13 DECEMBER – SAINT ODILIA (Abbess and Virgin)

 

 

Odilia, the glory and the protectress of her country, was the eldest child of Adalric, Duke of Alsace, and of Beresind his wife. Being born blind she was repudiated by her father, but the mother, with more compassion, had her nursed privately. Later on she was sent to the Monastery of Baume not far from Besancon where she was educated and instructed in the holy Scriptures, and grew in age and wisdom. When an adult, she was baptised by the holy Bishop Erhard, and was on that occasion miraculously cured of her blindness. After the lapse of some years, she was recalled to her father’s house and became the object of his affection. During this time she despised all that the world loves, preferring poverty to the greatest wealth and leading a hermit’s life amid all the distractions of her father’s palace. She rejected with great resolution all the offers of marriage which were made to her, and after a long and hard contest, obtained her father’s consent to devote herself forever to God, with several other virgins. For this end, Adalric built at his own cost a church and monastery on the top of a high hill, and richly endowed it with land and possessions. It was at his request that Odilia was appointed to govern the monastery. Scarce was this abode of sanctity established when many sought for admission and, as it is related, the community numbered no less than a 130. At the commencement no special rule was followed. The imitation of Odilia was their rule. When afterwards it was deliberated on which of the two rules should be adopted, the Monastic or the Canonical, this latter was preferred by the discreet Abbess as being better adapted to the circumstances of the place.

To all around her she was indulgent: to herself alone she was severe. Her only food was barley-bread and water, to which she sometimes added a few herbs. Her contemplation of divine things was continual. She gave to it the greatest part of the night and spent the rest in sleep. Her bed was a rough skin and a stone her pillow. To this she added a maternal solicitude for the poor and sick, for whom she built another monastery and also a large hospital at the foot of the hill, that so they might have readier assistance in their various miseries. She placed there several of the nuns to take care of the poor inmates. Not only so, but she every day visited them herself, fed them, and comforted them, and hesitated not to dress with her own hands the loathsome sores of lepers. At length, weighed down by age and merit, and knowing that her death was at hand, she assembled her sisters in the oratory of Saint John the Baptist and there exhorted them to continue firm to their holy engagements, and never to leave the narrow path which leads to heaven. Having received in the same place the Viaticum of the Body and Blood of Christ, she departed this life on the Ides of December (Dec. 13), and according to the more probable opinion, in 1720. The body of the holy virgin was buried in the same oratory, and her tomb became immediately an object of the greatest veneration of the faithful, and was celebrated for the miracles which were wrought there.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

On this same day we have also the fifth of the Wise Virgins whose bright lamps light us during Advent to the crib of Jesus, their Spouse. Odilia did not shed her blood for Him, as did Bibiana, Barbara, Eulalia and Lucy. Her offering was her tears and her love. Her wreath of lilies blends sweetly with the roses which form the crowns of her four companions. Her name is held in special veneration in the east of France, and beyond the Rhine. The holy hill on which her tomb has rested now these thousand years is still visited by numerous and devout pilgrims. Several Kings of the Capetian race, and several Emperors of the House of Hapsburg, were descendants of the father of our Saint, Adalric or Atticus, Duke of Alsace. Odilia was born blind. Her father insisted on her being removed from the house, for her presence would have been a continual humiliation to him. It seems as though this affliction was permitted by Providence in order that the action and power of divine grace might be the more clearly manifested in her regard. The little exile was taken from her mother and placed in a monastery. God, who designed to show the virtue of the holy sacrament of regeneration, permitted that her baptism should be deferred until she had reached her thirteenth year. The time at length came for Odilia to be made a Child of God. No sooner was she taken from the baptismal font than she recovered her eye-sight, which was but a feeble figure of the light which faith had lit up in her soul. This prodigy restored Odilia to her father and to the world, and from that time forward she had to defend, against unceasing attacks, the virginity which she had vowed to God. Her personal beaut, and her father’s wealth and power attracted to her many rich suitors. She refused them all, and her father himself built a Monastery on the rocks of Hohenburg where she served her divine Lord, governed a large community, and gave relief to every sort of suffering.

After a long life spent in prayer, penance and works of mercy, the day came which was to reward her for it all. It was this very day, the thirteenth of December, the feast of the holy virgin Lucy. The Sisters of Hohenburg, desirous of treasuring up her last words, assembled round their saintly Abbess. She was in an ecstasy, and already dead to the things of this life. Fearing lest she should die before she had received that holy Viaticum which leads the soul to Him who is her last end, the Sisters thought it their duty to rouse her from the mystic sleep which, so it seemed to them, rendered her forgetful of the duties which she had to perform. Being thus brought to herself, she turned to the community and said to them: “Dear Sisters, why have you disturbed me? Why would you again oblige me to feel the weight of this corruptible body when I had once left it? By the favour of His divine Majesty, I was in the company of the virgin Lucy, and the delights I was enjoying were so great that no tongue could tell them, nor ear hear them, nor human eye see them.” No time was lost in giving her the Bread of life and the Chalice of salvation, which having received, she immediately rejoined her heavenly companion, and the thirteenth day of December thus united into one the feasts of the Abbess of Hohenburg and of the Martyr of Syracuse.

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The ways of God in your regard, holy Virgin, were admirable indeed, and He manifested in you the riches and the power of grace. He deprived you of sight so that your soul might the more eagerly cling to His own infinite beauty, and when afterwards He restored you your bodily vision, you had already made choice of the better part. The harshness of your father deprived you of the innocent pleasures of home, but it prepared you to become the spiritual mother of so many noble virgins who, following your example, trampled on all the vanities of the world. You chose a life of humility because your heavenly Spouse Jesus had humbled Himself for our sakes. You imitated Him also in His being our divine Deliverer and taking upon Himself all our miseries, for you had the tenderest compassion on the poor and the sick. You took on yourself the care of a poor leper that had been abandoned by all else. With a mother’s courage you fed him and affectionately dressed his loathsome sores. And is it not this that our Jesus is coming down from Heaven to do for us, to heal our wounds by embracing our human nature, and to nourish us with that food which He is preparing to give us at Bethlehem? While the leper was receiving your loving care, the frightful disease which excluded him from the society of his fellow-creatures suddenly disappeared. A delicious odour came from his whole person, whereas before none but a saint like yourself could have borne to approach him. Is it not this which Jesus is coming down to do for us? The leprosy of sin was upon us. His grace heals us, and man regenerated sheds around him the good odour of Christ (2 Corinthians ii. 14, 15).

In the midst of the joys which you are now sharing with Lucy, remember us, you that was ever so compassionate to the needy! We cannot forget the tears which you shed and the prayers you offered up for the soul of your father after his death, and by which you delivered him from Purgatory and opened the gates of Heaven to him that had banished you from his house. You are no longer in the land of tears, but your eyes are opened to the light of Heaven and contemplate God in His glory. Pray therefore for us, for your prayers are now more powerful than heretofore. Think of us who are poor and infirm. Obtain the cure of our maladies. The Emmanuel who is coming to us tells us that He is the Physician of our souls, for He has said: “They that are in health need not the Physician, but they that are ill” (Matthew ix. 12). Ask Him that He cure us of the leprosy of sin, and make us become like Himself. Pray for France, your country, and help her to maintain the purity of the Catholic faith. Watch over the ruins of the Holy Empire. Heresy has disunited the members of that great body, but it will once more flourish if our Lord, propitiated by such prayers as yours, vouchsafe to bring Germany back again to the true faith and to submission to the Church. Yes, pray that these glorious things be brought about for the honour and glory of your Divine Spouse, and that nations now weary of their errors and disunion, may unite together in propagating the Kingdom of God on Earth.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Armenia, the martyrdom of the holy martyrs Eustratius, Auxentius, Eugene, Mardarius and Orestes, in the persecution of Diocletian. Eustratius was first subjected alone to barbarous torments under Lysias. Then he was conducted to Sebaste, where he was tortured together with Orestes under the governor Agricolaus, and being cast into a furnace, yielded up his soul. But Orestes being laid on a bed of red-hot iron, rendered his soul to God. The others were made to endure most grievous torments among the Arabraci, under the governor Lysias, and consummated their martyrdom in different manners. Their relics were afterwards carried to Rome, and placed with due honours in the church of St. Apollinaris.

Near Sardinia, on the island of Solta, the martyrdom of St. Antiochus under the emperor Hadrian.

At Cambrai in France, St. Aubertus, bishop and confessor (669 AD).

In Ponthieu, St. Judocus, confessor (669 AD).

At Moulins in France, the birthday of St. Jane Frances Fremiot de Chantal (1572‒1641), foundress of the nuns of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, distinguished by the nobility of her birth, by the holiness she constantly manifested in four different states of life, and by the gift of miracles. She was placed among the saints by Pope Clement XIII. Her sacred body was conveyed to Annecy in Savoy, and interred with great pomp in the first church of her Order. By the command of Pope Clement XIV her festival is kept by the whole Church on the twenty-first of August.

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

Thanks be to God.

13 DECEMBER – SATURDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xxv. 1‒9

O Lord, you are my God, I will exalt you, and give glory to your name: for you have done wonderful things, your designs of old faithful. Amen. For you have reduced the city to a heap, the strong city to ruin, the house of strangers to be no city, and to be no more built up forever. Therefore will a strong people praise you, the city of mighty nations will fear you... Because you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress: a refuge from the whirlwind, a shadow from the heat. And the Lord of hosts will make to all people, in this mountain, a feast of fat things, a feast of wine, of fat things full of marrow, of wine purified from the lees. And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the bond with which all people are tied, and the web that He began over all nations. He will cast death down headlong forever: and the Lord God will wipe away tears from every face, and the reproach of his people he will take away from off the whole Earth: for the Lord has spoken it. And they will say in that day: “Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord, we have patiently waited for Him, and we will rejoice and be joyful in His salvation.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Yet a little while, and the conqueror of death will appear, and then, in the joy of our hearts, we will say: “Lo, this is our God: we have waited for Him, and He will save us. We have patiently waited for Him. This is He, and we will rejoice and be joyful in His salvation.” Let us, therefore, prepare the way of the Lord, that we may receive Him worthily, and in this work of our preparation, let us have recourse to Mary. Saturday is the day which is sacred to her. She will the more readily grant the prayers said to her upon it. Let us consider her in her grand privilege of being full of grace, carrying in her womb Him whom we so long to possess. If we ask her by what means she rendered herself worthy of such an immense favour, she will tell us that in her was simply fulfilled the prophecy which the Church so continually repeats during these days of Advent: “Every valley will be filled up.” The humble Mary was the valley blessed of the Lord, a valley beautiful and fertile in which God sowed the Divine Wheat, our Saviour, Jesus: for it is written in the Psalm that “the valleys will abound with corn” (Psalm lxiv. 14).

O Mary, it was your humility that drew down upon you the admiration of your Creator. If, from the high Heaven where He dwells, He had perceived a Virgin more humble in her love, He would have chosen her in preference to you: but no, it was you that won His predilection, O mystic valley, ever verdant and lovely in your flowers of grace. We that, like high hills, are so proud and such sinners, what shall we do? We must look on this God of ours who comes to us in infinite humility and then humble ourselves out of love and gratitude. O Blessed Mother! Obtain this grace for us. Pray for us that henceforth we may submit ourselves to the will of our Lord as you did when you spoke those admirable words: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord : may it be done to me according to thy word!”

12 DECEMBER – OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

 

The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a Mexican farmer, Juan Diego, on the 9th of December 1531 at a place called the Hill of Tepeyac, which would become part of Villa de Guadalupe, a suburb of Mexico City. Speaking in his native language, she identified herself as the Mother of God and asked for a church in her honour to be built there. In subsequent apparitions she confirmed her identity and by her intercession his uncle Juan Bernardino, near death, recovered his health. She asked Juan Diego to collect flowers from the top of the hill, which was usually barren, particularly in December. Juan found Castilian roses, not native to Mexico, flowering there. He arranged flowers in his tilma (cloak) and when opened his cloak before Archbishop Zumárraga on December 12, the flowers fell to the floor, and on the fabric was the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Juan Diego was canonised by Saint John Paul II in 2002 under the name Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us contemplate the sentiments of profound respect and maternal tenderness which fill the soul of our Blessed Lady now that she has conceived Jesus in her chaste womb: he is her God, and yet he is her Son. Let us think upon this wonderful dignity bestowed on a creature, and let us honour the Mother of our God. It was by this mystery that was fulfilled the prophecy of Isaias: “Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son” (Isaias vii. 14) and that of Jeremias: “The Lord has created a new thing upon the Earth: a woman shall compass a man” (Jeremias xxxi. 22). The Gentiles themselves had received the tradition of these prophecies.

Thus in the old pagan Carnutum (Chartres), there was an altar dedicated “To the Virgin that was to bring forth a Son” (Virgini Parituroae), and while modern rationalism with its ignorant scepticism was affecting to throw a doubt on this fact of history, the researches of science were discovering that Carnutum was far from being the only city of the West which had such an altar. But what human language could express the dignity of our Lady that carries within her chaste womb Him that is the world’s salvation! If Moses, after a mere colloquy with God, returned to the Israelites with the rays of the majesty of Jehovah encircling his head — what an aureola of glory was due to Mary who has within her, as in a living Heaven, that very God Himself ! The Divine Wisdom tempers the effulgence of her glory that it be not visible to men, and this in order that the state of humility, which the Son of God has chosen as the one in which He would manifest Himself to the world, should not be removed at the very onset by the dazzling glory which would otherwise have been seen gleaming from His Mother.

The sentiments which filled the Heart of Mary during these months of her ineffable union with the Divine Word may be thus expressed in the words of the Spouse in the sacred Canticle: “I sat under the shadow of him whom I desired, and his fruit was sweet to my palate. I sleep, but my heart watches. My soul melted when he spoke. I to my Beloved and my Beloved to me, who feeds among the Lilies, till the day break, and the shadows retire” (Canticles ii. 3, 16, 17; v. 2, 6). And if there ever were a human heart that was forced by the overpowering vehemence of its love of God to use these other words of the same Canticle, it was Mary’s: “Daughters of Jerusalem, stay me up with flowers, compass me about with fragrant fruits, for I languish with love” (Canticles ii. 5). These sweet “words,” says the venerable Peter of Celles, “are those of the Spouse that dwells in the gardens and is now near the time of her delivery. What so lovely in creation as this Virgin, who loves the Lord with such matchless love and is so exceedingly loved by this her Lord? It is She of whom the Scripture speaks when it calls the Spouse the dearest hind. What, too, so lovely as that well-beloved Son of God, born of His beloved Father from all eternity, and now, at the end of time, as the Apostle speaks, formed in the womb of His dearest Mother and become to her in the words of the same divine proverb, the sweetest fawn? Let us therefore cull our flowers and offer them to both Child and Mother. But let me briefly tell you what are the flowers you must offer to our Lady. Christ says, speaking of his humanity, I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys. By him, therefore, let us purify our souls and bodies, and so be able to approach our God in chastity. Next, preserve this flower of purity from all that would injure it, for flowers are tender things and soon droop and fade. Let us wash our hands among the innocent and, with a pure heart, and pure body, and cleansed lips, and chaste soul, let us gather, in the paradise of our heavenly Father, our fresh flowers for the new Nativity of our New King. With these flowers let us stay up this most saintly Mother, this Virgin of Virgins, this Queen of Queens, this Lady of Ladies that so we may deserve to receive the blessing of the Mother and the Divine Babe.”

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, the holy martyr Synesius, who was ordained lector in the time of the blessed Pope Sixtus. Having converted many to Christ, he was accused before the emperor Aurelian, and being put to the sword received the crown of martyrdom.

At Alexandria, in the time of Decius, the holy martyrs Epimachus and Alexander, who were kept in chains a long time, and subjected to various torments. But as they persevered in the faith, they were finally consumed by fire.

In the same place, the holy women Ammonaria, virgin, Mercuria, Dionysia and another Ammonaria. The first named, after having triumphed over unheard-of torments, in the same persecution of Decius, ended her blessed life by the sword. As to the three others, the judge being ashamed to be overcome by women, and fearing that by resorting to tortures, he would be vanquished by their constancy, he ordered them to be beheaded immediately.

The same day, the holy martyrs Hermogenes, Donatus and twenty-two others.

At Treves, the holy martyrs Maxentius, Constantius, Crescentius, Justinus and their companions, who suffered in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Rictiovarus.

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

Thanks be to God.

12 DECEMBER – FRIDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xxiv. 1‒15

Behold the Lord will lay waste the Earth, and will strip it: and will afflict the face thereof, and scatter abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it will be as with the people, so with the priest; and as with the servant, so with his master; as with the handmaid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower as with him that calls for his money, so with him that owes. With desolation will the Earth be laid waste, and it will be utterly spoiled: for the Lord has spoken this word. The Earth mourned, and faded away, and is weakened: the world faded away, the height of the people of the Earth is weakened. And the Earth is infected by the inhabitants thereof: because they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore will a curse devour the Earth and the inhabitants thereof will sin, and therefore they that dwell therein will be mad, and few men will be left. The vintage has mourned, the vine has languished away, all the merry hearted have sighed. The mirth of timbrels has ceased, the noise of them that rejoice is ended, the melody of the harp is silent. They will not drink wine with a psalm: the drink will be bitter to them that drink it. The city of vanity is broken down, every house is shut up, no man comes in. There will be a crying for wine in the streets: all mirth is forsaken, the joy of the Earth is gone away. Desolation is felt in the city, and calamity will oppress the gates. For it will be thus in the midst of the Earth, in the midst of the people, as if a few olives that remain should be shaken out of the olive tree: or grapes, when the vintage is ended. These will lift up their voice, and will give praise, when the Lord will be glorified, they will make a joyful noise from the sea. Therefore glorify ye the Lord in instruction: the name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the sea. From the ends of the Earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Thus was the Earth in desolation when the Messiah came to deliver and save it. So diminished, so decayed, were truths among the children of men (Psalm xi. 2) that the human race was bordering on its ruin. The knowledge of the true God was becoming rarer as the world got older. Idolatry had made everything in creation an object of its adulterous worship. The practical result of a religion which was but gross materialism, was frightful immorality. Man was for ever at war with man, and the only safeguards of what social order still existed in the world were the execrable laws of slavery and extermination. Among the countless inhabitants of the globe, a mere handful could be found who were seeking God. They were as rare as the olives that remain on the tree after a careful plucking, or as grape-bunches after the vintage is ended. Of this happy few were among the Jewish people those true Israelites whom our Saviour chose for His disciples and, among the Gentiles, the Magi that came from the East, asking for the new-born King, and later on, Cornelius the Centurion, whom the Angel of the Lord directed to Saint Peter.

But, with what faith and joy did they not acknowledge the Incarnate God! And what their hymns of glad gratitude when they found that they had been privileged above others, to see, with their own eyes, the promised Saviour! Now, all this will again happen when the time draws near of the second Coming of the Messiah. The Earth will once more be filled with desolation and mankind will be again a slave of its self-degradation. The ways of men will again grow corrupt and this time the malice of their evil will be the greater because they will have received Him who is the Light of the world, the Word of Life. A profound sadness will sit heavy on all nations, and every effort for their well-being will seem paralysed. They and the Earth they live on will be conscious of decrepitude, and yet it will never once strike them that the world is drawing to an end. There will be great scandals. There will fall stars from Heaven, that is, many of those who had been masters in Israel will apostatise and their light will be changed into darkness. There will be days of temptation and faith will grow slack, so that when the Son of Man will appear, faith will scarce be found on the Earth.

Let it not be, O Lord, that we live to see those days of temptation. Or, if it be your will that they overtake us, make our hearts firm in their allegiance to your holy Church, which will be the only beacon left to your faithful children in that fierce storm. Grant, O Lord, that we may be of the number of those chosen olives, of those elect bunches of grapes, with which you will complete the rich harvest which you will garner forever into your house. Preserve intact within us the deposit of faith which you have entrusted to us. Let our eye be fixed on that Orient of which the Church speaks to us, and where you are suddenly to appear in thy majesty. When that day of yours comes and we behold your triumph, we will shout our glad delight and then, like eagles which cluster round the body, we will be taken up to meet you in the air, as your Apostle speaks, and thus will we forever be with you (1 Thessalonians iv. 16). Then we will hear the praises and glory of the Just One, from the ends of this Earth, which it is your good will to preserve until the decrees of your mercy and justice will have been fully executed. Jesus! We are the work of your hands: save us and be merciful to us on that great day.

11 DECEMBER – SAINT DAMASUS I (Pope and Confessor)

 

Damasus was a Spaniard, a man of highest worth and learned in the Scriptures. He called the first Council of Constantinople in which he condemned the heresy of Eunomius and Macedonius. He also condemned the Council of Rimini which had already been rejected by Liberius inasmuch as it was in this assembly of Rimini, as Saint Jerome tells us, that mainly by the craft of Valens and Ursascius, was published a condemnation of the faith which had been taught by the Nicene Council, and thus the whole world grieved to find itself made Arian.

He built two Basilicas: one dedicated to Saint Laurence near Pompey’s theatre, and this he endowed with magnificent presents, with houses and with lands: the other, on the Via Ardeatina, at the Catacombs. The bodies of Saints Peter and Paul lay for some time in a place richly adorned with marbles. This place he dedicated, and composed for it several inscriptions in beautiful verses. He also wrote on Virginity, both in prose and verse, and several other poems.

He established the law of retaliation for cases of false accusation. He decreed that, as was the custom in many places, the Psalms should be sung in all churches in alternate choirs, day and night, and that at the end of each Psalm, there should be added: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.” It was by his order that Saint Jerome translated the New Testament from the Greek text. He governed the Church 17 years, 2 months and 25 days, and five times during this period, he gave Ordinations in the month of December to 31 Priests, 11 Deacons and 62 Bishops.

Conspicuous for his virtue, learning and prudence, and having lived little short of 80 years, he slept in the Lord during the reign of Theodosius the Great in 384 AD. He was buried in the Basilica which he had built on the Via Ardeatina, where also lay his mother and sister. His relics were afterwards translated to the Church of Saint Laurence, called after him, Saint Laurence’s in Damaso.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This great Pontiff comes before us in the Liturgical Year, not to bring us tidings of Peace, as Saint Melchiades did, but as one of the most illustrious defenders of the great Mystery of the Incarnation. He defends the faith of the Universal Church in the divinity of the Word by condemning, as his predecessor Liberius had done, the acts and the authors of the celebrated Council of Rimini. With his sovereign authority he bears witness to the teaching of the Church regarding the Humanity of Jesus Christ, and condemned the heretic Apollinaris who taught that Jesus Christ had only assumed the flesh and not the soul of man. He commissioned Saint Jerome to make a new translation of the New Testament from the Greek, for the use of the Church of Rome, here again, giving a further proof of the faith and love which he bore to the Incarnate Word. Let us honour this great Pontiff whom the Council of Chalcedon calls the ornament and support of Rome by his piety. Saint Jerome, too, who looked on Saint Damasus as his friend and patron, calls him a man of the greatest worth, a man whose equal could not be found, well versed in the holy Scriptures and a virgin Doctor of the virgin Church.

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Holy Pontiff Damasus! during your life on Earth, you were the Light which guided the children of the Church, for you taught them the mystery of the Incarnation and guarded them against those perfidious doctrines with which Hell ever strives to corrupt that glorious Symbol of our faith which tells us of God’s infinite mercy towards us, and of the sublime dignity of man thus mercifully redeemed. Seated on the Chair of Peter, you confirmed your brethren and your faith failed not, for Jesus had prayed to His Father for you. We rejoice at the infinite recompense with which this divine Prince of Pastors has rewarded the unsullied purity of your faith, you virgin Doctor of the virgin Church! O that we could have a ray of that light which now enables you to see Jesus in His glory! Pray for us that we may have light to see Him, and know Him, and love Him under the humble guise in which He is so soon to appear to us. Obtain for us the science of the sacred Scriptures in which you were so great a Master, and docility to the teachings of the Bishop of Rome to whom, in the person of Saint Peter, Christ has said: “Launch out into the deep!”

Obtain also for all Christians, you the successor of this Prince of the Apostles, that they be animated with those sentiments which Saint Jerome thus describes in one of his letters addressed to you: “It is the Chair of Peter that I will consult, for from it do I derive that faith which is the food of my soul. I will search for this precious pearl, heeding not the vast expanse of sea and land which I must pass over. Where the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together. It is now in the West that the Sun of justice rises. I ask the Victim of salvation from the Priest, and from the Shepherd the protection of the sheep. On that rock I know the Church is built. He that eats the Lamb in any house but this, is profane. He that is not in Noah’s Ark, will perish in the waters of the deluge. I know not Vitalis, I reject Meletius, I pass by Paulinus. He that gathers not with you, Damasus, scatters: for he that is not of Christ, is of Anti-Christ.”

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, St. Thrason, who was arrested by order of Maximian for devoting his wealth to the support of the Christians who laboured in the baths and at other public works, or were confined in prison. He was crowned with martyrdom with two others, Pontian and Praetextatus.

At Amiens, the holy martyrs Victoricus and Fuscian, under the same emperor. By order of the governor Rictiovarus, they had iron pins driven into their ears and nostrils, heated nails into their temples, and arrows into their whole bodies. Being beheaded with St. Gentian, their host, they went to Our Lord.

In Persia, St. Barsabas, martyr.

In Spain, St. Eutychius, martyr.

At Piacenza, St. Sabinus, a bishop renowned for miracles.

At Constantinople, St. Daniel the Stylite.

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

Thanks be to God.

11 DECEMBER – THURSDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xix. 1‒2

The burden of Egypt. Behold the Lord will ascend upon a light cloud: and will enter into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt will be moved at His presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt in the midst thereof: and I will set the Egyptians to fight against the Egyptians, and they will fight brother against brother, and friend against friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Egypt which the Lord is here represented as visiting, and whose idols and empire He will overthrow, is the City of Satan which is to be destroyed and give place to the City of God. But how peaceful is the divine Conqueror’s entrance into His conquest! It is on a cloud, a light cloud, that He comes, as on His triumphal chariot. How many mysteries in these few words! “There are three Clouds,” says Peter of Blois, “the first, the obscurity of the Prophets. The second, the depth of the divine Decrees. The third, the prodigy of a Virgin Mother.” First, as to the obscurity of the Prophets, it is essential to every Prophecy that it be thus veiled, to the end that man’s free will may not be interfered with. But under this cloud the Lord comes at last, and when the day comes for the Prophecy to be accomplished, all things are clear enough. Thus was it with the first Coming, so will it be with the second. Then, as to the Decrees of God, as they are ordinarily made manifest by second, that is, by created causes only— it almost always happens that the extreme simplicity of the means employed by the divine Wisdom takes men by surprise. Never was this so observable as in the grand event of the Incarnation. Men would naturally expect that, in restoring a fallen world, a power equal at least to that which first created it would be displayed, and all they are told about the portent is: “You will find the child wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger!” O almighty power of God, how dazzling is your light through this Cloud! How strong are you in this apparent weakness! But there is the third Cloud: it is the Virgin Mary. A light cloud, “for,” says Saint Jerome, “neither concupiscence, nor the burden of earthly marriage, weigh upon her.” A Cloud, too, laden with a refreshing Dew, since it holds the Just One who is to be rained down on us that our seething passions may be quenched and the soil of our spiritual life made fertile. How sweet is the majesty of our divine King when seen thus through this beautiful Cloud! O incomparable Virgin! The whole Church of God recognises thee in that mysterious Cloud which the Prophet Elias (3 Kings xviii. 42, 43) from the summit of Mount Carmel, saw rising up from the sea, little, at first, like a man’s foot, but sending at last such a plentiful rain that all Israel was refreshed by its abundance. Delay not, we pray you. Give us that heavenly and divine Dew which you possessed within you. Our sins have made the heavens as brass, and we are parched. You alone of creatures are just and pure! Beseech our Lord, who has set up His Throne of mercy in you, to come speedily and destroy our enemies and bring us peace.

10 DECEMBER – TRANSLATION OF THE HOLY HOUSE OF LORETO

Landscape with the Sanctuary of Loreto by Ancona/Marche 

(Jakob Philipp Hackert)

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This feast is not one of those which is inserted in the universal calendar of the Church but it is kept at Rome and... in a great many dioceses in all parts of the Christian world, and by almost all the Religious Orders. It was instituted in thanksgiving for the great favour bestowed on the Western Church by which God, to console Christians for the loss of the Holy Sepulchre, miraculously translated into a Catholic land the humble yet ever venerable House in which Mary received the message of the Angel and where, by the consent of this Holy Virgin, the Word was made flesh and began to dwell among us. It is no unusual thing to meet with Catholics who are sincerely devoted to their holy faith, yet who have never heard of the House of Loreto. It is for their sakes that we have resolved to take the opportunity of this Feast to give an exact and concise account of this wonderful event. We take it from the learned and judicious author of the Life of Olier:

“It was during the Pontificate of Celestine V in 1291 when the Christians had irrevocably lost the Holy places of Palestine, that the House in which was achieved the mystery of the Incarnation in the womb of Mary was translated by the Angels from Nazareth into Dalmatia or Sclavonia, and placed by them on a hill near a little town called Tersatto. The miracles which were continually being wrought in this holy house, the official enquiry made by chosen deputies who visited Nazareth in order to attest the Translation and, lastly, the universal belief of all countries and the pilgrims who went from all parts to venerate a Sanctuary which had ever been dear to Christians — all this seemed proof enough of the miracle. But God gave another testimony, of which the whole people of Italy and Dalmatia were the vouchers.

Three years and seven months had elapsed since this first translation when, in the year 1294, the Holy House was carried across the Adriatic Sea to the territory of Recanati and placed in a forest the property of a lady called Loretta. The inhabitants of Dalmatia were in the deepest affliction: nothing could have been a greater trial to them. As a slight consolation to themselves, they erected a church on the spot where the house had stood. It was dedicated to our Lady and was served, later on, by the Franciscan Fathers. Over the porch was placed this inscription: This is the place where stood the Holy House of Nazareth, which now is honoured in the territory of Recanati. Many of the people of Dalmatia went to live in Italy near the Holy House where they instituted the Society of Corpus Domini (known under the name of Sclavonians), which lasted even to the Pontificate of Paul III.

This second Translation was soon rumoured throughout Christendom. There came from almost every part of Europe innumerable pilgrims to Recanati that they might visit the House which has ever since gone under the name of The House of Loreto. The people of Recanati, anxious that every doubt on this favour granted them should be removed, sent over, first to Dalmatia and afterwards to Nazareth, sixteen of the most respectable persons of the neighbourhood, who were instructed to make fresh enquiries in both places. But here again, God would certify the prodigy by a third and a fourth Translation which were made, close upon each other, in the same territory of Recanati, The Holy House had not been in the Forest of Loreto eight months when it was found that the pilgrims were continually attacked by brigands who were attracted to the neighbourhood by the hope of booty. The house was miraculously removed the distance of a mile and placed on a piece of rising ground which belonged to two brothers of the family of the Antici. These also laid hands on the offerings of the pilgrims, and having quarrelled about the division of their plunder, they took up arms against each other. Then it was that the Holy House, in the year 1295, was once more translated: this time also to a very short distance, but near the high road. There has been built the town of Loreto, and there to this day remains the House of Loreto.”

This prodigy has been attested not only by the annalists of the Church, and by the local historians of Loreto (e.g., Tursellini and Martorelli), but by writers whose profound learning has gained them a worldwide reputation, and among them we may cite Papebroke, Natalis Alexander, Benedict XIV, Trombelli, etc. Who that is not blind with prejudice could seriously think of preferring an idle repugnance to the authority of such writers as these who are the received masters of historical criticism, and whose united opinion would not be rejected on any other question?

But in a Catholic point of view it is certain that those persons would be guilty of excessive temerity who would disregard the countless miracles which have been wrought in the Holy House of Loreto. They dare not deny all these miracles and yet, by denying the fact in question, they are admitting that God is giving His sanction by miracles to what would be, if false, the most absurd and grossest deception. They would incur the imputation of temerity on another ground, inasmuch as they would be slighting the authority of the Holy See which has been for upwards of five hundred years so zealous in defending the truth of this Translation, and in offering it to the veneration of the faithful as a means of honouring the Incarnate Word and his ever Blessed Mother. Among the explicit approbations of the Holy See regarding the miracle of Loreto, we will mention the Bulls of Paul II, of Leo X, of Paul III, of Paul IV, and of Sixtus V, the Decree of Urban VIII in 1632 establishing this Feast in the Marches of Ancona, the Decree of Innocent XII in 1699 approving the Proper Office of the Feast, and finally the Indults of Benedict XIII and his successors extending this feast to the several provinces of the Catholic world.

That we may enter into the spirit of the Holy See which has spared nothing in order to encourage the confidence of the faithful in the Holy House of Nazareth, or rather (as by the divine mercy it has now become) the House of Loreto, we will give the following from the Office of its miraculous Translation:

Behold the tabernacle of God with men, wherein He dwelt with them; and they will be His people, and God Himself with them will be their God.

V. We will go into His tabernacle.

R. We will adore in the place where His feet stood.

O God, who mercifully consecrated the House of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the mystery of the Word made Flesh and has now mercifully placed that House in the mid of your Church, grant that, being separated from the abodes of sinners, we may be made worthy to dwell in your holy house. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

10 DECEMBER – WEDNESDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xvi. 1‒5

Send forth, O Lord, the Lamb the ruler of the Earth, from Petra of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Sion. And it will come to pass that as a bird fleeing away, and as young ones flying out of the nest, so will the daughters of Moab be in the passage of Arnon. Take council, gather a council, make your shadow as the night in the midday: hide them that flee, and betray not them that wander about. My fugitives will dwell with you: O Moab, be a covert to them from the face of the destroyer. For the dust is at an end, the wretch is consumed, he has failed that trod the earth under foot. And a throne will be prepared in mercy, and one will sit on it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgement, and quickly rendering that which is just.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“Send forth to us, Lord, the Lamb”: “It is the Lamb,” says Peter of Celles, “it is the Lamb we need, and not the Lion. The Lamb that knows no anger and whose meekness is never ruffled, the Lamb that will give us his snow-white wool to warm our coldness and cover our nakedness, the Lamb that will give us his flesh to eat lest we faint with hunger on the way. Send Him full of wisdom, for in His divine prudence He will vanquish the spirit of pride. Send Him full of strength, for it is written that the Lord is strong and mighty in battle. Send Him full of meekness, for He is to come down as dew that falls on the fleece. Send Him as a victim, for He is to be sold and immolated for our ransom. Send Him the pardoner of sinners, for He is come to call them, and not the just. Send Him to receive power and divinity, He that is worthy to loose the seven seals of the sealed book, the unspeakable mystery of the Incarnation.”

You are King, then, O Divine Lamb! You are, even now in your Mother’s womb, the sovereign Ruler. This virginal womb is a throne of mercy on which you are seated in humility, ready to avenge our rights and confound our cruel enemy. O most dear King! Our eyes cannot yet behold you, but our hearts tell us you are near us. We know that it is for our sakes that you have put on this strange royalty. Suffer us to approach you and offer your our homage and loyalty, even now that a cloud hides you from our sight. A few days more, and you will be seated on another throne, your Mother’s arms, and then all the Earth will see the salvation that is sent to it.

9 DECEMBER – FERIA

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us consider how the Immaculate Mary came into this world nine months after her Conception, and how each day of her life gave man fresh reason to hope for the great promises made him by God. Let us admire the fullness of grace which God has given to her, and contemplate the respect and the love with which the holy Angels look on her as the future Mother of Him who is to be their Head and King, as well as ours. Let us follow this august Queen to the Temple of Jerusalem where she is presented by her parents, Saint Joachim and Saint Anne. When but three years of age, she was initiated into all the secrets of divine love. “I always rose at midnight (thus she spoke of herself, in a revelation to Saint Elizabeth of Hungary), and went before the Altar of the Temple, where I besought of God that I might observe all the commandments of His Law "and be enriched with those graces which would render me pleasing to His Majesty. I most earnestly prayed Him that I might live to see that most holy virgin who was to bring forth into this world His own divine Son. I asked him to grant me to enjoy the use of my eyes that I might see her, of my tongue that I might praise her, of my hands that I might serve her, of my feet that I "might go her errands, and of my knees that I might adore the Son of God resting in her arms.”

*****

You, O Mary, you yourself were this virgin who was worthy of the praises of men and Angels! But God had not yet revealed it to you, and your heavenly humility forbade your thinking that the immense dignity which you so deeply venerated could ever be yours. Nay, you were the first and the only one of the daughters of Israel that had renounced all hope of ever being the Mother of the Messiah. To be Mother of the Messiah was, indeed, an ineffable honour. But it seemed as though it could only be received on the condition of having another Spouse besides God, and this you would not suffer. You would be united to God alone, and your vow of virginity which made you so, was dearer to you than the possibility of any privilege which would rob you even of a tittle of that. Your marriage with Saint Joseph, therefore, was a fresh lustre added to your incomparable purity while, in the designs of God, it provided you with the protection which your coming honours would soon require. We follow you, O Spouse of Joseph, into your house at Nazareth, where is to be spent your humble life. There we behold you diligent in all your duties, the valiant Woman of the Scriptures (Proverbs xxxi. 10), the object of the admiration of God and His Angels. Suffer us, O Mary, to unite our Advent devotions with the prayers which you offered up for the coming of the Messiah, with the veneration with which you thought upon Her that was to be His Mother, and with the inflamed desires with which you longed for the divine Saviour. We salute you as the Virgin (Isaias vii. 14) foretold by Isaias. It is yourself, O blessed Mother, that deserves the praise and love of the holy people and city, the redeemed of the Lord (Isaias xliii. 12).

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Gray in Burgundy, St. Peter Fourier, Canon Regular of Our Saviour, and founder of the Canonesses Regular of Our Lady for the education of girls. Because of his brilliant virtues and miracles Pope Leo XIII placed him in the Martyrology.

At Toledo in Spain, the birthday of the holy virgin Leocadia, a martyr in the persecution of the emperor Diocletian. By Dacian, prefect of Spain, she was condemned to a cruel imprisonment, where she was pining away, when, hearing of the barbarous tortures of blessed Eulalia and the other martyrs, she knelt down to pray and yielded up her undefiled spirit to Christ.

At Carthage, St. Restitutus, bishop and martyr, on whose feast St. Augustine delivered a discourse to the people in which he set forth his praises.

Also in Africa, the holy martyrs Peter, Successus, Bassian, Primitivus and twenty others.

At Limoges in France, St. Valeria, virgin and martyr.

At Verona, during the persecution of Diocletian, St. Proculus, bishop, who was buffeted, scourged with rods and driven out of the city. Being at length restored to his church, he rested in peace.

At Pavia, St. Syrus, first bishop of that city, who was renowned for miracles and virtues worthy of an apostle.

At Apamea in Syria, blessed Julian, bishop, who was distinguished for holiness in the time of Severus.

At Perigueux in France, the holy abbot Cyprian, a man of great sanctity.

At Nazianzus, St. Gorgonia, sister of blessed Gregory the Theologian, who related her virtues and miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

9 DECEMBER – TUESDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xiv. 1‒15

Her time is near at hand, and her days will not be prolonged. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose out of Israel, and will make them rest upon their own ground: and the stranger will be joined with them, and will adhere to the house of Jacob. And the people will take them, and bring them into their place: the house of Israel will possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they will make them captives that had taken them, and will subdue their oppressors. And it will come to pass in that day, that when God will give you rest from your labour, and from your vexation, and from the hard bondage, with which you served before, you will take up this parable against the King of Babylon, and will say: “How is the oppressor come to nothing, the tribute has ceased? The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of the rulers, that struck the people in wrath with an incurable wound, that brought nations under in fury, that persecuted in a cruel manner. How are you fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, who rose in the morning? How are you fallen to the Earth, that wounded the nations: and you said in your heart: I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the North: I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. But yet you will be brought down to Hell into the depth of the pit.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Your ruin, Lucifer, is irreparable! You refused to humble yourself before God, and you were cast into Hell. Your pride then sought a compensation for this your deep humiliation, and you caused the ruin of the human race out of hatred for God and His creatures. You succeeded in inspiring him who was formed out of dust with that same pride which had caused your own destruction. By you sin came into this world, and by sin death: the human race seemed now a victim which never could escape your vengeance. Forced to give up your hopes of a heavenly royalty, you aimed to reign in Hell and destroy the creatures of God as they came from His creating love. But again you are foiled and conquered. Your reign was in pride. Pride alone could form your court and give you subjects. Now see how the Sovereign Lord of all things uproots your kingdom: He Himself comes to teach His creatures humility, and he teaches it not by laws given with awful majesty as once on Sinai, but by Himself meekly practising that heavenly humility which alone can raise up them that had fallen by pride. Tremble, proud Spirit, your sceptre is to be broken!

In your haughty wisdom you disdain this humble and lovely Virgin of Nazareth who holds within herself, in adoring silence, the mystery of your ruin and our salvation. The child she carries in her womb and is so soon to be born has long since been the object of your contempt. Know, then, that God does not disdain this unborn child, for this child is also God, and a single act of adoration and devotedness to His Father, which He is making in the womb of Mary, gives more glory to the Divinity than all your pride could rob it of, even were your pride to increase for eternity. Henceforth, men, taught by the lessons of a God the immense power of humility, will have recourse to it as their great remedy. Instead of exalting themselves, as you did, by a mad and guilty pride, they will humble themselves with love and pleasure: the lower they humble themselves, the higher will God raise them: the poorer they own themselves, the richer will He make them. It is the glorious Virgin that tells us this in her exquisite Canticle. May she be ever blessed, Mother so gentle and sweet to her children, and so terrible to you, Lucifer, that writhes beneath her as she crushes and conquers you.

8 DECEMBER – THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

At length on the distant horizon rises, with a soft and radiant light, the aurora of the Sun which has been so long desired. The happy Mother of the Messiah was to be born before the Messiah Himself, and this is the day of the Conception of Mary. The Earth already possesses a first pledge of the divine mercy: the Son of Man is near at hand. Two true Israelites, Joachim and Anne, noble branches of the family of David, find their union, after a long barrenness, made fruitful by the divine omnipotence. Glory be to God who has been mindful of His promises, and who deigns to announce, from the high heavens, the end of the deluge of iniquity, by sending upon the Earth the sweet white Dove that bears the tidings of peace!

The feast of the Blessed Virgin’s Immaculate Conception is the most solemn of all those which the Church celebrates during the holy time of Advent, and if the first part of the Cycle had to offer us the commemoration of some one of the Mysteries of Mary, there was none whose object could better harmonise with the spirit of the Church in this mystic season of expectation. Let us, then, celebrate this solemnity with joy, for the Conception of Mary tells us that the Birth of Jesus is not far off.

The intention of the Church in this feast is not only to celebrate the anniversary of the happy moment in which began, in the womb of the pious Anne, the life of the ever-glorious Virgin Mary, but also to honour the sublime privilege by which Mary was preserved from the original stain, which, by a sovereign and universal decree, is contracted by all the children of Adam the very moment they are conceived in their mother’s womb. The faith of the Catholic Church on the subject of the Conception of Mary is this: that at the very instant when God united the Soul of Mary, which He had created, to the Body which it was to animate, this ever-blessed soul did not only not contract the stain which, at that same instant, denies every human soul, but was filled with an immeasurable grace which rendered her from that moment the mirror of the sanctity of God Himself, as far as this is possible to a creature. The Church, with her infallible authority, declared, by the lips of Pius IX, that this article of her faith had been revealed by God Himself. The Definition was received with enthusiasm by the whole of Christendom and the Eighth of December of the year 1854 was thus made one of the most memorable days of the Church’s history.

It was due to His own infinite sanctity that God should suspend, in this instance, the law which His divine justice had passed upon all the children of Adam. The relations which Mary was to bear to the Divinity could not be reconciled with her undergoing the humiliation of this punishment. She was not only Daughter of the Eternal Father. Sshe was destined also to become the very Mother of the Son, and the veritable Spouse of the Holy Ghost. Nothing defiled could be permitted to enter, even for an atom of time, into the creature that was thus predestined to contract such close relations with the adorable Trinity. Not a speck could be permitted to tarnish in Mary that perfect purity which the infinitely holy God requires in those who are one day to be admitted to enjoy even the sight of His divine majesty in Heaven. In a word, as the great Doctor Saint Anselm says, “it was just that this Holy Virgin should be adorned with the greatest purity which can be conceived after that of God Himself, since God the Father was to give to her as her Child, that only Begotten Son whom He loved as Himself, as being begotten to Him from His own bosom. And this in such a manner that the self-same Son of God was, by nature, the Son of both God the Father and of this Blessed Virgin. This same Son chose her to be substantially His Mother, and the Holy Ghost willed that in her womb she would operate the conception and birth of Him from whom He Himself proceeded.”

Moreover, the close ties which were to unite the Son of God with Mary, and which would elicit from Him the tenderest love and the most filial reverence for her, had been present to the divine thought from all eternity: and the conclusion forces itself upon us that, therefore, the Divine Word had for this His future Mother a love infinitely greater than that which He bore for all His other creatures. Mary’s honour was infinitely dear to Him because she was to be His Mother, chosen to be so by His eternal and merciful decrees. The Son’s love protected the Mother. She, indeed, in her sublime humility, willingly submitted to whatever the rest of God’s creatures had brought on themselves, and obeyed every tittle of those laws which were never meant for her: but that humiliating barrier, which confronts every child of Adam at the first moment of his existence, and keeps him from light and grace until he will have been regenerated by a new birth — oh! this could not be permitted to stand in Mary’s way — her Son forbade it.

The Eternal Father would not do less for the Second Eve than He had done for the First. Yet she was created, as was also the first Adam, in the state of original justice which she afterwards forfeited by sin. The Son of God would not permit that the Woman from whom He was to take the nature of Man should be deprived of that gift which He had given even to her who was the mother of sin. The Holy Ghost, who was to overshadow Mary and produce Jesus within her by his divine operation, would not permit that foul stain in which we are all conceived to rest, even for an instant, on this His Spouse. All men were to contract the sin of Adam. The sentence was universal, but God’s own Mother is not included. God, who is the author of that law, God who was free to make it as He willed, had power to exclude from it Her whom He had predestined to be His Own in so many ways. He could exempt her, and it was just that He should exempt her. Therefore, He did it.

Was it not this grand exemption which God Himself foretold when the guilty pair, whose children we all are, appeared before Him in the garden of Eden? In the anathema which fell upon the serpent, there was included a promise of mercy to us. “I will put enmities, said the Lord, between you and the Woman, and your seed and her seed: she will crush your head” (Genesis iii. 15). Thus was salvation promised the human race under the form of a victory over Satan, and this victory is to be gained by the Woman, and she will gain it for us also. Even granting, as some read this text, that it is the Son of the Woman that is alone to gain this victory, the enmity between the Woman and the Serpent is clearly expressed and she, the Woman, with her own foot, is to crush the head of the hated Serpent. The Second Eve is to be worthy of the Second Adam, conquering and not to be conquered. The human race is one day to be avenged, not only by God made Man, but also by the Woman miraculously exempted from every stain of sin, in whom the primaeval creation, which was in justice and holiness (Ephesians iv. 24). will thus reappear in her, just as though the original sin had never been committed.

Raise up your heads, then, ye children of Adam, and shake off your chains! This day, the humiliation, which weighed you down, is annihilated. Behold! Mary, she who is of the same flesh and blood as yourselves, has seen the torrent of sin which swept along all the generations of mankind. She has seen it flow back at her presence and not touch her. The infernal dragon has turned away his head, daring not to breathe his venom on her. The dignity of your origin is given to her in all its primitive grandeur. This happy day, then, on which the original purity of your race is renewed, must be a Feast to you. The Second Eve is created, and from her own blood (which, with the exception of the element of sin, is the same as that which makes you to be the children of Adam) she is shortly to give you the God-Man, who proceeds from her according to the flesh, as He proceeds from the Father according to the eternal generation. And how can we do less than admire and love the incomparable purity of Mary in her Immaculate Conception when we hear even that God, who thus prepared her to become His Mother, saying to her, in the divine Canticle these words of complacent love: “You are all fair, my Love! and there is not a spot in you?” (Canticles iv. 7). It is the God of all-holiness that here speaks. That eye, which sees all things, finds not a vestige, not a shadow of sin. Therefore does He delight in her, and admire in her that gift of His own condescending munificence. We cannot be surprised after this, that Gabriel, when he came down from Heaven to announce the Incarnation to her, is full of admiration at the sight of that purity whose beginning was so glorious and whose progress was immeasurable, and that this blessed Spirit should bow down profoundly before this young Maid of Nazareth and salute her with, “Hail, Full of Grace!” (Luke i. 28). And who is this Gabriel? An Archangel that lives amid the grandest magnificences of God’s creation, amid all the gorgeous riches of Heaven: who is Brother to the Cherubim and Seraphim, to the Thrones and Dominations: whose eye is accustomed to gaze on those nine angelic choirs with their dazzling brightness of countless degrees of light and grace. He has found on Earth, in a creature of a nature below that of Angels, the fullness of grace, of that grace which had been given to the Angels measuredly. This fullness of grace was in Mary from the very first instant of her existence. She is the future Mother of God, and she was ever holy, ever pure, ever Immaculate.

This truth of Mary’s Immaculate Conception which was revealed to the Apostles by the divine Son of Mary, inherited by the Church, taught by the Holy Fathers, believed by each generation of the Christian people with an ever increasing explicitness, this truth, we say, was implied in the very notion of a Mother of God. To believe that Mary was Mother of God was an implicitly believing that she, on whom this sublime dignity was conferred, had never been defiled with the slightest stain of sin, and that God had bestowed on her an absolute exemption from sin. But now, the Immaculate Conception of Mary rests on an explicit Definition dictated by the Holy Ghost. Peter has spoken by the mouth of Pius and when Peter has spoken, every Christian should believe, for the Son of God has said: “I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith fail not” (Luke xxii. 32). And again: “The Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatever I will have said to you” (John xiv. 26).

The Symbol of our faith has therefore received not a new truth, but a new light on a truth which was previously the object of the universal belief. On that great day of the Definition the infernal serpent was again crushed beneath the victorious foot of the Virgin-Mother and the Lord graciously gave us the strongest pledge of His mercy. He still loves this guilty Earth, since He has deigned to enlighten it with one of the brightest rays of His Mother’s glory. How this Earth of ours exulted! The present generation will never forget the enthusiasm with which the entire universe received the tidings of the Definition. It was an event of mysterious importance which thus marked this second half of [the nineteenth] century and we will look forward to the future with renewed confidence, for if the Holy Ghost bids us tremble for the days when Truths are diminished among the children of men (Psalm xi. 2), He would, consequently, have us look on those times as blessed by God in which we receive an increase of truth: an increase both in light and in authority.

The Church, even before the solemn proclamation of the grand dogma, kept the Feast of this eighth day of December which was, in reality, a profession of her faith. It is true that the Feast was not called the Immaculate Conception, but simply the Conception of Mary. But the fact of such a Feast being instituted and kept was an unmistakable expression of the faith of Christendom in that truth. Saint Bernard and the Angelical Doctor Saint Thomas, both teach that the Church cannot celebrate the Feast of what is not holy. The Conception of Mary, therefore, was holy and immaculate, since the Church has for ages past honoured it with a special Feast. The Nativity of the same holy Virgin is kept as a solemnity in the Church because Mary was born full of grace. Therefore, had the first moment of Mary’s existence been one of sin as is that of all the other children of Adam, it never could have been made the subject of the reverence of the Church. Now, there are few Feasts so generally and so firmly established in the Church as this which we are keeping today.

The Greek Church which, more easily than the Latin, could learn what were the pious traditions of the East, kept this feast even in the sixth century, as is evident from the ceremonial or, as it was called, the Type, of Saint Sabas. In the West, we find it established in the Gothic Church of Spain as far back as the eighth century. A celebrated calendar which was engraved on marble in the ninth century for the use of the Church of Naples, attests that it had already been introduced there. Paul the Deacon, Secretary to the Emperor Charlemagne and afterwards Monk at Monte-Cassino, composed a celebrated Hymn on the mystery of the Immaculate Conception. In 1066, the Feast was first established in England in consequence of the pious Abbot Helsyn being miraculously preserved from shipwreck, and shortly after that was made general through the whole Island by the zeal of the great Saint Anselm, Monk of the Order of Saint Benedict and Archbishop of Canterbury. From England it passed into Normandy and took root in France. We find it sanctioned in Germany in a council held in 1049 at which Saint Leo IX was present; at Navarre, 1090, at the Abbey of Irach; in Belgium, at Liege, in 1142. Thus did the Churches of the West testify their faith in this mystery by accepting its Feast which is the expression of faith.

Lastly, it was adopted by Rome herself, and her doing so rendered the united testimony of her children — the other Churches — more imposing than ever. It was Pope Sixtus IV who, in the year 1476, published the decree of the feast of Our Lady’s Conception for the City of Saint Peter. In the next century, 1568, Saint Pius V published the universal edition of the Roman Breviary, and in its Calendar was inserted this feast as one of those Christian solemnities which the faithful are every year bound to observe. It was not from Rome that the devotion of the Catholic world to this mystery received its first impulse. She sanctioned it by her liturgical authority, just as she confirmed it by her doctrinal authority, in these our own days.

The three great Catholic Nations of Europe — Germany, France and Spain — vied with each other in their devotion to this mystery of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. France, by her King Louis XIV, obtained from Clement IX that this feast should be kept with an Octave throughout the kingdom, which favour was afterwards extended to the universal Church by Innocent XII. For centuries previous to this, the Theological Faculty of Paris had always exacted from its Professors the oath that they would defend this privilege of Mary: a pious practice which continued as long as the University itself. As regards Germany, the Emperor Ferdinand III in 1647 ordered a splendid monument to be erected in the great square of Vienna. It is covered with emblems and figures symbolical of Mary’s victory over sin, and on the top is the statue of the Immaculate Queen, with this solemn and truly Catholic inscription:

TO GOD, INFINITE IN GOODNESS AND POWER,
KING OF HEAVEN AND EARTH,
BY WHOM KINGS REIGN.

TO THE VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOD
CONCEIVED WITHOUT SIN,
BY WHOM PRINCES COMMAND,
WHOM AUSTRIA, DEVOUTLY LOVING, HOLDS AS HER
QUEEN AND PATRON.

FERDINAND III., EMPEROR,
CONFIDES, GIVES, CONSECRATES HIMSELF,
CHILDREN, PEOPLE, ARMIES, PROVINCES,
AND ALL THAT IS HIS,
AND ERECTS IN ACCOMPLISHMENT OF A VOW
THIS STATUE,
AS A PERPETUAL MEMORIAL.

But the zeal of Spain for the privilege of the holy Mother of God surpassed that of all other nations. In the year 1398 John I King of Aragon issued a Chart in which he solemnly places his person and kingdom under the protection of Mary Immaculate. Later on, Kings Philip III and Philip IV sent ambassadors to Rome soliciting, in their names, the solemn definition which Heaven reserved, in its mercy, for our days. King Charles III in the [eighteenth] century obtained permission from Clement XIII that the Immaculate Conception should be the patronal feast of Spain. The people of Spain, so justly called the Catholic Kingdom, put over the door, or on the front of their houses a tablet with the words of Mary’s privilege written on it, and when they meet, they greet each other with an expression in honour of the same dear mystery. It was a Spanish Nun, Mary of Jesus, Abbess of the Convent of the Immaculate Conception of Agreda, who wrote God’s Mystic City, which inspired Murillo with his Immaculate Conception, the master-piece of the Spanish School.

But while thus mentioning the different nations which have been foremost in their zeal for this article of our holy faith, the Immaculate Conception — it were unjust to pass over the immense share which the Seraphic Order, the Order of Saint Francis of Assisi, has had in the earthly triumph of our Blessed Mother, the Queen of Heaven and Earth. As often as this feast comes round, is it not just that we should think with reverence and gratitude on him who was the first theologian that showed how closely connected with the divine mystery of the Incarnation is this dogma of the Immaculate Conception? First, then, all honour to the name of the pious and learned John Duns Scotus! And when at length the great day of the Definition of the Immaculate Conception came, how justly merited was that grand audience which the Vicar of Christ granted to the Franciscan Order, and with which closed the pageant of the glorious solemnity! Pius IX received from the hands of the children of Saint Francis a tribute of homage and thankfulness which the Scotist School, after having fought four hundred years in defence of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, now presented to the Pontiff.

In the presence of the 54 Cardinals, 42 Archbishops and 92 Bishops; before an immense concourse of people that filled Saint Peter’s and had united in prayer, begging the assistance of the Spirit of Truth, the Vicar of Christ had just pronounced the decision which so many ages had hoped to hear. The Pontiff had offered the Holy Sacrifice on the Confession of Saint Peter. He had crowned the Statue of the Immaculate Queen with a splendid diadem. Carried on his lofty throne and wearing his triple crown, he had reached the portico of the basilica. There he is met by the two representatives of Saint Francis: they prostrate before the throne: the triumphal procession halts: and first, there advances the General of the Friars Minor Observantines. He presents to the Holy Father a branch of silver Lilies: he was followed by the General of the Conventual Friars, holding in his hand a branch of silver Poses. The Pope graciously accepted both. The Lilies and the Poses were symbolical of Mary’s purity and love. The whiteness of the silver was the emblem of the lovely brightness of that orb on which is reflected the light of the Sun for, as the Canticle says of Mary, “she is beautiful as the Moon” (Canticles vi. 9). The Pontiff was overcome with emotion at these gifts of the family of the Seraphic Patriarch, to which we might justly apply what was said of the Banner of the Maid of Orleans: “It had stood the brunt of the battle. It deserved to share in the glory of the victory.” And thus ended the glories of that grand morning of the Eighth of December, Eighteen-hundred and Fifty-four.

*****

It is thus, O you the humblest of creatures, that your Immaculate Conception has been glorified on Earth! And how could it be else than a great joy to men, that you are honoured by them, you the aurora of the Sun of Justice? Do you not bring them the tidings of their salvation? Are not you, O Mary, that bright ray of hope which suddenly bursts forth in the deep abyss of the world’s misery? What should we have been without Jesus? and you are His dearest Mother, the holiest of God’s creatures, the purest of virgins and our own most loving Mother!

How your gentle light gladdens our wearied eyes, sweet Mother! Generation had followed generation on this Earth of ours. Men looked up to Heaven through their tears, hoping to see appear on the horizon the Star which they had been told should disperse the gloomy horrors of the world’s darkness. But death came, and they sank into the tomb without seeing even the dawn of the Light for which alone they cared to live. It was for us that God had reserved the blessing of seeing your lovely rising, O fair Morning Star! which sheds your blessed rays on the sea and brings calm after the long stormy night! Oh! prepare our eyes that they may behold the divine Sun which will soon follow in your path and give to the world His reign of light and day. Prepare our hearts, for it is to our hearts that this Jesus of yours wishes to show Himself. To see Him our hearts must be pure. Purify them, O Immaculate Mother! The divine wisdom has willed that of the feasts which the Church dedicates to you, this of your Immaculate Conception should be celebrated during Advent that thus the children of the Church, reflecting on the jealous care with which God preserved you from every stain of sin, because you were to be the Mother of His divine Son, might prepare to receive this same Jesus by the most perfect renouncing of every sin and every attachment to sin. This great change must be made, and your prayers, O Mary, will help us to make it. Pray, we ask it of you by the grace God gave you in your Immaculate Conception, that our covetousness may be destroyed, our concupiscence extinguished and our pride turned into humility. Despise not our prayers, dear Mother of that Jesus who chose you for His dwelling-place, that He might afterwards find one in each of us.

O Mary! Ark of the Covenant, built of an incorruptible wood, and covered over with the purest gold! Help us to correspond with those wonderful designs of our God who, after having found his glory in your incomparable purity, wills now to seek His glory in our unworthiness by making us, from being slaves of the devil, His temples and His abode, where He may find His delight. Help us to this, O you who by the mercy of your Son has never known sin! And receive this day our devoutest praise. You are the Ark of Salvation, the one creature unwrecked in the universal deluge; the white Fleece filled with the dew of Heaven while the earth around is parched the Flame which the many waters could not quench; the Lily blooming amid thorns; the Garden shut against the infernal serpent; the Fountain sealed, whose limpid water was never ruffled; the House of the Lord, on which His eyes were ever fixed, and into which nothing defiled could ever enter; the mystic City, of which such glorious things are said. We delight in telling all your glorious titles, O Mary, for you are our Mother and we love you, and the Mother’s glory is the glory of her children. Cease not to bless and protect all them that honour your immense privilege, you who were conceived on this day! May this feast fit us for that mystery, for which your Conception, your Birth and your Annunciation are all preparations — the Birth of your Jesus in Bethlehem: yes, dear Mother, we desire your Jesus — give Him to us and satisfy the longings of our love.

Epistle – Wisdom viii.

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 depths: 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. Now, therefore, ye children, hear me. Blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it bot. 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 Guéranger:

The Apostle teaches us that Jesus, our Emmanuel, is the “first born of every creature” (Colossians i. 15). These mysterious words signify not only that He is, as God, eternally begotten of the Father, but also that the Divine Word is, as Man, anterior to all created beings. Yet, how is this? The world had been created, and the human race had dwelt on this Earth full four thousand years, before the Son of God took to Himself the nature of man. We answer that it is not in the order of time, but in the eternal intention of God, that the Man-God preceded every creature. The Eternal Father decreed first to give to His Eternal Son a created nature, namely, the nature of man and in consequence of this decree to create all beings, whether spiritual or material, as a kingdom for this Man-God.

This explains to us how it is that the divine Wisdom, the Son of God, in the passage of the sacred Scripture which forms the Epistle of this Feast, proclaims His having existed before all the creatures of the universe. As God, He was begotten from all eternity in the bosom of the Father. As Man, He was, in the mind of God, the type of all creatures, before those creatures were made. But the Son of God could not be of our race as the divine will decreed He should be, unless He were born in time, and born of a Mother as other men. And therefore She that was to be His Mother was eternally present to the thought of God as the means by which the Word would assume the human nature. The Son and the Mother are therefore united in the plan of the Incarnation: Mary, therefore, existed, as did Jesus, in the divine decree, before creation began. This is the reason of the Church’s having, from the earliest ages of Christianity, interpreted this sublime passage of the sacred volume of Jesus and of Mary unitedly, and ordering it and analogous passages of the Scriptures to be read in the assembly of the faithful on the solemnities or feasts of the Mother of God. But if Mary be thus prominent in the divine and eternal plan — if, in the sense in which these mysterious texts are understood by the Church, she was, with Jesus, before every creature — could God permit her to be subjected to the original sin which was to fall on all the children of Adam? She is, it is true, to be a child of Adam like her divine Son Himself, and to be born at the time fixed. But God’s grace will turn away from her that torrent which sweeps all mankind along. It will not come near to her, and she will transmit to her Son who was also the Son of God, the human nature in its original perfection, created, as the Apostle says, in holiness and justice (Ephesians iv. 24).

Gospel – Luke i.

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 to her: “Hail, full of grace. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This is the salutation with which the Archangel greets Mary. It shows us what was his admiration and his profound veneration for the Virgin of Nazareth. The holy Gospel tells us that Mary was troubled at these words, and thought within herself what such a salutation as this could imply. The Sacred Scriptures record many Angelical salutations: but, as Saint Ambrose, Saint Andrew of Crete and, before them, Origen, had remarked, there is not one which contains such praises as this does. The prudent virgin was therefore naturally surprised at the extraordinary words of the Angel and, as the early Fathers observe, they would remind her of that other interview between Eve and the serpent. She therefore remained silent, and it was only after the Archangel had spoken to her a second time, that she made him a reply. And yet, Gabriel had spoken not only with all the eloquence, but with all the profound wisdom of a celestial Spirit initiated into the divine mysteries. And, in his own superhuman language, he announced that the moment had come when Eve was to be transformed into Mary. There was present before him a woman destined for the sublimest dignity, the woman that was to be the Mother of God. Yet, up to this solemn moment, Mary was but a daughter of the human race. Think then, taking Gabriel’s words as your guide, what must have been the holiness of Mary in this her first estate: is it not evident that the prophecy, made in the earthly paradise, had already been accomplished in Her?

The Archangel proclaims her “Full of Grace.” What means this, but that the second Woman possesses in herself that element of which sin had deprived the first? And observe, he does not say merely that divine grace works in her, but that she is full of it. “She is not merely in grace as others are,” as Saint Peter Chrysologus told us on his feast, “but she is filled with it.” Everything in Her is resplendent with heavenly purity, and sin has never cast its shadow on her beauty. To appreciate the full import of Gabriel’s expression we must consider what is the force of the words in the language which the sacred historian used. Grammarians tell us,that the single word which he employs is much more comprehensive than our expression “full of grace.” It implies not only the present time, but the past as well — an incorporation of grace from the very commencement — the full and complete affirmation of grace — the total permanence of grace. Our translation has unavoidably weakened the term. The better to feel the full force of our translation, let us compare this with an analogous text from the Gospel of Saint John. This Evangelist, speaking of the Humanity of the Incarnate Word, expresses all by saying, that Jesus is full of grace and truth (John i. 14) Now, would this fullness have been real, had sin ever been there, instead of grace, even for a single instant? Could we call Him full of grace, who had once stood in need of being cleansed? Undoubtedly, we must ever respectfully bear in mind the distance between the Humanity of the Incarnate Word and the person of Mary, from whose womb the Son of God assumed that Humanity. But the sacred text obliges us to confess, that the fullness of grace was, proportionately, in both Jesus and Mary.

Gabriel goes on still enumerating the supernatural riches of Mary. He says to her: “the Lord is with you.” What means this? It means, that even before Mary had conceived our Lord in her chaste womb, she already possessed Him in her soul. But would the words be true if that union with God had once not been, and had only begun when her disunion with him by sin had been removed? The solemn occasion on which the Angel uses this language forbids us to think that he conveyed by it any other idea than that she had always had the Lord with her. We feel the allusion to a contrast between the First and the Second Eve. The First lost the God who had once been with her. The Second had, like the First, received our Lord into her from the first moment of her existence, and never lost Him, but continued from first to last and forever to have Him with her.

Let us listen once more to the salutation, and we will find from its last words that Gabriel is announcing the fulfilment of the divine oracle, and is addressing Mary as the woman foretold to be the instrument of the victory over Satan. “Blessed are you among women.” For four thousand years, every woman has been under the curse of God and has brought forth her children in suffering and sorrow: but here is the one among women that has been ever blessed of God, that has ever been the enemy of the serpent, and that will bring forth the fruit of her womb without travail. The Immaculate Conception of Mary is therefore declared in the Archangel’s salutation, and we can now understand why the Church selected this portion of the Gospel to be read today in the assembly of the faithful.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, blessed Eutychian, pope, who with his own hands buried in various places three hundred and forty-two martyrs. Under the emperor Numerian he became their companion, being crowned with martyrdom and buried in the cemetery of Callistus.

At Alexandria, in the time of Decius, St. Macarius, martyr, whose constancy in professing the faith increased with the efforts made by the judge to persuade him to deny Christ. He was finally condemned to be burned alive.

At Treves, St. Eucharius, a disciple of the blessed Apostle St. Peter, and first bishop of that city.

In Cyprus, the holy bishop Sophronius, who was a devoted protector of orphans and widows, and a friend to the poor and oppressed.

In the monastery of Luxeuil, St. Romaricus, abbot, who left the highest station at the court of king Theodobert, renounced the world, and surpassed others in the observance of monastic discipline.

At Constantinople, St. Patapius, solitary, renowned for virtues and miracles.

At Verona, the ordination of St. Zeno, bishop.

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

Thanks be to God.