24 MARCH – SAINT GABRIEL THE ARCHANGEL

 Dom Prosper Guéranger:

So far in the Church’s Calendar we have not met with any feast in honour of the Holy Angels. Amid the ineffable joys of Christmas night, we mingled our timid but glad voices with the hymns of these heavenly Spirits who sang around the crib of our Emmanuel. The very recollection brings joy to our hearts, saddened as they now are by penitential feelings and by the near approach of the mournful anniversary of our Jesus’ death. Let us, for a moment, interrupt our sadness and keep the feast of the Archangel Gabriel. Later on we will have Michael, Raphael and the countless host of the Angel Guardians. But today, the seventh from the Annunciation, it is just that we should honour Gabriel. Yes, a week hence and we will see this heavenly Ambassador of the Blessed Trinity coming down to the Virgin of Nazareth. Let us, therefore, recommend ourselves to him and beseech him to teach us how to celebrate, in a becoming manner, the grand Mystery of which he was the Messenger.

Gabriel is one of the first of the Angelic Kingdom. He tells Zachary that he stands before the face of God (Luke i. 19). He is the Angel of the Incarnation because it is in this Mystery, which apparently is so humble, that the power of God is principally manifested and Gabriel signifies the strength of God. We find the Archangel preparing for his sublime office even in the Old Testament. First of all, he appears to Daniel after this Prophet had the vision of the Persian and Grecian Empires. And such was the majesty of his person that Daniel fell on his face trembling (Daniel vii. 17). Shortly afterwards he appears again to the same Prophet, telling him the exact time of the coming of the Messiah: “Know and take notice: that from the going forth of the word to build up Jerusalem again, to Christ the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks (Daniel ix. 25) that is, sixty-nine weeks of years.

When the fullness of time had come and Heaven was about to send the last of the Prophets — he, who after preaching to men the approach of the Messiah is to show Him to the people, saying: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” — Gabriel descends from Heaven to the Temple of Jerusalem and prophesies to Zachary the birth of John the Baptist (Luke i. 13) which was to be followed by that of Jesus Himself. Six months later on the holy Archangel again appears on the Earth, and this time it is Nazareth that he visits. He brings the great message from Heaven. Angel as he is, he reveres the humble maid whose name is Mary. He has been sent to her by the Most High God to offer her the immense honour of becoming the Mother of the Eternal Word. It is Gabriel that receives the great Fiat, the consent of Mary. And when he quits this Earth, he leaves it in possession of Him, for whom it had so long prayed in those words of Isaiah: “Drop down dew, ye heavens!” (Isaias xlv. 8).

The hour at length came when the Mother of the Emmanuel was to bring forth the Blessed Fruit of her virginal womb. Jesus was born amid poverty, but Heaven willed that His crib should be surrounded by fervent adorers. An Angel appeared to some shepherds, inviting them to go to the stable near Bethlehem. He is accompanied by a multitude of the heavenly army sweetly singing their hymn: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will” Who is this Angel that speaks to the shepherds, and seems as the chief of the other blessed Spirits that are with him? In the opinion of several learned writers, it is the Archangel Gabriel who is keeping up his ministry as Messenger of the Good Tidings (Luke ii. 10).

Lastly, when Jesus is suffering His Agony in the Garden of Gethsemani, an Angel appears to Him, not merely as a witness of His suffering, but that He might strengthen Him under the fear His human nature felt at the thought of the chalice of the Passion He was about to drink (Luke xxii. 42, 43) Who is this Angel? It is Gabriel, as we learn not only from the writings of several holy and learned authors, but also from a hymn which the Holy See has permitted to be used in the Liturgy. These are the claims of the great Archangel to our veneration and love. These are the proofs he gives of his deserving his beautiful name — the Strength of God. God has employed him in each stage of the great work in which He has chiefly manifested His power, for Jesus, even on His Cross, is the power of God (1 Corinthians i. 24), as the Apostle tells us. Gabriel prepares the way for Jesus. He foretells the precise time of His Coming. He announces the birth of His Precursor. He is present at the solemn moment when the Word is made Flesh. He invites the shepherds of Bethlehem to come to the crib and adore the Divine Babe and when Jesus, in His Agony, is to receive strength from one of His own creatures, Gabriel is found ready in the Garden of Gethsemani, as he had been at Nazareth and Bethlehem.

* * * * *

The whole human race is indebted to you, Gabriel, and on this day we would fain pay you the honour and gratitude we owe you. You were moved to holy compassion when seeing the miseries of the world, for all flesh had corrupted its way, and the forgetfulness of God increased with each new generation of men. Then did the Most High commission you to bring to the world the good tidings of its salvation. How beautiful your steps, Prince of the heavenly court, as you came down to this our humble sphere! How tender and fraternal is your love of man whose nature, though so inferior to your own, was to be raised by the mystery of the Incarnation to union with God Himself! With what respectful awe did you not approach the Virgin who surpassed all the Angels in holiness! Blessed Messenger of our Redemption whom God selects as His Minister when He would show His power, we beseech you, offer the homage of our gratitude to Him that thus sent you. Help us to pay the immense debt we owe to the Father who so loved the world as to give it His only begotten Son (John iii. 16): to the Son, who emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant (Philippians ii. 7), and to the Holy Ghost who rested on the Flower that sprang up out of the root of Jesse (Isaias xi. 1).

’Twas you, Gabriel, that taught us the salutation with which we should greet Mary full of grave. You were the first to pronounce these sublime words, which you brought from Heaven. The children of the Church are now, day and night, repeating these words of yours. Pray for us that we may say them in such a manner as that our Blessed Mother may find them worthy of her acceptance.

Angel of Strength, Friend of Mankind, relent not in your ministry of aiding us. We are surrounded by terrible enemies. Our weakness makes them bold. Come to our assistance, get us courage. Pray for us during these days of conversion and penance. Obtain for us the knowledge of all we owe to God in consequence of that ineffable mystery of the Incarnation of which you were the first witness. We have forgotten our duties to the Man-God, and we have offended Him: enlighten us, that so, henceforth, we may be faithful to His teachings and examples.

Raise up our thoughts to the happy abode where you dwell. Assist us to merit the places left vacant by the fallen Angels, for God has reserved them for His elect among men. Pray, Gabriel, for the Church Militant, and defend her against the attacks of Hell. The times are evil. The spirits of malice are let loose, nor can we make stand against them unless with God’s help. It is by His holy Angels that He gives victory to His Spouse. Be thou, Strength of God, foremost in the ranks. Drive heresy back, keep schism down, foil the false wisdom of men, frustrate the policy of the world, arouse the well-minded from apathy that thus, the Christ whom you announced may reign over the Earth He has redeemed, and that we may sing together with you and the whole angelic choir: Glory be to God! Peace to men!

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, the holy martyrs Mark and Timothy, who were crowned with martyrdom under the emperor Antoninus.

In the same city, St. Epigmenius, priest, who consummated his martyrdom by the sword in the persecution of Diocletian under the judge Turpius.

Also at Rome, in the time of Julian the Apostate, the passion of blessed Pigmenius, a priest, who was killed for the faith of Christ by being precipitated into the river Tiber.

At Caesarea in Palestine, the birthday of the holy martyrs Timolaus, Denis, Pausides, Romulus, Alexander, another Alexander, Agapius and another Denis, who merited the crown of life by being beheaded in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Urban.

In Mauritania (Barbary), the birthday of the saintly brothers Romulus and Secundus, who suffered for the faith of Christ.

At Trent, the martyrdom of the holy child Simeon, who was barbarously murdered by the Jews. He became celebrated for many miracles.

At Synnadas in Phrygia, St. Agapitus, bishop.

At Brescia, St. Latinus, bishop. In Syria, St. Seleucus, confessor.

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

Thanks be to God.

24 MARCH – TUESDAY IN PASSION WEEK

 

Lesson – Daniel xiv. 28‒42

In those days the people of Babylon gathered together against the king, and said to him: “Deliver up to us Daniel who has destroyed Bel and killed the Dragon, otherwise we will destroy you and your house.” And the king saw that they pressed on him violently, and being constrained by necessity he delivered Daniel to them. And they cast him into the den of lions, and he was there six days. And in the den there were seven lions, and they had given to them two carcasses every day, and two sheep: but then they were not given to them, to the intent that they might devour Daniel. Now there was in Judea a prophet called Habacuc, and he had boiled pottage, and had broken bread in a bowl, and was going into the field to carry it to the reapers. And the Angel of the Lord said to Habacuc: “Carry the dinner which you have into Babylon to Daniel,who is in the lions’ den.” And Habacuc said: “Lord, I never saw Babylon, nor do I know the den.” And the Angel of the Lord took him by the top of his head, and carried him by the hair of his head, and set him in Babylon over the den in the force of his spirit. And Habacuc cried, saying: “O Daniel, you servant of God, take the dinner that God has sent you.” And Daniel said: “You have remembered me, O God, and you have not forsaken them that love you.” And Daniel arose and ate. And the Angel of the Lord presently set Habacuc again in his own place. And on the seventh day the king came to bewail Daniel, and he came to the den and looked in, and behold Daniel was sitting in the midst of the lions. And the king cried out with a loud voice, saying: “Great are you, O Lord, the God of Daniel.” And he drew him out of the lions’ den. But those that had been the cause of his destruction, he cast into the den and they were devoured in a moment before him. Then the king said: “Let all the inhabitants of the whole earth fear the God of Daniel, for He is the Saviour, working signs and wonders in the earth, who has delivered Daniel out of the lions’ den.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This Lesson was intended in an especial manner as an instruction to the catechumens. They were preparing to enroll themselves as Christians. It was therefore necessary that they should have examples put before them, which they might study and imitate. Daniel, cast into the lions’ den for having despised and destroyed the idol Bel was the type of a martyr. This Prophet had confessed the true God in Babylon. He had put to death a Dragon to which the people, after Bel had been destroyed, had given their idolatrous worship: nothing less than Daniel’s death could appease their indignation. The holy man full of confidence in God allowed himself to be thrown into the lions’ den, thus setting an example of courageous faith to the future Christians: they would imitate him, and for three centuries would nobly shed their blood for the establishment of the Church of Christ. In the Roman catacombs we continually meet with the representation of Daniel surrounded by lions, and many of these paintings date from the ages of persecution. Thus, the eye of the catechumens could see what their ear heard. Both told them to be ready for trial and sacrifice. It is true, the history of Daniel showed them the power of God interfering and delivering him from death, but they were fully aware that in order to merit a like deliverance they would have to show a like constancy, and be ready to suffer death, rather than deny their faith. From time to time, a Christian was led to the amphitheatre, and the wild beasts would fawn at his feet: but such miracles only put off the martyr’s sacrifice, and perhaps won others to the faith.

It was the Prophet’s courage, and not his victory over the lions, that the Church proposed to her catechumens. The great thing for them to bear in mind was this maxim of our Lord: “Fear not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body into hell” (Matthew x. 28). We are the descendants of these early Christians, but our faith has not cost us what it cost them. And yet we have a tyrant to try even ours: we have to confess our faith, not indeed before proconsuls or emperors, but before the world. Let the example of the brave martyrs send us forth from our Lent with a courageous determination to withstand this tyrant, with his maxims, his pomps, and his works. There has been a truce between him and us during these days of retirement and penance, but the battle will soon be renewed, and then we must stand the brunt and show that we are Christians.

Gospel – John vii. 1‒13

At that time Jesus walked in Galilee, for He would not walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. Now the Jews’ feast of Tabernacles was at hand. And His brethren said to Him: “Depart from here and go into Judea that your disciples also may see your works which you do. For there is no man that does anything in secret, and he himself seeks to be known openly; if you do these things, manifest yourself to the world.” For neither did His brethren believe in Him. Then Jesus said to them: “ My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but me it hates because I give testimony of it that the works of it are evil. Go up to this festival day, but I go not up to this festival day, because my time is not accomplished.” When He had said these things, He Himself stayed in Galilee. But after His brethren had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. The Jews therefore sought Him on the festival day and said: “Where is he?” And there was much murmuring among the multitude concerning Him. For some said: “He is a good man.” And others said: “No, but he seduces the people.” Yet no man spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The facts here related refer to an earlier part of our Lord’s life, but the Church proposes them to our consideration today on account of their connection with those given us in the Gospels read to us during the last few days. We learn from these words of Saint John that the Jews were plotting the death of Jesus, not only when this the last Pasch for the synagogue was approaching, but even so far back as the Feast of Tabernacles, which was kept in September. The Son of God was reduced to the necessity of going from place to place as it were in secret. if He would go to Jerusalem, He must take precautions! Let us adore these humiliations of the Man-God who has deigned to sanctify every position of life, even that of the just man persecuted and obliged to hide himself from his enemies. It would have been an easy matter for Him to confound His adversaries by working miracles, such as those which Herod’s curiosity sought for. He could have compelled them to treat Him with the reverence that was due to Him. But this is not God’s way. He does not force man to duty. He acts and then leaves man to recognise his Creator’s claims. In order to do this man must be attentive and humble, he must impose silence on his passions. The divine light shows itself to the soul that thus comports herself. First, she sees the actions, the works, of God. Then, she believes and wishes to believe: her happiness, as well as her merit, lies in faith, and faith will be recompensed in eternity with light —with the Vision. Flesh and blood cannot understand this. They love show and noise. The Son of God having come down on this earth could not subject Himself to such an abasement as that of making a parade of His infinite power before men. He had to work miracles in order to give a guarantee of His mission, but as Man everything He did was not to be a miracle. By far the longest period of His life was devoted to the humble duties of a creature. Had it not been so, how should we have learned from Him what we so much needed to know? His brethren (the Jews gave the name of brothers to all who were collaterally related), His brethren wished Jesus to make a display of His miraculous power, for some of the glory would have accrued to them. This their ambition caused our Lord to address them in these strong words on which we should meditate during this holy season, for later on we will stand in need of the teaching: “The world cannot hate you, but me it hates.” Let us, therefore, for the time to come, not please the world. Its friendship would separate us from Jesus Christ.

23 MARCH – MONDAY IN PASSION WEEK

 

Lesson – Jonas iii. 1‒10

In those days the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time, saying: “Arise and go to Niniveh, the great city, and preach in it the preaching that I bid you.” And Jonas arose, and went to Niniveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Niniveh was a great city of three days’ journey. And Jonas began to enter into the city one day’s journey, and he cried and said: “Yet forty days and Niniveh will be destroyed.” And the men of Niniveh believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least. And the word came to the king of Niniveh, and he rose up out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him, and was clothed with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published in from the mouth king and of his saying: “Let neither men nor beasts, oxen nor sheep, taste anything: let them not feed nor drink water. And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and cry to the Lord with all their strength, and let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we will not perish?” And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and the Lord our God had mercy on His people.

Thanks be to God. 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church’s intention in this day’s lesson is to encourage us to earnestness and perseverance in our penance. Here we have an idolatrous city, a haughty and debauched capital, whose crimes have merited the anger of heaven. God threatens it with his vengeance: yet forty days, and Niniveh and its inhabitants will be destroyed. How came it, that the threat was not carried into effect? What was it that caused Niniveh to be spared? Its people returned to the God they had left they sued for mercy, they humbled themselves, and fasted, and the Church concludes the Prophet’s account by these touching words of her own: “And the Lord our God had mercy on His people.” They are Gentiles, but they became His people because they did penance at the preaching of the Prophet. God had made a covenant with one only nation, the Jews, but He rejected not the Gentiles as often as they renounced their false gods, confessed His holy Name, and desired to serve Him. We are here taught the efficacy of corporal mortification. When united with spiritual penance, that is, with the repentance of the heart, it has power to appease God’s anger. How highly then should we not prize the holy exercises of penance put upon us by the Church during this holy Season! Let us also learn to dread that false spirituality which tells us that exterior mortification is of little value: such doctrine is the result of rationalism and cowardice.

Gospel – John vii. 32‒39

At that time the rulers and Pharisees sent ministers to apprehend Jesus. Jesus therefore said to them: “Yet a little while I am with you, and then I go to Him that sent me. You will seek me and will not find me, and where I am, there you cannot come.” The Jews therefore said among themselves: “Where will he go that we will not find him? Will he go to the dispersed among the Gentiles and teach the Gentiles? What is this saying that he has said: ‘You will seek me and will not find me, and where I am you cannot come?’ And on the last and great day of the festival Jesus stood and cried, saying: “If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He that believes in me, as the Scripture says, ‘Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this He said of the Spirit which they should receive who believed in Him.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The enemies of Jesus sought to stone Him to death, as we were told in yesterday’s Gospel. Today they are bent on making Him a prisoner, and send soldiers to seize Him. This time Jesus does not hide Himself, but how awful are the words He speaks: “I go to Him that sent me. You will seek me and will not find me!” The sinner, then, who has long abused the grace of God may have his ingratitude and contempt punished in this just, but terrific way, that he will not be able to find the Jesus he has despised. He will seek and will not find. Antiochus, when humbled under the hand of God, prayed, yet obtained not mercy (2 Maccabees ix. 13).

After the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, while the Church was casting her roots in the world, the Jews who had crucified the Just One were seeking the Messiah in each of the many impostors who were then rising up in Judea and fomenting rebellions which led to the destruction of Jerusalem. Surrounded on all sides by the Roman legions, with their temple and palaces a prey to flames, they sent up their cries to heaven and besought the God of their fathers to send, as He had promised, the Deliverer! It never occurred to them that this Deliverer had shown Himself to their fathers, to many even of themselves; that they had put Him to death, and that the Apostles had already carried His name to the ends of the earth. They went on looking for Him, even to the very day when the deicide city fell, burying beneath its ruins them that the sword had spared. Had they been asked what it was they were awaiting, they would have replied that they were expecting their Messiah! He had come and gone. “You will seek me and will not find me! Let them, too, think of these terrible words of Jesus who intend to neglect the graces offered them during this Easter. Let us pray, let us make intercession for them, lest they fall into that awful threat of a repentance that seeks mercy when it is too late to find aught save an inexorable Justice.

But, what consoling thoughts are suggested by the concluding words of our Gospel! Faithful souls and you that have repented, listen to what your Jesus says, for it is to you that He speaks: “If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” Remember the prayer of the Samaritan woman: “Give me Lord, to drink of this water!” This water is divine grace: come and drink your fill at the fountains of your Saviour, as the Prophet Isaias bids you (Isaias vii. 3). This water gives purity to the soul that is defiled, strength to them that are weak, and love to them that have no fervour. Nay, our Saviour assures us that He who believes in Him will himself become as a fountain of living water, for the Holy Ghost will come upon him and this soul will pour out upon others of the fullness that she herself has received.

 

22 MARCH – PASSION SUNDAY

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Today, if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.

The Holy Church begins her Night Office of this Sunday with these impressive words of the Royal Prophet. Formerly, the faithful considered it their duty to assist at the Night Office, at least on Sundays and Feasts. They would have grieved to have lost the grand teachings given by the Liturgy. Such fervour has long since died out. The assiduity at the Offices of the Church, which was the joy of our Catholic forefathers, has now become a thing of the past, and even in countries which have not apostatised from the faith, the clergy have ceased to celebrate publicly Offices at which no-one assisted. Excepting in cathedral churches and in monasteries, the grand harmonious system of the Divine Praise has been abandoned, and the marvellous power of the Liturgy has no longer its full influence upon the faithful.

This is our reason for drawing the attention of our readers to certain beauties of the Divine Office, which would otherwise be totally ignored. Thus, what can be more expressive than this solemn Invitatory of today’s Matins, which the Church takes from one of the psalms, and which she repeats on every Feria between this and Maundy Thursday?

She says: Today, if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts! The sweet voice of your suffering Jesus now speaks to you, poor sinners! Be not your own enemies by indifference and hardness of heart. The Son of God is about to give you the last and greatest proof of the love that brought Him down from heaven. His Death is near at hand: men are preparing the wood for the immolation of the new Isaac. Enter into yourselves and let not your hearts, after being touched with grace, return to their former obduracy, for nothing could be more dangerous. The great anniversaries we are to celebrate have a renovating power for those souls that faithfully correspond with the grace which is offered them, but they increase insensibility in those who let them pass without working their conversion. Today, therefore, if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts!

During the preceding four weeks we have noticed how the malice of Jesus’ enemies has been gradually increasing. His very presence irritates them, and it is evident that any little circumstance will suffice to bring the deep and long nurtured hatred to a head. The kind and gentle manners of Jesus are drawing to Him all hearts that are simple and upright. At the same time, the humble life He leads, and the stern purity of His doctrines, are perpetual sources of vexation and anger, both to the proud Jew that looks forward to the Messiah being a mighty conqueror, and to the Pharisee who corrupts the Law of God, that he may make it the instrument of his own base passions. Still, Jesus goes on working miracles. his discourses are more than ever energetic. His prophecies foretell the fall of Jerusalem, and such a destruction of its famous Temple, that not a stone is to be left on a stone. The doctors of the Law should at least reflect upon what they hear. They should examine these wonderful works which render such strong testimony in favour of the Son of David, and they should consult those divine prophecies which up to the present time have been so literally fulfilled in His person. Alas, they themselves are about to carry them out to the very last iota. There is not a single outrage or suffering foretold by David and Isaias as having to be put upon the Messiah which these blind men are not scheming to verify. In them, therefore, was fulfilled that terrible saying: “He that will speak against the Holy Ghost, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come” (Matthew xii. 32). The Synagogue is near to a curse. Obstinate in her error, she refuses to see or to hear. She has deliberately perverted her judgement. She has extinguished within herself the light of the Holy Spirit. She will go deeper and deeper into evil, and at length fall into the abyss. This same lamentable conduct is but too often witnessed nowadays in those sinners who, by habitual resistance to the light, end by finding their happiness in sin. Neither should it surprise us that we find in people of our own generation a resemblance to the murderers of our Jesus: the history of His Passion will reveal to us many sad secrets of the human heart and its perverse inclinations, for what happened in Jerusalem happens also in every sinner’s heart. His heart, according to the saying of Saint Paul, is a Calvary where Jesus is crucified. There is the same ingratitude, the same blindness, the same wild madness, with this difference: that the sinner who is enlightened by faith knows Him whom he crucifies, whereas the Jews, as the same Apostle tells us, knew not the Lord of Glory (1 Corinthians ii. 8). While, therefore, we listen to the Gospel which relates the history of the Passion, let us turn the indignation we feel for the Jews against ourselves and our own sins. Let us weep over the sufferings of our Victim, for our sins caused Him to suffer and die.

Everything around us urges us to mourn. The images of the saints, the very crucifix on our altar, are veiled from our sight. The Church is oppressed with grief. During the first four weeks of Lent she compassionated her Jesus fasting in the desert. His coming sufferings and crucifixion and death are what now fill her with anguish. We read in today’s Gospel that the Jews threaten to stone the Son of God as a blasphemer, but His hour is not yet come. He is obliged to flee and hide Himself. It is to express this deep humiliation that the Church veils the Cross. A God hiding Himself, that He may evade the anger of men — what a mystery! Is it weakness? Is it that He fears death? No, we will soon see Him going out to meet His enemies. But at present He hides Himself from them, because all that had been prophesied regarding Him has not been fulfilled. Besides, His death is not to be by stoning: He is to die on a Cross, the tree of malediction, which, from that time forward is to be the Tree of Life.

Let us humble ourselves, as we see the Creator of heaven and earth thus obliged to hide Himself from men who are bent on His destruction! Let us go back in thought to the sad day of the first sin when Adam and Eve hid themselves because a guilty conscience told them they were naked. Jesus is come to assure us of our being pardoned! and lo, He hides Himself, not because He is naked —He that is to the Saints the garb of holiness and immortality — but because He made Himself weak, that He might make us strong. Our first parents sought to hide themselves from the sight of God. Jesus hides Himself from the eye of men, but it will not be thus forever. The day will come when sinners from whose anger He now flees will pray to the mountains that they fall on them to shield them from His gaze, but their prayer will not be granted, and they will see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty.

This Sunday is called Passion Sunday because the Church begins on this day to make the sufferings of our Redeemer her chief thought. It is called also Judica from the first word of the Introit of the Mass, and again, Neomania, that is, the Sunday of the new (or the Easter) moon, because it always falls after the new moon which regulates the Feast of Easter Day.

In the Greek Church, this Sunday goes under the simple name of the Fifth Sunday of the Holy Fasts.

Epistle – Hebrews ix. 11‒15

Brethren, Christ having come, a high priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, neither by the blood of goats or of calves, but by His own blood, entered once into the Holies, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who, by the Holy Spirit, offered Himself without a spot to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God? And therefore He is the Mediator of the New Testament, and by means of His death, for the redemption of those transgressions which were under the former testament; they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

It is by Blood alone that man is to be redeemed. He has offended God. This God cannot be appeased by anything short of the extermination of his rebellious creature, who, by shedding his blood, will give an earnest of his repentance and his entire submission to the Creator against whom he dared to rebel. Otherwise, the justice of God must be satisfied by the sinner’s suffering eternal punishment. This truth was understood by all the people of the ancient world, and all confessed it by shedding the blood of victims, as in the sacrifices of Abel, at the very commencement of the world, in the hecatombs of Greece, in the countless immolations by which Solomon dedicated the Temple. And yet God thus speaks to His people: “Hear, my people, and I will speak: Israel, and I will testify to you: I am God your God. I will not reprove you for your sacrifices, and your burnt-offerings are always in my sight. I will not take calves out of your house, nor he-goats out of your flocks. I need them not: for all the beasts of the woods are mine. If I should be hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bullocks? Or will I drink the blood of goats? (Psalm xlis. 7‒13) Thus God commands the blood of victims to be offered to Him and, at the same time, declares that neither it nor they are precious in His sight. Is this a contradiction? No. God would by this have man understand that it is only by Blood that he can be redeemed, but that the blood of brute animals cannot effect this redemption. Can the blood of man himself bring him his own redemption, and appease God’s justice? No, not even man’s blood, for it is denied, and even were it undefiled, it is powerless to compensate for the outrage done to God by sin. For this, there was needed the Blood of a God. That was the Blood of Jesus, and He has come that He may shed it for our redemption.

In Him is fulfilled the most sacred of the figures of the Old Law. Once each year, the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies, there to make intercession for the people. He went within the Veil to the Ark of the Covenant, but he was not allowed to enjoy this great privilege unless he entered the holy place carrying in his hands the blood of a newly-offered victim. The Son of God, the true High Priest, is now about to enter heaven, and we are to follow him there, but unto this, He must have an offering of blood, and that Blood can be none other than His own. We are going to assist at this His compliance with the divine ordinance. Let us open our hearts that this precious Blood may, as the Apostle says in today’s Epistle, cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Gospel – John xiii. 46‒59

At that time Jesus said to the multitude of the Jews, “Which of you will convince me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe me? He that is of God hears the words of God. Therefore you hear them not because you are not of God.” The Jews therefore answered and said to Him, “Do not we say well, that you are a Samaritan and have a devil?” Jesus answered, “I have not a devil, but I honour my Father, and you have dishonoured me. I seek not my own glory. There is one that seeks and judges. Amen, Amen, I say to you, if any man will keep my word, He will not see death forever.” The Jews therefore said, “Now we know that you have a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets. And you say, ‘If any man keeps my word, he will not taste death forever.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets who are dead. Who do you make yourself to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say that He is your God. And you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I will say that I know Him not, I will be like to you, a liar. But I do know Him, and I keep His word. Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day. He saw it, and was glad.” The Jews therefore said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am.” They took up stones therefore to cast at Him but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The fury of the Jews is evidently at its height, and Jesus is obliged to hide Himself from them. But He is to fall into their hands before many days are over. Then will they triumph and put Him to death. They triumph, and Jesus is their victim: but how different is to be his lot from their ! In obedience to the decrees of His heavenly Father, and out of love for men, He will deliver Himself into the hands of His enemies, and they will put Him to death, but He will rise victorious from the tomb, He will ascend into heaven, He will be throned on the right hand of His Father. His enemies on the contrary, after having vented all their rage, will live on without remorse until the terrible day come for their chastisement.

That day is not far off, for observe the severity with which our Lord speaks to them: “You hear not the words of God, because you are not of God.” Yet there was a time, when they were of God, for the Lord gives His grace to all men, but they have rendered this grace useless. They are now in darkness, and the light they have rejected will not return.

“You say that my Father is your God, and you have not known Him, but I know Him.” Their obstinacy in refusing to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah has led these men to ignore that very God whom they boast of honouring, for if they knew the Father, they would not reject His Son. Moses and the Psalms and the Prophets are all a dead letter to them. These sacred Books are soon to pass into the hands of the Gentiles who will both read and understand them. “If” continues Jesus, “you should say that I know Him not, I should be like you, a liar.” This strong language is that of the angry Judge who is to come down at the last day to destroy sinners. Jerusalem has not known the time of her visitation: the Son of God has visited her, He is with her, and she dares to say to Him: “You have a devil!” She says to the Eternal Word, who proves Himself to be God by the most astounding miracles, that Abraham and the Prophets are greater than He! Strange blindness, that comes from pride and hardness of heart! The Feast of the Pasch is at hand: these men are going to eat, and with much parade of religion, the flesh of the figurative lamb. They know full well that this lamb is a symbol or a figure which is to have its fulfilment. The true Lamb is to be sacrificed by their hands, and they will not know Him. He will shed his Blood for them, and it will not save them. How this reminds us of those sinners for whom this Easter promises to be as fruitless as those of the past years! Let us redouble our prayers for them, and beseech our Lord to soften their hearts, lest trampling the Blood of Jesus under their feet, they should have it to cry vengeance against them before the throne of the heavenly Father.

21 MARCH – SAINT BENEDICT OF NORCIA (Abbot)

 

Benedict was born of a noble family at Norcia. He was sent to Rome that he might receive a liberal education, but not long after he withdrew to a place called Subiaco and there hid himself in a very deep cave, that he might give himself entirely to Jesus Christ. He passed three years in that retirement, unknown to all save to a monk named Romanus, who supplied him with the necessaries of life. The devil having one day excited him to a violent temptation of impurity, he rolled himself amid prickly brambles and extinguished within himself the desire of carnal pleasure by the pain he thus endured. The fame of his sanctity, however, became known beyond the limits of his hiding-place and certain monks put themselves under his guidance. He sharply rebuked them for their wicked lives, which rebuke so irritated them that they resolved to put poison in his drink. Having made the sign of the Cross over the cup as they proffered it to him, it broke and he, leaving that monastery, returned to his solitude.

But whereas many daily came to Benedict, beseeching him to take them as his disciples, he built twelve monasteries and drew up the most admirable rules for their government. He afterwards went to Monte Cassino, where he destroyed an image of Apollo which was still adored in those parts. And having pulled down the altar and burnt the groves, he built a chapel in that same place in honour of Saint Martin, and another in honour of Saint John. He instructed the inhabitants in the Christian religion. Day by day did Benedict advance in the grace of God and he also foretold, in a spirit of prophecy, what was to take place. Totila, the King of the Goths, having heard of this and being anxious to know if it were the truth, went to visit him but first sent his sword-bearer who was to pretend that he was the king and who, for this end, was dressed in royal robes and accompanied by attendants. As soon as Benedict saw him, he said: “Put off, my son, put off this dress, for it is not yours.” But he foretold to Totila that he would reach Rome, cross the sea, and die at the end of nine years.

Several months before Benedict departed from this life, he foretold to his disciples the day on which he should die. Six days previous to his death he ordered them to open the sepulchre in which he wished to be buried. On the sixth day, he desired to be carried to the church, and there having received the Eucharist with his eyes raised in prayer towards Heaven, and held up by his disciples, he breathed forth his soul. Two monks saw it ascending to Heaven, adorned with a most precious robe and surrounded by shining lights. They also saw a most beautiful and venerable man who stood above the saint’s head, and they heard him thus speak: “This is the way by which Benedict, the beloved of the Lord, ascended to Heaven.”

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Forty days after the white dove of Cassino had mounted to Heaven, Benedict, her glorious brother, ascended by a bright path to the blissful abode where they were to be united forever. Both of them reached the heavenly country during that portion of the year which corresponds with the holy Season of Lent. It frequently happens, however, that Saint Scholastica’s feast is kept before Lent has begun whereas Saint Benedict’s day, the twenty-first of March, always comes during the Season of penance. God who is the Sovereign Master of time willed that the faithful, while practising their exercises of penance, should always have before their eyes a Saint whose example and intercession should inspire them with courage.

With what profound veneration ought we not to celebrate the festival of this wonderful Saint who, as Saint Gregory says, “was filled with the spirit of all the Just!” If we consider his virtues, we find nothing superior in the annals of perfection presented to our admiration by the Church. Love of God and man, humility, the gift of prayer, dominion over the passions, form him into a masterpiece of the grace of the Holy Ghost. Miracles seem to constitute his life: he cures the sick, commands the elements, casts out devils and raises the dead to life. The spirit of prophecy unfolds futurity to him and the most intimate thoughts of men are not too distant for the eye of his mind to scan. These superhuman qualifications are heightened by a sweet majesty, a serene gravity and a tender charity which shine in every page of his wonderful Life, and it is one of his holiest children who wrote it —Saint Gregory the Great. It is this holy Pope and Doctor who had the honour of telling posterity all the wonders which God vouchsafed to work in His servant Benedict.

Yes, posterity had a right to know the life and virtues of a man whose salutary influence on the Church and society has been so observable during the ages of the Christian era. To describe the influence exercised by the spirit of Saint Benedict we should have to transcribe the annals of all the nations of the Western Church from the seventh century down to our own times. Benedict is the Father of Europe. By his Benedictines, numerous as the stars of Heaven and as the sands of the sea-shore, he rescued the last remnants of Roman vigour from the total annihilation threatened by the invasion of Barbarians. He presided over the establishment of the public and private laws of those nations which grew out of the ruins of the Roman Empire. He carried the Gospel and civilisation into England, Germany and the Northern countries, including Sclavonia. He taught agriculture. He put an end to slavery. And to conclude, he saved the precious deposit of the arts and sciences from the tempest which would have swept them from the world and would have left mankind a prey to a gloomy and fatal ignorance.

And Benedict did all this by that little book which we call his “Rule.” This admirable code of Christian perfection and prudence disciplined the countless legions of Religious by whom the Holy Patriarch achieved all these prodigies. During the ages which preceded the promulgation of this “Rule” — so wonderful in its simple eloquence —the monastic life in the Western Church had produced some few saintly men. But there was nothing to justify the hope that this kind of life would become, even more than it had been in the East, the principal means of the Christian regeneration and civilisation of so many nations. This “Rule” once written — and all others gradually give place to it, as the stars are eclipsed when the sun has risen. The West was peopled with monasteries, and from these monasteries flowed upon Europe all those blessings which have made it the privileged quarter of the globe.

An incredible number of Saints, both men and women, who look up to Benedict as their father purify and sanctify the world which had not yet emerged from the state of semi-barbarism. A long series of Popes who had once been Novices in the Benedictine cloister preside over the destinies of this new world and form for it a new legislation which, being based exclusively on the moral law, is to avert the threatening prevalence of brutal despotism.

Bishops innumerable, trained in the same school of Benedict, consolidate this moral legislation in the provinces and cities over which they are appointed. The Apostles of twenty barbarous nations confront their fierce and savage tribes and, with the Gospel in one hand, and the “Rule” of their Holy Father in the other, lead them into the fold of Christ. For many centuries the learned men, the Doctors of the Church and the instructors of youth, belong, almost exclusively, to the Order of the great Patriarch who, by the labours of his children, pour forth on the people the purest beauty of light and truth.

This choir of heroes in every virtue, of Popes, of Bishops, of Apostles, of holy Doctors, proclaiming themselves as his disciples and joining with the universal Church in glorifying that God whose holiness and power shine forth so brightly in the life and actions of Benedict, what a corona, what an aureola of glory for one Saint to have!

*****

O Benedict! Vessel of Election! Palm of the Wilderness! Angel of Earth! We offer you the salutation of our love! What man was ever chosen to work on the Earth more wonders than you have done! The Saviour has crowned you as one of His principal co-operators in the work of the salvation and sanctification of men. Who could count the millions of souls who owe their eternal happiness to you, your immortal Rule having sanctified them in the cloister, and the zeal of your Benedictines having been the means of their knowing and serving the great God, who chose you? Around you, in the realms of glory, a countless number of the Blessed acknowledge themselves indebted to you, after God, for their eternal happiness. And upon the Earth whole nations profess the true faith because the Gospel was first preached to them by your disciples.

Father of so many people, look down on your inheritance and once more bless this ungrateful Europe which owes everything to you, yet has almost forgotten your name! The light which your children imparted to it has become dimmed. The warmth they imparted to the societies they founded and civilised by the Cross, has grown cold. Thorns have covered a large portion of the land in which they sowed the seed of salvation. Come and forward your own work. And by your prayers keep in its expiring life. Give firmness to what has been shaken. May a new Europe — a Catholic Europe — spring up in place of that which heresy and false doctrines have formed. Patriarch of the Servants of God, look down from Heaven on the vineyard which your hand has planted and see into what a state of desolation it has fallen. There was a time when your name was honoured as that of a Father in thirty thousand monasteries from the shores of the Baltic to the borders of Syria, and from the green Erin to the steppes of Poland. Now, alas, few and feeble are the prayers that ascend to you from the whole of that immense patrimony which the faith and gratitude of the people had once consecrated to you. The blight of heresy and the rapaciousness of avarice have robbed you of these harvests of your glory. The work of sacrilegious spoliation is now centuries old and unceasingly has it been pursued. At one time, having recourse to open violence, and at another, pleading the urgency of political interests. Sainted Father of our Faith, you have been robbed of those thousands of sanctuaries which, for long ages, were fountains of life and light to the people. The race of your children has become almost extinct: watch over them that still remain, and are labouring to perpetuate your Rule. An ancient tradition tells us how our Lord revealed to you that your Order would last to the end of the world, and that your children would console the Church of Rome and confirm the faith of many in the last great trials. Deign to protect, by your powerful intercession, the remnants of that Family which still calls you its Father. Raise it up again. Multiply it. Sanctify it: let the Spirit which you have deposited in your Holy Rule flourish in its midst, and show, by thus blessing it, that you are ever “Benedict,” the servant of God.

Support the Holy Church by your powerful intercession, dear Father! Assist the Apostolic See which has been so often occupied by disciples of your School. Father of so many Pastors of your people, obtain for us Bishops like those sainted ones whom your Rule has formed. Father of so many Apostles! Ask for the countries which have no faith preachers of the Gospel who may convert the people by their blood and by their words, as did those who went out missionaries from your cloisters. Father of so many holy Doctors, pray that the science of sacred literature may revive to aid the Church and confound error. Father of so many sublime Ascetics, rekindle the zeal of Christian perfection which has grown so cold among the Christians of our days. Patriarch of the Religious Life in the Western Church, bless all the Religious Orders which the Holy Spirit has given successively to the Church. They all look on you with admiration as their venerable predecessor. Pour out upon them the influence of your fatherly love.

Lastly, Blessed favourite of God, pray for all the Faithful of Christ during these days which are consecrated to thoughts and works of penance. It was in the midst of the holy austerities of Lent that you mounted to the abode of everlasting delight. Help us Christians who are, at this very time, in the same campaign of penance. Rouse our courage by your example and precepts. Teach us to keep down the flesh and subject it to the spirit, as you did. Obtain for us a little of your blessed spirit, that turning away from this vain world, we may think on the eternal years. Pray for us that our hearts may never love, nor our thoughts ever dwell, on joys so fleeting as are those of time.

Catholic piety invokes you as one of the patrons, as well as one of the models, of a dying Christian. It loves to tell men of the sublime spectacle you presented at your death when standing at the foot of the altar, leaning on the arms of your disciples and barely touching the earth with your feet, you gave back, in submission and confidence, your soul to its Creator. Obtain for us, dear Saint, a death courageous and sweet as was yours. Drive from us, at our last hour, the cruel enemy who will seek to ensnare us. Visit us by your presence, and leave us not till we have breathed forth our soul into the bosom of the God who has made you so glorious a Saint.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Alexandria, under the emperor Constantine and the governor Philagrius, the commemoration of the holy martyrs who were attacked and murdered by the Arians and the Gentiles while they were in church on Good Friday.

The same day, the holy martyrs Philemon and Domninus.

At Catania, St. Birillus, who was consecrated bishop by the blessed Apostle St. Peter. After converting many Gentiles to the faith, in extreme old age he rested in peace.

At Alexandria, blessed Serapion, anchoret and bishop of Thmuis, a man of great virtue, who being forced into exile by the enraged Arians, went to heaven.

In the territory of Lyons, the abbot St. Lupicinus whose life was resplendent with the lustre of holiness and miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

22 MARCH – SATURDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – Isaias xlix. 8‒15

Thus says the Lord: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you; and I have preserved you, and given you to be a covenant of the people, that you might raise up the earth, and possess the inheritances that were destroyed, that you might say to them that are bound: ‘Come forth” and to them that are in darkness: ‘Show yourselves.’ They will feed in the ways, and their pastures will be in every plain. They will not hunger nor thirst, neither will the heat nor the sun strike them: for he that is merciful to them will be their shepherd, and at the fountains of waters he will give them drink. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my paths will be exalted. Behold these will come from afar, and behold these from the north and from the sea, and these from the south country. Give praise, ye heavens, and rejoice, earth; ye mountains, give praise with jubilation, because the Lord has comforted His people, and will have mercy on His poor ones. And Sion said: ‘The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet will I not forget you,” says the Lord Almighty.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Never did our heavenly Father express His tender mercy towards us in more glowing terms, and He bade His Prophet deliver them to us. He gives the whole earth to His Son, Jesus Christ, our Incarnate Lord, not that He may judge and condemn it, as it deserves, but that He may save it (John iii. 17). This divine Ambassador having come on the earth, he tells all that are galled by fetters, or that sit in the gloomy shadow of death, to come to him, promising them liberty and light. Their hunger will be appeased, and their thirst quenched. They will no longer pant under the scorching rays of the sun, but will be led by their merciful Shepherd to the cool shades on the banks of the water of life.

They came from every nation under heaven: the Fountain, the Font, will be the centre where all the human race is to meet. The Gentile world is to be henceforth called Sion, and the Lord loves the gates of this new Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob (Psalm lxxxvi. 2). No God had not forgotten her during the long ages of her idol-worship. His love is tender as that of the fondest mother; yes, and though a mother’s heart may forget her child, God never will forget His Sion. You, then, who received Baptism at your very entrance into the world but have since then served another Master besides Him to whom you swore perpetual allegiance at the font — be of good heart! If the grace of God has found you submissive, if the holy exercises of Lent and the prayers offered for you by the Church have had their effect, and you are now preparing to make your peace with God,— read these words of your heavenly Father and fear not! How can you fear? He has given you to His own Son. He has told him to save, heal, and comfort you. Are you in the bonds of sin? Jesus can break them. Are you in spiritual darkness? He is the Light of the world, and can dispel the thickest gloom. Are you hungry? He is the Bread of Life. Are you thirsty? He is the Fountain of living Water. Are you scorched, are you burnt to the very core, by the heat of concupiscence? Even so, poor sufferers, you must not lose courage. There is a cool fountain ready to refresh you, and heal all your wounds. Not indeed the First Font, which gave you the life you have lost, but the second Baptism, the divine Sacrament of Penance, which can restore you to grace and purity.

Gospel – John viii. 12‒20

At that time Jesus spoke to the multitude of the Jews, saying: “I am the light of the world. He that follows me walks not in darkness, but will have the light of life.” The Pharisees therefore said to Him: “You give testimony of yourself. Your testimony is not true.” Jesus answered and said to them: “Although I give testimony of myself, my testimony is true, for I know from where I came and where I go, but you know not from where I come, or where I go. You judge according to the flesh, I judge not any man. And if I do judge, my judgment is true because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. And in your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true. I am one, that give testimony of myself, and the Father that sent me, gives testimony of me.” They said therefore to Him: “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered: “Neither me do you know, nor my Father: if you did know me, perhaps you would know my Father also.” These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, teaching in the temple, and no man laid hands on him because his hour was not yet come.

Praise be to you, O Christ. 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

What a contrast between the tender mercy of God, who invites all men to receive His Son as their Redeemer, and the obduracy of heart with which the Jews receive the heavenly Ambassador! Jesus has proclaimed Himself to be the Son of God, and, in proof of His divine origin, has, for three long years wrought the most astounding miracles. Many of the Jews have believed in Him, because they argued that God could never have authorised falsity by miracles, and they therefore accepted the doctrine of Jesus as coming from heaven. The Pharisees hate the light and love darkness. Their pride will not yield even to the evidence of facts. At one time they denied the genuineness of Jesus’ miracles, at another they pretended to explain them by the agency of the devil. Then too, they put questions to Him of such a captious nature that, in whatever way Jesus answered, they might accuse Him of blasphemy or contempt for the Law. Today they have the audacity to make this objection to Jesus being the Messiah — that He gives testimony in His own favour! Our Blessed Lord who knows the malice of their hearts deigns to refute their impious sarcasm, but He avoids giving them an explicit answer. It is evident that the Light is passing from Jerusalem and is to bless other lands. How terrible is this punishment of a soul that abuses the truth, and rejects it by an instinctive hatred! Her crime is that sin against the Holy Ghost, which will not be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the world to come (Matthew xii. 32). Happy he that loves the truth, though it condemns his evil passions and troubles his conscience! Such an one proves that he reveres the wisdom of God, and if it do not altogether rule his conduct, it does not abandon him. But happier far he that yields himself wholly to the Truth and as a humble disciple follows Jesus. He walks not in darkness. He will have the light of life. Let us then lose no time, but take at once that happy path marked out for us by Him who is our Light and our Life. Keeping close to His footsteps, we went up the rugged hill of Quarentana, and there we witnessed His rigid Fast, but now that the time of His Passion is at hand, He invites us to follow Him up another mountain, that of Calvary, there to contemplate His sufferings and Death. Let us not hesitate: we will be repaid — we will have the light of life.

20 MARCH – FERIA OF LENT

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Judaea, St. Joachim, father of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, whose festival is kept on the sixteenth of August.

In Asia, the birthday of St. Archippus, fellow-labourer of the blessed Apostle St. Paul, who mentions him in his Epistles to Philemon and the Colossians.

In Syria, the holy martyrs Paul, Cyril, Eugenius and four others.

The same day, the Saints Photina, a Samaritan, and her sons Joseph and Victor. Also Sebastian, military officer, Anatolius, and Photius. Photides, Parasceves and Cyriaca, sisters, were all martyred for confessing Christ.

At Amisus in Paphlagonia, seven holy women, Alexandra, Claudia, Euphrasia, Matrona, Juliana, Euphemia and Theodosia, who were put to death for the confession of the faith. They were followed by Derphuta and her sister.

At Apollonia, the bishop St. Maetas, who breathed his last in exile where he had been sent for upholding the worship of holy images.

In the monastery of Fontanelle, St. Wulfran, bishop of Sens, who after having resigned his bishopric and performed miracles, departed out of this life.

In England, the demise of St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, who from his childhood to his death was renowned for good works and miracles.

At Siena in Tuscany, blessed Ambrose of the Order of Preachers, celebrated for sanctity, eloquence and miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

20 MARCH – FRIDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – 3 Kings xvii. 17‒24

In those days the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick and the sickness was very grievous so that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elias: “What have I to do with you, you man of God? Are you come to me that my iniquities should be remembered, and that you should kill my son?” And Elias said to her: “Give me your son.”And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him into the upper chamber where he abode, and laid him on his own bed. And he cried to the Lord, and said: “Lord, my God, have you afflicted also the widow with whom I am after a sort maintained, so as to kill her son?” And he stretched, and measured himself on the child three times, and cried to the Lord and said: “Lord, my God. Let the soul of this child, I beseech you, return into his body.” And the Lord heard the voice of Elias, and the soul of the child returned to him, and he revived. And Elias took the child, and brought him down from the upper chamber to the house below, and delivered him to his mother and said to her: “Behold your son lives.” And the woman said to Elias: “Now, by this, I know you are a man of God, and the word of the Lord in your mouth is true.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Again, it is a mother that comes, with tears in her eyes, praying for the resurrection of her child. This mother is the Widow of Sarephta whom we have already had as the type of the Gentile Church. She was once a sinner, and an idolatress, and the remembrance of the past afflicts her soul. But the God that has cleansed her from her sins, and called her to be his spouse, comforts her by restoring her child to life.

The charity of Elias is a figure of that of the Son of God. Observe how this great Prophet stretches himself on the body of the boy, fitting himself to his littleness, as did also Eliseus. Here again, we recognise the divine mystery of the Incarnation. Elias thrice touches the corpse: thrice also will our catechumens be immersed in the baptismal font while the minister of God invokes the Three Persons of the adorable Trinity. On the solemn night of Easter, Jesus, too, will say to the Church, His Spouse: “Behold, your son lives,” and she, transported with joy, will acknowledge the truth of God’s promises. Nay, the very pagans bore witness to this truth, for when they saw the virtuous lives of this new people which came forth regenerated from the waters of Baptism, they acknowledged that God alone could produce such virtue in man. There suddenly arose from the midst of the Roman Empire, demoralised and corrupt beyond imagination, a race of men of angelic purity, and these very men had, but a short time before their Baptism wallowed in all the abominations of paganism. From where had they derived this sublime virtue? From the Christian teaching, and from the supernatural remedies it provides for man’s spiritual miseries. Then it was that unbelievers sought for the true faith, though they knew it was at the risk of martyrdom. They ran to the Church, asking her to become their mother, and saying to her: “We know that you are of God, and the word of the Lord in your mouth is true.”

Gospel – John xi. 1‒45

At that time there was a certain man sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, of the town of Mary and of Martha her sister. (And Mary was she that anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair: whose brother Lazarus was sick.) His sisters therefore sent to him, saying: “Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.” And Jesus hearing it, said to them: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God: that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus. When He had heard therefore that he was sick, He still remained in the same place two days. Then after that, He said to his disciples: “Let us go into Judea again.” The disciples say to Him: “Rabbi, the Jews but now sought to stone you, and you go there again?” Jesus answered: “Are there not twelve hours of the day? If a man walk in the day, he stumbles not, because he sees the light of this world: But if he walk in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” These things he said, and after that He said to them: “Lazarus our friend sleeps, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep.” His disciples therefore said: “Lord, if he sleeps, he will do well.” But Jesus spoke of his death, and they thought that He spoke of the repose of sleep. Then therefore Jesus said to them plainly: “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad, for your sakes, that I was not there, that you may believe: but let us go to him.” Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples: “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”

Jesus therefore came, and found that he had been four days already in the grave. (Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off.) And many of the Jews were come to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Martha therefore, as soon as she heard that Jesus was come, went to meet Him: but Mary sat at home. Martha therefore said to Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would had not died. But now also I know that whatever you will ask of God, God will give it to you.” Jesus said to her: “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him: “I know that he will rise again, in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her: “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believes in me, although he be dead, will live: And every one that lives, and believes in me, will not die forever. Believe you this?” She said to Him: “Yes, Lord, I have believed that you are Christ the Son of the living God, who have come into this world.” And when she had said these things, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying: “The master has come, and calls for you.” She, as soon as she heard this, rose quickly and came to Him. For Jesus was not yet come into the town, but He was still in that place where Martha had met Him. The Jews therefore who were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary that she rose up speedily and went out, followed her, saying: “She goes to the grave to weep there.”

When Mary therefore had come where Jesus was, seeing Him she fell down at His feet and said to Him: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would have not died.” Jesus, therefore, when he saw her weeping, and the Jews that were come with her, weeping, groaned in the spirit, and troubled Himself and said: “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him: “Lord, come and see.” And Jesus wept. The Jews therefore said: “Behold how he loved him.” But some of them said: “Could not he that opened the eyes of the man born blind, have caused that this man should not die?” Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself, came to the sepulchre. Now it was a cave, and a stone was laid over it. Jesus said: “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said to Him: “Lord, by this time he stinks, for he is now of four days.” Jesus said to her: “Did not I say to you, that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” They took therefore the stone away. And Jesus lifting up His eyes said: “Father, I give you thanks that you have heard me. And I know that you hear me always, but because of the people who stand about have I said it, that they may believe that you have sent me.” When He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice: “Lazarus, come forth.” And presently he that had been dead came forth, bound feet and hands with winding bands, and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus said to them: “Loose him, and let him go.” Many therefore of the Jews who had come to Mary and Martha, and had seen the things that Jesus did, believed in Him.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us meditate on this admirable history, and as we meditate, let us hope, for it not only shows us what Jesus for the souls of others, but what He had done for ours. Let us also renew our prayers for the penitents who now throughout the world are preparing far the great reconciliation. It is not a mother that is here represented as praying for the resurrection of her child. It is two sisters asking this grace for a brother. The example must not be lost on us: we must pray far one another. But let us take our Gospel in the order of its truths. First, Lazarus was sick and then he died. The sinner begins by being tepid and careless and then he receives the mortal wound. Jesus could have cured Lazarus of his sickness, but he permitted it to be fatal. He intends to work such a miracle, and that within sight of Jerusalem, that His enemies will have no excuse far refusing to receive Him as the Messiah. He would also prove that He is the sovereign Master of life, in order that he might hereby teach His Apostles and disciples not to be scandalised at the death He Himself was soon to suffer. In the moral sense, God in His wisdom sometimes leaves an ungrateful soul to itself, although He foresees that it will fall into sin. It will rise again, and the confusion it will feel for having sinned will lead it to that great preservative against a future fall ― humility.

The two sisters, Martha and Mary, are full of grief, yet full of confidence in Jesus. Let us observe how their two distinct characters are shown on this occasion. Jesus tells Martha that He is the Resurrection and the Life, and that they who believe in Him will not die, that is, will not die the death of sin. But when Mary came to him, and He saw her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and troubled Himself because he knew the greatness of her love. His divine Heart was touched with compassion as He beheld these who were so dear to Him smarting under that chastisement of death which sin had brought into the world. Having reached the sepulchre where Lazarus was buried, He wept, for He loved Lazarus. Thus did our Redeemer by his own weeping sanctify the tears which Christian affection sheds over the grave of a relative or friend. Lazarus has been in the sepulchre four days. It is the image of the sinner buried in his sin. To see him now is what even his sister shudders at, but Jesus rebukes her, and bids them take away the stone. Then with that voice which commands all nature and makes hell tremble, He cries out “Lazarus, come forth!” He that had been dead rises up in the sepulchre, but his feet and hands are tied, his face is covered with a napkin. He lives, but he can neither walk nor see. Jesus orders him to be set free, and then, by the hands of the men that are present, he recovers the use of his limbs and eyes. So is it with the sinner that receives pardon. There is no voice but that of Jesus which can call him to conversion and touch his heart, and bring him to confess his sins, but Jesus has put into the hands of priests the power to loosen, enlighten and give movement. This miracle, which was wrought by our Saviour at this very season of the year filled up the measure of His enemies’ rage, and set them thinking how they could soon put Him to death. The few days He has still to live are all to be spent at Bethany where the miracle has taken place, and which is but a short distance from Jerusalem. In nine days from this, He will make His triumphant entry into the faithless city, after which he will return to Bethany, and after three or four days, will once more enter Jerusalem, there to consummate the sacrifice whose infinite merits are to purchase resurrection for sinners.

The early Christians loved to see this history of our Lord’s raising Lazarus to life painted on the walls of the Catacombs. We also find it carved on the sarcophagi of the fourth and fifth centuries, and later on, it was not infrequently chosen as a subject for the painted windows of our Cathedrals. This symbol of spiritual resurrection was formerly honoured by a most solemn ceremony in the great Monastery of Holy Trinity at Vendome in France. Every year, on this day, a criminal who had been sentenced to death was led to the church of the Monastery. He had a rope round his neck, and held in his hand a torch weighing thirty-three pounds, in memory of the years spent on earth by our Saviour. The Monks made a procession in which the criminal joined, after which a sermon was preached at which he also assisted. He was then taken to the foot of the altar where the Abbot after exhorting him to repentance imposed on him, as a penance, the pilgrimage to Saint Martin’s Church at Tours. The Abbot loosened the rope from his neck, and declared him to be free. The origin of this ceremony was that when Louis of Bourbon, Count of Vendome, was prisoner in England in 1426, he made a vow that if God restored him to liberty, he would establish this custom in the Church of Holy Trinity as a return of gratitude, and as a homage to Christ, who raised up Lazarus from the tomb. God accepted the vow and the prince soon recovered his freedom.

19 MARCH – SAINT JOSEPH (Patron of the Universal Church)

 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

With a view to her children’s interests the Church would, on this day, excite their confidence in this powerful and ever ready helper. Devotion to Saint Joseph was reserved for these latter times. Though based on the Gospel, it was not to be developed in the early ages of the Church. It is not that the faithful were, in any way, checked from showing honour to him who had been called to take so important a part in the mystery of the Incarnation. But Divine Providence had its hidden reasons for retarding the Liturgical homage to be paid each year to the spouse of Mary. As on other occasions, so here also. The East preceded the West in the special cultus of Saint Joseph, but in the fifteenth century the whole Latin Church adopted it, and since that time it has gradually gained the affections of the faithful.

The goodness of God and our Redeemer’s fidelity to His promises have ever kept pace with the necessities of the world so that in every age appropriate and special aid has been given to the world for its maintaining the supernatural life. An uninterrupted succession of seasonable grace has been the result of this merciful dispensation, and each generation has had given to it a special motive for confidence in its Redeemer. Dating from the thirteenth century when, as the Church herself assures us, the world began to grow cold, each epoch has had thrown open to it a new source of graces. First of all came the feast of the Most Blessed Sacrament with its successive developments of Processions, Expositions, Benedictions and the Forty Hours. After this, followed the devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus (of which Saint Bernardine of Sienna was the chief propagator) and that of Via Crucis or Stations of the Cross, with its wonderful fruit of compunction. The practice of frequent Communion was revived in the sixteenth century owing principally to the influence of Saint Ignatius and the Society founded by him. In the seventeenth, was promulgated the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus which was firmly established in the following century. In the nineteenth, devotion to the Holy Mother of God has made such progress as to form one of the leading supernatural characteristics of the period. The Rosary and Scapular, which had been handed down to us in previous ages, have regained their place in the affections of the people. Pilgrimages to the sanctuaries of the Mother of God, which had been interrupted by the influence of Jansenism and rationalism, have been removed. The Arch-confraternity of the Sacred Heart of Mary has spread throughout the whole world. Numerous miracles have been wrought in reward for the fervent faith of individuals. In a word, [the nineteenth] century witnessed the triumph of the Immaculate Conception — a triumph which had been looked forward to for many previous ages.

Now, devotion to Mary could never go on increasing as it has done without bringing with it a fervent devotion to Saint Joseph. We cannot separate Mary and Joseph, were it only for their having such a close connection with the mystery of the Incarnation: Mary, as being the Mother of the Son of God and Joseph, as being guardian of the Virgin’s spotless honour, and foster-father of the Divine Babe. A special veneration for Saint Joseph was the result of increased devotion to Mary. Nor is this reverence for Mary’s spouse to be considered only as a just homage paid to his admirable prerogatives. It is, moreover, a fresh and exhaustless source of help to the world, for Joseph has been made our Protector by the Son of God Himself. Hearken to the inspired words of the Church’s Liturgy: “You, O Joseph, are the delight of the Blessed, the sure hope of our life, and the pillar of the world!” Extraordinary as is this power, need we be surprised at its being given to a man like Joseph whose connections with the Son of God on Earth were so far above those of all other men? Jesus deigned to be subject to Joseph here below. Now that He is in heaven, He would glorify the creature to whom he consigned the guardianship of His own childhood and His Mother’s honour. He has given him a power which is above our calculations.

Hence it is that the Church invites us, on this day, to have recourse, with unreserved confidence to this all-powerful Protector. The world we live in is filled with miseries which would make stronger hearts than ours quake with fear. But let us invoke Saint Joseph with faith and we will be protected. In all our necessities, whether of soul or body — in all the trials and anxieties we may have to go through — let us have recourse to Saint Joseph and we will not be disappointed. The king of Egypt said to his people when they were suffering from famine: “go to Joseph!” (Genesis xli. 55). the King of Heaven says the same to us: the faithful guardian of Mary has greater influence with God than Jacob’s son had with Pharaoh.

As usual, God revealed this new spiritual aid to a privileged soul that she might be the instrument of its propagation. It was thus that were instituted several feasts, such as those of Corpus Christi and of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the sixteenth century Saint Teresa (whose writings were to have a world-wide circulation) was instructed by Heaven as to the efficacy of devotion to Saint Joseph. She has spoken of it in the Life (written by herself) of Teresa of Jesus. When we remember that it was by the Carmelite Order (brought into the Western Church in the thirteenth century) that this devotion was established among us, we cannot be surprised that God should have chosen Saint Teresa, who was the Reformer of that Order, to propagate the same devotion in this part of the world. The holy solitaries of Mount Carmel — devoted as they had been, for so many centuries, to the love of Mary —were not slow in feeling the connection that exists between the honour paid to the Mother of God and that which is due to her virginal spouse. The more we understand Saint Joseph’s office, the clearer will be our knowledge of the divine mystery of the Incarnation. As when the Son of God assumed our human nature, He would have a Mother. So also, would He give to this Mother a protector. Jesus, Mary and Joseph — these are the three whom the ineffable mystery is continually bringing before our minds. The words of Saint Teresa are as follows:

“I took for my patron and lord the glorious Saint Joseph, and recommended myself earnestly to him. I saw clearly that he rendered me greater services than I knew how to ask for. I cannot call to mind that I have ever asked him at any time for anything which he has not granted, and I am filled with amazement when I consider the great favours which God has given me through this blessed Saint, the dangers from which he has delivered me, both of body and soul. To other Saints, our Lord seems to have given grace to succour men in some special necessity, but to this glorious Saint, I know by experience, to help us in all. And our Lord would have us understand that, as He was Himself subject to him upon Earth — for Saint Joseph having the title of father and being his guardian, could command Him — so now in Heaven he performs all his petitions. I have asked others to recommend themselves to Saint Joseph and hey too know this by experience. And there are many who are now of late devout to him, having had experience of this truth.”

We might quote several other equally clear and fervent words from the writings of this seraphic virgin. The faithful could not remain indifferent with such teaching as this. The seed thus soon produced its fruit. Slowly, it is true, but surely. Even in the first half of the seventeenth century there prevailed amid the devout clients of Saint Joseph a presentiment that the day would come when the Church, through her Liturgy, would urge the faithful to have recourse to him as their powerful Protector. In a book published in 1645 we find these almost prophetic words: “O bright sun, father of our days, speed your onward course and give us that happy day on which are to be fulfilled the prophecies of the Saints. They have said that in the latter ages of the world the glories of Saint Joseph will be brought to light; that God will draw aside the veil which has hitherto prevented us from seeing the wondrous sanctuary of Joseph’s soul; that the Holy Ghost will inspire the faithful to proclaim the praises of this admirable Saint and to build monasteries, churches and altars in his honour; that throughout the entire kingdom of the Church Militant he will be considered as the special Protector, for he was the Protector of the very founder of that kingdom, namely, our Lord Jesus Christ; that the Sovereign Pontiffs will, by a secret impulse from Heaven, ordain that the feast of this great Patriarch be solemnly celebrated through the length and breadth of the spiritual domain of Saint Peter; that the most learned men of the world will use their talents in studying the divine gifts hidden in Saint Joseph, and that they will find in him treasures of grace incomparably more precious and plentiful than were possessed by every the choicest of the elect of the Old Testament during the whole four thousand years of its duration.”

Let us then, henceforth, have confidence in the Patronage of Saint Joseph. He is the Father of the Faithful, and it is God’s will that he, more than any other Saint, should have power to apply to us the blessings of the mystery of the Incarnation, the great mystery of which he, after Mary, was the chief earthly minister.

*****

O glorious Saint Joseph! Father and Protector of the Faithful! We bless our Mother the Church for that she, now that the world is drawing to the close of its existence, has taught us to confide in you. Many ages passed away and your glories had not been made known to the world. But even then you were one of mankind’s most powerful intercessors. Most affectionately did you fulfil your office as head of the great human family of which the Incarnate Word was a member. Nations and individuals experienced the benefit of your prayers, but there was not the public acknowledgement of your favours — there was not the homage of gratitude which is now offered to you. The more perfect knowledge of your glories and honouring you as the Protector of mankind — these were reserved for our own unhappy times when the state of the world is such as to require help beyond that which was granted to former ages.

We come before you, O Joseph, to honour the unlimited power of your intercession and the love you bear for all the children of the Church, the brethren of Jesus. You, O Mary, are pleased at seeing us honour him whom you so tenderly loved. Never are our prayers so welcome to you as when they are presented to you by his hands. The union, formed by Heaven between yourself and Joseph will last for all eternity, and the unbounded love you have for Jesus is an additional motive for you to love him who was the foster-father of your child and the guardian of your virginity. Joseph, we also are the children of Mary, your Spouse. Treat us as such, bless us, watch over us and receive the prayers which now more than ever the Church encourages us to present to you. You are “the pillar of the world” (columen mundi). You are one of the foundations on which it rests. Because of your merits and prayers our Lord has patience with it in spite of the iniquities which defile it. How truly may we say of these our times: “There is now no saint; truths are decayed from among the children of men!” (Psalm xi. 2). How powerful then must not your intercession be to avert the indignation of God and induce Him to show us His mercy!

Grow not weary of your labour, universal Protector! The Church of your Jesus comes before you on this day, beseeching you to persevere in thy task of love. See this world of ours, now it is become one great volcano of danger by the boasted liberty granted to sin and heresy! Delay not your aid, but quickly procure for us what will give us security and peace. Whatever may be our necessities, you are willing and able to assist us. We may be the poorest and last among the children of the Church. It matters not. You love us with all the affectionate compassion of a father. What a joy is not this to our hearts, O Joseph! We will therefore turn to you in our spiritual wants. We will beg you to assist us in the gaining the virtues we stand in need of, in the battles we have to fight against the enemies of our souls, and in the sacrifices which duty asks at our hands. Make us worthy to be called your children, O Father of the Faithful! Nor is your power limited to what regards our eternal welfare. Daily experience shows us how readily you can procure for us the blessing of God upon our temporal interests, provided they are in accordance with His Divine Will. Hence it is that we hope for your protection and aid in what concerns our worldly prospects. The house of Nazareth was confided to your care. Deign to give counsel and help to all them that make you the Patron of all that regards their earthly well-being.

Glorious Guardian of the Holy Family! The family of Christendom is placed under your special Patronage. Watch over it in these troubled times. Hear the prayers of them that seek your aid when about to choose the partner who is to share with them the joys and the sorrows of this world, and help them to prepare for their passage to eternity. Maintain between husbands and wives that mutual respect which is the safeguard of their fidelity to each other. Obtain for them the pledge of Heaven’s blessings. Fill them with such reverence for the holy state to which they have been called, that they may never deserve the reproach given by Saint Paul to certain married people of that day whom he compares to heathens who know not God (Thessalonians iv. 5).

Grant us, also, O Joseph, another favour. There is one moment of our lives which is the most important of all, since eternity depends on it: it is the moment of our death. And yet we feel our fear abated by the thought that God’s mercy has made you the special Patron of the Dying. You have been entrusted with the office of making death happy and holy to those who invoke you. To whom could such a prerogative have been given more appropriately than to you, O Joseph, whose admirable death was one of the sublimest spectacles ever witnessed by Angels or by men, for Jesus and Mary were by your side as you breathed forth your soul. Be, then, our helper at that awful hour of our death. We hope to have Mary’s protection, for we daily pray to her that she would aid us at the hour of our death. But we know that Mary is pleased at our having confidence in you, and that where you are, she also is sure to be. Encouraged by your fatherly love, O Joseph, we will calmly await the coming of our last hour. For if we are careful in recommending it to you, you will not fail to take it under your protection.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Sorrento, the holy martyrs Quinctus, Quinctilla, Quartilla and Mark, with nine others.

At Nicomedia, St. Pancharius, a Roman, who was beheaded under Diocletian and thus received the crown of martyrdom.

The same day, the holy bishops Apollouius and Leontius.

At Ghent, the Saints Landoaldus, a Roman priest, and the deacon Amantius, who were sent to preach the Gospel by Pope St. Martin, and after their death became illustrious by many miracles.

At Cività-di-Penna, the birthday of blessed John, a man of great holiness, who came from Syria into Italy, where he constructed a monastery, and, after having been the spiritual guide of many servants of God for forty-four years, rested in peace, renowned for great virtue.

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

Thanks be to God.