21 OCTOBER – SAINT URSULA AND COMPANIONS (Martyrs)

In about the middle of the fifth century when Attila, chief of the Huns, had been defeated at Chalons in his first invasion of Gaul, he returned into Pannonia, and before crossing the Rhine he attacked the city of Cologne. From his hatred of the Catholic religion which greatly flourished there, he gave it up to sack and slaughter. The savages, burning with lust, cruelly assaulted the young virgins who were abiding there on their journey from Britain, among whom the most famous is the virgin Ursula, who exhorted her companions to endure all torments, and rather to suffer the most cruel death than to submit to the loss of their virginity.

Ursula’s band of virgins were slain by the Huns: some by the sword, some pierced with arrows, and some felled with bludgeons. Ursula, bending as a glorious victim over the piles of her slaughtered companions as over heaps of heavenly pearls, red with the bloodshed for faith and chastity, led triumphantly into Heaven the army crowned with these double crowns. After the barbarian hordes had left, the surviving residents of Cologne gathered up the bodies of the virgins and other martyrs and buried them with all honour. On the field stained with the blood of the martyrs where they were laid to rest, a Church was erected in the seventh century and was named that of the Holy Virgins.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Saint Hilarion was one of the first Confessors, if not the very first, to be honoured in the East with a public cultus like the Martyrs. In the West, the white-robed army led by Ursula adds to the glory of the holy monk who has the first honours of this day. On the 21st October 451 Cologne was made equal to the most illustrious cities by a spiritual glory. Criticism, and there is no lack of it, may dispute the circumstances which brought together the legion of virgins, but the fact itself that eleven thousand chosen souls were martyred by the Huns in recompense for their fidelity is now acknowledged by true science. From the earth where so many noble victims lay concealed, they have more than once been brought to light by multitudes, bearing about them evidence of the veneration of those who had buried them. For instance, by a happy inspiration, the arrow that had set free the blessed soul would be left, as a token of victory, fixed in the breast or forehead of the martyr.

Saint Angela of Merici confided to the patronage of this glorious phalanx her spiritual daughters, and the numberless children whom they will continue till the end of time to educate in the fear of the Lord. The grave Sorbonne dedicated its church to the holy virgins as well as to the Mother of God, and here, as in the Universities of Coimbra and Vienna, an annual panegyric was pronounced in praise of them. Portugal, enriched with some of their precious relics, carried their cultus into the Indies. And pious confraternities have been formed among the faithful for obtaining their assistance at the hour of death.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Ostia, St. Asterius, priest and martyr, who suffered under the emperor Alexander, as we read in the Acts of the blessed Pope Callistus.

At Nicomedia, the birthday of the Saints Dasius, Zoticus, Caius and twelve other soldiers, who, after suffering various torments, were submerged in the sea.

At Maronia near Antioch in Syria, St. Malchus, monk.

At Lyons, St. Viator, deacon of blessed Justus, bishop of that city.

At Laon, St. Cilinia, mother of blessed Remigius, bishop of Rheims.

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

Thanks be to God.

21 OCTOBER – SAINT HILARION (Abbot)

Hilarion was born at Abatha in Palestine (near Gaza) to pagan parents in about 292 AD. He was sent to study at Alexandria where he became famous for his talents and the purity of his morals. He embraced the Christian religion and made wonderful progress in faith and charity. He was constantly in the church, devoted himself to prayer and fasting, and was full of contempt for the enticements of pleasure and earthly desires. The fame of Saint Anthony had then spread over all Egypt. Hilarion, desirous of seeing him, went to the wilderness and stayed two months with him learning his manner of life. He then returned home but on the death of his parents he bestowed his goods on the poor, and though only 15 years old, returned to the desert. He built himself a little cell scarcely large enough to hold him, and there he slept on the ground. He never changed nor washed the sackcloth he wore, saying it was superfluous to look for cleanliness in a hair-shirt.

Hilarion devoted himself to reading and studying the holy Scriptures. His food consisted of a few figs and the juice of herbs, which he never took before sunset. His mortification and humility were wonderful, and by means of these and other virtues he overcame many terrible temptations of the evil one, and cast innumerable devils out of the possessed in many parts of the world. Hilarion gathered many disciples around him and founded many monasteries in Palestine. In 357 he visited the tomb of Saint Antony in Egypt, and afterwards, to escape from the crowds who continually thronged about him seeking the cure of their maladies, he kept travelling from country to country. He visited Egypt, Sicily, Dalmatia, and Cyprus where he died in 371. In his last agony he exclaimed: “Go forth, my soul, why do you fear? Go forth, why do you hesitate? You have served Christ for nearly seventy years, and you fear death?”

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“Monks were unknown in Syria before Saint Hilarion,” says his historian Saint Jerome. “He instituted the monastic life in that country, and was the master of those who embraced it. The Lord Jesus had his Anthony in Egypt and his Hilarion in Palestine, the former advanced in years, the latter still young.” Now our Lord very soon raised this young man to such glory that Anthony would say to the sick who came to him from Syria attracted by the fame of his miracles: “Why take the trouble to come so far, when you have near you my son Hilarion?” And yet Hilarion had spent only two months with Anthony, after which the patriarch had said to him: “Persevere to the end, my son, and your labour will win you the delights of Heaven.” Then, giving a hair-shirt and a garment of skin to this boy of fifteen whom he was never to see again, he sent him back to sanctify the solitudes of his own country, while he himself retired farther into the desert.

The enemy of mankind, foreseeing a formidable adversary in this new solitary, waged a terrible war against him. Even the flesh, in spite of the young ascetic’s fasts, was Satan’s first accomplice. But without any pity for a body so frail and delicate, as his historian says, that any effort would have seemed sufficient to destroy it, Hilarion cried out indignantly: “Ass, I will see that you kick no more. I will reduce you by hunger, I will crush you with burdens, I will make you work in all weathers. You will be so pinched with hunger, that you will think no more of pleasure.” Vanquished in this quarter, the enemy found other allies through whom he thought to drive Hilarion by fear back to the dwellings of men. But to the robbers who fell on his poor wicker hut, the Saint said smiling: “He who is naked has no fear of thieves.” And they, touched by his virtue, could not conceal their admiration and promised to amend their lives. Then Satan determined to come in person, as he had done to Anthony, but with no better success. No trouble could disturb the serenity attained by that simple, holy soul. One day the demon entered into a camel and made it mad so that it rushed on the Saint with horrible cries. But he only answered: “I am not afraid of you: you are always the same, whether you come as a fox or a camel.” And the huge beast fell down tamed at his feet.

There was a harder trial yet to come from the most cunning artifice of the serpent. When Hilarion sought to hide himself from the immense concourse of people who besieged his poor cell, the enemy maliciously published his fame far and wide, and brought to him overwhelming crowds from every land. In vain he quitted Syria and travelled the length and breadth of Egypt. In vain, pursued from desert to desert, he crossed the sea and hoped to conceal himself in Sicily, in Dalmatia, in Cyprus. From the ship which was making its way among the Cyclades he heard in each island the infernal spirits calling one another from the towns and villages and running to the shores as he passed by. At Paphos where he landed the same concourse of demons brought to him multitudes of men, until at length God took pity on His servant and discovered to him a place inaccessible to his fellow-men, where he had no company but legions of devils who surrounded him day and night. Far from fearing, says his biographer, he took pleasure in the neighbourhood of his old antagonist whom he knew well, and he lived there in great peace the last five years before his death.

To be a Hilarion, and yet to fear death! “If in the green wood they do these things, what will be done in the dry!” (Luke xxiii. 31) O glorious Saint, penetrate us with the apprehension of God’s judgements. Teach us that Christian fear does not banish love, but on the contrary, clears the way and leads to it, and then accompanies it through life as an attentive and faithful guardian. This holy fear was your security at your last hour. May it protect us also along the path of life, and at death introduce us immediately into Heaven!

20 OCTOBER – SAINT JOHN CANTIUS (Priest and Confessor)

John was born at Kenty near Oswiecim in Poland in 1412, hence his surname Cantius. His parents were pious and honourable persons, Stanislaus and Anna. From his very infancy his sweetness of disposition, innocence and gravity gave promise of very great virtue. John studied philosophy and theology at the University of Cracow and taking all his degrees proceeded professor and doctor. He taught sacred science for many years, enlightening the minds of his pupils and kindling in them the flame of piety, no less by his deeds than by his words. When he was ordained a priest he relaxed nothing of his zeal for study but increased his ardour for Christian perfection. Grieving exceedingly over the offences everywhere committed against God, he strove to make satisfaction on his own behalf and that of the people by daily offering the unbloody Sacrifice with many tears. For several years John was in charge of the parish of Olkusz which he administered in an exemplary manner. But fearing the responsibility of the cure of souls, he resigned his post and, at the request of the University, resumed the professor’s chair.

Whatever time remained over from his studies John devoted partly to the good of his neighbour especially by holy preaching, and partly to prayer, in which he is said to have been sometimes favoured with heavenly visions and communications. He was so affected by the Passion of Christ that he would spend whole nights without sleep in the contemplation of it and in order the better to cultivate this devotion he undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. While there, in his eagerness for martyrdom, he boldly preached Christ crucified even to the Turks. Four times he went to Rome on foot, and carrying his own baggage, to visit the threshold of the Apostles. In order to honour the Apostolic See to which he was earnestly devoted, and also (as he used to say), to save himself from Purgatory by means of the indulgences there daily to be gained. On one of these journeys he was robbed by brigands. When asked by them whether he had anything more, he replied in the negative, but afterwards remembering that he had some gold pieces sewed in his cloak, he called back the robbers who had taken to flight, and offered them the money. Astonished at the holy man’s sincerity and generosity, they restored all they had taken from him.

After Saint Augustine’s example, he had verses inscribed on the walls in his house, warning others, as well as himself, to respect the reputation of their neighbours. He fed the hungry from his own table and clothed the naked, not only with garments bought for the purpose, but even with his own clothes and shoes. On these occasions he would lower his cloak to the ground so as not to be seen walking home barefoot. He took very little sleep, and that on the ground. His clothing was only sufficient to cover him, and his food to keep him alive. He preserved his virginal purity, like a lily among thorns, by using a rough hair-shirt, disciplines and fasting. For about thirty-five years before his death he abstained entirely from flesh-meat. At length, full of days and of merits, he prepared himself long and diligently for death, which he felt drawing near. And that nothing might be a hindrance to him, he distributed all that remained in his house to the poor. Then, strengthened with the Sacraments of the Church, and desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ, he passed to Heaven on Christmas Eve. He worked many miracles both in life and after death. His body was carried to Saint Anne’s, the church of the University, and there honourably interred.

The people’s veneration for John, and the crowds visiting his tomb, increased daily. He is honoured as one of the chief patrons of Poland and Lithuania. As new miracles continued to be wrought, Pope Clement XIII solemnly enrolled him among the Saints on the seventeenth of the Calends of August 1767.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Kenty, the humble village of Silesia which witnessed the birth of Saint John, owes its celebrity entirely to him. The canonisation of this holy priest who in the fifteenth century had illustrated the University of Cracow by his virtues and science was the last hope of expiring Poland. It took place in the year 1767. Two years earlier it was at the request of this heroic nation that Clement XIII had issued the first decree sanctioning the celebration of the feast of the Sacred Heart. When enrolling John Cantius among the Saints the magnanimous Pontiff expressed in moving terms the gratitude of the Church towards that unfortunate people, and rendered to it, before shamefully forgetful Europe, a supreme homage. Five years later Poland was dismembered.

* * * * *

The Church is ever saying to you, and we repeat it with the same unwavering hope: “O you, who never refuses assistance anyone, take in hand the cause of your native kingdom. It is the desire of the Poles, your fellow-countrymen, it is the prayer of even foreigners.” The treason of which your unhappy fatherland was the victim has not ceased to press heavily on disorganised Europe. How many other crushing weights have since been thrown into the balance of our Lord’s justice! O John, teach us at least not to add thereto our own personal faults. It is by following you along the path of virtue that we will merit to obtain pardon from Heaven and to hasten the hour of great atonements.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Abia near Aquila in Abruzzo, the birthday of blessed Maximus, deacon and martyr, who, through the desire of suffering, presented himself to the persecutors that sought him. After answering with great constancy, he was racked and tortured, then beaten with rods, and finally he died by being precipitated from an elevated place.

At Agen in France, St. Caprasius, martyr. As he was hiding himself in a cavern to avoid the violence of the persecution, the report of the blessed virgin Faith’s courage in suffering for Christ animated him to endure torments, and he prayed to God that, if he were deemed worthy of the glory of martyrdom, clear water might flow from the rock of his cavern. God having granted his prayer, he went with confidence to the scene of combat, and after a valiant struggle, merited the palm of martyrdom under Maximian.

At Antioch, St. Artemius, imperial officer. Although he had filled high stations in the army under Constantine the Great, Julian the Apostate, who he had reprehended for his cruelty towards Christians, ordered him to be beaten with rods, subjected to other torments, and finally beheaded.

At Cologne, the martyrdom of the holy virgins Martha and Saula, with many others.

At Minden, the birthday of St. Felician, bishop and martyr.

At Paris, the holy martyrs, George, deacon, and Aurelius.

In Portugal, St. Irene, virgin and martyr.

In the diocese of Rheims, St. Sindulphus, confessor.

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

Thanks be to God.

19 OCTOBER – SAINT PETER OF ALCANTARA (Confessor)

The apparation of St. John Capistrano to St. Peter of Alcantara

Peter was born at Alcántara in Spain in 1499. His father Peter Garavita was the governor of the Alcántara, and his mother was of the noble family of Sanabia. From his earliest years he gave promise of his future sanctity. At the age of sixteen he entered the Order of Friars Minor in which he became an example of every virtue. He undertook by obedience the office of preaching, and led numberless sinners to sincere repentance. Desirous of bringing back the Franciscan order to its original strictness, he founded, by God’s assistance and with the approbation of the Apostolic See, a very poor little convent at Pedroso. The austere manner of life which he was there the first to lead, was afterwards spread in a wonderful manner throughout Spain and even into the Indies. He assisted Saint Teresa, whose spirit he approved in carrying out the reform of Carmel. And she having learned from God that whoever asked anything in Peter’s name would be immediately heard, was wont to recommend herself to his prayers and to call him a saint while he was still living.

Peter was consulted as an oracle by princes, but he avoided their honours with great humility and refused to become confessor to the Emperor Charles V. He was a most rigid observer of poverty, having but one tunic, and that the meanest possible. Such was his delicacy with regard to purity that he would not allow the brother who waited on him in his last illness even lightly to touch him. By perpetual watching, fasting, disciplines, cold and nakedness, and every kind of austerity, Peter brought his body into subjection, having made a compact with it never to give it any rest in this world. The love of God and of his neighbour was shed abroad in his heart, and at times burned so ardently that he was obliged to escape from his narrow cell into the open, that the cold air might temper the heat that consumed him. Admirable was his gift of contemplation. Sometimes, while his spirit was nourished in this heavenly manner, he would pass several days without food or drink. He was often raised in the air, and seen shining with wonderful brilliancy. He passed dry-shod over the most rapid rivers.

When his brethren were absolutely destitute, he obtained them food from Heaven. He fixed his staff in the earth and immediately came a flourishing fig tree. One night when he was journeying in a heavy snow storm he entered a ruined house but the snow, lest he would be suffocated by its falling flakes, hung in the air and formed a roof over him. Peter was blessed with the gift of prophecy and the discernment of spirits, as Saint Teresa testifies. At the age of 63, he died in Arenas in Spain in 1592, at the hour he had foretold and fortified by a wonderful vision and presence of the saints. Saint Teresa who was at that moment at a great distance saw him being carried into Heaven. He afterwards appeared to her saying, “Oh happy penance which has won me such great glory!” After many miracles he was canonised by Pope Clement IX in 1669.

Dom Proper Gueranger:

“O happy penance which has won me such glory!” said the Saint of today at the threshold of Heaven. And on Earth, Teresa of Jesus wrote of him: “Oh what a perfect imitator of Jesus Christ God has just taken from us by calling to his glory that blessed religious, Brother Peter of Alcantara! The world, they say, is no longer capable of such high perfection. Constitutions are weaker, and we are not now in the olden times. Here is a Saint of the present day. Yet his manly fervour equalled that of past ages and he had a supreme disdain for everything earthly. But without going barefoot like him, or doing such sharp penance, there are very many ways in which we can practise contempt of the world, and which our Lord will teach us as soon as we have courage. What great courage must the holy man I speak of have received from God to keep up for forty-seven years the rigorous penance that all now know! Of all his mortifications, that which cost him most at the beginning was the overcoming of sleep. To effect this he would remain continually on his knees, or else standing. The little repose he granted to nature he took sitting with his head leaning against a piece of wood fixed to the wall. Indeed, had he wished to lie down, he could not have done so, for his cell was only four feet and a half in length. During the course of all those years he never put his hood up, however burning the sun might be, or however heavy the rain. He never used shoes or stockings. He wore no other clothing than a single garment of rough, coarse cloth. I found out, however, that for twenty years he wore a hair-shirt made of plates of tin, which he never took off. His Habit was as narrow as it could possibly be, and over it he put a short cloak of the same material. This he took off when it was very cold, and left the door and small window of his cell open for a while. Then he shut them and put his cape on again, which he said was his manner of warming himself and giving his body a little better temperature. He usually ate but once in three days, and when I showed some surprise at this, he said it was quite easy when one was accustomed to it. His poverty was extreme and such was his mortification that, as he acknowledged to me, he had, when young, spent three years in a house of his Order without knowing any one of the Religious except by the sound of his voice. For he had never lifted up his eyes so that, when called by the rule to any part of the house, he could find his way only by following the other brethren. He observed the same custody of the eyes when on the roads. When I made his acquaintance, his body was so emaciated that it seemed to be formed of the roots of trees.”

To this portrait of the Franciscan reformer drawn by the reformer of Carmel, the Church adds the history of his life. Three illustrious and worthy families now form the first Order, of Saint Francis, known as the Conventuals, the Observantines and the Capuchins. A pious emulation for more and more strict reform, brought about in the Observance itself a subdivision into the Observantines proper, the Reformed, the Discalced or Alcantarines and the Recollets. This division, which was historical rather than constitutional, no longer exists, for on the feast of the Patriarch of Assisi, October 4th 1897, the Sovereign Pontiff Leo XIII thought fit to re-unite the great family of the Observance, which is henceforth known as the Order of Friars Minor.

* * * * *

“Such then is the end of that austere life, an eternity of glory!” And how sweet were your last words: “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: we will go into the house of the Lord” (Psalm cxxi. 1). The time of reward had not yet come for the body with which you had made an agreement to give it no truce in this life, but to reserve its enjoyment for the next. But already the soul, on quitting it had filled it with the light and the fragrance of the other world, signifying to all that the first part of the contract having been faithfully adhered to, the second should be carried out in like manner. Whereas, given over for its false delights to horrible torments, the flesh of the sinner will for ever cry vengeance against the soul that caused its loss. Your members, entering into the beatitude of your happy soul, and completing its glory by their own splendour, will eternally declare how your apparent harshness for a time was in reality wisdom and love.

Is it necessary, indeed, to wait for the resurrection in order to discover that the part you chose is incontestably the best? Who would dare to compare not only unlawful pleasures, but even the permitted enjoyments of Earth, with the holy delights of contemplation prepared, even in this world, for those who can relish them? If they are to be purchased by mortification of the flesh, it is because the flesh and the spirit are ever striving for the mastery, but a generous soul loves the struggle, for the flesh is honoured by it, and through it escapes a thousand dangers.

O you who, according to our Lord’s promise, are never invoked in vain, if you deign yourself to present our prayers to Him, obtain for us that relish for heavenly things which causes an aversion for those of Earth. It is the petition made by the whole Church, through your merits, to the God who bestowed on you the gift of such wonderful penance and sublime contemplation. The great family of Friars Minor cherishes the treasure of your teaching and example, for the honour of your holy father Francis and the good of the Church maintain in it the love of its austere traditions. Withdraw not your precious protection from the Carmel of Teresa of Jesus. Extend it to the whole Religious State, especially in these days of trial. May you at length lead back your native Spain to the glorious heights from which formerly she seemed to pour down floods of sanctity on the world. It is the condition of nations ennobled by a more sublime vocation that they cannot decline without the danger of falling below the level of those less favoured by the Most High.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, the birthday of the holy martyrs Ptolemy and Lucius, under Marcus Antoninus. The former, as we learn from the martyr Justin, having converted an immodest woman to the faith of Christ, and taught her to practise chastity, was accused by a profligate man before the prefect Urbicius, and condemned to languish a long time in a filthy dungeon. At length, as he declared by a public confession that Christ was his master, he was led to execution. Lucius disapproving the sentence of Urbicius, and avowing freely that he was a Christian, received the same sentence. To them was added a third who was condemned to suffer a like punishment.

At Antioch, the holy martyrs Beronicus, the virgin Pelagia and forty-nine others.

In Egypt, St. Varus, soldier, under the emperor Maximinus. He used to visit and comfort seven saintly monks detained in prison, when one of them happening to die, he wished to take his place, and having suffered with them cruel afflictions, he obtained the palm of martyrdom.

At Evreux, St. Aquilinus, bishop and confessor.

In the diocese of Orleans, the departure from this world of St. Veranus, bishop.

At Salerno, St. Eusterius, bishop.

In Ireland, St. Ethbin, abbot.

At Oxford in England, St. Frideswide, virgin.

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

Thanks be to God.

18 OCTOBER – SAINT LUKE (Evangelist)

Luke was a physician of Antioch and, as is shown by his writings, was skilled in the Greek language. He was a disciple of the Apostle Paul and accompanied him in all his journeys. He also wrote a Gospel so that Paul says of him: “We have sent also with him the brother whose praise is in the Gospel through all the churches.” And again to the Colossians: “Luke, the most dear physician salutes you.” And to Timothy: “Only Luke is with me.” He wrote another excellent work, the Acts of the Apostles, in which he relates the history of the Church as far as Paul’s two years’ sojourn at Rome that is to the fourth year of Nero. From this circumstance we infer that the book was written at Rome. Consequently we class the journeys of Paul and Thecla and the whole fable of the baptised lion among apocryphal writings. For is it possible that the Apostle’s inseparable companion should know everything concerning him except this one thing? Moreover, Tertullian who lived near to those times relates that a certain priest in Asia, an admirer of Paul, was convicted by John of having written that book, which he confessed he had done out of love for Paul, and was on that account deposed. Some are of the opinion that whenever Paul in his epistles says: “According to my Gospel,” he means that of Luke. Luke, however, was instructed in the Gospel not only by the Apostle Paul, who had never seen the Lord in the flesh, but also by the other Apostles. This he declares in the beginning of his work, saying: “According as they have delivered them to us, who from the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the word.” He wrote his Gospel then from what he had heard, but the Acts of the Apostles from he had himself seen. He lived 84 years and was never married.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“The goodness and kindness of God our Saviour has appeared to all men” (Titus ii. 11; iii. 4) It would seem that the third Evangelist, a disciple of Saint Paul, had purposed setting forth this word of the Doctor of the Gentiles. Or may we not rather say, the Apostle himself characterised in this sentence the Gospel in which his disciple portrays the Saviour prepared before the face of all people: “a light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel” (Luke ii. 31, 32). Saint Luke’s Gospel and the words quoted from Saint Paul were in fact written about the same time, and it is impossible to say which claims priority.

Under the eye of Simon Peter to whom the Father had revealed the Christ the Son of the living God, Mark had the honour of giving to the Church the Gospel of Jesus, the Son of God (Mark i. 1). Matthew had already drawn up for the Jews the Gospel of the Messiah, Son of David, Son of Abraham (Matthew i. 1). Afterwards, at the side of Paul, Luke wrote for the Gentiles the Gospel of Jesus, Son of Adam through Mary (Luke ii. 38). As far as the genealogy of this First-born of His Mother may be reckoned back, so far will extend the blessing He bestows on His brethren by redeeming them from the curse inherited from their first father.

Jesus was truly one of ourselves, a Man conversing with men and living their life. He was seen on Earth in the reign of Augustus, the prefect of the empire registered the birth of this new subject of Caesar in the city of His ancestors. He was bound in the swathing-bands of infancy. Like all of His race He was circumcised, offered to the Lord and redeemed according to the law of His nation. As a child He obeyed His parents. He grew up under their eyes. He passed through the progressive development of youth to the maturity of manhood. At every juncture during His public life He prostrated in prayer to God the Creator of all. He wept over His country. When His Heart was wrung with anguish at sight of the morrow’s deadly torments, He was bathed with a sweat of blood, and in that agony He did not disdain the assistance of an Angel. Such appears, in the third Gospel, the humanity of God our Saviour.

How sweet too are His grace and goodness! Among all the children of men, He merited to be the expectation of nations and the Desired of them all: He who was conceived of a humble Virgin, who was born in a stable with shepherds for His court and choirs of Angels singing in the darkness of night “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will.” But Earth had sung the prelude to the angelic harmonies. The precursor, leaping with delight in his mother’s womb, had, as the Church says, made known the king still resting in his bridal chamber. To this joy of the bridegroom’s Friend, the Virgin Mother had responded by the sweetest song that Earth or Heaven has ever heard. Then Zachary and Simeon completed the number of inspired Canticles for the new people of God. All was song around the new-born babe, and Mary kept all the words in her heart in order to transmit them to us through her own Evangelist.

The Divine Child grew in age and wisdom and grace, before God and man till His human beauty captivated men and drew them with the cords of Adam to the love of God. He was ready to welcome the daughter of Tyre, the Gentile race that had become more than a rival of Sion. Let her not fear, the poor unfortunate one, of whom Magdalene was a figure. The pride of expiring Judaism may take scandal, but Jesus will accept her tears and her perfumes. He will forgive her much because of her great love. Let the prodigal hope once more, when worn out with his long wanderings, in every way where error has led the nations, the envious complaint of his elder brother Israel will not stay the outpourings of the Sacred Heart, celebrating the return of the fugitive, restoring to him the dignity of sonship, placing again upon his finger the ring of the alliance first contracted in Eden with the whole human race. As for Judah, unhappy is he if he refuses to understand.

Woe to the rich man who in his opulence neglects the poor Lazarus! The privileges of race no longer exist: of ten lepers cured in body, the stranger alone is healed in soul, because he alone believes in his deliverer and returns thanks. Of the Samaritan, the Levite and the priest who appear on the road to Jericho, the first alone earns our Saviour’s commendation. The Pharisee is strangely mistaken when, in his arrogant prayer, he spurns the publican who strikes his breast and cries for mercy. The Son of Man neither hears the prayers of the proud nor heeds their indignation. He invites Himself, in spite of their murmurs, to the house of Zacheus, bringing with him salvation and joy, and declaring the publican to be henceforth a true son of Abraham. So much goodness and such universal mercy close against him the narrow hearts of his fellow-citizens. They will not have him to reign over them, but eternal Wisdom finds the lost groat, and there is great joy before the Angels in heaven. On the day of the sacred Nuptials, the lowly and despised and the repentant sinners will sit down to the banquet prepared for others. “In truth I say to you, there were many widows in the days of Elias in Israel... and to none of them was Elias sent, but to Sarepta of Sidon, to a widow woman. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elilleus the prophet, and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian” (Luke iv. 25‒27).

O Jesus, your Evangelist has won our hearts. We love you for having taken pity on our misery. We Gentiles were in deeper debt than Jerusalem, and therefore we owe you greater love in return for your pardon. We love you because your choicest graces are for Magdalene, that is, for us who are sinners and are nevertheless called to the better part. We love you because you cannot resist the tears of mothers but restore to them, as at Naim, their dead children. In the day of treason and abandonment and denial, you forgot your own injury to cast on Peter that loving look which caused him to weep bitterly. You turned away from yourself the tears of those humble and true daughters of Jerusalem who followed your painful footsteps up the heights of Calvary. Nailed to the Cross, you implored pardon for your executioners. At the last hour, as God you promised Paradise to the penitent thief, as Man you gave back your soul to your Father. Truly from beginning to end of this third Gospel appears your goodness and kindness, O God our Saviour!

Saint Luke completed his work by writing, in the same correct style his Gospel, the history of the first days of Christianity, of the introduction of the Gentiles into the Church, and of the great labours of their own Apostle Paul. According to tradition he was an artist as well as a man of letters, and with a soul alive to all the most delicate inspirations, he consecrated his pencil to the holiest use and handed down to us the features of the Mother of God. It was an illustration worthy of the Gospel which relates the Divine Infancy, and it won for the artist a new title to the gratitude of those who never saw Jesus and Mary in the flesh. Hence Saint Luke is the patron of Christian art, and also of the medical profession, for in the holy Scripture itself he is said to have been a physician. He had studied all the sciences in his native city Antioch, and the brilliant capital of the East had reason to be proud of its illustrious son.

* * * * *

The symbolical Ox, reminding us of the figurative sacrifices, and announcing their abrogation, yokes himself, with the Man, the Lion, and the Eagle, to the chariot which bears the Conqueror of Earth, the Lamb in His triumph. O Evangelist of the Gentiles, be blessed for having put an end to the long night of our captivity, and warmed our frozen hearts. You were the confidant of the Mother of God, and her happy influence left in your soul that fragrance of virginity which pervaded your whole life and breathes through your writings. With discerning love and silent devotedness you assisted the Apostle of the Gentiles in his great work and remained as faithful to him when abandoned or betrayed, shipwrecked or imprisoned, as in the days of his prosperity. Rightly then does the Church in her Collect apply to you the words spoken by Saint Paul of himself: “In all things we suffer tribulation, are persecuted, are cast down, always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus. But this continual dying manifests the life of Jesus in our mortal Your inspired pen taught us to love the Son of Man in His Gospel. Your pencil portrayed Him for us in His Mother’s arms, and a third time you revealed Him to the world by the reproduction of His holiness in your own life.

Preserve in us the fruits of your manifold teaching. Though Christian painters do well to pay you special honour and to learn from you that the ideal of beauty resides in the Son of God and in His Mother, there is yet a more sublime art than that of lines and colours: the art of reproducing in ourselves the likeness of God. This we wish to learn perfectly in your school, for we know from your master Saint Paul that conformity to the image of the Son of God can alone entitle the elect to predestination. Be the protector of the faithful physicians who strive to walk in your footsteps and who, in their ministry of devotedness and charity, rely on your credit with the Author of life. Second their efforts to heal or to relieve suffering and inspire them with holy zeal when they find their patients on the brink of eternity. The world itself, in its decrepitude, now needs the assistance of all who are able, by prayer or action, to come to its rescue. “The Son of Man, when He comes, will He find, think you, faith on Earth?” (Luke xviii. 8). Thus spoke our Lord in the Gospel. But He also said that we ought always to pray and not to faint (Luke xviii. 1) adding, for the instruction of the Church both at this time and always, the parable of the widow whose importunity prevailed upon the unjust judge to defend her cause. “And will not God revenge His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He have patience in their regard? I say to you that He will quickly revenge them” (Luke xviii. 2‒3).

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Antioch, St. Asclepiades, bishop, one of the celebrated troop of martyrs who suffered gloriously under Macrinus.

In the diocese of Beauvais, St. Justus, martyr, who, being but a boy, was put to death in the persecution of Diocletian under the governor Rictiovarus.

At Neocaesarea in Pontus, the holy and learned bishop Athenodorus, brother of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, who underwent martyrdom in the persecution of Aurelian.

In Mesopotamia, on the bank of the Euphrates, St. Julian, hermit.

At Rome, the birthday of St. Paul of the Cross, confessor, founder of the Congregation of the Cross and Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who Blessed Pius IX canonised on account of his remarkable innocence of life and his penitential spirit, assigning the twenty-eighth of April as the day of his festival.

At Rome, St. Tryphonia, at one time wife of the Caesar Decius. She was buried in a crypt near St. Hippolytus.

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

Thanks be to God.

18 OCTOBER – TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The remaining Sundays are the last of the Church’s Cycle, but their proximity with its final termination varies each Year according as Easter was early or late. This their moveable character does away with anything like harmony between the composition of their Masses and the Lessons of the Night Office, all of which, dating from August, have been appointed and fixed for each subsequent week. This we have already explained to our Readers.

Still, the instruction which the Faithful ought to derive from the sacred Liturgy would be incomplete, and the spirit of the Church, during these last weeks of her Year would not be sufficiently understood by her children, unless they were to remember that the two months of October and November are filled, the first with readings from the book of the Machabees, whose example inspirits us for the final combats, and the second with lessons from the Prophets proclaiming to us the judgements of God.

Durandus, Bishop of Mende, in his Rational, tells us that this, and the following Sundays till Advent, bear closely on the Gospel of the Marriage-Feast, of which they are really but a further development. “Whereas,” says he, speaking of this twenty-first Sunday, “this Marriage has no more powerful opponent than the envy of Satan, the Church speaks to us today on our combat with him, and on the armour with which we must be clad in order to go through this terrible battle, as we will see by the Epistle. And because sackcloth and ashes are the instruments of penance, therefore does the Church borrow for the Introit the words of Mardochai, who prayed for God’s mercy in sackcloth and ashes.”

These reflections of Durandus are quite true but if the thought of her having soon to be united with her divine Spouse is uppermost in the Church’s mind, yet it is by forgetting her own happiness and turning all her thoughts to mankind, whose salvation has been entrusted to her care by her Lord, that she will best prove herself to be truly His Bride during the miseries of those last days. As we have already said, the near approach of the general judgement and the terrible state of the world during the period immediately preceding that final consummation of time is the very soul of the Liturgy during these last Sundays of the Church’s Year. As regards the present Sunday, the portion of the Mass which used formerly to attract the attention of our Catholic forefathers was the Offertory taken from the book of Job, with its telling exclamations and its emphatic repetitions. We may, in all truth, say, that this Offertory contains the ruling idea which runs through this twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost. Reduced like Job on the dung-hill, to the extremity of wretchedness, the world has nothing to trust to but to God’s mercy. The holy men who are still living in it, imitating in the name of all mankind, the sentiments of the just man of Idumea, honour God by a patience and resignation which do but add power and intensity to their supplications. They begin by making their own the sublime prayer made, by Mardochai, for his people who were doomed to extermination. The world is condemned to a similar ruin (Esther xiii. 9‒11).

Epistle – Ephesians vi. 10‒17

Brethren, be strengthened in the Lord, and in the might of His power. Put on the armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take to yourself the armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in all things taking the shield of faith, with which you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take to yourself the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The early beginnings of man’s union with his God are, generally speaking, deliciously calm. Divine Wisdom, once He has led His chosen creature by hard laborious work to the purification of his mind and senses, allows him (when the sacred alliance is duly concluded) to rest on His sacred breast and thoroughly attaches the devoted one to Himself by delights which are an ante-dated Heaven, making the soul despise every earthly pleasure. It seems as though the welcome law of Deuteronomy were always in force (Deuteronomy xxiv. 5), namely, that no battle and no anxiety must ever break in upon the first season of the glorious union. But this exemption from the general taxation is never of long duration, for combat is the normal state of every man here below (Job vii. 1).

The Most High is pleased at seeing a battle well fought by His Christian soldiers. There is no name so frequently applied to Him by the Prophets as that of the God of Hosts. His divine Son, who is the Spouse, shows Himself here on this Earth of ours as the Lord who is mighty in battle (Psalm xxiii. 8). In the mysterious nuptial Canticle of the forty-fourth Psalm He lets us see Him as Most Powerful Prince girding on His grand Sword (Psalm xliv. 4) and making His way, with His sharp arrows, through the very heart and thick of His enemies (Psalm xliv. 6) in order to reach, in fair valiance and beautiful victory, the Bride He has chosen as His own (Psalm xliv. 5). She, too, just like Him —she, the Bride, whose beauty He has vouchsafed to love (Psalm xliv. 12) and wills her to share in all His own glories (Psalm xliv. 10) — yes, she too advances towards Him in the glittering armour of a warrior (Canticles iv. 4) surrounded by choirs (Canticles vii. 1) singing the magnificent exploits of the Spouse and, she herself terrible as an army set in array (Canticles vi. 9). The armour of the brave is on her arms and breast. Her noble bearing reminds one of the tower of David with its thousand bucklers (Canticles iv. 4).

United to her divine Lord, warriors the most valiant stand about her. They merit that privilege by their well-proved sword and their skill in war. Each one of them has his sword quite ready because of the night-surprises which the enemy may use against this most dear Church (Canticles iii. 7, 8). For until the dawn of the eternal day when the shadows of this present life are put to flight (Canticles iv. 6) by the light of the Lamb (Apocalypse xxi. 9, 23) who will then have vanquished all His enemies — yes, until that day, power is in the hands of the rulers of the world of this darkness, says Saint Paul in today’s Epistle. And it is against them that we must take to ourselves the armour of God which he there describes. We must wear it all if we would be able to resist in the evil day.

The evil days spoken of by the Apostle last Sunday (Ephesians v. 16) are frequent in the life of every individual as likewise in the world’s history. But,for every man, and for the world at large, there is one evil day, evil beyond all the others: it is the last day, the day of judgement, the day of exceeding bitterness, as the Church calls it on account of the woe and misery which are to fill it. We talk of so many years as passing away, and of centuries succeeding each other. But all these are neither more nor less than preparations hurrying on the world to the Last Day. Happy they who, on that Day, will fight the good fight (2 Timothy iv. 7) and win victory! Or who, as our Apostle expresses it, will stand while all around them is ruin, yes, stand, in all things, perfect! They will not be hurt by the second death (Apocalypse ii. 11). Wreathed with the crown of justice (2 Timothy iv. 8) they will reign with God (Apocalypse xx. 6) on His throne, together with His Son (Apocalypse iii. 21).

The war is an easy one when we have this Man-God for our Leader. All He asks of us is what the Apostle thus words: “Be strengthened in the Lord, and in the might of His power!” It is leaning on her Beloved that the beautiful Church is to go up from the desert and thus supported she is actually to be flowing with delights (Canticles viii. 5) even in those most sad days. The faithful soul is out of herself with love when she remembers that the armour she wears is the armour of God, that is, the very armour of her Spouse. It is quite thrilling to hear the Prophets describing this Jesus, this Leader, of ours, accoutred for battle and with all the pieces we, too, are to wear: He girds Himself with the girdle of faith (Isaias xi. 5), then He puts the helmet of salvation on His beautiful head (Isaias lix. 17), then the breastplate of justice (Wisdom v. 19), then the shield of invincible equity (Wisdom v. 20), and finally a magnificently tempered sword, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God (Apocalypse ii. 16). We should almost think we were here having a list of our own arms. Well, yes, but they are His first. And the Gospel shows Him to us as entering, Himself, on the great battle, that He might show us how to use these same divine arms which He puts upon each of us, if we will but be His soldiers.

This armour consists of many parts, because of its varied uses and effects. And yet, whether offensive or defensive, all of them have one common name, and that name is Faith. Our Epistle makes us say so. And our Jesus, our Leader, taught it us when to the triple temptation brought against Him by the devil on the mount of Quarantana, He made answer to each temptation by a text from the sacred Scriptures (Matthew iv. 1‒11) The victory which overcomes the world is our Faith, says Saint John (1 John v. 4). When Saint Paul, at the close of his career, reviews the combats he had fought through life, he sums up all in this telling word: “I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy iv. 7). The life of Paul in that should be the life of every Christian, for he says to us: “Fight the good fight of faith!” (1 Timothy vi. 12). It is Faith which, in spite of those fearful odds enumerated in today’s Epistle as being against us, it is Faith that ensures the victory to men of good will. If, in the warfare we must go through, we were to reckon the chances of our enemies by their overwhelming forces and advantages, it is quite certain that we should have little hope of winning the day: for it is not with men like ourselves, it is not, as the Apostle puts it, with flesh and blood, that we have to wrestle, but with enemies that we can never grapple with, who are in the high places of the air around us and are, therefore, invisible and most skilled, and powerful, and wonderfully up in all the sad secrets of our poor fallen nature, and turning the whole weight of their advantages to trick man and ruin him out of hatred for God. These wicked spirits were originally created that in the purity of their unmixed spiritual nature they should be a reflex of the divine splendour of their Maker. And now, having rebelled by pride, they exhibit that execrable prodigy of angelic intelligences spending all their powers in doing evil to man, and in hating truth.

How, then, are we who, by our very nature are darkness and misery, to wrestle with these spiritual principalities and powers who devote all their wisdom and rage to produce darkness so as to turn the whole Earth into a world of darkness? “By our becoming Light,” answers Saint John Chrysostom. The light, it is true, is not to shine on us in its own direct brightness until the great day of the revelation of the sons of God (Romans viii. 19), but meanwhile we have a divine subsidy which supplements sight. That subsidy is the Revealed Word (2 Peter ii. 19). Baptism did not open our eyes so as to see God, but it opened our ears so as to give us to hear Him when He speaks to us. Now He speaks to us by the Scriptures and by His Church, and our Faith gives us, regarding Truth thus Revealed, a certainty as great as though we saw it with the eyes of either body or soul, or both. By his child-like docility, the just man walks on in peace with the simplicity of the Gospel within him. Better than breastplate or helmet, the shield of faith protects us, and from every sort of injury. It blunts the fiery darts of the world, it repels the fury of our own passions, it makes us far-seeing enough to escape the most artful snares of the most wicked ones. Is not the word of God good for every emergency? And we may have it as often and as much as we please.

Satan has a horror of the Christian who, though he may be weak in other respects, is strong in this divine word. He has a greater fear of that man than he has of all your schools of philosophy, and all its professors. He has got accustomed to the torture of such a man crushing him beneath his feet (Romans xvi. 20) and with a rapidity (Romans xvi. 20) which is akin to what our Lord tells us He Himself witnessed: “I saw Satan, like lightning, falling from Heaven” (Luke x. 18): it was on the great battle-day (Apocalypse xii. 7) when he was hurled from paradise by that one word Michael — exquisite word, which was given to the triumphant Archangel to be his everlasting noble name! And he himself, by that word of God, and by that victory for God, was made our model and our defender. We have already explained to our readers why it is that these closing weeks of the Church’s Year are so full of the grand Archangel Saint Michael.

Gospel – Matthew xviii. 23‒35

At that time, Jesus spoke to His disciples this parable: The Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who would take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him that owed him ten thousand talents: and as he had not the means to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had, and payment be made. But that servant falling down besought him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.” And the lord of that servant, being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt. But when that servant had gone out, he found one of his fellow-servants that owed him a hundred pence; and laying hold of him, he throttled him, saying, “Pay me what you owe.” And his fellow-servant falling down besought him, saying, “Have patience with me and I will pay you all.” And he would not, but went and cast him into prison till he paid the debt. Now his fellow-servants, seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that had been done. Then his lord called him and said to him, “You wicked servant, I forgave you all the debt because you besought me; should not you then have had compassion also on you fellow-servant, as I had compassion on you?” And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not every one his brother from your hearts.

Praise to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

“O thou just Judge of vengeance (on man) grant us the gift of forgiveness, before the Day of reckoning cometh!” Such is the petition that comes from the heart of holy Mother Church as she thinks on what may have befallen those countless children of hers who have been victims of death during this, as every other, year. It is, moreover, the supplication that should be made by every living soul after hearing the Gospel just read to us. The Sequence Dies Irae from which these words are taken is not only a sublime prayer for the Dead. It is, likewise, and especially at this close of the Ecclesiastical Year, an appropriate expression for all of us who are still living. Our thoughts and our expectations are naturally turned towards our own deaths. We almost seem forgotten and overlooked in this evening of the world’s existence. But it is not so, for we know from the sacred Scripture that we will join those who have already slept the last sleep, and will be taken, together with them, to meet our divine Judge (1 Thessalonians iv. 14‒16).

Let us hearken to some more of our Mother’s words in that same magnificent Sequence. This is their meaning: “How great will be our fear when the Judge is just about to come, and rigorously examine all our works! The trumpet’s wondrous sound will pierce the graves of every land and summon us all before the throne! Death will stand amazed, and nature too, when the creature will rise again, to go and answer Him that is to judge! The written Book will be brought forth, in which all is contained, for which the world is to be tried. So, when the Judge will sit on his throne, every hidden secret will be revealed, nothing will remain unpunished! What shall I, poor wretch, then say? Who ask to be my patron, when the just man himself will scarce be safe? O King of dreaded majesty! who saves gratuitously them that are saved, save me, fount of love! Do thou remember, loving Jesu! that I was cause of your life on earth! Lose me not, on that Day!”

Undoubtedly, such a prayer as this has every best chance of being graciously heard, addressed as it is to Him who has nothing so much at heart as our salvation and who, for procuring it, gave Himself up to fatigue, and suffering, and death on the Cross: but we should be inexcusable, and deserve condemnation twice over, were we to neglect to profit of the advice He Himself gives us by which to avert from us the perils of “that day of tears, when guilty man will rise from the dust and go to be judged!” Let us, then, meditate on the parable of our Gospel, whose sole object is to teach us a sure way of settling, at once, our accounts with the divine King. We are all of us, in fact, that negligent servant, that insolvent debtor, whose master might in all justice sell him with all he has, and hand him over to the torturers. The debt contracted with God, by the sins we have committed, is of that nature as to deserve endless tortures. it supposes an eternal Hell in which the guilty one will ever be paying without ever cancelling his debt. Infinite praise, then, and thanks to the divine Creditor who, being moved to pity by the entreaties of the unhappy man who asks for time and he will pay all —yes, this good God grants him far beyond what he prays for, He, there and then, forgives him the debt. He puts but this condition on the pardon, as is evident from the sequel: He insists, and most justly, that he should go and do in like manner towards his fellow-servants who may, perhaps, owe something to him. After being so generously forgiven by his Lord and King — after having his infinite debt so gratuitously cancelled — how can he possibly turn a deaf ear to the very same prayer which won pardon for himself, now that a fellow servant makes it to him? Is it to be believed that he will refuse all pity towards one whose only offence is that he asks him for time, and he will pay all?

“It is quite true,” says Saint Augustine, “that every man has his fellow-man a debtor, for who is the man that has had no one to offend him? But, at the same time, who is the man that is not debtor to God, for all of us have sinned? Man, therefore, is both debtor to God, and creditor to his fellow-man. It is for this reason that God has laid down this rule for your conduct: that you must treat your debtor, as He treats his... We pray every day. Every day we send up the same petition to the divine throne. Every day we prostrate ourselves before God, and say to Him: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive them that are debtors to us” (Matthew vi. 12) Of what debts speak you? Is it of all your debts? Or of one or two only? You will say: Of all. Do you therefore forgive your debtor, for it is the rule laid upon you. It is the condition accepted by you.”

“It is a greater thing,” says Saint John Chrysostom, “to forgive our neighbour the trespasses he has committed against us, than to condone him a sum of money. For, by forgiving him his sins, we imitate God.” And, after all, what is the injury committed by one man against another man, if compared with the offence committed by man against God? Alas! we have all got the habit of that second. Even the just man knows its misery seven times (Proverbs xxiv. 16) over and, as the text probably means, seven times a day, so that it comes ruffling our whole day long. Let this, at least, be our parallel habit: that we contract a facility in being merciful towards our fellow-men since we, every night, have the assurance given us that we will be pardoned all our miseries on the condition of our owning them. It is an excellent practice not to go to bed without putting ourselves in the dispositions of a little child who can rest his head on God’s bosom and there fall asleep. But if we thus feel it a happy necessity to find in the heart of our heavenly Father (Matthew vi. 9) forgetfulness of our day’s faults, yes, more an infinitely tender love for us His poor tottering children, how can we, at that very time, dare to be storing up in our minds old grudges and scores against our neighbours, our brethren, who are also His children? Even supposing that we had been treated by them with outrageous injustice or insult, could these their faults bear any comparison with our offences against that good God, whose born enemies we were, and whom we have caused to be put to an ignominious death?

Whatever may be the circumstances attending the unkindness shown us, we may and should invariably practise the rule given us by the Apostle: “Be kind one to another! Merciful! Forgiving one another, as God has forgiven you, in Christ! Be imitators of God, as most dear children!” (Ephesians iv. 32, v. 1). What! You call God your Father and you remember an injury that has been done you? “That,” says Saint John Chrysostom, “is not the way a son of God acts in! The work of a son of God is this — to pardon one’s enemies, to pray for them that crucify him, to shed his blood for them that hate him. Would you know the conduct of one who is worthy to be a son of God? He takes his enemies, and his ingrates, and his robbers, and his insulters, and his traitors, and makes them his brethren and sharers of all his wealth!”

17 OCTOBER – SAINT MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE (Virgin)

Margaret Mary was born in 1647. She spent almost her entire life in prayer and seclusion as a nun of the Order of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at Paray-le-Monial in Burgundy, France. In 1673 Our Lord appeared to her in a vision in which He revealed to her His Sacred Heart — a heart pierced, enthroned in flames, surrounded by a crown of thorns and surmounted by a cross. Our Lord told her:

“My Divine Heart is so full of love for men, and especially for you, that, unable any longer to keep within Itself the flames of its burning love, It needs must spread them abroad through means of you, and It must make Itself known unto them in order to enrich them with the treasures which It contains. I make known to you the worth of these treasures. They contain the graces of sanctification and of salvation which are needful to free them from the abyss of perdition. I have chosen you, who are an abyss of unworthiness and ignorance, to carry out this great work, so that it may be seen that every thing has been done by Me.”

Jesus also told Margaret Mary that He desired that the first Friday after the Octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi be observed in a special manner as a feast of His Heart, by the offering of Holy Communion with a reparation of honour for all the insults and indignities His Heart had received since the institution of the Holy Eucharist. He appeared to Margaret Mary another two times and made the following promises to those who practice devotion to His Sacred Heart:

• I will grant them the graces necessary for their state of life.
• I will establish peace in their families.
• I will comfort them in their afflictions.
• I will be their safe refuge during life, and especially at death.
• I will give abundant blessings on all their undertakings.
• Sinners will find a fountain and a boundless ocean of mercy in My Heart.
• Tepid souls will become fervent.
• Fervent souls will quickly achieve great perfection.
• I will bless every place where the picture of My Sacred Heart is exposed and honoured.
• I will give to priests the power to touch the hardest hearts.
• I will grant to all those who receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance.
• They will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments, and my Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour.

With the help of Margaret Mary’s confessor, the Jesuit priest Father Claude de la Colombière, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus quickly took roots and began to spread. Father Claude died in 1682. Margaret Mary died in 1690. She was beatified by Blessed Pius IX in 1864 and was canonised by Pope Benedict XV in 1920.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Antioch, the birthday of St. Heron, a disciple of blessed Ignatius. Being made bishop after him, he religiously followed his master’s footsteps, and, as a true lover of Christ, died for the flock entrusted to his keeping.

The same day, the martyrdom of the Saints Victor, Alexander and Marian.

In Persia, St. Mamelta, martyr, who, being converted from idolatry to the faith by an angel, was stoned by Gentiles and cast into a deep lake.

At Constantinople, during the reign of Constantine Copronymus, St. Andrew of Crete, a monk, who was often scourged for the worship of holy images, and finally, after having one of his feet cut off, breathed his last.

At Orange in France, St. Florentinus, bishop, who died leaving a reputation for many virtues.

At Capua, St Victor, a bishop, distinguished for erudition and sanctity.

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

Thanks be to God.

16 OCTOBER – SAINT HEDWIG OF SILESIA (Widow)

Hedwig (or Hedwigis) was born in 1174 to Berthold IV, Count of Andechs and Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia. She had four brothers and three sisters. Of these, two brothers became bishops, Ekbert of Bamberg and Berthold of Aquileia, Otto succeeded his father as Duke of Dalmatia and Heinrich became Margrave of Istria. Gertrude married King Andrew II of Hungary and became the mother of Saint Elizabeth (Landgravine of Thuringia), Mechtilde became the Abbess of Kitzingen and Agnes became the unlawful wife of King Philip II of France. From childhood Hedwig was remarkable for her self-control, for at that age she refrained from all childish sports. While still a child she was married to Duke Henry of Silesia with whom she had six children. Later they mutually agreed to lead separate lives of spiritual perfection but Hedwig continued to assist and comfort her husband in the many political troubles he encountered.

After his death Hedwig took the Cistercian habit at the monastery of Trebnitz where she gave herself up to divine contemplation, spending from sunrise until midday assisting at the Divine Office and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. She would neither speak of worldly affairs nor hear them spoken of unless they affected the interests of God or the salvation of souls. All her actions were governed by prudence and it was impossible to find in them anything excessive or disorderly. She was full of gentleness and affability towards all. She triumphed completely over her flesh by afflicting it with fasting, watching and rough garments. She was adorned with the noblest Christian virtues. She was exceedingly prudent in giving counsel and pure and tranquil in mind so as to be a model of religious perfection. She ever strove to place herself below all the nuns, eagerly choosing the lowest offices in the house. She served the poor on her knees, and washed and kissed the feet of lepers, so far overcoming herself as not to be repulsed by their loathsome ulcers.

Hedwig died in 1243 and was canonised in 1267 by Pope Clement IV.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

At the beginning of the thirteenth century the plateau of Upper Asia poured down a fresh torrent of barbarians more terrible than all their predecessors. The one fragile barrier which the Graeco-Slavonian civilisation could oppose to the Mongols had been swept away by the first wave of the invasion. Not one of the States formed under the protection of the Byzantine Church had any prospect for the future. But beyond this Ruthania, which had fallen into dissolution before being conquered, the Roman Church had had time to form a brave and generous people. When the hour arrived, Poland was ready. The Mongols were already inundating Silesia when, in the plains of Liegnitz, they found themselves confronted by an army of 30,000 warriors headed by the Duke of Silesia, Henry the Pious. The encounter was terrible. The victory remained long undecided until at length, by the odious treason of some Ruthanian princes, it turned in favour of the barbarians. Duke Henry and the flower of the Polish knighthood were left on the battlefield. But their defeat was equal to a victory. The Mongols retired exhausted, for they had measured their strength with the soldiers of the Latin Christianity.

It is Poland’s happy lot that at each decisive epoch in its history a Saint appears to point out the road to the attainment of its glorious destiny. Over the battlefield of Liegnitz shines the gentle figure of Saint Hedwig, mother of Duke Henry the Pious. She had retired in her widowhood into the Cistercian monastery of Trebnitz founded by herself. Three years before the coming of the barbarians she had had a revelation touching the future fate of her son. She offered her sacrifice in silence, and far from discouraging the young duke, she was the first to animate him to resistance.

The night following the battle she awoke one of her companions and said to her: “Demundis, know that I have lost my son. My beloved son has fled from me like a bird on the wing. I will never see my son again in this life.” Demundis endeavoured to console her. No courier had arrived from the army and her fears were vain. “It is but too true,” replied the duchess, “but mention it to no-one.” Three days later the fatal news was confirmed. “It is the will of God,” said Hedwig, “what God wills, and what pleases Him, must please us also.” And rejoicing in the Lord: “I thank you, O my God,” said she, raising her hands and eyes to Heaven, “for having given me such a son. He loved me all his life, always treated me with great respect, and never grieved me. I much desired to have him with me on Earth, but I congratulate him with my whole soul, for that by the shedding of his blood he is united with you in Heaven, with you his Creator. I recommend his soul to you, O Lord my God.” No less an example was needed to sustain Poland under the new it had just accepted.

At Liegnitz it had raised up again the sword of Christendom, fallen from the feeble hands of Ruthania. It became henceforth as a watchful sentinel, ever ready to defend Europe against the barbarians. Ninety-three times did the Tartars rush upon Christendom, thirsting for blood and rapine: ninety-three times Poland repulsed them at the edge of the sword, or had the grief to see the country laid waste, the towns burnt down, the flower of the nation carried into captivity. By these sacrifices it bore the brunt of the invasion and deadened the blow for the rest of Europe. As long as blood and tears and victims were required, Poland gave them unstintedly while the other European nations enjoyed the security purchased by this continual immolation.

* * * * *

Daughter of Abraham according to faith, you imitated his heroism. Your first reward was to find a worthy son in him you offered to the Lord. Your example is most welcome in this month in which the Church sets before us the death of Judas Maccabeus. As glorious as his was the death of your Henry, but it was also a fruitful death. Of your six children he alone, the Isaac offered and immolated to God, was permitted to propagate your race. And yet what a posterity is yours, since all the royal families of Europe can claim to be of your lineage! “I will make you increase exceedingly, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come out of you” (Genesis xvii. 6). This promise made to the Father of the faithful is fulfilled once more on your behalf, O Hedwig. God never changes. He has no need to make a new engagement. A like fidelity in any age earns from Him a like reward. May you be blessed by all, O Mother of nations! Extend over all your powerful protection, but above all others, by God’s permission, may unfortunate Poland find by experience that your patronage is never invoked in vain!

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In Africa, two hundred and seventy holy martyrs crowned together.

In the same country, the Saints Martinian and Saturnian with their two brothers. In the reign of the Arian king Genseric, while the persecution of the Vandals was raging, they were slaves belonging to a man of that race, and being converted to the faith of Christ by Maxima, a slave like themselves, they manifested their attachment to the truth with such courage, that they were beaten with rough clubs and lacerated in all parts of their bodies to the very bone. Although this barbarous treatment was continued for a considerable period, their wounds were each time healed over night, for which they were at length sent into exile. There they converted many barbarians to the faith and obtained from the Roman Pontiff a priest and other ministers to baptise them. Finally they were condemned to die by being dragged through thorns, with their feet tied behind running chariots. Maxima being miraculously delivered after enduring many tribulations, became the Superioress of a large monastery of virgins, where she ended her days in peace.

Also the Saints Saturninus, Nereus and three hundred and sixty-five other martyrs.

At Cologne, St. Eliphius, martyr, under Julian the Apostate.

Also St. Bercharius, abbot and martyr.

Near Bourges, St. Ambrose, bishop of Cahors.

At Mayence, St. Lullus, bishop and confessor.

At Treves, St. Florentinus, bishop.

At Arbon in Switzerland, St. Gall, abbot, a disciple of blessed Columban.

On Mount Cassino, blessed Pope Victor III, who succeeded Pope St. Gregory VII in the papal chair and threw new lustre round the Holy See by the signal triumph he gained over the Saracens through the divine assistance. The veneration paid to him from time immemorial Pope Leo XIII approved and confirmed.

At Muro in Lucania, St. Gerard Majella, a professed lay brother in the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. Pope St. Pius X, on account of his reputation for miracles ranked him among the saints.

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

Thanks be to God.