Vol 8 Issue 50 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
December 12, 2015 ~ Our Lady of Guadalupe

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (46)
2. Third Sunday in Advent
3. Saint Lucy
4. Christ in the Home (21)
5. Articles and notices

Dear Reader:

This month is always a busy month with the Novena (3-12) to Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron of the Americas which is then followed by the Las Posadas (16-24). So please excuse the absence of an introduction, but there are some articles and links below besides the regular commentaries.

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

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Baptism

Means of Salvation

Sacrament of Baptism

The Church Defines her Teachings on Baptism

Augustine’s Teachings within the Church 

Regarding the position of Saint Augustine in the teachings of the Church, it may be admitted that he was a bishop, but he was not a pope. Granted that he was not a Pope, yet the teaching magisterium, that is, the popes and councils have incorporated and based their decisions upon his teachings. Therefore, one cannot simply say Augustine, as well as the other Fathers and Doctors of the Church who the Popes and Councils have quoted, is not speaking infallibly. Rather, because they taught the very truth of the Faith, and explained it clearly for the understanding of the members, is why the Popes and Councils were able to draw from their writings what they knew was the Catholic Faith; and, with such authority, it would be rash to reject what they have taught unless the Church, herself, has rejected the teachings—such as those of St. Cyprian regarding re-Baptism, or much of Origen and Tertullian. In regards to even the teaching of the Immaculate Conception, the dogma was not defined until 1854. Saint Thomas Aquinas supported the Immaculate Conception in his Sentences(Cf. I. Sent. c. 44, q. I ad 3.) but seemingly denies it in his Summa Theologica(III, q. 27, a. 2, ad 2.) The Fathers were varied in their understanding that Mary was without sin because answering how and when was not clear in Scripture. This was resolved by later theologians and accepted by the Universal (Catholic) Church and only then Pius IX was able to proclaim it as a Dogma to be believed by all that in the first moment of her conception she was without sin. Such an approach is how the Church, as witnessed in Theology books and Papal and Council documents, adopts or rejects the writings of the earlier Fathers and Doctors of the Church.

The following, then, is an overview of the Popes regarding Saint Augustine.

Saint Augustine was to attend the Council of Ephesus in 431, but died on the August 30, 430, while his city was under siege by Vandals under Genseric. After the Council, Pope Celestine (422-32) wrote to the bishops of Gaul against the semi-Pelagians, especially John Cassian, who were attacking Augustine the following:

We have always held Augustine a man of holy memory because of his life and also of his services in our communion, nor has even report ever sullied him with unfavorable suspicion. We recall him as having once been a man of such great knowledge that even by my predecessors in the past he was always accounted among the best teachers. (Ep. “Apostolici Verba Praecepti” to the bishops of the Gauls, May 15, 431; D 128)

And in The Catalog or the Authoritative Statements of the Past Bishops of the Holy See Concerning the Grace of God, the sentence of St. Augustine from his work, On Nature and Grace (40, 47) is referenced again against the Pelagians (cf. D. 130).

Pope Gelasius (492-496) reminded the Bishops of Picenum (493) that they were to accept the teachings of Jerome and Augustine as luminaries among ecclesiastical teachers when he had to reprimand them for allowing a certain Seneca to teach Pelagianism (cf. Ad Salutem, 3; Darras, 48.). Later, in a list of approved in a Decretal Epistle 42, or decretal “de recipiendis et non recipiendis libris,” in the year 495:

Likewise the works of blessed Caecilius Cyprian . . . [and in the same way the works of Gregory Nazianzen, Basil, Athanasius, John (Chrysostom), Theophilus, Cyril of Alexandria, Hilary, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, (and) Prosper may be admitted]. Also the epistle of blessed Leo the Pope to Flavian. . . ; if anyone argues concerning the text of this one even in regard to one iota, and does not receive it in all respects reverently, let him be anathema. (D 165)

Cyprian is given special mention for his writings promoting unity under the papacy—of course Gelasius was primarily arguing the primacy of the Chair of Peter in this decretal. Despite the near schism of the Greeks, it would be the rigorist monks of the West that would be a thorn in the side of Holy Mother Church and after a hundred years of fighting the errors of these semi-Pelagians who saw Augustine as the opponent, Pope Hormisdas (514-23) in his epistle,Sicut rationi, to Possessor on August 13, 520, repeated the words of Celestine:

Yet what the Roman, that is the Catholic, Church follows and preserves concerning free will and the grace of God can be abundantly recognized both in the various books of the blessed Augustine, and especially [in those] to Hilary and Prosper, but the prominent chapters are contained in the ecclesiastical archives and if these are lacking there and you believe them necessary, we establish [them], although he who diligently considers the words of the apostle, should know clearly what he ought to follow. (D 173)

Knowing what his predecessors had said Boniface II confirms the Council of Orange, assembled to condemn the semi-Pelagians using the teachings of Augustine, with these words:

. . . To your petition, which you have composed with laudable solicitude for the Faith, we have not delayed to give a Catholic reply. For you point out that some bishops of the Gauls, although they now agree that other goods are born of God’s grace, think that faith, by which we believe in Christ, is only of nature, not of grace; and that (faith) has remained in the free will of man from Adam—which it is a sin to say and is not even now conferred on individuals by the bounty of God’s mercy; asking that, for the sake of ending the ambiguity, we confirm by the authority of the Apostolic See your confession, in which in the Opposite way you explain that right faith in Christ and the beginning of all good will, according to Catholic truth, is inspired in the minds of individuals by the preceding grace of God.

And therefore, since many Fathers, and above all Bishop Augustine of blessed memory, but also our former high priests of the Apostolic See are proved to have discussed this with such detailed reasoning that there should be no further doubt in anyone that faith itself also comes to us from grace, we have thought that we should desist from a complex response, especially since according to these statements from the Apostle which you have arranged, in which he says: I have obtained mercy, that I may be faithful [1 Cor. 7:25], and elsewhere: It has been given to you, for Christ, not only that you may believe in Him, but also that you may suffer for Him [Phil. 1:29], it clearly appears that the faith by which we believe in Christ, just as all blessings, comes to each man from the gift of supernal grace, not from the power of human nature. (Letter, Per filium nostrum, to Caesarius of Arles, January 25, 531; D 200.)

Pope Pelagius (579-590) quotes Augustine to defend (as Gelasius) union with the papacy in his Epistle Dilectionis vestrae  to the bishops of Istria in 585. Pope St. Gregory the Great (590-604) quotes Augustine regarding the knowledge of Christ in his epistle Sicut aqua frigida in the year 600. The Council of Valence (855), approved by St. Leo IV (847-855), again invokes the authority of the Fathers of the Church and later quotes Augustine (cf. canon 3; D 323):

Without hesitation, however, to the doctors piously and correctly discussing the word of truth, and to those very clear expositors of Sacred Scripture, namely, Cyprian, Hilary, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and others living tranquilly in Catholic piety, we reverently and obediently submit our hearing and our understanding, and to the best of our ability we embrace the things which they have written for our salvation. For concerning the foreknowledge of God, and predestination, and other questions in which the minds of the brethren are proved not a little scandalized, we believe that we must firmly hold that only which we are happy to have drawn from the maternal womb of the Church. (Canon 1; D 320)

The following, from Innocent II (1130-1143), again quotes Augustine and Ambrose as authorities regarding baptism in desire

To your inquiry we respond thus: We assert without hesitation (on the authority of the holy Fathers Augustine and Ambrose) that the priest whom you indicated (in your letter) had died without the water of baptism, because he persevered in the faith of holy mother the Church and in the confession of the name of Christ, was freed from original sin and attained the joy of the heavenly fatherland. Read (brother) in the eighth book of Augustine’s “City of God” where among other things it is written, “Baptism is ministered invisibly to one whom not contempt of religion but death excludes.” Read again the book also of the blessed Ambrose concerning the death of Valentinian  where he says the same thing. Therefore, to questions concerning the dead, you should hold the opinions of the learned Fathers’ and in your church you should join in prayers and you should have sacrifices offered to God for the priest mentioned. (Apostolicam Sedem to the Bishop of Cremona; D 388)

Not only does one see the Council of Trent call on Saint Augustine, especially regarding justification (cf. Decree on Justification, Chapter 7; D 799), but he is frequently referenced in the explanations of the faith in the Catechism of theCouncil of Trent, or Roman Catechism. In the battle against Febronianism, or the attempt to nationalize the Catholic Church (influenced by Gallicanism and Jansenism) Pius VI (1775-1799) pointed to Saint Augustine in his Brief Super soliditate of November 28, 1786. He did the same in condemning the Errors of the Synod of Pistoia in his Constitution, Auctorem fidei of August 28, 1794. Gregory XVI condemns the Indifferentism of Felicite de Lamennais in his Encyclical Mirari vos arbitramur of August 15, 1832. There are several more citations within the Papal and Council documents that could be a study to show not only the influence, but the decision in regards to Original Sin, baptism, grace and the unity of the Catholic Church, but here one can listen to the words of Pope Pius XI on the occasion of the fifteenth centennial of his death:

The praise of Augustine has never ceased to be proclaimed in the Church of God, even by the Roman Pontiffs. While the holy Bishop was yet alive, Innocent I greeted him as a beloved friend and extolled the letter which he had received from the Saint and from four Bishops, his friends: “A letter instinct with faith and staunch with all the vigor of the Catholic religion.” Shortly after the death of Augustine, Celestine I defends him against his opponents in the following noble words: “We have ever deemed Augustine a man to be remembered for his sanctity, because of his life and services in our communion, nor has rumor at any time darkened his name with the suspicion of evil. So great was his knowledge, as we recall, that he was always reckoned by my predecessors also among our foremost teachers. All alike, therefore, thought highly of him as a man held in affection and honor by all.”

3. Gelasius I hailed Jerome and Augustine as “luminaries among ecclesiastical teachers.” Hormisdas wrote in answer to Bishop Possessor’s request for direction these weighty words: “What the Roman, that is, the Catholic Church follows and maintains touching free will and the grace of God, can be learned from the different works of blessed Augustine, those especially which he addressed to Hilary and Prosper, though the formal chapters are contained in the ecclesiastical records.” A like testimony was uttered by John II, when in refutation of heretics he appealed to the works of Augustine: “Whose teaching,” he said, “according to the enactments of my predecessors, the Roman Church follows and maintains.”
4. Can anyone be unaware how thoroughly familiar with the doctrine of Augustine were the Roman Pontiffs, during the ages that followed close upon his death, as Leo the Great, for example, and Gregory the Great? Thus Saint Gregory, thinking as highly of Augustine as he thought humbly of himself, wrote to Innocentius, prefect of Africa: “If you wish to feast on choice food, read the works of blessed Augustine, your fellow-countryman. His writings are as fine wheat. Seek not for our bran.” It is well known that Adrian I was in the habit of quoting passages from Augustine, whom he styled “an eminent doctor.” Again, Clement VIII, to throw light on the obscure features of abstruse debates, and Pius VI, in his Apostolic Constitution “Auctorem fidei,” to unmask the evasions of the condemned Synod of Pistoia, availed themselves of the support of Augustine’s authority.
5. It is a further tribute to the glory of the Bishop of Hippo, that more than once the Fathers in lawful Councils assembled, made use of his very words in defining Catholic truth. In illustration it is enough to cite the Second Council of Orange and the Council of Trent. Yet again, to cast a backward glance at the years of Our own youth, We wish at this point to recall and delightedly to ponder the words in which Our predecessor of immortal memory Leo XIII, after mentioning writers earlier than Augustine, lauded the help afforded by him to Christian philosophy: “But it is Augustine who seems to have borne off the palm from all. Of towering genius and thoroughly versed in sacred and profane knowledge, he waged relentless war on all the errors of his age with matchless faith and equal learning. What part of philosophy did he have untouched? Nay rather into what part did he not make thorough search as when he unfolded to the Faithful the deepest mysteries of the Faith or defended them against the mad attacks of foes; or again when, brushing away the false theories of Academics and Manicheans, he laid a sure and solid foundation for human knowledge, or studied in detail the nature and source and causes of the evils which harass mankind?” (Ad salute humani, April 30, 1930)

Despite all this praise and the imminent position Saint August holds, one must remember he was not to be held above Papal and Conciliar teachings, but in union with. This Pius XI wants to make clear as he continues:

6. Now before penetrating deeper into the study We have set Ourselves, We would note, for the benefit of all, that the lavish praises bestowed on our Saint by the writers of antiquity are to be understood in a proper sense, and not—as some, who do not share the Catholic sense, have thought-as though the weight of Augustine’s word were to be set ahead of the very authority of the teaching Church. [AAS 22 (1930) 204]

For Augustine himself declares in De dono perseverantiae: I would not wish anyone so to esteem my (writings) that he would follow me except in those matters in which he has dearly seen I do not err: for on this account I am now composing books in which I have undertaken to examine my works, so that I may show that I myself have not conformed to myself in all things. (c. 21; ML 45, 1027 f.)

Alexander VIII (1689-91) had already opposed putting Saint Augustine above papal teachings as he opposed  the errors of the Jansenists, condemning proposition 30: When anyone finds a doctrine clearly established in Augustine, he can absolutely hold and teach it, disregarding any bull of the pope. (D 1320)

(To be continued)

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Week of Third Sunday in Advent

Benedict Baur, O.S.B.

Mary, the Mother of Christ

1. “Thou art near, O Lord, and all Thy ways are truth” (Introit). God is near today in the Virgin Mary. She has conceived the Son of God in order to bring Him to us. We are witnesses of the blessings which she brings today to the house of Elizabeth; she brings Christ with her. Through her Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Ghost, and John the Baptist is sanctified in his mother’s womb. Mary is the Mother of God and the channel of all grace, “whom thou hast borne visiting Elizabeth. “
2. Mary, having conceived the Son of God, hastens to the hill country, to the city of Juda, and greets her cousin, Elizabeth. At Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth feels the infant whom she has conceived (John the Baptist) leap for joy in her womb. Elizabeth is herself filled with the Holy Ghost and learns the secret that has been confided to Mary: “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? . . . And blessed art thou that thou hast believed” (Gospel). Mary is the living monstrance that presents Christ and His grace to men. Through Mary, John the Baptist is sanctified in his mother’s womb, cleansed from the stains of original sin, and clothed with the garment of sanctifying grace. Mary would gladly have withdrawn from the world to live in the solitude and obscurity of Nazareth after having conceived the Son of God, but God calls her to the service of charity, and she recognizes no call but the will of God. She does not shrink from any exertion; she is not dismayed by any obstacle or difficulty. He who is filled with Christ is filled with zeal and love and determination. How do we stand in this regard?

The stational church for today’s Mass (Friday in Ember Week) is the church of the Twelve Apostles in Rome. Mary is the apostle of the liturgy, the Mediatrix of all grace. She is the root from which springs the full bloom, Christ. “And of His fullness we all have received, and grace for grace” (John 1:16). But all of this grace we receive through the instrumentality of Mary. Today we, like John the Baptist, are sanctified by Mary’s visit. With hearts full of thankfulness we say with the Gradual: “Lord, Thou hast blessed Thy land [Mary and through her the Church and its members]: Thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob” (the captivity of sin, the devil, and eternal damnation). Everything through Mary.

3. “Behold the Lord shall come, and all His saints with Him: and there shall be in that day a great light” (Communion). The coming of Christ in Holy Communion is the prelude to the coming of Christ at the end of time, when He will appear accompanied by His saints and angels to lead us and the Church to an eternal communion with Him in heaven. Holy Communion is for us a pledge of the possession of God in the eternal light of heaven.

Through Mary Christ accomplishes the salvation of many souls. He took her as His mother in order that in His earthly life He might have a new Eve to assist Him, the new Adam. As she cooperated in the winning of all the graces which Christ has merited for us, so now that she is in heaven she enjoys the privilege of dispensing all the graces which Christ wishes to give us. Every grace which we receive, Mary helped to win for us. For this reason she is also charged with the dispensation of these graces. We receive all grace from God through Christ and His Blessed Mother. Thus Christ wishes to honor His mother, and we should gratefully seek from her all the graces that we need. She is the humble, obedient handmaid of Christ, the pure Virgin.

In the liturgy the blessed Mother of God, the Mediatrix of grace, is a symbol of the Church. The Church bears Christ in her virginal bosom (the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle). She gives Him to us in the sacraments, in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and in His abiding presence in the tabernacle. “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,” O Holy Mother the Church.

The first fruit of the Incarnation and of Holy Communion is Christian charity. Mary “conceived of the Holy Ghost,” and at once set out to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Likewise in us fraternal charity should be inseparable from Holy Communion.

PRAYER

Stir up Thy power, we beseech Thee, O Lord, and come, that they who trust in Thy goodness may be more speedily freed from all adversity.

Mary, Mediatrix of all grace, pray for us that we may be delivered from our sins, our weaknesses, and our imperfections, and may begin to live a holy life.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Redemption!

1. On this day in ancient times, the Church celebrated the vigil, which ended in the celebration of Mass early Sunday morning. The vigil is a symbol of the Church, which brings to us the light of Christ out of the night.
2. We stand in need of redemption. Today we feel like a people that has lived in darkness and in the unfruitful wastes of the desert; we are like the lame and the blind and those who are bound by chains (Fourth Lesson). We are, in truth, bound by the chains of sin, self-love, and weakness. We feel the full weight of our sins and bow under the yoke of Satan and struggle in the misery of our servitude (Oration). The chains wrought by original sin bind all of us, the priests who celebrate Mass daily, the religious and the pious laymen who receive Holy Communion daily. Even though we pray much and meditate frequently, we are far from what we should be, and we are still closely bound by our self-love and by our blindness and hesitancy in the spiritual life. No one stands in need of redemption so much as we. “Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just; let the earth be opened and bud forth a Savior, and let justice spring up together. I the Lord have created Him” (Third Lesson).

The Lord is to come now in the Mass. He is to come at Christmas to give sight to the blind and those that live in darkness. The earth “shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise; the glory of Libanus is given to it, the beauty of Carmel and Saron. They shall see the glory of the Lord and the beauty of our God . . . . Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped” (Second  Lesson). The chains of servitude fall from the afflicted members of humanity. Grace and the forgiveness of sin are given to men, and the night of sin and blindness departs. A new life is given to us: “I am come that they may have life and may have it more abundantly” (John 10: 10).

The new life which is given to us is a participation in the divine life. It is a share in the pure and blessed life which the Holy Trinity lives in heaven. By reason of our adoption as sons of God we may hope to share and enjoy this life. The Son of God in His incarnation has taken us to Himself and made us members of His mystical body, and has thus lifted us up so that it is possible for us to enjoy the life of God. Could anything more sublime have happened to us? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost share with us their blessed and ineffable life. Indeed, we have been redeemed, and that redemption means not only freedom from our sins, but it is also the privilege of living henceforth the life of divinity. We have been made the beloved children of God, and can say to Him, “Abba, Father.” The Father hears us and turns toward us in His love. Truly, we have been redeemed!

3. “By this hath the charity of God appeared towards us, because God hath sent His only-begotten Son into the world that we may live by Him. In this is charity; not as though we had loved God, but because He hath first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:9 f.).

We are redeemed, The God of heaven comes to us, and we are elevated to a participation in the divine life. The divine life, which flows from the Father to the Son, is communicated to men also through the humanity of Christ. The human nature assumed by the Son of God becomes an ocean of divine love, and it communicates divine life to us. By faith, reverence and love we open our hearts to the influence of this divine love. God clothes our souls with a garment of purity and causes them to glow with His love and holiness.

“I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God that is given you in Christ Jesus” (I Cor. 1:4-5). We give thanks particularly for the grace of the Incarnation. Unfortunately we are not sufficiently conscious of how much we have been enriched. Our interest is not, unfortunately, primarily in this, our proudest boast, that “we are redeemed.” This fact of our redemption should mean more to us than our health, our work, our knowledge and culture. The most important single thing in our lives should be this new life, this life of grace.

PRAYER

Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that we who are oppressed by the former servitude under the yoke of sin, may be delivered by the new birth of Thy only-begotten Son, which we await, who livest and reignest with Thee forever and ever. Amen.

“Come, O Lord, and show us Thy face, and we shall be saved.” (Introit.)

Hymn (Dan. 3:52-59)

Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the God of our Fathers: and worthy to be praised and glorified and exalted above all forever.

And blessed is the holy name of Thy glory: and worthy to be praised and exalted above all in all ages.

Blessed art Thou in the holy temple of Thy glory: and exceedingly to be praised and exceeding glorious forever.

Blessed art Thou on the throne of Thy kingdom: and exceedingly to be praised and exalted above all forever.

Blessed art Thou that beholdest the depths and sittest upon the cherubims: and worthy to be praised and exalted above all forever.

Blessed art Thou in the firmament of heaven: and worthy of praise and glorious forever.

All ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord: praise and exalt Him above all forever.

O ye angels of the Lord, bless the Lord: praise and exalt Him above all forever.

O ye heavens, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all forever.

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DECEMBER 13 

St. Lucy, Virgin and Martyr

1. St. Lucy probably suffered martyrdom about the year 304, during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian. She belonged to a prominent family in Syracuse, Sicily, and was brought up as a Christian by her mother Eutychia. On the occasion of the latter’s miraculous restoration to health at the tomb of St. Agatha in Catania, Lucy obtained her permission to remain a virgin and to distribute her property among the poor. This fired the wrath of her intended husband, and he denounced her as a Christian. The judge ordered her to be taken to a brothel; but she became miraculously fixed to the spot, and no one could move her. Nor did fire harm her. Finally, the thrust of a sword ended her life. This is the legendary account of Lucy’s death. History attests only to her existence and her martyrdom.
2. “Thou hast been a friend to right, an enemy to wrong” (Introit). This does not imply that Lucy would have done wrong by accepting matrimony. But God gave her the grace to see that “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). For this reason, Lucy chose to remain unmarried. She distributed her wealth among the poor, thereby removing the greatest hindrances to her total dedication of herself to the Lord. At St. Agatha’s tomb she had found the “treasure hidden in a field” and the “pearl of great cost” (Gospel); she had come to recognize the nobility of a life for and with Christ. Therefore, she sold all her possessions and purchased the field, the pearl (cf. Gospel).

“Maidens shall follow in her retinue into the king’s presence; all rejoicing, all triumph, those companions of hers, as they, enter the palace of their Lord and King” (Offertory). In Lucy, the “lucent” saint of the Advent season, we recognize ourselves; we long for the coming of Christmas, the coming of Christ. Our gaze rises above earthly things to the heavenly realm of grace and supernatural life; we look up to the heaven which is Christ, whose coming we are now anticipating. St. Lucy leads the way as we hasten to meet Him when He comes to us in the Holy Sacrifice, in Holy Communion, in order to fill us with the holiness of His own divine life. We look forward to the time when He will take us to His home for the blessed nuptials. But we cannot claim to be good imitators of St. Lucy unless we free ourselves from inordinate attachment to creatures in daily life, for the sake of the “treasure” that we hope to acquire; unless we walk the way of martyrdom, of sacrifice, and suffering out of love for Christ.

3. During the Advent of earthly life, let us walk in the footsteps of St. Lucy, virgin and martyr, on our way to meet the coming Redeemer; and let us persevere in this holy practice until, at the hour of death, we shall be admitted to the celebration of an everlasting Christmas in heaven.

“Vexed by the causeless malice of princes, my heart still dreads thy warnings. Victors rejoice not more over rich spoils than lover thy promises” (Communion). Amid the afflictions of life, we will place our confidence in the promise given in the Holy Eucharist: “The man who eats my flesh and drinks my blood enjoys eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:55). This promise of our Lord gives us strength and courage.

Collect: Listen to us, God our Savior, so that we who find joy in the festival of Thy blessed virgin and martyr Lucy may learn from her the spirit of godly service. Amen.

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