29 MAY – SAINT MARY MAGDALENE OF PAZZI (Virgin)

Caterina de' Pazzi was born into a noble family in 1566. At the age of 16 she entered the Carmelite Convent of Our Lady of the Angels in Florence and took the name Maria Magdalena. There she became a model of every virtue. Such was her purity that she ignored everything opposed to it. She received a command from God (which she fulfilled) of fasting on bread and water for five years, except on Sundays on which she might partake of a Lenten diet.

 

She mortified her body by a hair-shirt, discipline, cold, abstinence, watching, want and every kind of suffering. Such was the ardour of divine love that burned within her that, not being able to bear the heat, she was obliged to temper it by applying cold water to her breast. She was frequently in a state of rapture, and the wonderful ecstasies she had were almost daily. In these states she was permitted to penetrate into heavenly mysteries, and was favoured by God with extraordinary graces. Thus strengthened, she had to endure a long combat with the princes of darkness, and aridity and desolation of spirit, abandonment by all creatures, and various temptations: God so willed it that she might become a model of invincible patience and profound humility.

She was remarkable for her charity towards others. She would often sit up all night, doing the work of the Sisters or in waiting on the sick whose sores she sometimes healed by sucking their wounds. She wept bitterly over the perdition of infidels and sinners, and offered to suffer every sort of torment so that they might be saved.

Several years before her death she heroically besought Jesus to take from her the heavenly delights with which He favoured her, and was frequently heard saying, “To suffer, not to die.” Worn out by a long and painful illness, she died on the twenty-fifth of May in 1607 at the age of 41. Many miracles having been wrought by her merits, both before and after death, she was beatified by Pope Urban VIII and was canonised in 1669 by Pope Clement IX.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Our Paschal Calendar gives us three illustrious virgins of the beautiful Italy. We have already kept the feast of the valiant Catherine of Siena. In a few days we will be honouring the memory of Angela de Merici, surrounded by her school-children. Today it is the fair lily of Florence, Magdalene de Pazzi, who embalms the whole Church with the fragrance of her name and intercession. She was the loving imitatrix of our Crucified Jesus. Was it not just that she should have some share in the joy of His Resurrection?

Magdalene de Pazzi was one of the brightest ornaments of the Order of Carmel, by her angelic purity, and by the ardour of her love for God. Like Saint Philip Neri, she was one of the grandest manifestations of the Divine Charity that is found in the true Church. Magdalene in her peaceful cloister, and Philip in his active labours for the salvation of souls — both made it their ambition to satisfy that desire expressed by our Jesus when He said: “I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled” (Luke xii. 49).The life of this Spouse of Christ was one continued miracle. Her ecstasies and raptures were almost of every-day occurrence. The lights given to her regarding the mysteries were extraordinary, and in order to prepare her for those sublime communications, God would have her go through the severest trials of the spiritual life. She triumphed over them all and, her love having found its nourishment in them, she could not be happy without suffering, for nothing else seemed to satisfy the longings of the love that burned within her. At the same time, her heart was filled to overflowing with charity for her neighbour: she would have saved all mankind, and her charity to all, even for their temporal well-being, was something heroic. God blessed Florence on her account, and as to the city itself, she so endeared herself to its people by her admirable virtues that devotion to her, even to this day, which is more than [three] hundred years since her death, is as fervent as ever it was.

One of the most striking proofs of the divine origin and holiness of the Church is to be found in such privileged souls as Magdalene de Pazzi, on whom we see the mysteries of our salvation acting with such direct influence. “God so loved the world, as to give it His Only Begotten Son” (John iii. 16), and this Son of God deigns to love some of His creatures with such special affection, and to lavish on them such extraordinary favours, that all men may have some idea of the love with which His Sacred Heart is inflamed for this world, which He redeemed at the price of His Blood. Happy those Christians that appreciate and relish these instances of Jesus’ special love! Happy they that can give Him thanks for bestowing such gifts on some of our fellow-creatures! They have the true light, whereas they that have an unpleasant feeling at hearing of such things, and are angry at the thought that there can be an intimacy between God and any soul of which they are not worthy — this class of people prove that there is a great deal of darkness mixed up with their faith.

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Your life here below, O Magdalene, resembled that of an Angel who was sent by God to assume our weak and fallen nature, and be subject to its laws. Your soul was ceaselessly aspiring to a life which was all heavenly, and your Jesus was ever giving you that thirst of love which can only be quenched at the waters of life everlasting. A heavenly light revealed to you such admirable mysteries, such treasures of truth and beauty, that your heart —unequal to the sweetness thus given to it by the Holy Ghost, sought relief in sacrifice and suffering. It seemed to you, as though there was but one way of making God a return for His favours — the annihilation of self. Seraphic lover of our God, how are we to imitate you? What is our love, when we compare it to yours? And yet, we can imitate you. The year of the Church’s Liturgy was your very life. Each of its Seasons did its work in you, and brought you new light and love. The divine Babe of Bethlehem, the bleeding Victim of the Cross, the glorious Conqueror of Death, the Holy Ghost radiant with His seven gifts — each of these great realities enraptured you and your soul, renewed by the annual succession of the mysteries, was transformed into Him who, that He might win our hearts, gives these sublime celebrations to His Church. Your love of souls was great during your sojourn here. It is more ardent now that you are in possession of the Sovereign Good. Obtain for us, Magdalene, light to see the riches which enraptured you, and love to love the treasures which enamoured you. O riches! Treasures! Is it possible that they are ours too?

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, on the Via Aurelia, the birthday of St. Restitutus, martyr.

At Iconium, a town of Isauria, in the time of the emperor Aurelian, the martyrdom of the Saints Conon and his son, a child twelve years of age, who were laid on a grate over burning coals sprinkled with oil, were racked and exposed to the fire and finally, having their hands crushed with a mallet, they breathed their last.

The same day, in the time of the emperor Honorius, the birthday of the holy martyrs Sisinius, Martyrius and Alexander who were persecuted by the Gentiles of Anaunia and obtained the crown of martyrdom, as is related by Paulinus in the Life of St. Ambrose.

At Caesarea Philippi, the holy martyrs Theodosia, mother of the martyr St. Procopius, and twelve other noble matrons, who ended their life by decapitation in the persecution of Diocletian.

In Umbria, the passion of fifteen hundred and twenty-five holy martyrs.

At Treves, blessed Maximus, bishop and confessor, who received with honour the patriarch St. Athanasius banished by the Arian persecutors.

At Verona, St. Maximus, bishop.

At Arcanum, in Campania, St. Eleutherius, confessor.

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

Thanks be to God.

29 MAY – EMBER FRIDAY IN PENTECOST WEEK

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

So far we have considered the action of the Holy Ghost in the Church. We must now study its workings in the soul of the Christian. Here also we will find fresh motives for admiration and gratitude towards this Divine Paraclete who so graciously condescends to minister to us in all our necessities and lead us to the glorious end for which we were created.

As the Holy Ghost, who was sent that He might abide with us forever (John xiv. 16), exercises His power in upholding and guiding the Church, that thus she may be the faithful Spouse of Jesus: so, likewise, does He work in each one of us, that He may make us worthy members of our divine Head. This is His mission — to unite us so closely with Jesus that we may be made one Body with Him. His office is to create us in the supernatural order, to give and maintain within us the life of grace, by applying to us the merits acquired for us by Jesus, our Mediator and our Saviour.

Let us begin by considering how sublime is this mission given by the Father and the Son to the Holy Ghost. In the Godhead, the Holy Ghost is produced, and does not produce. The Father begets the Son. The Father and the Son produce the Holy Ghost. This difference is founded on the Divine Nature itself, which is not and cannot be but in Three Persons. Hence, as the Holy Fathers teach, the Holy Ghost has received a fecundity outside, having none within, the Godhead. Thus, when the Humanity of the Son of God was to be produced in Mary’s womb, it was the Holy Ghost that achieved the mystery. Again, when the Christian is to be created in the creature corrupted by original sin, it is the same Holy Spirit who produces the new being. Saint Augustine thus forcibly expresses himself: “The same grace that produced Christ when He first became Man, produces the Christian when he first becomes a believer. The same Spirit of whom Christ was conceived, is the principle of the new birth of the Christian.”

We have dwelt at some length on the action of the Holy Ghost in the formation and government of the Church, because the chief work of this Divine Spirit is to produce, here on the Earth, the Spouse of the Son of God, and because it is through her that all blessings come to us. She is the depository of a portion of the Paraclete’s graces, inasmuch as He is ever ready to serve her for our salvation and sanctification’s sake. It is for us also that He made her Catholic, and visible to the world, and this, to the end that we might the more easily find her. It is for us that He maintains her in Truth and Holiness, that so we may drink our fill at these two sources of life-giving water. Coming, now, to consider what He does in the souls of men, the first marvel that demands our attention is His creative power. Is it not a veritable Creation when He raises a soul from the abyss of original sin, or from the still deeper fall of actual guilt, and instantly makes her an adopted Child of God, and a Member of the Son of God?

The Father and Son look with complacency on this work of the Spirit, who is their own mutual Love. They sent Him into the world that He might work, yes, work with sovereign authority, and wherever He reigns, there do they also reign. This chosen, this elect soul, has been eternally present to the mind of the Blessed Trinity. The time fixed by the divine decree being come, the Holy Ghost descends and takes possession of this object of his love. Swifter than ever eagle to his prey, the Dove of infinite mercy flies to His destined habitation. If no hindrance be offered to His action by the creature’s free-will, there happens in her what Saint Paul describes as happening in the Church herself: the things that were not become superior to the things that were (1 Corinthians i. 29), and where sin abounded, grace is made to dwell in rich superabundance (Romans v. 20).

We have already seen how our Emmanuel gave to water the power of purifying the soul. But we also remember, how, when He went down into the Jordan stream, the Dove rested on him, hereby showing that He, the Spirit of God, took possession of the element of regeneration. The Font of Baptism is His domain. “The Water of Baptism,” says the great Saint Leo, “is like the virginal womb (that conceived Jesus) — it gives to man a spiritual Regeneration, for the same Holy Spirit that gave fecundity to the Virgin, gives fecundity to the Font, to the end that sin, of which there could be no question in the sacred conception (of the Son of God in Mary’s womb), may be washed away by the mystic Font.”

What tongue could describe the fond delight with which the Holy Spirit looks upon the new creature that rises from the Font, or the impetuosity of love with which He enters into such a soul? He is “the Gift of the Most High,” sent that He may dwell within us. He takes up his abode in the new-born soul, be it that of an infant but one day old, or that of an adult advanced in years. He is well-pleased with the dwelling He has, from all eternity, longed to possess. He fills it with His glowing and His light. And being by nature one with the other Divine Persons, He brings there with Him the presence of the Father and Son, and all Three abide in that happy soul! (John xiv. 23)

But the Holy Ghost has here His own special action — His mission of Sanctification: and in order that we may understand the full effect of His presence in the Christian, we must know that it is not confined to the Soul. The Body, too, is part of Man, and had its share in Regeneration. The Apostle tells us, that the Soul is the dwelling of the Holy Ghost (Romans viii. 11), but He also assures us that our Bodies are the Temple of the same Divine Spirit (1 Corinthians vi. 19), and bids us make them serve justice unto sanctification (Romans vi. 19). He graces them with a germ of immortality which will rest upon them even in the tomb, and give them to rise again, at the last day, spiritualised, and bearing on them the seal of the Divine Paraclete who deigned to be their Guest during the term of their mortality.

After having thus made the Christian to be His dwelling-place, the Holy Ghost bestows on him what may fit him for his high destiny. Think for a moment of the beauty of the Theological Virtues! Faith puts us into the certified and real possession of the divine truths which our mind cannot, in this present life, understand. Hope gives us both the divine assistance we stand in need of, and the eternal happiness we look forward to. Charity unites us to God by the strongest and sweetest of ties. Now it is to the in-dwelling of the Holy Ghost within him that the Christian is indebted for these three virtues — these three means by which regenerated man is made capable of attaining the end of His creation. The Holy Spirit marked His first entrance into the soul by this triple gift which surpasses all the creature’s merits, past, present or future.

Over and above the three Theological Virtues, He bestows on the soul four other virtues which are the hinges on which the rest of the moral virtues turn, and hence their name of Cardinal. They are Justice, Fortitude, Prudence and Temperance. Though in themselves natural qualities, the Holy Ghost transforms them by making them serve the supernatural end of the Christian. Finally, as a finish to the beauty of His abode, He infuses His Seven Gifts which are to impart movement and life to the Seven Virtues.

But though the Virtues and Gifts relate to God, yet do they need that element which is the essential means of union with Him — an element which is indispensable — for which nothing can serve as substitute —the soul of the soul — the life-giving principle, without which man can neither see nor possess God: Sanctifying Grace. The Holy Ghost exultingly plants it in the soul. It becomes part of herself, and makes her an object of delight to the Blessed Trinity, So close is the union between this Grace and the presence of the Holy Spirit, that when it is lost by mortal sin, He, that same instant, ceases to dwell in the soul.

He watches most carefully over His inheritance. He is ceaselessly working the interests of His much loved dwelling. The Virtues He has infused into her are not to remain inert. They must elicit virtuous acts, and, by the merit they thus produce, must increase, strengthen and develop the fundamental element of Sanctifying Grace, which unites the Christian to His God. The Holy Ghost is, therefore, ever exciting the soul to action, either interior or exterior, by means of those divine influences which theologians call Actual Graces. He thus enables the soul to raise herself higher and higher in virtue, add to her riches, strengthen her strength, and, in a word, become an instrument of glory to her Maker who created her that she might serve Him, labour for Him, and yield Him fruit.

To this end the Spirit, after giving himself to her, and dwelling within her with devoted love, urges her to Prayer by which she may procure every blessing: light, strength and success in what she undertakes. But how are we to know what to pray for? The Apostle solves the difficulty by telling us the truth of which he himself had such experience. He says: “The Spirit Himself asks for us with unspeakable groanings” (Romans viii. 26). Yes, the Holy Ghost makes our wants His own. God as He is, He unites His own speakings with the voice of our prayer, and, with His dove-like moaning, cries in our hearts to the Father (Galatians iv. 6) He thus, by His presence and His workings, makes us feel that we are children of God (Romans viii. 16). Could there be intimacy greater than this? And who, after this, can be surprised at our Jesus’ saying that we have but to ask, and we will receive? (Luke xi. 9). Is it not His own Spirit that asks within us?

So that He is the author of our Prayer, when we pray: He is also the great co-operator with us in the good actions we do. So intimate is His union with the soul, that He leaves her no liberty of her own save what is necessary for her to have merit. But it is He that does the rest. That is, He inspires her, He supports her, He directs her. All she has to do is to co-operate in what He does in and by her. It is by this mark, that is, by the united action of the Holy Ghost and the soul, that our heavenly Father knows who are His. Hence that saying of the Apostle: “Whoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans viii. 14). Glorious union! which brings the Christian to life everlasting and makes Jesus triumph in him — that Jesus whose likeness is imprinted by the Holy Ghost in the creature, that the creature may become worthy to be united with his divine Head!

Alas, this union may be severed, as long as we are on Earth. Our free-will is not confirmed in good until we reach Heaven, and meanwhile it may, and frequently does, lead to a rupture between the Spirit that sanctifies, and the creature that is sanctified. The unhappy love of independence, and the passions, (which we cannot master, save when we are docile to the Divine Spirit), excite the unguarded heart to the desire of what is unworthy of her. Satan is jealous of the reign of the Holy Ghost, and seeks to make us disloyal by holding out to us the lying promise of happiness and good, other than those we can find in God. The world, too, which is a spirit of evil, sets itself up as a rival of the Holy Spirit of God. Wily, audacious, and active, it excels in the art of seduction, and its victims are countless, although our Saviour has put us on our guard against it by telling us that He excluded it from any share in His prayers (John xvii. 9), and the Apostle tells us, that we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is of God (1 Corinthians ii. 12)

And yet, how many there are who bring about in themselves a cruel separation of their soul from the Holy Ghost! The separation is generally preceded by a certain coolness of the creature for His divine Benefactor. A want of respect, a slight disobedience, are the preliminaries of the rupture. This occasions in the Holy Spirit a displeasure which proves the tender love he bears to a faithful soul. The Apostle describes the nature of this displeasure where he says: “Grieve not the Holy Spirit, who put His seal on you on the day of your redemption” (Ephesians iv. 30). There is a deep meaning in these few words and, among other truths, they reveal to us the effects of venial sins — the Holy Ghost is grieved, He finds but little pleasure in that soul. There is danger of a separation and though, as Saint Augustine tells us, “He does not leave us, unless we leave Him,” and though, consequently, such a soul still possesses sanctifying grace, yet actual grace becomes less frequent and less powerful. But when mortal sin — that act of the creature’s boldest malice and worst ingratitude — enters the soul, it breaks the sacred compact which closely united the Christian and the Holy Ghost. He, the Spirit of love, is driven from the dwelling He had chosen for Himself and had enriched with so many graces. A greater outrage cannot be offered to God by man for, as the Apostle so strongly expresses it, “he has trodden underfoot the Son of God, and has esteemed the Blood of the testament unclean, by which he was sanctified, and has offered an affront to the Spirit of grace” (Hebrews x. 29).

And yet, this miserable state of the sinner may excite the compassion of the Holy Ghost who has been sent that He might ever be our Guest. Could anything be imagined more sad, than the wretchedness of a Christian who, by having cast out the Divine Spirit, has lost the soul of his soul, forfeited the treasure of sanctifying grace, and robbed himself of all past merits? But, mystery of mercy, worthy of eternal praise! The Holy Ghost longs to return to the dwelling from which sin has driven Him. Yes, such is the fullness of the mission given by the Father and the Son to the Holy Ghost. He is Love, and in His love, He abandons not the poor ungrateful worm, but would restore him to his former dignity and make him, once more, a partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter i. 4).

This Divine Spirit of Love labours to regain possession of His dwelling. He begins by exciting within the soul a fear of divine justice. He makes her feel the shame and anguish of spiritual death. He thus detaches her from evil, by what the holy Council of Trent calls “impulses of the Holy Ghost, not indeed as yet dwelling within the soul, but moving her.” Dissatisfied and unhappy, the soul sighs after a reconciliation. She breaks the chains of her slavery. The Sacrament of Penance then comes, bringing life-giving love, and her justification is completed. Who could describe the triumphant joy with which the Divine Spirit re-enters His dear abode? The Father and the Son return to the dwelling that for days, or perhaps for years, has been defiled with sin. The soul is restored to life. Sanctifying grace returns to her, just as it was on the day of her Baptism.

As we have already said, she had lost by mortal sin that fund of merit which had developed the power of grace. It is now restored to her fully and entirely, for the power of the Holy Spirit is equal to the vehemence of His love. This admirable raising from death to life is going on every day, yes every hour. It is part of the mission given to the Holy Ghost. He does the work he came for — the sanctification of man. The Son of God came down from Heaven, and gave Himself to us. He found us slaves to Satan: He ransomed us at the price of His Blood, gave us everything that could lead us to Himself and his Heavenly Father, and when He returned to heaven, there to prepare a place for us, He sent us His own Spirit to be our second Comforter, until He Himself should return to us. We have seen how strenuously this Divine Aid undertakes His work. Let us fervently celebrate the love with which He treats us, and the wisdom and power with which He accomplishes His glorious mission.

May He be blessed, and glorified! May He be known throughout the whole world, for it is through Him that all blessings are imparted to men! He is the soul of the Church: may she render Him the homage of her praise! And may He be tenderly loved by those countless millions of hearts in which He desires to dwell that He may give them eternal salvation and happiness.

28 MAY – SAINT AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY (Bishop and Confessor)

 

Augustine was a monk of the Monastery of Saint Andrew in Rome where also he discharged the office of Prior with much piety and prudence. He was taken from that Monastery by Saint Gregory the Great and sent by him, with about forty monks of the same Monastery, into Britain. Thus would Gregory carry out by his disciples the conversion of that country to Christ, a project which he at first resolved to effect himself. They had not advanced far on their journey when they got frightened at the difficulty of such an enterprise, but Gregory encouraged them by letters which he sent to Augustine whom he appointed as their Abbot, and gave him letters of introduction to the kings of the Franks, and to the bishops of Gaul. Whereupon Augustine and his monks pursued their journey with haste. He visited the tomb of Saint Martin at Tours. Having reached the town of Pont-de-Cé not far from Angers, he was badly treated by its inhabitants and was compelled to spend the night in the open air. Having struck the ground with his staff, a fountain miraculously sprang up and on that spot a church was afterwards built and called after his name.

Having procured interpreters from the Franks, he proceeded to England and landed at the isle of Thanet. He entered the country carrying, as a standard, a silver cross and a painting representing our Saviour. Thus did he present himself before Ethelbert, the king of Kent, who readily provided the heralds of the Gospel with a dwelling in the city of Canterbury, and gave them leave to preach in his kingdom. There was, close at hand, an oratory which had been built in honour of Saint Martin when the Romans had possession of Britain. It was in this oratory that his queen Bertha (who was a Christian, as being of the nation of the Franks) was wont to pray. Augustine, therefore, entered into Canterbury with solemn religious ceremony, amid the chanting of psalms and litanies. He took up his abode, for some time, near to the said oratory and there, together with his monks, led an apostolic life. Such manner of living, conjointly with the heavenly doctrine that was preached and confirmed by many miracles, so reconciled the islanders that many of them were induced to embrace the Christian Faith. The king himself was also converted, and Augustine baptised him and a very great number of his people.

On one Christmas Day, he baptised upwards of 10,000 English in a river at York. And it is related that those among them who were suffering any malady received bodily health, as well as their spiritual regeneration. Meanwhile, the man of God Augustine received a command from Gregory to go and receive Episcopal ordination in Gaul, at the hands of Virgilius, the Bishop of Arles. On his return he established his See at Canterbury in the Church of our Saviour which he had built, and he kept there some of the monks to be his fellow-labourers. He also built in the suburbs the Monastery of Saint Peter which was afterwards called “Saint Augustine’s.” When Gregory heard of the conversion of the Angli which was told to him by the two monks Laurence and Peter whom Augustine had sent to Rome, he wrote letters of congratulation to Augustine. He gave him power to arrange all that concerned the Church in England and to wear the Pallium. In the same letters he admonished him to be on his guard against priding himself on the miracles which God enabled him to work for the salvation of souls, but which pride would turn to the injury of him that worked them.

Having thus put in order the affairs of the Church in England, Augustine held a Council with the Bishops and Doctors of the ancient Britons who had long been at variance with the Roman Church in the keeping of Easter, and other rites. And in order to refute, by miracles, these men whom the Apostolic See had often authoritatively admonished, but to no purpose, Augustine, in proof of the truth of his assertions, restored sight to a blind man in their presence. But on their refusing to yield even after witnessing the miracle, Augustine, with prophetic warning, told them of the punishment that awaited them. At length, after having laboured so long for Christ and appointed Laurence as his successor, he took his departure for Heaven on the seventh of the Calends of June (May 26th) and was buried in the Monastery of Saint Peter which became the burying place of the Archbishops of Canterbury, and of several kings. The Churches of England honoured him with great devotion. They decreed that each year, his feast should be kept as a day of rest, and that his Name should be inserted in the Litany of the Saints immediately after that of Saint Gregory, together with whom Augustine has ever been honoured by the English as their Apostle and the propagator of the Benedictine Order in their country.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Four hundred years had scarcely elapsed since the glorious death of Eleutherius when a second Apostle of Britain ascended from this world, and on this same day to the abode of eternal bliss. We cannot but be struck at this circumstance of our two Apostles’ names appearing thus together on the Calendar: it shows us that God has His own special reasons in fixing the day for the death of each one among us. We have more than once noticed these providential coincidences which form one of the chief characteristics of the Liturgical Cycle. What a beautiful sight is this which is brought before us today, of this first Archbishop of Canterbury who, after honouring on this day the saintly memory of the holy Pontiff from whom England first received the Gospel, himself ascended into Heaven and shared with Eleutherius the eternity of Heaven’s joy! Who would not acknowledge in this a pledge of the predilection with which Heaven has favoured this country which, after centuries of fidelity to the Truth, has now, for [five] hundred years, been an enemy to her own truest glory!

The work begun by Eleutherius had been almost entirely destroyed by the invasion of the Saxons and Angli so that a new mission, a new preaching of the Gospel, had become a necessity. It was Rome that again supplied the want. Saint Gregory the Great was the originator of the great design. Had it been permitted him, he would have taken upon himself the fatigues of this Apostolate to our country. He was deeply impressed with the idea that he was to be the spiritual Father of those poor islanders, some of whom he had seen exposed in the market-place of Rome that they might be sold as slaves. Not being allowed to undertake the work himself, he looked around him for men whom he might send as Apostles to our island. He found them in the Benedictine monastery where he himself had spent several years of his life. There started from Rome forty monks, with Augustine at their head, and they entered England under the standard of the Cross. Thus the new race, that then peopled the island received the Faith as the Britains had previously done from the hands of a Pope, and monks were their teachers in the science of salvation. The word of Augustine and his companions fructified in this privileged soil. It, of course, took him some time before he could provide the whole nation with instruction, but neither Rome nor the Benedictines abandoned the work thus begun. The few remnants that were still left of the ancient British Christianity joined the new converts and England merited to be called, for long ages, the “Island of Saints.”

The history of Saint Augustine’s apostolate in England is of a thrilling interest. The landing of the Roman missionaries and their marching through the country to the chant of the Litany, the willing and almost kind welcome given them by king Ethelbert, the influence exercised by his queen Bertha (who was French and Catholic) in the establishment of the Faith among the Saxons, the baptism of ten thousand neophytes on Christmas Day and in the bed of a river, the foundation of the metropolitan See of Canterbury, one of the most illustrious Churches of Christendom by the holiness and noble doings of its Archbishops: yes, all these admirable episodes of England’s conversion are eloquent proofs of God’s predilection of our dear land. Augustine’s peaceful and gentle character, together with his love of contemplation amid his arduous missionary labours, gives an additional charm to this magnificent page of the Church’s history. But, who can help feeling sad at the thought that a country favoured, as ours has been, with such graces, should have apostatised from the Faith? Have repaid with hatred that Rome which made her Christian? And have persecuted, with unheard-of cruelties, the Benedictine Order to which she owed so much of her glory?

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O Jesus, our Risen Lord! You are the Life of Nations, as you are the Life of our souls. You bid them know and love and serve you, for they have been given to you for your inheritance, and at your own appointed time each of them is made your possession (Psalm ii. 8). Our own dear country was one of the earliest to be called and, when on your Cross, you looked with mercy on this far island of the West. In the second Age of your Church you sent to her the heralds of your Gospel, and again in the Sixth, Augustine, your Apostle, commissioned by Gregory, your Vicar, came to teach the way of Truth to the new pagan race that had made itself the owner of this highly favoured land. How glorious, dear Jesus, was your reign in our fatherland! You gave her Bishops, Doctors, Kings, Monks and Virgins whose virtues and works made the whole world speak of her as the “Island of Saints,” and it is to Augustine, your disciple and herald, that you would have us attribute the chief part of the honour of so grand a conquest. Long indeed was your reign over this people whose faith was lauded throughout the whole world. But, alas, an evil hour came and England rebelled against you. She would not have you to reign over her (Luke xix. 14). By her influence she led other nations astray. She hated you in your Vicar. She repudiated the greater part of the truths you have revealed to men. She put out the light of Faith and substituted in its place the principle of Private Judgement which made her the slave of countless false doctrines. In the mad rage of her heresy, she trampled beneath her feet and burned the relics of the Saints who were her grandest glory. She annihilated the Monastic Order to which she owed her knowledge of the Christian Faith. She was drunk with the blood of the Martyrs. She encouraged apostasy and punished adhesion to the ancient Faith as the greatest of crimes.

She, by a just judgement of God, has become a worshipper of material prosperity. Her wealth, her fleet, and her colonies —these are her idols and she would awe the rest of the world by the power they give her. But the Lord will, in His own time, overthrow this Colossus of power and riches and as it was in times past when the mightiest of kingdoms was destroyed by a stone which struck it on its feet of clay (Daniel ii. 35), wo will people be amazed when the time of retribution comes to find how easily the greatest of modern nations was conquered and humbled. England no longer forms a part of your kingdom, O Jesus! She separated herself from it by breaking the bond that had held her so long in union with your Church. You have patiently waited for her return, yet she returns not. Her prosperity is a scandal to the weak, so that her own best and most devoted children feel that her chastisement will be one of the severest that your Justice can inflict. Meanwhile, your mercy, O Jesus, is winning over thousands of her people to the Truth, and their love of it seems fervent in proportion to their having been so long deprived of its beautiful light. You have created a new people in her very midst, and each year the number is increasing. Cease not your merciful workings that thus these faithful ones may once more draw down upon our country the blessing she forfeited when she rebelled against your Church.

Your mission, then, O holy Apostle Augustine, is not yet over. The number of the Elect is not filled up and our Lord is gleaning some of these from amid the tares that cover the land of your loving labours. May your intercession obtain for her children those graces which enlighten the mind and convert the heart. May it remove their prejudices and give them to see that the Spouse of Jesus is but One, as He Himself calls her (Canticles vi. 8), that the Faith of Gregory and Augustine are still the Faith of the Catholic Church at this day, and that [five] hundred years’ possession could never give heresy any claim to a country which was led astray by seduction and violence, and which has retained so many traces of its ancient and deep-rooted Catholicity.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, the holy martyrs Simitrius, priest, and twenty two others, who suffered under Antoninus Pius.

At Athens, during the persecution of Hadrian, the birthday of blessed Quadratus, a disciple of the Apostles, who collected through his zealous exertions the faithful dispersed by terror, and presented to the emperor an excellent apology of the Christian religion, worthy of an apostle.

At Vienne, St. Zachary, bishop and martyr, who suffered under Trajan.

In Africa, St. Quadratus, martyr, on whose festival St. Augustine preached a sermon.

At Todi, the birthday of the holy martyrs Felicissimus, Heraclius and Paulinus.

In the territory of Auxerre, the passion of St. Priscus, martyr, with a great multitude of Christians.

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

Thanks be to God.

28 MAY – THURSDAY IN PENTECOST WEEK

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The divine Spirit has been sent to secure unity to the Spouse of Christ, and we have seen how faithfully He fulfils His mission by giving to the members of the Church to be one, as He Himself is One. But the Spouse of a God who is, as He calls Himself, the Truth (John xiv. 6) must be in the truth, and can have no fellowship with error. Jesus entrusted His teachings to her care, and has instructed her in the person of the Apostles. He said to them: “All things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you” (John xv. 15). And yet, if left unaided, how can the Church preserve free from all change during the long ages of her existence that word which Jesus has not written?— that truth which he came from heaven to teach her? Experience proves that everything changes here below: that written documents are open to false interpretations, and that unwritten traditions are frequently so altered in the course of time, as to defy recognition.

Here again we have a proof of our Lord’s watchful love. In order to realise the wish He had to see us one, as He and His Father are One (John xvii. 11), He sent us His Spirit. And in order to keep us in the Truth, He sent us this same Spirit who is called the “Spirit of Truth.” “When the Spirit of Truth is come,” said He, “He will teach you all truth” (John xvi. 13) And what is the Truth which this Spirit will teach us? “He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I will have said to you” (John xiv. 26).

So that nothing of what the Divine Word spoke to men is to be lost. The beauty of his Spouse is to be based on truth, for “Beauty is the splendour of Truth.” Her fidelity to her Jesus will be of the most perfect kind for, if He be the Truth, how could she ever be out of the Truth? Jesus had said: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever; and He will be in you” (John xiv. 16, 17). It is by the Holy Ghost, then, that the Church is ever to possess the truth, and that nothing can rob her of it. For this Spirit, who is sent by the Father and the Son, will abide unceasingly with and in her.

The magnificent theory of Saint Augustine comes most appropriately here. According to his teaching — which, after all, is but the explanation of the texts just cited— the Holy Ghost is the principle of the Church’s life, and He, being the Spirit of Truth, preserves and directs her in the truth so that both her teaching and her practice cannot be other than expressions of the truth. He makes Himself responsible for her words, just as our spirit is responsible for what our tongue utters. Hence it is that the Church, by her union with the Holy Ghost, is so identified with Truth that the Apostle did not hesitate to call her “the pillar and ground of the Truth” (1 Timothy iii. 15). The Christian, therefore, may well rest on the Church in all that regards Faith. He knows that the Church is never alone: that she is always with the Holy Spirit who lives within her, that her word is not her own, but the word of the Spirit, which is the word of Jesus.

Now, this word of Jesus is preserved in the Church by the Holy Ghost, and in two ways. He guards it as contained in the four Gospels which the Evangelists wrote under His inspiration. It is by His watchful care that these holy writings have been kept free from all change during the past ages. The same is to be said of the other books of the New Testament, which were also written under the guidance of the same Spirit. Those of the Old Testament are equally the result of the inspiration of the Holy Ghost: and, although they do not give us the words spoken by our Saviour during His mortal life, yet do they speak of Him and foretell His coming, and contain, moreover, the primitive revelations made by God to mankind. The Books of Sacred Writ are replete with mysteries, the interpretation of which is communicated to the Church by the Holy Ghost.

The other channel of Jesus’ word is Tradition. It was impossible for everything to be written, and even before the Gospels were composed, the Church was in existence. Tradition, like the Written Word itself, is from God. But unless the Spirit of Truth watches over and protects it, how can it remain pure and intact? He therefore fixes it in the memory of the Church, He preserves it from change: it is His mission,; and thanks to the fidelity with which He fulfils His mission, the Church remains in possession of the whole treasure left her by her Spouse.

But it is not enough that the Church possesses the word — Written and Traditional —she must also have the understanding of that word, in order that she may explain it to her children. Truth came down from Heaven that it might be communicated to men, for it is their light, and without it they would be in darkness, knowing not where they are going (John xii. 35). The Spirit of Truth could not, therefore, be satisfied if the word of Jesus were kept as a hidden treasure. No, He will have it thrown open to men, that they may thence draw life to their souls. Consequently, the Church will have to be infallible in her teaching: for how can she be deceived herself, or deceive others, seeing it is the Spirit of Truth who guides her in all things and speaks by her mouth? He is her sou, and we have already had Saint Augustine telling us that when the tongue speaks the soul is responsible.

The infallibility of our holy Mother the Church is the direct and immediate result of her having abiding within her the Spirit of Truth. It is the promise made to her by Jesus. It is the necessary consequence of the presence of the Holy Spirit. The man who does not acknowledge the Church to be infallible should, if he be consistent, admit that the Son of God has not been able to fulfil His promise, and that the Spirit of Truth is a Spirit of error. But he that reasons thus has strayed from the path of life. He thought he was but denying a prerogative to the Church, whereas in reality he has refused to believe God Himself. It is this that constitutes the sin of heresy. Want of due reflection may cover and hide the awful conclusion, but the conclusion is strictly implied in his principle. The heretic is at variance with the Holy Ghost because he is at variance with the Church. He may become, once more, a living member by humbly returning to the Spouse of Christ— but at present he is dead, for the Soul is not animating him. Let us again give ear to the great Saint Augustine: “It sometimes happens,” says he, “that a member — say a hand, or finger, or foot — is cut from the human body. Tell me, does the soul follow the member that is thus severed? As long as it was in the body, it lived. Now that it is cut off, it is dead. In the same manner, a Christian is a Catholic so long as he lives in the Body (of the Church) cut off, he is a Heretic. The Spirit follows not a member that is cut off.”

Glory, then, be to the Holy Spirit, who has conferred on the Spouse the “splendour of truth!” With regard to ourselves — could we, without incurring the greatest of dangers, put limits to the docility with which we receive teachings which come to us simultaneously from the Spirit and the Bride, who are so indissolubly united? (Apocalypse xxii. 17). Whether the Church intimates what we are to believe, by showing us her own practice, or simply expressing her sentiments, or solemnly pronouncing a definition on the subject — we must receive her word with submission of heart. Her practice is ever in harmony with the truth, and it is the Holy Ghost, her life-giving principle, that keeps it so. The utterance of her sentiments is but an aspiration of that same Spirit who never leaves her, and as to the definitions she decrees, it is not she alone that decrees them, but the Holy Ghost who decrees them in and by her. If it be the visible head of the Church who utters the definition, we know that Jesus prayed that Peter’s faith may never fail (Luke xxii. 32), that He obtained it from the Father, and that He gave to the Holy Ghost the mission of perpetuating this precious prerogative granted to Peter. If it be the Sovereign Pontiff and Bishops, assembled in Council, who proclaim what is the faith on any given subject, it is the Holy Ghost who speaks by this collective judgement, makes truth triumph, and puts error to flight. It is this Divine Spirit that has given the Spouse to crush all heresies beneath her feet. It is He that in all ages has raised up within her learned men, who have confuted error whenever or wherever it was broached.

So that our beloved Mother the Church is gifted with Infallibility. She is True, always and in all things, and she is indebted for this to Him who proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son. But there is another glory which she owes to Him. The Spouse of the thrice holy God could not but be Holy. She is so, and it is from the Spirit of holiness that she receives her holiness. Truth and Holiness are inseparably united in God. Hence it was that our Saviour, who willed us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew v. 48) and, creatures as we are, would have us take the infinite good as our model — prayed that we might be sanctified in the Truth (John xvii. 19).

Jesus therefore consigned His Spouse to the direction of the Spirit, that He might make her Holy. Holiness is so inherent to this Divine Spirit that it is his very name. Jesus Himself calls Him the “Holy Ghost” (John xiv. 26), so that it is on the authority of the Son of God that we call Him by this beautiful name. The Father is Power. The Son is Truth. The Spirit is Holiness. And it is for this reason that the Spirit has, here below, the office of Sanctifier, although the Father and Son are Holy, just as Truth is in the Father and the Spirit, and Power is in the Spirit and the Son. The three Persons of the Blessed Trinity have each their special property, but they are all one in essence or nature. Now, the special property of the Holy Ghost is Love, and Love produces Holiness, for it unites the sovereign good with the soul that loves Him, and this union is Holiness, which is the “splendour of goodness” as Beauty is the “splendour of Truth.”

That she might be worthy, then, of the Emmanuel, her Spouse, the Church was to be Holy. He gave her Truth, and the Divine Paraclete has preserved it within her. The Spirit is to endow her with Holiness. And the Father, seeing her True and Holy, will adopt her as His Daughter: this is her glorious destiny. Let us now see what proofs she gives of her being Holy. The first is her fidelity to her Spouse. History is one long testimony of this her fidelity. Every possible snare has been laid, every sort of violence has been used, to make her unfaithful: she has bravely withstood them all: she has sacrificed everything — her blood, her peace, the very countries where she reigned — rather than allow what Jesus had entrusted to her to be corrupted or changed. Count, if you can, her Martyrs, from the Apostles down to our own times, who have died for the faith. Call to mind the offers made to her by the potentates of the earth, soliciting her to hush up truth. Think of the threats and persecutions whereby the world sought to make her withdraw one or other dogma of her Creed. Who that knows aught of past or present history, can forget the great battle she fought against the Emperors of Germany in defence of the Liberty with which her Jesus had made her free, and of which he is so jealous. Or the noble love of justice she evinced when her refusal to sanction, by an unlawful dispensation, the adultery of a King, was to be followed by the apostasy of England. Or the high-minded love of principle she showed in the person of Pius IX, when she braved the clamours of modern infidelity, and the cowardly remonstrances of temporising Catholics, rather than allow a Jewish boy (who had been baptised when in danger of death), to be exposed to the temptation of denying his faith and blaspheming the Saviour who had made him his Child?

Such has been, and such ever will be, the conduct of the Church, because she is holy in her fidelity, and because the Divine Spirit inspires her with a love which overlooks everything when duty is at stake. She can show the code of her laws to her enemies and to her faithful children, and defy them to point out a single enactment that has not been made with a view to procure the glory of her Jesus and lead mankind to virtue. The observance of these her laws has given millions of Saints to God, whom she has produced through the influence of the Holy Ghost. The Church claims each one of those myriads of the elect as the fruit of her maternal care. Even those whom Providence has permitted to be born of heretical parents — if they have lived in the disposition of mind of entering the True Church as soon as they should find it, and have faithfully corresponded by a virtuous life to the grace given to them through the merits of the Redeemer — they, too, were children of the Church.

She is the school of devotedness and heroism. Virtues, of which men knew not so much as the name before she was founded, are now being practised in every country of the world. There are extraordinary actions of saintliness, which she rewards with the honour of canonisation. There are the more humble and hidden virtues, which are to be published only on the day of Judgement. The precepts of Jesus are observed by all His disciples. They obey him as their dear Master. This Master has also His counsels, which all cannot follow, but which afford the Church a new scope for the development of her gift of holiness. Not only are there individual and generous souls who fervently practise these counsels: there are the Religious Orders whose aim is perfection, and whose first law is the obligation, under vow, of observing the evangelical Counsels unitedly with that of the Precepts. And these Orders are produced in the Church by the action of the Spirit of Holiness.

After this we cannot wonder at her having the gift of miracles, which is the outward mark of Holiness. It is a supernatural gift which our Lord told her she should always possess (John xiv. 12): now the Apostle assures us that the working of miracles comes directly from the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians xii. 11). It may be objected that all the members of the Church are not holy: to this we reply that she offers to all the means of becoming so, but that their freewill may and frequently does reject such means. Free-will has been granted to man that he might thereby merit. And it is a contradiction in terms to say that he who has free-will is, at the same time, necessitated to choose good. Moreover, an immense number of those who are now in a state of sin, but who are members of the Church by faith and respectful submission to her lawful Pastors and particularly to the Sovereign Pontiff, will sooner or later be reconciled to God and die in holy dispositions. It is the mercy of the Holy Ghost that works this wonderful change, and He works it through the Church who, imitating her divine Spouse, breaks not the bruised reed, nor quenches the smoking flax (Isaias xliii. 3).

How could she be otherwise than Holy, who has received, in order to administer them to her children, the Seven Sacraments of which we have spoken in one of the preceding weeks? What more holy than these divine rites, some of which give life to sinners, and others an increase of grace to the just? These Sacraments which were instituted by Christ and given in heritage to his Church, all bear some relation with the Holy Ghost. In Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders, His operation is direct. In the Eucharistic Sacrifice, it is by His action that the Man-God lives and is immolated on our Altars. It is He that restores baptismal grace by Penance. He is the Spirit of Fortitude who strengthens the dying by Extreme Unction. He is the sacred link which inseparably unites husband and wife together in the Sacrament of Matrimony. Our Jesus gave us these Seven Sacraments as a pledge of His love when He left us to return to his Father, but the treasure remained sealed up until the descent of the Holy Ghost. It was for Him to prepare the Spouse, by sanctifying her, to receive these precious gifts into her royal hands, and to administer them faithfully to her children. It was for Him, therefore, to put her in possession of them.

Lastly, the Church is Holy because of her ceaseless Prayer. He who is the Spirit of grace and of prayers (Zacharias xii. 10) is ever producing, in the children of the Church, those varied acts of adoration, thanksgiving, petition, repentance and love which constitute the sublime concert of Prayer. To these He adds, for many of the Faithful, the gifts of Contemplation by which either the creature is raised up to His God, or God comes down to Him with favours, which seem only fit for such as are already in Heaven. Who could enumerate the aspirations, we mean the effusions of love, which the Holy Spouse sends up to her Jesus in those millions of prayers which are day and night ascending from Earth to Heaven, and seem to unite the two in the embrace of closest intimacy? How could she be otherwise than Holy who, as the Apostle so forcibly expresses it, has her conversation in Heaven? (Philippians iii. 20).

But, if the individual Prayer offered up by her children is thus admirable by its multiplicity and its ardour, how beautiful and grand must not be the united Prayer of the Church herself in her Liturgy in which the Holy Ghost acts with all the plenitude of His inspiration, and puts upon her lips those thrilling and sublime words which we have undertaken to explain in our “Liturgical Year”? We would ask those who have followed us thus far, if the Liturgy is not the best of all prayers, and the guide and soul of their own individual prayer? Let them, therefore, love the Holy Mother who gives them to partake of her own abundance. Let them glorify the Spirit of grace and prayers for all that He so mercifully deigns to do both for her and them!

Church of our God, you are sanctified in truth. By you we are taught the whole doctrine of our Jesus. By you we are put in the path of that holiness which is your very life. What would we have more, having Truth and Holiness? They who seek them out of you, seek in vain. Happy we that have nothing to seek, because we have you for our Mother, who are ever lavishing on us all your grand gifts and lights. Oh how beautiful are you on this solemnity of Pentecost which gave you the riches you give to us! We gaze with delighted wonder at the magnificent prerogatives prepared for you by your Jesus, and communicated to you by the Holy Ghost. And now that we know you better, we will love you with warmer hearts.

27 MAY – SAINT BEDE THE VENERABLE (Priest)

The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould:

Bede was born in 672 or 673 near the place where Benedict Biscop soon afterwards founded the religious house of Wearmouth, perhaps in the parish of Monkton, which appears to have been one of the earliest endowments of the monastery. As soon as he had reached his seventh year, Bede was sent to Wearmouth, and then to Jarrow, to profit by the teaching of Biscop, from which period to his death he continued to be an inmate of the later monastery.

After the death of Benedict Biscop, Bede pursued his studies under his successor Ceolfrid and, at the age of nineteen, about 692, was admitted to deacon’s orders by Saint John of Beverley, then newly restored to his see of Hexham, and in his thirtieth year he was ordained to the priesthood by the same prelate. The early age at which Bede received holy orders shows that he was then already distinguishing himself by his learning and piety, and there can be little doubt that his fame was widely spread before the commencement of the eighth century. At that period, according to that account which has been generally received, Bede was invited to Rome by Pope Sergius I to advise with that pontiff on some difficult points of church discipline. The authority for this circumstance is a letter of the pope to Ceolfrid, expressing his wish to see Bede at Rome, which has been inserted by William of Malmesbury in his History of England. It seems, however, nearly certain that Bede did not go to Rome on this occasion, and reasons have been stated for supposing the whole story, as far as Bede was concerned in it, to be a misrepresentation. If Bede was invited, we may suppose that the death of the pope the same year in which the letter was sent released him from the labours of the journey.

The remainder of Bede’s life appears to have passed in the tranquillity of study. He clung through life to the dear retreat that was his home, and within its peaceful walls composed his numerous books. But occasionally he went forth to other religious houses for brief visits. In 733 he spent some days in the monastery of York in company with his friend, Archbishop Egbert, but he declined another invitation from the same prelate towards the close of 734 on the plea of ill health, in a letter still preserved. Bede was at this time labouring under an asthmatic complaint which shortly afterwards carried him from the scene of his mortal labours. It is evident from various passages of his works that his days and nights were divided between the studies and researches which he pursued to his last hour, and the instructions he gave to the six hundred monks of Wearmouth and Jarrow. An existence more completely occupied it would be difficult to imagine. Except during the course of his last illness, he had no assistant in his work. “I am my own secretary,” he said, “I dictate, I compose, I copy all myself.”

His greatest work, that most precious to Englishmen, is unquestionably his Ecclesiastical History of England, our chief, almost our only authority for the early history of Christianity in our island. He was urged to undertake this by Albinus, abbot of Saint Augustine’s, Canterbury. Albinus furnished him with memoranda of all that had happened in Kent and the neighbouring counties in the time of the missionaries sent by Saint Gregory. He even sent a priest to Rome to search the archives of the Roman Church, with the permission of Gregory II, for the letters of his predecessors and other documents relative to the mission to England. All the bishops of England also assisted in the work by transmitting to the author what information they could collect concerning the origin of the faith in their dioceses. The abbots of the most important monasteries also furnished their contingent.

This pleasant and glorious life was not, however, without a cloud. He excited the criticism of narrow spirits. They even went so far as to treat him as a heretic because he had in his Chronology combated the general opinion that the world would last only six thousand years. He grew pale with surprise and horror, as he says to one of his friends in an apologetic letter which he charges his correspondent to read to Wilfrid, bishop of York, who seems to have given a certain encouragement to the slander by suffering it to pass in his hearing unrebuked. If, however, he had some enemies, he had more friends. Among these, in the first rank, it is pleasant to find the Celtic monks of Lindisfarne. Bede asks that his name should be inscribed on the roll of monks in the monastery founded by Saint Aidan. He especially desired this favour in order that his soul after death might have a share in the Masses and prayers of that numerous community, as if he had been one of themselves.

The details of his last sickness and death have been revealed to us in minute detail by an eye-witness, the monk Cuthbert:

“Nearly a fortnight before Easter (17th April, 734) he was seized by an extreme weakness in consequence of his difficulty of breathing, but without great pain. He continued thus till the Ascension (26th May), always joyous and happy, giving thanks to God day and night, and even every hour of the night and day. He gave us our lessons daily, and employed the rest of his time in chanting psalms, and passed every night, after a short sleep, in joy and thanksgiving, but without closing his eyes. From the moment of awaking he resumed his prayers and praises to God, with his arms outstretched as a cross. O happy man! He sang sometimes texts from Saint Paul and other scriptures, sometimes lines in our own language, for he was very able in English poetry, to this effect: ‘None is wiser than him needeth, ere his departure, than to ponder ere the soul flits, what good, what evil it hath wrought, and how after death it will be judged.’

He also sang antiphons according to our ritual and his own, one of which is, ‘O glorious King, Lord of all power, who, triumphing this day, did ascend up above the heavens, leave us not orphans; but send down on us from the Father the Spirit of Truth which Thou hast promised. Hallelujah.’ And when he came to the words, ‘leave us not orphans,‘ he burst into tears, and continued weeping. But an hour after he rallied himself and began to repeat the antiphon he had begun. By turns we read, and by turns we wept — nay, we wept while we read. In such joy we passed the days of Lent, till the aforesaid day. He often repeated, ‘The Lord scourgeth every son whom He receiveth,’ and much more out of Scripture; as also this sentence from Saint Ambrose, ‘I have not lived so as to be ashamed to live among you, nor do I fear to die, for our God is gracious.’

During these days he laboured to compose two works, besides his giving us our lessons and singing psalms. He was engaged on translating the Gospel of Saint John into the vulgar tongue for the benefit of the Church, and had got as far as the words, ‘But what are these among so many’ (S. John vi. 9), and he was also making some notes out of the book of Bishop Isidore; for he said, ‘I will not have my pupils read what is untrue, nor labour on what is profitless after my death.’ On the Tuesday before the Ascension his breath became much affected, and his feet swelled, but he passed all that day cheerfully and continued his dictation, saying, ‘Be quick with your writing, for I will not hold out much longer.’ So he spent the night awake giving thanks, and when morning broke, that is Wednesday, he ordered us to write with all speed what he had begun.

And there was one of us who said to him, ‘Most dear master, there is still one chapter wanting. Will it trouble you if I ask a few questions?’ for the rest of us had gone to make the Rogation procession. He answered, ‘It is no trouble. Take your pen, and write fast.’ And when it came to the ninth hour he said to me, ‘There are some articles of value in my chest, as peppercorns, napkins and incense. Run quickly and bring the priests of the monastery to me, that I may distribute among them the gifts which God has bestowed on me.’ And when they were come he spoke to each of them in turn, and entreated them to pray and offer the Holy Sacrifice for his soul, which they all readily promised, but they were all weeping, for he said ‘You will see my face again no more in this life. It is time for me to return to Him who formed me out of nothing. The time of my dissolution is at hand. I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ.’ Now when even came on, the boy above mentioned said, ‘Dear master, there is yet one sentence not written.’ He answered, ‘Then write it quickly now.’ Soon after the boy said, ‘It is finished. The sentence is now written.’ He replied, ‘It was well said, it is finished. Raise my old head in your arms, that I may look once more at the happy, holy place, where I was wont to pray, that sitting up in my bed I may call on my Father.’ And thus on the pavement of his little cell, singing ‘Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,’ he breathed his last, as he uttered the name of the Holy Ghost, and so departed to the heavenly kingdom. All who were present thought they had never seen any one die with so much devotion, and in so peaceful a state of mind.”

The monastic sanctuary towards which the dying look of Bede was turned still remains in part, if we may believe the best archaeologists, in the recently restored parish church of Jarrow, which has been carefully renovated in honour of England’s first great historian, every relic of the ancient building as old as Bede being carefully preserved. An old oak chair is still shown, which the saint is pretended to have used. Like all the other saints of the period, without exception, he was canonised by popular veneration, tacitly approved by the Church. Many pilgrims came to Jarrow to visit his tomb. His relics were stolen in the ninth century and carried to Durham, where they were placed with those of Saint Cuthbert. They were an object of veneration to the faithful up to the general profanation under Henry VIII who pulled down the shrine and buried them with those of all the other holy apostles and martyrs of Northumbria.

Towards the ninth century Bede received the appellation of the Venerable, which has ever since been attached to his name. As a specimen of the fables by which his biography was gradually obscured, we may cite the legends invented to account for the origin of this latter title. According to one, the Anglo-Saxon scholars were on a visit to Rome, and there saw a gate of iron on which was inscribed the letters P.P.P., S.S.S., R.R.R., F.F.F., which no one was able to interpret. While Bede was attentively considering the inscription, a Roman who was passing by said to him rudely, “What see you there, English ox?” to which Bede replied, “I see your confusion,” and he immediately explained the character thus: Pater Patriae Perditus, Sapientia Secum Sublata, Ruet Regnum Romae, Ferro Flamma Fame. The Romans were astonished at the acuteness of their English visitor, and decreed that the title of Venerable should be thenceforth given to him.

According to another story, Bede, having become blind in his old age, was walking abroad with one of his disciples for a guide, when they arrived at an open place where there was a large heap of stones, and Bede’s companion persuaded his master to preach to the people who, as he pretended, were assembled to hear him. Bede delivered a moving discourse, and when he uttered the concluding words, “per saecula saeculorum,” to the great admiration of his disciple, the stones immediately cried out “Amen, Venerable Bede!” There is also a third legend on this subject which informs us that soon after Bede’s death, one of his disciples was appointed to compose an epitaph in Latin leonines, and carve it on his monument, and he began thus: Hac sunt in fossa Bedus ossa,” intending to introduce the word sancti or presbyteri; but as neither of these words would suit the metre, he left it blank and fell asleep. On awaking he found that an angel had completed the line, and that it stood thus: Hac sunt in fossa Bedus Venerabilis ossa.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The birthday of St. John, pope and martyr, who was called to Ravenna by the Arian king of Italy, Theodoric, and after languishing a long time in prison for the orthodox faith, terminated his life.

At Dorostorum in Mysia, in the time of the emperor Alexander, the martyrdom of blessed Julius, a veteran soldier in retirement who was arrested by the officials and presented to the governor Maximus. Having in his presence execrated the idols and confessed the name of Christ with the utmost constancy, he was condemned to capital punishment.

At Sora, in the time of the emperor Aurelian and the proconsul Agathius, St. Restituta, virgin and martyr, who overcame in a combat for the faith the violence of the demons, the caresses of her family and the cruelty of the executioners. Being finally beheaded with other Christians, she obtained the honour of martyrdom.

In the territory of Arras, St. Ranulph, martyr.

At Orange in France, St. Eutropius, a bishop, illustrious for virtues and miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

27 MAY – EMBER WEDNESDAY IN PENTECOST WEEK

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

We have seen with what fidelity the Holy Ghost has fulfilled during all these past ages the mission He received from our Emmanuel of forming, protecting and maintaining His Spouse the Church. This trust given by a God has been executed with all the power of a God, and it is the sublimest and most wonderful spectacle the world has witnessed during the [two thousand] years of the new Covenant. This continuance of a social body — the same in all times and places— promulgating a precise Symbol of Faith which each of its members is bound to accept — producing by its decisions the strictest unity of religious belief throughout the countless individuals who compose the society — this, together with the wonderful propagation of Christianity, is the master-fact of History. These two facts are not, as certain modern writers would have it, results of the ordinary laws of Providence, but miracles of the highest order worked directly by the Holy Ghost, and intended to serve as the basis of our faith in the truth of the Christian Religion. The Holy Ghost was not, in the exercise of His mission, to assume a visible form, but He has made His Presence visible to the understanding of man, and thereby He has sufficiently proved His own personal action in the work of man’s salvation.

Let us now follow this divine action — not in its carrying out the merciful designs of the Son of God who deigned to take to Himself a Spouse here below — but in the relations of this Spouse with mankind. Our Emmanuel willed that she should be the Mother of men and that all whom He calls to the honour of becoming His own members, should acknowledge that it is she who gives them this glorious birth. The Holy Ghost, therefore, was to secure to this Spouse of Jesus what would make her evident and known to the world, leaving it, however, in the power of each individual to disown and reject her. It was necessary that this Church should last for all ages, and that she should traverse the earth in such wise that her name and mission might be known to all nations. In a word, she was to be Catholic, that is, Universal, taking in all times and all places. Accordingly, the Holy Ghost made her Catholic. He began by showing her on the Day of Pentecost to the Jews who had flocked to Jerusalem from the various nations. And when these returned to their respective countries, they took the good tidings with them. He then sent the Apostles and Disciples into the whole world, and we learn from the writers of those early times that a century had scarcely elapsed before there were Christians in every portion of the known earth. Since then, the visibility of this holy Church has gone on increasing gradually more and more. If the Divine Spirit, in the designs of His justice, has permitted her to lose her influence in a nation that had made itself unworthy of the grace, He transferred her to another where she would be obeyed. If, at times, there have been whole countries where she had no footing, it was either because she had previously offered herself to them and they had rejected her, or because the time marked by Providence for her reigning there had not yet come.

The history of the Church’s propagation is one long proof of her ever living, and of her frequent migrating. Times and places, all are hers. If there be one when or where she is not acknowledged as supreme, she is at least represented by her members. And this prerogative which has given her the name of Catholic, is one of the grandest of the workings of the Holy Ghost. But His action does not stop here. The mission given Him by the Emmanuel in reference to His Spouse obliges Him to something beyond this, and here we enter into the whole mystery of the Holy Ghost in the Church. We have seen His outward influence by which he gives her perpetuity and increase. Now we must attentively consider the inward direction she receives from Him, which gives her Unity, Infallibility and Holiness — prerogatives which, together with Catholicity, designate the true Spouse of Christ.

The union of the Holy Ghost with the Humanity of Jesus is one of the fundamental truths of the mystery of the Incarnation. Our divine Mediator is called “Christ” because of the anointing which He received (Psalms xliv. 8.). And His anointing is the result of His Humanity being united with the Holy Ghost (Acts x. 38). This union is indissoluble. Eternally will the Word be united to His Humanity. Eternally, also, will the Holy Spirit give to this Humanity the anointing which makes “Christ”. Hence it follows that the Church, being the body of Christ, shares in the union existing between its Divine Head and the Holy Ghost. The Christian too receives, in Baptism, an anointing by the Holy Ghost, who, from that time forward, dwells in him as “the pledge of his eternal inheritance” (Ephesians i. 13), but while the Christian may by sin forfeit this union which is the principle of his supernatural life, the Church herself never can lose it. The Holy Ghost is united to the Church forever. It is by him that she exists, acts and triumphs over all those difficulties to which, by the divine permission, she is exposed whilst Militant on Earth.

Saint Augustine thus admirably expresses this doctrine in one of his Sermons for the Feast of Pentecost:

“The spirit by which every man lives is called the Soul. Now, observe what it is that our Soul does in the body. It is the Soul that gives life to all the members. It sees by the eye, it hears by the ear, it smells by the nose, it speaks by the tongue, it works by the hands, it walks by the feet. It is present to each member, giving life to them all, and to each one its office. It is not the eye that hears, nor the ear and tongue that see, nor the ear and eye that speak. And yet they all live. Their functions are varied, their life is one and the same. So is it in the Church of God. In some Saints, she works miracles. In other Saints, she teaches the truth. In others, she practises virginity. In others, she maintains conjugal chastity: she does one thing in one class, and another in another. Each individual has his distinct work to do, but there is one and the same life in them all. Now, what the Soul is to the body of man, that the Holy Ghost is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church: the Holy Ghost does in the whole Church what the soul does in all the members of one body.”

Here we have given to us a clear exposition by means of which we can fully understand the life and workings of the Church. The Church is the Body of Christ, and the Holy Ghost is the principle which gives her life. He is her soul — not only in that limited sense in which we have already spoken of the Soul of the Church, that is, of her inward existence, and which, after all, is the result of the Holy Spirit’s action within her — but he is also her Soul, in that her whole interior and exterior life and all her workings proceed from Him. The Church is undying because the love which has led the Holy Ghost to dwell within her will last forever. And here we have the reason of that Perpetuity of the Church which is the most wonderful spectacle witnessed by the world.

Let us now pass on and consider that other marvel which consists in the preservation of Unity in the Church. It is said of her in the Canticle: “One is my Dove; my perfect one is One” (Canticles vi. 8). Jesus would have but One, and not many to be His Church, His Spouse: the Holy Ghost will therefore see to the accomplishment of His wish. Let us respectfully follow Him in his workings here also. And firstly, is it possible, viewing the thing humanly, that a society should exist for [two thousand] years and never change? nay, could it have continued all that time, even allowing it to have changed as often as you will? And during these long ages, this society has necessarily had to encounter, and from its own members, the tempests of human passions which are ever showing themselves, and which not infrequently play havoc with the grandest institutions. It has always been composed of nations, differing from each other in language, character and customs. Either so far apart as not to know each other or, when neighbours, estranged one from the other by national jealousies and antipathies. And yet, notwithstanding all this — notwithstanding, too, the political revolutions which have made up the history of the world — the Catholic Church has maintained her changeless Unity: one Faith — one visible head — one worship (at least, in the essentials) — one mode for the deciding every question, namely, by tradition and authority. Sects have risen up in every age, each sect giving itself out as “the true Church.” They lasted for a while, short or long, according to circumstances, and then were forgotten.

Where are now the Arians with their strong political party? Where are the Nestorians, and Eutychians, and Monothelites, with their interminable cavillings? Could anything be imagined more powerless and effete than the Greek Schism, slave either to Sultan or Czar? What is there left of Jansenism, that wore itself away in striving to keep in the Church in spite of the Church? As to Protestantism — the produce of the principle of negation — was it not broken up into sections from its very beginning, so as never to be able to form one society? And is it not now reduced to such straits that it can with difficulty retain dogmas which at first it looked on as fundamental — such as the inspiration of the Scriptures, or the Divinity of Christ? While all else is change and ruin, our Mother the holy Catholic Church, the One Spouse of the Emmanuel, stands forth grand and beautiful in her Unity. But how are we to account for it? Is it that Catholics are of one nature, and Sectarians of another? Orthodox or heterodox, are we not all members of the same human race, subject to the same passions and errors? From where do the children of the Catholic Church derive that stability which is not affected by time, nor influenced by the variety of national character, nor shaken by those revolutions that have changed dynasties and countries? Only one reasonable explanation can be given: there is a divine element in all this. The Holy Ghost, who is the soul of the Church, acts upon all the members. And as He Himself is One, He produces Unity in the Body He animates. He cannot contradict Himself: nothing therefore subsists by Him which is not in union with Him.

Tomorrow we will speak of what the Holy Ghost does for the maintaining Faith, one and unvarying, in the whole body of the Church. Let us today limit our considerations to this single point, namely, that the Holy Spirit is the source of external union by voluntary submission to one centre of unity. Jesus had said: “You are Peter, and on this Rock I will build my Church” (Matthew xvi. 18). Now Peter was to die. The promise, therefore, could not refer to his person only, but to the whole line of his successors, even to the end of the world. How stupendous is not the action of the Holy Ghost, who thus produces a dynasty of spiritual Princes which has reached its two hundred and [sixtieth] Pontiff, and is to continue to the last day! No violence is offered to man’s free will. The Holy Spirit permits him to attempt what opposition he lists. But the work of God must go forward. A Decius may succeed in causing a four years’ vacancy in the See of Rome. Anti-popes may arise, supported by popular favour, or upheld by the policy of Emperors. A long schism may render it difficult to know the real Pontiff amid the several who claim it. The Holy Spirit will allow the trial to have its course, and, while it lasts, will keep up the faith of His children. The day will come when He will declare the lawful Pastor of the Flock, and the whole Church will enthusiastically acknowledge him as such.

In order to understand the whole marvel of this supernatural influence, it is not enough to know the extrinsic results as told us by history. We must study it in its own divine reality. The Unity of the Church is not like that which a conqueror forces upon a people that has become tributary to him. The members of the Church are united in oneness of faith and submission because they love the yoke she imposes on their freedom and their reason. But who is it that thus brings human pride to obey? Who is it that makes joy and contentment be felt in a life-long practice of subordination? Who is it that brings man to put his security and happiness in the having no individual views of his own, and in the conforming his judgement to one supreme teaching — and this, too, in matters where the world chafes at control? It is the Holy Ghost who works this manifold and permanent miracle, for He it is who gives soul and harmony to the vast aggregate of the Church, and sweetly infuses into all these millions a union of heart and mind which forms for our Lord Jesus Christ his “One” dearest Spouse.

During the days of His mortal life, Jesus prayed His Eternal Father to bless us with unity”: “May they be one, as we also are” (John xvii. 2). He prepares us for it when He calls us to become His members. But for the achieving this union, He sends His Spirit into the world — that Spirit, who is the eternal link between the Father and the Son, and who deigns to accept a temporal mission among men in order to create on the Earth a union formed after the type of the union which is in God Himself.

* * * * *

WE give you thanks, Blessed Spirit, who, by your dwelling thus within the Church of Christ, inspires us to love and practise unity, and suffer every evil rather than break it. Strengthen it within us, and never permit us to deviate from it by even the slightest want of submission. You are the soul of the Church. O give us to be members ever docile to your inspirations, for we could not belong to Jesus who sent you unless we belong to the Church, His Spouse and our Mother, whom He redeemed with His Blood, and gave to you to form and guide.

26 MAY – SAINT ELEUTHERIUS (Pope and Martyr)

Eleutherius was born at Nicopolis in Greece. He was a deacon of Pope Anicetus, and during the reign of the emperor Commodus was chosen to govern the Church. At the beginning of his pontificate he received letters from Lucius, king of the Britons, begging him to receive himself and his subjects among the Christians. Eleutherius sent into Britain Fugatius and Damian, two learned and holy men, through whose ministry the king and his people might receive the Faith. It was also during this pontificate that Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp, went to Rome and was kindly received by Eleutherius. The Church of God was then enjoying great peace and calm and the Faith made progress throughout the whole world, but nowhere more than at Rome. Eleutherius governed the Church 15 years and 23 days. He thrice ordinations in December at which he made 12 priests, 8 deacons and 15 bishops. He was buried in the Vatican near the body of Saint Peter.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This twenty-sixth of May is also honoured by the memory of one of those early Pontiffs who, like Urban, were the foundations of the Church in the Age of Persecution. Eleutherius ascended the Papal throne in the very midst of the storm that was raised by Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. It was he that received the embassy that was sent to Rome by the Martyrs of Lyons and, at the head of them that were thus sent was the great Saint Irenaeus. This illustrious Church which was then so rich in martyrdom would offer its palms to Christian Rome in which, to use Saint Irenaeus’ own expression, it recognised “the highest sovereignty.” Peace, however, was soon restored to the Church and the remainder of Eleutherius’ pontificate was undisturbed. In the enjoyment of this peace, and with his name which signifies a freeman, this Pontiff is an image of our Risen Jesus, who, as the Psalmist says of him, is free among the dead (Psalm lxxxvii. 6).

The Church honours Saint Eleutherius as a martyr, as she does the other Popes who lived before Constantine and of whom almost all shed their blood in the Persecutions of the first three centuries. Sharing, as they did, in all the sufferings of the Church, governing it amid perils of every description, and seldom or never knowing what peace was — these three and thirty Pontiffs have every right to be considered as martyrs.

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Your name, O Eleutherius, is the name of every Christian that has risen with Christ. The Pasch has delivered us all, emancipated all, made us all freemen. Pray for us that we may ever preserve that glorious liberty of the children of God of which the Apostle speaks (Romans viii. 21). By it were we freed from the chains of sin which consigned us to death, from the slavery of Satan who would fain have robbed us of our Last End, and from the tyranny of the world which was deceiving us by its false maxims. The New Life given to us by our Pasch is one that is all of Heaven, where our Jesus is awaiting us in glory. To lose it would be to return to slavery.

Holy Pontiff, pray for us that when the Pasch of next year comes, it may find us in that happy liberty which is the fruit of our having been redeemed by Christ (Galatians iv. 31). There is another kind of liberty of which the world boasts and for the acquiring which it sets men at variance with men. It consists in avoiding as a crime, all subjection and dependence, and in recognising no authority except the one appointed by our own elections which we can remove as soon as we please. Deliver us, O holy Pontiff, from this false liberty which is so opposed to the Christian spirit of obedience, and is simply the triumph of human pride. In its frenzy it sheds torrents of blood, and with its pompous cant of what it calls the Rights of Man) it substitutes egoism for duty. It acknowledges no such thing as Truth, for it maintains that error has its sacred rights. It acknowledges no such thing as Good, for it has given up all pretension to preventing Evil. It puts God aside, for it refuses to recognise Him in those who govern. It puts upon man the yoke of brute force. It tyrannises over him by what it calls a “Majority” and it answers every complaint that he may make against injustice by the jargon of “Accomplished Facts.” No, this is not the liberty into which we are called by Christ, our Deliverer. We are free, as Saint Peter says, and yet make not liberty a cloak for malice (1 Peter ii. 16).

O holy Pontiff, show yourself still a Father to the world. During your peaceful reign your throne was near to that of the Caesars who governed the Seven Hilled City. They were the rulers of the world and yet your name was revered in every part of their Empire. While the material power held the sword suspended over your head, the faithful of various distant lands were flocking to Rome, there to venerate the tomb of Peter and pay homage to you his Successor. When Lucius sent ambassadors from his island, they turned not their steps to the emperor’s palace, but to your humble dwelling. They came to tell you that a people was called by divine grace to receive the Good Tidings and become a portion of the Christian family. The destinies of this people, which you were the first to evangelise, were to be great in the Church. The island of the Britains is a daughter of the Roman Church, and the attempts she is now making to disown her origin are useless. Have pity on her, O you that were her first Apostle! Bless the efforts which are being everywhere made to bring her back to unity with the Church. Remember the faith of Lucius and his people and show your paternal solicitude for a country which you led to the Faith.