3 JULY – SAINT IRENAEUS OF LYONS (Bishop and Martyr)

Irenaeus was born in proconsular Asia, not far from Smyrna. From his childhood he had entered the school of Polycarp, tbe disciple of Saint John the Evangelist and Bishop of Smyrna. Under Polycarp he made progress in the science of religion and in the practice of Christian virtue. He was inflamed with desire to learn the doctrines which had been received as a deposit by all the disciples of the Apostles. Although already a master in Sacred Letters when Polycarp was martyred, Irenaeus undertook to visit as many as ever he could of these ancients, memorising whatever they spoke to him. Thus was he afterwards able, to oppose these their words with great advantage against the heresies. For indeed, daily more and more, heresy spread to the great detriment of the Christian people, and therefore he thought to make a careful and ample refutation of it. In Gaul he was attached as priest to the Church of Lyons by Saint Pothinus, its Bishop. Labouring in the discharge of which office, both by word and doctrine he showed himself to be a true “zelator of the Testament of Christ,” as the holy martyrs expressed it, who in the time of Marcas Aurelius were strenuously combating for the true religion.

For these same martyrs, together with the clergy of Lyons, thought they could not put into better hands than those of Irenaeus the pacification of the Churches of Asia that had been troubled by the heresy of Montanus. For this cause, so dear to their heart, they chose therefore Irenaeus among all others as the most worthy, and sent him to Pope Eleutherius to implore him to condemn these new heretics and put an end to the dissensions. The Bishop Pothinus had died a martyr. Irenaeus having succeeded him, so happy was his episcopacy, owing to his wisdom, prayer and example, that soon not only the city of Lyons, but even a great number of the inhabitants of other cities in Gaul, renounced the error of their superstitions and gave their names to be enlisted in the army of Christ. Meanwhile, a contest arose on the subject of the exact day on which Easter should be celebrated. The bishops of Asia were in disagreement with nearly all their colleagues, and the Roman Pontiff Victor had already cut them off from the communion of Saints, or was on the point of so doing, when Irenaeus appeared before him as a seeker of peace and most respectfully admonishing him, induced him, after the example of the Pontiffs his predecessors, not to suffer so many Churches to be torn away from Catholic unity on account only of a rite which they said they had received from their fathers.

Irenaeus wrote many works mentioned by Eusebius of Caesarea and Saint Jerome, a great part of which have perished through the ravages of time. There are extant, however, five books of his against heresies written in about 180 AD while Eleutherius was governing the Church. In the third Book, the man of God, instructed by those who, as it is certain, had been disciples of the Apostles, renders to the Roman Church and to the succession of her Bishops a testimony surpassing all others in weight and brilliancy. And he says that the Roman Church is the faithful, perpetual and most assured guardian of divine tradition. Moreover he says that it is with this Church that every other Church must agree, because she has a principality superior to all others. At length, he was crowned by martyrdom, together with an almost countless multitude whom he had himself brought over to the knowledge and practice of the true faith. He passed away in 272 AD at which time when Septimus Severus had ordered that all those who persisted in the practice of the Christian religion should be condemned to most cruel torments and to death.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Although the feast of Saint Leo II were sufficient in itself to complete this day’s teachings, the Church of Lyons presents likewise to the admiration of the whole world her own great Doctor, the valiant and pacific Irenaeus who, quitting the shores of brilliant Ionia, travelled as far as the Celtic coasts, there to shine as “the light of the West.” But while contemplating him today confirming with his blood the doctrine he had preached, let us hearken to his words bearing testimony to Holy Mother Church: words of world-wide celebrity, at once confounding Hell and closing the mouth of heresy.

May we not say, that it was in order to afford us instruction so appropriate for tomorrow’s festival that Eternal Wisdom made choice of this particular day for His martyr’s triumph? Let us hearken then to this zealous pupil of Polycarp and of the first disciples of the Apostles. Let us hearken to him who for this very reason is considered to be the most authentic witness to the Faith in all the Churches of the second century, all which Churches (these are his own words when Bishop of Lyons) bow down before Rome, as to their Mistress and Mother.

“For,” he continues, “it behoves all the rest, because of her superior Principality, to agree with her. In her do all the Faithful of whatever place preserve ever pure the Faith once preached to them. Great and venerable above all others because of her antiquity, known to all, founded by Peter and Paul the two most glorious of the Apostles, her Bishops are by their succession the channel by which Apostolic tradition is transmitted to us in all its integrity in such sort, that whoever differs from her in his belief, by this fact alone stands confounded.”

The rock on which the Church is built stood all unmoved at that early age, as now, against the efforts of false science. Yet not without peril was the attack then made by the Gnostics with that multiplex heresy of theirs and all its guileful plots put into strange concurrence by powers of evil otherwise the most opposed one to the other. It would almost seem as though Christ had wished to prove the strength of the foundations He had laid, by thus permitting Hell to direct against the Church a simultaneous assault of all the errors to which the world then was or ever would become a prey. Simon the Magician already ensnared by Satan in the nets of the occult sciences was chosen by the prince of darkness as his lieutenant in the enterprise. Unmasked at Samaria by the Vicar of the Man-God, he had commenced against Simon Peter a jealous struggle that would by no means end with the tragic death of the father of heresies, but which in the following century was to be continued more desperately than ever through disciples formed by him.

Saturninus, Basilides, Valentine, all these did but apply the premises of the master, diversifying them according to the instincts bred at the time, by the then existing forms of corruption of mind and heart. A proceeding all the more avowed, inasmuch as the aim of Magun had been nothing less than the sealing of an alliance betwixt philosophies, religions and aspirations the most contradictory. There was no aberration, from Persian dualism or Hindoo idealism, to Jewish cabals or Greek polytheism, that did not mutually proffer the hand of friendship in this reserved sanctuary of the Gnosis: they already were the heterodox conceptions of Arius and Eutyches being formulated: there, taking movement and life, in advance, were to be recognised in a strange pantheistic romance, the wildest oddities of the hollow dreams of German metaphysics. God, an abyss, rolling from fall to fall, till at last reaching matter, there to become conscious of Himself in human nature and to return then by annihilation into eternal silence. This is the sum total of Gnostic dogma, engendering, for its morality, a mixture of transcendent mysticism and impure practices, for its political form laying the basis of Communism and modern Nihilism.

Such a spectacle as this of the Gnostic Babel, piling up its incoherent materials on the waters of pride and impure passions, was indeed well calculated to bring out in bold relief the admirable unity of the City of God so rapidly advancing, though but in her commencement. Saint Irenaeus, chosen by God to oppose to the Gnosis arguments of his own powerful logic and to re-establish, in opposition to it the true sense of holy Scripture, excelled most of all when, in face of a thousand sects bearing on their brow the visible mark of the father of discord and lies, he pointed to the Church maintaining as sacred, throughout the universe, the whole of tradition just as received from the Apostles. Faith in the great truth that the world is wholly governed by the Holy Trinity Whose work it is, faith in the Mystery of Justice and Mercy, which leaving the Angels in their fall, did yet raise up this flesh of ours, in Jesus, the Well-Beloved, the Son of Mary, our God, our Saviour and our King — such was the deposit confided to Earth by Peter and Paul, by the Apostles and by their disciples.

“The Church, therefore,” so argues Saint Irenaeus with all his enthusiastic piety and learning, “the Church having received Faith, guards the same with all diligence, making the whole world in which she lives dispersed to become but one single House: collected in unity, she believes with one soul, with one heart. With one voice she preaches, teaches, transmits doctrine, as having but one mouth. For, although there be in the world divers languages, that by no means prevents tradition remaining one in its sap. The Churches founded in Germany, or amid the Iberians, or the Celts, believe not otherwise, teach not otherwise, than do the Churches of the East, of Egypt, of Lybia, or of those established in the centre of the world. But even as the sun, God’s creature, is ever the same and remains one in the whole world, so too does the teaching of Truth shine resplendent, illumining every man who is willing to come to the knowledge of the Truth. Even though the chief men in the Churches be unequal in the art of speaking well, tradition is not thereby impaired: he who explains eloquently, cannot possibly give it increase. He who speaks with less abundance, cannot thereby diminish it.”

O Sacred Unity, O precious Faith deposited like a source of eternal youthfulness in our hearts! They indeed know you not, who turn themselves away from Holy Church! Afar from her, they must needs lose also Jesus and all His gifts. “For where the Church is, there likewise is the Spirit of God. And where the Spirit of God is, there likewise is the Church, there all grace. Woe to them who alienate themselves from her! They suck not in life from the nourishing breasts to which their Mother invites them, they slake not their thirst at the limpid Fount of the Lord’s Body: but, afar from the rock of unity, they drink the muddy waters of cisterns dug in fetid slime where there is not a drop of the water of truth.” What will their vain science avail to sophists with all their empty foolish formulae?

“Oh!” cries out the Bishop of Lyons, elsewhere, in accents which seem to have been borrowed, later on, by the author of the Imitation, “Oh how far better is it to be ignorant, or a man of little learning, and to draw near to God by love! What use is there in knowing much, in passing off for having grasped much, if one be an enemy to his Lord? Wherefore, Paul does thus exclaim: ‘knowledge puffs up, but charity builds up’ (1 Corinthians viii. 1). Not that he reproved the true science of God, for if so he had condemned himself in the first place, but he saw that there were some who, exalting themselves under pretext of knowledge, knew not any longer, how to love. Yes, verily, better were it to know nothing at all, to be ignorant of the meaning of everything, and yet to believe in God and to be possessed of charity. Let us avoid vain puffing up which would make us fall away from love, the life of the soul. Let Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified for us, be our only science.”

Rather than here bring forward the genius of the eminent Controvertialist of the second century, it is a pleasure to cite from his Treatises such passages as give an insight into his great soul, and reveal traits of a sanctity so loving and so sweet. “When, at last, the Spouse comes,” says he, speaking of those unfortunate men he would fain reclaim, “their science will not keep their lamp lighted, and they will find themselves excluded from the nuptial chamber.” In numberless places, in the midst of closely strung arguments, he who may be styled the grand-son of the Beloved Disciple, betrays his own heart. While following, for instance, the track of Abraham, he shows the path that leads to the Spouse: his mouth can then no longer cease to re-utter the name that fills his thoughts.

We cannot but recognise in these touching words of his the Apostle who had quitted country and home to advance the kingdom of God in the land of the Gauls: “Abraham did well to abandon his earthly relatives to follow the Word of God, to exile himself together with the Word, so as to live with Him. The Apostles did well too, in order to follow the Word of God, to quit their barque and their father. We likewise, who have the same faith as Abraham, we do well carrying our cross, as Isaac did the wood, to follow in his footsteps. In Abraham, man learnt that it is possible to follow the Word of God, and thus were his steps made firm in this blessed way. The Word, on His part, nevertheless, disposed man for the divine mysteries by figures throwing light on the future, Moses espoused an Ethiopian, who thus became a daughter of Israel: and by these nuptials of Moses, those of the Word were pointed out, for by this Ethiopian was signified the Church that has come forth from the gentiles, while awaiting the day in which the Word Himself will come to wash away, with His own hands, the defilements of the daughter of Sion at the Banquet of the Last Supper. For fitting it is that the temple be pure in which the Bridegroom and Bride are to taste of the delights of the Spirit of God. And even as it beseems not the Bride to come forward herself to take a Spouse, but she must needs wait till she be sought out, so this flesh of ours cannot of itself rise to the majesty of the Throne Divine. But when the Spouse comes, oh! Then He will raise her up, and she will not so much possess Him, but will rather be possessed by Him. The Word made Flesh will assimilate her wholly to Himself in all fullness, and will render her precious in the eyes of the Father by reason of this her conformity to His visible Word. Then will the union with God in love be consummated. Divine union is life and light. It imparts the enjoyment of all the good things of God. It is eternal of its very nature, just as these good things themselves likewise are. Woe to those who withdraw themselves from it. Their chastisement comes less from God than from themselves and from the free choice by which, turning from God, they have lost all the good things of God.”

The loss of faith being the most radical and the deepest of all causes of estrangement from God, it is not surprising to observe the horror which heresy inspired, in those days when union with God was the one treasure ambitioned by all conditions and ages of life. The name Irenaeus signifies “peace” and justifying this beautiful name, his condescending charity once led the Roman Pontiff himself to withhold the thunders he was on the point of hurling. The question at issue was one of no small importance: it was the celebration of Easter. Nevertheless Ireneeus himself relates with regard to his Master Polycarp how when being asked by the heretic Marcion if he knew him, he replied: “I know you to be the first-born of Satan.” He also gives us that fact concerning Saint John, who when hearing that Cerinthus was in the same public edifice into which he had just entered, fled precipitately for fear, as he said, that because of this enemy of Truth the walls of the building would crumble down on them all. “So great,”remarks the Bishop of Lyons, “was the fear the Apostles and their disciples had of communicating even by word, with any one of those who altered Truth.”

He who was styled by the companions of Saints Pothinus and Blandina, in their prison, the “zelator of the Testament of Christ,” was on this point, as on all others, the worthy heir of John and Polycarp. Far from becoming hardened by it, his heart, like that of his venerable masters, drew from this purity of mind that limitless tenderness of which he gave proof in regard to those erring ones whom he hoped to win back. What could be more touching than the letter written by Irenaeus to one of these unhappy men whom the mirage of novel doctrines had inveigled into the gulf of error: “Florinus, this teaching is not that transmitted to us by the ancients, the disciples of the Apostles. I used to behold you at the side of Polycarp. Though shining at court, you did nonetheless seek to be pleasing to him. I was then but a child, yet the things that happened at that time are more vivid in my recollection that those of yesterday, for indeed childhood’s memories form, as it were, a part of the very soul: they grow with her. I could point to the very spot where sat blessed Polycarp the while he conversed with us, I could describe exactly his bearing, his address, his manner of life, his every feature, and the discourses he made to the crowd. You needs must well remember how he used to tell us of his intercourse with John and the rest of those that had seen the Lord, and with what a faithful memory he repeated their words: what he had learnt from them respecting our Lord, His miracles, His doctrine. All these things Polycarp transmitted to us, as having himself received them from the very men that had be held with their eyes the Word of Life. Now all of what he told us was conformable to the Scriptures. What a grace from God were these conversations of his! I used to listen so eagerly, noting everything down, not on parchment, but on my heart. And now, by the grace of God, I still live on it all. Hence, I can attest before God: if the blessed apostolic old man had heard discourses such as yours, he would have uttered a piercing cry, and would have stopped his ears, saying as was his wont: ‘God most good, to what sort of times have you reserved us!’ Then would he have got up quickly and would have fled from that spot of blasphemy.”

* * * * *

O what a crown is yours, most noble Pontiff! Man must needs confess himself utterly unable to count the pearls with which it is adorned. For in the arena where you won it a whole people were your fellow combatants. And as each martyr, one by one, ascended to his throne in Heaven, he proclaimed your glory, for he owed his crown to you. Before this, full five and twenty years, the blood of Blandina and her companions had been shed and, thanks to you, had produced a hundredfold. Your toilsome care had brought that fruitful seed to germinate from out the purpled soil that had received it in the early days of Christianity, and now the once small colony of the Faithful scattered in its midst had become the very City itself. Erstwhile, the amphitheatre was spacious enough for the effusion of the martyrs’ blood, but now, the sacred stream must flow in torrents along the streets and squares. O glad day that made Lyons become Rome’s rival and the Holy City of the Gauls!

The sons of those that died with you have ever remained faithful to Jesus Christ. Together with Mary whose position and dignity you so admirably expounded to their fathers, and with the Precursor of the Man-God who so fully shares their love, protect them against every scourge whether of body or of soul. Spare France. Drive far from he, this second time, the invasion of a false philosophy which is attempting nowadays to revive the aberrations of Gnosticism. Cause truth once more to shine on the eyes of so many whom heresy, under these multiform disguises, holds in separation from the one Fold. Irenaeus, maintain Christians in that peace which alone deserves the name: keep ever pure the minds and hearts of those whom error as yet has not sullied. Prepare us now to celebrate befittingly the two glorious Apostles Peter and Paul and the powerful Principality of the Mother of all the Churches!

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Tuscany, Irenaeus and Mustiola, martyrs. Irenaeus was the deacon of the priest Felix who was arrested and beaten with stones until he died, on the ninth of the calends of July (June 23) in 273 AD. Irenaeus buried his body outside the walls of their city, Falisca (Civita Castellana) in Tuscany. For this he was brought before the governor Turcius who had him imprisoned. A rich Christian lady called Mustiola, who was a relative of the emperor Claudius II, ministered to Irenaeus and other Christian prisoners by bringing them food, washing their feet and anointing their wounds. Turcius ordered Irenaeus to be placed on the little horse, and his sides to be torn with rakes, and scorched with fire. After Irenaeus died on the rack Mustiola cried out against Turcius and was herself martyred.

At Alexandria, St. Tryphon, and twelve other martyrs.

At Constantinople, the holy martyrs Eulogius and his companions.

At Caesarea in Cappadocia, St. Hyacinthus, chamberlain of the emperor Trajan. Accused of being a Christian, he was scourged and thrown into prison where, consumed with hunger, he breathed his last.

The same day, the holy martyrs Mark and Mucian, who were put to the sword for Christ. As a small boy cried out to them not to sacrifice to idols, he was whipped, but confessing Christ all the more vigorously, he was killed with a man named Paul who had also exhorted the martyrs.

At Laodicea in Syria, St. Anatolius, a bishop, whose writings were admired not only by religious men, but even by philosophers.

At Altino, St. Heliodorus, a bishop distinguished for holiness and learning.

At Ravenna, St. Dathus, bishop and confessor.

At Edessa in Mesopotamia, the translation of the apostle St. Thomas from India. His relics were afterwards taken to Tortona.

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

Thanks be to God.

2 JULY – THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Our Lady’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth already engaged our attention while we were preparing for the Christmas Festival. But it is only fitting to return again to an event so important in our Lady’s life. The mere commemoration of this mystery made on Ember Friday in Advent would be insufficient to bring forward all it contains of deep teaching and holy joy. Since in the course of centuries, the Holy Liturgy has been gaining more and more completeness, it is but natural that this precious mine should come to be further opened in honour of the Virgin Mother. The Order of Saint Francis, it would seem, as well as certain particular Churches such as Rheims and Paris, for example, had already taken the initiative when Urban VI, in 1389, instituted today’s solemnity. The Pope counselled a fast on the vigil of the feast and ordered that it should be followed by an octave. He granted for its celebration the same indulgences as Urban IV had in the previous century attached to the festival of Corpus Christi. The Bull of promulgation stopped by the Pontiff’s death was again taken up and published by Boniface IX, his successor on the Chair of Peter.

We learn from the Lessons of the Office formerly composed for this feast that the end of its institution was, as Urban conceived it, to obtain the cessation of the Schism then desolating the Church. The Papacy exiled from Rome for seventy years had barely re-entered it when Hell, infuriated at a return which crossed all its plans ever opposed to those of Christ, had taken revenge by ranging under two leaders the Flock of the one Sheepfold. So deep was the obscurity with which miserable intrigues contrived to cover the authority of the legitimate Shepherd that numbers of Churches, in all good faith, began to hesitate and ended at last in preferring the deceptive staff of a hireling. Thicker yet was the darkness to grow till night should be so dense that for a moment the conflicting mandates of three Popes would simultaneously spread through the world, while the Faithful, struck with stupor, would be at utter loss to discern accurately which was the true Voice of Christ’s Vicar. Never had the Bride of the Son of God been in a more piteous situation. But Our Lady, to whom the true Pontiff had turned at the first rising of the storm, deceived not the Church’s confidence. During all those years while the unfathomable Justice of the Most High let the powers of Hell hold sway, She stood for the defence of Holy Church, trampling the head of the old serpent so thoroughly under Her victorious foot, that despite the terrific confusion he had stirred up, his filthy spume could not sully the faith of the people. Their attachment was steadfast to the unity of the Roman See whoever might be, in the midst of their uncertainty, its veritable occupant. Thus the West, divided in fact but, in principle ever one and undivided, spontaneously, as it were, re-united herself as soon as God’s moment came for the return of light.

However, the hour having arrived for the Queen of Saints to assume the offensive. She would not content Herself with merely re-establishing at its former post the army of the Elect. Hell now must expiate his audacity by being forced to yield back to Holy Church those conquests which for centuries had seemed his forever. The tail of the dragon had not yet ceased to whisk at Basle when Florence already beheld the heads of the Greek schism — the Armenians and Ethiopians, the cavillers of Jerusalem, of Syria, and of Mesopotamia, all compensating by their unhoped for adhesion to the Roman Pontiff for the anguish just suffered in the West. It was now to be shown that such a return of nations, in the very midst even of the tempest, was indeed the work of Her who had been called on by the Pilot half a century before to succour the Barque of Peter. Even they of the factious assembly of Basle gave proof of this in a way which has unfortunately been too much overlooked by historians who undervalue the high importance that liturgical facts hold in the history of Christendom. When about to separate, these last abettors of the schism devoted the forty-third session of their pretended Council to the promulgation of this very feast of the Visitation in the first establishment of which Urban VI had, from the outset, placed all his hopes. Notwithstanding the resistance of some of the more obstinate, the schism may, from that hour, be said to have ended: the storm was subsiding. The name of Mary, invoked thus by both sides, shone resplendent as the sign of peace amidst the clouds (Genesis ix. 12-17) even as the rainbow in its sweet radiance unites both extremities of the horizon. “Look upon it,” says the Holy Ghost, “and bless Him that made it: it is very beautiful in its brightness. It encompasses the heaven about, with the circle of its glory, the Hands of the Most High have displayed it” (Ecclesiasticus xliii. 12-13).

But, it may be asked, why was the feast of the Visitation specially chosen, more than any other, as the monument of restored peace? The answer seems to be suggested in the very nature of the mystery itself and in the manner of its accomplishment. Here more particularly does Mary appear as the Ark of the Covenant, bearing within her the Emmanuel, the living Testimony of a more true reconciliation — of an alliance more sublime between Earth and Heaven than that limited compact of servitude entered into between Jehovah and the Jews amid the roar of thunder. By her means, far better than through Adam, all men are now brethren, for He whom she hides within her is to be the first-born of the great family of the sons of God. Scarce is He conceived than there begins for Him the mighty work of universal propitiation. Arise, then Lord, into your resting place, you and the Ark which you have hast sanctified, from which your own sanctity will pour down upon our Earth! (Psalms cxxxi. 8). During the whole of her rapid passage from Nazareth to the mountains of Judea, she will be protected by wings of Cherabim jealously eager to contemplate her glory. Amid his truest warriors, amidst Israel’s choirs of singing men, David conducted the figurative Ark from the house of Abinadab to that of Obed-Edom (2 Kings vi.), but better far, the escort deputed by the Eternal Father for this sacred Ark of the New Covenant, troops of the noblest princes of the heavenly phalanx.

Favoured with benediction was that Levite’s house while for three months it sheltered the Most High hidden on the golden Propitiatory. More favoured still, the home of the Priest Zachary harbouring for the same lapse of time Eternal Wisdom enshrined in the virginal womb in which that union, so ambitioned by His Love, had just been accomplished. Yet beneath Zachary’s roof, blessed as it was, the enemy of God and man was still holding one captive: the angelic embassy that had announced John’s miraculous conception and birth could not exempt him from the shameful tribute that every son of Adam must pay to the prince of deaths on entering into this life. As formerly at Azotus, so now, Darjon may not remain standing erect in face of the Ark (1 Kings v.) Mary appears and Satan at once overturned, is subjected to utter defeat in John’s soul, a defeat that is not to be his last, for the Ark of the Covenant will not stay its victories till the reconciliation of the last of the Elect be effected.

Let us then hymn this day with songs of gladness, for this Mystery contains the germ of every victory gained by the Church and her sons: henceforth the sacred Ark is borne at the head of every combat waged by the new Israel. Division between man and his God is at an end, between the Christian and his brethren! The ancient Ark was powerless to prevent the scission of the Tribes — henceforth if schism and heresy do hold out for a few short years against Mary, it will be but to evince more fully her glorious triumph, at last. In all ages, because of Her, even as today, under the very eyes of the enemy now put to confusion, little ones will rejoice. All, even the desolate, will be filled with benediction, and Pontiffs will be perfected. Let us join the tribute of our songs to John’s exulting gladness, to Elizabeth’s sudden exclamations, to Zachary’s canticle. Yes, therewith let all earth re-echo! Thus in by-gone days was the Ark hailed, as it entered the Hebrew camp. Hearing their shout the Philistines thereby learned that help had come from the Lord ; and seized with terror, they groaned aloud saying: “Woe to us, for there was no such great joy yesterday and the day before: Woe to us!” (1 Kings iv. 5-8). Verily this day the whole human race, together with John, leaps for joy and shouts with a great shout. Verily this day has the old enemy good reason to lament: the heel of the woman (Genesis iii. 15), as she stamps him down, makes his haughty head to wince for the first time: and John, set free, is hereby the precursor of us all. More happy are we, the new Israel, than was the old, for our glory will never be taken away. Never will be wrested from us that sacred Ark which has led us dry-shod across the River (Josue iii-iv) and has levelled fortresses to the dust at its approach (Josue vi.).

Justly then is this day on which an end is put to the series of defeats begun in Eden the day of new canticles for a new people! But who may intone the hymn of triumph save She to whom the victory belongs? “Arise, arise, Debbora, arise, arise and utter a canticle (Judith v. 12). The valiant men ceased and rested in Israel, until Mary arose, the true Debbora, until a Mother arose in Israel (Judith v. 7). ‘It is I, it is I,’ says she, ‘that will sing to the Lord, I will sing to the Lord, the God of Israel (Judith v. 3). O Magnify the Lord with me, as says my grand-sire David, and let us extol His Name together (Psalms xxxiii. 4). My heart has rejoiced, like that of Anna, in God my Saviour (1 Kings ii. 1). For even as in his handmaid Judith, by me He has fulfilled His mercy (Judith xiii. 18) so that my praise will not depart out of the mouth of men who will be mindful of the power of the Lord forever (Judith xiii. 25-31; xv. 11). For mighty is He that has done great things in me (Exodus xv. 2-3-11). There is none holy as He (1 Kings ii. 2). Even as by Esther, he has throughout all generations saved those who feared him (Esther ix. 28). In in the power of His arm (Judith ix. 11) He has turned against the impious one the projects of his own heart, driving proud a man out of his seat and uplifting the humble. The bow of the mighty is overcome, and the weak are girt with strength. The abundance of them that were rich has passed to the hungry and they are filled (1 Kings ii. 4-5). He has remembered His people and has had pity on His inheritance (Esther x. 12). Such indeed was the promise that Abraham received and our fathers have handed down to us: and He has done to them even as He had promised” (Esther xiii. 15; xiv. 5).

Daughters of Sion and all you who groan in the thraldom of Satan, the hymn of deliverance has sounded in our land! Following in Her train, who bears within her the Pledge of alliance, let us form into choirs, better than Mary, Aaron‘s sister, and by yet juster title, does she lead the concerts of Israel (Exodus xv. 20-21), So sings she on this day of triumph, and the burthen of her song gathers into one all the victorious chants which erstwhile, in the ages of expectation, preluded this divine canticle of hers. But the past victories of the elect people were but figures of that which is gained by our glorious Queen on this day of her manifestation. For she, beyond Deborah, Judith or Esther, has truly brought about the deliverance of her people. In her mouth the accents of her illustrious predecessors pass from the burning aspiration of the prophetic age to the calm ecstasy which denotes her being already in possession of the long expected God. A new era is meetly inaugurated by sacred chants: divine praise receives from Mary that character which henceforth it is never to lose, not even in eternity.

The preceding considerations have been suggested by the special motive which led the Church to institute this feast in the fourteenth century. Again, in our own day has Mary shown that this date is indeed for her a day of victory, for on the Second of July in 1849, Rome was restored to the exiled Pontiff Pius IX. But we should far exceed the limits of our present scope were we to strive to exhaust the teachings of this vast mystery, the Visitation.

Epistle – Canticles ii. 9‒15

Behold he comes, leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills. My beloved is like a roe or a young hart. Behold he stands behind our wall; looking through the windows, looking through the lattices. Behold my beloved speak to me, Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come. For winter is now past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers have appeared in our land, the time of pruning is come, the voice of the turtle is heard in our land: the fig-tree has put forth her green figs, the vines in flower yield their sweet smell. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come. My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow places of the wall, show me your face, let your voice sound in my ears, for your voice is sweet and your face comely.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church introduces us into the depth of the Mystery. What she has just been reading to us is but the explanation of that word of Elizabeth’s which sums up the whole of today’s feast: “When your voice sounded in my ear, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” Voice of Mary, voice of the turtle, putting winter to flight and announcing spring-tide, flowers and fragrance! At this sweet sound, John’s soul, a captive in the darkness of sin, casts off the badge of slavery and suddenly developing germs of highest virtues appears beauteous as a bride decked in nuptial array: and therefore, how Jesus hastes to this well-beloved soul! Between John and the Bridegroom, what ineffable out-pourings! What sublime dialogues pass between them, from womb to womb of Mary and Elizabeth! Admirable Mothers! Sons yet more admirable! In this happy meeting, the sight, the hearing, the voice of the Mothers belong less to themselves than to the blessed fruit each bears within her. Thus their senses are the lattices through which the Bridegroom and Friend of the Bridegroom see one another, understand one another, speak one to the other!

The animal man, it is true, understands not this language (1 Corinthians ii. 14) “Father,” the Son of God will soon exclaim: “1 give you thanks for that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to little ones” (Matthew xi. 25). “Let him, therefore, that has ears to hear, hear (Matthew xi. 15; xii. 9), but Amen, I say to you, unless you become as little children, you will not enter into the kingdom of Heaven (Matthew xviii. 3) nor know its mysteries (Matthew xiii. 11).” Wisdom will nevertheless be justified by her children, as the Gospel says (Matthew xi. 19). The simple-hearted in quest of light, with all the straightforwardness of humility, let pass unheeded those mocking flickers that sport across the marshes of this world. They know right well that the first ray of the Eternal Sun will disperse these thin phantoms, leaving sheer emptiness before those who run in pursuit of them. For their part, these wise little ones already feed on that which eye has not seen, nor ear heard (1 Corinthians ii. 9), having a foretaste, here below, of eternal delights.

Ineffably is John the Baptist experiencing all this. Accosted by the divine Friend who has been beforehand in seeking him, his soul at once awakens to full ecstasy. Jesus on His side, is now making His first conquest. For it is to John that is first addressed among all creatures (Mary of course excepted) the sacred Nuptial-song uttered in the Soul of the Word made Flesh, making His divine Heart throb with emotion. Yes, it is today (our Epistle tells us so), that in concert with the Magnificat, the divine Canticle of Canticles is likewise inaugurated in the entire acceptance that the Holy Ghost wishes to give it. Never more fully than on this happy day will the sacred ravishments of the Spouse be justified. Never will they find a more faithful response! Let us warm ourselves at these celestial fires. Let us join our enthusiasm to that of Eternal Wisdom who makes His first step, this day, in His royal progress towards mankind. Let us unite with our Jesus in imploring the Precursor at last to show himself. Were it not ordered otherwise from on High, his inebriation of love would verily have made him at once break down the wall that held him from appearing, then and there, to announce the Bridegroom. For well knows he that the sight of his countenance, preceding the Face of the Lord Himself, will excite the whole Earth to transports. He knows that sweet will his own voice be, when once it has become the organ of the Word calling the Bride to Him.

Gospel – Luke i. 39‒47

At that time, Mary rising up, went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah. And she entered into the house of Zachary, and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit; and she cried out with a loud voice, and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the Fruit of your womb. And whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, as soon as the voice of your salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed are you that have believed, because those things will be accomplished that were spoken to you by the Lord.” And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Mary, having learned from the Archangel that Elizabeth was about to become a mother, is pre-occupied with the thought of the services that will soon be needed by her cousin and the infant. She therefore starts at once on her journey across the mountains, amidst which stands the house of Zachary. Thus does the charity of Christ (2 Corinthians v. 14) act, thus does it press, when it is genuine. There is no state of soul in which, under pretext of more exalted perfection, the Christian may be allowed to forget his brethren. Mary had just contracted the highest union with God, and our imagination might perhaps be inclined to picture her, as it were, in a state of powerlessness, lost in ecstasy during these days in which the Word, taking Flesh of her flesh, is inundating her, in return, with the floods of His Divinity. The Gospel, however, is explicit on this subject: it particularly says that it was in those days (Luke i. 39) even, that the humble Virgin, hitherto quietly hid in the secret of the Lord’s face (Psalms xxx. 21) rose up to devote herself to all the bodily as well as the spiritual needs of a neighbour in such condition. Does that mean to say that works are superior to prayer, and that contemplation is not the better part? No, certainly not, for indeed never did Our Lady so directly and so fully adhere to God with her whole being as at this very time. But the creature when, he has attained the summits of the unitive life, is all the more apt and fitted for exterior works, inasmuch as no lending of himself thereunto can distract him from the immoveable centre in which he is fixed.

A signal privilege is this, resulting from that division of the spirit and the soul (Hebrews iv. 12), to which all attain not, and which marks one of the most decisive steps in the spiritual life. For it supposes a purification of man’s entire being so perfect, that in very truth he is no other than one spirit with the Lord (1 Corinthians vi. 17). It entails so absolute a submission of the powers, that without clashing one with the other, they yield, each in its particular sphere, obedience simultaneously, to the Divine Breathing.

So long as the Christian has not yet crossed this last defile, defended with such obstinacy by nature to the last, so long as he has not yet won that holy liberty of the children of God (Romans viii. 21; 2 Corinthians iii. 17), he cannot possibly turn to man without in some way quitting God. Not that he ought, on that account, to neglect his duties towards his neighbour, in whom God wishes us to see no other than Himself. But, nevertheless, blessed is he who (like Mary,) loses nothing of the better part the while he attends to his obligations towards others! Yet how few are such privileged souls! And what an illusion it is to persuade ourselves to the contrary!

We will return to these thoughts on the day of Our Lady’s triumphant Assumption, but the Gospel to which we have just been listening makes it a duty for us, even now, to draw the attention of the reader to this point. Our Lady has especially on this feast a claim to be invoked as the model of those who devote themselves to works of mercy. And if to all it is by no means given to keep their spirit, at the same moment, more than ever immersed in God — all, nevertheless, ought constantly to strive to approach by the practice of recollection and divine praise to those luminous heights on which their Queen shows herself this day in all the plenitude of her ineffable perfections.

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries have hymned, in graceful compositions, the mystery of this day. The following one, by its warm expressions of tender piety towards the Mother of God, more particularly excited the rage of the pretended Reformers. What specially roused their spleen was the call to unity which it addresses to the erring. According to what we were saying above as to the motive which prompted Holy Church to establish this festival of the Visitation, Mary is in like manner invoked, in other formulae of this period, proper to the same feast, as the light which dissipates clouds, which puts an end to schisms.

“Come, sovereign Lady, Mary, visit us, illumine our sickly souls, by the example of your duties performed in life.

Come, Co-redemptrix of the world, take away the filth of sin, by visiting your people, remove their peril of chastisement.

Come, Queen of nations, extinguish the flames of the guilty, rectify whatever is wrong, give us to live innocently.

Come, and visit the sick, Mary, fortify the strong with the vigour of your holy impetuosity, so that brave courage droop not.

Come, Star, Light of the ocean waves, shed your ray of peace upon us; let the heart of John exult with joy before the Lord.

Come, Regal Sceptre, lead back the crowd of erring ones to the unity of the faith, in which the heavenly Citizens are saved.

Come, and right willingly implore for us the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, so that we may be directed aright, in the actions of this life.

Come, let us praise the Son, let us praise the Holy Spirit, let us praise the Father, One God, who gives us succour. Amen.”

Who is she that comes forth beautiful as the morning rising, terrible as an army set in array? (Canticles vi. 9) Mary, this is the day that your exquisite brightness for the first time gladdens our Earth. You bear within you the Sun of Justice, and His early beams striking first the mountain tops while the vales below are yet left in darkness, he at once illumines the Precursor, than whom a greater has not been born of woman. The divine Luminary, swift on his ascending course, will soon bathe the lowly valleys in his radiant fires. But how full of grace and beauty are these his first gleams peering through the veiling cloud! For you, Mary, are the light cloud, the hope of Earth, the terror of Hell (3 Kings xviii. 44; Isaias xix. 1): contemplating from afar, through its heavenly transparency, the mystery of this day, Elias the father of prophets, and Isaias their prince, did both of them descry the Lord. They beheld you speeding your way across the mountains, and they blessed God, “for,” says the Holy Ghost, “when winter has congealed the waters into crystal, withered the valleys, and consumed as with fire the green mountains, a present remedy to all is the speedy coming of a cloud” (Ecclesiasticus xliii. 21-24).

Hasten, then, Mary! Come to all of us, and let not the mountains alone enjoy your benign influence. Bend down to those lowly ignoble regions in which the greater part of mankind but vegetates, helpless to scale yonder mountain heights. Yes, let your kindly visit reach down even to the deepest abyss of human perversity well near bordering on the gulf of Hell — let the beams of saving light reach even there. Oh would that from the thraldom of sin, from the plain where the vulgar throng is swaying to and fro, we were drawn to follow in your train! How beauteous are your footsteps along these our humble pathways (Canticles vii. 1), how aromatic the perfumes with which you inebriate Earth this day! (Canticles i. 5). You were all unknown — no, you were even an enigma to yourself, you fairest among the daughters of Adam — until this your first going forth led you to our poor hovels (Canticles i. 7) and manifested your power. The desert, suddenly embalmed with heavenly fragrance, hails the passage, not of the figurative Ark, but of the “Litter of the true Solomon” in these days of the sublime Nuptials which He has vouchsafed to contract (Canticles iii. 6-11). What wonder then, if at rapid pace, you speed across the mountains, since you are bearing the Bridegroom who, as a giant, strides from peak to peak (Psalms xviii. 6-7).

Far different are you, Mary, from her who is portrayed in the Divine Canticle as hesitating, in spite of the heavenly call, to betake herself to active work, foolishly captivated by the sweets of mystic repose, in such way as to dream of finding it elsewhere than in the absolute good pleasure of the Beloved! You are not one, at the Voice of the Spouse, to make difficulties about cladding yourself again with the garment of toil, of exposing your feet, were it never so little, to be soiled with the dusty roads of earth (Canticles v. 2-6). No. rather: scarce has He given Himself to you immeasurably, as none else can know, than (ever on your guard against the mistake of remaining all absorbed in selfish enjoyment of His love) you yourself invites Him to begin at once the great work which brought Him down from Heaven to Earth: “Come, my Beloved, let us go forth into the fields, let us get up early to see if the vineyard flourish, to hasten the budding out of the fruits of salvation in souls. There, there it is that I wish to be all yours” (Canticles vii. 10-13). And, leaning on Him, no less than He upon you, without thereby losing anything of heavenly delights, you traverse our desert (Canticles viii. 5), and the Holy Trinity perceives between this Mother and her Son sympathies, harmonious agreements, unknown until then even to Her. And the friends of the Bridegroom, hearing your sweet voice (Canticles viii. 13) on their side also, comprehend His love and partake in your joy. With Him, with you, O Mary, age after age will behold souls innumerable who swift footed even as the mystic roe and the young hart, will flee away from the valleys and gain the mountain heights where, in the warm sunshine, Heaven’s aromatic spices are ever fragrant (Canticles viii. 14).

Bless, Mary, those whom the better part so sweetly attracts. Protect that Order whose glory is to honour in a special manner your Visitation. Faithful to the spirit of their illustrious founders, they still continue to justify their sweet title by perfuming the Church on Earth with the fragrance of that humility, gentleness, and hidden prayer, which made this day’s mystery so dear to the angels [two thousand] years ago. In fine, Lady, forget not the crowded ranks of those whom grace presses, more numerously than ever, nowadays, to tread in your footsteps, mercifully seeking out every object of misery. Teach them the way in which alone it is possible to devote themselves to their neighbour, without in any way quitting God: for the greater glory of God and the happiness of man, multiply such faithful copies of you. May all of us, having followed in the degree measured out to us by Him who divides His gifts to each one as He wills (1 Corinthians xii. 11) meet together in our Home yonder, to sing in one voice together with you an eternal Magnificat.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

At Rome, on the Via Aurelia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Processus and Martinian, who were baptised by the blessed Apostle St. Peter in the Mamertine Prison. After being struck on the mouth, racked, scourged with thongs and whips tipped with pieces of metal, and being beaten with rods and exposed to the flames, they were beheaded in the days of Nero, and thus obtained the crown of martyrdom.

Also at Rome, three holy soldiers, who were converted to Christ by the martyrdom of the blessed Apostle St. Paul, and with him merited to be made partakers of heavenly glory.

The same day, the holy martyrs Ariston, Crescentian, Eutychian, Urbanus, Vitalis, Justus, Felicissimus, Felix, Marcia and Symphorosa, who were all crowned with martyrdom when the persecution of the emperor Diocletian was raging.

At Winchester in England, St. Swithin, bishop, whose sanctity was illustrated by the gift of miracles.

At Bamberg, the holy bishop Otho, who preached the Gospel to the people of Pomerania and converted them to the faith.

At Tours, the demise of St. Monegundes, a pious woman.

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

Thanks be to God.

1 JULY – THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD

O Blood of my crucified Jesus, dwell in my soul to purify it.
O Blood of my crucified Jesus, dwell in my heart to inflame it.
O Blood of my crucified Jesus, dwell in my mind to enlighten it.
O Blood of my crucified Jesus, dwell in my thoughts to elevate them.

O Blood of my crucified Jesus, dwell in my every action to sanctify them, in every power and faculty of my being, that all within me may exalt your might, proclaim your benefits and publish your mercies.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

John the Baptist has pointed out the Lamb, Peter has firmly fixed his Throne, Paul has prepared the Bride: this their joint work, admirable in its unity, at once suggests the reason for their feasts occurring almost simultaneously on the Cycle. The Alliance being now secured, all three fall into shade, while the Bride herself, raised up by them to such lofty heights, appears alone before us holding in her hands the sacred Cup of the nuptial feast.

This gives the secret of today’s Solemnity, revealing how its illumining the heavens of the holy Liturgy at this particular season is replete with mystery. The Church, it is true, has already made known to the sons of the New Covenant, and in a much more solemn manner, the price of the Blood that redeemed them, Its nutritive strength, and the adoring homage which is Its due. Yes, on Good Friday Earth and Heaven beheld all sin drowned in the saving Stream when Its eternal flood-gates at last gave way beneath the combined effort of man’s violence and of the Love of the Divine Heart. The Festival of Corpus Christi witnessed our prostrate worship before the Altars on which is perpetuated the Sacrifice of Calvary and where the outpouring of the Precious Blood affords drink to the humblest little ones, as well as to the mightiest potentates of Earth, lowly bowed in adoration before It.

How is it then that Holy Church is now inviting all Christians to hail in a particular manner the Stream of Life ever gushing from the Sacred Fount? What else can this mean but that the preceding solemnities have by no means exhausted the Mystery? The peace which the Blood has made to reign in the high places as well as in the low; the impetus of Its wave bearing back the sons of Adam, from the yawning gulf, purified, renewed and dazzling white in the radiance of their heavenly apparel; the Sacred Table outspread before them, on the waters’ brink, and the Chalice brimful of inebriation — all this preparation and display would be objectless, all these splendours would be incomprehensible, if man were not brought to see in it the wooings of a Love that could never endure its advances to be outdone by the pretensions of any other. Therefore, the Blood of Jesus is set before our eyes at this moment as the Blood of the Testament, the Pledge of the Alliance proposed to us by God (Exodus xxiv. 8; Hebrews ix. 20), the Dower stipulated upon by Eternal Wisdom for this divine Union to which He is inviting all men, and the consummation of which in our soul is being urged forward with such vehemence by the Holy Ghost.

“Having therefore, Brethren, a confidence in the entering into the Holies by the Blood of Christ,” says the Apostle, “a new and living way which He has dedicated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh, let us draw near with a pure heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with clean water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He is faithful that has promised. Let us consider one another to provoke to charity and to good works (Hebrews x. 19-24). And may the God of peace who brought again from the dead the great pastor of the sheep, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Blood of the everlasting Testament, fit you in all goodness, that you may do His will: doing in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom is glory for ever and ever. Amen!” (Hebrews xiii. 20-21).

Nor must we omit to mention here that this Feast is a monument of one of the most brilliant victories of Holy Church in our own age. Pius IX had been driven from Rome in 1848 by the triumphant revolution. But the following year, just about this very season, was his power re-established. Under the aegis of the Apostles, on June 28th and the two following days, the eldest daughter of the Church, faithful to her past glories, swept the ramparts of the Eternal City. And on July 2nd, Mary’s festival, the victory was completed. Not long after this, a twofold decree notified to the City and the world the Pontiff's gratitude and the way in which he intended to perpetuate, in the sacred Liturgy, the memory of these events. On August 10th, from Gaeta itself, the place of his exile in the evil day, Pius IX, before returning to re-assume the government of his States, addressing himself to the invisible Head of the Church, confided her in a special manner to His divine care by the institution of this day’s Festival, reminding Him that it was for His Church that He vouchsafed to shed all His Precious Blood.

Then, when the Pontiff re-entered his capital, turning to Mary, just as Pius V and Pius VII had done under other circumstances, he, the Vicar of Christ, solemnly attributed the honour of the recent victory to Her who is ever the “Help of Christians,” for on the Feast of Her Visitation it had been gained. And he now decreed that this said Feast of July 2nd should be raised from the rite of double-major to that of second class throughout the whole world. This was but a prelude to the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which the immortal Pontiff had already in project, by which the crushing of the serpent’s head would be completed.

Epistle – Hebrews ix. 11-15

Brethren, Christ being come, a High Priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, neither by the blood of goats or of calves, but by His own Blood, entered once into the Holies, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the Blood of Christ, who, through the Holy Ghost, offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God? And therefore He is the Mediator of the New Testament; that by means of His death, for the redemption of those transgressions which were under the former Testament; those that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance; in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Epistle that has just been read to us is the confirmation of what we were saying above as regards the special character of this Festival. It was by His own Blood that the Son of God entered into Heaven. This divine Blood continues to be the means by which we also may be introduced into the eternal Alliance. Thus the Old Covenant founded, as it was, on the observance of the precepts of Sinai, had likewise by blood consecrated the people and the Law, the tabernacle and the vessels it was to contain. But the whole was but a figure. “Now,” says Saint Ambrose, “it behoves us to tend to Truth. Here below, there is the shadow. Here below, there is the image. Up yonder, there is the Truth. In the Law was but the shadow. The image is to be found in the Gospel. The Truth is in Heaven. Formerly a lamb was immolated. Now Christ is sacrificed, but He is so only under the signs of the Mysteries, whereas in Heaven it is without veil. There alone, consequently, is full perfection to which our thoughts should cleave, because all perfection is in Truth without image and without shadow. Yes, there alone is rest: to there, even in this world, do the sons of God tend; without indeed attaining fully thereunto, they get nearer and nearer, day by day, for there alone is to be found that peace which forms saints.”

“Lord God,” cries out in his turn another illustrious Doctor, the great Saint Augustine, “give us this peace, the peace of repose, the peace of the seventh day, of that Sabbath whose sun never sets. Yes, verily the whole order of nature and of grace is very beautiful to your servitors, and goodly are the realities they cover. But these images, these successive forms, bide only a while, and their evolution ended, they pass away. The days you filled with your creations are composed of morning and of evening, the seventh alone excepted, for it declines not, because you have forever sanctified it in your own Rest. Now what is this Rest, save that which you takes in us when we ourselves repose in you, in the fruitful peace which crowns the series of your graces in us? sacred Rest, more productive than labour! The perfect alone know you, they who suffer the divine Hand to accomplish within them the Work of the Six Days.”

And therefore, our Apostle goes on to say, interpreting, by means of other parts of Scripture, his own words just read to us by holy Church, “and therefore, if today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews iii.) The Blood Divine has rendered us participators of Christ: it is our part not to squander, as though it were worthless, this immense treasure, this initial incorporation which unites us to Christ, the divine Head. But let us abandon ourselves, without fear and without reserve, to the energy of this precious leaven whose property it is to transform our whole being into Him. Let us be afraid lest we fall short of the promise referred to in our today’s Epistle, that promise of our entering into God’s Rest, as Saint Paul himself tells us. It regards all Believers, he says, and this divine Sabbath is for the whole people of the Lord. Therefore, to enter in it, let us make haste. Let us not be like those Jews whose incredulity excluded them forever from the promised land (Hebrews iii.- iv.).

Gospel – John xix. 30-35

At that time, when Jesus had taken the vinegar, He said: “It is consummated.” And bowing His head He gave up the ghost. Then the Jews (because it was the Parasceve) that the bodies might not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day (for that was a great Sabbath day), besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. The soldiers therefore came, and they broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with him. But after they were come to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear opened His side, and immediately there came out blood and water. And he that saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true.

Praise to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

On that stupendous day, Good Friday, we heard for the first time this passage from the Beloved Disciple. The Church, as she stood mourning at the foot of the Cross on which on her Lord had just died, was all tears and lamentation. Today, however, she is thrilling with other sentiments, and the very same narration that then provoked her bitter tears now makes her burst out into anthems of gladness and songs of triumph. If we would know the reason of this, let us turn to those who are authorised by her to interpret to us the burden of her thoughts this day. They will tell us that the new Eve is celebrating her birth from out the Side of her sleeping Spouse, that from the solemn moment when the new Adam permitted the soldier’s lance to open His Heart, we became in very deed, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Be not then surprised, if holy Church sees nothing but love and life in the Blood which is gushing forth.

And you, soul, long rebellious to the secret touches of choicest graces, be not disconsolate. Say not: “Love is no more for me!” However far away the old enemy may by wretched wiles have dragged you, is it not still true that to every winding way: yes, alas, perhaps even to every pit-fall, the streamlets of this Sacred Fount have followed you? Think you, perhaps, that your long and tortuous wanderings from the merciful course of these ever pursuant waters may have weakened their power? Do but try. Do but, first of all, bathe in their cleansing wave. Do but quaff long draughts from this Stream of Life. Then weary soul, arming yourself with faith, be strong, and mount once more the course of the divine Torrent. For, as in order to reach you, It never once was separated from its Fountain-Head, so likewise be certain that by so doing, you needs must reach the very Source Itself. Believe me, this is the whole secret of the Bride, namely, that from wherever she may come, she has no other course to pursue than this, if she would fain hear the answer to that yearning request expressed in the Sacred Canticle: “Show me, you whom my soul loves, where you rest in the midday.” (Canticles i. 6) So much so indeed, that by re-ascending the sacred Stream, not only is she sure of reaching the Divine Heart, but moreover she is ceaselessly renewing in its waters that pure beauty which makes her become, in the eyes of the Spouse, an object of delight and of glory to Him (Ephesians v. 27). For your part, carefully gather up today the testimony of the Disciple of love, and congratulating Jesus, with the Church, His Bride and your Mother, on the brilliancy of her purpled robe, take good heed likewise to conclude with Saint John: “Let us then love God, since He has first loved us” (1 John iv. 19).

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

On Mount Hor, the demise of St. Aaron, the first priest of the Levitical Order.

In England, the holy martyrs Julius and Aaron, who suffered after St. Alban in the persecution of Diocletian.

In the same country, a great number being at that time tortured in different manners and barbarously lacerated, ended their combat, and attained to the joys of the heavenly city.

At Mechlin, the martyrdom of St. Rumold, son of an Irish king, and bishop of Dublin.

At Sinuessa, the holy martyrs Castus and Secundinus, bishops.

At Vienne, St. Martin, bishop and a disciple of the Apostles.

At Clermont in Auvergne, St. Gal, bishop.

In the diocese of Lyons, the decease of St. Domitian, abbot, who was the first to lead there a heremitical life. After having assembled in that place many servants of God, and gained great renown for virtues and miracles, he was gathered to his fathers at an advanced age.

In the diocese of Rheims, St. Theodoric, priest and a disciple of the blessed bishop Remigius.

At Angouleme, St. Eparchius, abbot.

At Emesa, St. Simeon, surnamed Salus, confessor, who feigned to be an idiot for Christ, but God manifested his high wisdom by great miracles.

At Vicenza, the demise of St. Theobald, of the Counts of Campania, hermit, who was added to the number of the saints by Pope Alexander III on account of his holiness and miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

JULY – THE MONTH OF THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD

Like devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, devotion to His Precious Blood is one of the oldest forms of Catholic piety, and over the centuries many holy men and women have had a particular devotion to it. The modern form of the devotion is attributed to Saint Catherine of Siena who lived in the fourteenth century and has been described as the “Prophetess of the Precious Blood.”

In the nineteenth century that the devotion to the Precious Blood was vigorously promoted and given Papal support. In 1815, at the request of Pope Pius VII, the Italian priest Gaspare del Bufalo established a society of secular priests, the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, to give missions and spread devotion to the Precious Blood.

Gaspare del Bufalo died in 1837. In 1841 the Rule for his Congregation was approved by Pope Gregory XVI, and in 1849 Pope Pius IX approved the Feast of the Most Precious Blood to be celebrated throughout the universal Church on the first Sunday in July. Pope Saint Pius X moved the Feast to the first day of July and Pope Pius XI raised it to the rank of First Class double.

The Church set aside the month of July, following immediately after the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as the month of the Precious Blood:

“The Precious Blood is the wealth of the Sacred Heart. The Sacred Heart is the symbol of the Precious Blood; yet not its symbol only, but its palace, its home, its fountain. It is to the Sacred Heart that it owes the joy of its restlessness and the glory of its impetuosity. It is to the Sacred Heart that it returns with momentary swiftness, and assails it, as a child assails his mother, for fresh powers, for new vigour, and for the continuance of its unwearied impulses. The devotion to the Precious Blood is the devotion which unveils the physical realities of the Sacred Heart. The devotion to the Sacred Heart is the figurative expression of the qualities, dispositions, and genius of the Precious Blood - only that the figure is itself a living and adorable reality.”

Father Frederick William Faber, The Precious Blood (1860) 342.

The ends of devotion to the Precious Blood are:

• the adoration and glorification of this divine Blood;
• thanksgiving to Jesus for having paid so precious a price for our redemption;
• reparation for the insults offered to His Blood in the Passion, and to this day by our coldness and infidelity;
• invocation of this redemptive and Eucharistic Blood to plead for us that we might obtain pardon and mercy and an increase of love;
• oblation of the Precious Blood for the wants of the Church and for the suffering souls in Purgatory.

 
LITANY OF THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God, the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God, the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us.
Blood of Christ, only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father, save us.
Blood of Christ, Incarnate Word of God, save us.
Blood of Christ, of the New and Eternal Testament, save us.
Blood of Christ, falling on the Earth in the Agony, save us.
Blood of Christ, shed profusely in the Scourging, save us.
Blood of Christ, flowing forth in the Crowning with Thorns, save us.
Blood of Christ, poured out on the Cross, save us.
Blood of Christ, price of our salvation, save us.
Blood of Christ, without which there is no forgiveness, save us.
Blood of Christ, Eucharistic drink and refreshment of souls, save us.
Blood of Christ, stream of mercy, save us.
Blood of Christ, victor over demons, save us.
Blood of Christ, courage of Martyrs, save us.
Blood of Christ, strength of Confessors, save us.
Blood of Christ, bringing forth Virgins, save us.
Blood of Christ, help of those in peril, save us.
Blood of Christ, relief of the burdened, save us.
Blood of Christ, solace in sorrow, save us.
Blood of Christ, hope of the penitent, save us.
Blood of Christ, consolation of the dying, save us.
Blood of Christ, peace and tenderness of hearts, save us.
Blood of Christ, pledge of eternal life, save us.
Blood of Christ, freeing souls from Purgatory, save us.
Blood of Christ, most worthy of all glory and honour, save us.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

V. You have redeemed us, O Lord, in your Blood.
R. And made us, for our God, a kingdom.

Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, who appointed your only-begotten Son the Redeemer of the world, and has willed to be appeased by His Blood: grant us, we beseech you, so to venerate (with solemn worship) the price of our redemption and by its power be so defended against the evils of this life, that we may enjoy the fruit thereof forever more in Heaven. Through the same Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.

R. Amen.

30 JUNE – THE APOSTLE SAINT PAUL (Martyr)

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Whereas the Greeks on this day are uniting in one Solemnity, “the Memory,” as they express it, “of the illustrious Saints, the Twelve Apostles, worthy of all praise,” let us follow in spirit the Roman populace who are gathered around the Successor of Peter, and are making the splendid Basilica on the Via Ostiense re-echo with songs of victory while he is offering to the Doctor of the Gentiles the grateful homage of the City and of the world.

On the twenty fifth of January we beheld Stephen leading to Christ’s mystic crib, the once “ravenous wolf of Benjamin” (Genesis xlix. 27) tamed at last, but who in the morning of his impetuous youth, had filled the Church of God with tears and bloodshed. His evening did indeed come when, as Jacob had foreseen, Saul, the persecutor, would outstrip all his predecessors among Christ’s disciples in giving increase to the Fold, and in feeding the Flock, with the choicest food of his heavenly doctrine.

By an unexampled privilege, Our Lord, though already seated at the Right Hand of His Father, vouchsafed not only to call, but personally to instruct this new disciple so that he might one day be numbered among His Apostles. The ways of God can never be contradictory one to another. Hence this creation of a new Apostle may not be accomplished in a manner derogatory to the divine constitution already delivered to the Christian Church by the Son of God. Therefore, as soon as the illustrious Convert emerges from those sublime contemplations during which the Christian dogma has been poured into his soul, he must needs go to Jerusalem to see Peter, as he himself relates to his disciples in Galatia. “It behoved him,” says Bossuet, “to collate his own Gospel with that of the Prince of the Apostles.”

From that moment, aggregated as a co-operator in the preaching of the Gospel, we see him at Antioch (in the Acts of the Apostles) accompanied by Barnabas, presenting himself to the work of opening the Church to the Gentiles, the conversion of Cornelius having been already effected, be it remembered, by Peter himself. He passes a whole year in this city, reaping an abundant harvest. After Peter’s imprisonment in Jerusalem, at his subsequent departure for Rome, a warning from on high makes known to those who preside over the Church at Antioch that the moment is come for them to impose hands on the two missionaries, and confer on them the sacred character of Ordination.

From that hour, Paul attains the full stature of an Apostle, and it is clear that the mission to which he had been preparing is now opened. At the same time, in Saint Luke’s narrative, Barnabas almost disappears, retaining but a very secondary position. The new Apostle has his own disciples, and he henceforth takes the lead in a long series of peregrinations marked by as many conquests. His first is to Cyprus, where he seals an alliance with ancient Rome analogous to that which Peter contracted at Caesarea. In the year 43, when Paul landed in Cyprus, its pro-consul was Sergius Paulus, illustrious for his ancestry, but still more so for the wisdom of his government. He wished to hear Paul and Barnabas: a miracle worked by Paul under his very eyes convinced him of the truth of his teaching, and the Christian Church counted, that day, among her sons one who was heir to the proudest name among the noble families of Rome. Touching was the mutual exchange that took place on this occasion. The Roman Patrician had just been freed by the Jew from the yoke of the Gentiles. In return the Jew until then called Saul received and thenceforth adopted the name of Paul, as a trophy worthy of the Apostle of the Gentiles.

From Cyprus Paul travelled successively to Cilicia, Pamphylia, Pisidia and Lycaonia, everywhere preaching the Gospel and founding Churches. He then returned to Antioch in the year 47, and found the Church there in a state of violent agitation. A party of Jews, who had come over to Christianity from the ranks of the Pharisees, while consenting indeed to the admission of Gentiles into the Church, were maintaining that this could only be on condition of their being likewise subjected to Mosaic practices, such as circumcision, distinction of meats, etc. The Christians who had been received from among the Gentiles were disgusted at this servitude to which Peter had not subjected them, and thus the controversy became so hot that Paul deemed it necessary to undertake a journey to Jerusalem where Peter had lately arrived, a fugitive from Rome, and where the Apostolic College was at that moment furthermore represented by John, as well as by James the bishop of the city. These being assembled to deliberate on the question, it was decreed, in the name and under the influence of the Holy Ghost, that the exacting of anything relative to Jewish rites should be utterly forbidden in the case of Gentile converts. It was on this occasion too, that Paul received from these “Pillars,” as he styles them, the confirmation of this his Apostolate super-added to that of the Twelve, and to be specially exercised in favour of the Gentiles. By this extraordinary ministry deputed to the nations, the Christian Church definitively asserted her independence of Judaism, and the Gentiles could now freely come flocking into her bosom.

Paul then resumed his course of apostolic journeys over all the Provinces he had already evangelised, in order to confirm the Churches. Thence, passing through Phrygia, he came to Macedonia, stayed a while at Athens, and then on to Corinth, where he remained a year and a half, At his departure, he left in this city a flourishing Church by which he excited against him the fury of the Jews. From Corinth, Paul went to Ephesus where he stayed two years. So great was his success with the Gentiles there that the worship of Diana was materially weakened, whereupon a tumult ensuing, Paul thought the moment come for his departure from Ephesus. During his abode there he made known to his disciples a thought that had long haunted him: he must needs see Rome. The Capital of the Gentile world was indeed calling the Apostle of the Gentiles. The rapid growth of Christianity in the Capital of the Empire had brought face-to-face and in a manner more striking than elsewhere, the two heterogeneous elements which formed the Church of that day: the unity of Faith held together in one fold, those that had formerly been Jews, and those that had been pagans.

Now it so happened that some of both of these classes, too easily forgetting the gratuity of their common vocation to the Faith, began to go so far as to despise their brethren of the opposite class, deeming them less worthy than themselves of that Baptism which had made them all equal in Christ. On the one side, certain Jews disdained the Gentiles, remembering the polytheism which had sullied their past life with all those vices which come in its train. On the other side, certain Gentiles contemned the Jews, as coming from an ungrateful and blinded people, who had so abused the favours lavished on them by God as to crucify the Messiah. In the year 53, Paul already aware of these debates, profited of a second journey to Corinth to write to the Faithful of the Church in Rome that famous Epistle in which he emphatically sets forth how gratuitous is the gift of Faith, and maintains how Jew and Gentile alike being quite unworthy of the divine adoption, have been called solely by an act of pure Mercy. He likewise shows how Jew and Gentile, forgetting the past, have but to embrace one another in the fraternity of one same Faith, thus testifying their gratitude to God through whom both of them have been alike prevented by Grace. His Apostolic dignity so fully recognised, authorised Paul to interfere in this matter, though touching a Christian centre not founded by him.

While awaiting the day when he could behold with his own eyes the Queen of all Churches, lately fixed by Peter on the Seven Hills, the Apostle was anxious once again to make a pilgrimage to the City of David. Jewish rage was just at that moment rampant in Jerusalem against him. National pride being more specially piqued, in that he the former disciple of Gamaliel, the accomplice of Stephen’s murder, should now invite the Gentiles to be coupled with the sons of Abraham under the one same Law of Jesus of Nazareth. The Tribune Lysias was scarce able to snatch him from the hands of these bloodthirsty men ready to tear him to pieces. The following night Christ appeared to Paul saying to him: “Be constant, for as you have testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must you bear witness also at Rome.”

It was not, however, till after two years of captivity that Paul, having appealed to Caesar, landed in Italy, at the beginning of the year 56. Then at last, the Apostle of the Gentiles made his entry into Rome. The trappings of a victor surrounded him not. He was but a humble Jewish prisoner led to the place where all appellants to Caesar were mustered. Yet was he that Jew whom Christ Himself had conquered on the way to Damascus. No longer Saul, the Benjamite, he now presented himself under the Roman name of Paul. Nor was this a robbery on his part, for after Peter, he was to be the second glory of Rome, the second pledge of her immortality. He brought not the primacy with him indeed, as Peter had done — for that had been committed by Christ to one alone — but he came to assert in the very centre of the Gentile world the divine delegation which he had received in favour of the nations, just as an affluent flows into the main stream, which mingling its waters with its own, at last empties them united into the ocean. Paul was to have no successor in his extraordinary mission, but the element which he had deposited in the Mistress, the Mother Church, was of such value that in course of ages the Roman Pontiffs, heirs to Peter’s monarchical power, have ever appealed to Paul’s memory as well, pronouncing their mandates in the united names of the “Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.”

Instead of having to await in prison the day on which his cause was to be heard, Paul was at liberty to choose a lodging place in the city. He was obliged, however, to be accompanied day and night by a soldier to whom, according to the usual custom, he was chained, but only in such a way as to prevent his escape: all his movements being otherwise left perfectly free, he could easily continue to preach the Word of God. Towards the close of the year 57, in virtue of his appeal to Caesar, the Apostle was at last summoned before the praetorium, and the successful pleading of his cause resulted in his acquittal. Being now free, Paul revisited the East, confirming on his Evangelical course the Churches he had previously founded. Thus Ephesus and Crete once more enjoyed his presence. In the one he left his disciple Timothy as bishop, and in the other Titus.

But Paul had not quitted Rome forever: marvellously illumined as she had been, by his preaching, the Roman Church was yet to be gilded by his parting rays and purpled by his blood. A heavenly warning, as in Peter’s case, bade him also return to Rome where martyrdom was awaiting him. This fact is attested by Saint Athanasius. We learn the same also from Saint Asterius of Ameseus who remarks that the Apostle entered Rome once more, “in order to teach the very masters of the world, to turn them into his disciples, and by their means to wrestle with the whole human race.” “There, Paul finds Peter engaged in the same work. He at once yokes himself to the same divine chariot with him, and sets about instructing the children of the Law within the Synagogues, and the Gentiles outside.” At length Rome possesses her two Princes conjointly: the one seated on the eternal chair, holding in his hands the keys of the kingdom of heaven, the other surrounded by the sheaves he has garnered from the fields of the Gentile world. They will now part no more. Even in death, as the Church sings, they will not be separated. The period of their being together was necessarily short, for they must needs render to their Master the testimony of blood before the Roman world should be freed from the odious tyranny under which it was groaning.

Their death was to be Nero’s last crime. After that he was to fade from sight, leaving the world horrors stricken at his end, as shameful as it was tragic. It was in the year 65, that Paul returned to Rome. once more signalising his presence there by the manifold works of his Apostolate. From the time of his first labours there, he had made converts even in the very palace of the Caesars: being now returned to this former theatre of his zeal, he again finds entrance into the imperial abode. A woman who was living in criminal intercourse with Nero, as likewise a cup-bearer of his, were both caught in the Apostolic net, for it were hard indeed to resist the power of that mighty word. Nero, enraged at “this foreigner’s” influence in his very household, was bent on Paul’s destruction. Being first of all cast into prison, his zeal cooled not, but he persisted the more in preaching Jesus Christ. The two converts of the imperial palace having abjured, together with paganism, the manner of life they had been leading, this two-fold conversion of theirs did but hasten Paul’s martyrdom. He was well aware that it would be so, as can be seen in these lines addressed to Timothy: “I labour even to bands, as an evil doer. But the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure all things for the sake of the elect. For I am even now ready to be sacrificed, like a victim already sprinkled with the lustral water, and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought the good " fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice which the Lord, the just Judge, will render to me in that day” (2 Timothy).

On the 29th of June 67 AD, while Peter having crossed the Tiber by the Triumphal bridge was drawing near to the cross prepared for him on the Vatican plain, another martyrdom was being consummated on the left bank of the same river. Paul, as he was led along the Via Ostiensis, was also followed by a group of the Faithful who mingled with the escort of the condemned. His sentence was that he should be beheaded at the Salvian Waters. A two miles’ march brought the soldiers to a path leading eastwards, by which they led their prisoner to the place fixed upon for the martyrdom of this, the Doctor of the Gentiles. Paul fell on his knees, addressing his last prayer to God. Then having bandaged his eyes, he awaited the death-stroke. A soldier brandished his sword, and the Apostle’s head, as it was severed from the trunk, made three bounds along the ground. Three fountains immediately sprang up on these several spots. Such is the local tradition, and to this day, three fountains are to be seen on the site of his martyrdom, over each of which an altar is raised.

* * * * *

To you, O Paul, we turn this day! Happily fixed as we are on Peter, the Rock that supports the Church, could we possibly forget you by whose labours our forefathers the Gentiles became part of the City of God? Sion, once the well-beloved, rejected the Stone and stumbled against it. Tell us then the mystery of this other Jerusalem come down from Heaven, the materials of which were nevertheless drawn up from the abyss! Compacted together in admirable masonry, they proclaim the glory of the skilful Architect who laid them on the Corner-Stone. And precious stones of such surpassing brilliancy are they, as to out-shine all the gems of the Daughter of Sion. To whom is this new-comer indebted for all her beauty, for all these her bridal honours? How have the sons of the forsaken one come out from the unclean dens where their mother dwelt, a companion of dragons and of leopards? (Canticles iv. 8). It is because the Voice of the Spouse was heard saying: “Come, my Bride, come from Libanus; from the top of Amana, from the top of Sanir and Hermon.”

Nevertheless, the Spouse in His own Sacred Person, while He lived here below, never quitted the ancient Land of Promise, and His mortal accents never once fell on the ear of her who dwelt beyond the confines of Jacob. But, Paul, did you not exclaim: “How will they call on Him, how believe Him of whom they have not heard? (Romans x. 14). Yet whoever knows your love of the Spouse has nothing to fear, mindful that you yourself, holy Apostle, have proposed the problem and can solve it. Lo, this is the answer — we sang it on the day of Christ’s triumphant Ascension: “"When the beauty of the Lord will arise above the heavens, He will be mounted on a cloud, and the wing of the wind will be His swift steed; and, clad in light, He will dart from pole to pole across the heavens, giving His gifts to the children of men.”

You yourself, Paul, are this cloud, this wing of the wind bearing the Bridegroom’s message to the nations. Yes, you were expressly chosen from on high to teach the Gentiles, as those pillars of the Church, Peter James, and John, have attested (Galatians ii. 7-9). How beauteous your feet, when having quitted Sion, you appeared on our mountains and cried out to the Gentiles: “This God will reign” (Isaias lii. 7). How sweet your voice, when it murmured in the ear of the poor forsaken one the heavenly call: “Hearken, daughter, and see, and incline the ear of your heart” (Psalms xliv. 11). How tender the pity you evinced to her who had long lived a stranger to the Covenant, without promise, without a God in this world! (Ephesians ii. 12).

Alas, afar off indeed was she whom it behoved you to lead to the Lord Jesus and to bring so near Him, that He and she should form but one body! You experienced, in this immense labour, both the pains of childbirth and the cares of a mother giving the breast to her new-born babe. You had to bear the tedious delay of the growth of the Bride to ward from her every defilement, to inure her gradually to the dazzling light of the Spouse, until, at last, rooted and founded in charity, and having reached to the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ she might indeed be His glory, and be filled by Him to all the plenitude of God. But what a toil to bring up this new creation from the original slime to the throne of the heavenly Adam at the Right Hand of the Father! Often repulsed, betrayed, put in chains, misunderstood in the most delicate sentiments of thine Apostolic heart, you had nothing for your salary save untold anguish and suffering. Yet, fatigue, watchings, hunger, cold, nakedness, abandonment, open violence, perfidious attacks, perils of all kinds, far from abating, did but excite your zeal. Joy super-abounded in you, for these sufferings were the filling up of those which Jesus had endured to purchase that alliance so long ambitioned by Eternal Wisdom. After His example, you too had but one end to which tended all your strength and gentleness: along the dusty Roman roads, or tempest-tossed into the depth of the sea, in the city or the desert, borne aloft on ecstatic wing into the third heavens, or bowed beneath the whips of the Jews and the sword of a Nero: everywhere bearing the embassy of Christ you boldly defied alike life and death, powers of Earth and powers of Heaven, to stay the Might of the Lord or of His Love by which you were upheld in your vast enterprise. Then as if aware by anticipation, of the amazement that would be excited by these enthusiastic outpourings of your great soul, you uttered this sublime cry: “Would to God that you could bear with some little of my folly: but hear with me, for I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God. For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians xi. 1-2).

Yesterday, Paul, your work was ended. Having given all, you at length gave yourself. The sword, by striking off your sacred head, accomplished Christ’s triumph as you had predicted. Peter’s death fixes the throne of the Spouse in its predestined place, but to you is the Bride, the Gentile world, indebted for that she is now able, as she sits at the right hand of the Spouse, to turn to the rival Synagogue exclaiming: “I am black, but beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem. Therefore has the King loved me and chosen me to be His Queen! (Canticles i. 4; iv. 8).

Praise then be to you, Apostle, now and forever! Eternity itself will not suffice to exhaust the gratitude of us, the “Nations.” Accomplish your work in each one of us during all ages . Permit not that by the falling off of any one among those called by Our Lord to complete His Mystic Body, the Bride be deprived of one single increase on which she might have counted. Uphold and brace against despondency the Preachers of the Sacred Word, all those who by the pen or by any title whatever, are continuing your work of light. Multiply those valiant Apostles who are ever narrowing on our globe the boundaries of darkness. You promised to remain with us, to be ever watchful of Faith’s progress in souls, and to cause the pure delights of divine union to be ever developing there. Keep your promise. Because of your going away to Jesus, your word is nonetheless plighted to those who like ourselves could not know you here below. For to those who have not seen your face in the flesh, you have left, in one of your immortal Epistles, the assurance that you will take care “that their hearts be comforted, being instructed in charity, and to all riches of fullness of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God the Father and of Christ Jesus, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossian ii. 1-3).

During this season of the sacred Cycle, the reign of the Holy Spirit who forms saints (Romans viii.), grant that Christians of good will may be brought to understand how, by their very Baptism, they are put in possession of that sublime vocation which is too often imagined to be the happy lot of but a chosen few. Oh would that they could seize this grand yet very simple idea which you have given of the mystery in which is contained the absolute and universal principle of Christian Life (Romans vi.): that, having been buried with Jesus under the waters, and thereby incorporated with Him, they must necessarily be bound by every right and title, to become saints, to aim at union with Jesus in His Life, since they have been granted union with Him in His Death. “You are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God!” (Colossians iii. 3). These were the words addressed by you to our forefathers: O then repeat them to us likewise, for you gave them as a truth intended for all without distinction! Suffer not, Doctor of us, Gentiles, that the Light grow dim among us, to the great detriment of the Lord and of His Bride.

Epistle – Galatians i. 11‒20

I give you to understand, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For neither did I receive it of man: nor did I learn it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion: how that, beyond measure, I persecuted the church of God and wasted it. And I made progress in the Jews’ religion above many of my equals in my own nation, being more abundantly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased Him who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles: immediately I condescended not to flesh and blood. Neither went I to Jerusalem, to the apostles who were before me: but I went into Arabia, and again I returned to Damascus. Then, after three years, I went to Jerusalem to see Peter: and I tarried with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles I saw none, saving James the brother of the Lord. Now the things which I write to you, behold, before God, I lie not.

Thanks be to God.

Gospel – Matthew x. 16‒22

Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves. Simple... that is, harmless, plain, sincere, and without guile. But beware of men. For they will deliver you up in councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And you will be brought before governors, and before kings for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles: But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what to speak: for it will be given you in that hour what to speak: For it is not you that speaks, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you. The brother also will deliver up the brother to death, and the father the son; and the children will rise up against their parents, and will put them to death. And you will be hated by all men for my name’s sake: but he who perseveres to the end will be saved.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Limoges in France, St. Martial, bishop, with two priests, Alpinian and Austriclinian, whose lives were distinguished for miracles.

The same day, the saints Caius, priest, and Leo, subdeacon.

At Alexandria, the passion of St. Basilides, under the emperor Severus. He protected from the insults of profligate men the saintly virgin Potamioena, whom he was leading to execution, and received from her the reward of his pious action. For, at the end of three days, she appeared to him and placing a crown on his head, not only converted him to Christ, but by her prayers made of him, after a short combat, a glorious martyr.

At Rome, St. Lucina, a disciple of the Apostles, who relieved the necessities of the saints with her goods, visited the Christians detained in prison, buried the martyrs, and was laid by their side in a crypt constructed by herself.

In the same city, St. Æmiliana, martyr.

In the territory of Viviers, St. Ostian, priest and confessor.

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

Thanks be to God.