21 MARCH – SAINT BENEDICT OF NORCIA (Abbot)

 

Benedict was born of a noble family at Norcia. He was sent to Rome that he might receive a liberal education, but not long after he withdrew to a place called Subiaco and there hid himself in a very deep cave, that he might give himself entirely to Jesus Christ. He passed three years in that retirement, unknown to all save to a monk named Romanus, who supplied him with the necessaries of life. The devil having one day excited him to a violent temptation of impurity, he rolled himself amid prickly brambles and extinguished within himself the desire of carnal pleasure by the pain he thus endured. The fame of his sanctity, however, became known beyond the limits of his hiding-place and certain monks put themselves under his guidance. He sharply rebuked them for their wicked lives, which rebuke so irritated them that they resolved to put poison in his drink. Having made the sign of the Cross over the cup as they proffered it to him, it broke and he, leaving that monastery, returned to his solitude.

But whereas many daily came to Benedict, beseeching him to take them as his disciples, he built twelve monasteries and drew up the most admirable rules for their government. He afterwards went to Monte Cassino, where he destroyed an image of Apollo which was still adored in those parts. And having pulled down the altar and burnt the groves, he built a chapel in that same place in honour of Saint Martin, and another in honour of Saint John. He instructed the inhabitants in the Christian religion. Day by day did Benedict advance in the grace of God and he also foretold, in a spirit of prophecy, what was to take place. Totila, the King of the Goths, having heard of this and being anxious to know if it were the truth, went to visit him but first sent his sword-bearer who was to pretend that he was the king and who, for this end, was dressed in royal robes and accompanied by attendants. As soon as Benedict saw him, he said: “Put off, my son, put off this dress, for it is not yours.” But he foretold to Totila that he would reach Rome, cross the sea, and die at the end of nine years.

Several months before Benedict departed from this life, he foretold to his disciples the day on which he should die. Six days previous to his death he ordered them to open the sepulchre in which he wished to be buried. On the sixth day, he desired to be carried to the church, and there having received the Eucharist with his eyes raised in prayer towards Heaven, and held up by his disciples, he breathed forth his soul. Two monks saw it ascending to Heaven, adorned with a most precious robe and surrounded by shining lights. They also saw a most beautiful and venerable man who stood above the saint’s head, and they heard him thus speak: “This is the way by which Benedict, the beloved of the Lord, ascended to Heaven.”

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Forty days after the white dove of Cassino had mounted to Heaven, Benedict, her glorious brother, ascended by a bright path to the blissful abode where they were to be united forever. Both of them reached the heavenly country during that portion of the year which corresponds with the holy Season of Lent. It frequently happens, however, that Saint Scholastica’s feast is kept before Lent has begun whereas Saint Benedict’s day, the twenty-first of March, always comes during the Season of penance. God who is the Sovereign Master of time willed that the faithful, while practising their exercises of penance, should always have before their eyes a Saint whose example and intercession should inspire them with courage.

With what profound veneration ought we not to celebrate the festival of this wonderful Saint who, as Saint Gregory says, “was filled with the spirit of all the Just!” If we consider his virtues, we find nothing superior in the annals of perfection presented to our admiration by the Church. Love of God and man, humility, the gift of prayer, dominion over the passions, form him into a masterpiece of the grace of the Holy Ghost. Miracles seem to constitute his life: he cures the sick, commands the elements, casts out devils and raises the dead to life. The spirit of prophecy unfolds futurity to him and the most intimate thoughts of men are not too distant for the eye of his mind to scan. These superhuman qualifications are heightened by a sweet majesty, a serene gravity and a tender charity which shine in every page of his wonderful Life, and it is one of his holiest children who wrote it —Saint Gregory the Great. It is this holy Pope and Doctor who had the honour of telling posterity all the wonders which God vouchsafed to work in His servant Benedict.

Yes, posterity had a right to know the life and virtues of a man whose salutary influence on the Church and society has been so observable during the ages of the Christian era. To describe the influence exercised by the spirit of Saint Benedict we should have to transcribe the annals of all the nations of the Western Church from the seventh century down to our own times. Benedict is the Father of Europe. By his Benedictines, numerous as the stars of Heaven and as the sands of the sea-shore, he rescued the last remnants of Roman vigour from the total annihilation threatened by the invasion of Barbarians. He presided over the establishment of the public and private laws of those nations which grew out of the ruins of the Roman Empire. He carried the Gospel and civilisation into England, Germany and the Northern countries, including Sclavonia. He taught agriculture. He put an end to slavery. And to conclude, he saved the precious deposit of the arts and sciences from the tempest which would have swept them from the world and would have left mankind a prey to a gloomy and fatal ignorance.

And Benedict did all this by that little book which we call his “Rule.” This admirable code of Christian perfection and prudence disciplined the countless legions of Religious by whom the Holy Patriarch achieved all these prodigies. During the ages which preceded the promulgation of this “Rule” — so wonderful in its simple eloquence —the monastic life in the Western Church had produced some few saintly men. But there was nothing to justify the hope that this kind of life would become, even more than it had been in the East, the principal means of the Christian regeneration and civilisation of so many nations. This “Rule” once written — and all others gradually give place to it, as the stars are eclipsed when the sun has risen. The West was peopled with monasteries, and from these monasteries flowed upon Europe all those blessings which have made it the privileged quarter of the globe.

An incredible number of Saints, both men and women, who look up to Benedict as their father purify and sanctify the world which had not yet emerged from the state of semi-barbarism. A long series of Popes who had once been Novices in the Benedictine cloister preside over the destinies of this new world and form for it a new legislation which, being based exclusively on the moral law, is to avert the threatening prevalence of brutal despotism.

Bishops innumerable, trained in the same school of Benedict, consolidate this moral legislation in the provinces and cities over which they are appointed. The Apostles of twenty barbarous nations confront their fierce and savage tribes and, with the Gospel in one hand, and the “Rule” of their Holy Father in the other, lead them into the fold of Christ. For many centuries the learned men, the Doctors of the Church and the instructors of youth, belong, almost exclusively, to the Order of the great Patriarch who, by the labours of his children, pour forth on the people the purest beauty of light and truth.

This choir of heroes in every virtue, of Popes, of Bishops, of Apostles, of holy Doctors, proclaiming themselves as his disciples and joining with the universal Church in glorifying that God whose holiness and power shine forth so brightly in the life and actions of Benedict, what a corona, what an aureola of glory for one Saint to have!

*****

O Benedict! Vessel of Election! Palm of the Wilderness! Angel of Earth! We offer you the salutation of our love! What man was ever chosen to work on the Earth more wonders than you have done! The Saviour has crowned you as one of His principal co-operators in the work of the salvation and sanctification of men. Who could count the millions of souls who owe their eternal happiness to you, your immortal Rule having sanctified them in the cloister, and the zeal of your Benedictines having been the means of their knowing and serving the great God, who chose you? Around you, in the realms of glory, a countless number of the Blessed acknowledge themselves indebted to you, after God, for their eternal happiness. And upon the Earth whole nations profess the true faith because the Gospel was first preached to them by your disciples.

Father of so many people, look down on your inheritance and once more bless this ungrateful Europe which owes everything to you, yet has almost forgotten your name! The light which your children imparted to it has become dimmed. The warmth they imparted to the societies they founded and civilised by the Cross, has grown cold. Thorns have covered a large portion of the land in which they sowed the seed of salvation. Come and forward your own work. And by your prayers keep in its expiring life. Give firmness to what has been shaken. May a new Europe — a Catholic Europe — spring up in place of that which heresy and false doctrines have formed. Patriarch of the Servants of God, look down from Heaven on the vineyard which your hand has planted and see into what a state of desolation it has fallen. There was a time when your name was honoured as that of a Father in thirty thousand monasteries from the shores of the Baltic to the borders of Syria, and from the green Erin to the steppes of Poland. Now, alas, few and feeble are the prayers that ascend to you from the whole of that immense patrimony which the faith and gratitude of the people had once consecrated to you. The blight of heresy and the rapaciousness of avarice have robbed you of these harvests of your glory. The work of sacrilegious spoliation is now centuries old and unceasingly has it been pursued. At one time, having recourse to open violence, and at another, pleading the urgency of political interests. Sainted Father of our Faith, you have been robbed of those thousands of sanctuaries which, for long ages, were fountains of life and light to the people. The race of your children has become almost extinct: watch over them that still remain, and are labouring to perpetuate your Rule. An ancient tradition tells us how our Lord revealed to you that your Order would last to the end of the world, and that your children would console the Church of Rome and confirm the faith of many in the last great trials. Deign to protect, by your powerful intercession, the remnants of that Family which still calls you its Father. Raise it up again. Multiply it. Sanctify it: let the Spirit which you have deposited in your Holy Rule flourish in its midst, and show, by thus blessing it, that you are ever “Benedict,” the servant of God.

Support the Holy Church by your powerful intercession, dear Father! Assist the Apostolic See which has been so often occupied by disciples of your School. Father of so many Pastors of your people, obtain for us Bishops like those sainted ones whom your Rule has formed. Father of so many Apostles! Ask for the countries which have no faith preachers of the Gospel who may convert the people by their blood and by their words, as did those who went out missionaries from your cloisters. Father of so many holy Doctors, pray that the science of sacred literature may revive to aid the Church and confound error. Father of so many sublime Ascetics, rekindle the zeal of Christian perfection which has grown so cold among the Christians of our days. Patriarch of the Religious Life in the Western Church, bless all the Religious Orders which the Holy Spirit has given successively to the Church. They all look on you with admiration as their venerable predecessor. Pour out upon them the influence of your fatherly love.

Lastly, Blessed favourite of God, pray for all the Faithful of Christ during these days which are consecrated to thoughts and works of penance. It was in the midst of the holy austerities of Lent that you mounted to the abode of everlasting delight. Help us Christians who are, at this very time, in the same campaign of penance. Rouse our courage by your example and precepts. Teach us to keep down the flesh and subject it to the spirit, as you did. Obtain for us a little of your blessed spirit, that turning away from this vain world, we may think on the eternal years. Pray for us that our hearts may never love, nor our thoughts ever dwell, on joys so fleeting as are those of time.

Catholic piety invokes you as one of the patrons, as well as one of the models, of a dying Christian. It loves to tell men of the sublime spectacle you presented at your death when standing at the foot of the altar, leaning on the arms of your disciples and barely touching the earth with your feet, you gave back, in submission and confidence, your soul to its Creator. Obtain for us, dear Saint, a death courageous and sweet as was yours. Drive from us, at our last hour, the cruel enemy who will seek to ensnare us. Visit us by your presence, and leave us not till we have breathed forth our soul into the bosom of the God who has made you so glorious a Saint.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Alexandria, under the emperor Constantine and the governor Philagrius, the commemoration of the holy martyrs who were attacked and murdered by the Arians and the Gentiles while they were in church on Good Friday.

The same day, the holy martyrs Philemon and Domninus.

At Catania, St. Birillus, who was consecrated bishop by the blessed Apostle St. Peter. After converting many Gentiles to the faith, in extreme old age he rested in peace.

At Alexandria, blessed Serapion, anchoret and bishop of Thmuis, a man of great virtue, who being forced into exile by the enraged Arians, went to heaven.

In the territory of Lyons, the abbot St. Lupicinus whose life was resplendent with the lustre of holiness and miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

22 MARCH – SATURDAY IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – Isaias xlix. 8‒15

Thus says the Lord: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you; and I have preserved you, and given you to be a covenant of the people, that you might raise up the earth, and possess the inheritances that were destroyed, that you might say to them that are bound: ‘Come forth” and to them that are in darkness: ‘Show yourselves.’ They will feed in the ways, and their pastures will be in every plain. They will not hunger nor thirst, neither will the heat nor the sun strike them: for he that is merciful to them will be their shepherd, and at the fountains of waters he will give them drink. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my paths will be exalted. Behold these will come from afar, and behold these from the north and from the sea, and these from the south country. Give praise, ye heavens, and rejoice, earth; ye mountains, give praise with jubilation, because the Lord has comforted His people, and will have mercy on His poor ones. And Sion said: ‘The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet will I not forget you,” says the Lord Almighty.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Never did our heavenly Father express His tender mercy towards us in more glowing terms, and He bade His Prophet deliver them to us. He gives the whole earth to His Son, Jesus Christ, our Incarnate Lord, not that He may judge and condemn it, as it deserves, but that He may save it (John iii. 17). This divine Ambassador having come on the earth, he tells all that are galled by fetters, or that sit in the gloomy shadow of death, to come to him, promising them liberty and light. Their hunger will be appeased, and their thirst quenched. They will no longer pant under the scorching rays of the sun, but will be led by their merciful Shepherd to the cool shades on the banks of the water of life.

They came from every nation under heaven: the Fountain, the Font, will be the centre where all the human race is to meet. The Gentile world is to be henceforth called Sion, and the Lord loves the gates of this new Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob (Psalm lxxxvi. 2). No God had not forgotten her during the long ages of her idol-worship. His love is tender as that of the fondest mother; yes, and though a mother’s heart may forget her child, God never will forget His Sion. You, then, who received Baptism at your very entrance into the world but have since then served another Master besides Him to whom you swore perpetual allegiance at the font — be of good heart! If the grace of God has found you submissive, if the holy exercises of Lent and the prayers offered for you by the Church have had their effect, and you are now preparing to make your peace with God,— read these words of your heavenly Father and fear not! How can you fear? He has given you to His own Son. He has told him to save, heal, and comfort you. Are you in the bonds of sin? Jesus can break them. Are you in spiritual darkness? He is the Light of the world, and can dispel the thickest gloom. Are you hungry? He is the Bread of Life. Are you thirsty? He is the Fountain of living Water. Are you scorched, are you burnt to the very core, by the heat of concupiscence? Even so, poor sufferers, you must not lose courage. There is a cool fountain ready to refresh you, and heal all your wounds. Not indeed the First Font, which gave you the life you have lost, but the second Baptism, the divine Sacrament of Penance, which can restore you to grace and purity.

Gospel – John viii. 12‒20

At that time Jesus spoke to the multitude of the Jews, saying: “I am the light of the world. He that follows me walks not in darkness, but will have the light of life.” The Pharisees therefore said to Him: “You give testimony of yourself. Your testimony is not true.” Jesus answered and said to them: “Although I give testimony of myself, my testimony is true, for I know from where I came and where I go, but you know not from where I come, or where I go. You judge according to the flesh, I judge not any man. And if I do judge, my judgment is true because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. And in your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true. I am one, that give testimony of myself, and the Father that sent me, gives testimony of me.” They said therefore to Him: “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered: “Neither me do you know, nor my Father: if you did know me, perhaps you would know my Father also.” These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, teaching in the temple, and no man laid hands on him because his hour was not yet come.

Praise be to you, O Christ. 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

What a contrast between the tender mercy of God, who invites all men to receive His Son as their Redeemer, and the obduracy of heart with which the Jews receive the heavenly Ambassador! Jesus has proclaimed Himself to be the Son of God, and, in proof of His divine origin, has, for three long years wrought the most astounding miracles. Many of the Jews have believed in Him, because they argued that God could never have authorised falsity by miracles, and they therefore accepted the doctrine of Jesus as coming from heaven. The Pharisees hate the light and love darkness. Their pride will not yield even to the evidence of facts. At one time they denied the genuineness of Jesus’ miracles, at another they pretended to explain them by the agency of the devil. Then too, they put questions to Him of such a captious nature that, in whatever way Jesus answered, they might accuse Him of blasphemy or contempt for the Law. Today they have the audacity to make this objection to Jesus being the Messiah — that He gives testimony in His own favour! Our Blessed Lord who knows the malice of their hearts deigns to refute their impious sarcasm, but He avoids giving them an explicit answer. It is evident that the Light is passing from Jerusalem and is to bless other lands. How terrible is this punishment of a soul that abuses the truth, and rejects it by an instinctive hatred! Her crime is that sin against the Holy Ghost, which will not be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the world to come (Matthew xii. 32). Happy he that loves the truth, though it condemns his evil passions and troubles his conscience! Such an one proves that he reveres the wisdom of God, and if it do not altogether rule his conduct, it does not abandon him. But happier far he that yields himself wholly to the Truth and as a humble disciple follows Jesus. He walks not in darkness. He will have the light of life. Let us then lose no time, but take at once that happy path marked out for us by Him who is our Light and our Life. Keeping close to His footsteps, we went up the rugged hill of Quarentana, and there we witnessed His rigid Fast, but now that the time of His Passion is at hand, He invites us to follow Him up another mountain, that of Calvary, there to contemplate His sufferings and Death. Let us not hesitate: we will be repaid — we will have the light of life.

20 MARCH – FERIA OF LENT

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Judaea, St. Joachim, father of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, whose festival is kept on the sixteenth of August.

In Asia, the birthday of St. Archippus, fellow-labourer of the blessed Apostle St. Paul, who mentions him in his Epistles to Philemon and the Colossians.

In Syria, the holy martyrs Paul, Cyril, Eugenius and four others.

The same day, the Saints Photina, a Samaritan, and her sons Joseph and Victor. Also Sebastian, military officer, Anatolius, and Photius. Photides, Parasceves and Cyriaca, sisters, were all martyred for confessing Christ.

At Amisus in Paphlagonia, seven holy women, Alexandra, Claudia, Euphrasia, Matrona, Juliana, Euphemia and Theodosia, who were put to death for the confession of the faith. They were followed by Derphuta and her sister.

At Apollonia, the bishop St. Maetas, who breathed his last in exile where he had been sent for upholding the worship of holy images.

In the monastery of Fontanelle, St. Wulfran, bishop of Sens, who after having resigned his bishopric and performed miracles, departed out of this life.

In England, the demise of St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, who from his childhood to his death was renowned for good works and miracles.

At Siena in Tuscany, blessed Ambrose of the Order of Preachers, celebrated for sanctity, eloquence and miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

20 MARCH – 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.

19 MARCH – SAINT JOSEPH (Patron of the Universal Church)

 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

With a view to her children’s interests the Church would, on this day, excite their confidence in this powerful and ever ready helper. Devotion to Saint Joseph was reserved for these latter times. Though based on the Gospel, it was not to be developed in the early ages of the Church. It is not that the faithful were, in any way, checked from showing honour to him who had been called to take so important a part in the mystery of the Incarnation. But Divine Providence had its hidden reasons for retarding the Liturgical homage to be paid each year to the spouse of Mary. As on other occasions, so here also. The East preceded the West in the special cultus of Saint Joseph, but in the fifteenth century the whole Latin Church adopted it, and since that time it has gradually gained the affections of the faithful.

The goodness of God and our Redeemer’s fidelity to His promises have ever kept pace with the necessities of the world so that in every age appropriate and special aid has been given to the world for its maintaining the supernatural life. An uninterrupted succession of seasonable grace has been the result of this merciful dispensation, and each generation has had given to it a special motive for confidence in its Redeemer. Dating from the thirteenth century when, as the Church herself assures us, the world began to grow cold, each epoch has had thrown open to it a new source of graces. First of all came the feast of the Most Blessed Sacrament with its successive developments of Processions, Expositions, Benedictions and the Forty Hours. After this, followed the devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus (of which Saint Bernardine of Sienna was the chief propagator) and that of Via Crucis or Stations of the Cross, with its wonderful fruit of compunction. The practice of frequent Communion was revived in the sixteenth century owing principally to the influence of Saint Ignatius and the Society founded by him. In the seventeenth, was promulgated the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus which was firmly established in the following century. In the nineteenth, devotion to the Holy Mother of God has made such progress as to form one of the leading supernatural characteristics of the period. The Rosary and Scapular, which had been handed down to us in previous ages, have regained their place in the affections of the people. Pilgrimages to the sanctuaries of the Mother of God, which had been interrupted by the influence of Jansenism and rationalism, have been removed. The Arch-confraternity of the Sacred Heart of Mary has spread throughout the whole world. Numerous miracles have been wrought in reward for the fervent faith of individuals. In a word, [the nineteenth] century witnessed the triumph of the Immaculate Conception — a triumph which had been looked forward to for many previous ages.

Now, devotion to Mary could never go on increasing as it has done without bringing with it a fervent devotion to Saint Joseph. We cannot separate Mary and Joseph, were it only for their having such a close connection with the mystery of the Incarnation: Mary, as being the Mother of the Son of God and Joseph, as being guardian of the Virgin’s spotless honour, and foster-father of the Divine Babe. A special veneration for Saint Joseph was the result of increased devotion to Mary. Nor is this reverence for Mary’s spouse to be considered only as a just homage paid to his admirable prerogatives. It is, moreover, a fresh and exhaustless source of help to the world, for Joseph has been made our Protector by the Son of God Himself. Hearken to the inspired words of the Church’s Liturgy: “You, O Joseph, are the delight of the Blessed, the sure hope of our life, and the pillar of the world!” Extraordinary as is this power, need we be surprised at its being given to a man like Joseph whose connections with the Son of God on Earth were so far above those of all other men? Jesus deigned to be subject to Joseph here below. Now that He is in heaven, He would glorify the creature to whom he consigned the guardianship of His own childhood and His Mother’s honour. He has given him a power which is above our calculations.

Hence it is that the Church invites us, on this day, to have recourse, with unreserved confidence to this all-powerful Protector. The world we live in is filled with miseries which would make stronger hearts than ours quake with fear. But let us invoke Saint Joseph with faith and we will be protected. In all our necessities, whether of soul or body — in all the trials and anxieties we may have to go through — let us have recourse to Saint Joseph and we will not be disappointed. The king of Egypt said to his people when they were suffering from famine: “go to Joseph!” (Genesis xli. 55). the King of Heaven says the same to us: the faithful guardian of Mary has greater influence with God than Jacob’s son had with Pharaoh.

As usual, God revealed this new spiritual aid to a privileged soul that she might be the instrument of its propagation. It was thus that were instituted several feasts, such as those of Corpus Christi and of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the sixteenth century Saint Teresa (whose writings were to have a world-wide circulation) was instructed by Heaven as to the efficacy of devotion to Saint Joseph. She has spoken of it in the Life (written by herself) of Teresa of Jesus. When we remember that it was by the Carmelite Order (brought into the Western Church in the thirteenth century) that this devotion was established among us, we cannot be surprised that God should have chosen Saint Teresa, who was the Reformer of that Order, to propagate the same devotion in this part of the world. The holy solitaries of Mount Carmel — devoted as they had been, for so many centuries, to the love of Mary —were not slow in feeling the connection that exists between the honour paid to the Mother of God and that which is due to her virginal spouse. The more we understand Saint Joseph’s office, the clearer will be our knowledge of the divine mystery of the Incarnation. As when the Son of God assumed our human nature, He would have a Mother. So also, would He give to this Mother a protector. Jesus, Mary and Joseph — these are the three whom the ineffable mystery is continually bringing before our minds. The words of Saint Teresa are as follows:

“I took for my patron and lord the glorious Saint Joseph, and recommended myself earnestly to him. I saw clearly that he rendered me greater services than I knew how to ask for. I cannot call to mind that I have ever asked him at any time for anything which he has not granted, and I am filled with amazement when I consider the great favours which God has given me through this blessed Saint, the dangers from which he has delivered me, both of body and soul. To other Saints, our Lord seems to have given grace to succour men in some special necessity, but to this glorious Saint, I know by experience, to help us in all. And our Lord would have us understand that, as He was Himself subject to him upon Earth — for Saint Joseph having the title of father and being his guardian, could command Him — so now in Heaven he performs all his petitions. I have asked others to recommend themselves to Saint Joseph and hey too know this by experience. And there are many who are now of late devout to him, having had experience of this truth.”

We might quote several other equally clear and fervent words from the writings of this seraphic virgin. The faithful could not remain indifferent with such teaching as this. The seed thus soon produced its fruit. Slowly, it is true, but surely. Even in the first half of the seventeenth century there prevailed amid the devout clients of Saint Joseph a presentiment that the day would come when the Church, through her Liturgy, would urge the faithful to have recourse to him as their powerful Protector. In a book published in 1645 we find these almost prophetic words: “O bright sun, father of our days, speed your onward course and give us that happy day on which are to be fulfilled the prophecies of the Saints. They have said that in the latter ages of the world the glories of Saint Joseph will be brought to light; that God will draw aside the veil which has hitherto prevented us from seeing the wondrous sanctuary of Joseph’s soul; that the Holy Ghost will inspire the faithful to proclaim the praises of this admirable Saint and to build monasteries, churches and altars in his honour; that throughout the entire kingdom of the Church Militant he will be considered as the special Protector, for he was the Protector of the very founder of that kingdom, namely, our Lord Jesus Christ; that the Sovereign Pontiffs will, by a secret impulse from Heaven, ordain that the feast of this great Patriarch be solemnly celebrated through the length and breadth of the spiritual domain of Saint Peter; that the most learned men of the world will use their talents in studying the divine gifts hidden in Saint Joseph, and that they will find in him treasures of grace incomparably more precious and plentiful than were possessed by every the choicest of the elect of the Old Testament during the whole four thousand years of its duration.”

Let us then, henceforth, have confidence in the Patronage of Saint Joseph. He is the Father of the Faithful, and it is God’s will that he, more than any other Saint, should have power to apply to us the blessings of the mystery of the Incarnation, the great mystery of which he, after Mary, was the chief earthly minister.

*****

O glorious Saint Joseph! Father and Protector of the Faithful! We bless our Mother the Church for that she, now that the world is drawing to the close of its existence, has taught us to confide in you. Many ages passed away and your glories had not been made known to the world. But even then you were one of mankind’s most powerful intercessors. Most affectionately did you fulfil your office as head of the great human family of which the Incarnate Word was a member. Nations and individuals experienced the benefit of your prayers, but there was not the public acknowledgement of your favours — there was not the homage of gratitude which is now offered to you. The more perfect knowledge of your glories and honouring you as the Protector of mankind — these were reserved for our own unhappy times when the state of the world is such as to require help beyond that which was granted to former ages.

We come before you, O Joseph, to honour the unlimited power of your intercession and the love you bear for all the children of the Church, the brethren of Jesus. You, O Mary, are pleased at seeing us honour him whom you so tenderly loved. Never are our prayers so welcome to you as when they are presented to you by his hands. The union, formed by Heaven between yourself and Joseph will last for all eternity, and the unbounded love you have for Jesus is an additional motive for you to love him who was the foster-father of your child and the guardian of your virginity. Joseph, we also are the children of Mary, your Spouse. Treat us as such, bless us, watch over us and receive the prayers which now more than ever the Church encourages us to present to you. You are “the pillar of the world” (columen mundi). You are one of the foundations on which it rests. Because of your merits and prayers our Lord has patience with it in spite of the iniquities which defile it. How truly may we say of these our times: “There is now no saint; truths are decayed from among the children of men!” (Psalm xi. 2). How powerful then must not your intercession be to avert the indignation of God and induce Him to show us His mercy!

Grow not weary of your labour, universal Protector! The Church of your Jesus comes before you on this day, beseeching you to persevere in thy task of love. See this world of ours, now it is become one great volcano of danger by the boasted liberty granted to sin and heresy! Delay not your aid, but quickly procure for us what will give us security and peace. Whatever may be our necessities, you are willing and able to assist us. We may be the poorest and last among the children of the Church. It matters not. You love us with all the affectionate compassion of a father. What a joy is not this to our hearts, O Joseph! We will therefore turn to you in our spiritual wants. We will beg you to assist us in the gaining the virtues we stand in need of, in the battles we have to fight against the enemies of our souls, and in the sacrifices which duty asks at our hands. Make us worthy to be called your children, O Father of the Faithful! Nor is your power limited to what regards our eternal welfare. Daily experience shows us how readily you can procure for us the blessing of God upon our temporal interests, provided they are in accordance with His Divine Will. Hence it is that we hope for your protection and aid in what concerns our worldly prospects. The house of Nazareth was confided to your care. Deign to give counsel and help to all them that make you the Patron of all that regards their earthly well-being.

Glorious Guardian of the Holy Family! The family of Christendom is placed under your special Patronage. Watch over it in these troubled times. Hear the prayers of them that seek your aid when about to choose the partner who is to share with them the joys and the sorrows of this world, and help them to prepare for their passage to eternity. Maintain between husbands and wives that mutual respect which is the safeguard of their fidelity to each other. Obtain for them the pledge of Heaven’s blessings. Fill them with such reverence for the holy state to which they have been called, that they may never deserve the reproach given by Saint Paul to certain married people of that day whom he compares to heathens who know not God (Thessalonians iv. 5).

Grant us, also, O Joseph, another favour. There is one moment of our lives which is the most important of all, since eternity depends on it: it is the moment of our death. And yet we feel our fear abated by the thought that God’s mercy has made you the special Patron of the Dying. You have been entrusted with the office of making death happy and holy to those who invoke you. To whom could such a prerogative have been given more appropriately than to you, O Joseph, whose admirable death was one of the sublimest spectacles ever witnessed by Angels or by men, for Jesus and Mary were by your side as you breathed forth your soul. Be, then, our helper at that awful hour of our death. We hope to have Mary’s protection, for we daily pray to her that she would aid us at the hour of our death. But we know that Mary is pleased at our having confidence in you, and that where you are, she also is sure to be. Encouraged by your fatherly love, O Joseph, we will calmly await the coming of our last hour. For if we are careful in recommending it to you, you will not fail to take it under your protection.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Sorrento, the holy martyrs Quinctus, Quinctilla, Quartilla and Mark, with nine others.

At Nicomedia, St. Pancharius, a Roman, who was beheaded under Diocletian and thus received the crown of martyrdom.

The same day, the holy bishops Apollouius and Leontius.

At Ghent, the Saints Landoaldus, a Roman priest, and the deacon Amantius, who were sent to preach the Gospel by Pope St. Martin, and after their death became illustrious by many miracles.

At Cività-di-Penna, the birthday of blessed John, a man of great holiness, who came from Syria into Italy, where he constructed a monastery, and, after having been the spiritual guide of many servants of God for forty-four years, rested in peace, renowned for great virtue.

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

Thanks be to God.

19 MARCH – 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!

18 MARCH – FERIA OF LENT

On this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Jerusalem, St. Cyril, bishop and doctor, who suffered many injuries from the Arians for the faith. Often exiled from his church, he at length rested in peace with a great reputation for sanctity. A magnificent testimony of the purity of his faith is given by a general Council in a letter to Pope St. Damasus.

At Caesarea in Palestine, the birthday of the blessed bishop Alexander, who from his own city, in Cappadocia, where he was bishop, coming to Jerusalem to visit the holy places, took upon himself, by divine revelation, the government of that Church in the place of the aged Narcissus, its bishop. Some time afterwards, when he had become venerable by his age and grey hairs, he was led to Caesarea and shut up in prison, where he ended his martyrdom for the confession of Christ during the persecution of Decius.

At Augsburg, St. Narcissus, bishop, who was the first to preach the Gospel in the Tyrol. Afterwards, setting out for Spain, he converted many to the faith of Christ at Gerona, where, with the deacon Felix, he received the palm of martyrdom during the persecution of Diocletian.

At Nicomedia, ten thousand holy martyrs, who were put to the sword for the confession of Christ.

Also the holy martyrs Trophimus and Eucarpius.

In England, the holy king Edward, who was assassinated by order of his treacherous stepmother, and became celebrated for many miracles.

At Lucca in Tuscany, the birthday of the holy bishop Frigdian who was illustrious by the power of working miracles. His feast is more especially celebrated on the eighteenth of November when his body was translated.

At Mantua, St. Anselm, bishop and confessor.

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

Thanks be to God.

18 MARCH – 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!

17 MARCH – SAINT PATRICK (Bishop and Confessor)

Patrick, called the Apostle of Ireland, was born in Great Britain. His father was was Calphurnius. Conchessa, his mother, is said to have been a relation of Saint Martin, Bishop of Tours. He was several times taken captive by the barbarians when he was a boy, and was put to tend their flocks. Even in that tender age, he gave signs of the great sanctity he was afterwards to attain. Full of the spirit of faith, and of the fear and love of God, he used to rise at dawn of day, and spite of snow, frost, or rain, go to offer up his prayers to God. It was his custom to pray a hundred times during the day, and a hundred during the night. After his third deliverance from slavery, he entered the ecclesiastical state and applied himself, for a considerable time, to the study of the Sacred Scriptures. Having made several most fatiguing journeys through Gaul, Italy and the islands of the Mediterranean, he was called by God to labour for the salvation of the people of Ireland. Pope Saint Celestine gave him power to preach the Gospel and consecrated him Bishop.

Patrick had to suffer much in the mission entrusted to him. He had to bear with extraordinary trials, fatigues and adversaries. But by the mercy of God, that land which until then had worshipped idols, so well repaid the labour with which Patrick had preached the Gospel, that it was afterwards called the Island of Saints. He administered holy Baptism to many thousands. He ordained several bishops and frequently conferred Holy Orders in their several degrees. He drew up rules for virgins and widows who wished to lead a life of continence. By the authority of the Roman Pontiff, he appointed Armagh the Metropolitan See of the whole island and enriched that church with the relics of the saints which he had brought from Rome. God honoured him with heavenly visions, the gift of prophecy and miracles, all which caused the name of the saint to be held in veneration in almost every part of the world.

Besides his daily solicitude for the churches, his vigorous spirit kept up an uninterrupted prayer. For it is said that he was wont to recite every day the whole Psaltery, together with the Canticles and the Hymns and two hundred prayers: that he every day knelt down three hundred times to adore God, and that at each Canonical hour of the day, he signed himself a hundred times with the sign of the Cross. He divided the night into three parts: the first was spent in the recitation of a hundred Psalms, during which he genuflected two hundred times: the second was spent in reciting the remaining fifty Psalms, which he did standing in cold water, and his heart and hands lifted up to Heaven. The third he gave to a little sleep, which he took laid upon a bare stone. Being a man of extraordinary humility, he imitated the Apostles and practised manual labour.

At length, being worn out by his incessant fatigues in the cause of the Church, powerful in word and work, having reached an extreme old age, Patrick slept in the Lord after being refreshed with the holy Mysteries. He was buried at Down, in Ulster, in the fifth century of the Christian era.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Saint we have to honour today is the Apostle of that faithful people whose martyrdom has lasted [four] hundred years. It is the great Saint Patrick, he that gave Erin the Faith. There shone most brightly in this Saint that gift of the Apostolate which Christ has left to His Church, and which is to remain with her to the end of time. The Ambassadors or Missionaries sent by our Lord to preach His Gospel are of two classes. There are some who have been entrusted with a small tract of the Gentile world. They had to sow the divine seed there, and it yielded fruit, more or less according to the dispositions of the people that received it. There are others, again, whose mission is like a rapid conquest that subdues a whole nation and brings it into subjection to the Gospel. Saint Patrick belongs to this second class, and in him we recognise one of the most successful instruments of God’s mercy to mankind.

And then, what solidity there is in this great Saint’s work! When is it that Ireland receives the Faith? In the fifth century, when Britain was almost wholly buried in paganism, when the race of the Franks had not as yet heard the name of the true God, when Germany had no knowledge of Christ’s having come upon the Earth, when the countries of northern Europe deeply slumbered in infidelity. Yes, it was before these several nations had awakened to the Gospel, that Ireland was converted. The Faith, brought to her by her glorious Apostle, took deep root and flourished and fructified in this isle, more lovely even by grace than she is by nature. Her Saints are scarcely to be numbered, and went about doing good in almost every country of Europe. Her children gave, and are still giving, to other countries, the Faith that she herself received from her beloved Patron. And when the sixteenth century came with its Protestantism, when the apostasy of Germany was imitated by England, Scotland and the whole north of Europe, Ireland stood firm and staunch: no persecution, however cleverly or however cruelly carried on against her, has been able to detach her from the Faith taught her by Saint Patrick.

*****

Your life, great Saint, was spent in the arduous toils of an Apostle, but how rich was the harvest you reaped! Every fatigue seemed to you light if only you could give to men the precious gift of Faith, and the people to whom you left it have kept it with a constancy which is one of your greatest glories. Pray for us that this Faith, without which it is impossible to please God (Hebrew xi. 6) may take possession of our hearts and minds. “It is by Faith that the just man lives” (Habucuc ii. 4) says the Prophet, and it is Faith that during this holy Season of Lent is showing us the justice and mercy of God in order that we may be converted and offer to our offended Lord the tribute of our penance. We are afraid of what the Church imposes on us simply because our Faith is weak. If our principles were those of Faith, we should soon be mortified men. Your life, though so innocent and so rich in good works, was one of extraordinary penance: get us your spirit, and help us to follow you, at least at an humble distance. Pray for Erin, that dear country of yours which loves and honours you so fervently. She is threatened with danger even now, and many of her children have left the Faith you taught. An odious system of proselytism has disturbed your flock. Protect it, and suffer not the children of Martyrs to be Apostates. Let your fatherly care follow them that have been driven by suffering to emigrate from their native land. May they keep true to the Faith, be witnesses of the True Religion in the countries to which they have fled, and ever show themselves to be the obedient children of the Church. May their misfortunes thus serve to advance the Kingdom of God. Holy Pontiff, intercede for England. Pardon her the injustice she has shown to your children, and by your powerful prayers, hasten the happy day of her return to Catholic unity. Pray, too, for the whole Church. Your prayer, being that of an Apostle, easily finds access to Him that sent you.

On this day (18 March) according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Jerusalem, St. Cyril, bishop and doctor, who suffered many injuries from the Arians for the faith. Often exiled from his church, he at length rested in peace with a great reputation for sanctity. A magnificent testimony of the purity of his faith is given by a general Council in a letter to Pope St. Damasus.

At Caesarea in Palestine, the birthday of the blessed bishop Alexander, who from his own city, in Cappadocia, where he was bishop, coming to Jerusalem to visit the holy places, took upon himself, by divine revelation, the government of that Church in the place of the aged Narcissus, its bishop. Some time afterwards, when he had become venerable by his age and grey hairs, he was led to Caesarea and shut up in prison, where he ended his martyrdom for the confession of Christ during the persecution of Decius.

At Augsburg, St. Narcissus, bishop, who was the first to preach the Gospel in the Tyrol. Afterwards, setting out for Spain, he converted many to the faith of Christ at Gerona, where, with the deacon Felix, he received the palm of martyrdom during the persecution of Diocletian.

At Nicomedia, ten thousand holy martyrs, who were put to the sword for the confession of Christ.

Also the holy martyrs Trophimus and Eucarpius.

In England, the holy king Edward, who was assassinated by order of his treacherous stepmother, and became celebrated for many miracles.

At Lucca in Tuscany, the birthday of the holy bishop Frigdian who was illustrious by the power of working miracles. His feast is more especially celebrated on the eighteenth of November when his body was translated.

At Mantua, St. Anselm, bishop and confessor.

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

Thanks be to God.

17 MARCH – 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.