Christ in the Home

Vol 8 Issue 33 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
August 15, 2015 ~ Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (29)
2. Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
3. St Joachim
4. Christ in the Home (4)
5. Articles and noticesDear Reader:

Today, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, faithful Catholics everywhere are rejoicing with Mary in that great moment that Her Divine Son takes Her to heaven, there to live forever in the Divine Presence, participating in the Beatific Vision as the Mother of the King. Her faith was such that she did not question the Angel, like Zacharias, but rather asked how so she may more perfectly fulfil the will of the heavenly Father and instruct the Church that: she is the woman of Genesis 3:15; she is the virgin of Isaias 7:14, she is the blessed woman, like Judith 13:23, that saves her people; she is full of grace like Esther 2:17, loved above all woman and made queen instead of Eve and saves her people; she is Sara (Gen. 17:19) who bears a son with whom God will establish the everlasting covenant. These are just a few passages that are fulfilled in the Virgin Mary, whose faith in God’s Word saved man from eternal ruin by having the dew come down from heaven (cf. Ps. 71:6, Judges 6:37 ff.). Protestants don’t read Sacred Scripture, they read their own texts that, even there, condemn them for their lack of faith. May Catholics ever hold fast to that Faith in God and in His Promise, the Promised fulfilled through a woman, a virgin who, filled with God’s love and loved by God, held back God’s anger (cf., among other passages, Exod. 32:12.) There is no other, besides Her Son, who is foretold and who could, even in Sacred Scripture proclaim: Behold henceforth all generations shall call me blessed (Luke 1:48).

May Catholic young ladies, who still model themselves on the Virgin Mary, implore her for the faith they need to bring Christ into this world witnessed in living grace filled lives; may they never live the seductive and vain lives most daughters of Eve are now living by listening to the deceits of the ancient serpent and bringing mankind into eternal ruin.

As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit.—The Editor

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Baptism

Means of Salvation

Preparation for Grace

Introduction (c)

Justification, Righteousness and Sanctifying Grace (2)

 

Martin Luther did not discover justification by faith alone, rather he tweaked it to address his self-reliance that led him to sin and yet excuse his weakness when he did sin. Instead of believing that Original Sin is the Sin of our first parent Adam, and all men participated in that sin through Adam, and all men are guilty of that sin through Adam, and all men come into the world deprived of the gifts of God’s grace which all men would have had if Adam had not sinned, Martin Luther taught that the bodily drives, or concupiscences, themselves were the original sin—the origin of sin; but these concupiscences were a necessity of the natural life and therefore there was a necessity to sin to live a natural life. Christ offers Himself in place of sinful man. Faith in Christ makes His merits the possession of the believer, covers the believer’s sins in the garment of righteousness and stands before the Father in place of the believer.

Be a sinner and sin on bravely, but have stronger faith and rejoice in Christ, who is the victor of sin, death, and the world. Do not for a moment imagine that this life is the abiding place of justice: sin must be committed. To you it ought to be sufficient that you acknowledge the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world, the sin cannot tear you away from him, even though you commit adultery a hundred times a day and commit as many murders” (Enders, “Briefwechsel”, III, 208 as quoted by Sollier, Redemption).

 

One can imagine the consequences of such a theology of salvation. One has only to read the historical accounts of the results of preaching such a doctrine: Anarchy and revolt. One has only to look at the many sects that immediately sprang up: Lutherans, Calvinists, Anabaptists, Zwinglians, Presbyterians, and Socinians. These further broke up into various sects, such as from the Anabaptists sprouted the Mennonites and Abecedarians and from the Socinians the Unitarians. The Peasants’ War (1524-25), instigated by the Innovators, brought about the death of over 100,000 farmers and completely destroyed economic, social and political stability within the German territory for centuries.

The doctrine would lead to the predestination theology of Calvin, where free will is denied and God has already chosen who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. The Sacrifice of the Mass will be rejected because Christ has already saved the world (i.e, those are to be saved). Meritorious works will be rejected because everything a person does is a sin and what is sinful cannot be meritorious. Today their so-called services are mere entertainment and engagement so as to arouse the “spirit”, i.e., emotions, to be strengthened in fellowship and fulfilling the words of Christ: “Where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matt. 18:20) Prayers would not be for salvation, but for material possessions. Reading of Scripture would be more a charism (a gift of the “gab”).

How, then, is justification defined by the Protestants? Pohle, in his article, Justfication, provides the following:

 

[J]ustification is, as the Formulary of Concord (1577) avows, a mere external pronouncement of justification, a forensic absolution from sin and its eternal punishments. This absolution is based on Christ’s holiness which God imputes to man’s faith. Cf. Solid. Declar. III de fide justif., sec. xi: “The term justification in this instance means the declaring just, the freeing from sin and the eternal punishment of sin in consideration of the justice of Christ imputed to faith by God.” (Catholic Encyclopedia)

 

As with Faith, the Council of Trent applied itself to give a true understanding of Justification as the following decree outlines:

Justification itself follows this disposition or preparation [by grace], which is not merely remission of sins [can. II], but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man through the voluntary reception of the grace and gifts, whereby an unjust man becomes a just man, and from being an enemy becomes a friend, that he may be “an heir according to hope of life everlasting” [Tit. 3:7]. The causes of this justification are: the final cause indeed is the glory of God and of Christ and life eternal; the efficient cause is truly a merciful God who gratuitously “washes and sanctifies” [1 Cor. 6:11], “signing and anointing with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance” [Eph. 1:13f.]; but the meritorious cause is His most beloved only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, “who when we were enemies” [cf. Rom. 5:10], “for the exceeding charity wherewith he loved us” [Eph. 2:4], merited justification for us [can. 10] by His most holy passion on the wood of the Cross, and made satisfaction for us to God the Father; the instrumental cause is the sacrament of baptism, which is the “sacrament of faith,” [St. Ambrose, De Spiritu Sancto, 1, 3, 42 (ML 16, 714). St. Aug. Letter 98, to Boniface 9 ff. (ML 33, 364). Innoc. III (see D 406, 413)] without which no one is ever justified. Finally the unique formal cause is the “justice of God, not that by which He Himself is just, but by which He makes us just” [can. 10 and 11; cf. St. Augustine, De Trin., 14, 12, 15 (ML 42, 1048)], that, namely, by which, when we are endowed with it by him, we are renewed in the spirit of our mind, and not only are we reputed, but we are truly called and are just, receiving justice within us, each one according to his own measure, which the “Holy Spirit distributes to everyone as he wills” [1. Cor. 12:11], and according to each one’s own disposition and cooperation. (D 799)
For although no one can be just but he to whom the merits of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ are communicated, yet this does take place in this justification of the ungodly when by the merit of that same most holy passion “the charity of God is poured forth by the Holy Spirit in the hearts” [Rom. 5:5] of those who are justified, and inheres in them [can. II]. Hence man through Jesus Christ, into whom he is ingrafted, receives in the said justification together with the remission of sins all these [gifts] infused at the same time: faith, hope, and charity. For faith, unless hope and charity be added to it, neither unites one perfectly with Christ, nor makes him a living member of his body. For this reason it is most truly said that “faith without works is dead” [Jas.2:17], and is of no profit [can. 19], and “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith, which worketh by charity” [Gal. 5:6; 6:15]. This faith, in accordance with apostolic tradition, catechumens beg of the Church before the sacrament of baptism, when they ask for “faith which bestows life eternal,” [Rit. Rom., Ordo Baptismi note 1 f.] which without hope and charity faith cannot bestow. Thence also they hear immediately the word of Christ: “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments” [Matt. 19:17; can. 18-20]. Therefore, when receiving true and Christian justice, they are commanded immediately on being reborn, to preserve it pure and spotless as the “first robe” [Luke 15:22] given to them through Christ Jesus in place of that which Adam by his disobedience lost for himself and for us, so that they may bear it before the tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ and have life eternal [Ibid. n. 24]. (D 800)

At this point, one may ask: How does one become justified? What is the process? It cannot be perceived as merely a mystery since on it depends salvation? It cannot be all God’s work; but it cannot also be one’s own personal merit or work.

When it concerns adults, Scripture places justification in the scenario of a bride and groom. The groom is seeking the bride, but the bride is also seeking the groom (cf. Canticle of Canticles). As it is a relationship, there must be an attraction and a knowledge of the other. If God does not attract the individual person, there will be no attraction. If God sees no attraction in the human, He also will not be attracted. God cannot force the human to come to Him, nor can the human force God to come to one. It appears to be a dance between God and the human, where God makes Himself known to the human individual first.

Draw me: we will run after thee to the odour of thy ointments. The king hath brought me into his storerooms: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, remembering thy breasts more than wine: the righteous love thee. (Canticles 1:3)

No man can come to Me except the Father, who hath sent Me, draw him. (John 6:44)

Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her: for her evil is come to an end, her iniquity is forgiven: she hath received of the hand of the Lord double for all her sins. The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see, that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken. [Isa. 40:1-3]

As it is written in Isaias the prophet: Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare the way before thee. A voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. (Mark 1:2-3)

God seeks the individual’s attention, wooing through His creation:

O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth! For thy magnificence is elevated above the heavens. Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise, because of thy enemies, that thou mayst destroy the enemy and the avenger. For I will behold thy heavens, the works of thy fingers: the moon and the stars which thou hast founded. What is man that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou hast made him a little less than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honour: And hast set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen: moreover the beasts also of the fields. The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, that pass through the paths of the sea. O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in all the earth! (Ps. 8:2-10)

And sending His prophets and lastly His Son:

And when the time of the fruits drew nigh, he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits thereof. And the husbandmen laying hands on his servants, beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants more than the former; and they did to them in like manner. And last of all he sent to them his son, saying: They will reverence my son. (Matt. 21:34-37; cf. Mark 12:2ff.)

A certain man made a great supper, and invited many. And he sent his servant at the hour of supper to say to them that were invited, that they should come, for now all things are ready. And they began all at once to make excuse. The first said to him: I have bought a farm, and I must needs go out and see it: I pray thee, hold me excused. And another said: I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to try them: I pray thee, hold me excused. And another said: I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. And the servant returning, told these things to his lord. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant: Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the feeble, and the blind, and the lame. And the servant said: Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the Lord said to the servant: Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. But I say unto you, that none of those men that were invited, shall taste of my supper. (Luke 14:16-24; cf. Matt. 22:2ff)

And this is the will of my Father that sent me: that every one who seeth the Son, and believeth in him, may have life everlasting, and I will raise him up in the last day. (John 6:40)

[T]hese are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing, you may have life in his name. (John 20:31)

For the scripture saith: Whosoever believeth in him, shall not be confounded. For there is no distinction of the Jew and the Greek: for the same is Lord over all, rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. How then shall they call on him, in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear, without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they be sent, as it is written: How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, of them that bring glad tidings of good things! But all do not obey the gospel. For Isaias saith: Lord, who hath believed our report? Faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say: Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the whole world. But I say: Hath not Israel known? First, Moses saith: I will provoke you to jealousy by that which is not a nation; by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Isaias is bold, and saith: I was found by them that did not seek me: I appeared openly to them that asked not after me. But to Israel he saith: All the day long have I spread my hands to a people that believeth not, and contradicteth me.

Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned. (Mark 16:16; cf. Matt. 28:19)

The seed is sowed (cf. Matt. 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8) and now the individual must give a response to that prevenient grace. In this sense the Council of Trent, decreed:

[T]hat in adults the beginning of that justification must be derived from the predisposing grace [can. 3] of God through Jesus Christ, that is, from his vocation, whereby without any existing merits on their part they are called, so that they who by sin were turned away from God, through His stimulating and assisting grace are disposed to convert themselves to their own justification, by freely assenting to and cooperating with the same grace [can. 4 and 5], in such wise that, while God touches the heart of man through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, man himself receiving that inspiration does not do nothing at all inasmuch as he can indeed reject it, nor on the other hand can he [can. 3] of his own free will without the grace of God move himself to justice before Him. Hence, when it is said in the Sacred Writings: “Turn ye to me, and I will turn to you” [Zach. 1:3], we are reminded of our liberty; when we reply: “Convert us, O Lord, to thee, and we shall be converted” [Lam. 5:21], we confess that we are anticipated by the grace of God. (Sess. VI, cap. 5; D 797)

(To be continued)

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Week of Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Benedict Baur, O.S.B. 

The New Covenant 

1. When thinking of the New Covenant, the liturgy of this week is full of jubilation. It is the covenant of the Spirit, the covenant whose service leads to justification. Blessed are they that belong to this covenant.
2. “Therefore receiving an immovable kingdom, we have grace; whereby let us serve, pleasing God, with fear and reverence” (Heb. 12:28). This immovable kingdom has been given to us in the New Covenant, into which, without effort or merit, we have been received in baptism. It embraces the fullness of the spiritual, supernatural world created by God in Jesus Christ. “We saw His glory, the glory as it were of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). This covenant is our participation in Christ’s redemption: the debt which we had to pay to divine justice has been rescinded; adequate atonement has been made for our sins. Sin has been conquered, the power of hell has been broken, death has met its conqueror, and heaven has been opened. “God, who is rich in mercy, for His exceeding charity where with He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together in Christ…and hath raised us up together and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus….For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:4 ff.) All these glories are part of the New Covenant, into which we have been received. This covenant also embraces the riches and treasures of the Church: the divine truth entrusted to the Church, the sacraments, the fullness of grace, the virtues, prayers, and merits of the Church on earth and in heaven. “We have received an immovable kingdom,” full of riches and supernatural glory. We Christians have been placed in a kingdom, a spiritual order, the possession of which can make us rich and happy beyond our fondest hopes.

“We all beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Cor. 3:18). In place of the earthly Moses with his veiled face (Epistle) we Christians are allowed to look upon the Lord Himself, whose face is unveiled and shining in glory. This face takes hold of us in the very depths of our being and forms us into its own image. Christ’s image is being formed in us as His glory is reflected in ours. Continual meditation on the person and work of Christ, and our unceasing efforts to imitate Him, realizing what He has done and is still doing for us, change us completely into other Christs, We feel urged to continually thank and praise Him who did everything for us even before we knew Him, when we were still children of God’s wrath, and who made us heirs of God without any personal merits of our own. Thus despite all the troubles and sufferings of this earthly life, we must endeavor never to lose sight of the unmerited glories of the New Covenant. Once it has become our first and sincere endeavor to meditate on the interior perfections of the Lord and on His work and His church, to believe and trust in them, and to praise them, we will have a true understanding of the essentials of a Christian life. Here we have the roots and the fertile soil of genuine fruitfulness in the Christian life, which result from our meditation on Christ. Our fruitfulness cannot be anything but the superabundance of the perfections and glories of the New Covenant, into which we have been received. It must consist in the reflection of the glory of the Lord within our soul, the consideration of which changes us ever more perfectly into His image “by the Spirit of the Lord.”

3. “Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see” (Gospel). We are the privileged ones who see all these things “with open face” through the revelation and the graces of the New Testament. Unfortunately we exert ourselves too little to become aware of the glory of Christ, of His person, of His work, and of His Church. We are not grateful enough for the exalted kingdom (the New Covenant) into which we have been received. Trusting too little in the interior fullness and power of this covenant and the glory it contains, we lose much of this power and the courage and confidence which once made St. Paul say: “Who shall accuse against the elect of God? God is He that justifieth. Who is he that shall condemn? Christ Jesus that died, yea that is risen also again, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Rom. 8:33f.). If only we, too, could speak with St. Paul the language of a courageous and confident Christianity, how blessed we would be.

PRAYER

Almighty and merciful God, of whose gift it cometh that Thy faithful people do unto Thee true and laudable service; grant, we beseech Thee, that we may run without hindrance toward the attainment of Thy promises. Through Christ out Lord. Amen

The ministration of death and of the spirit

1.The liturgy of the Mass for the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost presents to us Moses, the mediator of the Old Covenant, interceding before God’s majesty and imploring His mercy for a faithless and sinful people.”And the Lord was appeased from doing the evil which He had spoken of doing against His people” (Offertory).

2. “If the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more the ministration of justice aboundeth in glory” (Epistle). Moses, the mediation of the Old Covenant, remained on Mount Sinai, conversing intimately with God. Since he remained so long on the mountains, the people waiting at the foot of the mountain thought they had been deceived. The people took the golden earrings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. “And when he had received them, he fashioned them by founder’s work, and made of them a molten calf. And they said: These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt” (Exod. 32:4). They then sacrificed to the false god, and “sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Go, get thee down, thy people… have made to themselves a molten calf, and have adored it, and sacrificed victims to it…. See that this people is stiff-necked. Let Me alone that My wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them….But Moses besought the Lord his God, saying: Why, O Lord, is Thy indignation enkindled against Thy people, whom Thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt… Let not the Egyptians say, I beseech Thee: He craftily brought them out that He might kill them in the mountains and destroy them from the earth. Let Thy anger cease….Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy servants, to whom Thou sworest by Thy own self, saying: I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven….And the Lord was appeased from doing the evil which he had spoken against His people”(Exod. 32:6 ff.). The glory of the service which Moses, the mediator of the Old Covenant, rendered was that he, by his intercession before God and by his prayers, saved his people from the wrath of God and the terrible punishment they had merited because of their apostasy. Even the ministration of the Old Covenant, “the ministration of death,” was able to achieve so much. “If the ministration of condemnation by glory, much more the ministration of justice aboundeth in glory”: this ministration of the Holy Sacrifice which we possess in the New Covenant and which we daily celebrate. Here it is no longer Moses, but rather Christ, the high priest, the Son of God, who intercedes for his people, the faithful, before His Father. Offering an infinitely more valuable gift of sacrifice, His own blood, His passion and death, He implores the Father to grant His people grace and forgiveness, thus appeasing God’s anger which we, the baptized, have so often deserved. How often do we not commit daily infidelities against the commandments of God in spite of the powerful and abundant graces given to us! How often do we not deserve God’s punishment! Woe unto us if the Lord, our Moses, raises not His hands daily to the Father, if He does not pray for us and offers not His gift of sacrifice. He does so during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, offering up His life as He did once on the cross. Looking down upon us with compassion, He implores the Father: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). The Father cannot resist the prayers and sacrifices of His Son. By the Sacrifice of the Mass He allows Himself to be appeased from doing that evil He had threatened against His people. Thus, this “ministration of justice” leads to justification, salvation, and eternal happiness; it is a ministration more wonderful and efficacious than the ministration of the Old Covenant, in the same degree as the life, passion, and death of the Lord are exalted above the prayers of Moses, a mere man. We are indeed blessed in the ministration of the New Covenant, in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in our high priest, Jesus Christ. “Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see. For I say to you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them” (Gospel).
3. This “ministration of the Spirit” that leads to justification the Lord has entrusted to the priesthood of His Church. The priest is “taken from among men, is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Heb. 5:1), thus obtaining for us justification before God and the remission of sins. He is endowed with the same mission and power that the Lord gave His apostles when He said: “As the Father hath sent me, I also send you….Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained” (John 20:21 ff.). To His apostles and their successors and assistants, the bishops and priests, He gives also the power of changing bread and wine into His body and blood. This “ministration of the Spirit,” of the New Covenant, leads to justification. “Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see.”

“But [Jesus], for that He continueth forever, hath an everlasting priesthood, whereby He is able also to save forever them that come to God by Him; always living to make intercession for us” (Heb. 7:24 f.) Our high priest not only performed the ministration of the Spirit once while dying on the cross, but He continually renews it during the Sacrifice of the Mass and by His continuous prayers in heaven. “Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see.”

PRAYER

May we be quickened, O Lord, by participation in this holy mystery, and may it grant us both the expiation of our sins and the strengthening of our souls. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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AUGUST 16

St. Joachim, Father of Our Lady, Confessor

1. No mention is made in Scripture of St. Anne’s husband the father of the Blessed Virgin. According to apocryphal writings Joachim was excluded from the privilege of offering sacrifice in Jerusalem, because he was childless. He therefore went to live with shepherds in the desert and there received various revelations from God. He was a man of deep piety and charity. It was only after twenty years that a daughter was born to him and Anne in Jerusalem or Nazareth. The Greeks celebrated his feast in the early centuries; the West began to do so only in the fifteenth century. It was formerly on the Sunday after the Assumption, but Pope St. Pius X transferred it to August 16.
2. “God who… didst choose blessed Joachim to be the father of her who bore thy Son…” (Collect). The choice of Joachim is divine assurance of his excellence, for, humanly speaking, the fruit is the proof of the tree: the immaculate conception of the future mother of God places the unmistakable stamp of holiness on the marriage of Joachim and Anne. St. John of Damascus said: “By the fruit of your body are you known. You lived a pious, holy life and gave life to a daughter who is more exalted than the angels; indeed, she is mistress of the angels. Joachim cultivated the interior life and meditated on the holy word. He nourished his soul with the refreshing waters of divine grace; in this manner, he turned his mind completely away from things that were not permitted, and directed it in the path of holiness.” It was not sufficient that Joachim be the husband of the Virgin’s saintly mother; in order to be worthy of the distinction of such fatherhood he had to be holy himself. If his dignity as father of the Mother of God was great and unique, so also were his virtues.

“O Joachim, husband of St. Anne, the gentle Virgin’s father, bring thy saving help to all God’s household” (Alleluia verse). Of his traditional charity the liturgy says: “Rich were his alms to the needy; still, through the years, his good name abides in memory: the Lord will lift up his head in triumph” (Introit). As Joachim was generous to the poor on earth, so now in heaven he distributes spiritual favors to us all. Our certainty of this prompts us to ask his help in obtaining the gift of salvation. He gave us Mary, Mother of the Redeemer from whom all salvation must come. His privilege as father of Our Lady gives him a special task in the Church with regard to those redeemed by Christ. Him “his master entrusted with the care of his household to give them their allowance of food at the appointed time” (Communion). We claim a special right to his intercession with God for the grace we need. This flows logically from the consideration that his blood-relationship with Mary and Jesus places him closer to God than any other saint, except Anne and Mary.

3. “Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor, bidding him, Lord, rule over the work of thy hands” (Offertory). St. Joachim rules over Mary and over Him whom Mary brought forth for our redemption.

“O Joachim, husband of St. Anne, the gentle Virgin’s father, bring thy saving help to all God’s household.” (Alleluia verse).

Collect: God, who out of all Thy saints didst choose blessed Joachim to be the father of who bore Thy Son, grant, we pray Thee, that we who pay honor to hi festival may feel the power of his unfailing protection. Amen. 

CHRIST IN THE HOME

BY RAOUL PLUS, S.J.

(1951)

MARRIAGE

REQUISITES FOR A HAPPY MARRIAGE

FOR a happy marriage, it is necessary, of course, that the engaged couple find each other congenial and enjoy each other’s company.

They must agree to share loyally the joys and the sorrows of wedded union and fulfill its obligations.

Each one must be bent on procuring for the other as much happiness as possible and oblige himself beforehand to a mode of life which will disturb his partner as little as possible.

The husband must love his profession, and his wife should share this love or at least neglect nothing in order to respect and facilitate it.

They should be able to make their decisions together, not certainly without sometimes having recourse to the counsels of competent authorities, but with a beautiful and joyful independence of any member of the family who may be too prone at times to attempt to domineer over the young couple. There should, of course, be no presumption, no narrow aloofness, but a serene and supple liberty of spirit; serene and supple humility.

In order to be able to practice the sanctity of their state in all the details of their life, they must understand their duty of leaning upon God. It will not be sufficient to link together their two wills; they must be determined to pray to obtain help from on High.

They must likewise have a certain concern, a legitimate concern, for physical charm, without, however, losing sight of the fact that beauty of soul is superior to beauty of body; so that if some day the physical attraction should diminish, they will not be less eager to remain together, but each will strive to find in the other the quality upon which profound union is established.

Both of them must love children. They must develop in themselves to the best of their ability the virtues necessary for parenthood, the courage to accept as many children as God wants them to have and the wisdom to rear them well—difficult virtues requiring strong souls.

Each must be possessed of a rich power of cordiality for the members of the other’s family. Both must resolve to take their in-laws and their household as they find them, and adopt as a principle for their contacts with them, It was not to share hates but to share love that I entered into your family. Consequently, they must refuse to be drawn into family quarrels, seeking rather in all their actions to promote charity, union, and peace.

Even before their marriage, the young couple should decide to keep their expenses at a minimum, according to their situation, not with avarice or niggardliness, but with the desire to live in the gospel spirit of detachment from the goods of earth. Such judicious economy, which should of course be devoid of even the appearance of stinginess, will enable them to set aside something useful and necessary for their children. It will also enable them to relieve the misery around them.

It is to be assumed that both individuals contemplating marriage have the requisite health, since marriage has been created not only for mutual support but also to transmit life.

It is further to be assumed that each of the two has kept nothing of his past life hidden from the other, and that in view of this entire loyalty which is so desirable a trait in married couples, each has kept himself pure and refrained from dangerous experiences.

A PROPOSAL

LOUIS PASTEUR came from a family of modest means. When he was twenty-six years old, his astonishing discovery in regard to crystals drew upon him the attention of scientists.

In 1849, he was named assistant professor in the University of Strasbourg. The rector of the university, Mr. Laurent, had three daughters. Fifteen days after Pasteur’s first visit, he asked for Marie in marriage. The young scientist felt that this young woman understood life as he did and wanted the same kind of life he sought—a life of simplicity, of work, and of goodness. He sent this letter to Mr. Laurent:

“Sir, a request of great significance for me and for your family will be addressed to you in a few days and I believe it my duty to give you the following information which can help to determine your acceptance or your refusal.<

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