1 MARCH – ST. DAVID OF WALES (Bishop)

Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould:

St. David, or Dewi, as the Welsh call him, was born about 446, at Mynyw, which was named St David’s after him. His father was Sandde, son of Ceredig, who was the son of Cunedda, the great conqueror of North Wales. His mother's name was Non; she was the daughter of Gynyr of Caergawch. Giraldus says he was baptized at Forth Clais by Alveas, Bishop of Munster, “who by divine providence had arrived at that time from Ireland.” The same author says he was brought up at Henmenen, which is probably the Roman station Menapia.

St. David was educated under Iltyt at Caerworgon. He was afterward ordained priest, and studied the Scriptures for ten years with Paulinus at Ty-gwyn-ar Daf, or Whitland, in Caennarthenshire. He then retired for prayer and study to the Vale of Ewias, where he raised a chapel, and a cell on the site now occupied by Llanthony Abbey. The river Honddu furnished him with drink, the mountain pastures with meadow-leek for food. His legendary history states that he was advised by an angel to move from under the shadow of the Black Mountains to the vale of Rhos, and to found a monastery at Mynyw, his birth place.

He built a monastery on the boggy land which forms nearly the lowest point of that basin-shaped glen: on, or near its site stands the present Cathedral of St. David. He practised the same rigorous austerities as before. Water was his only drink, and he rigorously abstained from animal food. He devoted himself wholly to prayer, study, and to the training of his disciples. He, like many other abbots at that time, was promoted to the episcopate. A wild legend makes him to have started on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and to have received consecration at the hands of the patriarch John III. This tale was invented by some British monk to show that the Welsh bishops traced their succession to the oldest, if not the most powerful, of the patriarchates. Except when compelled by unavoidable necessity he kept aloof from all temporal concerns. He was reluctant even to attend the Synod of Brefi. This was convened by Dubricius about 519 at Llandewi Brefi, in Cardiganshire, to suppress the Pelagian heresy, which was once more raising its head. The synod was composed of bishops, abbots, and religious of different orders, together with princes and laymen. Giraldus says, “When many discourses had been delivered in public, and were ineffectual to reclaim the Pelagians from their error, at length Paulinus, a bishop with whom David had studied in his youth, very earnestly entreated that the holy, discreet, and eloquent man might be sent for. Messengers were therefore despatched to desire his attendance: but their importunity was unavailing with the holy man, he being so fully and intently given up to contemplation, that urgent necessity alone could induce him to pay any regard to temporal or secular concerns. At last two holy men, Daniel and Dubricius, persuaded him to come. After his arrival, such was the grace and eloquence with which he spoke, that he silenced the opponents, and they were utterly vanquished. But Father David, by common consent of all, whether clergy or laity, (Dubricius having resigned in his favour), was elected primate of the Cambrian Church.” Dubricius retired to the Isle of Bardsey.

A beautiful yet wild legend tells us:—“While St. David’s speech continued, a snow white dove descending from heaven sat upon his shoulders; and moreover the earth on which he stood raised itself under him till it became a hill, from whence his voice was heard like a trumpet, and was understood by all, both near and far off: on the top of which hill a church was afterwards built, and remains to this day.”

St. David at first strenuously declined the primacy; at last he accepted it on the condition that he was to be allowed to transfer the archiepiscopal chair from the busy city of Caerleon upon the Usk—the former capital of Britannia Secunda—to the quiet retreat of Mynyw. Arthur, the famous king, and Pendragon, who is said to have been a nephew of our saint, assented to this. Doubtless the advances westward which the heathen English were making, filled St. David with dread lest the seat of the primacy should one day fall into their hands. So he thought it prudent to remove it to the iron-bound shores of Pembroke, where the English could not so easily land. After his elevation, St. David, in spite of his retiring disposition, proved a vigorous and hard-working prelate. He occasionally resided at Caerleon, and in 529 he convened a synod, which exterminated the Pelagian heresy, and was in consequence named “The Synod of Victory.” It ratified the canons and decrees of Brefi, as well as a code of rules which he had drawn up for the regulation of the British Church, a copy of which remained in the Cathedral of St. David’s until it was lost in an incursion of pirates. Giraldus says, “In his times, in Cambria, the Church of God flourished exceedingly, and ripened with much fruit every day. Monasteries were built everywhere; many congregations of the faithful of various orders were collected to celebrate with fervent devotion the Sacrifice of Christ. But to all of them Father David, as if placed on a lofty eminence, was a mirror and pattern of life. He informed them by words, and he instructed them by example; as a preacher he was most powerful through his eloquence, but more so in his works. He was a doctrine to his hearers, a guide to the religious, a light to the poor, a support to the orphans, a protection to widows, a father to the fatherless, a rule to monks, and a path to seculars, being made all things to all men that he might bring all to God.”

He founded several churches and monasteries. It is also generally agreed that Wales was first divided into dioceses in his time.

Geoffrey of Monmouth states that he died in his monastery at Mynyw, St. David’s, where he was honourably buried by order of Maelgwn Gvvynedd. This event is recorded by him as if it happened soon after the death of Arthur, who died 542. According to the computations of Archbishop Usher, St. David died 544, aged 82. The Bollandists agree with Usher on the date of his death, but they put his birth back as far as 446, so that according to their calculation he lived to the age of 98. Numerous legends have gathered round the history of St. David. Thus an angel is said to have foretold his birth thirty years before to his father in a dream. “On the morrow, said the angelic voice, thou wilt slay a stag by a river side, and wild find three gifts there, to wit, the stag, a fish, and a honeycomb. Thou shalt give part of these to the son who shall be born thirty years hence. The honeycomb proclaims his honied wisdom, the fish, his life on bread and water, the stag his dominion over the old serpent.” The mention of the stag doubtless arose from the old fancy that that animal kills serpents by trampling on them: thus did David trample the Pelagian heresy under foot. When St. Patrick settled in the vale of Rhos, a voice bade him depart, for it was reserved for the abode of a child who should be born thirty years after. At his baptism, St. David splashed some water on to the blind eyes of the bishop who was baptizing him, and restored their power of sight. His schoolfellows at Henmenen saw a dove teaching him, and singing hymns with him. After studying with Paulinus, he journeyed to Glastonbury. He was intending to dedicate afresh the church which had been re-built, when the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and told him that He had already dedicated it: as a sign that He had spoken unto him He pierced the saint’s hand with His fingers. So our saint contented himself with building a Lady Chapel at the east end. He is said to have founded twelve monasteries on this journey. He returned to Wales, and then established a monastery at Mynyw, which was soon filled with monks and disciples. They worked hard with their own hands in the fields; they harnessed themselves to the plough instead of using oxen for that purpose; they tended bees that they might have some honey to give to the sick and the poor. The bees became so attached to one monk, Modemnoc, that they followed him on board ship when he was about to set sail for Ireland. He returned to the monastery and made several attempts to embark unobserved by his winged friends; but all his efforts failed. So at last he asked St. David’s leave to take them with him; the saint blessed the bees, and bade them depart in peace, and be fruitful and multiply in their new home. Thus Ireland, where bees had been hitherto unable to live, was enriched by their honey.

He opened many fountains in dry places, healed many brackish streams, raised many dead to life, and had many visions of God and of Angels. In one of these visions he was warned that he should depart, March 1st. Thenceforth he was more zealous in the discharge of his duty: on the Sunday before his death he preached a sermon to the assembled people, and after consecrating and receiving the Lord’s Body, he was seized with a sudden pain: then turning to the people he said, “Brethren, persevere in the things which ye have heard of me: on the third day hence I go the way of my fathers.” On that day, while the clergy were singing the Matin Office, he had a vision of his Lord; then, exulting in spirit, he exclaimed, “Raise me after Thee.” With these words he breathed his last. He was canonized by Pope Callixtus II, A.D. 1120; who is also said to have granted an indulgence to all those who made a pilgrimage to his shrine. Three kings of England—William the Conqueror, Henry II., and Edward I.—are said to have undertaken the journey, which when twice repeated was deemed equal to one pilgrimage to Rome; whence arose this saying:— Roma semel quantum, dat bis Menevia tantum. A noble English matron, Elswida, in the reign of Edgar, transferred his relics, probably in 964, from St. David’s to Glastonbury. St. David’s plain but empty shrine stands now in the choir of St. David’s Cathedral to the north of Edward Tudor’s altar tomb.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, two hundred and sixty holy martyrs condemned for the name of Christ. Claudius II ordered them to dig sand beyond the Porta Salaria, and then to be shot dead with arrows by soldiers in the amphitheatre.

Also the birthday of the holy martyrs Leo, Donatus, Abundantius, Nicephorus and nine others.

At Marseilles, the holy martyrs Hermes and Adrian.

At Heliopolis, in the persecution of Trajan, St. Eudoxia, martyr, who, being baptised by bishop Theodotus and fortified for the combat, was put to the sword by the command of the governor Vincent and thus received the crown of martyrdom.

The same day, St. Antonina, martyr. For deriding the gods of the Gentiles in the persecution of Diocletian, she was, after various torments, shut up in a cask and drowned in a marsh near the city of Cea.

At Kaiserswerth, the bishop St. Swithbert, who, in the time of Pope Sergius, preached the Gospel to the inhabitants of Friesland and Holland, and to other Germanic peoples.

At Angers, St. Albinus, bishop and confessor, a man of most eminent virtue and piety.

At Le Mans, St. Siviard, abbot.

At Perugia, the translation of St. Herculanus, bishop and martyr, who was beheaded by order of Totila, king of the Goths. Forty days after his decapitation his body, as Pope St. Gregory relates, was found as sound and as firmly joined to the head as if it had never been touched by the sword.

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

Thanks be to God.

1 MARCH – SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The subject offered to our consideration on this Second Sunday is one of the utmost importance for the holy Season. The Church applies to us the lesson which our Saviour gave to three of His Apostles. Let us endeavour to be more attentive to it than they were.

Jesus was about to pass from Galilee into Judea, that He might go up to Jerusalem and be present at the Feast of the Pasch. It was that last Pasch, which was to begin with the immolation of the figurative lamb, and end with the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus would have His disciples know Him. His works had borne testimony to Him, even to those who were, in a manner, strangers to him. But as for His disciples, had they not every reason to be faithful to Him, even to death? Had they not listened to His words which had such power with them that they forced conviction? Had they not experienced His love, which it was impossible to resist? And had they not seen how patiently He had borne with their strange and untoward ways?

Yes, they must have known Him. They had heard one of their company, Peter, declare that He was the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matthew xvi. 16). Despite this, the trial to which their faith was soon to be put, was to be of such a terrible kind that Jesus would mercifully arm them against temptation by an extraordinary grace. The Cross was to be a scandal and stumbling block (1 Corinthians i. 23) to the Synagogue, and, alas, to more than it. Jesus said to His Apostles at the Last Supper: “All of you will be scandalised in me this night” (Matthew xxvi. 32).

Carnal-minded as they then were, what would they think when they should see Him seized by armed men, handcuffed, hurried from one tribunal to another, and He doing nothing to defend Himself! And when they found that the High Priests and Pharisees, who had till now been so often foiled by the wisdom and miracles of Jesus, had now succeeded in their conspiracy against Him — what a shock to their confidence! But, there was to be something more trying still: the people who but a few days before greeted him so enthusiastically with their hosannas would demand His execution, and He would have to die, between two thieves, on the Cross, amid the insults of His triumphant enemies.

Is it not to be feared that these disciples of His, when they witness His humiliations and sufferings, will lose their courage? They have lived in His company for three years, but when they see that the things He foretold would happen to Him are really fulfilled — will the remembrance of all they have seen and heard keep them loyal to Him? Or will they turn cowards and flee from Him? — Jesus selects three out of the number, who are especially dear to him: Peter, whom He has made the Rock, on which His Church is to be built, and to whom He has promised the Keys of the kingdom of heaven; James, the son of Thunder, who is to be the first Martyr of the Apostolic College; and John, James’s brother, and His own Beloved Disciple. Jesus has resolved to take them aside and show them a glimpse of that glory which until the day fixed for its manifestation He conceals from the eyes of mortals. He therefore leaves the rest of His disciples in the plain near Nazareth and goes in company with the three privileged ones, towards a high hill, called Thabor, which is a continuation of Libanus, and which the Psalmist tells us was to rejoice in the Name of the Lord (Psalm lxxxviii. 13) No sooner has He reached the summit of the mountain than the three Apostles observe a sudden change come over Him: His face shines as the sun, and His humble garments become white as snow. They observe two venerable men approach and speak with Him upon what He was about to suffer in Jerusalem. One is Moses, the lawgiver. The other is Elias, the Prophet, who was taken up from earth on a fiery chariot, without having passed through the gates of death. These two great representatives of the Jewish Religion, the Law and the Prophets, humbly adore Jesus of Nazareth. The three Apostles are not only dazzled by the brightness which comes from their Divine Master, but they are filled with such a rapture of delight, that they cannot bear the thought of leaving the place. Peter proposes to remain there for ever and build three tabernacles, for Jesus, Moses, and Elias. And while they are admiring the glorious sight and gazing on the beauty of their Jesus’s human nature, a bright cloud overshadows them, and a voice is heard speaking to them: it is the voice of the Eternal Father, proclaiming the Divinity of Jesus, and saying: “This is my beloved Son!” This transfiguration of the Son of Man, this manifestation of His glory, lasted but a few moments. His mission was not on Thabor.

It was humiliation and suffering in Jerusalem. He therefore withdrew into Himself the brightness He had allowed to transpire, and when He came to the three Apostles, who, on hearing the voice from the cloud, had fallen on their faces with fear —they could see no one save only Jesus. The bright cloud was gone. Moses and Elias had disappeared. What a favour they have had bestowed on them! Will they remember what they have seen and heard? They have had such a revelation of the Divinity of their dear Master! — is it possible that when the hour of trial comes they will forget it and doubt His being God? And when they see Him suffer and die, be ashamed of Him and deny Him? Alas! the Gospel has told us what happened to them. A short time after this, our Lord celebrated His Last Supper with His disciples. When the Supper was over, He took them to another mount, Mount Olivet, which lies to the east of Jerusalem. Leaving the rest at the entrance of the Garden, He advances with Peter, James, and John, and then says to them: “My soul is sorrowful even unto death: stay here and watch with me.” He then retires some little distance from them and prays to His Eternal Father. The Heart of our Redeemer is weighed down with anguish. When He returns to his three disciples, He is enfeebled by the agony He has suffered, and His garments are saturated with blood. The Apostles are aware that He is sad even unto death, and that the hour is close at hand when He is to be attacked are they keeping watch? Are they ready to defend Him? No: they seem to have forgotten Him. They are fast asleep, for their eyes are heavy (Matthew xxvi. 38). Yet a few moments, and all will have fled from Him, and Peter, the bravest of them all, will be taking his oath that he never knew the man.

After the Resurrection our three Apostles made ample atonement for this cowardly and sinful conduct, and acknowledged the mercy with which Jesus had sought to fortify them against temptation, by showing them his glory on Thabor a few days before His Passion. Let us not wait till we have betrayed Him. Let us at once acknowledge that He is our Lord and our God. We are soon to be keeping the anniversary of His Sacrifice; like the Apostles, we are to see Him humbled by His enemies and bearing, in our stead, the chastisements of Divine Justice. We must not allow our faith to be weakened when we behold the fulfilment of those prophecies of David and Isaias, that the Messias is to be treated as a worm of the earth, (Psalm xxi. 7) and be covered with wounds, so as to become like a leper, the most abject of men, and the Man of sorrows (Isaias liii. 3, 4). We must remember the grand things of Thabor, and the adorations paid Hhim by Moses and Elias, and the bright cloud, and the voice of the Eternal Father. The more we see Him humbled, the more must we proclaim His glory and divinity. We must join our acclamations with those of the Angels and the Four-and-Twenty Elders, whom St. John, (one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration), heard crying out with a loud voice: “The Lamb that is slain, is worthy to receive power and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and benediction!” (Apocalypse v. 12).

The Second Sunday of Lent is called, from the first word of the Introit, Reminiscere; and also Transfiguration Sunday, on account of the Gospel which is read in the Mass.

Epistle – 1 Thessalonians iv. 1‒7

Brethren, we pray and beseech you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us, how you ought to walk, and to please God, so also you would walk, that you may abound the more. For you know what precepts I have given to you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the passion of his lust, like the Gentiles that know not God: and that no man overreach nor circumvent his brother in business; because the Lord is the avenger of all these things, as we have told you before, and have testified. For God has not called us to uncleanness, but to sanctification, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Here the Apostle shows what manner of life should be followed by Christians, and the Church, by repeating his words, exhorts the faithful to profit of the present season of grace, and regain all the beauty of the image of God, which the grace of Baptism first gave them. A Christian is a vessel of honour, formed and enriched by the hand of God; let him therefore shun whatever would degrade his noble origin and turn him into a vessel of dishonour, fit only to be broken and cast with the unclean into the sink of hell. The Christian religion has so far ennobled man, that even his very body may share in the soul’s sanctity. On the other hand, she teaches us that this sanctity of the soul is impaired, yes altogether effaced, by the loss of the body’s purity. The whole man, therefore, both body and soul, is to be reformed by the practices of this holy Season. Let us purify the soul by the confession of our sins, by compunction of heart, by the love of God. And let us give back its dignity to the body by making it bear the yoke of penance, that so it may be, henceforth, subservient and docile to the soul, and, on the day of the general Resurrection, partake in her endless bliss.

Gospel – Matthew xvii. 1‒9

At that time, Jesus took Peter, and James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain apart. And He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as snow. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with Him. And Peter answering, said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, let us make here three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” As he was speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice spoke out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” And the disciples hearing this fell on their faces and were very much afraid. Jesus came and touched them, and said to them, “Arise, and fear not.” And they lifting up their eyes saw no-one but Jesus. As they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, “Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man has risen from the dead.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Thus did Jesus encourage His Apostles when the time of temptation was near. He sought to impress them with His glory that it might keep up theirfaith in that trying time when the outward eye would see nothing in His person but weakness and humiliation. Oh! the loving considerateness of divine grace, which is never wanting, and shows us, in so strong a light, the goodness and the justice of our God! Like the Apostles, we also have sinned. Like them, we have neglected to profit of the help that was sent us from heaven. We have shut our eyes against the light. We have forgotten the fair vision that was granted us, and which made us so fervent and happy — and we fell. We have not, then, been tempted above our strength (1 Corinthians x. 13), and it is indeed our own fault that we committed sin. The three Apostles were exposed to a terrible temptation when they beheld their Divine Master robbed of all His majesty, but how easy for them to resist the temptation by thinking of what they had seen but a few days before? Instead of that, they lost their courage and forgot prayer which would have brought their courage back ; and thus the favoured witnesses of Thabor became cowards and deserters in the Garden of Mount Olivet. There was but one thing left them to do — throw themselves on the loving mercy of their Jesus, as soon as He had triumphed over His enemies; they did so, and His generous Heart pardoned them.

Let us imitate them here too. We have abused the grace of God and rendered it fruitless by our want of correspondence. The fountain of this grace, is not yet dried up. As long as we are in this world we may always draw from this source which comes from the Blood and merits of our Redeemer. It is grace that is now urging us to the amendment of our lives. It is given to us in abundance during the present time, and it is given mainly by the holy exercises of Lent. Let us go up the mountain with Jesus. There we will not be disturbed by the noise of earthly things. Let us there spend our forty days with Moses and Elias who, long before us, sanctified this number by their fasts. Thus, when the Son of Man will have risen from the dead, we will proclaim the favours He has mercifully granted us on Thabor.

We may close our Sunday by reciting the following beautiful prayer taken from the Mozarabic Breviary:

O JESUS, our God, eternal first beginning of light, who willed that your servants should devote the seventh day to sanctification rather than to work, we come seeking how we may find you, but we are prevented by the habitual darkness of our conscience. We make efforts to arise, but we fall back again and are dejected. Therefore, we beseech you, cast not away from your face those who seek you, for you deigned to show yourself to those who did not seek you. Now is the season of the year when we are offering to your holy Name a tithe of our days. And of these days, seven have passed. Grant us your assistance in the path of this fatiguing journey, so that our proffered homage may be without blemish. Sweeten our toil by filling us with an ardent love of your Majesty, and awaken us from the sluggishness of the body by the fervent abundance of your charity. May our life, being thus in you, know no faltering, and our faith find its reward. Amen.

28 MARCH – EMBER SATURDAY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This day was called Twelve-Lesson-Saturday, because, formerly, twelve passages from the Holy Scriptures used to be read, as on Holy Saturday. The Mass during which the Ordinations were given was celebrated during the night, so that by the time it was over, the Sunday had begun. Later on the Ordination Mass was said early on the Saturday as we now have it, but, in memory of the ancient practice, the Gospel for Saturday is repeated on the Sunday. The same is observed on the Saturday in the Advent Ember Week because the Ordination Mass of that Season was also anticipated.

Epistle – Deuteronomy xxvi. 12‒19

In those days Moses spoke to the people, saying: “When you have made an end of tithing all your fruits, that they may eat within your gates, and be filled; and you will speak thus in the sight of the Lord your God: ‘I have taken that which was sanctified out of my house, and I have given it to the Levite and to the stranger, and to the fatherless and to the widow, as you have commanded me; I have not transgressed your commandments, nor forgotten your precepts. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and have done all things as you have commanded me. Look from your sanctuary, and your high habitation of heaven, and bless your people Israel, and the land which you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ This day the Lord your God has commanded you to do these commandments and judgements, and to keep and fulfil them with all your heart, and with all your soul. You have chosen the Lord this day to be your God, and to walk in His ways and keep His ceremonies, and precepts, and judgements, and obey His command. And the Lord has chosen you this day to be His peculiar people, as He has spoken to you, and to keep all His commandments; and to make you higher than all nations which He has created, to His own praise, and name, and glory; that you may be a holy people of the Lord your God, as He has spoken.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

God here assures us that a nation which is faithful in observing the laws regarding the Divine Service will be blessed above other nations. History is one long illustration of the truth of this promise. Of all the nations which have fallen, there is not one that has not brought the chastisement on itself by its neglect of the Law of God. At times, the Almighty delays to strike, but it is only that the chastisement may be the more evident and produce a more salutary effect upon mankind. When we would know the future of a country, we need only observe how it comports itself with regard to the Laws of the Church. If its own Laws are based on the principles and practices of Christianity, that country is sound, in spite of certain weaknesses here and there: Revolutions may disturb its peace, but it will triumph over all. If the bulk of its people is faithful in the observance of external practices prescribed by the Church; for example, if they observe the Lord’s Day, and the holy Fast of Lent — there is a fund of morality in that country which is sure to draw down on it the blessings of heaven. Irreligious men will scoff at all this and call it superstition, prejudice of weak minds, and out of date for an age of Progress like ours; but if their theories were to rule, and a country, which up to this time had been practically Catholic, were to seek progress by infringing the law of Christian Ritual, it would, in less than a hundred years, find that public and private morality had lost ground, and its own security would be menaced. Man may talk and write as he likes — God wishes to be served and honoured by His people, and it is for Him to prescribe what are to be the forms of this service and adoration. Every injury offered to external worship, which is the great social link, is an injury to the interests of mankind. Even were there not the word of God for it, it is but just that such a consequence should follow.

Gospel – Matthew xvii. 1‒9

At that time, Jesus took Peter, and James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain apart. And He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as snow. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with Him. And Peter answering, said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, let us make here three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” As he was speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice spoke out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” And the disciples hearing this fell on their faces and were very much afraid. Jesus came and touched them, and said to them, “Arise, and fear not.” And they lifting up their eyes saw no-one but Jesus. As they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, “Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man has risen from the dead.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This Gospel, which, as we have already explained, is to be repeated tomorrow, is the one that is read in the Mass of today’s Ordinations, The following is the interpretation given by the ancient liturgists, among whom we may especially mention the learned Abbot Rupert.

The Church would have us think upon the sublime dignity which has been conferred on the newly ordained Priests. They are represented by the three Apostles who were taken by Jesus to the high mountain, and favoured with the sight of His glory. The rest of the disciples were left below; Peter, James and John were the only ones permitted to ascend to Thabor, and they, when the time should come, were to tell their fellow Apostles, and the whole world, how they had seen the glory of their Master, and heard the words of the Father declaring the Divinity of the Son of Man. This voice, says St. Peter, coming down to him from the excellent glory: This in my Beloved Son, in whom I have pleased myself; hear him. And this voice we heard, brought from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mount (2 Peter I. 17, 18).

In like manner, these Priests, who have just been ordained, and for whom you have been offering up your prayers and fast, will enter into the cloud with the Lord. They will offer up the Sacrifice of your salvation in the silence of the sacred Canon. God will descend into their hands, for your sakes, and though they are mortals and sinners, yet will they, each day, be in closest communication with the Divinity.

The forgiveness of your sins, which you are now preparing to receive from your Heavenly Father, is to come to you through their hands; their superhuman power will bring it down from heaven upon your souls. It is thus that God has cured our pride. The Serpent said to us, through our first parents: “Eat of this fruit, and you will be as gods.” We unfortunately believed the tempter, and the fruit of our transgression was death. God took pity on us and resolved to save us, but it was to be by the hands of men that He would save us, and this in order to humble our haughtiness. His own Eternal Son became man, and He left other men after Him, to whom He said: “As the Father has sent me, I also send you” (John xx. 21). Let us, then, show honour to these men who have this very day been raised to so high a dignity. One of the duties imposed on us by our holy religion is respect to the priesthood.

This is Saturday: let us have recourse to Mary, the Refuge of Sinners. Let us put under her maternal protection the humble penances we are now going through, and for this end, we may make use of the following Sequence taken from the Cluny Missal.

Hail Mary, full of grace! Dear Mother of Jesus, and hope of the world!

O Gate of heaven! Temple of God! Haven of the sea, where sinners confidently seek shelter and repose.

You are the worthy Spouse of the Great King, and, by your powerful prayers, you are kind and loving to all.

You are light to the blind, and a sure path to such as are lame.

You are by your loving affection, both Martha and Mary to the needy.

You were the Flower among the thorns; the Flower that, by its rich graces, bloomed to the divine Flower, your Jesus.

You did speak your word, and then conceived the Word; you gave birth to the King of kings, you who were a pure Virgin.

You were ever faithful to this King, your Child; and, using a mother’s privilege, you fed Him at your breast.

Now, you are united with Him, and in reward for your merits, you are made the Queen of heaven and earth.

Then pray for us, O Queen, to Him that is our King, beseeching Him to pardon us poor fallen sinners. Show us your wonted clemency, and, having obtained us the new life of remission of our sins, bring us to the kingdom, there to reign forever. Amen.

27 FEBRUARY – SAINT GABRIEL OF THE MOST SORROWFUL VIRGIN

Saint Gabriel of the Most Sorrowful Virgin (Francis Possenti) was born on 1 March 1838 in Assisi, Italy, to Sante and Agnes Possenti. He was one of thirteen children, several of whom died in infancy. His mother died in 1842 when he was only four years old. Francis was educated at a Jesuit college in Spoleto.

While still a student he became dangerously ill and promised to enter a religious order if he recovered. He did not keep his vow and after a few years he became seriously sick again. He renewed his promise and was again cured. Believing this to be a miracle which he attributed to the intercession of the Polish Jesuit priest Blessed Andrzej Boboba (1591–1657), he applied to the Society of Jesus and was accepted. However, he delayed entering the Jesuits. Then his sister Maria Louisa was stricken with cholera and died. After seeking the advice of a priest, Francis decided to join the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ (the Passionists). In 1856 he entered the noviceship at Morrovalle in the Marche and was given the religious name of Brother Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows:

“The rest of Gabriel's career is simply a record of an extraordinary effort to attain perfection in small things. His brightness, his spirit of prayer, his charity to the poor, his consideration for others, his exact observance of every rule, his desire (constantly checked by wise superiors) to adopt forms of bodily mortification which were beyond his strength, his absolute submission in all matters in which he could practise obedience evidently made an ineffaceable impression upon all who lived with him. Their testimony in the process of his beatification is most convincing. It was a life of continual self-surrender, but the most charming feature of the whole was the cheerfulness with which the offering was made”.

(Butler's Lives of the Saints, Vol 1, page 430)

After four years in the Passionists, Gabriel became ill with tuberculosis. He died on 27 February 1862 at the age of 23 at Isola di Gran Sasso near Teramo in the Abruzzi. He was beatified by Pope St. Pius X in 1908 and canonised by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. St. Gabriel is a patron saint of Catholic youth, of students, and of those studying for the priesthood.

In leap years, his feast day is observed on 28 February.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks be to God.

27 FEBRUARY – EMBER FRIDAY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – Ezechiel xviii. 20‒28

Thus says the Lord God: “The soul that sins, the same will die: the son will not bear the iniquity of the father, and the father will not bear the iniquity of the son: the justice of the just will be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon him. But if the wicked does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keep all my commandments, and does judgement and justice; living he will live, and will not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he has done; in his justice, which he has wrought, he will live.” “Is it my will that a sinner should die,” says the Lord God, “and not that he should be converted from his ways and live? But if the just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity according to all the abominations which the wicked man uses to work, will he live? All his justices which he has done, will not be remembered; in the prevarication, by which he has prevaricated, and in his sin, which he has committed, in them he will die. And you have said: The way of the Lord is not right. Hear ye, therefore, house of Israel: Is it my way that is not right, and are not rather your ways perverse? For when the just turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity, he will die in it; in the injustice that he has wrought, he will die. And when the wicked turns himself away from his wickedness which he has wrought, and does judgement and justice, he will save his soul alive. Because he considers and turns away himself from all his iniquities which he has wrought, he will surely live and not die,” says the Lord Almighty.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us not forget the ancient discipline of the Church, during Lent. We should frequently be at a loss to understand her Liturgy of this Season, unless we picture her to ourselves as preparing the Public Penitents for a re-participation in the Mysteries. But first they must he reconciled with God whom they have offended. Their soul is dead by sin. Can it be restored to life? Yes, we have God’s word for it.

The Lesson from the Prophet Ezechiel, which the Church began yesterday for the Catechumens, is continued today for the benefit of the Public Penitents. If the wicked does penance for all his sins which he has committed, and keep all my commandments, and does judgement and justice; living he will live, and will not die. But, his iniquities are upon him, and rise up against him, crying to heaven for eternal vengeance! And yet, that God, who knows all things and forgets nothing, assures us, that He will not remember iniquities which have been redeemed by penance. Such is the affection of His fatherly heart that He will forget the outrage offered Him by his son, if this son will but return to his duty.

Thus, then, our Penitents are to be reconciled; and on the Feast of the Resurrection, they will be associated with the just, because God will have forgotten their iniquities; they themselves will be just men. Thus, it is, that the Liturgy, which never changes, brings frequently before us her ancient discipline of public penance. Nowadays sinners are not visibly separated from the faithful; the Church doors are not closed against them; they frequently stand near the holy altar, in the company of the just; and when God’s pardon descends upon them, the faithful are not made cognizant of the grace by any special and solemn rite.

Let us here admire the wonderful mercy of our Heavenly Father, and profit by the indulgent discipline of our holy Mother the Church. The lost sheep may enter the fold at any hour and without any display; let him take advantage of the condescension thus shown him, and never more wander from the Shepherd who thus mercifully receives him. Neither let the just man be puffed up with self-complacency, by preferring himself to the lost sheep: let him rather reflect on those words of today’s Lesson: If the just man turn himself away from his justice, and do iniquity... the justices which he has done will not be remembered. Let us, therefore, tremble for ourselves, and have compassion on sinners. One of the great means on which the Church rests her hopes for the reconciliation of sinners is the fervent prayers offered up for them by the faithful during Lent.

Gospel – John v. 1‒15

At that time, there was a festival of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem a pond called Probatica, which in Hebrew is named Bethsaida, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick, of blind, of lame, and of withered, waiting for the moving of the water. And the Angel of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond; and the water was moved. And he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water, was made whole of whatever infirmity he lay under. And there was a certain man there, that had been eight-and-thirty years under his infirmity. Him, when Jesus had seen lying, and knew that he had been now a long time, He said to him: “Will you be made whole?” The infirm man answered Him: “Sir, I have no man. when the water is troubled, to put me into the pond; for while I am coming, another goes down before me.” Jesus said to him: “Arise, take up your bed, and walk.” And immediately the man was made whole, and he took up his bed and walked. And it was the Sabbath that day. The Jews therefore said to him that was cured: “It is the Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” He answered them: “He that made me whole, He said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” They asked him, therefore: “Who is that man that said to you, ‘Take up your bed, and walk?’” But he that was healed, knew not who it was, for Jesus went aside from the multitude standing in the place. Afterwards Jesus found him in the temple, and sad to him: “Behold, you are made whole: sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to you.” The man went his way, and told the Jews that it was Jesus that had made him whole.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us return to our Penitents of the ancient discipline of the Church. Those of the present day, and we ourselves, can easily make a practical application of the reflections suggested by the Gospel. We have just been told by the Prophet that God is ever ready to pardon a penitent sinner. But how is this pardon to be administered? Who is to pronounce the sentence of absolution? The answer is given in our Gospel. He that had been thirty-eight years under his infirmity is a figure of the inveterate sinner, and yet he is made whole and recovers the use of his limbs. How has the cure been wrought? First of all, the infirm man says to Jesus: “I have no man when the water is troubled, to put me into the pond.” The water would have cured him but, observe, he has need of some man to lead him to the water. This man is the Son of God, and He became Man in order to heal us. As Man He has received power to forgive sins, and, before leaving this earth, He gives that same power to other men and says to them: “Whose sins you will forgive, they are forgiven them” (John xx. 23). Our Penitents, then, are to be reconciled with God by virtue of this supernatural power, and the infirm man who takes up his bed and walks is a figure of the sinner whose sins have been forgiven him by the Church, by the divine power of the Keys.

In the third century a heretic named Novatian taught that the Church has not the power to forgive sins committed after Baptism. This doctrine was condemned by the Councils and Holy Doctors of the Church, and in order to offer to the faithful some outward expression of the power given to the Son of Man of forgiving sins to such as repent, there was painted on the walls of the places where the Christians used to assemble the infirm man of our Gospel walking with his bed on his shoulders. This consoling symbol is frequently met with in the frescoes which were painted, even in the Age of the Martyrs, in the Roman Catacombs. They show us how the early Christians were taught to understand this passage of the Gospel, which the Church, now so many centuries ago, has assigned to this day.

The water of the Probatica was also a symbol, and here our Gospel conveyed a special instruction to the Catechumens. It was by water that they were to be made whole, and by water endowed with a supernatural virtue. The miraculous pond of Jerusalem could only cure the body, and that at rare intervals, and the favour could only be conferred on a single individual. But now that the Angel of the Great Counsel has come down from heaven and sanctified the waters of the Jordan, the Probatica is everywhere: it is giving health to the souls of men without any limitation either of time or number. Man is the minister of this grace, but it is the Son of God, become the Son of Man, who works by the human minister.

Let us also consider the multitude of sick, who, as the Gospel tells us, were waiting for the moving of the water. They represent the various classes of sinners who are seeking during this holy time to be converted to their God. There are the Sick, or, as the Latin word has it, the Languid; these are the tepid, who never thoroughly give up their evil habits. There are the Blind, these are they whose spiritual eye is dead. There are the Lame, who limp and falter in the path of salvation, and, lastly, there are the Withered, who seem incapable of doing a single good action. All are waiting for the favourable moment. Jesus will soon be with them, and will say to each of them: “Will you be made whole?” Let them answer this question with love and confidence and they will be healed.

O Lord, whose Passion has merited for us the deliverance from our passions, grant that my carnal affections may be quenched by the virtue of your divine Cross, and that I may contemplate your holy Resurrection. Fount of purity, most merciful Saviour, preserve us by the merits of this our Fast.

Behold us here prostrate before you. Disdain not our uplifted hands, O sovereign Lord of the Angels who stretched forth your hands on your Cross for all mankind.

The snares of the enemy have involved me in darkness. Enlighten me, Christ, who, when hanging on the Cross, obscured the sun, and bring to your faithful the rays of pardon. May I walk in the light of your commandments, and, being purified, come to the brightness of your saving Resurrection.

O my Saviour, and Christ, hanging like a vine on the wood of the Cross, you enriched the whole earth with the wine of immortality. Therefore do I cry out to you: I was miserably blinded by the intoxication of sin, but you bestowed on me the sweet refreshment of true compunction. Grant me now the strength that I may fast from sinful pleasures, for you are a good and merciful God.

Wonderful power of your Cross! It was your Cross that made the plant of abstinence to bloom in the Church, after having uprooted the old intemperance of Adam in Eden. From the intemperance came death on mankind, but from the other, the ever pure stream of immortality flowed on the world, for from your side, as from a Fount of Paradise, there streamed your life-giving Blood, mingled with water, and from these have all creatures received life. Therefore do we beseech you, God of Israel, to grant us, in your great mercy, that we may experience the sweet delights of fasting.

26 FEBRUARY – SAINT MARGARET OF CORTONA (Penitent)

 

Margaret of Cortona (so called from the town where she died) was born at Alviano in Tuscany. In her early youth she was a slave to the pleasures of this world and led a vain and sinful life in the city of Montepulciano. Her attention was one day attracted by a dog which seemed to wish her to follow it. She did so, and it led her to a pile of wood which covered a large hole. Looking in, she saw the body of her lover whose enemies had murdered him and thrown his mangled body into that place. She suddenly felt that the hand of God was upon her, and being overwhelmed with intense sorrow for her sins, she went forth and wept bitterly.

Margaret returned to Alviano, cut off her hair, laid aside her trinkets and, putting on a dark-coloured dress, she abandoned her evil ways and the pleasures of the world. She was to be found in the churches with a rope tied round her neck, prostrated on the ground and imploring pardon of all whom she had scandalised by her past life. She shortly afterwards set out for Cortona and there, in sackcloth and ashes, she sought how she might appease the divine anger. For three years she tried herself in the practice of every virtue and at the end of that time she obtained permission from the Friars Minors (under whose spiritual guidance she had put herself) to receive the habit of the Third Order.

From that time forward, her tears were almost incessant and the sighs which deep contrition wrung from her heart were such as to leave her speechless for hours. Her bed was the naked ground and her pillow, a stone or piece of wood so that she frequently passed whole nights in heavenly contemplation. Evil desires no longer tormented her, for her fervent spirit was so prompt that the weak flesh was made to labour and obey. The devil spared neither snares nor violent assaults by which to lead her from her holy purpose but she, like a strong woman, detected him by his words and drove him from her. This wicked spirit having tempted her to vain glory, she went into the streets and cried out with a loud voice that she had been a great sinner and deserved the worst of punishments. It was obedience to her confessor that alone prevented her from disfiguring her features, which had been the cause of much sin: for the long and severe penance she had imposed on herself had not impaired her beauty.

By these and such like exercises of a mortified life, Margaret cleansed her soul from the stains of her sins and gained such a victory over herself that the allurements of the world had not the slightest effect upon her, and our Lord rewarded her by frequently visiting her. She also received the grace she so ardently desired, of being allowed to have a share in the sufferings of Jesus and Mary: so much so, indeed, that at times she lay perfectly unconscious as though she were really dead. All this made her be looked up to as a guide in the path of perfection, and persons would come to her, even from distant countries, in order to seek her counsel. By the heavenly light granted her she could read the hearts and consciences of others, and could see the sins committed against our Lord in various parts of the world, for which she would offer up, in atonement, her own sorrow and tears.

Great indeed was the good Margaret effected by the ardent charity she bore to God and her neighbour. She healed the sick who came to her and drove out the devil from those possessed. A mother besought her, with many tears, to restore her child to life, which she did. Her prayers more than once averted war when on the point of being declared. In a word, both the living and the dead experienced the effects of her unbounded charity. While engaged in these manifold holy works, she relented not in the severity of her bodily mortifications, or in her contemplation of heavenly things. The two lives of Mary and Martha were admirably blended together in her, and rich in the merits of each, she besought our Lord to take her from this valley of tears and give her to enter the heavenly country. Her prayer was heard and the day and the hour of her death were revealed to her.

Laden with meritorious works and divine favours, her bodily strength began to fail. For the last seventeen days of her life her only food was that of conversation with her Creator. At length, after receiving the most holy Sacraments of the Church, with a face beaming with joy and her eyes raised lip to Heaven, her happy soul fled to its divine Spouse on the eighth of the Calends of March (February 22nd), in the fiftieth year of her age, the twenty-third of her conversion, in 1297. Her body, which even to this day is fresh, incorrupt and unaltered and sheds a sweet fragrance, is devoutly honoured in the Church called after her belonging to the Friars Minors. The many miracles which have been wrought at her shrine, have induced the Sovereign Pontiffs to promote devotion to Saint Margaret by the grant of many spiritual favours. She was canonised with great solemnity by Pope Benedict XIII on the 16th of May, which was the Feast of Pentecost in 1728.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Close to the faithful Virgins who form the court of Jesus, there stand those holy women whose repentance has merited for them a prominent place in the Calendar of the Church. They are the bright trophies of God’s mercy. They expiated their sins by a life of penance. The tears of their compunction wiped away their guilt. He that is Purity itself has found them worthy of His love, and, when Pharisees affect to be shocked at His allowing them to be near Him, He warmly defends them. Foremost among these is Mary Magdalene to whom much was forgiven because she loved much (Luke vii. 47), but there are two on the list of Penitent Saints whose names shine most brightly on the Calendar of this portion of the year and were, like Mary Magdalene, ardent in their love of the Divine Master whom they had once offended: these are Mary of Egypt and Margherita of Cortona. It is the second of these who today tells us the consoling truth, that if sin separate us from God, penance has the power of not only disarming His anger, but of forming between God and the sinner that ineffable bond of love which the Apostle alludes to when he says: “Where sin has abounded, grace has more abounded” (Romans v. 20).

*****

If the Angels of God rejoiced on the day of your conversion, when Margherita the sinner became the heroic and saintly Penitent, what a grand feast must they not have kept when your soul left this world and they led you to the eternal nuptials with the Lamb! You are one of the brightest trophies of Divine Mercy, and when we think of the Saint of Cortona, our hearts glow with hope. We are sinners. We have deserved Hell. And yet when we hear your name, Heaven and mercy seem so near to us. Yes, even to us, Margherita of Cortona! See how we are like you in your weakness and your wanderings from the fold, but you force us to hope that we may, like you, be converted, do penance and reach Heaven at last. The instrument of your conversion was death, and is not death busy enough around us? The sight of that corpse taught you, and with an irresistible eloquence, that sin is madness, for it exposes the soul to fall into infinite misery. How comes it that death is almost daily telling us that life is uncertain and that our eternal lot may be decided at any hour, and yet the lesson is so lost upon us? We are hard-hearted sinners, and we need your prayers, O fervent Lover of Jesus! The Church will soon preach to us the great Memento. She will tell us that we are but dust, and into dust must speedily return. Oh that this warning might detach us from the world and ourselves, and man us to the resolution of Penance, that port of salvation for them that have suffered shipwreck. Oh that it might excite within us the desire of returning to that God who knows not how to resist the poor soul who comes to Him, after all her sins, throws herself into the bosom of His mercy, and asks Him to forgive! Your example proves that we may hope for every grace. Pray for us, and exercise in our favour that maternal charity which filled your heart, even when you were living here below.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Pergen in Pamphylia, during the persecution of Decius, the birthday of the blessed bishop Nestor, who, praying night and day for the preservation of the flock of Christ, was put under arrest. As he confessed the name of the Lord with great joy and freedom, he was most cruelly tortured on the rack by order of the governor Pollio, and still courageously proclaiming that he would ever remain faithful to Christ, he was suspended on a cross and thus triumphantly went to heaven.

In the same place, the passion of Saints Papias, Diodorus, Conon and Claudian who preceded St. Nestor to martyrdom.

Also the holy martyrs Fortunatus, Felix and twenty-seven others.

At Alexandria, the bishop St. Alexander, an aged man held in great honour, who succeeded blessed Peter as bishop of that city. He expelled from the Church Arius, one of his priests, tainted with heretical impiety, and convicted by divine truth, and subsequently was one of the three hundred and eighteen Fathers who condemned him in the Council of Nicaea.

At Bologna, the bishop St. Faustinian, whose preaching strengthened and multiplied the faithful of that Church, which had been much afflicted during the persecution of Diocletian.

At Gaza in Palestine, in the time of the emperor Arcadius, St. Porphyry, bishop, who overthrew the idol Marnas and its temple, and after many sufferings went to rest in the Lord.

At Florence, St. Andrew, bishop and confessor.

In the territory of Arcis, St. Victor, confessor, whose eulogy was written by St. Bernard.

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

Thanks be to God.

26 FEBRUARY – THURSDAY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – Ezechiel xviii. 1‒9

In those days, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “What is the meaning that you use among you this parable as a proverb in the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge?’ “As I live,” says the Lord God, “this parable will be no more to you a proverb in Israel. Behold all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine; the soul that sins, the same will die. And if a man be just, and do judgement and justice, and has not eaten on the mountains, nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, and has not defiled his neighbour’s wife, nor come near to a menstruous woman; and has not wronged any man, but has restored the pledge to the debtor, has taken nothing away by violence, has given his bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment, has not lent on usury, nor taken any increase, has withdrawn his hand from iniquity, and has executed true judgement between man and man, has walked in my commandments, and kept my judgsments, to do according to the truth; he is just, he will surely live,” says the Lord God.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

These words of the Prophet declare to us the wonderful mercy of God towards the Gentiles, who are preparing to pass from darkness to light, by the grace of holy Baptism. The Jews had a favourite proverb: The Fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the Children are set on edge: but God assures us, even in the Old Testament, that sins are personal, that is, they belong to him who commits them, and to no one else; so that, the son of a wicked father, if he walk in the path of righteousness, will find mercy and salvation. The Apostles and their disciples preached the Gospel to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles were obedient to the call; they were the children of idolaters, and yet they were seen flocking to the font of regeneration, abjuring the evil ways of their fathers, and becoming the objects of God’s love. The same happened in the conversion of the barbarians of the West; it is happening now in our own times among infidel nations; and many will be the Catechumens who, at the coming Easter, will receive the sacrament of Baptism.

God frequently visits children with temporal punishments, because of the sins of their parents; it is a providence, which acts as a check on men, deterring them from evil out of fear of bringing misery on their families. But in the moral order, each individual is treated according to his own merits or demerits; and as God does not impute to a virtuous son the iniquities of the father, so neither do the virtues of the father cover the son’s iniquity. Philip the Fair was the grandson of St. Louis; and Wulfere, the wicked king of Mercia, was father of the two saints, Wulfhad and Euffin. Similar contrasts are often found in families, for, as the Scripture says: God has left man in the hand of his own counsel... Before man is life and death, good and evil; that which he will choose, will be given to him (Ecclestiastes xv. 14, 18). And yet, such is the mercy of the Lord our God, that, if a man has made a bad choice, but afterwards casts away from himself the evil, and turns to what is good, he will surely live, and his repentance will restore to him what he had forfeited.

Gospel – Matthew xv. 21‒28

At that time, Jesus went from there, and retired into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold a woman of Canaan who came out of those coasts, crying out, said to Him: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David: my daughter is grievously troubled by a devil.” Who answered her not a word. And His disciples came and besought Him, saying: “Send her away, for she cries after us:” And He answering, said: “I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel.” But she came and adored Him, saying: “Lord, help me.” Who answering, said: “It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs.” But she said: “Yes, Lord; for the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters.” Then Jesus answering, said to her: “O woman, great is your faith: be it done to you as you will:” and her daughter was cured from that hour.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Jesus is in admiration at this woman’s faith; He praises her for it; He would have us imitate her. And yet, she was a Gentile; probably, she had been an idolatress; but maternal love induces her to come to Jesus, and throw herself at His feet. She obtains from Him her daughter’s cure, and, undoubtedly, her own conversion. It is an illustration of the consoling promise we have just been hearing from the Prophet Ezechiel: there are chosen souls in every race, even in that cursed one of Canaan. Our Lord treats this woman with apparent harshness, although He intends to grant her what she asks: He would have her faith gain strength by being tried, and, by the trial, deserve to be rewarded.

Let us pray, during these days of mercy, with persevering confidence. The daughter of this Canaanite woman was troubled by a devil, that is, her body was possessed by an evil spirit. How many are there, every where in the Church, whose souls are a prey to Satan, by their being in the state of mortal sin! Are they conscious of their misery? Do they beg of our Lord to have mercy on them, and deliver them? And if, at first, He defers their pardon, do they humble themselves like this woman of our Gospel, who confesses that she quite deserves this contempt with which Jesus seems to treat her?

Lost sheep of the House of Israel, make good use of this holy season, when your Good Shepherd is so near to you. Before forty days are elapsed, He will be put to death, and the people that will deny Him will not be His. Before forty days are over, we will be celebrating the anniversary of this great sacrifice; and the sinner that will not be converted from the error of his ways, and will not have come to Jesus, as did this humble woman of Canaan — will deserve to be forever rejected. Let us, then, be earnest in the great work of our conversion, and fit ourselves for pardon. Such is the generosity of our Heavenly Father, that if we desire, with all the sincerity of our soul, to be once more His faithful children, he will give us more than the crumbs which fall from His table; He will give us Jesus, the Bread of Life; and what a pledge of reconciliation is that!

25 FEBRUARY – EMBER WEDNESDAY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Fast of today is prescribed by a double law: it is Lent, and it is Ember Wednesday. It is the same with the Friday and Saturday of this week. There are two principal objects for the Ember days of this period of the year: the first is, to offer up to God the Season of Spring, and, by fasting and prayer, to draw down His blessing upon it; the second is, to ask Him to enrich with His choicest graces the Priests and Sacred Ministers who are to receive their Ordination on Saturday. Let us, therefore, have a great respect for these three days; and let those who violate, on them, the laws of Fasting or Abstinence, know that they commit a two-fold sin.

Up to the eleventh century, the Ember Days of Spring were kept in the first week of March; and those of Summer, in the second week of June. It was St. Gregory the Seventh who fixed them as we now have them; that is, the Ember Days of Spring in the first week of Lent, and those of Summer in Whitsun Week.

The Epistle of the Mass for all the Ember Wednesdays consists of two Lessons from Sacred Scripture. Today the Church brings before us the two great types of Lent —Moses and Elias —in order to impress us with an idea of the importance of this Forty Days’ Fast, which Christ Himself solemnly consecrated when He observed it, and thus fulfilled, in His own person, what the Law and the Prophets had but prefigured.

First Lesson – Exodus xxiv. 12‒18

In those days, the Lord said to Moses: “Come up to me into the mount, and be there; and I will give you tables of stone, and the law, and the commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.” Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua; and Moses going up into the mount of God, said to the ancients: “Wait here till we return to you, you have Aaron and Hur with you: if any question will arise, you will refer it to them.” And when Moses was gone up, a cloud covered the mount. And the glory of the Lord dwelt upon Sinai, covering it with a cloud six days, and the seventh day He called him out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord, was like a burning fire upon the top of the Mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses entering into the midst of the cloud, went up into the mountain; and he was there forty days and forty nights.

Second Lesson – 3 Kings xix. 3‒8

In those days, Elias came into Bersabee of Judah, and left his servant there. And he went forward one day’s journey into the desert. And when he was there, and sat under a juniper tree, he requested for his soul that he might die, and said: “It is enough for me, Lord: take away my soul, for I am no better than my fathers.” And he cast himself down, and slept in the shadow of the juniper tree; and behold an Angel of the Lord touched him, and said to him: “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold there was at his head a hearth-cake and a vessel of water; and he ate and drank, and he fell asleep again. And the Angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said to him: “Arise, eat; for you have yet a great way to go.” And he arose, and ate, and drank, and walked in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights, to Horeb, the mount of God.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Moses and Elias fast for forty days and forty nights, because God bids them come near to Him. Man must purify himself, he must unburden himself, in some measure at least, of the body which weighs him down, if he would enter into communication with Him who is the Spirit. And yet the vision of God, granted to these two holy personages, was very imperfect: they felt that God was near them, but they beheld not His glory. But, when the fullness of time came, (Galatians iv. 4) God manifested Himself in the flesh; and man saw, and heard, and touched him (1 John i. 1) We indeed, are not of the number of those favoured ones who lived with Jesus, the Word of Life; but in the Holy Eucharist He allows us to do more than see Him: He enters into our breasts, He is our Food. The humblest member of the Church possesses God more fully than either Moses on Sinai, or Elias on Horeb. We cannot, therefore, be surprised that the Church — in order to fit us for this favour, at the Easter Solemnity — bids us go through a preparation of Forty Days, though its severity is not to be compared with the rigid fast which Moses and Elias had to observe, as the condition of their receiving what God promised them.

Gospel – Matthew xii. 38‒50

At that time, some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him, saying: “Master we would see a sign from you.” Who answering said to them: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign: and a will shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was in the whale’s belly three days and three nights: so will the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. The men of Niniveh will rise in judgement with this generation, and will condemn it: because they did penance at the preaching of Jonas. And behold a greater than Jonas here. The queen of the south will rise in judgement with this generation, and will condemn it: because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold a greater than Solomon here. And when an unclean spirit is gone out of a man he walks through dry places seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says: ‘I will return into my house from where I came out.’ And coming he finds it empty, swept, and garnished. Then he goes, and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is made worse than the first. So will it be also to this wicked generation.” As He was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold His mother and His brethren stood without, seeking to speak to Him. And one said to Him: “Behold your mother and your brethren stand without, seeking you.” But He answering him that told him, said: “Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?” And stretching forth his hand towards His disciples, He said: “Behold my mother and my brethren.” For whoever will do the will of my Father, that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Our Lord forewarns Israel of the chastisements, which its voluntary blindness and hardness of heart will bring upon it. The men of Israel refuse to believe, unless they see signs and prodigies; they have them in abundance, but will not see them. Such are the unbelievers of the present day. They say, they want proofs of the divine origin of the Catholic Religion. What is History, but a tissue of proof? What are the events of the present age, but testimony of the truth? — and yet, they remain incredulous. They have their own views and prejudices, and they intend to keep to them; how, then, can it be wondered at, that they never embrace the true Faith? Infidels, who have not had the like opportunities, will rise in judgement with such a generation and condemn it for its resistance to grace. Let us Catholics remember, that amidst the great religious movement which is now going on, it is our duty to be not only most firm in our faith, but also most zealous in the observance of the Laws of the Church, such, for example, as Lent. The apostolate of example will produce its fruits; and if a mere handful of Christians was, to the Roman Empire, like that leaven of which our Saviour speaks, and which leavened the whole mass — what results may we not expect in a country like our own (which has retained so much catholic practice and doctrine) — if the Catholics themselves were but zealous in the exercise of their duties?

24 FEBRUARY – SAINT MATTHIAS (Apostle)

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

An Apostle of Jesus Christ, Saint Matthias is one of the Blessed choir which the Church would have us honour during the Season of Septuagesima. Matthias was one of the first to follow our Saviour, and he was an eye-witness of all His divine actions up to the very day of the Ascension. He was one of the seventy-two Disciples, but our Lord had not conferred on him the dignity of an Apostle. And yet, he was to have this great glory, for it was of him that David spoke when he prophesied that another should take the bishopric (Psalm cviii. 8; Acts i. 16) left vacant by the apostasy of Judas the Traitor. In the interval between Jesus’ Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the Apostolic College had to complete the mystic number fixed by our Lord Himself, so that there might be “The Twelve” on that solemn day when the Church, filled with the Holy Ghost, was to manifest herself to the Synagogue. The lot fell on Matthias (Acts i.). He shared with his Brother-Apostles in the Jerusalem persecution and, when the time came for the Ambassadors of Christ to separate, he set out for the countries allotted to him. Tradition tells us that these were Cappadocia and the provinces bordering on the Caspian Sea.

The virtues, labours and sufferings of Saint Matthias have not been handed down to us: this explains there being no proper Lessons on his Life, as there are for the Feasts of the rest of the Apostles. Clement of Alexandria records in his writings several sayings of our holy Apostle. One of these is so very appropriate to the spirit of the present Season that we consider it a duty to quote it. “It behoves us to combat the flesh and make use of it without pampering it by unlawful gratifications. As to the soul, we must develop her power by faith and knowledge.” How profound is the teaching contained in these few words! Sin has deranged the order which the Creator had established. It gave the outward man such a tendency to grovel in things which degrade him that the only means left us for the restoration of the likeness and image of God to which we were created is the forcibly subjecting the body to the spirit. But the spirit itself, that is, the soul, was also impaired by Original Sin and her inclinations were made prone to evil: what is to be her protection? Faith and knowledge. Faith humbles her, and then exalts and rewards her, and the reward is knowledge. Here we have a summary of what the Church teaches us during the two Seasons of Septuagesima and Lent. Let us thank the holy Apostle, in this his Feast, for leaving us such a lesson of spiritual wisdom and fortitude. The same traditions, which give us some slight information regarding the holy life of Saint Matthias, tell us that his Apostolic labours were crowned with the palm of martyrdom.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, St. Primitiva, martyr.

At Caesarea in Cappadocia, St. Sergius, martyr, of whose life a beautiful account still exists.

In Africa, the holy martyrs Montanus, Lucius, Julian, Victoricus, Flavian and their companions. They were disciples of St. Cyprian and suffered martyrdom under the emperor Valerian.

At Rouen, the passion of St. Prætextatus, bishop and martyr.

At Treves, St. Modestus, bishop and confessor.

In England, St. Ethelbert, king of Kent, converted to the faith of Christ by St. Augustine, bishop of the English.

At Jerusalem, the first finding of the head of Our Lord’s Precursor.

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

Thanks be to God.

24 FEBRUARY – TUESDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT

Epistle – Isaias lv. 6‒11

In those days, Isaias the prophet spoke, saying: “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he is bountiful, to forgive. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are my so are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts. And as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return no more there, but soak the earth, and water it, and make it to spring, and give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So will my word be, which will go forth from my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will do whatever I please, and will prosper in the things for which I sent it,” says the Lord Almighty.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Prophet, speaking to us in God’s name, assures us, that, if we sincerely desire our conversion, we will find mercy. The infinite distance which lies between the sovereign holiness of God and the soul that is defiled by sin is no obstacle to the reconciliation between the creature and the Creator. The goodness of God is omnipotent; it can create a clean heart (Psalm l. 12) in him that repents, and, where sin abounded, it can make grace abound more than ever sin abounded (Romans v. 20) The Lord of pardon will come down from Heaven; like plentiful rain on parched land, and that land will yield a rich harvest. But, let the sinner give ear to the rest of the prophecy. Is man at liberty to accept or refuse this word that comes from heaven? May be, for the present, neglect it, in the hope that be will give it a welcome later on, when his life is at its close? No; God says to us by the Prophet: Seek ye the Lord, while He may be found; call on Him, while He is near. We cannot, therefore, find the Lord just when it suits our fickle humour; His nearness to us is not always the same. Let us take heed; God has His times; the time for mercy may be followed by the time for justice. Jonas went through the streets of the proud city, and cried out: Yet forty days, and Niniveh will be destroyed (Jonas iii. 4). Niniveh did not allow the forty days to pass without returning to the Lord; she put on sackcloth and ashes, she fasted, and she was spared. Let us imitate the earnest repentance of this guilty city; let us not set Divine Justice at defiance by refusing to do penance, or by doing it negligently. This Lent is, perhaps, the last God‒s mercy will grant us. If we put off our conversion, God may refuse us another such opportunity. Let us meditate on these words of the Apostle, which repeat the truth told us in today’s Epistle: The earth that drinks in the rain which comes often upon it, and brings forth herbs, meet for them by whom it is tilled, receives blessing from God; but that which brings forth thorns and briers is reprobate, and very near unto a curse, whose end is to be burnt (Hebrews vi. 7, 8).

Gospel – Matthew xxi. 10‒17

At that time: When He was come into Jerusalem, the whole city was moved, saying: “Who is this?” And the people said: “This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth of Galilee.” And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the chairs of them that sold doves. And He said to them: “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves.” And there came to Him the blind and the lame in the temple; and He healed them. And the chief priests and scribes, seeing the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, “Hosanna to the son of David” were moved with indignation. And said to Him: “Hear you what these say?” And Jesus said to them: “Yes, have you never read: Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings you have perfected praise?”And leaving them, he went out of the city into Bethany, and remained there.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Our Forty Days have scarcely begun, and we find the implacable enemies of Jesus showing their hatred against Him: that hatred will soon work His death. But how is this? Have they not been witnesses of His wonderful works? True, but pride and jealousy have made them lose their senses. These faithless guardians of God’s Temple have seen Jesus exercise His authority in the holy place, and they opened not their lips; they were astonished at what He did, and they feared Him. They did not even protest when He called the Temple His house, for they were awed by His great virtue and superhuman power. But, these first impressions having subsided, their bold impiety returns. They hear the little children greeting our Saviour with Hosanna, and they are indignant. They affect to be shocked at this honour which is paid to the Son of David, who went about everywhere doing good. These doctors of the Law are blinded by passion, and can neither understand the prophecies, nor their fulfilment. It is the verification of the words of Isaias, which we have just been reading in the Epistle: they would not seek the Lord, while He was near them, and now that they are even speaking with Him, they do not recognise Him for their Messiah. Little children know him and bless Him; the sages of Israel see in Him but an enemy of God, and a Blasphemer! Let us, at least, profit by the visit He is now granting us; lest He should treat us, as He did the Chief Priests and Scribes, and leave us. He withdrew His presence from them, He went out of the city, and returned to Bethany, which was near Jerusalem. It was there that Lazarus was living with his two sisters, Martha and Mary Magdalene. Mary, the Mother of Jesus had, also, retired there, awaiting the terrible event. St. Jerome observes here, that the word Bethania signifies the Rouse of Obedience: this, says the holy Doctor, should remind us, that our Saviour withdraws from them who are rebels to His grace, and that he loves to be with them that are obedient. Let us learn the lesson well and, during these days of salvation, let us show, by our obedience to the Church and our submission to the guide of our conscience, that we are thoroughly convinced of this truth — that there is no salvation for us, except in humility and simplicity of heart.