20 MAY – SAINT BERNARDINE OF SIENA (Confessor)

Bernardino Albizeschi was born in 1380 of parents who were of a noble family of Siena. He was well brought up by his pious parents and gave evident marks of sanctity from his earliest years. When studying the first rudiments of grammar he despised the favourite pastimes of children and applied himself to works of piety, especially fasting, prayer and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. His charity to the poor was extraordinary. In order the better to practise these virtues, he later on entered the Confraternity which gave to the Church so many saintly men, and was attached to the hospital of our Lady of Scala in Siena. It was there that, while leading a most mortified life himself, Bernardino, with incredible charity, took care of the sick during the time when a terrible pestilence was raging in the city. Among his other virtues, he was pre-eminent for chastity, although he had many dangers to encounter owing to the beauty of his person. Such was the respect he inspired that no-one, however lost to shame, ever dared to say an improper word in his presence.

After a serious illness of four months, which he bore with the greatest patience, Bernardino began to think of entering the religious life. As a preparation for such a step he hired, in the farthest outskirts of the city, a little hut in which he hid himself, leading a most austere life and assiduously beseeching God to make known to him the path he was to follow. A divine inspiration led him to prefer to all other Orders that of Saint Francis. Accordingly, he entered and soon began to excel in humility, patience and the other virtues of a religious man. The guardian of the Convent perceiving this and having previously known that Bernardino was well versed in the sacred sciences, he imposed the duty of preaching upon him. The Saint most humbly accepted the office, though he was aware that the weakness and hoarseness of his voice unfitted him for it: but he sought God’s help, and was miraculously freed from these impediments.

Italy was, at that time, overrun with vice and crime, and in consequence of deadly factions, all laws, both divine and human, were disregarded. It was then that Bernardino went through the towns and villages, preaching the Name of Jesus which was ever on his lips and heart. Such was the effect of his words and example that piety and morals were in great measure restored. Several important cities that had witnessed his zeal petitioned the Pope to allow them to have Bernardino for their bishop, but the Saint’s humility was not to be overcome, and he rejected every offer. At length, after going through countless labours in God’s service, after many and great miracles, after writing several pious and learned books, he died a happy death at the age of 66 in Aquila in the Abruzzi. New miracles were daily being wrought through his intercession and, at length, in the sixth year after his death, he was canonised by Pope Nicholas V.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

In that season of the Liturgical Year when we were loving and praying around the crib of the Infant Jesus, one of its days was devoted to our celebrating the glory and sweetness of His Name. Holy Church was full of joy in pronouncing the dear Name chosen from all eternity by her heavenly Spouse, and mankind found consolation in the thought that the great God who might so justly have bid us call Him the Just and the Avenger, willed us henceforth to call Him the Saviour. The devout Bernardino of Siena, whose feast we keep today, stood then before us, holding in his hands this ever blessed Name surrounded with rays. He urged the whole Earth to venerate, with love and confidence, the sacred Name which expresses the whole economy of our salvation. The Church, ever attentive to what is for the good of her children, adopted the beautiful device. She encouraged them to receive it from the Saint as a shield that would protect them against the darts of the evil spirit, and as an additional means for reminding us of the exceeding charity with which God has loved this world of ours. And finally, when the loveliness of the Holy Name of Jesus had won all Christian hearts, she instituted, in its honour, one of the most beautiful solemnities of Christmastide.

Bernardino, the worthy son of Saint Francis of Assisi, returns to us on this twentieth day of May, and the sweet flower of the Holy Name is, of course, in his hand. But it is not now the prophetic appellation of the new-born babe. It is not the endearing Name, respectfully and lovingly whispered by the Virgin-Mother over the crib — it is the Name whose sound has gone through the whole creation, it is the trophy of the grandest of victories, it is the fulfilment of all that was prophesied. The Name of Jesus was a promise to mankind of a Saviour. Jesus has saved mankind by dying and rising again. He is now Jesus in the full sense of the word. Go where you will and you hear this Name— the Name that has united men into the one great family of the Church. The chief priests of the Synagogue strove to stifle the Name of Jesus, for it was even then winning men’s hearts. They forbade the Apostles to teach in this Name, and it was on this occasion that Peter uttered the words which embody the whole energy of the Church: We ought to obey God, rather than men (Acts v. 28, 29). The Synagogue might as well have tried to stay the course of the sun. So too, when the mighty power of the Roman Empire set itself against the triumphant progress of this Name and would annul the decree that every knee should bow at its sound (Philippians ii. 10), there was not merely a failure, but, at the end of three centuries, the Name of Jesus was heard and loved in every city and hamlet of the Empire.

Armed with this sacred motto, Bernardino traversed the towns of Italy which, at that period (the fifteenth century) were at enmity with each other and, not infrequently, were torn with domestic strifes. The Name of Jesus, which he carried in his hand, became as a rainbow of reconciliation, and wherever he set it up, there every knee bowed down, every vindictive heart was appeased, and sinners hastened to the sacrament of pardon. The three letters (IHS) which represent this Name, became familiar to the faithful. They were everywhere to be seen, carved or engraved or painted. And the Catholic world thus gained a new form by which to express its adoration and love of its Saviour.

Bernardino was a preacher whose eloquence was of Heaven’s inspiring. He was also a distinguished master in the science of sacred things, as is proved by the writings he has left us. We regret not being able, from want of space, to give our readers his words on the greatness of the Paschal mystery, but we cannot withhold from them what he says regarding Jesus appearing to his Blessed Mother after the Resurrection. They will be rejoiced at finding unity of doctrine on this interesting subject existing between the Franciscan School, represented by Saint Bernardino and the School of Saint. Dominic, whose testimony we have already given, on the feast of Saint Vincent Ferrer:

“From the fact of there being no mention made in the Gospel of the visit with which Christ consoled His Mother after His Resurrection, we are not to conclude that this most merciful Jesus — the source of all grace and consolation who was so anxious to gladden His Disciples by His presence — forgot His Mother who He knew had drunk so deeply of the bitterness of His Passion. But it has pleased divine Providence that the Gospel should be silent on this subject, and this for three reasons. In the first place, because of the firmness of Mary’s faith. The confidence which the Virgin-Mother had of her Son rising again, had never faltered, not even by the slightest doubt. This we can readily believe if we reflect on the special grace with which she was filled, she the Mother of the Man-God, the Queen of Angels, and the Mistress of the world. To a truly enlightened mind, the silence of the Scripture on this subject says more than any affirmation could have done. We have learned to know something of Mary by the visit she received from the Angel when the Holy Ghost overshadowed her. We met her again at the foot of the Cross where she, the Mother of Sorrows, stood near her dying Son. If then the Apostle could say: “As you are partakers of the sufferings, so will you be also of the consolation” (2 Corinthians i. 7) —what share must not the Virgin-Mother have had in the joys of the Resurrection? We should hold it as a certain truth that her most sweet Jesus, after His Resurrection, consoled her first of all. The holy Roman Church would seem to express this by celebrating at Saint Mary Major’s the Station of Easter Sunday. Moreover, if from the silence of the Evangelists you would conclude that our Risen Lord did not appear to her first you must go farther and say that He did not appear to her at all, inasmuch as these same Evangelists, when relating the several apparitions, do not mention a single one as made to her. Now such a conclusion as this would savour of impiety.”

In the second place, the silence of the Gospel is explained by the incredulity of men. The object of the Holy Spirit, when dictating the Gospels, was to describe such apparitions as would remove all doubt from carnal-minded men with regard to the Resurrection of Christ. The fact of Mary being his Mother would have weakened her testimony, at least in their eyes. For this reason she was not brought forward as a witness, though, most assuredly, there never was or will be any creature (the humanity of her Son alone excepted) whose assertion better deserved the confidence of every truly pious soul. But the text of the Gospel was not to adduce any testimonies, save such as might be offered to the whole world. As to Jesus’ apparition to His Mother, the Holy Ghost has left it to be believed by those that are enlightened by His light.

In the third place, this silence is explained by the sublime nature of the apparition itself. The Gospel says nothing regarding the Mother of Christ after the Resurrection, and the reason is that her interviews with her Son were so sublime and ineffable that no words could have described them. There are two sorts of visions: one is merely corporal and feeble in proportion, the other is mainly in the soul and is granted only to such as have been transformed. Say, if you will, that Magdalene was the first to have the merely corporal vision provided that you admit that the Blessed Virgin saw, previously to Magdalene, and in a far sublimer way, her Risen Jesus, that she recognised Him, and enjoyed His sweet embraces in her soul more even than in her body.”

*****

How beautiful, O Bernardino, are the rays that form the aureola round the Name of Jesus! How soft their light on that eighth day after His birth when He received this Name! But how dazzling now that this Jesus achieves our salvation, not only by humiliation and suffering, but by the triumph of His Resurrection! You come to us, O Bernardino, in the midst of the Paschal glory of the Name of Jesus. This Name, for which you so lovingly and zealously laboured, gives you to share in its immortal victory. Now, therefore, pour forth upon us, even more abundantly than when you were here on Earth, the treasures of love, admiration and hope of which this divine Name is the source, and cleanse the eyes of our soul that we may, one day, be enabled to join you in contemplating its beauty and magnificence.

Apostle of peace, Italy whose factions were so often quelled by you, may well number you among her protectors. Behold her now a prey to the enemies of Jesus, rebellious against the Church of God and abandoned to her fate. Oh forget not that she is your native land, that she was obedient to your preaching, and that your memory was long most dear to her. Intercede in her favour. Deliver her from her oppressors, and show that when earthly armies fail the hosts of Heaven can always save both cities and countries.

Illustrious son of the great Patriarch of Assisi, the seraphic Order venerates you as one of its main supports. You re-animated it to its primitive observance. Continue now, from Heaven, to protect the work you commenced here on Earth. The Order of Saint Francis is one of the grandest consolations of holy Mother Church. Make this Order for ever flourish, protect it in its trials, give it increase in proportion to the necessities of the faithful, for you are the second Father of this venerable family and your prayers are powerful with the Redeemer whose glorious Name you confessed upon the Earth.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, on the Via Salaria, the birthday of St. Basilla, virgin, who was of royal race and betrothed to an illustrious personage. As she refused to marry him, he accused her of being a Christian. The emperor Gallienus gave orders that she should accept him or die by the sword. Answering that she had for her spouse the King of kings, she was transpierced with a sword.

At Nimes in France, St. Baudelius, martyr. Being arrested, but refusing to sacrifice to idols and remaining immovable in the faith of Christ, despite blows and tortures, he gained the palm of martyrdom by a precious death.

At Edessa in Syria, the holy martyrs Thalalaeus, Asterius, Alexander and their companions who suffered under the emperor Numerian.

In Thebais, St. Aquila, martyr to the faith, whose body was torn with iron combs.

At Bourges in France, St. Austregisil, bishop and confessor.

At Brescia, St. Anastasius, bishop.

At Pavia, St. Theodore, bishop.

At Rome, St. Plautilla, wife of an ex-consul and mother of the blessed Flavia Domitilla. She was baptised by the blessed Apostle St. Peter and after giving the example of all virtues, rested in peace.

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

Thanks be to God.

20 MAY – WEDNESDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF THE ASCENSION

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Let us now look upon the Earth, for our eyes have until now been riveted upon the Heaven into which our Jesus has entered. Let us see what effects the mystery of the Ascension has produced on this land of our exile. These effects are of the most extraordinary nature. This Jesus, who ascended into Heaven without the City of Jerusalem’s even knowing it, and whose departure, when it was known, excited no regret or joy among the men of that generation — this Jesus, we say, now, [two thousand] years after His departure from us, finds the whole earth celebrating the anniversary of His glorious Ascension. Our age is far from being one of earnest faith, and yet there is not a single country on the face of the globe where if there be a church or chapel or even a Catholic home, the Feast of Jesus’ Ascension is not being now kept and loved.

He lived for three and thirty years on our Earth. He, the eternal Son of our God, dwelt among His creatures, and there was only one people that knew it. That one favoured people crucified Him. As to the Gentiles, they would have thought Him beneath their notice. True, this beautiful Light shone in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it (John i. 5). He came unto his own, and His own received Him not (John i. 11). He preached to His chosen people, but His word was that seed which falls on stony ground and takes no root, or is cast among thorns and is choked. It could with difficulty find a plot of good ground in which to bring forth fruit (Matthew xiii.) If, thanks to His infinite patience and goodness, he succeeded in keeping a few disciples around Him, their faith was weak, hesitating, and gave way when temptation came.

And yet, ever since the preaching of these same Apostles, the name and glory of Jesus are everywhere. In every language and in every clime He is proclaimed the Incarnate Son of God. The most civilised, as well as the most barbarous, nations have submitted to His sweet yoke. In every part of the universe men celebrate His birth in the stable of Bethlehem, His death on the Cross by which He ransomed a guilty world, His Resurrection by which He strengthened the work He came to do, and His Ascension which gives Him, the Man-God, to sit at the right hand of his Father. The great voice of the Church carries to the uttermost bounds of the earth the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, which He came to reveal to mankind. This holy Church, founded by Him, teaches the truths of faith to all nations, and in every nation there are souls who are docile to her teaching.

How was this marvellous change brought about? What is it that has given it stability during these [two thousand] years? Our Saviour Himself explains it to us by the words He spoke to His Apostles after the Last Supper: “It is,” said He, “expedient to you that I go” (John xvi. 7). What means this, but that there is something more advantageous to us than the having Him visibly present among us? This mortal life is not the time for seeing and contemplating Him, not even in his Human Nature. To know Him, and relish Him, even in His Human Nature, we stand in need of a special gift or element: it is Faith. Now, Faith in the mysteries of the Incarnate Word did not begin its reign on the Earth until He ceased to be visible here below. Who could tell the triumphant power of Faith? Saint John gives it a glorious name. He says: “It is the victory which overcomes the world” (1 John v. 4). It subdued the world to our absent King. It subdued the power and pride and superstitions of paganism. It won the homage of the Earth for Him who has ascended into Heaven — the Son of God and the Son of Mary — Jesus.

Saint Leo the Great, the sublime theologian of the mystery of the Incarnation, has treated this point with his characteristic authority and eloquence. Let us listen to his glorious teaching:

“Having fulfilled all the mysteries pertaining to the preaching of the Gospel and to the New Covenant, our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven, in the sight of His Disciples, on the fortieth day after His Resurrection, hereby withdrawing His corporal presence, for He was to remain at the right hand of His Father until should be filled up the measure of time decreed by God for the multiplication of the children of the Church, and He (Jesus) should again come, and in the same Flesh with which He ascended, to judge the living and the dead. Thus, therefore, that, which in our Redeemer had hitherto been visible, passed into the order of Mysteries. And to the end that Faith might be grander and surer, teaching took the place of sight; which teaching was to be accepted by the faithful with hearts illumined by heavenly light.

This Faith, increased by our Lord’s Ascension, and strengthened by the gift of the Holy Ghost, was proof against every trial so that neither chains, nor prisons, nor banishment, nor hunger, nor fire, nor wild beasts, nor all the ingenuity of cruelty and persecution, could affright it. For this Faith, not only men, but even women — not only beardless boys, but even tender maidens — fought unto the shedding of their blood, and this in every country of the world. This Faith cast out devils from such as were possessed, cured the sick, and raised the dead to life. The blessed Apostles themselves — who, though they had so often witnessed their Master’s miracles and heard His teachings, turned cowards when they saw Him in His sufferings, and hesitated to believe His Resurrection— these same, I say, were so changed by His Ascension, that what heretofore had been a subject of fear, then became a subject of joy. And why? Because the whole energy of the soul’s contemplation was raised up to Jesus’ Divinity, now seated at the right hand of His Father ; the vigour of the mind’s eye was not dulled by the bodily vision, and they came to the clear view of the mystery, namely — that He neither left the Father when He descended upon the Earth, nor left His Disciples when He ascended into Heaven.

Never, then, was Jesus so well known, as when He withdrew Himself into the glory of His Father’s majesty, and became more present by His Divinity in proportion as He was distant in His Humanity. Then did Faith, made keener, approach to the Son co-equal with his Father. She needed not the handling of the bodily substance of her Christ — that bodily substance, I say, by which He is less than His Father. The substance of His glorified Body is the same, but our faith was to be of so generous a kind as that we were to go to the Co-equal Son, not by a corporal feeling, but by a spiritual understanding. Hence, when Mary Magdalene, who represented the Church, threw herself at the feet of the Risen Jesus, and would have embraced them, He said to her: “Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father,” as though He would say: “I will not that you come to me corporally, or that you know me by the testimony of your senses. I have a sublimer recognition in store for you. I have prepared something far better for you. When I will have ascended to my Father, then will you feel me in a higher and truer way, for you will grasp what you touch not, and believe what you see not.”

The departure of our Emmanuel was, therefore, the opening of that reign of Faith which is to prepare us for the eternal vision of the Sovereign Good. And this blessed Faith, which is our very life, gives us, at the same time, all the light, compatible with our mortal existence, for knowing and loving the Word Consubstantial to the Father, and for the just appreciation of the Mysteries which this Incarnate Word wrought here below in His humanity. It is now [two thousand] years since He lived on the Earth, and yet we know Him better than His disciples did before His Ascension! Truly was it expedient for us that He should go from us. His visible presence would have checked the generosity of our Faith, and it is our Faith alone that can bridge over the space which is to be between Himself and us, until our ascension comes, and then we will enter within the veil.

How strangely blind are those who see not the superhuman power of this element of Faith, which has not only conquered, but even transformed, the world! Some of them have been writing long treatises to prove that the Gospels were not written by the Evangelists: we pity their ravings. But these great discoverers have another difficulty to get over, and so far they have not attempted to grapple with it. We mean the living Gospel which is the production of the unanimous faith of [twenty] centuries, and is the result of the courageous confession of so many millions of martyrs, of the holiness of countless men and women, of the conversion of so many, both civilised and uncivilised nations. Assuredly, He, who after having spent a few short years in one little spot of earth, had but to disappear, in order to draw men’s hearts to Himself, so that the brightest intellects and the purest minds gave Him their Faith — He must be what He tells us He is: the Eternal Son of God. Glory, then, and thanks to you, Jesus, who to console us in your absence has given us Faith by which the eye of our soul is purified, the hope of our heart is strengthened, and the divine realities we possess tell upon us in all their power! Preserve within us this precious gift of your gratuitous goodness. Give it increase and when our death comes — that solemn hour which precedes our seeing you face to face — give us the grand fullness of our dearest Faith!

19 MAY – SAINT CELESTINE V (Pope and Confessor)

Peter (who, from the name he took as Pope, was called Celestine) was born in 1221 at Isernia in the Abruzzi, Italy, of respectable Catholic parents. When quite a boy, he retired into solitude that he might be out of the reach of the world’s vanities. There he nourished his soul with holy contemplations, bringing his body into subjection and wearing a hair-shirt and an iron chain next to his skin, taking Saint John the Baptist as his role model. Peter was ordained a priest in Rome and on his way back received the Benedictine habit from the Abbot of Faizola who allowed him to resume his solitary life. He founded, under the Rule of Saint Benedict, the Congregation which in 1274 was approved by Pope Gregory X and became known later as the Congregation of Celestines after his papal name. The Roman Church having been for a long time widowed of its Pastor after the death of Pope Nicholas IV, Celestine was chosen, unknown to himself, to occupy the Chair of Peter, and was therefore compelled to quit his solitude, for he was a lamp that was set upon a candlestick and could not be hid. All men were filled with joy, as well as with surprise, at this unexpected choice. But thus exalted to the Pontificate, and finding that the multiplicity of cares rendered it almost impossible for him to continue his wonted contemplations, he resigned of his own accord the onerous honours of the Papal throne. He therefore resumed his former mode of life and slept in the Lord by a precious death, which was rendered still more glorious by the apparition of an exceedingly bright cross which hovered over the door of his cell. He was celebrated for many miracles, both before and after his death in 1926, which being authentically proved, he was canonised 11 years after his departure from this world by Pope Clement V in 1313.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Our Paschal Season which has already given us the admirable Doctor, Saint Leo, brings before us today the humble Peter Celestine — Sovereign Pontiff, like Leo, but who was no sooner throned on the Apostolic See than he left it and returned to solitude. Among the long list of sainted men who compose the venerable series of Roman Pontiffs our Lord would have one in whose person was to be represented the virtue of humility — that honour was conferred on Peter Celestine. He was dragged from the quiet of his solitude, compelled to ascend the throne of Saint Peter and made to hold, in his trembling hand, the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. The holy hermit whose eyes had been ever fixed on his own weakness had then to provide for the necessities of the whole Church. In his humility he judged himself to be unequal to so heavy a responsibility. He resigned the tiara and begged to be permitted to return to his dear hermitage. His Divine Master, Christ, had, in like manner, concealed his glory first in a thirty years of hidden life, and then, later on, under the cloud of His Passion and Sepulchre. The sunshine of the Pasch came. The gloom was dispersed and the Conqueror of Death arose in all His splendour. He would have His servants share in His triumph, but their share is to be greater or less, according to the measure in which they have, here on Earth, imitated His humility. Who then could describe the glory which Peter Celestine receives in Heaven as a recompense for his profound humility which made him more eager to be unknown than the most ambitious of men could be for honour and fame? He was great on the Pontifical throne and still greater in his solitude. But his greatness, now that he is in Heaven, surpasses all human thought.

*****

You obtained, Celestine, the object of your ambition. You were permitted to descend from the Apostolic throne and return to the quiet of that hidden life which, for so many years, had been your delight. Enjoy, to your heart’s content, the holy charm of being unknown to the world, and the treasures of contemplation in the secret of the face of God (Psalm xxx. 21). But this life of obscurity must have an end and then, the Cross — the Cross which you have loved above all earthly possessions — will rise up in brightness before your cell door and summon you to share in the Paschal triumph of Him who came down from Heaven to teach us this great truth — that he that humbles himself, will be exalted (Matthew xxiii. 12).

Your name, O Celestine, will for ever shine on the list of Roman Pontiffs. You are one of the links of that glorious chain which unites the Holy Church with Jesus, her Founder and her Spouse. But a still greater glory is reserved for you — the glory of being forever with this same Risen Jesus. Holy Church which, during the short period of your holding the Keys of Peter, was obedient to you, has now for centuries paid, and will continue, to the end of the world, to pay you the tribute of her devotion because she recognises in you one of God’s elect — one of the Princes of the heavenly court. And we, O Celestine, we also are invited to ascend where you are and contemplate, together with you, the most beautiful among the children of men (Psalm xliv. 3), the Conqueror of sin and Hell. But there is only one path that can lead us there. It is the path you trod — the path of humility. Pray for us that we may be solidly grounded in this virtue and desire it with all our earnestness, that we may change our unhappy self-esteem into an honest contempt of ourselves, that we may despise all human glory and be courageous and cheerful under humiliation, and that thus having drunk of the torrent as did our Divine Master, we may one day, like Him, lift up our heads (Psalm cix. 7) and cluster round His throne for all eternity.

19 MAY – TUESDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF THE ASCENSION

   

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Lord of glory has ascended into Heaven and, as the Apostle says, “He has gone there as our forerunner,” (Hebrews vi. 20), but how are we to follow Him to this abode of holiness, we whose path is beset with sin — we who are ever needing pardon, rather than meriting anything like glory? This brings us to another consequence of the exhaustless mystery of the Ascension. Let us give it our closest attention. Jesus has gone to Heaven not only that he may reign as King, but also that He may intercede for us as our High Priest, and, in this quality, obtain for us both the pardon of our sins and the graces we need for following Him to glory. He offered himself, on the Cross as a victim of propitiation for our sins. His Precious Blood was shed as our superabundant ransom: but the gate of Heaven remained shut against us until He threw it open by His own entrance into that sanctuary where he was to exercise His eternal office of Priest according to the order of Melchisedech (Psalms cix. 4). By His Ascension into Heaven His priesthood of Calvary was transformed into a priesthood of glory. He entered with the veil of His once passible and mortal flesh (Hebrews vi. 19; x. 20) within the veil of His Father’s presence, and there is He our Priest forever.

How truly is he called Christ, that is, “the Anointed!” for, no sooner was His Divine Person united to the Human Nature than He received a twofold anointing: He was made both King and High Priest. We have already meditated on His Kingship: let us now contemplate His Priesthood. He gave proofs of both during His life among us on Earth, but it was only by His Ascension that their unclouded splendour was to be declared. Let us then follow our Emmanuel and see Him as our High Priest.

The Apostle thus describes the office of a High Priest. He is taken from among men (Hebrews v. 1) and is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God that he may offer tip gifts and sacrifices for sins: he is appointed their ambassador and mediator with God. Jesus received this office and ministry, and He is fulfilling it in Heaven. But, that we may the better appreciate the grand mystery, let us study the figures given of it in the Holy Scriptures and developed by Saint Paul in his sublime Epistle. They will give us a precise idea of the grandeur of our Jesus’ Pontifical character. Let us go, in thought, to the Temple of Jerusalem. First of all, is the spacious uncovered court, with its porticoes. In the centre there stands the altar on which are slain the victims of the various sacrifices, and from the altar there radiate a number of conduits through which flows the blood. We next come to a more sacred portion of the edifice. it is beyond the altar of holocausts, is covered in, and is resplendent with all the riches of the East. Let us respectfully enter, for the place is Holy, and it was God Himself who gave to Moses the plan of the various fittings which adorn it with their mysterious and rich beauty:— he Altar of Incense, with its morning and evening cloud of fragrance; the seven- branched Candlestick, with its superb lilies and pomegranates; the Table of the Loaves of Proposition, representing the offering made by man to Him who feeds him with the harvests of the earth. And yet, it is not here, though the walls are wainscoted with the bright gold of Ophir, that is centred the great majesty of Jehovah. At the extreme end of the Temple there is a Veil of precious texture, richly embroidered with figures of the Cherubim, and reaching to the ground: it is there, beyond this Veil, that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has fixed the abode of His presence. It is there also that rests the Ark of the Covenant over which two golden Cherubim spread their wings. It is called the “Holy of Holies,” and no one, under pain of death, may draw aside the Veil, or look or enter within the hallowed precinct where the God of Hosts deigns to dwell. So then, man is banished from the place in which God dwells: he is unworthy to enter into so holy a presence. He was created that he might see God and be eternally happy with that vision, but because of sin he is never to enjoy the sight of God. There is a Veil between himself and Him who is his Last End. Neither can he ever remove that Veil. Such is the severe lesson given to us by the symbolism of the ancient Temple.

But there is a merciful promise, and it gives a gleam of hope. This Veil will one day be raised up and man will enter within: on one condition, however. Let us return to the figurative Temple, and we will learn what this condition is. As we have already noticed, none were allowed to enter the Holy of Holies. There was but one exception, and that was in favour of the High Priest who might once a year, penetrate beyond the Veil. Yet even he had certain conditions to observe. If he entered without holding in his hands a vessel containing the blood of two victims previously immolated by him for his own and the people’s sins, he was to be put to death. If, on the contrary, he faithfully complied with the divine ordinances, he would be protected by the blood he carried in his hands, and might make intercession for himself and all Israel. How beautiful and impressive are these figures of the first Covenant, but how much more so their fulfilment in our Jesus’ Ascension! Even during the period of His voluntary humiliations, he made His power be felt in this sacred Dwelling of God’s Majesty. His last breath on the Cross rent the Veil of the Holy of Holies, hereby signifying to us that man was soon to recover the right he had lost by sin, the right of admission into God’s presence.

We say soon, for Jesus had still to gain the victory over Death by His Resurrection. He had to spend forty days on earth during which He, our High Priest, would organise the true Priesthood that was to be exercised in His Church to the end of time, in union with the Priesthood He Himself was to fulfil in Heaven. The fortieth day came, and found all things prepared: the witnesses of the Resurrection had proclaimed the victory of their Master; the dogmas of faith had all been revealed; the Church had been formed; the Sacraments had been instituted: it was time for our High Priest to enter into the Holy of Holies, accompanied by the holy souls of Limbo. Let us follow Him with the eye of our faith. As He approached, the Veil that had closed the entrance for [thousands of] years, was lifted up. Jesus enters. Has He not offered the preparatory Sacrifice? Not the figurative Sacrifice of the Old Law, but the real one of His own Blood? And having reached the Throne of the Divine Majesty, there to intercede for us His people, He has but to show His Eternal Father the Wounds he received, and from which flowed the Blood that satisfied every claim of Divine Justice. He would retain these sacred stigmata of His Sacrifice in order that He might ever present them, as our High Priest, to the Father, and so disarm His anger. “My little children,” says Saint John in his first Epistle, “I write these things to you, that you may not sin; but, if any man does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Just” (1 John ii. 1). Thus, then, beyond the Veil, Jesus treats of our interests with His Father. He gives the merits of His Sacrifice their full efficacy. He is the eternal High Priest whose advocacy is irresistible.

Saint John, who was granted a sight of the interior of Heaven, gives us a sublime description of this twofold character of our Divine Head — Victim and yet King, Sacrificed and yet Immortal. He shows us the Throne of Jehovah, round which are seated the Four-and-Twenty Ancients, the four symbolical living creatures, and then the seven Spirits burning like lamps before it. But the Prophet does not finish his description here. He bids us look at the right hand of Him who sits on the Throne. There we perceive a Lamb standing and as it were slain — slain and yet standing, for He is radiant with glory and power (Apocalypse iv. 5). We should be at a loss to understand the vision had we not our grand mystery of the Ascension to explain it, but now all is clear. We recognise in the Lamb, portrayed by the Apostle, our Jesus, the Word Eternal, who, being consubstantial to the Father, is seated on the same Throne with Him. Yet is He, also, the Lamb, for He has assumed to Himself our flesh, in order that He might be sacrificed for us as a victim. And this character of Victim is to be forever upon Him. Oh, see Him there, in all His majesty as Son of God, standing in the attitude of infinite power, yet withal, He will not part with His resemblance of the Immolated. The sword of Sacrifice has left Five Wounds upon Him, and He would keep them for eternity. Yes, it is identically the same meek Lamb of Calvary, and He is to be forever consummating in glory the immolation He perfected on the Cross.

Such are the stupendous realities seen by the Angels within the Veil (Hebrews vi. 19), and when our turn comes to pass that Veil, we also will be enraptured with the sight. We are not to be left outside, as were the Jewish people when, once each year, their High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies. We have the teaching of the Apostle: The Fore-runner, Jesus, our High Priest, has entered within the Veil for us (Hebrews iv. 20). For us! O what music there is in these two words: For us! He has led the way. We are to follow! Even at the commencement He would not go alone. He would have the countless legion of the souls of Limbo to accompany Him, and ever since then the procession into Heaven has been one of unbroken magnificence. The Apostle tells us that we, poor sinners as we are, are already saved by hope (Romans viii. 24), and what is our hope, but that we are one day to enter into the Holy of Holies? Then will we blend our glad voices with those of the Angels, the four-and-twenty Ancients, the myriads of the Blessed, in the eternal Hymn: “To the Lamb that was slain, power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and glory, and benediction, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Apocalypse v. 12, 13).

18 MAY – SAINT VENANTIUS (Martyr)

Venantius was born at Camerino near Ancona in Italy. At the age of 15 years he was accused of being a Christian and was brought before Antiochus, the governor of the city under the emperor Decius. After being coaxed and threatened, he was scourged and condemned to be chained. But he was miraculously unfettered by an angel, and was then burned with torches, and was hung, with his head downwards, over a fire, to be suffocated by the smoke. One of the officials, Anastasius, noticed the courage with which Venantius suffered his torments, and saw an angel walking in a white robe above the smoke, and again liberating Venantius. He believed in Christ and with his family was baptised by the priest Porphyrius with whom he later was to suffer martyrdom.

Venantius was again brought before the governor but refusing to renounce his faith, he was put in prison. A herald, Attalus, was sent to tell him that he also had once been a Christian, but had renounced the faith when he discovered that it was false, and that Christians were tricked into giving up the good things of the present life by the vain hope of what was to follow in the next life. Venantius rejected the herald, upon which he was yet again again led before the governor and all his teeth were beaten out, and his jaws broken. After that he was thrown into a dung pit. But being delivered by an angel once again, he stood before the judge, who, while Venantius was addressing him, fell from his judgment-seat and died exclaiming “The God of Venantius is the true one! Destroy our gods!”

When the Governor found out, he ordered Venantius to be exposed to the lions, but the animals bowed down before him. Venantius instructed people in the Christian faith and was again imprisoned. On the following day, Porphyrius told the governor that he had had a vision in which he saw that those bathed with water by Venantius were brilliant with a splendid light, but that the governor was covered with a thick darkness. The governor ordered Porphyrius to be beheaded, and Venantius to be dragged, until evening, along places covered with thorns and thistles. Venantius was left there half dead but again presented himself to the governor who condemned him to be thrown from a rock. Venantius was miraculously preserved in his fall, and was once more dragged, for a mile, over rough places.

Seeing that the soldiers were tormented with thirst, Venantius made the sign of the cross, and water flowed from a rock, which was in a neighbouring dell. Many were moved by that miracle, to believe in Christ, and were all beheaded, together with Venantius, on that very spot, by the governor’s orders. Lightning and earthquakes followed the killings and a few days after taking flight, the governor met divine justice by a humiliating death. Christians gave honourable burial to the martyrs outside the city. In the fifth century a basilica was built in honour of Saint Venantius and a spring nearby was used by lepers and people with ulcers to cure themselves. Venantius replaced Saint Ansovinus as patron saint of Camerino.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Today’s martyr carries us back to the persecutions under the Roman Emperors. It was at Camerino, in Italy, that he bore his testimony to the true Faith. And the devotion with which he is honoured by the people of those parts... has occasioned his feast being kept throughout the Church. Let us, therefore, joyfully welcome this new champion who fought so bravely for our Emmanuel. Let us congratulate him upon his having the privilege of suffering martyrdom during the Paschal Season, all radiant as it is with the grand victory won by Life over Death.

The account given by the Liturgy upon Saint Venantius, is a tissue of miracles. The omnipotence of God seemed, on this and many other like occasions, to be resisting the cruelty of the executioners, in order to glorify the martyr. It served also as a means for converting the by-standers, who, on witnessing these almost lavish miracles, were frequently heard to exclaim that they too wished to be Christians, and embrace a religion which was not only honoured by the superhuman patience of its martyrs, but was so visibly protected and favoured by Heaven.

* * * * *

Dear youthful Martyr, loved of the Angels, and aided by them in your combat, pray for us! Like yourself, we too are soldiers of the Risen Jesus, and must give testimony before the world to the divinity and the rights of our King. The world has not always in its hands those material instruments of torture, such as it made you feel, but it is always fearful in its power of seducing souls. It would rob us also of that New Life which Jesus has imparted to us and to all them that are His members. Holy martyr, protect us under these attacks! You had partaken, during the days of your last Easter, of the divine Flesh of the Paschal Lamb, and your courage in martyrdom redounded to the glory of this heavenly nourishment. We also have been guests at the same holy Table. We also have partaken of the Paschal Banquet. Like you, we have known our Lord in the breaking of bread (Luke xxiv. 35). Obtain for us the appreciation of the divine mystery of which we received the first-fruits at Bethlehem, and which has been gradually developed within our souls, as well as before our eyes, by the merits of the Passion and Resurrection of our Emmanuel. We are now, at this very time, preparing to receive the plenitude of the divine gift of the Incarnation. Pray for us, Holy Martyr, that our hearts may more than ever fervently welcome and faithfully preserve the rich treasures which are about to be offered us by the sublime mysteries of the Ascension and Pentecost.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Egypt, St. Dioscorus, a lector, who was subjected by the governor to many various torments, such as the tearing off of his nails and the burning of his sides with torches, but a light from heaven having prostrated the executioners, the saint finally consummated his martyrdom by having red-hot metal applied to his body.

At Spoleto, St. Felix, a bishop, who obtained the palm of martyrdom under the emperor Maximian.

In Egypt, St. Potamon, bishop, a confessor under Maximian Galerius, and afterwards a martyr under the emperor Constantius and the Arian governor Philagrius.

At Ancyra in Galatia, the martyrs St. Theodotus, and the saintly virgins Thecusa, his aunt, Alexandra, Claudia, Faina, Euphrasia, Matrona and Julitta. They were at first taken to a place of debauchery, but the power of God having preserved them from evil, they had stones tied to their necks and were plunged into a lake. For gathering their remains and burying them honourably, Theodotus was arrested by the governor, and after being horribly lacerated, was put to the sword and thus received the crown of martyrdom.

At Upsalla in Sweden, St. Eric, king and martyr.

At Rome, St. Felix, confessor, of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, celebrated for his evangelical simplicity and charity. He was inscribed on the roll of saints by Pope Clement XI.

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

Thanks be to God.

18 MAY - MONDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF THE ASCENSION

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Kingship over men is not the only diadem given to our Emmanuel at His Ascension. The Apostle expressly tells us that He is, moreover, the Head of all Principality and Power (Colossians ii. 10). Noble indeed is man, but nobler far are the glorious Choirs of the Angelic Hierarchy. We have already seen that in the great trial by which God tested the love of His Angels, many rebelled and were cast into Hell. The rest, who were faithful, entered at once into the possession of their sovereign good and began, round the throne of God, their ceaseless hymns of adoration, love and thanksgiving. But a portion of their happiness was reserved till the fulfilment of one of God’s decrees. Laden as they are with the most magnificent gifts, they await another. It is to be the completion of their joy and glory. God revealed to them, at the first instant of their coming into existence, that He intended to create other beings, of a nature inferior to their own, and that of these beings, who were to be composed of body and soul, there should be one whom the Eternal Word would unite to Himself in unity of Person. It was also revealed to them that this human nature (for whose glory and for God’s, all things were made), was to be the FIRST-BORN “of every creature” (Colossians i. 15); that all Angels and men would have to bend their knee before Him; that after suffering countless humiliations on Earth, He would be exalted in Heaven; and, finally, that the time would be when the whole hierarchy of heaven, the Principalities and Powers, yes, even the Cherubim and Seraphim, would have Him placed over them as their King.

The Angels, then, as well as men, looked forward to the coming of Jesus. The Angels awaited Him as He that was to confer on them their final perfection, give them unity under Himself as their head, and bring them into closer union with God by the union of the Divine and created natures in His own Person. As to us men, we awaited Him as our Redeemer and our Mediator: as our Redeemer, because sin had closed Heaven against us and we needed one that would restore us to our inheritance; as our Mediator because it was the eternal decree of God to communicate His own glory to the human race, and this was to be by union with Himself. While, therefore, the just ones on earth who lived before the Incarnation were pleasing to God by their faith in this future Redeemer and Mediator, the Angels in heaven were offering to the Divine Majesty the homage of their proffered service of this Man-God, their future King, who, in virtue of the eternal decree, was ever present to “the Ancient of Days” (Daniel vii. 9).

At length, “the fullness of time came” (Galatians iv. 4), and God, as the Apostle expresses it, “brought into the world His first-begotten” (Hebrews i. 6), the prototype of creation. The first to adore the New-born King were not men, but the Angels, as the same Apostle assures us. The Royal Prophet had foretold that it would be so (Psalms xcvi. 7). And was it not just? These blessed Spirits had preceded us in their longings, not indeed of a Redeemer — for they had never sinned — but of a Mediator, who was to be the link of their closer union with infinite Beauty — the object of their eternal delight — in a word, the realization of the want there seemed to be even in Heaven, that is, of Jesus’ taking and filling up the place destined for Him.

Then was accomplished that act of adoration of the Man-God, which was demanded of the Angels at the first moment of their creation and which, according to its being complied with or refused, decided the eternal lot of those noble creatures. With what love did not the faithful Angels adore this Jesus, the Word made Flesh, when they beheld Him in His Mother’s arms at Bethlehem? With what transport of joy did they not announce to the shepherds, and to us through them, the Glad Tidings of the Birth of our common King. As long as He lived on this Earth and submitted to every humiliation and suffering in order to redeem us from sin and make us worthy to become His Members, the Blessed Spirits ceased not to contemplate and adore Him. The Ascension came and, from that day forward, it is on the throne prepared at the Father’s right hand that they behold and adore their Lord and King. At the solemn moment of Jesus’ Ascension, a strange joy was felt in each choir of the heavenly hierarchy, from the burning Seraphim to the Angels who are nearest to our own human nature. The actual possession of a good, whose very expectation had filled them with delight, produced an additional happiness in those already infinitely happy Spirits. They fixed their enraptured gaze on Jesus’ beauty, and were lost in astonishment at seeing how Flesh could so reflect the plenitude of grace that dwelt in that Human Nature as to outshine their own brightness. And now, by looking on this nature (which, though inferior to their own, is divinised by its union with the Eternal Word), they see into further depths of the uncreated Sea of Light. Their love is more burning, their zeal is more impetuous, their hymns are more angelic. For, as the Church says of them, the Angels and Archangels, the Powers and Dominations, the Cherubim and Seraphim, praise the majesty of the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ: per quem majestatem tuam laudant Angeli.

Add to this the joy these heavenly Spirits must have experienced at seeing the immense multitude that accompanied Jesus from Earth to Heaven. According to their respective merits, they were divided among the various choirs, and placed on thrones left vacant by the fallen angels. Their bodies are not yet united to their souls but, is not their flesh already glorified in that of Jesus? When the time fixed for the general Resurrection comes, the trumpet of the great Archangel will be heard (1 Thessalonians iv. 15), and then these happy souls will again put on their ancient vesture, the mortal made immortal. Then will the holy Angels, with fraternal enthusiasm, recognise in Adam’s features a likeness of Jesus, and in those of Eve a likeness of Mary, and the resemblance will even be greater than it was when our First Parents were innocent and happy in the Garden of Eden.

Come quickly, glorious day on which the bright mystery of the Ascension is to receive its final completion, and the two choirs of Angels and men are to be made one in love and praise under the one head, Christ Jesus!

17 MAY – SAINT PASCHAL BAYLON (Confessor)

Paschal Baylon was born of poor and pious parents at Torre-Hermosa, a small town of the Diocese of Seguenza in Aragon, Spain. Even from his infancy he gave many signs of future sanctity. Being endowed with a good disposition and having a great love for the contemplation of heavenly things, he passed the years of boyhood and youth in tending flocks. He loved this kind of life more than any other because it seemed to him best for fostering humility and preserving innocence. He was temperate in his food and assiduous in prayer. He had such influence over his acquaintance and companions and was so dear to them, that he used to settle their disputes, correct their faults, instruct their ignorance, and keep them out of idleness. He was honoured and loved by them as their father and master and even then, was often called the Blessed Paschal. Thus did this flower of the valley bloom in the world — that desert and parched land. But once planted in the house of the Lord, he shed everywhere around him a wondrous odour of sanctity.

Having embraced the severest sort of life by entering the Order of the Discalced Friars Minor of strict observance, Paschal rejoiced as a giant to run his way. Devoting himself wholly to the service of his God, his one thought, both day and night, was how he could further imitate his Divine Master. His brethren, even they that were most advanced, soon began to look on him as a model of seraphic perfection. As for him, he put himself in the grade of the Lay-Brothers. Looking on himself as the off-scouring of all, he, with humility and patience, cheerfully took on himself the most tiring and menial work of the house which work he used to say belonged to him by a special right. He mortified and brought into subjection his flesh which, at times, would strive to rebel against the spirit. As to his spirit, by assiduous self-denial he maintained its fervour and daily stretched himself forward to the things that were more perfect. He had consecrated himself, from his earliest years, to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He honoured her as his Mother by daily devotions, and prayed to her with filial confidence.

His devotion to the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist seemed to linger in his body even after his death, When laid in his coffin his eyes were seen to open and shut twice during the elevation of the sacred host. He publicly and openly professed before heretics his faith in the dogma of the Real Presence, and had much to suffer on that account. His life was frequently attempted, but by a special providence of God he was rescued from those who sought to kill him. Frequently, when at prayer he was in ecstasy and swooned away with the sweetness of love. On these occasions he was supposed to have received that heavenly wisdom by which, though uneducated and illiterate, he was able to give answers on the profoundest mysteries of Faith and write several books. Being rich in merit, he passed to Heaven at the hour which he had foretold: on the sixteenth of the Calends of June (May 17), on the Feast of Pentecost (the same on which he was born), being in his fifty-second year in 1592. These and other virtues having procured him a great reputation and being celebrated for miracles both before and after his death, he was beatified by Pope Paul V and canonised by Alexander VIII.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Seraph of Assisi was sure to depute some of his children to pay their court to his Risen Master. The one he sends today is the humblest and most unknown of men. Another will follow, three days hence, powerful in word and work and holding a palm in his hands, as a most devoted preacher of the Gospel. Paschal BayIon was a simple peasant. He was a shepherd boy, and it was in tending his flock that he found the Lord Jesus. He had a great love for contemplation. Forests and fields spoke to him of their great Creator and, in order that he might be the more closely united with him, he resolved to seek him in the highest paths of perfection.

He was ambitious to imitate the humble, poor and suffering life of the Man-God. The Franciscan cloister offered him all this, and he flew to it. On that blessed soil he grew to be one of Heaven’s choicest plants, and the whole Earth has now heard the name of the humble Lay-Brother of a little convent in Spain. Holy Church brings him before us today, and shows him enraptured in the contemplation of his Jesus’ Resurrection. He had trod the path of humiliation and the cross. It was but just that he should share in his Master’s triumph. It was of him, and of such as he, that this Divine Saviour spoke, when He said: “Ye are they that have continued with me in my temptations; and I dispose to you, as my Father has disposed to me, a Kingdom; that ye may eat and drink at my table, in my Kingdom, and may sit upon thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke, xxii. 28, 29, 30).

*****

Heaven opened to receive you, Paschal! Even when here below, the fervour of your contemplations often gave you a foretaste of the delights of eternal bliss. But now every veil is drawn aside and you are face-to-face with Him you so ardently desired to possess. You have no further need to unite yourself with Him by humiliation and suffering. What you enjoy, and what He, for all eternity, will have you to enjoy, is His own glory, His own happiness, His own triumph. Deign to cast an eye of pity on us who have not the eagerness you had to walk in our Redeemer’s footsteps and who, as yet, have but the hope of being united with Him for eternity. Get us courage. Get us that love which leads straight to Jesus, which surmounts every obstacle of flesh and blood and gives to man an admirable resemblance to his Divine Model. The pledge of this happy transformation has been given to us by our being permitted to partake of the Paschal Mystery. Oh that it might be perfected by our fidelity in keeping close to our Divine Conqueror and Lord! Though He leaves us some time further in this vale of tears, His eye is ever on us, He longs to see us persevere in our loyalty to Him. Yet a little while, and we will see Him! “Behold!” says he, “come quickly. Hold fast that which you have. Behold! I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man will hear my voice and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Apocalypse iii. 11, 20). Thus will the Pasch of time be changed into the Pasch of eternity. Pray for us, O Paschal, that, like you, we may hold fast that which by the grace of our Risen Jesus we already possess.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Pisa in Tuscany, the holy martyr Torpes who filled a high office in the court of Nero and was one of those of whom the blessed Apostle St. Paul wrote from Rome to the Philippians: “All the saints salute you, especially those that are of the house of Caesar.” For the faith of Christ, he was, by order of Satellicus, buffeted, cruelly scourged and delivered to the beasts to be devoured, but being uninjured, he at last terminated his martyrdom by decapitation on the twenty-ninth of April. His feast, however, is kept on this day on account of the translation of his body.

The same day, St. Restituta, virgin and martyr, who was subjected to various kinds of tortures in Africa by the judge Proculus in the reign of Valerian, and then put in a boat filled with pitch and tow, to be burnt to death on the sea. But the flame turned on those who had kindled it, and the saint yielded her spirit to God in prayer. Her body was, by divine Providence, carried in the boat to the island of Ischia near Naples, where it was received by Christians with great veneration. A church was afterwards erected in her honour in that city by Constantine the Great.

At Noyon, the holy martyrs Heradius, Paul, and Aquilinus, with two others.

At Chalcedon, the holy martyrs Solochanus and his companions, soldiers under the emperor Maximian.

At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Adrio, Victor and Basilla.

At Wurzburg, St. Bruno, bishop and confessor.

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

Thanks be to God.

17 MAY – SUNDAY AFTER THE ASCENSION

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Jesus has ascended into Heaven. His divinity had never been absent. But, by the Ascension, His humanity was also enthroned there, and crowned with the brightest diadem of glory. This is another phase of the Mystery we are now solemnising. Besides a triumph, the Ascension gave to the sacred humanity a place on the very throne of the Eternal Word, to whom it was united in unity of Person. From this throne it is to receive the adoration of men and Angels. At the name of Jesus, Son of Man, and Son of God — of Jesus who is seated at the right hand of the Father Almighty, “every knee will bend, in Heaven, on Earth and in Hell” (Philippians ii. 10).

Give ear, you inhabitants of Earth! This is the man Jesus, who heretofore, was a little babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, who went through Judea and Galilee not having where to lay his head, who was bound by the sacrilegious hands of His enemies, was scourged, crowned with thorns, nailed to a Cross, who while men thus trampled Him as a worm beneath their feet, submitted His will to that of His Father, accepted the chalice of suffering and, that He might make amends to the divine glory, shed His Blood for the redemption of you sinners. This man Jesus, child of Adam through Mary the Immaculate, is the masterpiece of God’s omnipotence. He is the most beautiful of the sons of men (Psalms xliv. 3). the Angels love to fix their gaze on Him (1 Peter i. 12). The Blessed Trinity is well-pleased with Him. The gifts of grace bestowed on Him surpass all that men and angels together have ever received: but He came to suffer, and suffer for you, and though He might have redeemed you at a much lower price, yet would He generously overpay your debts by a superabundance of humiliation and suffering. What reward will be given to Him? The Apostle tells it us in these words: “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the Cross; for which cause God also has exalted Him, and has given Him a Name which is above all names” (Philippians ii. 8, 9).

You, then, who compassionate with Him in the suffering by which He wrought your redemption: you who devoutly follow Him in the stages of His sacred Passion: now raise up your heads and look up to the highest Heaven! Behold this Jesus crowned with glory and honour because He suffered death! (Hebrews ii. 9). How the Father has magnified Him in return for His having emptied Himself taking the form of a servant, He who, in His other nature, was equal with God (Psalms xx. 4). His Crown of Thorns is replaced by a crown of precious stones (Isaias ix. 6). The Cross that was laid on His shoulders is now the ensign of His power. The Wounds made by the Nails and the Spear are now like five bright suns that light up all heaven. Glory, then, be to the justice of the Father, who has dealt thus with His Son! Let us rejoice at seeing the man of sorrows (Isaias liii. 3) become now the King of Glory, and let us, with all the transport of our souls, repeat the Hosanna with which the Angels welcomed Him into Heaven.

Nor must we suppose that the Son of Man, now that He is seated on the throne of His Divinity, is inactive in His glorious rest. No, the sovereignty bestowed on Him by the Father is an active one. First of all, He is “appointed Judge of the living and of the dead” (Acts x. 42), “before whose judgement-seat all must all stand” (Romans xiv. 10). No sooner will our soul have quitted the body, than she will be presented before this tribunal and receive from the lips of the Son of Man the sentence she will have deserved. O Jesus, by the glory you received on the day of your Ascension, have mercy on us at that moment on which depends eternity!

But the Judgeship of our Lord Jesus Christ is not to be confined to this silent exercise of His sovereign power. The Angels who appeared to the Apostles after His Ascension told us that He is to come again upon the earth, that He is to descend through the clouds as He ascended, and that then will be the Last Judgement at which the whole human race is to be present. Throned on a cloud and surrounded by the Angelic host, the Son of Man will show Himself to mankind and, this time, with all Majesty. Men will see Him “whom they pierced” (Zacharias xii. 10). The imprints of those Wounds, which will give additional beauty to His sacred Body, will be an object of terror to the wicked, while to the good they will be a source of unspeakable consolation. The Shepherd, seated on His ethereal throne, will separate the goats from the sheep. His voice, after so many ages of silence, will make itself once more heard upon this Earth. He will speak to impenitent sinners, condemning them to eternal torments. He will speak to the just, calling them to approach Him and ascend, body and soul, into the region of everlasting bliss.

Meanwhile, He exercises over all nations the royal power which He received as Man on the day of His Ascension. He redeemed us all by His Blood. We are therefore His people, and He is our King. He is, and He calls Himself, “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (Apocalypse xix. 16). The kings of the Earth reign not either by their own prowess, or by the boasted social compact. They lawfully reign by Christ alone. Peoples and nations are not their own masters: they belong to Christ and are His subjects. His law requires no sanction from man: it is above all human laws, and should be their guide and controller. “Why have the nations raged, and the people devised vain things? The kings of the earth stood up and the princes met together, against the Lord and against His Christ. They said: Let us break their bonds asunder, and let us cast away their yoke from us” (Psalms ii. 2, 3). How vain all these efforts, for, as the Apostle says, “He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet” (1 Corinthians xv. 25), that is, until His Second Coming, when the pride of man and Satan’s power will both be at an end.

Thus, then, the Son of Man, crowned at His Ascension, must reign over the world to the end of time. But, it will be objected: “How can He be said to reign in these our times, when Kings and Emperors and Presidents acknowledge that their authority comes from the people, and when the people themselves, carried away with the ideas of self-government and liberty and independence, have lost all idea of Authority?” And yet, He reigns. He reigns in His justice, since men refused to be guided by His clemency. They expunged His law from their statutes. They gave the rights of citizenship to error and blasphemy: then did He deliver them up, both people and rulers, to their own follies and lies. Authority and power are become ephemeral: and as they scorn to receive the consecration of the Church, the hand that holds them today may be empty tomorrow. Then anarchy, then a new Ruler, and then a fresh Revolution. This will be the future, as it is the present history of nations, until they once more acknowledge Jesus as their King, and resume the Constitution of the Ages of Faith: “It is Christ that conquers! It is Christ that reigns! It is Christ that commands! May Christ preserve His people from all evil!”

ON this your Coronation Day, receive our devoted homage, Jesus, our King, our Lord, our Judge! By our sins we were the cause of your humiliations and sufferings. So much the more fervently, then, do we unite with the acclamations made to you by the Angels when the royal diadem was placed on your head by the Eternal Father. As yet we but faintly see your grandeur, but the Holy Spirit whom you are about to send on us will teach us more and more of your sovereign power for we are, and wish to be eternally, your humble and faithful subjects!

In the Middle Ages the Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension, was called “The Sunday of Roses” because it was the custom to strew the pavement of the churches with roses as a homage to Christ who ascended to Heaven when Earth was in the season of flowers. How well the Christians of those times appreciated the harmony that God has set between the world of grace and that of nature! The Feast of the Ascension, when considered in its chief characteristic, is one of gladness and jubilation, and Spring’s loveliest days are made for its celebration. Our forefathers had the spirit of the Church. They forgot, for a moment, the sadness of poor Earth at losing her Emmanuel, and they remembered how He said to His Apostles: “If you loved me, you would be glad, because I go to my Father! (John xiv. 28) Let us do in like manner. Let us offer to Jesus the roses with which He has beautified our Earth: their beauty and fragrance should make us think of Him who made them, of Him who calls Himself “The Flower of the field and the Lily of the valleys” (Canticles ii. 1) He loved to be called Jesus of Nazareth, for Nazareth means a flower: and the symbol would tell us what a charm and sweetness there is in Him we serve and love as our God.

Epistle – 1 Peter iv. 7‒11

Dearly beloved, be prudent and watch in prayers. But before all things, have a constant mutual charity among yourselves, for charity covers a multitude of sins. Using hospitality one towards another without murmuring. As every man has received grace, ministering the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold, grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the words of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the power which God administers; that in all things God may be honoured through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Prince of the Apostles who presided over the holy assembly that awaited in the Cenacle the descent of the Divine Spirit here addresses us who are in expectation of the same great gift, and recommends us to practise fraternal charity. This virtue, says he, covers a multitude of sins. Could we make any better preparation for receiving the Holy Ghost? This Paraclete is coming that He may unite all men into one family. Let us, then, put an end to all our dissensions, and prove ourselves to be members of the brotherhood established by the preaching of the Gospel. During these days of our preparing to receive the promised Comforter, the Apostle bids us he prudent and watch in prayers. Let us follow his instruction. We must show our prudence by excluding everything that might be an obstacle to the Holy Ghost entering our hearts. And as to prayer, it is the means which will open our hearts to Him, that He may make them His own forever.

Gospel – John xv. 26, 27; xvi. 1‒4

At that time Jesus said to His disciples, “When the Paraclete comes, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will give testimony, because you are with me from the beginning. These things have I spoken to you, that you may not be scandalised. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the hour comes that whoever kills you will think that he does a service to God. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor me. But these things I have told you, that, when the hour is come, you may remember that I told you.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Here we have our Jesus telling us the effects which the coming of the Holy Ghost will produce in our souls. These words were first addressed to the Apostles at the Last Supper. He told them that the Paraclete would give testimony of Him, that is, would instruct them upon His divinity, and teach them to be faithful to Him, even so as to lay down their lives for Him. A few moments before His Ascension, Jesus again spoke to them concerning the Paraclete, and called Him “the Power from on high” (Luke xxiv. 49).

Severe trials were awaiting these Apostles. They would have to “resist unto blood” (Hebrews xii. 4). Who would be their support — for, of themselves, they were but weak men? The Holy Ghost, who was to abide with them. By Him they would conquer, and the Gospel would be preached to all nations. Now, this Spirit of the Father and Son is about to descend on us, and what is the object of His visit, but that of arming us for the combat, and strengthening us against the attacks of our enemies? As soon as this holy Season of Easter is over, and we no longer have the celebration of its grand mysteries to enlighten and cheer us, we will find ourselves at the old work of battling with the three enemies — the devil,who is angered by the graces we have received; the world, to which we must unfortunately return; and our passions, which, after this calm, will again awaken, and molest us. If we be endued with the Power from on high, we will have nothing to fear. Let us therefore ardently desire to receive Him. Let us prepare Him a worthy reception. Let us use every endeavour to make Him abide with us, and we will gain the victory, as did the Apostles.

16 MAY – SAINT UBALDUS (Bishop and Confessor)

Ubald (or Ulbadus) was born to noble parents in Gubbio in Umbria, Italy (then a Papal State). On reaching adulthood he was frequently urged to marry, but nothing could shake his resolution of leading a life of celibacy. He was appointed Prior of the Cathedral Chapter by the bishop, who was his uncle. The condition of the chapter being scandalous, Ubald reformed it despite opposition from some of the canons. He lived with them in strict discipline and visited the Canons Regular instituted by Peter de Honestis in the territory of Ravenna to learn how to run a religious house. But after a fire in which the cathedral and cloisters were reduced to ruins, he left the cathedral. The fame of his virtue spread far and wide. Pope Honorius II compelled him to accept the charge of the Church of Gubbio and accordingly he was consecrated Bishop in 1128.

Having taken possession of his See, he changed little or nothing of his mode of life but he began to apply himself more than ever to the practice of every virtue, in order that he might the more effectually, both by word and example, procure the salvation of souls, for he was a pattern of the flock in all earnestness. His food was scanty, his dress unpretending, his bed hard and most poor. While always hearing about, in his body, the mortification of the Cross, he every day refreshed his spirit with prayer, in which he seemed insatiable. The result of such a life was meekness of so admirable a nature, that he not only bore the worst injuries and insults with patience but treated his persecutors with surprising affection, and showed them all possible kindness.

During the last two years of his life, Ubald suffered much from sickness. In the midst of the most acute pains he ceased not to give thanks to God. He died in 1160 on the feast of Pentecost and was canonised by Pope Celestine III in 1192. God has given him a special power for driving away unclean spirits. His body, which has remained uncorrupt for several centuries, is honoured with much devotion by the faithful of the city of Gubbio which he has more than once rescued from the calamities that threatened it.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

In order to honour her Eternal High Priest, the Church presents to Him this day the merits of a Pontiff, who, after his mortal career, was admitted into a happy immortality. Ubaldus, here on Earth was the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. Like his Divine Master, he received the holy Anointing of Priesthood. He was a Mediator between God and man. He was the Shepherd of a flock. And now he is united with our Risen Jesus — the great Anointed, the Mediator, the Shepherd. In proof of his influence in Heaven, our Ubaldus has had given to him a special power against the wicked spirits who lay snares for our perdition. It has frequently happened that the simple invocation of his name has sufficed to foil their machinations. It is with the view of encouraging the faithful to have recourse to his protection that the Church has fixed this day as his feast.

O blessed Pontiff, be our protector against the spirits of Hell. They are devoured by envy at seeing how man, that lowly and feeble creature, has become the object of God’s predilection. The Incarnation of the Son of God, His Death on the Cross, His glorious Resurrection, the Sacraments which give us the life of Grace — all these sublime means by which the infinite goodness of God has restored us to our lost dignity, have excited the rage of the old enemy, and he seeks revenge by insulting, in us, the Image of our Creator. At times, he attacks man with all the frenzy of angry jealousy. To mimic the operations of Sanctifying Grace — which, so to speak, makes us the instruments of God’s good pleasure — Satan sometimes takes possession of our fellow creatures, and makes them his slaves. Your power, O Ubaldus, has often manifested itself by rescuing these unhappy victims of the Devil’s jealousy, and holy Church, on this day, celebrates the special prerogative conferred on you by our Heavenly Father. Relent not in the exercise of your charitable office. And yet, O holy Pontiff, you know that the snares of the wicked spirits are more injurious to the souls than to the bodies of men. Have pity, then, on the unhappy slaves of sin, who, though the divine Sun of the Pasch has risen upon them, are still in the darkness of guilt. Pray for them that they may become once more Children of the Light, and share in the Easter Resurrection which Jesus offers to all.

16 MAY – SATURDAY AFTER THE ASCENSION

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Jesus, then, the Man who dwelt on the Earth and was perfect in all holiness, has ascended into Heaven. This earth, accursed of God as it was, has produced the fairest fruit of Heaven, and Heaven, with its gates shut against our race, has had to open them for the entrance of a Son of Adam. It is the mystery of the Ascension, but it is only a part, and it imports us to know the mystery in its fullness. Let us give ear to the Apostle of the Gentiles: “God who is rich in mercy, through His exceeding charity with which He loved us even when we were dead in sin, has quickened us together with Christ; and has raised us up together with Him, and has made us sit in the heavenly places together with Him” (Ephesians ii. 4-6). We have celebrated the Pasch of our Saviour’s Resurrection as our own Resurrection. We must, agreeably to the Apostle’s teaching celebrate also His Ascension as our own. Let us weigh well the expression: God has made us sit in the heavenly places together with Christ. So, then, in the Ascension, it is not Jesus only who ascends into Heaven. We ascend there with Him: it is not He only that is enthroned there in glory. We are enthroned through and together with Him.

That we may the better understand this truth, let us remember that the Son of God did not assume our human nature with a view to the exclusive glorification of the flesh which he united to His own Divine Person. He came to be our Head. We, consequently, are His Members, and where He is, we also are to be; at least, such is His intention as He implied at the Last Supper when He said: “Father! I will that where I am, they also whom you have given me may be with me, that they may see my glory which you have given me” (John xvii. 24). And what is the glory given to Him by His Father? Let us hearken to the Royal Prophet, who, speaking of the future Ascension, says: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit you at my right hand” (Psalms cix. 1) It is, then, on the very throne of the Eternal Father, it is at His right hand, that we will see Him whom the Apostle calls our fore-runner (Hebrews vi. 20). We will be united with this Jesus, as Members to our Head. So that His glory will be ours, we will be kings. With His Kingship He would make us partake of all that He Himself has, for He tells us that we are His joint-heirs (Romans viii. 17).

From this, it follows that the august mystery of the Ascension, which began on the day of Jesus’ entering into Heaven, is to be continued, and will continue, until His mystical body has received its completion by the ascension of the last of the elect. Look at that countless host of holy souls who were the earliest companions of His triumph: foremost are our First Parents, then the Patriarchs, the Prophets, and the Just of every generation!... They had been imprisoned in Limbo, but He liberated them, gave them of His own brightness, and made them His partners in the glory of His Ascension. They were His trophy. They formed His court as He passed from Earth to Heaven. Well did we exclaim in the words of holy David: “Sing to God, ye kingdoms of the earth! Sing ye to the Lord; Sing ye to God, who mounts above the Heaven of heavens, towards the East” (Psalm lxviii. 33, 34). The angels were ready to receive our Emmanuel, and then began that sublime dialogue which the Royal Psalmist was permitted to hear and prophesy. The glad countless legion of the holy souls who escorted the Divine Conqueror cried out to the guardians of the heavenly Jerusalem: “Lift up your gates, ye Princes! Be ye lifted up, eternal gates! and the King of glory will enter in.” The faithful Angels replied: “Who is this King of glory? It is the Lord, responded the elect of earth: it is the Lord who is strong and mighty; the Lord mighty in battle.” Well might they say this of our Jesus, who had vanquished Satan, Death and Hell, and brought themselves to the City’s Gate as a sample of His stupendous conquest. The Angels repeated their question. The Saints re-echoed their reply: the Eternal Gates were thrown open, and the King and His Courtiers entered into Heaven.

The Gates, then, are opened to receive our Redeemer, and opened He would have them remain for us to follow Him. Admirable Ascension! Oh let us linger in its contemplation. Jesus inaugurates the grand mystery by His own entrance into Heaven, and then perpetuates it by the Ascension of His elect of each successive generation. There is a ceaseless procession up to Heaven, for some happy souls are ever finishing their purification in Purgatory, while some still happier ones are winging their rapid flight direct from this earthly vale of sorrows. Hail, then, glorious Mystery! Fruit of the flowers of so many mysteries! Term, fulfilment, perfection of our Creator’s decree! Alas! You had a long interruption by Adam’s sin, but Jesus’ triumph restored your reign on Earth, and this Earth will live in your beauty and grace till that word will be uttered by the Angel: “Time will be no more!” (Apocalypse x. 6) Mystery, of joy and hope, be you accomplished in me!”

Permit us, then, Jesus, to apply to ourselves what you said to your Apostles: “I go to prepare a place for you” (John xiv. 2). This has been your aim in all you have done for us: you came into this world to open Heaven for us. Your holy Spouse, the Church, bids us fix our eyes on Heaven. She points to its opened gates and shows us the bright track through which is passing up, from Earth, an unbroken line of souls. We are still in exile, but the eye of our faith sees you in that land above, you “the Son of Man” throned at the right hand of “the Ancient of days” (Daniel vii. 13). How are we to reach you, dear Jesus? We cannot, as you did, ascend by our own power: you must needs fulfil your promise, and our desire, of “drawing us to yourself” (John xii. 32). It was the object after which your Blessed Mother also sighed when you left her on Earth. She longed for the blissful hour of your taking her to yourself and awaited your call with faith, labouring meanwhile for your glory, and living with you, though not seeing you. Give us to imitate the faith and love of this your Mother, that so we may apply to ourselves those words of your Apostle: “We are already saved, by hope” (Romans viii. 24). Yes, we will be so if you send us, according to your promise, the Holy Spirit whom we so ardently desire to receive, for He is to confirm within us all that your mysteries have produced in our souls. He is to be to us a pledge of our future glorious ascension.