30 APRIL – THURSDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK AFTER EASTER

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Apostles have received their mission. The Sovereign Master has bade them divide among themselves the nations of the earth and preach everywhere the Gospel, that is, the Good Tidings — the Tidings of man’s Redemption wrought by the Son of God who was made Flesh, was crucified, and arose again from the dead. But what is to be the grand support of these humble Jews who have been suddenly transformed into Conquerors, and have to go winning the whole world to Christ? Their support is the solemn promise made to them by Jesus, when, after saying: “Go, teach all nations!” He adds: “Lo! I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world!” Hereby he promises never to leave them, and ever to direct and guide them. They will see Him no more in this life, and yet He assures them that He will be ever in their midst.

But these men with whom Christ thus promises that He will abide forever and preserve them from every fall and from every error in the teaching of His doctrine — these Apostles are not immortal. We will find them, one after the other, laying down their lives for the faith, and so leaving this world. Are we, then, condemned to uncertainty and darkness like men who have been abandoned by the light? Is it possible that the appearance of our Emmanuel upon the earth has been but like that of a meteor, which we sometimes behold in the night, emitting a lurid light, and then suddenly disappearing, leaving us in greater darkness than before?

No: the words of our Risen Jesus forbid us to fear such a calamity. He did not say to His Apostles: “Lo! I am with you even to the end of your lives,” but “Lo! I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” So that those to whom He addressed Himself were to live to the end of the world! What means this, but that the Apostles were to have successors in whom their rights were to be perpetuated? Successors, whom Jesus would ever assist by His presence, and uphold by His power. The work founded by a God, out of His love for man, and at the price of His own Precious Blood, oh surely it must be imperishable! Jesus by His presence amidst His Apostles preserved their teaching from all error. By His presence He will also, and forever, guide the teaching of their successors.

O precious and necessary gift of Infallibility in the Church! Gift, without which the mission of the Son of God would have been a failure! Gift, by which Faith — that essential element of man’s salvation — is preserved upon the earth! Yes, we have the promise and the effects of this promise are evident even to them that are not of the Church. Where is there an unprejudiced man who would not recognise the hand of God in the perpetuity of the Catholic Symbol of Faith, whereas everything else on earth is forever changing? Can we attribute to natural causes, such a result as this, that a society, whose link is unity of belief, should live through so many ages, and yet lose nothing of the truth it possessed at its commencement, nor imbibe anything of the falseness of the world around it? That it should have been attacked by thousands of sects, and yet have triumphed over them all, survived them all, and be as pure in the faith now, at this present day, as it was on the day when first formed by its divine founder? Is it not an unheard-of prodigy that hundreds of millions of men, differing from each other in country, character, and customs, yes, and frequently enemies to each other — should be united in one like submission to one same authority, which, with a single word, governs their reason in matters of faith?

How great is your fidelity to your promises, O Jesus! Who could help feeling that you are in the midst of your Church, mastering, by your presence, the warring elements and, by irresistible yet sweet power, subjecting our pride and fickleness to your dear yoke? And they are men, men like ourselves, who rule and guide our Faith! It is the Pope, the Successor of St. Peter, whose Faith cannot fail (Luke xii. 32) and whose sovereign word is carried through the whole world, producing unity of mind and heart, dispelling doubt, and putting an end to disputation. It is the venerable body of the Bishops united with their Head, and deriving from this union an invincible strength in the proclamation of the one same truth in the several countries of the universe. O yes, men are made infallible because Jesus is with and in them! In everything else, they are men like ourselves, but the Chair on which they are throned is supported by the arm of God. It is the Chair of Truth upon the earth.

How grand is our Faith! Miracles gave it birth, and this continued miracle (of which we have been speaking, and which disconcerts all the calculations of human wisdom). directs it, enlightens it, and upholds it. How stupendous are the wondrous works done by our Risen Jesus during these forty days! So far, he had been preparing His work. Now He carries it into effect. May the Divine Shepherd be ever praised for the care He takes of his Sheep! If He exacts their Faith as the first pledge of their service, we must own that He has made the sacrifice, not only meritorious by our reason’s submitting to it, but most attractive to our heart’s acceptance.

29 APRIL – WEDNESDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK AFTER EASTER

 

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Son of God is soon to ascend to His Father. He has said to his Apostles: “Going, teach all nations: preach the Gospel to every creature.” Thus, then, the Nations are not to receive the Word from the lips of Jesus, but through His Ministers. The glory and happiness of being instructed directly by the Man-God were for none but the Israelites, and even for them for only three short years.

The impious may murmur at this and say in their pride: “Why should there be men between God and us?” God might justly answer: “And what right have you to expect me to speak to you myself, seeing that you can otherwise be as certain of my Word as though you heard it from myself?” Was the Son of God to lose His claim to our Faith unless he remained on this earth to the end of time? If we reflect on the infinite distance there is between the Creator and Creature, we will detest such a blasphemy. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater (1 John v. 9), and how can we reject it? Can we call that testimony human, which was given by the Apostles, when, in proof of their being sent by God, they showed the power conferred on them by their Divine Master of working miracles? Of course, the pride of reason may rebel. It may protest and refuse to believe men who speak in God’s name. Did not the very Son of God meet with more unbelievers than believers? And why? Because He affirmed Himself to be God, yet showed nothing exteriorly but His human nature. So that there was an act of faith to be made, even when Jesus Himself spoke, and pride might rebel and say: “I will not believe,” just as it will do when the Apostles speak in His name. The two cases are alike. God demands of us, as long as we are in this world, that we give Him our faith, and faith is not possible without humility. God confirms His word by miracles, but man has always the power to resist, and for that very reason faith is a virtue.

If it be asked why, when God took His Son from this earth, He did not commission His Angels to teach us in His name, instead of giving such a sublime office to men, frail and mortal as we ourselves are who receive their teaching? The reason is that man could not be raised up from the state of degradation into which he had fallen by pride except by submission and humility, and consequently it was fitting that the ministry of the Divine Word should not be entrusted to Angels, inasmuch as our pride might have been flattered by our having, for our teachers, beings so noble and exalted. We believed the Serpent when he spoke to us, and we had the pride to think that we might one day become Gods: our merciful Creator, in order to save us, has imposed it as a law on us that we should yield submission to men when they speak in His name. These men, therefore, are to preach the Gospel to every creature, and he that believes not, will be condemned.

O Word of God! You heavenly seed planted in the field of the Church, how fruitful have you not been! Yet one little while, and the harvest will be ripe. Faith will have spread throughout the world. The faithful shall be found in every land. And how came they by the faith? By hearing, answers the great Apostle of the Gentiles (Romans x. 17). They heard the Word and they believed. How honoured above the rest of our senses is our hearing, at least in this present life! Let us listen to Saint Bernard speaking on this subject. “One would have thought that the Truth would have entered into our souls by that noblest of our senses, the eye: but no, my soul! That is reserved for the future life, when we will see, face to face. For the present, let the remedy come in by the same door through which crept the malady. Let life, and light, and the antidote of truth, come to us in the track previously taken by death, and darkness, and the serpent’s poison. Thus the troubled eye will be cured by the ear, and will see, when calm, what she cannot when troubled. The ear was the first door of death. Let it be the first to be opened to life. The ear took away our light. Let it now restore our light, for unless we believe, we will not understand. Hearing, therefore, is the instrument of our merit. Sight is to be our reward. Observe, too, how the Holy Ghost follows this order in the spiritual education of the soul: he forms the ear before he gladdens the eye. He says to her: “Hearken, Daughter, and see! Forget your eye, for the present: it is your ear I now ask for. Do you wish to see Christ? First hear him. Hear what is said of Him: that so, when you see Him, you may say: As we have heard, so have we seen! (Psalms xlvii. 9) The brightness is immense. Your eye is weak and you cannot bear the splendour. But what your eye cannot do, your ear can. Only let this ear of yours be fervent, and watchful, and faithful. Faith will give to your eye the clearness it lost by sin. Disobedience shut it, but obedience will open it.”

28 APRIL – TUESDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK AFTER EASTER

 

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

We are bound to believe the Word of God, but this Word is accompanied with every proof of its really coming from God. When Jesus told men that He was the Son of God, He gave ample proof of His being such: in the same manner He insists on our believing what He reveals, but He gives us a guarantee of its being the truth. What is this guarantee? Miracles. Miracles are the testimony which God bears to himself. A miracle rouses man’s attention, for he knows that it is by God’s will alone that the laws of nature can be suspended. If God employ a miracle to make His will known, He has a right to find man obedient. The Israelites were convinced that it was God who was leading them, for the sea opened a passage to them immediately that Moses stretched forth his hand over its waters. Now Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, (Hebrews xii. 2) did not demand our belief in the truths He revealed to us until He had proved the divinity of His mission by miracles. “The works which I do,” said He, “give testimony of me.” (John v. 36) And again: “If you will not believe Me, believe my works.” (John x. 38) And what are these works? When Saint John the Baptist sent some of his disciples to Jesus, that they might ask Him if He were the promised Messiah, Jesus gave them this answer: “Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the Gospel preached to them.” (Luke vii. 22)

Such is the motive of our faith. Jesus requires of us that we receive His Word as being that of the Son of God, for He has proved Himself to be so by the works He has wrought. Truly may we exclaim with the Psalmist: “Your testimonies, Lord, are become exceedingly credible.” (Psalm xcii. 5) Whom shall we believe, if we refuse to believe Him? And what must be the guilt of them who refuse to believe! Let us hearken to our Jesus speaking of those proud men who, though they had witnessed His miracles, rejected His teaching: “If,” says He, “I had not done among them the works that no other man has done, they would not have sin.” (John xv. 24) It is their incredulity that led them astray, but their incredulity showed itself when, after witnessing such miracles as the raising Lazarus to life, they refused to acknowledge the Divinity of Him who bore testimony to Himself by such works as these.

But our Risen Jesus is soon to ascend into Heaven. The miracles He wrought will be things of a long past. Are we, henceforth, to have no testimony for His Word, which is the object of our faith? Let us not fear. Do we forget that historical documents, when genuine, bring the same conviction to our minds with regard to past events, as though we ourselves had been witnesses of those events? Is it not a law of the human mind — is it not a basis of certainty, that we yield assent to the testimony of our fellow-men as often as we have evidence that they are neither deceived themselves, nor wish to deceive us? The miracles wrought by Jesus will be handed down to the end of time, supported by guarantees of authenticity which no facts of history could possibly have. If the authority of history is what all acknowledge it to be, then is he a fool who doubts the miracles which we are told were worked by our Saviour. Though we have not been eye-witnesses of them, yet such is our certainty of their having been done, that our faith is as strong and as docile as though we had assisted at the admirable scenes described in the Gospel.

Our Lord had sufficiently provided for our yielding our faith to His Word, by letting us know that He had confirmed His teaching by His miracles. But He would do more. He gives His disciples the power to do what He Himself had done, and this in order that our faith might be strengthened by these supernatural evidences. It was on one of the forty days spent with His Apostles before His Ascension that He spoke these words to them: “Go into the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptised, will be saved; but He that believes not, will be condemned.” (Mark xvi. 15, 16) We have already stated the basis on which this faith was to rest — the miracles of the God-Man who demands our faith. But, there were to be other miracles super-added to His own. Let us continue the text just quoted: “And these signs will follow them that believe: in my name they will cast out devils, they will speak with new tongues, they will take up serpents, and if they will drink any deadly thing it will not hurt them. They will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark xvi. 17) Here, then, we find the power of working miracles given to Jesus’ Disciples. He bids them go and preach His Word to men, and men must yield their faith. He, therefore, gives His disciples a power over nature which will prove them to be the Ambassadors of the Most High. Their word is not their own: it is that of God. They are the Ministers of the Incarnate God, and we must believe their teaching. By believing them, we are, in reality, believing Him who sends them, and who, to make us sure of their rightful authority, gives them the credentials which He Himself deigned to show to men when He spoke with His own lips.

Neither is this all. If we carefully weigh His words, we will see that He does not intend the gift of miracles to cease with His first disciples. It is true that history proves how faithfully Jesus fulfilled His promise and that, when the Apostles went forth commanding the world to believe what they preached, they gave testimony of their divine mission by countless miracles — but our Risen Lord promised more than this. He said not: “These are the signs which will follow my Apostles,” but “These are the signs which will follow them that believe.” By these words He perpetuated in His Church the gift of miracles. He made it one of her chief characteristics, and one of the grounds of our faith. Before His Passion, He had gone so far as to say: “He that believes in me, the works that I do, he also will do, and greater than these will he do” (John xiv. 12). It is now that He graces her with this prerogative so that, dating from that hour, we must not be surprised at finding that His Saints perform miracles, greater even, at times, than His own. He promised that it should be so, and He has kept His word, thus showing us, how desirous He is that Faith (which is one of the main objects of a miracle), should be fostered and made vigorous in His Church. Far, then, be from every loyal child of the Church that fear, that uneasy feeling, yes, that indifference, which some people evince when they hear or read of a miracle. The only thing we should look to is — are the witnesses trustworthy? If so, a true Catholic should receive the account with joy and gratitude. He should give thanks to our Jesus who thus mercifully fulfils His promise and keeps such a watchful eye over the preservation of Faith.

27 APRIL – MONDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK AFTER EASTER

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Our Risen Jesus is not satisfied with establishing His Church and constituting the hierarchy which is to govern it in His Name to the end of time. He also confides to His disciples His divine word, that is, the truths He is come to reveal to mankind, and into which truths He has given them an insight during the three years preceding His Passion. The Word of God, which is also called Revelation, is, together with grace the most precious gift that Heaven could bestow on us. It is by the Word of God that we know the mysteries of His Divine Essence, the plan according to which He framed the Creation, the supernatural end He destined for such of His creatures as He endowed with understanding and free-will, the sublime work of redemption by the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity: in a word, the means by which we are to honour and serve Him, and attain the end for which we were made.

From the very commencement of the world God revealed His Word to man. Later on He spoke by the Prophets. But when the fullness of time came, He sent upon the earth His Only Begotten Son, that He might complete this first Revelation. We have seen how for three years Jesus has been teaching men, and how, in order that He might make them the more easily understand His words, He has stooped to their littleness. Though His teaching was of the sublimest possible character, yet did He make it so intelligible that no instruction could be compared to His in clearness. It was for this reason that He made use of simple parables by which He conveyed His divine truths to the mind of His hearers. His Apostles and disciples who were afterwards to preach His Gospel to the world received from Him frequent special instructions although, until the accomplishment of the mysteries of His Death and Resurrection, they were slow in understanding His teaching. Since His Resurrection, they are better able to appreciate His instructions, for not only are His words more telling now that He is in the glory of His triumph over death, but the minds of His hearers have become more enlightened by the extraordinary events that have occurred. If He could say to them at the Last Supper: “I will not now call you servants, but I have called you my friends: because all things whatever I have heard from my Father I have made known to you,” (John xv. 15) how must He not treat them now that He has repeated to them the whole of His teaching, given them the whole Word of God, and is on the eve of sending the Holy Spirit upon them in order to perfect their understanding and give them power to preach the Gospel to the entire world?

O holy Word of God! O holy Revelation! Through you are we admitted into divine mysteries which human reason could never reach. We love you and are resolved to be submissive to you. It is you that gives rise to the grand virtue without which it is impossible to please God, (Hebrews xxi. 6), the virtue which commences the work of man’s salvation, and without which this work could neither be continued nor finished. This virtue is Faith. It makes our reason bow down to the Word of God. There comes from its divine obscurity a light far more glorious than are all the conclusions of reason, however great may be their evidence. This virtue is to be the bond of union in the new society which our Lord is now organising. To become a member of this society, man must begin by believing. That he may continue to be a member, he must never, not even for one moment, waver in his faith. We will soon be hearing our Lord saying these words: “He that believes and is baptised, will he saved. But he that believes not, will be condemned.” (Mark xvi. 16) The more clearly to express the necessity of faith, the members of the Church are to be called by the beautiful name of the Faithful: they who do not believe are to be called Infidels.

Faith, then, being the first link of the supernatural union between man and God, it follows, that this union ceases when faith is broken, that is, denied. And that he who after having once been thus united to God breaks the link by rejecting the word of God, and substituting error in its place, commits one of the greatest of crimes. Such a one will be called a Heretic, that is, one who separates himself, and the faithful will tremble at his apostasy. Even were his rebellion to the Revealed Word to fall upon only one article, still he commits enormous blasphemy, for he either separates himself from God as being a deceiver, or he implies that his own created, weak and limited reason is superior to eternal and infinite Truth. As time goes on, heresies will rise up, each attacking some dogma or other, so that scarcely one truth will be left unassailed: but all this will serve for little else than to bring out the Revelation purer and brighter than before. There will, however, come a time, and that time is our own, when heresy will not confine itself to some one particular article of faith, but will proclaim the total independence of reason, and declare Revelation to be a forgery. This impious system will give itself the high-sounding name of Rationalism, and these are to be its leading doctrines: Christ’s mission, a failure and His teaching false. His Church, an insult to man’s dignity: the [twenty] centuries of Christian civilisation, a popular illusion! The followers of this school, the so-called Philosophers of modern times, would have subverted all society, had not God come to its assistance, and fulfilled the promise He made, of never allowing His Revealed Word to be taken away from mankind, nor the Church to whom He confided his Word, to be destroyed.

Others go not so far as this. They do not pretend to deny the benefits conferred on the world by the Christian Religion — the facts of history are too evident to be contested: still, as they will not submit their reason to the mysteries revealed by God, they have a way peculiar to themselves for eliminating the element of Faith from this world. As every revealed truth, and every miracle confirmatory of divine interposition, is disagreeable to them, they attribute to natural causes every fact which bears testimony to the Son of God being present among us. They do not insult religion, they simply pass it by. They hold that the Supernatural serves no purpose. People, they say, have taken appearances for realities. The laws of history and common sense count for nothing. Agreeably to their system, which they call Naturalism, they deny what they cannot explain. They maintain that the people of the past [twenty] centuries have been deceived, and that the Creator cannot suspend the laws of nature, just as the Rationalists teach that there is nothing above Reason.

Are Reason and Nature, then, to be obstacles to our Redeemer’s love for mankind? Thanks be to His infinite power, He would not have it so! As to Reason, He repairs and perfects her by Faith, and He suspends the laws of Nature that we may cheerfully believe the word whose truth is guaranteed by the testimony of miracles. Jesus is truly risen. Let Reason and Nature rejoice, for He has ennobled and sanctified them by the glad Mystery!

26 APRIL – THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

Epistle – 1 Peter ii. 11‒19

Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, to refrain yourselves from carnal desires which war against the soul, having your conversation, good among the Gentiles: that whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they may by the good works which they will behold in you glorify God in the day of visitation. Be subject, therefore, to every human creature for God’s sake, whether it be to the king as excelling: or to the governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of the good: for so is the will of God, that by well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men; as free, and not as making liberty a cloak for malice, but as the servants of God. Honour all men: love the brotherhood: fear God: honour the king. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward. For this is thanksworthy, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thanks be to God. 

Gospel – John x. 16‒22

At that time Jesus said to His disciples: “A little while, and you will not see me: and again a little while, and you will see me: because I go to the Father.” Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that He says to us, A little while, and you will not see me: and again a little while, and you will see me, because I go to the Father?” They said therefore, “What is this that He says to us, A little while? We know not what He speaks.” Now Jesus knew that they had a mind to ask Him, and He said to them, “Of this you enquire among yourselves because I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see me: and again a little while, and you will see me?’ Amen, amen, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice: and you will be made sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labour, has sorrow because her hour has come: but when she has brought forth the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. So you also will have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice; and your joy no man will take from you.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

25 APRIL – THE GREATER LITANIES

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

This day is honoured in the Liturgy by what is called Saint Mark’s Procession. The term, however,is not a correct one, inasmuch as a Procession was a privilege peculiar to the twenty-fifth of April previously to the institution of our Evangelist’s feast, which, even so late as the sixth century, had no fixed day in the Roman Church. The real name of this Procession is The Greater Litanies. The word Litany means Supplication, and is applied to the religious rite of singing certain chants while proceeding from place to place, and this in order to propitiate Heaven. The two Greek words Kyrie eleison (Lord have mercy on us) were also called Litany, as likewise were the invocations which were afterwards added to that cry for mercy, and which now form a Liturgical prayer used by the Church on certain solemn occasions.

The Greater Litanies (or Processions) are so called to distinguish them from the Minor Litanies, that is, Processions of less importance as far as the solemnity and concourse of the faithful were concerned. We gather from an expression of Saint Gregory the Great that it was an ancient custom in the Roman Church to celebrate, once each year, a Greater Litany at which all the Clergy and people assisted. This holy Pontiff chose the twenty-fifth of April as the fixed day for this Procession and appointed the Basilica of Saint Peter as the Station.

Several writers on the Liturgy have erroneously confounded this institution with the Processions prescribed by Saint Gregory for times of public calamity. It existed long before his time, and all that he had to do with it was the fixing it to the twenty-fifth of April. It is quite independent of the feast of Saint Mark which was instituted at a much later period. If the twenty-fifth of April occur during Easter Week, the Procession takes place on that day (unless it be Easter Sunday) but the feast of the Evangelist is not kept till after the Octave.

The question naturally presents itself — why did Saint Gregory choose the twenty-fifth of April for a Procession and Station in which everything reminds us of compunction and penance, and which would seem so out of keeping with the joyous Season of Easter? The first to give a satisfactory answer to this difficulty was Canon Moretti, a learned Liturgiologist of [the eighteenth] century. In a dissertation of great erudition he proves that in the fifth, and probably even in the fourth, century, the twenty-fifth of April was observed at Rome as a day of great solemnity. The faithful went on that day to the Basilica of Saint Peter in order to celebrate the anniversary of the first entrance of the Prince of the Apostles into Rome, upon which he thus conferred the inalienable privilege of being the Capital of Christendom. It is from that day that we count the twenty-five years, two months and some days that Saint Peter reigned as Bishop of Rome. The Sacramentary of Saint Leo gives us the Mass of this Solemnity, which afterwards ceased to be kept. Saint Gregory, to whom we are mainly indebted for the arrangement of the Roman Liturgy, was anxious to perpetuate the memory of a day which gave to Rome her grandest glory. He, therefore, ordained that the Church of Saint Peter should be the Station of the Great Litany, which was always to be celebrated on that auspicious day. The twenty-fifth of April comes so frequently during the Octave of Easter that it could not be kept as a feast, properly so called, in honour of Saint Peter’s entrance into Rome. Saint Gregory, therefore, adopted the only means left of commemorating the great event.

But there was a striking contrast resulting from this institution, of which the holy Pontiff was fully aware, but which he could not avoid: it was the contrast between the joys of Paschal Time, and the penitential sentiments with which the faithful should assist at the Procession and Station of the Great Litany. Laden as we are with the manifold graces of this holy Season and elated with our Paschal joys, we must sober our gladness by reflecting on the motives which led the Church to cast this hour of shadow over our Easter sunshine. After all, we are sinners, with much to be sorry for, and much to fear. We have to avert those scourges which are due to the crimes of mankind. We have, by humbling ourselves and invoking the intercession of the Mother of God and the Saints, to obtain the health of our bodies and the preservation of the fruits of the Earth. We have to offer atonement to Divine justice for our own and the world’s pride, sinful indulgences and insubordination. Let us enter into ourselves, and humbly confess that our own share in exciting God’s indignation is great. And our poor prayers, united with those of our holy Mother the Church, will obtain mercy for the guilty, and for ourselves who are of the number.

A day, then, like this, of reparation to God’s offended Majesty, would naturally suggest the necessity of joining some exterior penance to the interior dispositions of contrition which filled the hearts of Christians. Abstinence from flesh meat has always been observed on this day at Rome, and when the Roman Liturgy was established in France by Pepin and Charlemagne, the Great Litany of the twenty-fifth of April was, of course, celebrated and the abstinence kept by the faithful of that country. A Council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 836 enjoined the additional obligation of resting from servile work on this day: the same enactment is found in the Capitularia of Charles the Bald. As regards Fasting — properly so called — being contrary to the spirit of Paschal Time, it would seem never to have been observed on this day, at least not generally. Amalarius, who lived in the ninth cntury, asserts that it was not then practised even in Rome.

During the Procession, the Litany of the Saints is sung, followed by several Versicles and Prayers. The Mass of the Station is celebrated in the Lenten Rite, that is, without the Gloria in excelsis, and in purple vestments. We have inserted the Litany of the Saints in the following volume, for the Rogation Days.

We take this opportunity of protesting against the negligence of Christians on this subject. Even persons who have the reputation of being spiritual, think nothing of being absent from the Litanies said on Saint Mark’s and the Rogation Days. One would have thought that when the Holy See took from these Days the obligation of Abstinence, the faithful would be so much the more earnest to join in the duty still left — the duty of Prayer. The people’s presence at the Litanies is taken for granted and it is simply absurd that a religious rite of public reparation should be one from which almost all should keep away. We suppose that these Christians will acknowledge the importance of the petitions made in the Litanies, but God is not obliged to hear them in favour of such as ought to make them and yet do not. This is one of the many instances which might be brought forward of the strange delusions into which private and isolated devotion are apt to degenerate. When Saint Charles Borromeo first took possession of his See of Milan, he found this negligence among his people, and that they left the clergy to go through the Litanies of the twenty-fifth of April by themselves. He assisted at them himself, and walked bare-footed in the Procession. The people soon followed the sainted Pastor’s example.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Syracuse, the holy martyrs Evodius, Hermogenes and Callistus.

At Antioch, St. Stephen, bishop and martyr, who suffered much from the heretics opposed to the Council of Chalcedon and was precipitated into the river Orontes in the time of the emperor Zeno.

In the same city, the Saints Philo and Agathopodes, deacons.

At Alexandria, the bishop St. Anian, a disciple of the Evangelist St. Mark, and his successor in the episcopate. With a great renown for virtue, he rested in the Lord.

At Lobbes, the birthday of St. Erminus, bishop and confessor.

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

Thanks be to God.

25 APRIL – SAINT MARK (Evangelist)

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Cycle of holy mother Church brings before us today the Lion, who, together with the Man, the Ox and the Eagle, stands before the Throne of God (Ezechiel i. 10). It was on this day that Mark ascended from Earth to Heaven, radiant with his triple aureola of Evangelist, Apostle and Martyr.

As the preaching made to Israel had its four great representatives Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechiel and Daniel, so likewise would God have the New Covenant to be embodied in the four Gospels which were to make known to the world the life and teachings of His divine Son. The Holy Fathers tell us that the Gospels are like the four streams which watered the Garden of pleasure (Genesis ii. 10) and that this Garden was a figure of the future Church. The first of the Evangelists — the first to register the actions and words of our Redeemer — is Matthew, whose star will rise in September. The second is Mark, whose brightness gladdens us today. The third is Luke, whose rays will shine upon us in October. The fourth is John, whom we have already seen in Bethlehem at the crib of our Emmanuel.

Mark was the beloved disciple of Peter. He was the brilliant satellite of the Sun of the Church. He wrote his Gospel at Rome under the eyes of the Prince of the Apostles. The Church was already in possession of the history given by Matthew, but the faithful of Rome wished their own Apostle to narrate what he had witnessed. Peter refused to write it himself, but he bade his disciple take up his pen, and the Holy Ghost guided the hand of the new Evangelist. Mark follows the account given by Matthew. He abridges it, and yet he occasionally adds a word or an incident which plainly prove to us that Peter, who had seen and heard all, was his living and venerated authority. One would have almost expected that the new Evangelist would pass over in silence the history of his master’s fall, or, at least, have said as little as possible about it, but no — the Gospel written by Mark is more detailed on Peter’s denial than is that of Matthew. And as we read it we cannot help feeling that the tears elicited by Jesus’ look when in the house of Caiphas were flowing down the Apostle’s cheeks, as he described the sad event. Mark’s work being finished, Peter examined it and gave it his sanction. The several Churches joyfully received this second account of the mysteries of the world’s redemption, and the name of Mark was made known throughout the whole Earth.

Matthew begins his Gospel with the human genealogy of the Son of God, and has thus realised the prophetic type of the Man. Mark fulfils that of the Lion, for he commences with the preaching of John the Baptist, whose office as precursor of the Messiah had been foretold by Isaias where he spoke of the Voice of one crying in the wilderness — as the Lion that makes the desert echo with his roar. Mark having written his Gospel, was next to labour as an Apostle. Peter sent him first to Aquileia, where he founded an important Church: but this was not enough for an Evangelist. When the time designed by God came and Egypt — the source of countless errors — was to receive the truth, and the haughty and noisy Alexandria was to be raised to the dignity of the second Church of Christendom — the second See of Peter — Mark was sent by his master to effect this great work. By his preaching the word of salvation took root, grew up and produced fruit in that most infidel of nations. And the authority of Peter was thus marked, though in different degrees, in the three great Cities of the Empire: Rome, Alexandria and Antioch.

Saint Mark may be called the first founder of the monastic life by his instituting, in Alexandria itself, what were called the Therapeutes. To him, also, may be justly attributed, the origin of that celebrated Christian school of Alexandria, which was so flourishing even in the second century. But glorious as were these works of Peter’s disciple, the Evangelist and Apostle Mark was also to receive the dignity of martyr. The success of his preaching excited against him the fury of the idolators. They were keeping a feast in honour of Serapis, and this gave them an opportunity which they were not likely to lose. They seized Mark, treated him most cruelly and cast him into prison. It was there that our Risen Lord appeared to him during the night and addressed him in these words, which afterwards formed the Arms of the Republic of Venice: “Peace be to you, Mark, my Evangelist!” To which the disciple answered “Lord,” for such were his feelings of delight and gratitude that he could say but that one word as it was with Magdalene when she saw Jesus on the morning of the Resurrection. On the following day Mark was put to death by the pagans. He had fulfilled his mission on Earth and Heaven opened to receive the Lion who was to occupy near the throne of the Ancient of days the place allotted to him as shown to the Prophet of Patmos in his sublime vision (Apocalypse iv.).

In the ninth century the West was enriched with the relics of Saint Mark. They were taken to Venice, and under the protection of the sacred Lion, there began for that city a long period of glory. Faith in so great a Patron achieved wonders, and from the midst of islets and lagoons there sprang into existence a city of beauty and power. Byzantine art raised up the imposing and gorgeous Church which was the palladium of the Queen of the Seas, and the new Republic stamped its coinage with the Lion of Saint Mark. Happy would it have been for Venice, had she persevered in her loyalty to Rome and in the ancient severity of her morals!

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You, O Mark, are the mystic Lion which with the Man, the Ox and the Eagle are yoked to the chariot on which the King of kings pursues His triumphant course through the Earth. Ezechiel, the Prophet of the Ancient Testament, and John, the Prophet of the New Law, saw you standing near the Throne of Jehovah. How magnificent is your glory! You are the historian of the Word made Flesh, and you publish to all generations His claims to the love and adoration of mankind. The Church reveres your writings and bids us receive them as inspired by the Holy Ghost. It was you that on the glad Day of Easter announced to us the Resurrection of our Lord: pray for us, O holy Evangelist, that this divine Mystery may work its effects within us, and that our hearts, like your own, may be firm in their love of our Risen Jesus, that so we may faithfully follow Him in that New Life which He gave us by His Resurrection. Ask Him to give us His Peace, as He did to His Apostles when He showed Himself to them in the Cenacle, and as He did to yourself when He appeared to you in your prison. You were the beloved disciple of Peter. Rome was honoured by your presence: pray for the successor of Peter, your master. Pray for the Church of Rome against which the wildest storm is now venting its fury. Pray to the Lion of the Tribe of Judah: He seems to sleep, and yet we know that He has but to show Himself, and the victory is gained.

Apostle of Egypt, what has become of your flourishing Church of Alexandria, Peter’s second See, the hallowed scene of your martyrdom? Its very ruins have perished. The scorching blast of heresy made Egypt a waste, and God, in His anger, let loose upon her the torrent of Mahometanism. [Fourteen] centuries have passed since then, and she is still a slave to error and tyranny: is it to be thus with her till the coming of the Judge? May we not hope that the great movement now preparing may be the dawn of her conversion? Pray, we beseech you, for the countries you so zealously evangelised, but whose deserts are now the image of her loss of Faith. And can Venice be forgotten by you, her dearest Patron? Her glory is fallen, it may be forever, but her people still call themselves yours, as did the Venetians of old. Let her not swerve from the Faith. Bless her with prosperity.

25 APRIL – SATURDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK AFTER EASTER

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Saturday brings us back to Mary. Let us again contemplate her prerogatives and yet, while so doing, let us still keep our thoughts on holy Church, which has been the subject of our meditations during this week. Let us today consider the relations existing between Mary and the Church: they will make us the better understand these two Mothers of mankind.

Before taking possession of the Church, which was to be proclaimed before all nations on the day of Pentecost, the Man-God made a worthy prelude to this kingly possession by uniting himself with Her, who is so deservedly styled the Mother and representative of the human race. This was Mary. Of the family of David, Abraham and Sem. Immaculate from the first moment of her existence, as were our First Parents when they came from their Creator’s hands, and destined for the grandest honour which could be conferred on a mere creature. Mary was, during her sojourn here on earth, the inheritance and co-operatrix of the Incarnate Word: she was the Mother of all the living (Genesis iii. 20). She, in her single person, was what the Church, collectively, has been from the day of its foundation. Her office of Mother of God surpasses all her other glories. Still, we must not overlook, but, on the contrary, admire and love them. Mary was the first creature that fully corresponded with the intentions which induced the Son of God to come down from Heaven. He found in her the most lively faith, the firmest hope and the most fervent love. Never had human nature, perfected by grace, offered to God an object so worthy of His acceptance. Before celebrating his union with the human race as its Shepherd, Jesus was the Shepherd of this single sheep whose merits and dignity surpass those of the rest of mankind, even supposing it to have been always, and in all things, faithful to its God.

Mary, therefore, represented the Christian Church, before it existed in itself. The Son of God found in her, not only a Mother, but the faithful worshipper of His Divinity from the first moment of His Incarnation. We saw on Holy Saturday how Mary’s faith withstood the test of Calvary and the tomb, and how this faith which never faltered kept alive on the earth the light which was never to be quenched, and which was soon to be confided to the collective Church whose mission was to win over all nations to the Divine Shepherd. It was not Jesus’ will that His Blessed Mother should exercise a visible and outward apostolate, save in a limited degree. Besides, He was not to leave her here till the end of time. But, just in the same way as from the day of His Ascension Hhe made his Church co-operate with Him in all that He does for His elect, so likewise did He will, during His mortal life, that Mary should have her share in all the works done by Him for our salvation. She, whose formal consent had been required before the Eternal Word took Flesh in her womb, was present, as we have already seen, at the foot of the Cross, in order that she, as a creature, might offer Him, who offered Himself as God, our Redeemer. The Mother’s sacrifice blended with that of the Son, and this raised her up to a degree of merit which the human mind could never calculate. Thus it is, though in a less perfect manner, the Church unites herself in unity of oblation with her Divine Spouse in the Sacrifice of the Altar. It was to be on the day of Pentecost that the Church’s maternity would be proclaimed to the world. Mary was invested with the office of Mother of men as Jesus was hanging upon His Cross. When His side was opened with the spear that the Church born from the Water and Blood of Redemption might come forth, Mary was there to receive into her arms this future mother, whom she had hitherto so fully represented.

In a few days we will behold Mary in the Cenacle. The Holy Ghost will enrich her with new gifts, and we will have to study her mission in the early Church. Let us close the considerations we have been making today by drawing a parallel between our two Mothers, who, though one is so far above the other in dignity, are nevertheless closely united to each other. Our heavenly Mother, who is also the Mother of Jesus, is ever assisting our earthly Mother, the Church, with heavenly aid. Mary exercises over her, in each of her existences — Militant, Suffering or Triumphant — an influence of power and love. She procures to the Church the victories she wins. She enables her to go through the tribulations and trials which beset her path. The children of one are children of the other. Both have a share in giving us spiritual birth —one, the “Mother of Divine Grace,” by her all-powerful prayers. The other, by the Word of God and Holy Baptism. If, when we depart this life, our admission to the beatific vision is to be retarded on account of our sins, and our souls are to descend to the abode of Purgatory, the suffrages of our earthly Mother will follow us and alleviate or shorten our sufferings. But our heavenly Mother will do still more for us during that period of expiation, so awful and yet so just. In heaven the elect are rejoiced at the sight of the Church Triumphant, though she be still Militant on earth, and who can describe the joy these happy children must feel at seeing the glory of the Mother that begot them in Christ? But with how much gladder ecstasy must not these same citizens of heaven gaze upon Mary, that other Mother of theirs, who was their Star on the stormy sea of life, who never ceased to watch over them with most loving care, who procured them countless aids to salvation, and who, when they entered heaven, received them into those same maternal arms, which heretofore carried the Divine Fruit of her womb — that First-Born (Luke ii. 7) whose Brothers and Joint-Heirs we are all called to be!

24 APRIL – SAINT FIDELIS OF SIGMARINGEN (Martyr)

Fidelis was born at Sigmaringen, a town of Swabia. His parents were of a respectable family called Rey. He was remarkable, even when a child, for his extraordinary gifts both of nature and grace. Blessed with talent of a high order and trained to virtue by an excellent education, he received at Friburg the well merited honours of Doctor in Philosophy and in Civil and Canon Law, at the same time that, in the school of Christ, he strove to attain the height of perfection by the assiduous practice of all virtues. Being requested to accompany several noblemen in their travels through various countries of Europe, he lost no opportunity of encouraging them, both by word and example, to lead a life of Christian piety. In these travels, he moreover mortified the desires of the flesh by frequent austerities. And such was the mastery he gained over himself, that in the midst of all the trouble and excitement, he was never seen to lose his temper in the slightest degree. He was a strenuous upholder of law and justice, and, after his return to Germany he acquired considerable reputation as an advocate. But finding that this profession was replete with danger, he resolved to enter on the path that would best lead him to eternal salvation. Thus enlightened by the divine call, he shortly afterwards asked to be admitted into the Seraphic Order among the Capuchin Friars Minors. His pious wish being granted, he, from the very commencement of his Noviciate, showed how thoroughly he despised the world and himself. And when with spiritual joy, he had offered to God the vows of solemn profession, his regular observance was such as to make him the admiration and a model to all around him.

He devoted himself to prayer and to sacred studies, as also to preaching, for which he had a special grace, and by which he not only converted Catholics from a life of wickedness to one of virtue, but he also drew heretics to a knowledge of the truth. He was appointed superior in several convents of his Order and fulfilled his office with admirable prudence, justice, meekness, discretion and humility. His zeal for strict poverty was so great that he would allow nothing to be in the convent which was not absolutely necessary. He practised severe fasting, watching and disciplines, out of holy hatred against himself, whereas his love towards others was that of a mother for her children. A contagious fever having broken out among the Austrian soldiers causing frightful mortality, he devoted his whole energies to untiring acts of charity in favour of the sick, whose sufferings were extreme. So admirable was he, both in advice and action, in settling disputes and relieving everyone in trouble or trial, that he won for himself the name of the Father of his country. He was extremely devout to the Virgin Mother of God and a zealous promoter of the Rosary. He besought of God, through the intercession of this Blessed Mother firstly, and then through that of all the Saints, that he might be allowed to shed his blood and lay down his life for the Catholic faith.

This ardent desire was increased by the daily and devout celebration of the Holy Sacrifice. And, at length, by the wonderful providence of God, this valiant soldier of Christ was placed at the head of the missions recently established among the Grisons by the Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith. Fidelis undertook this arduous task with a ready and cheerful heart, and laboured in it with such earnestness that he converted many heretics to the true Faith and inspired the hope that the whole of that people would be reconciled to the Church and to Christ. He had the gift of prophecy and frequently predicted the calamities that were to befall the Grisons, as also his own death by the hands of the heretics. Being fully aware of the plot laid against him, he prepared himself for the combat, and on the twenty-fourth day of April in 1622, he repaired to the church of a place called Sevis. To there had the heretics, on the previous day, invited him to come and preach, pretending that they wished to be converted. While he was preaching, he was interrupted by their clamours. They rushed on him, cruelly struck and wounded him even to death. He suffered it with courage and joy, thus consecrating by his blood the first-fruits of the martyrs of the Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith. His name was rendered illustrious by many miracles, especially at Coire and Weltkirchen, where his relics are kept and honoured with exceeding great veneration of the people.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Our Risen Lord would have around Him a bright phalanx of Martyrs. Its privileged members belong to the different centuries of the Church’s existence. Its ranks open today to give welcome to a brave combatant who won his palm, not in a contest with paganism — as those did whose feasts we have thus far kept — but in defending his mother, the Church, against her own rebellious children. They were heretics that slew this day’s Martyr, and the century that was honoured with his triumph was the seventeenth. Fidelis was worthy of his beautiful name. Neither difficulty nor menace could make him fail in his duty. During his whole life he had but the glory and service of his divine Lord in view. And when the time came for him to face the fatal danger, he did so calmly but fearlessly, as behoved a disciple of that Jesus who went forth to meet his enemies. Honour, then, be today to the brave son of Saint Francis! Truly is he worthy of his seraphic Patriarch who confronted the Saracens and was a Martyr in desire!

Protestantism was established and rooted by the shedding of torrents of blood. And yet Protestants count it as a great crime that, here and there, the children of the true Church made an armed resistance against them. The heresy of the sixteenth century was the cruel and untiring persecutor of men, whose only crime was their adhesion to the old Faith — the Faith that had civilised the world. The so-called Reformation proclaimed liberty in matters of religion and massacred Catholics who exercised this liberty and prayed and believed as their ancestors bad done for long ages before Luther and Calvin were born. A Catholic who gives heretics credit for sincerity when they talk about religious toleration proves that he knows nothing of either the past or the present. There is a fatal instinct in error which leads it to hate the Truth. And the True Church, by its unchangeableness, is a perpetual reproach to them that refuse to be her children. Heresy starts with an attempt to annihilate them that remain faithful. When it has grown tired of open persecution, it vents its spleen in insults and calumnies. And when these do not produce the desired effect, hypocrisy comes in with its assurances of friendly forbearance. The history of Protestant Europe, during the last [five] centuries, confirms these statements. It also justifies us in honouring those courageous servants of God who, during that same period, have died for the ancient Faith.

* * * * *

How truly could you, O Fidelis, say with the Apostle: “I have finished my course!” (2 Timothy iv. 7). Yes, your death was even more beautiful than your life, holy as that was. How admirable the calmness with which you received death! How grand the joy with which you welcomed the blows of your enemies — yours, because they were those of the Church! Your dying prayer, like Stephen’s, was for them, for the Catholic, while he hates heresy, must love the heretics who put him to death. Pray, O holy Martyr, for the children of the Church. Obtain for them an appreciation of the value of Faith, and of the favour of God bestowed on them when He made them members of the true Church. May they be on their guard against the many false doctrines which are now current through the world. May they not be shaken by the scandals which abound in this our age of effeminacy and pride. It is Faith that is to bring us to our Risen Jesus, and He urges us to it by the words He addressed to Thomas: “Blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed” (John xx. 29). Of this number we wish to be, and therefore is it that we cling to the Church, the sovereign mistress of Faith. We wish to believe her, and not Human Reason, which has neither the power to fathom the Word of God, nor the right to sit in judgement over it. Jesus has willed that this holy Faith should come down to us bearing on itself the strengthening testimony of the martyrs, and each age has had its martyrs. Glory to you, Fidelis, who won your palm by combating the errors of the pretended Reformation! Take a martyr’s revenge and pray without ceasing to our Jesus that He would bring all heretics back to the Faith and to union with the Church. They are our brethren by Baptism. Pray for them that they may return to the Fold, and that we may one day celebrate with them the true Paschal Banquet in which the Lamb of God gives Himself to be our food, not figuratively, as in the Old Law, but really and truly, as becomes the New Covenant.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, St. Sabas, a military officer, who bravely confessed Christ before the judge when he was accused of visiting the Christians in prison. For this he was burned with torches and thrown into a cauldron of boiling pitch out of which he came uninjured. Seventy men were converted to Christ at the sight of this miracle, and as they all remained unshaken in the confession of the faith, they were put to the sword. Sabas, however, terminated his martyrdom by being cast into the river.

At Lyons, in France, during the persecution of Verus, the birthday of St. Alexander, martyr. After being imprisoned, he was so lacerated by the cruelty of those who scourged him that his ribs and the interior of his body were exposed to view. Then he was fastened to the gibbet of the cross, on which he yielded up his blessed soul. Thirty four others who suffered with him are commemorated on other days.

The same day, during the persecution of Diocletian, the holy martyrs Eusebius, Neon, Leontius, Longinus and four others, were slain with the sword after enduring great torments.

In England, the demise of St. Mellitus, bishop. Being sent there by St. Gregory, he converted to the faith the East Saxons and their king.

At Elvira in Spain, St. Gregory, bishop and confessor.

At Brescia, St. Honorius, bishop.

In Ireland, St. Egbert, priest and monk, a man of admirable humility and continence.

At Rheims, the holy virgins Bona and Doda.

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

Thanks be to God.

24 APRIL – FRIDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK OF EASTER

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Church of Jesus that was promised by Him to the Earth during the days of His mortal life, that earnest forth from His sacred Side when wounded by the spear on the Cross, that was organised and perfected by Him during the last days of His sojourn here below— we lovingly greet you as our Mother. You are the Spouse of our Redeemer, and it is through you that we were born to Him. It is you that gave us life by Baptism. It is you that gives us the Word which enlightens us. It is you that ministers to us the helps by which we are led through our earthly pilgrimage to Heaven. It is you that governs us in the spiritual order by your holy ordinances. Under your maternal care, we are safe. We have nothing to fear. What can error do against us? You are the “pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy iii. 15).

What effect can the revolutions of our earthly habitation have upon us? We know, that if everything else should fail us, you will ever be with us. It was during these very days which precede the Ascension that our Lord Jesus said to his Apostles, and through them, to their successors: “Behold! I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matthew xxviii. 20). What a promise of duration was not this! If we consult the history of these last [two thousand] years, it will tell us that this promise has never once been broken. The gates of Hell have risen up against you innumerable times, but they have never prevailed against you, no, not for one single moment! And thus it is, Church, that being founded on Christ your Spouse, you give us a share in your own divine immutability! Established as we are in you there is not a truth which the eye of our faith cannot see. There is not a blessing which, despite our weakness, we may not make our own. There is no object shown us by hope, which we may not attain. You hold us in your arms, and from the height to which you raise us, we see the mysteries of time and the secrets of eternity. Our eye admiringly follows you, whether we consider you as Militant on earth, Suffering in your dear ones who are in the temporary state of expiation, or Triumphant in Heaven. You are with us in our exile, and already are you, in millions of your children, heiress of the eternal kingdom. Keep us near us, nay, within you, O you our Mother, who are the beloved Spouse of our Lord! To whom shall we go but to you? Is it not to you, and to you alone, that He has entrusted the words of eternal life?

How much they are to be pitied, O Church, who do not know you! And yet, if they are seeking God with all their heart they will one day know you. How much they are to be pitied, who once knew you, and afterwards, in their pride and ingratitude, denied you! And yet, no one ever fell into such misery unless he first voluntarily shut his eyes against the light that was within him. How much they are to be pitied who know you and still live enjoying what you give your children, and who yet take side with your enemies in insulting and betraying you! They are men whose character is shallowness of mind. They speak their opinions as though they were oracles. They have contracted the flippant effrontery of our age, and to hear them speak of you one would suppose that they look on you as a human institution which they may approve or blame according to their humour. Instead of revering whatever you have taught regarding yourself and your rights, instead of revering what you have ordained, regulated and practised, these Catholics, whose sympathies are all with your enemies, would have you conform your teachings and conduct with the so-called Progress of the times. The whole world is given to you as your inheritance, and yet these insolent children would have you be content with what they think proper to assign to you. You, the Mother of mankind, must be under their wise care! It is from them, you must, henceforth, learn how best to fulfil your mission! Godless men, adorers of what they called the rights of man, dared, a century back, to expel you from political life which up till then you had kept in harmony with its Divine Master. These men have left disciples who would have you withdraw from everything that regards the outward world, and look on as a mere stranger. You must no longer exercise the rights given you by the Son of God over both soul and body. This royalty of yours is out of date, and you must be satisfied to enjoy the liberty which in virtue of the law of Progress, is granted alike to error and to truth. The wise and powerful ones of this world are discussing the question of dethroning, now after a thousand years’ reign, the Vicar of your Spouse, and instead of resenting such a project with holy indignation as tending to the destruction of the last bulwark of Christendom, there are many among us who approve of it, and this on principles which are, it is true, in favour with rationalistic politicians, but which are formally condemned by your teachings, your acts, nay, by your very existence. How short sighted are such Catholics as these who hope to make you acceptable to the world by giving you the semblance of a human institution! The world is too shrewd: it knows you to be essentially supernatural, and this is what it can never tolerate.

Wiser and more Christian by far are they, who detesting such profane theories, have, like devoted Machabees, drawn the sword against your enemies, Church of Christ! And even in an age like this, when faith has grown weak, have so well understood their Christian duty as to die in your defence and, by so dying, to win the crown of martyrdom. Yes, it is our duty to confess you: to disguise you, is to belie you. You are one of the articles of our Creed: “I believe in the holy Catholic Church.” You have been known these [two thousand] years, and will men now pretend that you must conform to the world’s capricious views? This cannot be. Jesus made you be like Himself, a sign of contradiction (Luke ii. 34), and as such we must receive you. We must listen to your protestations against false principles and practices, and not attempt to remodel you. Only God has power to give His Church a form other than that He has already given her.

Blessed are they who share your lot, dear Church of our Redeemer! In these un-Christian times you are unpopular. You were so in ages long gone by when men could not become your children, save at the risk of being despised. It is the same now, and we are resolved to espouse your cause. We confess you to be our Mother, inaccessible to the changes of this world. Whether honoured or persecuted, you continue your mission here below. Thus will it be until the time comes when this earth, which was created to be your kingdom, will see you ascend to Heaven and flee from a world which will deserve the severest chastisements of God’s anger, because of its having despised and rejected you.