4 APRIL – SAINT ISIDORE OF SEVILLE (Bishop and Doctor of the Church)

Isidore, by birth a Spaniard, was an illustrious Doctor of the Church. He was born at Carthagena and his father Severianus was governor of that part of the country. He was solidly trained to piety and learning by his two brothers, Leander, Bishop of Seville, and Fulgentius, Bishop of Carthagena. He was taught Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He was put through a course of canon and civil law, and there was no science or virtue in which he did not excel. While yet a youth, he so courageously combated the Arian heresy which had long before infested the Goths who had entered Spain, that he with difficulty escaped being put to death by the heretics. After the death of Leander, he was, in spite of himself, raised to the episcopal See of Seville by the influence of king Eeccared, and with unanimous consent of both clergy and people. His election was not only confirmed by Apostolic authority, but Saint Gregory the Great, when sending him as usual, the Pallium, is said to have appointed him his own vicar, and that of the Apostolic See throughout all Spain.

 

It would be impossible to describe the virtues of Isidore as Bishop: how firm, humble, patient and merciful; how zealously he laboured for the restoration of Christian morals and ecclesiastical discipline, and how untiring he was in his efforts, both by word and writing, to establish them among his people; and, finally, how he excelled in every virtue. He was a fervent promoter of the monastic life in Spain and built several monasteries. He also built colleges in which he himself applied himself to the teaching the sacred sciences to the many disciples that flocked to him, among whom may be mentioned those two glorious Pontiffs, Ildephonsus Bishop of Toledo, and Braulio Bishop of Saragossa. In a Council held at Seville, he spoke with such power and eloquence that he may be said to have destroyed the heresy of the Acephali who were threatening to destroy the true faith in Spain. So great, indeed, was the universal reputation he had gained for piety and learning, that he had scarcely been dead sixteen years when, in a Council held at Toledo at which 52 bishops were present, Saint Ildephonsus himself among them, he was called the Illustrious Doctor, the new Glory of the Catholic Church, the most learned man who had been seen in those ages, and one whose name should never be mentioned but with great respect.

Saint Braulio not only compared him to Saint Gregory the Great, but said that he looked on him as having been sent by Heaven as a second Saint James the Apostle, to instruct the people of Spain. Isidore wrote a book On Etymologies, and another On Ecclesiastical Offices, and several others of such importance to Christian and ecclesial discipline that Pope Saint Leo IV hesitated not to say, in a letter addressed to the Bishops of Britain, that one ought to adhere to the words of Isidore with that same respect as is shown to those of Jerome and Augustine, as often as a difficult case should arise which could not be settled by Canon Law. Several sentences of his works have been inserted into the body of the Canon Law. He presided over the Fourth Council of Toledo, which is the most celebrated of all those that have been held in Spain. At length, after having driven the Arian heresy out of Spain, he publicly foretold the day of his death, and the devastation of the country by the Saracens. And having governed his See for about forty years, he died at Seville in 636. His body was first buried, as himself had requested, between those of his brother and sister, Leander and Florentina.

Afterwards, Ferdinand I, King of Castille and Leon, purchased it, for a large sum of money from Enetus, the Saracen governor of Seville, and had it translated to Leon. Here, a Church was built in his honour, and the miracles that are wrought by his intercession, have led the people to honour him with great devotion.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church presents to us today, for our devout admiration, the memory of one of the holiest of her Bishops — Isidore, the Bishop of Seville, the most learned man of his age and, what is a still greater praise, the most zealous patriot and friend of his noble country. Let us study his virtues and confide in his patronage: both will help us to fervour during this holy Season.

Among Christian lands, there is one that has gained for herself the glorious name of the Catholic Kingdom. Towards the close of the seventh century Divine Providence subjected her to a most severe trial by permitting the Saracen hordes to invade her, so that her heroic children had to struggle for eight hundred years for the recovery of their country. Contemporaneously with Spain, Asia, also, and Africa fell under the Mussulman yoke, and have continued in their slavery up to the present day. Whence comes it that Spain has triumphed over her oppressors and that tyranny has never been able to make her children degenerate? The answer is easily given: Spain, at the period of her invasion, was Catholic, and Catholicity was the very spirit of the land: whereas those other nations that yielded themselves slaves to the Saracens were already separated from the Christian Church by heresy or schism. God abandoned them because they had rejected both the truth of Faith, and unity with the Church. They fell an easy prey to the infidel conqueror.

Nevertheless, Spain had incurred an immense risk. The race of the Goths, by their long invasion of her territory, had sowed the seeds of heresy: Arianism had set up its sacrilegious altars in Iberia. But God did not permit this privileged country to be long under the yoke of error. Before the Saracens came upon her, she had been reconciled to the Church, and God had chosen one family to be the glorious instrument in the completion of this great work. Even to this day, the traveller through Andalusia will find the squares of its cities adorned with four statues: they are those of three brothers and a sister: Saint Leander, Bishop of Seville; Saint Isidore, whose feast we are keeping today; Saint Fulgentius, Bishop of Carthagena; and their sister, Saint Florentina, a nun. It was by the zeal and eloquence of Saint Leander that King Reccared and his Goths were converted from Arianism to the Catholic Faith in 589. The learning and piety of our glorious Isidore consolidated the great work. Fulgentius gave it stability by his virtues and erudition, and Florentina co-operated in it by her life of sacrifice and prayer.

Let us unite with the Catholic Kingdom in honouring this family of Saints, and today in a special manner, let us pay the tribute of our devotion to Saint Isidore.

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Faithful Pastor! The Christian people honour your virtues and your services. They rejoice in the recompense with which God has crowned your merits. Hear the prayers that are offered to you during these the days of salvation. When on Earth your vigilance over the flock entrusted to thy care was untiring. Consider us as a part of it, and defend us from the ravenous wolves that cease not to seek our destruction. May your prayers obtain for us that fullness of graces needed for our worthily completing the holy Season which is so near its close. Keep up our courage. Incite us to fervour. Prepare us for the great mysteries we are about to celebrate. We have bewailed our sins, and though feebly, we have done penance for them. The work of our conversion has, therefore, made progress, and now we must perfect it by the contemplation of the Passion and Death of our Redeemer. Assist us, his faithful and loving Servant! Do thou, whose life was ever pure, take sinners under your care, and hear the prayers offered to you on this day by the Church. Look down from Heaven on your beloved Spain which honours thee with such earnest devotion. Revive her ancient ardour of Faith. Restore to her the vigour of Christian morality. Remove from her the tares that have sprung up among the good seed. The whole Church reveres your noble country for her staunch adhesion to the truths of Faith. Pray for her that she may come unhurt from the ordeal she is now being put through, and ever prove herself worthy of that glorious title of The Catholic Kingdom, which you helped her to gain.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Thessalonica, in the time of the emperor Maximian and the governor Faustinus, the holy martyrs Agathopodes, a deacon, and Theodulus, a lector, who, for the confession of the Christian faith, were thrown into the sea with stones tied to their necks.

At Milan, the demise of St. Ambrose, bishop and confessor, through whose labours, learning and miracles almost all Italy returned to the Catholic faith at the time when the perfidious Arian heresy was widely diffused.

At Constantinople, St. Plato, a monk, who for many years combated with invincible courage the heretics that were breaking sacred images.

In Palestine, the anchoret St. Zozimus, who buried the remains of St. Mary of Egypt.

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

Thanks be to God.

4 APRIL – FRIDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – 3 Kings xvii. 17‒24

In those days the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick and the sickness was very grievous so that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elias: “What have I to do with you, you man of God? Are you come to me that my iniquities should be remembered, and that you should kill my son?” And Elias said to her: “Give me your son.”And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him into the upper chamber where he abode, and laid him on his own bed. And he cried to the Lord, and said: “Lord, my God, have you afflicted also the widow with whom I am after a sort maintained, so as to kill her son?” And he stretched, and measured himself on the child three times, and cried to the Lord and said: “Lord, my God. Let the soul of this child, I beseech you, return into his body.” And the Lord heard the voice of Elias, and the soul of the child returned to him, and he revived. And Elias took the child, and brought him down from the upper chamber to the house below, and delivered him to his mother and said to her: “Behold your son lives.” And the woman said to Elias: “Now, by this, I know you are a man of God, and the word of the Lord in your mouth is true.”

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Again, it is a mother that comes, with tears in her eyes, praying for the resurrection of her child. This mother is the Widow of Sarephta whom we have already had as the type of the Gentile Church. She was once a sinner, and an idolatress, and the remembrance of the past afflicts her soul. But the God that has cleansed her from her sins, and called her to be his spouse, comforts her by restoring her child to life.

The charity of Elias is a figure of that of the Son of God. Observe how this great Prophet stretches himself on the body of the boy, fitting himself to his littleness, as did also Eliseus. Here again, we recognise the divine mystery of the Incarnation. Elias thrice touches the corpse: thrice also will our catechumens be immersed in the baptismal font while the minister of God invokes the Three Persons of the adorable Trinity. On the solemn night of Easter, Jesus, too, will say to the Church, His Spouse: “Behold, your son lives,” and she, transported with joy, will acknowledge the truth of God’s promises. Nay, the very pagans bore witness to this truth, for when they saw the virtuous lives of this new people which came forth regenerated from the waters of Baptism, they acknowledged that God alone could produce such virtue in man. There suddenly arose from the midst of the Roman Empire, demoralised and corrupt beyond imagination, a race of men of angelic purity, and these very men had, but a short time before their Baptism wallowed in all the abominations of paganism. From where had they derived this sublime virtue? From the Christian teaching, and from the supernatural remedies it provides for man’s spiritual miseries. Then it was that unbelievers sought for the true faith, though they knew it was at the risk of martyrdom. They ran to the Church, asking her to become their mother, and saying to her: “We know that you are of God, and the word of the Lord in your mouth is true.”

Gospel – John xi. 1‒45

At that time there was a certain man sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, of the town of Mary and of Martha her sister. (And Mary was she that anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair: whose brother Lazarus was sick.) His sisters therefore sent to him, saying: “Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.” And Jesus hearing it, said to them: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God: that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus. When He had heard therefore that he was sick, He still remained in the same place two days. Then after that, He said to his disciples: “Let us go into Judea again.” The disciples say to Him: “Rabbi, the Jews but now sought to stone you, and you go there again?” Jesus answered: “Are there not twelve hours of the day? If a man walk in the day, he stumbles not, because he sees the light of this world: But if he walk in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” These things he said, and after that He said to them: “Lazarus our friend sleeps, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep.” His disciples therefore said: “Lord, if he sleeps, he will do well.” But Jesus spoke of his death, and they thought that He spoke of the repose of sleep. Then therefore Jesus said to them plainly: “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad, for your sakes, that I was not there, that you may believe: but let us go to him.” Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples: “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”

Jesus therefore came, and found that he had been four days already in the grave. (Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off.) And many of the Jews were come to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Martha therefore, as soon as she heard that Jesus was come, went to meet Him: but Mary sat at home. Martha therefore said to Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would had not died. But now also I know that whatever you will ask of God, God will give it to you.” Jesus said to her: “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him: “I know that he will rise again, in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her: “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believes in me, although he be dead, will live: And every one that lives, and believes in me, will not die forever. Believe you this?” She said to Him: “Yes, Lord, I have believed that you are Christ the Son of the living God, who have come into this world.” And when she had said these things, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying: “The master has come, and calls for you.” She, as soon as she heard this, rose quickly and came to Him. For Jesus was not yet come into the town, but He was still in that place where Martha had met Him. The Jews therefore who were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary that she rose up speedily and went out, followed her, saying: “She goes to the grave to weep there.”

When Mary therefore had come where Jesus was, seeing Him she fell down at His feet and said to Him: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would have not died.” Jesus, therefore, when he saw her weeping, and the Jews that were come with her, weeping, groaned in the spirit, and troubled Himself and said: “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him: “Lord, come and see.” And Jesus wept. The Jews therefore said: “Behold how he loved him.” But some of them said: “Could not he that opened the eyes of the man born blind, have caused that this man should not die?” Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself, came to the sepulchre. Now it was a cave, and a stone was laid over it. Jesus said: “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said to Him: “Lord, by this time he stinks, for he is now of four days.” Jesus said to her: “Did not I say to you, that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” They took therefore the stone away. And Jesus lifting up His eyes said: “Father, I give you thanks that you have heard me. And I know that you hear me always, but because of the people who stand about have I said it, that they may believe that you have sent me.” When He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice: “Lazarus, come forth.” And presently he that had been dead came forth, bound feet and hands with winding bands, and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus said to them: “Loose him, and let him go.” Many therefore of the Jews who had come to Mary and Martha, and had seen the things that Jesus did, believed in Him.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Let us meditate on this admirable history, and as we meditate, let us hope, for it not only shows us what Jesus for the souls of others, but what He had done for ours. Let us also renew our prayers for the penitents who now throughout the world are preparing far the great reconciliation. It is not a mother that is here represented as praying for the resurrection of her child. It is two sisters asking this grace for a brother. The example must not be lost on us: we must pray far one another. But let us take our Gospel in the order of its truths. First, Lazarus was sick and then he died. The sinner begins by being tepid and careless and then he receives the mortal wound. Jesus could have cured Lazarus of his sickness, but he permitted it to be fatal. He intends to work such a miracle, and that within sight of Jerusalem, that His enemies will have no excuse far refusing to receive Him as the Messiah. He would also prove that He is the sovereign Master of life, in order that he might hereby teach His Apostles and disciples not to be scandalised at the death He Himself was soon to suffer. In the moral sense, God in His wisdom sometimes leaves an ungrateful soul to itself, although He foresees that it will fall into sin. It will rise again, and the confusion it will feel for having sinned will lead it to that great preservative against a future fall ― humility.

The two sisters, Martha and Mary, are full of grief, yet full of confidence in Jesus. Let us observe how their two distinct characters are shown on this occasion. Jesus tells Martha that He is the Resurrection and the Life, and that they who believe in Him will not die, that is, will not die the death of sin. But when Mary came to him, and He saw her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and troubled Himself because he knew the greatness of her love. His divine Heart was touched with compassion as He beheld these who were so dear to Him smarting under that chastisement of death which sin had brought into the world. Having reached the sepulchre where Lazarus was buried, He wept, for He loved Lazarus. Thus did our Redeemer by his own weeping sanctify the tears which Christian affection sheds over the grave of a relative or friend. Lazarus has been in the sepulchre four days. It is the image of the sinner buried in his sin. To see him now is what even his sister shudders at, but Jesus rebukes her, and bids them take away the stone. Then with that voice which commands all nature and makes hell tremble, He cries out “Lazarus, come forth!” He that had been dead rises up in the sepulchre, but his feet and hands are tied, his face is covered with a napkin. He lives, but he can neither walk nor see. Jesus orders him to be set free, and then, by the hands of the men that are present, he recovers the use of his limbs and eyes. So is it with the sinner that receives pardon. There is no voice but that of Jesus which can call him to conversion and touch his heart, and bring him to confess his sins, but Jesus has put into the hands of priests the power to loosen, enlighten and give movement. This miracle, which was wrought by our Saviour at this very season of the year filled up the measure of His enemies’ rage, and set them thinking how they could soon put Him to death. The few days He has still to live are all to be spent at Bethany where the miracle has taken place, and which is but a short distance from Jerusalem. In nine days from this, He will make His triumphant entry into the faithless city, after which he will return to Bethany, and after three or four days, will once more enter Jerusalem, there to consummate the sacrifice whose infinite merits are to purchase resurrection for sinners.

The early Christians loved to see this history of our Lord’s raising Lazarus to life painted on the walls of the Catacombs. We also find it carved on the sarcophagi of the fourth and fifth centuries, and later on, it was not infrequently chosen as a subject for the painted windows of our Cathedrals. This symbol of spiritual resurrection was formerly honoured by a most solemn ceremony in the great Monastery of Holy Trinity at Vendome in France. Every year, on this day, a criminal who had been sentenced to death was led to the church of the Monastery. He had a rope round his neck, and held in his hand a torch weighing thirty-three pounds, in memory of the years spent on earth by our Saviour. The Monks made a procession in which the criminal joined, after which a sermon was preached at which he also assisted. He was then taken to the foot of the altar where the Abbot after exhorting him to repentance imposed on him, as a penance, the pilgrimage to Saint Martin’s Church at Tours. The Abbot loosened the rope from his neck, and declared him to be free. The origin of this ceremony was that when Louis of Bourbon, Count of Vendome, was prisoner in England in 1426, he made a vow that if God restored him to liberty, he would establish this custom in the Church of Holy Trinity as a return of gratitude, and as a homage to Christ, who raised up Lazarus from the tomb. God accepted the vow and the prince soon recovered his freedom.

3 APRIL – FERIA

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Taormina in Sicily, the bishop St. Pancratius, who sealed with a martyr’s blood the Gospel of Christ which the blessed Apostle St. Peter had sent him there to preach.

At Tomis in Scythia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Evagrius and Benignus.

At Thessalonica, the martyrdom of the holy virgins Agape and Chionia, under the emperor Diocletian. As they would not deny Christ, they were first detained in prison, then cast into the fire, but being untouched by the flames, they gave up their souls to their Creator while praying to Him.

At Tyre, the martyr St. Vulpian, who was sewn up in a sack with a serpent and a dog and drowned in the sea during the persecution of Maximian Galerius.

In the monastery of Medicion, in the East, the abbot St. Nicetas, who suffered much for the worship of holy images in the time of Leo the Armenian.

In England, St. Richard, bishop of Chichester, celebrated for holiness and glorious miracles. In the same country, St. Burgundofora, abbess and virgin.

At Palermo, St. Benedict, of St. Philadelphus, confessor, surnamed the Black, on account of his colour. He was of the Order of Friars Minor, and rested in the Lord on the third of April, with a reputation for miracles. Pope Pius VII placed him in the number of the saints.

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

Thanks be to God.

3 APRIL – THURSDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

  Lesson – 4 Kings iv. 25‒38

In those days a Sunamitess came to Eliseus on Mount Carmel, and when the man of God saw her coming towards him he said to Giezi his servant: “Behold that Sunamitess. Go therefore to meet her, and say to her: ‘Is all well with you, and with your husband, and with your son?’” And she answered: “Well.” And when she came to the man of God to the mountain, she caught hold on his feet, and Giezi came to remove her. And the man of God said: “Let her alone, for her soul is in anguish, and the Lord has hid it from me, and has not told me.” And she said to him: “Did I ask a son of my Lord? Did I not say to you: Do not deceive me?” Then he said to Giezi: “Gird up your loins, and take up my staff in your hand, and go. If any man meets you, salute him not. And if any man salutes you, answer him not. And lay my staff on the face of the child.” But the mother of the child said: “As the Lord lives, and as my soul lives, I will not leave you.” He arose, therefore, and followed her. But Giezi was gone before them, and laid the staff on the face of the child, and there was no voice nor sense. And he returned to meet him, and told him, saying: “The child is not risen.” Eliseus therefore went into the house, and behold the child lay dead on his bed. And going in, he shut the door upon him, and upon the child, and prayed to the Lord. And he went up, and lay upon the child. And he put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and he bowed himself upon him, and the child’s flesh grew warm. Then he returned and walked in the house, once to and fr. And he went up and lay upon him, and the child gaped seven times, and opened his eyes. And he called Giezi, and said to him: “Call this Sunamitess.” And she being called, went in to him. And he said: “Take up your son.” She came and fell at his feet, and worshipped on the ground, and took up her son, and went out. And Eliseus returned to Galgal.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

In this mysterious event are clustered together all the wonders of the plan laid down by God for the salvation of man. If the catechumens were instructed in these sublime truths, it would be a disgrace in us to be ignorant of them; therefore, let us be attentive to the teachings of this Epistle.

This dead child is the human race. Sin has caused its death. But God has resolved to restore it to life. First of all, a servant is sent to the corpse. This servant is Moses. His mission is from God. But of itself the Law he brings gives not life. This Law is figured by the staff winch Giezi holds in his hand, and which he lays upon the child’s face. But to no purpose. The Law is severe. Its rule is one of fear, on account of the hardness of Israel’s heart. Yet is it with difficulty that it triumphs over his stubbornness, and they of Israel who would be just must aspire to something more perfect and more filial than the Law of Sinai. The Mediator who is to bring down from heaven the sweet element of charity, is not yet come. He is promised, he is prefigured, but he is not made flesh, he has not yet dwelt among us. The dead child in not risen.

The Son of God must Himself come down. Eliseus is the type of this divine Redeemer. See how he takes on himself the littleness of the child’s body, and bows himself down into closest contact with its members, and this in the silence of a closed chamber. It was thus that the Word of the Father, shrouding His brightness in the womb of a Virgin, united Himself to our nature, and as the Apostle expresses it, emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men (Pilippians ii. 7) that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly (John x. 10) than when it was given to them at the beginning. Take notice too of what happens to the child, and what are the signs of the resurrection wrought in him.

He breathes seven times: the Holy Ghost, with His seven gifts, is to take possession of man’s soul and make it His temple. The child opens his eyes: the blindness of death is at an end. Neither must we forget the Sunamites, the mother of the child: she is the type of the Church, who is praying her divine Eliseus to give her the resurrection of her dear catechumens, and of all unbelievers who are dwelling in the region of the shadow of death (Isaias ix. 2) Let us join our prayers with hers, and beg that the light of the Gospel may be spread more and more, and that the obstacles made by Satan and the malice of men to its propagation, may be forever removed.

Gospel – Luke vii. 11‒16

At that time Jesus went into a city called Naim, and there went with Him His disciples and a great multitude. And when he came near the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and much people of the city were with her. And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and said to her: “Weep not.” And He came near, and touched the bier. And they that carried it, stood still. And He said: “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And he that was dead, sat up, and began to speak. And He delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear on them all, and they glorified God, saying: “A great prophet is risen up among us, and God has visited His people.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church, both today and tomorrow, gives us types of the Resurrection. It is an announcement of the coming Pasch, and an encouraging sinners to hope that their spiritual death will soon be changed into life. Before entering on the two weeks which are to be devoted to the commemoration of our Saviour’s Passion, the Church shows her children the tender mercies of Him whose Blood is to purchase our reconciliation with Divine Justice. She would have us argue for our own consolation that from such a Saviour we may well hope for pardon. Being thus rid of our fears, we will be the more at liberty to contemplate the sacrifice of our august Victim, and compassionate His sufferings. Let us attentively consider the Gospel just read to us. A heart-broken mother is following to the grave the corpse of an only son. Jesus has compassion on her. He stays the bearers. He puts His divine hand on the bier. He commands the young man to arise and then, as the Evangelist adds, Jesus delivered him to his mother. This mother is the Church who mourns over the death of so many of her children. Jesus is about to comfort her. He, by the ministry of his priests, will stretch forth his hand over these dead children. He will pronounce over them the great word that gives resurrection, and the Church will receive back into her arms these children she had lost, and they will be full of life and gladness.

Let us consider the mystery of the three resurrections wrought by our Saviour: that of the ruler’s daughter, that of the young man of today’s Gospel, and that of Lazarus, at which we are to assist tomorrow. The daughter of Jairus (for such was the ruler’s name) had been dead only a few hours: she represents the sinner who has but recently fallen and has not yet contracted the habit of sin, nor grown insensible to the qualms of conscience. The young man of Naim is a figure of a sinner who makes no effort to return to God, and whose will has lost its energy: he is being carried to the grave and but for Jesus’ passing that way, he would soon have been of the number of them that are forever dead. Lazarus is an image of a worse class of sinners. He is already a prey to corruption. The stone that closes his grave, seals his doom. Can such a corpse as this ever come back to life? Yes, if Jesus mercifully deign to exercise His power. Now, it is during this holy Season of Lent that the Church is praying and fasting, and we with her, to the end that these three classes of sinners may hear the voice of the Son of God, and hearing, rise and live (John v. 25) The mystery of Jesus’ Resurrection is to produce this wonderful effect in them all. Let us take our humble share in these merciful designs of God. Let us day and night offer our supplications to our Redeemer, that, in a few days hence, seeing how He has raised the dead to life, we may cry out, with the people of Naim: “A great Prophet is risen up among us, and God has visited His people!

2 APRIL – SAINT FRANCIS OF PAOLA (Confessor)

Francis was born at Paula in Calabria. His parents, who were for a long time without children, obtained him from Heaven after having made a vow and prayed to Saint Francis. Then very young, being inflamed with the love of God, Francis withdrew into a desert where for six years he led an austere life, but one that was sweetened by heavenly contemplations. The fame of his virtues having spread abroad, many persons went to him out of a desire to be trained in virtue. Out of a motive of fraternal charity, he left his solitude, built a Church near Paula and there laid the foundation of his Order. He had a wonderful gift of preaching. He observed virginity during his whole life. Such was his love for humility that he called himself the last of all men, and would have his disciples named Minims. His dress was of the coarsest kind. He always walked barefooted and his bed was the ground. His abstinence was extraordinary: he ate only once in the day and not until after sunset. His food consisted of bread and water to which he scarcely ever added those viands which are permitted even in Lent. And this practice he would have kept up by his Religious under the obligation of a fourth vow. God bore witness to the holiness of His servant by many miracles, of which this is the most celebrated: that when he was rejected by the sailors, he and his companion passed over the straits of Sicily on his cloak, which he spread out on the water. He also prophesied many future events. King Louis XI France had a great desire to see the Saint and treated him with great respect. Having reached his ninety-first year, he died at Tours in 1507. His body, which was unburied for eleven days, so far from becoming corrupt, yielded a sweet fragrance. He was canonised by Pope Leo X.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The founder of a Religious Order, whose distinguishing characteristics were humility and penance comes before us to-day: it is Francis of Paula. Let us study his virtues and beg his intercession. His whole life was one of great innocence, and yet we find him embracing, from his earliest youth, mortifications which nowadays, would not be expected from the very worst sinners. How was it that he could do so much? And we, who have so often sinned, do so little? The claims of Divine Justice are as strong now as ever they were, for God never changes, nor can the offence we have committed against Him by our sins be pardoned unless we make atonement. The Saints punished themselves with life-long and austere penances for the slightest sins, and the Church can scarcely induce us to observe the law of Lent, though it is now reduced to the lowest degree of severity.

What is the cause of this want of the spirit of expiation and penance? It is that our Faith is weak, and our love of God is cold because our thoughts and affections are so set upon this present life that we seldom if ever consider things in the light of eternity? How many of us are like the King of France, who having obtained permission from the Pope that Saint Francis of Paula should come and live near him, threw himself at the Saint’s feet and besought him to obtain of God that he, the King, might have a long life! Louis XI had led a most wicked life, but his anxiety was, not to do penance for his sins, but to obtain, by the Saint’s prayers, a prolongation of a career which had been little better than a storing up wrath for the day of wrath. We, too, love this present life. We love it to excess. The laws of Fasting and Abstinence are broken not because the obeying them would endanger life or even seriously injure health, for where either of these is to be feared, the Church does not enforce her Lenten penances: but people dispense themselves from Fasting and Abstinence because the spirit of immortification renders every privation intolerable, and every interruption of an easy comfortable life insupportable. They have strength enough for any fatigue that business or pleasure calls for, but the moment there is question of observing those laws which the Church has instituted for the interest of the body as well as of the soul, all seems impossible. The conscience gets accustomed to these annual transgressions and ends by persuading the sinner that he may be saved without doing penance.

* * * * *

Apostle of penance! Your life was always that of a Saint and we are sinners: yet do we presume during these days to beg your powerful intercession in order to obtain of God that this holy Season may not pass without having produced within us a true spirit of penance which may give us a reasonable hope of receiving His pardon. We admire the wondrous works which filled your life — a life that resembled in duration that of the Patriarchs, and prolonged the privilege the world enjoyed of having such a Saint to teach and edify it. Now that you are enjoying in Heaven the fruits of your labours on Earth, think upon us and hearken to the prayers addressed to you by the faithful. Get us the spirit of compunction which will add earnestness to our works of penance. Bless and preserve the Order you have founded. Your holy relics have been destroyed by the fury of heretics. Avenge the injury thus offered to your name by praying for the conversion of heretics and sinners, and drawing down upon the world those heavenly graces which will revive among us the fervour of the Ages of Faith.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Caesarea in Palestine, during the persecution of Galerius Maximian, the birthday of the martyr St. Amphian, who, because he reproved the governor Urban for sacrificing to idols, was cruelly lacerated and, with his feet wrapped in a cloth saturated with oil, was set on fire. After these painful tortures, he was plunged into the sea. Thus through fire and water he reached everlasting repose.

In the same city, the passion of St. Theodosia, a virgin of Tyre, who, in the same persecution, for having publicly saluted the holy confessors as they stood before the tribunal and begged of them to remember her when they should be with God, was arrested and led to the governor Urban. By his order, her sides and breasts were lacerated to the very vitals and she was thrown into the sea.

At Lyons, St. Nizier, bishop of that city, renowned for his saintly life and miracles.

At Como, St. Abundius, bishop and confessor.

At Langres, St. Urban, bishop.

In Palestine, the decease of St. Mary of Egypt, surnamed the Sinner.

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

Thanks be to God.

2 APRIL – WEDNESDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This day is called the Feria of the Great Scrutiny, because in the Church of Rome, after the necessary inquiries and examinations, the list of the catechumens who were to receive Baptism was closed. The Station was held in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, both because of the size of the building, and also in order to honour the Apostle of the Gentiles by offering him these new recruits, which the Church was about to make from paganism.

First Lesson – Ezechiel xxxvi. 23‒28

Thus says the Lord God: “I will sanctify my great name which was profaned among the Gentiles, which you have profaned in the midst of them, that the Gentiles may know that I am the Lord,” says the Lord of Hosts, “when I will be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the Gentiles and will gather you together out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. And I will pour on you clean water, and you will be cleansed from all your filthiness, and I will cleanse you from all your idols. And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in the midst of you, and I will cause you to walk in my commandments, and to keep my judgements, and do them. And you will dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers, and you will be my people, and I will be your God,” says the Lord Almighty.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

These magnificent promises which are to be fulfilled in favour of the Jewish people as soon as God’s justice will have been satisfied, are to be realised firstly in our catechumens. These are they that have been gathered together from all the countries of the Gentile world in order that they may be brought into their own land, the Church. A few days hence, and there will be poured on them that clean water which will cleanse them from all the defilement of their past idolatry. They will receive a new heart and a new spirit; they will be God’s people forever.

Second Lesson – Isaias i. 16‒19

Thus says the Lord God: “Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from my eyes: cease to do perversely, learn to do well: seek judgement, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow. And then come and accuse me,” says the Lord: “if your sins be as the scarlet, they will be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they will be white as wool. If you be willing, and will hearken to me, you will eat the good things of the land,” says the Lord Almighty.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

It is to her penitents that the Church addresses these grand words of Isaias. There is a baptism also prepared for them: a laborious baptism indeed, but still, one that has power to cleanse their souls from all their defilements, if only they receive it with sincere contrition and be resolved to make atonement for the evil they have committed. What could be stronger than the language used by God, in making His promise of forgiveness? He compares the change He will make in the soul of a repentant sinner to that of scarlet and crimson become white as snow. The unjust is to be made just. Darkness is to be turned into light. The slave of Satan is to become the child of God. Let us rejoice with our glad mother, the holy Church, and redoubling the fervour of our prayer and penance, let us induce our Lord to grant that on the great Easter Feast the number of conversions may surpass our hopes.

Gospel – John ix. 1‒38

At that time, Jesus passing by, saw a man that was blind from his birth, and His disciples asked Him: “Rabbi, who has sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?” Jesus answered: “Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night comes when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and spread the clay on his eyes, and said to him: “Go, wash in the pool of Siloe,” which is interpreted, Sent. He went therefore, and washed, and he came seeing. The neighbours therefore, and they who had seen him before that he was a beggar, said: “Is not this he that sat and begged?” Some said: “This is he.” But others said: “No, but he is like him.” But he said: “I am he.” They said therefore to him: “How were your eyes opened?” He answered: “That man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me: Go to the pool of Siloe, and wash. And I went, I washed, and I see.” And they said to him: “Where is he?” He said: “I know not.” They bring him that had been blind to the Pharisees. Now it was the Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Again therefore the Pharisees asked him how he had received his sight. But he said to them: “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Some therefore of the Pharisees said: “This man is not of God, who keeps not the Sabbath.” But others said: “How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles?” And there was a division among them. They say therefore to the blind man again: “What say you of him that has opened your eyes?” And he said: “He is a prophet.” The Jews then did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight, and asked them, saying: “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered them, and said: “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind: But how he now sees, we know not; or who has opened his eyes, we know not: ask himself: he is of age, let him speak for himself.” These things his parents said because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had already agreed among themselves that if any man should confess him to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.” Therefore did his parents say: “He is of age, ask himself.” They therefore called the man again that had been blind, and said to him: “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” He said therefore to them: “If he be a sinner, I know not: one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.” They said then to him: “What did he to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them: “I have told you already, and you have heard: why would you hear it again? Will you also become his disciples?” They reviled him therefore, and said: Be his disciple; but we are the disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses: but as to this man, we know not from where he is.” The man answered, and said to them: “Why, herein is a wonderful thing, that you know not from where he is, and he has opened my eyes. Now we know that God does not hear sinners: but if a man be a server of God, and does His will, him He hears. From the beginning of the world it has not been heard that any man has opened the eyes of one born blind. Unless this man were of God, he could not do anything.” They answered, and said to him: “You were wholly born in sins, and you teach us?” And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when He had found him, He said to him: “Do you believe in the Son of God?” He answered, and said: “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?” And Jesus said to him: “You have both seen him, and it is he that talks with you.” And he said: “I believe, Lord.” And falling down, he adored Him.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

In the early ages of the Church, Baptism was frequently called Illumination because this Sacrament confers supernatural faith by which man is enlightened with the divine Light. It was on this account that there was read on this day the history of the cure of the man born blind, for it is the figure of man’s being enlightened by Christ. This subject is frequently met with in the paintings in the Catacombs, and on the bas-reliefs of the ancient Christian monuments.

We are all born blind. Jesus by the mystery of His Incarnation, figured by this clay which represents our flesh, has merited for us the gift of sight. But in order that we may receive it, we must go to the pool of Him that is divinely Sent, and we must be washed in the water of Baptism. Then will we be enlightened with the very light of God, and the darkness of reason will disappear. The humble obedience of the blind man who executes with the utmost simplicity all that our Saviour commands him is an image of our catechumens, who listen with all docility to the teachings of the Church, for they too wish to receive their sight. The blind man of the Gospel is by the cure of his eyes a type of what the grace of Christ works in us by Baptism.

Let us listen to the conclusion of our Gospel, and we will find that he is also, a model for those who are spiritually blind, yet would wish to be healed. Our Saviour asks him, as the Church asked us on the day of our Baptism: “Do you believe in the Son of God?” The blind man, ardently desiring to believe, answers eagerly: “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?” Faith brings the weak reason of man into union with the sovereign wisdom of God, and puts us in possession of His eternal truth. No sooner has Jesus declared himself to be God, than this simple hearted man falls down and adores Him: he that from being blind is blessed with bodily sight is now a Christian! What a lesson was here for our catechumens!

At the same time this history showed them and reminds us of the frightful perversity of Jesus’ enemies. He is shortly to be put to death, He the Just by excellence, and it is by the shedding of His Blood that He is to merit for us, and for all mankind, the cure of that blindness in which we were all born, and which our own personal sins have tended to increase. Glory, then, love and gratitude be to our Divine Physician who, by uniting himself to our human nature, has prepared the ointment by which our eyes are cured of their infirmity and strengthened to gaze, for all eternity, on the brightness of the Godhead!

1 APRIL – TUESDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

 

Lesson – Exodus xxxii. 7‒14

In those days the Lord spoke to Moses saying: “Go, get down from the mountain, your people which you have hast brought out of the land of Egypt, have sinned. They have quickly strayed from the way which you showed, and they have made to themselves a molten calf and have adored it, and sacrificing victims to it, have said: ‘These are your gods, Israel, that have brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” And again the Lord said to Moses: “I see that this people is stiff-necked. Let me alone, that my wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make of you a great nation.” But Moses besought the Lord his God, saying: “Why, Lord, is your indignation enkindled against your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Let not the Egyptians say, I beseech you: ‘He craftily brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains, and destroy them from the earth.’ Let your anger cease and be appeased upon the wickedness of your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel your servants to whom you swore by your own self, saying: ‘I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and this whole land that I have spoken of, I will give to your seed, and you will possess it for ever.’” And the Lord was appeased from doing the evil which He had spoken against His people.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

When the world first received the preaching of the Gospel, idolatry was the prevailing crime. For many centuries after, all the Catechumens who were instructed in the true faith were tainted with it. It was in order to inspire them with a horror of their past lives that the Church read to them on this day the terrible words of God who, had not Moses interceded, was about to exterminate His people, because they had relapsed into idolatry. And this, after He had worked in their favour the most unheard-of miracles, and had come in person to give them His Law. The worship of false gods is no longer to be found among us, but it exists in all those countries where the Gospel has been preached and rejected. Strange as it may sound, yet it is most true: Europe, with all its civilisation, would return to idolatry, were it to lose the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not a century ago, and an idol was erected to Reason. It had its altar, its decorations and its incense, and they who paid homage to it were Europeans! An individual, or a people, once slaves to Satan, are not their own masters to say “we will go thus far in sin, and no farther.” The descendants of Noah, notwithstanding the terrible lesson given to them by the Deluge, fell into idolatry. Abraham was called by God from the rest of men, lest he should be led away by the almost universal corruption. Let us be grateful to the Church who by her teachings of faith and morals preserves us from this degrading abomination, and let us resist our passions, which, if the light of faith were taken from us, would lead us to Idolatry.

Gospel – John vii. 14‒31

At that time, about the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. And the Jews wondered, saying: “How does this man know letters, having never learned?” Jesus answered them and said: “My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. If any man will do the will of Him, he will know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. He that speaks of himself seeks his own glory, but he that seeks the glory of Him that sent him, he is true, and there is no injustice in him. Did not Moses give you the law? And yet none of you keep the law. Why seek you to kill me?” The multitude answered and said: “You have a devil? Who seeks to kill you?” Jesus answered and said to them: “One work I have done, and you all wonder. Therefore Moses gave you circumcision (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and on the Sabbath day you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath day that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry at me, because I have healed the whole man on the Sabbath day? Judge not according to the appearance, but judge just judgement.” Some therefore of Jerusalem said: “Is not this he whom they seek to kill? And behold he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Have the rulers known for a truth that this is the Christ? But we know this man from where he is. But when the Christ comes, no man knows from where he is.” Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying: “You both know and you know from where I am: and I am not come of myself, but He that sent me is true, whom you know not. I know Him, because I am from him, and He has sent me.” They sought therefore to apprehend Him: and no man laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet come. But of the people many believed in Him.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

This Gospel carries our thoughts to the sacrifice of the Divine Lamb which is to be offered up in Jerusalem. The hour is not yet come, but it is fast approaching. His enemies are already seeking how they may put Him to death. So blinded are they by their passions that they accuse Him of being a violator of the Sabbath because he healed the sick by the simple act of His will on the Lord’s Day! In vain does Jesus refute their prejudices, by reminding them that they themselves have no scruple in fulfilling the law of circumcision on this day, or, (as be said to them on another occasion), in drawing out of the pit an ass or an ox that may have fallen in (Luke xiv. 5). They are deaf to all He says. They are men of one idea, and it is that their victim will not escape death. His miracles are incontestable, and all are wrought out of a motive of mercy and love. The only time He refuses to work one is when His enemies ask Him to satisfy their curiosity and pride by letting them see a sign. This exercise of His power of working miracles, far from exciting them to admiration and gratitude, only incites them to envy, and in their envy they declare not only that He acts by Beelzebub (Luke xi. 15), but that He has a devil within Him. We shudder at such a blasphemy. Yet, such is the pride of these Jewish doctors that they care neither for common sense nor for religion, and their hearts thirst more and more for the Blood of Jesus. While some of the people allow themselves to be seduced by their leaders into the same feelings against Jesus, others, who affect to be indifferent, reason about Him and then declare it to be their opinion that this Jesus does not realise in Himself the character of the promised Messiah! They argue that when the Christ comes no-one will know from where He is. But have not the Prophets declared that he is to be of the family of David? Now every Jew knows well enough that Jesus is of that royal race. Besides, they own that there is to be something mysterious about the Messiah, and that he is to come from God. Had they listened with docile attention to the teachings of Jesus — teachings which He had confirmed by numerous miracles — they would have been enlightened both as to His temporal birth, and to His being the Son of God.