “As the Father has sent me, I also send you” (John xx. 21). Let us, then, show honour to these men who have this very day been raised to so high a dignity. One of the duties imposed on us by our holy religion is respect to the priesthood.

This is Saturday: let us have recourse to Mary, the Refuge of Sinners. Let us put under her maternal protection the humble penances we are now going through, and for this end, we may make use of the following Sequence taken from the Cluny Missal.

Hail Mary, full of grace! Dear Mother of Jesus, and hope of the world!

O Gate of heaven! Temple of God! Haven of the sea, where sinners confidently seek shelter and repose.

You are the worthy Spouse of the Great King, and, by your powerful prayers, you are kind and loving to all.

You are light to the blind, and a sure path to such as are lame.

You are by your loving affection, both Martha and Mary to the needy.

You were the Flower among the thorns; the Flower that, by its rich graces, bloomed to the divine Flower, your Jesus.

You did speak your word, and then conceived the Word; you gave birth to the King of kings, you who were a pure Virgin.

You were ever faithful to this King, your Child; and, using a mother’s privilege, you fed Him at your breast.

Now, you are united with Him, and in reward for your merits, you are made the Queen of heaven and earth.

Then pray for us, O Queen, to Him that is our King, beseeching Him to pardon us poor fallen sinners. Show us your wonted clemency, and, having obtained us the new life of remission of our sins, bring us to the kingdom, there to reign forever. Amen.

23 FEBRUARY – SAINT PETER DAMIAN (Cardinal and Doctor of the Church)

Peter was born at Ravenna of respectable parents in 988 AD. His mother, wearied with caring for a large family, abandoned him when he was a baby. However, one of her female servants found him in an almost dying state and took care of him until his mother, repenting of her unnatural conduct, consented to treat him as her child. After the death of his parents, one of his brothers, a most harsh man, took him as a servant or slave. It was about this period of his life that he performed an action which evinced his virtue and his filial piety. He happened to find a large sum of money, but instead of using it for his own wants, he gave it to a priest, begging him to offer up the Holy Sacrifice for the repose of his father’s soul. Another of his brothers, called Damian (after whom, it is said, he was named), had Peter educated. So rapid and great was the progress he made in his studies that he was the admiration of his masters. He became so proficient in the liberal sciences that he was made to teach them in the public schools, which he did with great success. During all this time it was his study to bring his body into subjection to the spirit, and to this end he wore a hair-shirt under an outwardly comfortable dress, and practised frequent fasting, watching and prayer. Being in the very ardour of youth, and being cruelly buffeted by the sting of the flesh, during the night he would go plunge himself into a frozen pool of water to quench the impure flame which tormented him. He would also make pilgrimages to holy sanctuaries and recite the entire Psaltery. His charities to the poor were unceasing, and when frequently he provided them with a meal, he would wait upon them himself.

Out of a desire to lead a still more perfect life, Peter became a religious in the Monastery of Avellino in the diocese of Gubbio of the Order of the Monks of Holy Cross of Fontavellana which was founded by the blessed Ludolphus, a disciple of Saint Romuald. Being sent by his Abbot first to the Monastery of Pomposia, and then to that of Saint Vincent of Pietra-Pertusa, he edified both houses by his preaching, admirable teaching and holy life. At the death of the Abbot of Avellino he was recalled to that monastery and was made its superior. The institute so benefited by his government, not only by the new monasteries which he founded in several places, but also by the very saintly regulations he drew up, that he was justly regarded as the second founder of the Order and its brightest ornament. Houses of other Orders, Canons and even entire congregations of the faithful benefited from Peter’s enlightened zeal. He was a benefactor, in more ways than one, to the diocese of Urbino. He aided the Bishop Theuzo in a most important suit, and assisted him by advice and work in the right administration of his diocese. His spirit of holy contemplation, corporal austerities and saintly tenor of his whole conduct gained for him so high a reputation that Pope Stephen IX, in spite of Peter’s extreme reluctance, created him a Cardinal of the holy Roman Church and appointed him Bishop of Ostia. The saint proved himself worthy of these honours by the exercise of the most eminent virtues, and by the faithful discharge of his episcopal office.

It would be impossible to describe the services Peter rendered to the Church and the Sovereign Pontiffs during those most trying times by his learning, his prudence as legate and his untiring zeal. His life was one continued struggle against simony and the heresy of the Nicolaites. He purged the Church of Milan of these disorders and brought her into subjection to the Holy See. He courageously resisted the anti-popes Benedict and Cadolaus. He deterred King Henry IV of Germany from an unjust divorce of his wife. He restored the people of Ravenna to their allegiance to the Roman Pontiff and absolved them from interdict. He reformed the abuses which had crept in among the Canons of Velletri. There was scarcely a single Cathedral Church in the Province of Urbino that had not experienced the beneficial effects of Peter's holy zeal. Thus, that of Gubbio, which was for some time under his care, was relieved by him of many evils. And other Churches that needed his help found him as earnest for their welfare as though he were their own bishop. When he obtained permission to resign as Cardinal and Bishop, he relented nothing of his former charity but was equally ready in doing good to all. He was instrumental in propagating many devout practices including fasting on Fridays in honour of the Holy Cross, reciting the Little Office of our Lady, the keeping the Saturday as a day especially devoted to Mary, and the taking the discipline in expiation of past sins.

After a life which had edified the world by holiness, learning, miracles and glorious works, on his return from Ravenna to which he had been sent as legate, Peter fell asleep in Christ on the eighth of the Calends of March (February 23rd) at Faenza in 1072 AD. His relics, which are kept in the Cistercian Church of that town, are devoutly honoured by the faithful and many miracles are wrought at the holy shrine. The inhabitants of Faenza chose him as the patron of their city, having several times experienced his protection when threatened by danger. His Mass and Office, which were kept under the rite of Confessor and Bishop, had been long observed in several Dioceses and by the Camaldolese Order, but they were extended to the whole Church by a decree of the Congregation of Sacred Rites which was approved by Pope Leo XII who also added to the name of the Saint that of Doctor.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

It is the feast of the austere reformer of the eleventh century, Peter Damian, the precursor of the holy Pontiff Gregory VII, that we are called upon to celebrate today. To him is due a share of that glorious regeneration which was effected at that troubled period when judgement had to begin at the House of God. The life he had led under the monastic Rule had fitted him for the great contest. So zealously did he withstand the disorders and abuses of his times that we may attribute to him, at least in great measure, the ardent faith of the two centuries which followed the scandals of the tenth. The Church ranks him among her Doctors on account of his admirable writings, and his penitential life ought to excite us to be fervent in the work we have in hand, the work of our conversion.

*****

Your soul was inflamed by the zeal of God’s House, O Peter! God gave you to His Church in those sad times when the wickedness of the world had robbed her of well nearly all her beauty. You had the spirit of an Elias within you, and it gave you courage to waken the servants of the Lord: they had slept, and while they were asleep, the enemy came and the field was oversown with tares (Matthew xiii. 25). Then did better days dawn for the Spouse of Christ. The promises made her by our Lord were fulfilled, but who was the Friend of the Bridegroom? (John iii. 29). Who was the chief instrument used by God to bring back to His House its ancient beauty? A Saint who bore the glorious name of Peter Damian! In those days the Sanctuary was degraded by secular interference. The Princes of the Earth said: “Let us possess the Sanctuary of God for an inheritance” (Psalm lxxxii. 13). The Church which God intended to be free was but a slave in the power of the rulers of this world, and the vices which are inherent to human weakness defiled the Temple. But God had pity on the Spouse of Christ, and for her deliverance he would use human agency: he chose you, Peter, as his principal co-operator in restoring order. Your example and your labours prepared the way for Gregory, the faithful and dauntless Hildebrand into whose hands the keys once placed, and the work of regeneration was completed. You have fought the good fight. You are now in your rest, but your love of the Church and your power to help, are greater than ever. Watch, then, over her interests. Obtain for her Pastors that Apostolic energy and courage which alone can cope with enemies so determined as hers are. Obtain for her Priests the holiness which God demands from them that are the salt of the Earth (Matthew v. 13). Obtain for the faithful the respect and obedience they owe to those who direct them in the path of salvation. You were not only the Apostle, you were moreover the model, of penance in the midst of a corrupt age. Pray for us that we may be eager to atone for our sins by works of mortification. Excite within our souls the remembrance of the sufferings of our Redeemer so that His Passion may urge us to repentance and hope. Increase our confidence in Mary, the Refuge of Sinners, and make us, like yourself, full of filial affection towards her and of zeal that she may be honoured and loved by those who are around us.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The vigil of the Apostle St. Matthias.

At Sirmium, St. Sirenus, monk and martyr. By order of the emperor Maximian he was arrested and beheaded for confessing that he was a Christian.

In the same place, the birthday of seventy-two holy martyrs who ended the combat of martyrdom in that city and took possession of the everlasting kingdom.

At Rome, St. Polycarp, priest, who with blessed Sebastian converted many to the faith of Christ, and by his exhortations led them to the glory of martyrdom.

In the city of Astorga, St. Martha, virgin and martyr, under the emperor Decius and the pro-consul Paternus.

At Constantinople, St. Lazarus, a monk whom the Iconoclast emperor Theophilus ordered to be put to the torture for having painted holy images. His hand was burned with a hot iron, but being healed by the power of God, he painted anew the holy pictures that had been defaced, and finally rested in peace.

At Brescia, St. Felix, bishop.

At Seville in Spain, St. Florentius, confessor.

At Todi, St. Romana, virgin, who was baptised by Pope St. Sylvester. She led a heavenly life in caves and dens, and wrought glorious miracles.

In England, St. Milburga, virgin, daughter of the king of Mercia.

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

Thanks be to God.

23 FEBRUARY – EMBER FRIDAY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – Ezechiel xviii. 20‒28

Thus says the Lord God: “The soul that sins, the same will die: the son will not bear the iniquity of the father, and the father will not bear the iniquity of the son: the justice of the just will be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon him. But if the wicked does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keep all my commandments, and does judgement and justice; living he will live, and will not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he has done; in his justice, which he has wrought, he will live.” “Is it my will that a sinner should die,” says the Lord God, “and not that he should be converted from his ways and live? But if the just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity according to all the abominations which the wicked man uses to work, will he live? All his justices which he has done, will not be remembered; in the prevarication, by which he has prevaricated, and in his sin, which he has committed, in them he will die. And you have said: The way of the Lord is not right. Hear ye, therefore, house of Israel: Is it my way that is not right, and are not rather your ways perverse? For when the just turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity, he will die in it; in the injustice that he has wrought, he will die. And when the wicked turns himself away from his wickedness which he has wrought, and does judgement and justice, he will save his soul alive. Because he considers and turns away himself from all his iniquities which he has wrought, he will surely live and not die,” says the Lord Almighty.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us not forget the ancient discipline of the Church, during Lent. We should frequently be at a loss to understand her Liturgy of this Season, unless we picture her to ourselves as preparing the Public Penitents for a re-participation in the Mysteries. But first they must he reconciled with God whom they have offended. Their soul is dead by sin. Can it be restored to life? Yes, we have God’s word for it.

The Lesson from the Prophet Ezechiel, which the Church began yesterday for the Catechumens, is continued today for the benefit of the Public Penitents. If the wicked does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keep all my commandments, and does judgement and justice; living he will live, and will not die. But, his iniquities are upon him, and rise up against him, crying to heaven for eternal vengeance! And yet, that God, who knows all things and forgets nothing, assures us, that He will not remember iniquities which have been redeemed by penance. Such is the affection of His fatherly heart that He will forget the outrage offered Him by his son, if this son will but return to his duty.

Thus, then, our Penitents are to be reconciled; and on the Feast of the Resurrection, they will be associated with the just, because God will have forgotten their iniquities; they themselves will be just men. Thus, it is, that the Liturgy, which never changes, brings frequently before us her ancient discipline of public penance. Nowadays sinners are not visibly separated from the faithful; the Church doors are not closed against them; they frequently stand near the holy altar, in the company of the just; and when God’s pardon descends upon them, the faithful are not made cognizant of the grace by any special and solemn rite.

Let us here admire the wonderful mercy of our Heavenly Father, and profit by the indulgent discipline of our holy Mother the Church. The lost sheep may enter the fold at any hour and without any display; let him take advantage of the condescension thus shown him, and never more wander from the Shepherd who thus mercifully receives him. Neither let the just man be puffed up with self-complacency, by preferring himself to the lost sheep: let him rather reflect on those words of today’s Lesson: If the just man turn himself away from his justice, and do iniquity... the justices which he has done will not be remembered. Let us, therefore, tremble for ourselves, and have compassion on sinners. One of the great means on which the Church rests her hopes for the reconciliation of sinners is the fervent prayers offered up for them by the faithful during Lent.

Gospel – John v. 1‒15

At that time, there was a festival of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem a pond called Probatica, which in Hebrew is named Bethsaida, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick, of blind, of lame, and of withered, waiting for the moving of the water. And the Angel of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond; and the water was moved. And he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water, was made whole of whatever infirmity he lay under. And there was a certain man there, that had been eight-and-thirty years under his infirmity. Him, when Jesus had seen lying, and knew that he had been now a long time, He said to him: “Will you be made whole?” The infirm man answered Him: “Sir, I have no man. when the water is troubled, to put me into the pond; for while I am coming, another goes down before me.” Jesus said to him: “Arise, take up your bed, and walk.” And immediately the man was made whole, and he took up his bed and walked. And it was the Sabbath that day. The Jews therefore said to him that was cured: “It is the Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” He answered them: “He that made me whole, He said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” They asked him, therefore: “Who is that man that said to you, ‘Take up your bed, and walk?’” But he that was healed, knew not who it was, for Jesus went aside from the multitude standing in the place. Afterwards Jesus found him in the temple, and sad to him: “Behold, you are made whole: sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to you.” The man went his way, and told the Jews that it was Jesus that had made him whole.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us return to our Penitents of the ancient discipline of the Church. Those of the present day, and we ourselves, can easily make a practical application of the reflections suggested by the Gospel. We have just been told by the Prophet that God is ever ready to pardon a penitent sinner. But how is this pardon to be administered? Who is to pronounce the sentence of absolution? The answer is given in our Gospel. He that had been thirty-eight years under his infirmity is a figure of the inveterate sinner, and yet he is made whole and recovers the use of his limbs. How has the cure been wrought? First of all, the infirm man says to Jesus: “I have no man when the water is troubled, to put me into the pond.” The water would have cured him but, observe, he has need of some man to lead him to the water. This man is the Son of God, and He became Man in order to heal us. As Man He has received power to forgive sins, and, before leaving this earth, He gives that same power to other men and says to them: “Whose sins you will forgive, they are forgiven them” (John xx. 23). Our Penitents, then, are to be reconciled with God by virtue of this supernatural power, and the infirm man who takes up his bed and walks is a figure of the sinner whose sins have been forgiven him by the Church, by the divine power of the Keys.

In the third century a heretic named Novatian taught that the Church has not the power to forgive sins committed after Baptism. This doctrine was condemned by the Councils and Holy Doctors of the Church, and in order to offer to the faithful some outward expression of the power given to the Son of Man of forgiving sins to such as repent, there was painted on the walls of the places where the Christians used to assemble the infirm man of our Gospel walking with his bed on his shoulders. This consoling symbol is frequently met with in the frescoes which were painted, even in the Age of the Martyrs, in the Roman Catacombs. They show us how the early Christians were taught to understand this passage of the Gospel, which the Church, now so many centuries ago, has assigned to this day.

The water of the Probatica was also a symbol, and here our Gospel conveyed a special instruction to the Catechumens. It was by water that they were to be made whole, and by water endowed with a supernatural virtue. The miraculous pond of Jerusalem could only cure the body, and that at rare intervals, and the favour could only be conferred on a single individual. But now that the Angel of the Great Counsel has come down from heaven and sanctified the waters of the Jordan, the Probatica is everywhere: it is giving health to the souls of men without any limitation either of time or number. Man is the minister of this grace, but it is the Son of God, become the Son of Man, who works by the human minister.

Let us also consider the multitude of sick, who, as the Gospel tells us, were waiting for the moving of the water. They represent the various classes of sinners who are seeking during this holy time to be converted to their God. There are the Sick, or, as the Latin word has it, the Languid; these are the tepid, who never thoroughly give up their evil habits. There are the Blind, these are they whose spiritual eye is dead. There are the Lame, who limp and falter in the path of salvation, and, lastly, there are the Withered, who seem incapable of doing a single good action. All are waiting for the favourable moment. Jesus will soon be with them, and will say to each of them: “Will you be made whole?” Let them answer this question with love and confidence and they will be healed.

O Lord, whose Passion has merited for us the deliverance from our passions, grant that my carnal affections may be quenched by the virtue of your divine Cross, and that I may contemplate your holy Resurrection. Fount of purity, most merciful Saviour, preserve us by the merits of this our Fast.

Behold us here prostrate before you. Disdain not our uplifted hands, O sovereign Lord of the Angels who stretched forth your hands on your Cross for all mankind.

The snares of the enemy have involved me in darkness. Enlighten me, Christ, who, when hanging on the Cross, obscured the sun, and bring to your faithful the rays of pardon. May I walk in the light of your commandments, and, being purified, come to the brightness of your saving Resurrection.

O my Saviour, and Christ, hanging like a vine on the wood of the Cross, you enriched the whole earth with the wine of immortality. Therefore do I cry out to you: I was miserably blinded by the intoxication of sin, but you bestowed on me the sweet refreshment of true compunction. Grant me now the strength that I may fast from sinful pleasures, for you are a good and merciful God.

Wonderful power of your Cross! It was your Cross that made the plant of abstinence to bloom in the Church, after having uprooted the old intemperance of Adam in Eden. From the intemperance came death on mankind, but from the other, the ever pure stream of immortality flowed on the world, for from your side, as from a Fount of Paradise, there streamed your life-giving Blood, mingled with water, and from these have all creatures received life. Therefore do we beseech you, God of Israel, to grant us, in your great mercy, that we may experience the sweet delights of fasting.