30 MAY – SAINT FELIX I (Pope and Martyr)

Felix, a Roman by birth, and son of Constantius, governed the Church during the reign of the emperor Aurelian. He decreed that the Mass should be celebrated upon the shrines and tombs of the martyrs. He held two ordinations in the month of December and made 9 priests, 5 deacons and 5 bishops. He was crowned with martyrdom, and was buried on the Via Aurelia in a Basilica which he himself had built and dedicated. He ruled 2 years, 4 months and 29 days.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The holy Popes of the primitive ages of the Church abound during these last days of our Paschal Season. Today we have Felix I, a martyr of the persecution under Aurelian in the third century. His Acts have been lost, with the exception of this one detail: that he proclaimed the dogma of the Incarnation with admirable precision in a Letter addressed to the Church of Alexandria, a passage of which was read, with much applause, at the two Ecumenical Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon. We also learn from a law he passed for these troubled times of the Church, that this holy Pontiff was zealous in procuring for the martyrs the honour that is due to them. He decreed that the Holy Sacrifice should be offered up on their tombs. The Church has kept up a remnant of this law by requiring that all altars, whether fixed or portable, must have amongst the relics that are placed in them a portion of some belonging to the martyrs.

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You, O holy Pontiff, imitated your Divine Master in His death, for you gave your life for your sheep. Like Him, too, you are to rise from your tomb and your happy soul will be reunited to its body which suffered death in testimony of the truth you proclaimed at Rome. Jesus is the first-born of the dead (Apocalypse i. 5). You followed Him in His Passion, you will follow Him in His Resurrection. Your body was laid in those venerable vaults which the piety of early Christians honoured with the appellation of Cemeteries, a word which signifies a place in which to sleep. You, O Felix, will awaken on that great day on which the Pasch is to receive its last and perfect fulfilment: pray that we also may then share with you in that happy Resurrection. Obtain for us that we may be faithful to the graces received in this year’s Easter, and prepare us for the visit of the Holy Ghost who is soon to descend upon us, that he may give stability to the work that has been achieved in our souls by our merciful Saviour.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

At Torres in Sardinia, the holy martyrs Gabinus and Crispulus.

At Antioch, the Saints Sycus and Palatinus who endured many torments for the name of Christ.

At Ravenna, St. Exuperantius, bishop and confessor.

At Pavia, St. Anastasius, bishop.

At Caesarea in Cappadocia, the Saints Basil and his wife Emmelia, parents of St. Basil the Great, who lived in exile in the fastnesses of Pontus during the reign of Galerius Maximian, and after the persecution rested in peace, leaving their children the heirs of their virtues.

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

Thanks be to God.

30 MAY – SAINT FERDINAND III OF CASTILE (King and Confessor)

Ferdinand was born in about 1201 to King Alfonso IX of León and his second wife Queen Berenguela of Castile, at the Monastery of Valparaíso (Peleas de Arriba, now the Province of Zamora). He showed so much prudence in his youth that his mother resigned her kingdom in his favour. Ferdinand had all the virtues becoming to a king: magnanimity, clemency, justice and zeal for Catholic faith and worship, which he ardently defended and propagated. Ferdinand forbade heretics to settle in his kingdom and he built, endowed and dedicated churches in Cordova, Jaen, Seville and other cities rescued from the Moors. He restored the Cathedrals of Toledo, Burgos and other cities. He also he levied powerful armies in the kingdom of Castile and Leon and each year engaged in battles with the Saracens.

Ferdinand secured victory by the prayers he offered up to God. He used to chastise his body with disciplines and a rough hair-shirt, with the intention of rendering God propitious. By so doing he gained extraordinary victories over the mighty armies of the Moors, and, after taking possession of Jaen, Cordova and Murcia, and making a tributary of the kingdom of Granada, he restored many cities to the Christian religion and to Spain. He led his victorious standard before Seville, the capital of Baeza, being, as it is related, urged thereto by Saint Isidore, who had formerly been bishop of that city, and who appeared to him in a vision. Ferdinand was miraculously aided during that siege: the Muslims had stretched an iron chain across the Guadalquiver to block up the passage but there arose a violent wind, and one of the royal ships was, by the king's order, sent against the chain, which broke with so much violence that it was carried far beyond, and bore down a bridge of boats. The Moors lost all hope and the city surrendered. Ferdinand attributed all these victories to the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose image he always had in his camp, and honoured it with much devotion.

Having taken Seville, Ferdinand’s first thoughts were directed to religion. He immediately caused the mosque of the Saracens to be purified and dedicated as a Christian church, having provided it with an archiepiscopal See, richly endowed, as also with a well-appointed college of Canons and dignitaries. He built several other churches and monasteries in Seville. While engaged in these holy works, he was preparing to pass over to Africa to crush the Muslim empire but before he could do so he died. When death approached he fastened a cord round his neck, prostrated on the ground, and, shedding abundant tears, adored the Blessed Sacrament which was brought to him as Viaticum. Having received it in admirable dispositions of reverence, humility and faith, he slept in the Lord in 1252. His body, which remained incorrupt for many centuries is buried in the Cathedral Church of Seville.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

During the Season consecrated to the mystery of our Emmanuel’s birth we saw standing near His crib the Blessed Emperor Charlemagne. Crowned with the imperial diadem, and with a sword in his hand, he seemed to be watching over the babe whose first worshippers were shepherds. And now, near the glorious sepulchre, which was first visited by Magdalene and her companions, we perceive a King — Ferdinand the Victorious —wearing a crown and keeping guard with his valiant sword —the terror of the Saracen.

Catholic Spain is personified in her Ferdinand. His mother Berengera was sister to Blanche the mother of Saint Louis of France. In order to form “the Catholic Kingdom,” there was needed one of our Lord’s Apostles — Saint James the Great; there was needed a formidable trial —the Saracen invasion which deluged the Peninsula; there was needed a chivalrous resistance, which lasted eight hundred years, and by which Spain regained her glory and her freedom. Saint Ferdinand is the worthy representative of the brave heroes who drove out the Moors from their fatherland and made her what she is: but he had the virtues of a saint, as well as the courage of a soldier.

His life was one of exploits, and each was a victory. Cordova, the city of the Caliphs, was conquered by this warrior Saint. At once, its Alhambra ceased to be a palace of Mahometan effeminacy and crime. Its splendid Mosque was consecrated to the Divine Service, and afterwards became the Cathedral of the city. The followers of Mahomet had robbed the Church of Saint James at Compostella of its bells, and had them brought in triumph to Cordova. Ferdinand ordered them to be carried there again, on the backs of the Moors.

After a siege of 16 months, Seville also fell into Ferdinand’s hands. Its fortifications consisted of a double wall, with 166 towers. The Christian army was weak in numbers. The Saracens fought with incredible courage, and had the advantages of position and tact on their part, but the Crescent was to be eclipsed by the Cross. Ferdinand gave the Saracens a month to evacuate the city and territory. Three hundred thousand withdrew to Xeres, and a hundred thousand passed over into Africa. The brave Moorish General, when taking his last look at the city, wept and said to his officers: “None but a Saint could, with such a small force, have made himself master of so strong and well-manned a place.”

We will not enumerate the other victories gained by our Saint. The Moors foresaw that the result would be their total expulsion from the Peninsula. But this was not all that Ferdinand aimed at: he even intended to invade Africa, and thus crush the Muslim power forever. The noble project was prevented by his death, which took place in the fifty-third year of his age.

He always looked on himself as the humble instrument of God’s designs, and zealously laboured to accomplish them. Though most austere towards himself, he was a father in his compassion for his people, and was one day heard to say: “I am more afraid of the curse of one poor woman, than of all the Saracen armies together.” He richly endowed the churches which he built in Spain. His devotion to the Holy Mother of God was most tender, and he used to call her his Lady: in return, Mary procured him victory in all his battles, and kept away all pestilence and famine from the country during his entire reign, which, as the contemporary chroniclers observe, was an evident miracle, considering the circumstances of the age and period. The whole life of our Saint was a series of happiness and success, whereas, the life of that other admirable King, Saint Louis of France, was one of almost uninterrupted misfortune, as though God would give to the world, in these two Saints a model of courage in adversity, and an example of humility in prosperity. They form unitedly a complete picture of what human life is, regenerated as it has now been by our Jesus, in whom we adore both the humiliations of the Cross and the glories of the Resurrection. What happy times were those, when God chose kings by which to teach mankind such sublime lessons!

One feels curious to know how such a man, such a King as Ferdinand, would take death when it came upon him. When it came, he was in his fifty-fourth year. The time approached for his receiving the Holy Viaticum. As soon as the priest entered the room with the Blessed Sacrament, the holy King got out of bed, prostrated himself in adoration and, humbly putting a cord round his neck, received the Sacred Host. This done, and feeling that he was on the verge of eternity, he ordered his attendants to remove from him every sign of royalty, and called his sons round his bed. Addressing himself to the eldest, who was Alphonsus the Good, he entrusted him with the care of his brothers, and reminded him of the duties he owed to his subjects and soldiers. He then added these words: “My son, you see what armies, and possessions, and subjects, you have, more than any other Christian king: make a proper use of these advantages, and, having the power, be and do good. You are now master of the country which the Moors took in times past from King Rodriguez. If you keep the kingdom in the state in which I now leave it to you, you will be as I have been, a good king, which you will not be, if you allow any portion of it to be lost.”

As his end drew near, the dying King was favoured with an apparition from Heaven. He thanked God for granting him that consolation, and then asked for the blessed candle. But before taking it in his hand, he raised up his eyes to Heaven and said: “You, O Lord, have given me the kingdom which I should not otherwise have had. You have given me more honour and power than I deserved: receive my thanks! I give you back this kingdom, which I have increased as far as I was able. I also commend my soul into your hands!" He then asked pardon of the by-standers, begging them to overlook any offence that he might have committed against them. The whole court was present and, with tears, asked the Saint to forgive them. The holy King then took the blessed candle into his hands, and raising it up towards heaven, said: “Lord Jesus Christ! My Redeemer! Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I return to the earth. Lord, receive my soul! and, through the merits of your most holy Passion, deign to admit it among those of your servants!” Having said this, he gave back the candle and asked the bishops and priests who were present to recite the Litanies, which being ended, he bade them sing the Te Deum. When the Hymn was finished, he bowed down his head, closed his eyes, and calmly expired.

Thus died those men whose glorious works were the result of their Faith, and who looked on themselves as only sent into this world that they might serve Christ and labour to propagate His kingdom. It was they that gave Europe its highest glory: they made the Gospel its first law, and based its Constitution on the Canons of the Church. It is now governed by a very different standard. It is paying dearly for the change, and is being drifted rapidly to dissolution and ruin.

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BY delivering your people from the yoke of the Infidel, you, O Ferdinand, imitated our Risen Jesus who rescued us from death and restored us to the life we had lost. Your conquests were not like those of this world’s conquerors, who have no other aim than the satisfying their own and their peoples’ pride. Your ambition was to deliver your people from an oppression which had weighed heavily on them for long ages. Your object was to save them from the danger of apostasy, which they incurred by being under the Moorish yoke. Champion of Christ! It was for His dear sake you laid siege to the Saracen cities. His banner was yours, and your first anxiety was to spread His kingdom. He, in return, blessed you in all your your battles, and made you ever victorious.

Your mission, Ferdinand, was to form for our God a nation which has been honoured by holy Church above all others with the glorious name of the “Catholic Kingdom.” Happy Spain which by her perseverance and courage broke the Mussulman yoke, that still weighs down the other countries which it made its prey! Happy Spain which repelled the invasion of Protestantism and by this preserved the Faith, which both saves souls and constitutes a nation’s strongest power! Pray for your country, O saintly King! False doctrines and treacherous influences are now rife within her, and many of her children have been led astray. Never permit her to injure, by cowardly compromise, that holy Faith which has been her grandest glory and safeguard. Frustrate the secret plots which are working to undermine her Catholicity. Keep up within her her old hatred of heresy, and maintain her in the rank she holds among Catholic nations. Unity in faith and worship may still save her from the abyss into which so many other countries have fallen. O holy King! Save once more the land that God entrusted to your keeping, and which you restored to Him with such humble gratitude when you were about to change your earthly for a heavenly crown. You are still her beloved protector. Hasten then to her aid!

30 MAY – EMBER SATURDAY IN PENTECOST WEEK

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

We have been contemplating with grateful hearts the inexpressible devotedness, the divine untiredness, with which the Holy Ghost fulfils His mission in the souls of men. We have something still to add to our considerations, in order to have anything like a true idea of the wonders wrought by the Divine Guest when the heart raises no obstacles. And first of all, we deem it necessary to say a word to those Christians who — after hearing what we have said regarding the prodigies of power and love of the Divine Spirit, and the sublime mystery of His presence among us — might be tempted to fear lest all this may, in some degree, tend to make us forget our dearest Jesus who, being in the form of God and equal to God, emptied Himself being made in the likeness of man, and in habit found as man (Philippians i. 6).

The superficial knowledge of their religion is the cause of so many Christians having very vague notions about the Holy Ghost and His special workings in the Church and the souls of men. You will find these same individuals well-instructed upon the mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption. You will find them really devout in their honouring the Son of God: but, judging from their conduct, you would say that they have put off their knowing and honouring the Holy Ghost until they get to Heaven.

We would, therefore, tell them that the mission of this Divine Spirit, far from being likely to make us forget what we owe to our Saviour, is the grandest gift bestowed on us by this our Redeemer. Who is it that produces and keeps up within us the loving and meritorious remembrance of our Jesus’ mysteries? It is the Holy Ghost, who only dwells in our hearts for the purpose of forming Christ, the new man, within us, to the end that we may be united with Him forever as His members, Consequently, the love we bear to our Jesus is inseparable from that we bear to the Holy Ghost. And the love we have for this Divine Spirit closely unites us with the Son of God from whom He, (the Spirit) proceeds and is given to us. When we meditate on the sufferings of Jesus we are excited to feelings of affectionate compassion, and it ought to be so. But how comes it that we never think or, if we think, that we never grieve over the resistances, the slights, the disloyalties, which the Holy Ghost is every day receiving from ourselves and others? It is indeed most true that we are children of our heavenly Father: but why should we forget the immense debt we owe to the other two Divine Persons, who have come down from Heaven to serve us, and at the risk of our not being grateful to them for it!

After this short, but almost necessary, digression, we will continue our reflections on the workings of the Holy Ghost in the soul of man. As we were just saying, His aim is to form Christ within us by the imitation of this our Redeemer’s sentiments and actions. Who better than this Divine Spirit knows the Jesus whose humanity He formed in Mary’s womb? The Jesus in whom He dwelt so unreservedly? Whom He aided and directed in all things, and that with a fullness of grace becoming the dignity of the human nature which was personally united with the Divinity? We repeat, His object is to reproduce in our humble persons a faithful copy of Jesus, as far as our fallen nature will permit so grand a work to be realised.

The Holy Spirit produces the most noble results in this His work, which is one truly worthy of a God. We have already seen how He wins from sin and Satan the creatures purchased by Christ. Now let us consider Him achieving His victories in what the Apostle so magnificently calls the “consummation of the Saints” (Ephesians iv. 12). He takes them as he finds them, that is, fallen children of Adam. He first applies to them the ordinary means of sanctification, though He intends to carry them to extraordinary virtue. The courage with which He carries on his work is truly divine. He has to deal with nature, fallen indeed and tainted with a poison which is mortal, but a nature which retains some resemblance to its Creator. It is a ruin, but still it is an image. The Spirit, then, has to destroy what there is of corruption and defilement. At the same time, He has to purify and foster what has not been irremediably affected by the poison. The case requires an infinite care. He knows where and when to cut or burn, and, what is very wonderful, He makes the invalid Himself Help him to apply the saving remedies. Just as He does not save the sinner without the sinner’s sharing in the work, so neither does He sanctify the Saint, without the Saint’s co-operation. But He inspirits and encourages him by countless touches of grace so that, while corrupt nature keeps gradually losing ground in the soul, the healthy parts are being transformed into Christ, and finally the whole man is under the perfect mastery of grace.

The virtues are neither inactive nor half-formed in such a Christian as this. And each day they grow more and more vigorous. The Holy Spirit suffers none of them to lag behind, for He is unceasingly showing His disciple the great original whom he is to copy, namely Jesus, in whom are all the virtues and all perfectly. There are times when He makes the soul feel her own weakness in order that she may humble herself. He permits her to feel certain repugnances and temptations — but these are precisely the seasons in which He evinces the most watchful solicitude. The soul must act, and she must suffer. The Holy Ghost loves her with extreme tenderness, and will never permit her to be tried above her strength. Oh what a wonderful work is this, to enable a poor fallen creature to be a Saint! Of course, there will be moments of discouragement, there may be defects now and then. But the work goes on in spite of all, for the Divine Spirit keeps up within the soul an unchanging love which is ever burning out the dross, while its own bright flame is every day gaining new intensity and beauty.

The human element at last disappears — it is Christ who lives in this new man, and this man lives in Christ (Galatians ii. 20). His life is one of prayer, for it is in prayer that he finds union with his Jesus. The more he prays, the closer is the bond. The Holy Ghost is continually opening out new charms of truth to him in order to encourage him to seek his sovereign good in prayer. He has made it the mystic ladder. It rests on Earth, but its summit reaches to high Heaven. Who could tell the favours bestowed by God on a soul that has broken every tie of self-love and interest that, with oneness of purpose and energy, she may see and enjoy her Lord and lose herself eternally in His infinite beauty! The whole Blessed Trinity is devoted to such a soul: the Father embraces her in His paternal affection, the Son has no reserves of His love towards her, the Holy Ghost is ever working within her, enlightening and consoling her.

The citizens of Heaven, with their wonted interest in all that concerns us mortals — so that they keep a feast of joy at the conversion of one poor sinner (Luke xv. 7) — are enraptured at the lovely sight of a Saint. They yearn over him with an indescribable love. They sing a loud hymn of praise to the Holy Ghost who has produced such a masterpiece of perfection out of such materials as fallen nature yields. At times, the Blessed Mother evinces her joy by appearing to this her new-born child. The Angels show themselves to this brother on whom they look as worthy to be throned among them. The Saints treat him with an intimacy which tells him that they expect him to be soon their companion in the home of everlasting glory. Is it to be wondered at, that this dear child of the Holy Ghost should be sometimes allowed to stay the laws of nature, and work miracles in favour of his suffering or necessitous fellow mortals? Does he not love them with an affection which springs from the love which he has for God, and which is not shackled by the egotism of a heart divided between the world and the Creator?

Nor must we forget to speak of the grandest feature in the soul thus perfected by the Holy Ghost. Men of the world may scoff, and frivolous spirits may feel sceptical, at what we are going to say. It is not the less true, and, thank God, it is not so rare as some among us pretend. It evinces the power of the merits won for us by our Redeemer. It testifies the greatness of His love for mankind. It manifests the divine energy of the Holy Ghost in the souls that put no obstacles to His working within them. The soul, then, that we have been describing, is called to an Espousal with Jesus, not only in Heaven, but now and on this Earth of exile. Jesus loves, as only a God can, the Spouse He has redeemed with His Blood. And this Spouse is not only the beloved Church: it is this soul of whom we are speaking, who was once mere nothingness, whose present existence is not known by the world — and yet her beauty is such that her Creator deigns to say that He, the King, greatly desires it (Psalms xliv. 12). He, together with the Holy Ghost, has wrought this beauty within her, and He wishes her to be all His. Then is achieved, by the Holy Spirit, and in favour of an individual soul, the same mystery that we have seen accomplished in the Church herself: He prepares her, He establishes her in unity, He fixes her in truth, He perfects her in sanctity. This done, “the Spirit and the Bride say: Come!” (Apocalypse xxii. 17).

It would take a volume to describe the workings of the Holy Ghost in the Saints, and we are obliged to be satisfied with this hurried and imperfect sketch. The little we have said was a necessity, in order that we might give a general idea of the mission of the Holy Ghost on Earth, such as we are taught it is by the words of Sacred Scripture, and by the principles of dogmatic and mystical theology. What we have said today will, moreover, assist our readers in their study and appreciation of the Saints. In the course of the Liturgical Year, during which the names and actions of the Saints have been so frequently proclaimed and celebrated by the Church herself, it was important to find an occasion for honouring the Sanctifying Spirit: and surely Pentecost was the most fitting season for our saying what we have.

This is the last day of Paschal Time. It is the last of the Pentecost Octave. We must not allow it to pass without our offering to the Queen of Saints the homage that is so justly her due, and without presenting our adoration and praise to the Holy Ghost for all the glorious things He has achieved in her.

After the sacred Humanity of our Redeemer, which received from this Holy Spirit every gift that could make it worthy, as far as a creature can be, of the Divine Nature to which the Incarnation united it — Mary’s soul and whole being were adorned with grace above all other creatures together. It could not but be so, as must be evident to us if we reflect for a moment on the meaning of a “Mother of God.” Mary in her single self forms a world apart in the order of grace. She alone was, for a short time, the Church of Jesus. The Holy Spirit was at first sent for her alone, and He filled her with Grace from the instant of her Immaculate Conception. That Grace developed itself in her by the continuous action of the Holy Ghost, until at length she became worthy, as far as a creature could be, of conceiving and giving birth to the very Son of God, who became thus the Son of Mary. During these days of Pentecost we have seen the new gifts with which the Divine Spirit prepared her for her new office. Is it possible for us her children to think of all these things, and not be ardent in our admiration of her? Or not be overflowing with gratitude for the august Paraclete who has deigned to show such munificence to this our own matchless Mother?

At the same time, we cannot help being overpowered with delight at the thought of the perfection with which this favourite of the Holy Spirit corresponded with the graces she received from Him. Not one was lost, not one was fruitless, as is sometimes the case with even the holiest souls. At her very commencement, she was as the rising morn (Canticles vi. 9). From that time, her sanctity gradually mounted to the midday of its perfection, and that midday was to have no setting. Even before the Archangel announced to her that she was to conceive the Son of God in her chaste womb, she had already conceived Him in her soul, as the Holy Fathers teach us. The Eternal Word loved her as His Spouse even before He conferred on her the honour of being His Mother. If Jesus could say of a soul that had needed regeneration: “They that seek me, will find me in the heart of Grertrude” — what must have been the harmony of soul existing between Him and His Blessed Mother? How close must have been their union? Trials of the severest kind awaited her in this world. She bore them all with heroic fortitude and when the hour came for her to unite her own sacrifice with that made by her Son, she was ready. After Jesus’ Ascension, the Holy Ghost descended upon her. He opened out to her a new career which would require her being an exile for many long years from the Heaven where her Son was reigning — she did not hesitate to accept the bitter chalice thus offered to her. She proved herself to be indeed the Handmaid of the Lord, desirous, above all other things, to do His will in every tittle.

So that the triumph of the Holy Ghost in Mary’s person was of the most perfect kind: however grand might be His gifts, she worthily corresponded with them all. The sublime office of Mother of God to which she was called entitled her to graces in keeping with such a dignity. She received them and turned them to the richest account. In return for her fidelity, as also in consideration of her incomparable dignity, the Holy Ghost allotted to Mary the place she well merited in the great work He had come to do, namely, the Consummation of the Saints and the formation of the Church, the Body of Christ (Ephesians iv. 12). Her Divine Son is the Head of the immense Body of the Faithful. He gives it unity, but she herself represents the neck by which life and motion are communicated from the Head to the rest of the Body. Jesus is the chief agent, but He acts on each member through Mary. Her union with the Incarnate Word is immediate on account of her being to Him what no other creature could be. But with regard to us, the graces and favours, the light and consolation, which we receive from our Divine Head, come to us through Mary.

Hence the influence of this Blessed Mother on the Church in general, and on each individual in particular. She unites us to her Son, and He unites us to the Divinity. The Father gave us His Son. The Son chose a Mother from among His creatures. And the Holy Ghost, by giving fruitfulness to this Virgin-Mother, perfected the union of Creatures with their Creator. The end God proposed in creation, was to effect this union. And now that the Son is glorified, and the Holy Ghost is come, we understand the whole divine plan. More favoured than those who lived before the descent of the Divine Spirit, we have, not only in promise, but in reality, a brother who is crowned with the diadem of the divinity; a Paraclete who is to abide with us forever, to enlighten our path and strengthen us; a Mother, whose intercession is all-powerful; a Church, a second Mother, by and from whom we receive all these blessings.

The series of the Mysteries is now completed and the Moveable Cycle of the Liturgy has come to its close. We first passed, during Advent, the four weeks which represented the [thousands of] years spent by mankind in entreaties to the Eternal Father that He would send His Son. Our Emmanuel at length came down. We shared in the joys of his Birth, in the dolours of His Passion, in the glory of His Resurrection, in the triumph of His Ascension. Lastly, we have witnessed the descent of the Holy Ghost on us, and we know that He is to abide with us to the last. Holy Church has assisted us throughout the whole of this sublime drama which contains the work of our salvation. Her heavenly canticles, her magnificent ceremonies, have instructed us day by day, enabling us to follow and understand each Feast and Season.

Blessed be this Mother for the care, with she has placed all these great Mysteries before us, thus giving us light and love! Blessed be the sacred Liturgy, which has brought us so much consolation and encouragement! We have now to pass through the Immoveable portion of the Cycle: we will find sublime spiritual episodes worthy of all our attention. Let us then prepare to resume our journey: let us take fresh courage in the thought that the Holy Ghost will direct our steps, and, by the sacred Liturgy, of which He is the inspirer, will continue to throw open to us treasures of precept and example.

29 MAY – SAINT MARY MAGDALENE OF PAZZI (Virgin)

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

 

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

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

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

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

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

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

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

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

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

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

At Verona, St. Maximus, bishop.

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

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

Thanks be to God.

29 MAY – EMBER FRIDAY IN PENTECOST WEEK

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

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

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks be to God.

28 MAY – THURSDAY IN PENTECOST WEEK

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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