10 MARCH – THE FORTY MARTYRS OF SEBASTE

 

During the reign of the Emperor Licinius, and under the presidency of Agricolaus, the city of Sebaste in Armenia was honoured by being made the scene of the martyrdom of forty soldiers whose faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and patience in bearing tortures were so glorious. After having been frequently confined in a horrid dungeon, shackled with chains, and having had their faces beaten with stones, they were condemned to pass a bitter winter night in the open air, and on a frozen pool, that they might be frozen to death. When there, they united in this prayer: “Forty have we entered on the battle. Let us, O Lord, receive Forty Crowns, and suffer not our number to be broken. The number is an honoured one, for you fasted for forty days, and the divine law was given to the world after the same number of days was observed. Elias, too, sought God by a forty days fast, and was permitted to see Him.” All the guards except one were asleep. He overheard their prayer and saw them encircled with light, and Angels coming down from Heaven like messengers sent by a king, who distributed crowns to thirty-nine of the soldiers. Whereupon, he thus said to himself: “There are forty men. Where is the fortieth crown?” While so pondering, one of the number lost his courage. He could bear the cold no longer and threw himself into a warm bath which had been put near at hand. His saintly companions were exceedingly grieved at this.

But God would not suffer their prayer to be void. The sentinel, astonished at what he had witnessed, went immediately and awoke the guards. Then, taking off his garments, he cried out, with a loud voice that he was a Christian, and associated himself with the Martyrs. No sooner did the governor’s guards perceive that the sentinel had also declared himself to be a Christian, than they approached the Martyrs and, with clubs, broke their legs. All died under this torture except Melitho, who was the youngest of the forty. His mother, who was present, seeing that he was still living after his legs were broken, thus encouraged him: “My son, be patient yet awhile. Lo! Christ is at the door, helping you.” But as soon as she saw the other bodies being placed on carts that they might be thrown on the pile, and her son left behind (for the impious men hoped that if the boy survived, he might be induced to worship the idols) she lifted him up into her arms and, summing up all her strength, ran after the wagons on which the Martyrs’ bodies were being carried. Melithon died in his mother’s arms and the holy woman threw his body on the pile where the other martyrs were, that as he had been so united with them in faith and courage, he might be one with them in burial and go to Heaven in their company. As soon as the bodies were burnt, the pagans threw what remained into a river. The relics miraculously flowed to one and the same place, just as they were when they were taken from the pile. The Christians took them and respectfully buried them.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

We know the mystery of the number Forty. This tenth of March brings it before us. Forty new advocates! Forty encouraging us to enter bravely on our career of Penance! On the frozen pool which was their field of battle these Martyrs reminded one another that Jesus had fasted for Forty Days, and that they themselves were Forty in number! Let us, in our turn, compare their sufferings with the Lenten exercises which the Church imposes upon us and humble ourselves in seeing our cowardice. Or, if we begin with fervour, let us remember that the grand thing is to be faithful to the end, and bring to the Easter Solemnity the crown of our perseverance. Our Forty Martyrs patiently endured the cruellest tortures. The fear of God, and their deep-rooted conviction that He had an infinite claim to their fidelity, gave them the victory. How many times we have sinned and had not such severe temptations as theirs to palliate our fall? How can we sufficiently bless that Divine Mercy which spared us instead of abandoning us as he did that poor apostate who turned coward and was lost! But on what condition did God spare us? That we should not spare ourselves but do penance. He put into our hands the rights of His own justice. Justice, then, must be satisfied, and we must exercise it against ourselves. The Lives of the Saints will be of great help to us in this, for they will teach us how we are to look upon sin, how to avoid it and how strictly we are bound to do penance for it after having committed it.

*****

Valiant Soldiers of Christ who meet us, with your mysterious number, at this commencement of our Forty Days’ Fast, receive the homage of our devotion. Your memory is venerated throughout the whole Church, and your glory is great in Heaven. Though engaged in the service of an earthly prince, you were the Soldiers of the Eternal King: to Him were you faithful, and from Him did you receive your crown of eternal glory. We, also, are His soldiers. We are fighting for the kingdom of Heaven. Our enemies are many and powerful but, like you, we can conquer them if, like you, we use the arms which God has put in our hands. Faith in God’s word, hope in His assistance, and humility and prudence —with these we are sure of victory. Pray for us, Holy Martyrs, that we may keep from all compromise with our enemies, for our defeat is certain if we try to serve two masters. During these Forty Days we must put our arms in order, repair our lost strength and renew our engagements. Come to our assistance and get us a share in your brave spirit. A crown is also prepared for us: it is to be won on easier terms than yours, and yet we will lose it unless we keep up within us an esteem for our vocation. How many times, in our past lives, have we not forfeited that glorious crown? But God in His mercy has offered it to us again, and we are resolved on winning it. Oh for the glory of our common Lord and Master, make intercession for us.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Apamea in Phrygia, during the persecution of Marcus Antoninus and Lucius Verus, the birthday of the holy martyrs Caius and Alexander who were crowned with a glorious martyrdom as is related by Apollinaris, bishop of Hierapolis, in his book against the Cataphrygian heretics.

In Persia, the passion of forty-two holy martyrs.

At Corinth, the holy martyrs Codratus, Denis, Cyprian, Anecetus, Paul and Crescens, who were slain with the sword in the persecution of Decius and Valerian under the Governor Jason.

In Africa, the martyr St. Victor, on whose festival St. Augustine delivered a discourse to his people.

At Jerusalem, St. Macarius, bishop and confessor, at whose request the holy places were purified by Constantine and Helena, and beautified with sacred edifices.

At Paris, the decease of the abbot St. Droctoveus, who was a disciple of the blessed bishop Germanus.

In the monastery of Bobio, the abbot St. Attalus, renowned for miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

10 MARCH – TUESDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – 4 Kings iv. 1‒7

In those days, a certain woman cried to Eliseus, saying: “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant was one that feared God, and behold the creditor is come to take away my two sous to serve him.”And Eliseus said to her: “What will you have me do for you? Tell me what have you in your house?” And she answered: “I your handmaid have nothing in my house but a little oil to anoint me.” And he said to her: “Go, borrow of all your neighbours empty vessels not a few. And go in, and shut your door, when you are within, with your sons, and pour out thereof into all those vessels, and when they are full take them away.” So the woman went, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons. They brought her the vessels and she poured in. And when the vessels were full, she said to her son: “Bring me yet a vessel.” And he answered: “I have no more.” And the oil stood, and she came and told the man of God. And he said: “Go, sell the oil, and pay the creditor, and you and your sons live of the rest.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

It is not difficult to unravel the mystery of this day’s Lesson. Man’s creditor is Satan. Our sins have made him so. “Go,” says the Prophet, “and pay the creditor.” But how is this to be done? —We will obtain the pardon of our sins by works of mercy, of which oil is the symbol. Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy (Matthew v. 7). Let us, then, during these days of salvation, secure our reconciliation and forgiveness by doing all we can to assist our brethren who are in want. Let us join alms-deeds to our fasting, and practise works of mercy. Thus will we touch the heart of our Heavenly Father. Putting our debts into His hands, we will take away from Satan all the claims he had upon us. Let us learn a lesson from this woman. She lets no one see her as she fill the vessels with oil. Let us also shut the door when we do good, so that our left hand will know not what our right hand does (Matthew vi. 3). Take notice, too, that the woman goes on pouring out the oil as long as she has vessels to hold it. So our mercy towards our neighbours must be proportionate to our means. The extent of these means is known to God, and He will not have us fall short of the power He has given us for doing good. Let us, then, be liberal in our alms during this holy Season. Let us make the resolution to be so at all times. When our material resources are exhausted, let us be merciful in desire, by interceding with those who are able to give, and by praying to God to help the suffering and the poor.

Gospel – Matthew xviii. 15‒22

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: “If your brother offends against you, go and rebuke him between you and him alone. If he hears you, you will gain your brother. But if he will not hear you, take with you one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand. And if he will not hear them, tell the Church. And if he will not hear the Church, let him be to you as the heathen and publican. Amen I say to you, whatever you will bind on earth will be bound also in Heaven, and whatever you will loose on earth will be loosed also in Heaven. Again, I say to you, that if two of you will consent on earth concerning anything whatever they will ask, it will be done to them by my Father, who is in Heaven, for where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Then came Peter to Him and said: “Lord, how often will my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?” Jesus said to him: “I say not to you, till seven times, but till seventy times seven times.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The mercy which God commands us to show to our fellow-creatures does not consist only in corporal and spiritual alms-deeds to the poor and the suffering. It includes, moreover, the pardon and forgetfulness of injuries. This is the test by which God proves the sincerity of our conversion: With the same measure that you will mete withal, it will be measured to you again (Luke vi. 38). If we, from our hearts, pardon our enemies, our Heavenly Father will unreservedly pardon us. These are the days when we are hoping to be reconciled with our God. Let us do all we can to gain our brother, and for this end, pardon him, if needs be, seventy times seven times.

Surely, we are not going to allow the miserable quarrels of our earthly pilgrimage to make us lose heaven! Therefore, let us forgive insults and injuries, and thus imitate our God Himself, who is ever forgiving us. But how grand are these other words of our Gospel: Whatever you will loose on earth will be loosed also in Heaven! Oh! the hope, and joy they bring to our hearts! How countless is the number of sinners, who are soon to feel the truth of this consoling promise! They will confess their sins and offer to God the homage of a contrite and humble heart, and, at the very moment that the hand of the Priest will loosen them on earth, the hand of God will loosen them from the bonds which held them as victims to eternal punishment.

And lastly, let us not pass by unnoticed this other sentence, which has a close relation with the one we have just alluded to: If a man hears not the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and publican. What is this Church? Men, to whom Jesus Christ said: “He that hears, you hear me, and he that despises you, despises me” (Luke x. 16). Men, from whose lips comes to the world the truth without which there is no salvation: Men, who are the only ones on earth who have power to reconcile the sinner with his God, save him from the Hell he has deserved, and open to him the gates of Heaven. Can we be surprised, after this, that our Saviour — who would have these men to be His instruments, and as it were, the communication between Himself and mankind — should treat as a heathen, as one that has never received Baptism, him that refuses to acknowledge their authority? There is no revealed truth except through their teaching. There is no salvation except through the Sacraments which they administer. There is no hoping in Christ Jesus except where there is submission to the spiritual laws which they promulgate.

9 MARCH – SAINT FRANCES OF ROME (Widow)

 

Frances, a noble lady of Rome, led a most virtuous life even in her earliest years. She despised all childish amusements and worldly pleasures, her only delight being solitude and prayer. When eleven years old she resolved on consecrating her virginity to God and seeking admission into a monastery. But she humbly yielded to the wishes of her parents and married a young and rich nobleman, Lorenzo Ponziani. As far as it was possible, she observed in the married state the austerities of the most perfect life to which she had aspired. She carefully shunned theatrical entertainments, banquets and other such amusements. Her dress was of serge and extremely plain. Whatever time remained after she had fulfilled her domestic duties was spent in prayer and works of charity. But her zeal was mainly exercised in endeavouring to persuade the ladies of Rome to shun the world, and vanity in dress. It was with a view to this that she founded, during her husband’s lite, the House of Oblates of the Congregation of Monte-Oliveto under the Rule of Saint Benedict. She bore her husband’s banishment, the loss of all her goods and the trouble which befell her whole family, not only with heroic patience, but was frequently heard to give thanks, saying with holy Job: “The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord!”

At the death of her husband, Frances fled to her House of Oblates and there, barefooted, with a rope tied round her neck and prostrate on the ground, she humbly and with many tears begged admission. Her petition being granted, she, though mother of the whole community, gloried in calling herself everyone’s servant and a worthless woman, and a vessel of dishonour. She evinced the contempt she had for herself by her conduct, as well as by her expressions. Thus, when returning from a vineyard in the suburbs, she would go through the city, sometimes carrying faggots on her head, sometimes driving an ass laden with them. She looked after, and bestowed abundant alms upon the poor. She visited the sick in the hospitals and consoled them not only with corporal food, but with spiritual advice. She was untiring in her endeavours to bring her body into subjection, by watchings, fasting, wearing a hair-shirt and an iron girdle, and by frequent disciplines. Her food, which she took but once in the day, consisted of herbs and pulse, and her only drink was water. But she would somewhat relent in these corporal austerities as often as she was requested to do so by her confessor, whom she obeyed with the utmost exactitude.

Her contemplation of the divine mysteries, and especially of the Passion, was made with such intense fervour and abundance of tears that she seemed as though she would die with grief. Frequently, too, when she was praying, and above all after Holy Communion, she would remain motionless with her soul fixed on God and rapt in heavenly contemplation. The enemy of mankind seeing this, endeavoured to frighten her out of so holy a life by insults and blows, but she feared him not, invariably baffled his attempts and, by the assistance of her Angel Guardian whose visible presence was granted to her, she gained a glorious victory. God favoured her with the gift of healing the sick, as also with that of prophecy, by which she foretold future events and could read the secrets of hearts. More than once, when she was intent on prayer, either in the bed of a torrent or during a storm of rain, she was not touched by the water. On one occasion when all the bread they had was scarcely enough to provide a meal for three of the sisters, she besought our Lord, and He multiplied the bread so that after fifteen persons had eaten as much as they needed, there was sufficient left to fill a basket. At another time, when the sisters were gathering wood outside the city walls in January, she amply quenched their thirst by offering them bunches of fresh grapes which she plucked from a vine, and which she had miraculously obtained.

Her virtues and miracles procured for her the greatest veneration from all. Our Lord called her to Himself in the fifty-sixth year of her age, and she was canonised by Pope Paul V.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The period intervening between the Purification of our Blessed Lady and Ash Wednesday (when it occurs at its latest date), gives us thirty-six days. And these offer us a Feast of every order of Saint. The Apostles have given us Saint Matthias and Saint Peter’s Chair. The Martyrs have sent us, from their countless choir, Simeon, Blase, Valentine, Faustinus and Jovita, Perpetua and Felicitas, and the Forty Soldiers of Sebaste, whose Feast is kept tomorrow. The holy Pontiffs have been represented by Andrew Corsini and Peter Damian who, together with Thomas Aquinas, is one of the Doctors of the Church. The Confessors have produced Romuald of Camaldoli, John of Matha, John of God and the angelic prince Casimir. The Virgins have gladdened us with the presence of Agatha, Dorothy, Apollonia and Scholastica, three wreathed with the red roses of martyrdom, and the fourth with her fair lilies of the enclosed garden (Canticles iv. 12) of her Spouse. And lastly, we have had a Penitent-Saint, Margherita of Cortona. The state of Christian marriage is the only one that has not yet deputed a Saint during this season which is the least rich in Feasts of the whole year. The deficiency is supplied today by the admirable Frances of Rome.

Having for forty years led a most saintly life in the married state upon which she entered when but twelve years of age, Frances retired from the world where she had endured every sort of tribulation. But she had given her heart to her God long before she withdrew to the cloister. Her whole life had been spent in the exercise of the highest Christian perfection, and she had ever received from our Lord the sublimest spiritual favours. Her amiable disposition had won for her the love and admiration of her husband and children: the rich venerated her as their model, the poor respected her as their devoted benefactress and mother. God recompensed her angelic virtues by these two special graces: the almost uninterrupted sight of her Guardian Angel, and the receiving most sublime revelations. But there is one trait of her life which is particularly striking and reminds us forcibly of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, and of Saint Jane Frances Chantal: her austere practices of penance. Such an innocent, and yet such a mortified life, is full of instruction for us. How can we think of murmuring against the obligation of mortification when we find a saint like this practising it during her whole life? True, we are not bound to imitate her in the manner of her penance, but penance we must do if we would confidently approach that God who readily pardons the sinner when he repents, but whose justice requires atonement and satisfaction.

*****

O Frances, sublime model of every virtue! You were the glory of Christian Rome and the ornament of your sex. How insignificant are the pagan heroines of old compared with you! Your fidelity to the duties of your state, and all your saintly actions, had God for their one single end and motive. The world looked on you with amazement as though Heaven had lent one of its Angels to this Earth. Humility and penance put such energy into your soul that every trial was met and mastered. Your love for those whom God Himself had given you, your calm resignation and interior joy under tribulation, your simple and generous charity to every neighbour — all was evidence of God’s dwelling within your soul. Your seeing and conversing with your Angel Guardian and the wonderful revelations granted you of the secrets of the other world — how much these favours tell us of your merits? Nature suspended her laws at your bidding. She was subservient to you as to one that was already face to face with the Sovereign Master, and had the power to command. We admire these privileges and gifts granted you by our Lord and now beseech you to have pity on us who are so far from being in that path in which you so perseveringly walked. Pray for us that we may be Christians, practically and earnestly; that we may cease to love the world and its vanities; that we may courageously take up the yoke of our Lord and do penance; that we may give up our pride; that we may be patient and firm under temptation. Such was your influence with our Heavenly Father that you had but to pray, and a vine produced the richest clusters of fruit, even in the midst of winter. Our Jesus calls Himself the True Vine. Ask Him to give us of the wine of His divine love which His Cross has so richly prepared for us. When we remember how frequently you asked Him to let you suffer and accept your sufferings for poor sinners, we feel encouraged to ask you to offer your merits to Him for us. Pray, too, for Rome, your native city, that her people may be staunch to the faith, edifying by holiness of life, and loyal to the Church. May your powerful intercession bring blessings on the Faithful throughout the world, add to their number, and make them fervent as were our fathers of old.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Sebaste in Armenia, under the governor Agricolaus in the time of the emperor Licinius, the birthday of forty holy soldiers of Cappadocia. After being loaded with chains and confined in foul dungeons, after having their faces bruised with stones, and being condemned to spend the night naked during the coldest part of winter on a frozen lake, where their bodies were benumbed and laid open by the frost, they ended their martyrdom by having their limbs crushed. The noblest of them were Cyrion and Candidus. Their glorious triumph has been celebrated by St. Basil and other Fathers in their writings. Their feast is kept on the tenth of this month.

At Nyssa, the demise of St. Gregory, bishop, brother of blessed Basil the Great, whose life and erudition have rendered him illustrious. He was expelled from his own city for having defended the Catholic faith during the reign of the Arian emperor Valens.

At Barcelona in Spain, the bishop St. Pacian, distinguished by his life and preaching. He ended his career in extreme old age in the time of the emperor Theodosius.

In Moravia, the saintly bishops Cyril and Methodius, who brought to the faith of Christ many nations in those regions with their kings. Pope Leo XIII prescribed that their feast should be celebrated on the seventh of July.

At Bologna, St. Catherine, virgin, of the Order of St. Clare, illustrious by the holiness of her life. Her body is greatly honoured in that city.

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

Thanks be to God.

9 MARCH – MONDAY IN THE THIRD WEEK OF LENT

Epistle – 4 Kings v. 1‒15

In those days Naaman, general of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, for by him the Lord gave deliverance to Syria, and he was a valiant man and rich, but a leper. Now there had gone out robbers from Syria, and had led away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited upon Naaman’ wife. And she said to her mistress: “I wish my master had been with the prophet that is in Samaria. He would certainly have healed him of the leprosy which he has.” Then Naaman went in to his lord and told him, saying: “Thus and thus says the girl that came from the land of Israel.” 

And the king of Syria said to him: “Go, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment, and brought the letter to the king of Israel, in these words: “When you will receive this letter, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may heal him of his leprosy.” And when the king of Israel had read the letter, he rent his garments and said: “Am I God, to be able to kill and to give life, that this man has sent to me, to heal a man of his leprosy? Mark, and see how he seeks occasions against me.” And when Eliseus the man of God had heard this, to wit, that the king of Israel had rent his garments, he sent to him, saying: “Why have you rent your garments? Let him come to me, and let him know that there is a prophet in Israel.” 

So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of the house of Eliseus, and Eliseus sent a messenger to him, saying: “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will recover health, and you will be clean.” Naaman was angry and went away, saying: “I thought he would have come out to me, and standing, would have invoked the name of the Lord his God, and touched with his hand the place of the leprosy, and healed me. Are not the Abana, and the Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, that I may wash in them and be made clean?” So as he turned, and was going away with indignation, his servants came to him, and said to him: “Father, if the prophet had bid you do some great thing, surely you should have done it. How much rather what he now has said to you, ‘Wash and you will be clean?’” Then he went down and washed in the Jordan seven times according to the word of the man of God,; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and was made clean. And returning to the man of God with all his train, he came and stood before him and said: “In truth I know there is no other God in all the earth, but only in Israel.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Naaman’s leprosy is a figure of sin. There is but one cure for the loathsome malady of the Syrian officer: he must go, and wash seven times in the Jordan, and he will be made clean. The Gentile, the infidel, the infant, with its stain of original sin — all may he made just and holy, but this can only be effected by water and the invocation of the Blessed Trinity. Naaman objects to the remedy as being too simple. He cannot believe that one so insignificant can be efficacious. He refuses to try it. He expected something more in accordance with reason — for instance, a miracle that would have done honour both to himself and the Prophet. This was the reasoning of many a Gentile when the Apostles went about preaching the Gospel, but they that believed, with simple-hearted faith in the power of water sanctified by Christ, received regeneration, and the baptismal font created a new people, composed of all nations of the earth. Naaman, who represents the Gentiles, was at length induced to believe, and his faith was rewarded by a complete cure. His flesh was restored like that of a little child which has never suffered taint or disease. Let us give glory to God who has endowed water with the heavenly power it now possesses. Let us praise Him for the wonderful workings of His grace, which produces in docile hearts that faith whose recompense is so magnificent.

Gospel – Luke iv. 23‒30

At that time, Jesus said to the Pharisees: “Doubtless you will say to me this similitude: ‘Physician, heal yourself. As great things as we have heard done in Capharnaum, do also here in your own country.’” And He said: “Amen, I say to you that no prophet is accepted in his own country. In truth, I say to you, there were many widows in the days of Elias in Israel, when heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there was a great famine throughout all the land: and to none of them was Elias sent, but to Sarephta of Sidon, to a widow woman. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elieus the prophet, and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian.” And all they in the synagogue, hearing these things were filled with anger, and they rose up and thrust Him out of the city, and they brought him to the brow of the hill, on which their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong. But He passing through the midst of them, went His way.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Here again we find our Saviour proclaiming the mystery of the Gentiles being called to take the place of the incredulous Jews, and He mentions Naaman as an example of this merciful substitution. He also speaks, in the same sense, of the widow of Sarephta whose history we had a few days ago. This terrible resolution of our Lord to transfer His light from one people to another irritates the Pharisees of Nazareth against the Messiah. They know that Jesus, who has only just commenced His public life, has been working great miracles in Capharnaum: they would have Him honour their own little city in the same way, but Jesus knows that they would not be converted. 

Do these people of Nazareth so much as know Jesus? He has lived among them for eighteen years, during all which time He has been advancing in wisdom and age and grace before God and men (Luke ii. 52), but they despise Him, for He is a poor man, and the son of a carpenter. They do not even know that though He has passed so many years among them, He was not born in their city, but in Bethlehem. Not many days before this, Jesus had gone into the synagogue of Nazareth (Luke iv. 16‒22) and had explained, with marvellous eloquence and power, the Prophet Isaias. He told His audience that the time of mercy was come, and His discourse excited much surprise and admiration. But the Pharisees of the city despised His words. They have heard that He has been working great things in the neighbourhood. They are curious to see one of His miracles, but Jesus refuses to satisfy their unworthy desire. 

Let them recall to mind the discourse made by Jesus in their synagogue, and tremble at the announcement He then made to them, that the Gentiles were to become God’s chosen people. But the divine Prophet is not accepted in His own country, and had He not withdrawn Himself from the anger of His compatriots of Nazareth, the blood of the Just would have been shed that very day. But there is an unenviable privilege which belongs exclusively to Jerusalem — a Prophet cannot perish out of Jerusalem! (Luke viii. 33).

 

8 MARCH – SAINT JOHN OF GOD (Confessor)

 

John of God was born of Catholic and virtuous parents in Montemor, Portugal. At his birth a bright light shone on the house and the church bell was heard to ring of itself, God thus evincing to what great things he destined his servant. For some time he fell into a lax way of living but was reclaimed by God’s grace and led a very holy life. His conversion was effected by his hearing a sermon, and so fervently did he practise the exercises of a devout life that from the very first he seemed to have attained the height of perfection. He gave whatever he possessed to the poor who were in prison. Extraordinary were the penances he inflicted on himself, and the contempt he had for himself induced him to do certain things which led some people to accuse him of madness, so that he was for some time confined in a madhouse. His charity only increased by such treatment.

John collected alms sufficient to build two large hospitals in Granada where also he began the new Order with which he enriched the Church. This Order was called the Institute of Friars Hospitallers. Its object was to assist the sick, both in their spiritual and corporal wants. Its success was very great and it had Houses in almost all parts of the world. The Saint often carried the sick poor on his own shoulders to the hospital, and there he provided them with everything they could want, whether in soul or body. His charity was not confined within the limits of his hospitals. He secretly provided food for indigent widows, and girls whose virtue was exposed to danger. Nothing could exceed the zeal with which he laboured to reclaim such as had fallen into sins of impurity. On occasion of an immense fire breaking out in the royal Hospital of Granada, John fearlessly threw himself into the midst of the flames. He went through the several wards, taking the sick upon his shoulders and throwing the beds through the windows, so that all were saved. He remained half an hour amid the flames which raged with wildest fury in every part of the building. He was miraculously preserved from the slightest injury, and came forth to the astonishment of the whole city, teaching the people who had witnessed what had happened that, in the disciples of charity, there is a fire within their hearts more active than any which could burn the body.

Among the virtues in which John wonderfully excelled may be mentioned his many practices of bodily mortification, profound obedience, extreme poverty, love of prayer, contemplation and devotion to the Blessed Virgin. He also possessed, in an extraordinary degree, the gift of tears. At length, falling seriously ill, he fervently received the last Sacraments. Though reduced to a state of utter weakness, he dressed himself, rose from his bed, fell on his knees, devoutly took the Crucifix into his hands, pressed it to his heart, and kissing it, died on the eighth of the Ides of March (March 8th), in 1550. He remained in this same attitude, with the Crucifix still in his hands, for about six hours after his death. The entire city came to see the holy corpse which gave forth a heavenly fragrance. The body was then removed in order that it might be buried. God honoured his servant by many miracles, both before and after his death, and he was canonised by Pope Alexander VIII.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This day in the month we were keeping the feast of Saint John of Matha whose characteristic virtue was charity. Our Saint of today was like him. Love for his neighbour led him to devote himself to the service of them that most needed help. Both are examples to us of what is a principal duty of this present Season: they are models of Fraternal Charity. They teach us this great lesson — that our love of God is false if our hearts are not disposed to show mercy to our neighbour, and help him in his necessities and troubles. It is the same lesson as that which the Beloved Disciple gives us when he says: “He that has the substance of this world, and will see his brother in need, and will put up his mercy from him, how does the charity of God abide in him? (1 John iii. 17).

But if there can be no love of God where there is none for our neighbour, the love of our neighbour itself is not genuine unless it be accompanied by a love of our Creator and Redeemer. The charity which the world has set up, which it calls Philanthropy, and which it exercises not in the name of God but solely for the sake of man, this pretended virtue is a mere delusion, is incapable of producing love between those who give and those who receive, and its results must necessarily be unsatisfactory. There is but one tie which can make men love one another: that tie is God who created them all and commands them all to be one in Him. To serve mankind for its own sake is to make a god of it and even viewing the workings of the two systems in this single point of view, the relief they afford to temporal suffering, what comparison is there between mere Philanthropy and that supernatural Charity of the humble disciples of Christ who make Him the very motive and end of all they do for their afflicted brethren? The Saint we honour today was called John of God because the Name of God was ever on his lips. His heroic acts of charity had no other motive than that of pleasing God. God alone was the inspirer of the tender love he had for his suffering fellow-creatures. Let us imitate his example, for our Lord assures us that He considers as done to Himself whatever we do even for the least of His disciples.

*****

What a glorious life was yours, O John of God! It was one of charity, and of miracles wrought by charity. Like Vincent of Paul, you were poor and, in your early life, a shepherd-boy like him. But the charity which filled your heart gave you a power to do what worldly influence and riches never can. Your name and memory are clear to the Church. They deserve to be held in benediction by all mankind, for you spent your life in serving your fellow-creatures for God’s sake. That motive gave you a devotedness to the poor, which is an impossibility for those who befriend them from mere natural sympathy. Philanthropy may be generous and its workings may be admirable for ingenuity and order, but it never can look upon the poor man as a sacred object because it refuses to see God in Him. Pray for the men of this generation that they may at length desist from perverting charity into a mere mechanism of relief. The poor are the representatives of Christ, for He Himself has willed that they be such: and if the world refuse to accept them in this their exalted character, if it denies their resemblance to our Redeemer, it may succeed in degrading the poor, but this very degradation will make them enemies of its insulter. Your predilection, O John of God, was for the sick. Have pity, therefore, on our times which are ambitious to eliminate the supernatural and exclude God from the world by what is called secularisation of society. Pray for us that we may see how evil a thing it is to have changed the Christian for the worldly spirit. Kindle holy charity within our hearts, that during these days, when we are striving to draw down the mercy of God upon ourselves, we also may show mercy. May we, as you did, imitate the example of our Blessed Redeemer who gave Himself to us who were His enemies and deigned to adopt us as His brethren. Protect also the Order you instituted and which has inherited your spirit, that it may prosper and spread in every place the sweet odour of that charity which is its very name.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Antinous in Egypt, the birthday of the holy martyr Philemon, and the deacon Apollonius. As they firmly refused to sacrifice to the idols when they were apprehended and brought before the judge, they had their heels transpierced, were barbarously dragged through the city and finally consummated their martyrdom by the edge of the sword.

Also in the same place, the passion of the Saints Arianus, governor, Theoticus and three others, who were submerged in the sea by order of the judge. Their bodies were brought to the shore by dolphins.

At Nicomedia, St. Quinctilis, bishop and martyr.

At Carthage, St. Pontius, deacon of bishop St. Cyprian, who remained in banishment with him until his death, and composed an excellent history of his life and martyrdom. By ever glorifying God in his own sufferings he merited the crown of life.

Also in Africa, the Saints Cyril, bishop, Rogatus, Felix, another Rogatus, Beata, Herenia, Felicitas, Urbanus, Sylvanus and Mamillus.

At Toledo in Spain, the demise of blessed Julian, bishop and confessor, most celebrated for his sanctity and learning.

In England, St. Felix, bishop, who converted the East Angles to the faith.

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

Thanks be to God.

8 MARCH – THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

Epistle – Ephesians v. 1‒9

Brethren, be followers of God, as most dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has delivered Himself for us, an oblation, and a sacrifice to God, for an odour of sweetness. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not as much as be named among you, as becomes saints; nor obscurity, nor foolish talking, nor scurrility, which is to no purpose; but rather giving of thanks: for know this and understand, that no fornicator, nor unclean, nor covetous person, which is a serving of idols, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things comes the anger of God on the children of unbelief Be not therefore partakers with them. For you were heretofore darkness; but now light in the Lord. Walk, then, as children of the light; for the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Apostle, speaking to the faithful of Ephesus, reminds them how they once were darkness, but note, he says, you are Light in the Lord...

We were sanctified almost as soon as we came into the world. Have we been faithful to our Baptism? We, heretofore, were Light. How comes it that we are now darkness? The beautiful likeness to our Heavenly Father, which was once upon us, is perhaps quite gone! But, thanks to Divine Mercy, we may recover it. Let us do so, by again renouncing Satan and his idols. Let our repentance and penance restore within us that Light, whose fruit consists in all goodness, justice, and truth.

Gospel – Luke xi. 14‒28

At that time, Jesus was casting out a devil, and the same was dumb. And when He had cast out the devil, the dumb spoke and the multitudes were in admiration at it. But some of them said, “He casts out devils by Beelzebub the prince of devils.” And others tempting, asked of Him a sign from heaven. But seeing their thoughts, He said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be brought to desolation, and house upon house will fall. And if Satan is also divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say that through Beelzebub I cast out devils. Now if I cast out devils by Beelzebub, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. But if I, by the finger of God, cast out devils, doubtless the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man armed keeps his court, those things which he possesses are in peace. But if one stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he will take away all his armour in which he trusted and will distribute his spoils. He that is not with me, is against me, and he that gathers not with me, scatters. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walks through places without water, seeking rest, and not finding, he says, ‘I will return into my house from where I came out,’ and when he has come, he finds it swept and garnished. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering in they dwell there, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” And it came to pass, as He spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd raising her voice said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that gave you to suck.” But He said, “Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

As soon as Jesus had cast out the devil, the man recovered his speech, for the possession had made him dumb. It is an image of what happens to a sinner who will not, or dare not, confess his sin. If he confessed it and asked pardon he would be delivered from the tyranny which now oppresses him. Alas! How many there are who are kept back by a dumb devil from making the Confession that would save them! The holy Season of Lent is advancing. These days of grace are passing away. Let us profit by them, and if we ourselves be in the state of grace, let us offer up our earnest prayers for sinners that they may speak, that is, may accuse themselves in Confession and obtain pardon.

Let us also listen, with holy fear, to what our Saviour tells us with regard to our invisible enemies. They are so powerful and crafty that our resistance would be useless unless we had God on our side, and his holy Angels who watch over us and join us in the great combat. It was to these unclean and hateful spirits of Hell that we delivered ourselves when we sinned: we preferred their tyrannical sway to the sweet and light yoke of our compassionate Redeemer. Now we are set free, or are hoping to be so. Let us thank our Divine Liberator, but let us take care not to re-admit our enemies. Our Saviour warns us of our danger. They will return to the attack. They will endeavour to force their entrance into our soul after it has been sanctified by the Lamb of the Passover. If we be watchful and faithful, they will be confounded and leave us, but if we be tepid and careless, if we lose our appreciation of the grace we have received and forget our obligations to Him who has saved us, our defeat is inevitable, and as our Lord says, our last state is to be worse than the first.

Would we avoid such a misfortune? Let us meditate on those other words of our Lord in today’s Gospel: He that is not with me is against me. What makes us fall back into the power of Satan and forget our duty to our God is that we do not frankly declare ourselves for Jesus when occasions require us to do so. We try to be on both sides, we have recourse to subterfuge, we temporise: this takes away our energy. God no longer gives us the abundant graces we received when we were loyal and generous. Our relapse is all but certain. Therefore, let us be boldly and unmistakeably with Christ. He that is a soldier of Jesus, should be proud of his title!

HAVING now passed the fourteenth day of this Season which forms the tithe of our year, we lift up our eyes to you, O Lord, who dwells in Heaven. Show mercy to the miserable, and heal them that are wounded. Grant that the journey we have begun may be prosperous. Direct our hearts in the way of your commandments. Through you may we find the way of light: through you may we be inflamed with the bright burning of your love. Grant rest to our labours, and a home to us that labour, that having gained your good pleasure by our observance of these days, we may deserve to be partakers of your glory. Amen.

7 MARCH – SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS (Confessor and Doctor of the Church)

 

Thomas was born of noble parents, his father being Landulph, Count of Aquino, and his mother a rich Neapolitan lady called Theodora. When he was five years old he was sent to Monte Cassino that he might receive his first training from the Benedictine monks. Thence he was sent to Naples where he went through a course of studies and, young as he was, joined the Order of Friars Preachers. This step caused great displeasure to his mother and brothers, and it was therefore deemed advisable to send him to Paris. Thomas was waylaid by his brothers who seized him and imprisoned him in the castle of Saint John. After having made several unsuccessful attempts to induce him to abandon the holy life he had chosen, they assailed his purity by sending to him a wicked woman, but he drove her from his chamber with a fire-brand. The young saint then threw himself on his knees before a crucifix. Having prayed some time, he fell asleep and it seemed to him that two Angels approached to him, and tightly girded his loins. From that time forward Thomas never suffered the slightest feeling against purity. His sisters, also, had come to the castle, and tried to make him change his mind, but he persuaded them to despise the world and devote themselves to the exercise of a holy life. It was contrived that he should escape through a window of the castle and return to Naples. He was thence taken by John the Teutonic, the general of the Dominican Order, first to Rome, and then to Paris, in which city he was taught philosophy and theology by Albert the Great.

At the age of twenty-five Thomas received the title of Doctor and explained in the public schools, and in a manner that made him the object of universal admiration, the writings of philosophers and theologians. He always applied himself to prayer before reading or writing anything. When he met with any difficult passage in the Sacred Scriptures, he both fasted and prayed. He used often to say to his companion Brother Reginald that if he knew anything, it was more a gift from God than the fruit of his own study and labour. One day, when at Naples, as he was praying, with more than his usual fervour before a crucifix, he heard these words: “Well have you written of me, Thomas! What reward would you have me give you?” He answered: “None other, Lord, but yourself.” There was not a book which he had not most carefully read. His favourite spiritual book was the Conferences of the Fathers. He was most zealous in preaching the Word of God. On one occasion during Easter Week, as he was preaching in the Church of Saint Peter, a woman touched the hem of his habit and was cured of an issue of blood. His writings are so extraordinary, not only for their number and their variety, but also for their clearness in the explaining difficult points of doctrine that he has received the title of Angelical Doctor. He was invited to Rome by Pope Urban IV, but nothing could induce him to accept the honours which were offered him. He refused the Archbishopric of Naples, which Pope Clement IV begged him to accept. Thomas was sent by Pope Gregory X to the Council of Lyons, but having got as far as Fossa Nova, he fell sick. He was received as a guest in the monastery there and wrote a commentary on the Canticle of Canticles. There he died aged 50 in 1274 on the Nones of March (March 7th). His sanctity was made manifest by miracles both before and after his death. He was canonised by Pope John XXII in 1323 and his body was translated to Toulouse during the Pontificate of Pope Urban V.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Saint we are to honour today is one of the sublimest and most lucid interpreters of Divine Truth. He rose up in the Church many centuries after the Apostolic Age, long after the four great Latin Doctors, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome and Gregory. The Church, the ever young and joyful Mother, is justly proud of her Thomas, and has honoured him with the splendid title of The Angelical Doctor, on account of the extraordinary gift of understanding with which God had blessed him, just as his co-temporary and friend Saint Bonaventure has been called the Seraphic Doctor on account of the wonderful unction which abounds in the writings of this worthy disciple of Saint Francis. Thomas Aquinas is an honour to mankind, for perhaps there never existed a man whose intellect surpassed his. He is one of the brightest ornaments of the Church, for not one of her Doctors has equalled him in the clearness and precision with which he has explained her doctrines. He received the thanks of Christ Himself for having well written of Him and His mysteries. How welcome ought not this Feast of such a Saint to be to us during this Season of the Year when our main study is our return and conversion to God? What greater blessing could we have than the coming to know this God? Has not our ignorance of God, and His claims, and His perfections been the greatest misery of our past lives? Here we have a Saint whose prayers are most efficacious in procuring for us that knowledge which is unspotted and converts souls, and gives wisdom to little ones, and gladdens the heart, and enlightens the eyes (Psalm xviii. 8, 9). Happy we if this spiritual wisdom be granted us! We will then see the vanity of everything that is not eternal, the righteousness of the divine commandments, the malice of sin and the infinite goodness with which God treats us when we repent.

*****

How shall we worthily praise you, most holy Doctor! How shall we thank you for what you have taught us? The rays of the Divine Sun of Justice beamed strongly upon you, and you have reflected them upon us. When we picture you contemplating Truth, we think of those words of our Lord: “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God” (Matthew v. 8). Your victory over the concupiscence of the flesh merited for you the highest spiritual delights, and our Redeemer chose you because of the purity of your angelic soul to compose for His Church the Office by which she should celebrate the Divine Sacrament of His Love. Learning did not impair your humility. Prayer was ever your guide in your search after Truth, and there was but one reward for which, after all your labours, you were ambitious — the possession of God.

Your life, alas, was short. The very masterpiece of your angelical writings was left unfinished. But you have not lost your power of working for the Church. Aid her in her combats against error. She holds your teachings in the highest estimation because she feels that none of her Saints has ever known so well as you the secrets and Mysteries of her Divine Spouse. Now, perhaps more than in any other age, Truths are decayed — they are diminished among the children of men (Psalm xi. 2). Strengthen us in our Faith, get us Light. Check the conceit of those shallow self-constituted philosophers who dare to sit in judgement over the actions and decisions of the Church and force their contemptible theories upon a generation that is too ill-instructed to detect their fallacies. The atmosphere around us is gloomy with ignorance: loose principles and truths spoilt by cowardly compromise are the fashion of our times. Pray for us, bring us back to that bold and simple acceptance of truth which gives life to the intellect and joy to the heart.

Pray, too, for the grand Order which loves you so devoutly, and honours you as one of the most illustrious of its many glorious children. Draw down upon the family of your Patriarch Saint Dominic the choicest blessings, for it is one of the most powerful auxiliaries of God’s Church. We are on the eve of the holy season of Lent. We are preparing for the great work of earnest conversion of our lives. Your prayers must gain for us the knowledge both of the God we have offended by our sins, and of the wretched state of a soul that is at enmity with its Maker. Knowing this, we will hate our sins. We will desire to purify our souls in the Blood of the spotless Lamb. We will generously atone for our faults by works of penance.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Tuburbum in Mauritania (Barbary), in the reign of the emperor Severus, the birthday of the Saints Perpetua and Felicitas whose festival is kept on the sixth of this month. St. Augustine relates that Felicitas, being with child, her execution was deferred according to the laws until after her delivery, and while she was in labour she mourned, and when exposed to the beasts, she rejoiced. With them suffered Revocatus, Saturninus and Secundulus. This last died in prison. All the others were delivered to the beasts.

At Caesarea in Palestine, the passion of St. Eubulus, the companion of St. Adrian. Two days after the latter, being mangled by the lions and killed with the sword, he was the last of all those who received the crown of martyrdom in that city.

At Nicomedia, St. Theophilus, bishop, who was driven into exile for the worship of holy images, and there closed his life.

At Pelusium in Egypt, St. Paul, bishop, who for the same cause also died an exile.

At Brescia, St. Gaudiosus, bishop and confessor.

In Thebais, St. Paul, surnamed the Simple.

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

Thanks be to God.

7 MARCH – SATURDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – Genesis xxvii. 5‒40

In those days, Rebecca said to her son Jacob: “I heard your father talking with Esau your brother, and saying to him, ‘Bring me of your hunting, and make me meats that I may eat, and bless you in the sight of the Lord before I die.’ Now, therefore, my son, follow my counsel and go your way to your flock, bring me two kids of the best, that I may make of them meat for your father, such as he gladly eats; which when you have brought in, and he has eaten, he may bless you before he dies.” And he answered her: “You know that Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am smooth. If my father feels me and perceives it, I fear lest he will think I would have mocked him, and I will bring on me a curse instead of a blessing.” 

And his mother said to him: “On me be this curse, my son; only hear you my voice, and go, fetch me the things which I have said.” He went, and brought, and gave them to his mother. She dressed meat such as she knew his father liked. And she put on him very good garments of Esau, which she had at home with her; and the little skins of the kids she put about his hands and covered the bare of his neck. And she gave him the savoury meat, and delivered him bread that she had baked. Which when he had carried in, he said: “My father?” But he answered: “I hear; who are you my son?” And Jacob said: “I am Esau your first-born; I have done as you commanded me; arise, sit, and eat of my venison that your soul may bless me. And Isaac said to his son: “How could you find it so quickly, my son?” He answered: “It was the will of God that what I sought came quickly in my way.” And Isaac said: “Come here, that I may feel you my son, and may prove whether you are my son Esau or not.” He came near to his father, and when he had felt him Isaac said: “The voice, indeed is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” And he knew him not, because his hairy hands made him like the elder. Then blessing him, he said: “Are you my son Esau?” He answered: “I am.” Then he said: “Bring me the meats of your hunting, my son, that my soul may bless you.” And when they were brought and he had eaten, he offered him wine also, which after he had drunk, he said to him: “Come near me, and give me a kiss, my son.” He came near, and kissed him. And immediately as he smelled the fragrant smell of his garments, blessing him, he said: “Behold the smell of my son is as the smell of a plentiful field, which the Lord has blessed. God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, abundance of corn and wine. And let peoples serve you, and tribes worship you; be lord of your brethren, and let your mother’s children bow down before you. Cursed be he that curses you, and let him that blesses you be filled with blessings.” 

Isaac had scarce ended his words when Jacob having now gone out abroad, Esau came and brought into his father meats made of what he had taken in hunting, saying: “Arise, my father, and eat of your son’s venison that your soul may bless me.” And Isaac said to him: “Why! Who are you?” He answered: “I am your first-born son Esau.” Isaac was struck with fear, and astonished exceedingly, and wondering beyond what can be believed, said: “Who is he that even now brought me venison that he has taken, and I ate of all before you earned? and I have blessed him, and he will be blessed.” Esau having heard his father’s words, roared out with a great cry, and being in a consternation said: “Bless me also, my father.” And he said: “Your brother came deceitfully and got your blessing.” But he said again: “Rightly is his name called Jacob, for he has supplanted me, lo! This second time, my first birthright he took away before, and now this second time he has stolen away my blessing.” And again he said to his father: “Have you not reserved me also a blessing?” Isaac answered: “I have appointed him your lord, and have made all his brethren his servants: I have established him with corn and oil, and after this, what shall I do more for you, my son?” And Esau said to him: “Have you only one blessing, father? I beseech you, bless me also.” And when he wept with a loud cry, Isaac being moved, said to him: “In the fat of the earth, and in the dew of heaven from above, will your blessing be.”

Thanks be to God.

Gospel – Luke xv. 11‒32

At that time, Jesus spoke to the Scribes and Pharisees this parable: “A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father: ‘Father, give me the portion of substance that falls to me.’ And he divided to them his substance. And not many days after, the younger son, gathering all together, went abroad into a far country and there wasted his substance with living riotously. And after he had spent all there came a mighty famine in that country, and he began to be in want. And he went and cleaved to one of the citizens of that country. And he sent him into his farm to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks the swine did eat, and no man gave to him. And returning to himself he said: How many hired servants in my father’s house abound with bread, and I here perish with hunger! I will arise, and will go to my father, and say to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you. I am not now worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.’ And rising up, he came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and running to him fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you. I am not now worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants: ‘Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring here the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry, because this my son was dead and has now come to life again, was lost, and is found.’ And they began to be merry. Now his eldest son was in the field, and when he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing, and he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said to him: ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe.’ And he was angry and would not go in. His father therefore coming out began to entreat him. And he answering, said to his father: ‘Behold, for so many years do I serve you, and I have never transgressed your commandment, and yet you have never given me a kid to make merry with my friends. But as soon as this your son has come, who has devoured his substance with harlots, you have killed for him the fatted calf.’ But he said to him: ‘Son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours. But it was fit that we should make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost, and is found.’”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Saint Ambrose of Milan:

You see how that the heavenly goods are given to such as seek them. Neither ought you to think the father to blame because he gave to his younger son. In the kingdom of God there is no age of weakness, neither does faith wax infirm with years. He, surely, who asked, deemed himself of sufficient age. And would that he had not left his father! then had he been ignorant of the obstacle of his age! But after that he had left his father’s house and had gone into a far country, he began to be in want. Well is he said to have wasted his substance, who has cut himself off from the Church!

He took his journey into a far country. No man can go further than to abandon his own better self, to leave, not his country, but his morals and, as it were, in an hideous fever of lust after the world, to divorce himself from the ties that bind him to holy things. Yes, he that turns his back on Christ, banishes himself from his Fatherland and becomes a citizen of the world. But we “are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,” since we “who sometimes were afar off, are made near by the Blood of Christ” (Ephesians ii. 19, 13). Let us not envy the pleasures of them who remain in the far country. We too have once been there, but, as says Isaias, “they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined” (ix. 2.). And that far country is the land of the shadow of death.

But we to whom the Lord Christ is the breath of life, are alive under the shadow of Christ. And therefore it is that the Church says: “I sat down under His shadow with great delight” (Canticles ii. 3). The prodigal son by riotous living wasted all the gifts of nature. Take warning, you who are made in the image and likeness of God, lest you waste the same by brutish wallowing. You are the work of God; say not “to a stock: You are my father,” (Jeremias ii. 27), lest you grow into the likeness of a stock, as it is written: “hey that make them are like them” (Psalm cxiii. 16).

6 MARCH – SAINTS PERPETUA AND FELICITAS (Martyrs)

 

During the reign of the Emperor Severus, several catechumens were apprehended at Carthage in Africa. Among these were Revocatus and his fellow servant Felicitas, Saturninus and Secundulus, and Vivia Perpetua, a lady by birth and education, who was married to a man of wealth. Perpetua was about twenty-two years of age, and was suckling an infant. She has left us the following particulars of her martyrdom:

“As soon as our persecutors had apprehended us, my father came to me and, out of his great love for me, he tried to make me change my resolution. I said to him: ‘Father, I cannot consent to call myself other than what I am — a Christian.’ At these words he rushed at me, threatening to tear out my eyes. But he only struck me, and then he left me, when he found that the arguments suggested to him by the devil were of no avail. A few days after this, we were baptised and the Holy Ghost inspired me to look on this baptism as a preparation for bodily suffering. A few more days elapsed, and we were sent to prison. I was terrified, for I was not accustomed to such darkness. The report soon spread that we were to be brought to trial. My father left the city, for he was heartbroken, and he came to me, hoping to shake my purpose. These were his words to me: ‘My child, have pity on my old age. Have pity on your father, if I deserve to be called Father. Think of your brothers, think of your mother, think of your son, who cannot live when you are gone. Give up this mad purpose, or you will bring misery upon your family.’ While saying this, which he did out of love for me, he threw himself at my feet and wept bitterly, and said he besought this of me, not as his child, but as his lady. I was moved to tears to see my aged parent in this grief, for I knew that he was the only one of my family that would not rejoice at my being a martyr. I tried to console him and said: ‘I will do whatever God will ordain. You know that we belong to God, and not to ourselves.’ He then left me and was very sad. On the following day, as we were taking our repast, they came upon us suddenly and summoned us to trial. We reached the forum. We were made to mount a platform. My companions were questioned and they confessed the faith. My turn came next and I immediately saw my father approaching towards me, holding my infant son. He drew me from the platform, and besought me, saying: ‘Have pity on your baby!’ Hilarian, too, the governor, said to me: ‘Have pity on your aged father, have pity on your baby! Offer up sacrifice for the Emperors.’ I answered him: ‘I cannot. I am a Christian.’ Whereupon, he sentences all of us to be devoured by the wild beasts and we, full of joy, return to our prison. But as I had hitherto always had my child with me in prison and fed him at my breast, I immediately sent word to my father, beseeching him to let him come to me. He refused, and from that moment neither the baby asked for the breast, nor did I suffer inconvenience, for God thus willed it.”

All this is taken from the written account left by the blessed Perpetua, and it brings us to the day before she was put to death. As regards Felicitas, she was in the eighth month of her pregnancy when she was apprehended. The day of the public shows was near at hand, and the fear that her martyrdom would be deferred on account of her being with child made her very sad. Her fellow-martyrs, too, felt much for her, for they could not bear the thought of seeing so worthy a companion disappointed in the hope, she had in common with themselves, of so soon reaching Heaven. Uniting, therefore, in prayer, they with tears besought God in her behalf. It was the last day but two before the public shows. No sooner was their prayer ended than Felicitas was seized with pain. One of the gaolers who overheard her moaning, cried out: “If this pain seem to you so great, what will you do when you are being devoured by the wild beasts, which you pretended to heed not when you were told to offer sacrifice?” She answered: “What I am suffering now, it is indeed I that suffer. But there, there will be another in me, who will suffer for me, because I will be suffering for Him.” She was delivered of a daughter, and one of our sisters adopted the infant as her own. The day of their victory dawned. They left their prison for the amphitheatre, cheerful, and with faces beaming with joy, as though they were going to Heaven. They were excited, but it was from delight, not from fear.

The last in the group was Perpetua. Her placid look, her noble gait, betrayed the Christian matron. She passed through the crowd and saw no one, for her beautiful eyes were fixed upon the ground. By her side was Felicitas, rejoicing that her safe delivery enabled her to encounter the wild beasts. The devil had prepared a savage cow for them. They were put into a net. Felicitas was brought forward the first. She was tossed into the air and fell upon her back. Observing that one side of her dress was torn, she adjusted it, heedless of her pain, because thoughtful for modesty. Having recovered from the fall, she put up her hair which was dishevelled by the shock, for it was not seemly that a martyr should win her palm and have the appearance of one distracted by grief. This done, she stood up. Seeing Felicitas much bruised by her fall, she went to her and giving her her hand, she raised her from the ground. Both were now ready for a fresh attack but the people were moved to pity, and the martyrs were led to the gate called Sana-Vivaria. There Perpetua, like one that is roused from sleep, awoke from the deep ecstasy of her spirit. She looked around her, and said to the astonished multitude: “When will the cow attack us?” They told her that it had already attacked them. She could not believe it until her wounds and torn dress reminded her of what had happened. Then beckoning to her brother, and to a catechumen named Busticus, she thus spoke to them. “Be staunch in the faith, and love one another, and be not shocked at our sufferings.”

God soon took Secundulus from this world, for he died while he was in the prison. Saturninus and Revocatus were exposed first to a leopard, and then to a bear. Saturus was exposed to a boar, and then to a bear, which would not come out of its den. Thus was he twice left uninjured, but at the close of the games he was thrown to a leopard, which bit him so severely that he was all covered with blood, and as he was taken from the amphitheatre, the people jeered at him for this second baptism, and said: “Saved, washed! Saved, washed!” He was then carried off, dying as he was, to the appointed place, there to be despatched by the sword with the rest. But the people demanded that they should be led back to the middle of the amphitheatre, that their eyes might feast on the sight, and watch the sword as it pierced them. The Martyrs hearing their request, cheerfully stood up and marched to the place where the people would have them go. But first they embraced one another, that the sacrifice of their martyrdom might be consummated with the solemn kiss of peace. All of them, without so much as a movement or a moan, received the swordman’s blow, save only Saturus, who died from his previous wounds, and Perpetua, who was permitted to feel more than the rest. Her executioner was a novice in his work, and could not thrust his sword through her ribs: she slightly moaned, then took his right hand, and pointing his sword towards her throat, told him that that was the place to strike. Perhaps it was that such a woman could not be otherwise slain than by her own consent, for the unclean spirit feared her.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The real Feast of these two illustrious heroines of the Faith is tomorrow, which is the anniversary of their martyrdom and triumph. But the memory of the Angel of the Schools, Saint Thomas Aquinas, shines so brightly on the seventh of March that it almost eclipses the two glorious stars of Africa. In consequence of this, the Holy See allows certain Churches to anticipate their Feast and keep it today. We take advantage of this permission and at once offer to the Christian reader the glorious spectacle of which Carthage was the scene in the year 203. Nothing could give us a clearer idea of that spirit of the Gospel according to which we are now studying to conform our whole life. Here are two women, two mothers. God asks great sacrifices from them. He asks them to give Him their lives, nay, more than their lives. And they obey with that simplicity and devotedness which made Abraham merit to be the Father of Believers.

Their two names, as Saint Augustine observes, are a presage of what awaits them in Heaven: a perpetual felicity. The example they set of Christian fortitude, is, of itself, a victory, which secures to the true Faith a triumph in the land of Africa. Saint Cyprian will soon follow them with his bold and eloquent appeal to the African Christians, inspiring them to die for their Faith. But his words, grand as they are, are less touching than the few pages written by the hand of the brave Perpetua who, though only twenty-two years of age, relates with all the self-possession of an angel, the trials she had to go through for God. And when she had to hurry off to the amphitheatre, she puts her pen into another’s hand, bidding him go on where she leaves off, and write the rest of the battle. As we read these charming pages, we seem to be in the company of the Martyrs. The power of divine grace, which could produce such heroism amidst a people demoralised by paganism, appears so great that even we grow courageous. And the very fact that the instruments employed by God for the destruction of the pagan world were frequently women, we cannot help saying with Saint John Chrysostom: “I feel an indescribable pleasure in reading the Acts of the Martyrs. But when the Martyr is a woman, my enthusiasm is doubled. For the frailer the instrument, the greater is the grace, the brighter the trophy, the grander the victory. And this, not because of her weakness, but because the devil is conquered by her by whom he once conquered us. He conquered by a woman, and now a woman conquers him. She that was once his weapon, is now his destroyer, brave and invincible. That first one sinned, and died. This one died that she might not sin. Eve was flushed by a lying promise and broke the law of God. Our heroine disdained to live, when her living was to depend on her breaking her faith to Him who was her dearest Lord. What excuse, after this, for men, if they be soft and cowards? Can they hope for pardon when women fought the holy battle with such brave, and manly, and generous hearts?”

* * * * *

Perpetua! Felicitas! Oh glorious and prophetic names which come like two bright stars of March, pouring out upon us your rays of light and life! You are heard in the songs of the Angels, and we poor sinners, as we echo them on Earth, are told to love and hope. You remind us of that brave woman who, as the Scripture says, kept up the battle begun by men: The valiant men ceased: who will follow them? A Mother in Israel (Judges v. 7). Glory be to that Almighty power which loves to choose the weak things of the world that it may confound the strong! (1 Corinthians i. 27). Glory to the Church of Africa, the daughter of the Church of Rome. And glory to the Church of Carthage, which had not then heard the preachings of her Cyprian, and yet could produce two such noble hearts!

As to you, Perpetua, you are held in veneration by the whole Christian world. Your name is mentioned by God’s priests in the Holy Mass, and thus your memory is associated with the Sacrifice of the Man-God, for love of whom you laid down your life. And those pages written by your own hand, how they reveal to us the generous character of your soul! How they comment those words of the Canticle: Love is strong as death! (Canticles viii. 6). It was your love of God that made you suffer, and die, and conquer. Even before the water of Baptism had touched you, you were enrolled among the Martyrs. When the hard trial came of resisting a father who wished you to lay down the palm of martyrdom, how bravely you triumphed over thy filial affection in order to save that which is due to our Father who is in Heaven! Nay, when the hardest test came — when the baby that fed at your breast was taken from you in your prison — even then your love was strong enough for the sacrifice, as was Abraham’s, when he had to immolate his Isaac.

Your fellow-martyrs deserve our admiration. They are so grand in their courage. But you, dear Saint, surpass them all. Your love makes you more than brave in your sufferings, it makes you forget them. “Where were you” we would ask you in the words of Saint Augustine, “where were you, that you did not feel the goading of that furious beast, asking when it was to be, as though it had not been? Where were you? What did you see that made you see not this ? On what were you feasting that made you dead to sense? What was the love that absorbed, what was the sight that distracted, what was the chalice that inebriated you? And yet the ties of flesh were still holding you, the claims of death were still upon you, the corruptible body was still weighing you down! But our Lord had prepared you for the final struggle by asking sacrifice at your hands. This made your life wholly spiritual, and gave your soul to dwell by love, with Him, who had asked you for all and received it. And thus living in union with Jesus, your spirit was all but a stranger to the body it animated. It was impatient to be wholly with its Sovereign Good. Your eager hand directs the sword that is to set you free. And as the executioner severs the last tie that holds you, how voluntary was your sacrifice, how hearty your welcome of death! Truly, you were the Valiant, the Strong Woman (Proverbs xxxi. 10) that conquered the wicked serpent! Your greatness of soul has merited for you a high place among the heroines of our holy Faith, and for [eighteen] hundred years you have been honoured by the enthusiastic devotion and love of the servants of God.

And you, too, Felicitas, receive the homage of our veneration, for you were found worthy to be a fellow-martyr with Perpetua. Though she was a rich matron of Carthage, and you a servant, yet Baptism and Martyrdom made you companions and sisters. The Lady and the Slave embraced, for Martyrdom made you equal. And as the spectators saw you hand in hand together, they must have felt that there was a power in the Religion they persecuted which would put an end to slavery. The power and grace of Jesus triumphed in you, as it did in Perpetua. And thus was fulfilled your sublime answer to the pagan who dared to jeer you — that when the hour of trial came, it would not be you that would suffer, but Christ, who would suffer in you. Heaven is now the reward of your sacrifice. Well did you merit it. And that baby that was born in your prison, what a happy child to have for its mother a Martyr in Heaven! How would you not bless both it and the mother who adopted it! Oh what fitness in such a soul as yours for the Kingdom of God! (Luke ix. 62) Not once looking back, but ever bravely speeding onwards to Him that called you. Your felicity is perpetual in Heaven. Your glory on Earth will never cease.

And now, dear Saints, Perpetua and Felicitas, intercede for us during this season of grace. Go with your palms in your hands to the throne of God, and beseech Him to pour down His mercy upon us. It is true, the days of paganism are gone by and there are no persecutors clamouring for our blood. You and countless other Martyrs have won victory for Faith, and that Faith is now ours. We are Christians. But there is a second paganism which has taken deep root among us. It is the source of that corruption which now pervades every rank of society, and its own two sources are indifference which chills the heart, and sensuality which induces cowardice. Holy Martyrs, pray for us that we may profit by the example of your virtues, and that the thought of your heroic devotedness may urge us to be courageous in the sacrifices which God claims at our hands. Pray, too, for the Churches which are now being established on that very spot of Africa which was the scene of your glorious martyrdom: bless them, and obtain for them, by your powerful intercession, firmness of faith and purity of morals.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Nicomedia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Victor and Victorinus, who were, with Claudian and his wife Bassa, subjected to many torments during three years and were then thrust into prison where they ended the pilgrimage of life.

At Tortona, St. Marcian, bishop and martyr, who received the crown of immortality by being killed under Trajan for the glory of Christ.

At Constantinople, St. Evagrius, who was elected bishop by the Catholics in the reign of Valens, and being exiled by that emperor, departed for heaven.

In Cyprus, in the time of the emperor Decius, St. Conon, martyr, who, being compelled to run before a chariot with his feet pierced with nails, fell on his knees, and breathing a prayer expired.

Also the passion of forty-two holy martyrs, who were arrested in Amorium and taken to Syria where they received the palm of martyrdom after a valiant combat.

At Bologna, St. Basil, bishop, who was consecrated by Pope St. Sylvester, and by word and example governed with great holiness the church entrusted to his care.

At Barcelona in Spain, blessed Ollegarius, who was first a canon and afterwards bishop of Barcelona and archbishop of Tarragona.

At Ghent in Flanders, St. Colette, virgin, who at first professed the rule of the Third Order of St. Francis, and afterwards, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, restored the primitive discipline in a great number of monasteries of Nuns of the Second Order. As she was adorned with heavenly virtues and performed innumerable miracles, she was inscribed on the list of the saints by Pope Pius VII.

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

Thanks be to God.

6 MARCH – FRIDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – Genesis xxxvii. 6‒22

In those days Joseph said to his brethren: “Hear my dream which I have dreamed. I thought we were binding sheaves in the field, and my sheaf arose, as it were, and stood, and your sheaves, standing about, bowed down before my sheaf.” His brethren answered: “Will you be our king? or will we be subject to your dominion?” Therefore this matter of his dreams and words ministered nourishment to their envy and hatred. He dreamed also another dream which he told his brethren, saying: “I saw in a dream, as it were, the sun and the moon and eleven stars worshipping me.” And when he had told this to his father and brethren, his father rebuked him and said: “What means this dream that you have dreamed? Will I and your mother, and your brethren, worship you on the earth?” His brethren therefore envied him, but his father considered the thing with himself. And when his brethren abode in Sichem, feeding their father’s flocks, Israel said to him: “Your brethren feed the sheep in Sichem; come, I will send you to them.” And when he answered: “I am ready,” he said to him: “Go, and see if all things be well with your brethren and the cattle, and bring me word again what is doing.” So being sent from the valley of Hebron, he came to Sichem. And a man found him there wandering in the field and asked him what he sought. But he answered: “I seek my brethren; tell me where they feed their flocks.” And the man said to him: “They are departed from this place, for I heard them say: Let us go to ‘Dothain.’” And Joseph went forward after his brethren and found them in Dothain. And when they saw him afar off, before he came near them, they thought to kill him, and said one to another: “Behold the dreamer comes; come, let us kill him, and cast him into some old pit: and we will say: Some evil beast has devoured him: and then it will appear what his dreams avail him.” And Ruben hearing this, endeavoured to deliver him out of their hands, and said: “Do not take away his life, nor shed his blood; but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and keep your hands harmless.” Now he said this, being desirous to deliver him out of their hands, and restore him to his father.

Thanks be to God.

Gospel – Matthew xxi. 33–46

At that time, Jesus spoke to the multitude of the Jews, and to the chief priests this parable: There was a householder who planted a vineyard and made a hedge round about it, and dug in it a press, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a strange country. And when the time of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits thereof. And the husbandmen laying hands on his servants, beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the former; and they did to them in like manner. And last of all he sent them his son, saying: “They will reverence my son.” But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves: “This is the heir, come, let us kill him and we will have his inheritance.” And taking him, they cast him forth out of the vineyard and killed him. When, therefore, the lord of the vineyard will come, what will he do to those husbandmen? They say to him: “He will bring those evil men to an evil end, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen that will render him the fruit in due season.” Jesus said to them: “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? By the Lord this has been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes.’ Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and will be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof. And whoever will fall on this stone will be broken, but on whoever it will fall, it will grind him to powder.” And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard His parables, they knew that He spoke of them. And seeking to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude because they held him as a prophet.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Saint Ambrose of Milan:

Many derive divers spiritual meanings from the term vineyard, but Isaias gives us to know that “the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth is the house of Israel,” (v. 7.) Who but God planted that vineyard? He it was that let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country; not that the Lord, Who is everywhere present, moves from place to place; but because He is near to them that seek Him, and from such as regard Him not He stands far away. For a long time He tarried away, lest He might seem to ask too early for the fruits of His vineyard. For where kindness is greatest, there ingratitude is worst.

Therefore it is well written in Matthew for our instruction that He “hedged it round about,” that is, He girded it with the fortifications of His own Divine protection that it might not easily lie open to the ravages of spiritual wild beasts. “" And dug a wine-press in it.” What sense are we to put upon the wine-press unless it be that the Psalms are here described under that title because in them the mysteries of the Lord’s Passion flow over like new wine, working under the power of the Holy Ghost ? Whence also, they upon whom the Holy Ghost was out-poured, were deemed to be drunken (Acts ii. 13) God therefore dug a wine-press into which the reasonable grapes of inward fruitfulness poured their spiritual richness.

“And built a tower”—that is, He raised up the goodly structure of the Law. And so this His vineyard, thus fortified, furnished and garnished, He gave over to the Jews. “And when the time of the fruit drew near, He sent His servants to the husbandmen.” Well does He call it the time of the fruit, not the time of the in-gathering. For the Jews yielded Him no fruit; the Lord had no in-gathering from that vineyard of which He said: “When I looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes.” (Isaias v. 4) Not with wine that makes glad the heart of man, not with the new wine of the spirit, reeked that wine-press, but with the blood of the Prophets, brutally shed.