Vol 12 Issue 47 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
November 23, 2019 ~ Saint Clement, opn!
1. What is the Holy Eucharist
2. Last Sunday after Pentecost
3. Saint John of the Cross
4. Family and Marriage
5. Articles and notices
Dear Reader:
According to the Church year, we will have completed another year with this coming week with the Last Sunday in Pentecost. The First Sunday in Advent will begin the new Liturgical Year. The priest will put away the fourth volume of the breviary and find himself at the end of the Propers for the Mass. The year is over, and the reflections are on the end of the world and the end of life as we know it. The Church has followed this cycle from Apostolic times—for no one points to an introduction, just that it is there: the Church reliving the history of salvation, the life of Christ, the mysteries of the faith. Life is cyclic and in the old Testament it was evening and morning, one day for a reason. The evening of life is to look at one’s past and the morning of life is to look at one’s future. Evening is completion and morning is looking toward another day of creation, of activity. As we come to the evening of the Liturgical Year we examine what we have done during the past year for God takes an account of His work and justifies His work so that all things were good. We can only ask for His forgiveness if we see where we were wanting and, if granted another year, not to be like the unjust steward, who does not forgive, but grateful God has given us another opportunity to return His mercy in forgiving our neighbor, in doing good to our neighbor.
If we think of the day, it, too, in the evening calls for an accounting, the imploring for mercy, but also the entrance into His rest in sleep, repose, in grace afterwards. The next day the cycle starts again and we join with Him in our resolve to create with Him, that we don’t fall into temptation and find the day mirroring the Fall of Adam and Eve with God regretting He made man by our joining the sons of men and ceasing to be the sons of God.
The year, like the day and the week, is also cyclic; and so with our accounting of the past year and asking for forgiveness we begin the new year co-operating with God’s creation and grateful we hopefully—as the day—do not fall into temptation and join with the sons of men but remain sons of God. It is well that God has so ordered our lives in this cyclic evening and day, end of the week and beginning, end of the year and beginning to bring to our minds that the past is done, but that we do not remain in the past for there is the morning when we can look toward making all things new. Therefore, in the morning of the first day of the Liturgical year the priest will open the first book of his Divine Office and he will open to the first page of the Propers of the Mass to begin again the beginning of creation.
[Note: The Conciliar Church’s introduction of the 3 year cycle breaks with this accepted Apostolic tradition and conforms to modern Jewish Old Testament reading cycle.]
As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit.—The Editor
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WHAT IS THE HOLY EUCHARIST
By Rev. Courtney Edward Krier
Vatican II:
The Holy Week Liturgy, as noted in all commentaries on the early Church and the Rite of Baptism, speak of the Easter Vigil being held in the night with the Catechumens being—after the readings and prayers—baptized and Holy Mass following and ending early (Sunday) morning. The Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, on February 9, 1951, informs the reasons for returning to the custom:
Since early times the Church solemnly celebrates the Easter Vigil, which St. Augustine calls “the mother of all the holy vigils” (Sermon 219) This vigil was celebrated during the early hours of the morning preceding the Resurrection of Our Lord. But in the course of centuries and for various reasons, the celebration was put ahead, first to the early evening, then to the afternoon, and finally to the morning of Holy Saturday; at the same time some modifications were introduced to the detriment of the primitive symbolism.
However our times, which are distinguished for development in researches on ancient liturgy, has witnessed the fulfillment of the ardent desire of bringing back the Easter Vigil to its primitive splendor and of assigning to it the time observed in the beginning, that is, the early hours of the night preceding Resurrection Sunday. In favor of such a return there is added a special motive of pastoral order: that of facilitating the presence of numerous faithful. In fact, as Holy Saturday is no longer a holyday, as it once was, the greater part of the faithful cannot assist at the sacred rite, if it takes place in the morning.
It was Giovanni Montini and Augustine Bea who reported the work of the Restored Holy Week Liturgy to Pope Pius X. It was Joseph Löw who did most of the work researching and revising the Holy Week Liturgy. As Anibale Bugnini notes:
In the beginning not everyone grasped the importance of the issues or realized that the work would be long and demanding. The Cardinal-President [Micara] thought the work might take a few months or at most a year. The disillusionment began when Father Bea gave his opinion on this point: A revision of the Scriptures for liturgical use would take at least five years if the criteria adopted for the Psalter were applied universally. The disillusionment was completed when the majority accepted this forecast and added that five years was an absolute minimum.
In the twelve years of its existence (June 28, 1948, to July 8, 1960) the commission held eighty-two meetings and worked in absolute secrecy. So secret, in fact, was their work that the publication of the Ordo Sabbati Sancti instaurati at the beginning of March 1951 caught even the officials of the Congregation of Rites by surprise. The commission enjoyed the full confidence of the Pope, who was kept abreast of its work by Monsignor Montini and even more, on a weekly basis, by Father Bea, confessor of Pius XII. Thanks to them, the commission was able to achieve important results even during periods when the Pope’s illness kept everyone else from approaching him.
Bugnini continues:
Also surprising was the pastoral sense shown by the “Pian” reform, despite the fact that the commission was composed exclusively of scholars. Its success in this respect was due chiefly to Father Joseph Löw, a man of extremely flexible and versatile intellect who was capable of devising a whole range of concrete proposals, from which the best model could be developed. (Bugnini, 9-10)
As was observed, previous to the Restored Holy Week, the Resurrection was celebrated on Saturday morning contrasting the Resurrection happening on Sunday morning. Because of the fast and the lengthy ceremonies, those obliged to celebrate the Liturgy introduced it earlier, as one could not communicate—according to the fasting laws previously—if one even drank some water. As it ceased to be a holy day, few participated in the Liturgy—attending only the evening sermons and devotions that replaced the Liturgy on Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
With the celebration returning to the night vigil, the liturgy would also need to reflect the time that it was celebrated—for even saying Vespers in the morning in the prior ceremony expressed that once it was celebrated in the evening, but was incongruent with the morning hour. Also, with the Divine Office being reduced (as pointed to above) because of the obligations of the clergy whose ranks did not increase in proportion to the Catholic population, the Restored Liturgy also reduced the readings to the earlier four readings. At the same time, other ceremonies that were added during the Middle Ages but had no meaning were removed, such as not genuflecting during the solemn prayers while praying for the conversion of the Jews. The biblical account does not provide an account the Jews genuflected as they struck our Lord; it does accuse the Romans. The meaning lost, and the Church does nothing without meaning, it was appropriate that the faithful genuflect in supplication that the Jews come to the knowledge of the Truth.
Pope Pius XII approved the Decree Maxima redemptionis, by the Sacred Congregation of Rites, of November 16, 1955.
Every year from apostolic times, Holy Mother Church has been intent on celebrating in a special manner the memory of the greatest mysteries of Redemption, namely, the Passion, Death and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Above all she has commemorated the most telling hours of those mysteries, i.e., “the crucifixion, the burial, and the resurrection” of Christ (St. Augustine, Ep. 55, 14.); later she added the solemn commemoration of the Institution of the most Blessed Eucharist; and, finally, on the Sunday immediately preceding the Passion came the liturgical celebration of the triumphant entry of our Savior, the messianic King, into the Holy City. From this resulted a special liturgical week, which, because of the excellence of the mysteries celebrated, was called “holy” and graced with the most splendid religious rites.
At the start these rites were celebrated on the same days and at the same hours in which these three mysteries took place. The institution, therefore, of the Blessed Eucharist was celebrated on Thursday evening with High Mass “in Cena Domini”; on Friday afternoon a special liturgical function took place in memory of the Passion and death of Our Lord, and on Saturday evening the solemn vigil began and ended the following morning with the joy of the Resurrection.
In the Middle Ages, however, the hour of the liturgical functions of those days was, for various reasons, anticipated, so that at the end of the same Middle Ages all those solemn celebrations were advanced to the early morning hours. This was damaging to the liturgical sense. The Gospel narration did not agree with the relative liturgical commemorations. The solemn Easter vigil, withdrawn from its own nocturnal place, lost its original significance together with the meaning of its formulas and symbols. Holy Saturday, then, taken up with an anticipated Easter joy, lost its character of mourning in remembrance of Our Lord’s burial.
In recent times took place another change, from the pastoral point of view even more serious. Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday were for many years numbered among holydays (free of work) with the aim of allowing all the faithful, free from work, to assist at the Sacred rites of those days. But in the 17th century, owing to the completely changed conditions of social life, the Sovereign Pontiffs were induced to diminish the number of holydays. It so happened that Urban VIII with the Apostolic Constitution “Universa per orbem” of September 24, 1642, was obliged to reduce to working days the sacred triduum of Holy Week.
From this fact the assistance of numerous faithful at these sacred rites was necessarily reduced and consequently their celebration was for a long time advanced to the morning, at a time when, all over the world, schools and offices are open and all business is transacted. Common and almost universal experience, in fact, teaches that often these solemn liturgical functions of the sacred triduum are celebrated by the clergy in almost deserted churches.
This is certainly deplorable. The rites of Holy Week have not only a special dignity, but they also possess a singular strength and sacramental efficacy to nourish Christian life; neither can they receive adequate compensation in those pious exercises of devotion commonly called “extraliturgical” carried on in the evenings of the sacred triduum.
For all these reasons, eminent liturgists, priests in care of souls and in the first place the Bishops themselves have lately made insistent appeals to the Holy See, asking that the liturgical functions of the sacred triduum be put back, as they once were, to the early evening in order to permit the faithful to assist more easily at these ceremonies.
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The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers
M. F. Toal
THE GOSPEL OF THE SUNDAY
MATTHEW xxiv. 15-35
1
At that time: Jesus said to his disciples: When you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place; he that readeth let him understand; Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains; and he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take anything out of his house; and he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat. And woe to them that are with child and give suck in those days. But pray that your flight be not in the winter or on the sabbath; for there shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be. And unless these days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened.
2
Then, if any man shall say to you: Lo, here is Christ, or there; do not believe him. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. Behold, I have told it to you, beforehand. If therefore they shall say to you: Behold, he is in the desert; go ye not out. Behold, he is in the closets; believe it not. For as lightning cometh out of the east and appeareth even into the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together.
3
And, immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be moved. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven. And then shall all tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty.
4
And he shall send his angels with a trumpet and a great voice; and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them.
5
And from the fig-tree learn a parable: When the branch thereof is now tender and the leaves come forth, you know that summer is nigh. So you also, when you shall see all these things, know ye that it is nigh, even at the doors. Amen, I say to you that this generation shall not pass till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass; but my words shall not pass.
EXPOSITION FROM THE CATENA AUREA
CHRYSOSTOM, in Matthew, Homily 76: In the preceding verses He had spoken in a veiled manner of the end of Jerusalem, here He goes on to speak of it openly; quoting a prophecy, to lead them to believe in the coming destruction of the Jews. So we read:
V.15. When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place; he that readeth let him understand.
JEROME: The words: He that readeth let him understand, were spoken in order to alert us to the mystical content of His words. These are the words of Daniel: And in the half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fail: and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation. And the desolation shall continue even to the consummation and to the end. And the abomination shall continue to the end of time and an end shall be put to the desolation (Dan. ix. 27).
AUGUSTINE, Ep. to Hesychius, 80: Luke, to show that the abomination spoken of by Daniel will take place when Jerusalem is captured, recalls these words of the Lord in the same context: When you shall see Jerusalem compassed about with an army, then know that the desolation thereof is at hand (xxi. 20).
CHRYSOSTOM, Opus Imperfectum, Homily 49: From this it seems to me that the abomination of desolation means the army by which the holy city of Jerusalem was made desolate.
JEROME: Or it can be understood of the statue of Caesar which Pilate placed in the temple, or of the equestrian statue of Adrian, which stood, even to our own times, in the holy of holies. In the Old Testament an idol is called, an abomination; and, of desolation, is added because the idol was set up in the midst of the desolate and deserted temple.
CHRYSOSTOM, on Matthew, Homily 76: Or because he who had desolated the city and the temple, placed his statue within the temple. And that they might learn that these things shall be, even while some of them are still living, He says: When you shall see. Here we marvel at Christ’s power, and at the Disciples’ courage, preaching in such times; in which everything Jewish was being attacked. And how the Apostles, though Jews, brought in new laws in face of the Romans who then ruled them, and made myriads of them prisoners; but did not prevail over these twelve poor, unarmed men. It had happened often in past times that the Jews had recovered from similar disasters, as in the times of Sennacherib and Antiochus; now, that no one might think that this will happen again, He commands His followers to fly, when He goes on to say:
V.16. Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains.
REMIGIUS: All this we know now took place with the approaching desolation of Jerusalem. For as the Roman armys came on, all Christians who were in the province, warned, as Ecclesiastical history relates, by a divine sign, retreated a long way before them, and crossing the Jordan came to the city of Pella, and remained there for some time under the protection of King Agrippa, of whom mention is made in the Acts of the Apostles. He and those Jews whom he ruled were however subject to the Roman rule. CHRYSOSTOM, as above: Then, to show them the inescapable evils that were to come upon the Jews, and that this calamity was without end, He continues:
V.17. And he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take anything out of his house.
For it was better to escape unclothed than go into his house to get his clothes, and be slain. And of the man in the fields He says:
V.18. And he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat.
For if those who are in the city are to fly, much more should they who are in the fields not return to the city. But while it is easy to despise money, and not difficult to provide one’s self with clothing; how can anyone escape the tie of nature? How can the woman heavy with child lightly take to flight, or the mother abandon the child at her breast? And so He goes on:
V.19. And woe to them that are with child and that give suck in those days.
The first because they are helpless, and cannot easily escape, heavy with the burden they have conceived; the others, because they are held by the bond of compassion for their children, and cannot save both themselves and the children at the breast. ORIGEN, on Matthew, Tr. 29: Or because there shall then be no compassion for those with child, or for those who give suck, or for their children. And since he was speaking to Jews, who held that on the sabbath day they could not walk more than the allotted sabbath journey, He adds:
V.20. But pray that your flight be not in the winter or on the sabbath.
JEROME: For in the one case, the bitter cold prevents you from seeking the deserts, or from hiding in remote mountains; in the other, if you fly, you transgress the law, while if you stay, death is waiting for you.
CHRYSOSTOM, as above: You see how this discourse is addressed to Jews. For the Apostles will not observe the sabbath, and neither will they stay, when Vespasian is doing these things. For by then the greater part of them will have already died; and should any survive, they would then be living in another part of the world. He then tells them the reason they should pray for this:
V.21. For there shall be then great tribulation, Such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be.
AUGUSTINE, Ep. to Hesychius. 199: In Luke we read (xxi. 23, 24): There shall be great distress upon the land, and wrath upon this people; and they shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captives into all nations. And Josephus, who wrote the History of the Jewish People, relates such evils as happening to this people as scarcely seem credible.
Hence rightly is it said that there has not been such tribulation since the beginning of the world, nor shall there be. And even though there shall be such tribulation, or even greater perhaps in the time of Antichrist, nevertheless we must here understand that it is said of this people that such tribulation shall not come to them again. For if they are to be the first and the chief people to receive Antichrist, they will inflict tribulation, rather than receive it.
CHRYSOSTOM: I would ask the Jews why has such intolerable wrath come to them from above; more grievous than ever before? Is it not plainly because of the deed of the Cross, and its denial. And He shows they merited yet more grievous punishment, in the words that follow:
V.22. And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved.
As though He said: Had the Roman assault against the city continued, all Jews would have perished: for he is speaking of all Jewish flesh; those within and those without the city. For the Romans attacked not only those who were in Judea, but those scattered everywhere were also persecuted. AUGUSTINE, as above: There are some who seem not inaptly to think that by these days the evils themselves are meant, since in other places in Scripture (Eph. v. 16) days are spoken of as being evil. But days themselves are not evil; only the things done upon them. And they are said to be shortened, in that, God giving us patience, they are felt less; as if what were great evils were made small.
CHRYSOSTOM, on Matthew, Homily 76: That the Jews might not say these evils came because of the preaching of the Gospel, and because of the followers of Christ, He shows that were it not for them all would have perished. Hence there follows: But for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened.
AUGUSTINE, as above: For we should not doubt that when Jerusalem was overthrown, there were among that people certain of the elect of God, who had believed from the circumcision, or were to believe; elect from the foundation of the world, because of whom these days would be shortened, that their evils might become more endurable. Nor are there wanting those who think that the days will be shortened by a more rapid motion of the sun; as the day was made longer at the prayer of Josue.
JEROME: Not remembering that it is written: By thy ordinance the day goes on (Ps. cxix. 19). We are not to believe they shall be shortened in measure, but in their number; so that the faith of those who believe may not be shaken by the prolongation of their trials.
AUGUSTINE: We have no reason to think that the weeks of Daniel were altered by this shortening of the days; or that they were not at that time complete, but were to be completed at the end of time. For Luke very clearly bears witness that the prophecy of Daniel was fulfilled when Jerusalem was overthrown.
CHRYSOSTOM: Observe the dispensation of the Holy Spirit: how John wrote nothing of these events, so that he might not seem to be writing of what was history; for he lived for a long time after the capture of Jerusalem. But they who were dead before it, and saw nothing of these events, they wrote of them; so that the power of the prophecy might shine out on all sides.
HILARY, on Matthew (Canon 25): Or, the Lord gave a perfect sign of His future coming, when He says: When you shall see the abomination of desolation. For the Prophet said this of the times of Antichrist. He is called abomination from this, that coming against God, he arrogates to himself the honour due to God. The abomination of desolation, because he will desolate the earth with wars and slaughters, and received by the Jews, he will stand in the place of sanctification; that where God is wont to be invoked by the prayers of the saints, he may be received by the perfidious as worthy of honour due to God. And because this error will be peculiar to the Jews; that they who rejected Truth shall receive falsehood; He warns them to forsake Judea and fly to the mountains, that they may not, by mingling with the people of Antichrist, be subjected to their contagion.
That He said: And he that is on the house-top, let him not come down to take anything out of his house, is to be understood in this sense: The roof is the highest part of the house, the summit and perfection of the whole building. He therefore who stands on the summit of his own house, that is, on the perfection of his own heart, new in regeneration, elevated in spirit, must keep himself from descending to lowlier things; out of greed for worldly possessions. And he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his cloak; that is, he that is firm in obedience to the commandments, let him not return to his former cares; which would be a putting on again of his former sins, with which he was once covered.
AUGUSTINE: For we must beware, when in tribulation, of descending from the spiritual heights, to become bound again to the carnal life; or lest he who has advanced, looking backwards to earlier things, falter and turn again to baser things.
HILARY: That He said: Woe to them that are with child and that give suck in those days; must not be taken as meaning that He was warning them of the burthen of the pregnant, but that He was showing them the heaviness of souls that are filled with sin; that neither on the house-top, nor in the field can they escape the tempest of wrath laid up for them. Woe also to those who are being suckled. In these we are shown the weakness of those who are being reared in the knowledge of God, as though with milk; and so it shall be woe to them, because they shall be too weak to fly from Antichrist, and too unprepared to withstand him: for these have neither shunned sin, nor eaten the food of the True Bread.
AUGUSTINE, Sermon 20: Or they are with child who covet what belongs to another; they give suck who have already taken what they covet. For these there shall be woe on the day of judgement. AUGUSTINE, Gospel Questions, I, 37: That the Lord said: Pray that your flight be not in winter or on the sabbath; that is, so that no one may be found that day in either sorrow or joy over temporal things. HILARY: Or, that we may not be found in the frost of sin, or in indifference to good works; lest we be visited with grievous punishment. Unless for the sake of the elect of God, these days are shortened; so that the shortening of the time may lessen the violence of these evils.
ORIGEN, on Matthew, Tr. 294: Mystically; Antichrist, that is, the false Word, has frequently stood in the holy place of all the Scriptures, both of the Old and the New Testament (as though He was Christ God the Word, when he is the abomination of desolation). They who see this, let them fly from the letter of Judea to the lofty mountains of Truth. And if anyone has ascended to the roof of the Word, and stands upon its summit, let him not come down from there, to take as it were something from his house. And if he is in the field, in which the treasure is hid, and goes back from there, he will run into the danger of the seduction of the false word ( antichrist); and this especially should he have cast off his old garment, that is, the old man, and go back to put it on again.
Then the soul that has conceived, but has not yet borne fruit of the Word, may incur this woe (of which the Lord speaks); should it lose what it conceived, and be emptied of its hope; which is in the deeds of truth. And the same if the word appears, formed and brought forth, but not yet sufficiently nourished. Let those who flee to the mountains, pray that their flight may not be in winter, or on the sabbath; for the souls that are established in peace shall find the way of salvation; but if winter overtakes them, they shall fall among those they are flying from. Pray then that your flight be not on the sabbath; for while some abstain from evil on the sabbath, they do not however give themselves to good works. Let your flight therefore be on not on such a sabbath: for no man is easily overcome by false teaching, unless he is void of good works. And what greater tribulation than to see our brethren led astray into evil beliefs, and to see oneself shaken and in danger? Those days are understood to mean the precepts and the teachings of Truth: but all interpretations that come from knowledge falsely so called (I Tim. vi. 20), are but so many additions to these days, which God shortens for whom He wills.
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NOVEMBER 24
St. John of the Cross, Confessor and Doctor
1. John de Yepes, son of a poor weaver, was born in Fontiberas in Old Castile, in 1542. Poverty compelled his mother to move into Medina del Campo after her husband’s death, and there the founder of a hospital hired the boy to tend the sick, allowing him time for his studies in the hope that he would eventually become the hospital chaplain. In 1563, however, John entered the Carmelite Order and lived from the beginning a life of self-denial and prayer. In fact, the manner of life at Medina del Campo did not seem severe enough for him, and he was about to transfer to the Carthusians, when St. Teresa visited his monastery. She directed him to remain and to join her in an effort to restore the Carmelites to their original austerity. They were successful, but at the cost of great sacrifices. In 1580 Pope Gregory XIII approved the founding of a new province of so-called “Discalced (shoeless) Carmelites.” John was appointed superior of various monasteries but, in 1580, the general chapter relieved him of all offices and sent him to a secluded house at Ubeda, for he was a sick man. He died there after many sufferings, on December 14, 1591. Canonized in 1675, he was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI in 1926. St. John wrote a number of mystical works which constitute the most significant system of Christian mystical theology ever compiled.
2. “God, who didst endow Thy confessor and doctor St John with a spirit of utter self-denial” (Collect). Becoming a Carmelite at twenty-one, St. John at once cultivated familiarity with God and practiced severe mortification. His bed was a hollow log, his clothing a rough, penitential garb; he frequently scourged himself and constantly fasted and kept night-vigils. He lived what he taught and taught what he lived. His principle was: “All the natural desires of the heart must be mortified and suppressed; otherwise, the soul cannot attain to union with God. In this life it is impossible to escape involuntary and spontaneous impulses altogether; however, even while they exist in the lower part of man, the higher part may be freed of them. But, if the soul is to attain to perfect union with God, it must free itself of all voluntary desires, even the least, whether they tend to mortal or venial sin, or even only to imperfections” (Ascent to Carmel: I, 11). Indeed, he who “wishes to attain to perfect union with God may not depend on understanding; he may not rely on what he has enjoyed or experienced or seen in his imagination; he must believe in the perfections of the divine Being.” The soul must “overstep its natural limitations”; it must rise above the natural; it must, “above all, go out of itself,” out of lower things “to the Most High” (ibid., II, 4). To accomplish this God himself interferes to purify the soul and place it in complete dryness and interior darkness, that is, in the “dark night.” Here the soul will gain strength and firmness in the virtues and, little by little, attain to the delights of divine love. St. John had experienced all these stages in himself. He longed incessantly for participation in the Cross of Christ. After his life had been consumed by labors and sufferings, our Lord asked him what reward he desired. He replied: “Lord, to suffer and be despised for Thy sake.” By self-denial and patient suffering the soul lifts itself to the heights of love.
“Why are there so few who arrive at the state of perfect union with God? It is not because God has called only a few spiritual persons to it—He would like to see everybody perfect—but He finds comparatively few who will submit to this stern but sublime treatment (the dark night of the spirit). If He tries them even slightly, most people will show their weakness and soon run away from the required effort; then, God does not lead them any farther. O you souls who wish to enjoy a spiritual life of security and consolations, if you only knew how necessary suffering is for acquiring this comfort!” (Living Flame of Love: II, 5.) “The soul will be greatly retarded in its progress toward the sublime state of union if it relies on its own understanding, feeling, judgment or will; if it trusts its own way or anything else of its own; if it fails to understand the necessity of tearing itself away from all these things” (Ascent to Carmel: II, 3). John was a thoroughgoing saint; he was looked upon as being radical. Happy are those who imitate his virtue!
3. “The Lord moved him to speak before the assembled people, filling him with the spirit of wisdom and discernment” (Introit). We ought to listen to the wisdom of this remarkable teacher and follow his instructions, for they would guide us on the sure, straight way to the goal of holy love, of union with God.
“O you souls who are created for and called to such glory, what are you doing? Miserable blindness! How can you close your eyes to such a brilliant light?” (Spiritual Song: IV, 39, 1.)
The ways of God are wonderful. At one time St. John was so thoroughly despised and mistrusted that he was locked up in a small dark cell with little more than water and bread for sustenance; every Friday during those nine months he was made to kneel in the refectory while being whipped and otherwise mistreated. Finally, although extremely weak from sickness and starvation, he succeeded in letting himself down through a window, on a rope made of cloth strips. After hiding in a friendly home to regain his strength, he left the city to escape from his brethren. God miraculously rescued him and later vindicated and exalted him.
Collect: God, who didst endow Thy confessor and doctor St. John with a spirit of utter self-denial and a pre-eminent love of the cross, grant that by constant following of his example we may win eternal glory. Amen.
(Benedict Baur)
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THE YEAR
AND OUR CHILDREN
Planning the Family Activities for Christian Feasts and Seasons
By Mary Reed Newland (1956)
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Saints of Advent
THE FEAST of St. Barbara on December 4 may seem to have no apparent connection with Advent other than the date; but it does connect, as you will see. She is especially important to our children, and they consider it de rigueur to salute her on her feast day since she is the patroness of those who call for protection against lightning and electrical storms. Frequently during the summer we have brief counsels such as, “Now stop fussing and pray to St. Barbara. She will keep us all safe and sound until the storm is over.”
She was the daughter of a pagan, Dioscorus, who (according to the somewhat questionable Acts of St. Barbara) placed her in a high and beautiful tower surrounded by marvelous gardens, and sent philosophers, poets, and scholars to teach her all things. Convinced that polytheism was nonsense, she consulted Origen, one of the most brilliant and controversial of early Christian apologists; he sent her his disciple Valentinium, who forthwith instructed and baptized her. She thereupon threw all the statues of pagan gods and goddesses out a window of her tower, traced the Sign of the Cross everywhere on the walls, and had a third slit of a window cut in honor of the Holy Trinity.
This upset her father no end. He had her dragged out of the tower, but she somehow escaped to the mountains as he was about to slay her. He pursued her and dragged her back by the hair of her head (which is why she is sometimes pictured being dragged about by the hair) and handed her over to Marcian, a master at the art of torturing Christians: She was beaten with rods, torn with iron hooks, and suffered other horrible torments. To finish her off with the nicest of niceties, her father asked for the privilege of striking the final blow. He dragged her out of town and cut off her head with an axe. The best part of the story is that as she was being carried to Heaven by the angels, her father is supposed to have been struck dead by lightning and “hurried before the judgment seat of God.” Hence her concern that we be preserved from lightning and from a sudden and unprovided death. She is also patroness of firemen, mathematicians, firework makers, artillery men, architects, smelters, saltpeter workers, brewers, armorers, hatters, tilers, masons, miners, and carpenters, and she is invoked against final impenitence.
With this to her credit she is precisely the saint we want supporting us in our brave resolves at the start of Advent. So on December 4 we sing at the dinner table: “Happy feast day, St. Barbara,” and tell her story. At night prayers we invoke her help in the words of the Collect of her Mass:
O God, who among the marvels of Thy power has given the victory of martyrdom even to the weaker sex, grant in Thy mercy that we who keep the birthday of blessed Barbara, Thy virgin and martyr, may, by her example, draw nearer to Thee. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God world without end. Amen.
ST. NICHOLAS VS. SANTA CLAUS
On December 6 comes the feast of the Christmas saint, St. Nicholas, though most of our celebration of this feast comes on his vigil, December 5. We find a puppet show a delightful way to tell his story, explain his relation to the Christ Child, and introduce the hanging of stockings for his feast day.
St. Nicholas was really a Turk born in Asia Minor. For a long time he was Bishop of Myra (near the southern coast of Turkey to the right of the Island of Rhodes—in case you look for it on a map). An orphan, he grew in love of God, became a priest and made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to venerate the places of Our Lord’s life. On the voyage a terrible storm threatened to sink the ship, but by his prayers all were saved. For this reason he is venerated as patron of boatmen, fishermen, dock workmen, and sailors.
Returning to his native land he was made a bishop; his generosity and love for the poor and for children, as well as his many miracles, endeared him to Christian people all over the world. He is also venerated as the patron of scholars, coopers and brewers, travelers and pilgrims, those who have unjustly lost a lawsuit, as patron and annual benefactor of school children (especially boys), and is invoked against robbers and (in Holland) for protection of seafaring men.
Many legends surround St. Nicholas, among them the one saint story I personally cannot abide. The tale of the three little boys murdered and salted down in a tub is too much. We never tell it.
The story we like best is the well-known tale of the three marriageable daughters who were nevertheless unmarriageable for want of dowries. Hearing of their plight, the saint went silently by their house one night and tossed a bag of gold through the window for the oldest, who not long after found a husband for herself with no trouble at all. Then he crept by a second time and tossed a bag of gold through the window for the second daughter, who likewise was suddenly at no loss for suitors. As he was about to toss the gold through the window for the third daughter, the father of the girls caught sight of him. Throwing himself at his feet, he thanked him, confessed his sins, begged his blessing. Plainly it is from this story that the tradition has grown wherein St. Nicholas is said to leave gifts, candies, sweets on window sills, in shoes, and even in the stockings of good little children.
It is the Dutch diminutive Sinter Klaas (Sant Nikolaas) which became, by way of the New Amsterdam Dutch, the familiar American Santa Claus. It is among the Dutch also that we find the appearance of Black Peter, his page, who follows him distributing switches, coal, straw—whatever—to the naughty children as St. Nicholas gives treats to the good. Black Peter appeared in the Dutch festival after the invasion of Holland by the Spaniards, who brought blackamoors with them as servants.
“Telling the truth about Santa Claus” need not rob children of their Christmas magic. It adds to it with another feast to celebrate, another saint to know and love, another emphasis gently persuading them to meditate on the coming of the Divine Child. And if we really fear to take away that part of it that is surprise, that marvelous moment Christmas morning when the presents are at last mysteriously there, be assured the little ones continue to pretend. Our littlest ones, knowing the truth, continue to pretend that it is all assembled in the most mysterious and magical fashion.
“But-then-who gives us the presents?” children will ask. “Who loves you most in all the world gives you the presents.” “Who is that?”
“You guess.”…
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