28 FEBRUARY – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks be to God.

21 FEBRUARY – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Sicily, in the reign of Diocletian, the birthday of seventy-nine holy martyrs who deserved by various torments to receive an immortal crown for the confession of their faith.

At Adrumetum in Africa, during the persecution of the Vandals, the holy martyrs Verulus, Secundinus, Syricius, Felix, Servulus, Saturninus, Fortunatus and sixteen others who were crowned with martyrdom for the confession of the Catholic faith.

At Scythopolis in Palestine, St. Severian, bishop and martyr.

At Damascus, St. Peter Mavimenus, who was killed by some Arabs who visited him in his sickness because he said to them, “Whoever does not embrace the Christian and Catholic faith is lost, like your false prophet Muhammed.”

At Ravenna, St. Maximian, bishop and confessor.

At Metz, St. Felix, bishop.

At Brescia, St. Paterius, bishop.

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

Thanks be to God.

17 FEBRUARY – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, the passion of St. Faustinus, whom forty-four others followed to receive the crown of martyrdom.

In Persia, during the persecution of Decius, the birthday of blessed Polychronius, bishop of Babylon, who, being struck in the mouth with stones, stretched out his hands, lifted up his eyes to heaven and expired.

At Concordia, the holy martyrs Donatus, Secundian, and Romulus, with eighty-six others, partakers of the same crown.

At Caesarea in Palestine, St. Theodulus, an aged man, in the service of the governor Firmilian. Moved by the example of the martyrs, he confessed Christ with constancy, was fastened to a cross, and thus by a noble victory merited the palm of martyrdom.

In the same place, St. Julian, a Cappadocian, who, because he had kissed the relics of the martyrs, was denounced as a Christian and led to the governor who had him consumed with a slow fire.

In the territory of Terouanne, St. Silvinus, bishop of Toulouse.

In Ireland, St. Fintan, priest and confessor.

At Florence, blessed Alexius Falconieri, confessor, one of the seven Founders of the Order of the Servites of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, in the one hundred and tenth year of his age, terminated his blessed career in the consoling presence of Jesus Christ and the angels.

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

Thanks be to God.

28 JANUARY – SAINT PETER NOLASCO (Confessor)

Peter Nolasco was born at Recaud near Carcassonne in France of noble parents. His distinguishing virtue was the love of his neighbour which seemed to be presaged by this incident that when he was a baby in his cradle, a swarm of bees one day lighted upon him and formed a honeycomb on his right hand. He lost his parents early in life. The Albigensian heresy was at that time making way in France: Peter, out of the hatred he had for that sect, withdrew into Spain after having sold his estates. This gave him an opportunity of fulfilling a vow at our Lady’s of Mount Serrat which he had made some time previous. After this he went to Barcelona, and having there spent all his money in ransoming the Christian captives from the slavery of their enemies, he was often heard saying that he would willingly sell himself to redeem others, or become a slave in the stead of any captive. God showed him, by the following event, how meritorious in his sight was this desire. He was one night praying for the Christian captives and deliberating with himself how be might obtain their deliverance, when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to him and told him that he would render himself most dear to her Son and herself if he would institute, in her honour, an Order of Religious men, who should devote themselves to the ransoming Captives from the infidels. He delayed not to follow the heavenly suggestion and instituted the Order of Our Lady of Mercy for the Redemption of Captives, in which he was aided by Saint Raymund of Pennafort and James I, King of Aragon, both of whom had on that same night received the like intimation from the Mother of God.

The Religious of this Order take a fourth vow, namely, to offer themselves as slaves to the Moors if they can in no other way obtain the ransom of the Christians. Having taken a vow of virginity, Peter spent his whole life in the most perfect purity. He excelled in every virtue, especially in patience, humility and abstinence. He foretold future events by the gift of prophecy with which God had favoured him. Thus, when king James was laying siege to Valencia, then in the possession of the Moors, he received assurance from the Saint that he would be blessed with victory. He was frequently consoled with the sight of his Angel Guardian and the Virgin-Mother of God. At length, being worn out with old age he received an intimation of his approaching death. When he was seized with his last sickness he received the holy Sacraments and exhorted his Religious brethren to love the captives. After which, he began most devoutly to recite the Psalm, “I will praise you, O Lord, with my whole heart,” and at these words: “He has sent Redemption to His people,” he breathed forth his soul into the hands of his Creator at Christmas midnight in 1256.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Ransomer of Captives, Peter Nolasco, is thus brought before us by the Calendar a few days after having given us the Feast of his master, Raymund of Pennafort. Both of them offer to the Divine Redeemer the thousands of Christians they ransomed from slavery. It is an appropriate homage, for it was the result of the charity which first began in Bethlehem in the heart of the infant Jesus and was afterwards so fervently practised by these two Saints.

Peter was born in France but made Spain his adopted country because it offered him such grand opportunities for zeal and self-sacrifice. In imitation of our Redeemer, he devoted himself to the ransom of his brethren. He made himself a prisoner to procure them their liberty and remained in exile that they might once more enjoy the happiness of home. His devotedness was blessed by God. He founded a new Religious Order in the Church composed of generous hearted men who for 600 years prayed, toiled and spent their lives, in obtaining the blessing of liberty to countless captives who would else have led their whole lives in chains, exposed to the imminent danger of losing their faith.

Glory to the Blessed Mother of God, who raised up these Redeemers of Captives! Glory to the Catholic Church, whose children they were! But above all, glory be to our Emmanuel who, on His entrance into this world, thus spoke to his Eternal Father: “Sacrifice and oblation you wouldst not, neither are they pleasing to you; but a body you have fitted unto me. Then, said I, behold I come” (Psalm xxxix. 7, 8: cited by Saint Paul, Hebrews x. 5 and following) that is, “Behold, I come to offer myself as a Sacrifice.” The Divine Infant has infused this same spirit of love for mankind (for whom he so mercifully became the Ransom) into the hearts of such men as the Saint of today: they saw what God had done for man and they felt it a necessity to go and sacrifice themselves for the redemption of their suffering fellow creatures.

Our Lord rewarded Saint Peter Nolasco by calling him to Heaven at that very hour in which, 1200 years before, He Himself had been born in Bethlehem. It was on Christmas Night that the Redeemer of Captives was united to Jesus, the Redeemer of Mankind. Peter’s last hymn on Earth was the 110th Psalm, and as his faltering voice uttered the words “He has sent redemption to His people; He has commanded His covenant forever,” his soul took its flight to Heaven. The Church, in fixing a day for the Feast of our Saint, could not of course take the anniversary of his death which belongs so exclusively to her Jesus, but it was just that he who had been honoured with being born to Heaven at the very hour which God had chosen for the birth of His Son upon the Earth should receive the tribute of our festive commemoration on one of the forty days of Christmas.

*****

You, O Jesus, came to cast fire upon the Earth and your desire is that it be kindled in the hearts of men. Your desire was accomplished in Peter Nolasco and the children of his Order. Thus do you permit men to co-operate with you in the designs of your sweet mercy and, by thus restoring harmony between man and his Creator, you have once more given to the Earth the blessing of fraternal love between man and man. Sweet infant Jesus, we cannot love you without loving all mankind and you who are our Ransom and our Victim will that we, also, be ready to lay down our lives for one another.

You, O Peter, were the Apostle and the model of this fraternal charity, and our God rewarded you by calling you to Himself on the anniversary of the birth of Jesus. That sweet Mystery which so often encouraged you in your holy labours has now been revealed to you in all its glory. Your eyes now behold that Jesus as the great King, the Son of the Eternal Father, before whom the very Angels tremble. Mary is no longer the poor humble Mother leaning over the crib where lies her Son. She now delights your gaze with her queenly beauty, seated as she is on a throne nearest to that of the divine Majesty. You are at home amid all this glory, for Heaven was made for souls that love as yours did. Heaven is the land of love, and love so filled your heart even when on Earth that it was the principle of your whole life.

Pray for us that we may have a clearer knowledge of this love of God and our neighbour which makes us like God. It is written that “he that abides in charity, abides in God, and God in him” (1 John, iv. 16). Intercede for us that the Mystery of Charity, which we are now celebrating, may transform us into Him who is the one object of all our love during this season of grace. May we love our fellow-creatures as ourselves, bear with them, excuse their weaknesses and serve them. May our good example encourage them and our words edify them. May we comfort them and win them to the service of God by our kindness and our charities.

Pray for France, which is your country, and for Spain, where you instituted your grand Order. Protect the precious remnants of that Order by whose means you worked such miracles of charity. Console all prisoners and captives. Obtain for all men that holy liberty of Children of God, of which the Apostle speaks (Romans viii. 21) and which consists in obedience to the law of God. When this liberty is in man’s soul he never can be a slave, but when the inner man is enslaved, the outward man never can be free. Oh pray that the fetters of false doctrines and passions may be broken, and then the world will enjoy that true liberty which would soon put an end to tyranny and make tyrants impossible.

23 JANUARY – SAINT RAYMUND OF PENNAFORT (Confessor)

Raymund was born at Barcelona to a noble family. Having been imbued with the rudiments of the Christian faith, the admirable gifts he had received both of mind and body were such that even when quite a boy he seemed to promise great things in his later life. While still young he taught humanities in Barcelona. Later on he went to Bologna where he applied himself with much diligence to the exercises of a virtuous life and to the study of canon and civil law. He there received the Doctor’s cap and interpreted the sacred canons so ably that he was the admiration of his hearers. The holiness of his life becoming known far and wide, Berengarius, the Bishop of Barcelona, when returning to his diocese from Rome, took Bologna in his way in order to see him. And after most earnest entreaties, he induced Raymund to accompany him to Barcelona. He was shortly after made Canon and Provost of that Church and became a model to the clergy and people by his uprightness, modesty, learning and meekness. His tender devotion to the Holy Mother of God was extraordinary and he never neglected an opportunity of zealously promoting the devotion and honour which are due to her.

When he was about 45 years of age, Raymund made his solemn profession in the Order of the Friars Preachers. He then, as a soldier but just entered into service, devoted himself to the exercise of every virtue, but, above all, to charity to the poor, and this mainly to the captives who had been taken by the infidels. It was by his exhortation that Saint Peter Nolasco (who was his penitent) was induced to devote all his riches to this work of most meritorious charity. The Blessed VirginMary appeared to Peter, as also to Raymund and to James I, King of Arragon, telling them that it would be exceedingly pleasing to herself and her divine child if an Order of Religious men were instituted whose mission it should be to deliver captives from the tyranny of infidels. After deliberating together, they founded the Order of our Lady of Mercy for the Ransom of Captives and Raymund drew up certain rules of life which were admirably adapted to the spirit and vocation of the Order. Some years after, he obtained their approbation from Gregory IX and made Saint Peter Nolasco, to whom he gave the habit with his own hands, first General of the Order.

Raymund was called to Rome by the same Pope who appointed him to be his Chaplain, Penitentiary and Confessor. It was by Gregory’s order that he collected together in the volume called the Decretals the Decrees of the Roman Pontiffs which were to be found separately in the various Councils and Letters. He was most resolute in refusing the Archbishopric of Tarragon, which the same Pontiff offered to him and, of his own accord, resigned the Generalship of the Dominican Order, which office he had discharged in a most holy manner for the space of two years. He persuaded James, the King of Aragon, to establish in his dominions the Holy Office of the Inquisition. He worked many miracles, among which is that most celebrated one of his having, when returning to Barcelona from the island of Majorca, spread his cloak upon the sea and sailed upon it, in the space of six hours, the distance of 160 miles, and having reached his convent, he entered it through the closed doors. At length, when he had almost reached the hundredth year of his age and was full of virtue and merit, he slept in the Lord, in the year of the Incarnation 1275. He was canonised by Pope Clement VIII.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The glorious choir of Martyrs that stands round our Emmanuel till the day of His Presentation in the Temple opens its ranks, from time to time, to give admission to the Confessors whom divine Providence has willed should grace the Cycle during this sacred season. The Martyrs surpass all the other Saints in number but, still, the Confessors are well represented. After Hilary, Paul, Maurus and Antony comes Raymund of Pennafort, one of the glories of the Order of Saint Dominic and of the Church in the thirteenth century.

According to the saying of the Prophets, the Messiah is come to be our Lawgiver. Nay, He is Himself our Law. His words are to be the rule of mankind. He will leave with His Church the power of legislation, to the end that she may guide men in holiness and justice in all ages. As it is his Truth that presides over the teaching of the Faith, so is it His Wisdom that regulates Canonical Discipline. But the Church, in the compilation and arrangement of her laws, engages the services of men whom she judges to be the most competent for the work by their knowledge of Canon Law and the holiness of their lives.

Saint Raymund has the honour of having been entrusted to draw up the Church’s Code of Canon Law. It was he who in the year 1234 compiled, by order of Pope Gregory IX, the five Books of the Decretals. And his name will ever be associated with this great work which forms the basis of the actual discipline of the Church. Raymund was a faithful disciple of that God who came down from Heaven to save sinners by calling them to receive pardon. He has merited the beautiful title conferred on him by the Church, of excellent Minister of the Sacrament of Penance. He was the first who collected together into one body of doctrine the maxims of Christian morality which regulate the duties of the confessor with regard to the Faithful who confess their sins to him. The Sum of Penitential Cases opened the series of those important Treatises in which learned and holy men have carefully considered the claims of law and the obligations of man, in order to instruct the Priest how to pass judgement, as the Scripture says, between leprosy and leprosy. In fine, when the glorious Mother of God who is also the mother of men, raised up, for the Redemption of Captives, the generous Peter Nolasco whom we will meet a few days hence at the crib of our Redeemer, Raymund was an important instrument in this great work of mercy, and it is with good reason that the Order of Mercy looks upon him as one of its founders, and that so many thousands of captives who were ransomned by the Religious of that Order from the captivity of the Moors, have honoured him as one of the principal authors of their liberty.

* * * * *

Faithful dispenser of the Mystery of reconciliation, it was from the Heart of an Incarnate God that you drew the sweet charity which made you the friend of the sinner. You loved your fellow men and laboured to supply all their wants, whether of soul or body. Enlightened by the rays of the Sun of Justice, you have taught us how to discern between good and evil, by giving us those rules by which our wounds are judged and healed. Rome was the admirer of your knowledge of her laws, and it is one of her glories that she received from your hand the sacred Code by which she governs the Churches of the world.

Excite in our hearts, Raymund, that sincere compunction which is the condition required of us when we seek our pardon in the Sacrament of Penance. Make us understand both the grievousness of mortal sin, which separates us from our God for all eternity, and the dangers of venial sin, which disposes the tepid soul to fall into mortal sin. Pray that there may abound in the Church men filled with charity and learning who may exercise that sublime ministry of healing souls. Preserve them from the two extremes, of rigourism which drives to despair, and of laxity which flatters into sloth. Revive among them the study of the holy Canons which can alone keep disorder and anarchy from the fold of Christ. Oh you that had such tender love for captives, console all that are pining now in exile or in prison. Pray for their deliverance, and pray that we all may be set loose from the ties of sin which but too often make them, who boast of their outward liberty, be slaves in their souls.

You were the confidant of the Heart of Mary, the Queen of Mercy, and she made you share with her in the work of the Redemption of Captives. You have great power with this Heart which, after the Heart of Jesus, is our hope. Pray for us to this incomparable Mother of God that we may have the grace to love the Divine Child she holds in her arms. May she be induced, by your prayers, to be our Star on the Sea of this world, more stormy far than that which you passed when sailing on your miraculous barque. Remember, too, your dear Spain where you passed your saintly life. Her Church is in mourning because she has lost the Religious Orders which made her so grand and so strong: pray that they may be speedily restored to her, and assist her as of old. Protect the Dominican Order, of whose Habit and Rule you were so bright an ornament. You governed it with great prudence while on Earth. Now that you are in Heaven, be a father to it by your love. May it repair its losses. May it once more flourish in the universal Church and produce, as in former days, those fruits of holiness and learning, which made it one of the chief glories of the Church of God.

10 JANUARY – FERIA

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Magi have reached Bethlehem. The humble dwelling of the King of the Jews has been thrown open to them. There, says Saint Matthew, “they found the child, with Mary His Mother” (Matthew ii. 11). Falling down, they adore the divine King they have so fervently sought after, and for whom the whole Earth has been longing.

Here we have the first commencement of the Christian Church. In this humble stable we have the Son of God, made Man, presiding as Head over His mystical body. Mary is present, as the co-operatrix in the world’s salvation, and as the Mother of Divine Grace. Judah is represented by this Holy Queen and her Spouse Saint Joseph. The Gentiles are adoring, in the person of the Magi, whose faith is perfect now that they have seen the child. It is not a Prophet that they are honouring, nor is it to an earthly King that they open their treasures. He, before whom they prostrate in adoration, is their God. “See, I pray you,” says Saint Bernard, “and attentively consider how keen is the eye of faith. It recognises the Son of God whether feeding at His Mother’s breasts, or hanging on the Cross, or dying in the midst of suffering, for the Good Thief recognises Him on the Cross and the Magi recognise Him in the stable. He, in spite of the nails which fasten Him, and they, in spite of the clouts which swathe Him.”

So that all is consummated. Bethlehem is not merely the birth-place of our Redeemer: it is the cradle of the Church. Well did the Prophet say of it: “And you, Bethlehem, are not the least among the princes of Judah” (Matthew ii. 6; Micheas v. 2). We can understand Saint Jerome leaving all the ambitions and comforts of Rome to go and bury himself in the seclusion of this cave where all these mysteries were accomplished. Who would not gladly live and die in this privileged place, sanctified as it is by the presence of our Jesus, embalmed with the fragrance of the Queen of Heaven, filled with the lingering echoes of the songs of Angels, and fresh, even yet, with the memory of those ancestors of our faith, the holy Magi!

These happy Kings are not scandalised at the sight they behold on entering the humble dwelling. They are not disappointed at finding, at the end of their long journey, a weak babe, a poor Mother, and a wretched stable. On the contrary, they rightly understand the mystery. Once believing in the promise that the Infinite God would visit His creature Man and show him how He loved him — they are not surprised at seeing Him humbling Himself, and taking on Himself all our miseries that He might be like us in all, save sin. Their own hearts told them that the wound inflicted on man by pride was too deep to be healed by anything short of an extreme remedy so that, to them, these strange humiliations at Bethlehem bespeak the design and action of a God. Israel, too, is in expectation of the Messiah, but he must be mighty and wealthy and exalted, above all other kings, in earthly glory. The Magi, on the contrary, see in the humility and poverty of this weak Babe of Bethlehem the indications of the true Messiah. The grace of God has triumphed in these faithful men. They fall down before Him and, full of admiration and love, they adore Him.

Who could describe the sweet conversations they held with His Blessed Mother? for, the King Himself, whom they were come in search of, broke not, even for their sakes, the voluntary silence He had imposed on Himself by becoming an infant. He accepted their homage, He sweetly smiled upon them, He blessed them: but He would not speak to them.  Mary alone was to satisfy, by her sublime communications, the holy curiosity of the three pilgrims who represented the entire human race. How amply must she not have rewarded their faith and love by announcing to them the Mystery of that virginal birth which was to bring salvation to the world; by telling them of the joys of her own maternal heart, and by describing to them the sweet perfections of the divine child. They themselves would fix their eyes on the Blessed Mother and listen to her every word with devout attention. And oh how sweetly must not divine grace  have penetrated their hearts through the words of Her whom God Himself has chosen as the means to lead men to the knowledge and the love of His sovereign Majesty! The Star, which but an hour ago had brightly shone for them in the heavens was replaced by another of a lovelier light and stronger influence. And it prepared them for the contemplation of that God who calls Himself the bright and morning Star! (Apocalypse xxii. 16). The whole world seemed now a mere nothing in their eyes. The stable of Bethlehem held within it all the riches of Heaven and earth. They had shared in that long expectation of the human race, the expectation of four thousand years — and now, it seemed but as a moment, so full and perfect was their joy at having found the God who alone can satisfy the desires of man’s heart.

They understood and entered into the merciful designs of their Emmanuel. They gratefully and humbly contracted with Him the alliance He so mercifully made, through them, with the human race. They adored the just judgements of God who was about to cast off an unbelieving people. They rejoiced at the glories of the Christian Church which had thus been begun in their persons. They prayed for us, their posterity in that same Church.

* * * * *

We, dear Babe of Bethlehem! — we the Gentiles who, by our regeneration, have become the posterity of these first Christians — we adore you as they did. Since their entrance into Bethlehem, long ages have passed away, but there has been an unbroken procession of people and nations tending towards you under the guidance of the Star of Faith. We have been made members of your Church, and we adore you with the Magi. In one thing are we happier than these first-born of the Church. We have heard your sacred words and teachings, we have contemplated your sufferings and your Cross, we have been witnesses of your Resurrection, we have heard the whole universe from the rising to the setting of the sun hymning your blessed and glorious Name: well may we adore and love you as King of the Earth!The Sacrifice by which all your Mysteries are perpetuated and renewed, is now offered up daily in every part of the world. The voice of your Church is heard speaking to all men, and all this light and all these graces are ours! The Church, the ever-enduring Bethlehem, the House of the Bread of Life, gives you to us, and we are forever feasting on your adorable beauty. Yes, sweet Jesus, we adore you with the Magi. And you, O Mary, teach us as you taught teach the Magi. Unfold to us, and each year more clearly, the sweet Mystery of your Jesus, and, at length, win us over unreservedly to His service. You are our Mother — watch over us, and suffer us not to lose any of the lessons He teaches us. May Bethlehem in which we have entered in company with the holy Magi, work in us the renovation of our whole lives.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
 

At Cyprus, blessed Nicanor, one of the first seven deacons, a man of admirable faith and virtue who was most gloriously crowned.
 

At Rome, Pope St. Agatho, who terminated a life remarkable for sanctity and learning by a holy death.
 

At Bourges in Aquitaine, St. William, archbishop and confessor, renowned for miracles and virtues. He was canonised by Pope Honorius III.
 

At Milan, St. John the Good, bishop and confessor.
 

In Thebais, the birthday of St. Paul, the first hermit, who lived alone in the desert from the sixteenth to the one hundred and thirteenth year of his age. His soul was seen by St. Anthony carried by angels among the choirs of apostles and prophets. His feast is celebrated on the fifteenth of this month.
 

At Constantinople, St. Marcian, priest.
 

In the monastery of Cusani, the birthday of St. Peter Urseolus (Orsini), confessor, previously Doge of Venice, and afterwards monk of the Order of St. Benedict, renowned for piety and miracles. His festival is kept on the fourteenth of this month.
 

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

Thanks be to God.

18 DECEMBER – THE EXPECTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This Feast which is now kept, not only throughout the whole of Spain, but in almost all the Churches of the Catholic world, owes its origin to the Bishops of the tenth Council of Toledo in 656. These Prelates having thought that there was an incongruity in the ancient practice of celebrating the feast of the Annunciation on the twenty-fifth of March inasmuch as this joyful solemnity frequently occurs at the time when the Church is intent upon the Passion of our Lord and is sometimes obliged to be transferred into Easter Time with which it is out of harmony for another reason — they decreed that, henceforth, in the Church of Spain there should be kept, eight days before Christmas, a solemn Feast with an Octave, in honour of the Annunciation, and as a preparation for the great solemnity of our Lord’s Nativity. In course of time, however, the Church of Spain saw the necessity of returning to the practice of the Church of Rome, and of those of the whole world, which solemnise the twenty-fifth of March as the day of our Lady’s Annunciation and the Incarnation of the Son of God. But such had been, for ages, the devotion of the people for the Feast of the eighteenth of December, that it was considered requisite to maintain some vestige of it. They discontinued, therefore, to celebrate the Annunciation on this day but the faithful were requested to consider, with devotion, what must have been the sentiments of the Holy Mother of God during the days immediately preceding her giving him birth. A new Feast was instituted, under the name of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin’s Delivery. This Feast, which sometimes goes under the name of Our Lady of O, or the Feast of O, on account of the Great Antiphons which are sung during these days and, in a special manner, of that which begins O Virgo Virginum (which is still used in the Vespers of the Expectation together with the O Adonai, the Antiphon of the Advent Office) — is kept with great devotion in Spain. A High Mass is sung, at a very early hour, each morning during the Octave, at which all who are with child, whether rich or poor, consider it a duty to assist that they may thus honour our Lady’s Maternity and beg her blessing upon themselves.

It is not to be wondered at that the Holy See has approved of this pious practice being introduced into almost every other country. We find that the Church of Milan, long before Rome conceded this feast to the various dioceses of Christendom, celebrated the Office of our Lady’s Annunciation on the sixth and last Sunday of Advent, and called the whole week following the Hebdomada de Exceptato (for thus the popular expression had corrupted the word Expectato). But these details belong strictly to the archaeology of Liturgy, and enter not into the plan of our present work. Let us, then, return to the Feast of our Lady’s Expectation which the Church has established and sanctioned as a new means of exciting the attention of the faithful during these last days of Advent. Most just indeed it is, Holy Mother of God, that we should unite in that ardent desire you had to see Him who had been concealed for nine months in your chaste womb; to know the features of this Son of the heavenly Father, who is also yours; to come to that blissful hour of his Birth, which will give Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace to men of good-will. Yes, dear Mother, the time is fast approaching, though not fast enough to satisfy your desires and ours. Make us redouble our attention to the great mystery. Complete our preparation by your powerful prayers for us, that when the solemn hour is come, our Jesus may find no obstacle to His entering into our hearts.

THE GREAT ANTIPHON TO OUR LADY

O Virgin of virgins ! How shall this be! for never was there one like thee, nor will there ever be. Ye daughters of Jerusalem, why look ye wondering at me? What ye behold, is a divine mystery.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Philippi in Macedonia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Rufus and Zosimus (107 AD), who were of the number of the disciples by whom the primitive church was founded among the Jews and Greeks. Their happy martyrdom is mentioned by St. Polycarp in his Epistle to the Philippians.

At Laodicea in Syria, the martyrdom of the Saints Theotimus and Basilian.

In Africa, the holy martyrs Quinctus, Simplicius and others, who suffered in the persecution of Decius and Valerian.

In the same country, St. Moysetes, martyr.

Also in Africa, the holy martyrs Victurus, Victor, Victorinus, Adjutor, Quartus and thirty others.

At Mopsuestia in Cilicia, St. Auxentius, bishop, who, while he was a soldier under Licinius, preferred to surrender his military insignia rather than to offer grapes to Bacchus. Having been made bishop, he was renowned for merit and rested in peace.

At Tours, St. Gratian, consecrated first bishop of that city by Pope St. Fabrian. Celebrated for many miracles, he calmly went to his repose in the Lord.

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

Thanks be to God.

17 DECEMBER – SECOND GREATER ANTIPHON

THE SECOND GREATER ANTIPHON

O Adonai, and leader of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the flaming bush, and gaves him the law on Sinai: come and redeem us by thy outstretched arm.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

O Sovereign Lord! O Adonai! come and redeem us, not by your power, but by your humility. Heretofore, you showed yourself to Moses your servant in the midst of a mysterious flame. You gave your law to your people amid thunder and lightning. Now, on the contrary, you come not to terrify, but to save us. Your chaste Mother having heard the Emperor’s edict which obliges her and Joseph her Spouse to repair to Bethlehem, she prepares everything needed for your divine birth. She prepares for you, O Sun of Justice! the humble swathing-bands with which to cover your nakedness, and protect you, the Creator of the world, from the cold of that midnight hour of your Nativity! Thus it is that you will to deliver us from the slavery of our pride and show man that your divine arm is never stronger than when he thinks it powerless and still. Everything is prepared, then, dear Jesus! Your swathing-bands are ready for your infant limbs! Come to Bethlehem and redeem us from the hands of our enemies.

DECEMBER – EMBER DAYS IN ADVENT

Pope Saint Callistus instituted the Ember Days of abstinence, fasting and prayer (jejunia quatuor temporum). These days derive their name from the practice of fasting during the day and eating nothing until night when only ember-bread, a cake baked under the embers of the evening fire, was consumed. Ember Days were substituted for the pagan holidays (feriae) set aside by the Roman state for the purpose of invoking the blessing of the gods on the fruits of the fields. These were the Feriae Messis (in June or soon after) for the harvest, the Feriae Vindemiales (between 19 August—the festival of the Vinalia—and the September Equinox) for the vintage, and the Feriae Sementinae (in the week before the winter solstice in December) for the freshly-sown seed.

In the third century the fasts held for the Christian sanctification of the seasons took place in June, September and December (the fourth, seventh and tenth months of the Roman year which began in March). The days were not fixed until the fifth century when they became prescribed for Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays in the third week of Advent, the first full week of Lent (jejunium vernum in Quadragesima), the week after Pentecost (jejunium aestivum in Pentecoste), and the third week in September (jejunium autumnale in mense septimo). Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays were chosen because from the earliest days of the Church these were the days of the weekly fasts. Wednesday was selected because this was the day on which the Jews decided that Jesus should die, and Friday was chosen because that was the day on which He was crucified.

Just as we are grateful to the Lord for the hope of happiness to which we look forward, and for the better things for which He is preparing us, so we should also praise and give Him thanks for the earthly gifts which, each year, He bestows upon us. From the beginning He regulated the fertility of the earth, and fixed unalterably the laws of growth for each seed, that the kindly providence of the Creator might ever be visible. Everything which cornfields, vineyards, and olive gardens bring forth for mankind comes from the bountiful goodness of a merciful God.¹

On the first Ember days of the year, Wednesday and Friday in the first week of Lent, the scrutinies for ordination were made during the stational Mass. This consisted of the examination of candidates for the priesthood and deaconship who were to be ordained on the Saturday before Passion Sunday and on Holy Saturday. In the early Church it was the practice to ordain during a period of fasting. The process of scrutiny consisted of a notary (scriniarius) standing in an ambone and demanding three times whether anyone present had a charge to bring against any of the candidates.

We cannot be too deeply impressed with the blessing granted a people, whose priests are according to God’s own heart. To obtain such, no humiliation should be deemed too great, no supplication should be neglected. Whilst therefore, we thank God for the fruits of the earth, and humble ourselves for the sins we have committed, we should beg God to supply his Church with worthy pastors.²

Ember Days spread from Rome to all the of all by the suffragan dioceses of the Roman Church, and then in the rest of Italy and elsewhere. Later the Carlovingian emperors naturalised it everywhere except in Spain, and at Milan where they were introduced by Saint Charles Borromeo in the sixteenth century. In Wales they were called “procession weeks” and in Germany “holy fasts.”

1Pope Leo the Great (440-461).

2The Golden Manual, 44.

15 DECEMBER – THIRD (GAUDETE) SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Saint John the Baptist and the Pharisees (James Tissot 1886)

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Today again the Church is full of joy, and the joy is greater than it was. It is true that her Lord is not come, but she feels that He is nearer than before, and therefore she thinks it just to lessen somewhat the austerity of this penitential season by the innocent cheerfulness of her sacred rites. And first, this Sunday has had the name of Gaudete given to it, from the first word of the Introit. It also is honoured with those impressive exceptions which belong to the fourth Sunday of Lent, called Laetare. The Organ is played at the Mass, the Vestments are Rose-colour, the Deacon resumes the dalmatic and the Sub-Deacon the tunic, and in Cathedral Churches the Bishop assists with the precious mitre. How touching are all these usages, and how admirable this condescension of the Church, with which she so beautifully blends together the unalterable strictness of the dogmas of faith and the graceful poetry of the formulae of her liturgy! Let us enter into her spirit and be glad on this third Sunday of her Advent because our Lord is now so near to us. Tomorrow we will resume our attitude of servants mourning for the absence of their Lord and waiting for Him: for every delay, however short, is painful and makes love sad.

The Station is kept in the Basilica of Saint Peter at the Vatican. This august temple, which contains the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, is the home and refuge of all the faithful of the world. It is but natural that it should be chosen to be witness both of the joy and the sadness of the Church. O Holy Roman Church, City of our Strength! Behold us your children assembled within your walls around the tomb of the Fisherman, the Prince of the Apostles, whose sacred relics protect you from their earthly shrine, and whose unchanging teaching enlightens you from Heaven. Yet, City of strength, it is by the Saviour who is coming that you are strong. He is your wall, for it is He that encircles with His tender mercy all your children. He is your bulwark, for it is by Him that you are invincible, and that all the powers of Hell are powerless to prevail against you. Open wide your gates that all nations may enter you, for you are mistress of holiness and the guardian of truth. May the old error, which sets itself against the faith, soon disappear and peace reign over the whole fold! O Holy Roman Church! You have forever put your trust in the Lord and He, faithful to His promise, has humbled before you the haughty ones that defied you, and the proud cities that were against you. Where now are the Caesars who boasted that they had drowned you in your own blood? Where the Emperors who would ravish the inviolate virginity of your faith? Where the Heretics who during the past centuries of your existence, have assailed every article of your teaching, and denied what they listed? Where the ungrateful Princes, who would fain make a slave of you, who had made them what they were? Where that Empire of Mahomet, which has so many times raged against you, for that you, the defenceless State, did arrest the pride of its conquests? Where the Reformers, who were bent on giving the world a Christianity in which you were to have no part? Where the more modern Sophists, in whose philosophy you were set down as a system that had been tried, and was a failure, and is now a ruin? And those Kings who are acting the tyrant over you, and those people that will have liberty independently and at the risk of truth, where will they be in another hundred years? Gone and forgotten as the noisy anger of a torrent, whilst you, holy Church of Rome, built on the immovable rock, will be as calm, as young, as unwrinkled as ever. Your path through all the ages of this world’s duration will be right as that of the just man. You will ever be the self-same unchanging Church, as you have been during the [two thousand] years past, while everything else under the sun has been but change. Whence this your stability, but from Him who is very Truth and Justice? Glory be to Him in you! Each year He visits you. Each year He he brings you new gifts with which you may go happily through your pilgrimage, and to the end of time He will visit you and renew you, not only with the power of that look with which Peter was renewed, but by filling you with Himself, as He did the ever glorious Virgin who is the object of your most tender love, after that which you bear to Jesus Himself. We pray with you, O Church, our Mother, and here is our prayer: “Come, Lord Jesus! Your name and your remembrance are the desire of our souls: they have desired you in the night, yea, and early in the morning have they watched for you!”

Epistle – Philippians iv. 4‒7

Brethren, rejoice in the Lord always: again I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men, for the Lord is near. Be nothing solicitous; but in everything by prayer let your petitions be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Nothing is more just than that we rejoice in the Lord. Both the Prophet and the Apostle excite us to desire the Saviour: both of them promise us Peace. Therefore, let us not be solicitous: The Lord is near. Near to His Church, and near to each of our souls. Who can be near so burning a fire and yet be cold? Do we not feel that He is coming to us in spite of all obstacles? He will let nothing be a barrier between Himself and us, neither His own infinite high majesty, nor our exceeding lowliness, nor our many sins. Yet a little while, and He will be with us. Let us go out to meet Him by these prayers, and supplications, and thanksgiving which the Apostle recommends to us. Let our zeal to unite ourselves with our holy mother the Church become more than ever fervent: now every day her prayers will increase in intense earnestness, and her longings after Him, who is her light and her love, will grow more ardent.

Gospel – John i. 19‒28

At that time the Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and Levites to John, to ask him, “Who are you?” And he confessed, and did not deny; and he confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” and he said,” I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” and he answered, “No.” They said therefore to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What say you of yourself ?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah.” And they that were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said to him, “Why then do you baptise, if you are not Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, saying, “I baptise with water; but there has stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not; the same is he that shall come after me, who is preferred before me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose.” These things were done in Bethania beyond the Jordan, where John was baptising.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“There has stood One in the midst of you, whom you know not,” says Saint John the Baptist to them that were sent by the Jews. So that our Lord may be near, He may even have come, and yet by some be not known! This Lamb of God is the holy Precursor’s consolation: he considers it a singular privilege to be but the Voice which cries out to men to prepare the way of the Redeemer. In this Saint John is the type of the Church, and of all such as seek Jesus. Saint John is full of joy because the Saviour is come: but the men around him are as indifferent as though they neither expected nor wanted a Saviour. This is the third week of Advent, and are all hearts excited by the great tidings told them by the Church that the Messiah is near at hand. They who love Him not as their Saviour, do they fear Him as their Judge? Are the crooked ways being made straight? Are the hills being brought low? Are Christians seriously engaged in removing from their hearts the love of riches and the love of sensual pleasures? There is no time to lose: the Lord is near! If these lines should come under the eye of any of those Christians who are in this state of sinful indifference, we would conjure them to shake off their lethargy and render themselves worthy of the visit of the divine Infant: such a visit will bring them the greatest consolation here, and give them confidence hereafter, when our Lord will come to judge all mankind. Send your grace, O Jesus, still more plentifully into their hearts. compel them to go in, and permit not that it be said of the children of the Church, as Saint John said of the Synagogue: “There stands in the midst of you One, whom you know not.”

14 DECEMBER – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Heron, Arsenius, Isidore and Dioscorus, a boy. In the persecution of Decius, the first three were subjected to all the refinements of cruelty by the judge, who, seeing them displaying the same constancy, ordered that they should be cast into the fire. But Dioscorus, after repeated scourgings, was set free through the intervention of Providence for the consolation of the faithful.

At Antioch, the birthday of the holy martyrs Drusus, Zosimus and Theodore.

The same day, the martyrdom of the Saints Justus and Abundius, who were cast into the flames in the time of the emperor Numerian and the governor Olybrius; but having escaped uninjured, they were struck with the sword.

At Rheims, the holy bishop Nicasius, his sister, the virgin Eutropia, and their companions, martyrs, who were put to death by barbarians hostile to the Church.

In the island of Cyprus, the birthday of blessed Spiridion, bishop. He was one of those confessors who were condemned to labour in the mines, after the plucking out of their right eye and the severing of the sinews of the left knee. This prelate was renowned for the gift of prophecy and glorious miracles, and in the council of Nicaea he confounded a heathen philosopher who insulted the Christian religion and brought him to the faith.

At Bergamo, St. Viator, bishop and confessor.

At Pavia, St. Pompey, bishop.

At Naples, in Campania, St. Agnellus, abbot. Illustrious by the gift of miracles, he was often seen with the standard of the cross delivering the city besieged by enemies.

At Ubeda, in Spain, St. John of the Cross, confessor, companion of St. Theresa in reforming the Carmelites. His feast is kept on the 24th of November.

At Milan, St. Matronian, hermit.

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

Thanks be to God.

6 DECEMBER - ACT OF REPARATION TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

O sweet Jesus, Whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before Your altar eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries, to which Your loving Heart is everywhere subject.

Mindful alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask Your pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those, who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow You, their Shepherd and Leader, or, renouncing the vows of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of Your Law.

We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against You; we are determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holidays, and the shocking blasphemies uttered against You and Your Saints.

We wish also to make amends for the insults to which Your Vicar on earth and Your priests are subjected, for the profanation, by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very Sacrament of Your Divine Love; and lastly for the public crimes of nations who resist the rights and teaching authority of the Church which You have founded.

Would, O divine Jesus, we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood. We now offer, in reparation for these violations of Your divine honor, the satisfaction You once made to Your eternal Father on the cross and which You continue to renew daily on our altars; we offer it in union with the acts of atonement of Your Virgin Mother and all the Saints and of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make recompense, as far as we can with the help of Your grace, for all neglect of Your great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the past.

Henceforth we will live a life of unwavering faith, of purity of conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the gospel and especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to prevent other from offending You and to bring as many as possible to follow You.

O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of this act of expiation; and by the crowning gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to You, so that we may one day come to that happy home, where You with the Father and the Holy Ghost live and reign, One God, world without end. Amen.

2 DECEMBER – MONDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias i. 16‒18

“Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from my eyes: cease to do perversely, learn to do well: seek judgement, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow. And then come, and accuse me,” says the Lord. “If your sins be as scarlet, they will be made as white as snow, and if they be red as crimson, they will be white as wool.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Saviour who is so soon to be with us and to save us, warns us not only to prepare ourselves to appear before Him, but also to purify our souls. “It is most just,” says Saint Bernard, “that the soul which was the first to fall should be the first to rise. Let us therefore defer caring for the body until the day when Jesus Christ will come and reform it by the Resurrection, for, in the first Coming, the Precursor says to us: ‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.’ Observe, he says not the maladies of the body, nor the miseries of the flesh. He says sins, which are the malady of the soul and the corruption of the spirit. Take heed then, you my body, and wait for your turn and time. You can hinder the salvation of the soul, and your own safety is not within your reach. Let the soul labour for herself, and strive you too to help her, for if you share in her sufferings, you will share in her glory. Retard her perfection, and you retard your own. You will not be regenerated until God sees His own image restored in the soul.”

Let us, then, purify our souls. Let us do the works of the spirit, not the deeds of the flesh. Our Saviour’s promise is most clear. He will turn the deep dye of our iniquities into the purest whiteness. He asks but one thing of us: that we sin no more. He says to us: “Cease to do perversely, and then come and accuse me, come and complain against me if I do not cleanse you.” O Jesus, we will not defer a single day of this holy season. We accept, from this moment, the conditions you offer us. We sincerely desire to make our peace with you, to bring the flesh into subjection to our spirit, to make good all the injustice we have committed against our neighbour, and to hush, by the sighs of our heart-felt compunction, that voice of our sins which has so long cried to you for vengeance.

10 NOVEMBER – TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

According to Honorius of Autun, the Mass of today has reference to the days of Antichrist. The Church, foreseeing the reign of the man of sin (2 Thessalonians ii. 3) and as though she were actually undergoing the persecution, which is to surpass all others — she takes her Introit of this twenty-second Sunday from the Psalm De profundis (Psalm cxxix.) If unitedly with this prophetic sense we would apply these words practically to our own personal miseries, we must remember the Gospel we had eight days ago, and which formerly was the one appointed for the present Sunday. Each one of us will recognise himself in the person of the insolvent debtor who has nothing to trust to but his master’s goodness, and in our deep humiliation we will exclaim: “If you, Lord, mark iniquities, who will endure it?”

Epistle – Philippians i. 6‒11

Brethren, we are confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you, will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. As it is meet for me to think this for you all: for that I have you in my heart; and that in my bands, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers of my joy. For God is my witness, how I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your charity may more and more abound in knowledge and in all understanding, that you may approve the better things, that you may be sincere and without offence until the day of Christ. Filled with the fruits of justice, through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Saint Paul, in the Church’s name, again invites our attention to the near approach of the Last Day. But what on the previous Sunday he called the evil day, he now, in the short passage taken from his Epistle to the Philippians which has just been read to us, calls and twice over, the day of Christ Jesus. The Epistle to the Philippians is full of loving confidence. Its tone is decidedly one of joy, and yet it plainly shows us that persecution was raging against the Church, and that the old enemy was making capital of the storm to stir up evil passions, even amid the very flock of Christ. The Apostle is in chains. The envy and treachery of false brethren intensify his sufferings (Philippians I. 15, 17) Still, joy predominates in his heart over everything else because he is come to that perfection of love in which divine charity is enkindled by suffering more even than by the sweetest spiritual caresses. To him, to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippian i. 21). He cannot make up his mind which of the two to choose: death, which would give him the bliss of being with his Jesus (Philippians i. 23), or life, which will add to his merits and his labours for the salvation of men (Philippians i. 22). What are all personal considerations to him? His one joy for both the present and the future is that Christ may be known and glorified, no matter how! (Philippians i. 18).

As to his hopes and expectations, he cannot be disappointed for Christ is sure to be glorified in his body, by its life and by its death! (Philippians i. 24‒27), hence in Paul’s soul that sublime indifference which is the climax of the Christian life. It is, of course, a totally different thing from that fatal apathy, to which the false mystics of the seventeenth century pretended to reduce the love of man’s heart. What tender affection has not this convert of Damascus for his brethren once he has reached this point of perfection! “God,” says he, “is my witness, how I long after you all, in the bowels of Jesus Christ!” The one ambition which rules and absorbs him is that God, who has begun in them the work, which is good by excellence, the work of Christian perfection (such as we know had been wrought in the Apostle himself), may be continued and perfected in them all by the day when Christ is to appear in His glory (Colossians iii. 4). This is what he prays for: that the wedding garment of those whom he has betrothed to the one Spouse (2 Corinthians xi. 2), in other words, that charity may beautify them with all its splendour for the grand Day of the eternal nuptials.

Now what is the sure means by which charity is to be perfected in them? It must abound, more and more, in knowledge and in all understanding of salvation, that is, in Faith. It is Faith that constitutes the basis of all supernatural virtue. A restricted, a diminished (Psalm xi. 2) Faith, could never support a large and high-minded charity. Those men, therefore, are deceiving themselves, whose love for revealed truth does not keep pace with their charity! Such Christianity as that believes as little as it may. It has a nervous dread of new definitions, and out of respect for error it cleverly and continually narrows the supernatural horizon. Charity, they say, is the queen of virtues. It makes them take everything easily, even lies against Truth. To give the same rights to error as to Truth is, in their estimation, the highest point of Christian civilisation grounded on love!

They quite forget that the first object of charity being God, who is substantial Truth, He has no greater enemy than a lie. They cannot understand how it is that a Christian does not do a work of love by putting on the same footing the Object beloved, and His mortal enemy! The Apostles had very different ideas: in order to make charity grow in the world, they gave it a rich sowing of truth. Every new ray of Light they put into their disciples’ hearts was an intensifying of their love. And these disciples, having, by Baptism, become themselves light (Ephesians v. 8), they were most determined to have nothing to do with darkness. In those days to deny the truth was the greatest of crimes . To expose themselves, by a want of vigilance, to infringe on the rights of truth, even in the slightest degree, was the height of imprudence (Ephesians v. 15, 17). When Christianity first shone on mankind, it found error supreme mistress of the world. Having, then, to deal with a universe that was rooted in death (Matthew iv. 16), Christianity adopted no other plan for giving it salvation than that of making the Light as bright as could be. Its only policy was to proclaim the power which truth alone has for saving man, and to assert its exclusive right to reign over this world. The triumph of the Gospel was the result: it came after three centuries of struggle — a struggle intense and violent on the side of darkness which declared itself to be supreme and was resolved to keep so — but a struggle most patient and glorious on the side of the Christians, the torrents of whose blood did but add fresh joy to the brave army, for it became the strongest possible foundation of the united Kingdom of Love and Truth.

But now with the connivance of those whose Baptism made them too be Children of Light, error has regained its pretended Rights. As a natural consequence, the charity of an immense number has grown cold in proportion (Matthew xxiv. 12). Darkness is again thickening over the world as though it were in the chill of its last agony. The children of light (Ephesians v. 8) who would live up to their dignity must behave exactly as did the early Christians. They must not fear, nor be troubled. But like their forefathers and the Apostles, they must be proud to suffer for Jesus’s sake (Philippians i. 28‒30) and prize the word of life (Philippians ii. 16) as quite the dearest thing they possess: for they are convinced that, so long as truth is kept up in the world, so long is there hope for it (John viii. 32). As their only care is to make their manner of life worthy of the Gospel of Christ (Philippians i. 27). they go on, with all the simplicity of children of God, faithfully fulfilling the duties of their state of life in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation as stars of the firmament do in the night (Philippians ii. 15). “The stars shine in the night,” says Saint John Chrysostom, “they glitter in the dark. So far from growing dim amid the gloom that surrounds them, they seem all the more brilliant. So will it be with you if you are virtuous amid the wicked. Your light will shine so much the clearer.” “As the stars,” says Saint Augustine, “keep on their course in the track marked out for them by God, and grow not tired of sending forth their light in the midst of darkness, neither heed they the calamities which may be happening on Earth, so should do those holy ones whose conversation is truly in Heaven (Philippians iii. 20). They should pay no more notice as to what is said or done against them, than the stars do.”

Gospel – Matthew xxii. 15‒21

At that time the Pharisees going, consulted among themselves how to ensnare Jesus in His speech. And they sent to Him their disciples, with the Herodians, saying: “Master, we know that you are a true speaker, and teach the way of God in truth, neither care you for any man: for you do not regard the person of men. Tell us therefore what you think: is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not?” But Jesus knowing their wickedness, said: “Why do you tempt me, you hypocrites! Show me the coin or the tribute. And they offered Him a penny. And Jesus said to them: “Whose image and inscription is this?” They say to Him: “Caesar’s. Then He said to them: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The getting truths to be diminished (Psalm xi. 2) is evidently to be a leading peril of the latter times, for during these weeks which represent the last days of the world, the Church is continually urging us to a sound and solid understanding of truth as though she considered that to be the great preservative for her children. Last Sunday she gave them, as defensive armour, the shield of faith and as an offensive weapon, the word of God. On the previous Sunday it was circumspection of mind and intelligence that she recommended to them, with a view to their preserving, during the approaching evil days, the holiness which is founded on truth. For, as she told them the previous week, their riches in all knowledge are of paramount necessity. Today, in the Epistle, she implored of them to be ever progressing in knowledge and all understanding, as being the essential means for abounding in charity, and for having the work of their sanctification perfected for the day of Christ Jesus. The Gospel comes with an appropriate finish to these instructions given us by the Apostle: it relates an event in our Lord’s life which stamps those counsels with the weightiest possible authority — the authority of the example of Him who is our divine Model. He gives His disciples the example they should follow when, like Himself, they have snares laid by the world for their destruction.

It was the last day of Jesus’s public teaching. It was almost the eve of His departure from this Earth. His enemies had failed in every attempt until then made to ensnare Him. This last plot was to be unusually deep-laid. The Pharisees, who refused to recognise Caesar’s authority and denied his claim to tribute, joined issue with their adversaries, the partisans of Herod and Rome, to propose this insidious question to Jesus: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caasar, or not? If our Lord’s answer was negative, He incurred the displeasure of the government. If He took the affirmative side, He would lose the estimation of the people. With His divine prudence, He disconcerted their plans. The two parties, so strangely made friends by partnership in one common intrigue, heard the magnificent answer which was divine enough to make even Pharisees and Herodians one in the Truth: but Truth was not what they were in search of, so they both skulked back again into their old party squabbles. The league formed against our Jesus was broken. The effort made by error recoiled on its own self, as must ever be the case. And the answer it had elicited passed from the lips of our Incarnate Lord to those of His Bride, the Church, who would be ever repeating it to this world of ours, for it contains the first principle of all governments on Earth.

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”: it was the dictum most dear to the Apostles. If they boldly asserted that we must obey God rather than men (Acts v. 29), they explained the whole truth, and added: “Let every soul be subject to the higher powers: for there is no power but from God: and those that are, are ordained of God. Therefore, he that resists the power, resists the ordinance of God. And they that resist, purchase to themselves damnation. Wherefore, be subject of necessity, not only for wrath, but also for conscience’s sake. For, therefore, also you pay tribute, for they are the ministers of God serving unto this purpose” (Romans xiii. 1, 2, 5, 6). The will of God (1 Peter ii. 15) — there is the origin, there is the real greatness of all authority amongst men! Of himself man has no right to command his fellow man. The number, however imposing it may be, makes no difference with this powerlessness of men over my conscience: for whether they be one, or five hundred, I, by nature, am equal to each one among them. And by adding the number of their so-called rights over me, they are only adding to the number of nothingnesses. But, God, wishing that men should live one with the other, has thereby wished that there exist among them a power which should rule over the rest; that is, should direct the thousands or millions of different wills to the unity of one social end. God leaves to circumstances, though it is His providence that regulates those circumstances — He leaves to men themselves, at the beginning of any mere human society — a great latitude as to the choice of the form under which is to be exercised both the civil power itself and the mode of its transmission. But, once regularly invested with the power, its depositories, its possessors — are responsible to God alone, as far, that is as the legitimate exercise of their authority goes — because it is from God alone that that power comes to them. It does not come to them from their people who, not having that power themselves, cannot give it to another. So long as those rulers comply with the compact or do not turn to the ruin of their people the power they received for its well-being — so long their right to the obedience of their subjects is the right of God Himself — whether they exercise their authority in exacting the subsidies needed for government or in passing laws which, for the general good of the people, restrain the liberty otherwise theirs, by natural right; or, again, by bidding their soldiers defend their country, at the risk of life. In all such cases, it is God Himself that commands, and insists on being obeyed: in this world He puts the sword into the hands of representatives, that they may punish the disobedient, and in the next He Himself will eternally punish them unless they have made amends.

How great, then, is not the dignity of human Law! It makes the legislator a representative of God and, at the same time, spares the subject the humiliation of feeling himself debased before a fellow man! But in order that the law oblige, that is, be truly a law, it is evident that it must be, first and foremost, conformable to the commands and the prohibitions of that God, whose will alone can give it a sacred character, by making it enter into the domain of man’s conscience. It is for this reason, that there cannot be a law against God, or His Christ, or His Church. When God is not with him who governs, the power he exercises is nothing better than brute force. The sovereign or the parliament that pretends to govern a country in opposition to the laws of God has no right to anything but revolt and contempt from every upright man. To give the sacred name of law to tyrannical enactments of that kind is a profanation, unworthy not only of Christian, but of every man who is not a slave.

4 NOVEMBER – SAINTS VITALIS AND AGRICOLA (Martyrs)

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us offer our homage to two Martyrs whose memory was celebrated on this day even before that of Saint Charles. Vitalis the slave and Agricola his master, combating together in the glorious arena proved that social inequality counts for nothing with regard to Heaven’s nobility. Saint Ambrose, when sojourning at Bologna where they had suffered, discovered their bodies and celebrated their triumph. The Church, following his example, has ever associated them in one common homage.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The birthday of the Saints Philologus and Patrobas, disciples of the blessed Apostle St. Paul.

At Autun, St. Proculus, martyr.

In Vexin in the north of France, St. Clarus, priest and martyr.
 

At Ephesus, St. Porphyry, martyr, under the emperor Aurelian.

At Myra in Lycia, the holy martyrs Nicander, bishop, and Hermas, priest, under the governor Libanius.

The same day, the birthday of St. Pierius, priest of Alexandria, who, being deeply versed in the sacred Scriptures, leading a very pure life, and freed from all impediments in order to apply to Christian philosophy, taught the people with great renown, and published various treatises, under the emperors Carus and Diocletian, when Theonas governed the church of Alexandria. After the persecution, he spent the remainder of his life at Rome where he rested in peace.

At Rhodez in France, blessed Amantius, bishop, whose life was resplendent with sanctity and miracles.

In Bithynia, St. Joannicius, abbot.

At Alba-Begale in Hungary, the demise of St. Emeric, confessor, son of St. Stephen, king of Hungary.

In the monastery of Cerfroid, in the diocese of Meaux, St. Felix de Valois, founder of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity for the Bedemption of Captives. His feast is celebrated on the twentieth of this month by order of Pope Innocent XI.

At Treves, St. Modesta, virgin.

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

Thanks be to God.