Sunday 15 August 2010

The Assumption

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – August 15

Ancient Coptic Rite Icon of the Assumption “Today the Virgin Mary ascended to Heaven; rejoice, for She reigns with Christ forever.” The Church will close Her chants on this glorious day with this sweet antiphon, which resumes the object of the Feast and the spirit in which it should be celebrated.

No other solemnity breathes, like this one, at once triumph and peace; none better answers to the enthusiasm of the many and the serenity of souls consummated in love. Assuredly that was as great a triumph when Our Lord, rising by His own power from the tomb, cast Hell into dismay; but to our souls, so abruptly drawn from the abyss of sorrows on Golgotha, the suddenness of the victory caused a sort of stupor to mingle with the joy of that greatest of days. In presence of the prostrate angels, the hesitating apostles, the women seized with fear and trembling, one felt that the divine isolation of the Conqueror of death was perceptible even to His most intimate friends, and kept them, like Magdalene, at a distance.

Mary’s death, however, leaves no impression but peace; that death had no other cause than love. Being a mere creature, She could not deliver Herself from that claim of the old enemy; but leaving Her tomb filled with flowers; She mounts up to Heaven, flowing with delights, leaning upon Her Beloved (Cant. 8: 5). Amid the acclamations of the daughters of Sion, who will henceforth never cease to call Her Blessed, She ascends surrounded by choirs of heavenly spirits joyfully praising the Son of God. Never more will shadows veil, as they did on earth, the glory of the most beautiful daughter of Eve. Beyond the immovable Thrones, beyond the dazzling Cherubim, beyond the flaming Seraphim, onward She passes, delighting the heavenly city with Her sweet perfumes. She stays not till She reaches the very confines of the Divinity; close to the throne of honor where Her Son, the King of ages, reigns in justice and in power; there She is proclaimed Queen, there She will reign for evermore in mercy and in goodness.

Among the feasts of saints, this is the solemnity of solemnities. “Let the mind of man,” says St. Peter Damian, “be occupied in declaring Her magnificence; let his speech reflect Her majesty. May the Sovereign of the world deign to accept the goodwill of our lips, to aid our insufficiency, to illumine with her own light the sublimity of this day.”

It is no new thing, then, that Mary’s triumph fills the hearts of Christians with enthusiasm. If certain ancient calendars give to this Feast the title of Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we cannot thence conclude that in those times the Feast had no other object than Mary’s holy death; the Greeks, from whom we have the expression, have always included in the solemnity the glorious triumph that followed Her death.

At Rome the Assumption or Dormition of the Holy Mother of God appears in the 7th century to have already been celebrated for an indefinite length of time; nor does it seem to have had any other day than August 15. According to Nicephorus Callistus, the same date was assigned to it for Constantinople by the Emperor Mauritius at the end of the 6th century. The historian notes, at the same time, the origin of several other solemnities, while of the Dormition alone, he does not say that it was established by Mauritius on such a day; hence learned authors have concluded that the Feast itself already existed before the imperial decree was issued, which was thus only intended to put an end to its being celebrated on various days.

At that very time, far away from Byzantium, the Merovingian Franks celebrated the glorification of Our Lady on January 18. However the choice of this day may be accounted for, it is remarkable that the Copts on the borders of the Nile announce on January 28, the repose of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and the Assumption of Her body into Heaven; they, however, repeat the announcement on August 21, and two weeks earlier they, like the Greeks, begin their Lent in honor of the Mother of God.

Some authors think that the Assumption has been kept from apostolic times; but the primitive liturgical documents are silent about it. The hesitation as to the date of its celebration, and the liberty so long allowed with regard to it, seem to point to the spontaneous initiative of divers Churches, owing to some fact attracting attention to the mystery or throwing some light upon it. Of this nature we may reckon the account everywhere spread abroad about the year 451, in which Juvenal of Jerusalem related to the Empress St. Pulcheria and her husband Marcian the history of the tomb which the Apostles had prepared for Our Lady at the foot of Mount Olivet, and which was found empty of its precious deposit. The following words of St. Andrew of Crete in the 7th century show how the solemnity of the Assumption gained ground in consequence of such circumstances. The Saint was born at Damascus, became a monk at Jerusalem, was afterwards Deacon at Constantinople, and lastly Bishop of the celebrated island from which he takes his name; no one then could speak for the East with better authority. “The present solemnity,” he says, “is full of mystery, having for its object to celebrate the day whereon the Mother of God fell asleep; this solemnity is too elevated for any discourse to reach; by some this mystery has not always been celebrated, but now all love and honor it. Silence long preceded speech, but now love divulges the secret. The gift of God must be manifested, not buried; we must show it forth, not as recently discovered, but as having recovered its splendor. Some of those who lived before us knew it but imperfectly; that is no reason for always keeping silence about it; it has not become altogether obscured; let us proclaim it and keep a feast. Today let the inhabitants of Heaven and earth be united, let the joy of Angels and men be one, let every tongue exult and sing Hail to the Mother of God.”

The Church

THE CHURCH: OR, THE SOCIETY OF DIVINE PRAISE


PAX

THE CHURCH: OR, THE SOCIETY OF DIVINE PRAISE.

A Manual for the use of the Oblates of St. Benedict.

From the French of Dom Prosper Guéranger, Abbot of Solesmes.

EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION, BY A SECULAR PRIEST.

LONDON: BURNS & OATES, LIMITED.
NEW YORK: CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY CO.


Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1
Short Calendar of Festivals to be Specially Observed
Chapter 2 - The Priest and the Order of St. Benedict
Chapter 3 - Indulgences
Ceremonial for the Reception and Blessing of the Oblates of St. Benedict


PREFACE.

The Most Reverend Father, Dom Prosper GUÉRANGER, Abbot of Solesmes, a few weeks before his death dictated to one of his monks the pages which we here offer to the piety of the Faithful.

Although these pages contain a mere sketch, being intended as preparatory to a fuller work, it has been thought that, not withstanding their brevity, they deserve to be known. They contain the germ of that thought which guided this great servant of God in the composition of his Liturgical Year. From this point of view, they may be regarded as the Spiritual Testament he desired to leave to the faithful children of the Church.

By their title, “The Church, or the Society of Divine Praise,” they are addressed to all and any of the Faithful, without distinction, priests and lay people alike, and all will find in them safe and sure guidance for truly Christian life.

At the same time, it was the intention of Dom GUÉRANGER that this little work should be looked upon as a summary of his instructions to persons desirous of living in union of prayer with the great Monastic Order. Such persons do not form a “Third Order”: this appellation is unknown amongst monks. Dom GUÉRANGER calls them Benedictine Oblates, or Oblates of St Benedict - a name traditional in the Order.

At the end will be found (1) the ceremonial by which they are united to the Benedictine family, (2) the short Calendar of the Feasts observed with especial honour in the ORDER OF ST. BENEDICT.


INTRODUCTION.

This is pre-eminently an age in which the principle of association and co-operation is thoroughly appreciated in all that concerns civil life and secular affairs. Throughout the world we see on all sides the rapid rise and growth of industrial, political, and literary societies. So numerous and widespread are they that we can hardly count them, let alone gauge the extent of their action. They range from co-operative commercial enterprises and trades unions to political alliances, triple or otherwise, among the leading nations of Europe, not to speak of the United States of America.

As we know, also, only too well, this is an age that has felt the power of association, not only in its beneficial and useful effects, but also in the working of evil and the spread of error.

Never have the secret societies that militate against Christian principles, and make it their chief endeavour to loosen and relax the sweet yoke of Christ, and so manifest the leading characteristic of Antichrist (“Solvere Jesum”) been more powerful or better organised than at present. We can learn much from our enemies as well as from our friends; and the injunction of “spoiling the Egyptians,” and making “friends of the mammon of iniquity,” always holds good, and is ever efficacious.

Amongst those misguided spirits of the age who have turned their misdirected, but splendid, talents in a great measure against Christian teaching, there is one who shows, at least, that he has well understood this immense power of association: “Association,” he writes, “is synthesis, and synthesis is divine: it is the lever of the world, the only method of regeneration vouchsafed to the human family. Analysis can never regenerate the peoples; analysis is potent to dissolve, impotent to create. Analysis will never lead us further than the theory of individuality, and the triumph of the individual principle could only lead us to a revolution of Protestantism and mere liberty. ... Opposition is analysis, an instrument of mere criticism. It generates nothing; it destroys. When analysis has declared a principle extinct, it seats itself beside the corpse, and moves not onward. Synthesis alone has power to thrust the corpse aside, and advance in search of new life.”

Well, it is nothing else than this great principle of association, used for a right end and in a Catholic spirit, that Christians throughout the world have been repeatedly urged, in these our days, to adopt and make use of, by the Sovereign Pontiff our holy Father, Leo XIII.

But social perfection, or the highest form of association, is only possible in the Catholic Church through the means of the Communion of Saints, by which we participate in the life of the Mystical Body of Christ, and are made “fellow-citizens of the Saints and domestics of God, built up on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, JESUS CHRIST Himself being the chief corner-stone.”

What the circulation of the blood is to the natural organism of the human body, that the reality of the Communion of Saints is to the supernatural organism of the Body of Christ, the Church of the living God. The circulation of the blood is the means by which the natural life is carried continually from the heart throughout every portion of the human body. The Communion of Saints is the medium by which the life that energises in the Heart of Jesus Christ, as its centre, is diffused throughout His Mystical Body, the Church, whether triumphant in Heaven, militant on earth, or suffering in the place of purification.

The principle of cohesion, binding together and holding in its place every particle of matter in the material universe, is called the law of gravitation. The principle of cohesion that unites mind with mind is called the law of sympathy. This law of sympathy, being the basis of all mental union, is therefore the foundation of all higher social life. But the highest and most perfect form of social life is to be seen and recognised in that society which the Word Incarnate has established and which exists, in one of its threefold phases, on this earth; that society being the most perfect reflection and image of the Archetype of all social life, which is the ineffable life of God Himself in the unity of the Divine Essence and the Trinity of the Divine Persons.

All the beauty, excellence, and glory, therefore, of the natural Creation, as well as all that can be predicated of the excellence and perfection of human society, falls immeasurably short of the beauty and excellence, the glory and the perfection, of this Divine society, which is the everlasting fruit of the Incarnation of the Son of God. For the Spirit of Truth has told us in the Sacred Scriptures that the very aim and intention of the Son of God, in founding His Church, was that He might “present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. v. 27).

The object of the little work to the English translation of which these few words serve as an introduction, is to set before the Faithful a practical and, at the same time, a most ancient and well-established means of consciously and intelligently entering into and participating in the spiritual life of the Church. The means proposed is no other than that of aggregation to the Monastic Order by the reception of the Benedictine scapular. This time honoured religious custom takes its rise and has its origin in the very cradle of the Monastic life of the West; for we find that St. Benedict himself admitted Tertullus, the father of St. Placid, to a participation in the prayers and good works of his Order; and that King Theoderet desired the same favour from St. Maurus. As early as the eighth century we find traces of this practice throughout Europe; and in the eleventh century it had become so common that whole villages might be found whose inhabitants were all aggregated to one of the great Monasteries, and even, sometimes, leading a life resembling that of the first Christians, as described in the Acts of the Apostles.

Persons thus aggregated to the Monastic Order were known as Oblates of St. Benedict - a name recognised by the Canon law of the Church. In the thirteenth century there sprang up the Third Order of St. Dominic and St. Francis, especially intended for persons living in the world, but constituting in themselves distinct Orders, as their name implies, with a distinct rule different from that of the First and Second Orders: whereas, amongst the Benedictines there is no Third Order, inasmuch as there is no Second; and those persons invested with the Benedictine scapular are simply aggregated to the Monastic Order of the Patriarch of the Monks of the West.

The custom, therefore, of investing persons living in the world, whether ecclesiastics or Laity, with the scapular of a monk, took its rise in the Order of St. Benedict; and the special Confraternities of the Scapulars of other Religious Orders of more recent date are but an extension of this ancient practice. The Blessed Virgin Mary, in giving the Carmelite scapular to St. Simon Stock, has blessed and consecrated in a special way this venerable monastic custom, then already in vogue for so many centuries in the Benedictine Order.

The chief end of the monastic institute is prayer, the prayer of the Church, which St. Benedict has called in his rule “Opus Dei,” “the work of God.” Everything else in the monk’s life must be subservient to prayer; nothing is to be preferred before it. “Opus Dei nihil praeponatur” - “Let nothing be preferred to the work of God,” writes the Saint in his rule. Prayer is the keynote, the touchstone, and the very essence of this life; and its whole spirit might be summed up in the words of the Canticle of Ezechias: “Psalmos Nostros cantabimus cunctis diebus vitae Nostrae in domo Domini” - “ We will sing our psalms all the days of our lives in the house of the Lord.”

“Wherever men believe in prayer,” wrote Father Dalgairns, in his essay on “The Spiritual Life of Mediaeval England,” “you are sure to have the monastic life in some shape or other. If they have none, they will soon cease to believe in prayer, as is fast becoming the case in all Protestant countries. Wherever the Christian idea is strong, men who are by their position necessarily involved in the strife of the world, will be glad to know that men and women who are separated from its turmoils and its sins are offering prayers to God for them.”

A real appreciation of the value of prayer is surely a need of the present age, when a veiled Pelagianism seems to have invaded the minds of so many Christians, making them trust too much to human means and natural activity, and not enough to the help that comes from God. The spirit of the age is opposed to the supernatural, and tends to exalt and make much of the natural aspects of Christianity.

“Is not life more dangerous and salvation more insecure,” asks Father Dalgairns, in the essay just quoted, “because of this terrible invasion of the world, with its audacious requirements and unblushing exigencies? Considering the cool impudence with which the world insists on its own innocence - nay, has even the impertinence to look upon its general mode of life as a duty to society - it does seem as if this new attitude of the world called for new rules and a greater strictness to counteract its dangers.”

For the Anglo-Saxon race, Christianity is coeval with Monasticism and the Benedictine life. The Benedictine Order has a special historical claim upon the affections and gratitude of the English people. St. Gregory the Great, the Apostle of England, was a Benedictine monk, and the first Archbishop of Canterbury was the Prior of the Benedictine Monastery of St. Andrew, founded by St. Gregory in his own paternal home, called in after times the Church of SS. Andrew and Gregory on the Coelian Hill.

The first companions of St. Augustine of Canterbury, who became the first English bishops, were all monks from that Roman Monastery; so that the great English Church was not only, in the first instance, an “Italian Mission” sent by an Italian Pope, but a Benedictine Mission also sent by a Benedictine Pope.

Moreover, in no other country, perhaps, has the monastic life entered into the Hierarchical life of the Church so completely as it did in England, from the first introduction of Christianity to the overthrow of the true religion in the land under Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. All the Cathedral Chapters (save five served by secular clergy, and one by Augustinian Canons) were composed of Benedictine monks, to whom the Bishop stood in place of Abbot, there being a Cathedral Prior to rule the Monastery attached to the Cathedral.

All the Archbishops of Canterbury were professed monks except three, of whom one was the glorious Martyr to the liberties of the Church - St. Thomas a Beckett, the patron Saint of the English secular clergy who, though not a professed monk, was aggregated to the Order on his nomination to the See of Canterbury, and who always wore the Benedictine habit, which was found on his dead body under his Archiepiscopal vestments, after the scene of his martyrdom in the Chapel of St. Benedict in Canterbury Cathedral.

The monasteries have ever been the citadels and strongholds of the Christian life, as well as the cities of refuge for the people of God in Christian times. The names of the great saviours of the Christian Commonwealth during the Early and Middle Ages are the names of monks, such as St. Gregory the Great, St. Gregory VII. (better known as Hildebrand), St. Peter Damian, and that host of illustrious Saints, the list of whose names alone would fill a page. It was the corruption of worldly society that gave rise to the monastic life, and led great Saints like St. Benedict to fly for protection and safety in the first instance to the monasteries as to “the mountains whence help cometh.”

It is for the same reason that the Institute of the Oblates of St. Benedict is proposed to the Faithful living in the world, as an antidote to the evil communications of the world, with their lowering and corrupting influences, and as a powerful means by which the tone and atmosphere of the Gospel of Jesus Christ may be diffused, and make itself felt in our lives. It is, in fact, a practical way of helping ourselves anew to that “salt of the earth” which constitutes the main social characteristic and distinction of the Christian life.

A SECULAR PRIEST.


CHAPTER I.

Since our Lord Jesus Christ imparts to His Faithful, by means of His Church, all the graces which He has merited by His Incarnation and Redemption, Christians ought to have nothing more at heart than to remain united to this Holy Church, which, being the Spouse of Our Saviour, is, at the same time, their Mother.

In order to increase their confidence in her, and to revive the sense of union with her which ought to be abidingly theirs, a pious Association has been formed, of persons whose aim it is to acknowledge the benefits which God confers upon us through His Church, and to cling most closely to her, in order to be more and more intimately united to her Divine Spouse.

To the members of this Association it will be evident that, the closer they keep themselves to the Mother Our Lord has given them, the safer they will be, and the more meritorious will be their works.

To this Holy Church their mind and heart will be in entire submission: always ready to accept, as matter of faith, all things that she has taught to be so, all that she teaches or will teach to be so, until the end of time.

This disposition of submission and love in regard to Holy Church will prompt them to unite with her in all works having God’s worship for their object - works which, at the same time, promote God’s glory and their own sanctification and merit.

The seven Sacraments whose guardianship and administration Our Lord, ere He ascended into Heaven, entrusted to His Church, will be regarded by them with the utmost reverence; and they will beware of ever confounding these operative signs of grace, instituted by Our Saviour, with any other work, resulting from the personal holiness of any created being.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is the same as that of the Cross, they will esteem to be the highest means of paying honour to God, of rendering thanks to Him, of appeasing His anger, and of obtaining His aid.

As to Holy Communion, they will never isolate it in their respect and love from the oblation itself, of the Holy Sacrifice, whereby we are put in possession of this priceless treasure; they will receive it frequently, with a thankful and loving adoration, according to the intention of its Divine institutor.

Impregnated with the teaching and practice of the Catholic Church, they will not fail to manifest a deep and tender devotion to the most holy and Immaculate Mother of God, the holy Angels, and the Saints honoured by the Church’s cultus: and, as true Catholics, they will in nowise seek to hide their veneration for sacred relics, paintings, and images, nor their esteem for pious and devout pilgrimages.

The Holy Church being, for all the Faithful, the Mother apart from whom they could not have God for their Father, they will be careful to imbue themselves with her spirit, and to be in all things of one mind with her. Hence, seeing that she is built upon Peter, the Rock whereon she was founded by her Divine Head, they will honour the Roman Pontiff, the successor of Peter, as the Infallible Vicar of Christ upon earth, Doctor and Pastor of the whole Church of God, the divinely-appointed source of spiritual authority and of the power of the keys. For their lawful Bishop they will have the respect and submission due to the higher members of the sacred Hierarchy; they will regard as a work most pleasing to God, to aid in giving to His Church ministers who are able teachers of her doctrine, zealous for the Kingdom of Christ, and for the sanctification of souls.”

[At this place in the manuscript the venerable Abbot of Solesmes had written, as a note for further development, “Estime de l’Etat Religieux.” The following paragraph has therefore been supplied from other of his writings.]

[The same spirit of faith will inspire them with a great respect for vows, which add new merit to a Christian’s actions. For this reason, the religious state, which is constituted by the three vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience, and finds its most complete and most ancient form and expression in the Monastic Order, will be regarded by them with especial veneration. Moreover, with the Church, they will esteem and love, in each one of the other Religious Orders, the end for which it has been approved by the Holy See, and the good which it has already done, or which it is called upon to do.] Let them greatly prize their noble name of CHRISTIANS, formed from that of Christ their King, Son of God and Son of Man in unity of Person. They will glory in their surname of CATHOLICS, which distinguishes them from those who, though they may have received Baptism, have ceased to belong to the one divinely appointed Christian society of the Faithful. They will attach great value to the signs of the Catholic faith, upon which the Church has shed the benediction of which she holds the source. The holy oils, holy water, the blessed tapers of Candlemas Day, the blessed branches of Palm Sunday - all these and such like things they will hold in esteem: as regard devotions and objects of veneration, they will always prefer those which are, as it were, stamped with the Church’s seal, and bear the impress of the heavenly power she has received and which she exercises.

They will take an interest in the Feasts of the Church, in the ceremonies she employs, and even in the rubrics she observes. Every week they will ascertain under the protection of what Saint each of its days is placed. The Liturgical Calendar, with which, in the ages of faith, our forefathers were so familiar; the lives of the Saints themselves, the attributes with which the Church has from ancient times approved that they should be represented, shall be known to them; and should they have any influence on the education of the young, they will take pleasure in inculcating in their youthful charges the pious tendencies which were popular in the ages of faith.

Pious practices habitual among the Faithful will be dear to them in proportion to their having obtained the approbation of the Apostolic See; and they will have a particular confidence in indulgences, of which the use has been declared good and salutary to Christian people by the Council of Trent.

II.

In order, therefore, to aid in the preservation and to promote the growth of the Catholic spirit, whose outward expression the foregoing pages have described, an Association has been formed, the members of which, to promote the honour of God and secure their own fidelity, will be attentive to observe the following practices:

On Sundays and Festivals they will attend, by preference, High Mass, in the churches where it is celebrated with the ecclesiastical chant and ritual.

Should they find inconvenience in communicating at a late hour, they will make their Communion previously, at an early Mass. They will attentively follow all the rites and ceremonies performed by the priests and attendants at the altar, will do their best by previous study and consideration to enter into their meaning, and thus meritoriously qualify themselves for the fuller reception of the grace implanted in them by the Holy Spirit. [Let them, so to speak, not be satisfied with merely inhaling the fragrance, but let them also gather the honey from these flowers of the garden of the Church.]

They will follow the ecclesiastical chant by the aid, if needful, of translations of the formularies, and they will avoid distracting their attention from the holy mysteries by other books of devotion, etc., which may be excellent, perhaps, at other times, but which at these moments would be harmful, by keeping them apart from the sacred Liturgy.

Attendance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the act of piety to which, of all others, they will attach the highest importance. There, wherein is renewed the Sacred Passion of Our Lord, they will offer to God the Divine Victim, in union with the Church, for the four ends of Adoration, Thanksgiving, Propitiation, and Petition. On the days when they do not communicate they will make a spiritual Communion at the moment when the priest is making the Sacramental Communion, and for this they will prepare themselves by the act of contrition and offering of themselves to God.

Next to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, they will esteem nothing so much as the Divine office, by which the Church renders to God her continual homage in the canonical hours. On Sundays and festivals they will gladly be present at Vespers and Compline, and will endeavour, as far as it may be possible for them, to join with Holy Church in the chanting of her psalms and hymns. Let them be especially thankful to God if He should give them grace to take delight in the Psalter, remembering that, in the ages of faith, it was most frequently through the psalms that God was pleased to communicate with souls. They will prefer those churches in which the Divine Office is celebrated according to ecclesiastical rule, such as the cathedral or any other. Even in their private devotions they will take pleasure in using the prayers of the Church to express their needs and aspirations.

They will earnestly desire to unite themselves to God by mental prayer; and in this they will he powerfully assisted by their union with the Church in the sacred Liturgy. The different seasons of the Church’s year will bring before them the mysteries which are the groundwork of piety and the source of the true spirit of prayer. They will often visit Our Lord in the holy Tabernacle, and will not fail to appreciate their happiness whenever they are able to be present at Benediction, to receive the blessing of the most holy Sacrament.

III.

The foregoing counsels have been asked for by persons who have had relations with several Monasteries of the Order of St. Benedict, towards which they felt themselves drawn by their preference for the Divine service, as authorised and practised by the Church, rather than for works of merely a private character.

In conclusion, we will here indicate the different periods of the year when they will renew the spirit of their pious Association:

The First is ADVENT, the whole of which they will spend in preparing for the Feast of Christmas.

The Second, CHRISTMASTIDE, during which they will adoringly contemplate the Divine Infancy of JESUS.

The Third, the holy season of LENT, during which they will prepare themselves by penance for the joys of Easter.

The Fourth, PASCHALTIDE, which they will spend with Jesus risen.

The Fifth, the ten days between Ascension and Pentecost or Whitsuntide, which will prepare them for the visit of the ever-blessed Spirit of God.

Finally, the last period, “AFTER PENTECOST,” during which they must (in word and deed, in thought and life) practise and give proof of the growth in holiness produced in them by the holy mysteries of the Faith, and which will give them a right to take part in the Divine praises.


SHORT CALENDAR OF FESTIVALS TO BE SPECIALLY OBSERVED.

January.

1. Circumcision of Our Lord.
6. THE EPIPHANY.
14. St. Hilary, B.C.D.
15. St. Paul the First Hermit.
18. St. Peter’s Chair at Rome.
19. St. Wolstan, BC.
21. St. Agnes, V.M.
23. Espousals of B.V. M.
25. Conversion of St. Paul, Apostle.
27. St. John Chrysostom, B.C.D.
29. St. Francis of Sales, B.C.D.
Second Sunday after Epiphany.
Festival of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.

February.

1. St. Ignatius, B.M.
2. Purification of the B.V.M.
9. St. Cyril of Alexandria, B.C.D.
10. St. Scholastica, V., Sister of St. Benedict.
12. St. Benedict Biscop, Ab. C.
22. St. Peter’s Chair at Antioch.
23. St. Peter Damian, B.C.D.
25. St. Matthias, Apostle.

March.

1. St. David, B.C.
7. St. Thomas, C.D.
9. St. Frances of Rome, W.
12. St. Gregory, B.C.D., Apostle of England.
17. St. Patrick, B.C., Apostle of Ireland.
19. St. Joseph, C., Husband of B.V.M.
21. St. Benedict, Ab. C.
23. St. Gabriel, Archangel.
25. Annunciation of B.V.M.

April.

4. St. Isidore, B.C.D.
23. St. George, M., Protector of England.
25. St. Mark, Evangelist.

May.

1. SS. Philip and James, Apostles.
2. St. Athanasius, B.C.D.
4. Blessed John Fisher, Thomas More, and Companions, Martyrs.
11. St. Pius, V. B.C.
14. St. Monica, W
19. St. Dunstan, B.C.
24. Our Lady Help of Christians.
26. St. Augustine of Canterbury, B.C.
28. St. Gregory VII., B.C.

June.

14. St. Basil, B.C.D.
15. Apparition of St. Michael, Archangel.
22. St. Alban, Proto-Martyr of Britain.
24. Nativity of St. John Baptist.
27. St. Barnabas, Apostle.
29. SS. Peter and Paul, Apostles.

July.

2. Visitation of B.V.M.
4. St. Leo I., B.C.D.
11. St. Anselm, B.C.D.
16. Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
17. St. Osmund, B.C.
22. St. Mary Magdalen.
25. St. James, Apostle.
26. St. Anne, Mother of B.V. M.

August.

1. St. Peter’s Chains.
4. St. Dominic, C.
6. TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD.
10. St. Laurence, M.
15. Assumption of B.V.M.
18. St. Helen, W.
20. St. Bernard, C.
28. St. Augustine, B.C.
29. Beheading of St. John Baptist.

September.

8. Nativity of B.V.M.
14. Exaltation of Holy Cross.
2 1. St. Matthew, Apostle.
24. Our Lady of Ransom.
29. Dedication of St. Michael. Archangel.
30. St. Jerome, C.D.

October.

First Sunday. Solemnity of the Most Holy Rosary of B.V.M.
2.Holy Angel Guardians.
6. St. Bruno, C.
12. St. Wilfrid, B.C.
13. St. Edward, King, C.
21. St. Ursula and Companions, VV., MM.
24. St. Raphael, Archangel.
28. SS. Simon and Jude, Apostles.
29. St. Bede (the Venerable), C.

November.

1. ALL SAINTS.
2. Commemoration of All Souls.
3. St. Winifred, V.M.
4. St. Charles, B.C.
11. St. Martin, B.C.
14. St. Erconwald, B.C.
15. St. Gertrude, V.
16. St. Edmund, B.C.
17. St. Hugh, B.C.
18. Dedication of the Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul.
21. Presentation of B.V.M.
22. St. Cecilia, V.M.
30. St. Andrew, Apostle.

December.

7. St. Ambrose, B.C.D.
8. IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF B.V. M.
18. Expectation of B.V.M.
21. St. Thomas, Apostle.
25. NATIVITY OF OUR LORD.
26. St. Stephen, Proto-Martyr.
27. St. John, Apostle and Evangelist.
29. St. Thomas of Canterbury, B.M.


CHAPTER II. THE PRIEST AND THE ORDER OF ST. BENEDICT.

The counsels proposed in the preceding pages are addressed to the Faithful in general, and at the same time take for granted that they are either well instructed already as to their duties, or at least able and willing to instruct themselves in the principles and practice of the Christian life. This instruction is, unhappily, very rare and very difficult, often, of attainment in these days.

For this reason zealous priests who may have a devotion for entering the Association of which we have been speaking will, as a matter of course, bring into it, by their learning, an element of great value and utility.

Many priests have expressed a wish to enter it, and it is in answer to their desire that we will now endeavour to describe the special character which the union of a secular priest with the Order of St. Benedict ought to imprint upon his ministry.

I.

The secular priest who, for his own personal sanctification, desires to he affiliated to the Monastic Order - as a man might seek to build his dwelling against a bastion rather than on the open heath - ought to try, in a certain degree, to identify himself with the spirit of the Order, which consists in moulding one’s life as closely as possible upon the Gospel teaching, and living the very life of Holy Church.

Thus, instead of seeking in a series of practices more or less strict, and in special religious exercises, for that which ought to characterise him, he will energetically enter upon a life of faith void of any compact or compromise with the world and its doctrines. This it is which will give him his special, unmistakable stamp; this will be, as it were, the banner beneath which he will henceforth march.

This life of faith, which maintains in ordinary Christians a sense and consciousness of their baptism, will give to the priest affiliated to St. Benedict a deepened sense of the greatness of his priesthood, and of the marvellous and intimate relations which it establishes between himself and the Divine Majesty. He will regard himself as the man, the minister, the servant of the Church - vocatus a Deo tamquam Aaron, to perpetuate in her and for her the juge sacerdotium.

II.

The offering of the Divine Sacrifice being the chief function of the priest, is for that reason itself the centre towards which all the rest of his life ought to converge for, if the personal character of the sacrificer add nothing to the intrinsic value of the sacrifice, it is no less true that the closer is the union of the priest with the Eternal High Priest, JESUS CHRIST, the better are the intentions of our Divine Lord fulfilled.

The four ends of the Holy Sacrifice will therefore be, as it were, the very soul of the priest’s whole existence; the continuous amendment of his life will have for its aim to fit him to fulfil his high office with greater fulness and perfection. He will also take a particular delight in all which, in the Liturgy, exalts and beautifies the celebration of Holy Mass. He will hear in mind that the earthly and the heavenly altar are one and the same; and that his mission is to reproduce as closely as possible on earth the sacred splendours of Heaven depicted for us by St. John, and which are the [model and] natural framework of the Divine Sacrifice.

In prayer he will penetrate into the depths of the sublime formularies which envelop these august mysteries rather than seek to nourish his piety from purely human sources; and will strive to avoid ever getting, as it were, familiarised with this sacred language, so profound and so sublime, but to draw from it daily a new wealth of meaning and significance.

III.

The celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass demands, as its necessary complement, that which forms its essential environment, namely, the celebration of the Divine Office. The Church can no more dispense with the sacrifice of praise than she can dispense with the sacrifice of the altar; and if the Apostle indicates it as a duty for ordinary Christians to pay to God this solemn homage, when he says to them, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly, in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns; and spiritual canticles, singing with grace in your hearts to God” [“Verbum Christi habitet in vobis abundanter in omni sapientia, docentes et commonentes vosmetipsos psalmis, hymnis et canticis spiritualibus, in gratma cantantes in cordibus vestris Deo” (Col. iii. 16)]; with still more reason should the word of God be ever on the lips of the anointed of the Lord, to render to God that which is God’s, and give Him the glory which is due to Him.

A priest connected with the Monastic Order ought, therefore, more than any other, to realise the importance of the Divine Office; and, should he be deprived of its solemn celebration, which nevertheless was in former days the appanage of clerics as much as of monks, he will still endeavour, as much as possible, to observe the hours proper to each Office, because these appear to have been indicated by God Himself.

When it so happens that several of our priests find themselves together, they will feel it a happiness to say their breviary together, not doubting of the special grace attached to this recitation in common, nor that by so doing they are more perfectly fulfilling the intention of their Mother, the Holy Church.

To the priest who takes delight in the praises of God, the recitation of the breviary appears no heavy burden, to which, under heavy penalties, he must submit; nor will it be a duty of which he will acquit himself with cold indifference, and less from love than fear. Happy in the thought that the Church has chosen him to express to her Divine Spouse the homage of her love and prayer, he will regard it as one of his first obligations to enter into, and make his own, by study and meditation, the mind, the sense, the feeling of the Church in the formularies of which he has the honour to be the interpreter. There will he seek the truest consolation of his life, the nourishment of his soul, the source of the spirit of prayer. Instead of making his piety consist in overloading himself with other vocal prayers, he will use all his endeavours to attain nearer to perfection in his recitation of the canonical hours, since no prayer can be more efficacious than that inspired by the Divine Spirit Himself. Neither can mental prayer have a more supernatural or more prolific source than when it flows directly from this sacred fount; and our priest will loyally make it a point of honour to take the word of God and the prayer of the Church as the ground work of his mental prayer, rather than the words of men.

His earnest desire to render to God a perfect homage will not allow him to limit to the exact time required for the recitation of his breviary, the sense of the presence of God; but having from this attentive recitation drawn, as it were, a sweet undercurrent of things divine into his soul, he will be careful to retain it there by recollection, and not to suffer these calm depths to be disturbed by any occurrences that may await him on returning to his various outward duties.

IV.

Besides his fulfilment of the service of God, the priest is also responsible for his priesthood in regard to the souls for whose sake, more than for his own, he received the imposition of hands. The administration of the Sacraments was entrusted to him by God for the sanctification of men, and for their direction towards the end for which they were created. It will be, then, with a holy fear, and with a constantly renewed devotion, that the priest dedicated to St. Benedict will acquit himself of so high an office, so sublime a ministry. He will have a thorough knowledge of and acquaintance with the rubrics, the ritual, and the pontifical; not contenting himself with reading them superficially, but carefully ascertaining the meaning of the grand and venerable rites which accompany these formularies. He will be on his guard against mere habit and routine by constantly renewing in himself the sense of faith, the fear of God, charity.

V.

Still more closely, if it be possible, will he keep watch over himself in preaching: because, in this part of his ministry a man exercises more individual influence than in the administration of the Sacraments, which operate of themselves, and possess an intrinsic power. Our priest will avoid novelties and subtleties, and will, with St. Paul, glory above all things in preaching JESUS, and JESUS crucified. He will chiefly take as his examples the discourses of the Apostles, handed down to us in the Scriptures; and, without being negligent as to the form, he will be simple, going straight to the point. He has a message to deliver [let him deliver it clearly, and with an evident conviction of its truth and its importance]. He will seek less to please or dazzle, than to win, to convert, to instruct, to amend, and to edify souls; briefly, he will be enkindled with that true “zeal for the house of God,” spoken of by the Psalmist. His first preparation will be prayer, which, for the holy Doctors of the Church, has always been the principal source of their knowledge; the second will be holiness of life, which clears the eye of the soul, and enables her, even in this life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Eternal Truth, according to the words: “Beati mundo corde: quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt.” Finally, the third will be the study of Holy Scripture, the Fathers, theology, the lives of Saints [not for getting the marvels of God’s natural Creation; for “the whole earth is full of His majesty,” and, rightly considered, is one of the steps by which we mount to Our Father and Creator, God]. For the priest who, according to St. Denys (Dionysius), represents the illuminative life by his character, must unceasingly seek for light in order to shed it forth into the souls of men.

VI.

Our priest will, with all his heart, hold fast by the ancient idea of spirituality, so solid and so large, and always so sober in its external prescriptions. He will not make his spiritual advancement consist in a certain mechanical correctness, stiff and merely apparent, nor yet in practices almost impossible to keep up amid the labours of the sacred ministry; but, much rather, in a life devoted from its innermost depths to the service of God, and flowing on ever under the eye of the Divine Majesty.

He will have a special devotion for the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews and the two Epistles to Timothy, as being the first manual of the virtues of his state. He may also read with profit the prologue to the Rule of the holy Patriarch, St. Benedict, and the chapters of this same holy Rule “Quae sunt instrumenta bonorum operum;” “de humilitate;” “de disciplina psallendi;” “de reverentia orationis.” He will guard against a certain self-sufficiency and self-confidence, which may easily arise when care is not taken to distinguish between what is due to the sacred character and what is due to the man; a disposition contrary to humility, which St. Benedict, with his prudent experience, had already observed, and which he met with this energetic sentence, addressed to the priests who gave their adhesion to him:“Magis humilitatis exempla omnibus det.”

Our pnest will remember unceasingly that he is “a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men”; and that, if the deacon is bound to keep the Mysterium fidei in a pure conscience, he (the priest), who operates this same mystery, and who, by his more sacred office, is identified with the Incarnate Word, ought to be one of whom the Eternal Father could declare, by reason of the likeness He finds in him to His own Eternal Son: “Hic est filius meus dilectus, in quo mihi bene complacui!”

It is in this wise that the priest will be truly affiliated to the Monastic Order, and will establish a bond with our glorious Patriarch, the Abraham of the New Covenant, worthy, in these days, when “Truth is diminished among the children of men,” of being the Father of the Faithful, the Father of those who refuse to recognise aught but the Faith as the rule of their thoughts, their feelings, their words, their deeds.


CHAPTER III. INDULGENCES.

The preceding pages were, in the mind of the author, merely a summary of the Christian life. For ages past the Church has also encouraged, by Indulgences, the works and practices they principally recommend. We will enumerate the more important among them, especially those which appear to have most connection with the end proposed by this Association.

And because the Associates wish to strengthen their zeal for the Divine service by staying it, as it were, upon the Order of St. Benedict, we have added some of the Indulgences which are attached in particular to the medal of the holy Patriarch of the Monks of the West, and to visiting the churches of the Order.

I.

Indulgences especially relating to the association of persons affiliated Benedictine Order:

1. Zeal for the sacred chant of the Church.

Indulgence of one year for any person teaching gratuitously the chanting of the Divine praises (psalms, hymns, canticles, etc.), or who encourages these pious chants.One hundred days each time, to a person singing them in a public or private chapel. Plenary once a month for any one of the Faithful, who, on four days at least, of solemn or simple Feasts, Sundays included, shall take part in singing or in teaching the Divine praises.

2. Mass, and the Divine Office.

One hundred days for those who attend Mass in a Church of Regulars (Alex. IV., ap. Ferrar).
Five hundred days for those who attend solemn Mass of a Prelate.
One hundred days for those who attend the Divine Office.

Numerous Indulgences are attached to attendance at Mass, and at each of the offices of the following Festivals:
Corpus Christi.
Feast of the Holy Name of JESUS (Second Sunday after Epiphany).
The Visitation of Our Lady (July 2nd).
The Transfiguration of Our Lord (August 6th).
The Immaculate Conception (December 8th).
Christmas Day (December 25th).

Fifty days for making the sign of the Cross, at the same time saying: In nomine Patris, etc. (Pius IX., July 28th, 1862).
Thirty days for bowing the head at the Gloria Patri (John XXII., ap. Ferrar).
Forty days for the recitation of the Penitential Psalms; the same for the Gradual Psalms. Fifty days when they are marked in the rubric of the breviary (St. Pius V.).
Fifty days for the recitation of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, from devotion; one hundred days if said on a day when it is appointed by the rubric of the breviary (St. Pius V.).
Fifty days for saying the Office of the Dead, from devotion; one hundred days when it is indicated by the rubric (St. Pius V.).

II. INDULGENCES relating to the Order of St. Benedict

1. Indulgences attached to the Medal of St. Benedict:

PLENARY INDULGENCE on the following Feasts: Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Whit Sunday, Trinity, Corpus Christi, the Immaculate Conception, the Nativity B.V.M.; the Annunciation, Purification, and Assumption of Our Lady; All Saints, and the Feast of St. Benedict (March 21st). But, in order to gain it, besides the ordinary conditions, some work of piety must be done once, at least, every week: for example, recitation of the Rosary or of the Divine Office; or attendance at Mass; or some work of charity, such as teaching, visiting, or succouring the ignorant, the sick, and the poor.

Plenary Indulgence on Holy (or Maundy) Thursday, and on Easter Day; the same that is granted by the Papal Benediction.

Plenary Indulgence at the hour of death. Seven years and seven quarantines for saying or hearing Mass, and praying for the peace of [the Church and of] the Christian States.

Various Indulgences for other pious acts. Further: whoever shall pray for the propagation of the Order of St. Benedict, will enter into participation of all and each of the good works of and in the Order, be they what they may.

2. Visits to the churches of the Benedictines. Plenary Indulgence on the following Feasts (Clement X., December 19th, 1671): January 15th,St. Maurus; February 10th, St. Scholastica;* March 21st, St. Benedict;* October 5th, St. Placidus; November 13th, Feast of all the Saints of the Order.

* When these Feasts have to ha transferred, their Indulgences are transferred with them.

Those who visit the Church of the Monastery, and communicate on days when the office of a Saint of the Order is celebrated, gain an Indulgence of seven years and seven quarantines.

INDULGENCES.

The preceding pages are nothing else, in the mind of the author, than an epitome of the Christian life. This is the reason that the Church has for many centuries encouraged, by the grant of Indulgences the works and practices there most recommended. We give here some of the principal Indulgences granted, especially those which appear to bear most directly upon the end and object of this little Association.

Since the Associates desire to make the Order of St. Benedict the support of their zeal in the Divine service, we have added some of the Indulgences which are attached particularly to the Medal of the Patriarch of the Monks of the West, and to the visit to churches of the Order.

I. Indulgences which have special relation with the Society of the Divine Praise:

1. Zeal for the sacred chant of the Church.

An Indulgence of one year to him or her who teaches gratuitously the singing of the sacred chant [psalms, hymn; canticles, etc.], or who encourages these religious chants; one hundred days each time they are sung in either a public church or private chapel.
A Plenary Indulgence once a month for any of the Faithful who shall for four Festivals, or upon four Sundays, take part in the singing or the teaching of the Divine praises in the services of the Church.

2. The Mass and Divine Office.

Five hundred days to those who assist at a solemn Pontifical Mass.
One hundred days to those who assist it the Divine Office.
Thirty days for inclining the head at the Gloria Patri.
Fifty days for the recitation of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, out of devotion; one hundred days for its recitation on the days prescribed by the rubrics of the breviary.
Fifty days for the recitation of the Office for the Dead; one hundred on days on which it is prescribed by the rubrics.

II. Indulgences relative to the Benedictine Order:

1. Indulgences attached to the Medal of St. Benedict.

A Plenary Indulgence on all the great Festivals of the Church, also on the Festival of St. Benedict (March 21st). But to gain them it is necessary, besides the ordinary conditions, to practise some work of piety once a week: such as the recitation of the Rosary or of the Office; or to assist at Mass on a week-day; or to perform some work of charity, such as the help or visitation of the poor or sick.
A Plenary Indulgence at the hour of death.

2. Visits to Benedictine churches.

A Plenary Indulgence on the following Festivals: January 15th, St. Maurus; February 10th, St. Scholastica; March 21st, St. Benedict; October 5th, St. Placid; November 13th, Feast of all the Saints of the Order.


CEREMONIAL FOR THE RECEPTION AND BLESSING OF THE OBLATES OF ST. BENEDICT.

ABBAS, vel Monachus ab ipso deputatus, cum stola albi coloris super Cucullam, stans ad altare sancti Benedicti (si sit) in cornu Epistolae, facie versa ad populum, dicit quae sequuntur super Fratrem (vel Sororem) genuflexum in ultimo gradu altaris:

Facto signo crucis, dicit:

V. Domine, labia mea aperies,
R. Et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam.
V. Deus, in adjutorium meum intende
R. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
Gloria Patri.
Sicut erat.

PSALMUS LXVI.

Deus misereatur nostri, et benedicat nobis * ilhiminet vultum suum super nos, et misereatur nostri.
Ut cognoscamus in terra viam tuam : * in omnibus gentibus salutare tuum.
Confiteantur tibi populi, Deus: * confiteantur tibi populi ornnes.
Laetentur et exsultent gentes: * quoniam judicas populos in aeuitate, et gentes in terra dirigis.
Confiteantur tibi populi, Deus, confiteantur tibi populi omnes: * terra dedit fructum suum.
Benedicat nos Deus, Deus noster, benedicat nos Deus: * et metuant eum omnes fines terrae.
Gloria Patri.

Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.
Pater noster, secreto.

V. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem.
R. Sed libera nos a malo.
V. Salvum (salvam) fac servum tuum (ancillam tuam),.
R. Deus meus, sperantem in te.
V. Esto ei, Domine, turris fortitudinis,
R. A facie inimici.
V. Nihil proficiat inimicus in eo (ea).
R. Et filius iniquitatis non apponat nocere ei.
V. Mitte ei, Domine, auxilium de sancto.
R. Et de Sion tuere eum (eam).
V. Domine, exaudi orationem meam.
R. Et clamor meus ad te veniat.
V. Dominus vobiscum,
R. Et cum spiritu tuo.

OREMUS.
Protege, Domine, hunc famulum tuum (hanc famulam tuam), et dona gratiae tuae in eo (ea) multiplica, ut ab omnibus liberetur offensis, et in sancta conservatione tibi placeat. Per Dominum.

Postea Fratre vel Sorore habitum in manibus tenente, Celebrans dicit:

OREMUS.
Domine, Deus virtutum, bonorum dator et omnium benedictionum largus infusor, te humilibus precibus deprecamur, ut has vestes bene + dicere digneris quas famulus tuus (famula tua), pro indicio agnoscendae Religionis, induere voluit, ut inter filios et filias sancti Patris nostri Benedicti tibi dignoscatur dicatus (dicata). Per Christum Dominum nostrum. R. Amen.

Deinde aspergit aqua benedicta habitum, quem statim imponit Oblato vel Oblatae, dicens:
Induat te Dominus novum hominem, qui secundum Deum creatus est in justitia, et sanctitate veritatis.

Postea, manibus junctis, ter dicat Oblatus vel Oblata:
Suscipe me, Domine, secundum eloquium tuum et vivam; et non confundas me ab exspectatione mea.

Et in fine:
Gloria Patri. Sicut erat.

Deinde Abbas, aut Monachus delegatus dicit:
V. Salvum fac servum tuum (ancillam tuam),
R. Deus meus, sperantem in te.
V. Mitte ei, Domine, auxilium de sancto.
R. Et de Sion tuere eum (eam).
V. Domine, exaudi orationem meam.
R. Et clamor meus ad te veniat.
V. Dominus vobiscum.
R. Et cum spiritu tuo.

OREMUS.
Inclina, Domine, aurem tuam ad preces nostras, et respicere dignare hunc famulum tuum (hanc famulam tuam), qui (quae) hodie in orationibus nostris se commendat; et sicut liberasti Petrum de vinculis, et Paulum de mari, et tres pueros de camino ignis ardentis, et beatissimum Benedictum ab insidiis diaboli; ita illum (illam) a mundi illecebris absolvere, et Spiritu fortitudinis digneris confirmare, ut sanctorum tuorum vestigiis insistens, ad aeternitatis praemium securus (secura) perveniat. Per Dominum.

Moxque subjungit:
Nos Abbas N. (vel Nos auctoritate nobis concessa a Reverendissimo Abbate Sancti Petri de Solesmis) Congregationis Gallicae Ordinis sancti Benedicti, Cassinensi affiliatae, per merita ejusdem sancti Patriarchae Benedicti, sanctae virginis Scholasticae, sororis ejus, sanctorum Placidi martyris et Mauri abbatis, atque seriphicae virginis Gertriuis et aliorum Sanctorum Sanctarumque Ordinis nostri, suscipimus te in societatem et fraternitatem nostram, et in participationem omnium bonorum operum quae in congregatione Gallica ordinis Sancti Benedicti, Spiritu Sancto adjuvante, peraguntur. Suscipiat te Deus in numerum electorum suorum, donet tibi usque in finem perseverantiam, ab inimicis insidiis te protegat, atque ad regnum perducat aeternum. Qui vivit et regnat in saecula saeculorum. R. Amen.


Sunday 6 June 2010

Corpus Christi

The sun has risen in his splendour, while the sweet chants of the sanctuary have been greeting the coming of the divine Orient. The appointed ministers of the sacred psalmody have been giving, in the name of the whole world, the solemn tribute of Lauds to God the Creator and Redeemer; and now that the king of day is up, we behold a very busy scene outside the precincts of the holy place: the children of men are all intent on a work, in which neither the desire of lucre, nor the thirst for pleasure, have any share. Tidings of salvation have been heard; the voice of rejoicing is in the tabernacles of the just: “God is preparing to visit His creatures; Emmanuel, Who is present in the Sacred Host, is about to go forth from His sanctuary; He is coming into your cities and your fields, to hold court in your green forests; the Lord God hath shone upon you, He hath appointed this solemn day; prepare His throne with shady boughs, and cover the way to the horn of the altar with flowers!” (Psalms)

This announcement has excited a holy enthusiasm in the souls of men. For several previous days, many a faithful heart has had something of the feeling which animated David, when he vowed his vow to the God of Jacob: “I will not enter into the tabernacle of my house, I will not go up into the bed wherein I lie, I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or rest to my temples, until I find out a place for the Lord, and a tabernacle for the God of Jacob” (Ps. 131: 3-5). O beautiful resting-places where are to stand the feet of the King of peace! Short-lived but exquisite designs! The product of that sacred poetry which comes from the supernatural love of the Christian! We see them today, save where cold heresy has come to keep man from being too earnest in his worship of his Saviour! On every truly Catholic heart, even on some who, at all other times, seem to be out of the influence of grace, the Mystery of Faith makes its power tell; and many a wife, and daughter, and sister, who have seen the other feasts of the year of grace pass by and produce no effect on those dear to them, on this bright morning have beheld them all busy in preparing decorations for the triumphant procession of Emmanuel (Whom they have so long neglected to receive), and spending themselves in getting the best of everything they can give, or procure, for the God Who is so soon to pass by that way, and, passing, to give these dear ones the blessing of a conversion! It is the wakening up of the Faith of their Baptism; it is the grace of the Sacrament of Love working at a distance; a grace of a reminder of other and happier days, of First Communion perhaps; and when Jesus passes through the crowd, He will look at them, and they shall remember, and shall be converted to the Lord (Ps. 21: 28).

The grand Feast has, at length, dawned upon us; and everything is speaking of the triumph of faith and love. During the Feast of the Ascension, when commenting on these words of Our Lord: “It is expedient to you that I go” (John 16: 7), we were saying that the withdrawal of the visible presence of the Man-God from the eyes of men on earth, would bring among them, by the vivid operation of the Holy Ghost, a plenitude of light and a warmth of love which they had not had for Jesus, during His mortal life among them; the only creature that had rendered to Him, in Her single self, the whole of those duties which the Church afterwards paid Him, was Mary, who was illumined with Faith.

In his exquisite hymn, Adore Te Devote, St. Thomas Aquinas says: “On the Cross the Divinity alone was hid; but here the Humanity, too, is hid;” and yet, on no day of the year is the Church more triumphant, or more demonstrative, than She is upon this Feast. Heaven is all radiant; our earth has clad herself with her best, that she may do homage to Him, Who has said: “I am the Flower of the fields, and the Lily of the valleys” (Cant. 2: 1). Holy Church is not satisfied with having prepared a throne whereon, during the whole of this Octave, the Sacred Host is to receive the adorations of the faithful; She has decreed that these days of solemn and loving exposition be preceded by the pageant of a triumph. Not satisfied today with elevating the Bread of Life immediately after the Consecration, She will carry It beyond the precincts of Her churches, amidst clouds of incense, and on paths strewn with flowers; and Her children, on bended knee, will adore, under heaven’s vaulted canopy, Him Who is their King and their God.

Those joys, which each separate solemnity of the year brought us, seem to come back upon us, all of them at once, today. The royal prophet had foretold this, when he said: “He (the Lord) hath made a remembrance of His wonderful works: He hath given Food to them that fear Him” (Ps. 110, 4-5). Holy Church is filled with enthusiasm, holding in Her arms that Divine Spouse, Who said: “Behold! I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matt. 28: 20). Nothing could be more formal; and the promise has been faithfully kept. It is true, we beheld Him ascending from Mount Olivet; He went up into Heaven, and there He sitteth at His Father’s right hand: but ever since the memorable day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost took possession of the Church, the sacred mystery of the Last Supper has been celebrated, in virtue of those words spoken by Jesus: Do this in remembrance of Me; and from that day forward, the human race has never been deprived of the presence of its Head and its Redeemer. No wonder, therefore, that Holy Mother Church, possessing, as She does, the Word, the Son of God, is suddenly filled with wisdom. The Sacramental Species, it is true, are there shrouding the mystery; but they are only existing for the purpose of leading into the invisible…

[These are the last words written for this work by Abbot Prosper Louis Pascal Gueranger. He was on the point of completing this section of The Liturgical Year, when death came upon him on January 30, 1875.]

Saturday 22 May 2010

Pentecost

THE DAY OF PENTECOST
Veni, sancte Spiritus, reple tuorum corda fidelium, et tui amoris in eis ignem
acende. Come, O holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and enkindle
within them the fire of thy love.

THE great day, which consummates the work that God had undertaken for the human race, has at last shone upon the world. The days of Pentecost, as St. Luke says, are accomplished.1
We have had seven weeks since the Pasch; and now comes the day that opens the mysterious number of fifty. This day is the Sunday, already made holy by the creation of the light, and by the Resurrection of Jesus: it is about to receive its final consecration, and bring us the fullness of God.2
In the old and figurative Law, God foreshadowed the glory that was to belong, at a future period, to the fiftieth day. Israel had passed the waters of the Red Sea, thanks to the protecting power of his Paschal Lamb! Seven weeks were spent in the desert, which was to lead to the promised land; and the very morrow of those seven weeks was the day whereon was made the alliance between God and His people. The Pentecost (the fiftieth day) was honoured by the promulgation of the ten commandments of the divine law; and every following year, the Israelites celebrated the great event by a solemn festival. But their Pentecost was figurative, like their Pasch: there was to be a second Pentecost for all people, as there was to be a second Pasch, for the Redemption of the whole world. The Pasch, with all its triumphant joys, belongs to the Son of God, the Conqueror of death: Pentecost belongs to the Holy Ghost, for it is the day whereon He began His mission into this world, which, henceforward, was to be under His Law.
But how different are the two Pentecosts! The one, on the rugged rocks of Arabia, amidst thunder and lightning, promulgates a Law that is written on tab-lets of stone; the second is in Jerusalem, on which God's anger has not as yet been manifested, because it still contains within its walls the first fruits of that new people, over whom the Spirit of love is to reign. In this second Pentecost, the heavens are not overcast, nor is the roar of thunder heard; the hearts of men are not stricken with fear, as when God spake on Sinai; repentance and gratitude are the sentiments now uppermost. A divine fire burns within their souls, and will spread throughout the whole world. Our Lord Jesus had said: 'I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?'3 The hour for the fulfilment of this word has come: the Spirit of love, the Holy Ghost, the eternal uncreated Flame, is about to descend from heaven, and realize the merciful design of our Redeemer.
Jerusalem is filled with pilgrims, who have flocked thither from every country of the Gentile world. They feel a strange mysterious expectation working in their souls. They are Jews, and have come from every foreign land where Israel has founded a synagogue; they have come to keep the feasts of Pasch and Pentecost. Asia, Africa, and even Rome, have here their representatives. Amidst these Jews properly so called, are to be seen many Gentiles, who, from a desire to serve God more faithfully, have embraced the Mosaic law and observances; they are called proselytes. This influx of strangers, who have come to Jerusalem out of a desire to observe the Law, gives the city a Babel-like appearance, for each nation has its own language. They are not, however, under the influence of pride and prejudice, as are the inhabitants of Judea; neither have they, like these latter, known and rejected the Messias, nor blasphemed His works whereby He gave testimony of His divine character. It may be that they took part with the other Jews in clamouring for Jesus' death; but they were led to it by the chief priests and magistrates of the Jerusalem which they reverenced as the holy city of God, and to which nothing but religious motives have brought them. It is the hour of Tierce, the third hour of the day,4fixed from all eternity for the accomplishment of a divine decree. It was at the hour of midnight that the Father sent into this world, that He might take flesh in Mary's womb, the Son eternally begotten of Himself: so now, at this hour of Tierce, the Father and the Son send upon the earth the holy Spirit who proceeds from Them both. He is sent to form the Church, the bride and the kingdom of Christ: He is to assist and maintain her; He is to save and sanctify the souls of men; and this His mission is to continue to the end of time.
Suddenly is heard, coming from heaven, the sound of a violent wind; it startles the people in the city, it fills the cenacle with its mighty breath. A crowd is soon round the house that stands on Mount Sion; the hundred and twenty disciples that are within the building feel that mysterious emotion within them, of which their Master once said: 'The Spirit breatheth where He will, and thou hearest His voice'.5 Like that strange invisible creature, which probes the very depth of the sea and makes the waves heave mountains high, this Breath from heaven will traverse the world from end to end, breaking down every barrier that would stay its course.
The holy assembly have been days in fervent expectation; the divine Spirit gives them this warning of His coming, and they in the passiveness of ecstatic longing, await His will. As to those who are outside the cenacle, and who have responded to the appeal thus given, let us, for the moment, forget them. A silent shower falls in the house; it is a shower of fire, which, as holy Church says 'burns not but enlightens, consumes not but shines.'6Flakes of fire, in the shape of tongues, rest on the heads of the hundred and twenty disciples; it is the Holy Ghost taking possession of all and each. The Church is now not only in Mary, but also in these hundred and twenty disciples. All belong now to the Spirit that has descended upon them; His kingdom is begun, it is manifested, its conquests will be speedy and glorious.
But let us consider the symbol chosen to designate this divine change. He who showed Himself under the endearing form of a dove, on the occasion of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan, now appears under that of fire. He is the Spirit of love; and love is not only gentle and tender, it is also ardent as fire. Now, therefore, that the world is under the influence of the Holy Ghost, it must needs be on fire, and the fire shall not be checked. And why this form of tongues? To show that the heavenly fire is to be spread by the word, by speech. These hundred and twenty disciples need but to speak of the Son of God, made Man, and our Redeemer; of the Holy Ghost, who renews our souls; of the heavenly Father, who loves and adopts us as His children: their word will find thousands to believe and welcome it. Those that receive it shall all be united in one faith; they shall be called the Catholic Church, that is, universal, existing in all places and times. Jesus had said: 'Go, teach all nations!'7
The Holy Ghost brings from heaven both the tongue that is to teach, and the fire (the love of God and of mankind), which is to give warmth and efficacy to the teaching. The tongue and the fire are now given to these first disciples, who, by the assistance of the holy Spirit, will transmit them to others. So will it be to the end of time.
An obstacle, however, opposes the mission at the very outset. Since the confusion at Babel, there have been as many languages as countries; communication by word has been interrupted. How, then, is the word to become the instrument of the world's conquest, and to make one family out of all these nations that cannot understand each other? Fear not: the holy Spirit is all-powerful, and has provided for this diffi-culty. With the other gifts, wherewith He has en-riched the hundred and twenty disciples, He has given them that of understanding all languages, and of making themselves understood in every language. In a transport of holy enthusiasm, they attempt to speak the languages of all nations; their tongue and their ear take in, not only without effort, but even with charm and joy, this plenitude of word and speech which is to reunite mankind together. The Spirit of love has annulled the separation of Babel; men are once more made brethren by the unity of language. How beautiful art thou, dear Church of our God! Heretofore, the workings of the Holy Ghost have been limited; but now, He breatheth freely where He willeth; He brings thee forth to the eyes of men by this stupendous prodigy. Thou art the image of what this earth was, when all its inhabitants spoke the same language. The prodigy is not to cease with the day of Pentecost, nor with the disciples who are its first receivers. When the apostles have terminated their lives and preaching, the gift of tongues, at least in its miraculous form, will cease, because no longer needed: but thou O Church of Christ! wilt continue to speak all languages, even to the end of time, for thou art to dwell in every clime. The one same faith is to be expressed in the language of every country; and thus transformed, the miracle of Pen-tecost is to be kept up for ever within thee, as one of thy characteristic marks.
The great St. Augustine alluded to this, when he spoke the following admirable words: 'The whole body of Christ, the Church, now speaks in all tongues. Nay, I myself speak all tongues, for I am in the body of Christ, I am in the Church of Christ. If the body of Christ now speaks all languages, then am I in all languages. Greek is mine, Syriac is mine, Hebrew is mine, and all are mine, for I am one with all the several nations that speak them.'8During the ages of faith, the Church (which is the only source of all true progress), succeeded in giving one common language to all the nations that were in union with her. For centuries, the Latin language was the bond of union between civilized countries. However distant these might be from one another, there was this link of connexion between them; it was the medium of communication for political negotiations, for the spread of science, or for friendly epistolary correspondence. No one was a stranger, in any part of the west, or even beyond it, who could speak this language. The great heresy of the sixteenth century robbed us of this as of so many other blessings; it dismembered that Europe which the Church had united, not only by her faith, but by her language. But let us return to the cenacle, and continue our contemplation of the wondrous workings of the holy Spirit within this still closed sanctuary.
First of all, we look for Mary; for her who now, more than ever, is full of grace. After those measureless gifts lavished upon her in her Immaculate Conception; after the treasures of holiness infused into her by the Incarnate Word during the nine months she bore Him in her womb; after the special graces granted her for acting and suffering in union with her Son, in the work of the world's Redemption; after the favours wherewith this same Jesus loaded her when in the glory of His Resurrection: we should have thought that heaven had given all it could to a mere creature, however sublime the destiny of that creature might he. But no. Here is a new mission opened for Mary. The Church is born; she is born of Mary. Mary has given birth to the bride of her Son; new duties fall upon the Mother of the Church. Jesus has ascended into heaven, leaving Mary upon the earth, that she may nurse the infant Church. Oh! how lovely and yet how dignified, is this infancy of our dear Church, cherished as she is, fed, and strengthened by Mary! But this second Eve, this true Mother of the living,9must receive a fresh infusion of grace to fit her for this her new office: therefore it is that she has the first claim to, and the richest portion of, the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Heretofore, He overshadowed her and made her Mother of the Son of God; now He makes her the Mother of the Christian people. It is the verification of those words of the royal prophet: 'The stream (literally, the impetuosity) of the river maketh the city of God joyful: the Most High hath sanctified His own tabernacle.'10 The Spirit of love here fulfils the intention expressed by our Redeemer when dying on the cross. 'Woman!' said Jesus to her, 'behold thy son!' St. John was this son, and he represented all mankind. The Holy Ghost now infuses into Mary the plenitude of the grace needful for her maternal mission. From this day forward, she acts as Mother of the infant Church; and when, at length, the Church no longer needs her visible presence, this Mother quits the earth for heaven, where she is crowned Queen; but there, too, she exercises her glorious title and office of Mother of men.
Let us contemplate this master-piece of Pentecost, and admire the new loveliness that beams in Mary from this new maternity. She is inflamed by the fire of divine love, and this in a way not felt before. She is all devoted to the office put upon her, and for which she has been left on earth. The grace of the apostolate is granted to her. She has received the tongue of fire; and although her voice is not to make itself heard in public preaching, yet will she speak to the apostles, directing and consoling them in their labours. She will speak, too, to the faithful, but with a force, a sweetness, and a persuasiveness, be-coming one whom God has made the most exalted of His creatures. The primitive Christians, with such a training as this, will have vigour and energy enough to resist all the attacks of hell, and, like Stephen who had often listened to her inspiring words, to die martyrs for the faith.
Let us next look at the apostolic college. The frequent instructions they have been receiving from their Lord, during the forty days after His Resurrection, have changed them into quite other men; but now that they have received the Holy Ghost, the change and conversion is complete. They are filled with the enthusiasm of faith; their souls are on fire with divine love; the conquest of the whole world, this is their ambition, and they know it is their mission. What their Master had told them is fulfilled: they are endued with power from on high,11and are ready for the battle. Who would suppose that these are the men who crouched with fear, when their Jesus was in the hands of His enemies? Who would take these to be the men that doubted of His Resurrection? All that this beloved Master has taught them is now so clear to them! They see it all, they understand it all. The Holy Ghost has infused into them, and in a sublime degree, the gift of faith; they are impatient to spread this faith throughout the whole earth. Far from fearing, they even long to suffer persecution in the discharge of the office entrusted to them by Jesus, that of preaching His name and His glory unto all nations.
Look at Peter. You easily recognize him by that majestic bearing, which, though sweetly tempered by deep humility, bespeaks his pre-eminent dignity. A few hours ago, it was the tranquil gravity of the head of the apostolic college; now, his whole face gleams with the flash of enthusiasm, for the Holy Ghost is now sovereign possessor of this vicar of Christ, this prince of the word, this master-teacher of truth. Near him are seated the other apostles: Andrew, his elder brother, who now conceives that ardent passion for the cross, which is to be his grand characteristic; John, whose meek and gentle eye now glistens with the fire of inspiration, betokening the prophet of Patmos; James, the brother of John, and called, like him, the son of thunder,12bears in his whole attitude the appearance of the future chivalrous conqueror of Iberia. The other James, known and loved under the name of the brother of Jesus, feels a fresh and deeper transport of joyousness as the power of the Spirit thrills through his being. Matthew is encircled with a glowing light, which points him out to us as the first writer of the new Testament. Thomas, whose faith was the fruit he took from Jesus' wounds, feels that faith now made perfect; it is generous, free, unreserved, worthy of the brave apostle of the far east. In a word, all twelve are a living hymn to the glory of the almighty Spirit, whose power is thus magnificently evinced even at the outset of His reign.
The disciples, too, are sharers, though in a less degree than the apostles, of the divine gift; they receive the same Spirit, the same sacred fire, for they too, are to go forth, conquer the world, and found Churches. The holy women, also, who form part of the assembly of the cenacle, have received the graces of this wondrous descent of the Holy Ghost. It was love that emboldened them to stand near the cross of Jesus, and be the first to visit His sepulchre on Easter morning; this love is now redoubled. A tongue of fire has stood over each of them, and the time will come when they will speak, with fervid eloquence, of Jesus, to both Jews and Gentiles. The Synagogue will banish Magdalene and her compa-nions: the Gentiles of our western Europe will receive them, and the word of these holy exiles will produce a hundredfold of fruit.
Meanwhile, a large crowd of Jews has collected round the mysterious cenacle. Not only has the 'mighty wind' excited their curiosity, but, moreover, that same divine Spirit, who is working such wonders upon the holy assembly within, is impelling them to visit the house, whereto is the new-born Church of Christ. They clamour for the apostles, and these are burning with zeal to begin their work; so, too, are all. At once, then, the crowd sees these men standing in its midst, and relating the prodigy that has been wrought by the God of Israel. What is the surprise of this multitude, composed as it is of people of so many different nations, when these poor uneducated Galileans address them, each in the language of his own country? They have heard them speak before this, and they expected a repetition of the jargon now; when lo! there is the correct accent and diction of every country, and with such eloquence! The symbol of unity is here shown in all its magnificence. Here is the Christian Church; it is one, though consisting of such varied elements: the walls of division, which divine justice had set up between nation and nation, are now removed. Here, also, are the heralds of the faith of Christ; they are ready for their grand mission; they long to traverse the earth, and to save it by the word of their preaching.
But in the crowd there are some who are shocked at witnessing this heavenly enthusiasm of the apostles. 'These men,' say they, 'are full of new wine!' It is the language of rationalism, explaining away mystery by reason. These Galileans, these 'drunken men', are, however, to conquer the whole world to Christ, and to give the Holy Ghost, with His enebriating unction, to all mankind. The holy apostles feel that it is time to proclaim the new Pentecost; yes, this anniversary of the old is a fitting day for the new to be declared. But in this proclamation of the law of mercy and love, which is to supersede the law of justice and fear, who is to be the Moses? Our Emmanuel, before ascending into heaven, had selected one of the twelve for the glorious office: it is Peter, the rock on whom is built the Church. It is time for the shepherd to show himself and speak, for the flock is now to be formed. Let us hearken to the Holy Ghost, who is about to speak by His chief organ to this wondering and attentive multitude. The apostle, though he speaks in one tongue, is under-stood by each of his audience, no matter what his country and language may be. The discourse is, of itself, a guarantee of the truth and divine origin of the new law.
The fisherman of Genesareth thus pours forth his wondrous eloquence: 'Ye men of Judea, and all you that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known to you, and, with your ears, receive my words! For these are not drunk, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And upon my servants indeed, and upon my hand-maids, will I pour out, in those days of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy." Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God among you, by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as you also know. This same being delivered up, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you, by the hands of wicked men, have crucified and slain. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the sorrows of hell (the tomb), as it was impossible that He should be holden by it. For David saith concerning Him: "My flesh shall rest in hope, because Thou wilt not leave my soul in the tomb, nor suffer Thy holy One to see corruption." Ye men, brethren, let me freely speak to you of the patriarch David: that he died and was buried, and his sepulchre is with us to this day. Whereas, therefore, he was a prophet, he spoke of the Resurrection of Christ; for neither was He left in the tomb, neither did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised again, whereof all we are witnesses. Being exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath poured forth this which you see and hear. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know most certainly, that God hath made both Lord and Christ this same Jesus, whom you have crucified.'13 Thus did the second Moses promulgate the new Law. How must his hearers have welcomed the stupendous gift of this new Pentecost, which put them in possession of the divine realities foreshadowed by that figurative one of old f Here again, it was God revealing Himself to His creatures, and, as usual, by miracles. Peter alludes to the wonders wrought by Jesus, who thus bore testimony to His being the Messias. He tells his audience that the Holy Ghost has been sent from heaven, according to the promise made to this Jesus by His Father: they have proof enough of the great fact, in the gift of tongues of which they themselves are witnesses.
The holy Spirit makes His presence and influence to be felt in the hearts of these favoured listeners. & few moments previously they were disciples of Sinai, who had come from distant lands to celebrate the by-gone Pasch and Pentecost; now they have faith, simple and full faith, in Christ. They repent of the awful crime of His death, of which they have been accomplices; they confess His Resurrection and Ascension; they beseech Peter and the rest of the apostles to put them in the way of salvation: 'Men and brethren!' say they, 'what shall we do?'14l Better dispositions could not be: they desire to know their duty, and are determined to do it. Peter resumes his discourse, saying: 'Do penance, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, whomso-ever the Lord our God shall call.' 15
The Jewish Pentecost pales at each word of the new Moses; the Christian Pentecost manifests itself with clearer light. The reign of the Holy Ghost is inaugurated in Jerusalem, and under the very shadow of that temple which is doomed to destruction. Peter continued his instructions; but the sacred Volume has left us only these few words, wherewith, probably, the apostle made his final appeal to his hearers: 'Save yourselves from this perverse generation!'16 These children of Israel had to make this sacrifice, or they never could have shared in the graces of the new Pentecost: they had to cut themselves off from their own people; they had to leave the Syna-gogue for the Church. There was a struggle in many a heart at that moment; but the Holy Spirit tri-umphed; three thousand declared themselves disciples of Christ, and received the mark of adoption in holy Baptism. Church of the living God! how lovely art thou in thy first reception of the divine Spirit! how admirable is thy early progress! Thy first abode was in the Immaculate Mary, the Virgin full of grace, the Mother of God; thy second victory gave thee the hundred and twenty disciples of the cenacle; and now, three thousand elect proclaim thee as their mother, and, leaving the unhappy Jerusa-lem, will carry thy name and kingdom to their own countries. To-morrow, Peter is to preach in the temple, and five thousand men will enroll themselves as disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. Hail! then, dear creation of the Holy Ghost! Militant on earth; triumphant in heaven; beautiful, noble, immortal Church, all hail! And thou, bright Pentecost! day of our truest birth! how fair, how glorious, thou makest these first hours of Jesus' bride on earth! The divine Spirit thou givest us, has written, not upon stone, but upon our hearts, the Law that is to govern us. In thee, O Pentecost! we find realized the hopes foreshadowed in the mystery of the Epiphany; for though thou thyself art promulgated in Jerusalem, yet thy graces are to be extended to all that are afar off, that is, to us Gentiles. The Magi came from the east; we watched them as they visited the crib of the divine Babe, for we knew that we, too, were to have our season of grace. It was thou, O holy Spirit! that didst attract them to Bethlehem: and now, in this Pentecost of Thy power, Thou callest all men; the star is changed into tongues of fire, and the face of the earth is to be renewed. Oh! grant that we may be ever faithful to the graces thou offerest us, and carefully treasure the gifts sent us, with Thee and through Thee, by the Father and the Son!
The mystery of Pentecost holds so important a place in the Christian dispensation, that we cannot be surprised at the Church's ranking it, in her liturgy, on an equality with her paschal solemnity. The Pasch is the redemption of man by the victory of Christ; Pentecost is the Holy Ghost taking possession of man redeemed. The Ascension is the intermediate mystery; it consummates the Pasch, by placing the Man-God, the Conqueror of death, and our Head, at the right hand of the Father; it prepares the mission of the Holy Ghost to our earth. This mission could not take place until Jesus had been glorified, as St. John tells us;17 and several reasons are assigned for this fact by the holy fathers. It was necessary that the Son of God, who, together with the Father, is the principle of the procession of the Holy Ghost in the divine essence, should also personally send this divine Spirit upon the earth. The exterior mission of one of the Three Persons is but the sequel and manifestation of the mysterious and eternal production which is ever going on within the Divinity. Thus the Father is not sent, either by the Son or by the Holy Ghost, because He does not proceed from them. The Son is sent to men by the Father, of whom He is eternally begotten. The Holy Ghost is sent by the Father and the Son, because He proceeds from both. But, in order that the mission of the Holy Ghost might give greater glory to the Son, there was a congruity in its not taking place until such time as the Incarnate Word should be enthroned at the right hand of the Father. How immense the glory of human nature, that it was hypostatically united to the Person of the Son of God when this mission of the Holy Ghost was achieved! and that we can say, in strict truth, the Holy Ghost was sent by the Man-God! This divine mission was not to be given to the Third Person, until men were deprived of the visible pre-sence of Jesus. As we have already said, the hearts of the faithful were henceforward to follow their absent Redeemer by a purer and wholly spiritual love. Now, who was to bring us this new love, if not He who is the link of the eternal love of the Father and the Son?
This holy Spirit of love and union is called, in the sacred Scriptures, the 'Gift of God'; and it is on the day of Pentecost that the Father and Son send us this ineffable Gift. Let us call to mind the words spoken by our Emmanuel to the Samaritan woman at the well of Sichar: 'If thou didst know the Gift of God!’18 He had not yet been given, He had not yet been manifested, otherwise than in a partial way. From this day forward, He inundates the whole earth with His fire, He gives spiritual life to all, He makes His influence felt in every place. We know the Gift of God; so that we have but to open our hearts to receive Him, as did the three thousand who listened to St. Peter's sermon. Observe, too, the season of the year, in which the Holy Ghost comes to take possession of His earthly kingdom. Our Jesus, the Sun of justice, arose in Bethlehem in the very depth of winter; humble and gradual was His ascent to the zenith of His glory. But the Spirit of the Father and the Son came in the season that harmonizes with His own divine characteristic. He is a consuming Fire;19
He comes into the world when summer is in its pride, and sun-shine decks our earth with loveliest flowers. Let us welcome the life-giving heat of the Holy Ghost, and earnestly beseech Him that it may ever abide with-in us. The liturgical year has brought us to the full possession of truth by the Incarnate Word; let us carefully cherish the love, which the Holy Ghost has now enkindled within our hearts.
The Christian Pentecost, prefigured by the ancient one of the Jews, is of the number of the feasts that were instituted by the apostles. As we have already remarked, it formerly shared with Easter the honour of the solemn administration of Baptism. Its octave, like that of Easter, and for the same reason, ended with the Saturday following the feast. The catechumens received Baptism on the night between Saturday and Sunday. So that the Pentecost solemnity began on the vigil, for the neophytes at once put on their white garments: on the eighth day, the Saturday, they laid them aside.
In the middle-ages, the feast of Pentecost was called by the beautiful name of 'The Pasch of roses,' just as the Sunday within the octave of the Ascension was termed the 'Sunday of roses'. The colour and fragrance of this lovely flower were considered by our Catholic forefathers as emblems of the tongues of fire, which rested on the heads of the hundred and twenty disciples, and poured forth the sweet gifts of love and grace on the infant Church. The same idea suggested the red-coloured vestments for the liturgi-cal services during the whole octave. In his Rational (a work which abounds in most interesting informa-tion regarding the mediæval liturgical usages), Durandus tells us that, in the thirteenth century, a dove was allowed to fly about in the church, and flowers and lighted tow were thrown down from the roof, during the Mass on Whit Sunday; these were allusions to the two mysteries of Jesus' baptism, and of the descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost.
At Rome, the station is in the basilica of St. Peter. It was but just that special honour should be paid to the prince of the apostles, for it was on this day that his preaching won three thousand converts to the Church. Though the station, and the indulgences attached to it, are at St. Peter's, yet the sovereign Pontiff and the sacred college of Cardinals solemnize to-day's service in the Lateran basilica, which is the mother-church of the city and of the world.

1 Acts, ii. 1.
2 Eph. iii. 19.
3 St. Luke, xii. 49.
4 Our nine o'clock. Acts, ii. 15.
5 St. John, iii. 8.
6 Responsory for the Thursday within the Octave.
7 St. Matth. xxviii. 19.
8 Enarratio in Psalmum cxlvii., verse l4.
9 Gen. iii. 20.
10 Ps. xlv. 5.
11 St. Luke, xxiv. 49.
12 St. Mark, iii. 17.
13 Acts, ii. 14–36.
14 Acts, ii. 37.
15 1bid, 38, 39.
16 Ibid. 40.
17 St. John, vii. 39.
18 St. John, iv. 10.
19 Deut. iv. 24.