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.

27 MAY – SAINT BEDE THE VENERABLE (Priest)

The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould:

Bede was born in 672 or 673 near the place where Benedict Biscop soon afterwards founded the religious house of Wearmouth, perhaps in the parish of Monkton, which appears to have been one of the earliest endowments of the monastery. As soon as he had reached his seventh year, Bede was sent to Wearmouth, and then to Jarrow, to profit by the teaching of Biscop, from which period to his death he continued to be an inmate of the later monastery.

After the death of Benedict Biscop, Bede pursued his studies under his successor Ceolfrid and, at the age of nineteen, about 692, was admitted to deacon’s orders by Saint John of Beverley, then newly restored to his see of Hexham, and in his thirtieth year he was ordained to the priesthood by the same prelate. The early age at which Bede received holy orders shows that he was then already distinguishing himself by his learning and piety, and there can be little doubt that his fame was widely spread before the commencement of the eighth century. At that period, according to that account which has been generally received, Bede was invited to Rome by Pope Sergius I to advise with that pontiff on some difficult points of church discipline. The authority for this circumstance is a letter of the pope to Ceolfrid, expressing his wish to see Bede at Rome, which has been inserted by William of Malmesbury in his History of England. It seems, however, nearly certain that Bede did not go to Rome on this occasion, and reasons have been stated for supposing the whole story, as far as Bede was concerned in it, to be a misrepresentation. If Bede was invited, we may suppose that the death of the pope the same year in which the letter was sent released him from the labours of the journey.

The remainder of Bede’s life appears to have passed in the tranquillity of study. He clung through life to the dear retreat that was his home, and within its peaceful walls composed his numerous books. But occasionally he went forth to other religious houses for brief visits. In 733 he spent some days in the monastery of York in company with his friend, Archbishop Egbert, but he declined another invitation from the same prelate towards the close of 734 on the plea of ill health, in a letter still preserved. Bede was at this time labouring under an asthmatic complaint which shortly afterwards carried him from the scene of his mortal labours. It is evident from various passages of his works that his days and nights were divided between the studies and researches which he pursued to his last hour, and the instructions he gave to the six hundred monks of Wearmouth and Jarrow. An existence more completely occupied it would be difficult to imagine. Except during the course of his last illness, he had no assistant in his work. “I am my own secretary,” he said, “I dictate, I compose, I copy all myself.”

His greatest work, that most precious to Englishmen, is unquestionably his Ecclesiastical History of England, our chief, almost our only authority for the early history of Christianity in our island. He was urged to undertake this by Albinus, abbot of Saint Augustine’s, Canterbury. Albinus furnished him with memoranda of all that had happened in Kent and the neighbouring counties in the time of the missionaries sent by Saint Gregory. He even sent a priest to Rome to search the archives of the Roman Church, with the permission of Gregory II, for the letters of his predecessors and other documents relative to the mission to England. All the bishops of England also assisted in the work by transmitting to the author what information they could collect concerning the origin of the faith in their dioceses. The abbots of the most important monasteries also furnished their contingent.

This pleasant and glorious life was not, however, without a cloud. He excited the criticism of narrow spirits. They even went so far as to treat him as a heretic because he had in his Chronology combated the general opinion that the world would last only six thousand years. He grew pale with surprise and horror, as he says to one of his friends in an apologetic letter which he charges his correspondent to read to Wilfrid, bishop of York, who seems to have given a certain encouragement to the slander by suffering it to pass in his hearing unrebuked. If, however, he had some enemies, he had more friends. Among these, in the first rank, it is pleasant to find the Celtic monks of Lindisfarne. Bede asks that his name should be inscribed on the roll of monks in the monastery founded by Saint Aidan. He especially desired this favour in order that his soul after death might have a share in the Masses and prayers of that numerous community, as if he had been one of themselves.

The details of his last sickness and death have been revealed to us in minute detail by an eye-witness, the monk Cuthbert:

“Nearly a fortnight before Easter (17th April, 734) he was seized by an extreme weakness in consequence of his difficulty of breathing, but without great pain. He continued thus till the Ascension (26th May), always joyous and happy, giving thanks to God day and night, and even every hour of the night and day. He gave us our lessons daily, and employed the rest of his time in chanting psalms, and passed every night, after a short sleep, in joy and thanksgiving, but without closing his eyes. From the moment of awaking he resumed his prayers and praises to God, with his arms outstretched as a cross. O happy man! He sang sometimes texts from Saint Paul and other scriptures, sometimes lines in our own language, for he was very able in English poetry, to this effect: ‘None is wiser than him needeth, ere his departure, than to ponder ere the soul flits, what good, what evil it hath wrought, and how after death it will be judged.’

He also sang antiphons according to our ritual and his own, one of which is, ‘O glorious King, Lord of all power, who, triumphing this day, did ascend up above the heavens, leave us not orphans; but send down on us from the Father the Spirit of Truth which Thou hast promised. Hallelujah.’ And when he came to the words, ‘leave us not orphans,‘ he burst into tears, and continued weeping. But an hour after he rallied himself and began to repeat the antiphon he had begun. By turns we read, and by turns we wept — nay, we wept while we read. In such joy we passed the days of Lent, till the aforesaid day. He often repeated, ‘The Lord scourgeth every son whom He receiveth,’ and much more out of Scripture; as also this sentence from Saint Ambrose, ‘I have not lived so as to be ashamed to live among you, nor do I fear to die, for our God is gracious.’

During these days he laboured to compose two works, besides his giving us our lessons and singing psalms. He was engaged on translating the Gospel of Saint John into the vulgar tongue for the benefit of the Church, and had got as far as the words, ‘But what are these among so many’ (S. John vi. 9), and he was also making some notes out of the book of Bishop Isidore; for he said, ‘I will not have my pupils read what is untrue, nor labour on what is profitless after my death.’ On the Tuesday before the Ascension his breath became much affected, and his feet swelled, but he passed all that day cheerfully and continued his dictation, saying, ‘Be quick with your writing, for I will not hold out much longer.’ So he spent the night awake giving thanks, and when morning broke, that is Wednesday, he ordered us to write with all speed what he had begun.

And there was one of us who said to him, ‘Most dear master, there is still one chapter wanting. Will it trouble you if I ask a few questions?’ for the rest of us had gone to make the Rogation procession. He answered, ‘It is no trouble. Take your pen, and write fast.’ And when it came to the ninth hour he said to me, ‘There are some articles of value in my chest, as peppercorns, napkins and incense. Run quickly and bring the priests of the monastery to me, that I may distribute among them the gifts which God has bestowed on me.’ And when they were come he spoke to each of them in turn, and entreated them to pray and offer the Holy Sacrifice for his soul, which they all readily promised, but they were all weeping, for he said ‘You will see my face again no more in this life. It is time for me to return to Him who formed me out of nothing. The time of my dissolution is at hand. I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ.’ Now when even came on, the boy above mentioned said, ‘Dear master, there is yet one sentence not written.’ He answered, ‘Then write it quickly now.’ Soon after the boy said, ‘It is finished. The sentence is now written.’ He replied, ‘It was well said, it is finished. Raise my old head in your arms, that I may look once more at the happy, holy place, where I was wont to pray, that sitting up in my bed I may call on my Father.’ And thus on the pavement of his little cell, singing ‘Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,’ he breathed his last, as he uttered the name of the Holy Ghost, and so departed to the heavenly kingdom. All who were present thought they had never seen any one die with so much devotion, and in so peaceful a state of mind.”

The monastic sanctuary towards which the dying look of Bede was turned still remains in part, if we may believe the best archaeologists, in the recently restored parish church of Jarrow, which has been carefully renovated in honour of England’s first great historian, every relic of the ancient building as old as Bede being carefully preserved. An old oak chair is still shown, which the saint is pretended to have used. Like all the other saints of the period, without exception, he was canonised by popular veneration, tacitly approved by the Church. Many pilgrims came to Jarrow to visit his tomb. His relics were stolen in the ninth century and carried to Durham, where they were placed with those of Saint Cuthbert. They were an object of veneration to the faithful up to the general profanation under Henry VIII who pulled down the shrine and buried them with those of all the other holy apostles and martyrs of Northumbria.

Towards the ninth century Bede received the appellation of the Venerable, which has ever since been attached to his name. As a specimen of the fables by which his biography was gradually obscured, we may cite the legends invented to account for the origin of this latter title. According to one, the Anglo-Saxon scholars were on a visit to Rome, and there saw a gate of iron on which was inscribed the letters P.P.P., S.S.S., R.R.R., F.F.F., which no one was able to interpret. While Bede was attentively considering the inscription, a Roman who was passing by said to him rudely, “What see you there, English ox?” to which Bede replied, “I see your confusion,” and he immediately explained the character thus: Pater Patriae Perditus, Sapientia Secum Sublata, Ruet Regnum Romae, Ferro Flamma Fame. The Romans were astonished at the acuteness of their English visitor, and decreed that the title of Venerable should be thenceforth given to him.

According to another story, Bede, having become blind in his old age, was walking abroad with one of his disciples for a guide, when they arrived at an open place where there was a large heap of stones, and Bede’s companion persuaded his master to preach to the people who, as he pretended, were assembled to hear him. Bede delivered a moving discourse, and when he uttered the concluding words, “per saecula saeculorum,” to the great admiration of his disciple, the stones immediately cried out “Amen, Venerable Bede!” There is also a third legend on this subject which informs us that soon after Bede’s death, one of his disciples was appointed to compose an epitaph in Latin leonines, and carve it on his monument, and he began thus: Hac sunt in fossa Bedus ossa,” intending to introduce the word sancti or presbyteri; but as neither of these words would suit the metre, he left it blank and fell asleep. On awaking he found that an angel had completed the line, and that it stood thus: Hac sunt in fossa Bedus Venerabilis ossa.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The birthday of St. John, pope and martyr, who was called to Ravenna by the Arian king of Italy, Theodoric, and after languishing a long time in prison for the orthodox faith, terminated his life.

At Dorostorum in Mysia, in the time of the emperor Alexander, the martyrdom of blessed Julius, a veteran soldier in retirement who was arrested by the officials and presented to the governor Maximus. Having in his presence execrated the idols and confessed the name of Christ with the utmost constancy, he was condemned to capital punishment.

At Sora, in the time of the emperor Aurelian and the proconsul Agathius, St. Restituta, virgin and martyr, who overcame in a combat for the faith the violence of the demons, the caresses of her family and the cruelty of the executioners. Being finally beheaded with other Christians, she obtained the honour of martyrdom.

In the territory of Arras, St. Ranulph, martyr.

At Orange in France, St. Eutropius, a bishop, illustrious for virtues and miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

27 MAY – EMBER WEDNESDAY IN PENTECOST WEEK

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

We have seen with what fidelity the Holy Ghost has fulfilled during all these past ages the mission He received from our Emmanuel of forming, protecting and maintaining His Spouse the Church. This trust given by a God has been executed with all the power of a God, and it is the sublimest and most wonderful spectacle the world has witnessed during the [two thousand] years of the new Covenant. This continuance of a social body — the same in all times and places— promulgating a precise Symbol of Faith which each of its members is bound to accept — producing by its decisions the strictest unity of religious belief throughout the countless individuals who compose the society — this, together with the wonderful propagation of Christianity, is the master-fact of History. These two facts are not, as certain modern writers would have it, results of the ordinary laws of Providence, but miracles of the highest order worked directly by the Holy Ghost, and intended to serve as the basis of our faith in the truth of the Christian Religion. The Holy Ghost was not, in the exercise of His mission, to assume a visible form, but He has made His Presence visible to the understanding of man, and thereby He has sufficiently proved His own personal action in the work of man’s salvation.

Let us now follow this divine action — not in its carrying out the merciful designs of the Son of God who deigned to take to Himself a Spouse here below — but in the relations of this Spouse with mankind. Our Emmanuel willed that she should be the Mother of men and that all whom He calls to the honour of becoming His own members, should acknowledge that it is she who gives them this glorious birth. The Holy Ghost, therefore, was to secure to this Spouse of Jesus what would make her evident and known to the world, leaving it, however, in the power of each individual to disown and reject her. It was necessary that this Church should last for all ages, and that she should traverse the earth in such wise that her name and mission might be known to all nations. In a word, she was to be Catholic, that is, Universal, taking in all times and all places. Accordingly, the Holy Ghost made her Catholic. He began by showing her on the Day of Pentecost to the Jews who had flocked to Jerusalem from the various nations. And when these returned to their respective countries, they took the good tidings with them. He then sent the Apostles and Disciples into the whole world, and we learn from the writers of those early times that a century had scarcely elapsed before there were Christians in every portion of the known earth. Since then, the visibility of this holy Church has gone on increasing gradually more and more. If the Divine Spirit, in the designs of His justice, has permitted her to lose her influence in a nation that had made itself unworthy of the grace, He transferred her to another where she would be obeyed. If, at times, there have been whole countries where she had no footing, it was either because she had previously offered herself to them and they had rejected her, or because the time marked by Providence for her reigning there had not yet come.

The history of the Church’s propagation is one long proof of her ever living, and of her frequent migrating. Times and places, all are hers. If there be one when or where she is not acknowledged as supreme, she is at least represented by her members. And this prerogative which has given her the name of Catholic, is one of the grandest of the workings of the Holy Ghost. But His action does not stop here. The mission given Him by the Emmanuel in reference to His Spouse obliges Him to something beyond this, and here we enter into the whole mystery of the Holy Ghost in the Church. We have seen His outward influence by which he gives her perpetuity and increase. Now we must attentively consider the inward direction she receives from Him, which gives her Unity, Infallibility and Holiness — prerogatives which, together with Catholicity, designate the true Spouse of Christ.

The union of the Holy Ghost with the Humanity of Jesus is one of the fundamental truths of the mystery of the Incarnation. Our divine Mediator is called “Christ” because of the anointing which He received (Psalms xliv. 8.). And His anointing is the result of His Humanity being united with the Holy Ghost (Acts x. 38). This union is indissoluble. Eternally will the Word be united to His Humanity. Eternally, also, will the Holy Spirit give to this Humanity the anointing which makes “Christ”. Hence it follows that the Church, being the body of Christ, shares in the union existing between its Divine Head and the Holy Ghost. The Christian too receives, in Baptism, an anointing by the Holy Ghost, who, from that time forward, dwells in him as “the pledge of his eternal inheritance” (Ephesians i. 13), but while the Christian may by sin forfeit this union which is the principle of his supernatural life, the Church herself never can lose it. The Holy Ghost is united to the Church forever. It is by him that she exists, acts and triumphs over all those difficulties to which, by the divine permission, she is exposed whilst Militant on Earth.

Saint Augustine thus admirably expresses this doctrine in one of his Sermons for the Feast of Pentecost:

“The spirit by which every man lives is called the Soul. Now, observe what it is that our Soul does in the body. It is the Soul that gives life to all the members. It sees by the eye, it hears by the ear, it smells by the nose, it speaks by the tongue, it works by the hands, it walks by the feet. It is present to each member, giving life to them all, and to each one its office. It is not the eye that hears, nor the ear and tongue that see, nor the ear and eye that speak. And yet they all live. Their functions are varied, their life is one and the same. So is it in the Church of God. In some Saints, she works miracles. In other Saints, she teaches the truth. In others, she practises virginity. In others, she maintains conjugal chastity: she does one thing in one class, and another in another. Each individual has his distinct work to do, but there is one and the same life in them all. Now, what the Soul is to the body of man, that the Holy Ghost is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church: the Holy Ghost does in the whole Church what the soul does in all the members of one body.”

Here we have given to us a clear exposition by means of which we can fully understand the life and workings of the Church. The Church is the Body of Christ, and the Holy Ghost is the principle which gives her life. He is her soul — not only in that limited sense in which we have already spoken of the Soul of the Church, that is, of her inward existence, and which, after all, is the result of the Holy Spirit’s action within her — but he is also her Soul, in that her whole interior and exterior life and all her workings proceed from Him. The Church is undying because the love which has led the Holy Ghost to dwell within her will last forever. And here we have the reason of that Perpetuity of the Church which is the most wonderful spectacle witnessed by the world.

Let us now pass on and consider that other marvel which consists in the preservation of Unity in the Church. It is said of her in the Canticle: “One is my Dove; my perfect one is One” (Canticles vi. 8). Jesus would have but One, and not many to be His Church, His Spouse: the Holy Ghost will therefore see to the accomplishment of His wish. Let us respectfully follow Him in his workings here also. And firstly, is it possible, viewing the thing humanly, that a society should exist for [two thousand] years and never change? nay, could it have continued all that time, even allowing it to have changed as often as you will? And during these long ages, this society has necessarily had to encounter, and from its own members, the tempests of human passions which are ever showing themselves, and which not infrequently play havoc with the grandest institutions. It has always been composed of nations, differing from each other in language, character and customs. Either so far apart as not to know each other or, when neighbours, estranged one from the other by national jealousies and antipathies. And yet, notwithstanding all this — notwithstanding, too, the political revolutions which have made up the history of the world — the Catholic Church has maintained her changeless Unity: one Faith — one visible head — one worship (at least, in the essentials) — one mode for the deciding every question, namely, by tradition and authority. Sects have risen up in every age, each sect giving itself out as “the true Church.” They lasted for a while, short or long, according to circumstances, and then were forgotten.

Where are now the Arians with their strong political party? Where are the Nestorians, and Eutychians, and Monothelites, with their interminable cavillings? Could anything be imagined more powerless and effete than the Greek Schism, slave either to Sultan or Czar? What is there left of Jansenism, that wore itself away in striving to keep in the Church in spite of the Church? As to Protestantism — the produce of the principle of negation — was it not broken up into sections from its very beginning, so as never to be able to form one society? And is it not now reduced to such straits that it can with difficulty retain dogmas which at first it looked on as fundamental — such as the inspiration of the Scriptures, or the Divinity of Christ? While all else is change and ruin, our Mother the holy Catholic Church, the One Spouse of the Emmanuel, stands forth grand and beautiful in her Unity. But how are we to account for it? Is it that Catholics are of one nature, and Sectarians of another? Orthodox or heterodox, are we not all members of the same human race, subject to the same passions and errors? From where do the children of the Catholic Church derive that stability which is not affected by time, nor influenced by the variety of national character, nor shaken by those revolutions that have changed dynasties and countries? Only one reasonable explanation can be given: there is a divine element in all this. The Holy Ghost, who is the soul of the Church, acts upon all the members. And as He Himself is One, He produces Unity in the Body He animates. He cannot contradict Himself: nothing therefore subsists by Him which is not in union with Him.

Tomorrow we will speak of what the Holy Ghost does for the maintaining Faith, one and unvarying, in the whole body of the Church. Let us today limit our considerations to this single point, namely, that the Holy Spirit is the source of external union by voluntary submission to one centre of unity. Jesus had said: “You are Peter, and on this Rock I will build my Church” (Matthew xvi. 18). Now Peter was to die. The promise, therefore, could not refer to his person only, but to the whole line of his successors, even to the end of the world. How stupendous is not the action of the Holy Ghost, who thus produces a dynasty of spiritual Princes which has reached its two hundred and [sixtieth] Pontiff, and is to continue to the last day! No violence is offered to man’s free will. The Holy Spirit permits him to attempt what opposition he lists. But the work of God must go forward. A Decius may succeed in causing a four years’ vacancy in the See of Rome. Anti-popes may arise, supported by popular favour, or upheld by the policy of Emperors. A long schism may render it difficult to know the real Pontiff amid the several who claim it. The Holy Spirit will allow the trial to have its course, and, while it lasts, will keep up the faith of His children. The day will come when He will declare the lawful Pastor of the Flock, and the whole Church will enthusiastically acknowledge him as such.

In order to understand the whole marvel of this supernatural influence, it is not enough to know the extrinsic results as told us by history. We must study it in its own divine reality. The Unity of the Church is not like that which a conqueror forces upon a people that has become tributary to him. The members of the Church are united in oneness of faith and submission because they love the yoke she imposes on their freedom and their reason. But who is it that thus brings human pride to obey? Who is it that makes joy and contentment be felt in a life-long practice of subordination? Who is it that brings man to put his security and happiness in the having no individual views of his own, and in the conforming his judgement to one supreme teaching — and this, too, in matters where the world chafes at control? It is the Holy Ghost who works this manifold and permanent miracle, for He it is who gives soul and harmony to the vast aggregate of the Church, and sweetly infuses into all these millions a union of heart and mind which forms for our Lord Jesus Christ his “One” dearest Spouse.

During the days of His mortal life, Jesus prayed His Eternal Father to bless us with unity”: “May they be one, as we also are” (John xvii. 2). He prepares us for it when He calls us to become His members. But for the achieving this union, He sends His Spirit into the world — that Spirit, who is the eternal link between the Father and the Son, and who deigns to accept a temporal mission among men in order to create on the Earth a union formed after the type of the union which is in God Himself.

* * * * *

WE give you thanks, Blessed Spirit, who, by your dwelling thus within the Church of Christ, inspires us to love and practise unity, and suffer every evil rather than break it. Strengthen it within us, and never permit us to deviate from it by even the slightest want of submission. You are the soul of the Church. O give us to be members ever docile to your inspirations, for we could not belong to Jesus who sent you unless we belong to the Church, His Spouse and our Mother, whom He redeemed with His Blood, and gave to you to form and guide.

26 MAY – SAINT ELEUTHERIUS (Pope and Martyr)

Eleutherius was born at Nicopolis in Greece. He was a deacon of Pope Anicetus, and during the reign of the emperor Commodus was chosen to govern the Church. At the beginning of his pontificate he received letters from Lucius, king of the Britons, begging him to receive himself and his subjects among the Christians. Eleutherius sent into Britain Fugatius and Damian, two learned and holy men, through whose ministry the king and his people might receive the Faith. It was also during this pontificate that Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp, went to Rome and was kindly received by Eleutherius. The Church of God was then enjoying great peace and calm and the Faith made progress throughout the whole world, but nowhere more than at Rome. Eleutherius governed the Church 15 years and 23 days. He thrice ordinations in December at which he made 12 priests, 8 deacons and 15 bishops. He was buried in the Vatican near the body of Saint Peter.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This twenty-sixth of May is also honoured by the memory of one of those early Pontiffs who, like Urban, were the foundations of the Church in the Age of Persecution. Eleutherius ascended the Papal throne in the very midst of the storm that was raised by Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. It was he that received the embassy that was sent to Rome by the Martyrs of Lyons and, at the head of them that were thus sent was the great Saint Irenaeus. This illustrious Church which was then so rich in martyrdom would offer its palms to Christian Rome in which, to use Saint Irenaeus’ own expression, it recognised “the highest sovereignty.” Peace, however, was soon restored to the Church and the remainder of Eleutherius’ pontificate was undisturbed. In the enjoyment of this peace, and with his name which signifies a freeman, this Pontiff is an image of our Risen Jesus, who, as the Psalmist says of him, is free among the dead (Psalm lxxxvii. 6).

The Church honours Saint Eleutherius as a martyr, as she does the other Popes who lived before Constantine and of whom almost all shed their blood in the Persecutions of the first three centuries. Sharing, as they did, in all the sufferings of the Church, governing it amid perils of every description, and seldom or never knowing what peace was — these three and thirty Pontiffs have every right to be considered as martyrs.

*****

Your name, O Eleutherius, is the name of every Christian that has risen with Christ. The Pasch has delivered us all, emancipated all, made us all freemen. Pray for us that we may ever preserve that glorious liberty of the children of God of which the Apostle speaks (Romans viii. 21). By it were we freed from the chains of sin which consigned us to death, from the slavery of Satan who would fain have robbed us of our Last End, and from the tyranny of the world which was deceiving us by its false maxims. The New Life given to us by our Pasch is one that is all of Heaven, where our Jesus is awaiting us in glory. To lose it would be to return to slavery.

Holy Pontiff, pray for us that when the Pasch of next year comes, it may find us in that happy liberty which is the fruit of our having been redeemed by Christ (Galatians iv. 31). There is another kind of liberty of which the world boasts and for the acquiring which it sets men at variance with men. It consists in avoiding as a crime, all subjection and dependence, and in recognising no authority except the one appointed by our own elections which we can remove as soon as we please. Deliver us, O holy Pontiff, from this false liberty which is so opposed to the Christian spirit of obedience, and is simply the triumph of human pride. In its frenzy it sheds torrents of blood, and with its pompous cant of what it calls the Rights of Man) it substitutes egoism for duty. It acknowledges no such thing as Truth, for it maintains that error has its sacred rights. It acknowledges no such thing as Good, for it has given up all pretension to preventing Evil. It puts God aside, for it refuses to recognise Him in those who govern. It puts upon man the yoke of brute force. It tyrannises over him by what it calls a “Majority” and it answers every complaint that he may make against injustice by the jargon of “Accomplished Facts.” No, this is not the liberty into which we are called by Christ, our Deliverer. We are free, as Saint Peter says, and yet make not liberty a cloak for malice (1 Peter ii. 16).

O holy Pontiff, show yourself still a Father to the world. During your peaceful reign your throne was near to that of the Caesars who governed the Seven Hilled City. They were the rulers of the world and yet your name was revered in every part of their Empire. While the material power held the sword suspended over your head, the faithful of various distant lands were flocking to Rome, there to venerate the tomb of Peter and pay homage to you his Successor. When Lucius sent ambassadors from his island, they turned not their steps to the emperor’s palace, but to your humble dwelling. They came to tell you that a people was called by divine grace to receive the Good Tidings and become a portion of the Christian family. The destinies of this people, which you were the first to evangelise, were to be great in the Church. The island of the Britains is a daughter of the Roman Church, and the attempts she is now making to disown her origin are useless. Have pity on her, O you that were her first Apostle! Bless the efforts which are being everywhere made to bring her back to unity with the Church. Remember the faith of Lucius and his people and show your paternal solicitude for a country which you led to the Faith.

26 MAY – SAINT PHILIP NERI (Confessor)

Philip Neri was born at Florence of pious and respectable parents. From his very childhood he gave evident promise of future sanctity. While yet a young man, he gave up an ample fortune which he inherited from an uncle, and went to Rome where he studied theology and philosophy, and devoted himself wholly to the service of Jesus. Such was his abstemiousness, that he frequently passed three days without eating anything. He spent much time in watching and prayer. He frequently made the visit of the Seven Churches of the City, and was in the habit of spending the night in the Cemetery of Calixtus in the contemplation of heavenly things. Being ordained priest out of obedience he devoted himself without reserve to the saving souls and, even to the last day of his life, he was assiduous in bearing confessions. He was the spiritual father of a countless number of souls, and in order to nourish them with the daily food of God’s word, with the frequency of the Sacraments, with application to prayer, and with other pious exercises, he instituted the Congregation of the Oratory.

He was ever languishing with the love of God with which he was wounded. Such was the ardour that glowed within him that, not being able to keep his heart within its place, his breast was miraculously enlarged by the breaking and expansion of two of his ribs. Sometimes, when celebrating Mass or in fervent prayer, he was seen to be raised up in the air and encircled with a bright light. He looked after the needy and the poor with an all-providing charity. He was once rewarded by a visit from an Angel who appeared to him in a beggar’s garb, and Philip gave him an alms. On another occasion, when carrying loaves to the poor, during the night he fell into a deep hole but was drawn forth by an Angel without having sustained any injury. So humble was he that he had an abiding dread of everything that savoured of honour, and he was most resolute in refusing every ecclesiastical dignity, though the highest offices were more than once offered to him.

He possessed the gift of prophecy, and could miraculously read the inmost thoughts of others’ souls. Throughout his whole life he preserved his chastity unsullied. He had also a supernatural power of distinguishing those who were chaste from those who were not so. He sometimes appeared to persons who were at a distance and assisted them in moments of danger. He restored to health many that were sick and at death’s door. He also restored a dead man to life. He was frequently favoured with apparitions of heavenly Spirits and of the Blessed Mother of God. He saw the souls of several persons ascending amid great brightness into Heaven. At length, being in his eightieth year, he slept in the Lord in 1595 on the eighth of the Calends of June (May 25th), the feast of Corpus Christi, after having said Mass with extraordinary spiritual joy, and at the very hour which he had foretold, which was shortly after midnight. The miracles with which he had been honoured being authentically proved, he was canonised by Pope Gregory XV.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

As we have already said, joy is the leading feature of the Paschal Season — a supernatural joy which springs from our delight at seeing the glorious triumph of our Emmanuel, and from the happiness we feel at our own being delivered from the bonds of death. This interior joy was the characteristic of the Saint whom we honour today. His heart was ever full of a jubilant enthusiasm for what regards God so that we could truly apply to him those words of Scripture: “A secure mind is like a continual feast” (Proverbs xv. 15). One of his latest disciples, the illustrious Father Faber, tells us in his beautiful treatise, Growth in Holiness, that cheerfulness is one of the chief means for advancing in Christian perfection. We will, therefore, welcome with gladness and veneration the benevolent and light-hearted Philip Neri, the Apostle of Rome, and one of the greatest Saints produced by the Church in the sixteenth century.

Love of God — but a love of the most ardent kind and one that communicated itself to all that came near him — was our Saint’s characteristic virtue. All the Saints loved God, for the love of God is the first and greatest of the Commandments: but Philip’s whole life was, in a special manner, the fulfilment of this divine precept. His entire existence seemed to be but one long transport of love for His Creator and, had it not been for a miracle of God’s power and goodness, this burning love would have soon put an end to his mortal career. He was in his twenty-ninth year when one day — it was within the Whitsun Octave — he was seized with such a vehemence of divine charity that two of his ribs broke, thus making room for the action of the heart to respond freely to the intensity of the soul’s love. The fracture was never made good. It caused a protrusion which was distinctly observable and, owing to this miraculous enlargement of the region of the heart, Philip was enabled to live fifty years more, during which time he loved his God with a fervour and strength which would do honour to one already in Heaven.

This Seraph in human flesh was a living answer to the insults heaped upon the Catholic Church by the so-called Reformation. Luther and Calvin had called this holy Church the harlot of Babylon, and yet she had at that very time such children as Teresa of Spain, and Philip Neri of Rome to offer to the admiration of mankind. But Protestantism cared little or nothing for piety or charity. Its great object was the throwing off the yoke of restraint. Under pretence of Religious Liberty, it persecuted them that adhered to the True Faith. It forced itself by violence where it could not enter by seduction. But as for leading men to love their God, this was what it never aimed at or thought of. The result was that, wherever it imposed its errors, devotedness was at an end — we mean that devotedness which leads man to make sacrifices for God or for his neighbour. A very long period of time elapsed after the Reformation before Protestantism ever gave a thought to the infidels who abounded in various parts of the globe: and if, later on, it organised what it calls its Missions, it chose a strange set of men to be the apostles of its Bible Societies. It has made a recent discovery — it has found out that the Catholic Church is prolific in Orders and Congregations devoted to works of charity. The discovery has excited it to emulation and, among its other imitations, it can now boast of having Protestant Sisters of Charity. To a certain point, success may encourage it to persevere in these tardy efforts, but anything like the devotedness of Catholic institutions is an impossibility for Protestantism, were it only for this reason — that its principles are opposed to the Evangelical Counsels which are the great sources of the spirit of sacrifice, and are prompted by a motive of the love of God.

Glory, then, to Philip Neri, one of the worthiest representatives of charity in the sixteenth century! It was owing to his zeal, that Rome and Christendom at large were replenished with a new life by the frequentation of the Sacraments and by the exercises of Catholic piety. His word, his very look, used to excite people to devotion. His memory is still held in deep veneration, especially in Rome, where his feast is kept with the greatest solemnity on this twenty-sixth day of May. He shares with Saints Peter and Paul the honour of being Patron of the Holy City. His Feast is there kept as a day of obligation. The Pope goes, with great solemnity, to the Church of Saint Mary in Vallicella and pays the debt of gratitude which the Holy See owes to the Saint who accomplished such great things for the glory of our Holy Mother the Church. Philip had the gift of miracles and, though seeking to be forgotten and despised, he was continually surrounded by people who besought him to pray for them, either in their temporal or spiritual concerns.

Death itself was obedient to his command, as in the case of the young prince Paul Massimo. The young Prince, when breathing his last, desired that Philip should be sent for in order that he might assist him to die happily. The Saint was saying Mass at the time. As soon as the Holy Sacrifice was over, he repaired to the palace but he was too late. He found the father, sister and the whole family in tears.

The young Prince had died after an illness of 65 days, which he had borne with most edifying patience. Philip fell upon his knees and after a fervent prayer he put his hand on the head of the corpse and called the Prince by his name. Thus awakened from the sleep of death, Paul opened his eyes and looking at Philip, said to him: “My Father!” He then added these words: “I only wished to go to Confession.” The assistants left the room and Philip remained alone with the Prince. After a few moments the family were called back and, in their presence, Paul began to speak to Philip regarding his mother and sister who had been taken from him by death and whom he loved with the tenderest affection. During the conversation, the Prince’s face regained all it had lost by sickness. His animation was that of one in perfect health. The Saint then asked him if he would wish to die again? “Oh yes" answered the Prince, “most willingly, for I should then see my mother and sister in Heaven.” “Take then,” said Philip, “take your departure for Heaven and pray to the Lord for me.” At these words, the young Prince expired once more and entered into the joys of eternal life, leaving his family to mourn his departure and venerate a Saint such as Philip.

He was almost continually visited by our Lord with raptures and ecstasies. He was gifted with the spirit of prophecy and could read the secrets of the conscience. His virtues were such as to draw souls to him by an irresistible charm. The youth of Rome, rich and poor, used to flock to him. Some he warned against danger, others he saved after they had fallen. The poor and sick were the object of his unceasing care. He seemed to be everywhere in the city by his works of zeal, which gave an impulse to piety that has never been forgotten. Philip was convinced that one of the principal means for maintaining the Christian spirit is the preaching the word of God: hence he was most anxious to provide the Faithful with apostolic men who would draw them to God by good and solid preaching. He established, under the name of The Oratory, an institution which still exists, and whose object is to encourage Christian piety among the people. By founding it, Philip aimed at securing the services, zeal and talent of priests who are not called to the religious life but who, by uniting their labours together, would produce great good to the souls of men.

Thus did he afford to priests, whose vocation does not lead them to the religious state, the great advantages of a common rule and mutual good example, which are such powerful aids both in the service of God, and in the exercise of pastoral duties. But the holy apostle was a man of too much faith not to have an esteem of the religious life as a state of perfection. He never lost an opportunity of encouraging a vocation to that holy state. The religious Orders were indebted to him for so many members, that his intimate friend and admirer, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, used playfully to compare him to a bell which calls others to Church yet never goes in itself! The awful crisis of the sixteenth century through which the Christian world had to pass, and which robbed the Catholic Church of so many provinces, was a source of keenest grief to Philip during the whole of his life. His heart bled at seeing so many thousand souls fall into the abyss of error and heresy. He took the deepest interest in the efforts that were made to reclaim those that had been led astray by the pretended Reformation. He kept a watchful eye on the tactics with which Protestantism sought to maintain its ground. The “Centuries of Magdeburg,” for example, suggested to his zeal a counterbalance of truth. The “Centuries” was a series of historical essays by which the Reformers sought to prove that the Roman Church had changed the ancient Faith and introduced superstitious practices in the place of those that were used in the early ages of Christianity.

A work like this, with its falsified quotations, its misrepresentation and, not infrequently its invention of facts was destined to do great injury, and Philip resolved to meet it by a work of profound erudition — a true history compiled from authentic sources. One of the fathers of his Oratory, Caesar Baronius, was just the man for such an undertaking, and Philip ordered him to take the field against the enemy. The Ecclesiastical Annals were the fruit of this happy thought, and Baronius himself, at the beginning of his Eighth Book, acknowledges that Philip was the originator of the work. It is easy for us, with the means which science now puts into our hands, to detect certain imperfections in the Annals. At the same time, it is acknowledged on all sides that they form by far the truest and finest History of the Church of the first twelve hundred years, which is as far as the learned Cardinal went. Heresy felt the injury it must needs sustain by such a History. The sickly and untrustworthy erudition of the Centuriators could not stand before an honest statement of facts, and we may safely assert that the progress of Protestantism was checked by the Annals of Baronius which showed that the Church was then, as she had ever been, the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Timothy iii. 15). Philip’s sanctity and Baronius’ learning secured the victory. Numerous conversions soon followed, consoling the Church for the losses she had sustained. And if, in these our own days, there are so many returning to the ancient Faith, it is but fair to attribute the movement, in part at least, to the success of the historical method begun by the Annals.

*****

Your whole life, O Philip, was one long act of love of Jesus. But it was also one untiring effort to make others know and love Him and thus secure the End for which they were created. You were the indefatigable Apostle of Rome for forty years, and no one could approach you without receiving something of the divine ardour that filled your heart. We too would fain receive of your fullness of devotion and therefore we pray you to teach us how to love our Risen Jesus. It is not enough that we adore Him and rejoice in His triumph. We must love Him, for He has permitted us to celebrate the various Mysteries of His life on Earth with a view to our seeing more and more clearly how deserving He is of our warmest love. It is love that will lead us to the full appreciation of His Resurrection — that bright Mystery which shows us all the riches of the Sacred Heart. The New Life, which he put on by rising from the tomb, teaches us, more eloquently than ever, how tenderly He loves us and how earnestly He importunes us to love Him in return. Pray for us, O Philip, that our heart and our flesh may rejoice in the Living God! (Psalm lxxxiii. 2). Now that we have relished the mystery of the Pasch, lead us to that of the Ascension. Prepare our souls to receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and when the august mystery of the Eucharist beams on us with all its loveliness in the approaching Festival — the very day that ushered you into the unveiled vision of your Jesus — intercede for us that we may receive and relish that Living Bread which gives life to the world! (John vi. 33).

The sanctity that shone in you, O Philip, was marked by the impetuosity of your soul’s longing after her God, and all they that held intercourse with you quickly imbibed your spirit — which, in truth, is the only one that contents our Redeemer’s Heart. You had the talent of winning souls and leading them to perfection by the path of confidence and generosity. In this great work, your method consisted in having none, thus imitating the Apostles and ancient Fathers and trusting to the power of God’s own word. It was by you that the frequenting the Sacraments was restored — that surest indication of the Christian spirit. Pray for the faithful of our times, and come to the assistance of so many souls that are anxiously pursuing systems of spirituality which have been coined by the hands of men, and which but too frequently retard or even impede the intimate union of the creature with His Creator.

Your love of the Church, O Philip, was most fervent: there can be no true sanctity without it. Though your contemplation was of the sublimest kind, yet did it not make you lose sight of the cruel trials which this holy Spouse of Christ had to endure in those sad times. The successful efforts of heresy stimulated your zeal. Get us that keen sympathy for our holy Faith which will make us take an interest in all that concerns its progress. It is not enough for us that we save our own souls. We must, moreover, ardently desire and do our utmost to obtain the advancement of God’s kingdom on Earth, the extirpation of heresy, and the exaltation of our holy Mother the Church. If these are not our dispositions, how can we call ourselves children of God? May your example urge us to take to heart the sacred cause of our common Mother. Pray, too, for the Church Militant of which you were one of the bravest soldiers. Shield with your protection that Rome which loves you so devoutly because of the services which she received at your hands. You led her children to holiness during your mortal career. Bless her and defend her now that you are in Heaven.

26 MAY – TUESDAY IN PENTECOST WEEK

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Yesterday we were admiring the work of the Holy Ghost by which He drew mankind to the Faith and Name of Jesus, to whom “all power was given in Heaven and on Earth” (Matthew xxviii. 18). The instruments used for this conquest were the Apostles and their immediate successors. The Tongue of Fire was victorious, and the Prince of this world was defeated. Let us continue our reflections and see the further workings of the Holy Spirit for the glory of the Son of God, who had sent Him into the world.

Our Emmanuel came down from Heaven that He might effect the union He had desired from all eternity. He began it by uniting our human nature to His own divine Person, but this personal union did not satisfy His love. He mercifully deigned to invite the whole human race to a spiritual union with Himself by giving her to become His Church, His own dearest “One” (Canticles vi. 8), as He calls her — His “glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle, but holy and without blemish” (Ephesians v. 27). But how could mankind, deformed as it was by sin, be worthy of such an honour? His love would make it worthy. He tells us that this Church is His Spouse (Matthew ix. 15; xxv 6; Mark ii. 19; Luke v. 34; John iii. 29), and thus chosen, He beautified her in the laver of His own Precious Blood and gave her, in dowry, the infinite merits He had acquired.

Thus prepared, her union with Him was to he of the closest. Jesus and his Church are one body. He is the Head, she is the aggregate of the Members united together under this one Head. Such is the teaching of the Apostle: “Christ is the Head of the Church: We are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones” (Ephesians v. 23, 30). This Body is to be formed of all who will in each successive age be faithful to the call of divine grace and enrol themselves as children of the Church. The world we inhabit is to be preserved till the last elect required to complete the mystic body of Jesus will be added to the Church Triumphant: then, all will be consummated. The divine Mystery of the Incarnation will have achieved its whole work.

But, as in the Incarnate Word there was the invisible Soul and the visible Body, so also the Church was to have a Soul and a Body: a Soul whose hidden beauty no eye but God’s can fully see (at least during her earthly sojourn) and a Body which is to be visible to men — an ever-living proof of God’s power, and of His love for the human race. Up to the Day of Pentecost, the just who had been united under Jesus, their head, had belonged only to the soul of the Church, for the body was not then in existence. The heavenly Father had adopted them as His children. The Son of God had accepted them as His members, and the Holy Ghost (who is now about to work exteriorly), had interiorly wrought their election and sanctification. The new order of things is to begin in Mary’s person. As we have already explained, the Church in its entirety, that is both soul and body, resided first in Her. It was but fitting that she who was as truly the Mother of the Son of God according to His Human Nature, as the heavenly Father was His Father according to the Divine Nature, should be superior to all other members of the Church, and this not only in the high degree of grace, but also in the precedence of time.

When our Saviour gave His Church an existence outside the loved sanctuary of His Mother’s Heart, He with His own hands set the Foundation Stone (Peter the Rock). He raised up the Pillars, and we have seen how He spent the forty days before His Ascension in organising this Church, which was then so small, but which was afterwards to cover the whole Earth. He told His Apostles that He would be “with them all days even to the consummation of the world” (Matthew xxviii. 20). It was the same as telling them that even after His Ascension into Heaven, His Church was to continue on Earth, even to the end of time.

He left the plan, thus begun by Himself, to be perfected by the Holy Ghost. It was necessary that this Holy Spirit should come down from Heaven in order to strengthen those whom Jesus had chosen as His Apostles. He was to be their Paraclete, their Comforter, in the absence of their Master. He was to be the Power from on high, who was to serve them as armour in their future combats. He was to remind them of all the words spoken to them by Christ. He was to give fruitfulness by His own action to the Sacraments which Jesus had instituted, and over which the Apostles had power, because of the character impressed upon them by this Holy Spirit. It is on this account that Jesus said to His Apostles: “It is expedient to you that I go. For if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you” (John xvi. 7). We have seen this Divine Spirit on the Day of Pentecost producing His effects on the Apostles and Disciples. Let us now see His action in the creation, maintenance and perfecting of this Church, which Jesus has promised to assist, by His mysterious presence, even to the consummation of the world.

The first operation of the Holy Ghost in the Church is the election of its members. This right of election is so especially His prerogative that, as we learn from the Scriptures, it was by the Holy Ghost (Acts i. 2) that Jesus chose the Apostles, who were to be the pillars of His Church. We have seen how this Holy Spirit began His Mission on the Day of Pentecost by the election of three thousand Jews. A few days after, five thousand were added to the number, being converted by the preaching of Peter and John (Acts iii. And iv. 4) The Gentiles also, were called to the Church, and the Holy Ghost having led Peter to Cornelius the Centurion, descends upon this Roman and his household, thus declaring them to be elected as candidates for holy Baptism.

The Liturgy put this history before us in the Mass of yesterday. We seem able to keep pace with these first workings of the Holy Spirit, but the sequel is all impetuosity —divine rapidity of action —irresistible conquest. He sends forth His Messengers: “their sound goes forth into all the Earth and their words to the ends of the world” (Psalms xviii. 5). He goes before them. He goes with them. He works the victory while they speak. We come to the commencement of the third century, and we find a Christian writer (Tertullian) addressing mhe Magistrates of the Roman Empire in these words: “ We are but of yesterday, and we abound everywhere — in your cities, in your towns, in your camps, in the palace, the senate, the forum.” Nothing can withstand the Spirit of God, and in less than three hundred years from the day of His first manifestation, He calls the very Emperors of Rome to be members of the Church.

Thus does the Spouse of Jesus advance in her beauty and strength. He looks on her from His throne in Heaven and tenderly loves her. In the early part of the fourth century the Church — the work of the Holy Ghost — exceeds the limits of the Roman Empire. Here and there, within this vast Empire, there are places where paganism is still rife, but they all know what the Church is, and the very hatred they bear her is a proof that they are aware of her progress.

But let us not suppose that the Mission of the Holy Ghost is limited to the founding the Church on the ruins of the great pagan empire. No, the Spouse of Jesus is to be immortal. She is to exist in every place and age. She is to be superior, both by the extent of her dominions and the number of her subjects, to every other human power. The Divine Spirit could not, therefore, suspend His Mission. The Roman Empire has merited by her crimes to be swept away by the inundation of barbarous nations: it is the preparation of a new triumph for the Spirit. He comes and works, invisibly and silently, amidst this huge mass: He has His elect there, and by millions. He has renewed the face of the pagan world. He renews the face of the world now that the Barbarians rule it. He chooses His co-operators, and right faithful are they. He creates new Apostles, and He selects them from all classes, for He is Master to do as he wills. Queens such as Clotilda, Bertha, Theodelind or Hedwiges are ready to do His biddings: they deck the Spouse of Jesus with their royal hands, and she comes forth to the world once more, younger and lovelier than ever.

There are, indeed, immense tracts of country in Europe not yet in the Church. It was necessary first to give stability to the work in those that had previously been Christian, and had been well-near submerged beneath the deluge of the invasion. But at the close of the sixth century the Holy Spirit visits Britain, Germany, Scandinavia and Sclavonia. He sends them Apostles such as Augustine, Boniface, Anscharius, Adalbert, Cyril, Methodius, Otho. By the labours of missionaries like these the Spouse is compensated for the losses she has sustained in the East where schism and heresy have encroached on her primitive inheritance. That Holy Spirit, who is God together with the Father and the Son, and has been sent by Them to defend the honour of the Spouse, is ever faithful to His trust.

Thus, when the so-called Reformation was preparing for Europe the great apostasy of the sixth century, the Paraclete was extending the glories of the Church in other Continents. The East Indies became the conquest of the Most Faithful Nation, and in the West a New World was discovered by and made subject to the Catholic Kingdom. The Divine Spirit, who is ever jealous to maintain the honour and entirety of the deposit entrusted to Him by the Incarnate Word, then raised up new Apostles to go and carry the Name of Jesus to these immense tracts of country which were to be added to the kingdom of His Spouse. Saint Francis Xavier was sent to the East Indies. His brethren, together with the Sons of Saint Dominic and Saint Francis of Assisi, laboured most perseveringly in preaching the Gospel to the people of the West Indies.

If, later on again, our Europe be misled by false theories and break with the Church. If this beloved Spouse of Jesus be betrayed and pillaged, calumniated and deprived of her rights by those very nations which she had protected for so many ages, as the most loving of Mothers — fear not: the Holy Ghost will add to her glories in some other way.

* * * * *

BE you blessed, then, Holy Spirit, who thus watches over the dear Spouse of Jesus! Thanks to your ceaseless and untiring action, she has never once failed. In every age you have raised up Apostles to enrich her by their conquests, your grace has been uninterruptedly inviting men to give themselves to her. In every nation and period you yourself have chosen the members of her happy and countless family. She is our Mother and we are her Children. She is the Spouse of our Divine Master to whom we hope to be united through her, so that by working for the glory of the Son of God who sent you, Holy Spirit, you have deigned to work for us poor sinful creatures. We offer you our feeble tribute of thanks for all these your benefits to us.

Our Emmanuel has revealed to us that you are to abide with us to the end of the world , and we now understand how necessary is your presence. It is you preside over the formation of the Spouse, that maintains her, that renders her victorious over her enemies, that earns her from one country to another when a people becomes unworthy to possess her, that avenges her when she is insulted, and all this you will continue to do to the end of time.

But this noble Spouse of our God is not to remain forever an exile from her Lord. As Mary was left for several years on the Earth in order that she might labour for the glory of her Son and was then taken up to heaven, there to reign eternally with Him, so likewise the Church is to remain Militant here below as long as God sees her to be needed for completing the number of His Elect. But the time will come, of which it is written: “The Marriage of the Lamb is come, and his Wife has prepared herself. And it is granted to her that she should clothe herself with fine linen, glittering and white; for the fine linen are the justifications of the Saints (Apocalypse xix. 7, 8), that is, the virtues of the Saints she has formed. In those days, the Spouse, ever comely and worthy of her Jesus, will grow no more, nay, she will decrease on Earth in proportion as her Triumphant glory is perfect in Heaven. The Revolt, spoken of by St. Paul (2 Thessalonians ii. 3), will show itself. Men will abandon her, side with the Prince of this world, who is to be let loose for a little while (Apocalypse xx. 3) and serve the Beast, to whom it will be given to make war with the Saints, yes, and to overcome them (Apocalypse xii. 17). The Spouse herself will not be degenerate during those her last days on earth, for you Holy Spirit, will still be with her, supporting her. But as soon as the last of the Elect will have been born, the Spirit and the Bride will say “Come!” (Apocalypse xii. 17). Then will Jesus appear on the clouds of Heaven. The Mission of the Spirit will be accomplished, and the Spouse leaning on her Beloved (Canticles viii. 5) will ascend from this ungrateful barren Earth to Heaven, where the eternal Nuptials with the Lamb await her.

Epistle – Acts viii. 14–17

In those days when the Apostles who were in Jerusalem had heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John. Who when they were come, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For He was not as yet come upon any of them, but they were only baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The inhabitants of Samaria had received the word of God through the preaching of Philip the Deacon. They had received, at his hands, the Sacrament of Baptism, which made them Christians. This reminds us of the dialogue between Jesus and the woman at Jacob’s well, and of the three days that He spent in the city. Their faith is rewarded: Baptism has made them children of God and members of Christ their Redeemer. But they must also receive the Holy Ghost in the Sacrament that gives perfection to the Christian character. The Deacon Philip has not power to confer it on them: Peter and John who are invested with Episcopal authority visit them and complete their happiness. This event makes us think of the grace bestowed on us by the Holy Ghost when He strengthened our souls by the Sacrament of Confirmation. Let us thank Him for this favour which brought us into closer union with Himself, and gave us the courage needed for confessing our Faith before heretics or tyrants.

Gospel – John x.1–10

At that time Jesus said to the Pharisee: “Amen, amen, I say to you: he that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up another way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that enters in by the door, is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter opens; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. And when he has let out his own sheep, he goes before them: and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. But a stranger they follow not, but fly from him, because they know not the voice of strangers.” This proverb Jesus spoke to them. But they understood not what he spoke to them. Jesus therefore said to them again: “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All others, as many as have come, are thieves and robbers: and the sheep heard them not. I am the door. By me if any man enter in, he will be saved; and he will go in, and go out, and will find pastures. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Church's motive for putting this passage of the Gospel before the Neophytes of Pentecost was to put them on their guard against a danger which might probably occur in after years. At present they are the favoured Sheep of the Good Shepherd Jesus, represented by men to whom He Himself has given the charge to feed His Lambs. These men have received their mission from Peter, and he who is with Peter, is with Jesus. But it has not infrequently happened that false Shepherds have got into the fold. Our Saviour calls them thieves and robbers. He tells us that He Himself is the door through which they must pass who can claim the right to feed His sheep. Every Shepherd, if he would avoid the imputation of being a robber, must have received his mission from Jesus, and this mission cannot be given save by him whom Jesus has appointed to be His Vicar and Representative, until He Himself returns.

The Holy Ghost has poured forth His divine gifts on these new Christians, but the virtues that are in them cannot be meritorious of eternal life unless they continue to be members of the true Church. If, instead of following the lawful Pastor, they were to be so unhappy as to go after false Pastors, all these virtues would become barren. They should, therefore, flee, as they would from a stranger, from any guide who has not received his mission from the Master, who alone can lead them to the pastures of Life. During the past centuries, schismatical Pastors have risen up from time to time: the Faithful were bound to shun them: we, who are living now, should take seriously to heart the admonition here given us by our Redeemer. The Church He has founded, and which He guides by his Holy Spirit, is Apostolic. The mission of those Pastors alone is lawful who are sent by Apostolic authority, and whereas Peter lives in his Successors, the Successor of Peter is the source from which alone can come pastoral power. He who is with Peter is with Christ.