23 SEPTEMBER – SAINT LINUS (Pope and Martyr)

Pope Linus was born at Volterra in Tuscany, and was the first to succeed Saint Peter in the government of the Church. His faith and holiness were so great that he not only cast out devils, but even raised the dead to life. He wrote the acts of blessed Peter, and in particular what he had done against Simon Magus. He decreed that no woman should enter a church with her head uncovered. On account of his constancy in confessing the Christian faith, this Pontiff was beheaded by command of Saturninus, a wicked and ungrateful ex-consul whose daughter he had delivered from the tyranny of the devils. He was buried on the Vatican, near the sepulchre of the prince of the apostles, on the ninth of the Calends of October. He governed the Church 11 years, 2 months and 23 days. In two ordinations in the month of December he consecrated 15 bishops and 18 priests.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The lives of the first Vicars of Christ are buried in a mysterious obscurity, just as the foundations of a monument built to defy the ravages of time are concealed from view. To be the supports of the everlasting Church is a sufficient glory: sufficient to justify our confidence in them, and to awaken our gratitude. As for ourselves, we will rejoice with the Church on this feast and pay our loving veneration to the humble and gentle Pontiff who was the first laid to rest beside Saint Peter in the Vatican crypts.

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Simon Bar-Jonah was invested with the sovereign pontificate by our Lord in person, and openly before all. You, O blessed Pontiff, received in secret, yet none the less directly from Jesus, the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. In your person began the reign of pure faith. Henceforth the bride, though she hears not the Man-God repeat His injunction to Peter: “feed my lambs,” nevertheless acknowledges the continuance of His authority in the lawfully appointed representative of her divine Spouse. Obtain by your prayers that the shadows of Earth may never cause us to waver in our obedience and that hereafter we may merit, with you, to contemplate our divine Head in the light of eternal day.

 

THE HISTORY, MYSTERY AND PRACTICE OF TIME AFTER PENTECOST

THE HISTORY, MYSTERY AND PRACTICE OF TIME AFTER PENTECOST

Dom Prosper Guéranger

The History of Time after Pentecost

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

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

The Mystery of Time after Pentecost

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Practice of Time after Pentecost

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

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

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

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

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

22 APRIL – SAINTS SOTUS AND CAIUS (Popes and Martyrs)

 

Soter was born at Fondi in Campania. He passed a decree forbidding virgins consecrated to God to touch the sacred Vessels and Palls, or to exercise the office of Thurifer in the Church. He also decreed that on Maundy Thursday, the Body of Christ should be received by all, excepting those who were forbidden to do so by reason of some grievous sin. His Pontificate lasted 3 years, 11 months and 18 days. He was crowned with martyrdom during the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius and was buried in the Cemetery which was afterwards called the Cemetery of Caliixtus. In the month of December, according to the custom observed by his predecessors, he ordained 18 Priests, 9 Deacons, and 11 Bishops.

Caius was a native of Dalmatia and a relation of the emperor Diocletian. He decreed that the following ecclesiastic orders or honours should precede the ordination of a Bishop: Door-keeper, Lector, Exorcist, Acolyte, Sub-deacon, Deacon and Priest. For some time he concealed himself in a cave in order to escape the cruelty exercised against the Christians by Diocletian, but after eight years, he, together with his brother Gabinus, received the crown of martyrdom. He governed the Church 12 years, 4 months and 5 days. He ordained in the month of December, 25 Priests, 8 Deacons and 5 Bishops. He was buried in the Cemetery of Callixtus on the 10th of the Calends of May (April 22nd). Urban VIII revived his memory in Rome, restored his Church, which was in ruins, and honoured it with a Title, a Station, and the relics of the Saint.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The palms of two martyred Popes are intertwined and grace this day of the Calendar. Soter suffered for Christ in the second, and Caius in the third century. A hundred years separate them, and yet we have the same energy of faith, the same jealous fidelity to keep intact the depositum left by Christ to His Church. What human society ever existed that produced heroes for century after century? The society, however, which was founded by Christ — in other words, the Church — is based on that traditional devotedness which consists in laying down one’s life for the Faith. And if so, we may be sure that the spirit of martyrdom would show itself in them that were the Heads and Fathers of this Society. The first thirty successors of Saint Peter paid dearly for the honour of the Supreme Pontificate: they were martyrs. How grand the throne of our Risen Jesus, surrounded as it is by all these kings clad in their triumphant scarlet robes!

Soter was the immediate successor of Anicetus whose feast we kept on the 17th of this month. Time has effaced the details of his life. Eusebius, however, gives us a fragment of a Letter written by Saint Diooysius, Bishop of Corinth, in which thanks are expressed to the Pontiff for the alms he sent to the faithful of that Church during a famine. An Apostolic Letter was sent with these alms and Saint Dionysius tells us that it was read in the assemblies of the Faithful, together with the one addressed to the same Church, in the preceding century, by Saint Clement. The Roman Pontiffs have ever united charity to their fidelity in preserving pure the Deposit of our Faith. With regard to Caius, he suffered death in the terrible persecution under Diocletian, and little more than a mere mention of his name is given in the annals of Christian Rome.

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O holy Pontiffs, you are of the number of those who went through the great tribulation (Apocalypse vii. 14) and passed, through fire and water (Psalm lxv. 12), to the eternal shores of Heaven. The thought of Jesus’ victory over death gave you courage: you remembered how His Passion was followed by a glorious Resurrection. By imitating Him in laying down your lives for your sheep, you have taught us how we also should think no sacrifice too great to be made for our Faith. Get us this heroic courage. Baptism has numbered us among the soldiers of Christ. Confirmation has given us the Spirit of Fortitude. We must, then, be ready for battle. It may be that even in our own times a persecution may rage against the Church. At all events, we have to fight against ourselves, the spirit of the world and Satan: support us by your prayers. You were once the Fathers of the Christian people. You are still animated with the pastoral charity which then filled your hearts. Protect us and make us loyal to the God whose cause was so clear to you when here on Earth.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Smyrna, the Saints Apelles and Lucius who were among the first disciples of Christ.

The same day, many holy martyrs who, the year following the death of St. Simeon, and on the anniversary of the Passion of Our Lord, were put to the sword for the name of Christ throughout Persia under king Sapor. Among those who then suffered for the faith were the eunuch Azades, a favourite of the king; Milles, a bishop renowned for sanctity and miracles; the bishop Acepsimas, with one of his priests named James; also Aithalas and Joseph, priests; Azadan and Abdiesus, deacons, and many other clerics; Mareas and Bicor, bishops, with twenty other bishops, and nearly two hundred and fifty clerics; many monks and consecrated virgins, among whom was the sister of St. Simeon, called Tarbula, with her maid-servant, who were both killed in a most cruel manner by being tied to stakes and sawed in two.

Also in Persia, the Saints Parmenius, Helimenas and Chrysotelus, priests, Lucas and Mucius, deacons, whose triumph is related in the Acts of Saints Abdon and Sennen.

At Alexandria, the birthday of the martyr St. Leonides who suffered under Severus.

At Lyons, in the persecution of Antoninus Verus, St. Epipodius who was arrested with Alexander, his companion, and after undergoing severe torments consummated his martyrdom by decapitation.

At Sens, St. Leo, bishop and confessor.

At Anastasiopolis, St. Theodore, a bishop renowned for miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.

29 JANUARY – SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES (Bishop and Confessor)

 

 

Francis was born of pious and noble parents in the town Sales, from which the family took their name. From his earliest years he gave pledge of his future sanctity by the innocence and gravity of his conduct. Having been instructed in the liberal sciences during his youth, he was sent early to Paris that he might study philosophy and theology, and in order that his education might be complete, he was sent to Padua where he took, with much honour, the degree of doctor in both civil and canon law. He visited the sanctuary of Loreto where he renewed the vow he had already taken in Paris, of perpetual virginity, in which holy resolution he continued till death despite all the temptations of the devil and all the allurements of the flesh. He refused to accept an honourable position in the Senate of Savoy and entered into the ecclesiastical state. He was ordained priest and was made Provost of the Diocese of Geneva, which charge he so laudably fulfilled that Granier, his Bishop, selected him for the arduous undertaking of labouring, by the preaching of God’s word, for the conversion of the Calvinists of Chablais and the neighbouring country round about Geneva. This mission he undertook with much joy. He had to suffer the harshest treatment on the part of the heretics who frequently sought to take away his life, caluminated him and laid all kinds of plots against him, but he showed heroic courage in the midst of all these dangers and persecutions and by the divine assistance, converted, as it is stated, 72,000 heretics to the Catholic faith, among whom were many distinguished by the high position they held in the world and by their learning.

After the death of Granier who had already made him his Coadjutor, he was made Bishop of Geneva. Then it was that his sanctity showed itself in every direction, by his zeal for ecclesiastical discipline, his love of peace, his charity to the poor and every virtue. From a desire to give more honour to God he founded a new Order of nuns which he called the Visitation, taking for their Rule that of Saint Augustine, to which he added Constitutions of admirable wisdom, discretion and sweetness. He enlightened the children of the Church by the works he wrote, which are full of a heavenly wisdom, and point out a path which is at once safe and easy to Christian perfection. In his fifty-fifth year, whilst returning from France to Annecy, he was taken with his last sickness, immediately after having celebrated Mass on the Feast of Saint John the Evangelist. On the following day his soul departed this life for Heaven in 1622. His body was taken to Annecy and buried with great demonstration of honour, in the Church of the nuns of the Order of the Visitation. Immediately after his death miracles began to be wrought through his intercession, which being officially authenticated, he was canonised by Pope Alexander VII and his Feast was appointed to be kept on the 29th of January.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The angelical Bishop Francis of Sales has a right to a distinguished position near the crib of Jesus on account of the sweetness of his virtues, the childlike simplicity of his heart and the humility and tenderness of his love. He comes with the lustre of his glorious conquests on him — seventy-two thousand heretics converted to the Church by the ardour of his charity, an Order of holy servants of God, which he founded, and countless thousands of souls trained to piety by his prudent and persuasive words and writings.

God gave him to his Church at the very time that heresy was holding her out to the world as a worn-out system that had no influence over men’s minds. He raised up this true minister of the Gospel in the very country where the harsh doctrines of Calvin were most in vogue, that the ardent charity of Francis might counteract the sad influence of that heresy. “If you want heretics to be convinced of their errors,” said the learned Cardinal Du Perron, “you may send them to me. But if you want them to be converted, send, them to the Bishop of Geneva.” Francis of Sales was sent, then, as a living image of Jesus, opening his arms and calling sinners to repentance, the victims of heresy to truth, the just to perfection and all men to confidence and love.

The Holy Spirit had rested on him with all his divine power and sweetness. A few days back we were meditating on the Baptism of Jesus, and how the Holy Ghost descended on Him in the shape of a dove. There is an incident in the life of Francis which reminds us of this great Mystery. He was singing Mass on Whit Sunday at Annecy. A dove, which had been let into the Cathedral, after flying for a long time round the building, at length came into the sanctuary and rested on the Saint’s head. The people could not but be impressed with this circumstance, which they looked on as an appropriate symbol of Francis’s loving spirit, just as the globe of fire which appeared above the head of Saint Martin when he was offering up the Holy Sacrifice, was interpreted as a sign of his apostolic zeal. The same thing happened to our Saint on another occasion. It was the Feast of our Lady’s Nativity and Francis was officiating at Vespers in the Collegiate Church at Annecy. He was seated on a throne, the carving of which represented the Tree of Jesse, which the Prophet Isaias tells us produced the virginal branch from which sprang the divine flower on which there rested the Spirit of love. They were singing the Psalms of the Feast when a dove flew into the Church through an aperture in one of the windows of the choir on the epistle side of the altar. It flew about for some moments and then lighted first on the Bishop’s shoulder, then on his knee, where it was caught by one of the assistants. When the Vespers were over, the Saint mounted the pulpit and ingeniously turned the incident that had occurred into an illustration which he hoped would distract the people from himself. He spoke to them of Mary, who, being full of the grace of the Holy Spirit, is called “the dove that is all fair, in whom there is no blemish” (Canticles vi. 8, iv. 7).

If we were asked which of the disciples of our Lord was the model on which this admirable prelate formed his character, we should mention, without any hesitation, the Beloved Disciple, John. Francis of Sales is, like him, the Apostle of charity and the simplicity of the great Evangelist caressing an innocent bird is reflected with perfection in the heart of the Bishop of Geneva. A mere look from John, a single word of his, used to draw men to the love of Jesus. And the contemporaries of Francis were wont to say: “the Bishop of Geneva is so amiable, what, Lord, must not you be!”

A circumstance in our Saint’s last illness again suggests to us the relation between himself and the Beloved Disciple. It was on the 27th of December, the Feast of Saint John, that Francis, after celebrating Mass and giving Communion to his dear Daughters of the Visitation, felt the first approach of the sickness which was to cause his death. As soon as it was known, the consternation was general but the Saint has already his whole conversation in Heaven, and on the following day, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, his soul took its flight to its Creator and the candour and simplicity of his spirit made him a worthy companion of those dear little ones of Bethlehem. But on neither of these two days could the Church place his Feast, as they were already devoted to the memory of St. John and the Holy Innocents. But she has ordered it to be kept during the forty days consecrated to the Birth of our Lord, and this 29th of January is the day fixed for it.

Saint Francis, then, the ardent lover of our new-born King, is to aid us, like all these other Christmas Saints, to know the charms of the Divine Babe. In his admirable Letters, we find him expressing, with all the freedom of friendly correspondence, the sweetness which used to fill his heart during this holy Season. Let us read a few passages from these confidential papers — they will teach us how to love our Jesus. Towards the end of the Advent of 1619, he wrote to a Religious of the Visitation, instructing her how to prepare for Christmas:

“My very dear Daughter, our sweet Infant Jesus is soon to be born in our remembrance, at the coming Feasts. And since He is born on purpose that He may visit us in the name of His Eternal Father, and is to be visited in His crib by the shepherds and the kings, I look on Him as both the Father and the Child of our Lady of the Visitation. Come, then, load Him with your caresses. Join all our Sisters in giving Him a warm welcome of hospitality. Sing to Him the sweetest carols you can find and, above all, adore Him very earnestly and very sweetly and, with Him, adore His poverty, His humility, His obedience and His meekness, as did His most holy Mother and Saint Joseph. Take one of His divine tears which is the dew of Heaven, and put it on your heart so that you may never admit any other sadness there than the sadness which will gladden this sweet Infant. And when you recommend your own soul to Him, recommend mine also, for you know its devotedness to yours. I beg of you to remember me affectionately to the dear Sisters whom I look upon as simple shepherdesses keeping watch over their flocks, that is, their affections, and who, being warned by the Angel, are going to pay their homage to the Divine Babe and offer Him, as an earnest of their eternal loyalty, the fairest of their lambs, which is their love, unreserved and undivided.”

On Christmas Eve, filled by anticipation with the joy of the sacred Night which is to give the world its Redeemer, Francis writes to Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, and thus invites her to profit by the visit of the Divine Infant received from the contemplation of the great Mystery:

“Oh the sweetness of this night! The Church has been singing these words — honey has dropped from the Heavens. I thought to myself that the Angels, not only come down on our Earth to sing their admirable Gloria in excelsis, but to gaze also on this sweet Babe, this Honey of Heaven resting on two beautiful Lilies, for sometimes He is in Mary’s arms, and sometimes it is Joseph that caresses Him. What will you say of my having the ambition to think that our two Angel Guardians were of the grand choir of blessed Spirits that sang the sweet hymn on this night? I said to myself — oh happy we if they would deign to sing once more their heavenly hymn and our hearts could hear it! I besought it of them that so there might be glory in the highest heavens, and peace to hearts of good will. Returning home from celebrating these sacred Mysteries, I rest awhile in thus sending you my Happy Christmas! for I dare say that the poor shepherds took some little rest after they had adored the Babe announced to them by the Angels. And as I thought of their sleep on that night, I said to myself: How sweetly must they not have slept, dreaming of the sacred melody with which the Angels told them the glad tidings, and of the dear child and the Mother they had been to see!”

We will close our quotations by the following passage of another of his Letters to Saint Jane Frances de Chantal in which he speaks of the Most Holy Name of Jesus which the Divine Child of Mary received at His circumcision:

“O my Jesus! fill our hearts with the sacred balm of your Holy Name so that the sweetness of its fragrance may penetrate our senses and perfume our every action. But that our hearts may be capable of receiving this sweetness, they must be circumcised: take, therefore, from them whatever could displease your divine sight. O glorious Name! Named by the heavenly Father from all eternity, be you forever written on our souls that, as you, Jesus, are our Saviour, so may our souls be eternally saved. And you, O Holy Virgin, that were the first among mortals to pronounce this saving Name, teach us to pronounce it as it behoves us, that so we may merit the salvation which you brought into this world! My dear Daughter! it was but right that my first letter of this year should be to Jesus and Mary: my second is to you, to wish you a Happy New Year and exhort you to give your whole heart to God. May we so spend this year as that it may secure to us the years of eternity! My first word on waking this morning was: Jesus! and I felt as though I would gladly pour out on the face of the whole Earth the oil of this sweet Name. As long as balm is shut up in a well-sealed vase, no one knows its sweetness, save him who put it there: but as soon as the vase is opened and a few drops are sprinkled around, all who are present say: what sweet balm! Thus it was, my dear daughter, with our Jesus. He contained within Himself the balm of salvation, but no one knew it until His divine Flesh was laid open by the fortunate wound of that cruel knife. And then people knew Him to be the Balm of the world’s Salvation, and first Joseph and Mary, then the whole neighbourhood, began to cry out: Jesus! which means Saviour.”

*****

Peaceful conqueror of souls! Pontiff beloved of God and man! We venerate you as the perfect imitator of the sweetness and gentleness of our Jesus. Having learnt of Him to be meek and humble of heart, you did, according to His promise, possess the land (Matthew v. 4). Nothing could resist you. Heretics, however obstinate; sinners, however hardened; tepid souls, however sluggish — all yielded to the powerful charm of your word and example. We love to see you standing near the crib of our loving Jesus and sharing in the glory of John and the Innocents, for you were an Apostle like John and simple like the children of Rachel. Oh that our hearts might be filled with the spirit of Bethlehem and learn how sweet is the yoke, and how light the burden of our Emmanuel! (Matthew xi. 30).

Pray for us to our Lord that our charity may be ardent like yours; that the desire of perfection may be ever active within us; that we may gain that introduction to a devout life which you so admirably taught; that we may have that love of our neighbour without which we cannot hope to love God; that we may be zealous for the salvation of souls; that we may be patient and forgive injuries, in order that we may love one another, not only in word and in tongue, but as your great model says, in deed and in truth (1 John iii. 18). Bless the Church Militant whose love for you is as fresh as though you had but just now left her. You are venerated and loved throughout the whole world.

Hasten the conversion of the followers of Calvin. Your prayers have already miraculously forwarded the great work and the Holy Sacrifice has long since been publicly offered up in the very city of Geneva. Redouble those prayers, and then, even we may live to see the grand triumph of the Church. Root out too, the last remnants of that Jansenistic heresy which was beginning to exercise its baneful influence at the close of your earthly pilgrimage. Remove from us the dangerous maxims and prejudices which have come down to us from those unhappy times when this odious sect was at the height of its power.

Bless with all the affection of your paternal heart the holy Order you founded and which you offered to Mary under the title of her Visitation. Maintain it in its present edifying fervour, give it increase in number and merit and direct it that so your family may be ever animated by the spirit of its father. Pray, also, for the venerable episcopate of which you are the ornament and model: ask our Lord to bless His Church with pastors endowed with your spirit, inflamed with your zeal, and imitators of your sanctity.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, on the Via Nomentana, the birthday of the holy martyrs Papius and Maurus, soldiers under the emperor Diocletian. At their first confession of Christ their mouths were bruised with stones and they were thrown into prison by order of Laodicius, prefect of the city. Afterwards they were beaten with rods and with leaded whips until they expired.

At Perugia, in the time of Marcus Aurelius, St. Constantius, bishop and martyr, who together with his companions, received the crown of martyrdom for the defence of the faith.

At Edessa in Syria, the holy martyrs Sarbelius and his sister Barbea, who were baptised by the blessed bishop Barsimseus, and crowned with martyrdom in the persecution of Trajan under the governor Lysias.

In the territory of Troyes, St. Sabinian, martyr, who was beheaded for the faith of Christ by the command of the emperor Aurelian.

At Milan, St. Aquilinus, priest, who was crowned with martyrdom by having his throat pierced with a sword by the Arians.

At Treves, the demise of the blessed bishop Valerius, a disciple of the blessed Apostle St. Peter.

At Bourges, St. Sulpicius Severus, bishop, distinguished by his virtues and erudition.

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

Thanks be to God.

6 JANUARY – THE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Feast of the Epiphany is the continuation of the mystery of Christmas, but it appears on the Calendar of the Church with its own special character. Its very name, which signifies Manifestation, implies that it celebrates the apparition of God to His creatures.

For several centuries the Nativity of our Lord was kept on this day, and when in the year 376 the decree of the Holy See obliged all Churches to keep the Nativity on the 25th December, as Rome did — the Sixth of January was not robbed of all its ancient glory. It was still to be called the Epiphany, and the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ was also commemorated on this same Feast, which Tradition had marked as the day on which that Baptism took place.

The Greek Church gives this Feast the venerable and mysterious name of Theophania, which is of such frequent recurrence in the early Fathers as signifying a divine Apparition. We find this name applied to this Feast by Eusebius, Saint Gregory Nazianzum and Saint Isidore of Pelusium. In the liturgical books of the Melchite Church the Feast goes under no other name. The Orientals call this solemnity also the holy Lights, on account of its being the day on which Baptism was administered (for, as we have just mentioned, our Lord was baptised on this same day.) Baptism is called by the holy Fathers Illumination, and they who received it Illuminated. Lastly, this Feast is called in many countries King’s Feast: it is, of course, an allusion to the Magi whose journey to Bethlehem is so continually mentioned in today’s Office.

The Epiphany shares with the Feasts of Christmas, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost the honour of being called, in the Canon of the Mass, a Day most holy. It is also one of the cardinal Feasts, that is, one of those on which the arrangement of the Christian Year is based for, as we have Sundays after Easter, and Sundays after Pentecost, so also we count six Sundays after the Epiphany.

The Epiphany is indeed a great Feast, and the joy caused us by the birth of our Jesus must be renewed on it for, as though it were a second Christmas Day, it shows us our Incarnate God in a new light. It leaves us all the sweetness of the dear Babe of Bethlehem who has appeared to us already in love. But to this it adds its own grand manifestation of the divinity of our Jesus. At Christmas it was a few shepherds that were invited by the Angels to go and recognise THE WORD MADE FLESH. But now, at the Epiphany, the voice of God Himself calls the whole world to adore this Jesus and hear Him.

The mystery of the Epiphany brings on us three magnificent rays of the Sun of Justice, our Saviour. In the calendar of pagan Rome this sixth day of January was devoted to the celebration of a triple triumph of Augustus, the founder of the Roman Empire: but when Jesus, our Prince of peace, whose empire knows no limits, had secured victory to His Church by the blood of the Martyrs — then did this His Church decree that a triple triumph of the Immortal King should be substituted in the Christian Calendar for those other three triumphs which had been won by the adopted son of Caesar.

The Sixth of January, therefore, restored the celebration of our Lord’s birth to the Twenty-Fifth of December. But in return there were united in the one same Epiphany three manifestations of Jesus’ glory: the mystery of the Magi coming from the East under the guidance of a star and adoring the Infant of Bethlehem as the divine King; the mystery of the Baptism of Christ who, while standing in the waters of the Jordan, was proclaimed by the Eternal Father as Son of God, and thirdly, the mystery of the divine power of this same Jesus, when He changed the water into wine at the marriage feast of Cana.

But did these three Mysteries really take place on this day? Is the Sixth of January the real anniversary of these great events? As the chief object of this work is to assist the devotion of the Faithful, we purposely avoid everything which would savour of critical discussion, and with regard to the present question we think it enough to state that Baronius, Suarez, Theophilus Raynaldus, Honorius De Sancta-Maria, Cardinal Gotti, Sandini, Benedict XIV and an almost endless list of other writers assert that the Adoration of the Magi happened on. this very day.

That the Baptism of our Lord, also, happened on the Sixth of January, is admitted by the severest historical critics, even by Tillemont himself, and has been denied by only two or three. The precise day of the miracle at the marriage feast of Cana is far from being as certain as the other two mysteries, though it is impossible to prove that the Sixth of January was not the day. For us the children of the Church it is sufficient that our Holy Mother has assigned the commemoration of these three manifestations for this Feast. We need nothing more to make us rejoice in the triple triumph of the Son of Mary.

If we now come to consider these three mysteries of our Feast separately, we will find that the Church of Rome in her Office and Mass of today is more intent on the Adoration of the Magi than on the other two. The two great Doctors of the Apostolic See, Saint Leo and Saint Gregory in their Homilies for this Feast take it as the almost exclusive object of their preaching. though together with Saint Augustine, Saint Paulinus of Nola, Saint Maximus of Turin, Saint Peter Chrysologus, Saint Hilary of Arles and Saint Isidore of Seville, they acknowledge the three mysteries of today’s Solemnity. That the mystery of the Vocation of the Gentiles should be made thus prominent by the Church of Rome is not to be wondered at for, by that heavenly vocation which in the three Magi called all nations to the admirable light of Faith, Rome, which till then had been the head of the Gentile world, was made the head of the Christian Church and of the whole human race.

The Greek Church makes no special mention in her Office of today of the Adoration of the Magi, for she unites it with the mystery of our Saviour’s birth in her celebration of Christmas Day. The Baptism of Christ absorbs all her thoughts and praises on the solemnity of the Epiphany.

In the Latin Church, this second mystery of our Feast is celebrated unitedly with the other two, on the Sixth of January, and mention is made of it several times in the Office. But as the coming of the Magi to the crib of our new-born King absorbs the attention of Christian Rome on this day, the mystery of the sanctification of the waters was to be commemorated on a day apart. The day chosen by the Western Church for paying special honour to the Baptism of our Saviour is the Octave of the Epiphany.

The third mystery of the Epiphany being also somewhat kept in the shade by the prominence given to the first (though allusion is several times made to it in the Office of the Feast) a special day has been appointed for its due celebration, and that day is the second Sunday after the Epiphany.

Several Churches have appended to the Mystery of changing the water into wine that of the multiplication of the loaves, which certainly bears some analogy with it, and was a manifestation of our Saviour’s divine power. But while tolerating the custom in the Ambrosian and Mozarabic rites, the Roman Church has never adopted it in order not to interfere with the sacredness of the triple triumph of our Lord which the Sixth of January was intended to commemorate as also, because Saint John tells us in his Gospel, that the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves happened when the Feast of the Pasch was at hand (John vi. 4) which, therefore, could not have any connection with the season of the year when the Epiphany is kept.

We propose to treat of the three mysteries, united in this great Solemnity, in the following order. Today, we will unite with the Church in honouring all three. During the Octave we will contemplate the Mystery of the Magi coming to Bethlehem. We will celebrate the Baptism of our Saviour on the Octave Day, and we will venerate the Mystery of the Marriage of Cana on the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, which is the day appropriately chosen by the Church for the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.

Let us, then, open our hearts to the joy of this grand day, and on this Feast of the Theophany, of the Holy Lights, of the Three Kings, let us look with love at the dazzling beauty of our Divine Sun who, as the Psalmist expresses it (Psalm xviii. 6) runs His course as a Giant, and pours out upon us floods of a welcome and yet most vivid light. The shepherds who were called by the Angels to be the first worshippers have been joined by the Prince of Martyrs, the Beloved Disciple, the dear troop of Innocents, our glorious Thomas of Canterbury, and Sylvester the Patriarch of Peace. And now, today, these Saints open their ranks to let the Kings of the East come to the babe in his crib, bearing with them the prayers and adorations of the whole human race. The humble stable is too little for such a gathering as this, and Bethlehem seems to be worth all the world besides. Mary, the Throne of the divine Wisdom, welcomes all the members of this court with her gracious smile of Mother and Queen. She offers her Son to man for his adoration, and to God, that He may be well pleased. God manifests Himself to men because he is great, but He manifests Himself by Mary, because He is full of mercy.

The great Day which now brings us to the crib of our Prince of Peace has been marked by two great events of the first ages of the Church. It was on the Sixth of January in the year 361 and Julian (who, in heart, was already an apostate,) happened to be at Vienne in Gaul. He was soon to ascend the imperial throne which would be left vacant by the death of Constantius, and he felt the need he had of the support of that Christian Church in which it is said he had received the order of Lector and which, nevertheless, he was preparing to attack with all the cunning and cruelty of a tiger. Like Herod, he too would fain go, on this Feast of the Epiphany and adore the new-born King. His panegyrist Ammianus Marcellinus tells us that this crowned hilosopher who had been seen, just before, coming out of the pagan temple where he had been consulting the soothsayers, made his way through the porticoes of the Church and, standing in the midst of the faithful people, offered to the God of the Christians his sacrilegious homage.

Eleven years later, in the year 372, another Emperor found his way into the Church on the same Feast of the Epiphany. It was Valens, a Christian, like Julian, by baptism, but a persecutor in the name of Arianism of that same Church which Julian persecuted in the name of his vain philosophy and still vainer gods. As Julian felt himself necessitated by motives of worldly policy to bow down on this day before the divinity of the Galilean, so on this same day the holy courage of a saintly Bishop made Valens prostrate himself at the feet of Jesus the King of kings.

Saint Basil had just then had his famous interview with the Prefect Modestus in which his episcopal intrepidity had defeated all the might of earthly power. Valens had come to Caesarea and, with his soul defiled with the Arian heresy, he entered the Basilica when the Bishop was celebrating, with his people, the glorious Theophany. Let us listen to Saint Gregory Nazianzum, thus describing the scene with his usual eloquence:

“The Emperor entered the Church. The chanting of the psalms echoed through the holy place like the rumbling of thunder. The people, like a waving sea, filled the house of God. Such was the order and pomp in and about the sanctuary that it looked more like Heaven than Earth. Basil himself stood erect before the people as the Scripture describes Samuel —his body and eyes and soul motionless as though nothing strange had taken place and, if I may say so, his whole being was fastened to his God and the holy Altar. The sacred ministers who surrounded the Pontiff were in deep recollectedness and reverence. The Emperor heard and saw all this. He had never before witnessed a spectacle so imposing. He was overpowered. His head grew dizzy, and darkness veiled his eyes.”

Jesus, the King of Ages, the Son of God and the Son of Mary had conquered. Valens was disarmed. His resolution of using violence against the holy Bishop was gone, and if heresy kept him from at once adoring the Word consubstantial to tho Father, he, at least, united his exterior worship with that which Basil’s flock was paying to the Incarnate God. When the Offertory came, he advanced towards the sanctuary and presented his gifts to Christ in the person of his holy priest. The fear lest Basil might refuse to accept them took such possession of the Emperor that had not the sacred ministers supported him, he would have fallen at the foot of the Altar. Thus has the Kingship of our new-born Saviour been acknowledged by the great ones of this world.

The Royal Psalmist had sung this prophecy — the Kings of the Earth will serve Him, and His enemies will lick the ground under His feet (Psalm lxxi. 9, 11). The race of Emperors like Julian and Valens was to be followed by Monarchs who would bend their knee before this Babe of Bethlehem and offer Him the homage of orthodox faith and devoted hearts. Theodosius, Charlemagne, our own Alfred the Great and Edward the Confessor, Stephen of Hungary, Emperor Henry II, Ferdinand of Castile, Louis IX of France, are examples of Kings who had a special devotion to the Feast of the Epiphany. Their ambition was to go, in company with the Magi, to the feet of the Divine Infant and offer Him their gifts. At the English Court the custom is still retained, and the reigning Sovereign offers an ingot of gold as a tribute of homage to Jesus the King of kings: the ingot is afterwards redeemed by a certain sum of money.

But this custom of imitating the Three Kings in their mystic gifts was not confined to Courts. In the Middle Ages the Faithful used to present on the Epiphany, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, to be blessed by the priest. These tokens of their devotedness to Jesus were kept as pledges of God’s blessing on their houses and families. The practice is still observed in some parts of Germany, and the prayer for the blessing was in the Roman Ritual until Pope Paul V suppressed it, together with several others, as being seldom required by the Faithful.

There was another custom which originated in the Ages of Faith and which is still observed in many countries. In honour of the Three Kings who came from the East to adore the Babe of Bethlehem, each family chose one of its members to be King. The choice was thus made. The family kept a feast which was an allusion to the third of the Epiphany Mysteries — the Feast of Cana in Galilee — a cake was served up, and he who took the piece which had a certain secret mark was proclaimed the King of the day. Two portions of the cake were reserved for the poor in whom honour was thus paid to the Infant Jesus and His Blessed Mother, for, on this Day of the triumph of Him who, though King was humble and poor, it was fitting that the poor should have a share in the general joy. The happiness of home was here, as in so many other instances, blended with the sacredness of Religion. This custom of King’s Feast brought relations and friends together and encouraged feelings of kindness and charity. Human weakness would sometimes, perhaps, show itself during these hours of holiday-making, but the idea and sentiment and spirit of the whole feast was profoundly Catholic, and that was sufficient guarantee to innocence.

The King’s Feast is still a Christmas joy in thousands of families, and happy those where it is kept in the Christian spirit which first originated it! For the last [four] hundred years, a puritanical zeal has decried these simple customs in which the seriousness of religion and the home enjoyments of certain festivals were blended together. The traditions of Christian family rejoicings have been blamed under pretexts of abuse as though a recreation in which religion had no share and no influence, were less open to intemperance and sin! Others have pretended (with little or no foundation) that the Twelfth Cake and the custom of choosing a King are mere imitations of the ancient pagan Saturnalia. Granting this to be correct (which it is not) we would answer that many of the old pagan customs have undergone a Christian transformation, and no one thinks of refusing to accept them thus purified. All is mistaken zeal has produced the sad effect of divorcing the Church from family life and customs, of excluding every religious manifestation from our traditions, and of bringing about what is so pompously called (though the word is expressive enough) the secularisation of society.

But let us return to the triumph of our sweet Saviour and King. His magnificence is manifested to us so brightly on this Feast! Our Mother the Church is going to initiate us into the mysteries we are to celebrate. Let us imitate the faith and obedience of the Magi: let us adore, with the holy Baptist, the divine Lamb over whom the heavens open. Let us take our place at the mystic feast of Cana where our dear King is present, thrice manifested, thrice glorified. In the last two mysteries, let us not lose sight of the Babe of Bethlehem, and in the Babe of Bethlehem let us cease not to recognise the Great God (in whom the Father was well pleased) and the supreme Ruler and Creator of all things.

Lesson – Isaias lx. 1‒6

Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold darkness will cover the earth, and a mist the people. But the Lord will arise upon you, and His glory will be seen upon you. And the Gentiles will walk in your light, and Kings in the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes round about, and see: all these are gathered together, they are come to you: your sons will come from afar, and your daughters will rise up at your side. Then will you see and abound, and your heart will wonder and be enlarged, when the multitude of the sea will be converted to you, the strength of the Gentiles will come to you. The multitude of camels will cover you, the dromedaries of Madian and Epha: all they from Saba will come, bringing gold and frankincense, and showing forth praise to the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Oh the greatness of this glorious Day on which begins the movement of all nations towards the Church, the true Jerusalem! Oh the mercy of our heavenly Father who has been mindful of all these people that were buried in the shades of death and sin! Behold! The glory of the Lord has risen upon the Holy City, and kings set out to find and see the Light. Jerusalem is not large enough to hold all this sea of nations. Another city must be founded and towards her will be turned the countless Gentiles of Madian and Epha. You, O Rome, are this Holy City, and your heart will wonder and be enlarged. Heretofore your victories have won you slaves, but from this day forward you will draw within your walls countless children. Lift up your eyes, and see — all these, that is, the whole human race, give themselves to you as your sons and daughters. They come to receive from you a new birth. Open wide your arms and embrace them that come from North and South, bringing gold and frankincense to Him who is your King and ours.

Gospel – Matthew ii. 1‒12

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judah in the days of King Herod, behold there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying: “Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and are come to adore him.” And Herod hearing this was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he enquired of them where Christ should be born. But they said to him: “In Bethlehem of Judah: for it is written by the Prophet: And you, Bethlehem, the land of Judah, are not the least among the princes of Judah: for out of you will come forth the captain that will rule my people Israel.” Then Herod privately calling the Wise Men, learned diligently of them the time of the star which appeared to them: and sending them into Bethlehem, said: “Go, and diligently enquire after the child: and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore him.” Who, having heard the king, went their way. And behold the star which they had seen in the east went before them until it came and stood over where the child was. And seeing the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And entering into the house, they found the Child with Mary, his Mother (here all kneel) and falling down, they adored him. And, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their own country.

Praise be to you, O Christ.
 

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Magi, the first-fruits of the Gentile world, have been admitted into the court of the great King whom they have been seeking, and we have followed them. The child has smiled upon us, as He did upon them. All the fatigues of the long journey — which man must take to reach his God — all are over and forgotten. Our Emmanuel is with us, and we are with Him. Bethlehem has received us, and we will not leave her again — for, in Bethlehem, we have the Child and Mary His Mother. Where else could we find riches like these that Bethlehem gives us? Oh let us beseech this incomparable Mother to give us this child of hers (for He is our light, and our love, and our Bread of life) now that we are about to approach the altar, led by the star of our faith. Let us, at once, open our treasures. Let us prepare our gold, our frankincense, and our myrrh for the sweet babe, our King. He will be pleased with our gifts, and we know he never suffers Himself to be outdone in generosity. When we have to return to our duties we will, like the Magi, leave our hearts with our Jesus And it will be by another way, by a new manner of life, that we will finish our sojourn in this country of our exile, looking forward to that happy day when life and light eternal will come and absorb into themselves the shadows of vanity and time which now hang over us.

* * * * *

We also, Jesus, come to adore you on this glorious Epiphany which brings all nations to your feet. We walk in the footsteps of the Magi, for we too have seen the Star, and we are come to you. Glory be to you, dear King! to you who said in the Canticle of David your ancestor: “I am appointed King over Sion, the holy mountain, that I may preach the commandment of the Lord. The Lord has said to me that He will give me the Gentiles for my inheritance, and the utmost parts of the Earth for my possession. Now, therefore, O ye kings, understand: receive instruction, ye that judge the Earth” (Psalm ii. 6, 8, 10).

You will say, O Emmanuel, with your own lips: “All power is given to me in Heaven and on Earth (Matthew xxviii. 18), and a few years after the whole Earth will have received your Even now Jerusalem is troubled. Herod is trembling on his throne. But the day is at hand when the heralds of your coming will go throughout the whole world proclaiming that He, who was the Desired of nations (Aggeus ii. 8), is come. The word that is to subject the Earth to you will go forth (Psalm xviii. 5) and, like an immense fire, will stretch to the uttermost parts of the universe. In vain will the strong ones of this world attempt to arrest its course. An Emperor will propose to the Senate, as the only means of staying the progress of your conquests, that thy Name be solemnly enrolled in the list of those gods whom you come to destroy. Other Emperors will endeavour to abolish your kingdom by the slaughter of your soldiers. But, all these efforts are vain. The day will come when the Cross, the sign of your power, will adorn the imperial banner. The Emperors will lay their crown at your feet, and proud Rome will cease to be the Capital of the empire of this world’s strength and power in order that she may become, forever, the centre of your peaceful and universal kingdom.

We already see the dawn of that glorious day. Your conquests, King of ages, begin with your Epiphany. You call, from the extreme parts of the unbelieving East, the first-fruits of that Gentile world which hitherto had not been your people and which is now to form your inheritance. Henceforth there is to be no distinction of Jew and Greek, of Barbarian and Scythian (Colossians iii. 11). You have loved Man above Angel, for you have redeemed the one, while you have left the other in his fall. If your predilection, for a long period of ages, was for the race of Abraham, henceforth your preference is to be given to the Gentiles. Israel was but a single people. We are numerous as the sands of the sea, and the stars of the firmament (Genesis xxii. 17). Israel was under the law of fear. You have reserved the law of love for us.

From this day of your Manifestation, divine King, begins your separation from the Synagogue which refuses your love. And on this same day you take, in the person of the Magi, the Gentiles as your Spouse. Your union with her will soon be proclaimed from the Cross, when, turning your face from the ungrateful Jerusalem, you will stretch forth your hands towards the nations of the Gentiles. Ineffable joy of your birth! But O still better joy of your Epiphany in which we, the once disinherited, are permitted to approach to you, offer you our gifts, and see you graciously accept them, O merciful Emmanuel! Thanks be to you, O Infant God, for that unspeakable gift (2 Corinthians ix. 15) of Faith which, as your Apostle teaches us, has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into your kingdom, making us partakers of the lot of the Saints in Light (Colossians i. 12, 13). Give us grace to grow in the knowledge of this your Gift, and to understand the importance of this great day on which you make alliance with the whole human race, which you would afterwards make your bride by espousing her. Oh the Mystery of this Marriage Feast, dear Jesus! “A Marriage,”' says one of your Vicars on Earth (Pope Innocent III), “that was promised to the Patriarch Abraham, confirmed by oath to King David, accomplished in Mary when she became Mother, and consummated, confirmed and declared on this day, consummated in the adoration of the Magi, confirmed in the Baptism in the Jordan, and declared in the miracle of the water changed into wine.”

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In the diocese of Rheims, the martyrdom of St. Macra, virgin, who, in the persecution of Diocletian, was cast into the fire by order of the governor Rictiovarus. As she remained uninjured, she had her breasts cut off, was imprisoned in a foul dungeon, rolled upon broken earthenware and burning coals, and finally she gave up her soul while engaged in prayer.

In Africa, the commemoration of many holy martyrs who were burned at the stake in the persecution of Severus.

At Rennes in France, St. Melanius, bishop and confessor, who, after a life remarkable for virtues innumerable with his thoughts constantly fixed on heaven, gloriously departed from this world.

At Florence, St. Andrew Corsini, a Florentine Carmelite and bishop of Fiesoli. Being celebrated for miracles, he was ranked among the saints by Pope Urban VIII. His festival is kept on the fourth of February.

At Geris in Egypt, St. Nilammon, anchoret, who, while he was carried to a bishopric against his will, gave up his soul to God in prayer.

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

Thanks be to God.

28 DECEMBER – THE HOLY INNOCENTS

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

The feast of the beloved Disciple is followed by that of the Holy Innocents. The crib of Jesus, where we have already met and venerated the Prince of Martyrs and the Eagle of Patmos, has today standing round it a lovely choir of little children clad in snow-white robes and holding green branches in their hands. The Divine Babe smiles upon them. He is their King, and these Innocents are smiling upon the Church of God. Courage and fidelity first led us to the crib. Innocence now comes and bids us tarry there.

Herod intended to include the Son of God among the murdered babes of Bethlehem. The Daughters of Rachel wept over their little ones and the land streamed with blood, but the tyrant’s policy can do no more: it cannot reach Jesus, and its whole plot ends in recruiting an immense army of Martyrs for Heaven. These children were not capable of knowing what an honour it was for them to be made victims for the sake of the Saviour of the world. But the very first instant after their immolation and all was revealed to them: they had gone through this world without knowing it, and now that they know it, they possess an infinitely better. God showed here the riches of His mercy. He asks of them but a momentary suffering, and that over, they wake up in Abraham’s bosom: no further trial awaits them, they are in spotless innocence, and the glory due to a soldier who died to save the life of his Prince, belongs eternally to them.

They died for Jesus’ sake. Therefore, their death was a real Martyrdom, and the Church calls them by the beautiful name of The Flowers of the Martyrs, because of their tender age and their innocence. Justly, then, does the Ecclesiastical Cycle bring them before us today, immediately after the two valiant champions of Christ, Stephen and John. The connection of these three Feasts is thus admirably explained by Saint Bernard:

“In Saint Stephen we have both the act and the desire of Martyrdom. In Saint John we have but the desire. In the Holy Innocents we have but the act. Will anyone doubt whether a crown was given to these Innocents? If you ask me what merit could they have that God should crown them? Let me ask you what was the fault for which Herod slew them? What is the mercy of Jesus less than the cruelty of Herod? And while Herod could put these babes to death who had done him no injury, Jesus may not crown them for dying for Him? Stephen, therefore, is a Martyr, by a Martyrdom of which men can judge, for he gave this evident proof of his sufferings being felt and accepted that, at the very moment of his death, his solicitude both for his own soul and for those of his persecutors increased. The pangs of his bodily passion were less intense than the affection of his soul’s compassion which made him weep more for their sins than for his own wounds. John was a Martyr by a Martyrdom which only Angels could see, for the proofs of his sacrifice being spiritual, only spiritual creatures could see them. But the Innocents were Martyrs to none other eye save yours, O God! Man could find no merit. Angel could find no merit: the extraordinary prerogative of your grace is the more boldly brought out. From the mouth of the infants and the sucklings you have perfected praise (Psalm viii. 3). The praise the Angels give you is: Glory be to God in the highest, and peace on Earth to men of good will (Luke ii. 14). It is a magnificent praise, but I make bold to say, that it is not perfect till He comes who will say: Suffer little children to come to me, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven (Matthew xix. 14), and in the mystery of my mercy, there will be peace to men that cannot even use their will” (Sermon for the Feast of the Holy Innocents.)

Yes, God did for these Innocents, who were immolated on His Son’s account, what He is doing every moment now by the sacrament of regeneration in the case of children who die before coming to the use of reason. We, who have been baptised by water, should be all the more ready to honour these little ones who were baptised in their own blood and thereby associated to all the mysteries of the Divine Infancy. We ought, together with the Church, to congratulate them, for that a glorious and premature death secured them their innocence. They have lived upon our Earth, and yet it defiled them not! Truly these tender Lambs deserve to be forever with the Lamb of God! May this same Earth of ours, grown old in wickedness, draw down the divine mercy on itself by the love and honour it gives each year, to these sweet children of Bethlehem who, like the Dove of Noah’s Ark, could not find where to rest their feet.

In the midst of the joy which at this holy time fills both Heaven and Earth, the Holy Church of Rome forgets not the lamentations of the mothers who beheld their children cruelly butchered by Herod’s soldiers. She hears the wailing of Rachel and condoles with her and, unless it be a Sunday, she suspends on this Feast some of the manifestations of the joy which inundates her soul during the Octave of her Jesus’ birth. The red vestments of a Martyr’s Day would be too expressive of that stream of infant blood which forbids the mothers to be comforted, and joyous white would ill suit their poignant grief. She, therefore vests in purple, the symbol of mournfulness. The Gloria in excelsis, the Hymn she loves so passionately during these days, when Angels come down from Heaven to sing it — even that must be hushed today. And in the Holy-Sacrifice she sings no Alleluia. In this, as in everything she does, the Church acts with an exquisite delicacy of feeling. Her Liturgy is a school of refined Christian considerateness.

Lesson – Apocalypse xiv. 1‒5

In those days I beheld the Lamb standing on mount Sion, and with him a hundred forty-four thousand having His name, and the name of His Father, written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from Heaven, as the noise of many waters, and as the voice of great thunder. And the voice which I heard was as the voice of harpers harping on their harps. And they sung as it were a new canticle before the throne and before the four living creatures and the ancients. And no man could say the canticle, but those hundred forty-four thousand who were purchased from the earth. These are they who were not defiled with women: for they are virgins. These follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were purchased from among men, the first-fruits to God and to the Lamb: And in their mouth there was found no lie, for they are without spot before the throne of God.

Thanks be to God.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

The Church shows us, by her choice of this mysterious passage of the Apocalypse, how great a value she sets on innocence, and what our own esteem of it ought to be. The Holy Innocents follow the Lamb because they are pure. Personal merits on Earth they could not have, but they went rapidly through this world, and its defilements never reached them. Their purity was not tried, as was Saint John’s, but it is beautified by the blood they shed for the Divine Lamb, and He is pleased with it and makes them His companions. Let the Christian, therefore, be ambitious for this innocence which is thus singularly honoured. If he has preserved it, let him keep and guard it as his most precious treasure. If he has lost it, let him repair the loss by repentance, and having done so, let him say with the Spouse in the Canticle: “I have washed my feet: how shall I defile them?” (Canticles v. 3).

Gospel – Matthew ii. 13‒18

At that time An Angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: “Arise, and take the child and his mother, and fly into Egypt: and be there until I will tell you. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him.” Who arose, and took the child and his mother by night, and retired into Egypt: and he was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: “Out of Egypt have I called my son.” Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry, and sending killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying: “A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning. Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.”

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Thus does the Gospel in its sublime simplicity relate the Martyrdom of the Innocents. “Herod, sending, killed all the children!” The Earth paid no attention to the fell tyranny, which made so rich a harvest for Heaven: there was heard a voice in Rama, Rachel wailing her little ones. It went up to Heaven, and Bethlehem was still again, as though nothing had happened. But these favoured victims had been accepted by God, and they were to be the companions of His Son. Jesus looked at them from His crib and blessed them. Mary compassionated with them and their mothers. The Church, which Jesus had come to form, would for all future ages glorify these youthful Martyrs and place the greatest confidence in the patronage of these children, for she knows how powerful their intercession is with her heavenly Spouse.

*****

Blessed Babes! We celebrate your triumph and we congratulate you in your having been chosen as the companions of Jesus when in His crib. What a glad waking was yours from the darkness of unconscious infancy to the precious light of Abraham’s bosom where were congregated all the elect! How dear to you the sword that thus transformed you! What gratitude had you not for the God who thus chose you, out of millions of other children, to do honour to the birth of His Son by this sacrifice of your blood and lives! Too young to fight the battle, but did you win the crown. The martyr’s palm waved in those tiny hands which had not strength to pluck it. God would give proof of His munificence: He would teach us that he is Master of His gifts. And was it not fitting that the birth of the Son of this great King should be commemorated by largess such as this! Sweet Infant Martyrs! We give praise to our God for His having thus favoured you, and, with the whole Church, we rejoice in the privileges you have received.

Flowers of the Martyrs, we confide in your intercession and beseech you, by the reward so gratuitously conferred on you, to be mindful of us your brethren who are struggling amid the dangers of this sinful world, We, too, desire to receive those same palms and crowns which you have won, but with such innocence and simplicity that the Church says you played with them: whereas we have to fight hard and long for them, and are so often on the point of losing them forever! The God that has glorified you is our last end as truly as He is yours. In Him alone can our hearts find their rest. Pray for us that we may possess Him for all eternity. Pray for us that we may obtain child-like simplicity of heart from which comes that unreserved confidence in God which leads man to the perfect accomplishment of His holy will. May we bear the Cross with patience when He sends it, and desire nothing but His holy will. You gazed on the murderers who broke your gentle sleep, and you found nothing to make you fear. The bright sword they held over your cradle had but the look of a toy you asked to play with. Death stared you in the face and you smiled on him. May we imitate you and be meek and graceful in the trials that come to us, making them our martyrdom by the quiet endurance of our courage, and the conformity of our will with that of our Sovereign Lord and Master who only gives the cross that He may give the crown. May we never object to or hate the instruments He uses with which to try us. May no harshness nor injustice nor pain ever quench the fire of our charity, nor any event ever deprive us of that peace without which our souls live not to God.

And, lastly, O you Innocent Lambs slain for Jesus and following Him wherever He goes, because you are pure, pray for us to the Lamb of God that He will permit us to come to Him in Bethlehem and, like you, fix our dwelling there, for it is the abode of love and innocence. Speak for us to Mary, a Mother more compassionate than Rachel. Tell her that we are her children and your brethren. She that compassionated your momentary sufferings will pity us and help us in our long years of temptation, pain and sorrow.

*****

Three days have passed since the birth of Jesus. Let us visit Him in the stable and humbly adore our Emmanuel. Let us think on the Mercy which led Him to become a Little Child in order to bring us near to Himself: let us be filled with astonishment at seeing our God thus close to His creatures. “He,” says the holy Abbot Guerric, “He that in Heaven surpasses the sublime intellects of the Angels is here on Earth palpable to the dull sense of men. For, whereas God could not speak to us as spiritual beings — for we are carnal — His Word was made Flesh, that all flesh might not only hear, but might even see Him whom the mouth of the Lord had spoken (Isaias xl. 5). And whereas the world knew not the Wisdom of God in His wisdom, that same wisdom, by an ineffable condescension, made Himself foolishness (1 Corinthians i. 25). I give you praise, O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, for that you have hid this Wisdom from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed it to little ones (Matthew xi. 25). The haughtiness of the proud is exceedingly adverse to the humility of this Little One, and that which is high to men is an abomination before God (Luke xvi. 15). This Little One finds sympathy with none save with them that are little in heart, and He takes up His abode with none save with them that are humble and peaceful As, therefore, these little children sin, glorying in Him: A little child is born to us (Isaias viii. 18), so does He say of them: Behold Me and my children whom the Lord has given to me! (Isaias ix. 6). Thus it was that the glory of Martyrdom began with Innocent Babes, for the Father would give to His Son, the Infant Jesus, companions of His own tender age and hereby the Holy Ghost taught us that of such is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew xix. 14).

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Ancyra in Galatia, the holy martyrs Eutychius, priest, and Domitian, deacon.

In Africa, the birthday of the holy martyrs Castor, Victor and Rogatian.

At Nicomedia, the holy martyrs Indes, eunuch, Domna, Agapes and Theophila, virgins, and their companions, who, after long combats, attained to the crown of martyrdom by various kinds of death during the persecution of Diocletian.

At Neocaesarea in Pontus, St. Troadius, martyr, in the persecution of Decius. During his combat St. Gregory Thaumaturgus appeared to him in spirit, and encouraged him to undergo martyrdom.

At Arabissus in Lower Armenia, St. Caesarius, a martyr who suffered under Galerius Maximian.

At Lyons in France, the birthday of St. Francis of Sales, bishop of Geneva, ranked among the saints by Pope Alexander VII because of his most ardent zeal for the conversion of heretics. His festival, by order of the same Pontiff, is kept on the twenty-ninth of January, when his sacred body was translated from Lyons to Annecy. Blessed Pius IX confirmed a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, declaring him Doctor of the Universal Church.

At Rome, St. Domnion, priest.

In Egypt, St. Theodore, monk, a disciple of St. Pachomius.

In the monastery of Lerins, St. Anthony, a monk renowned for miracles.

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

Thanks be to God.