1 NOVEMBER – TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

For the years when the number of the Sundays after Pentecost is only twenty-three, the Mass for today is taken from the twenty-fourth and last Sunday, and the Mass appointed for the twenty-third is said on the previous Saturday, or on the nearest day of the preceding week which is not impeded by a double or semi-double feast.

But under all circumstances the Antiphonary ends today. The Introits, Graduals, Communions and Postcommunions are to be repeated on each of the Sundays till Advent, which may be more or less in number, according to the Years. Our readers will remember how in the time of Saint Gregory Advent was longer than we now have it, and that in those days its weeks commenced in that part of the Cycle which is now occupied by the last Sundays after Pentecost. This is one of the reasons which explain there being a lack of liturgical riches in the composition of the dominical Masses which follow the twenty-third.

Even on this one, formerly, the Church, without losing sight of the Last Day, used to lend a thought to the new season which was fast approaching, the season, that is, of preparation for the great feast of Christmas. There used to be read as Epistle the following passage from Jeremias, which was afterwards, in several Churches, inserted in the Mass of the first Sunday of Advent:

“Behold! The days come, says the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch: and a King will reign, and will be wise: and will execute judgement and justice in the earth. In those days will Judah be saved, and Israel will dwell confidently: and this is the name that they will call Him: The Lord our Just One. Therefore, behold the days come, says the Lord, and they will say no more: The Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt! But: The Lord lives, who has brought out, and brought here, the seed of the house of Israel, from the land of the north, and out of all the lands, to which I had cast them forth! And they will dwell in their own land” (Jeremias xxiii. 5‒8).

As is evident, this passage is equally applicable to the conversion of the Jews and the restoration of Israel which are to take place at the end of the world. This was the view taken by the chief liturgists of the Middle Ages in order to explain thoroughly the Mass of the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost. First mentioning to our readers that originally the Gospel of this Sunday was that of the multiplication of the five loaves, let us listen to the profound and learned Abbot Rupert who, better than anyone, will teach us the mysteries of this day, which brings to a close the grand and varied Gregorian Melodies that we have been having during the whole year. “Holy Church,” says he, “is so intent on paying her debt of supplication, and prayer, and thanksgiving, for all men, as the Apostle demands (1 Timothy ii. 1), that we find her giving thanks also for the salvation of the children of Israel who she knows are one day to be united with her. And, as their remnants are to be saved at the end of the world (Romans ix. 27), so on this last Sunday of the Year she delights at having them just as though they were already her members! In the Introit, calling to mind the prophecies concerning them, she thus sings every Year: My thoughts are thoughts of peace, and not of affliction. Verily, His thoughts are those of peace, for he promises to admit to the banquet of His grace the Jews who are His brethren according to the flesh, thus realising what had been prefigured in the history of the patriarch Joseph. The brethren of Joseph, having sold him, came to him when they were tormented by hunger. For then he ruled over the whole land of Egypt. He recognised them, he received them, and made, together with them, a great feast. So too our Lord who is now reigning over the whole earth, and is giving the bread of life in abundance to the Egyptians, (that is, to the Gentiles), will see coming to Him the remnants of the children of Israel. He whom they had denied and put to death will admit them to His favour, will give them a place at His table, and the true Joseph will feast delightedly with his brethren.

The benefit of this divine Table is signified in the Office of this Sunday by the Gospel which tells us of our Lord’s feeding the multitude with five loaves. For it will be then that Jesus will open to the Jews the five books of Moses which are now "being carried whole and not yet broken — yes, carried by a child, that is to say, this people itself, who, up to that time will have been cramped up in the narrowness of a childish spirit. Then will be fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremias, which is so aptly placed before this Gospel: They will say no more: The Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt! But, the Lord lives, who has brought out the seed of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands into which they had been cast.

Thus delivered from the spiritual bondage which still holds them, they will sing with all their heart, the words of thanksgiving as we have them in the Gradual: You have saved us, Lord, from them that afflict us!”

Epistle – Philippians iii. 17‒21; iv. 1‒3

Brethren, be followers of me and observe them who walk so as you have our model. For many walk, of whom I have told you often (and now tell you weeping) that they are enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame: who mind earthly things. But our conversation is in heaven, from where also we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of His glory, according to the operation by which also He is able to subdue all things to Himself. Therefore, my dearly beloved brethren, and most desired, my joy, and my crown: so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beg of Evodia, and I beseech Syntyche, to be of one mind in the Lord. And I entreat you also, my sincere companion, help those women that have laboured with me in the Gospel, with Clement and the rest of my fellow labourers, whose names are in the book of life.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Clement whose name is here mentioned by the Apostle is that of Saint Peter’s second successor. Very frequently the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost comes close upon the feast of this great Pope and Martyr of the first century. Disciple of Paul and, later on, in close intimacy with Peter, and named by the Vicar of Christ as the fittest to succeed him in the apostolic chair, Clement, as we will see on the 23rd of November, was one of those Saints who in those early times were the most venerated by the Faithful. The mention made of him in the Office of the Time, just before his appearance on the Cycle of holy Church, excited the Christian people to joy and roused its fervour. It reminded them that one of their best and dearest protectors would soon be visiting them. At the time when Saint Paul was writing to the Philippians, Clement, who was long to survive the Apostles, was prominently one of those men spoken of in our Epistle, that is, one of the followers of those illustrious models who were called to perpetuate in the flock confided to their care (1 Peter v. 3) the pattern of holy living, and that, not so much by their zealous teaching, as by the force of example. The Church, the One true Bride of the divine Word, was known by the incommunicable privilege of possessing within her the Truth — not only its dead letter, but its ever living self, and this by her holiness. The Holy Ghost has not kept the books of sacred Scripture from passing into the hands of the sects separated from the centre of unity, but He has reserved to the Church the treasure of tradition which transmits, surely and fully, from one generation to another, the Word who is light and life (John i. 4). Yes, this tradition is kept up by the truth and holiness of the Man-God. They are ever existing in His members, they are ever tangible and visible in the Church (1 John i. 1). Holiness, which is inherent in the Church, is tradition in its purest and strongest form because it is the truth, not only preached, but reduced to action and work (1 Thessalonians ii. 13), as it was in Christ Jesus, and as it is in God (John v. 17). It is the deposit (1 Timothy vi. 20) which the disciples of the Apostles had the mission to hand faithfully down to their successors, just as the Apostles themselves had received it from the Word who had come upon the Earth.

Hence Saint Paul did not content himself with entrusting dogmatic teaching to his disciple Timothy (2 Timothy ii. 2). He said to him: “Be you an example to the Faithful, in word, and in living” (1 Timothy iv. 12). He said much the same to Titus: “Show yours elf an example of good works, in doctrine and in integrity of life” (Titus ii. 7). He repeated to all: “Be followers of me, as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians iv. 16). He sent Timothy to the Corinthians that he might remind them, or, where it was necessary, might teach them not only the dogmas of his Gospel, but, likewise, his ways in Christ Jesus, that is, his manner of life. For this manner of life of the Apostle was, in a certain measure, his teaching every where in all the Churches (1 Corinthians iv. 17), and he lauded the Faithful of Corinth for their being mindful to imitate him in all things, which was a keeping to the tradition of Christ (1 Corinthians xi. 1‒2). As for the Thessalonians, they had so thoroughly entered into this teaching, taken from their Apostle’s life, that, as Saint Paul says of them, they had become a pattern to all believers. This silent teaching of Christian revelation, which they showed forth in their conduct, made it superfluous for the messengers of the Gospel to say much (1 Thessalonians i. 5‒8).

The Church is a magnificent Temple which is built up, to the glory of God, by the living stones which let themselves be set into its walls. The constructing of those sacred walls, and on the plan laid down by Christ, is a work in which all are permitted to share. What one does by word (1 Corinthians xiv. 3), another does by good example (Romans xiv. 19). But both of them build, both of them edify the holy City. And as it was in the Apostolic Age, so always, example is more powerful than word unless that word be backed by the authority of holiness in him who speaks it: unless, that is, he leads a life according to the perfection taught by the Gospel. But, as the giving edification to those around him is an obligation incumbent on the Christian, an obligation imposed both by charity he owes to his neighbour and by the zeal he should have for the house of God,so, likewise, under pain of presumption, he should seek his own edification in the conduct of others. The reading of good books, the study of the Lives of the Saints, the observing, as our Epistle says, the respectfully observing those holy people with whom he lives — all this will be incalculable aid to him in the work of his own personal sanctification and in the fulfilment of God’s purposes in his regard.

This devout intercourse with the elect of Earth and Heaven will keep us away from men who are enemies of the Cross of Christ and mind earthly things, and put their happiness in carnal pleasures. It will make our conversation be in Heaven. Preparing for the day which cannot now be far off —the day of the Coming of our Lord — we will stand fast in Him, in spite of the falling off of so many among us who, by the current of the world’s fashion, are hurried into perdition. The troubles and sufferings of the last times will but intensify our hope in God, for they will make us long all the more ardently for the happy day when our Redeemer will appear and complete the work of the salvation of His servants by imparting, to their very flesh, the brightness of His own divine Body. Let us, as our Apostle says, be of one mind in the Lord. And, then, as he bids his dear Philippians do, let us rejoice in the Lord always, yes, let us rejoice, for, the Lord is near (Philippians iv. 4, 5).

Gospel – Matthew ix. 18‒26

At that time Jesus was speaking to the multitude. Behold a certain ruler came up and adored Him, saying: “Lord, my daughter is even now dead. But come lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus rising up followed him, with His disciples. And behold a woman who was troubled with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind Him, and touched the hem of His garment. For she said within herself: “If I will touch only his garment I will be healed.” But Jesus turning and seeing her, said: “Be of good heart, daughter, your faith has made you whole.” And the woman was made whole from that hour. And when Jesus was come into the house of the ruler, and saw the minstrels and the multitude making a rout, He said: “Give place: for the girl is not dead, but sleeps.” And they laughed Him to scorn. And when the multitude was put forth, He went in and took her by the hand. And the maid arose. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that country.

Praise to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Although the choice of this Gospel for the twenty-third Sunday has not great antiquity on its side, yet is it in most perfect keeping with the post-pentecostal Liturgy and confirms what we have stated, relative to the character of this portion of the Church’s Year. Saint Jerome tells us, in the homily selected for the day, that the Hemorrhoissa healed by our Lord is a type of the Gentile world, while the Jewish people is represented by the daughter of the Ruler of the Synagogue. This latter is not to be restored to life until the former has been cured. And this is precisely the mystery we are so continually commemorating during these closing weeks of the Liturgical Year — the fullness of the Gentiles recognising and welcoming the divine Physician, and the blindness of Israel at last giving way to the Light (Romans xi. 25).

We have celebrated, during this Year of Grace, all the grand Mysteries of the Redemption, and this ought to enable us to appreciate the glorious economy, as the Fathers love to call what we admire under another name. The spirit of the Church’s Liturgy at this close of her and our Year, lets us see the world as though its end were come. It looks as though it were sinking away down into some deep abyss — and yet, no. It is only that it may shake off the wicked from its surface, and then it will come up again blooming in light and love. All this has been the divine reality of the Year of Grace we have had put before us, yes, and in us, by our sweet Mother the Church. And now we are, or ought to be, in a mood to feel a thrill of admiration at the mysterious yet, at the same time, the strong and sweet ways of eternal Wisdom (Wisdom viii. 1). At the beginning, when Man was first created, sin soon followed, breaking up the harmony of God’s beautiful world and throwing man off the divine path where his Creator had placed him. Time and wickedness went on till there was a family on which God’s mercy fell. The light which beamed on that privileged favourite only showed the plainer the thick darkness in which the rest of mankind was vegetating. The Gentiles, abandoned to their misery — all the more terrible because they had caused it and loved it — saw God’s favours all bestowed on Israel, while themselves were disregarded and wished to be so. Even when the time came for original sin to be remedied, it seemed as though that was just the time for the final reprobation of the Gentiles — for the salvation that came down from Heaven in the person of the Man-God was seen to be exclusively directed towards the Jews and the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew xv. 24).

But the people that had been treated with so much predilection, and whose Fathers and first Rulers had so ardently prayed for the coming of the Messiah, was no longer up to the position made for it by the holy patriarchs and prophets. Its beautiful religion, founded as it was on desire and hope, was then nothing but a sterile expectancy which kept it motionless and unable to advance a single step towards its Redeemer. As to its Law, Israel then minded nothing but the letter and, at last, turned it into a mummy of sectarian formalism. Now, while in spite of all this sinful apathy it was mad with jealousy, pretending that no one else had any right to Heaven’s favours, the Gentile, whose ever increasing misery urged him to go in search of some deliverer, found one and recognised him in Jesus the Saviour of the world. He was confident that this Jesus could cure him, so he took the bold initiative, went up to Him, and had the merit of being the first to be healed. True, our Lord had treated him with an apparent disdain, but that had only had the effect of intensifying his humility, and humility has a power of making way anywhere, even into Heaven itself (Ecclesiasticus xxxv. 21).

Israel, therefore, was now made to wait. One of the Psalms he sang, ran thus: “Ethiopia will be the first to stretch out her hands to God” (Psalm lxvii. 32). It is now the turn for Israel to recover, by the pangs of a long abandonment, the humility which had won the divine promises for his Fathers, the humility which alone could merit his seeing those promises fulfilled. By this time, however, the word of salvation has made itself heard throughout all the nations, healing and saving all who desired the blessing. Jesus, who had been delayed on the road, came at last to the house towards which He first purposed to direct His sacred steps. He reached, at last, the house of Judah where the daughter of Sion was in a deep sleep. She is in it still! His almighty compassion drives away from the poor abandoned one the crowd of false teachers and lying prophets who had sent her into that mortal sleep, by all the noise of their vain babbling: He casts forth forever from her house those insulters of His own divine self who were quite resolved to keep the dead one dead. Taking the poor daughter by the hand, He restores her to life, and to all the charm of her first youth, proving thus that her apparent death had been but a sleep, and that the long delay of dreary ages could never belie the word of God which He had given to Abraham, His servant (Luke i. 54, 55).

Now therefore, let this world of ours hold itself in readiness for its final transformation, for the tidings of the restoration of the daughter of Sion puts the last seal to the accomplishment of the prophecies. It remains now but for the graves to give back their dead (Daniel xii. 1, 2). The valley of Josaphat is preparing for the great meeting of the nations (Joel iii. 2). Mount Olivet is once more (Acts i. 11) to have Jesus standing upon it, but this time as Lord and Judge! (Zacharias xiv. 4).

1 NOVEMBER – ALL SAINTS

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The bells ring out as joyously as on the brightest days. They announce the great solemnity of the closing Cycle. The feast which shows us time stamped with the impress of eternity, and God taking possession of the declining year and gathering in its harvest. At the sound of their triumphant and harmonious peals, the Church, prostrate and fasting since morning, raises her brow to the light. Guided by Saint John, she penetrates the secrets of Heaven and the words of the Beloved Disciple, uttered by her lips, assume a tone of incomparable enthusiasm. This feast is truly the triumph of her motherhood, for the great crowd of the blessed before the throne of the Lamb are the sons and daughters she alone has given to the Lord.

When Rome had completed the conquest of the world she dedicated to all the gods, in token of her gratitude, the Pantheon, the most durable monument of her power. But when she herself had been conquered by Christ, and invested by Him with the empire over souls, she withdrew her homage from vain idols and offered it to the Martyrs for they, praying for her as she slew them, had rendered her truly eternal. To the martyrs then, and to Mary their Queen, she consecrated forever, on the morrow of her merciful chastisement, the now purified Pantheon. “Come forth from your dwellings, ye Saints of God, hasten to the place prepared for you.” For three centuries the catacombs were the resting place of our Lord’s athletes when they were borne from the arena. These valiant warriors deserved the honours of a triumph far better than did the great victors of old. In 312, however, Rome disarmed but not yet changed in heart, was not at all disposed to applaud the men who had conquered the gods of Olympus and of the Capitol. While the Cross surmounted her ramparts, the white-robed army still lay entrenched in the subterranean crypts that surrounded the city like so many outworks. Three centuries more were granted to Rome that she might make satisfaction to God’s justice and take full cognizance of the salvation reserved for her by His mercy. In 609 the patient work of grace was completed. The Sovereign Pontiff Boniface IV uttered the word for the sacred crypts to yield up their treasures. It was a solemn moment, a fore-runner of that in which the Angel’s trumpet call will sound over the sepulchres of the world. The successor of Saint Peter, in all his apostolic majesty and surrounded by an immense crowd, presented himself at the entrance of the catacombs. He was attended by eighteen chariots magnificently adorned for the conveyance of the martyrs. The ancient triumphal way opened before the Saints. The sons of the Quirites sang in their honour: “You will come with joy and proceed with gladness for behold, the mountains and the hills exult, awaiting you with joy. Arise, ye Saints of God, come forth from your hiding places. Enter into Rome, which is now the holy city. Bless the Roman people following you to the temple of the false gods, which is now dedicated as your own church, there to adore together with you the majesty of the Lord.”

Thus, after six centuries of persecution and destruction, the martyrs had the last word, and it was a word of blessing, a signal of grace for the great city hitherto drunk with the blood of Christians. More than rehabilitated by the reception she was giving to the witnesses of Christ, she was now not merely Rome, but the new Sion, the privileged city of the Lord. She now burned before the Saints the incense they had refused to offer to her idols. Their blood had flowed before the very altar on which she now invited them to rest since the usurpers had been hurled back into the abyss. It was a happy inspiration that induced her, when she dedicated to the holy martyrs the temple built by Marcus Agrippa and restored by Severus Augustus, to leave on its pediment the names of its primitive constructors and the title they had given it, for then only did the famous monument truly merit its name when Christian Rome could apply to the new inhabitants of the Pantheon those words of the Psalm: “I have said, you are gods” (Psalm lxxxi. 6). The thirteenth of May was the day of their triumphant installation.

Every dedication on Earth reminds the Church, as she herself tells us, of the assembly of the Saints, the living stones of the eternal dwelling which God is building for Himself in Heaven. It is not astonishing, then, that the dedication of Agrippa’s Pantheon under the above-mentioned circumstances should have originated the feast of today. Its anniversary, recalling the memory of the martyrs collectively, satisfied the Church’s desire of honouring year by year all her blessed sons who had died for the Lord: for, at an early date it became impossible to celebrate each of them on the day of His glorious death. In the age of peace there was added to the cultus of the martyrs that of the other just who daily sanctified themselves in all the paths of heroism opened out to Christian courage. The thought of uniting these with the former in one common solemnity which would supply for the unavoidable omission of many of them, followed naturally on the initiative given by Boniface IV. In 732, in the first half of that eighth century which was such a grand age for the Church, Gregory III dedicated, at Saint Peter’s on the Vatican, an oratory in honour of the Saviour, of His blessed Mother, of the holy Apostles, of all the holy Martyrs, Confessors and perfect Just who repose throughout the world. A dedication under so extensive a title did not, it is true, imply the establishment of our feast of All Saints by the illustrious Pontiff. Yet from this period it began to be celebrated by divers churches, and that too on the first of November, as is attested with regard to England by Venerable Bede’s Martyrology and the Pontifical of Egbert of York. It was far, however, from being universal when in the year 835 Louis le Debonnaire, at the request of Gregory IV and with the consent of all the bishops of his realm, made its celebration obligatory by law. This decree was welcomed by the whole Church and adopted as her own, says Ado, with reverence and love.

The councils of Spain and Gaul, as early as the sixth century, mention a custom then existing of sanctifying the commencement of November by three days of penance and litanies like the Rogation days which precede the feast of our Lord’s Ascension. The fast on the Vigil of All Saints is the only remaining vestige of this custom of our forefathers who, after the institution of the feast, advanced the triduum of penance, so as to make it a preparation for the solemnity itself. “Let our devotion be complete,” is the recommendation of a contemporaneous author. “Let us prepare ourselves for this most holy solemnity by three days of fasting, prayer and almsdeeds.”

When extended to the entire world the feast became complete. It was made equal to the greatest solemnities and widened its horizon till it reached the infinite, embracing uncreated as well as created sanctity. Its object was now not only Mary and the martyrs: not only all the just children of Adam, but moreover the nine choirs of Angels, and above all the Holy Trinity Itself, God who is all in all, the King of kings, that is, of the Saints, the God of gods in Sion. Hear how the Church awakes her children on this day: “Come let us adore the Lord, the King of kings, for He is the crown of all the Saints.” Such was the invitation addressed by our Lord himself to Saint Mechtilde, the chantress of Helfta, the privileged one of His divine Heart: “Praise me, for that I am the crown of all the Saints.” The virgin then beheld all the beauty of the elect and their glory drawing increase from the Blood of Christ, and resplendent with the virtues practised by Him. And responding to our Lord’s appeal, she praised with all her might the blissful and ever adorable Trinity for deigning to be to the Saints their diadem and their admirable dignity.

Dante too describes Beatrice in the highest Heaven, forming her crown of the reflection of the eternal rays. “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,” sang the inhabitants of Paradise with one voice. “I seemed,” says the sublime poet, “to behold a smile of the universe. The kingdom of bliss, with all its people both ancient and new, turned look and love all towards one point. O triple light, which shining in a single star does so delight them, look down upon our tempests!” (Dante, Paradiso, xxvii, xxxi.)

The Greeks honour with us, on one common solemnity, “all the Saints of all the countries on Earth, of Asia, Libya, and Europe, of North and South.” But, whereas the West celebrates at the close of the year a feast which represents the gathering of the harvest into our heavenly Father’s granary, the East keeps it on the first Sunday after Pentecost in that spring time of the Church when, under the action of the Holy Ghost, sanctity was everywhere beginning to blossom. We find it thus as early as the fourth century, for it was on this first Sunday after Pentecost, which with us Latins is now the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, that Saint John Chrysostom pronounced his discourse in honour of “all the Martyrs, who have suffered throughout the world.”

In the West also as we have seen, the origin of All Saints’ feast was this general commemoration of the Martyrs. This latter was placed by some Eastern churches on the Friday within the Octave of Easter. It was a happy thought thus to associate the confession of Christ’s witnesses with the victory over death won by Him, whose divine confession before Pontius Pilate had been an example and a support to them in presence of their executioners. Indeed Rome herself had had the same inspiration when she made her solemn commemoration of the Martyrs in the beginning of May, and she still reserves to the Martyrs and Apostles the honour of having a special Office for the whole of Paschal Time.

Ancient documents referring to this day inform us that on the Calends of November the same eagerness was shown as at Christmas to assist at the holy Sacrifice. However general the Feast was, or rather because of its universality, was it not the special joy of everyone, and the honour of Christian families? Taking a holy pride in the persons whose virtues they handed down to posterity, they considered the heavenly glory of their ancestors who had perhaps been unknown in the world to be a higher nobility than any earthly dignity. Faith was lively in those days, and Christians seized the opportunity of this feast to make amends for the neglect, voluntary or involuntary, suffered during the year by the blessed inscribed on the general Calendar. In the famous Bull Transiturus de hoc mundo, by which he established the feast of Corpus Christi, Urban IV mentions this as one of the motives that had led to the prior institution of All Saints, and expresses a hope that the new solemnity may in like manner compensate for the distractions and coldness of the rest of the year towards this divine Sacrament in which He resides who is the crown and the glory of all Saints.

Epistle – Apocalypse vii. 2‒12

In those days, behold I, John, saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the sign of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, “Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we sign the servants of our God on their foreheads.” And I heard the number of them that were signed: an hundred forty-four thousand were signed, of every tribe of the children of Israel. Of the tribe of Judah were twelve thousand signed: of the tribe of Ruben twelve thousand signed: of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand signed: of the tribe of Aser twelve thousand signed: of the tribe of Nephthali twelve thousand signed: of the tribe of Mianasses twelve thousand signed: of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand signed: of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand signed: of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand signed: of the tribe of Zabulon twelve thousand signed: of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand signed: of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand signed. After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and they cried with a loud voice saying: “Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb.” And all the angels stood round about the throne, and the ancients, and the four living creatures; and they fell down before the throne upon their faces, and adored God, saying: “Amen. Benediction, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, honour, and power, and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

At the time of His birth the Man-God, through the instrumentality of Caesar Augustus, took a census of the world. It was fitting that on the eve of the Redemption the statistics of the human race should be officially registered. And now it is time to make a fresh enrolment, and to enter in the Book of Life the results of the work of Redemption. “Wherefore this numbering of the world at the time of our Lord’s birth,” says Saint Gregory in one of the Christmas homilies, “save for this manifest reason, that He was appearing in the Flesh, who is to register the elect in eternity?” But, many having withdrawn themselves by their own fault from the benefit of the first enrolment which included all men in the ranks of those to be redeemed, there was need of a second and definitive registration which should cancel the names of the guilty. “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and with the just let them not be written” (Psalm lxviii. 29). such are the words of the Psalmist quoted by Saint Gregory in the above-mentioned homily.

Today, however, the Church is too full of joy to think of any but the elect. They alone take part in the glorious close of human history described in the Epistle. Indeed, they alone are reckoned before God: the reprobate are but the waste of a world where sanctity alone responds to the Creator’s advances, to the ventures of His infinite love. Let our souls be supple to receive the divine stamp which is to render us conformable to the image of the Only-begotten Son, and mark us out as God’s coin. Whoever is unwilling to receive the divine impress will inevitably be marked with the character of the beast (Apocalypse xiii. 16) and when the Angels come to make the final settlement, every coin unfit to bear the divine stamp will fall into the furnace, where the dross will burn eternally.

Gospel – Matthew v. 1‒12

At that time, Jesus, seeing the multitudes, went up into a mountain. And when He was set down His disciples came to Him. And opening His mouth, He taught them saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they will possess the land. Blessed are they that mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, for they will have their fill. Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God. Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when they will revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in Heaven.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Earth is so near to Heaven today that the one thought which fills all hearts is happiness. The Friend, the Bridegroom, the divine Brother of Adam’s children, comes and sits down among them, and talks of blessedness: “Come to me all you that labour and suffer,” sang the Alleluia Verse, that sweet echo from our fatherland reminding us withal of our exile. And immediately in the Gospel appears the goodness and kindness of God our Saviour. Let us listen to Him, teaching us the ways of blessed hope, the holy delights which are at once an assurance and a foretaste of the perfect bliss of Heaven.

On Sinai Jehovah held the Jew at a distance, giving him precepts under pain of death. On the summit of this other mountain where the Son of God is seated how differently the Law of love is promulgated! In the New Testament the eight beatitudes have taken the place occupied in the Old by the Decalogue graven on stone. Not that the beatitudes repeal the Commandments, but their superabundant justice goes far beyond all prescriptions. It is from His Heart that Jesus brought them forth in order to imprint them, more lastingly than on stone, in the hearts of His people. They are the portrait of the Son of Man, the summary of our Redeemer’s life. Look then and do “according to the pattern that was shown you in the mount” (Exodus xxv. 40).

Poverty was the first mark of our God in Bethlehem and who ever appeared so meek as Mary’s child? Who wept for more noble causes than He in His crib, where He was already expiating our sins and appeasing His Father? They that hunger after justice, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers: where, save in Him, will they find the incomparable ideal, never attained yet ever imitable? And by His death He became the leader of all those who are persecuted for justice’ sake. In this the highest beatitude on Earth, the Incarnate Word takes delight, returning upon it, detailing it and closing with it in today’s Gospel as with a song of ecstasy. The Church has never had any other ideal. She has ever walked in the footsteps of her Spouse, and her history, throughout the ages, has been but the prolonged echo of the Beatitudes. Let us also understand that we may be blessed both in this world and in the next, let us follow our Lord and the Church.

31 OCTOBER – VIGIL OF ALL SAINTS ( ALL HALLOWS EVE)

 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us prepare our souls for the graces Heaven is about to shower upon the Earth in return for its homage. Tomorrow the Church will be so overflowing with joy that she will seem to be already in possession of eternal happiness. But today she appears in the garb of penance, confessing that she is still an exile. Let us fast and pray with her, for are not we too pilgrims and strangers in this world where all things are fleeting and hurry on to death? Year by year, as the great solemnity comes round, it has gathered from among our former companions new saints who bless our tears and smile upon our songs of hope. Year by year the appointed time draws nearer when we ourselves, seated at the heavenly banquet, will receive the homage of those who succeed us, and hold out a helping hand to draw them after us to the home of everlasting happiness. Let us learn, from this very hour, to emancipate our souls. Let us keep our hearts free in the midst of the vain solicitudes and false pleasures of a strange land: the exile has no care but his banishment, no joy but that which gives him a foretaste of his fatherland.

With these thoughts in mind, let us say with the Church the Collect of the Vigil:

O LORD our God, multiply your grace on us, and grant us in our holy profession to follow the joy of those whose glorious solemnity we anticipate. Through our Lord...

Let us close this month, as we opened it, by homage to Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary, and Queen of all the Saints. The ancient Dominican Missals furnish us with a formula.

In the virginal garden, the young shoots of spring push forth, and burst into blossom with fruitful abundance. The frost and the winter have passed away, the snow and the rain are over, and roses spring up on earth from a heavenly seed.

The rose has produced a lily. During the whole time of her exile she gathered the produce of her Son’s garden: Joy for the just, and justification for sinners, glory for the elect, salvation for all.

The gifts Christ brought from Heaven, and the sufferings He endured on Earth, He bestowed upon the world when He overcame the world. He sheltered under the rose tree’s foliage, He was wounded by the thorns, He was crowned with its flowers. Thus does he call us, purify us, reward us.

Because of the leaves and thorns and flowers of the rose, we will enjoy the delights of that rich land where she, the fair cultivator, resides, the empress who joyfully presides over our militant companies, and over the nine choirs of the triple hierarchy.

Hail you, who by a new triumph repairs the loss we sustained when the enemy triumphed in the first combat. See how again he threatens fierce revenge. Unless you oppose him, every Christian must perish.

Hail, home of the Word, sanctuary of the Holy Ghost, daughter of the most high Father! In the various perils of this life, bring us unfailing assistance against the darts of the enemy. May lilies intertwined with roses from the garden of Heaven be our crown of victory after the combat. Amen.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, the birthday of blessed Nemesius, deacon, and his daughter, the virgin Lucilla. As they could not be prevailed upon to abandon the faith of Christ, they were beheaded on the twenty-fifth of August by order of the emperor Valerian. Their bodies were buried by the blessed Pope Stephen, and afterwards more decently entombed on this day, on the Via Appia, by blessed Pope Sixtus. Pope Gregory V translated them into the sacristy of Santa Maria Nova, together with the Saints Symphronius, Olympius, tribune, Exuperia, his wife, and Theodulus, his son, who, being all converted by the exertions of Symphronius, and baptised by the same St. Stephen, had been crowned with martyrdom. These holy bodies were found there during the pontificate of Pope Gregory XIII, and placed more honourably beneath the altar of the same church on the eighth of December.

The same day, the Saints Ampliatus, Urbanus and Narcissus, who are mentioned by the blessed Apostle St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans. They were put to death by the Jews and Gentiles for the Gospel of Christ.

At Saint-Quentin in France, St. Quinctinus, Roman citizen and senator, who endured martyrdom under the emperor Maximian. By the revelation of an angel, his body was found uncorrupt after the lapse of fifty-five years.

At Constantinople, St. Stachis, bishop, who was consecrated first bishop of that city by the blessed Apostle St. Andrew.

At Milan, St. Antoninus, bishop and confessor.

At Ratisbon, St. Wolfgang, bishop.

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

Thanks be to God.

30 OCTOBER – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Africa, the birthday of two hundred and twenty holy martyrs.

At Tangier in Morocco, St. Marcellus, a centurion, who endured martyrdom by being beheaded under the vice-prefect Agricolaus.

At Alexandria, in the reign of Decius, thirteen holy martyrs who suffered with Saints Julian, Eunus and Macarius.

In the same place, St. Eutropia, martyr, who visited the martyrs, and was so cruelly tortured with them that she breathed her last.

At Cagliari in Sardinia, St. Saturninus, martyr, who was beheaded under the governor Barbarus during the persecution of Diocletian.

At Apamea in Phrygia, St. Maximus, martyr, under the same Diocletian.

At Leon in Spain, the holy martyrs Claudius, Lupercus and Victorius, sons of the centurion St. Marcellus, who were condemned to decapitation in the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian under the governor Diogenian.

At Ægea in Cilicia, the martyrdom of the Saints Zenobius, bishop, and Zenobia, his sister, under the emperor Diocletian and the governor Lysias.

At Altino, St. Theonestus, bishop and martyr, who was killed by the Arians.

At Paris, St. Lucanus, martyr.

At Antioch, St. Serapion, a bishop very celebrated for his learning.

At Capua, St. Germanus, bishop and confessor, a man of great sanctity, whose soul, at the hour of death, was seen by St. Benedict taken to heaven by angels.

At Potenza in Basilicata, St. Gerard, bishop.

At Palma on the island of Majorca, St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, a lay brother of the Society of Jesus, who Pope Leo XII beatified and Pope Leo XIII canonised on account of his remarkable humility and constant love of mortification.

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

Thanks be to God.

29 OCTOBER – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Lucania, the holy martyrs Hyacinthus, Quinctus, Felician and Lucius.

At Sidon in Phoenicia, St. Zenobius, a priest. While the last persecution was raging, by exhorting others to martyrdom, he was himself deemed worthy of it.

The same day, the holy bishops Maximilian, martyr, and Valentine, confessor.

At Bergamo, St. Eusebia, virgin and martyr.

At Jerusalem, the birthday of blessed Narcissus, a bishop distinguished for holiness, patience and faith, who went to the kingdom of God at the age of one hundred and sixteen years.

At Autun, St. John, bishop and confessor.

At Cassiope on the island of Corfu, St. Donatus, mentioned by Pope St. Gregory.

At Vienne, the departure from this world of blessed Theodore, abbot.

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

Thanks be to God.

28 OCTOBER – SAINTS SIMON AND JUDE (Apostles and Martyrs)

 St Jude Thaddaeus

 

The Apostle Simon was called “Simon the Zealot” for his zeal for the Jewish law. Another of the Twelve, the brother of Saint James the Lesser, and therefore related by blood to Jesus as a cousin, Jude (Thaddaeus or Lebbeaus) is the author of the canonical Epistle. According to tradition he and Simon preached the Gospel in Persia and suffered martyrdom together there.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“Instead of your fathers, sons are born to you” (Psalm xliv. 17). Thus does the Church disowned by Israel extol in her chants the apostolic fruitfulness which resides in her till the end of time. Yesterday she was already filled with that loving hope, which is never deceived, that the holy Apostles Simon and Jude would anticipate their solemnity by shedding blessings on her. Such is the condition of her existence on Earth that she can remain here only as long as she continues to give children to our Lord. And therefore in the Mass of the 27th October she makes us read the passage of the Gospel where it is said: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bears not fruit, He will take away: and every one that bears fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (John xv. 1‒7).

The pruning is painful, as the Epistle of the Vigil points out. In the name of the other branches, honoured like himself with the divine election, the Apostle there recounts the labours, sufferings of every description, persecutions, revilings, denials (1 Corinthians iv. 9‒14), at the cost of which the preacher of the Gospel purchases the right to call sons those whom he has begotten in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians iv. 9‒15). Now, as Saint Paul more than once repeats, especially in the Epistle of the feast, this supernatural veneration of the Saints is nothing else but the mystical reproduction of the Son of God who grows up in each of the elect from infancy to the measure of the perfect man (Galatians iv. 19; Ephesians iv.).

However meagre in details be the history of these glorious Apostles, we learn from their brief legend how amply they contributed to this great work of generating sons of God. Without any repose, and even to the shedding of their blood, they edified the Body of Christ, and the grateful Church thus prays to our Lord today: “O God, who by means of your blessed Apostles Simon and Jude has granted us to come to the knowledge of your name, grant that we may celebrate their eternal glory by making progress in virtues and improve by this celebration.”

Saint Simon is represented in art with a saw, the instrument of his martyrdom. Saint Jude’s square points him out as an architect of the house of God. Saint Paul called himself by this name (1 Corinthians iii. 10) and Saint Jude, by his Catholic Epistle, has also a special right to be reckoned among our Lord’s principal workmen. But our Apostle had another nobility, far surpassing all earthly titles: being nephew, by his father Cleophas or Alpheus, to Saint Joseph, and legal cousin to the Man-God, Jude was one of those called by their compatriots the brethren of the carpenter’s son (Together with James the Less, Apostle and first Bishop of Jerusalem, a certain Joseph less known, and Simeon, second Bishop of Jerusalem, all sons of Cleophas, and of our Lady’s step-sister called in Saint John Mary of Cleophas. Matthew xiii. 65).

We may gather from Saint John’s Gospel another precious detail concerning him. In the admirable discourse at the close of the Last Supper, our Lord said: “He that loves me, will be loved of my Father: and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.” Then Jude asked Him: “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” And he received from Jesus this reply: “If any one loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him. He that loves me not, keeps not my words. And the word which you have heard is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me” (John xiv. 21‒24).

Ecclesiastical history informs us that towards the end of his reign, and when the persecution be had raised was at its height, Domitian caused to be brought to him from the East two grandsons of the Apostle Saint Jude. He had some misgivings with regard to these descendants of David’s royal line, for they represented the family of Christ Himself whom His disciples declared to be king of the whole world. Domitian was able to assure himself that these two humble Jews could in no way endanger the Empire, and that if they attributed to Christ sovereign power, it was a power not to be visibly exercised till the end of the world. The simple and courageous language of these two men made such an impression on the emperor that, according to the historian Hegesippus from whom Eusebius borrowed the narrative, he gave orders for the persecution to be suspended.

We have only to add to the following brief notice of our Apostles, that the churches of Saint Peter in Rome and Saint Sernin at Toulouse dispute the honour of possessing the greater part of their holy remains.

“I have chosen you, and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain” (John xv. 16). These words were addressed by the Man-God to you, as to all the twelve, as the Church reminded us in her Night Office. And yet, what remains now of the fruit of your labours in Egypt, in Mesopotamia, in Persia? Can our Lord and His Church be mistaken in their words or in their appreciations? Certainly not, and proof sufficient is that, above the region of the senses and beyond the domain of history, the power infused into the twelve subsists through all the ages and is active in every supernatural birth that develops the mystical Body of our Lord and increases the Church. We, more truly than Tobias, are the children of saints (Tobias ii. 18). We are no longer strangers, but the family of God, His house built on the foundation of Apostles and Prophets, united by Jesus the chief corner-stone (Ephesians ii. 19, 20).

* * * * *

All thanks be to you, O holy Apostles, who in labour and suffering procured us this blessing. Maintain in us the title and the rights of this precious adoption. Great evils surround us. Is there any hope left to the world? The confidence of your devout clients proclaims you, O Jude, the patron of desperate cases. And for you, O Simon, this is surely the time to prove yourself Zealots, full of zeal. Deign, both of you, to hear the Church’s prayers and aid her, with all your apostolic might, to re-animate faith, to rekindle charity and to save the world.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, in the reign of Claudius, St. Cyrilla, virgin, daughter of St. Tryphonia, who was pierced through the throat for the faith of Christ.

In the same city, the holy martyrs Anastasia the Elder, virgin, and Cyril. In the persecution of Valerian under the prefect Probus, Anastasia was bound with chains, buffeted, subjected to fire and scourging, and, as she remained immovable in the confession of Christ, her breasts were cut off, her nails plucked out, her teeth broken, and her hands, feet and head severed from her body. Bedecked with her sufferings as with so many jewels, she went to her spouse. At her request, Cyril gave her some water to drink, and for his reward became a martyr.

At Como, St. Fidelis, martyr, under the emperor Maximian.

At Mayence, St. Ferrutius, martyr.

At Meaux, St. Faro, bishop and confessor.

At Naples, St. Gaudiosus, an African bishop, who came to Campania because of the persecution of the Vandals, and closed peacefully his holy career in a monastery near that city.

At Vercelli, St. Honoratus, bishop.

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

Thanks be to God.

27 OCTOBER – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

The Vigil of the holy Apostles Saints Simon and Jude.

At Avila in Spain, the Saints Vincent, Sabina and Christeta, who were first stretched on the rack in such a manner that all their limbs were dislocated. Then stones being laid on their heads, and their brains beaten out with heavy bars, they terminated their martyrdom under the governor Dacian.

At Tilchatel, St. Florentius, martyr.

In Cappadocia, the holy martyrs Capitolina, and Erotheides, her handmaid, who suffered under Diocletian.

In India, St. Frumentius, bishop. While he was a captive there he was consecrated bishop by St. Athanasius and preached the Gospel in that country.

In Ethiopia, St. Elesbaan, king, who, after having defeated the enemies of Christ and sent his royal diadem to Jerusalem in the time of the emperor Justin, led a monastical life, as he had vowed, and went to his reward.

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

Thanks be to God.

26 OCTOBER – SAINT EVARISTUS (Pope and Martyr)

Evaristus was born in Greece of a Jewish father. Leaving his native town at a very early age, he went to Rome to study and distinguished himself by his piety and learning. When he succeeded Pope Saint Clement I to the See of Peter he ordered that marriages should be celebrated publicly and with priestly benediction, and that no bishop should preach without the assistance of seven deacons. In three or four ordinations he created 5 bishops, 6 (or according to some authors 17) priests and 2 deacons. He governed the Church 9 years and 3 months. Evaristus was martyred in 109 AD during the reign of Trajan and was interred in the Vatican cemetery near Saint Peter and his other successors.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Beloved Disciple had just received the long-promised visit of our Lord inviting him to Heaven when the Church under Evaristus completed the drawing up of the itinerary for her long pilgrimage to the end of time. The blessed period of the apostolic times was definitively closed but the Eternal City continued to augment her treasure of glory. Under this pontificate the virgin Domitilla, by her martyrdom, cemented the foundations of the new Jerusalem with the blood of the Flavii who had destroyed the old. Then Ignatius of Antioch brought to the Church that presides in charity, the testimony of his death. He was the wheat of Christ, and the teeth of the wild beasts in the Colosseum satisfied his desire of becoming a most pure bread.

* * * * *

You are the first Pontiff to whom the Church entrusted after the departure of all those who had seen the Lord. The world could then say in all strictness: “If we have known Christ according to the flesh, now we know Him so no longer” (2 Corinthians v. 16). The Church was now more truly an exile. At that period, which was not without perils and anxieties, her Spouse gave to you the charge of teaching her to pursue alone her path of faith and hope and love. And you did not betray the confidence of our Lord. Earth owes you on this account a special gratitude, O Evaristus, and a special reward is doubtless yours. Watch still over Rome and the Church. Teach us that we might be ready not only to fast here on Earth, but to resigned to the absence of the Bridegroom when He hides Himself, and not the less to serve Him and love Him with our whole heart and mind and soul and strength, as long as the world endures and He is pleased to leave us in it.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Africa, the holy martyrs Rogatian, priest, and Felicissimus, who received the bright crown of martyrs in the persecution of Valerian and Gallienus. They are mentioned by St. Cyprian in his Epistle to the Confessors.

At Nicomedia, the holy martyrs Lucian, Florius and their companions.

The same day, St. Quodvultdeus, bishop of Carthage. By the Arian king Genseric, he and his clergy were put on board of leaking boats without oars or sails, but beyond all expectations he landed at Naples and there in exile died a confessor.

At Narbonne, St. Rusticus, bishop and confessor, who flourished in the time of the emperors Valentinian and Leo.

At Salerno, St. Gaudiosus, bishop.

At Pavia, St. Fulk, bishop.

At Hildesheim in Saxony, St. Bernward, bishop and confessor, who was ranked among the saints by Pope Celestine III.

Also St. Quadragesimus, sub-deacon, who raised a dead man to life.

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

Thanks be to God.