31 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.

31 MAY – SAINT PETRONILLA (Virgin)

Petronilla is said to have been a spiritual daughter of Saint Peter, who took her with him to Rome where she became paralysed. Simon Magus having asked him why, if he could perform miracles, he allowed his daughter to remain infirm, Saint Peter answered that “It was expedient for her.” Then he added, “Nevertheless, to show the power of God, she will rise from her bed and walk.” Then he called her, and she rose and was restored to her full health. An officer who greatly admired her beauty sent soldiers to her to ask her to be his wife, but she replied: “If he wants me to marry him, let him not send rough soldiers to woo me, but respectable matrons, and give me time to make up my mind.” But before Flaccus could obtain matrons to convey his offer, Petronilla died.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Though the Church makes but a simple commemoration of this illustrious virgin in the office of this day, we will not fail to offer her the homage of our devout veneration. On the twelfth of this month, we kept the feast of the noble virgin and martyr, Flavia Domitilla: it is probable that Aurelia Petronilla was also of the imperial family of the Flavians. The early traditions of the Church speak of her as being the spiritual daughter of the Prince of the Apostles, and though she did not like Domitilla lay down her life for the Faith, yet she offered to Jesus that next richest gift — her virginity. The same venerable authorities tell us also that a Roman Patrician by name Flaccus, having asked her in marriage, she requested three days for consideration during which she confidently besought the aid of her Divine Spouse. Flaccus presented himself on the third day, but found the palace in mourning and her family busy in preparing the funeral obsequies of the young virgin, who had taken her flight to Heaven, as a dove that is startled by an intruder’s approach.

In the eighth century the holy Pope Paul I had the body of Petronilla taken from the Cemetery of Domitilla on the Via Ardeatina. Her relics were found in a marble sarcophagus, the lid of which was adorned at each corner with a dolphin. The Pope had them enshrined in a little church which he built near the south side of the Vatican Basilica. This Church was destroyed in the sixteenth century in consequence of the alterations needed for the building of the new Basilica of Saint Peter, and the relics of Saint Petronilla were translated to one of its altars On the west side. It was but just that she should await her glorious Resurrection under the shadow of the great Apostle who had initiated her in the Faith and prepared her for her eternal nuptials with the Lamb.

* * * * *

Your triumph, Petronilla, is one of our Easter joys! We lovingly venerate your blessed memory. You disdained the pleasures and honours of the world, and your virginal name is one of the first on the list of the Church of Rome, which was your mother. Aid her now by your prayers. Protect those who seek your intercession, and teach us how to celebrate with holy enthusiasm the Solemnities that are soon to gladden us.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Aquileia, the holy martyrs Cantius, Cantian and Cantianilla. For their attachment to the Christian faith they were condemned to capital punishment with their tutor Protus in the time of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian.

At Torres in Sardinia, St. Crescentian, martyr.

At Comana in Pontus, in the time of the emperor Antoninus, St. Hermias, a soldier. Being miraculously delivered from many horrible torments, he converted his executioner to Christ and made him partaker of the crown which he himself obtained first by having his head struck off with the sword.

At Verona, St. Lupicinus, bishop.

At Rome, St. Paschasius, deacon and confessor, who is mentioned by Pope St. Gregory.

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

Thanks be to God.

30 MAY – SAINT FELIX I (Pope and Martyr)

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

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

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

* * * * *

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

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYOLOGY:

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

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

At Ravenna, St. Exuperantius, bishop and confessor.

At Pavia, St. Anastasius, bishop.

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

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

Thanks be to God.

30 MAY – 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.

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

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

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

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

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

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

29 MAY – SAINT MARY MAGDALENE OF PAZZI (Virgin)

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

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

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

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

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

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

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

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

* * * * *

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

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

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

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

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

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

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

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

At Verona, St. Maximus, bishop.

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

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

Thanks be to God.

29 MAY – MONDAY IN PENTECOST WEEK

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Yesterday the Holy Ghost took possession of the world: His commencement of the mission given Him by the Father and the Son was such as to indicate His power over the human heart, and prepare us for His future triumphs. The days of this solemn Octave are a fitting occasion for our respectfully considering the progress of his workings in the Church and the souls of men.

Jesus, our Emmanuel, is the King of the whole Earth” His Father gave Him all nations for His inheritance (Psalms ii. 8). He Himself tells us that all power is given to Him in Heaven and in Earth (Matthew xxviii. 18). But He ascended into Heaven before establishing His kingdom here below. The very Israelites — to whom He preached His Gospel, and under whose eyes He wrought such stupendous miracles in attestation of His being the Messiah — have refused to acknowledge Him, and ceased to be His people (Daniel ix. 26). A few have been faithful, and others will follow their example, but the mass of the people of Israel have impiously resolved not to have this man to reign over them (Luke xix. 14). As to the Gentiles, what likelihood is there of their accepting the Son of Mary for their Master? They know nothing whatever of Him, His teachings or His mission. They have lost all their primitive religious traditions. Materialism reigns supreme in every country, whether civilised or barbarian, and every creature is made an object for adoration. The very first principles of morality have been corrupted. The insignificant minority, who proudly call themselves “philosophers” have the strangest theories: “they became vain in their thoughts,” as Saint Paul says of them, “and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans i. 21). Races, once distinct, have been gradually fused into each other by conquest. Revolution after revolution has habituated mankind to respect no power but that of might. The colossal Roman Empire with despotic Caesars at its head crushes the whole Earth beneath its sway. And this is the time chosen by the heavenly Father for sending His Son into the world! Jesus is to reign over men, and His reign must be accepted: but, there seems to be little chance of there being any welcome given to a King who claims to rule the mind and heart of His subjects!

During these long sad ages, another master has presented himself to the nations, and they have enthusiastically hailed him as their king. It is Satan. So firmly, indeed, has he established his rule, that our Lord calls him, “the Prince of this world” (John xii. 31). He must be cast out (John xii. 31), that is, he must be driven from the temples men have built to him, from society, from the soul, from literature, from art, from political life — all of which are under his sway. There will be resistance from the world he has corrupted: nay, he himself, “the strong armed one” (Luke xi. 21), will resist, and so powerfully, that no mere created power will ever make him yield. So, then, everything is against the Kingdom of Christ, and nothing is favourable. And yet, if we are to believe certain modern writers, the world was in a fit state for a total and complete reformation! Impious and absurd assertion! Are we to deny the evidence of facts? Or must we admit that error and vice are the best preparation for truth and virtue? Man may know that he is in a state of wretchedness, and yet not know that his wretchedness comes from sin, still less be resolved to become, at once and at every sacrifice, a hero in virtue!

No: in order that Jesus might reign over a world such as ours was, there was need of a miracle, nay of a miracle, as Bossuet observes, comparable to that of creation, by which God draws being out of nothingness. Now, it was the Holy Ghost who worked this miracle. He willed that we who have never seen the Lord Jesus should be as certain of His being our Messiah and God, as though we had witnessed His wonderful works and heard His divine teachings. For this end He achieved the master-miracle of the conversion of the world in which God “chose the weak things of the world, that He might confound the strong — the things that are not, that He might bring to nought the things that are” (1 Corinthians i. 27, 28). By this stupendous fact, which was evident to men as the noonday sun, the Holy Ghost made His presence known and felt by the world.

Let us consider the means He took for establishing the Kingdom of Jesus on the Earth. And first, let us return to the Cenacle. Look at these men now “endued with power from on high” (Luke xxiv. 49). What were they a while ago? Men without influence, poor, ignorant, and, as we all know, easily intimidated. But now the Holy Ghost has changed them into other men: they have an eloquence which it is hard to resist. They are heedless of every threat or peril. They are soon to stand before the world, yes, and conquer it with a victory such as no monarch ever won or fancied. The fact is too evident for the blindest incredulity to deny: the world has been transformed, and transformed by these poor Jews of the Cenacle. They received the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost, and He has done through them the work He came to do.

He gave them three things on that day: the power to preach the word, which was signified by the Tongues that sat upon them; the ardour of love, expressed by the Fire; and the gift of miracles, which they exercised that very morning. The word is the sword with which they are armed. Love is the source of their dauntless courage. Miracles win man’s attention to their teachings. These are the means usedfor driving Satan from the world, and for establishing the Kingdom of Jesus. And these means are all provided by the Holy Ghost. But He does not confine his action to this. It is not enough for men to hear the word, and admire the courage, and witness the miracles, of the Apostles. Neither is it sufficient that they should see the force of truth and the beauty of virtue, or acknowledge the disgrace and sinfulness of their own manner of life. In order to a conversion of heart — to confess that the Jesus, who is preached to them, is God — to love Him, be baptised, promise fidelity to Him, even to martyrdom if required — for all this there is need of the grace of the Holy Ghost. He alone can “take away the stony heart,” as the Prophet expresses it, “and give a heart of flesh” (Ezechiel xxxvi. 26) filled with supernatural faith and love. Hence, He will accompany His ministers wherever they preach the Gospel. The visible working is theirs, the invisible is His: man’s salvation is to be the result of the two united. They must be applied to each individual, and each individual must freely yield his assent to the exterior preaching of the apostle, and to the interior action of the Holy Spirit. Truly, the undertaking is one of extreme difficulty — to bring mankind to receive Jesus as its Lord and King: but after three centuries of contest, the Cross of our Redeemer will be the standard round which the whole civilised world will be rallied. It was just, that the Holy Spirit and the Apostles should first turn to the Israelites. They were the people to whom “were committed the words of God” (Romans iii. 2), and the Messiah was born of their race. Jesus had said that He was not sent but to the sheep that were lost of the house of Israel (Matthew xv. 24). Peter, His Vicar, inherited the glory of being the Apostle of the Jews (Galatians ii. 7), although it was also by his ministry that the Gentiles in the person of Cornelius the Centurion were first admitted into the Church. And again, it was by Him, at the Council of Jerusalem, that the baptised Gentiles were declared emancipated from the Jewish Law. We repeat it — the first preaching of the Christian Law was an honour due to the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: hence, our first Pentecost is a Jewish one, and the first to celebrate it are Jews. It is upon the people of Israel that the Holy Spirit first pours forth His divine Gifts.

As soon as the Solemnity was over, these men, who have received the faith and are now truly children of Abraham by holy Baptism, return to the several provinces of the Gentile world from where they came. They return bearing in their hearts that Jesus whom they have acknowledged to be the Messiah, their God and their Saviour. Let us honour these first-fruits of holy Church, these trophies of the Paraclete Spirit, these messengers of the good tidings. They will soon be followed by the Disciples of the Cenacle who, after using every means that zeal could devise, for the conversion of the proud and ungrateful Jerusalem, but to no effect will turn to the Gentiles. So that, of the Jewish nation, a very small minority has acknowledged the Son of David as the heir of the Father of the Family. The body of the people has rebelled against Him, and is running headlong to destruction. By what name are we to call their crime? The Protomartyr, Saint Stephen, speaking to these unworthy children of Abraham, says: “stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Ghost!” (Acts vii. 51) Resistance, then, to the Spirit of God is their crime, and the Apostles, finding the favoured people determined to refuse the truth, turn to them that are “sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Luke i. 79). These are the Gentiles, and upon them the Apostles are henceforward to lavish the torrents of grace which Jesus has merited for mankind by His Sacrifice on the Cross.

These messengers of the word of life carry the treasure to pagan lands. Every opposition in man’s power is made against them, but they triumph over all. The Holy Spirit gives efficacy to His own indwelling within them. He acts Himself on the souls of their hearers, and rapid is the spread of Faith in Jesus. A Christian colony is soon formed at Antioch, then at Rome, and then at Alexandria. The tongue of fire runs through the world, beyond even the furthest limits of the Roman Empire, which, as the Prophets had foretold, was to serve as an instrument to the establishing the Kingdom of Christ. India, China, Ethiopia, and a hundred other distant countries hear the word of the heralds of the Gospel of Peace.

But they have another testimony, besides their word, to give to Jesus, their King: they owe Him the testimony of their blood, and they give it. The fire that was enkindled within them on the Day of Pentecost consumes them in the holocaust of martyrdom. And yet, observe the power and fruitfulness of the Holy Spirit! To these first Apostles He raises up successors in whom he continues His influence and work. So will it be to the end of time, for Jesus is to be acknowledged as Lord and Saviour by all generations, and the Holy Ghost has been sent into the world in order to effect this.

The Prince of this world, “the old Serpent” (Apocalypse xii. 9) makes use of the most violent means for staying the conquests of these messengers of the Holy Spirit. He has had Peter crucified, and Paul beheaded: he spared not one of the glorious chieftains. They are gone, and yet his defeat is terrible to his pride. The mystery of Pentecost has created a new people. The seed sown by the Apostle has produced an immense harvest. Nero’s persecution has swept away the Jewish leaders of the Christian host, but they had done their grand work, they had established the Church among the Gentiles: we sang their triumph in our yesterday’s Introit: “The Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole earth! Alleluia! (Wisdom i. 7)

Towards the close of the first century Domitian finds Christians even in the imperial family: he makes them martyrs. Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius — all are jealous of the growing power of Jesus of Nazareth. They persecute His flock, and yet they see it multiply. Their master, the Prince of this world, gives them political influence and philosophy, but the Holy Ghost brings both to nought, and the Truth spreads through the universe. Other Emperors — such as Severus, Decius, Callus, Valerian and Maximian — with the sterner course of cruelty unrefined by sophistry, order a universal massacre of the Christians, for the Empire was filled with them. And when this too failed, Satan brings all his power to bear in the last Persecution which is decreed by Diocletian and his fellow-Caesars. It is to be the extermination of the Christian name. It deluges the Empire with the blood of martyrs, but the victory is for the Church, and her enemies die, despairing and baffled.

How magnificent, Holy Spirit! is your triumph! How divine is this Kingdom of Jesus which you thus found in spite of human folly and malice, or of Satan’s power, strong as it then was upon the earth! You infuse into millions of souls the love of a religion which demands the most heroic sacrifices from its followers. You answer the specious objections of man’s reason by the eloquence of miracles: and hearts that once were slaves to concupiscence and pride, are inflamed by you with such a love of Jesus that they cheerfully suffer every torture, yes and death itself, for His dear sake!

Then it was, that was fulfilled the promise made by our Saviour to His Disciples: “When they will deliver you up, 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 Spirit of your Father that speaks in you” (Matthew x. 19, 20). We have a proof of it in the Acts of the Martyrs where we read their simple and sublime answers when questioned by their persecutors, and this frequently in the midst of the most excruciating torments. It is the word of the Spirit, combating and conquering the world. The by-standers would frequently exclaim, “Great is the God of the Christians!” At times the executioners, excited by the heavenly eloquence of the victims they where torturing, cried out that they too would be Disciples of such a God. We are told by authors who lived in those times that the arena of martyrdom was the forum of Faith, and that the blood and testimony of the martyrs was the seed of Christians.

For three centuries did these prodigies of the Holy Spirit continue, and then the victory was complete. Jesus was acknowledged as the King and Saviour of the world, as the Teacher and Redeemer of mankind. Satan was driven from the kingdom he had usurped, and idolatry was either abolished by the Faith in the one true God, or they that still kept it up were looked upon as ignorant and depraved beings. Now, this victory which was gained first over the Roman Empire, and, since then over so many other infidel nations is the work of the Holy Ghost. The miraculous manner of its being accomplished, is one of the chief arguments on which our faith rests. We have not seen or heard Jesus, and yet we confess Him to be our God because of the evident testimony given of Him by the Spirit whom He sent to us. May all creatures, then, give glory, thanks and love to this Holy Paraclete who has thus put us in possession of the salvation brought us by our Emmanuel!

Epistle – Acts x. 42–48

In those days, Peter opening his mouth, said: “Brethren, the Lord commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was appointed by God to be judge of the living and of the dead. To Him all the prophets give testimony, that through His name all receive remission of sins, who believe in Him.” While Peter was yet speaking these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word. And the faithful of the circumcision who came with Peter, were astonished, for that the grace of the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the Gentiles also. For they heard them speaking with tongues, and magnifying God. Then Peter answered: “Can any man forbid water, that these men should not be baptised, who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?” And he commanded them to be baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

This passage from the Acts of the Apostles, read on such a day as this, and in such a place, is most appropriate. Peter, the Vicar of Christ, is speaking to some Jews who have been converted to the Christian Faith. Several Gentiles, who are present are touched with grace on hearing Peter preaching, and they profess themselves believers in Jesus, the Son of God: the moment is come for the Apostle to throw the Church open to the Gentile world. Knowing that the Jewish converts would be tempted to jealousy, he appeals to the Prophets. What say these Prophets? That all without distinction, who will believe in Jesus, will receive forgiveness of their sins in His Name. While Peter is thus arguing with his audience, the Holy Ghost removes every objection by falling, as He did on the day of Pentecost, on these humble and believing Gentiles. As soon as the Jewish converts perceive the miracle they are astonished and exclaim: “What! is the grace of the Holy Ghost poured out on the Gentiles also!” Peter replies: “Who dares to refuse Baptism to these men, who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?” and without waiting for an answer, he gives the order, as Head of the Church, that Baptism be immediately conferred upon these privileged Catechumens.

We have our lesson to learn from this Epistle: we must fervently thank our Heavenly Father for His having vouchsafed to call our ancestors to the true Faith, and make us also partakers of the graces of the Holy Ghost.

Gospel – John iii. 16–21

At that time Jesus said to Nicodemus: “God so loved the world as to give His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him. He that believes in Him is not judged. But he that does not believe, is already judged: because he believes not in the name of the Only Begotten Son of God. And this is the judgement: that the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light: for their works were evil. For every one that does evil hates the light, and comes not to the light, that his works may not be reproved. But he that does truth, comes to the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they are done in God.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The Holy Ghost creates Faith within our souls, and by Faith we obtain life everlasting. For Faith is not the Intellect’s assent to a proposition logically demonstrated, but a virtue which proceeds from the Will vivified by grace. Nowadays Faith is rare. Pride of Intellect is at its height, and docility to the Church’s teachings is far from being general. A man calls himself a Christian and a Catholic, and yet he has his own views upon certain subjects, which he would very reluctantly give up: were they to be condemned by the only authority on earth which has power to guide us in what we are to hold or reject in matters pertaining to Faith. He reads dangerous, sometimes even bad, books, without thinking of inquiring if the laws of the Church forbid such books. His religious instruction has been of a very meagre kind, and he seems to wish it to remain so, for he takes no pains to come to a solid and perfect knowledge of his religion. The result is that his mind is filled with the fashionable prejudices of the world he lives in and, on more than one point, he may depend upon his having imbibed heretical notions. He is looked upon as a Catholic. He satisfies the exterior obligations of his religion, either because of his early training, or because the rest of his family do so, or because he feels more satisfied to do than to omit them: and yet, how sad it is to say it! He is not a Catholic, for his Faith is gone.

Faith is the first link that unites us to God, for, as the Apostle says, “he that comes to God, must believe” (Hebrews xi. 6). It brings us to God, and keeps us there. Our Saviour here tells us that he who believes is not judged: and the reason is that he whose Faith is what our Gospel implies it to be, does not only assent to a doctrine, but he embraces it with his whole heart and mind. He believes it, because he wishes to love what he believes. Faith works, and is perfected by Charity, but itself is a fore-taste of Charity. Therefore does our Lord promise salvation to him that believes. This Faith meets with obstacles because of our fallen nature. As we have just been told, Light comes into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light. In this our age, darkness is prevalent. Even false lights are seen to rise up, and they mislead thousands. We repeat it: Faith — that Faith which brings us to God and saves us from His judgements — is now rare.

* * * * *

DIVINE Spirit! Deliver us from the darkness of the times in which our lot has been cast. Humble the pride of our minds. Save us from that false Religious Liberty, which is one of the idols of our generation, but which keeps men from the true Faith. We wish to love, and possess, and keep up within us, the glorious Light: we wish to merit, by the docility and child-like simplicity of our Faith, to enjoy the full cloudless vision of this divine Light in heaven.

THE HISTORY, MYSTERY AND PRACTICE OF TIME AFTER PENTECOST

THE HISTORY, MYSTERY AND PRACTICE OF TIME AFTER PENTECOST

Dom Prosper Guéranger

The History of Time after Pentecost

The Solemnity of Pentecost and its Octave are over, and the progress of the Liturgical Year introduces us into a new period, which is altogether different from those we have hitherto spent. From the very beginning of Advent, which is the prelude to the Christmas festival, right up to the anniversary of the descent of the Holy Ghost, we have witnessed the entire series of the Mysteries of our Redemption; all have been unfolded to us. The sequel of Seasons and Feasts made up a sublime drama, which absorbed our very existence; we have but just come from the final celebration, which was the consummation of the whole. And yet, we have got through but one half of the year. This does not imply that the period we have still to live is devoid of its own special mysteries: but, instead of keeping up our attention by the ceaseless interest of one plan hurrying on its completion, the sacred Liturgy is about to put before us an almost unbroken succession of varied episodes, of which some are brilliant with glory, and others exquisite in loveliness, but each one of them bringing its special tribute towards either the development of the dogmas of faith, or the furtherance of the Christian life. That year’s Cycle will thus be filled up; it will disappear; a new one will take its place, bringing before us the same divine facts, and pouring forth the same graces on Christ’s mystical body.

This section of the Liturgical Year, which comprises a little more or a little less than six months, according as Easter is early or late, has always had the character it holds at present. But, although it only admits detached solemnities and Feasts, the influence of the moveable portion of the Cycle is still observable. It may have as many as twenty-eight, or as few as twenty-three weeks. This variation depends not only upon the Easter Feast, which may occur on any of the days between the 22nd of March and 25th of April, inclusively; but, also, on the date of the first Sunday of Advent, the opening of a new ecclesiastical year, and which is always the Sunday nearest the Kalends of December. In the Roman Liturgy, the Sundays of this series go under the name of Sundays after Pentecost. That title is the most suitable that could have been given, and is found in the oldest Sacramentaries and Antiphonaries: but it was not universally adopted by even all those Churches which followed the Roman Rite; in progress of time, however, that title was the general one. To mention some of the previous early names :—in the Comes of Alcuin, which takes us back to the 8th Century, we find the first section of these Sundays called Sundays after Pentecost; the second is named Weeks after the Feast of the Apostles (post Natale Apostolorum); the third goes under the title of Weeks after Saint Laurence (post Sancti Laurentii); the fourth has the appellation of Weeks of the Seventh Month (September); and, lastly, the fifth is termed Weeks after Saint Michael (post Sancti Angeli), and lasts till Advent. As late as the 16th Century, many Missals of the Western Churches gave us these several sections of the Time after Pentecost, but some of the titles varied according to the special Saints honoured in the respective dioceses, and which were taken as the date-marks of this period of the Year. The Roman Missal, published by order of Saint Pius the Fifth, has gradually been adopted in all our Latin Churches, and has restored the ancient denomination to the Ecclesiastical Season we have just entered upon; so that the only name under which it is now known amongst us is, The Time after Pentecost (post Pentecosten.)

The Mystery of Time after Pentecost

That we may thoroughly understand the meaning and influence of the Season of the Liturgical Year upon which we have now entered, it is requisite for us to grasp the entire sequel of mysteries, which holy Church has celebrated in our presence and company; we have witnessed her Services, and we have shared in them. The celebration of those mysteries was not an empty pageant, acted for the sake of being looked at. Each one of them brought with it a special grace, which produced in our souls the reality signified by the Rites of the Liturgy. At Christmas, Christ was born within us; at Passiontide, He passed on and into us His sufferings and atonements; at Easter, He communicated to us his glorious, His untrammelled life; in His Ascension, He drew us after Him, and this even to heaven’s summit; in a word, as the Apostle expresses all this working, “Christ was formed in us” (Galatians iv. 19).

But, in order to give solidity and permanence to the image of Christ formed within us, it was necessary that the Holy Ghost should come, that so He might increase our light, and enkindle a fire within us that should never be quenched. This divine Paraclete came down from heaven; He gave Himself to us; He wishes to take up His abode within us, and take our life of regeneration entirely into His own hands. Now, it is during the period called, by the Liturgy, The time after Pentecost, that there is signified and expressed this regenerated life, which is to be spent on the model of Christ's, and under the direction of His Spirit.

Two objects here offer themselves to our consideration: the Church and the Christian soul. As to holy Church, the Bride of Christ, filled as she is with the Paraclete Spirit, who has poured Himself forth upon her, and, from that time forward, is her animating principle—she is advancing onwards in her militant career, and will do so till the second Coming of her heavenly Spouse. She has within her the gifts of Truth and Holiness. Endowed with Infallibility of Faith and Authority to govern, she feeds Christ’s flock, sometimes enjoying liberty and peace, sometimes going through persecutions and trials. Her divine Spouse abides with her, by His grace and the efficacy of His promises, even to the end of time; she is in possession of all the favours He has bestowed upon her; and the Holy Ghost dwells with her, and in her, for ever. All this is expressed by this present portion of the Liturgical Year. It is one wherein we shall not meet with any of those great events which prepared, and consummated the divine work; but, on the other hand, it is a season when holy Church reaps the fruits of that holiness and doctrine, which those ineffable mysteries have already produced, and will continue to produce, during the course of ages. It is during this same season, that we shall meet with the preparation for, and, in due time, the fulfilment of, those final events which will transform our Mother’s militant life on earth into the triumphant one in heaven. As far, then, as regards holy Church, this is the meaning of the portion of the Cycle we are commencing.

As to the faithful soul, whose life is but a compendium of that of the Church, her progress, during the period which is opened to her after the Pentecostal feasts, should be in keeping with that of our common Mother. The soul should live and act according to that Jesus, who has united Himself with her by the mysteries she has gone through; she should be governed by the Holy Spirit, whom she has received. The sublime episodes, peculiar to this second portion of the year, will give her an increase of light and life. She will put unity into these rays, which, though scattered in various directions, emanate from one common centre: and, advancing from brightness to brightness (2 Corinthians iii. 18) she will aspire to being consummated in Him whom she now knows so well, and whom death will enable her to possess as her own. Should it not be the will of God, however, to take her as yet to Himself, she will begin a fresh year, and live over again those mysteries which she has already enjoyed in the foregoing first halves of the Liturgical Cycle, after which, she will find herself, once more, in the season that is under the direction of the Holy Ghost; till at last, her God will summon her from this world, on the day and at the hour which He has appointed from all eternity.

Between the Church, then, and the Soul, during the time intervening from the descent of the divine Paraclete to the consummation, there is this difference—that the Church goes through it but once, whereas the Christian soul repeats it each year. With this exception, the analogy is perfect. It is our duty, therefore, to thank God for His providing thus for our weakness, by means of the sacred Liturgy, whereby He successively renews within us those helps, which enable us to attain the glorious end of our creation. Holy Church has so arranged the order for reading the Books of Scripture during the present period, as to express the work then accomplished, both in the Church herself, and in the Christian soul. For the interval between Pentecost and the commencement of August, she gives us the Four Books of Kings. They are a prophetic epitome of the Church’s history. They describe how the kingdom of Israel was founded by David, who is the type of Christ victorious over his enemies, and by Solomon, the king of peace, who builds a temple in honour of Jehovah. During the centuries comprised in the history given in those Books, there is a perpetual struggle between good and evil. There are great and saintly kings, such as Asa, Ezechias, and Josias; there are wicked ones, like Hanasses. A schism breaks out in Samaria; infidel nations league together against the City of God. The holy people, continually turning a deaf ear to the Prophets, give themselves up to the worship of false gods, and to the vices of the heathen; till, at length, the justice of God destroys both Temple and City of the faithless Jerusalem: it is an image of the destruction of this world, when Faith shall be so rare, as that the Son of Man, at His second Coming, shall scarce find a vestige of it remaining.

During the month of August, we read the Sapiential Books—so called, because they contain the teachings of Divine Wisdom. This Wisdom is the Word of God, who is manifested unto men through the teachings of the Church, which, because of the assistance of the Holy Ghost permanently abiding within her, is infallible in the truth. Supernatural truth produces holiness, which cannot exist, nor produce fruit, where truth is not. In order to express the union there is between these two, the Church reads to us, during the month of September, the Books called Hagiographic; these are, Tobias, Judith, Esther, and Job, and they show Wisdom in action.

At the end of the world, the Church will have to go through combats of unusual fierceness. To keep us on the watch, she reads to us, during the month of October, the Book of Machabees; for there we have described to us the noble-heartedness of those defenders of the Law of God, and for which they gloriously die; it will be the same at the last days, when power will be given to the Beast, to make war with the Saints, and to overcome them (Apocalypse xiii. 7).

The month of November gives us the reading of the Prophets: the judgments of God impending upon a world which He is compelled to punish by destruction, are there announced to us. First of all, we have the terrible Ezechiel; then Daniel, who sees empire succeeding empire, till the end of all time; and, finally, the Minor Prophets, who for the most part, foretell the divine chastisements, though the latest among them proclaim, at the same time, the near approach of the Son of God.

Such is the Mystery of this portion of the Liturgical Cycle, which is called The Time after Pentecost. It includes also the use of green vestments; for that colour expresses the hope of the Bride, who knows that she has been intrusted, by her Spouse, to the Holy Ghost, and that He will lead her safe to the end of her pilgrimage. Saint John says all this in those few words of his Apocalypse: The Spirit and the Bride say: Come! (Apocalypse xxii. 17).

The Practice of Time after Pentecost

The object which holy Church has in view by her Liturgical Year is the leading the Christian soul to union with Christ, and this by the Holy Ghost. This object is the one which God Himself has in giving us His own Son, to be our Mediator, our Teacher, and Redeemer, and in sending us the Holy Ghost to abide among us. It is to this end that is directed all that aggregate of Rites and Prayers which we have hitherto explained: they are not a mere commemoration of the mysteries achieved for our salvation by the divine goodness, but they bring with them the graces corresponding to each of those mysteries, that thus we may come, as the Apostle expresses it, to the age of the fulness of Christ (Ephesians iv. 13).

As we have elsewhere explained, our sharing in the mysteries of Christ, which are celebrated in the Liturgical Year, produces in the Christian what is called in Mystic Theology, the Illuminative Life, in which the soul gains continually more and more of the light of the Incarnate Word, who, by His examples and teachings, renovates each one of her faculties, and imparts to her the habit of seeing all things from God’s point of view. This is a preparation which disposes her for union with God, not merely in an imperfect manner, and one that is more or less inconstant, but in an intimate and permanent way, which is called the Unitive Life. The production of this Life is the special work of the Holy Ghost, who has been sent into this world that He may maintain each one of our souls in the possession of Christ, and may bring to perfection the love whereby the creature is united with its God.

In this state, in this Unitive Life, the soul is made to relish, and assimilate into herself, all that substantial and nourishing food which is presented to her so abundantly during the Time after Pentecost. The mysteries of the Trinity and of the Blessed Sacrament, the mercy and power of the Heart of Jesus, the glories of Mary and her influence upon the Church and souls—all these are manifested to the soul with more clearness than ever, and produce within her effects not previously experienced. In the Feasts of the Saints, which are so varied and so grand during this portion of the year, she feels more and more intimately the bond which unites her to them in Christ, through the Holy Spirit. The eternal happiness of Heaven, which is to follow the trials of this mortal life, is revealed to her by the Feast of all Saints; she gains clearer notions of that mysterious bliss, which consists in light and love. Having become more closely united to Holy Church, which is the Bride of her dear Lord, she follows her in all the stages of her earthly existence, she takes a share in her sufferings, she exults in her triumphs; she sees, and yet is not daunted at seeing, this world tending to its decline, for she knows that the Lord is nigh at hand. As to what regards herself, she is not dismayed at feeling that her exterior life is slowly giving way, and that the wall which stands between her and the changeless sight and possession of the sovereign Good is gradually falling to decay; for, it is not in this world that she lives, and her heart has long been where her treasure is (Matthew vi. 21).

Thus enlightened, thus attracted, thus established by the incorporation into herself of the mysteries, wherewith the sacred Liturgy has nourished her, as also by the gifts poured into her by the Holy Ghost, the soul yields herself up, and without any effort, to the impulse of the divine Mover. Virtue has become all the more easy to her, as she aspires, it would almost seem, naturally, to what is most perfect; sacrifices, which used, formerly, to terrify, now delight her; she makes use of this world, as though she used it not (1 Corinthians vii.31) for all true realities, as far as she is concerned, exist beyond this world; in a word, she longs all the more ardently after the eternal possession of the object she loves, as she has been realising even in this life, what the Apostle describes, where he speaks of a creature’s being one spirit with the Lord (1 Corinthians vi. 17) by being united to Him in heart. Such is the result ordinarily produced in the soul by the sweet and healthy influence of the sacred Liturgy. But if it seem to us, that, although we have followed it in its several seasons, we have not, as yet, reached the state of detachment and expectation just described, and that the life of Christ has not, so far, absorbed our own individual life into itself—let us be on our guard against discouragement on that account. The Cycle of the Liturgy, with its rays of light and grace for the soul, is not a phenomenon that occurs only once in the heavens of holy Church; it returns each Year.

Such is the merciful design of that God, who hath so loved the world, as to give it His Only Begotten Son (John iii. 16); of that God, who came not to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him (John iii. 17). Such, we say, is the Design of God; and holy Church is but carrying out that design by putting within our reach the most powerful of all means for leading man to his God, and uniting him to his sovereign Good; she thus testifies the earnestness of her maternal solicitude. The Christian who has not been led to the term we have been describing by the first half of the Cycle, will still meet, in this second, with important aids for the expansion of his faith and the growth of his love. The Holy Ghost, who reigns, in a special manner, over this portion of the Year, will not fail to influence his mind and heart; and, when a fresh Cycle commences, the work thus begun by grace has a new chance for receiving that completeness, which had been retarded by the weakness of human nature.