“Behold a Virgin shall conceive”
Vol 7 Issue 50 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
December 13, 2014 ~ Saint Lucy, opn!
1. Third Sunday in Advent—Benedict Baur, O.S.B.
2. Saint Spiridion
3. The Christian Family (31)
4. Articles and notices
Dear Reader:
Advent is always a busy time with the Novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe followed by the Las Posadas Christmas Novena. With the other parish activities there is little time to give attention to the Newsletter, but one should always meditate on the Advent spirit and not forget living the Catholic life especially when the world around is not only void of a Catholic spirit, but intrinsically opposed to the presence of Christ and His teachings in its affairs.
As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit. —The Editor
_____________________________________________________________________________________
WEEK OF THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT
Benedict Baur, O.S.B.
“Behold a Virgin shall conceive”
- The stational church for Ember Wednesday in Advent is the church of St. Mary Major in Rome. The liturgy invites us to visit the home of the Virgin of Nazareth and presents us the scene of the Annunciation. Reverently beholding the holy Virgin, we contemplate the great mystery of the Incarnation.
- The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary: “Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High” (Gospel). How is this to be? “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.” Mary believes. She recognizes this as the will of God and submits herself to His designs with complete surrender and self-forgetfulness. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.” In that moment “the Word was made flesh,” and the Virgin’s obedience, purity, and love bore fruit. “Blessed art thou that thou hast believed” (Luke 1:45).
“The Word was made flesh” in the womb of the Virgin, in whose house we are today assembled. Mary has become a new heaven, a heaven on earth, and we cry out: “Drop down dew ye heavens, and let the clouds rain the Just One.” Mary is the “earth” which is to “be opened and bud forth a Savior”; she is the “heavens” which “show forth the glory of God” (Introit). In the Incarnation was fulfilled the prophecy made by Isaias seven hundred years before the birth of Christ. “The Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel,” God with us (Epistle). “And the Word was made flesh” (John 1:14) through the Virgin Mary, who conceived by the Holy Ghost.
Come let us adore the Word Incarnate. Mary is the tabernacle of the covenant in which God draws near to men. “In the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains [that is, Sion, Mary, the dwelling place of God], and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say: come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob [to Mary] and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths, for the law [that is, the Word, Christ] shall come forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord [Christ] from Jerusalem [Mary] ….O house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord our God,” which is brought to us by Mary (First lesson). We contemplate with faith and devotion the mystery that is accomplished in the Virgin Mary.
- At the Communion we sing, “Behold a virgin shall conceive.” At the moment when the angel brought her the message and Mary conceived of the Holy Ghost, she experienced, as it were, her first Holy Communion. This blessed communion was full of blessing for Mary herself and for the whole human race. As often as the children of the Church approach the Communion rail to receive the body of the Lord, the message of the angel is, in a sense, again repeated: “Behold a virgin shall conceive.” When we receive the Holy Eucharist, we are, in the mind of the liturgy, the Virgin of Nazareth, and we experience in ourselves the blessed conception which we celebrate today in the church of St. Mary Major. We share with Mary the experience of conceiving the Son of God and having Him as truly in our hearts as she had. “Behold a virgin shall conceive…. His name shall be called Emmanuel,” God with us. Oh, that we might realize in ourselves the wonderful teaching of the liturgy.
“Behold a virgin shall conceive.” With the liturgy we recognize here a reference to the Church. In her bosom the Church bears Christ, the author of grace and salvation. Only in the Church will mankind be able to find Christ. “Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.” There in His holy temple, in the Church, He will teach us His ways. Let us remain faithful to the Mother of Christ, and to our Holy Mother the Church.
PRAYER
O God, who didst will that Thy Word should be conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, be attentive to our prayers and assist us through her intercession, whom we believe truly to be the Mother of God. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
“Behold, a Virgin!”
- “At that time the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary” (Luke 1:26 f.; Gospel of Ember Wednesday).
- “To a virgin.” Nowhere else in the Gospels is there given such a detailed and solemn account of the sending of an angel to men. Why such an account on this occasion? The angel was sent to a virgin, and “the virgin’s name was Mary.” Here lies the superiority of our religion over every other religion both before and after it. Christianity differs from the other religions of the world in the heavenly purity of its first hour of life. A pure angel of God approaches the purest of virgins. Divinity makes its approach to humanity on the path of purity and virginity. It is this purity and virginity that draw God down upon the earth.
“Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women …. Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son” (Luke 1:28, 31). “Hail, full of grace.” Mary does not answer. She considers well what the message of the angel may mean. The Virgin’s peace of mind is disturbed by the word of the angel. The honor and the dignity offered here seem almost too great. However, the angel has more to say to her. First she receives the assurance, “Fear not”; then she is told, “Thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son.” Finally the wonderful plan of redemption is revealed to her. “He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David, His Father; and He shall reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32 f.). Not only does Mary learn that she is to be the Mother of God, but the whole marvelous plan of redemption is laid before her. How greatly God has honored Mary! And how greatly in her has He honored the state of virginity! How generous He is with her, for He has given her everything! To virginity and purity God reveals His mysteries. “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).
- “Behold a virgin.” A virgin stands at the portals of our redemption. In a sense, the accomplishment of our redemption depends on her alone, for it depends on her giving her consent to the plan proposed by God. She gives her consent when she replies to the message of the angel: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38). But before giving her consent she inquires cautiously, “How shall this be done, because I know not man?” Observe Mary’s sublime regard for her virginity. She is determined to remain a virgin. She had previously accepted the life of virginity as God’s will in her regard, and in the fullness of understanding which God had given her, had recognized the value of this state of life. Now she desires with her whole soul to remain a virgin if this be the will of God, A person who gives himself freely to the life of virginity for the love of God, has given to God all that it is possible to give. He has given God the highest expression of pure love and of perfect faith.
“Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” Mary need not fear for her virginity, for God is also concerned that she remain a virgin. He does not intend to violate her virginity; on the contrary, He will sanctify her virginity by divine maternity. The power of the Holy Ghost will come upon her, and the power of the Most High will overshadow her, and the Son of God will descend and take up His abode in her virginal body. She becomes His handmaid and His mother. Her concern is that the will of God be accomplished in her. She stands there at the turning point of history to point out the way of salvation for men. In the brilliance and clarity of her vision she walks before us to show us the path that leads to God. “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord.”
PRAYER
Hail, Virgin Mother, Star of the Sea,
O Gate of Heaven, we come to thee;
The joy the angel brought is mine,
The name of Eve is changed for thine.
You free th’ earth’s slaves and bring them light,
You put the hellish hordes to flight.
Now prove thyself our one true mother
Left to us by Christ our brother.
O ever virgin, fair and pure,
When thou art near we feel secure.
Now give thy faltering children strength,
And take us to our home at length,
That we may join in praising thee
Both now and in eternity.
Amen.
14 : ST SPIRIDION, BISHOP OF TREMITHUS (FOURTH CENTURY)
MANY stories are told of this Cypriot saint, who was at the same time a shepherd, married and a bishop. Sozomen, who wrote in the middle of the fifth century, says that a gang of thieves attempting one night to carry off some of his sheep were stopped by an invisible hand, so that they could neither steal nor make their escape. Spiridion (or better, Spyridon), finding them thus the next morning, set them at liberty by his prayers and gave them a ram, lest they should have been up all night for nothing. The same historian says that it was the saint’s custom to fast with his family for some days in Lent without eating anything. Once during this time, when he had no bread in his house, a traveller called to rest and refresh himself on the road. Spiridion, having nothing else, ordered some salt pork to be boiled, for he saw the traveller was very tired. Then he invited the stranger to eat. He excused himself, saying that he was a Christian. Spiridion, himself setting the example by way of courtesy, replied that therefore he was quite free to eat; thereby reminding the stranger both that ecclesiastical precepts do not bind unreasonably and that to a Christian no food is in itself forbidden.
St Spiridion was chosen bishop of Tremithus, on the sea-coast near Salamis, and thenceforth combined the care of sheep with the care of souls. His diocese was very small and the inhabitants poor, but the Christians were regular in their lives; there remained among them some idolaters. In the persecution of Galerius he made a glorious confession of the faith. The Roman Martyrology says he was one of those who lost their right eye, had the left leg hamstrung, and in that state were sent to work in the mines, and (mistakenly) that he was among the bishops at the Council of Nicaea in 325. There is a legend in the East that on the way to the council he fell in with a party of other bishops, who were alarmed lest the rustic simplicity of Spiridion should compromise the cause of orthodoxy. So they told /556/ their servants to cut the heads off the mules of Spiridion and his deacon, which was done. When he prepared to set off before dawn the next day and discovered the crime, Spiridion was not at all discomfited. He told the deacon to put the severed heads upon the bodies, and at once they grew together and the animals lived. But when the sun rose it was found that a mistake had been made in the dark: for the bishop’s white mule had a brown head and the deacon’s brown mule had a white head. During the council a pagan philosopher named Eulogius made an attack on Christianity, and an aged, one-eyed bishop, unpolished in manner and appearance, got up to reply to the urbane scoffer. He affirmed the omnipotent God and the incarnation of the Son for the redemption of all people as things beyond proof to be held by faith: did Eulogius believe them, or did he not? After a pause the philosopher was constrained to admit that he did. “Then “, said the bishop, “come with me to the church and receive the sign of faith.” And Eulogius did so, for, he said, words and arguments cannot resist virtue, meaning thereby the power of the Holy Ghost manifested in the unlearned bishop. Later writers identify this bishop with St Spiridion, but without authority.
A certain person had deposited for safety in the hands of Spiridion’s daughter Irene something of great value. This he demanded of the bishop after her death; but it was not to be found and nobody knew where it was. Whereupon, it is said, St Spiridion went to the place where his daughter was buried, called her by her name, and asked where she had put the missing article. Then she answered him, giving directions where she had hid it that it might be more safe: and it was found there. Spiridion had very little learning, but he had made the Scriptures his daily study and had learned what respect is due to the word of God. Once when the bishops of Cyprus were assembled together, St Triphyllius, Bishop of Ledra (whom St Jerome commends as the most eloquent man of his time), was preaching a sermon. Mentioning that passage, ” Take up thy bed, and walk”, he said “couch” instead of ” bed”, thinking that word the more elegant and suitable. St Spiridion objected against this false nicety and attempt to add graces to what was more adorned with simplicity, and asked the preacher whether the word our Lord Himself had used was not good enough for him. [*The obvious reflection that this rebuke would sometimes apply also to Alban Butler himself is modified by the further reflection that the fashions of the eighteenth century are not ours. But there are not wanting writers and speakers to-day who might with advantage ponder this anecdote.] The relics of St Spiridion were translated from Cyprus to Constantinople, and again to Corfu, where they are still venerated. He is the principal patron of the Catholics of Corfu, Zakynthos and Kephalonia.
THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY
By MOST REV. TIHAMER TOTH
(1949)
XVI
THE FRUIT OF MARRIAGE
- Obedience produces another necessary virtue: respect for authority.
1) Although there can be no common social life without respect for authority, still, to combine parental love with an adequate respect for authority is one of the most difficult yet indispensable tasks of education. Yes, parents shall love their children, but children shall requite their love with implicit respect and obedience.
Not only in the narrow circle of the family is respect for authority a valuable asset; it is an indispensable element of human culture. Respect for authority preserves the achievements of former generations, and motivates each new generation to continue and develop them. To do so, however, minds imbued with this respect are necessary. Hence when family life trains its members to such respect, it serves general cultural values at the same time.
The generations that refuse to respect authority and by so/188/ doing deny the values of the past, are swept into revolution. Therefore it is easy to understand why revolutionists are especially eager to upset family life. When respect for authority within the family is destroyed, all other authority is left without a foundation upon which to stand, and the soil becomes favorable for continual revolutions.
2) Of course parents should not forget that if they wish their children to be respecters of authority they themselves must not belittle those in authority in the presence of their children.
The pagans were more aware of the necessity for ensuring the authority of tutors and teachers than we are. Philip, the king of Macedonia, forbade his son, who was afterward known as Alexander the Great, to remain seated while his teacher, Aristotle, was instructing him. And the great emperor Theodosius, when he surprised his two sons Arcadias and Honorius sitting at their lessons while their teacher Arsenio’s was standing, ordered that thereafter the master should be seated and that they should stand.
Today? How differently, how carelessly many parents think and speak, and how greatly they damage respect for authority by their thoughtlessness!
If a child’s school report shows low grades, of course the teacher is said to be in fault. On this subject an experienced teacher writes as follows: “Usually it is the mother who receives the school report. In her first excitement she scolds the child. But the first thing that the child does, whether boy or girl, is to lay all blame at the teacher’s door.”
“I did not answer back even once,” says one child. Another defends himself by saying: “Only one of my compositions was not good, and that was one I wrote after I was sick.”
The third says: “I was not at church on mamma’s names day that is why the report is bad.” /189/
The fourth: “I always knew my lesson, but I recited it in my own words.”
The fifth: “I always knew my lesson, but only the way the book said it.”
The sixth: “I whispered answers to the girl next to me.”
The seventh: “The teacher blames me instead of someone else.”
The tenth to the ninety-ninth: “The teacher doesn’t like me; she is always against me.”
The hundredth says: “Mother darling, please do not be angry. I deserve a poor report, but I will bring home a better one the next time. Please hear my lessons every evening.”
But every one of the hundred will say: “Please sign the report, mother dear. But don’t let papa see it.”
Fifty per cent of the mammas do not tell the papas anything about the reports. Those who do mention them, generally pour out the children’s excuses first, and all blame the teachers.
- With obedience and respect for authority we must consider the truthfulness of children as equally important. What happiness it is for parents if they can trust every word their children say! Veracity is the foundation of character -building, and there is little that we can do with a child that has the habit of lying.
1) Here I must draw special attention to two faults sometimes made in the training of children. First, the unwarranted severity of some parents, which often drives the child to telling untruths. One may, of course, punish ill-will, but not awkwardness or childish thoughtlessness. And especially, never punish a child if he tells the truth. If a child honestly confesses his fault, one must appeal to his better feelings to reprove him, but he must not be punished for his honesty. /190/
2) The other fault is untruthfulness committed by parents themselves.
A little girl says to her mother: “Mamma, a collection is being made in our school for the poor children. Could I give something, too.”
Her mother replies: “You will not give anything. Tell the Sister that we also are poor.”
Next day the little girl says: “Mamma, Sister said I should not join the dancing class, so as not to spend our money extravagantly.”
Her mother replies: “Tell Sister that we have something to be extravagant with. She need not worry about that.”
And the same mother will be surprised later on if her daughter tells falsehoods, not only to her teachers but even to her.
- Another important duty of parents is to train their children to lead morally pure lives.
1) In this respect two serious tasks await parents. The first is to impart to children at the right time God’s great plan; the plan which testifies to His sublime trust in man. The second is to maintain an atmosphere of true modesty in the home, and to see that nothing is present that could offend a child’s best protection, his sense of shame. This second task is accepted and fulfilled by many parents, but they draw back from undertaking the first one. “It is a very difficult and delicate task,” they say. “We see that we ought to say something, but we do not know how to say it.”
I do not see why this task should be such an unpleasant one for parents, if they themselves are imbued with reverence for the plan of God and if they themselves think with religious earnestness on the creative power given by God to man. Such parents will not fail to find the right tone and the right words. /191/
Still, even if the task is very difficult, we can hardly avoid it if we consider the irreparable spiritual harm that may be done to adolescent children by the silence of their parents.
No one should think that, if he is silent on this subject in front of his children, all will be well. Society, the street, the theater, motion pictures, newspapers, novels, shop-windows, and posters are not silent; they all speak of it. But they speak in such a tone and in such a way that children are swept irrevocably into sin.
If I had the right I would compel every parent to read the chapters from St. Augustine in which he describes with startling force his fierce struggles against sensuality during his youthful years. True, at that time, he was not yet a Christian, but how many Christian youth there are that have experienced the same struggles!
Parents, never forget that if ever children have need of someone to whom they can turn with complete confidence, it is in the year of adolescence. Happy the child who can turn in those years to his parents with such complete trust. And happy the parents whose wise, understanding, tactful love has won their children’s confidence.
2) Parents must exercise proper control over their children’s friendships. Do you know your children’s companions? Where they spend their spare time? What they talk about among themselves?
“We have no time to trouble about such things.” Take care. Then you deserve St. Paul’s stern verdict: “If any man have not care of his own, and especially of those of his house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel” (I Tim. 5:8).
- As I come to the end of this sermon there are still many things I should like to say. One thing, however, I must add. In fact, I ought to have spoken of it in the first place, because /192/ it is the basis of all education and the cornerstone of every Christian character. This is, a religious upbringing.
It is remarkable that some parents have the greatest fear that their children may in some way become to pious.
I put a question to one such mother: “Dear lady, do you really want your son to develop into a dissolute and frivolous young man?”
“Ah, of course not! What mother would? Only I should not like him to be a bigot.”
“Bigot? I wonder what you mean by that.”
“Why, that he should not be too religious.”
Please think a moment how strange those two words sound together. “Too religious!” I could understand if you were to say, “I do not want my son to be wicked.” Yes, that has some meaning. I do not want him to be too idle, too deceitful. But “too religious?” What are you afraid will happen to him in such a case?
“That he will be a dunce, awkward and shy; in a word, a namby-pamby. And I do not want him to pose as a saint.”
There you are entirely right. But tell me please, who says that that is being religious? True religion is found in a home where the members of the family live natural, upright, God-fearing lives. Religiousness is not merely an external thing. It is not religious to go to church on Sunday and to put away God’s law on week days with one’s best clothes. It is not religious to do nothing but pray and fast. This does indeed belong to religiousness, but true religiousness is the profound attachment to God that permeates our whole lives, every plan, every deed, every pleasure and every pain of ours. Such a religious atmosphere in the home instills the fundamentals Christian virtues into the soul of a child.
Now, after we have considered some of the obligations that /193/ Christian parenthood entails, and remember how much sacrifice and self-discipline is demanded of parents before the helpless little infant becomes a well-trained member of society, it is impossible not to honor and respect the parents who bring up their children with such blessed self-sacrificing love.
Do not be surprised, dear brethren, if my heart is filled with deep emotion at this thought. I, too, knew such a mother; left a widow at thirty-one with five little sons, the eldest nine, and the youngest two. That young widow did not sink under the burden of life. But who can reckon up the anxieties and cares and sacrifices that had to be gone through by that young mother during the years she was bringing up her five little sons?
But she brought them up. One of her sons you have now listened to for sixteen years in this church, from this pulpit. And if my sermon has brought any of my dear hearers but one step nearer to the Lord Almighty, I now beg him as a sign of his gratitude to kneel down with me and to repeat a Hail Mary for the sake of that dear mother; for the sake of my unforgettable mother of blessed memory. Amen. /194/
To be continued.
————————
For those who purchase through Amazon, please help support the work here at Saint Joseph’s by going through this link:
http://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-2855162
_________________________
The topics of Faith and Morals will correspond to the Roman Catholic Faith in Tradition and the Magisterium. The News will be of interest. The commentaries are for the reader to ponder and consider. The e-mail address will be for you to provide thought for consideration. The donations will be to support the continuation of this undertaking.
While the Newsletter is free of charge it is not free of cost. Please consider supporting St Joseph’s Catholic Church with a tax – deductible donation by clicking the secure link below
Or if you prefer send a check to
Catholic Tradition Newsletter
c/o St Joseph’s Catholic Church
131 N. 9th St
Las Vegas, NV 89101
Visit us on the Worldwide Web: http://stjosephlv.org
e-mail news and comments to: tcatholicn@yahoo.com
To unsubscribe, please type, “unsubscribe”‚ in subject line.