28 FEBRUARY – FRIDAY OF SEXAGESIMA WEEK

 

Lesson – Genesis x. 1–6; xi. 1–8

These are the generations of the sons of Noah: Sem, Cham, and Japheth: and unto them sons were born after the flood. The sons of Japheth: Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Thubal, and Mosoch, and Thiras. And the sons of Gomer: Ascenez and Riphath and Thogorma. And the sons of Javan: Elisa and Tharsis, Cetthim and Dodanim. By these were divided the islands of the Gentiles in their lands, every one according to his tongue and their families in their nations. And the sons of Cham: Chus, and Mesram, and Phuth, and Canaan.

And the earth was of one tongue, and of the same speech. And when they removed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Sennaar and dwelt in it. And each one said to his neighbour: “Come, let us make brick, and bake them with fire.” And they had brick instead of stones, and slime instead of mortar. And they said: “Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven: and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of Adam were building. And He said: “Behold, it is one people, and all have one tongue: and they have begun to do this, neither will they leave off from their designs, till they accomplish them in deed. Come ye, therefore, let us go down, and there confound their tongue, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” And so the Lord scattered them from that place into all lands, and they ceased to build the city.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

God chastises the world by the Deluge, but he is faithful to the promise made to our First Parents that the head of the Serpent should be crushed. The human race has to be preserved, therefore, until the time will come for the fulfilment of this promise. The Ark gives shelter to the just Noah and to his family. The angry waters reach even to the tops of the highest mountains, but the frail yet safe vessel rides peacefully on the waves. When the day fixed by God will come, they that dwell in this Ark will once more tread the Earth, purified as it then will be, and God will say to them as heretofore to our First Parents: “Increase, and multiply, and fill the Earth” (Genesis ix. 1).

Mankind, then, owes its safety to the Ark! O saving Ark that was planned by God Himself and sailed unhurt amid the universal wreck! But if we can thus bless this contemptible wood (Wisdom x. 4), how fervently should we not love that other Ark of which Noah’s was but the figure, and which for now [two thousand] years has been saving and bringing men to their God? How fervently should we not bless that Church, the Spouse of our Jesus, out of which there is no salvation, and in which we find that Truth which delivers us from error and doubt (John viii. 32) that Grace which purifies the heart, and that Food which nourishes the soul and fits her for immortality!

O sacred Ark! You are inhabited, not by one family alone, but by people of every nation under the sun. Ever since that glorious day when our Lord launched you in the sea of this world, you have been tossed by tempests, yet never wrecked. You will reach the eternal shore, witnessing, by your unworn vigour and beauty, to the divine guidance of the Pilot who loves you both for your own sake, and for the work you are doing for His glory. It is by you that He peoples the world with His elect, and it is for them that He created the world (Matthew xxiv. 22), When He is angry, He remembers mercy (Habacuc iii. 2) because of you, for it is through you that He has made His covenant with mankind.

Venerable Ark, be our refuge in the deluge. When Rome’s great Empire that was drunk with the blood of the Martyrs (Apocalypse xvii. 6) sank beneath the invasion of the Barbarians, the Christians were safe because sheltered by you. The waters slowly subsided and the race of men that had fled to you for protection, though conquered according to the flesh, was victorious by the spirit. Kings who till then had been haughty despots and barbarians kissed reverently the hand of the slave who now was his Pastor and baptised him. New people sprang up and, with the Gospel as their Law, began their glorious career in those very countries which the Caesars had degraded and forfeited.

When the Saracen invasion came, sweeping into ruin the Eastern world and menacing the whole of Europe which would have been lost had not the energy of your sons repelled the infidel horde, was it not within you, O Ark of salvation, that the few Christians took refuge, who had resisted schism and heresy and who, while the rest of their brethren apostatised from the faith, still kept alive the holy flame? Under your protection they are even now perpetuating, in their unfortunate countries, the traditions of Faith until the divine Mercy will bring happier times and themselves be permitted to multiply, as did of old the sons of Sem, in that land once so glorious and holy.

Oh happy we, dear Church of God, that are sheltered within you, and protected by you against that wild sea of anarchy which the sins of men have let loose on our Earth! We beseech our Lord that He check the tempest with that word of His omnipotence: “Thus far you will come, and no further, and here will you break your swelling waves” (Job xxxviii. 11). But if it be decreed by His Divine Justice that it prevail for a time, we know that it cannot reach such as dwell in you. Of this happy number are we. In your peaceful bosom, dear Mother, we find those true riches, the riches of the soul, of which no violence can deprive us (Matthew vi. 19). The life you give us is the only real life. Our true Fatherland is the kingdom formed by you. Keep us, O Ark of our God! Keep us, and all that are dear to us, and shelter us beneath your roof until the deluge of iniquity be passed away (Psalm lvi. 2). When the Earth, purified by its chastisements, will once more receive the Seed of the Divine Word which produces the Children of God, those among us whom you will not have led to our eternal home will then venture forth and preach to the world the principles of authority and law, of family and social rights: those sacred principles which came from Heaven, and which you, O Holy Church, are commissioned to maintain and teach even to the end of time.

27 FEBRUARY – SAINT GABRIEL OF THE MOST SORROWFUL VIRGIN

Saint Gabriel of the Most Sorrowful Virgin (Francis Possenti) was born on 1 March 1838 in Assisi, Italy, to Sante and Agnes Possenti. He was one of thirteen children, several of whom died in infancy. His mother died in 1842 when he was only four years old. Francis was educated at a Jesuit college in Spoleto.

While still a student he became dangerously ill and promised to enter a religious order if he recovered. He did not keep his vow and after a few years he became seriously sick again. He renewed his promise and was again cured. Believing this to be a miracle which he attributed to the intercession of the Polish Jesuit priest Blessed Andrzej Boboba (1591–1657), he applied to the Society of Jesus and was accepted. However, he delayed entering the Jesuits. Then his sister Maria Louisa was stricken with cholera and died. After seeking the advice of a priest, Francis decided to join the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ (the Passionists). In 1856 he entered the noviceship at Morrovalle in the Marche and was given the religious name of Brother Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows:

“The rest of Gabriel's career is simply a record of an extraordinary effort to attain perfection in small things. His brightness, his spirit of prayer, his charity to the poor, his consideration for others, his exact observance of every rule, his desire (constantly checked by wise superiors) to adopt forms of bodily mortification which were beyond his strength, his absolute submission in all matters in which he could practise obedience evidently made an ineffaceable impression upon all who lived with him. Their testimony in the process of his beatification is most convincing. It was a life of continual self-surrender, but the most charming feature of the whole was the cheerfulness with which the offering was made”.

(Butler's Lives of the Saints, Vol 1, page 430)

After four years in the Passionists, Gabriel became ill with tuberculosis. He died on 27 February 1862 at the age of 23 at Isola di Gran Sasso near Teramo in the Abruzzi. He was beatified by Pope St. Pius X in 1908 and canonised by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. St. Gabriel is a patron saint of Catholic youth, of students, and of those studying for the priesthood.

In leap years, his feast day is observed on 28 February.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, the birthday of the holy martyrs Macarius, Rufinus, Justus and Theophilus.

At Alexandria, the passion of the Saints Caerealis, Pupulus, Caius and Serapion. In the same city, in the reign of the emperor Valerian, the commemoration of the holy priests, deacons and other Christians in great number who encountered death most willingly by nursing the victims of a most deadly pestilence then raging. They have been generally revered as martyrs by the pious faithful.

In the territory of Lyons, on Mount Jura, the demise of St. Romanus, abbot, who was the first to lead the heremitical life there. His reputation for virtues and miracles brought under his guidance numerous monks.

At Pavia, the translation, from the island of Sardinia, of the body of St. Augustine, bishop, by Luitprand, king of the Lombards.

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

Thanks be to God.

27 FEBRUARY – THURSDAY OF SEXAGESIMA WEEK

 

Lesson – Genesis ix. 8‒29

Thus also said God to Noah, and to his sons with him: “Behold I will establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you. And with every living soul that is with you, as well in all birds as in cattle and beasts of the earth, that are come forth out of the ark, and in all the beasts of the earth. I will establish my covenant with you, and all flesh will be no more destroyed with the waters of a flood, neither will there be from henceforth a flood to waste the earth.” And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I give between me and you, and to every living soul that is with you, for perpetual generations. I will set my bow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of a covenant between me, and between the earth. And when I will cover the sky with clouds, my bow will appear in the clouds: And I will remember my covenant with you, and with every living soul that bears flesh: and there will no more be waters of a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow will be in the clouds, and I will see it and will remember the everlasting covenant that was made between God and every living soul of all flesh which is upon the earth.” And God said to Noah: “This will be the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh upon the earth.” And the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Sem, Cham and Japheth: and Cham is the father of Canaan. These three are the sons of Noah: and from these was all mankind spread over the whole earth. And Noah, a husbandman, began to till the ground and planted a vineyard. And drinking of the wine was made drunk and was uncovered in his tent. Which when Cham the father of Canaan had seen, to wit, that his father’s nakedness was uncovered, he told it to his two brethren without. But Sem and Japheth put a cloak upon their shoulders, and going backward, covered the nakedness of their father: and their faces were turned away, and they saw not their father’s nakedness. And Noah awaking from the wine, when he had learned what his younger son had done to him, said: “Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants will he be to his brethren.” And he said: “Blessed be the Lord God of Sem, be Canaan his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Sem, and Canaan be his servant.” And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years: And all his days were in the whole nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

God promised Noah that He would never more punish the Earth with a Deluge. But in His justice He has many times visited the sins of men with a scourge which, in more senses than one, bears a resemblance to a Deluge: the invasion of enemies. We meet with these invasions in every age and each time we see the hand of God. We can trace the crimes that each of them was sent to punish, and in each we find a manifest proof of the infinite justice with which God governs the world.

It is not requisite that we should here mention the long list of these revolutions which we might almost say make up the history of mankind, for in its every page we read of conquests, extinction of races, destruction of nations and violent amalgamations which effaced the traditions and character of the several peoples that were thus forced into union. We will confine our considerations to the two great invasions which the just anger of God has permitted to come upon the world since the commencement of the Christian era.

The Roman Empire had made itself as pre-eminent in crime as it was in power. It conquered the world and then corrupted it. Idolatry and immorality were the civilisation it gave to the nations which had come under its sway. Christianity could save individuals in the great Empire, but the Empire itself could not be made Christian. God let loose upon it the deluge of Barbarians. The stream of the wild invasion rose to the very dome of the Capitol. The Empire was engulfed. The ruthless ministers of Divine Justice were conscious of their being chosen for this mission of vengeance, and they gave themselves the name of “God’s Scourge.”

When, later on, the Christian Nations of the East had lost the Faith which they themselves had transmitted to the Western World — when they had disfigured the sacred Symbol of Faith by their blasphemous heresies — the anger of God sent upon them from Arabia the deluge of Mahometanism. It swept away the Christian Churches that had existed from the very times of the Apostles. Jerusalem, the favoured Jerusalem on which Jesus had lavished His tenderest love, even she became a victim to the infidel hordes. Antioch and Alexandria, with their Patriarchates were plunged into the vilest slavery, and at length Constantinople that had so obstinately provoked the divine indignation was made the very Capital of the Turkish Empire.

And we, the Western nations, if we return not to the Lord our God, will we be spared? Will the floodgates of Heaven’s vengeance — will the torrent of fresh Vandals — ever be menacing to burst upon us yet never come? Where is the country of our own Europe that has not corrupted its way as in the days of Noah? That has not made conventions against the Lord and against His Christ? (Psalm ii. 2) That has not clamoured out that old cry of revolt: “Let us break their bonds asunder, let us cast away their yoke from us”? (Psalm ii. 3) Well may we fear, lest the time is at hand when, despite our haughty confidence in our means of defence, Christ our Lord to whom all nations have been given by the Father, will rule us with a rod of iron and break us in pieces like a potter’s vessel? (Psalm ii. 9). Let us propitiate the anger of our offended God and follow the inspired counsel of the Royal Prophet: “Serve the Lord with fear. Embrace the discipline of His Law lest, at any time, the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way” (Psalm ii. 13)

26 FEBRUARY – SAINT MARGARET OF CORTONA (Penitent)

 

Margaret of Cortona (so called from the town where she died) was born at Alviano in Tuscany. In her early youth she was a slave to the pleasures of this world and led a vain and sinful life in the city of Montepulciano. Her attention was one day attracted by a dog which seemed to wish her to follow it. She did so, and it led her to a pile of wood which covered a large hole. Looking in, she saw the body of her lover whose enemies had murdered him and thrown his mangled body into that place. She suddenly felt that the hand of God was upon her, and being overwhelmed with intense sorrow for her sins, she went forth and wept bitterly.

Margaret returned to Alviano, cut off her hair, laid aside her trinkets and, putting on a dark-coloured dress, she abandoned her evil ways and the pleasures of the world. She was to be found in the churches with a rope tied round her neck, prostrated on the ground and imploring pardon of all whom she had scandalised by her past life. She shortly afterwards set out for Cortona and there, in sackcloth and ashes, she sought how she might appease the divine anger. For three years she tried herself in the practice of every virtue and at the end of that time she obtained permission from the Friars Minors (under whose spiritual guidance she had put herself) to receive the habit of the Third Order.

From that time forward, her tears were almost incessant and the sighs which deep contrition wrung from her heart were such as to leave her speechless for hours. Her bed was the naked ground and her pillow, a stone or piece of wood so that she frequently passed whole nights in heavenly contemplation. Evil desires no longer tormented her, for her fervent spirit was so prompt that the weak flesh was made to labour and obey. The devil spared neither snares nor violent assaults by which to lead her from her holy purpose but she, like a strong woman, detected him by his words and drove him from her. This wicked spirit having tempted her to vain glory, she went into the streets and cried out with a loud voice that she had been a great sinner and deserved the worst of punishments. It was obedience to her confessor that alone prevented her from disfiguring her features, which had been the cause of much sin: for the long and severe penance she had imposed on herself had not impaired her beauty.

By these and such like exercises of a mortified life, Margaret cleansed her soul from the stains of her sins and gained such a victory over herself that the allurements of the world had not the slightest effect upon her, and our Lord rewarded her by frequently visiting her. She also received the grace she so ardently desired, of being allowed to have a share in the sufferings of Jesus and Mary: so much so, indeed, that at times she lay perfectly unconscious as though she were really dead. All this made her be looked up to as a guide in the path of perfection, and persons would come to her, even from distant countries, in order to seek her counsel. By the heavenly light granted her she could read the hearts and consciences of others, and could see the sins committed against our Lord in various parts of the world, for which she would offer up, in atonement, her own sorrow and tears.

Great indeed was the good Margaret effected by the ardent charity she bore to God and her neighbour. She healed the sick who came to her and drove out the devil from those possessed. A mother besought her, with many tears, to restore her child to life, which she did. Her prayers more than once averted war when on the point of being declared. In a word, both the living and the dead experienced the effects of her unbounded charity. While engaged in these manifold holy works, she relented not in the severity of her bodily mortifications, or in her contemplation of heavenly things. The two lives of Mary and Martha were admirably blended together in her, and rich in the merits of each, she besought our Lord to take her from this valley of tears and give her to enter the heavenly country. Her prayer was heard and the day and the hour of her death were revealed to her.

Laden with meritorious works and divine favours, her bodily strength began to fail. For the last seventeen days of her life her only food was that of conversation with her Creator. At length, after receiving the most holy Sacraments of the Church, with a face beaming with joy and her eyes raised lip to Heaven, her happy soul fled to its divine Spouse on the eighth of the Calends of March (February 22nd), in the fiftieth year of her age, the twenty-third of her conversion, in 1297. Her body, which even to this day is fresh, incorrupt and unaltered and sheds a sweet fragrance, is devoutly honoured in the Church called after her belonging to the Friars Minors. The many miracles which have been wrought at her shrine, have induced the Sovereign Pontiffs to promote devotion to Saint Margaret by the grant of many spiritual favours. She was canonised with great solemnity by Pope Benedict XIII on the 16th of May, which was the Feast of Pentecost in 1728.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Close to the faithful Virgins who form the court of Jesus, there stand those holy women whose repentance has merited for them a prominent place in the Calendar of the Church. They are the bright trophies of God’s mercy. They expiated their sins by a life of penance. The tears of their compunction wiped away their guilt. He that is Purity itself has found them worthy of His love, and, when Pharisees affect to be shocked at His allowing them to be near Him, He warmly defends them. Foremost among these is Mary Magdalene to whom much was forgiven because she loved much (Luke vii. 47), but there are two on the list of Penitent Saints whose names shine most brightly on the Calendar of this portion of the year and were, like Mary Magdalene, ardent in their love of the Divine Master whom they had once offended: these are Mary of Egypt and Margherita of Cortona. It is the second of these who today tells us the consoling truth, that if sin separate us from God, penance has the power of not only disarming His anger, but of forming between God and the sinner that ineffable bond of love which the Apostle alludes to when he says: “Where sin has abounded, grace has more abounded” (Romans v. 20).

*****

If the Angels of God rejoiced on the day of your conversion, when Margherita the sinner became the heroic and saintly Penitent, what a grand feast must they not have kept when your soul left this world and they led you to the eternal nuptials with the Lamb! You are one of the brightest trophies of Divine Mercy, and when we think of the Saint of Cortona, our hearts glow with hope. We are sinners. We have deserved Hell. And yet when we hear your name, Heaven and mercy seem so near to us. Yes, even to us, Margherita of Cortona! See how we are like you in your weakness and your wanderings from the fold, but you force us to hope that we may, like you, be converted, do penance and reach Heaven at last. The instrument of your conversion was death, and is not death busy enough around us? The sight of that corpse taught you, and with an irresistible eloquence, that sin is madness, for it exposes the soul to fall into infinite misery. How comes it that death is almost daily telling us that life is uncertain and that our eternal lot may be decided at any hour, and yet the lesson is so lost upon us? We are hard-hearted sinners, and we need your prayers, O fervent Lover of Jesus! The Church will soon preach to us the great Memento. She will tell us that we are but dust, and into dust must speedily return. Oh that this warning might detach us from the world and ourselves, and man us to the resolution of Penance, that port of salvation for them that have suffered shipwreck. Oh that it might excite within us the desire of returning to that God who knows not how to resist the poor soul who comes to Him, after all her sins, throws herself into the bosom of His mercy, and asks Him to forgive! Your example proves that we may hope for every grace. Pray for us, and exercise in our favour that maternal charity which filled your heart, even when you were living here below.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Pergen in Pamphylia, during the persecution of Decius, the birthday of the blessed bishop Nestor, who, praying night and day for the preservation of the flock of Christ, was put under arrest. As he confessed the name of the Lord with great joy and freedom, he was most cruelly tortured on the rack by order of the governor Pollio, and still courageously proclaiming that he would ever remain faithful to Christ, he was suspended on a cross and thus triumphantly went to heaven.

In the same place, the passion of Saints Papias, Diodorus, Conon and Claudian who preceded St. Nestor to martyrdom.

Also the holy martyrs Fortunatus, Felix and twenty-seven others.

At Alexandria, the bishop St. Alexander, an aged man held in great honour, who succeeded blessed Peter as bishop of that city. He expelled from the Church Arius, one of his priests, tainted with heretical impiety, and convicted by divine truth, and subsequently was one of the three hundred and eighteen Fathers who condemned him in the Council of Nicaea.

At Bologna, the bishop St. Faustinian, whose preaching strengthened and multiplied the faithful of that Church, which had been much afflicted during the persecution of Diocletian.

At Gaza in Palestine, in the time of the emperor Arcadius, St. Porphyry, bishop, who overthrew the idol Marnas and its temple, and after many sufferings went to rest in the Lord.

At Florence, St. Andrew, bishop and confessor.

In the territory of Arcis, St. Victor, confessor, whose eulogy was written by St. Bernard.

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

Thanks be to God.

26 FEBRUARY – WEDNESDAY OF SEXAGESIMA WEEK

Lesson – Genesis viii. 15‒22; ix. 1‒6

And God spoke to Noah, saying: “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, your sons, and the wives of your sons with you. All living things that are with you of all flesh, as well in fowls as in beasts, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, bring out with you, and go upon the earth: increase and multiply upon it.” So Noah went out, he and his sons: his wife, and the wives of his sons with him. And all living things, and cattle, and creeping things that creep upon the earth, according to their kinds, went out of the ark. And Noah built an altar to the Lord: and taking of all cattle and fowls that were clean, offered holocausts on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said: “I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more destroy every living soul as I have done. All the days of the earth, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, will not cease.” And God blessed Noah and his sons. And He said to them: “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth. And let the fear and dread of you be on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the fowls of the air, and all that move on the earth: all the fishes of the sea are delivered into your hand. And every thing that moves and lives will be meat for you: even as the green herbs have I delivered them all to you: Saving that flesh with blood you must not eat. For I will require the blood of your lives at the hand of every beast, and at the hand of man, at the hand of every man, and of his brother, will I require the life of man. Whoever will shed man’s blood, his blood will be shed: for man was made to the image of God.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

O God of Infinite Justice! We have sinned. We have abused the life you have given us. And when we read in your Scriptures how your anger chastised the sinners of former days, we are forced to acknowledge that we have deserved to be treated in like manner. We have the happiness to be Christians and Children of your Church. The light of Faith and the power of your Grace have brought us once more into your friendship. But how can we forget that we were once your enemies? And are we so deeply rooted in virtue that we can promise ourselves perseverance in it to the end? Pierce, O Lord! pierce my flesh with your fear! (Psalm cxviii. 120). Man’s heart is hard, and unless it fears your Sovereign Majesty, it may again offend you. We are penetrated with fear when we remember that you buried the world and destroy mankind by the waters of the Deluge, for we learn by this how your patience and long-suffering may be changed into inexorable anger. You are just, O Lord, and who will presume to take scandal or to murmur when your wrath is kindled against sinners? We have defied your justice, we have braved your anger, for though you have told us that you will never more destroy sinners by a Deluge of water, yet do we know that you have created, in your hatred for sin, a fire which will eternally prey on them that depart this life without being first reconciled with your offended Majesty.

O wonderful dignity of our human nature! We cannot be indifferent towards that Infinite Being that created us. We must be His friends or His enemies! It could not have been otherwise. He gave us understanding and free will: we know what is good and what is evil, and we must choose the one or the other. We cannot remain neutral. If we choose good, God turns towards us and loves us. If evil, we separate from Him who is our Sovereign Good. But, whereas He bears most tender mercy towards this frail creature whom He created out of pure love, and because He wills that all men should be saved, He waits with patience for the sinner to return to Him and, in countless ways, draws his heart to repentance. But, woe to him that obeys not the divine call when that call is the last! Then justice takes place of mercy, and revelation tells us how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews x. 31). Let us then flee from the wrath to come (Matthew iii. 7) by making our peace with the God we have offended. If we be already restored to grace, let us walk in His fear until love will have grown strong enough in our hearts to make us run the way of the commandments (Psalm cxviii. 32).

25 FEBRUARY – TUESDAY OF SEXAGESIMA WEEK

Lesson – Genesis viii. 1‒13

And God remembered Noah and all the living creatures, and all the cattle which were with him in the ark, and brought a wind upon the earth, and the waters were abated. The fountains also of the deep, and the flood gates of heaven were shut up, and the rain from heaven was restrained. And the waters returned from off the earth going and coming: and they began to be abated after a hundred and fifty days. And the ark rested in the seventh month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, on the mountains of Armenia. And the waters were going and decreasing until the tenth month: for in the tenth month, the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared. And after that forty days were passed, Noah, opening the window of the ark which he had made, sent forth a raven: which went forth and did not return till the waters were dried up on the earth. He sent forth also a dove after him to see if the waters had now ceased on the face of the earth. But she, not finding where her foot might rest, returned to him into the ark: for the waters were on the whole earth: and he put forth his hand, and caught her and brought her into the ark. And having waited yet seven other days, he again sent forth the dove out of the ark. And she came to him in the evening, carrying a bough of an olive tree with green leaves in her mouth. Noah therefore understood that the waters were ceased on the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days: and he sent forth the dove, which returned no more to him. Therefore in the six hundredth and first year, the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were lessened on the earth, and Noah opening the covering of the ark, looked, and saw that the face of the earth was dried.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

When we reflect upon the terrible events which happened in the First Age of the world, we are lost in astonishment at the wickedness of man, and at the effrontery with which he sins against his God. How was it that the dread words of that God which were spoken against our First Parents in Eden could be so soon forgotten? How could the children of Adam see their father suffering and doing such endless penance without humbling themselves and imitating this model of repentance? How was it that the promise of a Mediator who was to re-open the gate of Heaven for them could be believed and yet not awaken in their souls the desire of making themselves worthy to be His ancestors and partakers of that grand regeneration which he was to bring to mankind? And yet, the years which followed the death of Adam were years of crime and scandal. Nay, he himself lived to see one of his own children become the murderer of a brother. But why be thus surprised at the wickedness of these our first brethren? The Earth is now six thousand years old in the continued reception of divine blessings and chastisements, and are men less dull of heart, less ungrateful, less rebellious towards their Maker?

For the generality of men, we mean of those who deign to believe in the Fall and Chastisement of our First Parents and in the destruction of the world by the Deluge —what are these great Truths? Mere historical facts which have never once inspired them with a fear of God’s justice. More favoured than these early generations of the human race, they know that the Messiah has been sent, that God has come down upon the Earth, that He has been made Man, that He has broken Satan’s rule, that the way to Heaven has been made easy by the graces embodied by the Redeemer in the Sacraments — and yet, sin reigns and triumphs in the midst of Christianity. Undoubtedly the just are more numerous than they were in the days of Noah but then what riches of grace has not our Redeemer poured out on our degenerate race by the ministry of His Spouse, the Church? Yes, there are Faithful Christians to be found upon the Earth and the number of the Elect is every day being added to, but the multitude is living at enmity with God, and their actions are in contradiction with their Faith.

When, therefore, the Holy Church reminds us of those times in which all flesh had corrupted its way, she is urging us to think about our own conversion. Her motive in relating to us the history of the sins committed at the beginning of the world is to induce us to examine our own consciences. Why, too, does she read to us those pages of Sacred Writ which so vividly describe the floodgates of Heaven opening and deluging the guilty Earth, if not that she would warn us against mocking that great God who thus chastised the sins of His rebellious creatures? Last week we were called upon to consider the sad consequences of Adam’s sin — a sin which we ourselves did not commit, but the effects of which lie so heavy upon us. This week we must reflect upon the sins we ourselves have committed. Though God had loaded us with favours, guided us by His light, redeemed us with His Blood, and strengthened us against all our enemies by His grace, yet have we corrupted our way, and caused our God to repent His having created us. Let us confess our wickedness and humbly acknowledge that we owe it to the mercies of the Lord that we have not been consumed (Lamentations iii. 22).

24 FEBRUARY – SAINT MATTHIAS (Apostle)

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

An Apostle of Jesus Christ, Saint Matthias is one of the Blessed choir which the Church would have us honour during the Season of Septuagesima. Matthias was one of the first to follow our Saviour, and he was an eye-witness of all His divine actions up to the very day of the Ascension. He was one of the seventy-two Disciples, but our Lord had not conferred on him the dignity of an Apostle. And yet, he was to have this great glory, for it was of him that David spoke when he prophesied that another should take the bishopric (Psalm cviii. 8; Acts i. 16) left vacant by the apostasy of Judas the Traitor. In the interval between Jesus’ Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the Apostolic College had to complete the mystic number fixed by our Lord Himself, so that there might be “The Twelve” on that solemn day when the Church, filled with the Holy Ghost, was to manifest herself to the Synagogue. The lot fell on Matthias (Acts i.). He shared with his Brother-Apostles in the Jerusalem persecution and, when the time came for the Ambassadors of Christ to separate, he set out for the countries allotted to him. Tradition tells us that these were Cappadocia and the provinces bordering on the Caspian Sea.

The virtues, labours and sufferings of Saint Matthias have not been handed down to us: this explains there being no proper Lessons on his Life, as there are for the Feasts of the rest of the Apostles. Clement of Alexandria records in his writings several sayings of our holy Apostle. One of these is so very appropriate to the spirit of the present Season that we consider it a duty to quote it. “It behoves us to combat the flesh and make use of it without pampering it by unlawful gratifications. As to the soul, we must develop her power by faith and knowledge.” How profound is the teaching contained in these few words! Sin has deranged the order which the Creator had established. It gave the outward man such a tendency to grovel in things which degrade him that the only means left us for the restoration of the likeness and image of God to which we were created is the forcibly subjecting the body to the spirit. But the spirit itself, that is, the soul, was also impaired by Original Sin and her inclinations were made prone to evil: what is to be her protection? Faith and knowledge. Faith humbles her, and then exalts and rewards her, and the reward is knowledge. Here we have a summary of what the Church teaches us during the two Seasons of Septuagesima and Lent. Let us thank the holy Apostle, in this his Feast, for leaving us such a lesson of spiritual wisdom and fortitude. The same traditions, which give us some slight information regarding the holy life of Saint Matthias, tell us that his Apostolic labours were crowned with the palm of martyrdom.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, St. Primitiva, martyr.

At Caesarea in Cappadocia, St. Sergius, martyr, of whose life a beautiful account still exists.

In Africa, the holy martyrs Montanus, Lucius, Julian, Victoricus, Flavian and their companions. They were disciples of St. Cyprian and suffered martyrdom under the emperor Valerian.

At Rouen, the passion of St. Prætextatus, bishop and martyr.

At Treves, St. Modestus, bishop and confessor.

In England, St. Ethelbert, king of Kent, converted to the faith of Christ by St. Augustine, bishop of the English.

At Jerusalem, the first finding of the head of Our Lord’s Precursor.

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

Thanks be to God.

24 FEBRUARY – MONDAY OF SEXAGESIMA WEEK

 

Lesson – Genesis vii. 1‒17

And the Lord said to Noah: “Go in thou and all your house into the ark: for you I have seen just before me in this generation. Of all clean beasts take seven and seven, the male and the female. But of the beasts that are unclean two and two, the male and the female. Of the fowls also of the air seven and seven, the male and the female: that seed may be saved upon the face of the whole earth. For yet a while, and after seven days, I will rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will destroy every substance that I have made, from the face of the Earth.” And Noah did all things which the Lord had commanded him. And he was six hundred years old, when the waters of the flood overflowed the earth. And Noah went in and his sons, his wife and the wives of his sons with him into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. And of beasts clean and unclean, and of fowls, and of every thing that moves upon the earth, two and two went in to Noah into the ark, male and female, as the Lord had commanded Noah. And after the seven days were passed, the waters of the flood overflowed the earth. In the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, in the second month, in the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the flood gates of heaven were opened: And the rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the selfsame day Noah, and Sem, and Cham, and Japheth his sons: his wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, went into the ark: They and every beast according to its kind, and all the cattle in their kind, and every thing that moves upon the earth according to its kind, and every fowl according to its kind, all birds, and all that fly, went in to Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein was the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in on the outside. And the flood was forty days upon the earth, and the waters increased, and lifted up the ark on high from the earth.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“All flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth” (Genesis vi. 12). The terrible lesson, then, which men had received by being driven out of Paradise in the person of our First Parents had been without effect. Neither the certainty of death, when they would have to stand before the Divine Judge — nor the humiliations which attend man’s first coming into this world — nor the pains and fatigues and trials which beset the whole path of life — had subdued men’s hearts or brought them into submission to that Sovereign Master whose hand lay thus heavy upon them. They had the divine promise that a Saviour should be given to them and that this Redeemer (who was to be the Son of Her that was to crush the Serpent’s head) would not only bring them salvation, but would moreover re-instate them in all the happiness and honours they had lost. But even this was not enough to make them rise above the base passions of corrupt nature. The example of Adam’s nine hundred years’ penance, and the admonitions he could so feelingly give that had received such proofs of God’s love and anger began to lose their influence upon his children. And when he at last descended into the grave, his posterity grew more and more heedless of what they owed to their Creator. The long life which had been granted to man in this the first Age of the World was made but a fresh means of offending Him who gave it. When, finally, the sons of Seth took to themselves wives of the family of Cain, the human race reached the height of wickedness, rebelled against the Lord and made their own passions be their god.

Yet all this while they had had granted to them the power of resisting the evil propensities of their hearts. God had offered them His grace by which they were enabled to conquer pride and concupiscence. The merits of the Redeemer to come were even then present to Divine Justice, and the Blood of the Lamb, slain, as Saint John tells us, from the beginning of the world (Apocalypse xiii. 8) was applied, in its merits, to this, as to every generation, which existed before the Great Sacrifice was really immolated. Each individual of the human family might have been just as Noah was, and like him have found favour with the Most High, but the thought of their heart was bent upon evil, and not upon good, and the Earth grew covered with enemies of God. Then it was that it repented God that He made man (Genesis vi. 6), as the Sacred Scripture forcibly expresses it. He decreed that man’s life on Earth should be shortened in order that the thought of death might be ever before us. He, moreover, resolves to destroy, by a universal Deluge, the whole of this perverse generation, saving only one family. The world would thus be renewed and man would learn from this awful chastisement to serve and love this his Sovereign Lord and God.

23 FEBRUARY – SAINT PETER DAMIAN (Cardinal and Doctor of the Church)

Peter was born at Ravenna of respectable parents in 988 AD. His mother, wearied with caring for a large family, abandoned him when he was a baby. However, one of her female servants found him in an almost dying state and took care of him until his mother, repenting of her unnatural conduct, consented to treat him as her child. After the death of his parents, one of his brothers, a most harsh man, took him as a servant or slave. It was about this period of his life that he performed an action which evinced his virtue and his filial piety. He happened to find a large sum of money, but instead of using it for his own wants, he gave it to a priest, begging him to offer up the Holy Sacrifice for the repose of his father’s soul. Another of his brothers, called Damian (after whom, it is said, he was named), had Peter educated. So rapid and great was the progress he made in his studies that he was the admiration of his masters. He became so proficient in the liberal sciences that he was made to teach them in the public schools, which he did with great success. During all this time it was his study to bring his body into subjection to the spirit, and to this end he wore a hair-shirt under an outwardly comfortable dress, and practised frequent fasting, watching and prayer. Being in the very ardour of youth, and being cruelly buffeted by the sting of the flesh, during the night he would go plunge himself into a frozen pool of water to quench the impure flame which tormented him. He would also make pilgrimages to holy sanctuaries and recite the entire Psaltery. His charities to the poor were unceasing, and when frequently he provided them with a meal, he would wait upon them himself.

Out of a desire to lead a still more perfect life, Peter became a religious in the Monastery of Avellino in the diocese of Gubbio of the Order of the Monks of Holy Cross of Fontavellana which was founded by the blessed Ludolphus, a disciple of Saint Romuald. Being sent by his Abbot first to the Monastery of Pomposia, and then to that of Saint Vincent of Pietra-Pertusa, he edified both houses by his preaching, admirable teaching and holy life. At the death of the Abbot of Avellino he was recalled to that monastery and was made its superior. The institute so benefited by his government, not only by the new monasteries which he founded in several places, but also by the very saintly regulations he drew up, that he was justly regarded as the second founder of the Order and its brightest ornament. Houses of other Orders, Canons and even entire congregations of the faithful benefited from Peter’s enlightened zeal. He was a benefactor, in more ways than one, to the diocese of Urbino. He aided the Bishop Theuzo in a most important suit, and assisted him by advice and work in the right administration of his diocese. His spirit of holy contemplation, corporal austerities and saintly tenor of his whole conduct gained for him so high a reputation that Pope Stephen IX, in spite of Peter’s extreme reluctance, created him a Cardinal of the holy Roman Church and appointed him Bishop of Ostia. The saint proved himself worthy of these honours by the exercise of the most eminent virtues, and by the faithful discharge of his episcopal office.

It would be impossible to describe the services Peter rendered to the Church and the Sovereign Pontiffs during those most trying times by his learning, his prudence as legate and his untiring zeal. His life was one continued struggle against simony and the heresy of the Nicolaites. He purged the Church of Milan of these disorders and brought her into subjection to the Holy See. He courageously resisted the anti-popes Benedict and Cadolaus. He deterred King Henry IV of Germany from an unjust divorce of his wife. He restored the people of Ravenna to their allegiance to the Roman Pontiff and absolved them from interdict. He reformed the abuses which had crept in among the Canons of Velletri. There was scarcely a single Cathedral Church in the Province of Urbino that had not experienced the beneficial effects of Peter's holy zeal. Thus, that of Gubbio, which was for some time under his care, was relieved by him of many evils. And other Churches that needed his help found him as earnest for their welfare as though he were their own bishop. When he obtained permission to resign as Cardinal and Bishop, he relented nothing of his former charity but was equally ready in doing good to all. He was instrumental in propagating many devout practices including fasting on Fridays in honour of the Holy Cross, reciting the Little Office of our Lady, the keeping the Saturday as a day especially devoted to Mary, and the taking the discipline in expiation of past sins.

After a life which had edified the world by holiness, learning, miracles and glorious works, on his return from Ravenna to which he had been sent as legate, Peter fell asleep in Christ on the eighth of the Calends of March (February 23rd) at Faenza in 1072 AD. His relics, which are kept in the Cistercian Church of that town, are devoutly honoured by the faithful and many miracles are wrought at the holy shrine. The inhabitants of Faenza chose him as the patron of their city, having several times experienced his protection when threatened by danger. His Mass and Office, which were kept under the rite of Confessor and Bishop, had been long observed in several Dioceses and by the Camaldolese Order, but they were extended to the whole Church by a decree of the Congregation of Sacred Rites which was approved by Pope Leo XII who also added to the name of the Saint that of Doctor.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

It is the feast of the austere reformer of the eleventh century, Peter Damian, the precursor of the holy Pontiff Gregory VII, that we are called upon to celebrate today. To him is due a share of that glorious regeneration which was effected at that troubled period when judgement had to begin at the House of God. The life he had led under the monastic Rule had fitted him for the great contest. So zealously did he withstand the disorders and abuses of his times that we may attribute to him, at least in great measure, the ardent faith of the two centuries which followed the scandals of the tenth. The Church ranks him among her Doctors on account of his admirable writings, and his penitential life ought to excite us to be fervent in the work we have in hand, the work of our conversion.

*****

Your soul was inflamed by the zeal of God’s House, O Peter! God gave you to His Church in those sad times when the wickedness of the world had robbed her of well nearly all her beauty. You had the spirit of an Elias within you, and it gave you courage to waken the servants of the Lord: they had slept, and while they were asleep, the enemy came and the field was oversown with tares (Matthew xiii. 25). Then did better days dawn for the Spouse of Christ. The promises made her by our Lord were fulfilled, but who was the Friend of the Bridegroom? (John iii. 29). Who was the chief instrument used by God to bring back to His House its ancient beauty? A Saint who bore the glorious name of Peter Damian! In those days the Sanctuary was degraded by secular interference. The Princes of the Earth said: “Let us possess the Sanctuary of God for an inheritance” (Psalm lxxxii. 13). The Church which God intended to be free was but a slave in the power of the rulers of this world, and the vices which are inherent to human weakness defiled the Temple. But God had pity on the Spouse of Christ, and for her deliverance he would use human agency: he chose you, Peter, as his principal co-operator in restoring order. Your example and your labours prepared the way for Gregory, the faithful and dauntless Hildebrand into whose hands the keys once placed, and the work of regeneration was completed. You have fought the good fight. You are now in your rest, but your love of the Church and your power to help, are greater than ever. Watch, then, over her interests. Obtain for her Pastors that Apostolic energy and courage which alone can cope with enemies so determined as hers are. Obtain for her Priests the holiness which God demands from them that are the salt of the Earth (Matthew v. 13). Obtain for the faithful the respect and obedience they owe to those who direct them in the path of salvation. You were not only the Apostle, you were moreover the model, of penance in the midst of a corrupt age. Pray for us that we may be eager to atone for our sins by works of mortification. Excite within our souls the remembrance of the sufferings of our Redeemer so that His Passion may urge us to repentance and hope. Increase our confidence in Mary, the Refuge of Sinners, and make us, like yourself, full of filial affection towards her and of zeal that she may be honoured and loved by those who are around us.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

The vigil of the Apostle St. Matthias.

At Sirmium, St. Sirenus, monk and martyr. By order of the emperor Maximian he was arrested and beheaded for confessing that he was a Christian.

In the same place, the birthday of seventy-two holy martyrs who ended the combat of martyrdom in that city and took possession of the everlasting kingdom.

At Rome, St. Polycarp, priest, who with blessed Sebastian converted many to the faith of Christ, and by his exhortations led them to the glory of martyrdom.

In the city of Astorga, St. Martha, virgin and martyr, under the emperor Decius and the pro-consul Paternus.

At Constantinople, St. Lazarus, a monk whom the Iconoclast emperor Theophilus ordered to be put to the torture for having painted holy images. His hand was burned with a hot iron, but being healed by the power of God, he painted anew the holy pictures that had been defaced, and finally rested in peace.

At Brescia, St. Felix, bishop.

At Seville in Spain, St. Florentius, confessor.

At Todi, St. Romana, virgin, who was baptised by Pope St. Sylvester. She led a heavenly life in caves and dens, and wrought glorious miracles.

In England, St. Milburga, virgin, daughter of the king of Mercia.

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

Thanks be to God.

23 FEBRUARY – SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY

 

Epistle – 2 Corinthians xi. 19 to xii. 9

Brethren, you gladly suffer the foolish, whereas yourselves are wise. For you suffer if a man brings you into bondage, if a man devours you, if a man takes from you, if a man is lifted up, if a man strikes you on the face. I speak according to dishonour, as if we had been weak in this part, therein if any man dare (I speak foolishly), I dare also. They are Hebrews. So am I. They are Israelites. So am I. They are the seed of Abraham. So am I. They are the ministers of Christ: (I speak as one less wise). I am more; in many, more labours, in prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure, in deaths often. From the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea. In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the, city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren. In labour and painfulness, in much watchings, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness. Besides these external things, there is my daily concern, the solicitude for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalised, and I am not on fire? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my infirmity. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I lie not. At Damascus the governor of the nation under Aretas the king, guarded the city of the Damascenes to apprehend me, and through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and so escaped his hands. If I must glory (it is not expedient indeed), but I will come to the visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I know not, or but of the body, I know not. God knows): such an one rapt even to the third heaven. And I know such a man (whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell. God knows), that he was caught up in paradise and heard secret words which it is not granted to man to utter. For such an one I will glory, but for myself I will glory nothing but in my infirmities. For though I should have a mind to glory, I will not lie foolish, for I will say the truth. But I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he sees in me, or anything he hears from me. And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me: there was given me a sting in my flesh, an Angel of Satan, to buffet me. Wherefore thrice I besought the Lord that it might depart from me. And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Epistle is that admirable passage from one of Saint Paul’s Epistles in which the great Apostle, for the honour and interest of his sacred ministry, is necessitated to write his defence against the calumnies of his enemies. We learn from this his apology what labours the Apostles had to go through in order to sow the Word of God in the barren soil of the Gentile world and make it Christian.

Gospel – Luke viii. 4‒15

At that time, when a very great multitude was gathered together and hastened out of the cities to Him, He spoke by a similitude. “The sower went put to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And other some fell upon a rock, and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And other some fell among thorns; and the thorns growing up with it, choked it. And other some fell upon good ground, and being sprung up, yielded fruit an hundredfold.” Saying these things, He cried out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And his disciples asked Him what this parable might be. To whom He said, “To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to the rest in parables; that seeing, they may not see, and hearing, may not understand. Now, the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. And they by the wayside are they that hear; then the devil comes and takes the word out of their heart, lest believing they should be saved. Now they upon the rock are they who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no roots, for they believe for a while, and in time of temptation they fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they who have heard, and going their way, are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and yield no fruit. But that on good ground are they who, in a good and very good heart, hearing the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Saint Gregory the Great justly remarks that this parable needs no explanation since Eternal Wisdom Himself has told us its meaning. All that we have to do is to profit by this divine teaching and become the good soil in which the heavenly seed may yield a rich hardest. How often have we not, hitherto, allowed it to be trampled on by them that passed by, or to be torn up by the birds of the air? How often has it not found our heart like a stone that could give no moisture, or like a thorn plot that could but choke? We listened to the Word of God. We took pleasure in hearing it. And from this we argued well for ourselves. Nay, we have often received this Word with joy and eagerness. Sometimes, even, it took root within us. But, alas, something always came to stop its growth. Henceforth it must both grow and yield fruit. The seed given to us is of such quality that the Divine Sower has a right to expect a hundred-fold. If the soil, that is, if our heart, be good — if we take the trouble to prepare it. by profiting of the means afforded us by the Church — we will have an abundant harvest to show our Lord on that grand day when, rising triumphant from His tomb, He will come to share with His faithful people the glory of His Resurrection.

22 FEBRUARY – SATURDAY OF SEPTUAGESIMA WEEK

Lesson – Genesis v. 15‒31

And Malaleel lived sixty-five years, and begot Jared. And Malaleel lived after he begot Jared, eight hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Malaleel were eight hundred and ninety-five years, and he died. And Jared lived a hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Henoch. And Jared lived after he begot Henoch, eight hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years, and he died. And Henoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Mathusala. And Henoch walked with God: and lived after he begot Mathusala, three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Henoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And he walked with God, and was seen no more: because God took him. And Mathusala lived a hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech. And Mathusala lived after he begot Lamech, seven hundred and eighty-two years, and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Mathusala were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died. And Lamech lived a hundred and eighty-two years, and begot a son. And he called his name Noah, saying: “This same will comfort us from the works and labours of our hands on the earth, which the Lord has cursed.” And Lamech lived after he begot Noah, five hundred and ninety-five years, and begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Lamech came to seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The sentence pronounced by the Almighty on our First Parents was to fall upon their children to the end of time. We have been considering, during this Week of Septuagesima, the penalties of the great sin. But the severest and most humiliating of them all remains to be told. It is the transmission, to the whole human race, of Original Sin. It is true that the merits of the promised Redeemer will be applied to each individual man in the manner established by God at various periods of time: still, this spiritual Regeneration — while cleansing us from the leprosy which covered us, and restoring us to the dignity of children of God — will not remove every scar of the old wound. It will save us from eternal death and restore us to life. But as long as our pilgrimage lasts, we will be weak and sickly.

Thus it is, that Ignorance makes us to be short-sighted in those great truths which should engross all our thoughts. And this fills us with illusions which, by an unhappy inclination of our will, we cling to and love. Concupiscence is ever striving to make our soul a slave to the body, and in order to escape this tyranny, our life has to be one continual struggle. An unruly love for Independence is unceasingly making us desire to be our own masters and forget that we were born to obey. We find pleasure in sin, whereas virtue rewards us with nothing in this life, save with the consciousness of our having done our duty.

*****

Knowing all this, we are filled with admiration and love when we think of you, O Mary, you purest of God’s creatures! You are our Sister in nature. You are a Daughter of Eve. But you were conceived without sin and are therefore the honour of the human race. You are of the same flesh and blood as ourselves, and yet you are Immaculate. The divine decree which condemned us to inherit the disgrace of Original Sin could not include your most pure Conception, and the serpent felt, as your foot crushed his haughty head, that you had never been under his power. In you, Mary, we find our nature such as it was when our God first created it. Hail, then, spotless Mirror of Justice! O Mary! Beautiful in your unsullied holiness, pray for us who are weighed down by the consequences of that sin of our First Parents which God would not suffer to approach you. You are the implacable enemy of the Serpent. Watch over us, lest his sting inflict death on our souls. We were conceived in sin and born in sorrow. Pray for us that we may so live as to merit blessing. We are condemned to toil, to suffering and to death. Intercede for us that our atonement may find acceptance with our Lord. We are exposed to the treachery of our evil inclinations. We are in love with this present life. We forget eternity. We are ever striving to deceive our own hearts — how could we escape Hell, were the grace of your Divine Son not unceasingly offered to us, enabling us to triumph over all our enemies? You, O Immaculate Mother of Jesus, are the Mother of Divine Grace! Pray for us that we who glory in being your kindred by nature may be daily more and more enriched with this priceless gift.

22 FEBRUARY – THE CHAIR OF SAINT PETER

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Archangel Gabriel told Mary in the Annunciation that the Son who was to be born of her should be a king, and that of His kingdom there should be no end. Hence, when the Magi were led from the East to the crib of Jesus, they proclaimed it in Jerusalem that they came to seek a king. But this new Empire needed a Capital and whereas the king who was to fix His throne in it was, according to the eternal decrees, to re-ascend into Heaven, it was necessary that the visible character of His royalty should be left here on Earth, and this even to the end of the world. He that should be invested with this visible character of Christ our King would be the Vicar of Christ.

Our Lord Jesus Christ chose Simon for this sublime dignity of being His Vicar. He changed his name into one which signifies the Rock, that is “Peter” and in giving him this new name, He tells us that the whole Church throughout the world is to rest upon this man, as upon a Rock, which nothing will ever move (Matthew xvi. 18). But this promise of our Lord included another — namely, that as Peter was to close his earthly career by the Cross, he would give him successors in whom Peter and his authority should live to the end of time.

But, again — there must be some mark or sign of this succession to designate to the world who the Pontiff is, on whom, to the end of the world, the Church is to be built. There are so many Bishops in the Church — in which one of them is Peter continued? This Prince of the Apostles founded and governed several Churches, but only one of these was watered with his blood, and that one was Rome. Only one of these is enriched with his tomb, and that one is Rome. The Bishop of Pome, therefore, is the Successor of Peter and consequently the Vicar of Christ. It is of the Bishop of Rome alone that it is said: “Upon you will I build my Church:” (Matthew xvi. 18), and again: “To you will I give the keys of the kingdom of Heaven,” (Matthew xvi. 19), and again: “I have prayed for you that your faith fail not — confirm your brethren,” (Luke xxii. 32), and again: “Feed my lambs; feed my sheep” (Luke xxi. 15, 17).

Protestantism saw the force of this argument and therefore strove to throw doubts on Saint Peter having lived and died in Rome. They who laboured to establish doubts of this kind rightly hoped that if they could gain their point, they would destroy the authority of the Roman Pontiff and even the very notion of a Head of the Church. But History has refuted this puerile objection and now all learned Protestants agree with Catholics in admitting a fact which is one of the most incontestable, even on the ground of human authority.

It was in order to nullify, by the authority of the Liturgy, this strange pretension of Protestants that Pope Paul IV in 1558 restored the ancient Feast of Saint Peter’s Chair at Rome, and fixed it on the 18th of January. For many centuries the Church had not solemnised the mystery of the Pontificate of the Prince of the Apostles on any distinct feast, but had made the single Feast of February 22nd serve for both the Chair at Antioch and the Chair at Rome.

Today, therefore, the kingship of our Emmanuel shines forth in all its splendour, and the children of the Church rejoice in finding themselves to be brethren and fellow-citizens, united in the Feast of their common capital, the Holy City of Rome. When they look around them and find so many sects separated from each other, and almost forced into decay because they have no centre of union — they give thanks to the Son of God for His having provided for the preservation of His Church and Truth by His instituting a visible Head who never dies, and in whom Peter is for ever continued, just as Christ Himself is continued in Peter. Men are no longer sheep without a Shepherd. The word, spoken at the beginning, is uninterruptedly perpetuated through all ages. The primitive mission is never suspended and, by the Roman Pontiff the end of time is fastened on to the world’s commencement.

“What a consolation for the children of God!” cries out Bossuet in his Essay on Universal History, “and what conviction that they are in possession of the truth when they see that from Innocent XI who now (1681) so worthily occupies the first See of the Church, we go back in unbroken succession even to Saint Peter whom Jesus appointed Prince of the Apostles. That from Saint Peter we come, traversing the line of the Pontiffs who ministered under the Law, even to Aaron, yea, even to Moses. Thence even to the Patriarchs, and even to the beginning of the world!”

When Peter enters Rome, therefore, he comes to realise and explain the destinies of this Queen of Cities. He comes to promise her an Empire even greater than the one she possesses. This new Empire is not to be founded by the sword, as was the first. Rome has been, hitherto, the proud mistress of nations. Henceforth she is to be the Mother of the world by charity, and though all peaceful, yet her Empire will last to the end of time. Let us listen to Saint Leo the Great describing to us, in one of the finest of his Sermons and in his own magnificent style, the humble yet all-eventful entrance of the Fisherman of Genesareth into the capital of the pagan world:

“The good, and just, and omnipotent God who never refused His mercy to the human race and instructed all men, in general, in the knowledge of Himself by His super-abundant benefits —took pity, " by a more hidden counsel and a deeper love, on the voluntary blindness of them that had gone astray, and on the wickedness which was growing in its proneness to evil, and sent, therefore, into the world His co-equal and co-eternal Word. The which Word being made Flesh did so unite the divine to the human nature, as that the deep debasement of the one was the highest uplifting of the other. But that the effect of this unspeakable gift might be diffused throughout the entire world, the providence of God had been preparing the Roman Empire, which had so far extended its limits, as to embrace in itself all the nations of the earth. For nothing could be better suited to the divine plan than the confederation of various kingdoms under one and the same Empire, and the preaching of the Gospel to the whole world would the more rapidly be effected by having the several nations united under the government of one common city. But this city, ignoring the author of this her promotion, while mistress of almost every nation under the sun, was the slave of every nation’s errors and prided himself on having got a grand religion because she had admitted every false doctrine. So that the faster the devil’s hold of her, the more admirable her deliverance by Christ. For, when the twelve Apostles after receiving by the Holy Ghost the gift of tongues divided among themselves the world they had to evangelise, the most blessed Peter, the Prince of the Apostolic order, was sent to the capital of the Roman Empire in order that the light of truth, which had been revealed for the salvation of all nations, might the more effectively flow from the head itself into the whole body of the world. The fact was that there were in this city people belonging to every nation, and the rest of the world soon learnt whatever was taught at Rome. Here, therefore, were to be refuted the opinions of philosophy. Here, the follies of human wisdom to be exploded. Here, the worship of devils to be convicted of blasphemy. Here, the impiety of all the sacrifices to be first abolished. For it was here that an official superstition had systematised into one great whole the fragmentary errors of every other portion of the Earth.

To this city, therefore, O most blessed Apostle, Peter, you fear not to come! The companion of your glory, Paul the Apostle, is not with you, for he is busy founding other Churches. Yet, you enter this forest of wild beasts and, with greater courage than when walking on the waters, you set foot on this deep stormy sea! You that trembled before a servant girl in the house of Caiphas, are fearless now before this Rome, this mistress of the world. Is it that the power of Claudius is less than the authority of Pilate? Or the cruelty of Nero less than the savageness of the Jews? Not so, but the vehemence of your love made you heedless of your risks, and having come that you might love, you forgot to fear. You imbibed this sentiment of fearless charity on that day when the profession of your love for your Master was made perfect by the mystery of His thrice put question. And what asks He of you after thus probing your heart, but that you feed the sheep of Him you love, with the food on which yourself had feasted? Then, too, there were the miracles you had wrought, the gifts of grace you had received, the proofs of the great works you had achieved — all giving you fresh courage. You had taught the truth to such of the children of Israel as had embraced the faith. You had founded the Church of Antioch where first began the glorious Christian title. You had preached the gospel in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, and assured of the success of your work and of the many years you had yet to live, you brought the trophy of the Cross of Christ into the very walls of Rome where the counsels of God had already determined that you should have both the honour of power, and the glory of martyrdom.”

The future of the human race, now under the guidance of the Church, is therefore centred in Rome, and the destinies of that city are interwoven with those of her undying Pontiff. We, the children of the Church, though differing in race, and tongue, and character, yet are we all Romans by holy religion. As Romans, we are united by Peter to Christ, and this our glorious name is the link of that great fraternity of Catholics throughout the world. Jesus Christ by Peter, and Peter by his successor — these are our rulers in the order of spiritual Government. Every Pastor whose authority emanates not from the See of Rome is a stranger to us and an intruder. So likewise, in the order of our Faith, that is, of what we believe, Jesus Christ by Peter, and Peter by his successor, teach us divine doctrine and how to distinguish truth from error.

Every Symbol of Faith, every doctrinal judgement, every teaching, contrary to the Symbol, and judgements, and teachings of the See of Rome, is of man, and not of God, and must be rejected, hated and anathematised.

Today we will consider and honour the Chair at Rome as the source and rule of our Faith. Here, again, let us borrow the sublime words of Saint Leo and hear him discuss the claims of Peter to Infallibility of teaching. The Holy Doctor will teach us how to understand the full force of those words which were spoken by our Lord, and which He intended should be, for all ages, the grand charter of Faith.

“The word made Flesh was dwelling among us, and He, our Saviour, had spent His whole self for the reparation of the human race. There was nothing too complicated for His wisdom, nothing too difficult for His power. The elements were subject to Him. Spirits ministered to Him. Angels obeyed Him, nor could the mystery of human Redemption be ineffectual, for God, both in His Unity and Trinity, was the worker of that mystery. And yet, Peter is chosen from the rest of the entire world to be the one, the only one, put over the vocation of all nations, and over all the Apostles, and over all the Fathers of the Church: that so, while there were to be many Priests and many Pastors in the people of God, Peter should govern, by the special power given to him, all those whom Christ also rules by His own supreme power. Great and wonderful, dearly Beloved, is this fellowship with Christ’s power granted, by divine condescension, to this man! Moreover, if our Lord willed that there should be something in common to Peter and the rest of the Princes of his Church, it was only on this condition — that whatever He gave to the rest, He gave it to them through Peter.

Again: our Lord questions all the Apostles as to what men say of Him, and as far as the telling Him the opinions of human ignorance goes, they all, indifferently, join in making answer. But as soon as the sentiment of the disciples themselves is called for, he is the first to confess our Lord’s divinity, who is the first in dignity among the Apostles. These were his words: “You are Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew xvi. 16), which when he had said, our Lord thus answered him: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in Heaven” (Matthew xvi. 17) that is, blessed are you in that my Father has taught you, and human opinion has not misled you, but heavenly inspiration has instructed you. Not flesh and blood, but He whose Only Begotten Son I am, has shown me to you. And I say to you: that is, as my Father has manifested to you my divinity, so do I now declare to you your own dignity. That you are Peter (the Rock): that is, though I am the immoveable Rock (1 Corinthians x. 4), the Corner-Stone (Ephesians ii. 20) who make both one (Ephesians ii. 14) and the Foundation, other than which no man can lay (1 Corinthians iii. 11), yet are you also a Rock, because you are solidly based by my power, and what I have by right, you have by participation. And upon this Rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it (Matthew xvi. 18), that is, I will construct an everlasting temple upon your strength, and my Church, which is to reach to Heaven, will grow up on the firmness of this your faith.

On the eve of His Passion which was to test the courage of His disciples, our Lord said to Peter: “Simon, Simon, behold Satan has desired to have you, that he sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith fail not. And you, being once converted, confirm your brethren” (Luke xxii. 31, 32). All the Apostles were in danger of being tempted to fear, and all stood in need of the divine help, for the devil desired to sift and crush them all. And yet, it is especially for Peter that our Lord is careful. It is for Peter’s faith that He offers an express prayer, as though the others would be sure to be firm if the mind of their leader were unflinching. So that, the strength of all the rest is in Peter, and the assistance of divine grace is distributed in this order — Peter is to receive firmness through Christ, and he himself then give it to the Apostles.”

In another of his Sermons the same holy Doctor explains to us how it is that Peter ever lives and ever teaches in the Chair of Rome. After having cited the passage from the sixteenth chapter of Saint Matthew, (verses 16-19) he says:

“This promise, of Him who is truth itself, must, therefore, be a permanent fact — and Peter, the unceasing Rock of strength, must be the ceaseless ruler of the Church. For we have only to consider the pre-eminence that is given him, and the mysterious titles conferred on him, and we at once see the fellowship he has with our Lord Jesus Christ: he is called the Rock (Peter). He is named the Foundation. He is appointed keeper of the gates of Heaven. He is made judge, with such power of loosing and binding that his sentence holds even in Heaven. These commissions, and duties, and responsibilities with which with he was invested, he discharges with fuller perfection and power, now that he is in Him and with Him, from whom he received all these honours. If, therefore, we do anything that is right, if we decree anything that is right, if, by our daily supplications, we obtain anything from the divine mercy — it is his doing and his merit, whose power lives, and whose authority is supreme, in this his own Chair. All this, dearly Beloved, was obtained by that confession which, being inspired into the Apostle’s heart by God the Father, soared above all the incertitudes of human opinions and drew upon him who spoke it the solidity of a Rock that was to be proof against every attack. For, throughout the whole Church, Peter is every day still proclaiming: Thou are Christ, the Son of the living God. And every tongue that confesses the Lord is guided by the teaching of this word. This is the faith which conquers the devil and sets his captives free. This is the faith which delivers men from the world and takes them to Heaven, and the gates of Hell cannot prevail against it. For such is the solidity with which God has strengthened it that neither heretical depravity has been able to corrupt, nor pagan perfidy to crush, it.”

Thus speaks Saint Leo. “Let it not, therefore, be said,” observes Bossuet, in his Sermon on the Unity of the Church, “let it not be said or thought that this ministry of Peter finishes with his life on Earth. That which is given as the support of a Church which is to last forever, can never be taken away. Peter will live in his successors. Peter will speak in his Chair to the end of time. So speak the Fathers. So speak the six hundred and thirty Bishops of the Council of Chalcedon.” And again: “Thus the Roman Church is ever a Virgin-Church. The Faith of Rome is always the Faith of the Church. What has once been believed will be forever believed. The same voice is heard all over the world, and Peter, in his successors, is now, as he was during his life, the foundation on which the faithful rest. Jesus Christ has said that it will be so, and Heaven and Earth will pass away rather than His word.”

Full of gratitude, therefore, to the God of truth who has vouchsafed to raise up this Chair in His Church, we will listen, with submission of intellect and heart, to the teaching which emanates from it. Rejecting with indignation those dangerous theories which can only serve to keep up sects within the Church, and confessing with all the past ages that the promises made to it. Peter continue in his successors — we will conclude, aided by the twofold light of logic and history, that the teachings, addressed to the Church by the Roman Pontiff, can never contain error and can contain nothing but the doctrine of truth. Such has always been the sense of the Church, and her practice has been the expression of her spirit. Now if we acknowledge a permanent miracle in the uninterrupted succession of the Bishops of Rome in spite of all the revolutions of [twenty] centuries — we acknowledge it to be a still higher prodigy that, notwithstanding the instability of man’s opinions and judgements, the Chair of Rome has faithfully preserved the truth without the slightest admixture of error, whereas the sees of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople, were scarcely able to maintain the true Faith for few centuries, and have become, so frequently, those Chairs of pestilence spoken of by the Royal Prophet (Psalm i. 1).

We are in that season of the Ecclesiastical Year which is devoted to honouring the Incarnation and Birth of the Son of God, and the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin: it behoves us to remember, especially on this present Feast, that it is to the See of Peter that we owe the preservation of these dogmas which are the very basis of our holy religion. Rome not only taught them to us when she sent us the saintly missionaries who evangelised our country but, moreover, when heresy attempted to throw its mists and clouds over these high Mysteries, it was Rome that secured the triumph to truth by her sovereign decision. At Ephesus — when Nestorius was condemned and the dogma which he assailed was solemnly proclaimed, that is, that the Divine Nature and the Human Nature which are in Christ make but one Person, and that Mary is consequently, the true Mother of God — the two hundred Fathers of that General Council thus spoke: “Compelled by the Letters of our Most Holy Father Celestine, Bishop of the Roman Church, we have proceeded, in spite of our tears, to the condemnation of Nestorius.” At Chalcedon — where the Church had to proclaim, against Eutyches, the distinction of the two Natures in the Incarnate Word, God and Man — the six hundred and thirty Fathers, after hearing the Letter of the Roman Pontiff, gave their decision and said: “Peter has spoken by the mouth of Leo.”

*****

We are founded on Christ in our faith and our hopes, because O glorious Prince of the Apostles, we are founded on you, who are the Rock He has set. We are the sheep of the flock of Jesus because we obey you as our shepherd. By following you, O Peter, we are made sure of our being admitted into the kingdom of Heaven, because our Lord gave the keys of His kingdom to you. Having the happiness of being your members, we may also count ourselves as the members of Jesus Christ Himself, for He, the invisible Head of the Church, recognises none as His members save those that are members of the visible Head whom He appointed. So, too, when we adhere to the faith of the Roman Pontiff and obey his orders, we are professing your faith, Peter. We are following your commands, for if Christ teaches and governs by you, you teach and govern by the Roman Pontiff.

Eternal thanks, then, to our Emmanuel for that He has not left us orphans but before returning to Heaven vouchsafed to provide us with a Father and a Shepherd even to the end of time! On the evening before His passion, keeping up His love for us even to the end, He left us His sacred Body and Blood for our food. After His glorious Resurrection, and a few hours before ascending to the right hand of His Father, He called His Apostles around Him, and constituted His Church (His Fold) and said to Peter: “Feed my Lambs, Feed my Sheep” (John xxi. 15, 17). Thus, dear Jesus, did you secure perpetuity to your Church. You gave her unity, for that alone could preserve her and defend her from both external and internal enemies. Glory be to you, O Divine Architect, for that you built the House of your Church on the Rock which was never to be shaken, that is, on Peter! Winds and storms and waves have beat upon that House, but it has stood, for it was built on a Rock (Matthew vii. 25).

O Rome, on this day when the whole Church proclaims your glory by blessing God for having built her on your Rock, receive the renewal of our promise to love you and be faithful to you. You will ever be our Mother and our Mistress, our guide and our hope. Your faith will ever be ours, for he that is not with you is not with Jesus Christ. In you all men are brethren. You are not a foreign city to us, nor is your Pontiff a foreign Sovereign to us, for he is our Father. It is by you that we live the spiritual life, the life of both heart and intellect, and you it is that prepares us to dwell one day in that other city of which you are the image —the city of Heaven into which men enter by you. Bless, O Prince of the Apostles, the flock committed to your care, but forget not them that have unfortunately left the fold. There are whole nations whom you brought up and civilised by the hands of your successors who now have alienated themselves from you and are living on their wretched existence, the more miserable because they feel not the unhappiness of being separated from the Shepherd. They are victims either of schism, or of heresy. Without Christ made visible in His Vicar, Christianity becomes sterile and at last extinct. Those indiscreet doctrines, which tend to throw a doubt on the richness of the prerogatives bestowed by Christ on you, that is, on you who was to hold his place to the end of time — such doctrines produce a cold heart in those who profess them and dispose them, but too frequently, to give to Caesar that spiritual and religious obedience which they owe, yet refuse, to Peter. O supreme Pastor, cure all these evils. Hasten the return of the nations that have separated themselves from you. Let the heresy of the sixteenth century soon become a thing of the past. Open your arms, and again press to your heart the country once so dear to you —England — and pray for her that she may regain her right to be called the beautiful “Island of Saints.” Stir up the people of our northern Europe to redouble their ardour in the search of the Faith of their Fathers, and let them learn the great truth that a religion out of union with the Chair at Rome is powerless to give salvation to its members. Reclaim the East to her ancient fidelity, and let her Patriarchal Sees regain their dignity by submission to the one Apostolic See.

And we, Blessed Apostle, who, by the mercy of God, and the watchfulness of your paternal love, are still faithful, preserve us in the faith of Rome and submission to your successor. Instruct us in the mysteries which have been confided to your teaching. What the Father revealed to you, you reveal to us: show us our Jesus, your beloved Master, Lead us to His crib and let us, after your own example, be blessed by not being scandalised at His deep humiliations, and by ever saying your beautiful confession: “You are Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew xvi. 16).

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Hierapolis in Phrygia, blessed Papias, bishop of that city, who had been, with St. Polycarp, a disciple of St. John in his old age.

At Salamis in Cyprus, St. Aristion, who the same Papias says was one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ.

In Arabia, the commemoration of many holy martyrs who were barbarously put to death under the emperor Galerius Maximian.

At Alexandria, St. Abilius, bishop, who was the second pastor of that city after St. Mark and administered his charge with eminent piety.

At Vienna, St. Paschasius, bishop, celebrated for his learning and holy life.

At Cortona in Tuscany, St. Margaret, of the Third Order of St. Francis, whose body miraculously remained uncorrupt for more than four centuries, giving forth a sweet odour and producing frequent miracles. It is honoured in that place with great devotion.

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

Thanks be to God.