13 SEPTEMBER – SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Epistle – Ephesians iii. 13‒21

Brethren, I pray you not to faint at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened by His Spirit with might unto the inward man. That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts; that being rooted and founded in charity, you may be able to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth. To know also the charity of Christ, which surpasses all knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do all things more abundantly than we desire or understand, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus unto all generations, world without end. Amen.

Thanks be to God.
 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“My heart has uttered a good word! I speak my works to my King!” (Psalm xliv. 2) The enthusiasm of the royal Psalmist when singing the glorious Nuptial Song has taken possession of our Apostle’s whole soul, and inspires him with this marvellous Epistle which seems to put into music, into a song of love, the sublime teachings of all his other Letters. When he wrote this to his Ephesians he was Nero’s prisoner, but it shows that the word of God is anything but hampered by the chains that make an Apostle a captive (2 Timothy ii. 9).

Although the Epistle to the Ephesians is far from being the longest of his Letters, yet it is from it that the Church borrows most during these Sundays after Pentecost, and we may argue from such choice that it gives, more than any other of Saint Paul’s Epistles, that leading subject on which the Church is particularly anxious to direct her children’s thoughts during this season of the Liturgical Year. Let us therefore thoroughly master the mystery of the Gospel (Ephesians vi. 19) by hearkening to the herald who received it, as his special mission, to make known to the Gentiles the treasure that had been hidden from eternity in God (Ephesians iii. 8, 9). It is as Ambassador that he comes to us (Ephesians vi. 20), and the chains which bind him, far from weakening the authority of his message, are but the glorious badge which accredits him with the disciples of the Christ who died on Calvary.

For God alone, as he tells us in the music we have just heard, can strengthen in us the inward man enough to make us understand, as the Saints do, the “dimensions” (breadth, length, height and depth) of the great mystery of Christ dwelling in man, and dwelling in him for the purpose of filling him with the plenitude of God. Therefore is it, that falling on his knees before Him from Whom flows every perfect gift, and who has begotten us in the truth by His love (James i. 17, 18) he, Paul, our Apostle, asks this God to open, by faith and charity, the eyes of our heart so that we may be able to understand the splendid riches of the inheritance He reserves to his children, and the exceeding greatness of the divine power used in our favour, even in this life (Ephesians i. 18, 19).

But if holiness is requisite in order to obtain the ull development of the divine life spoken of by the Apostle — let us also take notice how the desire and the prayer of Saint Paul are for all men, and how therefore no one is excluded from that divine vocation. Indeed, as Saint John Chrysostom observes, the Christians to whom he sends his Epistle are people living in the world, married, having children and servants, for he gives them rules of conduct with regard to each point (Ephesians v. 22; vi. 1, 5). The Saints of Ephesus, as of all other places, are no others than the Faithful of Christ Jesus (Ephesians i. 1) that is to say, they are those who faithfully follow the divine precepts in the condition of life proper to each. Now it depends on us to follow God’s grace. Nothing else but our own resistance prevents the Holy Ghost from making Saints of us. Those sublime heights to which the progressive movement of the sacred Liturgy has since Pentecost been leading the Church are open to all of us. If the new order of ideas introduced by this movement strike us at times as being beyond our practical attainment, the probable reason of such cowardice is, and a short examination of conscience will bear witness against us, that we neglected, ever since Advent and Christmas, to profit, as we should have done, of the teachings and graces of every kind which were given us as means for advancing in light and Christian virtue. The Church, at the commencement of the Cycle offered her aid to every one of us, and that aid she adapted to each one’s capabilities, but she could never remain stationary because some of us were too lazy to move onwards. She could never consent, out of a regard for our laggings and sluggishness, to neglect leading men of good will to that divine Union which, they were told, “crowns both the Year of the Church, and the faithful soul that has spent the Year under the Church's guidance.”

But on no account must we lose courage. The Cycle of the Liturgy runs its full course in the heavens of the Church each Year. It will soon be starting afresh, again adapting the power of its graces to each one’s necessities and weaknesses. If, with that new Year of Grace, we learn a lesson from our past deficiencies, if we do not content ourselves with a mere theoretical admiration of the exquisite poetry, and loveliness and charms of its opening seasons, if we seriously set ourselves to grow with the growth of that light (which is no other than Christ Himself) (John i. 5) — if that is, we profit of the graces of progress which that Light will again infuse into our souls — then the work of our sanctification having been this time prepared, has a cheering and “a new chance of receiving that completeness which had been retarded by the weakness of human nature.”

Even now, though our dispositions may not be all they should be, yet the Holy Ghost, that Spirit of loving mercy who reigns over this portion of the Cycle, will not refuse the humble prayer we make to Him, and will supply at least in some measure our sad shortcomings. Great after all has been our gain in this, that the eye of our faith has had new supernatural horizons opened out to it, and that it has reached those peaceful regions which the dull vision of the animal man (1 Corinthians ii.14) fails to discover. It is there, that divine Wisdom reveals to the perfect that great secret of love, which is not known by the wise and the princes of this world — secret, which the eye had not before seen, nor the ear heard, nor the heart even suspected as possible (1 Corinthians ii. 6‒9). From this time forward we will the better understand the divine realities which fill up the life of the servants of God. They will seem to us, as they truly are, a thousand times preferable, both in importance and greatness, to those vain frivolities and occupations in the midst of which is spent the existence of so-called practical men.

Let us take delight in thinking upon that divine choice which, before time was selected us for the fullness of all spiritual benedictions (Ephesians i. 3) of which the temporal blessings of the people of old (Deuteronomy xxviii. 1‒14) were but a shadow. The world was not as yet existing, and already God saw us in His Word (Ephesians i. 4). To each one among us He assigned the place He was to hold in the Body of His Christ (1 Corinthians xii. 12‒31; Ephesians iv. 12‒16). Already His fatherly eye beheld us clad with that grace (Ephesians i. 6) which made Him well pleased with the Man-God, and He predestinated us (Ephesians i. 4‒5) as being members of this His beloved Son, to sit with Him, on His right hand, in the highest heavens (Ephesians I. 20‒23; ii. 6).

Oh how immense are our obligations to the Eternal Father whose good pleasure (Ephesians i. 9) has decreed to grant such wondrous gifts to our Earth! His will is His counsel (Ephesians i. 11). It is the one rule of all His acts, and His will is all love. It is from the voluntary and culpable death of sin (Ephesians i. 7; ii 1‒5) that He calls us to that Life which is His own Life. It is from the deep disgrace of every vice that, after having cleansed us in the Blood of His Son (Ephesians i. 7), He has exalted us to a glory which is the astonishment of the Angels and makes them tremble with adoring admiration. Let us then be holy (Ephesians i. 4) for the sake of giving praise to the glory of such grace (Ephesians i. 6).

Christ, in His divinity, is the substantial brightness and eternal glory of His Father (Hebrews i. 3). If He has taken to Himself a Body, if He has made Himself our Head, it was for no other purpose than that He might sing the heavenly canticle in a new way. Not satisfied with presenting in His sacred Humanity a sight most pleasing to His Father — that is, the sight of the created reflex of divine, and therefore infinite, perfections — He wished, moreover, that the whole of creation should give back to the adorable Trinity an echo of the divine harmonies. It was on this account that He, in His own Flesh, broke down the old enmities existing between Gentile and Jew (Ephesians ii. 14‒18), and then, bringing together these that were once enemies, He made of them all one spirit and one body, so that their countless human voices might, through Him, blend in unison of love with the angelic choirs, and thus, standing around God’s throne, might attune the one universal song of their praise to that of the infinite Word Himself. Thus will we become forever to God, like this divine Word, the praise of His glory, as the Apostle thrice loves to express himself in the beginning of this his Epistle to the Ephesians (Ephesians i. 6, 12, 14).

Thus too is to be wrought that mystery which, from all eternity, was the object of God’s eternal designs, mystery, that is, of divine union, realised by our Lord Jesus uniting in His own one Person, in infinite love, both Earth and Heaven (Ephesians i. 9, 10).

Gospel – Luke xiv. 1‒11

At that time, when Jesus went into the house of one of the chief of the Pharisees on the Sabbath day to eat bread, they watched Him. And behold, there was a certain man before Him that had the dropsy. Jesus answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying: “Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day” But they held their peace. He taking him, healed him, and sent him away. And answering them, He said: “Which of you will have an ass or an ox fall into a pit, and will not immediately draw him out, on the sabbath day?” They could not answer Him to these things. And He spoke a parable also to them that were invited, marking how they chose the first seats at the table, saying to them: “When you are invited to a wedding, sit not down in the first place, lest perhaps one more honourable than you be invited by him. And he that invited you and him, come and say to you, ‘Give this man place,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go sit down in the lowest place that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you: ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory before them that sit at table with you. Because every one that exalts himself, will be humbled; and he that humbles himself, will be exalted.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Holy Church here tells us, and in a most unmistakeable way, what has been her chief aim for her children ever since the Feast of Pentecost. The Wedding spoken of in today’s Gospel is that of Heaven, and of which there is a prelude given here below by the Union effected in the sacred banquet of Holy Communion. The divine invitation is made to all, and the invitation is not like that which is given on occasion of earthly weddings, to which the Bridegroom and Bride invite their friends and relatives as simple witnesses to the union contracted between two individuals. In the Gospel Wedding Christ is the Bridegroom, and the Church is the Bride (Apocalypse xix. 7). These nuptials are ours, inasmuch as we are members of the Church, and the banquet hall in this case is something far superior to that of a common place marriage.

But that this Union be as fruitful as it ought to be, the soul, in the sanctuary of her own conscience, must bring along with her a fidelity which is to be an enduring one — a love which is to be active even when the feast of the sacred mysteries is past. Divine Union, when it is genuine, masters one’s entire being. It fixes one in the untiring contemplation of the Beloved Object, in the earnest looking after His interests, in the continual aspiration of the heart towards Him, even when He seems to have absented Himself from the soul. The Bride of the divine Nuptials, could she be less intent on her God than those of Earth are on their earthly Spouse? (1 Corinthians vii. 34). It is on this condition alone that the Christian soul can be said to have entered on the Unitive Life, or can show its precious fruits.

But for the attaining all this — that is, that our Lord Jesus Christ may have that full control over the soul and its powers which makes her to be truly His and subjects her to Him as the Bride is to her Spouse (1 Corinthians xi. 8‒10) — it is necessary that all alien competition be entirely and definitively put aside. Now, there is one sad fact which every one knows: the divinely noble Son of the Eternal Father (Wisdom viii. 3), the Incarnate Word whose beauty enraptures the heavenly citizens, the Immortal King, whose exploits and power and riches are beyond all that the children of men can imagine (Psalm xliv.). Yes, He has rivals, human rivals, who pretend to have stronger claims than He to creatures whom He has redeemed from slavery and, that done, has invited them to share with Him the honours of His throne. Even in the case of those whom His loving mercy succeeds in winning over wholly to Himself, is it not almost always the way that He is kept waiting, for perhaps years, before they can make up their minds to be wise enough to take Him? During that long period of unworthy wavering, He loses not his patience, He does not turn elsewhere as He might in all justice do, but He keeps on asking them to be wholly His (Apocalypse iii. 20), mercifully waiting for some secret touch of one of his graces, joined with the unwearied labour of the Holy Ghost, to get the better of all this inconceivable resistance.

Let us not be surprised at the Church’s bringing the whole influence of her Liturgy to bear on the winning souls over to Christ, for every such conquest she makes for Him is a fresh and closer bond of union between herself and her Lord. This explains how, in some of these previous Sundays, she has given us such admirable instructions regarding the efforts of the triple concupiscence. Earthly pleasures, pride and covetousness are really the treacherous advisers who excite within us, against God’s claims, those impertinent rivals of whom we were just now speaking.

Having now reached the sixteenth week of this Season of the reign of the Holy Ghost, and taking it for granted that her Sons and Daughters are in right good earnest about their Christian perfection, the Church hopes that they have fairly unmasked the enemy. She comes, therefore, to us today hoping that her teaching will not fail to impress us, and that we will no longer put off that most loving Jesus of ours whose great mystery of love is preached to us in the allegory of our Gospel, and of which He Himself said: “The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a King who made a marriage for his Son” (Matthew xxii. 2).

But, after all, her anxiety as Mother and Bride never allows her to make quite sure of even her best and dearest children, so long as they are in this world. In order to keep them on their guard against falling into sin, she bids them listen to Saint Ambrose whom she has selected as her homilist for this Sunday. He addresses himself to the Christian who has become a veteran in the spiritual combat, and tells even him that Concupiscence has snares without end, even for him! Alas, yes, he may trip any day. He has got far, perhaps very far, on the road to the Kingdom of God, but even so he might go wrong and be forever shut out from the Marriage Feast, together with heretics, pagans and Jews. Let him be on the watch, then, or he may get tainted with those sins from which, hitherto, he has kept clear thanks to God’s grace. Let him take heed or he might become like the man mentioned in today’s Gospel, who had the dropsy. And dropsy, says our saintly preacher of Milan, is a morbid exuberance of humours which stupify the soul and induce a total extinction of spiritual ardour. And yet, even so, that is, even if he were to get such a fall as that, let him not forget that the heavenly physician is ever ready to cure him. The Saint, in this short Homily, condenses the whole of Saint Luke’s 14th chapter, of which we have been reading but a portion. And he shows, a little further on, that attachment to the goods of this life is no less opposed to the ardour, which should carry us on the wings of the spirit, towards the Heaven where lives and reigns our Love.

But, above all, it is the constant attitude and exercise of Humility to which he must especially direct his attention, who would secure a prominent place in the divine Feast of the Nuptials. All Saints are ambitious for future glory of this best kind but they were well aware that in order to win it they must go low down, during the present life, into their own nothingness. The higher in the world to come, the lower in this. Until the great day dawns when each one is to receive according to his works (Matthew xvi. 27), we will lose nothing by putting ourselves, meanwhile, below everybody. The position reserved for us in the kingdom of Heaven depends not in the least either on our own thoughts about ourselves, or on the judgement passed on us by other people. It depends solely on the will of that God who exalts the humble and brings down the mighty from their seat (Luke i. 52). Let us hearken to Ecclesiasticus. “The greater you are, the more humble yourself in all things, and you will find grace before God; for great is the power of God alone, and He is honoured by the humble” (Ecclesiasticus iii. 20, 21). Were it only, then, from a motive of self-interest, let us follow the advice of the Gospel and in all things claim, as our own, the last place. Humility is not sterling and cannot please God unless, to the lowly estimation we have of ourselves, we join an esteem for others, preventing every one with honour (Romans xii.10), gladly yielding to all in matters which do not affect our conscience: and all this from a deep-rooted conviction of our own misery and worthlessness in the sight of Him who searches the reins and heart (Apocalypse ii. 23) The surest test of our Humility before God is that practical charity for our neighbour which, in the several circumstances of every day life, induces us and without affectation, to give him the precedence to ourselves.

On the contrary, one of the most unequivocal proofs of the falseness of certain so-called spiritual ways into which the enemy sometimes leads incautious souls, is the lurking contempt with which he inspires them for one or more of their acquaintance: dormant, perhaps habitually — but which, when occasion offers, and it frequently offers, they allow it to influence their thoughts, and words, and actions. To a greater or less extent, and it may be with more or less unconsciousness, self-esteem is the basis of the structure of their virtues. But as for the illuminations and mystical sweetnesses which these people sometimes tell their intimate friends they enjoy, they may be quite sure that such favours do not come to them from the Holy Spirit. When the substantial light of the Sun of Justice will appear in the valley of the Judgement, all counterfeits of this kind will be made evident (1 Corinthians iv. 5), and they who trusted to them and spent their lives in petting such phantoms, will find them all vanishing in smoke. The having then to take a much lower place than the one they dreamt of, may have this one solace, that some place may be still given them in the divine banquet. They will have to thank God that their chastisement goes no further than the one of seeing, with shame, those very people passing high up in honour above them, for whom, during life, they had such utter contempt.

12 SEPTEMBER – THE MOST HOLY NAME OF MARY

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“And the Virgin’s name was Mary” (Luke i. 27). Let us speak a little about this name which signifies star of the sea, and which so well befits the Virgin Mother. Rightly is she likened to a star: for as a star emits its ray without being dimmed so the Virgin brought forth her Son without receiving any injury. The ray takes nought from the brightness of the star, nor the Son from His Mother’s integrity. This is the noble star risen out of Jacob, whose ray illumines the whole world, whose splendour shines in the heavens, penetrates the abyss, and, traversing the whole earth, gives warmth rather to souls than to bodies, cherishing virtues, withering vices. Mary, I say, is that bright and incomparable star, whom We need to see raised above this vast sea, shining by her merits, and giving us light by her example.

Oh! whoever you are that sees yourself, amid the tides of this world, tossed about by storms and tempests rather than walking on the land, turn not your eyes away from the shining of this star if you would not be overwhelmed by the hurricane. If squalls of temptations arise, or you fall upon the rocks of tribulation, look to the star, call upon Mary. If you are tossed by the waves of pride or ambition, detraction or envy, look to the star, call upon Mary. If anger or avarice or the desires of the flesh dash against the ship of your soul, turn your eyes towards Mary. If, troubled by the enormity of your crimes, ashamed of your guilty conscience, terrified by dread of the judgement, you begin to sink into the gulf of sadness or the abyss of despair, think of Mary. In dangers, in anguish, in doubt, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let her be ever on your lips, ever in your heart. And the better to obtain the help of her prayers, imitate the example of her life. Following her, you stray not. Invoking her, you despair not. Thinking of her, you wander not. Upheld by her, you fall not. Shielded by her, you fear not. Guided by her, you grow not weary. Favoured by her, you reach the goal. And thus do you experience in yourself how good is that saying: “And the Virgin’s name was Mary.”

Thus speaks the devout Saint Bernard in the name of the Church. But his pious explanation does not exhaust the meanings of this blessed name of Mary. Saint Peter Chrysologus adds in this same night Office: “Mary in Hebrew signifies lady or sovereign: and truly the authority of her Son, who is the Lord of the world, constituted her Queen, both in fact and in name, from her very birth.”

OUR LADY: such is the title which befits her in every way, as that of OUR LORD beseems her Son. It is the doctrinal basis of that worship of hyperdulia which belongs to her alone. She is below her Son, whom she adores as we do, but above all God’s servants, both angels and men, inasmuch as she is His Mother. At the name of Jesus every knee is bent. At the name of Mary every head is bowed. And although the former is the only name by which we may be saved, yet, as the Son can never be separated from His Mother, Heaven unites their two names in its hymns of praise, Earth in its confidence, Hell in its fear and hatred.

It was therefore in the order of divine Providence that devotion to the most holy name of Mary should spread simultaneously with the cultus of the adorable name of Jesus, of which Saint Bernadino of Siena was the apostle in the fifteenth century. In 1513 the Church of Cuenca in Spain was the first to celebrate, with the approbation of the holy See, a special feast in honour of the name of Mary, while the Franciscan Order had not yet succeeded in obtaining a like privilege for the adorable name of Jesus. The reason of this is that the memory of that sacred name included in the feast of the Circumcision seemed to the prudence of the Pontiff to suffice. From the same motive we find the feast of the most holy name of Mary extended to the universal Church in the year 1683, and that of the most holy name of Jesus not until 1721.

Two glorious triumphs, two victories won under the protection of Our Lady, have rendered this present day illustrious in the annals of the Church and of history.

Manicheism, revived under a variety of names, had established itself in the south of France, from where it hoped to spread its reign of shameless excess. But Dominic appeared with Mary’s Rosary for the defence of the people. On September 12, 1213, Simon de Montfort and the crusaders of the faith, one against forty, crushed the Albigensian army at Muret. This was in the pontificate of Innocent III.

Nearly five centuries later, the Turks, who had more than once caused the West to tremble, again poured down upon Christendom. Vienna, worn out and dismantled, abandoned by its emperor, was surrounded by 300,000 infidels. But another great Pope, Innocent XI, again confided to Mary the defence of the baptised nations. Sobieski, mounting his charger on the feast of our Lady’s Assumption, hastened from Poland by forced marches. On the Sunday within the octave of the Nativity, September 12, 1683, Vienna was delivered. And then began for the Osmanlis that series of defeats which ended in the treaties of Carlowitz and Passarowitz, and the dismemberment of the Ottoman empire. The feast of the most holy name of Mary inscribed on the calendar of the universal Church, was the homage of the world’s gratitude to Mary, our Lady and Queen.

Epistle – Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 23‒31

As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odour, and my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches. I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way, and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue. Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits; for my spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb. My memory is unto everlasting generations. They that eat me, will yet hunger; and they that drink me, will yet thirst. He that hearkens to me, will not be confounded, and they that work by me will not sin. They that explain me will have life everlasting.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

All the delight of Heaven, all the hopes of Earth, are centred on the cradle where Mary sleeps, while her heart is watching before God. Wisdom praises her own self. By the blessed daughter of Anne and Joachim, the loving preference shown by that divine Wisdom from the beginning of the world, is already justified. Forever more it will be her delight to be with the children of men. The chosen vine, the vine of the Peaceful One is before us, announcing, by its fragrant blossom, the divine grape, whose juice, pressed out in the wine-press of the cross, will give fruitfulness to every soul, and will inebriate Earth and Heaven.

Gospel – Luke i. 26‒38

At that time the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a Virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David: and the Virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel being come in, said unto her: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women.” Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought within herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said to her: “Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold you will conceive in your womb, and will bring forth a son and you will call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father: and he will reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel: “How will this be done, because I know not man?” And the angel answering, said to her, “The Holy Ghost will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And therefore also the Holy which will be born of you, will be called the Son of God. And behold your cousin Elizabeth, she also has conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: because no word will be impossible with God.” And Mary said: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This is the most solemn embassy ever recorded in the history of angels or of men. It shows us how Mary is what her name signifies, Mistress of the world. The highest interests of the human race, past, present and to come, of the heavenly hierarchy, and of God Himself, are here at stake. And the transaction is carried on between the Most High and the Virgin of Nazareth alone, as having exclusive right, the One to propose, the other to accept, both to conclude. The angel is but a messenger. Man, too, stands in waiting. Mary enters into a contract with the Creator, in the name of angels and of men, as in her own name; in the name of the entire world, which she represents, and over which she reigns supreme. Hail, then, to our Queen on her birthday! All hail to Mary! May she herself, in the holy Sacrifice, present our offerings to God for her people.

O Mary, we say to you with your faithful client, Saint Anselm of Canterbury: ‘By the name of your beloved Son, grant us ever to keep the memory of your own sweetest name. May it be the delicious food of our souls. May it be with us in danger. May it be with us in anguish. May it be to us the beginning of all joy!

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Alexandria, in the time of the emperor Maximinus, the birthday of the holy martyrs Hieronides, Leontius, Serapion, Selesius, Valerian and Straton, who were drowned in the sea for the confession of the name of Christ.

In Bithynia, St. Autonomus, bishop and martyr, who went to that country from Italy to avoid the persecution of Diocletian. After he had converted many to the faith, he was killed at the altar by furious Gentiles while celebrating the sacred mysteries and so became the victim of Christ.

At Merum in Phrygia, the holy martyrs Macedonius, Theodulus and Tatian, under Julian the Apostate. After other torments, they joyfully consummated their martyrdom by being laid on burning gridirons by order of the governor Almachius.

At Iconium in Lycaonia, the holy bishop Curonotus, who received the crown of martyrdom by being beheaded under the governor Perennius.

At Pavia, St. Juventius, bishop, mentioned on the eighth of February. He was sent to that city with St. Cyrus by blessed Hermagoras, a disciple of the Evangelist St. Mark. They both preached the Gospel of Christ there, and being renowned for great virtues and miracles, illustrated the neighbouring cities by divine works. They closed their glorious career in peace invested with the episcopal dignity.

At Lyons, the decease of St. Sacerdos, bishop.

At Verona, St. Silvinus, bishop.

At Anderlecht, St. Guido, confessor.

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

Thanks be to God.

11 SEPTEMBER – SAINTS PROTUS AND HYACINTH (Martyrs)

 

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, in the Cemetery of Basilla, on the old Via Salaria, the birthday of the holy martyrs Protus and Hyacinth, brothers and eunuchs in the service of blessed Eugenia, who were arrested in the time of the emperor Gallienus on the charge of being Christians, and urged to offer sacrifice to the gods. But as they refused, both were most severely scourged and finally beheaded.

At Laodicea, in Syria, the martyrdom of the Saints Diodorus, Diomedes and Didimus.

At Leon in Spain, St. Vincent, abbot and martyr.

In Egypt, the holy bishop Paphnutius, one of those confessors, who, under the emperor Galerius Maximinus, having their right eye plucked out and the joint of the left knee cut, were condemned to work in the metal mines. Afterwards, under Constantine the Great, he courageously combated for the Catholic faith against the Arians, and at length, being adorned with many crowns, rested in peace.

At Lyons, the demise of St. Patiens, bishop.

At Vercelli, St. Æmilian, bishop.

At Alexandria, St. Theodora, who having committed a fault through imprudence and repenting of it, remained unknown in a religious habit, and persevered until her death in practices of extraordinary abstinence and patience.

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

Thanks be to God.

 

10 SEPTEMBER – SAINT NICHOLAS OF TOLENTINO (Confessor)

Nicholas, called of Tolentino as he lived a long time in that city, was born at the town of Sant’Angelo in the Marches of Ancona in 1246. His pious parents, desirous of having children, went to Bari in fulfilment of a vow. There they were assured by Saint Nicholas that they should have a son, whom they therefore called by that saint’s name. From his infancy he was admirable for his virtues, especially for his abstinence. For, when only seven years old he began, in imitation of Saint Nicholas, to fast several days a week, which custom he afterwards kept up, contenting himself with bread and water. While still young he was enrolled in the ranks of the clergy and made a canon but one day, hearing a sermon on contempt of the world preached by one the hermits of Saint Augustine, he was so struck by it that he immediately joined that Order. As a religious he led a perfect life, subduing his body by rough garments, disciplines and iron chains; abstaining from meat and almost every kind of nourishment; and showing a bright example to others by his charity, humility, patience and other virtues. Very great was his love of prayer, in which he never relaxed, although Satan troubled him in various ways and at times scourged him severely. For six months before his death he heard every night the songs of the angels: a foretaste of heavenly delights which caused him frequently to repeat that saying of the apostle: “I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ.” He foretold to his brethren the day of his death, which was the fourth of the Ides of September 1310. Both before and after death he was famous for miracles, which having been duly proved, he was enrolled among the saints by Pope Eugenius IV.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Today the infant Mary smiles on the lily offered her in her cradle by the representative of a great Order. The hermits of Saint Augustine were being grouped and organised by the Vicar of Christ when Nicholas was admitted into their family, of which he was soon to become the thaumaturgus. When he died in 1305 the Roman Pontiffs were beginning their exile at Avignon, and his canonisation, deferred for nearly a century and a half through the troubles of the period, marked the close of the lamentable dissensions which followed that exile. Peace so long lost — peace, of which even the wisest despaired — such was the ardent prayer, the solemn adjuration of Eugenius IV when, towards the close of his laborious pontificate, he committed the cause of the Church to the humble servant of God placed by him on her altars. According to the testimony of Sixtus V, the obtaining of this peace was the greatest of Nicholas’s miracles — a miracle which moved the latter Pontiff to order the celebration of the saint’s feast as a double at a time when days of that rank were much rarer on the calendar than now.

Good and faithful servant, you have entered into the joy of your Lord. He has broken your bonds, and from Heaven where you are now reigning, you repeat to us those words which determined the sanctity of your life on Earth: “Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. For the world passes away, and the concupiscence thereof” (1 John ii. 15, 17). How much a man thus forgetful of Earth can do for his fellow-men, is evinced by the gift you received of solacing all the miseries around you, and succouring the souls in Purgatory. The successor of Saint Peter was not deceived when in ranking you among the saints he counted on your power in Heaven to bring back society from its long continued state of disturbance to the paths of peace. May that word of the beloved disciple which you have just echoed to us sink into our souls as a seed of salvation, and there yield the fruits that it produced in you: detachment from all temporal things and a longing for eternal realities, that humble simplicity of the soul’s eye which makes life a peaceful journey towards God, and lastly that purity which made you the friend of angels and the favourite of Mary.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Africa, the birthday of the holy bishops Nemesian, Felix, Lucius, another Felix, Litteus, Polyan, Victor, Jader, Dativus and others. As a violent persecution was breaking out under Valerian and Gallienus, they were at their first courageous confession of Christ beaten with rods, then put in irons, and being sent to dig in the metal mines, they terminated their combat and glorious confession.

At Chalcedon, in the persecution of Diocletian, the holy martyrs Sosthenes and Victor. Under Priscus, proconsul of Asia, after they had been loaded with fetters and exposed to the beasts, they were condemned to be burned. But while they were saluting each other with a holy kiss and praying, they expired.

In Bithynia, the holy virgins Menodora, Metrodora and Nymphodora, sisters. Under the emperor Maximian and the governor Fronto they were crowned with martyrdom and went to eternal glory.

Also the holy martyrs Apellius, Luke and Clement.

At Liege in Belgium, St. Theodard, bishop and martyr, who laid down his life for his flock, and after his death was renowned for the gift of miracles.

At Rome, blessed Hilary, pope and confessor.

At Compostella, St. Peter, bishop, who was celebrated for his many virtues and miracles.

In the city of Albi, St. Salvius, bishop and confessor.

At Novara, St. Agapius, bishop.

At Constantinople, St. Pulcheria, empress and virgin, distinguished by her piety and zeal for religion.

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

Thanks be to God.

9 SEPTEMBER – SAINT GORGONIUS (Martyr)

Dorotheus and Gorgonius, two freedmen were executed at Nicomedia on this day. The greatest honours had been conferred on them by the emperor Diocletian, but as they detested the cruelty which he exercised against the Christians, they were by his order suspended in his presence, and lacerated with whips. Then, their skin being torn from their bodies, and vinegar with salt poured over them, they were burned on a gridiron and finally strangled. After some time, the body of blessed Gorgonius was brought to Rome and deposited on the Via Latina. Then it was transferred to the Basilica of St. Peter.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Cartagena in South America, St. Peter Claver, confessor of the Society of Jesus, who laboured with wonderful self-abnegation and great charity among the negro slaves for more than forty years and baptised personally almost thirty thousand of them. He was canonised by order of Pope Leo XIII.

Among the Sabines, thirty miles from Rome, the holy martyrs Hyacinthus, Alexander and Tiburtius.

At Sebaste, St. Severian, a soldier of the emperor Licinius. For frequently visiting the Forty Martyrs while they were in prison, he was suspended in the air with a stone tied to his feet by order of the governor Lysias, and being scourged and torn with whips, yielded up his soul in the midst of torments.

The same day, St. Straton, who ended his martyrdom for Christ by being tied to two trees and torn to pieces.

Also the holy martyrs Rufinus and Rufinian, brothers.

At Rome, St. Sergius, pope and confessor.

In the territory of Tréouanne, St. Omer, bishop.

In Ireland, St. Kieran, abbot.

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

Thanks be to God.

8 SEPTEMBER – THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

“Let us celebrate the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. Let us adore her Son, Christ our Lord.” Such is the invitation addressed to us today by the Church. Let us hearken to her call. Let us enter into her overflowing joy. The Bridegroom is at hand, for His throne is now set up on Earth. Yet a little while, and He will appear in the diadem of our human nature with which His Mother is to crown Him on the day of the joy of His heart, and of ours. Today, as on the glorious Assumption, the sacred Canticle is heard, but this time it belongs more to Earth than to Heaven.

Truly a better paradise than the first is given us at this hour. Eden, fear no more that man will endeavour to enter you: your Cherubim may leave the gates and return to Heaven. What are your beautiful fruits to us since we cannot touch them without dying? Death is now for those who will not eat of the fruit so soon to appear amid the flowers of the virgin earth to which our God has led us. Hail, new world, far surpassing in magnificence the first creation! Hail blessed haven where we find a calm after so many storms! Aurora dawns. The rainbow glitters in the heavens. The dove comes forth. The ark rests upon the Earth, offering new destinies to the world. The haven, the aurora, the rainbow, the dove, the ark of salvation, the paradise of the heavenly Adam, the creation of which the former was but a shadow: all this are you, sweet infant, in whom already dwell all grace, all truth, all life.

You are the little cloud which the father of prophets in the suppliant anguish of his soul awaited, and you bring refreshment to the parched earth. Under the weakness of your fragile form appears the Mother of fair love and of holy hope. You are that other light cloud of exquisite fragrance, which our desert sends up to Heaven. In the incomparable humility of your soul, which knows not itself, the angels, standing like armed warriors around your cradle, recognise their Queen. O Tower of the true David, citadel withstanding the first shock of Satan’s attack and breaking all his power! True Sion founded on the holy mountains, the highest summits of virtue. Temple and palace feebly foreshadowed by those of Solomon. House built by eternal Wisdom for herself: the faultless lines of your fair architecture were planned from all eternity. Together with Emmanuel who predestined you for His home of delights, you are yourself, O blessed child, the crowning point of creation, the divine ideal fully realised on Earth!

Let us, then, understand the Church when, even on this day, she proclaims your divine maternity and unites in her chants of praise the birth of Emmanuel and your own. He who, being Son of God by essence, willed to be also Son of man, had, before all other designs, decreed that He would have a Mother. Such, consequently, was the primordial, absolute character of that title of mother that, in the eternal decree, it was one with the very being of the chosen creature, the motive and cause of her existence, as well as the source of all her perfections natural and supernatural. We too, then, must recognise you as Mother, even from your very cradle, and must celebrate your birthday by adoring your Son our Lord. Inasmuch as it embraces all the brethren of the Man-God, your blessed maternity sheds its rays upon all time, both before and after this happy day. “God is our king before ages: He has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth” (Psalm lxxiii. 12). “The midst of the earth,” says the Abbot of Clairvaux, “admirably represents Mary. Mary is the centre of the universe, the ark of God, the cause of creation, the business of ages. Towards her turn the inhabitants of Heaven and the dwellers in the place of expiation, the men that have gone before us, and we that are now living, those who are to follow us, our children’s children and their descendants. Those in Heaven look to her to have their ranks filled up. Those in Purgatory look for their deliverance. The men of the first ages, that they may be found faithful prophets. Those who come after, that they may obtain eternal happiness. Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, Sovereign of the world, all generations will call you blessed, for you have brought forth life and glory for all. In you the angels ever find their joy, the just find grace, sinners pardon. In you, and by you, and from you, the merciful hand of the Almighty has reformed the first creation.”

Andrew of Crete calls this day a solemnity of entrance, a feast of beginning whose end is the union of the Word with our flesh, a virginal feast, full of joy and confidence for all. “All ye nations, come here,” cries Saint John Damascene, “come every race and every tongue, every age and every dignity, let us joyfully celebrate the birthday of the world’s gladness.” “It is the beginning of salvation, the origin of every feast,” says Saint Peter Damian, “for behold! the Mother of the Bridegroom is born. With good reason does the whole world rejoice today, and the Church, beside herself, bids her choirs sing wedding songs.”

Not only do the Doctors of East and West use similar language in praise of Mary’s birth, but moreover the Latin and Greek Churches sing, each in its own tongue, the same beautiful formula to close the office of the feast: “Your birth, O Virgin Mother of God, brought joy to the whole world: for out of you arose the Sun of Justice, Christ our God: who, taking on the curse has bestowed blessing, and defeating death has given us life everlasting.”

This union of Rome and Byzantium in the celebration of today’s festival dates back as far as the seventh century at least. Beyond that we cannot speak with anything like certitude, nor is it known when the feast was first instituted. It is supposed to have originated at Angers, towards the year 430, by an apparition of our Lady to the holy bishop Maurillus in the fields of Marillais. And hence the name of Notre Dame Angemne often given to the feast. In the eleventh century Chartres, the city of Mary, claims for its own Fulbert, together with Robert the Pious, a principal share in the spreading of the glorious solemnity throughout France. It is well known how intimate the bishop was with the king, and how the latter himself set to music the three admirable responsories composed by Fulbert in which he celebrates the rising of the mysterious star that was to give birth to the Sun: the branch springing from the rod of Jesse, and producing the divine Flower on which the holy Spirit was to rest, and the merciful power which caused Mary to blossom in Judah like the rose on the thorn.

In the year 1245, in the third session of the first Council of Lyons (the same session which deposed Frederick II from the empire), Innocent IV established for the whole Church, not the feast which was already kept everywhere, but the Octave of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin Mary. It was the accomplishment of a vow made by him and the other Cardinals during the Church’s widowhood, which through the intrigues of the crafty emperor, lasted 19 months after the death of Celestine IV, and which was brought to a close by the election of Sinibaldo Fieschi under the name of Innocent. In 1377, the great Pope Gregory XI, who broke the chains of captivity in Avignon, wished to add a vigil to the solemnity of our Lady’s birthday. But whether he merely expressed a desire to this effect, as did his successor Urban VI with regard to a fast on the eve of the Visitation, or whether for some other reason, the intentions of the holy Pope were carried out for only a very short time during the years of trouble that followed his death.

Together with the Church, let us ask, as the fruit of this sweet feast, for that peace which seems to flee ever further and further from our unhappy times. Our Lady was born during the second of the three periods of universal peace with which the reign of Augustus was blessed, the last of which ushered in the Prince of peace Himself. The temple of Janus is closed. In the Eternal City a mysterious fountain of oil has sprung up from the spot where the first sanctuary of the Mother of God is one day to be built. Signs and portents are multiplied. The whole world is in expectation. The poet has sung: “Behold the last age, foretold by the Sybil, is at hand. Behold the great series of new worlds is beginning. Behold the Virgin!”

In Judaea, the sceptre has been taken away from Judah, but the usurper of his power, Herod the Idumaean, is hastening to complete the splendid restoration which will enable the second temple worthily to receive within its walls the Ark of the new Covenant. It is the sabbatical month, the first of the civil year, the seventh of the sacred cycle; the month of Tisri which begins the repose of each seventh year, and in which is announced the holy year of Jubilee: the most joyous of months, with its solemn Neomenia celebrated with trumpets and singing, its feast of tabernacles, and the commemoration of the completion of Solomon’s temple. In the heavens, the sun, in his passage through the zodiac, has left the sign of Leo and entered that of Virgo. On Earth, two obscure descendants of David, Joachim and Anne, are thanking God for having blessed their long-barren union.

Epistle – Proverbs viii. 22‒35

The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything from the beginning. I was set up from eternity, and of old before the earth was made. The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived: neither had the fountains of waters as yet sprung out; the mountains with their huge bulk had not as yet been established: before the hills I was brought forth. He had not yet made the earth, nor the rivers, nor the poles of the world. When He prepared the heavens, I was present; when with a certain law and compass He enclosed the deep: when He established the sky above, and poised the fountains of waters: when He compassed the sea with its bounds, and set a law to the waters, that they should not pass their limits: when he balanced the foundations of the earth: I was with Him forming all things: and was delighted every day, playing before Him at all times, playing in the world: and my delights were to be with the children of men. New, therefore, ye children, hear me. Blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that hears me, and that watches daily at my gates, and waits at the posts of my doors. He that will find me, will find life, and will have salvation from the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

When princes are born, we pre-nosticate their future greatness by recalling the glory of their ancestors. The Church does in like manner today. The Gospel will recount the temporal genealogy of the Messiah which is also the genealogy of her who was born for the very purpose of giving birth to Him. But first, this passage from the Book of Proverbs sets before us the divine origin of the Son and of the Mother. It is of both that eternal Wisdom says: “Before the hills I was brought forth: when He prepared the heavens, I was present.” Our weak human nature, subject to time, can conceive of things only according to the series of their progressive evolutions, but God sees them independently of time, which He rules with His eternity. He sees them in the order of mutual dependence in which He has placed them with a view to the manifestation of His glory. With God, the beginning and the principle of every work is the purpose for which it is done. Now the Most High acts outside Himself solely to reveal Himself, by His Word made Flesh and become the Son of a created Mother as He is the Son of the Creator. The God-Man as end, Mary as the means: such is the object of the eternal decrees, the purpose of the world’s existence, the fundamental conception with regard to which all else is but accessory and dependent.

O Lady, who deigns to call us also your children, it is well for us that your goodness is equal to your greatness! Happy is the human race for having waited and watched for you during so many long ages, and for having found you at length: for with you is salvation and life.

Gospel – Matthew i. 1‒16

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac; and Isaac begot Jacob; and Jacob begot Judas and his brethren; and Judas begot Phares and Zaraof Thamar; and Phares begot Esron; and Esron begot Aram; and Aram begot Aminadab; and Aminadab begot Naasson; and Naasson begot Salmon; and Salmon begot Booz of Rahab; and Booz begot Obed of Ruth; and Obed begot Jesse; and Jesse begot David the king. And David the king begot Solomon, of her who had been the wife of Urias; and Solomon begot Roboam; and Roboam begot Abia; and Abia begot Asa; and Asa begot Josaphat; and Josaphat begot Joram; and Joram begot Ozias; and Ozias begot Joatham; and Joatham begot Achaz; and Achaz begot Ezechias; and Ezechias begot Manasses; and Manasses begot Amon; and Amon begot Josias; and Josias begot Jechonias and his brethren in the transmigration of Babylon. And after the transmigration of Babylon Jechonias begot Salathiel; and Salathiel begot Zorobabel; and Zorobabel begot Abiud; and Abiud begot Eliacim; and Eliacim begot Azor; and Azor begot Sadoc; and Sadoc begot Achim; and Achim begot Eliud; and Eliud begot Eleazar; and Eleazar begot Mathan; and Mathan bogot Jacob; and Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Mary “of whom was born Jesus”: these words contain the whole mystery of our Lady, the title which expresses her whole being according to both nature and grace. For, Jesus, who was to be born of Mary, to be made of a woman (Galatians iv. 4), was from the beginning the hidden reason of all creation, to be manifested in the fullness of time. This was God’s great work of which the prophet said in ecstasy: “O Lord, your work... in the midst of the years you will make it known... the holy One will come from the shady mountain... The hills of the world were bowed down by the journeys of His eternity” (Habacuc iii. 2‒6). This mountain from where the holy One, the Eternal, the Ruler of the world, is to come, is the blessed Virgin Mary whom the power of the Most High will overshadow and who, at her very birth, is set far above all the heights of Earth and of Heaven.

The days, then, are accomplished. Ever since the hour when the eternal Trinity came forth from their repose to create Heaven and Earth, all the generations of Heaven and Earth have been in labour to bring forth the day which is to give a Mother to the Son of God. Parallel with the direct line from Abraham and David to the Messiah, all human genealogies have been preparing for Mary the generation of adoptive sons whom Jesus is to make His brethren. With the Church, let us congratulate our Lady on this her sublime maternity which embraces all creatures together with the Creator.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

At Nicomedia, St. Adrian, with twenty-three other martyrs, who ended their martyrdom on the fourth of March by having their limbs crushed after enduring many torments under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Their remains were carried to Byzantium by Christians and buried with due honours. Afterwards the body of St. Adrian was taken to Rome on this day on which his festival is celebrated.

At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Ammon, Theophilus, Neoterius, and twenty-two others.

At Antioch, the Saints Timothy and Faustus, martyrs.

At Gaza in Palestine, the holy martyrs Eusebius, Nestabus and Zeno, brothers, who were cut to pieces by a multitude of pagans that rushed upon them in the time of Julian the Apostate.

In the same place, and under the same Julian, St. Nestor, martyr, who, being most cruelly tortured by the same furious Gentiles, breathed his last.

At Valencia in Spain, St. Thomas of Villanova, archbishop, distinguished by his ardent charity for the poor. He was inscribed among the saints by Pope Alexander VII, and his feast is celebrated on the twenty-second of this month.

At Freisingen, St. Corbinian, first bishop of that city. Being consecrated by Pope Gregory II, and sent to preach the Gospel, he reaped an abundant harvest in France and Germany, and finally renowned for virtues and miracles, rested in peace.

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

Thanks be to God.

7 SEPTEMBER – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Nicomedia, the birthday of the blessed martyr John, who seeing the cruel edicts against Christians posted up in the public square, and being inflamed with an ardent faith, stretched forth his hand, took them away and tore them up. This being reported to the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, then residing in that city, they gave orders that he should be subjected to all kinds of torments, which the noble champion bore with such cheerfulness of spirit as not to show on his countenance the least trace of pain or grief.

At Caesarea in Cappadocia, in the time of the emperor Hadrian, St. Eupsychius, martyr, who, on being accused of professing Christianity, was cast into prison. His release following shortly after, he immediately sold his patrimony and distributed the proceeds of it partly to the poor and partly to his accusers, whom he regarded as his benefactors. But being again arrested under the judge Sapritius, he was lacerated, pierced through with a sword, and thus consummated his martyrdom.

At Pompeiopolis in Cilicia, St. Sozon, martyr, who, being thrown into the fire, yielded up his spirit, in the time of the emperor Maximian.

At Aquileia, St. Anastasius, martyr.

In the diocese of Autun, St. Regina, virgin and martyr, under the proconsul Olybrius. After having suffered imprisonment, the rack, and burning with torches, she was condemned to capital punishment and so went to her spouse.

At Troyes, St. Nemorius, deacon, and his companions, martyrs, who were slain by Attila, king of the Huns.

At Orleans in France, the departure from this life of the holy bishop Evortius, who was first a sub-deacon of the Roman Church, and afterwards, through the divine favour, was designated bishop of that city by a dove.

In France, St. Augustalis, bishop and confessor.

At Capua, St. Pamphilus, bishop.

In the territory of Paris, St. Cloud, priest and confessor.

At Nonantola, Pope St. Adrian III, remarkable for his zeal to reconcile the Eastern churches with the Holy See. He died in the odour of sanctity at San Cesario and became widely celebrated by his miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.