Vol 8 Issue 35 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
August 29, 2015 ~ Beheading of John the Baptist

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (31)
2. Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
3. St Rose of Lima
4. Christ in the Home (6)
5. Articles and notices

Dear Reader:

Here in America the public is being prepped to accept an influx of Mohammedan refugees—like Vietnam, this regime’s failed policies will be the excuse to accommodate anti-Catholic (and I say anti-Catholic because even though the Conciliar Church portrays itself as Catholic, that which supports anti-Catholic policies cannot be representative of the Catholic Church, i.e., Christian) morality and revisionist history to destroy the last vestiges of a Christian civilization that was the foundation, albeit rationalized, of this nation. In the Rainbow House (because nothing can be white, i.e., absolute) the modern Nero will be telling his jokes (he can’t play the violin) because his conspiracy is being accomplished: The Christians are held responsible for all the problems and the masses are willing to see them sacrificed. If World War II taught us anything, it was that unconditional surrender was necessary to stop war just as in the days of Ancient Rome and Greece: To the victor goes all, even the granting of mercy. Just as in Vietnam, soldiers are being sent to die, not win a battle. You cannot win the hearts of a people that hate you by killing a few of them at a time—it only increases their hate. You cannot win their hearts by bringing them into your cities—you will only have to deal with the Trojan horse set inside your gates—while you are celebrating peace, they are waiting for the moment to fulfill their plan of conquest.

Planned Parenthood kills for money, why would it not lie for money? But that is what it is doing in Congress in saying the videos are not true. They are true and reveal the bloody hands of this largest provider of industrialized mass murder. Catholics must express their abhorrence that this horrific slaughter of children is allowed to exist—the blood of these children cries to heaven for justice.

Finally, may the parents of children ensure that their children, if they must go to a public school, receive proper Catholic instruction and, knowing what they learned, a commentary that befits Catholic belief. Here in Nevada the Anti-Christ Liberal Underlings (ACLU) are trying to block a law that allows parents the choice of where their children go to school and who receives the money the state provides for their education. The rationale of the Anti-Christ Liberal Underlings: the children may receive “religious indoctrination”. It thereby forces parents to send their children to public school because most parents cannot afford to pay private tuition and they definitely cannot afford to have their children taken away by the Custodial Providers of Satan (CPS) if they do not send them to public school. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/aclu-sues-block-sweeping-nevada-education-funding-program-33366764

There are more links provided following the normal commentaries.

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 (5)

The grace of justification, commonly called sanctifying grace, is related to actual grace as an end to its means. Actual grace introduces the state of sanctifying grace or preserves and augments it where it already exists. (Pohle, 271)

In opening the subject of Justification and Sanctifying Grace, it was stated that Justification is Sanctification and Sanctification can only be in one who is Justified. The terminology of justification arises from the Old Testament of Justification or Righteousness, which meant salvation, i.e., one was saved for one was just in the sight of God, forgiven and restored to sonship.

And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, that is without measure, and shall not be numbered. And it shall be in the place where it shall be said to them: You are not my people: it shall be said to them: Ye are the sons of the living God. (Osee 1:10)

Even in the beginning (and one must hold that Christ came to restore that which was intended in the beginning) those who were just in the sight of God were called sons of God (cf. Gen. 6:2; In Orchard (189) there is the commentary referencing 4:26, But to Seth also was born a son, whom he called Enos; this man began to call upon the name of the Lord: This refers only to the Sethites whose genealogy is traced back to God in ch 5 and who in 6:2 are called ‘the sons of God’. Job (1:6) seemingly refers to the angels as sons of God: Now on a certain day when the sons of God came to stand before the Lord, Satan also was present among them. But this would refer to the sanctifying grace that God gives even the angels, the ability to share in His life. (Cf. Job 2:1 and 38:7)

Already John announces this in his Gospel: But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name. (1:12) And Paul speaks to the Romans of their sonship with God in his eighth chapter, for example: For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God. (Rom. 8:16) As St. John says in his First Epistle (3:2): Dearly beloved, we are now the sons of God; and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. We know, that, when he shall appear, we shall be like to him: because we shall see him as he is. Therefore Paul also says to the Philippians: But our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of his glory, according to the operation whereby also he is able to subdue all things unto himself.(Phil. 3:20-21) And holding both ideas together, Matthew quotets Christ saying: Then shall the just shine as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. (13:43)

Ludwig Ott, in summarizing the causes of Justification as taken from the Council of Trent, Session VI, chapter 7, demonstrates the inseparability of the two:

1. The final cause is the honour of God and of Christ and the eternal life of men.

2. The efficient cause, more exactly, the main efficient cause, is the mercy of God.
3. The meritorious cause is Jesus Christ; who as mediator between God and man, has made atonement for us and merited the grace by which we are justified.
4. The instrumental cause of the first justification is the Sacrament of Baptism. The declaration of the Council adds: is the “sacrament of faith,” [St. Ambrose, De Spiritu Sancto, 1, 3, 42 (ML 16, 714). St Aug. Letter 98, to Boniface 9ff (ML 33, 364). Innoc. III] without which [faith] no one is ever justified. Thus it defines that Faith is a necessary pre-condition for justification (of adults).
5. The formal cause is God’s justice, not by which He is Himself just, but by which He makes us just, that is, Sanctifying Grace. (D799; Cf. D 820.)

He then goes on to explain the connection between Justification and Sanctification in the following paragraphs:

According to the teaching of the Council of Trent, sanctifying grace is the sole formal cause of justification. This means that the infusion of sanctifying grace effects the eradication of sin as well as inner sanctification. With this the Council rejects the doctrine of double justice which was expounded by some Reformers (Calvin, Martin Butzer), and also by individual Catholic theologians (Girolamo Seripando, Gasparo Contrarini, Albert Pighius, Johannes Gropper), which taught that the forgiveness of sins was accomplished by the imputed justice of Christ, positive sanctification, however, by a righteousness inhering in the soul.

According to the teaching of Scripture, grace and sin stand to each other in direct contrast like light and darkness, life and death. Thus the communication of grace necessarily effects the remission of sins. Cf. 2 Cor. 6, 14: “For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness?” Col. 2, 13: “You when you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of the flesh. . . . He hath quickened with Him (Christ).” (Ott, 251-52)

Therefore the Council of Trent, in the same Session, condemned those who would deny that those who are justified are justified but not sanctified in the following canons:

Canon 10. If anyone shall say that men are justified without the justice of Christ by which He merited for us, or that by that justice itself they are formally just: let him be anathema [D820; cf. D798, D799].
Canon 11. If anyone shall say that men are justified either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of grace and charity, which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Spirit and remains in them, or even that the grace by which we are justified is only the favor of God: let him be anathema [D821; cf. D799ff., D809].

The following definition of justification by the Council of Trent was already presented, but it is here placed again along with this clarification:

Justification in the active sense (iustificatio, “sacrament of faith,” without which no one is ever justified ) is defined by the Tridentine Council as “a translation from that state wherein man is born a child of the first Adam, to the state of grace and of the adoption of the sons of God through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, our Saviour.” [Sess. VI, chapter 4]

Justification, therefore, has both a negative and a positive element. The positive element is interior sanctification through the merits of Jesus Christ. The negative element consists in the forgiveness of sin. Though these elements are objectively inseparable, the forgiveness of sin being practically an effect of interior sanctification. . . . (Pohle 301)

In the New Testament, to stress both the sonship and the working of grace in the soul that is justified and acknowledging that justification has only been obtained because of sanctification, the Church usually speaks in terms of the state of grace, or the reception of sanctifying grace, which, being habitual in the soul (unless lost by mortal sin, and therefore the loss of justification) is termed sanctification. Sanctification occurs because of God Father’s gift of His Love to man because of the Love He bears for His Son who reconciled us with the Father through His sacrifice on the Cross and obtained for man the grace of sonship:

But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law: That he might redeem them who were under the law: that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father. Therefore now he is not a servant, but a son. And if a son, an heir also through God. (Gal. 4:4-7)

And the adoption as sons is preserved through interior sanctification:

For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you should abstain from fornication; That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour: Not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles that know not God: And that no man overreach, nor circumvent his brother in business: because the Lord is the avenger of all these things, as we have told you before, and have testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto sanctification. Therefore, he that despiseth these things, despiseth not man, but God, who also hath given his holy Spirit in us. (I Thess. 4:3-8)

Which brings Saint Paul to outline this life to the Romans, instructing them that before justification they . . .  are in the flesh, [and] cannot please God; but once they obtain justification through a living faith, this changes:

But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body indeed is dead, because of sin; but the spirit liveth, because of justification. And if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; he that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die: but if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live. For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba (Father). For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God. And if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ: yet so, if we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him. (Rom. 8:8-17)

Matthias Scheeben, in his work, Nature and Grace, gives this insight into this adopted sonship:

Nature does, indeed, give us a relationship to God that by vague analogy, as we remarked above, can be described as a sort of sonship. But this relationship does not deserve that beautiful and exalted name in the full sense of the word; absolutely speaking, it can and ought to be called a state of servitude rather than a sonship. The reason we dare to use the name signifying the higher and more affectionate kinship is to tone down the harshness and oppressiveness that the state of servitude implies among us men. As works of God, we are created for his honor, to serve Him, glorify Him, and adore Him in deepest reverence. We are His slaves and servants. But the master we serve is not a tyrant. He is our kind and considerate Lord who overwhelms us with benefits, who has given us all that we have and wishes us to be happy in His service in a way that is suitable for us; we ought to love Him and not only fear Him. This is a relationship like that of the Jews in the Old Law. In that Law the supernatural sonship brought to us by the Son of God was not yet clearly known, and as far as the nature of the law is concerned was not explicitly presumed in the law itself; it was, however, present by anticipation, although the Jews were not fully conscious of it. As outwardly formulated, the Old law was largely natural in content; it was a type of the true supernatural Law only in spirit. The supernatural Law was not revealed in its definitive form until its foundation, namely, the supernatural relation of sonship to God, was revealed and inaugurated in man’s life; this took place in the New Testament when the son of God came. [The Law (of servants) was given by Moses (because he was a servant); grace and truth (of the sons of God) came by Jesus Christ (because He was the Son)” John 1:17].

By nature therefore (not by sin, surely, for by sin we become enemies rather than servants of God, galley-slaves rather than domestics of the household), we are, as St. Cyril says, not children of the house but only menials and servants of God, our Creator, in His great house, the earthy, created world that He has made for His glory. [In Ioan., X, 2 (PG, LXXIV, 384.)] By nature we are subjects of God, the great King who rules this world, not children of the royal palace, reigning with the Father. As such we are far from God and are strangers in the house: You were afar off, not domestics of God” (Eph. 2:17, 19). This, too, is not the effect of sin but the condition of our castle, in the halls of the Father of the house, much less in His bosom. We dare not come in to tarry in His immediate presence and converse with Him face to face, sit at table with Him, enjoy His happiness, reign with Him, possess all /122/ that belongs to Him, and thus receive the inheritance of the royal Prince.

How could the creature presume to address the Creator, the King of heaven and earth, as Father, with that confidence, ardor, and affection the Apostle talks about? How could mortal man presume to say “Father” to the King of immortality who dwells in inaccessible light? How could the son of earth venture to greet as his Father Him who is purest and most perfect spirit? How could he boldly and with childlike trust appear in the presence of God as Father, before whom even the seraphim fall down in adoration and veil their countenances? And here another consideration comes in. The only-begotten Son of God alone is eternally and indescribably born from the Father’s bosom; He alone is the likeness of the Father’s essence, He alone has divine life from the Father and shares it with Him, He alone is one with the Father and creates, rules, and governs with Him. Is it not a sacrilegious encroachment on the Son’s rights and privileges to place at His side a creature that was summoned from nothing by this very Son and, if not supported by the might of His will, would again fall back into nothing? Shall such a one join the Son in sharing the Father’s heart, inheritance, and love, and become one with the Father as the Son is one with Him? Behold, exclaims St. John, what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called and should be the sons of God” ( I John 3:1) . God has extended to us men, as also to the angels, the love with which He loves His only-begotten Son, the Son of his love ( begotten with infinite love, though not by way of love), to make us like to His Son. [8 “Who hath predestined us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ unto Himself . . . unto the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He hath graced us in His beloved Son” (Eph. 1:5 f.] By his love he has made us who hath predestinated us unto adoption of children through what we were not before. He has raised us poor creatures to the condition of children, and thus placed us at the side of His own, true, only-begotten Son, making Him the firstborn among many brethren.

So great was the love the Son of God had for us that He did not wish to remain alone in the Father’s heart and reign over us miserable creatures as His servants. He himself took over the great task of acquiring for us the life of the children of God, and He did so at price of His divine blood. He assumed our nature to share His own nature with us. He became our Brother in human form to make us His brothers in his divine glory. [9 “Grant that we may be made partakers in the divinity of Him who has deigned to become partaker of our humanity” (Prayer at the Offertory of the Mass).] He the only-begotten, regards it as a matter of honor that He might be the firstborn amongst many brethren whom He also glorified (Rom. 8:29 f.). Therefore He is the first to say that his Father is also our Father: I ascend to My Father and to your Father (John 20:17). He tells us that He has come into this world to give us the same eternal life He has received from the Father. He prays for us to the Father that we may be one with Him as He is one with the Father, in a unity which St. Cyril does not hesitate to call physical as opposed to moral [10 In Ioan., XI, 11 (PG, LXXIV, 557)]  (in a sense we shall examine later) . Hence He wishes us to share whit Him the heart and love of the Father, and also to have part in His inheritance. He wishes us to be co-heirs of the glory which He himself requested for His humanity at the last supper, of that glory which He has with the Father before the beginning of the world when, in the resplendence of holiness, He proceeded from the Father before the rise of the morning star, as His Word and the mirror of his infinite knowledge and beatitude.

What the Father’s love has destined for us and the Sons love has gained for us, is applied to us by the Holy Ghost, who is the very love which the Father has for the Son and the Son has for the Father. The Father sent the Holy Spirit to be the witness of His love in our heats, and the Son sent Him to bring us into filial relationship with the Father and to teach us to lisp His name. The Father has sealed our hearts with Him (II Cor. 1:22); by Him the Father has raised us to the condition of His adopted children; and therefore He is called pre-eminently the spirit of sonship (the Spirit of the Son is also the Spirit of the adoption of sons), in the natural as well as in the supernatural order. (121-125)

(To be continued)

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Week of Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Benedict Baur, O.S.B.

Walk in the Spirit

1. Formerly the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost was called the Sunday of divine Providence. The spirit of this Sunday announces the glad tidings of the loving providence of God, which cares for the birds and clothes the lilies of the field, and which, even more important, watches over His children, those redeemed by Christ, with loving care. “O taste and see that the Lord is sweet” (Offertory).
2. “How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord” (Introit). This prayer of the Church indicates that we long to be with God and Christ. Our striving aims at being one with Christ, the head, sharing His life with Him. Christ the holy and sinless One, imparts to us His spirit, His purity, His domination over the lower instincts and inclinations of our fallen nature. Walking “in the spirit,” we have a foretaste of the bliss of heaven already here on earth, a foretaste of the life which awaits those who truly belong to Christ. We “taste and see that the Lord is sweet”; we seek “first the kingdom of God,” that life which is in Christ. “How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!” How delightful and satisfying is this life in Christ! “He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither” (John 15:5 ff.). Therefore “my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord,” for union with Christ; “for better is one day in Thy courts above thousands” (Introit).

“Walk in the spirit.” The Epistle knows the way both of the flesh and of the spirit. Because life means a long struggle, the Holy Spirit has been given to us on Pentecost, on the day of our confirmation, in order that He may help us in the fight against the flesh with its concupiscences. He gives us strength to enable us to crucify the flesh, thus to harvest the fruits of the Spirit, which are “charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity” (Epistle). It is impossible to serve two masters; we will serve either the flesh or the spirit. At the hour of our baptism we determined to walk in the spirit; for us there is, therefore, only a life for God, in Christ and His Spirit. Though we must live in the world, take care of our family and community, work for our daily bread, we must always “walk in the spirit.”

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice; and all these things shall be added unto you. . . . Your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things” (Gospel). We must seek first the things that belong to the kingdom of God; but “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). This kingdom consists in a living union with God dwelling and working within our souls and in a filial and intimate conversation with the Father, who is so near to us. “Your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.” If we have no reason to worry about material things, our only duty should be to look after the things of our spiritual life. Material things, however, “shall be added unto you,” as the fruitfulness and blessings of the interior life. Everything depends on God’s blessing. “Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it” (Ps. 126:1).

3. “Be not solicitous therefore, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed, for after all these things do the heathens seek” (Gospel). To be solicitous about life is a pagan attitude. A Christian has faith. The chief difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that the Christian has faith in the loving providence of God the Father. To be a Christian means to have a blind confidence in God by despising the world and material goods, and by trusting instead in that seemingly uncertain, yet divinely safe providence of the Father. “Blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed” (John 20:29).

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice; and all these things shall be added unto you.” It is our blessed duty to seek this kingdom of God by blindly committing our life to His providence, by trusting that He will arrange all things for our good. When we have reached the point where God and His will alone determine our actions, where our will and desires have become one with His, we will have reached a state which is happier and more satisfying than any other happiness in this world. This state of resignation we can reach only by faith and confidence, by childlike devotion and love.

Our Holy Mother the Church is our model, for she walks in this spirit despite the fact that she is oppressed on all sides. Without solicitude she seeks first the kingdom of God, Day after day, year after year, she celebrates the liturgy calmly and joyfully. She daily administers Holy Communion to us that we may be able to thrust ourselves blindly into the arms of our Father, seeking the kingdom of God without solicitude. “Come, let us praise the Lord,” the Church sings every day at Matins.

PRAYER

Keep, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy Church with perpetual mercy; and because the frailty of man without Thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by Thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Walk in the Spirit

1. “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25). Through the Holy Ghost and His operation within us we received the life of the children of God; let us therefore “walk in the Spirit,” whom we have received in baptism and confirmation.
2. “If we live in the Spirit.” At the moment of our baptism the Father and the Son infused the Holy Spirit into our souls. He is the great gift of God to us, the gift of our espousal to the Son of God, a gift that enriches our soul, making it beautiful and lovable in the sight of God. When the Holy Ghost descends into our unworthy soul, He enriches it with divine beauty, decorating it with His gifts, and making it resplendent with delightful purity in the eyes of God. It is He who now lives and works within our soul: He, the Paraclete, the Consoler, the love of God, who proceeds from the Father and the Son as the substantial expression of that perfect love that unites Father and Son; and we also are drawn into this mystical life of love within the deity. As the consequence of our being partakers of this mystical life, we are permeated by the divine life and are bearers of the fire of divine love. Thus fortified we go to the Father with warm and childlike affection, yearning with unspeakable longing to meet our heavenly bridegroom.

The Holy Ghost urges us to think, talk, act, and suffer in a way that is pleasing to God. He prepares our body and soul for the blessed embrace of Jesus which we experience in Holy Communion; He engenders the life of sanctifying grace within our soul, thereby laying the foundation for our eventual perfection and eternal happiness in heaven. While enriching us with the precious gift of sanctifying grace, He also pours into our soul supernatural powers and gifts, the virtues of faith, hope, charity, justice, prudence, fortitude, temperance. Together with these virtues He enriches us with His special gifts; the fear of the Lord, piety, wisdom, fortitude, counsel, knowledge, and understanding: The entire natural life within us is the result of His work. He also guides and forms our interior and religious life.

“Let us also walk in the Spirit.” We walk in the Spirit as long as we live in the state of sanctifying grace. If we commit a mortal sin, the Holy Ghost is forced to leave us; for then we render our soul unfit as a further dwelling place for Him. In addition to driving Him out of our soul, we deprive ourselves of the source and principle of our interior life as well as the life of grace itself. We walk in the Spirit, on the other hand, if we follow faithfully and humbly the illuminations and inspirations and admonitions of the Holy Spirit living and working within us. It is absolutely necessary that we generously deny ourselves, renouncing our human way of thinking and judging, that we continuously and willingly listen to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost working within our soul, and especially that we try to preserve a great purity of heart; “for wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins” (Wisd. 1:4). We must endeavor without ceasing to reach that height of purity of heart that excludes any voluntary venial sin, even an imperfection that has been recognized as such. It is also necessary to live a life of recollection, silencing unnecessary thoughts and cares, and to subject our will in all things and under all circumstances to the holy will of God, being resigned to anything that may happen to us as being willed or permitted by God’s providence.

3. There are three obstacles to our walking in the Spirit: the human spirit of man, the spirit of the world, and the evil spirit. Man’s own spirit induces him to act out of purely natural motives without dependence on the operation of the Holy Spirit and His grace within us. The spirit of the world is the spirit of the concupiscence of the eyes; it is the atmosphere surrounding us everywhere and influencing our actions. Then there is the evil spirit, the devil, trying to seduce and ruin us with his temptations.

The power of the Holy Ghost gives us the strength to resist our own human spirit, the spirit of the world, and the devil. These spirits have been destined by divine Providence to molest us, but only in order that we may be all the more willing to unite ourselves with the true Spirit, the Holy Ghost, working within our souls.

Unfortunately, we pay too little attention to the presence of the Holy Ghost within our soul, and we do not live in a close enough union with Him. We are not grateful enough towards Him who deigns to dwell within our soul, making our body His temple and unerringly guiding our soul if only we are willing to be led by Him.

PRAYER

Keep, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy Church with perpetual mercy; and because the frailty of man without Thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by Thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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August 30 

St. Rose of Lima, Virgin

1. The first blossom of sanctity that the Church put forth in newly discovered America was Rose of Lima, in Peru. Having renewed paradise in her own soul, as it were, she tried to renew it about her. Born on April 20, 1586, of poor parents, she received the name of Isabella in baptism; on account of the delicate rose-color of her face, however, she was usually called Rosa. As a child she had already conceived the desire of pleasing Christ alone, the Bridegroom of souls, and she had begun a life of renunciation and prayer. Her mother, proud of the child’s beauty, continually tormented her by insisting that she pimp and paint, bind her hair with flowers and adorn her neck with coral. Though Rose reluctantly obeyed, she never lost her abhorrence for these things. She worked with tireless diligence at spinning and sewing in order to relieve the poverty of her parents; always amiable, she concerned herself about others, ever ready to fulfill their wishes, encourage them or give them joy. The parents were determined to have her marry a certain rich young man, and her mother even went so far as to supplement her pleading with threats and maltreatment. Rose suffered intensely but could not be dissuaded from her intention to consecrate her heart entirely to God

Finally, when she was twenty, Rose obtained permission to enter the Third Order of St. Dominic. As a tertiary she continued to live with her family; she now increased her fasts, nocturnal vigils, and other austerities, despite the fact that this manner of life brought all kinds of insults, abuse, and slights from her acquaintances. But God showered graces upon her particularly the grace of prayer. At the age of thirty-one she fell seriously ill; her death occurred on August 24, 1617. She was beatified in 1668 and canonized in 1671.

2. “I have betrothed you to Christ, so that no other but he should claim you, his bride without spot” (Epistle). St. Paul found it necessary to defend himself against those in Corinth who were casting suspicion on him by attributing ignoble motives. He therefore had recourse to the argument that zeal for the glory of God working in him was urging him to lead his Christians to the heights of betrothal with Christ. What St. Paul was trying to do for his flock was an accomplished fact in Rose. Even as a child she had grasped the mystery of virginity and of spiritual marriage to Christ, according to the Apostle’s words: “There are some eunuchs, who. . . have made themselves so for the love of the kingdom of heaven. . . . That conclusion. . . cannot be taken in by everybody, but only by those who have the gift” (Matt. 19:11, 12); or, again: “He who is unmarried is concerned with God’s claim, asking how he is to please God. . . . So a woman who is free of wedlock, or a virgin, is concerned with the Lord’s claim, intent on holiness, bodily and spiritual; whereas the married woman is concerned with the world’s claim, asking how she is to please her husband” (I Cor. 7:32, 34). Rose chose virginity in its highest form, that is, betrothal with Christ She knew no earthly lover, and for Christ’s love she had to endure bitter accusations and hard, cutting remarks, even from her own mother. All through the years of trial her one thought was to be a pure, worthy spouse of her Lord the Savior. He had called her to this: “Rose of my heart, you are to be my bride.” And she responded; “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38).

“Behold; the bridegroom is on his way; go out to meet him” (Gospel). “You are to be my bride.” That is why our Lord put her in the school of suffering and humiliation of every sort. Her withdrawal from the world, her mysterious abstention from food and drink, her frequent raptures and ecstasies, all were declared by many to be hypocrisy, hysteria, or the work of the devil. In addition to the sufferings from without, Rose had to endure all kinds of painful physical ailments: lameness, fainting spells, attacks of weakness. She bore these ills patiently, recognizing in them the hand of God punishing her for sins. She considered herself unworthy to live and breathe, and continually cried to God for mercy. Her most painful trial in this process of preparing for the sublime privilege of betrothal with Christ came in the form of spiritual dryness; for years she was subject to hours of frightening emptiness of spirit and aridity of heart, during which she had no inclination to prayer, no consolation, no ability to conceive pious thoughts and aspirations, no perception of the nearness of God. She was oppressed by the thought that God had rejected her on account of her sins, had excluded her from the bliss of heaven, doomed her to join the damned in hell. Such thoughts tormented her day and night.

Thus she reached the maturity required of a spouse of Christ. Suddenly there was light in her soul; the refreshing dew of grace fell on her in abundance; the peace of God flooded her heart. The ardor of her love grew so strong, that nothing was ever able to separate her from Christ again. The Lord now blessed her with a wonderful prayer-life, so that, at all times, whether she was asleep or awake, always and everywhere God was present to her spirit. In spite of all these favors, Rose went about her work and associated with other people in such a normal way that nobody suspected the enraptured state of her soul. Yet all could detect the force of her love for God in her many-sided, active charity, and in her desire to suffer with Christ and for His sake. Her union with Him was so intimate that she shared His life more and more and became ever more fruitful in good works. The words of Isaias were fulfilled in her: “The Lord will give thee rest continually, fill thy soul with comfort, thy body with ease. Not more secure the well-watered garden, the spring whose waters never fail” (58:10- 11 ). “Behold, the bridegroom is on his way; go out to meet him” (Gospel). A holy death perfected Rose’s betrothal with Christ. It was for her the ardently longed-for homecoming of the beloved to the heavenly bridal chamber. “Rose of my heart, you shall be my bride.”

3. We congratulate St. Rose today on the holy union to which our Lord so graciously called her and so wonderfully led her. All her sacrifices and conflicts were a part of her vocation to divine espousals. She was a rose among thorns, indeed.

We praise the heroic fortitude with which she endured the numerous trials at the hands of men and God until she was ready for complete oneness with Him. As always, the struggle to preserve purity and to acquire the treasures of Christian virginity, the sacrifices demanded in the entire dedication to love of God, brought their reward.

May St. Rose be our model and our intercessor with God, so that we may acquire the strength to follow her example and be true to the vocation which He has given us in the Church. St. Rose, draw us in your path toward Christ!

Collect: Almighty God, giver of an good gifts, who didst will that blessed Rose, a flower of purity and patience, nourished betimes with the dew of Thy grace, should blossom in the Indies, grant, that we, Thy servants, may hasten to follow where the fragrance of her passage beckons us, and so deserve to become a perfume offered to the Father by Christ, who is God. Amen.

CHRIST IN THE HOME

BY RAOUL PLUS, S.J. (1951)

MARRIAGE

LOVE

Why does a woman desire a man? Why does a man desire a woman? What is the explanation of that mysterious attraction which draws the two sexes toward each other?

Will anyone ever be able to explain it? Will anyone be able to exhaust the subject?

One fact is certain: Even aside from the physiological aspect of the problem, the effeminate man does not attract a woman; she makes fun of him, finds him ridiculous. So too the masculine woman weakens her power of attraction for a man, and ends by losing it entirely.

The age-old spell which each sex casts upon the other is closely allied to the fidelity with which each exactly fulfills its role. If woman copies man and man copies woman, there can be comradeship but love does not develop. In reality, they are nothing more than two caricatures, the woman being degraded to the rank of a man and a second-rate man at that, and the man to the rank of a manikin in woman’s disguise. The more feminine a woman’s soul and bearing, the more pleasing she is to a man; the more masculine a man’s soul and bearing, the more pleasing he is to a woman.

We do not mean to say that between two poor specimens of either sex there will never be any casual or even lasting sexual appeal and experience. But we can hardly, if ever, call it love. If men and woman are no more than two varieties of the same sex, a sort of neuter sex, the force which creates love disappears. Normally, as we say in electrical theory, opposite charges must exist before any sparks will shoot forth. Bring into contact two identical charges and there will

be no effect; electricity of opposite polarities must be used; then and then only will there be reaction.

In the realm of love, the general rule is the same. In fact, man and woman are two different worlds. And that is as it should be, so that the eternal secret which each of them encloses may become the object of the other’s desire and stimulate thirst for a captivating exploration.

That is love’s strange power. It brings two secrets face to face, two closed worlds, two mysteries. And just because it involves a mystery, it gives rise to limitless fantasies of the imagination, to embellishments in advance of the reality. So that

One finally loves all toward which one rows.

Whether that toward which one rows is an enchanted island or one merely believes it is, what ecstasy!

Comes the meeting, the consecration of the union by marriage; each brings to the other what the other does not possess. In the one, delicate modesty and appealing reserve; in the other, conquering bravery. A couple has been born. Love has accomplished its prodigy.

Yet, how true it is, that having said all this, we have said nothing. The reality of love is unfathomable.

Could it be perhaps because it is the most beautiful masterpiece of God.

THE PALACE OF CHANCE

A MODERN writer describes marriage as “having an appointment with happiness in the palace of chance.”

Two persons are complete strangers to each other. One day they meet. They think they appreciate each other, understand each other. They encounter no serious obstacles; their social position is just about the same; their financial status similar; their health seems sufficient; their parents offer no objections; they become engaged. They exchange loving commonplaces wherein nothing of the depths of their souls is revealed. The days pass; the time comes—it is their wedding day.

They are married. In the beginning of their acquaintance, they did not know each other at all. They do not know each other much better now, or at least, they do not know each other intimately. They are bound together; possible mishaps matter little to them; they are going to make happiness for themselves together. It is a risk they decided to run.

That this

…

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