6 OCTOBER – SAINT BRUNO (Confessor)

Bruno was born in 1030 at Cologne in Germany. From from his very cradle he gave great promise of future sanctity. Favoured by divine grace, the gravity of his character made him shun all childishness so that, even at that age one might have foreseen in him the future father of monks and restorer of the anchoretical life. His parents, who were distinguished for virtue and nobility, sent him to Paris where he made great progress in philosophy and theology, and took the degrees of doctor and master in both faculties. Soon after this, he was, for his remarkable virtue, appointed to a canonry in the church of Rheims.

After some years, Bruno, with six of his friends, renounced the world and betook himself to Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble. On learning the cause of their coming, the Bishop understood that they had been signified by the seven stars he had seen falling at his feet in his dream of the previous night. He therefore made over to them some wild mountains called the Chartreuse, belonging to his diocese, and himself conducted them there. After having there lived an eremitical life for several years, Bruno was summoned to Rome by Pope Urban II who had been his disciple. In the great trials through which the Church was then passing, the Pontiff availed himself of the Saint’s prudence and knowledge for some years, until Bruno, refusing the archbishopric of Reggio, obtained leave to retire. Attracted by the love of solitude he went to a desert place near Squillace in Calabria. Count Roger of Calabria was one day hunting when his dogs began to bark round the Saint’s cave. The Count entered and found Bruno at his prayers. He was so struck by his holiness that from then on he greatly honoured him and his companions and supplied their needs. His generosity met with its reward. A little later, when Count Roger was besieging Capua, and Sergius, an officer of his guard, had determined to betray him, Bruno, who was still living in his desert, appeared to the Count in sleep, revealed the treason to him, thus saving him from imminent peril.

At length, full of virtues and merits, and as renowned for holiness as for learning, Bruno fell asleep in our Lord in 1101, and was buried in the monastery of Saint Stephen built by Count Roger, where he is greatly honoured to this day. He was canonised by Pope Gregory XV in 1623.

In art Saint Bruno is represented contemplating the crucifix, with the words on a scroll issuing from his mouth, “O bonitas!” (O goodness!) or, “Ecce elongavi fugiens, et mansi in solitudine” (Behold, I wander far off, and I abode in the wilderness) (Psalm liv. 8). Sometimes he is shown bearing an olive-branch, or a crucifix the ends of which are foliated with olive leaves, on account of an antiphon in the Carthusian Breviary, which likens him to the olive taking root and bearing fruit in the most barren soil.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Among the divers religious families, none is held in higher esteem by the Church than the Carthusian. The prescriptions of the corpus juris determine that a person may pass from any other order into this without deterioration. And yet it is of all the least given to active works. Is not this a new, and not the least convincing proof that outward zeal, however praiseworthy is not the only, nor the principal thing, in God’s sight? The Church, in her fidelity, values all things according to the preferences of her divine Spouse. Now our Lord esteems His elect not so much by the activity of their works, as by the hidden perfection of their lives — that perfection which is measured by the intensity of the divine life, and of which it is said: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Maathew v. 48). Again, it is said of this divine life: “You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians iii. 3). The Church then considering the solitude and silence of the Carthusian, his abstinence even to death, his freedom to attend to God through complete disengagement from the senses and from the world, sees in it the guarantee of a perfection which may indeed be met with elsewhere, but here appears to be far more secure. Hence, though the field of labour is ever widening, though the necessity of warfare and struggle grows ever more urgent, she does not hesitate to shield with the protection of her laws, and to encourage with the greatest favours, all who are called by grace to the life of the desert. The reason is not far to seek. In an age when every effort to arrest the world in its headlong downward career seems vain, has not man greater need than ever to fall back upon God? The enemy is aware of it, and therefore the first law he imposes upon his votaries is to forbid all access to the way of the counsels, and to stifle all life of adoration, expiation and prayer. For he well knows that, though a nation may appear to be on the verge of its doom, there is yet hope for it as long as the best of its sons are prostrate before the Majesty of God.

Look at the history of the West in the eleventh century. If there ever was a time when it seemed urgent that the cloister, far from increasing the number of its inmates, should send them forth to the last man for the active service of the Church, it was surely the epoch when the flesh, victorious over the spirit, posted up its triumphs even in the sanctuary: when, for each other’s sake, Caesar and Satan held the pastors of the people in bondage. Nevertheless, at that very time, not only Cluny became the stronghold of Christianity, but Camaldoli, Vallombrosa, the Charterhouse, and finally Citeaux, were founded and grew strong. So great was the demand even in the monastic life itself, for still closer retreat, by souls athirst for immolation and penance. And yet, so far from complaining of being abandoned, the world reckoned among its most glorious deliverers Romuald, John Gualbert, Bruno and Robert of Molesmes. Moreover the century was great in the faith, and in that energy of faith which knew how to apply fire and steel to the festering wounds of humanity, great in the uprightness with which it recognised the necessity of expiation for such crying evils. Society, represented by its choicest members before the feet of God, received new life from Him.

This Feast, then, is the world’s homage to one of its greatest benefactors. The reader may learn more about our Saint by having recourse to his works: his letters, breathing the fragrance of solitude and written in the beautiful style known to the monks of that heroic age, and his commentaries on Saint Paul and on the Psalms, which are clear and concise, revealing at once his science and his love of Jesus and of the Church. According to the custom of the time, the breve depositionis announcing his death was sent round from church to church, and returned covered with testimonies of universal veneration. Nevertheless his disciples were more intent on imitating his holiness than on having it recognised by the Apostolic See. Four centuries after his death, Leo X without any process, on the simple evidence of the cause, authorised the Carthusians to pay public honour to their Father. A hundred years later, in 1622, Gregory XV extended his feast to the entire world.

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BLESS, O Bruno, the grateful joy of God’s children. With their whole hearts they acquiesce in the judgement of their Mother the Church when, among the beautiful, rich fruit-trees in our Lord’s garden, she hides not her predilection for those whose silent shade attracts the preference of her divine Spouse. “Show me, O you whom my soul loves where you feed, where you lie in the midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of your companions” (Canticles i. 6). Thus speaks the Bride in the sacred Canticle. And hearing the divine answer extolling the better part, you mingle your voice with the song of our Lord and the Church, saying: “O solitude and silence of the desert. Hidden joy. Good things unknown to the multitude, but known to the valiant. There are the young shoots of virtue carefully cultivated: there labour and rest are one and the same, and are nourished with fruits of Paradise: There the eye acquires that look which wounds the Bridegroom’s heart (Canticles iv. 9) and that purity, which beholds God (Matthew v. 8). There is Rachel in all her beauty, more loved by Jacob than Lia, although less fruitful. And her sons, Joseph and Benjamin, are their father’s favourites.”

Your sons cherish, in their hereditary peace, this privilege of the perfect even in these days of feverish excitement. Simple as themselves is the history of their Order: full of the supernatural, yet seeming to eschew the marvellous and the miraculous, while the heroism of all is so great, that very few stand out from the rest as remarkable for sanctity. Preserve this your own spirit in your children, O Bruno, and make us profit by their example. For their life silently preaches to the world the Apostle’s doctrine: “Concerning spiritual things... I show to you yet a more excellent way. If I speak with the tongues of men and of Angels, and have not charity... if I should have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains... and if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing. Charity never falls away: whether prophecies will be made void, or tongues will cease, or knowledge will be destroyed. Do not become children in sense, but in malice be children, and in sense be perfect” (1 Corinthians xii. xiii. xiv.)

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Laodicea, the blessed bishop and martyr Sagar, one of the first disciples of the blessed Apostle St. Paul.

At Capua, the birthday of the holy martyrs Marcellus, Castus, Æmilius and Saturninus.

At Agen in France, the birthday of St. Faith, virgin and martyr, whose example encouraged blessed Caprasius so much that he happily terminated his combat by martyrdom.

Also St. Erotis, martyr, who, being inflamed with the love of Christ, triumphed over the violence of the flames.

At Treves, the commemoration of almost numberless martyrs who were put to death for the faith in various manners under the governor Rictiovarus in the persecution of Diocletian.

At Auxerre, St. Eomanus, bishop and martyr.

At Oderzo, St. Magnus, bishop, whose body rests at Venice.

At Naples, the decease of St. Mary Frances of the Five Wounds of Our Lord, a nun of the Third Order of St. Francis. On account of her reputation for virtues and the working of miracles, she was placed among the holy virgins by Blessed Pius IX.

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

Thanks be to God.

5 OCTOBER – SAINT PLACIDUS AND COMPANIONS (Martyrs)

Placidus was born in 515 AD. A Roman by birth and son of Tertullus, he belonged to the noble family of the Anicii. Eutychius and Victorinus were brothers of Placidus and Flavia was their sister. Offered to God while still a child, Placidus was entrusted to Saint Benedict and made such progress in sanctity and in the monastic life as to become one of his principal disciples. He was present when the holy Father obtained from God by prayer a fountain of water in the solitude of Subiaco. While still a boy, being sent one day to draw water, he fell into the lake but was miraculously saved by the monk Maurus who at the command of the holy Father ran dry-shod over the water. Later on he accompanied Saint Benedict to Monte Cassino. At the age of 21 Placidus was sent into Sicily to defend, against certain covetous persons, the goods and lands which his father had given to Monte Cassino. On the way he performed so many great miracles, that he arrived at Messina with a reputation for sanctity. He built a monastery on his paternal estate not far from the harbour, and gathered together Donatus and Firmatus, deacons, Faustus and thirty other monks, being thus the first to introduce the monastic life into the island.

Nothing could be more placid or more humble than his behaviour, and he surpassed everyone in prudence, gravity, kindness and unruffled tranquillity of mind. He often spent whole nights in the contemplation of heavenly things, only sitting down for a short time when overpowered by the necessity of sleep. Placidus was most zealous in observing silence and when it was necessary to speak the subjects of his conversation were the contempt of the world and the imitation of Christ. His fasts were most severe, and he abstained all the year round from flesh and every kind of milk-meat. In Lent he took only bread and water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The rest of the week he passed without any food. He never drank wine, and always wore a hair-shirt. So numerous and so remarkable were the miracles he worked, that the sick came to him in crowds to be cured, not only from the neighbourhood, but also from Etruria and Africa. But Placidus, in his great humility, worked all his miracles in the name of Saint Benedict, attributing them to his merits. His holy example and the wonders he wrought caused the Christian faith to spread rapidly.

In the fifth year after his arrival in Sicily, the Saracens made a sudden incursion, and seized upon Placidus and his thirty monks while they were singing the Night Office in the church. At the same time were taken Eutychius and Victorinus, his brothers, and his sister the virgin Flavia, who had all come from Rome to visit him, and also Donatus, Faustus and the deacon Firmatus. Donatus was beheaded on the spot. The rest were taken before Manucha, the chief of the pirates. And as they firmly refused to adore his idols, they were beaten with rods, and cast, bound hand and foot, into prison without food. Every day they were beaten afresh, but God supported them. After many days they were again led before the tyrant, and as they still stood firm in the faith, they were again repeatedly beaten, then stripped of their clothes and hung, head downwards, over thick smoke to suffocate. They were left for dead, but the next day were found alive and miraculously healed of their wounds. The tyrant then addressed himself to the virgin Flavia. But finding he could gain nothing by threats or promises, he ordered her to be stripped and hung by the feet from a high beam, insulting her meanwhile upon her nakedness.

But the virgin answered: “Man and woman have the same Author and Creator, God. Hence neither my sex, nor this nakedness which I endure for love of Him, will be any disadvantage to me in His eyes who for my sake chose not only to be stripped, but also to be nailed to a cross.” Manucha enraged at this reply ordered her to be beaten and tortured with the smoke, and then handed her over to be dishonoured. At the virgin’s prayer, God struck all who attempted to approach her with sudden stiffness and pain in all their limbs. The tyrant next attacked Placidus, the virgin’s brother, who tried to convince him of the vanity of his idols. Manucha thereupon commanded his mouth and teeth to be broken with stones, and his tongue to be cut out by the root. But the martyr spoke as clearly and easily as before. The barbarian grew more furious at this miracle and commanded that Placidus, with his sister and brethren should be crushed under an enormous weight of anchors and millstones. But even this torture was powerless to hurt them. Finally, 36 of Placidus’ family, with their leader and several others, were beheaded on the shore near Messina and gained the palm of martyrdom on the third of the Nones of October in 539. Gordian, a monk of that monastery, who had escaped by flight, found all their bodies entire after several days and buried them with tears. Not long afterwards the barbarians, in punishment of their crime, were swallowed up by the avenging waves of the sea. In 1588, the discovery of the martyrs’ relics at Messina confirmed the truth of their Acts. On this occasion Pope Sixtus V extended the celebration of their Feast to the universal Church.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The proto-martyr of the Benedictine Order stands before us today in his strength and his beauty. The empire had fallen, and the yoke of the Arian Goths lay heavy on Italy. Rome was no longer in the hands of the glorious races which had made her greatness. These, nevertheless, kept up their honourable traditions. They offered a great lesson for future times of revolution to other descendants of not less noble families: in lieu of the ensign of civic honour once committed to their fathers, the survivors of the old patrician ranks made it their duty to raise still higher the standard of true heroism of those virtues which alone are everlasting.

Thus Benedict of Nursia, fleeing into the desert, had rendered greater service than any mighty conqueror to Rome and her immortal destinies. The world soon discovered this fact and then began, as Saint Gregory tells us, the concourse of Roman nobles bringing their children to the Patriarch of monks to be educated by him for Almighty God. Placidus was the eldest son of the patrician Tertullus. The excellent qualities early discovered in the child led his worthy father to offer to God, without delay, this dear first-fruit of his paternity. In those days parents loved their children not for this passing world, but for eternity. Not for themselves, but for our Lord. The faith of Tertullus was well rewarded when, twenty years later, not only his first-born, but also his two other sons and their sister, were crowned with martyrdom. This was not the first holocaust of the kind in that heroic family, if it be true that they were relatives by blood, and heirs of the goods as well as the virtues, of the holy martyr Eustace who had been immolated four centuries earlier with his wife and sons.

Among the children of promise enlisted by the vanquished nobles of the ancient empire in the new militia of the holy Valley, Equitius brought to Subiaco his son Maurus, a boy some years older than Placidus. Henceforth the names of Maurus and Placidus became inseparable from that of Benedict, and the Patriarch acquired a new glory from his two sons, so united and yet so different. Equal in their love of their master and father, and themselves equally loved by him for their equal fidelity in good works, they experienced to the full that delight in virtue which makes its practice a second nature. However similar their zeal in using the most strong and bright armour of obedience in the service of Christ the King, it was wonderful to see the master accommodating himself to the age of his disciples, so adapting himself to their differences of character that there was nothing precipitate, nothing forced, in his education. It disciplined nature without crushing it, and followed the Holy Ghost without endeavouring to take the lead. In Maurus was especially reproduced Benedict’s austere gravity, in Placidus his simplicity and sweetness. Benedict took Maurus to witness the chastisement inflicted on the wandering monk who could not stay at prayer. But Placidus accompanied him to the mountain-top where his prayer obtained a spring of water to deliver from danger and fatigue the brethren dwelling on the rooks above the Anio. But when walking along the river side holding Placidus by the hand and leaning upon Maurus, the legislator of monks explained to them the code of perfection they were afterwards to propagate, the Angels knew not which most to admire: the candour of the one winning the father’s tenderest affection, or the precocious maturity of the other meriting the holy patriarch’s confidence and already sharing his burden.

Who does not recollect the admirable scene of Maurus walking on the water and saving Placidus from drowning? Monastic traditions never weary of extolling the obedience of Maurus, Benedict’s humility and the sagacious simplicity of the child pronouncing sentence as judge of the prodigy. Of such children the Master could say from experience: “The Lord often reveals that which is best to him that is the younger.” And we may well believe that the recollections of the holy Valley prompted him later on to lay down in his Rule this prescription: “In all places whatsoever, let not age be taken into account as regards order, neither let it be to the prejudice of anyone: for Samuel and Daniel, while yet children, were judges over the elders.'”

“Placidus, my beloved son, why should I weep for you? You are taken from me, only that you may belong to all men. I will give thanks for this sacrifice of the fruit of my heart offered to Almighty God.” Thus, on hearing of this day’s triumph, spoke Benedict, your spiritual father, mingling tears with his joy. He did not survive you long: yet long enough to complete, of his own accord, the sacrifice of separations by sending into far off France the companion of your childhood, Maurus, who was destined not to rejoin you in Heaven for so many long years. Charity seeks not her own interests. She finds them by forgetting self and losing self in God. Placidus had disappeared. Maurus had been sent away. Benedict was about to die: human prudence would have believed the holy Patriarch’s work in danger of perishing, whereas at this critical moment it strengthened its roots and extended its branches over the whole world. Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground dies itself remains alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit (John xii. 24‒25). As heretofore the blood of martyrs was the seed of Christians, it now produced a rich harvest of monks.

* * * * *

Blessed be you, O Placidus, far beyond your native Italy and Sicily, the scene of your combat. Blessed be you for the numberless ears of corn, for the abundant harvest sprung from the choice grain that fell to the earth on this day: faith bids us see in your immolation the secret of the success granted to the monastic mission of Maurus. Thus, despite the great diversity and the unequal length of your paths in life, you are ever united in the heart of your master and father. At the appointed hour he did not hesitate before the holocaust our Lord required of him, wherefore, he now in Heaven beholds the fulfilment of the hopes he had centred in his two beloved sons.

Deign, O Placidus, to continue your interest in the extension of Christ’s reign on Earth, in the progress of the perfect life in the Church, in the diffusion throughout the world of the monastic family on which you are the glory. Novices especially are confided to you: remembering the blessed education you were privileged to receive, watch over the aspirants to the better part. To them above all is applied the Gospel saying: “Unless you become as little children, you will not enter into the kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew xvii. 3), that kingdom of Heaven which consists in the anticipated possession of God here on Earth in the life of union attained by the way of the counsels. May they reproduce before the Angels your humble and sweet simplicity and show their gratitude for the maternal solicitude of their holy Order by the came filial docility with which you responded to the holy Legislator’s special tenderness. May they, in spite of the world’s opposition, increase in numbers and in merit, for the honour of God! The trials of the present must prepare the monastic Order, and indeed the whole religious state, for the trials of the future. It is around the monks that the martyrs of the last days will gather, as around thee assembled the Christians of Messina, and your two brothers, and the heroic Flavia, so truly worthy to be doubly your sister. May the chosen flock increase and be ever united, so as to be able to say with one voice to the persecutors both present and future: “Do what you mean to do, for we are all of one mind, one faith, one manner of life.”

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The birthday of blessed Thraseas, bishop of Eumenia, who ended his career by martyrdom at Smyrna.

At Treves, the holy martyrs Palmatius and his companions, who suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Eictiovarus.

The same day, under the emperor Diocletian and the ex-consul Domitius, St. Charitina, a virgin, who was exposed to the fire and thrown into the sea, but escaping uninjured, she had her hands and feet cut off, her teeth plucked out, and finally she yielded her spirit in prayer.

At Auxerre, the departure from this life of the saintly deacon Firmatus and the virgin Flaviana, his sister.

At Ravenna, St. Marcellinus, bishop and confessor.

At Valence in France, St. Apollinaris, a bishop, who was renowned in life for virtues, and in death for miracles and prodigies.

The same day, St. Attilanus, bishop of Zamora, who was ranked among the saints by Pope Urban II.

At Leon in Spain, St. Froilanus, bishop of that city, renowned for his zeal in spreading the monastic life, for his liberality to the poor and other virtues, and for miracles.

At Rome, St. Galla, widow, daughter of the consul Symmachus, who, after the death of her husband, remained many years near the church of St. Peter, applying to prayer, alms-giving, fasting and other pious works. Her most happy death was described by Pope St. Gregory.

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

Thanks be to God.

5 OCTOBER — SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Gospel which is now assigned to the Mass of the Seventeenth Sunday has given it the name of the Sunday of the Love of God, dating, that is, from the time when the Gospel of the cure of the dropsy and of the invitation to the wedding-feast was anticipated by eight days. Previously, even, to that change, and from the very first, there used to be read on this seventeenth Sunday another passage from the New Testament which is no longer found in this serial of Sundays: it was the Gospel which mentions the difficulty regarding the resurrection of the dead, which the Sadducees proposed to our Lord.

Epistle – Ephesians iv. 1–6

Brethren, I, a prisoner in the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called, with all humility and mildness, with patience, supporting one another in charity. Careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. One body and one Spirit; as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church, by thus giving these words from Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, again takes up the subject so dear to her — the dignity of her children. She beseeches them to correspond, in a becoming manner, to their high vocation. This vocation, this call, which God gives us is, as we have been so often told, the call or invitation made to the human family that it would come to the sacred nuptials of divine union. It is the vocation given to us to reign in Heaven with the Word who had made Himself our Spouse, and our Head (Ephesians ii. 5). The Gospel read to us eight days ago which was formerly the one appointed for this present Sunday, and was thus brought into close connection with our Epistle, that Gospel, we say, finds itself admirably commented by these words of Saint Paul to the Ephesians and it, in turn, throws light on the Apostle’s words about the vocation. When you are invited to a Wedding (“cum vocatus fueris”) sit down in the lowest place! These were our Lord’s words to us, last Sunday and now we have the Apostle saying to us: Walk worthy of the vocation in which youare called, yes, walk in that vocation with all humility.

Let us now attentively hearken to our Apostle telling us what we must do in order to prove ourselves worthy of the high honour offered to us by the Son of God. We must practise, among other virtues, these three: humility, mildness and patience. These are the means for gaining the end that is so generously proposed to us. And, what is this end? It is the unity of that immense body which the Son of God makes His own by the mystic nuptials He vouchsafes to celebrate with our human nature. This Man-God asks one condition from those whom He calls, whom He invites, to become, through the Church, His Bride, bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh (Ephesians v. 30). This one condition is that they maintain such harmony among them, that it will make one body and one spirit of them all, in the bond of peace. “Bond most glorious!” cries out Saint John Chrysostom, “bond most admirable, which unites us all mutually with one another, and then, thus united, unites us with God.” The strength of this bond is the strength of the Holy Spirit Himself, who is all holiness and love. For it is that Holy Spirit who forms these spiritual and divine ties.

He it is who, with the countless multitude of the Baptised, does the work which the soul does in the human body, that is, it gives it life, and it unites all the members into oneness of person. It is by the Holy Ghost that young and old, poor and rich, men and women, distinct as all these are in other respects, are made one, fused, so to say, in the fire which eternally burns in the blessed Trinity. But in order that the flame of infinite love may thus draw into its embrace our regenerated humanity, we must get rid of selfish rivalries, and grudges, and dissensions, which, so long as they exist among us, prove us to be carnal, and therefore that we are unfit material for either the divine flame to touch, or for the union which that flame produces. According to the beautiful comparison of Saint John Chrysostom, when fire lays hold of various species of wood which have been thrown into it, if it find the fuel properly dry, it makes one burning pile of all the several woods. But if they are damp and wet it cannot act on them separately, nor reduce the whole to one common blaze: so is it in the spiritual order. The unhealthy humidity of the passions neutralises the action of the sanctifying Spirit, and union, which is both the means and end of love, becomes an impossibility.

Let us, therefore, bind ourselves to our brethren by that blessed link of charity which, if it fetters at all, fetters only our bad tempers but in all other respects it dilates our hearts by the very fact of its giving free scope to the Holy Ghost to lead them safely to the realisation of that one hope of our common vocation and calling, which is to unite us to God by love. Of course, charity, even with the Saints is, so long as they are on this Earth, a laborious virtue because even with the best, grace seldom restores to a perfect equilibrium the faculties of man which were put out of order by original sin. From this it follows that the weaknesses of human nature will sometimes show themselves, either by excess or by deficiency. And when these weaknesses do crop up, it is not only the saint himself is humbled by their getting the better of him, but, as he is well aware, they who live with him have to practise kindness and patience towards him. God permits all this in order to increase the merit of us all, and make us long more and more for Heaven. For it is there alone that we will find ourselves not only totally, but without any effort, in perfect harmony with our fellow-men. And this, because of the perfect peaceful submissiveness of our entire being under the absolute sway of the thrice holy God who will then be all to all. In that happy land, it will be God Himself who will wipe away the tears of His elect, for their miseries will all be gone. And their miseries will be gone because their whole being will be renovated, because united with Him, who is its infinite source (1 Corinthians iii. 3).

The eternal Son of God having then conquered in each member of His mystical Body the hostile powers and death itself, will appear in the fullness of the mystery of His Incarnation as the true Head of humanity, sanctified, restored, and developed in Him. He will rejoice at seeing how, by the workings of the sanctifying Spirit, there has been wrought the destined degree of perfection in each of the several parts of that marvellous Body which He vouchsafed to aggregate to Himself by the bond of love. And all this in order that He might eternally celebrate, in a choir composed of Himself, the Incarnate Word and all creation, the glory of the ever adorable Trinity. How will not the sweetest music of Earth be then surpassed! How will not our most perfect choirs seem to us then to have been almost like the noise of children singing out of tune, compared with the concord and harmony of that eternal song! Let us get ourselves ready for that heavenly concert. Let us put our voices in order by now attuning our hearts to that plenitude of love which, alas, is not often enjoyed here below, but which we should ever be trying to realise by that patiently supporting the faults of our brethren and ourselves, which the Epistle so earnestly impresses upon us.

One would almost say that in the ecstasy of her delight, at hearing these few sounds of heaven’s music brought to her by such a singer as her Apostle, our Mother the Church feels herself carried away far beyond time, and boldly joins a short song of her own to that of her Jesus and His Paul. Yes, it looks like it, for by way of a conclusion to the text of our Epistle, she adds an ardent expression of praise, which is not in the original, and thus she forms a kind of doxology to the inspired words of her apostolic Chanter.

Gospel – Matthew xxii. 35–46

At that time, one of them, a doctor of the law, asked Him, tempting Him: “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him: “You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like this: “You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depends the whole law and the prophets.” And the Pharisees being gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying: “What think you of Christ? whose son is he?” “They said to Him: “David’s” He said to them: “How then, does David in spirit call him Lord, saying: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool? If David then calls him Lord, how is he his son?” And no man was able to answer Him a word; neither did any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions.

Praise be to you, O Christ.
 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Man-God allowed temptation to approach His sacred person in the desert (Matthew iv. 1‒11). He disdained not to sustain the attacks which the devil’s spiteful cunning has from the world’s first beginning been suggesting to him as the surest means of working man’s perdition. Our Jesus permitted the demon thus to tempt Him, in order that He might show His faithful servants how they are to repel the assaults of the wicked spirit. Today our adorable Master, who would be a model to his children in all their trials (Hebrews ii. 17, 18; iv. 15) is represented to us as having to contend, not with Satan’s perfidy, but with the hypocrisy of His bitterest enemies, the Pharisees. They seek to ensnare Him in His speech (Matthew xxii. 15) just as the representatives of the world, which He has condemned (John xvi. 8‒11) will do to His Church, and that in all ages right to the end of time.

But as her divine Spouse triumphed, so will she, for He will enable her to continue His work on Earth, and amid the same temptations and the same snares. She is ever to come off with victory by maintaining a most inviolable fidelity to God’s law and truth. The tools of Satan, who are the heretics, and the princes of the world, chafing at the restraint put by Christianity on their ambition and lust, will always be studying how best to outwit the guardian of the divine oracles by their captious propositions or questions. When necessity requires her to speak, she is quite ready, for as Bride of that divine Word who is His Father’s eternal and substantial utterance, what can she be but a voice, either to announce Him on Earth, or sing Him in Heaven? That word of hers, endowed as it is with the power and penetration of God Himself, will not only never be taken by surprise but, like a two-edged sword, it will generally go much deeper than the crafty questioners of the Church anticipated. It will not only refute their sophistry, it will also expose the hypocrisy and wickedness of their intentions (Hebrews iv. 12). By their sacrilegious attempts they will have gained nothing but disgrace and shame, and the mortification of having occasioned a fresh lustre to Truth by the new light in which it has been put, and of having procured a clearer knowledge of dogma or morals for the devoted children of the Church.

It was thus with the Pharisees of today’s Gospel. As the Homily upon it tells us, they wanted to see if Jesus, who had declared Himself to be God, would not consequently make some addition to the commandment of divine love. And if He did, they would be justified in condemning Him as having tried to change the letter of the law in its greatest commandment. Our Lord disappoints them. He met their question by giving it a longer answer than they had asked for: that is, having first recited the text of the great commandment as given in the Scripture, He continued the quotation and, by so doing, showed them that He was not ignorant of the intention which had induced them to question Him: He continued the quotation by reminding them of the second commandment which is like the first — the commandment, that is, of love of the neighbour, and that condemned their intended crime of deicide. Thus were they convicted of loving neither their neighbour, nor God Himself, for the first commandment cannot be observed if the second, which flows from, and completes it, be broken.

But, our Lord does not stop there. He obliges them to acknowledge, at least, implicitly, the divinity of the Messiah. He puts a question, in His turn, to them, and they answer it by saying, as they were obliged to do, that the Christ was to be of the family of David. But if he be His Son, how comes it that David calls him “his Lord,” just as he calls God Himself, as we have it in the 109th Psalm, where he celebrates the glories of the Messiah? The only possible explanation is, that the Messiah, who in due time and as Man, was to be born of David’s house, was God and Son of God even before time existed, according to the same Psalm: “From my womb, before the day-star, I begot you” (cix. 3). This answer would have condemned the Pharisees, so they refuse to give it. But their silence was an avowal and, before very long, the eternal Father’s vengeance on these vile enemies of His Son will fulfil the prophecy of making them His footstool in blood and shame: that time is to be the terrible day when the justice of God will fall on the deicide city.

Let us Christians, out of contempt for Satan, who stirred up the expiring Synagogue to thus lay snares for the Son of God — let us turn these efforts of hatred into an instruction which will warm up our love. The Jews, by rejecting Christ Jesus, sinned against both of the commandments which constitute charity and embody the whole law. And we, on the contrary, by loving that same Jesus, fulfil the whole law. This Jesus of ours is the brightness of eternal glory (Hebrews i. 3) one, by nature, with the Father and the Holy Ghost. He is the God whom the first commandment bids us love. And it is in Him also that the second has its truest and adequate application. For, not only is He as truly Man as He is truly God, but He is the Man by excellence (John xix. 5) the perfect Man, on whose type, and for whom, all other men were formed (Romans viii. 29). He is the model and brother to all of them (Hebrews ii. 17). He is, at the same time, the leader who governs them as their King (John xviii. 37) and offers them to God as their High Priest (Hebrews x. 14). He is the Head who communicates to all the members of the human family both beauty and life, and movement and light. He is the Redeemer of that human family when it fell, and on that account He is, twice over, the source of all right, and the ultimate and highest motive, even when not the direct Object, of every love that deserves to be called love here below. Nothing counts with God, excepting so far as it has reference to this Jesus. As Saint Augustine says, “God only loves men inasmuch as they either are, or may one day become, members of His Son. It is his Son that He loves in them. Thus He loves, with one same love, though not equally, both His Word and the Flesh of His Word, and the members of His Incarnate Word. Now, Charity is love — love such as it is in God, communicated to us creatures by the Holy Ghost. Therefore what we should love by charity, both in our own selves and in others, is the divine Word as either being, or, as another expression of the same Saint Augustine adds, “that it may be,” in others and in ourselves.

Let us take care, also, as a consequence of this same truth, not to exclude any human being from our love, excepting the damned who are thereby absolutely and eternally cut off from the body of the Man-God. Who can boast that he has the Charity of Christ if he do not embrace His Unity? The question is Saint Augustine’s again. Who can love Christ without loving, with Him, the Church which is His Body? Without loving all His members? What we do, be it to the least or be it to the worthiest, be it of evil or of good, it is to Him we do it, for he tells us so (Matthew xxv. 404‒45). Then, let us love our neighbour as ourselves because of Christ, who is in each of us, and gives, to us all union and increase in Charity (Ephesians iv. 15, 16).

That same Apostle who says: “The end of the law is charity” (1 Timothy i. 5) says also “The end of the law is Christ” (Romans x. 4) 6 and we now see the harmony existing between these two distinct propositions. We understand, also, the connection there is between the word of the Gospel: “On these two commandments depends the whole law and the prophets,” and that other saying of our Lord: “Search the Scriptures, for the same are they that give testimony of me” (John v. 39). The fullness of the law, which is the rule of men’s conduct, is in Charity (Romans xiii. 10), of which Christ is the end, just as the Object of the revealed Scriptures is no other than the Man-God who embodies in His own adorable unity, for us His followers, all moral teaching, and all dogma. He is our faith and our love, “the end of all our resolutions,” says Saint Augustine, “for all our efforts tend but to this — to perfect ourselves in Him. And this is our perfection — to reach Him: having reached Him, seek no farther, for he is your End.” The holy Doctor gives us, when we have reached this point, the best instruction as to how we are to live in the divine union: “Let us cling to One, let us enjoy One, let us all be one in Him:” hoereamus Uni, fruamur Uno, permaneamus unum.

4 OCTOBER – SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI (Deacon and Confessor)

“Il Povorello”, Saint Francis of Assisi, was born in Assisi, Italy, in 1182 to Pietro Bernardone, a wealthy cloth merchant and Pica, a woman belonging to a noble family of Provence, France. Francis was baptised with the name of John but his father soon afterwards changed it. One day, contrary to his custom, Francis repulsed a poor man who begged an alms of him for Christ’s sake, but immediately repenting of what he had done, he bestowed a large bounty upon the beggar, and at the same time made a promise to God never to refuse an alms to any one that asked him. After this he fell into a serious illness, and on his recovery, he devoted himself more eagerly than ever to works of charity, making such rapid progress in this virtue that, desirous of attaining evangelical perfection, he gave all he had to the poor. His father, angered by this, brought Francis before the Bishop of Assisi that, in his presence. he might formally renounce all claim to his patrimony. The Saint gave up all to his father, even stripping off his garments that he might, he said, for the future have more right to say: “Our Father who art in heaven”.

After hearing one day the passage of the Gospel “Do not possess gold nor silver, nor money in your purses. Nor scrip for your journey, nor two coats, nor shoes,” Francis took this for his rule of life, laid aside his shoes and kept but one tunic. He gathered together twelve disciples and founded the Order of Friars Minors. In salvation 1209 he went to Rome to obtain the confirmation of his rule and 0rder from the Apostolic See. Pope Innocent III at first refused to see him but having in his sleep beheld the man he had repulsed supporting with his shoulders the Lateran Basilica which was threatening to fall, he had him sought out and brought to him. Receiving him kindly, the Pope confirmed the whole system of his institute. Francis then sent his brethren into every part of the world to preach the Gospel. He himself, desirous of an opportunity of martyrdom sailed into Syria, but the Sultan treated him most kindly so that, unable to gain his end, he returned to Italy.

Francis built many convents of his Order and then retired into solitude on Mount Alvernia where he fasted forty days in honour of the Archangel Saint Michael. On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, he had a vision of a seraph bearing between his wings the figure of the Crucified, who impressed the sacred stigmata on his bands and feet and side. Saint Bonaventure said he heard Pope Alexander IV, while preaching, relate how he had himself seen these wounds. These signs of Christ’s exceeding love for His servant excited universal wonder and admiration. Two years later Francis grew very ill and was carried, at his own request, into the church of Saint Mary of the Angels, that he might give up his mortal life to God in the very place where he had commenced his life of grace. There, after exhorting the brethren to poverty and patience, and the preservation of the faith of the holy, Roman Church, he said the Psalm: “I cried to the Lord with my voice.” When he reached the verse: “The just wait for me, until you reward me,” he breathed forth his soul on the fourth of the Nones of October in 1226. He was canonised in 1228. Saint Francis is the patron of animals.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

And I saw another Angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the sign of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four Angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying: ‘Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we sign the servants of our God in their foreheads’” (Apocalypse vii. 2, 3).

The sixth seal of the Book of destinies had just been opened before the eyes of the prophet of Patmos. It was a time of anguish, the hour for the wicked to cry to the mountains: “Fall upon us.” The sun was darkened: an image of the Sun of Justice eclipsed by the night of iniquity. The moon, the figure of the Church, appeared red as blood, through the evils that defiled the sanctuary. The stars fell from heaven, as the fig-tree casts its green figs when it is shaken by a great wind. Who would appease the Lamb and retard the day of wrath? At the invitation of the Saints and of the Apostolic See, let us recognise the Angel who won for the world a delay of the judgement: the Angel with the impress of God upon a mortal Body, the Seraph with his sacred stigmata, the sight of which once more disarmed the justice of God. Dante thus sings of the elect of God under whose leadership took place on Earth as it were a repetition of the first and only Redemption:

Between Tupino, and the wave that falls

From blest Ubaldo’s chosen hill, there hangs

Rich slope of mountain high, whence heat and cold

Are wafted thro’ Perugia’s eastem gate:

And Nocera with Gualdo, in its rear,

Mourn for their heavy yoke. Upon that side,

Where it doth break its steepness most, arose

A sun upon the world, as duly this

From Ganges doth: therefore let none who speak,

Of that place say Assisi; for its name

Were lamely so delivered; but the East,

To call things rightly, be it henceforth styled.

He was not yet much distant from his rising,

When his good influence ’gan to bless the earth.

A dame to whom none openeth pleasure’s gate

More than to death, was, ’gainst his fathers will,

His stripling choice: and he did make her his,

Before the spiritual court, by nuptial bonds,

And in his father’s sight: from day to day

Then loved her most devoutly. She bereaved

Of her first husband, slighted and obscure,

Thousand and hundred years and more, remain’d

Without a single suitor, till he came

* * * * *

The lovers’ titles — Poverty and Francis.

Their concord and glad looks, wonder and love,

And sweet regard gave birth to holy thoughts,

So much, that venerable Bernard first

Did bare his feet, and, in pursuit of peace

So heavenly, ran, yet deem’d his footing slow.

O hidden riches! O prolific good!

Egidius bares him next, and next Sylvester,

And follow, both, the Bridegroom: so the Bride

Can please them. Thenceforth goes he on his way

The father and the master, with his spouse,

And with that family, whom now the cord

Girt humbly: nor did abjectness of heart

Weigh down his eyelids, for that he was son

Of Pietro Bernadone, and by men

In wondrous sort despised. But royally

His hard intention he to Innocent

Set forth; and from him first received the seal

Of his religion.

* * * * *

And when He had, thro’ thirst of martyrdom, stood up

In the proud Soldan’s presence, and there preached

Christ and his followers, but found the race

Unripen’d for conversion; back once more

He halted, (not to intermit his toil,)

And reap’d Auaonian lands. On the hard rook,

Twixt Arno and the Tiber, he from Christ

Took the last signet, which his limbs two years

Did carry. Then, the season come that he,

Who to such good had destined him, was pleased

To advance him to the meed, which he had earned

By his self-humbling; to his brotherhood,

As their just heritage, he gave in charge

His dearest lady: and enjoined their love

And faith to her; and, from her bosom, will’d

His goodly spirit shou1d move forth, returning

To its appointed kingdom; nor would have

His body laid upon another bier.

Dante’s Paradiso Canto xi (Cary’s Translation).

Francis took his flight, for his work was done. Innumerable souls were now treading the paths of penance. The Cross of Christ was set before the eyes of the whole world as the treasure of the Church, now that she was beginning her ascent of Calvary. How admirably had the sanctifying Spirit conducted this work!

At the age of four and twenty, Francis, who was destined not to see his forty-sixth year, was the head of a party of gay youths who filled Assisi day and night with their songs. Full of the poetry of France (from which country he borrowed his name), he dreamed of nothing but worldly renown and knightly prowess. One night he beheld in a prophetic dream a large assortment of arms and weapons. “For whom are all these?” he inquired, and on hearing the answer: “For you and your soldiers,” he hastened to join Gauthier de Brienne, who was at war with the Germans in the South of Italy. But God arrested him: in a series of manifestations to which the young man corresponded with all the generous ardour of his pure heart, our Lord revealed to him the object of his life’s labour, the standard he was to carry through the world, and the Lady in whose service he was to win his spurs.

The Church, ever under attack, yet hitherto ever victorious, seemed about to succumb, so undermined were her walls by heresy, so broken by the battering ram of the secular power: while, within the citadel, the ancient faith was sinking under prolonged scandals, leaving the field open to the enterprises of traitors, and multiplying defections in a society already beginning to feel the torpor of death. Nevertheless, it is written that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church. “Francis, see you not that my house is falling to decay? Go, then, and repair it for me.” There was need of a sudden surprise to disconcert the enemy, and of an energetic appeal to rouse the sleepy garrison and rally them around the too forgotten ensign of Christians, the Cross of Christ. Francis was to be, in his very flesh, the standard of the Crucified. The sacred wounds already pierced his soul and made his eyes two ceaseless fountains of tears: “I weep for the Passion of Jesus Christ my Master. Nor will I blush to go weeping all over the world.”

Avarice was the crying sin of the age. The hearts of men, too preoccupied with earthly affairs to have a desire of heaven, must be delivered from a slavery which crushed out all noble thoughts, all love, all devotedness. Holy Poverty, the mother of that true liberty which disarms Hell and laughs at tyrants, could alone achieve such a deliverance. Francis was take with the beauty of poverty in spite of the jeers and insults of the vulgar, and of his rejection by his own family. But his sublime folly was the salvation of his people, and he was blessed by our heavenly Father as a true brother of His eternal Son. As by nature the consubstantial Word receives His unbeginning Being from Him who begets Him eternally, so within the Holy Trinity He has nothing appropriated to Himself but the title of Son, to the glory of the Father, in the Holy Spirit who is their love. Such is God’s destitution of all things of which nothing created could give an idea, but which is reflected in the Incarnate Word’s sublime disappropriation in presence of that Father from whom He derived His all. Would it, then, be far wrong to consider the Poverty chosen by Saint Francis as no other than Eternal Wisdom, offering herself, even under the old Law, to the human race as bride (Wisdom viii. 2) and as sister? (Proverbs vii. 4). Once espoused in Mary’s womb at the Incarnation, how great has been her fidelity!I But whoever loves her, must become in Jesus like her.

“Lord Jesus,” said Francis, “show me the paths of your well-beloved Poverty. ’Tis she that accompanied you from your Mother’s womb to the crib in the stable and on the waysides of the world took care you should not have where to lay your head. By the combat which concluded the war of our Redemption, Poverty, adorned with all the privations which form her bridal attire, mounted with you upon the Cross, which even Mary could not ascend. She followed you to your borrowed tomb and as you yielded up your soul in her embrace, so in her arms you took it again in the glorious nakedness of the Resurrection. And together with her entered Heaven, leaving to the Earth all that was earthly. O who would not love this queen of the world which she tramples under her feet, my lady and my love? Most poor Jesus, my sweet Master, have pity on me. Without her I can taste no peace, and I die of desire.”

God cannot turn a deaf ear to such entreaties. If he contends, it is in order to add fresh wounds of love until the old man being destroyed, the new rises from the ruins, in all things conformed to the image of the heavenly Adam. Eighteen years later, after the prodigy on Mount Alvernia, Francis, impressed with the divine seal of Christ’s wounds, sang in heavenly language the sublime combat which had made up his life: “Love has cast me into a furnace, love has cast me into a furnace, I am cast into a furnace of love. My new Bridegroom, the loving Lamb, gave me the nuptial ring. Then having cast me into prison, He cleft my heart and my body fell to the ground. Those arrows propelled by love struck me and set me on fire. From peace He made war, and I am dying of sweetness. The darts rained so thick and fast that I was all in an agony. Then I took a buckler, but the shafts were so swift that it shielded me no more. They mangled my whole body, so strong was the arm that shot them. He shot them so powerfully that I despaired of " parrying them, and to escape death I cried with all my might: ‘You transgress the laws of the camp.’ But He only set up a new instrument of war which overwhelmed me with fresh blows. So true was His aim, that He never missed. I was lying on the ground, unable to move my limbs. My whole body was broken, and I had no more sense than a man deceased. Deceased, not by a true death, but through excess of joy. Then regaining possession of my body, I felt so strong that I could follow the guard who led me to the court of Heaven. Returning to myself, I took up arms and I made war upon Christ. I rode into His territory, and meeting Him, I engaged Him at once, and took my revenge on Him. Having had my revenge, I made a treaty with Him, for from the beginning Christ had loved me with a true love. And now my heart has become capable of the consolations of Christ.”

Around the standard-bearer of Christ were already gathered those whom he called his knights of the Round Table. However captivating he may have been when his fellow citizens proclaimed him the flower of their youth, and he presided at their feasts and games. Francis was much more attractive now in his life of self-renunciation. Scarcely ten years after his espousals with holy Poverty, he had so well avenged her for having been so long despised that she hold full court in the midst of five thousand Friars Minor encamped under the walls of Assisi, while Clare and her companions formed for her such a suite of honour as no empress could ever boast of. The enthusiasm soon became so general that Francis, in order to satisfy it without depopulating the State and the Churoh, gave to the world his Third Order into which, led by Louis IX of France and Elizabeth of Hungary, entered countless multitudes of every nation, and tribe, and tongue. Thanks to the three Seraphic Orders, as well as to the triple militia founded at the same time by Dominic de Gusman, devotedness to the Roman Church, and the spirit of penance and prayer everywhere triumphed for a time over the anticipated rationalism, the luxury, and all the other evils which had been threatening the speedy ruin of the world.

The influence of the Saints springs from their sanctity, as rays from the focus. No rich man ever possessed the earth to such a degree as this poor man who, seeking God and depending absolutely upon His Providence, had regained the condition of Adam in Eden. Thus, as he passed along, the flocks would welcome him. The fishes would follow his boat in the water. The birds would gather round him and joyfully obey him. And why? Francis drew all things to himself because all things drew him to God. With him there was no such thing as analysing love and making distinctions among those things which come from God and lead to God. To raise himself up to God, to compassionate with Christ, to be of service to his neighbour, to be in harmony with the whole universe like Adam when innocent, was for the seraphic father, says Saint Bonaventure, one and the same impulse of that true piety which ruled his whole being. The divine fire within him found fuel in everything. No touch of the Holy Spirit, whenever it came, did Francis let pass, so much he feared to frustrate the effect of a single grace. He did not despise the stream for not being the ocean, and it was with an unheard of tenderness of devotion, says his son and historian Bonaventure, that Francis relished God’s goodness in creation, contemplated His supreme beauty in every created beauty, and heard the echo of Heaven’s harmonies in the concert of beings sprung like man himself from the only source of existence.

Hence it was by the sweet name of brothers and sisters that he invited all creatures to praise with him that well-beloved Lord, whose every trace on earth was the dear object of his love and contemplation. Neither the progress nor the consummation of his holiness altered, in this respect, what would now be called his method of prayer. On hearing that his death was approaching, and again a few minutes before he passed away, he sang, and would have others sing to him, his favourite canticle: “Praised be God my Lord, for all creatures, and especially for our brother the sun, which gives us light, and is an image of you, my God! Praised be my Lord for our sister the moon, and for all the stars which He has created bright and beautiful in the heavens! Praised be my Lord for our brother the wind, and for the air, and the cloud, and the fine weather, and all the seasons. For our sister the water, which is very useful, humble, precious and pure. For our brother the fire, which is bright and strong. For our mother the earth, which bears us and produces the fruits and the flowers! Be praised, O my God, for those who pardon and who suffer for love of you! Be praised for our sister the death of the body, which no living man can escape. Unhappy is he who dies in mortal sin, but happy is he whom death finds conformed to your holy will! Praise and bless my Lord, give Him thanks, and serve Him in great humility.”

After having received the stigmata, Francis’ life was an unspeakable martyrdom in spite of which he continued to travel through towns and villages, riding, like Jesus of whom he was so touching an image, upon a poor little ass. And everywhere he preached the Cross, working miracles and wonders of grace. Assisi cherishes the memory of the blessing bequeathed to it by its glorious son when, gazing on it for the last time from the beautiful plain that stretches at its feet, he exclaimed with tears: “Be you blessed of the Lord, O city faithful to God, for in you and by you will many souls be saved!”

The humble Portiuncula, the cradle of the Order, where Clare too had exchanged the vain ornaments of the world for the poverty of the Cross: Saint Mary of the Angels, which awakens in the pilgrim a feeling of the nearness of heaven, and where the Great Pardon of the 2nd August proves the pleasure our Lord still takes in it: this was the appointed place of Francis’ death. He passed away on the 3rd October, towards eight o’clock in the evening , and although darkness had already set in, a flight of larks descended, singing the rising in heaven of the new sun which was mounting towards the Seraphim.

Francis had chosen to be buried in the place of public execution, called the Colte d’Inferno, near the west wall of his native city. But within two years Gregory IX enrolled him among the Saints and changed the name of the hill into Colle del Paradiso. James the German built over the bare rock, where lies the Poor Man of Assisi, a two-storied church, which the genius of Giotto has made to outshine in glory all the princely palaces on Earth.

* * * * *

MAY you be blessed by every living soul, O you whom our Saviour associated so closely with Himself in the work of Redemption. The world, created by God for Himself, subsists through the Saints, for it in in them He finds His glory. At the time of your birth the Saints were few. The enemy of God and man was daily extending his darksome reign, and when society was entirely lost faith and charity, light and heat, the human race must perish. You came to bring warmth to the wintry world, till the thirteenth century became like a spring time, rich in beautiful flowers. But alas, no summer was to follow in its wake. By you the Cross was forced on men’s notice. Not indeed, as heretofore, to be exalted in a permanent triumph, but to rally the elect in face of the enemy who would too soon afterwards regain the advantage. The Church lays aside the robe of glory which beseemed her in the days of our Lord’s undisputed royalty. Together with you she treads barefoot the path of trials which liken her to her divine Spouse suffering and dying for His Father’s honour. By you and by your sons, ever hold aloft before her the sacred ensign.

It is by identifying ourselves with Christ on the Cross that we will find Him again in the splendours of His glory: for, man, and God in man, cannot be separated. Ad both, you did say, must be contemplated by every soul. Yet no otherwise than by effective compassion with our suffering Head can we find the way of divine union and the sweet fruits of love. If the soul suffers herself to be led by the good pleasure of the Holy Ghost, this Master of masters will conduct her by no other way than that set forth by our Lord in the books of His humility, patience and suffering.

O Francis, cause the lessons of your amiable and heroic simplicity to fructify in us. May your children, to the great profit of the Church, increase in number and still more in sanctity. And never spare themselves in teaching both by word and example, knowing however, that the latter is of greater avail than the former. Raise them up again, with their former popularity in that country of France, which you loved on account of its generous aspirations, now stifled by the sordid vulgarity of money-makers. The whole Religious state looks on you as one of its most illustrious Fathers. Come to its assistance in the trials of the present time. Friend of Dominic, and his companion under our Lady’s mantle, keep up between your two families the fraternal love which delights the Angels. May the Benedictine Order never lose the affection which causes it to rejoice always on this day, and by your benefits to it, strengthen the bonds knit once for all by the gift of the Portiuncula!

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Corinth, the birthday of the Saints Crispus and Cams who are mentioned by the blessed Apostle St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians.

In Egypt, the holy martyrs Mark and Marcian, brothers, and an almost countless multitude of both sexes and of all ages who merited the blessed crown of martyrdom, some after being scourged, and others when they had suffered horrible torment, after being delivered to the flames. Some were precipitated into the sea, some others were beheaded, many were starved to death, others were fastened to gibbets, while others were suspended by the feet with their heads downward.

At Damascus, St. Peter, bishop and martyr, who, being accused before the king of the Agarenians of teaching the faith of Christ, had his tongue, hands and feet cut off, and being fastened to a cross, ended his martyrdom.

At Alexandria, the holy priests and deacons Caius, Faustus, Eusebius, Chseremon, Lucius and their companions. Some of them were martyred in the persecution of Valerian, others, for serving the martyrs, received the reward of martyrs.

At Athens, St. Hierotheus, a disciple of the blessed Apostle St. Paul.

At Bologna, St. Petronius, bishop and confessor, celebrated for learning, miracles and sanctity.

At Paris, St. Aurea, virgin.

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

Thanks be to God.

3 OCTOBER – SAINT TERESA OF LISIEUX (Virgin and Doctor of the Church)

 

Teresa, the “Little Flower of Jesus,” was born at Alençon in 1873 to the saintly Louis and Zélie Martin, both of whom had wished to consecrate their lives to God in the cloister. Five of their nine children became members of religious orders. At the age of 15 Teresa applied to join the Carmelites but was refused and went to Rome with her father to seek the consent of Pope Leo XIII. Consent was given in 1888 and Teresa entered the convent of Lisieux where two of her sisters were already nuns. Teresa died in 1897 and was canonised in 1925 by Pope Pius XI. She was declared a Doctor of the Church by Saint John Paul II in 1997.

O Lord who said “unless you become as little children you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven,” grant us, we beseech you, so to follow in humility and simplicity of heart, the footsteps of the blessed virgin Teresa, that we may obtain everlasting rewards.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, near the spot called Ursus Pileatus, St. Candidus, martyr.

The same day the holy martyrs Denis, Faustus, Cains, Peter, Paul and four others, who suffered much under Decius, and under Valerian, being a long time subjected to torments by the governor Æmilian, merited the palm of martyrdom.

Among the ancient Saxons in Westphalia, two holy martyrs of the name of Ewaldus, who being priests and preaching Christ in that country, were seized by pagans and put to death. During the night a great light appeared for a long time over their bodies showing where they were, and how distinguished were their merits.

In Africa, St. Maximian, bishop of Bagay, who, after having frequently endured great cruelties from the Donatists, was finally cast headlong from a high tower and left for dead. Illustrious by a glorious confession, he afterwards rested in the Lord.

In Palestine, St. Hesychius, confessor, a disciple of St. Hilarion, and the companion of his travels.

In Belgium, in the diocese of Namur, St. Gerard, abbot.

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

Thanks be to God.

2 OCTOBER – THE HOLY GUARDIAN ANGELS

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Although the solemnity of the 27th September celebrates the praises of all the nine glorious choirs, yet the piety of the faithful in the latter ages desired to have a special day consecrated to the Guardian Angels. Several churches having taken the initiative, and kept the Feast under various rites and on different days, Paul V (1608) authorised its celebration ad libitum. Clement X (1670) established it by precept as a Feast of double rite on the 2nd October, the first free day after Michaelmas, on which it thus remains in some way dependent.

It is of faith, on the testimony of the Scriptures and of unanimous tradition, that God commits to His Angels the guardianship of men, who are called to contemplate Him together with these blessed spirits in their common fatherland. Catholic theology teaches that this protection is extended to every member of the human race without any distinction of just and sinners, infidels and baptised. To ward off dangers, to uphold man in his struggle against the demons, to awaken in him holy thoughts, to prevent him from sinning and even at times to chastise him, to pray for him and present his prayers to God: such is the office of the Guardian Angel. So special is his mission that one Angel does not undertake the guardianship of several persons simultaneously. So diligent is his care that he follows his ward from the first day to the last of his mortal existence, receiving the soul as it quits this life and bearing it from the feet of the sovereign Judge to the place it bas merited in Heaven, or to its temporary sojourn in the place of expiation and purification.

It is from the lowest of the nine choirs, the nearest to ourselves, that the Guardian Angels are for the most part selected. God reserves to the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones the honour of forming His own immediate court. The Dominations, from the steps of His throne, preside over the government of the universe. The Virtues watch over the course of nature’s laws, the preservation of species, and the movements of the heavens. The Powers hold the spirits of wickedness in subjection. The human race in its entirety, as also its great social bodies, the nations and the churches, are confided to the Principalities: while the Archangels, who preside over smaller communities, seem also to have the office of transmitting to the Angels the commands of God, together with the love and light which come down even to us from the first and highest hierarchy. O the depths of the wisdom of God! Thus, then, the admirable distribution of offices among the choirs of heavenly spirits terminates in the function committed to the lowest rank, the guardianship of man, for whom the universe subsists. Such is the teaching of the School, and the Apostle, in like manner, says: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who will receive the inheritance of salvation?” (Hebrews i. 14).

But God, magnificent as He is towards the whole human race, honours in a special manner the princes of His people, those who are most favoured by His grace, or who rule the Earth in His name. The Saints testify that a super-eminent perfection, or a higher mission in Church or State, ensures to the individual the assistance of a superior spirit without the Angel that was first deputed being necessarily removed from his charge. Moreover, with regard to the work of salvation, the Guardian Angel has no fear of being left alone at his post. At his request, and at God’s command, the troops of his blessed companions who fill Heaven and Earth are ever ready to lend him their aid. These noble spirits, acting under the eye of God whose love they desire to second by all possible means, have secret alliances between them which sometimes induce between their clients even on Earth, unions the mystery of which will be revealed in the light of eternity.

“How profound a mystery,” says Origen, “is the apportioning of souls to the Angels destined for their guardians! It is a divine secret, part of the universal economy centred in the Man-God. Nor is it without ineffable order that the ministries of Earth, the many departments of nature, are allotted to the heavenly Virtues: fountains and rivers, winds and forests, plants, living creatures of land and sea, whose various functions harmonise to gather, by the Angels directing them all to a common end.” Again, on these words of Jeremias: “How long will the lamb mourn? (Jeremias xii. 4) Origen, supported by the authority of his translator Saint Jerome, continues: “It is through each one of us that the earth rejoices or mourns, and not only the earth, but water, fire, air, all the elements: by which name we must here understand not insensible matter, but the Angels who are set over all things on Earth. There is an Angel of the land who, with his companions, mourns over our crimes. There is an Angel of the waters to whom are applied the words of the Psalm: The waters saw you, and they were afraid, and the depths were troubled. Great was the noise of the waters. The clouds sent out a sound, for your arrows pass” (Psalm lxxvi. 17, 18).

How grand is nature, viewed in this light! It is thus the ancients, more truthful as well as more poetical than our generation, always considered the universe. Their error lay in adoring these mysterious powers to the detriment of the only God, under whom they stoop that bear up the world (Job ix. 3). “Air and earth and ocean, everything is full of Angels,” says Saint Ambrose. “Eliseus, besieged by a whole army felt no fear, for he beheld invisible cohorts assisting him. May the prophet open your eyes also. May the enemy, be he legion, not terrify you. You think yourself hemmed in, and you are free: there are more with us than with them.” But let us return to our own specially deputed Angel, and meditate on this other testimony: “The noble guardian of each one of us sleeps not, nor can he be deceived. Close your door, and make the darkness of night. But remember, you are never alone. He has no need of daylight in order to see your actions.” And who is it that speaks thus? Not a Father of the Church, but a pagan, the slave philosopher Epiotetus.

In conclusion, let us listen to the Abbot of Clairvaux who here gives free rein to his eloquence: “In every place show respect to your Angel. Let gratitude for his benefits incite you to honour his greatness. Love this your future co-heir, the guardian appointed for you by the Father during your childhood. For though we are sons of God, we are as yet but children, and long and dangerous is our journey. But God ‘has given His Angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You will walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you will trample under foot the lion and the dragon’ (Psalm xc. 11‒13). Where the road is smooth enough for a child, they will content themselves with guiding you, and sustaining your footsteps, as one does for children. But, if trials threaten to surpass your strength, they will bear you up in their hands. Oh those hands of Angels! Thanks to them, what fearful straits we have passed through, as it were without thinking, and with no other impression left upon us than that of a nightmare suddenly dispelled!”

And in his commentary on the Canticle of canticles, Saint Bernard thus describes the triumph of the Angel: “One of the companions of the Spouse, sent from Heaven to the chosen soul as mediator, on witnessing the mystery accomplished, how he exults, and says: ‘I give you thanks, O God of majesty, for having granted the desire of her heart!’ Now it was he that, as a persevering friend, had not ceased on the way to murmur into the soul’s ear: ‘Delight in the Lord, and He will give you the requests of your heart.’ And again: ‘Expect the Lord, and keep His way.’ And then: ‘If he make any delay, wait for him, for he will surely come and will not tarry.’ Meanwhile he represented to our Lord the soul’s desire, saying: ‘As the hart pants after the fountains of water, so this soul pants after you, O God.’ Have have pity on her, hear her cries, and visit her in her desolation. And now the faithful paranymph, the confidant of ineffable secrets, is not jealous. He goes from the Spouse to the bride, offering desires, bringing back gifts. He incites the one, he appeases the other. Sometimes, even in this world, he brings them into each other’s presence, either by raising up the Bride in ecstasy, or by bringing down the Bridegroom: for he is one of the household and well known in the palace, and he fears no rebuff, for every day he beholds the face of the Father.”

* * * * *

BLESSED be you, O holy Angels, for that your charity is not wearied out by the crimes of men. Among so many other benefits, we thank you for keeping the Earth habitable by deigning to dwell always there. Solitude often weighs heavily on the hearts of God’s children: in the great towns, and in the paths of the world where one meets only strangers or enemies. But if the number of the just grows less, yours never diminishes. In the midst of the excited multitude, as well as in the desert, not a human being that has not beside him an Angel, the representative of universal Providence over wicked and good alike. O blessed spirits, you and we have the same fatherland, the same thought, the same love. Why should the confused noises of a frivolous crowd disturb the heavenly life we may lead even now with you? Does the tumult of public places hinder you from holding your choirs there, or prevent the Most High from hearing your harmonies? We also, beholding by faith the face of our heavenly Father which you ever delightedly contemplate, we wish to sing in every place the praise of our Lord and to unite at all times our adorations with yours. Thus, when our manners have become altogether angelic, the present life will be full of peace, and we will be well prepared for eternity.

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.

God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, Queen of Angels, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my guardian, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my prince, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my monitor, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my counsellor, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my defender, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my steward, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my friend, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my negotiator, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my intercessor, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my patron, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my director, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my ruler, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my protector, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my comforter, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my brother, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my teacher, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my shepherd, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my witness, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my helper, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my watcher, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my conductor, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my preserver, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my instructor, pray for us.

Holy Angel, my enlightener, pray for us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us, O Lord.

V. Pray for us, O holy guardian angel.

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, who, in the counsel of your ineffable goodness, has appointed to all the faithful, from their mother's womb, a special guardian angel of their body and soul, grant that I may so love and honour him who you have so mercifully given me, that, protected by the bounty of your grace, and by his assistance, I may merit to behold, with him and all the angelic host, the glory of your countenance in the heavenly country. Who lives and reigns, world without end. Amen.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Nicomedia, St. Eleutherius, soldier and martyr, with numberless others. They were falsely accused of having set fire to the palace of Diocletian and, by order of this most cruel emperor, were barbarously massacred in groups. Some were put to the sword, some consumed by fire, while others were precipitated into the sea. But the principal one, Eleutherius, having endured long tortures, and being found stronger after each one, terminated his victorious martyrdom by fire, as well-tried gold.

In the vicinity of Arras, the martyrdom of blessed Leodegarius, bishop of Autun. After being subjected to various insults and torments for the truth, he was put to death by Ebroin, chief minister of Theodoric.

Also the holy martyr Gerinus, brother of the blessed Leodegarius, who was overwhelmed with stones in the same city.

At Antioch, the holy martyrs Primus, Cyril and Secundarius.

At Constantinople, St. Theophilus, a monk, who was most cruelly scourged by Leo the Isaurian for the defence of holy images, was driven into exile, and went gloriously to heaven.

At Hereford in England, St. Thomas, bishop and confessor.

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

Thanks be to God.