7 JUNE – SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Desired of all nations (Agg ii. 8), the Angel of the testament whom Israel longs for (Malachias iii. 1), has come down from Heaven. Wisdom is come among us. Who, asks the Prophet, will go up into Heaven, to take Wisdom, and bring Him down from the clouds? Who will pass over the sea, and bring Him from distant lands, Him, the treasure more precious than the purest gold? Israel has forsaken the fountain of Wisdom. He has not even been heard of in the land of Canaan. He has not been seen in Idumea. The children of Agar, the princes of the nations, the philosophers of earthly wisdom, the ingenious inventors, the searchers after science, the hoarders of riches, and makers of strength and beauty, which do but cheat the beholder: all these have not known the ways of Wisdom, they have not understood His paths (Baruch iii. 12-38).

But, lo! the Son promised to David has sat upon His throne of glory. He is the source of Wisdom. The four rivers of Paradise have derived all their waters from Him. His thoughts are more vast than the sea, and his counsels more deep than the great ocean (Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 34-39). He is come to fulfil the mysterious design of the divine and sovereign will — that is, to re-establish, by uniting all things in Himself, all that are in Heaven and on Earth (Ephesians i. 10). He is truly Mediator, for He is Himself both God and Man. And being also High Priest, He is the bond of that holy religion which fastens on all things to the Creator in the unity of one same homage. His Sacrifice is the masterpiece of the divine Wisdom: it is by that Sacrifice that, embracing all created beings in the immensity of the love whose impatient ardour has been the subject of our past considerations, He makes the whole world become one sublime holocaust to His Father’s glory. Let us then proceed to consider Him in this immolation of His victim. Let us reverently watch Him setting forth His table (Proverbs ix. 2). The Eucharist has been instituted for the very purpose of ceaselessly applying, here on Earth, the reality of Christ’s Sacrifice. Today, therefore, we will turn our thoughts upon this Sacrifice, as it is in its own self. This will enable us the better to understand how it is continued in the Church.

God has a right to His creature’s homage. If earthly kings and lords may claim from their vassals this recognition of their sovereignty, the sovereign dominion of the great and first Being, the first cause and last end of all things, demands it, on an infinitely just title, from beings called forth from nothing by His almighty goodness. And, just as by the rent or service which accompanies it, the homage of vassals implies, together with the avowal of their submission, the real, the effective declaration that it is from their liege-lord that they hold their property and rights. So the act by which the creature, as such, subjects Himself to his Creator, should adequately manifest, by and of itself, that he acknowledges Him as the Lord of all things, and the author of life. Moreover, if, by the infringement of His commands, he has deserved death, and only lives because of the infinite mercy of this His sovereign Lord — then his act of homage or fealty will not be complete unless it also express an avowal of his guilt, and the justice of the punishment.

Such is the true notion of Sacrifice so-called, because it sets apart from the rest of similar beings, and makes sacred the offering by which it is expressed: for spirits purely immaterial, the offering or oblation will be interior and exclusively spiritual. But as regards man, this oblation must be spiritual and, at the same time, material, for being composed of a soul and a body, he owes homage to his God for both. Sacrifice may not be offered but to the one true God, for it is the effective acknowledgement of the Creator’s sovereign dominion, and of that glory which belongs to Him, and which He will not make over to another (Isaias xlviii. 11). It is essential to religion, be the state that of innocence or of fall, for religion, the queen of moral virtues, whose object is the worship due to God, necessarily demands Sacrifice as its own adequate exercise and expression.

Eden would have witnessed this Sacrifice offered by unfallen man. It would have been one of adoration and thanksgiving. Its material portion would have been that garden’s richest fruits, those symbols of the divine fruit promised by the tree of life. Sin would not have put its own sad stamp on such Sacrifice, and blood would not have been required. But man fell, and then Sacrifice became the only means of propitiation and the necessary centre of religion in this land of exile.

Until Luther’s time, all the nations of the Earth held and lived up to this truth. And when the so-called Reformers excluded Sacrifice from religion, they took away its very basis. Nor is the duty of Sacrifice limited to man’s earthly existence. No: the creature When in Heaven and in the state of glory must still offer Sacrifice to His Creator, for he has as much, and even more, obligation when he is in the brightness of the Vision, as when he lived amid the shadows of Faith, to offer to the God who has crowned him, the homage of those gifts received.

It is by Sacrifice that God attains the end He had in view by creation, that is, His own glory (Proverbs xvi. 4). But in order that there should go up from this universe a homage in keeping with the magnificence of its Maker, there was needed some one leader or head who should represent all creation in his one person. And then, using it as his own property, should offer it in all its integrity, together with himself, to the Lord God. There was something better than this, and it is just what God has done: by giving His own Son, clad in our nature, to be the Head of creation, He obtains an infinite return of glory, for the homage of this inferior nature assumes the dignity of the Person offering it, and the honour thus paid becomes truly worthy of the supreme Majesty. And as a banker knows how to draw golden interest from even the least sum entrusted to his keeping, so our God has, from a world made out of nothing, produced a fruit of infinite worth.

Yes, truly marvellous finish to His work of creation! The immense glory rendered to the Father by the Word Incarnate has brought God and the creature nearer to each other. It tells upon the world by filling up its hateful depths of misery with grace, grace abundant and rich and thereby the distance between God and us does not exclude the union for which He first made us. The Sacrifice of the Son of Man becomes the basis and cause of the supernatural order, both in Heaven and on Earth. Christ was the first and chief object of the decree of creation. and, therefore, it was for Him, and upon Him as type, and in harmony with the qualities of the nature, that He was, at a given future time, to assume to Himself — that, at the Father’s bidding, there came forth out of nothing the various grades of being, spiritual and material, all of which were intended to form the palace and court of the future God-Man. It was the same also in the order of grace — this God-Man who is to be the most Beautiful among the children of men, is, in all truth, the Well-Beloved. The Spirit of love, as a precious and fragrant ointment, will flow from this one Well-Beloved, from this dear Head, upon all His Members, yes, and even to the lowest skirt of His garment (Psalms cxxxii.2), generously communicating true life, supernatural being, to those whom Christ will have graciously called to a participation of His own divine substance in the banquet of love. For, the Head will lead on His Members. These will unite to His their own homage which, being in itself too poor to be offered to God’s infinite Majesty, will — by their incorporation with the Incarnate Word in the act of His Sacrifice — put on the dignity of Christ Himself.

It is on this account, as we have already noticed and cannot too strongly urge, that one should inveigh against the narrow-minded individualism which is now so much the fashion, of attaching more importance to the practices of private devotion, than to the solemnity of those great acts of the Liturgy which form the very essence of religion. Thus, as we were just saying, it is by the sacrifice of the God-Man that the entire creation is consummated in unity, and that true social life is founded upon God. God is one in His essence: the ineffable harmony of the Three Divine Persons does but bring out more clearly, by its sublime fecundity, this infinite Unity. The creature, on the contrary, is multiplicity. And the division resulting from Adam’s fall has strongly emphasised this mark of finite and borrowed being. And yet, having come forth from God’s hands, it must return there: it must, that is, procure His glory, and this it cannot do save on the condition of there being removed that unhappy division which separates it from both God and its fellow-creatures. Its very multiplicity must reproduce, as it tends towards its Maker, an image of the fruitful harmony of the Three Divine Persons. That they also, may be one in us, as we also are one (John xvii. 21, 22). There is the grand revelation of God’s intentions when He produced creatures, and the revelation is made to us by the Angel of the great Counsel who is come upon this Earth that He might carry out the divine plan.

Now, what is it that brings all the several elements of the social body into oneness, by bringing them back to their Creator? It is religion. And what is the fundamental act of religion? Sacrifice. Sacrifice is both the means and scope of this magnificent unification in Christ. Its perfect realisation will mark the consummation of the eternal kingdom of the Father who will have become, through His Christ, all in all (1 Corinthians xv. 24-28). But this royalty of endless ages which is to be procured for the Father by Christ’s reign here below (1 Corinthians xv. 24, 25) has enemies, and they must be subdued. The principalities, and powers, and virtues of Satan’s kingdom are leagued against it. They were jealous of Man, the image of God’s own likeness. and that envy made them turn their attacks on man: they led him to disobedience, and disobedience brought death into the world. By man, now become its slave, sin took occasion by every one of God’s commandments to insult that God (Wisdom ii. 23, 24). Far from studying how to offer to its Maker the homage due to Him, the human race seemed bent on intensifying the poverty of its original nothingness by adding to it the baseness of every sort of defilement. So that, before being capable of acceptableness with the Father, the future members of Christ have need of a Sacrifice of propitiation and acquittance. Their Christ will Himself have to live the expiatory life which comports a sinner. He will have to suffer their sufferings, and die the death (Genesis ii. 17). Yes, death was the penalty threatened from the very commencement as sanction of God’s commandment. It was the severest penalty the transgressor could possibly pay, and yet was not adequate to the offence offered by the transgression to the infinite Majesty of God unless a Divine Person, taking upon Himself the terrible responsibility of this infinite debt, were to undergo Himself the punishment due upon man and, by so, doing restore man to innocence.

Oh then let our High Priest come forth. Let the divine Head of our human race and world show Himself! Because He has loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore has God anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows (Psalms xliv. 8), His brethren. He was Christ by the priesthood destined to be His from the very bosom of His Father, and confirmed by a solemn oath (Psalms cix. 4). He is Jesus, too, for the sacrifice He is about to offer will save His people from their sin (Matthew i. 21). Jesus Christ, then, is to be forever the name of the eternal Priest. What power and what love are there not in His Sacrifice! Priest and Victim at one and the same time, He swallows death in order to destroy it, and by that very act crushes sin by His own innocent flesh suffering its penalty. He satisfies, even to the last farthing, yes, and far beyond it, the justice of His Father. He takes the decree that was against us, nails it to the Cross, and blots out the handwriting. And then, despoiling the principalities and powers of their tyrant sway, He triumphs over them in Himself (Colossians ii. 14, 15). Our old man was crucified together with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed; renovated by the Blood of his Redeemer, he can rise together with Him from the tomb and begin a new life (Romans vi. 4-10). “You are dead,” says the Apostle, “and your life is hidden with Christ in God; when Christ will appear, who is your Life, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Colossians iii. 3). For it is as our Head that Christ suffered. His Sacrifice includes the whole body, of which He is the Head, and He transforms it by uniting it to Himself for an eternal holocaust, the sweet fragrance of which is to fill Heaven itself.

“The word comes forward,” says Saint Ambrose, “in the robes of the High Priest, which Moses described (Exodus xxviii). He is clad with the world in its magnificence that He may fill all with the fullness of God. He is the Head which rules the body, and He unites it closely to Himself. Speaking of Himself, He said: ‘And I, if I be lifted up from the Earth, still draw all things to myself’ (John xii. 32). David had sung all this in the Psalm in which he said: ‘All flesh will come to you’ (Psalms lxiv. 3). How so? Because, answers Saint Augustine, He took flesh. And that flesh which He took will draw all flesh. He took its first-fruits when He took flesh from the Virgin’s womb. The rest will follow, and the holocaust will be complete (Psalms lxiv.), the holocaust of which this same Psalm says that the vow will be paid in Jerusalem. For what is this vow made by Christ, our Head, but the vow which He Himself describes so fully in the next Psalm? “I will go into your house with burnt offerings; I will pay you my vows, which my lips have uttered. And my mouth has spoken, when I was in trouble: I will offer up to you holocausts full of marrow, with the incense of rams; I will offer to you bullocks, with goats” (Psalm lxv. 13-15).

What is this day on which our High Priest was in trouble? It is that of which the Apostle speaks when he tells us that with a strong cry and tears, He offered up prayers and supplications to Him (His Father), who was able to save Him from death (Hebrews v. 7). But why does this Jesus mention rams and bullocks and goats — those offerings become useless and rejected of God? Did He not Himself say when He came into our world: “Sacrifice and oblation you would not; but a body you have fitted to me?” (Hebrews x. 5, 6) Yes, truly, and it is this Body of Christ, says Saint Augustine, which is here shown to us in this Psalm. He presents His Body as the offering He vows to His Father: the rams are the leaders of the Church (Psalms lxv.). “Hear my prayer,” continues the Psalmist, prophesying of our High Priest, “hear my prayer. All Flesh will come to you.” Princes and people of all nations, children, young men and old, Jews and Gentiles, Greeks, Romans, Barbarians — all are on the Wood, and are the victim vowed to the Father. It is with all these, and in their name, and for their sakes, in the entirety and unity of His Body, that Christ said to His Father: “I will go into your house with burnt offerings.” Send your Fire, the fire of your Spirit, the divine flame of me. Eternal Wisdom. Let it burn and wholly burn this Body which I have taken to myself. Let it be a holocaust, that is, let it be all yours, Father! Come, then, you children of God! Bring to the Lord the offspring of rams (Psalms xxviii. 1).

The voice of the Lord has been heard in its power. He bids the flame of Fire come down upon the mount. The Holocaust is already burning, and from Calvary the fire will spread throughout the world. The divine Fire pursues its work each succeeding generation. It absorbs into itself each of the members of the great Victim, that is, each one of the Faithful. It devours sin. It burns out the dross of vice. It purifies, even in the dust of the grave, the flesh that has once been sanctified by the touch of Christ in the sacred Mystery. It is a true fire of Heaven. It is the uncreated flame. It destroys nothing but evil. It sends, indeed, suffering and death among men, but it is only that it may deliver them from the wreck and ruin of the Fall and by expiation remake the whole human race. The day will come when this Fire of the great Sacrifice, having drawn into itself the last member of Christ’s mystical body, the very flesh itself of the elect will re-appear all spiritual and glorified. And this wonderful transformation of the victim will make it a sacrifice truly worthy of the Lord God, and an assertion far stronger than was its destruction by death of the sovereign power and dominion of Him who is the Author of Life. Then will the complete body of the Word Incarnate ascend, like purest incense, from the holy mount on which the Church had fixed her tent here below, and make its way even to the Altar of Heaven. It will be the eternal aliment of the divine flame, the immense holocaust in which “the city of the redeemed, the people of the saints, will be offered to God as the universal sacrifice by the great High Priest who offered Himself for us in His Passion, in the form of a servant and slave, that we might be the body of so great a Head” (Saint Augustine, The City of God, x. 6).

In this “universal Sacrifice,” as we have just heard Saint Augustine calling it, in this Sacrifice of adoration and thanksgiving in which expiation will no longer have part, the very spirits of the angelic hosts will be included: for they too are the Sacrifice of the Lord, making up, together with ourselves, the one only City of God, of which the Psalm sings (Saint Augustine, City of God, 7, and Psalm lxxxvi.). Saint Cyril of Alexandria thus speaks on the Angels forming part of the universal Sacrifice: “We have all received of the fullness of Christ, as Saint John tells us; for every creature, not only visible but invisible, also receives of Christ; for the Angels and Archangels, and the spirits that are above these, and, finally, the very Cherubim, are sanctified in the Holy Ghost, not otherwise than by Christ alone. So that He (Christ) is the Altar, He is the Incense, He is the High Priest, just as He is the blood of the cleansing away of sins.”

Having, therefore, as our great High Priest, Jesus the Son of God, who by one oblation has perfected forever the holy City, let us hold fast the teaching of this glorious faith (Hebrews iv. 14; x. 14) As the high priest of old went on the day of Atonement, himself alone into the Holy of Holies, holding in his hands the blood of propitiation, so our High Priest Jesus, having purchased eternal redemption for us, has withdrawn Himself for a time from our sight (Hebrews ix. 12, 24). Minister of the true sanctuary and tabernacle set up by God Himself (Hebrews viii. 2), we have seen this Jesus of ours entering, by His triumphant Ascension, beyond the veil. And that veil is still down, hiding God’s sovereign Majesty from our view. There, in the sanctuary of Heaven, is He celebrating, and with unbroken unity, the rite of His Sacrifice, presenting thereby to His Father, in the human nature which He has assumed and which is now marked with the bright stigmata of His Passion, the august Victim whose immolation here on Earth called for the consummation in Heaven.

Meanwhile, as heretofore, the people of Israel awaited the high priest’s return out of the Holy of Holies, so too we Christians here below keep close to our Priest and are ever at prayer round the Altar which is in the outer court. “It is the day of Atonement,” says Origen, “and it lasts till the setting sun, that is, till the world comes to an end. We stand near the door awaiting our High Priest who is within the Holy of Holies praying, not for the sins of all, but for the sins of them that are awaiting Him... There were two portions of the holy place, as we are told by Scripture: one was visible and accessible to all the priests. But the other was invisible and no one might enter into it, save only the High Priest, and while he was there the rest stood outside. I believe that by this first portion is to be understood the Church in which we now are, while in the flesh. In this portion, priests are ministering at the altar of holocausts which is fed by that fire of which our Jesus speaks, saying: ‘I came to cast fire on the earth, and I will it to be enkindled...’ It is there, in that first portion, that the High Priest offers the victim. And it is there also that He goes forth in order to enter into the inner veil, the second portion which is Heaven itself and the throne of God. But take notice of the wonderful order of the mysteries: the fire which He takes with Him into the Holy of Holies, He takes from the altar of that first portion. And the incense, He takes it from that same portion. Yes, and the vestments with which He is robed, He received them in that same place.”

Nor is that all: even after His departure, the fire of the Sacrifice is not extinguished in the outer court, and the victim of Atonement whose Blood gives him admission into the most holy sanctuary continues to burn and be offered on our outer Altar.

Epistle – 1 John iii. 13‒18

Dearly beloved, wonder not if the world hated you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who loves not abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in himself. In this we have known the charity of God, because He has laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. He who has the substance of this world, and will see his brother in need, and shut up his bowels from him; how does the charity of God abide in him? My little children, let us not have love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

These impressive words of the Beloved Disciple could not have a more appropriate occasion for their being addressed to the faithful than this joyous Octave. God’s love for us is both the model and motive of that which we owe to our fellow-men: the divine charity is the type of ours. “I have given you an example,” says our Lord, “that, as I have done to you, so you may also do” (John xiii. 15). If, then, He has gone so far as to lay down his life for us, we also should be ready, if occasion so required, to lay down ours, in order to procure our neighbour’s salvation, and still more ready to help him, to the best of our power when he is in need. We should love not in word, or in tongue, but in deed, and in truth.

Now the divine memorial, which is shining on us in all its splendour, what else is it than an eloquent demonstration of infinite love? A living remembrance, and abiding representation of that death of our Lord on which the Apostle bases his argument. Hence it was that our Divine Master deferred His promulgation of the law of fraternal love, which He came upon our Earth to establish, till He instituted the Holy Sacrament which was to give the strongest support to the observance of that law. No sooner has He effected the august mystery, no sooner has He given Himself to mankind under the sacred species, than He exclaims: “A new commandment I give to you, and this is my commandment: that you love one another, as I have loved you” (John viii. 43; xv. 12). Truly the commandment was a new one, considering that the world to which it was given had egotism as its leading law. This new commandment was to be the distinctive mark of all Christ’s Disciples (John xiii. 35), and, as one of the shrewd observers of these early pagan times says, consign them to the hatred of the human race (Tacitus, Annals, xv.), which was in open violation of this law of love. It was in answer to the hostile reception given by the then world to the new progeny, that is, to the Christians, that Saint John thus speaks in the Epistle of this Sunday: “Wonder not, dearly beloved, if world hate you.” We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brethren. He that loves not abides in death.

The union of the members with each other through their divine Head is the condition on which the existence of the Christian religion is based. The Eucharist is the vigorous nourishment of this union. It is the strong bond of Christ’s mystical body which thereby “makes increase in charity” (Ephesians iv. 16). Charity, therefore, and peace, and concord are, together with the love of God Himself, the best proof that our reception of Holy Communion is not turning to our condemnation, and the most needful of all preparations for our participation in the sacred Mysteries. It is the meaning of that injunction of our Lord: “If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has anything against you, leave there your offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother; and then coming, you will offer your gift” (Matthew v. 23, 24).

Gospel – Luke vix. 16‒24

At that time Jesus spoke to the Pharisees this parable: “A certain man made a great supper and invited many. And he sent his servant, at the hour of supper, to say to those who were invited that they should come, for now all things were ready. And they began all at once to make excuses. The first said to him; ‘I have bought a farm and must go out and see it; I pray you to excuse me.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to try them; I pray you to hold me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ And the servant returning, told these things to his lord. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor, and the feeble, and the blind, and the lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Lord, it is done as you have have commanded, and yet there is room.’ And the Lord said to the servant, ‘Go into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. But I say to you, that none of these men that were invited will taste of my supper.’”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Gospel just read was appointed for this Sunday long before the institution of the Corpus Christi feast, as we learn from the Capitulary of Gospels published by Blessed Thomasi on manuscripts much earlier than the thirteenth century. The Holy Spirit who guides the Church in her arrangement of the Liturgy was thus anticipating and completing the instructions suited for the future grand Solemnity. The parable here spoken by Jesus at the table of one of the leading Pharisees (Luke xv. 1) was again used by Him when He spoke so strongly in the Temple a few days previous to His Passion and Death. And what is this Supper to which many are invited, what is this Marriage-Feast, but that which eternal Wisdom has been getting ready from the very beginning of the world? Nothing could exceed the magnificence of these preparations. There was a splendid banquet hall built on the top of a mountain (Isaias ii. 2), and supported by seven pillars (Proverbs ix. 1) of mysterious beauty. There were the choicest meats, purest bread and wine the most delicious, served up to the King’s table. It was with His own hands that the Wisdom of the Father pressed the rich cluster of Cyprus grape into the cup (Canticles i. 13). It was He who ground down the wheat that had sprung up without having been sown from a soil holy beyond description. It was He that immolated the Victim (Proversbs ix. 2).

Israel, the Father’s chosen people (Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 13), was the fortunate guest invited by the loving kindness of the Master, that is, Wisdom, that is, the Son of the Father. He had sent messengers without end to the children of Jacob. As we read in the Gospel: “The Wisdom of God said: ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles’” (Luke xi. 49). But this favoured people, this loved one, as the Book of Deuteronomy says, grew fat and kicked, that is, it abused the gifts bestowed on it. It seemed to study how to provoke the anger of God its Saviour by despising His invitations, and going their ways (Deuteronomy xxxii. 15). This daughter of Sion, in her adulterous pride, preferred the bill of divorce to the Marriage-feast (Isaias l. 1). Jerusalem rejected the heavenly messengers and killed the prophets (Matthew xxiii. 34-37), and crucified the Spouse Himself.

But, even so, eternal Wisdom still offers the first place at the Supper to the ungrateful children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He does so because of those saintly fathers of theirs. Yes, it is to the lost sheep of the house of Israel that are first sent the Apostles (Matthew x. 6; Acts xiii. 46). “What delicate attention!” may we justly exclaim with Saint John Chrysostom. “Before His Crucifixion, Christ calls the Jews. He does the same after it, He goes on inviting them. Instead of crushing them with a terrible chastisement, as it seemed most just He should do, He invites them to a Marriage. He loads them with honours. But they that have slain his prophets, and murdered even Him — these same, invited so pressingly by such a Spouse, urged so lovingly to go to the Wedding, and that by the very Victim of their own making — these same, I say, pay no regard to the invitation, and give as an excuse their yoke of oxen, and their wives, and their estates!” Soon these Priests, these Scribes, these hypocrite Pharisees, will persecute and slay the Apostles also. And the servant of our parable will find none in Jerusalem whom he can induce to come to the Master’s Supper, except the poor, and little, and sickly ones, of the roads and by-lanes, with whom there is no ambition, or avarice, or pleasure, to keep them from the divine banquet.

Then will be realised the vocation of the Gentiles, that great mystery of a new people being substituted for the former one in the covenant with Jehovah. “The Marriage of my Son is, indeed, ready,” will God the Father say to His servants, “but they that were invited were not worthy. Go you, therefore: abandon the wicked city that has not known her time, and my visit! Go into the highways, and hedges, and countries of the Gentiles; and as many as you will find, call to the Marriage!” (Matthew xxii. 8-14; Luke xix. 44)

O you Gentiles! Praise the Lord for His mercy (Romans xv. 9). You have been invited, without any merits of your own, to a feast that was prepared for another people. Take heed, lest you incur the reproach given to the intended guests who were excluded from the promises made to their fathers. You lame one, and blind, that have been called from the by-path of your sin and misery, hasten to the holy table! But, then, take care, out of respect to Him who calls you, to put off the rags of your former life: and quickly put on the wedding-garment! The invitation given you has made a queen of your soul. Give her, then, the purple robe and diadem, and set her on a throne! Think of the Marriage you are invited to attend — the Marriage of God! Oh the soul that goes to it, should be clad and decked with a garment richer than all the garments of earth!

6 JUNE – SAINT NORBERT (Bishop and Confessor)

Norbert was born in Xanten, on the left bank of the Rhine, near Wesel in 1080. Born into a noble family related to the emperor, he was ordained a sub-deacon but led a worldly life at the imperial court. After an accident in which he was thrown from his horse when lightning struck the ground before it, Norbert converted and was ordained deacon and priest. He laid aside all soft and showy raiment, clad himself in a coat of skins and made the preaching of the word of God the sole object of his life. Having renounced the ecclesiastical revenues which he possessed and were very considerable, he distributed his patrimony among the poor. He ate only once a day and that in the evening, and then his meal was of Lenten fare. His life was of singular austerity, and even in the depth of winter he went out with bare feet and ragged garments. Hence came that power of his words and deeds by which by which he was enabled to turn countless heretics to the faith, sinners to repentance, and enemies to peace and concord.

Being at Laon, the bishop besought him not to leave his diocese, so he chose a wilderness at a place called Premontre, to which he withdrew with thirteen disciples, founding the Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (the Premonstratensians), whose Rule he received in a vision from Saint Augustine. The fame of his holy life spread abroad quickly. Many sought to become his disciples, and when the Order had been approved by Pope Honorius II, many more monasteries were built. Norbert was remarkable for the spirit of prophecy and the gift of miracles. He was appointed Archbishop of Magdeburg against his will, and as Archbishop he upheld the discipline of the Church, especially as regards the celibacy of priests and religious. At a Council held at Rheims he was a great help to Pope Innocent II, and went with other bishops to Rome where he repressed the schism of Peter de Leon. Norbert promoted the doctrine of the Real Presence and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. He died in 1134 and was canonised in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The helpful influence of the Holy Ghost is more and more multiplied along the Church’s path. It seems as though He would show us today how the divine power of His action is not crippled by lapse of years, for here we have, twelve centuries after His first coming among us, miracles of grace and conversion quite as brilliant as those that marked His glorious descent on Earth. Norbert, in whose veins flowed the best blood of emperors and kings, was from the very breast of his mother Hedwige supernaturally invited to a nobility loftier still: yet did he devote, to the unreserved enjoyment of pleasure, three and thirty years of a life that was to number but fifty in all. The Holy Ghost at length hastened to the conquest. There bursts a sudden storm, a thunderbolt falls right in front of the prodigal, throwing him to the ground and making a frightful chasm between him and the point where, a moment ago, he was hastening in pursuit of new vanities that needs must fail, as all others had done, to fill the hopeless void in his heart. Then, in the very depths of his soul resounds a voice, such as Saul once heard on his way to Damascus: “Norbert, where are you going?” Like another Paul he replies: “Lord, what will you have me to do?” He is answered: “Depart from evil and do good. Seek after peace and pursue it.” Twenty years later, and Norbert is in Heaven, seated amid pontiffs on a glorious throne, and all radiant with that special brilliancy that distinguishes the founders of the great Religious Orders when they have reached the eternal Home.

Deep are the traces left by him on Earth of his few years of penitential life. Germany and France receive his preaching. Antwerp is delivered from a shameful heresy. Magdeburg is rescued by this her Archbishop from the irregularities that were sullying the House of God. Such are his works, and though these alone would have sufficed to a long life of holiness, yet they are not the only titles, nor the most brilliant, which Norbert has to the Church’s gratitude. Before being called against his will to the honours of the episcopate, this once happy courtier made choice of an uninhabitable solitude amid the forests of the diocese of Laon in which to devote himself to prayer and the maceration of his flesh. The renown of this holy penitent gained rapidly, and Prémontre soon beheld her swampy marshes invaded by a vast multitude formed of the fairest names of picked nobility, pressing there to learn the science of salvation from the lips of the saintly anchorite. There too, did Our Lady show to him in vision the white habit with which his disciples were to be clothed, and Saint Augustine, in like manner, delivered to him his own Rule. Thus was founded the most illustrious branch of the Order of Canons Regular. They added to the obligation of solemnising the Divine Office the austerities of an uninterrupted penance, and devoted themselves moreover to the service of souls by preaching and the administration of parishes.

In the foregoing century the episcopacy and Papacy had been raised by the monks from out the reach of feudal servitude, and Norbert was now raised up to give the needed completion to their work. Although on principle the monastic life excludes no sort of labour useful to the Church, the monks could not, however numerous they might be, quit their cloisters in order to undertake charge of souls. Yet, great were the wants of the lambs of the flock at that time, for many unworthy pastors of secondary order, slaves to simony and immorality, still continued to lead astray the simple laity. The religious life was alone capable of raising the priesthood from such degradation, whether on the pinnacles of the hierarchy or among the lowest degrees of sacred Orders. Norbert was the man chosen by God to effect, in part at least, this immense work: and the importance of his mission explains the sublime prodigality with which the Holy Ghost multiplied vocations to his standard. The number and rapidity of foundations permitted succour to be promptly and everywhere afforded: even into the far East did the light of Prémontre reach, almost at its first dawn. In the eighteenth century, notwithstanding the devastations of the Turks and the ravages of the pretended Reform, the Order, divided into 28 provinces, still contained in nearly each one of its houses as many as from 50 to 120 Canons, and the parishes that continued under their care might be counted by thousands.

Nuns, whose holy life and prayers are the ornament and aid of the Church Militant, occupied from the very beginning the place deservedly their due in this numerous family. In the time of the founder, or soon after his death, there were more than a thousand of them at Prémontre alone. Such an incredible sum gives us an idea of the prodigious propagation of the Order from its very origin. Norbert moreover extended his charity to persons who, like Thihault Count of Champagne, would gladly have followed him into the desert, but who were retained by God’s will in the world. He thus made a prelude to those pious associations which we will see Saint Francis and Saint Dominic organising in the thirteenth century under the name of “Third Orders.”

*****

YOU indeed knew how to redeem the time (Ephesians v. 16) as was fitting in those evil days in which you yourself, Norbert, led away by the example of the senseless crowd, had for so long frustrated the designs of God’s love. Those years, at first refused by you to the true Master of the world, you at length returned to Him multiplied a hundredfold through those countless sons and daughters you trained up in sanctity. Even your personal works, in but twenty years’ space, filled the whole Earth. Schism crushed, heresy confounded to the glory of the Most Holy Sacrament which it had already dared to attack, the rights of the Church intrepidly defended against worldly princes and unjust retentions, the priesthood restored to its primitive purity, the Christian Life strengthened on its true basis of prayer and penance: such and so many victories achieved in so few years are due to the generosity which prevented you from looking back, for one moment, from the day on which the Holy Ghost touched your heart. Make all understand that it is never too late to begin to serve God. Were it even, as in your case, the evening-fall of life, what yet remains of time would quite suffice to make us saints, if we would but generously give that little fully to Heaven (1 Peter iv. 2). Faith and Patience were your cherished virtues: make them flourish once more in this sad world of ours which vaunts itself on doubting of everything, and with gibe and jeer hurries onwards to the abyss of Hell. Forget not, dear Apostle, now that you are in Heaven, the countries you erstwhile evangelised. We implore this of you despite their forgetfulness, despite their criminal return to the deceits of the devil.

Holy Pontiff, Magdeburg has lost her ancient faith, and with it the precious relics of your body which she no longer deserved to possess: Prague is now the favoured spot of your repose. But, while blessing this hospitable city, pray still for the ungrateful one that has cast aside her double treasure. Founder of Prémontre, smile once more on France which derives from you one of her fairest glories. Obtain of God that for the salvation of these calamitous times your Order may recover something of its former splendour. Bless, few as they are, those sons and daughters of your who, despite the ridiculous hostility of the powers that be, seek to shed once more their beneficent influence on France. May England benefit also of their return to her midst, and may their fruits be multiplied in every direction. Maintain your own spirit among them. May they find in interior peace, the secret of triumph over Satan and his crew. May the full magnificence of the divine worship solemnly carried out be ever to their souls as the dearly loved mount where, Moses like, they may declare the will of the Lord to the new Israel, the Christian people.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Caesarea in Palestine, the birthday of blessed Philip, one of the first seven deacons. Being renowned for miracles and prodigies, he converted Samaria to the faith of Christ, baptised the eunuch of Candaces, queen of Ethiopia, and finally rested in peace at Caesarea. Near him are buried three of his daughters, virgins and prophetesses. His fourth daughter died at Ephesus, filled with the Holy Spirit.

At Rome, St. Artemius, with his wife Candida and his daughter Paulina. Artemius became a believer through the preaching and miracles of St. Peter the Exorcist who was baptised with all his house by the priest St. Marcellinus. By order of the judge Serenus he was scourged with whips strung with leaden balls, and struck with the sword. His wife and daughter were forced into a pit and overwhelmed with stones and earth.

At Tarsus in Cilicia, in the time of Diocletian and Maximian, and the governor Simplicius, twenty holy martyrs who, by various torments, glorified God in their bodies.

At Noyon in France, the holy martyrs Amatius, Alexander, and their companions.

At Fiesoli in Tuscany, St. Alexander, bishop and martyr.

At Milan, the demise of St. Eustorgius II, bishop and confessor.

At Verona, St. John, bishop.

At Besançon in France, St. Claude, bishop.

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

Thanks be to God.

6 JUNE – SATURDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF CORPUS CHRISTI

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Man has been cast forth from Eden, and is gone into the dreary land of his exile. He has nothing left him of the Tree of Life but the recollection that it was once his. It remains in the happy land where it was first planted. How could it go after the sinner man now that he is banished into the vale of tears?

No, it remains in Paradise, far from the abode of suffering. And out of mortals’ sight it continues in all its loveliness, bearing testimony to the primitive intentions of God, which were peace, innocence and love. The day will come when we will see it again, for it is to be one of the charms of the new Earth into which our Lord will lead His chosen people on the day of the great Pasch, and the restoration of all things (Apocalypse xxii. 2) Happy day, after which, as the Apostle tells us, every creature longs, bowed down as it now is, and made subject, by reason of a fault which was not its own, to the inconstancy of ceaseless change. Man, who, against the creature’s will, subjected it to the servitude of corruption, that same man keeps up within it the hope that the time of deliverance being come, it, too, will partake, in its own way, of the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans viii. 19-22). The glory of the new Paradise will be greater than that of the one of old, for it is not under the veil of symbols or in a passing way that the deifying union is to be fulfilled, but divine Wisdom will give Himself, and forever, and without veil, to man, and in an eternal embrace. And yet, this union whose permanent enjoyment is to make the eternal bliss of heaven is to be contracted even now, and on this very Earth of ours: for it is the economy of the divine plan that in all things, the future life should have its roots in the present one, and should be but the revelation, in the light of glory, of the ineffable realities formed here by grace. What, then, after the Fall, will be the conditions of the alliance from which eternal Wisdom has not been turned by the sin committed by His creature Man?

O the depth of the riches of this Wisdom of God! (Romans xi. 33). His love is strong as death (Canticles viii. 6), and even after man’s disloyalty will be infinitely admirable in its delicate ways of gaining its object. There is to be nothing unbecoming in the alliance He is bent on! He will admit no compromise with the depravity which has befallen our now sinful race! His mercy is infinite and, through that, He has pardoned the offence the moment the offender expressed his sorrow. But the pardon is not one which was to mean no compensation, no expiation, on man’s side. That would have ill-suited the dignity of such a Spouse as He. And since sinful man cannot offer an adequate expiation, He, Wisdom, undertakes to pay the culprit’s whole debt and give Him back the holiness he has forfeited. This done, Ge will take our human nature and espouse her to Himself as His much loved Bride. “I will espouse you to me, injustice and judgement,” says this God to man, by His prophet Osee (Osee ii. 19). And He adds: “I will espouse you to me in faith” (Osee ii. 20).

For, just as the entrance of divine Wisdom into this world, which He comes to save from pride by humility, is to be without exterior parade or glory, so, likewise, the divine union is to be accomplished in the mystery of the sacred species of the nuptial banquet, and these species will offer nothing to view but the appearance of bread and wine, such as one could find on any table. But Faith will see through that veil and the unspeakable dignity conferred on the children of men by this heavenly food will reflect its brightness on the whole creation. The whole world of creatures, each in its own way, was in expectation of this marvellous manifestation which was to be made on the sons of God (Romans viii. 19) by the union to be contracted between Wisdom and Man. The Prophet thus speaks of this universal expectation: “And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, says the Lord, I will hear the heavens; and they will hear the earth; and the earth will hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and these will hear Jezrahel” (Osee ii. 21-22). Jezrahel means “the seed, or race, of God.” God will give to man, through corn and wine, the substance to be offered in the mysteries, and through oil, the priesthood, which is to transform them into the marriage-dowry, in the very action of the Sacrifice. It is to be by the Sacrifice, and by Blood that this alliance of justice and love is to be contracted.

We read in Scripture that Moses was one day traversing the desert. He had on him a legal transgression. Tthe Angel of the Lord met him and was about to slay him, when Sephora, the wife of this future leader of Israel, averted the divine vengeance by the rough and speedy circumcision of her son Eliezer: then marking with his blood the feet of the guilty one, she said to him: “A Spouse of blood are you to me” (Exodus iv. 24-26).Thus, and with far greater truth, could divine Wisdom say to the human race, for He is not to save, He is not to be united with man, except by the Blood of this Son of Man, who is one in person with that same Wisdom.

Nay, far from lessening, this very sight of man’s misery has increased the ardour of his love. Later on this Man-God will say: “I have a baptism, with which I am to be baptised: and how am I straitened until it be accomplished!” (Luke xii. 50). It was the same from the very first: no sooner has expiation been shown as the royal way by which humanity is to be restored to Him and again made worthy of Him by the shedding of divine Blood — Wisdom has ever had that thought before Him. He is impatient for the great immolation of Calvary, and until its time is come He will suggest to His people rites and sacrifices figurative of that one Sacrifice, and of the banquet of the adorable Victim, the Marriage-Feast.

His garden, the place of his delight, is no longer Paradise. It is this parched Earth of ours where man has now, more than ever, need of being loved of God. “You Cherubim, whom God has stationed to guard the Tree of Life, 'tis well that sinful man be kept from approaching it; But the flaming sword you hold in your hands will not prevent divine Wisdom from leaving Paradise and joining our human race here in its banishment. He was not only the Tree, but He is, likewise, the River of Life.” Speaking of Himself, He says in the Book of Ecclesiasticus: “like a brook out of a river of a mighty water, as though I were but a mere channel of a river, I came out of Paradise. I said: ‘I will water my garden of plants, and I will water abundantly the fruits of my meadow.’” “And behold, my brook became a great river, and my river became like a sea; for I make doctrine to shine forth to all, as the morning light, and I will declare it afar off, yes, even to the most distant ages. I will penetrate to all the lower parts of the Earth, and will visit all that sleep, and will enlighten all that hope in the Lord” (Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 41-45).

This living Light, which from early morning enlightens the whole Earth with divine Wisdom, is the varied teaching of prophecies and figures which were given by God through the course of ages and, from the very moment of man’s creation, put the shadow of the Messiah on the whole universe. By means of this manifold teaching, Wisdom conveys Himself through nations into holy souls (Wisdom vii. 27), rouses man up, when discouragement makes him slumber (Psalms cxviii. 28), cherishes his hopes, and bids him hope, by looking at the future. Those bloody sacrifices which were prescribed immediately after man’s departure from Eden as the ritual expression of his early worship of God will be offered up by all after generations and, even when idolatry will have led mankind into the abyss of every crime, those sacrifices will raise up their voice and keep up the prophecy which they are intended to proclaim — the prophecy of a Victim who will be one of infinite worth. The stream of primitive traditions will, as it flows through time and space, get impregnated with foreign elements, and transmit many worthless or even dangerous material. Still, it is through the rite of Sacrifice, observed as it is by the whole world, that the desire and expectation of Christ will be maintained among all nations (Genesis xlix. 10) Satan, that old serpent thief, may succeed in inducing men to build altars to himself, and on those altars offer him sacrifice which is due to God alone: but he cannot stifle the voice of truth which accompanies every sacrifice, the voice which teaches that an innocent and pure victim may be substituted in place of guilty man and work his expiation. This will arouse the notion of the promised Mediator in many a soul that had got bewildered amid the orgies of this satanic worship. And here again the very sight of the serpent was made to be the cure of them he had stung, and became the sign and ensign of the son of Jesse (Numbers xxi. 6-9; Isaias xi. 10). O root of Jesse! Root of the Wisdom of the Most High! Who is there that can understand the depth of His counsels, or penetrate the devices of His immense love? (Ecclesiasticus i. 6) Verily you are more beautiful than any light of day, for that light yields when night comes on, whereas you, Wisdom, are overcome by no evil, be it as black as sin! (Wisdom vii. 29, 30).

All those ancient Sacrifices were powerless to produce grace. Their very multiplicity proved their inability to do so (Hebrews x. 1-4), but what they could and did effect was the keeping alive in mankind the remembrance of the Fall, and the expectation of a Redeemer. They were, likewise, the basis of those supernatural acts which are requisite for man’s justification and salvation. But, besides their representing the redemptive element, which the Fall of man has introduced into the plan of God, these bloody Sacrifices express also the union of that God with His creature, which was the primary and chief object of creation. That union was to be effected in the banquet prepared by Wisdom, the Eucharistic banquet, in which He, Wisdom, the Son of God, was to be received by man, and thus united with him. Yes, this sublime mystery was also expressed by those figurative Sacrifices in which the people partook of the victims offered: for in the Eucharist the Victim is Man-God, offered to God, and eaten of by man. The Deity is appeased by the Blood of the divine Lamb, and mankind is restored, because nourished by His Flesh, which thus feeds him to a new and a divine life.

Such was the general law observed by all nations when offering Sacrifice: the portion intended for God was consumed by fire, and this was a transmitting it to Heaven. But another portion of the same victim was taken and eaten by the people: and all this signified that there was communion between Heaven and Earth, and that the receivers were all made one because they all partook of the same sacred food. How admirably are thus grouped together all the mysteries of God’s goodness towards his creature man! And what a prophecy this was! It was unceasing, for it was proclaimed each time a sacrifice was offered up, and there were thousands every day. It was in these that the divine Lamb, whom they foretold, was slain from the very beginning of the world (Apocalypse xiii. 8). His Blood, in all those early ages, was applied, through hope and faith, on the souls of men, and cleansed them from their sins. And the mysterious ritual with its inspired code of prescriptions was keeping man on the alert, and preparing him for the banquet of the Nuptials of the Lamb (Apocalypse xix. 7-9). Then, let Wisdom extol His own triumph! It is He that made that in the heavens there should rise a light which never fails, and covers the whole earth as with a cloud. He alone has compassed the circuit of heaven, has penetrated into the bottom of the deep, has traversed the waves of the sea, and has stood in all the earth, and in every people, as the King of all, holding the chief rule, and vanquishing, strongly and sweetly, the hearts of all, both high and low (Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 6-11).

Meanwhile, the time of banishment is running on. The long period of expectation is more than half over. The nearer the realisation of the promised Alliance comes, the more ardent are the longings of chosen souls. As to our Jesus Himself, that is, Wisdom, He seems to desire a preparation of a more telling kind than any of these others that have preceded. He will turn his attention to the very spot where He is to dwell on this Earth. And where is that? His Father, the Creator of all things —that Father, whose every word is fulfilled by His Son — has a chosen people,; and among these He would have His Son be nationalised, if we may reverently use such a word. He said to Him: “Let your dwelling be in Jacob, and your inheritance in Israel!” (Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 12, 13). In obedience to this His Father’s will, He establishes Himself in Sion, He takes his rest in the holy City, and fixes His power in Jerusalem (Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 15). Jerusalem, it is the City of Peace, and is to be the scene of such stupendous mysteries! It was here that Isaac, the child of promise, had come carrying on his shoulders the wood for his self-sacrifice. Here his father is about to slay him, when a ram is mysteriously substituted , and the Mount of the one true Sacrifice is thus selected. It was here, also, that there then lived a King-Priest who bore the likeness of the Son of God (Hebrews vii. 3): it was Melchisedech, and when Abraham, the father of believers, came to him, this Melchisedech offered what was to be the sacrifice of the Alliance to come. He offered a sacrifice of bread and wine, and thereby showed to Abraham, who saw into the future, the day of Christ, his Son (John viii. 56).

It is at the very period, when the world, at large has fallen into idolatry and offered to false gods the homage of its sacrifices, that divine Wisdom leads into this chosen dwelling-place the people of whom He is to be born as Man. It is the fulfilment of the command: “Let your dwelling be in Jacob! Let your inheritance be in Israel!” In this one people, Wisdom will maintain His Father’s claims, and keep alive and pure the light of the expectation of nations. He delivers it, at the cost of countless prodigies, from the Egyptian bondage (Wisdom x. 15). The feast of the Paschal Lamb, slain the same day on which, at a future time, is to be celebrated the true Supper of the Lord and the immolation of the Lamb — the feast of the Paschal Lamb is the signal of the deliverance, and the triumphant march through the waters of a sea, to the Mount where is to be contracted, through the blood of victims, the union between God and the house of Jacob: the chosen people becomes the Bride of God (Ezechiel xvi; Osee ii.), the priestly kingdom, and the holy nation (Exodus xix. 6). Figure, in all things, of God’s true people traversing the desert of this world, Israel drinks of the waters which come from the Rock, and the Rock is Christ (1 Corinthians x. 4, 11); a bread rained down daily from Heaven, strengthens him amid the fatigues of journey and battle, and this “bread of Angels,” as the Scripture terms it, took the taste of anything the eater wished it to have (Wisdom xvi. 20-22). God Himself dwells with Israel, under his tents. He has had a tabernacle made for Him, on the plan of one shown by God on the mount. And in front of this tabernacle there is an altar on which a chosen family, consecrated by oil of unction, may alone offer, under the direction of a high-priest, the manifold legal sacrifices, each of which points to some excellency or other, of the one great Sacrifice of the future. From this altar on which burns a fire that is never quenched, here goes up to Heaven without interruption the smoke of the flesh and blood of the victims slain. They are a supplication for the coming of that saving Host which is to put an end to these hecatombs. There are also offerings of flour and wine. They are the necessary accompaniment of holocausts and peace offerings. They prefigure the august Memorial which is to keep up and perfect the divine Sacrifice of the Cross by an unbloody application of it. There is, in these early days, a sacrifice which goes under the name of a memorial. It is an offering by itself, consisting of fine flour and unleavened loaves and wafers (Leviticus ii. 2, 9). Then there are the proposition loaves. They are kept within the veil as the most holy of the sacrifices, as being a perpetual memorial of sacrifice and covenant (Leviticus xxiv. 7-9) and what a mysterious, yet unmistakeable, figure is all this of the future Eucharistic Presence, kept up in the Church under the sacred species even when the celebration of the mysteries is over?

As there is but one altar in Jacob which, by its oneness, points towards Him who at a future time is to be both victim and altar, so there is but one place, the tabernacle and its surroundings and, later on, the temple and holy city, where it is lawful to celebrate those sacred banquets of communion which according to universal custom close the sacrifice in which they are offered. The last time that Moses had his people assembled around him in the plains of the Jordan he thus spoke to them: “Beware lest you offer your holocaust in every place that you will see. In the place which the Lord your God will choose, that His name may be therein, there will you bring your holocausts, and victims, and tithes, and the first-fruits of your hands. There will you feast before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your men-servants and maid-servants, and the Levite that dwells in your cities, and you will rejoice, and be refreshed, before the Lord your God, in all things, whereunto you will put your hand” (Deuteronomy xii. 7, 11-13).

The material prosperity promised to the Jewish people as a reward of his faithfully observing the numerous figurative prescriptions of the law of Sinai was itself but a figure of the spiritual blessings which were to transform the soul, and prepare it for the coming of Divine Wisdom in the flesh. But Israel is slow to raise himself above material things. He easily falls a prey to all the scandals he witnesses among the Gentiles. Severe punishments teach him that he is not safe, except in his keeping the law given to him. He keeps it, that is, he keeps the letter of the ritual precepts with scrupulous exactitude, but sees nothing of their chief meaning, which is the Redeemer to come, and the spiritual dispositions which those outward observances were intended to prompt. God is continually warning him by the Prophets, and seeking to reclaim him to the spirit of his divine institutions. Thus, in the Psalms, he remonstrates with him, but, with such paternal affection, that one can scarcely suspect a complaint, though there is a most bitter one: “Hear, my people! and I will speak: Israel! And I will testify to you. I am God, your God. I will not reprove you for your sacrifices; and your burnt-offerings are always in my sight. I will not take calves out of your house, nor he-goats out of your flocks, for all the beasts of the wood are mine, the cattle on the hills, and the oxen. I know all the fowls of the air, and with me is the beauty of the field. If I should be hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bullocks? or will I drink the blood of goats? Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High!... The sacrifice of praise will glorify me; and there is the way by which I will show him the salvation of God” — show him, that is, my Christ, who is the Saviour signified by all these sacrifices (Psalms xlix. 7-14, 23).

Later on, however, to this people, stiff necked as it is, and uncircumcised in heart and ears (Acts vii. 51), which has gone deeper and deeper into outward formalism, and knows no other virtue or perfection, God speaks in strong language, expressing His disgust for sacrifices which they have robbed of the only worth they possessed in His sight, that is, their prophetic sense. “To what purpose do you offer me the multitude of your victims,” says He by the Prophet Isaias, “I am full; I desire not holocausts of rams, and fat of fatlings, and blood of calves, and lambs, and buck-goats. When you came to appear before me, who required these things at your hands, that you should walk, (defiling), my courts? Offer sacrifice no more in vain: your incense is an abomination to me! (Isaias i. 11-13). But these warnings are not heeded. Pride increases in the carnal Jew in proportion to his narrow heart and views. He dreams of a Messiah who is to be an earthly conqueror. As to the true Messiah, whose divine characteristics are foretold by the victims offered in sacrifice, this Jew will deny Him, for he finds Jesus too closely resembling those poor victims by his sufferings and meekness.

Then comes the last of the Prophets, Malachias. He turns to the Gentiles: they have been less favoured than Israel, but they have kept up the expectation of a Saviour, and when He comes, will lovingly receive Him. Malachias announces the final abrogation of a worship which had been so perverted, and the substitution of a divine memorial, which will be the same in all places, and will make all people one by their all partaking of the great Sacrifice to come: “I have no pleasure in you,” says the Lord of hosts, to the priests of Israel: “I will not receive a gift of your hand; for, from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation” (Malachi i. 10, 11).

The fullness of time is come. Then, bless God, you Gentiles! Make the voice of His praise to be heard! Too long life has been to you but the empty dream of night. You hungered after the fruit of life. You thirsted for living water. But like the hungry man who dreams of a sumptuous repast, yet never satisfies the hunger which gnaws him, like the thirsty man who dreams that he drinks, yet, on waking, is tormented with the same burning thirst, and finds his soul still empty — so was the multitude of your erring people (Isaias xxix. 7, 8). Yet, now, behold! The standard of Jesse appears on the mountain and rallies them around it. You Gentiles that once were strangers feed now to your heart’s content in the deserts turned into fruitfulness! (Isaias xxix. 17). The Water from the rock flows plentifully through your once parched lands. The glory of Libanus, the beauty of Carmel and Saron, adorn your hills, and refresh your lonely plain. Your wilderness will rejoice, and flourish like the lily (Isaias xxxv. 1, 7). Rain will be given to your seed, and the bread of the corn of your land will be delicious (Isaias xxx. 23). Tis just it should be so, for, will the labourer plough all day long? Will he be ever opening and harrowing his ground? No, the time comes when, having made smooth the surface of his field, he sows and scatters his seeds and puts wheat in the rows he has marked. Such is the providence shown to the Gentiles by the Lord God of hosts and, thereby, he evinces both the sureness of His divine counsels, and the magnificence of His justice (Isaias xxviii. 24, 29).

No: eternal Wisdom had not given up the mysterious designs of His love. He kept close to the fallen human race even when He severely chastised it. He owed it to Himself to put guilty man to the test, so to make him feel, before raising him up, how deep had been his fall. It was on this account that He permitted him to be overtaken by night, and fear, and anguish. He Himself sends him sufferings in order that, having thus brought him to sound the frightful depth of his misery, he might trust Himself to the safe welcome and keeping of His creature’s humility. This done, He would raise him up by repentance, and strengthen him with hope, and, joyously meeting him, disclose to him again His divine charms, and enrich him with the treasures which are in the keeping of His love (Ecclesiasticus iv. 18, 21).

This is Saturday. Let us turn to Mary who was made for us Gentiles, the Seat of Wisdom. It was in her chaste womb that was wrought the mystery of mercy which had been the expectation of all the long ages past. It was her most pure blood which provided the substance of that spotless Body with which the most beautiful of the sons of men contracted the indissoluble alliance of our nature with eternal Wisdom. Mary’s soul is enraptured at seeing the ineffable mystery of these divine nuptials effected in her chaste womb. She is that enclosed Garden where, more delightedly than in the early days of the universe, Wisdom enjoys light and love; the flowery couch of the Canticle (Canticles i. 15) perfumed, by the Holy Spirit with the sweetest fragrance; the glorious tabernacle, incomparably more holy than that of Moses. It is within her, under the immaculate veil of her flesh, that, by the unspeakable embrace of the two natures in the unity of God’s Only Begotten Son, the Holy Ghost pours forth the unction, which makes Him Spouse and, at the same time, Priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech.

Let man, then, be of good courage. The Bread of Heaven, the Bread of the Covenant, is at last come down upon our Earth. And although nine months must pass before the great night comes when He is to be made visible to us all in Bethlehem, yet even now the High Priest is at His work in this His holy temple. “Sacrifice and oblation you would not,” says He to His eternal Father, “but a body you have fitted to me. Holocausts for sin did not please you. Then said I: ‘Behold I come; in the head of the book it is written of me, that I should do your will, God!’” Hebrews x. 5, 7).

5 JUNE – SAINT BONIFACE (Bishop, Confessor and Martyr)

Boniface, given the name of Winfrid at his baptism, was born of noble parents in Devonshire, England, in about 680. From his childhood he turned away from the world and set his heart on becoming a monk. His father tried in vain to divert him from his wishes by the beguilements of the world, but Boniface entered a Benedictine monastery, and under blessed Wolphard he was instructed in all virtuous discipline and every kind of knowledge. At the age of 29 he was ordained and became an unwearied preacher of the word of God, in which he had a special gift which he used with great gain of souls. His great desire, however, was to spread the kingdom of Christ, and he continually bewailed the vast number of barbarians who were plunged in the darkness of ignorance and were slaves of the devil. This zealous love of souls increased in intensity day-by-day, till having implored the divine aid by prayers and tears, Boniface at last obtained the permission of the Prior of the monastery to set out for Germany.

He sailed from England with two companions and reached Dorestadt in Friesland. A great war then raging between King Eadbod of the Frieslanders and King Charles Martel of the Franks, Boniface preached the Gospel unfruitfully. Going back to England, he returned to his former monastery whose government he was forced to accept against his will. After two years he obtained the consent of the Bishop of Winchester to resign his office, and he went to Rome, that by the Apostolic authority he might be delegated to the mission for the conversion of the heathens. In Rome he was courteously welcomed by Pope Gregory II who changed his name from Winfrid to Boniface. He departed then to Germany and preached Christ to the tribes in Thuringia and Saxony. After the death of King Eadbod of Friesland who bitterly hated the Christian name, Boniface went a second time among the Frieslanders, and with his companion Wilibrord, he preached the Gospel for three years so successfully that the idols were hewn down, and countless churches arose to the true God.

Willibrord urged on him to take the office of bishop, but he refused so that he might the more instantly work for the salvation of the unbelievers. Advancing into Germany, Boniface reclaimed thousands of Hessians from superstition. Pope Gregory sent for him to Rome, and after receiving from him a noble profession of his faith, consecrated him a Bishop. Boniface then returned to Germany and purged Hesse aud Thuringia from all remains of idolatry. For this work Pope Gregory III raised Boniface to the dignity of an Archbishop, and on a third visit to Rome he was invested by the Sovereign Pontiff with the powers of Legate of the Apostolic See. As such he founded four Bishoprics and held various Synods, among which was that of Lessines in Belgium, in the diocese of Oambrai, at which time he made his strongest efforts to spread the Faith among the Belgians. Pope Zachary named Boniface Archbishop of Mainz, and by command of the same Pope, Boniface anointed Pepin to be king of the Franks.

After the death of Willibrord, Boniface undertook the government of the Church of Utrecht, at first by the ministry of Eobanus, but afterwards by himself. When released from the care of the Church of Mainz, he established his see at Utrecht. The Frieslanders having again fallen back into idolatry, he once more preached the Gospel among them, and while he was busy doing he was slain by some impious barbarians who attacked him together with his fellow-bishop Eobanus and 51 others on the river Born in 755. In accordance with the wish expressed by himself during life, his body was carried to Mainz and buried in the Monastery of Fulda, which he had founded and which he has since his death rendered illustrious by numerous miracles. England was the first place where his martyrdom was celebrated on a fixed day, and other countries followed. In 1874 Blessed Pius IX ordered his feast to be extended to the universal Church.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Son of Man, proclaimed King in the highest heavens on His triumphant Ascension Day leaves to His Bride on Earth the task of making His sovereign dominion recognised here below: this is her glory. Pentecost gives the signal for the Church’s work of conquest. Now does she awake, aroused by the Breath of the Holy Ghost, replenished with this Spirit of Love, she is all eagerness, as He is, to be possessed at once of the whole Earth. We have already seen the Franks and the Anglo-Saxons pledging in her hands their oath of fealty to Christ, “to whom is given all power on Earth and in Heaven” (Matthew xxviii. 18). Today we see how Winfrid realises the fair name of Boniface, or well-doer, given him by Pope Gregory II. Lo! He presents himself before us surrounded by the multitudes he has snatched, at one blow, from paganism and barbarism alike. Thanks to the Apostle of Germany, the hour is near when the Church may constitute in this world — apart the spiritual dominion of souls, an empire more powerful than any that has ever been or is to be.

The Eternal Father draws to His Son (John vi. 44; Psalms ii. 6, 8) not men only, but nations. These are on Earth no less His inheritance, than Heaven is for all eternity. Now the good pleasure that God takes in the Word made Flesh could never be content with merely seeing nations to come, one here, another there, offering an isolated homage of recognition to His Christ as their Lord and Master. No: it was the whole world that was promised as His possession, without distinction of nations, without limits, save the confines of the round orb itself (Psalms ii. 6, 8). Recognised or not, His power is universal. In the case of many, no doubt, the contempt or the ignorance of this regal claim of the Man-God is to last on throughout ages, for revolt, alas, is always possible and to all. Yet, did it behove the Church to profit, as soon as might be, of her influence over baptised nations, so as to gather them together in one public acknowledgement of the royalty of Christ, the source of every kingly power. At the Pontiff’s side there seemed to be a fitting place for a mailed Chieftain of Christendom — such one, that is, as should be but Lieutenant of Christ, who alone is Lord of lords and King of kings. Thus would be realised in all its plenitude the magnificent Principality announced by the Prophets (Psalms ii. 6, 8) for the Son of David.

Such an institution was indeed worthy of the name it was to receive of the Holy Empire: in it we have the final result of our glorious Pentecost as being the consummation of the testimony rendered by the Holy Ghost to Jesus, both as Pontiff and as King (John xv. 26). In a few days, Leo III, the illustrious Pope called by the Holy Spirit to crown this, His divine work, will proclaim to the joy of the whole world the establishment of this new empire beneath the sceptre-sway of the Man-God, in the person of Charlemagne, the representative of the King of kings. This marvellous work was not prepared on a sudden. Vast regions, destined to form the very nucleus of this future empire, for long centuries knew not so much as the very name of the Lord Jesus: or, at best, preserved but confused notions of truth, derived from some earlier evangelisation that had been stifled in its birth by the turmoil of invasions — a mere mixture of Christian practices and idolatrous superstitions.

At length we behold Boniface arise, endued with power from on high (Acts i. 8) — the worthy precursor of Saint Leo III. Born of those “Angel-faced” Angles by whom ancient Britain was transformed into the “Island of Saints,” he burns to carry into the heart of Germany, from which his ancestors had sprung, the light which first shone on them in the land of their conquest. Thirty years of monastic life, begun in childhood despite the tears and caresses of a tender father, had braced his soul. Matured by this long period of retreat and silence, filled with divine science and accompanied by the prayers of his cloistered brethren, he could now in all security set forth to follow the attraction of a divine call. But first and foremost, Rome beholds him at the feet of the Sovereign Pontiff, submitting his plans and prospects to him who is the only source of all mission in the Church. Gregory II, in every way worthy of the great Popes that have borne that name, was at that time watching with apostolic vigilance over the Christian world. Amid the rocks and shoals of Lombard astuteness and of the heretical infatuation of Leo the Isaurian, his firm and prudent hand was safely guiding the barque of Peter towards the glorious sovereignty that awaited the Church in the coming eighth century.

In the humble monk prostrate at his feet, the immortal Pontiff could not but recognise a potent auxiliary sent to him by Heaven. And so, armed with the Apostolic benediction, Winfrid, now become Boniface, feels the powerful attraction of the Holy Spirit drawing him irresistibly to conquests of which ancient Rome had never dreamed. Beyond the Rhine, farther than Roman legions ever penetrated, the Bride of the Man-God now advances into this barbarous land along pathways tracked for her by Boniface, overturning in her victorious march the last idols of the false gods, civilising and sanctifying those savage hordes, the scourge of the old world. This Anglo-Saxon, a true son of Saint Benedict, gives to his work a stability that will defy the lapse of ages. Everywhere, monasteries arise, rooting themselves to the very soil for God’s sake, and by force of example and beneficence, fixing around them its various nomad tribes. From the river banks, from the forest depths, instead of cries of war and of vengeance, is wafted the accent of prayer and of praise, to the Most High.

Sturm, the beloved disciple of Saint Boniface, presides over these pacific colonisations far superior to those of pagan Rome, planted though they were by her noblest veterans and manned by the best forces of her Empire. Lo! Another sight: here, where violence has until now reigned supreme in these savage wilds, a novel kind of army is organised, formed of the gentle Brides of Christ. The Spirit of Pentecost, like a mighty wind, has blown over the land of the Angles and, even as in the Cenacle, holy women had a share of its influence. Consecrated Virgins, obedient to the heavenly impulse, have quitted the land of their birth, yes, even the monastery that has sheltered them from childhood. Having for a while administered only at a distance to Winfrid’s needs, and copied out for him the Sacred Books in letters of gold, they at length come to join the Apostle: fearlessly have they crossed the sea, and guided by their divine Spouse, have come to share the labours undertaken here for His glory. Lioba is at their head: Lioba whose gentle majesty, whose heavenly aspect uplifts the thought from things terrene: Lioba, who by her knowledge of the Scriptures, of the Fathers, and of the sacred Canons, is equal to any of the most celebrated Doctors. But the Holy Ghost has still more richly gifted the soul of Lioba with humility and Christian heroism. Behold the chosen Mother of the German nation! Germany’s scornful daughters, athirst for blood, who on their wedding-day disdained all other gift save a steed, a buckler and a lance, are to learn from her the true qualities of the valiant woman. No more will they be seen intoxicated with slaughter leading back to the field of battle their vanquished husbands, but the virtues of the wife and of the mother will replace in them the fury of the camp: family life is to be founded on the Germanic soil, and with it, the “Fatherland.”

This was the thought of Boniface when he called to his aid Lioba, Walburga and their companions. Worn out with toil, but still more with the incessant wear and fret of petty jealousies, never spared to men of God, on the part of such as fain would cover their paltry complaints under the cloak of false zeal, our athlete of Christ was not ashamed to come anon to Lioba, his well-beloved daughter, humbly seeking from her that enlightened counsel and comfort never denied. Estimating at its true worth, the share she had borne in his work, he was desirous that she should be laid to rest in the same tomb prepared for him in his Abbey of Fulda. But not yet was his labour ended, nor the evening of life at hand. The spiritual weal of his numberless converts must be secured, and at their head must be placed such as the Holy Ghost designated for the government of God’s Church (Acts xx. 28). By this means the hierarchy was constituted and developed, the land was covered with churches and, beneath the crosiers way of holy bishops chosen by God, these once wandering tribes now began to live a life of glory to the Most Blessed Trinity in a country but yesterday pagan, and in which Satan had hoped to perpetuate his own domination.

Nor was this our Saint’s only work in Germany: in certain isolated parts on the confines, the seeds of Arianism and Manicheeism had been silently taking root by means of an intruded clergy, half pagan and half Christian in their rites. And these would inevitably prove a serious scandal to his recent converts that came within reach of their influence. Even as Christ, armed with a whip of cords, drove the buyers and sellers from the temple, so did Boniface, by vigorous measures, rid the land of these sectarian priests who, with hands polluted by heathenish sacrifices to the vanquished deities of Valhalla, dared to offer also the spotless Victim to the Most High. The powerful action of Boniface, as the precursor of the Holy Empire, was not confined to preparing the German race alone for its share in so high a destiny. His beneficent influence was now to be exercised, and at a most critical moment, upon France, the eldest daughter of the Church: for she was chosen, in the person of her Princes, to be the first to bear the emblem of Christ’s universal kingship. The descendants of Clovis had preserved nothing of his royal inheritance, save the vain title of a power that had now just passed into the hands of a new family — a more vigorous branch of his stock. Charles Martel, the head of this race, measuring his strength with the Moors had crushed their entire army near Poitiers: but, in the flush of victory, the hero of the day had well near brought the Church of France to the brink of ruin by distributing to his comrades in arms the episcopal sees and abbeys of the land! Unless a situation, no less disastrous than would have been the triumph of Abderahman, was to be accepted, these usurped crosiers must at once be wrested from the hands of such strange titularies. To effect this, as much gentleness as firmness were needed, together with an ascendency belonging only to virtue, if the hero of Poitiers and his noble race were to be gained over to respect the rights of holy Church. This victory, more glorious than had been the defeat of the Moors, was won by Boniface — a veritable triumph of disarmed holiness, as profitable to the vanquished as to the Church herself!

Of this fierce warrior, he was to make the worthy father of a second dynasty, the glory of which should far surpass the brilliant hopes of the first race of Frankish kings. Boniface, now Legate of Pope Saint Zachary as he had formerly been of Gregory III, fixed his episcopal see at Mainz, the better, at one and the same time, to hold fast to Christ, both Germany, the conquest of his earlier apostolate, and France, more recently rescued by his labours. Like another Samuel, he himself, with his own hands, consecrated this new regal dynasty by conferring the sacred unction on Pepin le Bref, son of Charles Martel. This was in 752. Another Charles, as yet a child — the heir of the throne that moment firmly fixed and strengthened by the sacred oil — attracted the notice of the aged Saint and received his benediction: it was the future Charlemagne. But, to the hand of a Sovereign Pontiff was reserved the anointing of that royal brow, and a diadem more glorious still than that of a king of the Franks was one day to rest on him, exhibiting in his person the Head of the new Roman Empire, the Lieutenant of Christ, the King of kings!

The personal work of Boniface was now accomplished. Like the old man Simeon, his eyes had seen the object of all his ambition, of all his life-long toil, the salvation prepared by God, to this new Israel. He too had now no desire left save that of departing in peace to his Lord, but could the entering into peace for such an Apostle be by other gate than that of martyrdom? He understands this well: his hour has sounded: the old warrior has chosen his last battle field. Friesland is still pagan: half a century ago, at the opening of his apostolic career, he had avoided this country in order to escape the bishopric which Saint Willibrord, at that early date, was anxious to force on him. But now that she has nothing save death to offer him, he will enter this land. In a letter of sublime humility, prostrate at the feet of Pope Stephen III, he remits to the correction of the Apostolic See “the awkward mistakes,” as he terms them, and the many faults of his long life. To Lullus his dearest son, he leaves the Church of Mainz. He recommends to the care of the Frankish king the several priests scattered all through Germany, the monks and virgins who from distant homes have followed him there. Then ordering to be placed, among the few books which he is taking with him, the winding sheet that is to wrap his body, he designates the companions chosen by him for the journey, and sets out to win the martyr’s palm.

* * * * *

YOU were, great Apostle, the faithful servant of Him who chose you as the minister of His word and propagator of His kingdom. When the Son of Man quitted Earth to receive the delighted homage of the heavenly hosts in recognition of His kingship over them, He nonetheless remained King of this lower world which He has left but for a little while (Luke xix). He counted on His Church to guard His principality here below. Small indeed was the number of those who recognised Him on the day of His glorious Ascension as their Master and their Lord. But that Faith deposited in these first chosen souls was a treasure with which they, like skilful bankers, knew how to work, and how to multiply by apostolic commerce. Transmitted from generation to generation up to the day of the Lord’s return, this precious capital was to go on yielding to the absent Lord more and more accumulated interest. Thus was it with you, Winfrid, in that age in which you brought in to the Church that tribute of labours which she requires, though in very different proportion, at the hands of each one of her sons. Beyond those of others, your works appeared well done and profitable to the common Mother. In her gratitude, forestalling the Spouse Himself, she would fain, even in this world, call you by that new name (Apocalypse ii. 17) by which you are known in Heaven.

Indeed, when did riches such as you brought come pouring, at once, into the hands of the Bride? When did the Spouse appear to be so fully and truly Head of the whole world, as in that eighth century in which the Frankish princes, formed by you to their noble destinies, constituted the temporal sovereignty of the Church and gloried in being, at the side of the Vicar of the Man-God, the Lieutenants of Christ the King? To you, Boniface, is the Holy Empire indebted for the very possibility of its existence. But for you, France would have perished, debased by a simoniacal clergy even before a Charlemagne had appeared. But for your, Germany would have remained the prey of pagan barbarians, enemies of all civilisation and progress. O you who rescued both Germans and Franks, receive our grateful homage.

At the sight of your works, and remembering the great Popes and Princes of colossal build whose glory is indeed derived from you, our admiration equals our gratitude. But pardon us, dear Saint, if the thought of those grand centuries of yore, so far removed from anything of these our days, should make us mingle sadness over ourselves with joy over you. Viewed in the light of your holy policy and its results, glorious precursor of the confederation of Christian nations, how do we not bewail the fatal errors of those princes and statesmen, so renowned in the seventeenth century, and so foolishly admixed by a world whose ruin they were hastening. For, by isolating Catholic nations from one another, the ties that bound them to the Vicar of Christ, became loosened: princes, forgetful of their true position as representatives of the divine King, made friends with heresy in order to assert their independence of Rome, or mutually to lower one another’s power. Therefore Christendom is no more. Upon its ruins, like a woeful mimicry of the Holy Empire, Protestantism has raised its false Evangelical Empire, formed of nothing but encroachments, and tracing its recognised origin to the apostasy of that felon knight, Albert of Brandenburg. The complicities that rendered such a thing possible have received their chastisement. Be then God’s Justice at last satisfied! Boniface, cry out with us, to the God of armies, for mercy. Raise up in the Church, servants of Christ powerful in word and work as you were. Save France from anarchy and restore to Germany a right appreciation of true greatness, together with the Faith of her ancient days.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

In Egypt, the birthday of the holy martyrs Marcian, Nicanor, Apollonius and others who suffered a glorious martyrdom in the persecution of Galerius Maximian.

At Perugia, the holy martyrs Florentius, Julian, Cyriacus, Marcellinus and Faustinus who were beheaded in the persecution of Decius.

At Caesarea in Palestine, the martyrdom of the Saints Zenaides, Cyria, Valeria and Marcia who through many torments attained to martyrdom rejoicing.

At Tyre, St. Dorotheus, a priest, who suffered much under Diocletian, but survived until the reign of Julian the Apostate under whom his venerable age was crowned with martyrdom, he being then one hundred and seven years old.

At Cordova in Spain, blessed Sancius, a youth who, though brought up in the royal court, did not hesitate to undergo martyrdom for the faith of Christ during the persecution of the Arabs.

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

Thanks be to God.