15 DECEMBER – FERIA

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This, the eighth day from that on which we kept the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, is the Octave properly so called, whereas the other days were simply called days within the Octave. The custom of keeping up the principal Feasts for a whole week is one of those which the Christian Church adopted from the Synagogue. God had thus spoken in the Book of Leviticus: “The first day will be called most solemn and most holy, you must do no servile work therein... The eighth day also will be most solemn and most holy, and you must offer holocausts to the Lord, for it is the day of assembly and congregation; you must do no servile work therein” (Leviticus xxiii. 35, 36). We also read in the Book of Kings that Solomon having called all Israel to Jerusalem, for the dedication of the Temple, suffered not the people to return home until the eighth day. We learn from the Books of the New Testament that this custom was observed in our Saviour’s time, and we find Him authorising, by His own example, this solemnity of the Octave. Thus, we read in Saint John that Jesus once took part in one of the Jewish Festivals, about the midst of the Feast (John vii. 14) of Zachary opened, and He prophesied, saying, and the same Evangelist relating how our Lord cried out to the people: “If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink”: observes, that it was on the last and great day of the festivity (John vii. 37).

In the Christian Church, there are two kinds of Octaves: Privileged Octaves and Non-privileged Octaves. The first are so solemn that no feast of a Saint, occurring during them can be kept, but must be transferred to some other time out of the Octave. Neither, during these Octaves, can a Mass De Requiem be said unless the corpse be present for burial. Non-privileged Octaves admit the Feasts of Saints which occur during them, provided they are semi-doubles or of higher class. But a commemoration of the Octave must be made both in the Office and the Mass of the Feast, which thus takes precedence of the Octave, unless this Feast be itself one of a first or second Class. The Octave of the Immaculate Conception, the first that occurs in the Liturgical Year, is not privileged. It gives place, not only to the Sunday, but also to the feasts of Saint Damasus and Saint Lucy, and to the various local feasts which are of a double or semi-double rite.

Let us once more devoutly reverence the Mystery of Mary’s Immaculate Conception: our Emmanuel loves to see His Mother honoured. After all, is it not for Him and for His sake that this Bright Star was prepared from all eternity, and created when the happy time fixed by the divine decree came? When we honour the Immaculate Conception of Mary, it is really to the divine Mystery of the Incarnation that we are paying our just homage. Jesus and Mary cannot be separated, for Isaias tells us that She is the Branch, and He the Flower (Isaias xi. 1).

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We give you thanks, O Jesus our Emmanuel, because you have granted us to live during the time that the privilege of your Blessed Mother was proclaimed on this Earth: the glorious privilege with which you enriched the first instant of the life of the happy creature from whom you took upon yourself our human nature! This Definition of your Church has given us a clearer knowledge of your infinite holiness. It has taught us to see more distinctly the harmony there is in all your divine mysteries. But it also has impressed upon us the great truth that we ourselves, being destined to the most intimate union with you here, and to the face-to-face vision of your infinite Majesty hereafter, must labour without ceasing to purify ourselves from the smallest stains of sin. You have said: “Blessed are the clean of heart for they shall see God” (Matthew v. 8) and you show us by the dogma of your Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Conception, what is the purity which your sovereign sanctity demands of us. By the love which led you to preserve her from every stain of sin, have mercy on us who are her devoted children. You are so soon to be among us! Before many days are past, we will have yielded to yourinvitations and have presumed to approach your sacred crib. We are not yet ready, dear Jesus! The effects of original sin are still so plainly upon us, and, what is worse, there are so many of our own sins which we have added to this of our first parent: Oh prepare our hearts and our senses, for we will not approach to Bethlehem unworthily. The sinless purity of your Mother is not for us. We ask not for that , but we ask for forgiveness of our countless sins, for conversion, for hatred of the world and the world’s maxims, and for perseverance in your holy love.

O Mary! Created Mirror of divine Justice and purer than the Cherubim and Seraphim, in return for the homage paid you by this our generation, on that blissful day when the glory of your Immaculate Conception was proclaimed throughout the world, give us that abundant richness of your protecting love which you reserved till now. The world is shaken to its very foundations: your hand can help it to rest again. Hell has let loose upon mankind the most terrible of its spirits of wickedness who breathe but blasphemy and destruction, but at the same time the Church of your Jesus feels that her youth has been renewed within her, and that the seed of the divine word is broadcast and healthy in a thousand fresh portions of the Earth. Never was the battle more fierce on both sides: so that we need all our hope to make us feel that Hell will not prevail. Is this the great struggle which is to be followed by the day of judgement ?

O Blessed Mother of Jesus! O Queen of the universe! Can it be that the Star of your Immaculate Conception has shone in the heavens only to light up the ruin and wreck of this Earth? The sign foretold by the Beloved Disciple Saint John of the Woman that appeared in the heavens clad with the Sun, bearing on her head a crown of twelve stars, and crushing the Crescent beneath her feet (Apocalypse xii. 1) — has it not more brightness and power than that other which appeared in the heavens telling men that God’s anger was appeased, and that the deluge was over?

The light which shines upon us is from a Mother. It is our Mother that comes to console and heal us. It is Heaven that smiles upon poor guilty Earth. We have deserved the chastisement we have received, and more than we have received but the anger of God will give way, and He will spare us. The graces which God poured out upon the world on that great Day of the Church's Definition of Mary’s Immaculate Conception were not to be without their effect: a new period then commenced. Mary, on whom heresy had heaped its blasphemies for [four] hundred years, will again reign in the love of those whom her Son redeemed. Countries will abandon those errors which have made them slaves and dupes of men’s doctrines. The old serpent will again writhe under that crushing pressure which God set up from the beginning, and the divine Sun of Justice will pour out on the regenerated world the floods of a light more than ever dazzling and resplendent. We may not live to see that time but we have signs of its near approach.

It was in the last century that your devout servant whom the Church has placed upon her altars, Leonard of Porto-Maurizio, predicted that when this dogma of your Immaculate Conception should be defined, the world would enjoy a long period of peace. The troubles of the present time in which we are living are, we doubt not, a prelude to that happy peace during which the divine word will traverse the whole world unimpeded, and the Church Militant will reap her harvest for the Church in Heaven. Sweet Mother of our Jesus! The world was also in agitation in those times which preceded the birth of your divine Son, but peace reigned throughout the whole Earth when you gave it its Saviour in Bethlehem. Until that grand time comes when you will show to the world the magnificence of the power which God has given to you, assist us, each year, to prepare for the glorious solemnity of Christmas: pray for us that we may be cleansed from all our sins when that splendid Night comes, during which will be born of you Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Light eternal.

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The consecration of St. Eusebius (315‒371 AD), bishop of Vercelli, whose birthday is commemorated on the first of August. His feast is kept on the sixteenth of this month by order of Pope Benedict XIII.

At Rome, the holy martyrs Irenaeus, Anthony, Theodore, Saturninus, Victor and seventeen others, who suffered for Christ in the persecution of Valerian.

In Africa, the martyrdom of the Saints Faustinus, Lucius, Candidus, Caelian, Mark, Januarius and Fortunatus.

In the same country, the holy bishop Valerian, who, being upwards of eighty years old, in the persecution of the Vandals under the Arian king Genseric, was asked to deliver the vessels of the church, and as he constantly refused, an order was issued to drive him all alone out of the city, and all were forbidden to allow him to stay either in their houses or on their land. For a long time he remained lying on the public road, in the open air, and thus, in the confession and defence of the Catholic verity, closed his blessed life.

In the diocese of Orleans, St. Maximinus, confessor.

In Georgia, beyond the Euxine sea, St. Christiana, who, though a slave, was so gifted with the power of working miracles that she converted the inhabitants of that country to the faith of Christ in the time of Constantine.

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

Thanks be to God.

15 DECEMBER – FRIDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xxiv. 1‒15

Behold the Lord will lay waste the Earth, and will strip it: and will afflict the face thereof, and scatter abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it will be as with the people, so with the priest; and as with the servant, so with his master; as with the handmaid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower as with him that calls for his money, so with him that owes. With desolation will the Earth be laid waste, and it will be utterly spoiled: for the Lord has spoken this word. The Earth mourned, and faded away, and is weakened: the world faded away, the height of the people of the Earth is weakened. And the Earth is infected by the inhabitants thereof: because they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore will a curse devour the Earth and the inhabitants thereof will sin, and therefore they that dwell therein will be mad, and few men will be left. The vintage has mourned, the vine has languished away, all the merry hearted have sighed. The mirth of timbrels has ceased, the noise of them that rejoice is ended, the melody of the harp is silent. They will not drink wine with a psalm: the drink will be bitter to them that drink it. The city of vanity is broken down, every house is shut up, no man comes in. There will be a crying for wine in the streets: all mirth is forsaken, the joy of the Earth is gone away. Desolation is felt in the city, and calamity will oppress the gates. For it will be thus in the midst of the Earth, in the midst of the people, as if a few olives that remain should be shaken out of the olive tree: or grapes, when the vintage is ended. These will lift up their voice, and will give praise, when the Lord will be glorified, they will make a joyful noise from the sea. Therefore glorify ye the Lord in instruction: the name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the sea. From the ends of the Earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Thus was the Earth in desolation when the Messiah came to deliver and save it. So diminished, so decayed, were truths among the children of men (Psalm xi. 2) that the human race was bordering on its ruin. The knowledge of the true God was becoming rarer as the world got older. Idolatry had made everything in creation an object of its adulterous worship. The practical result of a religion which was but gross materialism, was frightful immorality. Man was for ever at war with man, and the only safeguards of what social order still existed in the world were the execrable laws of slavery and extermination. Among the countless inhabitants of the globe, a mere handful could be found who were seeking God. They were as rare as the olives that remain on the tree after a careful plucking, or as grape-bunches after the vintage is ended. Of this happy few were among the Jewish people those true Israelites whom our Saviour chose for His disciples and, among the Gentiles, the Magi that came from the East, asking for the new-born King, and later on, Cornelius the Centurion, whom the Angel of the Lord directed to Saint Peter.

But, with what faith and joy did they not acknowledge the Incarnate God! And what their hymns of glad gratitude when they found that they had been privileged above others, to see, with their own eyes, the promised Saviour! Now, all this will again happen when the time draws near of the second Coming of the Messiah. The Earth will once more be filled with desolation and mankind will be again a slave of its self-degradation. The ways of men will again grow corrupt and this time the malice of their evil will be the greater because they will have received Him who is the Light of the world, the Word of Life. A profound sadness will sit heavy on all nations, and every effort for their well-being will seem paralysed. They and the Earth they live on will be conscious of decrepitude, and yet it will never once strike them that the world is drawing to an end. There will be great scandals. There will fall stars from Heaven, that is, many of those who had been masters in Israel will apostatise and their light will be changed into darkness. There will be days of temptation and faith will grow slack, so that when the Son of Man will appear, faith will scarce be found on the Earth.

Let it not be, O Lord, that we live to see those days of temptation. Or, if it be your will that they overtake us, make our hearts firm in their allegiance to your holy Church, which will be the only beacon left to your faithful children in that fierce storm. Grant, O Lord, that we may be of the number of those chosen olives, of those elect bunches of grapes, with which you will complete the rich harvest which you will garner forever into your house. Preserve intact within us the deposit of faith which you have entrusted to us. Let our eye be fixed on that Orient of which the Church speaks to us, and where you are suddenly to appear in thy majesty. When that day of yours comes and we behold your triumph, we will shout our glad delight and then, like eagles which cluster round the body, we will be taken up to meet you in the air, as your Apostle speaks, and thus will we forever be with you (1 Thessalonians iv. 16). Then we will hear the praises and glory of the Just One, from the ends of this Earth, which it is your good will to preserve until the decrees of your mercy and justice will have been fully executed. Jesus! We are the work of your hands: save us and be merciful to us on that great day.

14 DECEMBER – THURSDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xix. 1‒2

The burden of Egypt. Behold the Lord will ascend upon a light cloud: and will enter into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt will be moved at His presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt in the midst thereof: and I will set the Egyptians to fight against the Egyptians, and they will fight brother against brother, and friend against friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Egypt which the Lord is here represented as visiting, and whose idols and empire He will overthrow, is the City of Satan which is to be destroyed and give place to the City of God. But how peaceful is the divine Conqueror’s entrance into His conquest! It is on a cloud, a light cloud, that He comes, as on His triumphal chariot. How many mysteries in these few words! “There are three Clouds,” says Peter of Blois, “the first, the obscurity of the Prophets. The second, the depth of the divine Decrees. The third, the prodigy of a Virgin Mother.” First, as to the obscurity of the Prophets, it is essential to every Prophecy that it be thus veiled, to the end that man’s free will may not be interfered with. But under this cloud the Lord comes at last, and when the day comes for the Prophecy to be accomplished, all things are clear enough. Thus was it with the first Coming, so will it be with the second. Then, as to the Decrees of God, as they are ordinarily made manifest by second, that is, by created causes only— it almost always happens that the extreme simplicity of the means employed by the divine Wisdom takes men by surprise. Never was this so observable as in the grand event of the Incarnation. Men would naturally expect that, in restoring a fallen world, a power equal at least to that which first created it would be displayed, and all they are told about the portent is: “You will find the child wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger!”

O almighty power of God, how dazzling is your light through this Cloud! How strong are you in this apparent weakness! But there is the third Cloud: it is the Virgin Mary. A light cloud, “for,” says Saint Jerome, “neither concupiscence, nor the burden of earthly marriage, weigh upon her.” A Cloud, too, laden with a refreshing Dew, since it holds the Just One who is to be rained down on us that our seething passions may be quenched and the soil of our spiritual life made fertile. How sweet is the majesty of our divine King when seen thus through this beautiful Cloud! O incomparable Virgin! The whole Church of God recognises thee in that mysterious Cloud which the Prophet Elias (3 Kings xviii. 42, 43) from the summit of Mount Carmel, saw rising up from the sea, little, at first, like a man’s foot, but sending at last such a plentiful rain that all Israel was refreshed by its abundance. Delay not, we pray you. Give us that heavenly and divine Dew which you possessed within you. Our sins have made the heavens as brass, and we are parched. You alone of creatures are just and pure! Beseech our Lord, who has set up His Throne of mercy in you, to come speedily and destroy our enemies and bring us peace.

13 DECEMBER – SAINT LUCY OF SYRACUSE (Virgin and Martyr)

Lucy, a virgin of Syracuse, illustrious by birth and by the Christian faith which she had professed from her infancy, went to Catania with her mother Eutychia who was suffering from a flax of blood, there to venerate the body of the blessed Agatha. Having prayed fervently at the tomb, she obtained her mother’s cure by the intercession of Agatha. Lucy then asked her mother that she would permit her to bestow upon the poor of Christ the fortune which she intended to leave her. No sooner, therefore, had she returned to Syracuse, than she sold all that was given to her and distributed the money among the poor. When he to whom her parents had, against her will, promised her in marriage came to know what Lucy had done, he went before the Prefect Paschasius and accused her of being a Christian.

Paschasius entreated and threatened, but could not induce her to worship the idols. The more he strove to shake her faith, the more inflamed were the praises which she uttered in professing its excellence. He said therefore to her: “We will have no more of your words when you feel the blows of my executioners.” To this the virgin replied: “Words can never be wanting to God’ servants, for Christ our Lord has said to them: When you will be brought before kings and governors, take no thought how or what to speak for it will be given to you in that hour what to speak. For it is not you that speaks, but the Holy Spirit that speaks in you.” Paschasius then asked her: “Is the Holy Spirit in you?” She answered: “They who live chastely and piously are the temple of the Holy Spirit.” He said: “I will order you to be taken to a brothel, that this Holy Spirit may leave you.” The Virgin said to him: “The violence with which you threat me would obtain for me a double crown of chastity.”

Paschasius being exceeding angry, ordered Lucy to be dragged to a place where her treasure might be violated but, by the power of God, so firmly was she fixed to the place where she stood that it was impossible to move her. Then the Prefect ordered her to be covered over with pitch, resin and boiling oil, and a fire to be kindled round her. But seeing that the flame was not permitted to hurt her, they tormented her in many cruel ways, and at length ran a sword through her neck. Thus wounded, Lucy foretold the Peace of the Church which would come after the deaths of Diocletian and Maximian, and then died. It was the Ides of December (Dec. 13) in 303 AD. Her body was buried at Syracuse, but was translated first to Constantinople, and afterwards to Venice.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

There comes to us today the fourth of our Wise Virgins, the valiant Martyr Lucy. Her glorious name shines on the sacred Dyptich of the Canon of the Mass together with those of Agatha, Agnes and Caecilia, and as often as we hear it pronounced during these days of Advent, it reminds us (for Lucy signifies Light), that He who consoles the Church, by enlightening her children, is soon to be with us. Lucy is one of the three glories of the Church of Sicily. As Catania is immortalised by Agatha, and Palermo by Rosaly, so is Syracuse by Lucy. Therefore, let us devoutly keep her feast. She will aid us by her prayers during this holy season, and will repay our love by obtaining for us a warmer love of that Jesus whose grace enabled her to conquer the world. Once more let us consider why our Lord has not only given us Apostles, Martyrs and Bishops as guides to us on our road to Bethlehem, but has willed also that we should be accompanied there by such virgins as Lucy. The children of the Church are forcibly reminded by this, that, in approaching the crib of their Sovereign Lord and God, they must bring with them, besides their faith, that purity of mind and body without which no one can come near to God.

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We present ourselves before you, Virgin Martyr, beseeching you to obtain for us that we may recognise in His lowliness that same Jesus whom you now see in His glory. Take us under your powerful patronage. Your name signifies Light. Guide us through the dark night of this life. O fair Light of Virginity! enlighten us. Evil concupiscence has wounded our eyes: pray for us, you bright Light of Virginity, that our blindness be healed, and that rising above created things, we may be able to see that true Light which shines in darkness but which darkness cannot comprehend. Pray for us that our eye may be purified, and may see, in the child who is to be born at Bethlehem, the new Man, the second Adam, the model on which the life of our regeneration must be formed. Pray, too, O holy Virgin, for the Church of Rome and for all those which adopt her form of the Holy Sacrifice, for they daily pronounce at the Altar of God your sweet name, and the Lamb, who is present, loves to hear it. Heap your choicest blessings on the fair Island which was your native land, and where grew the palm of your martyrdom. May your intercession secure to her inhabitants firmness of faith, purity of morals and temporal prosperity, and deliver them from the disorders which threaten her with destruction.

13 DECEMBER – WEDNESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xvi. 1‒5

Send forth, O Lord, the Lamb the ruler of the Earth, from Petra of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Sion. And it will come to pass that as a bird fleeing away, and as young ones flying out of the nest, so will the daughters of Moab be in the passage of Arnon. Take council, gather a council, make your shadow as the night in the midday: hide them that flee, and betray not them that wander about. My fugitives will dwell with you: O Moab, be a covert to them from the face of the destroyer. For the dust is at an end, the wretch is consumed, he has failed that trod the earth under foot. And a throne will be prepared in mercy, and one will sit on it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgement, and quickly rendering that which is just.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“Send forth to us, Lord, the Lamb”: “It is the Lamb,” says Peter of Celles, “it is the Lamb we need, and not the Lion. The Lamb that knows no anger and whose meekness is never ruffled, the Lamb that will give us his snow-white wool to warm our coldness and cover our nakedness, the Lamb that will give us his flesh to eat lest we faint with hunger on the way. Send Him full of wisdom, for in His divine prudence He will vanquish the spirit of pride. Send Him full of strength, for it is written that the Lord is strong and mighty in battle. Send Him full of meekness, for He is to come down as dew that falls on the fleece. Send Him as a victim, for He is to be sold and immolated for our ransom. Send Him the pardoner of sinners, for He is come to call them, and not the just. Send Him to receive power and divinity, He that is worthy to loose the seven seals of the sealed book, the unspeakable mystery of the Incarnation.”

You are King, then, O Divine Lamb! You are, even now in your Mother’s womb, the sovereign Ruler. This virginal womb is a throne of mercy on which you are seated in humility, ready to avenge our rights and confound our cruel enemy. O most dear King! Our eyes cannot yet behold you, but our hearts tell us you are near us. We know that it is for our sakes that you have put on this strange royalty. Suffer us to approach you and offer your our homage and loyalty, even now that a cloud hides you from our sight. A few days more, and you will be seated on another throne, your Mother’s arms, and then all the Earth will see the salvation that is sent to it.

12 DECEMBER – TUESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xiv. 1‒15

Her time is near at hand, and her days will not be prolonged. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose out of Israel, and will make them rest upon their own ground: and the stranger will be joined with them, and will adhere to the house of Jacob. And the people will take them, and bring them into their place: the house of Israel will possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they will make them captives that had taken them, and will subdue their oppressors. And it will come to pass in that day, that when God will give you rest from your labour, and from your vexation, and from the hard bondage, with which you served before, you will take up this parable against the King of Babylon, and will say: “How is the oppressor come to nothing, the tribute has ceased? The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of the rulers, that struck the people in wrath with an incurable wound, that brought nations under in fury, that persecuted in a cruel manner. How are you fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, who rose in the morning? How are you fallen to the Earth, that wounded the nations: and you said in your heart: I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the North: I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. But yet you will be brought down to Hell into the depth of the pit.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Your ruin, Lucifer, is irreparable! You refused to humble yourself before God, and you were cast into Hell. Your pride then sought a compensation for this your deep humiliation, and you caused the ruin of the human race out of hatred for God and His creatures. You succeeded in inspiring him who was formed out of dust with that same pride which had caused your own destruction. By you sin came into this world, and by sin death: the human race seemed now a victim which never could escape your vengeance. Forced to give up your hopes of a heavenly royalty, you aimed to reign in Hell and destroy the creatures of God as they came from His creating love. But again you are foiled and conquered. Your reign was in pride. Pride alone could form your court and give you subjects. Now see how the Sovereign Lord of all things uproots your kingdom: He Himself comes to teach His creatures humility, and he teaches it not by laws given with awful majesty as once on Sinai, but by Himself meekly practising that heavenly humility which alone can raise up them that had fallen by pride. Tremble, proud Spirit, your sceptre is to be broken!

In your haughty wisdom, you disdain this humble and lovely Virgin of Nazareth who holds within herself, in adoring silence, the mystery of your ruin and our salvation. The child she carries in her womb and is so soon to be born has long since been the object of your contempt. Know, then, that God does not disdain this unborn child, for this child is also God, and a single act of adoration and devotedness to His Father, which He is making in the womb of Mary, gives more glory to the Divinity than all your pride could rob it of, even were your pride to increase for eternity. Henceforth, men, taught by the lessons of a God the immense power of humility, will have recourse to it as their great remedy. Instead of exalting themselves, as you did, by a mad and guilty pride, they will humble themselves with love and pleasure: the lower they humble themselves, the higher will God raise them: the poorer they own themselves, the richer will He make them. It is the glorious Virgin that tells us this in her exquisite Canticle. May she be ever blessed, Mother so gentle and sweet to her children, and so terrible to you, Lucifer, that writhes beneath her as she crushes and conquers you.

9 DECEMBER – SATURDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias vii. 10‒14

And the Lord spoke again to Achaz, saying: “Ask a sign of the Lord your God, either to the depth of Hell, or to the height above.” And Achaz said: “I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord.” And he said: “Hear ye, therefore, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to be grievous to men, that you are grievous to my God also? Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, a Virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and his name will be called Emmanuel.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let our hearts be filled with hope and joy at hearing this fair and sweet prophecy: “A Virgin will conceive and bear a Son.” These words contain the salvation of the world, as these others express its perdition: “The woman took of the fruit of the tree, and did eat, and gave to her husband.” This Virgin promised to us is at length come: the divine Fruit is in her womb. By her, Eve’s disobedience is repaired, the world is raised from its fall, the head of the serpent is crushed, God Himself is more glorified by the fidelity of this second Virgin than He had been outraged by the disobedience of the first. The consent of Mary exercises an immense influence in the saving of the world. It is true that the Word Himself is coming, “but,” says Saint Bernard, “Mary is the way by which He comes. It is from her virginal womb He issues, as the Bridegroom from the nuptial chamber. Let us endeavour, therefore, to go up to Jesus by Mary, for Jesus came down to us by her. By you, O Blessed one that found Grace, O Parent of Life, Mother of Saltation, may we have access to your Son! May He who was given to us by you, receive us by you. May He admit your purity and, for its sake, forgive our impurities. May He give us the pardon of our pride, because of the pleasure He took in your humility. May your abundant charity cover the multitude of our sins. May your glorious fruitfulness get us fruitfulness of merit. Our Lady! Our Mediatrix! Our Advocate! Reconcile us to your Son, commend us to your Son, present us to your Son. By the grace you found, by the prerogative you merited, by the Mercy you brought forth, grant, O Blessed Virgin, that Jesus who deigned to become, through your maternity, partaker of our weakness and misery, may through your intercession make us partakers of His glory and bliss.”

4 DECEMBER – MONDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT

Lesson at Matins – Isaias xiii. 1‒11

The burden of Babylon, which Isaias the son of Amos saw. Upon the dark mountain lift ye up a banner, exalt the voice, lift up the hand, and let the rulers go into the gates. I have commanded my sanctified ones, and have called my strong ones in my wrath, them that rejoice in my glory. The noise of the multitude in the mountains, as it were of many people: the noise of the sound of kings, of nations gathered together. The Lord of hosts has given charge to the troops of war, to them that come from a country afar off, from the end of Heaven: the Lord and the instruments of His wrath, to destroy the whole land. Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is near, it will come as a destruction from the Lord. Therefore will all hands be faint, and every heart of man will melt, and will be broken. Gripings and pains will take hold of them, they will be in pain as a woman in labour: every one will be amazed at his neighbour, their countenances will be as faces burnt. Behold, the day of the Lord will come, a cruel day, and full of indignation, and of wrath, and fury to lay the land desolate, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven, and their brightness will not display their light: the sun will be darkened in his rising, and the moon will not shine with her light. And I will visit the evils of the world, and against the wicked for their iniquity: and I will make the pride of infidels to cease, and bring down the arrogance of the mighty.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church puts before us again, in the office of today, the terrible spectacle of the last Coming of Jesus Christ. The sinful Babylon, of which Isaias speaks, is the world grown old in its crimes. The cruel day, full of indignation and wrath, is that on which the Messiah will return to judge the world with His Sign glittering in the clouds. The words used by the Prophet to describe the terror of the inhabitants of Babylon are so expressive that it is difficult to meditate on them seriously and not tremble. You, then, who, in this second week of preparation for the Birth of our Saviour are still wavering and undecided as to what you intend to do for the day of His Coming, reflect on the connection that there is between the two Comings. If you receive your Saviour in the first, you need be in no fear for the second. But if you despise the first, the second will be to your destruction, nor will the cries of your despair save you. The Judge will come on a sudden, at midnight, at the very time when you persuade yourself that He is far off from you. Say not, that the end of the world is not yet come, and that the destinies of the human race are not filled up — it is not the world that is here in question, it is you individually. True, the Day of the Lord will be terrible, when this world will be broken up as a vessel of clay and the remnants of creation will be a prey to devouring flames. But long before that day of universal terror your own day of judgement will come. The inexorable Judge will come to you, you will stand before His face, you will have none to defend you, and the sentence He will pass will be eternal. And though the nature of that sentence, whether for or against you, will not be known to the rest of the world until the last and general judgement, still is this His Coming to you, at your own judgement, terrible above measure. Remember, therefore, that what will make the terror of the Last Day so great is, that then will be solemnly and publicly confirmed what was judged irrevocably, though secretly, between your own soul and her Judge, just as the favourable sentence, which the good receive at the happy moment of their death, will be repeated before the immense assembly of men and Angels on the Last Day. Is it wise, then, Christians, to put off your conversion, on the plea of the Day of the Lord not having to come for ages, when it might be “this night that your soul were required of you” (Luke xii. 20). The Lord is coming: lose no time, prepare to meet Him. A humble and contrite and converted heart is sure to find acceptance.

26 NOVEMBER – SAINT SILVESTER (Abbot)

Sylvester was born of a noble family at Osimo in the Marches of Ancona, and in his boyhood was remarkable for his love of study and his good conduct. As a youth he was sent by his father to Bologna to study jurisprudence, but was admonished by God to devote himself to sacred learning. This incited his father to anger, which Sylvester patiently endured for 10 years. On account of his remarkable virtue, the Canons of Osimo elected him an honorary member of their chapter, in which position he benefited the people by his prayers, example and sermons. While assisting at the funeral of a nobleman, his relative, who had been remarkably handsome, he looked into the open coffin, and seeing the corpse all deformed, said to himself: “What this man was, I am now. What he is now, I will be hereafter.” As soon as the funeral was over, reading these words of our Lord: “If any one will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” he retired into solitude to attain greater perfection. There he gave himself up to watching, prayer and fasting, often eating nothing but raw herbs.

The better to conceal himself from men Sylvester frequently changed his place of abode and at length settled at Monte Fano which, though near to Fabriano, was at that time a desert. There he built a church in honour of the most holy father Benedict, and founded the Congregation of Sylvestrians under the rule and habit shown him by Saint Benedict in a vision. Satan, roused to envy, strove in many ways to terrify his monks, making assaults by night at the monastery gates. But the man of God repressed the enemy’s attack with such vigour that the monks, recognising their father’s sanctity, were more and more confirmed in their holy purpose. Sylvester was remarkable for the spirit of prophecy and other gifts which he guarded by deep humility. This so stirred up the devil’s envy that he cast the saint headlong down the oratory stairs and almost killed him, but the Blessed Virgin at once graciously restored him to health. In gratitude for this benefit, Sylvester showed her the tenderest unfailing piety to the end of his life. He died at the age of about 90 years, renowned for sanctity and miracles, on the sixth of the Calends of December in 1267. Pope Leo XIII extended his Office and Mass to the universal Church.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

God often brings the world to those who see from it, as Sylvester Gozzolini among others experienced. In the thirteenth century the world, all in admiration at the sanctity and the eloquence of the new Orders, seemed to have forgotten the monks and the desert. God, who never forgets, led his elect silently into solitude and the wilderness began again to rejoice and flourish like the lily. Strength was restored to the weak hands and feeble knees of the sons of the cloister. The austerities of olden days and the fervour of prolonged prayer were revived at Monte Fano and extended into 60 other monasteries. The new religious family of the Sylvestrians was approved by Innocent IV in 1247. Though originated seven centuries after Saint Benedict, and distinguished from the elder families by its blue habit, it claims the Patriarch of Cassino for its legislator and father.

Death, by revealing to you, O Sylvester, the vanity of noble birth and beauty, opened to you the path of life. The frivolous world, deceived by the mirage of false pleasures cannot understand the Gospel which defers beatitude to another life, and paves the way to it with renunciation, humility and the cross. With the Church, we ask of our merciful God, in consideration of your merits, the grace to despise, as you did, the fleeting joys of this world, that we may partake with you of true and eternal happiness. Deign to support our petition with your own supplication. We beseech Him who has glorified you to bless and multiply your sons, to sustain them and the whole monastic Order, and every religious family, under the sufferings of the present time.

27 OCTOBER – FERIA

 On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

The Vigil of the holy Apostles Saints Simon and Jude.

At Avila in Spain, the Saints Vincent, Sabina and Christeta, who were first stretched on the rack in such a manner that all their limbs were dislocated. Then stones being laid on their heads, and their brains beaten out with heavy bars, they terminated their martyrdom under the governor Dacian.

At Tilchatel, St. Florentius, martyr.

In Cappadocia, the holy martyrs Capitolina, and Erotheides, her handmaid, who suffered under Diocletian.

In India, St. Frumentius, bishop. While he was a captive there he was consecrated bishop by St. Athanasius and preached the Gospel in that country.

In Ethiopia, St. Elesbaan, king, who, after having defeated the enemies of Christ and sent his royal diadem to Jerusalem in the time of the emperor Justin, led a monastical life, as he had vowed, and went to his reward.

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

Thanks be to God.

8 JUNE – THE CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Who is this who comes up, embalming the desert of the world with her clouds of incense and myrrh and perfumes unnumbered? The Bride has awakened of her own accord today. Full of desire to please Him, and very lovely, the Church is standing round the golden litter on which is throned her Spouse in His glory. Near Him are drawn up the valiant ones of Israel, the Priests and Levites of the Lord who are strong even with God. Go forth, daughters of Sion! Fix your gaze on the true Solomon, so beautiful in the diadem with which His mother crowned Him on the day of His espousals, the day of the joy of His heart! (Canticles iii. 5-11)

That diadem is the Flesh received by the divine Word from the Virgin Mother when He took our human nature for His Bride. By this most perfect of Bodies, by this sacred Flesh, there is every day continued in the Eucharistic banquet the ineffable mystery of the marriage between man and eternal Wisdom. For our true Solomon, then, each day is the day of the joy of His heart, the day of nuptial rejoicing: could anything be more just than that once in the year holy Church should give full freedom to the transports of the love she has for her divine Spouse who resides with her in the Sacrament of Love, although in a hidden manner? It is on this account that in today’s Mass the priest has consecrated two Hosts, and that after having received one of these in Holy Communion, He has placed the other in the glittering Ostensorium which is to be carried in his trembling hands beneath a canopy while hymns of triumphant joy are being sung, and the Faithful in prostrate adoration are being blessed by their Jesus, who thus comes among them.

This solemn homage to the sacred Host is a later institution than the Feast itself of Corpus Christi. Pope Urban IV does not speak of it in his Bull of the Institution in 1264. Twenty-two years later, Durandus of Mende wrote his Rational of Divine Offices in which he several times mentions the Processions which were then in use. But he has not a word on that of Corpus Christi. On the other hand, Popes Martin V and Eugenius IV, in their Constitutions (May 26, 1429; May 26, 1433), plainly show that it was then in use, for they grant Indulgences to them that are present at it. Donatus Bossius of Milan tells us in his Chronicle that on Thursday the 24th of May, 1404, “there was carried, for the first time solemnly, the Body of Christ in the streets of Padua, which has since become the custom.” Some writers have concluded from these words that the Procession of Corpus Christi was not in use before that date, and that it first originated at Padua. But the words of Bossius scarcely justify such an inference, and the words he uses may be understood of a local custom.

Indeed, we find mention made of this Procession in a Manuscript of the Church of Chartres in 1330, in an Act of the Chapter of Tournai in 1325, in a Council of Paris in 1323, and in one held at Sens in 1320. Indulgences are granted by these two Councils to those who observe abstinence and fasting on the vigil of Corpus Christi, and they add these words: “As to the solemn Procession made on the Thursday’s Feast, when the holy Sacrament is carried, seeing that it appears to have been introduced in these our times by a sort of inspiration, we prescribe nothing at present, and leave all concerning it to the devotion of the clergy and people.” So that the initiative to the institution of today’s Procession seems to have been made by the devotion of the Faithful, and that this admirable completion given to our Feast began in France, and from there was adopted in all the Churches of the West.

There is ground for supposing that at first the sacred Host was not carried in these Processions as it is now. It was veiled over or enclosed in a sort of rich shrine. Even so far back as the eleventh century it had been the custom in some places to carry It in this way during the Processions of Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday morning. We have elsewhere spoken of these devotional practices, which, however, were not so much for the direct purpose of honouring the Blessed Sacrament, as for that of bringing more forward the mystery of those solemnities. Be this as it may, the use of ostensoria, or monstrances, as they are termed in a Council held in 1452 at Cologne, soon followed the institution of the new Procession.

They were made at first in shape like little towers. In a Manuscript Missal dated 1374, the letter D, which is the first of the Collect for the feast of Corpus Christi, gives us a miniature illumination representing a Bishop, accompanied by two acolytes, who is carrying the Host in a golden tower which has four openings. But Catholic piety soon began to offer to its Lord all the exterior honour it could: to that Lord who hides Himself and His glory in the Mystery of Love. And to the Sun of Justice thus shrouded it suggested the compensation, poor though it must necessarily be, of a crystal sphere surrounded by rays of gold, or of other precious material, and of exposing the sacred Host within it. Not to mention other, and more ancient records, we find a very marked instance of the rapidity with which this use of the monstrance was adopted: it occurs in a Gradual of the period of Louis XII (1498–1515): the initial letter of the Introit for Corpus Christi has within it a sun or sphere, like those in present use. It is being carried on the shoulders of two figures vested in copes, who are followed by the King and several Cardinals and Prelates.

And yet the Protestant heresy which was then beginning gave the name of novelty, superstition and idolatry to these natural developments of Catholic worship prompted, as they were, by faith and love. The Council of Trent pronounced anathema on these calumnies and, in a Chapter apart, showed how rightly the Church had acted in countenancing these practices. The words of the Council are as follows: “The holy Council declares that there has been most piously and religiously introduced into God’s Church the practice that each year, on a certain special feast, the august and venerable Sacrament should be honoured with singular veneration and solemnity, and that It should be reverently and with every honour carried in processions through the public roads and places. For it is most just that certain holidays should be appointed on which all Christians should, with special and unusual demonstrations, evince their gratitude and mindfulness towards their common Lord and Redeemer for this so unspeakable and truly divine favour in which is represented His victory and triumph over death. And it was also necessary that thus invincible truth should triumph over lying and heresy, and that her enemies, seeing all that splendour and being in the midst of such great joy of the whole Church, should either grow wearied and acknowledge their being beaten and broken, or, being ashamed and confounded, should be converted.”

25 MAY – SAINT URBAN (Pope and Martyr)

Urban, a Roman by birth, governed the Church during the reign of the emperor Alexander Severus. By his learning and holy life he converted many to the Christian Faith. Among these were Valerian, the husband of Saint Caecilia, and Tiburtius, Valerian’s brother, both of whom afterwards courageously suffered martyrdom. Urban wrote these words regarding property that is given to the Church: “Things that have been offered to the Lord by the Faithful should not be put to any other use than such as is for the benefit of the Church, the brethren in the Christian faith, or the poor: because they are the offerings of the Faithful, the return made for sin, and the patrimony of the poor.” He reigned 6 years, 7 months and 4 days. He was crowned with martyrdom and was buried in the Cemetery of Praetextatus on the eighth of the Calends of June (May 25). In five ordinations held in the Decembers of different years, he ordained 9 priests, 5 deacons and 8 bishops.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This day is beautified by the triumph of two sainted Popes, and the Seventh Gregory, when he quitted this Earth, was introduced into the court of Heaven by one of his predecessors. Urban was a martyr by the shedding of his blood. Gregory was a martyr by the sufferings he had to endure during his whole Pontificate. Both fought for the same glorious cause. Urban laid down his life, rather than obey an earthly potentate who bade him degrade himself by adoring an idol. Gregory preferred to endure every temporal suffering rather than allow the Church to be the slave of Caesar. Both of them adorn the Paschal Season with their beautiful palms. Our Risen Jesus said to Peter: “Follow me!” (John xxi. 19), and Peter followed Him, even to the Cross. Urban and Gregory were Peter’s successors and, like him, they were the devoted disciples of the same Divine Master. We honour them both on this day and in their triumph we have a proof of the invincible power which, in every age, the Conqueror of death has communicated to them whom He appointed to bear testimony to the truth of His Resurrection.

* * * * *

Holy Pontiff, the joy of this day of your triumph is enhanced by its being the anniversary of the entrance into Heaven of your illustrious successor Gregory. You had watched his combats here on Earth, and his courage delighted you as being equal to that of the martyrs. He, when dying at Salerno, thought of your martyrdom, and the thought inspired him with energy for his last trial. How admirable is the union that exists between the Church Triumphant and Militant! How sublime the brotherhood that exists between the Saints! What a joy it is for us to know that we may share in it! Our Risen Jesus invites us to be united with Him for all eternity. Each generation is sending Him its elect, and they cluster around Him, for He is their Head, and they are the Members that complete His mystical body. He is the first-born of the dead and He will give us to share in His life in proportion to our having imitated Him in His sufferings and Death. Pray, O Urban, that we may become more and more inflamed with the desire of being with Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John xiv. 6), that we may be detached from earthly things and comport ourselves here below as men who believe themselves to be exiles who are absent from the Lord (2 Corinthians v. 6).

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Florence, St. Mary Magdalene, virgin, of the Order of the Carmelites, illustrious by the holiness of her life. Her feast is kept on the twenty-seventh of May.

At Dorostorum in Mysia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Pasicrates, Valentio and two others, crowned with them.

At Milan, the holy bishop Denis, who for the Catholic faith was, by the Arian emperor Constantius, banished to Cappadocia where he yielded his soul to God in a manner almost like that of the martyrs. His sacred body was sent to the blessed bishop Ambrose at Milan by bishop Aurelius with the assistance, it is said, of St. Basil the Great.

At Rome, Pope St. Boniface IV who dedicated the Pantheon to the honour of blessed Mary of the Martyrs.

At Florence, the birthday of St. Zenobius, bishop of that city, renowned for holiness of life and glorious miracles.

In England, St. Aidhelm, bishop of Sherburn.

In the territory of Troyes, St. Leo, confessor.

At Assisi in Umbria, the translation of St. Francis, confessor, in the time of Pope Gregory IX.

At Veroli in Campania, the translation of St. Mary, mother of James, whose sacred body is rendered illustrious by many miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

24 MAY – OUR LADY HELP OF CHRISTIANS

 

The Faithful have frequently seen it proved by miraculous intervention that the Mother of God is ever ready with her Help to repel the enemies of religion. It was on this account that after the signal victory gained by the Christians over the Turks in the Gulf of Lepanto, through the intercession of the most Blessed Virgin, Saint Pius V ordered that to the other titles given to the Queen of Heaven in the Litany of Loreto, there should be added this of Help of Christians.

 

But one of the most memorable proofs of this her protection, and one which may be regarded as an incontestable miracle, is that which happened during the pontificate of Pius VII. By the intrigues and armed violence of certain impious men the Pontiff had been driven from the Apostolic See of Peter and was kept in close confinement, mainly at Savona, for upwards of five years. During this period, by a persecution unheard of in any previous age, every possible means was resorted to in order to prevent his governing the Church of God. When suddenly and to the surprise of men he was restored to the Pontifical throne to the great joy, it might be almost said, with the concurrence, of the whole world. The same thing happened also a second time when a fresh disturbance arose and compelled him to leave Rome and go, with the Sacred College of Cardinals, into Liguria. Here again the storm that threatened great destruction was appeased by a most prompt interference of God’s providence, and the Pontiff’s return to Rome filled Christendom with new joy. Before returning, however, he would carry out an intention which his captivity had until then prevented him from doing: with his own hand he solemnly placed a golden crown on the celebrated statue of the Mother of God that was venerated at Savona under the title of Mother of Mercy.

 

The same Sovereign Pontiff, Pius VII, who was so thoroughly acquainted with every circumstance of these events, rightly attributed their happy issue to the intercession of the most holy Mother of God whose powerful help he himself had earnestly besought, besides urging all the Faithful to obtain it by their prayers. He therefore instituted a solemn feast in honour of the same Virgin-Mother under the title of Help of Christians. It was to be kept every year on the twenty-fourth of May, the anniversary of his own most happy return to Rome. He also sanctioned a proper Office for this feast, in order that the remembrance of so great a favour might ever be vividly on the minds of the Faithful, and secure the thanksgiving it deserved.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Ever since our entrance upon the joys of the Paschal Season, scarcely a day has passed without the Calendar offering us some grand mystery or saint to honour, and all these have been radiant with the Easter sun. But of our Blessed Lady, there has not been a single Feast to gladden our hearts by telling us of some mystery or glory of this august Queen. The Feast of her Seven Dolours is sometimes kept in April — that is, when Easter Sunday falls on or after the tenth of that month, but May and June pass without any special solemnity in honour of the other of God. It would seem as though Holy Church wished to honour, by a respectful silence, the forty days during which Mary enjoyed the company of her Jesus after His Resurrection. We, therefore, should never separate the Mother and the Son, if we would have our Easter meditations be in strict accordance with truth — and that, we surely must wish. During these forty days, Jesus frequently visits His Disciples, weak men and sinners as they are: can He, then, keep away from His Mother, now that He is so soon to ascend into Heaven and leave her for several long years here on Earth? Our hearts forbid us to entertain the thought. We feel sure that He frequently visits her and that, when not visibly present with her, she has Him in her soul, in a way more intimate and real and delicious than any other creature could have.

No feast could have given expression to such a mystery, and yet the Holy Ghost who guides the spirit of the Church, has gradually led the faithful to devote to the honouring Mary in an special manner the entire month of May, the whole of which comes, almost every year, under the glad season of Easter. No doubt, the loveliness of the May month would, some time or other, suggest the idea of consecrating it to the Holy Mother of God, but if we reflect on the divine and mysterious influence which guides the Church in all she does, we will recognise in this present instance a heavenly inspiration which prompted the Faithful to unite their own joy with that of Mary’s, and spend this beautiful month, which is radiant with their own Easter joy, in commemorating the maternal delight experienced during that same period by the Immaculate Mother when on Earth.

Today, however, we have a feast in honour of Mary. True, it is not one of those feasts which are entered on the general Calendar of the Church, yet is it so widely spread, and this with the consent of the Holy See, that our Liturgical Year would have been incomplete without it. Its object is to honour the Mother of God as the Help of Christians — a title she has justly merited by the innumerable favours she has conferred on Christendom. Dating from that day, whose anniversary we are soon to be celebrating, and on which the Holy Ghost descended on Mary in the Cenacle in order that she might begin to exercise over the Church Militant her power as Queen — who could tell the number of times that she has aided, by her protection, the Kingdom of her Son on Earth?

Heresies have risen up one after the other. They were violent. They were frequently supported by the great ones of this world. Each of them was resolved on the destruction of the True Faith. And yet, one after the other, they have dwindled away or fallen into impotency, or are gradually sinking by internal discord. And Holy Church tells us that it is Mary who “alone destroys all heresies throughout the whole world.” If public scandals or persecutions, or the tyranny of secular interference, have at times threatened to stay the progress of the Church, Mary has stretched forth her arm, the obstacles were removed and Jesus’ Spouse continued her onward march, leaving her foes and her fetters behind her. All this was vividly brought before the mind of the saintly Pontiff Pius V by the victory of Lepanto gained by Mary’s intercession over the Turkish Fleet, and he resolved to add one more title to the glorious ones given to our Lady in the Litany: the title he added was Auxilium Christianovum, Help of Christians. [The nineteenth century] had the happiness of seeing another Pontiff, also named Pius, institute a feast under this same title — a feast which is intended to commemorate the Help bestowed on Christendom, and in all ages, by the Mother of God. Nothing could be happier than the choice of the day on which this feast was to be kept.

On the 24th of May 1814 there was witnessed in Rome the most magnificent triumph that has yet been recorded in the annals of the Church. That was a grand day on which Constantine marked out the foundations for the Vatican Basilica in honour of the Prince of the Apostles. Sylvester stood by and blessed the Emperor, who had just been converted to the true Faith. but important as was this event, it was but a sign of the last and decisive victory won by the Church in the then recent persecution of Diocletian. That was a grand day on which Leo III, Vicar of the King of kings, crowned Charlemagne with the imperial diadem, and by his apostolic power gave continuance to the long interrupted line of Emperors. But Leo III by this did but give an official and solemn expression to the power which the Church had already frequently exercised in the newly constituted nations which received from her the idea of Christian government, the consecration of their rights, and the grace that was to enable them to fulfil their duties. That was a grand day on which Gregory IX took back to the City of Peter the Papal Throne which had been pent up at Avignon for seventy sad years. But Gregory IX in this did but fulfil a duty, and his predecessors, had they willed it, might have effected this return to Rome, which the necessities of Christendom so imperatively called for.

Yes, all these were glorious days, but the 24th of May 1814 surpasses them all. Pius VII re-entered Rome amidst the acclamations of the Holy City, whose entire population went forth to meet him, holding palm branches in their hands, and greeting him with their hosannas of enthusiastic joy. He had been a captive for five years, during which the spiritual government of the Christian world had suffered a total suspension. It was not the Allied Powers, who had made common cause against his oppressor, that broke the Pontiff’s fetters. The very tyrant who kept him from Rome had given him permission to return at the close of the preceding year, but the Pontiff chose his own time and did not leave Fontainebleau till the 25th of January. Rome, to which he was about to return, had been made a part of the French Empire five years previously, and by a decree in which was cited the name of Charlemagne! The City of Peter had been reduced to a head town of a Department, with a Prefect for its administrator. And with a view to making men forget that it was the City of the Vicars of Christ, its name was given as a title to the heir-presumptive of the imperial crown of France. What a day that 24th of May, which witnessed the triumphant return of the Pontiff into the Holy City from which he had been dragged during the night by the soldiers of an ambitious tyrant!

But what we have so far said is not sufficient to give an adequate idea of the greatness of the prodigy thus achieved by our Lady, the Help of Christians. In order to have a just appreciation of it we must remember that the miracle was not wrought in the age of Sylvester and Constantine, or of Saint Leo III and Charlemagne, or of the great prophetess Catherine of Siena who made known the commands of God to the people of Italy and to the Popes of Avignon. The age that witnessed this wondrous event was the nineteenth, and that, too, when it was under the degrading influence of Voltairianism, and there were still living the authors and abettors of the crimes and impieties that resulted from the principles taught in the eighteenth century. Everything was adverse to such a glorious and unexpected triumph. Catholic feeling was far from being roused as it now is — the action of God’s providence had to show itself in a direct and visible manner: and to let the Christian world know that such was the case, Rome instituted the annual feast of the 24th of May, as an offering of acknowledgement to Mary, the Help of Christians.

Let us now weigh the importance of the two-fold restoration which was wrought on this day by the intercession of the Holy Mother of God. Pius VII had been forcibly taken from Rome and dethroned. On this 24th of May, he was reinstated in Rome, both as Pope and as Temporal Sovereign. On the respective feasts of Saint Peter’s Chair at Rome and Antioch, we gave our readers the doctrine of the Church which teaches us that the succession to the rights conferred by Christ on Saint Peter belongs to the Bishop of Rome. From this it follows that residence in the City of Rome is both the right and obligation of the successor of Saint Peter, save in the case of his deeming a temporary absence to be demanded by circumstances. Whoever, therefore, by means of physical force keeps the Sovereign Pontiff out of Rome, or prevents him from residing there, is acting in opposition to the Divine Will. For the Pastor ought to be in the midst of his flock, and Rome having been made by Christ the head of all Churches, these have a right to find in Rome him, who is both the Infallible Doctor of Faith, and the source of all spiritual jurisdiction. The first blessing, therefore, for which we are indebted to Mary on this day is that she brought back the Pastor to his flock, and restored the supreme government of holy Church to its normal state.

Let us then give thanks to the Blessed Mother of God on this feast of the twenty-fourth day of May, which has been instituted in commemoration of the two-fold blessing she thus brought upon the world, the preservation of the Church and the preservation of society. Let us unite in the fervent acclamations of the then loyal citizens of Rome, and like them sing with all the glad joy of our Easter Alleluia, our greetings of Hosanna to the Vicar of Christ, the Father of that dear Land, our common Country. The remembrance of Saint Peter’s deliverance from prison and his restoration to liberty must have been vividly on the minds of that immense concourse of people, whose love for their Pontiff was redoubled by the sufferings he had gone through. As the triumphal chariot, on which he had been placed, came near the Porta Flaminia, the horses were unyoked and the Pontiff was conveyed by the people to the Vatican Basilica where a solemn thanksgiving was made over the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles.

But let us not close the day, without admiring the merciful intervention of our Lady, the Help of Christians. If the protection she gives to the faithful sometimes necessitates her showing severity to them that were the tyrants, her maternal heart is full of compassion for the vanquished, and she extends her Help even to them. Thus it was with the haughty Emperor over whom she triumphed on the twenty-fourth of May. She would then bring him back to humble repentance and to the practice of his religious duties. A messenger from the Island of Saint Helena was one day ushered into the presence of Pius VII. The exiled Napoleon whom he had consecrated Emperor in the Church of Notre Dame, and whose after conduct brought him under the ban of excommunication, now besought the Pontiff, the true and only King of Rome, to allow him to be re-admitted to those spiritual blessings of which he had been justly deprived. Our Lady was preparing a second victory.

Pius VII whose name the fallen Emperor could never pronounce without emotion, and whom he called “a lamb” — Pius VII, who had so courageously braved public opinion by giving hospitality at Rome to the members of the unfortunate Napoleon family — readily complied with the request thus made to him, and the holy Sacrifice of the Mass was shortly afterwards offered up in the presence of the illustrious exile of Saint Helena. Our Lady of Help was advancing her conquest. But before granting pardon, the Justice of God had required a full and public expiation. He, who had been the instrument of salvation to millions of souls by restoring religion to France was not to be lost, but he had impiously imprisoned the Sovereign Pontiff in the castle of Fontainebleau. And it was in that very castle that he had afterwards to sign the deed of his own abdication. For five years he had held captive the Vicar of Christ. For five years he himself had to endure the sufferings and humiliation of captivity. Heaven accepted the retribution and left Mary to complete her victory. Reconciled with the Church, and fortified by the holy Sacraments which prepare the Christian for eternity, Napoleon yielded up his soul into the hands of his Maker on the 5th of May — the month that is sacred to Mary, and gives us the feast we are keeping today. The day chosen by God from all eternity for Napoleon’s death was the feast of Saint Pius V, on which same feast Pius VII was receiving the congratulations of his faithful Romans. The name Pius signifies compassion and mercy. It is one of the names given to God in the Sacred Scripture: Pius et misericors est Deus: God is compassionate and merciful (Ecclesiasticus ii. 13). Mary too is compassionate. It is the title we give her in one of our favourite prayers: clemens, Pia, dulcis Virgo Maria! She is ever ready with her aid, be the danger one that affects the Church at large, or a single individual soul: she is the Help of Christians, and as such we honour her on this feast. God has willed her to be so, and we are but complying with His wishes when we have an unreserved confidence in the protection of this powerful Queen, this loving Mother.

Let us now read the account, as given in today’s liturgy, of the great event that prompted the institution of our feast:

“The Faithful have frequently seen it proved by miraculous intervention that the Mother of God is ever ready with her Help to repel the enemies of Religion. It was on this account that after the signal victory gained by the Christians over the Turks in the Gulf of Lepanto, through the intercession of the most Blessed Virgin, the holy Pope Pius V ordered that to the other titles given to the Queen of Heaven in the Litany of Loreto there should be added this of Help of Christians.

But one of the most memorable proofs of this her protection, and one which may be regarded as an incontestable miracle, is that which happened during the Pontificate of Pius VII. By the intrigues and armed violence of certain impious men, the Pontiff had been driven from the Apostolic See of Peter, and was kept in close confinement, mainly at Savona, for upwards of five years. During this period, by a persecution unheard of in any previous age, every possible means was resorted to in order to prevent his governing the Church of God. When lo! suddenly and to the surprise of men, he was restored to the Pontifical Throne, to the great joy, it might be almost said, with the concurrence, of the whole world.

The same thing happened also a second time when a fresh disturbance arose and compelled him to leave Rome and go, with the Sacred College of Cardinals, into Liguria. Here again the storm that threatened great destruction was appeased by a most prompt interference of God’s providence, and the Pontiff’s return to Rome filled Christendom with new joy. Before returning, however, he would carry out an intention which his captivity had until then prevented him from doing: with his own hand he solemnly placed a golden crown on the celebrated statue of the Mother of God that was venerated at Savona, under the title of Mother of Mercy. The same Sovereign Pontiff, Pius VII, who was so thoroughly acquainted with every circumstance of these events, rightly attributed their happy issue to the intercession of the most holy Mother of God, whose powerful help he himself had earnestly besought, besides urging all the Faithful to obtain it by their prayers. He therefore instituted a solemn feast in honour of the same Virgin-Mother under the title of Help of Christians. It was to be kept every year on the twenty-fourth of May, the anniversary of his own most happy return to Rome. He also sanctioned a proper Office for this feast in order that the remembrance of so great a favour might ever be vividly on the minds of the Faithful, and secure the thanksgiving it deserved.”

“I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from where help will come to me: my help is from the Lord, who made Heaven and Earth” (Psalms cxx. 1, 2). Thus prayed the Israelites of old — thus also prays the Church — though, for her, the help is nearer and comes more speedily. The Psalmist’s petition has been granted: the heavens have bowed down, and the divine Help is now close by our side. This Help is Jesus, Son of God, and Son of Mary. He is unceasingly fulfilling the promise made us by His Prophet: “In the day of your salvation, I have helped you” (Isaias xlix. 8). But this King of kings has given us a Queen, and this Queen is Mary His Mother. Out of love for her He has given her a throne on His right hand, as Solomon did for his mother Bethsabee (3 Kings ii. 19), and He would have her also be the Help of Christians. It is the Church that teaches us this by inserting this beautiful title in the Litany. And Rome invites us on this day to unite with her in giving thanks and praise to our Blessed Lady of Help, for one of the most signal of her favours.

* * * * *

QUEEN of Heaven! Our Paschal joy is increased on this the anniversary of you giving back to Rome her Pastor and her King. Yes, it was your intercession that achieved the grand victory, and we offer you the homage of our grateful rejoicings. This Month is your in a special manner, but its twenty-fourth day makes us redouble our devotion. It encourages us to entreat you, with all the earnestness of our souls, that you would protect Rome and its Pontiff, for new dangers have arisen.

The Rock, set by your Jesus, has again become a sign of contradiction, and the billows of impiety and violence are beating against it. We know the great promise: the Rock can never be swept away, and on it safely stands the Church. But we know, too that this Church is one day to be taken up to Heaven, and then the Judgement! Meanwhile, you, Mary, are our Help: Oh stretch forth that arm of yours which nothing can resist. Be mindful of Rome where you are so devoutly honoured, and where your glory is proclaimed by so many sumptuous sanctuaries. The end of the world is not yet come. The holiest of causes requires your aid. Never permit the Holy City to be desecrated by her falling into the power of impious men. Suffer her not to be deprived of the presence of her Pontiff, and uphold the independence which the Vicar of Christ must possess, if the Church is to be rightly governed.

But Rome is not the only spot on Earth that needs your powerful Help, O Mary. The Vineyard of your Son is every where being laid waste by the wild beast (Psalms lxxix.) Vice and error and seduction are everywhere. There is not a country where the Church is not persecuted, and her liberty trampled upon. Society has lost its Christian traditions. It is at the mercy of revolutions against which it has no power. O you that are the Help of Christians, aid the world in these its perils! You have the power to save it from danger! Will you permit the people to be lost, who were redeemed by the Blood of Jesus and whom He, from His Cross, entrusted to your care?

You, O Mary, are the Help of each Christian soul, as well as of the entire world. That same enemy who is bent on the destruction of the whole human race is seeking to drag each one of us into perdition. He hates the image of your Son which he sees reflected in our human nature. O come to our assistance: save us from this roaring lion of Hell. He knows your power, and that you can procure our deliverance, so long as we are left in this present life. You have gained the most stupendous victories for the salvation of your clients. Tire not, we beseech you, in aiding poor sinners to return to their God. When Jesus spoke of them that were invited to the marriage-feast and told us how the king said to his servants: “Compel them to come in” (Luke xiv. 23), it was you that He had mainly in view. Lead us then to our King! Our supplications to you, O Help of Christians, are thus earnest because our wants are great. But we are not on that account the less mindful of the special honour that we owe you at this holy Season of Easter when the Church contemplates the joy you had in your Risen Jesus’ presence. She congratulates you on the immense happiness that thus repaid you for your anguish on Calvary and at the Sepulchre. It is to the Mother consoled by and exulting in her Son’s triumphant Resurrection that we offer this sweet month, whose loveliness is so in keeping with your own incomparable beauty, dear Mother! In return for this homage of our devotion pray for us that our souls may persevere in the beauty of grace given to them by this year’s union with our Jesus, and that we may be so well prepared for the Feast of Pentecost, as to merit to receive the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, who comes that He may perfect the work of our Paschal Regeneration.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Antioch, the birthday of St. Manahen, foster-brother of Herod the Tetrarch. He was a doctor and prophet under the grace of the New Testament, and his remains now repose in the city of Antioch.

Also blessed Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, mentioned by the Evangelist St. Luke.

At Porto, the birthday of St. Vincent, martyr.

At Brescia, St. Afra, martyr, who suffered under the emperor Hadrian.

At Nantes in Bretagne, in the time of the emperor Diocletian, the blessed martyrs Donatian and Rogatian, brothers who, because of their constancy in the faith, were sent to prison, stretched on the rack, and lacerated. Finally, they were transpierced with a soldier’s lance and beheaded.

In Istria, the holy martyrs Zoellus, Servilius, Felix, Silvanus and Diocles.

The same day, the holy martyrs Meletius, military officer, and two hundred and fifty two of his companions, who achieved their martyrdom by various kinds of deaths.

Also the holy martyrs Susanna, Marciana and Pallada, wives of the soldiers just mentioned, who were put to death with their young children.

At Milan, St. Robustian, martyr.

At Morocco in Africa, the passion of blessed John de Prado, of the Order of the Discalced Friars Minor of the Strict Observance who, while preaching the Gospel, was bound, imprisoned and scourged, and after enduring with fortitude many other torments for Christ, terminated his martyrdom by fire.

In the monastery of Lerins, St. Vincent, a priest eminent for learning and sanctity.

At Bologna, the translation of St. Dominic, confessor, in the time of Pope Gregory IX.

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

Thanks be to God.

24 MAY – WEDNESDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF THE ASCENSION

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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