JOYfilledfamily BLOG

St. Ambrose

November 12, 2023 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: 12 December Saints, St. Ambrose Leave a Comment

To avoid dissensions we should be ever on our guard, more especially with those who drive us to argue with them, with those who vex and irritate us, and who say things likely to excite us to anger. When we find ourselves in company with quarrelsome, eccentric individuals, people who openly and unblushingly say the most shocking things, difficult to put up with, we should take refuge in silence, and the wisest plan is not to reply to people whose behavior is so preposterous. Those who insult us and treat us contumeliously are anxious for a spiteful and sarcastic reply: the silence we then affect disheartens them, and they cannot avoid showing their vexation; they do all they can to provoke us and to elicit a reply, but the best way to baffle them is to say nothing, refuse to argue with them, and to leave them to chew the cud of their hasty anger. This method of bringing down their pride disarms them, and shows them plainly that we slight and despise them. – Saint Ambrose, Offices

December 7 – Commemoration of SAINT AMBROSE
Ambrose was Roman governor of northern Italy and still a catechumen when a popular assembly chose him to be bishop of Milan in 374. After his baptism and episcopal consecration he fearlessly resisted the encroachment of civil authorities and defended the Faith against contemporary heretics backed by successive Emperors. Ambrose was a great preacher; many of his sermons and hymns have enriched our Liturgy. He is also responsible for the “Ambrosian Rite,” still used in Milan. The most illustrious of his converts was St. Augustine. According to an ancient tradition, when St. Augustine was baptized, he and St. Ambrose composed together the Te Deum, now the solemn hymn of thanksgiving of the Universal Church.

O God, may blessed Ambrose intercede for us in heaven as he once instructed Your faithful on earth and directed them in the way of eternal salvation. Through Our Lord . . .

Patronage:

bee keepers
bees
bishops
candle makers
chandlers
domestic animals
French Commissariat
geese
honey cake bakers
learning
livestock
police officers
schoolchildren
security personnel
starlings
students
wax melters
wax refiners

Pictorial Lives of the Saints – Saint Ambrose, Bishop

Ambrose was of a noble family, and was governor of Milan A.D. 374, when a bishop was to be chosen for that great see. As the Arian heretics were many and fierce, he was present to preserve order during the election. Though only a catechumen, it was the will of God that he should himself be chosen by acclamation; and, in spite of his utmost resistance, he was baptized and consecrated. He was unwearied in every duty of a pastor, full of sympathy and charity, gentle and condescending in things indifferent, but inflexible in matters of principle. He showed his fearless zeal in braving the anger of the Empress Justina, by resisting and foiling her impious attempt to give one of the churches of Milan to the Arians, and by rebuking and leading to penance the really great Emperor Theodosius, who in a moment of irritation had punished most cruelly a sedition of the inhabitants of Thessalonica. He was the friend and consoler of Saint Monica in all her sorrows, and in 387 he had the joy of admitting to the Church her son, Saint Augustine. Saint Ambrose died A.D. 397, full of years and of honors, and is revered by the Church of God as one of her greatest doctors.

Reflection – Whence came to Saint Ambrose his grandeur of mind, his clearness of insight, his intrepidity in maintaining the faith and discipline of the Church? Whence but from his contempt of the world, from his fearing God alone?

Pictorial Lives of the Saints, 1922.

Fr. Weninger’s Lives of the Saints – Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan

Saint Ambrose, one of the greatest doctors of the Church, a fearless defender of her rights, a terrible scourge to heresy, a most perfect example for all prelates, a miracle of Christian wisdom and eloquence, was the son of a Roman nobleman, who presided in Gaul as imperial governor. One day, while Ambrose was yet in his cradle, a swarm of bees alighted on his mouth without in the least harming the sleeping infant. It is believed that God by this announced the future sweet and yet powerful eloquence of Saint Ambrose. After his father’s death, the Saint went to Rome with his mother, brother and sister. There he, one day, saw the people kiss the hand of a bishop, and, on his return home, he offered his hands to some children to kiss, saying: “Kiss my hands; for, when I grow up I shall be a bishop.” These words, spoken in childish jest, were prophetic. Ambrose was endowed by the Almighty with unusual facility for acquiring knowledge. Untiring in his studies, he became so excellent an orator, and so celebrated a jurist, that he was made governor of Aemilia and Liguria when he was hardly thirty-two years old. Probus, the imperial chancellor, said to him, before his departure: “Go, and administer your functions, not as a judge, but as a bishop.” He meant by this that Ambrose should not govern by severity but with love and mildness; heaven’s signification of these words, however, was different. When Ambrose, invested with this high dignity, arrived at Milan, he so completely gained all hearts by his wise and mild government, that the people obeyed him implicitly, and loved him most devotedly. Hardly had he been two years at Milan when Auxentius, the Arian bishop, whom the Emperor Constantius had placed in the episcopal chair, died. The Catholics desired a Catholic, the Arians, an Arian bishop, and the conflict of contending parties produced a dangerous excitement. Ambrose, as imperial officer, thought it his duty to prevent greater mischief, and hence, going into the church, he endeavored by his eloquence to calm the people. Hardly had he ended his speech, when a child cried aloud: “Ambrose, bishop I” This came like a call from heaven, and all the people, together with the clergy, rejoiced and repeated three times: “Ambrose, our bishop!” This sudden accordance of so many different minds could only be regarded as providential, the more so, as Ambrose was still a layman, and not even baptized; as, at that period, some delayed their baptism until they had become quite old. Ambrose, inexpressibly amazed at this unexpected turn of affairs, employed all his eloquence to change the thoughts of the people; he mingled his tears with his words, and when he found that all was of no avail, he secretly fled. Being soon found and brought back, he twice attempted to escape again, but was each time found. Valentinian, the emperor, was greatly pleased with the choice, and when Ambrose recognized that it was the will of the Almighty that he should fill the vacant See, he made no further resistance. After having prepared himself, he was baptized, ordained priest, and consecrated bishop; and then entered upon his high ecclesiastical functions with the most holy intentions.

He who would endeavor to relate all that the bishop, so miraculously elected, performed for the welfare of the Church, and the holy life he led, would have to write many volumes. Let it suffice to say, that he exercised himself in all kinds of good works. Early in the morning he passed a long time in prayer. He often exhorted others to do the same, saying: “Do you not know, O man, that you owe your first thoughts, the first words of your mouth to the Lord your God? Daily must you make Him this offering.” His severity in fasting was extremely great, and when advised to moderate it, for the reason that it would occasion his early death, he said: “Many have found death from too much eating, no one from fasting.” Unbounded was his charity to the poor, and his episcopal revenues were almost all employed to assist the needy. Three points he had determined to observe most strictly: to say Mass every day; to preach to the people every Sunday, and to leave nothing undone to spread the true faith, abolish heresy, and correct the morals of the people. In his sermons, he spoke so frequently of the merit and worth of virginal purity, that the number of those can scarcely be counted who made the vow of chastity, and received from his hands the consecrated veil. Still greater was the number of hardened sinners and heretics whom he converted by his sermons. Among the latter was Augustine, who afterwards became so shining a light in the Church. Saint Ambrose baptized him with his own hand, to his great consolation. The knowledge of the divine mysteries which Ambrose manifested in his preaching and writings, was imparted to him by heaven; hence he is represented with a dove at his ear, as a symbol of the Holy Ghost, who inspired him when he spoke or wrote. An Arian heretic testified that he had seen an angel speaking to Saint Ambrose in the pulpit; and this miracle converted the heretic. The fortitude with which he protected the rights and privileges of the Church against the heretics and against crowned heads, was almost more than human. The Arians persecuted him in every possible manner, especially after the death of the pious emperor Gratian, when the wicked empress Justina, wife of Valentinian the younger, ruled the land. The holy man, however, always resisted bravely. One day, the emperor Valentinian, counselled by the empress Justina, sent an order to him to give up a church to the Arians at Milan. The bearer of this order menaced the bishop with death in case he refused; but Ambrose paid no attention to the menace, refused to obey the order, and reprimanded the emperor. Among other things he said to him: “Do not imagine that you possess an imperial right over that which belongs to God. To the emperor belong the palaces, but the churches to the priests. You have power over the walls of the churches, but not over the sanctuary.” To this subject belongs, also, what he wrote at another time to the emperor Theodosius: “The purple makes one a king or an emperor, but not a priest.” Justina raged with anger, and hired a man to carry the bishop off secretly out of the city, that she might deal with the Catholics according to her own pleasure. The hired ruffian waited in the neighborhood of the church with a carriage, into which he was forcibly to place the bishop; but the Saint was accompanied by so many people, that the plan of the empress could not be executed. God even so ruled it that, a year later, this godless man was taken out of the city in the same vehicle, on account of his crimes. At another time, the Arians sent an assassin into the episcopal palace to murder the Saint; but when the wretch raised the sword for the deadly stroke, his arm suddenly stiffened in such a manner that he was unable to move it. He then repented of his evil design, knelt at the feet of the bishop, and begged pardon. Ambrose not only forgave him, but also restored the use of his arm, and admonished him to reform his life. At another time, they bribed a magician to strangle the Saint in his own room by his witchcraft. Although this magician conjured several demons of hell, and commanded them to strangle the Saint, they could not harm him, nor even go near his dwelling, as it was surrounded by angelic hosts. The bishop, thus miraculously protected, was not to be frightened by the persecutions of the Arians, but continued in his zeal to work against them, so that many of them became converted. He strove with equal fortitude against the heresiarch Jovinian and his followers, whom he banished entirely out of his diocese.

The Saint never manifested greater strength of mind than at the time when the pious emperor, Theodosius, at the instigation of some wicked courtiers, had cruelly slaughtered several thousand inhabitants of Thessalonica, in reprisal for the assassination of one of his generals. When, some time afterwards, the emperor wished to enter the Church, the bishop, clad in his episcopal robes, went to meet him, and commanded him to stop and not enter the sacred building until he had done penance. The emperor, awestruck at this proceeding, said: “Did not King David sin?” The holy bishop replied: “You have followed King David in his sin; follow him also in doing penance;” – and permitted him not to enter the church until he had done penance during eight months. Much that the holy man did for the honor of God and the welfare of the true Church and of his flock, we must omit, and say a few words of his happy departure from this life. Saint Ambrose became enfeebled by the unceasing labor imposed upon him, and also by his rigorous fasting and other penances, and his soul longed to see God, the end and aim of his being. The day of his death was revealed to him, and when he was seized by his last illness, he was begged to pray that his life might be prolonged for the benefit of the Church and the salvation of souls; but he replied: “I have lived in such a manner among you that I need not be ashamed; and I fear not to die, because we have a merciful Lord.” Saint Honoratus, bishop of Vercelli, was at that time in the palace of the bishop. During the night he was suddenly awakened by a voice saying to him: “Honoratus, rise quickly; the Saint is dying.” Honoratus repaired hastily to the sick bishop, administered once more the holy sacraments to him, after which the Saint, his arms folded over his breast, gave his soul to our Lord, in the year 397 of the Christian era, at the dawn of Easter Sunday. Oh! how’ happy a dying day! God, who had glorified His faithful servant during life by miracles and especial graces, ceased not to increase his glory after his death. The many eloquent works which still exist of this great Father of the Church, are witnesses of his perfect holiness and heavenly wisdom.

Practical Considerations

• Remember the words of Saint Ambrose: “In too much eating many have found their death; but none in fasting.” Heed this sentence well; especially if you belong to those poor and deluded beings who imagine that the fasts, ordained by the Church, are injurious to health. Even the word of God assures us, that many have shortened their lives by intemperance in eating and drinking, and the experience of almost every day is another overwhelming evidence of this fact. But where can you point out to me any one who shortened his life, by observing the fasts ordained by the Church? The word of God assures us that those who are temperate in eating and drinking, prolong their lives. Whom do you believe, the word of God, or the evil Spirit, who, through the mouth of the free-thinkers, the heretics, or of those wicked persons, whose life makes them despicable, says, that fasting and abstaining is hurtful to man, that it is the cause of many infirmities and that it shortens life. The true Church, by whose mouth God speaks, prays: “O Lord, who, by holy fasting and abstinence, dost help both soul and body:” which means: curest soul and body as by a remedy. I believe in this prayer, and with me all those who are true Catholic Christians.

• “I fear not to die, because we have a merciful Lord,” says Saint Ambrose. So it is; we have a merciful, a most kind Lord. All who endeavor to serve Him faithfully during their life, can and may comfort themselves with the thought of the divine mercy in their last hour. Satan sometimes tries to frighten and drive to despondency even pious souls, but recollecting that they have served the Lord rightly, and confessed their sins, they ought not to listen to the Evil One; but, contemplating the infinite mercy of God, comfort themselves and say: “We have a merciful Lord.” In Him will I trust; He will not forsake me. But those who during their life, have abused the divine goodness in order to be more wicked; who sinned because God, so infinitely good and merciful, would forgive them; these, I say, have reason to fear the temptations of Satan in their last hour; for, he generally comes then to throw us into gloom and despair by representing the severity , of the divine Justice. Take care not to be of the number of these unhappy people. Serve God faithfully during your life; do not offend Him: and if you have done wrong, do penance and seek to regain the grace of the Almighty. In this manner, you will be able to comfort yourself on your death-bed with the thought of His goodness, and say: “I have a merciful God; in Him will I trust.” Exercise yourself today in this hope, and say with King David: “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? If armies in camp should stand together against me, my heart shall not fear. Turn not away thy face from me. Be you my helper, forsake me not, do not you despise me, O God, my Saviour!” (Psalm 26) And again: “I cried to thee, O Lord, I said: you art my hope, my portion in the land of the living.” (Psalm 141)

Father Francis Xavier Weninger, DD, SJ. “Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan”. Lives of the Saints, 1876.

The Liturgical Year: Saint Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

7 December

This illustrious Pontiff was deservedly placed in the Calendar of the Church side by side with the glorious Bishop of Myra. Nicholas confessed, at Nicaea, the divinity of the Redeemer; Ambrose, in his city of Milan, was the object of the hatred of the Arians, and, by his invincible courage, triumphed over the enemies of Christ. Let Ambrose, then, unite his voice, as Doctor of the Church, with that of Saint Peter Chrysologus, and preach to the world the glories and the humiliations of the Messias. But, as Doctor of the Church, he has a special claim to our veneration: it is, that among the bright luminaries of the Latin Church, four great Masters head the list of sacred Interpreters of the Faith; Gregory, Augustine, Jerome; and then our glorious Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, makes up the mystic number.

Ambrose owes his noble position in the Calendar to the ancient custom of the Church, whereby, in the early ages, no Saint’s feast was allowed to be kept in Lent. The day of his departure from this world and of his entrance into heaven was the fourth of April, which, more frequently than not, comes during Lent: so that it was requisite that the memory of his sacred death should be solemnised on some other day, and the seventh of December naturally presented itself for such a feast, inasmuch as it was the anniversary day of Ambrose’s being consecrated Bishop.

But, independently of these considerations, the road which leads us to Bethlehem could be perfumed by nothing so fragrant as by this feast of Saint Ambrose. Does not the thought of this saintly and amiable Bishop impress us with the image of dignity and sweetness combined? of the strength of the lion united with the gentleness of the dove? Time removes the deepest human impressions; but the memory of Ambrose is as vivid and dear in men’s minds as though he was still among us. Who can ever forget the young, yet staid and learned governor of Liguria and Emilia, who comes to Milan as a simple catechumen, and finds himself forced, by the acclamations of the people, to ascend the episcopal throne of this great city? And how indelibly impressed upon us are certain touching incidents of his early life! For instance, that beautiful presage of his irresistible eloquence, the swarm of bees coming round him as he was sleeping one day in his father’s garden, and entering into his mouth, as though they would tell us how sweet that babe’s words would be? and the prophetic gravity with which Ambrose, when quite a boy, would hold out his hand to his mother and sister, bidding them kiss it, for that one day it would be the hand of a Bishop!

But what hard work awaited the neophyte of Milan, who was no sooner regenerated in the waters of baptism, than he was consecrated Priest and Bishop! He had to apply himself, there and then, to a close study of the sacred Scriptures, that so he might prepare himself to become the defender of the Church, which was attacked, in the fundamental dogma of the Incarnation, by the false science of the Arians. In a short time he attained such proficiency in the sacred sciences, as to become, like the Prophet, a wall of brass, which checked the further progress of Arianism: not only so, but the works written by Ambrose possessed that plenitude and surety of doctrine, as to be numbered by the Church among the most faithful and authoritative interpretations of her teaching.

But Ambrose had other and fiercer contests than those of religious controversy to encounter in his very life was more than once threatened by the heretics whom he had silenced. What a sublime spectacle that of a Bishop blockaded in his church by the troops of the Empress Justina, and defended within by his people, day and night! Pastor and flock, both are admirable. How had Ambrose merited such fidelity and confidence on the part of this people? By a whole life spent for the welfare of his city and his country. He had never ceased to preach Jesus to all men; and now, the people see their Bishop become, by his zeal, his devotedness, and his selfsacrificing conduct, a living image of Jesus.

In the midst of these dangers which threatened his person, his great soul was calm and seemingly unconscious of the fury of his enemies. It was on that very occasion that he instituted, at Milan, the choral singing of the Psalms. Up to that time, the holy Canticles had been given from the Ambo by the single voice of a Lector; but Ambrose, shut up in his Basilica with his people, takes the opportunity, and forms two choirs, bidding them respond to each other the verses of the Psalms. The people forgot their trouble in the delight of this heavenly music; nay, the very howling of the tempest, and the fierceness of the siege they were sustaining, added enthusiasm to this first exercise of their new privilege. Such was the chivalrous origin of Alternate Psalmody in the Western Church. Rome adopted the practice, which Ambrose was the first to introduce, and which will continue to be observed to the end of time. During these hours of struggle with his enemies, the glorious Bishop has another gift wherewith to enrich the faithful people who are defending him at the risk of their own lives.

Ambrose is a poet, and he has frequently sung, in verses full of sweetness and sublimity, the greatness of the God of the Christians, and the mysteries of man’s salvation. He now gives to his devoted people these hymns, which he had only composed for his own private devotion. The Basilicas of Milan soon echoed these accents of the sublime soul which first uttered them. Later on, the whole Latin Church adopted them; and in honour of the holy Bishop who had thus opened one of the richest sources of the sacred Liturgy, a Hymn was, for a long time, called after his name, an Ambrosian. The Divine Office thus received a new mode of celebrating the divine praise, and the Church, the Spouse of Christ, possessed one means more of giving expression to the sentiments which animate her.

Thus our Hymns, and the alternate singing of the Psalms, are trophies of Ambrose’s victory. He had been raised up by God not for his own age only, but also for those which were to follow. Hence, the Holy Ghost infused into him the knowledge of Christian jurisprudence, that he might be the defender of the rights of the Church at a period when paganism still lived, though defeated; and imperialism, or cesarism, had still the instinct, though not the uncontrolled power, to exercise its tyranny. Ambrose’s law was the Gospel, and he would acknowledge no law which was in opposition to that. He could not understand such imperial policy as that of ordering a Basilica to be given up to the Arians, for quietness’ sake! He would defend the inheritance of the Church; and in that defence, would shed the last drop of his blood. Certain courtiers dared to accuse him of tyranny: “No,” answered the Saint, “Bishops are not tyrants, but have often to suffer from tyranny.” The eunuch Calligonus, high chamberlain of the Emperor Valentinian the Second had said to Ambrose: “What! you dare, in my presence, to care so little for Valentinian! I will cut off your head.” “I would it might be so,” answered Ambrose, “I should then die as a Bishop, and you would do what eunuchs do.”

This noble courage in the defence of the rights of the Church, showed itself even more clearly on another occasion. The Roman Senate, or rather that portion of the Senate, which, though a minority, was still Pagan, was instigated by Symmachus, the Prefect of Rome, to ask the Emperor for the re-erection of the altar of Victory in the Capitol, under the pretext of averting the misfortunes which threatened the empire. Ambrose, who had said to these politicians, “I hate the Religion of the Neros,” vehemently opposed this last effort of idolatry. He presented most eloquent petitions toValentinian, in which he protested against an attempt, whose object was to bring a Christian Prince to recognise that false doctrines have rights, and which would, if permitted to be tried, rob Him, who is the one only Master of nations, of the victories which he had won. Valentinian yielded to these earnest remonstrances, which taught him “that a Christian Emperor can only honour one Altar, the Altar of Christ.” And when the Senators had to receive their answer, the prince told them that Rome was his mother, and he loved her; but that God was his Saviour, and he would obey Him.

If the Empire of Rome had not been irrevocably condemned by God to destruction, the influence which Saint Ambrose had over such well-intentioned princes as Valentinian would probably have saved it. The Saint’s maxim to the Rulers of the world was this, though it was not to be realised in any of them until new kingdoms should spring up out of the ruins of the Roman Empire, and those new kingdoms and peoples organised by the Christian Church: but Saint Ambrose could have no other, and he therefore taught the Emperors of those times, that “an Emperor’s grandest title is to be a Son of the Church. An Emperor is in the Church, he is not over her.”

It is beautiful to see the affectionate solicitude of Saint Ambrose for the young Emperor Gratian, at whose death he shed floods of tears. How tenderly, too, did he not love Theodosius, that model Christian prince, for whose sake God retarded the fall of the Empire, by the uninterrupted victory over all its enemies! On one occasion, indeed, this Son of the Church showed in himself the Pagan Caesar; but his holy father Ambrose, by a severity, which was inflexible because his affection for the culprit was great, brought him back to his duty and his God. “I loved,” says the holy Bishop, in the funeral oration which he preached over Theodosius, “I loved this Prince, who preferred correction to flattery. He stripped himself of his royal robes, and publicly wept in the Church for the sin he had committed, and into which he had been led by evil counsel. In sighs and tears he sought to be forgiven. He, an Emperor, did what common men would be ashamed to do, he did public penance; and for the rest of his life, he passed not a day without bewail- ing his sin.”

But we should have a very false idea of Saint Ambrose, if we thought that he only turned his attention to affairs of importance like these, which brought him before the notice of the world. No pastor could be more solicitous than he about the slightest details which affected the interests of his flock. We have his life written by his deacon, Paulinus, who knew secrets which intimacy alone can know, and these fortunately he has revealed to us. Among other things, he tells us that when Ambrose heard confessions, he shed so many tears that the sinner was forced to weep: “You would have thought,” says Paulinus, “that they were his own sins that he was listening to.” We all know the tender paternal interest he felt for Augustine, when he was a slave to error and his passions; and if we would have a faithful portrait of Ambrose, we must read in the Confessions of the Bishop of Hippo the fine passage where he expresses his admiration and gratitude for his spiritual father. Ambrose had told Monica, that her son Augustine, who gave her so much anxiety, would be converted. That happy day at last came; it was Ambrose’s hand which immersed into the cleansing waters of Baptism him who was to be the prince of the Doctors of the Church.

A heart thus loyal in its friendship, could not but be affectionate to those who were related by ties of blood. He tenderly loved his brother Satyrus, as we may see from the two funeral orations which he has left us upon this brother, wherein he speaks his praises with all the warmth of enthusiastic admiration. He had a sister, too, named Marcellina, who was equally dear to her saintly brother. From her earliest years, she had spurned the world and its pomps, and the position which she might expect to enjoy in it as being a Patrician’s daughter. She had received the veil of virginity from the hands of Pope Liberius, but lived in her father’s house at Rome. Her brother Ambrose was separated from her, but he seemed to love her the more for that; and he communicated with her in her holy retirement by frequent letters, several of which are still extant. She deserved all the esteem which Ambrose had for her; she had a great love for the Church of God, and she was heart and soul in all the great undertakings of her brother the Bishop. The very heading of these letters shows the affection of the Saint: “The Brother to the Sister;” or, “To my sister Marcellina, dearer to me than mine own eyes and life.” Then follows the letter, in a style of nerve and animation, well suited to the soul- stirring communications he had to make to her about his struggles. One of them was written in the midst of the storm, when the courageous Pontiff was besieged in his Basilica by Justina’s soldiers. His discourses to the people of Milan, his consolations and his trials, the heroic sentiments of his great soul, all is told in these despatches to his sister, and where every line shows how strong and holy was the attachment between Ambrose and Marcellina. The great Basilica of Milan still contains the tomb of the brother and sister: and over them both is daily offered the divine sacrifice.

Such was Ambrose, of whom Theodosius was one day heard to say: “There is but one Bishop in the world.” Let us glorify the Holy Spirit, who has vouchsafed to produce this sublime model in the Church, and let us beg of the holy Pontiff to obtain for us, by his prayers, a share in that lively faith and ardent love which he himself had, and which he evinces in those delicious and eloquent writings, which he has left us on the mystery of the Incarnation. During these days, which are preparing us for the Birth of our Incarnate Lord, Ambrose is one of our most powerful patrons.

His love towards the Blessed Mother of God teaches us what admiration and devotion we ought to have for Mary. Saint Ephrem and Saint Ambrose are the two Fathers of the fourth century, who are the most explicit upon the glories of the office and the person of the Mother of Jesus. To confine ourselves to Saint Ambrose, he has completely mastered this mystery, which he understood, and appreciated, and defined in his writings. Mary’s exemption from every stain of sin; Mary’s uniting herself, at the foot of the Cross, with her Divine Son for the salvation of the world; Jesus’ appearing, after his resurrection, to Mary first of all; on these and so many other points Saint Ambrose has spoken so clearly as to deserve to be considered as one of the most prominent witnesses of the primitive traditions respecting the privileges and dignity of the holy Mother of God.

This his devotion to Mary explains Saint Ambrose’s enthusiastic admiration for the holy state of Christian Virginity, of which he might justly be called the Doctor. He surpasses all the Fathers in the beautiful and eloquent manner in which he speaks of the dignity and happiness of Virginity. Four of his writings are devoted to the praises of this sublime state. The Pagans would fain have an imitation of it, by instituting seven Vestal Virgins, whom they loaded with honours and riches, and to whom they in due time restored liberty. Saint Ambrose shows how contemptible these were, compared with the innumerable Virgins of the Christian Church, who filled the whole world with the fragrance of their humility, constancy, and disinterestedness. But on this magnificent subject, his words were even more telling than his writings; and we learn from his contemporaries, that when he went to preach in any town, mothers would not allow their daughters to be present at his sermon, lest this irresistible panegyrist of the eternal nuptials with the Lamb, should convince them that that was the better part, and persuade them to make it the object of their desires.

But our partiality and devotion to the great Saint of Milan has made us exceed our usual limits: it is time to read the account of his virtues given lis by the Church.

Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, was the son of a Roman citizen, whose name was also Ambrose, and who held the office of Prefect of Cisalpine Gaul. It is related that when the saint was an infant, a swarm of bees rested on his lips; it was a presage of his future extraordinary eloquence. He received a liberal education at Rome, and not long after was appointed by the Prefect Probus to be Governor of Liguria and Emilia, whence, later on, he was sent, by order of the same Probus, to Milan, with power of Judge; for the people of that city were quarrelling among themselves about the successor of the Arian Bishop, Auxentius, who had died. Wherefore, Ambrose, having entered the Church that he might fulfill the duty that had been imposed on him, and quell the disturbance that had arisen, delivered an eloquent discourse on the advantages of peace and tranquillity in a State. Scarcely had he finished speaking than a boy exclaimed: Ambrose, Bishop! The whole multitude shouted: Ambrose, Bishop!

On his refusing to accede to their entreaties, the earnest request of the people was presented to the Emperor Valentinian, who was gratified that they whom he selected as Judges were thus sought after to be made Priests. It was also pleasing to the Prefect Probus, who, as though he foresaw the event, said to Ambrose on his setting out: Go, act not as Judge, but as Bishop. The desire of the people being thus seconded by the will of the Emperor, Ambrose was baptised (for he was only a catechumen), and was admitted to sacred Orders, ascending by all the degrees of Orders as prescribed by the Church; and on the eighth day, which was the seventh of the Ides of December (December 7th), he received the burden of the Episcopacy. Being made Bishop, he most strenuously defended the Catholic faith, and ecclesiastical discipline. He converted to the true faith many Arians, and other heretics, among whom was that brightest luminary of the Church, Saint Augustine, the spiritual child of Ambrose in Christ Jesus.

When the Emperor Gratian was killed by Maximus, he was twice deputed to go to this murderer, and insist on his doing penance for his crime; which he refusing to do, Ambrose refused to hold communion with him. The Emperor Theodosius having made himself guilty of the massacre at Thessalonica, was forbidden by the Saint to enter the church. On the Emperor’s excusing himself by saying that King David had also committed murder and adultery, Ambrose replied: You have imitated his sin, now imitate his repentance. Upon which, Theodosius humbly performed the public penance which the Bishop imposed upon him. The holy Bishop having thus gone through the greatest labours and solicitudes for God’s Church, and having written several admirable books, foretold the day of his death, before even he was taken with his last sickness. Honoratus, the Bishop of Vercelli, was thrice admonished by the voice of God to go to the dying Saint: he went, and administered to him the Sacred Body of our Lord. Ambrose having received it, and placing his hands in the form of the cross, prayed, and yielded his soul up to God, on the vigil of the Nones of April (April 4th), in the year of our Lord 397.

Let us salute this great Doctor in the words which the holy Church addresses to him in the Office of Vespers:

O most admirable Doctor, Light of the holy Church, Blessed Ambrose, lover of the divine law, pray for us to the Son of God.

The Ambrosian Liturgy is not so rich in its praises of Saint Ambrose as we might naturally expect it to be. Even the Preface of the Mass is so short and so wanting in any especial allusion to the Saint that we think it useless to insert it. We will content ourselves with giving two of the Responsaries of the Night Office, the Hymn, and the Collect, which strikes us as being the finest. With regard to the Hymn, it is well to mention that almost the whole of it is a modern composition, having been, like a great many other Hymns of the Ambrosian Breviary, subjected to very considerable corrections. The ancient Hymn began with the verse Miraculum laudabile; but is extremely poor both in sentiment and expression.

Responsory

R: Upon whom shall I rest, says the Lord, but upon him that is humble and meek,
Who trembles at my words?

V: I have found David my servant, and with my holy oil have I anointed him.
Who trembles at my words?

R: This illustrious man was sent that he might destroy Arius: he was the glory of the Church, the ornament of Pontiffs;
While wearing an earthly mitre, he gained that of heaven.

V: It was said to him as he set out: Go, act not as Judge, but as Bishop.
While wearing an earthly mitre, he gained that of heaven.

Hymn

• Let us all sing the praise of our august Father, who drove from the land the turbid storms of a tempestuous age.
• A babe, he sleeps; when lo! a swarm of bees light on his flowery lips; these honey makers thus telling us that here was one would captivate men by the sweetness of his eloquence.
• Prescient of the future, he must have his infant hand honoured with kisses; and he who had scarce been freed from swathing bands, plays with the fillets of a mitre.
• A boy cries out, and Milan would have Ambrose receive the mitre: Ambrose flees from it, but honours ever pursue them that run from them.
• At last, the sacred mitre crowns this head where wisdom sits: the helmet once on, our warrior gives Arius battle.
• Unflinching, he fears neither sceptres, nor a haughty empress; and when a blood stained Csesar attempts to enter the church, he closes the doors against him and repels him from the holy spot.
• He washes away the sins of Augustine in the heavenly laver of baptism: companion to the martyrs by his faith, he discovers the relics of Martyrs.
• Holy Pontiff, now with your scourge drive away far from us the furious wolf of hell: that flock which you once didst govern, let it for ever enjoy your protection.
• To God the Father, and to his Only Son, and to the Holy Paraclete, be glory now and for all ages.
• Amen.

Prayer

O Almighty and everlasting God, who has given the Blessed Ambrose, the Confessor of your holy name, to be a Doctor of heavenly truth, not to this Church (of Milan) alone, but to all the Churches throughout the world: grant, that the doctrine he taught by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, may be ever firmly fixed in our hearts, and that he whom we tenderly love as the Patron you have given to us, may be to us a defender, powerful to obtain us your mercy. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Mozarabic Liturgy has nothing proper on Saint Ambrose. The Greeks, on the contrary, honour the memory of the great Bishop of Milan by Hymns replete with the most magnificent praises. We give a few of the most striking passages.

Hymn to Saint Ambrose

• You who did adorn with two-fold virtue the throne of the Prefecture, did meritoriously fill the throne of the hierarchy on which divine inspiration placed you: faithful steward, therefore, in both dignities, you have inherited a double crown.
• You did purify your soul and body by continency, and labours, and much watching, and intense prayer, O divinely wise one, O vessel of election of our God! you were like to the Apostles, you did receive, like them, the gifts of the Holy Ghost.
• As heretofore Nathan reproved David, so did you boldly chide the good Emperor after his sin, O most blessed Ambrose! You did wisely subject him to excommunication. and taught him to do contrite penance, restoring him to your fold.
• Holy Father, most saintly Ambrose, sweet sounding lute, refreshing melody of true dogmas, attracting the souls of believers, sweet harp of the Holy Spirit, organ of God, incomparable trumpet of the Church, most limpid fountain which cleanses the turbid passions! offer your prayers to Christ, and beseech him to bestow on his Church unanimity and peace and plentiful mercy.
• Following the examples of the Prophet Elias and of the Baptist, you did fearlessly reprove Kings for their evil doings; you did admirably adorn the throne of the hierarchy; you did enrich the world with the multitude of your miracles; and therefore you did strengthen the faithful and convert the unbelievers, by the nourishment of the divine Scriptures. O Ambrose! O holy Priest! pray to Christ our Lord that he grant the forgiveness of their sins to them that celebrate with love your holy memory.
• You, O Blessed Pastor, did defend your flock from all their enemies; and by the splendour of your teachings, did dissipate every error of Arius.
• The assembly of the priests rejoices in celebrating your holy memory, and the choirs of the faithful, united with the Angelic spirits, exult and are glad; the Church today is spiritually nourished by your words, O Father Ambrose!
• You are the husbandman who tills the field, which is open to all men of faith and doctrine; you there sow the dogmas of truth, for you are filled with heavenly wisdom; and the grain being multiplied, you distribute to the Church the heavenly bread of the Holy Spirit.
• Rome celebrates your glorious deeds, for, bright as a star, you shoot forth everywhere the great blaze of your miracles. O truly admirable Pontiff!
• From the earliest dawn you did approach to Christ, richly bright with his rays upon you: therefore, having reached the divine light, you enlighten them that, through the world, honour you with faith.
• You did consecrate your body and soul to God; and your heart, O Father, which was made for great gifts, you did fasten to his sweet love, and there it clung intensely.
• Intrusted with the talent of the Word, you did, as a wise and prudent servant, put it out to usury and multiply it and bring it and its interest to your Lord, O Ambrose!
• The holy robe of the pontiff you adorned with your labours; you were the wise shepherd on intellectual flock, and with your pastoral staff you led them before you into the pastures of doctrines.

– from the Menoea of the Greeks, 7 December

And we, too, O Immortal Ambrose, unworthy though we be to take a part in such a choir, we, too, will praise thee! We will praise the magnificent gifts which our Lord bestowed upon you. You are the Light of the Church and the Salt of the earth by your heavenly teachings; you are the vigilant Pastor, the affectionate Father, the unyielding Pontiff; oh! how must your heart have loved that Jesus, for whom we are now preparing! With what undaunted courage you did, at the risk of your life, resist them that blasphemed this Divine Word! Well indeed have you thereby merited to be made one of the Patrons of the faithful, to lead them, each year, to Him who is their Saviour and their King! Let, then, a ray of the truth, which filled your sublime soul while here on earth, penetrate even into our hearts; give us a relish of your sweet and eloquent writings; get us a sentiment of devoted love for the Jesus who is so soon to be wuth us. Obtain for us, after your example, to take up his cause with energy, against the enemies of our holy faith, against the spirits of darkness, and against ourselves. Let everything yield, let everything be annihilated, let every knee bow, let every heart confess itself conquered, in the presence of Jesus, the eternal Word of the Father, the Son of God, and the Son of Mary, our Redeemer, our Judge, our All.

Glorious Saint! humble us, as you did Theodosius; raise us up again contrite and converted, as you did lovingly raise up this your strayed sheep and carry him back to your fold. Pray, too, for the Catholic Hierarchy, of which you were one of the brightest ornaments. Ask of God, for the Priests and Bishops of his Church, that humble yet inflexible courage, wherewith they should resist the Powers of the world, as often as they abuse the authority which God has put into their hands. Let their face, as our Lord himself speaks, become hard as adamant against the enemies of the Church, and may they set themselves as a wall for the house of Israel; may they consider it as the highest privilege, and the greatest happiness, to be permitted to expose their property, and peace, and life, for the liberty of this holy Spouse of Christ.

Valiant champion of the Truth! arm yourself with your scourge, which the Church has given you as your emblem; and drive far from the flock of Christ the wolves of the Arian tribe, which, under various names, are even now prowling round the fold. Let our ears be no longer shocked with the blasphemies of these proud teachers, who presume to scan, judge, approve, and blame, by the measure of their vain conceits, the great God who has given them everything they are and have, and who, out of infinite love for his creatures, has deigned to humble himself and become one of ourselves, although knowing that men would make this very condescension an argument for denying that he is God.

Remove our prejudices, O you great lover of truth! and crush within us those time-serving and unwise theories, which tend to make us Christians forget that Jesus is the King of this world, and look on the law, which equally protects error and truth, as the perfection of modern systems. May we understand that the rights of the Son of God and his Church do not cease to exist, because the world ceases to acknowledge them; that to give the same protection to the true religion and to those false doctrines, which men have set up in opposition to the teaching of the Church, is to deny that all power has been given to Jesus in heaven and on earth; that those scourges which periodically come upon the world are the lessons which Jesus gives to those who trample on the Rights of his Church, Rights which he so justly acquired by dying on the Cross for all mankind; that, finally, though it be out of our power to restore those Rights to people that have had the misfortune to resign them, yet it is our duty, under pain of being accomplices with those who would not have Jesus reign over them, to acknowledge that they are the Rights of the Church.

And lastly, dear Saint, in the midst of the dark clouds which lower over the world, console our holy Mother the Church, who is now but a stranger and pilgrim amid those nations which were her children, but have now denied her; may she cull the flowers of holy Virginity among the faithful, and may that holy state be the attraction of those fortunate souls who understand how grand is the dignity of being a Spouse of Christ. If, at the very commencement of her ministry, during the ages of persecution, the holy Church could lead countless Virgins to Jesus, may it be so even now in our own age of crime and sensuality; may those pure and generous hearts, formed and consecrated to the Lamb by this holy Mother, become more and more numerous; and so give to her enemies this irresistible proof that she is not barren, as they pretend, and that it is she that alone preserves the world from universal corruption, by leavening it with this angelic purity.

– The Liturgical Year: Advent, by the Very Reverend Dom Prosper Gueranger, Abbot of Solesmes, translated from the French by the Revered Dom Laurence Shepherd, Monk of the English-Benedictine Congregation, 2nd edition; published in Dublin Ireland by James Duffy, 15 Wellington-Quay, 1870

St. Nicholas

November 12, 2023 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: 12 December Saints, St. Nicholas Leave a Comment

Pictorial Lives of the Saints – Saint Nicholas of Bari

Pictorial Lives of the Saints illustration for Saint Nicholas of Bari

Saint Nicholas, the patron Saint of Russia, was born toward the end of the third century. His uncle, the Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, ordained him priest, and appointed him abbot of a monastery; and on the death of the archbishop he was elected to the vacant see. Throughout his life he retained the bright and guileless manners of his early years, and showed himself a special protector of the innocent and the wronged. Nicholas once heard that a person who had fallen into poverty intended to abandon his three daughters to a life of sin. Determined, if possible, to save their innocence, the Saint went out by night, and, taking with him, a bag of gold, flung it into the window of the sleeping father and hurried off. He, on awaking, deemed the gift a godsend, and with it dowered his eldest child. The Saint, overjoyed at his success, made like venture for the second daughter; but the third time, as he stole away, the father, who was watching, overtook him and kissed his feet, saying: “Nicholas, why dost thou conceal thyself from me? Thou art my helper, and he who has delivered my soul and my daughters from hell.” Saint Nicholas is usually represented by the side of a vessel, wherein a certain man had concealed the bodies of his three children whom he had killed, but who were restored to life by the Saint. He died A.D. 342. His relics were translated in 1807, to Bari, Italy, and there, after fifteen centuries, “the manna of Saint Nicholas” still flows from his bones and heals all kind of sick.

Reflection – Those who would enter heaven must be as little children, whose greatest glory is their innocence. Now, two things are ours to do: first, to preserve it in ourselves, or regain it by penance; secondly, to love and shield it in others.

Pictorial Lives of the Saints, 1922.

Fr. Weninger’s Lives of the Saints – Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra

detail of a stained glass window of Saint Nicholas of Bari; by James Powell and Sons, 1904; chapel of Saint Nicholas, cathedral of Saint David, Wales; photographed on 21 July 2011 by Wolfgang Sauber; swiped from Wikimedia Commons

Saint Nicholas, whom the Almighty honored with numberless miracles, was born at Patara, in Lycia, of rich and pious parents, who having lived a long time without issue, at last, after many prayers, were rejoiced by the Lord with a son. It was a remarkable fact that Nicholas, when an infant, on Wednesdays and Fridays, refused to take nourishment from his mother’s breast until nightfall; and this custom of partaking of no food on those days, he observed as long as he lived. When sent to school, he carefully avoided all intercourse with frivolous young men, and still more with the other sex. He shunned all occasions of evil, chastised his body by watching, fasting, wearing a penitential girdle, and read only such books as aided him to acquire virtue and knowledge. In this manner he preserved his innocence inviolate through all dangers. Having made great progress in virtue and knowledge, he was ordained priest by the bishop of Myra, who was his God-father. As he felt himself obliged by the sacredness of his station to strive to attain greater virtue, he redoubled his austerities, his fervor in prayer, and his zeal in doing good. The rich inheritance which came into his possession after the death of his parents, was employed only to relieve and comfort the needy. Among these were three young virgins whom their father, impoverished by misfortune, had advised to maintain themselves at the cost of their virtue, as he saw no means to provide for them. Saint Nicholas, having heard this, went, during the night and threw into the father’s room, through the window, as much money as was necessary to give one of the three maidens a marriage dower. The same was done, after a lapse of some time, for the second and the third; and, by this noble work of charity, the father and the daughters were saved from temporal and eternal ruin. After some time, by order of the bishop of Myra, Nicholas was charged with the care of a monastery, and performed this task with great prudence and care.

Meanwhile, his heart was filled with the desire to visit the Holy Land, and to pass the remainder of his life in solitude. The day on which he set sail he prophesied to the sailors, that they would soon encounter a severe storm. The sailors, thinking they were better skilled in such matters, laughed at him, but the issue showed that the Saint was right; for so terrific a storm arose that all on board thought themselves lost. Hence they begged the Saint, as God had revealed to him the danger, to implore Him to turn it from them. Hardly had the holy man begun to pray when the winds abated and the storm ceased. Similar miracles the holy man performed frequently; hence he is honored and invoked as a special patron of sailors. In Palestine he visited the holy places with great devotion, and made the resolution to remain there in some retired spot, where he might serve the Almighty undisturbed. But, by divine admonition, he returned to his monastery, where he did not remain long, as God inspired him to go to Myra, the capital of Lycia. The bishops of that country had just assembled at Myra, to elect a successor to the late bishop, and while they were praying to be guided by heaven in their choice, God revealed to one of them that they should choose him who, on the following morning, should first enter the church, and whose name was Nicholas. Saint Nicholas, knowing nothing of what had passed, was the first who entered the church the next morning. A bishop who had been appointed to be there, having asked his name, took him by the hand and led him to the assembled prelates, who informed him of the divine will and consecrated him bishop in spite of the tears he shed and the objections he offered.

Nicholas considering that so high an office required high virtues, endeavored to lead a still more perfect life than before. He practised severe penance, partook daily of one meal only, and never touched meat; took his short rest on the bare floor, gave all the time left to him from the administration of his functions to prayer, daily said holy Mass, at which he often shed many tears; visited the prisoners, the sick, and the poor of the city, among whom he divided almost all his income; preached on all Sundays and Holy days, and frequently visited the churches and parishes of his diocese, providing all with able priests and a sufficient income. In one word, he did all that could be expected of a bishop, who perfectly fulfilled his sacred duties. At that period there were still many pagans in Myra, besides an idolatrous temple, and the emperor sent his officers to exterminate Christianity and restore the pagan worship. On this occasion our holy bishop showed his generous zeal. He went through all the streets and into all the houses exhorting the Christians to remain faithful to Christ, without fearing for himself either danger, persecution or death. He was seized, dragged out of the city, and cast into a dungeon, where he remained until Constantine the Great ascended the throne. The holy bishop experienced the greatest joy when this emperor gave orders to demolish the idolatrous temples and to build churches in their places. He himself assisted at the work and rested not until all pagan temples had disappeared from his diocese. Some time later an opportunity presented itself to him to fight against the Arian heresy, which he condemned in the Council of Nice.

The many and great miracles that he performed and the fame of his holiness gave him great consideration. Eustathius, an avaricious officer, had condemned to death three innocent citizens, living not far from Myra, in order that he might take possession of their property. No sooner had Saint Nicholas been informed of this than he hastened to the place, where he found the three men already in the hands of the executioner. The Saint ran towards him and took the sword from him; he then reproved the wicked judge with severe words, and thus freed the innocent persons, amid the great rejoicings of the people.

Still more remarkable is the following: Constantine, the emperor, had condemned three of his most renowned generals to death, on false accusations. These, having heard much of the holiness of the Bishop of Myra, called on God to come to their aid for the sake of His servant. In the night before the day on which the sentence on the three prisoners was to be executed, Constantine saw Saint Nicholas standing before him, threatening him with divine vengeance if he did not immediately recall the sentence against the innocent men. In the same manner the Saint appeared to the unjust accuser. Both, greatly frightened, set the prisoners free, and sent them with many rich gifts to Saint Nicholas, to thank him for having thus protected them. Almost at the same time the Saint appeared to some sailors who were in great danger of being wrecked, and had invoked him. They saw him at the helm, guiding the ship safely to land. When they expressed their gratitude to him, he said: “My children, give honor to God; I am but a poor sinner.” Taking them aside, he said that their sins, which he named to them, had been the cause of the danger they experienced, admonished them to repent, and then dismissed them. On account of this and numberless other miracles, the holy bishop was called the Thaumaturgus, or Wonder-worker of his age. All his biographers unite in saying that he raised many dead to life. Among these were three children who had been- cruelly murdered and cast into a tub; and this miracle is frequently represented by artists in their pictures of the Saint.

Although Saint Nicholas was gifted with such high graces, and administered his episcopal functions so well, he yet feared that he did not do enough, and frequently prayed to God to release him from this burden. A voice from heaven, however, encouraged him, saying: “Fear not, Nicholas, I will recompense thy faithful services/’ God also revealed to him the day and hour of his death, and the Saint, rejoicing soon to see the Lord, received with great devotion, the holy Sacraments, and after a short sickness ended his holy life. In his last moments he saw heaven open, and a great multitude of angels came to accompany his soul to heaven. His last prayer was the Psalm, “In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped.” When he came to the words, “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit,” he calmly expired. From his body emanated a miraculous oil, which restored the health of many sick. This oil is still flowing at Bari, in Apulia, where the holy body is enshrined, and is yearly visited by many devout pilgrims.

Practical Considerations

• Saint Nicholas was very generous to the poor, but endeavored to hide his good deeds as much as possible, from men. Hence, in the darkness of night, he threw money into the house of the poor father of three daughters who stood so greatly in need of being protected. By thus acting, he obeyed the words of Christ, who said: “Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them; otherwise you shall not have a reward from your Father who is in heaven.” And again: “Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand does.” (Matthew 6) If you do good to the poor, or perform other pious works, never do it with the desire to earn human praise; but let your motive be holy. Do not boast of the good deeds you have performed. The vain honor which you seek robs you of the reward that you would have received from God. “Those who seek their reward on this earth,” says Saint Ambrose, “lay nothing by for the next life; and as they have already received their reward here, they cannot expect one in the other world.”

• God revealed to Saint Nicholas the time of his death. You have no such revelation, and probably never will have it. It must be sufficient that God has revealed to us all, that we all must die. The time and the manner of your death God has concealed from you, for the reason that you should be always prepared to die. “The last day has been concealed from us,” says Saint Augustine, “that we may live well every day.” “Watch ye therefore,” says Christ, “for ye know not when the Lord of the house comes, at even, or at midnight” (Mark 13). Happy is he whom death finds prepared. This Our Saviour says, in the following words: “Blessed is that servant, whom when his Lord shall come, he shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, he will set him over all he possesses.” (Luke 12) To this end, it is very useful to think frequently of death, as this thought will urge us to prepare ourselves for it in time, and to be constantly prepared. “It is quite certain,” says Saint Bernard, “that you will die; but you know not when, how and where! As, therefore, death waits for you everywhere, if you wish to act wisely, be ready everywhere for him.” Saint Gregory writes: “We ought to have the hour of our death continually before us and al- ways think of the words of Christ: ‘Watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour.’”

MLA Citation

Father Francis Xavier Weninger, DD, SJ. “Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra”. Lives of the Saints, 1876.

The Liturgical Year: Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, and Confessor

6 December

Divine Wisdom has willed that on the way which leads to the Messias, our Great High Priest, there should be many Pontiffs to pay him the honour due to him. Two Popes, Saint Melchiades and Saint Damasus; two Holy Doctors, Saint Peter Chrysologus and Saint Ambrose; two Bishops, Saint Nicholas and Saint Eusebius: these are the glorious Pontiffs who have been entrusted with the charge of preparing, by their prayers, the way of the Christian people towards Him, who is the Sovereign Priest according to the order of Melchisedecb. As each of their feasts comes, we will show their right to have been thus admitted into the court of Jesus. Today the Church celebrates with joy the feast of the great Thaumaturgus Nicholas, who is to the Greek Church what Saint Martin is to us. The Church of Rome has honoured the name of Nicholas for nearly a thousand years. Let us admire the wonderful power which God gave him over creation; but let us offer him our most fervent congratulations in that he was permitted to be one of the three hundred and eighteen Bishops, who proclaimed, at Nicaea, that the Word is Consubstantial to the Father. The humiliations of the Son of God did not scandalise him. Neither the lowliness of the flesh, which the Sovereign Lord of all things assumed to himself in the womb of the Virgin, nor the poverty of the crib, hindered him from confessing to be Son of God, equal to God, Him who is the Son of Mary: and for this reason, God has glorified this his servant, and given him the power to obtain, each year, for the children of the Church, the grace of receiving this same Jesus, the Word, with simple faith and fervent love. Let us now listen to the eulogy of Saint Nicholas, which the Roman Church has inserted in her Liturgy.

About Saint Nicholas

Nicholas was born in the celebrated city of Patara, in the province of Lycia. His birth was the fruit of his parents’ prayers. Evidences of his great future holiness were given from his very cradle. For when he was an infant, he would only take his food once on Wednesdays and Fridays, and then not till evening, but on all other days he frequently took the breast: he kept up this custom of fasting during the rest of his life.

Having lost his parents when he was a boy, he gave all his goods to the poor. Of his Christian kindheartedness there is the following noble example. One of his fellow-citizens had three daughters; but being too poor to obtain them an honourable marriage, he was minded to abandon them to a life of prostitution. Nicholas having learned of the case, went to the house during the night and threw in by the window a sum of money sufficient for the dower of one of the daughters; he did the same a second and a third time; and thus the three were married to respectable men.

Having given himself wholly to the service of God, he set out for Palestine, that he might visit and venerate the holy places. During this pilgrimage, which he made by sea, he foretold to the mariners, on embarking, though the heavens were then serene and the sea tranquil, that they would be overtaken by a frightful storm. In a very short time, the storm arose. All were in the most imminent danger, when he quelled it by his prayers.

His pilgrimage ended, he returned home, giving to all men example of the greatest sanctity. He went, by an inspiration from God, to Myra, the Metropolis of Lycia,which had just lost its Bishop by death, and the Bishops of the province had come together for the purpose of electing a successor. Whilst they were holding council for the election, they were told by a revelation from heaven, that they should choose him who, on the morrow, should be the first to enter the church, his name being Nicholas. Accordingly, the requisite observations were made, when they found Nicholas to be waiting at the church door: they took him, and, to the incredible delight of all, made him the Bishop of Myra.

During his episcopate, he never flagged in the virtues looked for in a bishop; chastity, which indeed he had always preserved, gravity, assiduity in prayer, watchings, abstinence, generosity, and hospitality, meekness in exhortation, severity in reproving. He befriended widows and orphans by money, by advice, and by every service in his power. So zealous a defender was he of all who suffered oppression, that, on one occasion, three Tribunes having been condemned by the Emperor Constantine, who had been deceived by calumny, and having heard of the miracles wrought by Nicholas, they recommended themselves to his prayers, though he was living at a very great distance from that place: the saint appeared to Constantine, and angrily looking upon him, obtained from the terrified Emperor their deliverance.

Having, contrary to the edict of Dioclesian and Maximian, preached in Myra the truth of the Christian faith, he was taken up by the servants of the two Emperors. He was taken off to a great distance and thrown into prison, where he remained until Constantine, having become Emperor, ordered his rescue, and the Saint returned to Myra. Shortly afterwards, he repaired to the Council which was being held at Nicaea: there he took part with the three hundred and eighteen Fathers in condemning the Arian heresy.

Scarcely had he returned to his See than he was taken with the sickness of which he soon died. Looking up to heaven, and seeing Angels coming to meet him, he began the Psalm, In thee, O Lord, have I hoped; and having come to those words, Into your hands I commend my spirit, his soul took its flight to the heavenly country. His body, having been translated to Bari in Apulia, is the object of universal veneration.

Almost all the Breviaries of the Latin Church, up to the 17th century, contain most fervent praises of the virtues and miracles of Saint Nicholas, and give the beautiful Office of the holy Bishop, which was composed about the 12th century. We have spoken elsewhere upon this Office, as far as regards the music; at present we will only mention its being drawn up exclusively on the Acts of Saint Nicholas, and its being more explicit on some circumstances of the Saint’s life than is the Legend of the Roman Breviary. The following portions of this Office dwell with complacency on a fact which is not mentioned in our Liturgy: we mean the miraculous oil, which, for almost eight hundred years, has flowed without ceasing from the tomb of the holy Bishop, and by means of which God has frequently wrought miracles. The Responsory and Antiphon, which we give, are upon the miracle of the oil itself. They were formerly so familiar to the faithful, that in the 13th century their music was sung to the Responsory Unus Panis, and to the Antiphon quam suavis est, of the Office of Corpus Christi.

Responsory

R: From his marble tomb there flows a holy oil, wherewith the blind are annointed and healed: The deaf recover their hearing: and the weak return home strong.

V: The people rush in crowds, desiring to witness the wonderful works which are done by him. The deaf recover their hearing: and the weak return home strong.

Antiphon

O! the mercy of Christ, worthy of all our praise! which makes known, through the length and breadth of the world, the merits of his servant Nicholas: for from his tomb there flows an oil, and it heals all that are infirm.

Hymn I

• Tell, my tongue, the praise of the Pontiff Nicholas that so the sovereign Adonai, the King and Father of all creatures, may grant us to be brought by his Son, to the port of salvation.
• When yet a babe at his mother’s breast, he took it but once on each fourth and sixth feria, nor would the child break his fast by one drop of milk.
• Elevated to the dignity of Pontiff, Nicholas so abundantly gave to all men the dew of piety, that scarce could any age find a better or so good a Pastor.
• He gives his gold to secure virgins their treasure; he distributes corn to the people in a famine; he brings up from the depths of the sea a vase that had fallen in; he brings help to mariners who were well nigh to shipwreck.
• He brings to life a dead man who had committed a theft; the man is baptized and recovers what had been stolen from him; the one is restored to life; the other is brought to the faith.
• Nicholas! you fair gem, and honour, and glory of the priesthood! help by your gracious intercession the whole people, the whole clergy; that their minds, and hands, and lips, may pay their tribute to our God.
• Praise, power, and triumph, to the most High Trinity! May it give us to come, after this life, with our laurel wreaths upon us, to the joys which Nicholas the Blessed possesses in our country of heaven. Amen.

Hymn II

• Let the clergy joyfully raise their voice in song, and magnify Nicholas the father and patron of the clergy; and let their chants give fresh devotion to their already fervent and docile heart.
• Let the Greeks, and Latins, and every tongue and tribe and nation; let the sea, and land; let all, whatever their sex or condition, guest or citizen or stranger, sing the praises of Nicholas with one like enthusiasm.
• This Pontiff, whose name is immortal in the memory of men, ever gave, gives, and will give favours to all; he will make him, who was pining away in grief, bloom in joy as a lily.
• Whilst living in the flesh he spurned the deeds of the flesh; he did nothing and spoke nothing but what was unto salvation; and now, having been loosed from the bonds of the flesh, he has mounted to the starry realms.
• How great is the power of his charity, even in this very age, is plainly enough manifested by the oil which flows from his tomb, giving to all people, that ask it, the boon of health.
• Praise, power, and triumph to the most High Trinity! May it give us to come, after this life, with our laurel wreaths upon us, to the joys which Nicholas the Blessed possesses in our country of heaven. Amen.

It was impossible for Adam of Saint-Victor to remain silent in the praises of Saint Nicholas. The Churches, in the Middle Ages, received from him the following beautiful Sequence.

Sequence

• With our hearts and songs in unison, let us exult on this festive solemnity of Blessed Nicholas,
• When a babe in his cradle, he began to fast,
• And thus deserved, before weaned from the breast, the joys of heaven.
• He enters, when a boy, upon a course of studies,
• Yet follows not, yet knows not, impurity.
• Blessed Confessor indeed, whose worth was known by a message from heaven,
• At whose bidding he was promoted and exalted to the supreme dignity of Pontiff.
• There was in his soul the most tender compassion, which prompted him to bestow continual benefits on them who suffered oppression.
• He averted infamy from virgins by the gold he gave; and by the same he relieved their father’s poverty.
• There were some mariners had set sail; when a furious storm attacked them, and their bark was well-nigh wrecked:
• Despairing of life, and in this extreme danger, they cry out with one voice, saying:
• “O holy Nicholas! help us out of these straits of death, and lead us into harbour!
• “Yea, lead us into harbour, you whose kind heart is ever ready to help them that are in affliction.”
• They prayed; nor was it in vain: for lo! a voice was heard saying: ” I am here to help you.”
• Straightways arose a favourable wind: the storm was lulled: the sea was calm.
• From his tomb there flows an abundant oil:
• It heals all kinds of sickness, through the intercession of the Saint.
• We who are now living in this world, have already suffered shipwreck in the sea of sin:
• Ah! glorious Nicholas, lead us into the harbour of salvation,where there is peace and glory.
• There is an unction, which your merciful prayers must get us from the Lord:
• It is that unction which healed the wound of Magdalene’s many sins.
• May they that keep this feast, come to the eternal joys;
• And may Jesus crown them after this life is run. Amen.

But none of the Sequences of Saint Nicholas were so popular as the one we now give. It is to be found in a great many Processionals up to the 17th century, and on its model were composed innumerable others, which, though drawn up in praise of various Patrons, not only kept the measure and the melody, but the very expressions, ingeniously turned here and there, of the Sequence of Saint Nicholas.

Sequence

• The sick are restored to health by the miraculous oil.
• They who are in danger of shipwreck are delivered by Nicholas’ prayers.
• He raised from amongst the dead a corpse which lay on the road.
• A Jew asks for baptism, on witnessing the miraculous recovery of his money.
• A vase that had sunk in the deep sea, and a child that was lost to his father, are both recovered.
• O how great a saint did he not appear by the multiplying corn in a famine!
• Let, then, this congregation sing the hymns of Nicholas’ praise;
• For all who pray to him with earnest hearts, will go back cured of their spiritual ailments.
• Amen.

But no Church has evinced such enthusiasm for Saint Nicholas as the Greek Church in its Mensea. This illustrious Thaumaturgus was evidently one of the firmest hopes of the Byzantine Empire, and Constantinople transmitted the same confidence to Russia, which even to this day professes great devotion to Saint Nicholas. We extract, as usual, a few stanzas from the sacred chants which the Church of Saint Sophia anciently sang in the Greek language, and which the gilded domes of Moscow re-echo still, every year, in Sclavonic.

Hymn of Saint Nicholas

• You dwelled in Myra, and being spiritually anointed, you showed yourself to be truly a mystic myrrh, Saintly Nicholas, great High Priest of Christ! You anointest them that ever come with faith and love to celebrate your memory; for, by your prayers to God, O Father, you deliver them from every necessity, and peril, and tribulation.
• How well indeed have you fulfilled your name, The Peoples Victory! for, Saintly Nicholas, and High Priest of Christ, you are the powerful helper of them that are in temptation. Wheresoever you are invoked, you swiftly are with those that lovingly have recourse to your protection, for day and night you showed yourself to the eye of faith, and saved them from temptations and necessities.
• You appeared to the Emperor Constantine and to Ablavius in their sleep, terrifying them, and thus bidding them speedily set their prisoners free: “These men, whom you keep bound in prison, deserve not the death you have unjustly sentenced them to: and if you, O Prince, set my word at nought, I will beseechingly bear a petition against you to the Lord.”
• You fixed your keen vision on the heights of the Mystery, and looked down into the cloud-covered abyss of Wisdom. O Father, that enriched the world by your doctrines, pray for us to Christ, High Priest Nicholas!
• Christ our God showed you to your flock as the rule of faith and the model of meekness, you High Priest, you sainted Hierarch Nicholas! for you pour forth in Myra a delicious fragrance, and your splendid deeds give out their bright light, you the protector of the orphan and the widow: therefore, cease not to pray for the salvation of our souls.
• Rejoice, most holy soul, most pure abode of the Trinity, pillar of the Church, support of the faithful, help of the wearied, star, which by the vivid rays of your most efficacious prayers, dispel the darkness of every temptation, holy Priest Nicholas! most tranquil port, into which the tempest tossed run and find safety, beseech Jesus to show unto our souls his great mercy.
• Rejoice, O you that burnest with divine zeal, who, by your terrible threat spoken to men in their dream, rescued them that were unjustly condemned to death. O fount of Myra overflowing with sweetness, that refreshes souls, that cleans what passion defiles! Sword that cuts down the tares of error! come and winnow away the chaffy doctrines of Arius; and beseech Jesus to grant unto our souls his great mercy.
• O you the most high King of kings, Almighty Lord, O Divine Word, we beseech you hear the prayer of this your holy Pastor, and give to all Christians to pass their days in peace: grant to our good King victory and energy against the barbarians: that thus we may all and in all times hymn your power, and extol you for ever and ever.
– from the Menæa of the Greeks

Prayer of Petition to Saint Nicholas

Holy Pontiff Nicholas, how great is your glory in God’s Church! You confessed the name of Jesus before the proconsuls of the world’s empire, and suffered persecution for his name’s sake; afterwards, you were witness to the wonderful workings of God, when he restored peace to his Church; and a short time after this again, you opened your lips, in the assembly of the three hundred and eighteen Fathers, to confess with supreme authority the Divinity of our Saviour Jesus Christ, for whose sake so many millions of Martyrs had already shed their blood. Receive the devout felicitations of the Christian people throughout the universe, who thrill with joy when they think of your glorious merits. Help us by your prayers during these days when we are preparing for the coming of Him, whom you proclaimed to be Consubstantial to the Father. Vouchsafe to assist our faith and to obtain fresh fervour to our love. You now behold face to face that Word by whom all things were made and redeemed; beseech him to permit our unworthiness to approach him. Be our intercessor with him. You have taught us to know him as the sovereign and eternal God; teach us also to love him as the supreme benefactor of the children of Adam. It was from him, charitable Pontiff, that you learned that tender compassion for the sufferings of your fellow men, which made all your miracles to be so many acts of kindness: cease not, now that you are in the company of the Angels, to have pity on and to succour our miseries.

Stir up and increase the faith of mankind in the Saviour whom the Lord has sent them. May this be one of the fruits of your prayer, that the Divine Word may be no longer unknown and forgotten in this world, which he has redeemed with his Blood. Ask for the pastors of the Church that spirit of charity, which shone so brilliantly in thee; that spirit which makes them like their divine Master, and wins them the hearts of their people.

Remember, too, O holy Pontiff, that Church of the East which still loves you so fervently. When you were on this earth, God gave you power to raise the dead to life; pray now, that the true life, which consists in Faith and Unity, may return once more and animate that body which schism has robbed of its soul. By your supplications, obtain of God that the sacrifice of the Lamb, who is so soon to visit us, may be again and soon celebrated under the cupolas of Saint Sophia. May the sanctuaries of Kiev and Moscow become re-sanctified by the return of the people to unity. May the pride of the Crescent be humbled into submission to the Cross, and the majesty of leaders be brought to acknowledge the power of the Keys of Saint Peter; that thus there may be henceforth neither Scythian, nor Barbarian, but one fold under one Shepherd.

– from the book The Liturgical Year: Advent, by the Very Reverend Dom Prosper Gueranger, Abbot of Solesmes, translated from the French by the Revered Dom Laurence Shepherd, Monk of the English-Benedictine Congregation, 2nd edition; published in Dublin Ireland by James Duffy, 15 Wellington-Quay, 1870

St. Peter Chrysologus

November 12, 2023 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: St. Peter Chrysologus Leave a Comment

Peter Chrysologus (“the man of golden speech”) earned the title of Doctor of the Church for his eloquent sermons, of which some two hundred remain. Made Archbishop of Ravenna by miraculous intervention of St. Peter in 433, he rooted out all remaining traces of paganism, as well as a number of abuses among the Christians. In his sermons he strongly urged frequent Communion. He is supposed to have given us the saying: “He who wants to laugh with the devil cannot rejoice with Christ.” Peter died about the year 450 in his native city of Imola.Mass of a Doctor of the Church, except

December 4th

This Day, the Fourth Day of December

Saint Peter Chyrsologus, bishop, confessor, and Doctor of the Church, who is mentioned on the 2nd of this month.

At Nicomedia, the passion of Saint Barbara, virgin and martyr, in the persecution of Maximinus. After a series of sufferings, a long imprisonment, burning with torches and the cutting off of her breasts, she terminated her martyrdom by the sword.

At Constantinople, the Saints Theophanes and his companions.

In Pontus, blessed Meletius, bishop and confessor, who joined to an eminent gift of knowledge the more distinguished glory of fortitude and integrity of life.

At Bologna, Saint Felix, bishop, who previously had been deacon of the Church of Milan, under Saint Ambrose.

In England, Saint Osmund, bishop and confessor.

At Cologne, Saint Annan, bishop.

In Mesopotamia, Saint Maruthas, bishop, who restored the churches of God that had been ruined in Persia by the persecution of King Isdegerdes. Being renowned for many miracles, he merited to be honored even by his enemies.

At Parma, Saint Bernard, Cardinal and bishop of that city. He belonged to the Congregation of Vallumbrosa, of the Order of Saint Benedict.

And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.

V: All ye Holy Martyrs, pray for us
R: Thanks be to God

– Roman Martyrology, 1914,

Patronage:

against fever
against mad dogs

Fr. Weninger’s Lives of the Saints – Saint Peter Chrysologus, Bishop of Ravenna

detail of a painting of Saint Peter Chrysologus; School of Guercino, 17th century; Diocesan Museum of Pius IX, Imola, Italy; swiped from Wikimedia Commons

Saint Peter, on account of his great eloquence surnamed Chrysologus, or the golden speaker, was a native of Imola, a town not far from Rome. His parents were pious and distinguished people, who led their son from his early youth in the path of rectitude. In his studies he progressed so rapidly, that he was always the first among his schoolmates. The retired life he led, and his blameless conduct, induced the bishop of Imola to receive him among those whom he instructed in theology, and, in due time, to ordain him deacon. In this office, Peter showed such wisdom and ability, that he was beloved and highly esteemed by every one. By his untiring diligence, and the careful instructions of the bishop, he obtained a thorough knowledge of the sacred sciences, and he was often entrusted with the most important affairs of the Church, which he always terminated to the great satisfaction of the clergy. Meanwhile, the Bishop of Ravenna died, and the clergy choosing a successor, sent him with a deputation to Rome, in order that the Pope might confirm the election. The bishop of Imola, who had some business to transact at Rome, went with the delegation, and took Peter along as his travelling companion. During the night before these travellers arrived at Rome, the holy Apostle, Saint Peter and Saint Apollinaris, formerly bishop of Ravenna, appeared to the Pope, and bade him place the mitre, not upon the head of him whom the deputies of Ravenna would present, but on the deacon, Peter, who would arrive with the bishop of Imola. When, on the following day, the deputies presented to the Pope him who had been elected bishop, the holy Father received them very courteously, but refused to confirm their choice, saying that he would bestow on Peter the priestly and episcopal consecration, as he, and no other, should become their bishop. The deputies could not conceal their dissatisfaction; but when the Pope related to them the command he had received from heaven, they praised the Almighty, and carried Peter in great triumph to Ravenna, after he had first been ordained priest and then consecrated bishop. The emperor Valentinian, who resided at Ravenna, as soon as he had received information, came, with the empress, to meet him, and accompanied him, amid great rejoicings, to the cathedral. The new bishop, however, manifested very little joy, and in his first sermon he said, among other things, that as God had laid so heavy a burden on his shoulders, he begged all present to assist him in carrying it, which they would do, first, by obeying the commandments of God, and then by following his instructions. He also assured the people that he was determined to seek only the honor of God and the salvation of their souls. He set immediately to work to accomplish this purpose. He preached frequently to the people, and always with such eloquence, that the most hardened sinners did penance, while others were induced to lead a more perfect life. Sometimes, when, with great earnestness, he reproved vice, his voice would fail him, so that he could not continue his sermon. This happened, one day, whilst he was speaking of the woman mentioned in the Gospel as having been sick seven years; but, on that occasion, the exhaustion of the bishop had such an effect upon his hearers, that the whole church resounded with cries for mercy. He endeavored to abolish several abuses of long standing, among others, the custom which the people had of masking themselves, on the first day of the year, and spending the day in wildly dancing, singing, and rioting around a statue that stood outside of the city. Against this shameful abuse Saint Peter continued to thunder, until he had abolished it entirely. In one of his sermons on this subject he says: “Those who divert themselves with the devil on earth, cannot rejoice with Christ in heaven.” He overthrew the statue where so much wantonness had been displayed, and, in place of it, he raised a crucifix. Besides his zeal in preaching, he manifested great love and compassion towards the poor and oppressed, and no one left him without being comforted. He most earnestly protected the widow and the orphan against all who would rob them. The ignorant he instructed with gentleness and patience in all that a true Christian ought to know. The sorrowful and disheartened he knew how to comfort and cheer with admirable ability and wisdom.

What made Saint Peter especially celebrated in the whole Christian world, was his apostolic zeal in defending the true faith, and in refuting the heresies of Eutyches and Dioscorus. By request of the holy Pope, Leo I., the Saint wrote against the errors of these heresiarchs with so much learning and eloquence, that the heretics were made ashamed before the entire council assembled at Chalcedon; and as they were not willing to retract their heresies, they were disowned and banished from the true Church. To this day, this and other writings of Saint Peter are greatly admired, which he composed for the benefit of the Catholics; for they are filled with heavenly wisdom. During the time that Saint Peter administered the See of Ravenna, Saint Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, came thither, and having witnessed the virtues of our holy bishop, became his warm friend. They animated each other to zeal in the service of God and in the protection of the true faith. Not long afterwards, Saint Germanus became ill, and ended his life. Peter had the holy body embalmed and sent it to France, together with all that Saint Germanus had left, except his cowl and his hair-shirt, which Saint Peter kept to himself, and esteemed above all other earthly treasures. After Saint Peter had, for eighteen years, most worthily administered his See, bravely defended the Church of Christ, furthered the honor of God and the salvation of his flock, by erecting several churches, by abolishing vices and abuses, and by leaving for the benefit of posterity many wholesome books, God revealed to him his approaching end. His life had always been blameless and holy, but to prepare himself better for death, he set out for his native city, where he hoped to be able to spend his time more peacefully in devout exercises. Arrived there, he dismissed the ecclesiastics who had accompanied him, with the admonition to keep God always before their eyes, to observe His commandments, and to exercise great care in choosing a new bishop. Some time later, going into the church of the martyr Saint Cassian, he offered upon the altar a golden crown, studded with jewels, and an equally precious cup: after which, having received the holy sacraments, he lay down beside the tomb of the holy martyr, prayed to the Almighty, and asked the Saints to assist him m his last combat, and lead his soul to the throne of God. With this prayer he ended his life, in the year of our Lord 452.

Practical Considerations

• “Those who divert themselves with the devil on earth, cannot rejoice with Christ in heaven.” Thus spoke Saint Peter of the riotous people and their masquerades. Hence the holy bishop judged and believed that it is sinful to hide under a mask in order to be more free, more wanton, or for some other sinful reason. Do the people of the world at present agree with this judgment of the Saint, or are they better able to judge this matter than a holy teacher enlightened by the Almighty? To speak in general of disguising one’s self, it may be done in certain circumstances without sin, and is sometimes done in pagan or heretical countries, even by Catholic priests who appear dressed as merchants, physicians, etc., to give spiritual assistance to the Catholics, when they dare not openly exercise their sacred functions. The Almighty, in ancient times, gave the following law: “The woman shall not wear that which pertains unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment.” Whoever transgressed this law, did great sin, as Saint Thomas remarks; for, the following words are added to it: “For all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord thy God. (Deuteronomy 22) This holy teacher says, however, that disguising is in itself no mortal sin, if it be done for the sake of sport, without any desire to give scandal; or if it be done without evil intention, and if no danger of committing a fault against chastity is apparent. But whether such disguising is done, in our days, without giving scandal, or without evil intentions or without danger of sinning against chastity, they know best who participate in such amusements. It is very reprehensible, and a great sin and scandal to burlesque the holy Mass, and by that or similar means to ridicule religious practices or the ministers of religion. Generally speaking people disguise themselves that their conduct may be more wanton, that they may give way to their passions, and visit dangerous places; when they occasion scandal, or when chastity is endangered, all theologians judge that great sin is done by it There is no doubt that masks may be used in some circumstances, without sin; but we are not justified in saying that it is only a harmless jest when worn by all sorts of persons, especially in ball-rooms and suspicious lurking-places. We know that many have said that the cause of their disguising and wearing a mask was only to be unrestrained in their conduct, and yet remain unknown.

Already in times long gone by, Job said of the debauched man, that he watched till it became dark, when covering his face, he said, “No eye will see me.” (Job 15) The covering of the face, the mask, must be to him a cloak for his wickedness, and when there is such an intention or danger to commit sin, especially that of unchastity, it can hardly be said that all is only a harmless jest. This is the reason that the holy fathers and prelates of the church have preached and written so much against masks. I will cite only one, but one whose great learning has been acknowledged and highly honored by the whole world. It is the celebrated and holy Cardinal Charles Borromeo, who issued the following law for his entire diocese: “Masks shall be forever banished; since they remind us of our fall, and were invented by the devil disguised as a serpent.” The holy Cardinal means that he considers Satan the inventor of masks, when he spoke under the disguise of a serpent, and thus seduced Eve. He calls them: “The horrible, detestable masks, under which people believe that they are allowed to speak impudently and act impiously; the vicious and wicked masks, which are enemies of all honesty and chastity, etc.” This and more on the same subject is to be found in the writings of Saint Charles; from which we conclude that, at his time, many must have used masks with wicked intentions. Whether, in our time, such wicked use is made of the mask, and whether the holy man said too much or wrote too severely, I leave to others to judge.

• Saint Peter left his labor, although it was holy, when his last hour approached, in order the better to prepare himself for death. After having devoutly received the holy Sacraments, he invoked the martyr, Saint Cassian, to assist him in his last hour. Our last hour is of such importance, that we are right in putting everything aside to make that hour calm and happy. Hence those do very wrong who, in old age or in mortal sickness, needlessly trouble themselves with temporal affairs until the very last hour, and think not earnestly on the chief affair which is lying before them, that is, death. Take heed not to commit so dangerous an error. If you are old or sick, discard all other thoughts and cares, and prepare yourself for a happy death on which everything depends. Employ usefully every moment left to you; for they are precious moments, in which you may win much for eternity. During the days of your health, also, no work ought to be of so much importance to you as the work of your salvation, an early preparation for death; for, on your last hour depends your whole eternity. It is useful to endeavor to obtain the intercession of the Saints. Above all, you ought to pray to the Lord of life and death for the grace to die happily; for, this is a grace, which is not due to us on account of our good works but which we can obtain from the divine Mercy, by humble and persevering prayer. After God, implore daily the Blessed Virgin, as the chief patroness of the dying, to intercede for you and assist you. Besides her, choose other holy patrons of the dying, to whom you should commend yourself in your last hour. This the Saints have done and taught. “We ought to invoke the holy Angels, who are given to us to protect us, and also the holy Martyrs, whose intercession we have a right to request, as we still possess their holy bodies on earth.” Thus speaks Saint Ambrose. Saint Bernard says: “We ought fervently to seek and invoke the Saints, that we may receive by their intercessions, what we, of ourselves, cannot obtain.” “The prayers of the Saints,” says Saint Chrysostom, “have great power to obtain anything for us, if while we pray to them, we do true penance.”

Father Francis Xavier Weninger, DD, SJ. “Saint Peter Chrysologus, Bishop of Ravenna”. Lives of the Saints, 1876.

The Liturgical Year: Saint Peter Chrysologus

Peter, surnamed, for his golden eloquence, Chrysologus, was born at Forum Cornelii (Imola) in Emilia, of respectable parents. Turning his mind to religion from his childhood, he put himself under Cornelius, the Bishop of that city, who was a Roman. In a short while, he made such progress in learning and holiness of life, that, in due time, the Bishop ordained him Deacon. Not long after, it happened that the Archbishop of Ravenna having died, the inhabitants of that city sent, as usual, to Rome the successor, they had elected, that this election might be confirmed by the holy Pope Sixtus III. Cornelius, who was also sent in company with the deputies of Ravenna, took with him the young Deacon. Meanwhile, the Apostle Saint Peter, and the holy Martyr Apollinaris, appeared to the Roman Pontiff in his sleep. They stood with the young levite between them, and ordered the Pontiff to create him, and none other, as Archbishop of Ravenna. The Pontiff, therefore, no sooner saw Peter, than he recognised him as the one chosen by God; and rejecting the one presented to him, he appointed Peter to the Metropolitan Church of that city, in the year of our Lord 433. At first, the deputies from Ravenna were dissatisfied at this decision of the Pope; but, having been told of the vision, they readily acquiesced to the divine will, and received the new Archbishop with the greatest reverence.

Peter, therefore, being, though reluctant, consecrated Archbishop, was conducted to Ravenna, where he was received with the greatest joy by the Emperor Valentinian, and Galla Placidia the Emperor’s mother, and the whole people. On his part, he told them that he asked of them but this, that since he had not refused this great burden for their salvation’s sake, they would make it their study to follow his counsels,and to obey the commandments of God. He then buried in the city the bodies of two Saints, after having embalmed them with the most precious perfumes: Barbatian, a Priest, was one; and the other, Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, whose cowl and hair-shirt Peter claimed as his own inheritance. He ordained Projectus and Marcellinus Bishops. In the town of Classis he erected a fountain of an incredible size, and built some magnificent churches in honour of several Saints, of Saint Andrew among the rest. The people had a custom of assisting at certain games, on the first day of January, which consisted of theatrical performances and dances; the Saint repressed these by the severity with which he preached against them. One of his expressions deserves to be handed down: He that would play with the devil, can never enjoy the company of Jesus. At the command of Pope Saint Leo I, he wrote to the Council of Chalcedon against the heresy of Eutyches. He answered Eutyches himself by another epistle, which has been added to the Acts of that same Council in the new editions, and has been inserted in the Ecclesiastical Annals.

In his sermons to the people he was so earnest, that at times his voice completely failed him, as in his Sermon on the Women healed by our Lord, as mentioned in the 9th chapter of Saint Matthew; on which occasion his people of Ravenna were so affected, and so moved to tears, that the whole church rang with their sobbings and prayers, and the Saint afterwards thanked God, for that he had turned the failure of his speech into the gain of so much love. After having governed that Church, in a most holy manner, about eighteen years, and having received a divine warning that his labours were soon to end, he withdrew into his native town. There he visited the Church of Saint Cassian, and presented an offering of a large golden diadem, set with most precious stones, which he placed upon the high Altar; he also gave a golden cup, and silver paten, which imparts to water poured on it the virtue of healing the bites of mad dogs, and of assuaging fevers, as frequent instances have attested. He then took leave of those who had accompanied him from Ravenna, admonishing them to spare no pains in electing for their Pastor him who was the most worthy. Immediately after this he turned in humble prayer to God, that, through the intercession of his patron Saint Cassian, he would mercifully receive his soul; and calmly passed out of this life, on the third of the Nones of December (December 3), about the year 450. His holy body was buried, amidst the tears and prayers of the whole city, near the body of the same Saint Cassian: there it is venerated even at this day; though Ravenna possesses and venerates one of the arms, which was enshrined in gold and gems and placed in the Basilica Ursicana.

Petition to Saint Peter

Holy Pontiff, who opened your lips and poured out on the assembly of the faithful, in the streams of golden eloquence, the knowledge of Jesus, cast an eye of compassion on the Christians throughout the world, who are watching in expectation of that same God-Man, whose two Natures you so courageously confessed. Obtain for us grace to receive him with that sovereign respect, which is due to a God who comes down to his creatures, and with that loving confidence, which is due to a Brother who comes to offer himself in sacrifice for his most unworthy brethren. Strengthen our faith, most holy Doctor! for the love we stand in need of comes from faith. Destroy the heresies which lay waste the vineyard of our Father; and uproot that frightful Pantheism, which is the form under which the heresy you fought, is still among us. May the Churches of the East abjure that heresy of Eutyches which reigns so supreme among them, and gives them the knowledge of the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation only to blaspheme it. Pray that the children of the Church may show to the judgments of the Apostolic See that perfect obedience, to which you so eloquently urged the heresiarch Eutyches in the Epistle you addressed to him, and which will ever be precious to the world –

“We exhort thee above all things, most honoured Brother, that you receive with obedience whatsoever has been written by the most blessed Pope of the City of Rome; for, Blessed Peter, who lives and presides in his own See, shows the truth of faith to all them that seek it.” (Letter 25)

–The Liturgical Year: Advent, by the Very Reverend Dom Prosper Gueranger, Abbot of Solesmes, translated from the French by the Revered Dom Laurence Shepherd, Monk of the English-Benedictine Congregation, 2nd edition; published in Dublin Ireland by James Duffy, 15 Wellington-Quay, 1870

Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost

November 12, 2023 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost Leave a Comment

25th Sunday after Pentecost – 6th Sunday after Epiphany

REMARKThe Mass of this Sunday is always the last, even if there are more than twenty-four Sundays after Pentecost; in that case the Sundays remaining after Epiphany, which are noticed in the calendar, are inserted between the twenty-third and the Mass of the twenty-fourth Sunday.

For the Introit of this day’s Mass see the Introit of the third Sunday after Epiphany.]

INTROIT Adore God, all ye His angels: Sion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Juda rejoiced. The Lord hath reigned; let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad. (Ps. XCVI. 1.) Glory be to the Father, etc.

COLLECT Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that ever fixing our thoughts on such things as are reasonable, we may both in our words and works do what is pleasing in Thy sight. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, etc.

EPISTLE (I. Thess. I. 2-10.) Brethren, we give thanks to God for you all, making a remembrance of you in our prayers without ceasing; being mindful of the work of your faith, and labor, and charity, and of the enduring of the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ before God and our Father: knowing, brethren, beloved of God, your election: for our gospel hath not been unto you in word only, but in power also, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much fullness, as you know what manner of men we have been among you for your sakes. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in much tribulation, with joy of the Holy Ghost: so that you were made a pattern to all that believe, in Macedonia and in Achaia. For from you was spread abroad the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but also in every place, your faith, which is towards God, is gone forth; so that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves relate of us what manner of entering in we had unto you; and how ye turned, to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven (whom he raised from the dead), Jesus, who both delivered us from the wrath to come.

EXPLANATION The apostle gives thanks to God in prayer for those inhabitants of Thessalonia, who have been converted to Christianity by his words, and declares to them his joy at their Christian life which they prove by their good works and their perseverance, even through all trials, in expectation of eternal reward through Christ. He assures them also of their salvation, (election) because God had caused the preaching of His gospel, which they so willingly received, to produce in them such extraordinary fruit. He praises them not only for having listened to the gospel and abandoned idolatry, but for having regulated their lives in accordance with the faith, and having become a model to distant nations, for the report of their faith had spread far, and everywhere their zealous reception of the gospel was spoken of. Would that the same could be said of all Christians!

GOSPEL (Matt. XIII. 31-35.) At that time, Jesus spoke this parable to the multitudes: The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and sowed in his field: which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof. Another parable he spoke to them: The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened. All these things Jesus spoke in parables to the multitude, and without parables he did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.

What is here understood by the kingdom of heaven?

The Church and the doctrine of Christ.

Why is the Church compared to a grain of mustard-seed?

Because there is a great similarity between them. The mustard-seed, though so small, grows in Palestine so high and so rapidly, that it becomes a broad tree, in which birds can build their nests. In like manner the Church of Christ was in the beginning very small like the mustard-seed, but it soon spread so wide that numberless people, even great philosophers and princes, came to find peace and protection under its branches.

Why is Christ’s doctrine compared to leaven?

Because like the leaven, which quickly penetrates the flour, and makes it palatable bread, the doctrine of Christ, spreading with surprising swiftness over the then known parts of the globe, gave the Gentiles a taste for divine things and for heavenly wisdom. Thus Christ’s doctrine penetrates him who receives it, sanctifies all his thoughts, words, and deeds, and makes him pleasing to God.

By what means, in particular, was the Church of Christ propagated?

By the omnipotence of God and the miracles which He so frequently wrought to prove the truth and divinity of the Christian religion; the courageous faith, and the pure moral life of the early Christians, which led many pagan minds to accept the doctrine of Christ; and the persecution of Christianity, for, as Tertullian says: “The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church.” The false doctrine of Mahomet, the erroneous teachings of Luther, Calvin, and earlier and later heretics have, it is true, also spread quickly far and wide; but this is not to be wondered at, for it is easy to lead people to a doctrine that encourages sensuality, and to which they are carried by their evil inclinations, as was the case with the doctrine of the impostor Mahomet, and three hundred years ago with the heresy of Luther; but to spread a doctrine which demands the subduing of the carnal, earthly inclinations, and to bend the will to the yoke of obedience to faith, something more than human eloquence is required. Thus, the Chancellor of England, Thomas More, who gave his blood for the true doctrine of Christ, wrote to Luther, who was boasting of the rapid increase of his sect: “It is easy to descend; seducing the people to a bad life is nothing more marvellous than that a heavy stone should fall of its own accord to the ground;” and Melanchton, a friend of Luther, in answer to his mother’s question, whether she should remain a Catholic or receive Luther’s doctrine, wrote : “In this religion it is easy to live, in the Catholic it is easy to die.”

Why did Christ always speak in parables?

That His teaching by being simple might be more easily understood, and better remembered. He who is called upon to teach others, should, as did Christ, always speak to them according to their ability to understand, and by no means seek his own honor, but the honor of God, and the benefit of those who hear him.

PRAYER O most benign Jesus. How much do we give Thee thanks that Thou hast permitted us to be born in Thy holy Church, and instructed in Thy holy doctrine, which, like the mustard-seed, has grown to be a large tree, spreading over the whole earth. Grant that under the shadow of this tree, in Thy holy Church, we may ever rest securely, cling to her faithfully, and penetrated, as by leaven, with her doctrine may bring Thee pleasing fruits of faith and virtue. Amen.

Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Pentecost

November 12, 2023 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: Fifth Sunday After Epiphany, Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost Leave a Comment

FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY – Taken from Fr. Goffine’s The Church’s Year

REMARK The Mass of this Sunday is always the last, even if there are more than twenty-four Sundays after Pentecost; in that case the Sundays remaining after Epiphany, which are noticed in the calendar, are inserted between the twenty-third and the Mass of the twenty-fourth Sunday.

In 2023, 24th Sunday after Pentecost is the 5th Sunday after Epiphany.

Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine’s
The Church’s YearFIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

[For the Introit of this day see the Introit in the Mass of the third Sunday after Epiphany]

INTROIT Adore God, all ye His angels: Sion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Juda rejoiced. The Lord hath reigned; let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad. (Ps. XCVI. 1.) Glory be to the Father, etc.

On this Sunday mention is made of the practice of Christian virtues, and of God’s sufferance of the wicked upon earth, that by them the just may be exercised in patience.COLLECT Keep, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy household by Thy continual mercy; that as it leans only upon the hope of Thy heavenly grace, so it may ever be defended by Thy protection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, etc.

EPISTLE (Col. III. 12-17.) Brethren, put ye on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if any have a complaint against another; even as the Lord hath forgiven you, so you also. But above all these things, have charity, which is the bond of perfection: and let the peace of Christ rejoice in your hearts, wherein also you are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly, in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another, in psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing in grace in your hearts to God. All whatsoever you do in word or in work, all things, do ye in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Why does St. Paul call charity the bond of perfection?

Because charity comprises in itself and links all the virtues in which perfection consists. For whoever truly loves God and his neighbor, is also good, merciful, humble, modest, patiently bears the weakness of his neighbor, willingly forgives offences, in a word, practices all virtues for the sake of charity.

When does the peace of God rejoice in our hearts?

When we have learned to conquer our evil inclinations, passions, and desires, and have placed order and quiet in our hearts instead. This peace then, like a queen, keeps all the wishes of the soul in harmony, and causes us to enjoy constant peace with our neighbor, and thus serve Christ in concord, as the members of one body serve the head. The best means of preserving this peace are earnest attention to the word of God, mutual imparting of pious exhortations and admonitions, and by singing hymns, psalms, and spiritual canticles.

Why should we do all in the name of Jesus?

Because only then can our works have real worth in the sight of God, and be pleasing to Him, when they are performed for love of Jesus, in His honor, in accordance with His spirit and will. Therefore the apostle admonishes us to do all things, eat, drink, sleep, work &c. in the name of Jesus, and so honor God, the Heavenly Father, and show our gratitude to Him. Oh, how grieved will they be on their deathbed who have neglected to offer God their daily work by a good intention, then they will see, when too late, how deficient they are in meritorious deeds. On the contrary they will rejoice whose consciences testify, that in all their actions they had in view only the will and the honor of God! Would that this might be taken to heart especially by those who have to earn their bread with difficulty and in distress, that they might always unite their hardships and trials with the sufferings and merits of Jesus, offering them to the Heavenly Father, and thus imitating Christ who had no other motive than the will and the glory of His Heavenly Father.

ASPIRATION O God of love, of patience, and of mercy, turn our hearts to the sincere love of our neighbor, and grant, that whatever we do in thoughts, words and actions, we may do in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and through Him render thanks to Thee.

ON CHURCH SINGING

“Admonish one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing in grade in your hearts to God.” (Col. III. 16.)The custom of singing in the Church-choir* has its foundation as far back as the Old Testament, when by the arrangement of David, Solomon, and Ezechias, the psalms and other sacred canticles were sung by the priests and Levites. This custom the Catholic Church has retained, according to the precepts of the apostles, (I. Cor. XIV. 26; Eph. V. 19.) and the example of Jesus who, after they had eaten the Pasch, intoned a hymn of praise with His apostles, Matt XXVI. 30) that Christians on earth, like the angels and saints in heaven, (Apoc. V. 8. 9., XIV. 3.) who unceasingly sing His praises, might at certain hours of the day, at least, give praise and thanks to God. In the earliest ages of the Church, the Christians sang hymns of praise and thanksgiving during the holy Sacrifice and other devotional services, often continuing them throughout the whole night; in which case the choir-singers probably were bound to keep the singing in proper order and agreement. In the course of time this custom of all the faithful present singing together ceased in many churches, and became confined to the choir, which was accompanied later by instruments in accordance with the words of David who calls to the praise of the Lord with trumpets, with timbrels, with pleasant psaltery and harps. (Ps, CL. 3, 4., LXXX. 3. 4.) In many churches, where the faithful still sing in concert, if done with pure hearts and true devotion, it is as St. Basil says, “a heavenly occupation, a spiritual burnt offering; it enlightens the spirit, raises it towards heaven, leads man to communion with God, makes the soul rejoice, ends idle talk, puts away laughter, reminds us of the judgment, reconciles enemies. Where the singing of songs resounds from the contrite heart there God with the angels is present.”*The choir is usually a gallery in the Church in which the singers are stationed; the place where the clergy sing or recite their office, is also called the choir.

GOSPEL (Matt. XIII. 24-30,) At that time, Jesus spoke this parable to the multitudes: The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seed in his field. But while men were asleep, his enemy came, and oversowed cockle among the wheat, and went his way. And when the blade was sprung up, and had brought forth fruit, then appeared also the cockle. And the servants of the good man of the house coming, said to him: Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? whence, then, hath it cockle? And he said to them: An enemy hath done this. And the servants said to him: Wilt thou that we go and gather it up? And he said: No, lest perhaps, gathering up the cockle, you root up the wheat also together with it. Suffer both to grow until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into my barn.

What is understood by the kingdom of heaven?
The Church of God, or the collection of all orthodox Christians on earth, destined for heaven.

What is meant by the good seed, and by the cockle?

The good seed, as Christ Himself says, (Matt. XIII. 38.) signifies the children of the kingdom, that is, the true Christians, the living members of the Church, who being converted by the word of God sown into their hearts become children of God, and bring forth the fruit of good works. The cockle means the children of iniquity, of the devil, that is, those who do evil; also every wrong, false doctrine which leads men to evil.

Who sows the good seed, and by the cockle?

The good seed is sown by Jesus, the Son of Man not only directly, but through His apostles, and the priests, their successors; the evil seed is sown by the devil, or by wicked men whom he uses as his tools.

Who are the men who were asleep?
Those superiors in the Church; those bishops and pastors who take no care of their flock, and do not warn them against seduction, when the devil comes and by wicked men sows the cockle of erroneous doctrine and of crime; and those men who are careless and neglect to hear the word of God and the sacrifice of the Mass, who neglect to pray, and do not receive the Sacraments. In the souls of such the devil sows the seeds of bad thoughts, evil imaginations and desires, from which spring, later, the cockle of pride, impurity, anger, envy, avarice, etc.

Why does not God allow the cockle, that is, the wicked people, to be rooted out and destroyed?

Because of His patience and long suffering towards the sinner to whom He gives time for repentance, and because of His love for the just from whom He would not, by weeding out the unjust, take away the occasion of practicing virtue and gathering up merits for themselves; for because of the unjust, the just have numerous opportunities to exercise patience, humility, etc.

When is the time of the harvest?

The day of the last judgment when the reapers, that is, the angels, will go out and separate the wicked from the just, and throw the wicked into the fiery furnace; while the just will be taken into everlasting joy. (Matt. XIII. 29.)

PRAYER O faithful Jesus, Thou great lover of our souls, who hast sown the good seed of Thy Divine Word in our hearts, grant that it may be productive, and bear in us fruit for eternal life; protect us from our evil enemy, that he may not sow his erroneous and false doctrine in our hearts, and corrupt the good; preserve us from the sleep of sin, and sloth that we may remain always vigilant and armed against the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, overcome them manfully, and die a happy death. Amen.

ON INCLINATION TO EVIL

Whence then hath it cockle? (Matt. XIII. 27.)Whence comes the inclination to evil in man?

It is the sad consequence of original sin, that is, of that sin which our first parents, by their disobedience, committed in paradise, and which we as their descendants have inherited. This inclination to evil remains even in those who have been baptized, although original sin with its guilt and eternal punishment is taken away in baptism, but it is no sin so long as man does not voluntarily yield. (Cat. Rom. Part. II. 2. .43.)

Why, the sin being removed, does the inclination remain?

To humble us that we may know our frailty and misery, and have recourse to God, our best and most powerful Father, as did St. Paul, when he was much annoyed by the devil of the flesh; (II. Cor. XII. 7. 8.) that the glory of God and the power of Christ should be manifested in us, which except for our weakness could not be; that we might have occasion to fight and to conquer. A soldier cannot battle without opposition, nor win victory and the crown without a contest. Nor can we win the heavenly crown, if no occasion is given us, by temptations, for fight and for victory. “That which tries the combatant,” says St. Bernard, “crowns the conqueror.” Finally, the inclination remains, that we may learn to endure, in all meekness, the faults and infirmities of others and to watch ourselves, lest we fall into the same temptations.

Sermon LIII Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost – On Blasphemy
by St. Alphonsus Liguori

“When, therefore, you shall see the abomination of desolation.” MATT. xxiv. 15.

ALL sins are hateful in the sight of God; but the sin of blasphemy ought more properly to be called an abomination to the Lord. Every mortal sin, as the Apostle says, dishonours God. ”By transgression of the law, thou dishonourest God.” (Rom. ii. 23.) Other sins dishonour God indirectly by the violation of his law; but blasphemy dishonours him directly by the profanation of his most holy name. Hence St. Chrysostom teaches, that no sin exasperates the Lord so much as the sin of blasphemy against his adorable name. ”Nihil ita exacerbat Deum, sicut quando nomen ejus blasphematur.” Dearly beloved Christians, allow me, then, this day, to show you, first, the great enormity of the sin of blasphemy; and secondly, the great rigour with which God punishes it.

First Point. On the great enormity of the sin of blasphemy. 1. What is blasphemy? It is the uttering of language injurious to God; it is, according to the definition of theologians, “contumeliosa in Deum locutio;” or, contumely against God. God! whom does man assail when he blasphemes? He directly attacks the Lord. “He hath strengthened himself against the Almighty.” (Job. xv. 25.) Are you not afraid, blasphemer, says St. Ephrem, that fire will come down from heaven and devour you? or that the earth shall open and swallow you up? “Non metuis ne forte ignis de coelo descendat et devoret te, qui sic os adversus omnipotentem aperis? Neque vereris, ne terra te absorbeat?” (Paren. 3.) The devil, says St. Gregory Nazianzen, trembles at the name of Jesus: and we are not afraid to profane it. “Domones ad Christi nomen exhorrescunt, nos vero nomen adeo venerandum contumelia afficere nou veremur.” (Orat. xx.) The vindictive assail a man who is their own equal; but, by their blasphemies blasphemers appear to seek revenge against God, who does or permits what is displeasing to them. There is a great difference between an act of contempt towards the portrait of a king, and an insult offered to his person. Man is the image of God; but the blasphemer offends God himself. “He who blasphemes” says St. Athanasius, “acts against the very Deity itself.” The man who violates the law is guilty of a crime; but he who attacks the person of his sovereign commits an act of treason; therefore he receives no mercy, but is chastised with the utmost severity. What, then, shall we say of the man who blasphemes and insults the majesty of God? “If,” says the high-priest Heli, “one man shall sin against another, God may be appeased in his behalf; but if a man shall sin against the Lord, who shall pray for him?”(1 Kings ii. 25.) The sin of blasphemy, then, is so enormous, that the saints themselves appear not to have courage to pray for a blasphemer.

2. Some sacrilegious tongues blaspheme the God who preserves their existence! “Tu Deo benefacienti tibi,” says St. Chrysostom, ”et tui curam agenti maledicis.” O God! you stand with one foot at the gate of hell; and if God, in his mercy, did not preserve your life you should be damned for ever: and, instead of thanking him for his goodness, you, at the very time that he bestows his favours upon you, blaspheme his holy name. ”If,” says the Lord, ”my enemy hath reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. (Ps. liv. 13.) Had you treated me with contumely and insult at the time that I chastised you, I would be more willing to bear with your impiety; but you revile me at the time that I confer my favours upon you. diabolical tongue! exclaims St. Bernardine of Sienna, what could have induced you to blaspheme your God, who has created you, and redeemed you with his blood? “0 lingua diabolica, quid, potest te inducere ad blasphemandum Deus tuum qui te plasmavit, qui te pretioso sanguine redemit?” (Serm. xxxiii.) Some expressly blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ of that God who died on a cross for the love of them. God! if we were not subject to death, we should be glad to die for Jesus Christ, in order to make some little return of gratitude to a God who gave his life for us. I say, a little return of gratitude; for there is no comparison between the death of a miserable creature, and the death of a God. But instead of loving and blessing this God, you, as St. Augustine says, revile and curse him. ”Christ was scourged by the lash of the Jews; but he is not less scourged by the blasphemies of false Christians.” (S. Aug. in Joan.) Some have blasphemed and insulted the Virgin Mary, that good mother, who loves us so tenderly, and prays continually for us. Some of these blasphemers have received a horrible chastisement from God. Surius relates, in the 7th August, that a certain impious Christian blasphemed the blessed Virgin, and pierced her image with a dagger. As soon as he went out of the church to which the image belonged, he was struck by a thunderbolt, and reduced to ashes. The infamous Nestorious blasphemed, and induced others to blaspheme, most holy Mary, by asserting that she was not the mother of God. But, before death, his impious tongue was eaten away by worms, and he died in despair.

3. “Who is this who speaketh blasphemies?” (Luke v. 21.) He is a Christian who has received the holy sacrament of baptism, in which his tongue has been in a certain manner consecrated to God. A learned author says, that on the tongue of all who are baptized is placed blessed salt, ”that the tongues of Christians may be made, as it were, sacred, and may be accustomed to bless God.” (Clericat. torn. 1. Dec. Tract. 52.) And the blasphemer afterwards makes his tongue, as St. Bernardine says, a sword to pierce the heart of God. “Lingua blasphemantis efficitur quasi gladius cor Dei penetrans.” (Tom. 4. serm. xxxiii.) Hence the saint adds that no sin contains in itself so much malice as the sin of blasphemy. “Nullum est peccatum quod habet in se tantem iniquitatem sicut blasphemia.” St. Chrysostom says, that ””here is no sin worse than blasphemy; for in it is the accumulation of all evils, and every punishment.” St. Jerome teaches the same doctrine. ”Nothing,” says the holy doctor, ”is more horrible than blasphemy; for every sin, compared with blasphemy, is small.” (In Isa. cxviii.) And here it is necessary to observe, that blasphemies against the saints, against holy things or holidays such as the sacraments, the Mass, Easter Sunday, Christmas Day, Holy Saturday are of the same species as blasphemies against God; for St. Thomas teaches, that, as the honour paid to the saints, to holy things, and holidays, is referred to God, so an insult offered to the saints is injurious to God, who is the foundation of sanctity. ”Sicut Deus, in sanctis suis laudatur,” as we read in the 150th Psalm, “laudate Dominum in sanctis ejus, ita et blasphemia in sanctos in Deum redundat.” (S. Thorn, qu. 13, a 1 3, a 1, ad 2.) The saint adds, that blasphemy is one of the greatest of the sins against religion. (Ibid. a. 3.)

4. Thus, from the works of St. Jerome we may infer, that blasphemy is more grievous than theft, than adultery, or murder. All other sins, says St. Bernardine proceeds from frailty or ignorance; but the sin of blasphemy proceeds from malice. “Omnia alia peccata vindentur procedere partim ex fragilitate, partim ex ignorantia, sed peccatum blasphemia procedit ex propria malitia.” (Cic. serm. xxx.) For it proceeds from a bad will, and from a certain hatred conceived against God. Hence the blasphemer renders himself like the damned, who, as St. Thomas says, do not now blaspheme with the mouth for they have no body, but with the heart, cursing the divine justice which punishes them. ”The detestation of the divine justice is in them an interior blasphemy of the heart.” (S. Thom. 2, 2, qu. 13, a. 4.) The saint adds, that we may believe that as the saints in heaven, after the resurrection shall praise God with the tongue, so the reprobates in hell shall also blaspheme him with the tongue. ”Et credibile est quod post resurrectionem erit in eis etiam vocalis blasphemiæ sicut in sanctis vocalis laus Dei.” Justly, then, has a learned author called blasphemy the language of hell; because, as God speaks by the mouth of the saints so the devil speaks by the mouth of blasphemers. “Blasphemia est peccatum diabolicum, loquela infernalis: sicut enim Spiritus Sanctus loquitur per bonos ita et diabolus per blasphemos.” (Mansi. Discors, 7, num. 2.) When St. Peter denied Christ in the Palace of Pilate, and swore that he did not know him, the Jews said, that his language showed that he was a disciple of Jesus, because he spoke the language of his Master. ”Surely,” they said, “thou also art one of them; for even thy speech doth discover thee.” (Matt. xxvi. 73.) Thus we may say to every blasphemer: You are from hell; you are a true disciple of Lucifer; for you speak the language of the damned. St. Antonine writes, that the entire occupation of the damned in hell consists in blaspheming and cursing God. “Non aliud apus inferno exercent nisi blasphemare Deum et maledicere.” (Part 2, tit. 7, cap. iii.) In proof of this doctrine the saint adduces the following text of the Apocalypse: ”And they gnawed their tongues for pain: and they blasphemed the God of heaven.” (Apoc. xvi. 10, 11.) The holy doctor afterwards adds, that he who indulges in the vice of blasphemy, already belongs to the number of the damned, because he practises their art. “Qui ergo hoc vitio detinetur ostendit se pertinere ad statum damnatorum, ex quo exercet artem eorum.” (Ibid.)

5. To the malice of blasphemy is added the malice of scandal, which generally accompanies blasphemy; for this sin is ordinarily committed externally and in presence of others. St. Paul reproved the Jews, because by their sins they caused the Gentiles to blaspheme our God, and to laugh at his law. “For the name of God, through you, is blasphemed by the Gentiles.” (Rom. ii. 24.) But how much more criminal are Christians, who, by their blasphemies, induce other Christians to imitate their example! How does it happen, that in certain provinces blasphemies are never, or at least very seldom, heard, and that in other places this horrible vice is so prevalent, that the Lord may say of them: ”My name is continually blasphemed all the day long.” (Isa. Iii, 5.) In the squares, houses, cities, villas, nothing is heard but blasphemies. How does this happen? Some of the inhabitants learn to blaspheme from others: children from their parents, servants from their masters, the young from the old. In some families particularly the vice of blasphemy seems to be transmitted as an inheritance. The father is a blasphemer; hence, the sons and nephews blaspheme: to this inheritance their descendants succeed. O accursed father! Instead of instructing your children to bless the name of God, you teach them to blaspheme him and his saint. ”But I reprove them when they blaspheme in my presence.” Of what use are these reproofs, when with your own mouth you give them bad example. For God’s sake, for God’s sake, O fathers of families, never blaspheme; but be particularly on your guard never to blaspheme in presence of your children. This is a crime which God can no longer bear in you. And whenever you hear any of your children utter a blasphemy, reprove them severely, and, in obedience to the advice of St. Chrysostom, strike him on the mouth, and you shall thus sanctify your hand. ”Contere os ipsius, manum tuam percussione sanctificat.” (Hom. i. ad pop.) Certain fathers unmercifully beat a child for the neglect of some temporal business; but if he blaspheme the saints, they either laugh at his blasphemies, or listen to them in silence. St. Gregory relates (Dial. 4., cap. xvii.), that a child of five years, the son of a Roman noble man, was in the habit of profaning the name of God. The father neglected to correct him; but he one day saw his son pursued by certain black men. The child ran to embrace his father; but they, who were so many devils, killed him in the father‟s arms, and carried him with them to hell.

Second Point. On the great rigour with which God punishes the sin of blasphemy.

6. “Woe to the sinful nation… they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel.” (Isa. i. 4.) Woe to blasphemers, eternal woe to them: for, according to Tobias, they shall be condemned. ”They shall be condemned that blaspheme thee.” (Job xiii. 16.) The Lord has said by the mouth of Job, “Thou imitatest the tongue of blasphemers; thy own mouth shall condemn, and not I.” (Job xv. 5, 6.) In pronouncing the sentence of their condemnation, God will say: It is not I that condemn you to hell; it is your own mouth, with which you have dared to revile me and .my saints, that condemns you. Poor miserable blasphemers! They shall continue to blaspheme in hell for their greater torment: their very blasphemies in hell shall always remind them that they are damned for ever in punishment of their blasphemies on earth.

7. But blasphemers are punished not only in hell, but even on this earth. In the Old Law they were stoned by the people. “And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, dying let him die; all the multitude shall stone him.” (Lev. xxiv. 76.) In the New Law they were condemned to death by the Emperor Justinian. St. Louis, King of France, ordered them to be punished by perforating their tongue, and by branding their forehead with a red hot iron; and when they afterwards relapsed into blasphemy, he ordained that they should die on the scaffold. (Homo Bon. de cas. res. p. 2, c. i.) Another author says, that the law renders blasphemers (as being infamous) incapable of giving testimony. (Navarr. cons. 11, de offic. ord.) By the constitution of Gregory the Fourteenth, they were deprived of Christian burial. In the Authentica ut non luxur hom., it is said that blasphemies bring on famine, earthquakes, and pestilence. “Propter blasphemias, et fames, et terræmotus et pestilentia fiunt.” You, O blasphemer, complain that though you labour and submit to fatigue, you are always in poverty. You say: ”I know not why I am always in misery: some malediction must have fallen on my family.” No; the blasphemies which you utter are the cause of your wretchedness, and make you always an object of God’s malediction.

8. O! how many melancholy examples could I mention of blasphemers who have died a bad death. Father Segneri relates, (Tom. 1, Rag. 8,) that, in Gascony, two men who had blasphemed the blood of Jesus Christ, were soon after killed in a quarrel, and torn to pieces by dogs. In Mexico, a blasphemer being once reproved, answered: ”I will hereafter blaspheme more than I have hitherto done.” During the night he found his tongue sowed under the palate, and died in that miserable state without giving the least sign of repentance. Dresselius relates, that a certain person was struck blind in the very act of blaspheming. Another, in uttering a blasphemy against St. Anthony, was seized by a flame which issued from the image of the saint, and was burnt alive. In his book against blasphemy, Sarnelli relates, that in Constantinople, a man called Simon Tornaco, who had blasphemed God, began like a mad dog to lacerate his own flesh, and died in his madness. Cantapratensis states (cap. xlviii.), that a person who had been guilty of blasphemy, had his eyes distorted, and that falling on the ground he bellowed like an ox, and continued to roar aloud until he expired. In the Gallician Mercury (lib. x.) we read that a man named Michael, who had been condemned to be hanged, when he felt the pain of the halter, burst out into blasphemies, and died instantly. After death his head fell from the body, and the tongue remained hanging out from the neck, as black as coal. I abstain from fatiguing you with other terrible examples: you can find a great many of them in the work of Father Sarnelli against blasphemy.

9. But to conclude. Tell me, blasphemers, if there be any of you present, what benefit do you derive from your accursed blasphemies? You do not receive pleasure from them. Bellarmine says, that blasphemy is a sin which produces no pleasure. You derive no profit from them; for, as I have already said, your blasphemies are the cause of your poverty and wretchedness. You derive no honour from them; your fellow- blasphemers have a horror of your blasphemies, and call you a mouth of hell. Tell me, then, why you blaspheme. “Father, the habit which I have contracted is the cause of my blasphemies.” But can this habit excuse you before God? If a son beat his father, and say to him: ”My father, have compassion on me: for I have contracted a habit of beating you :” would the father take pity on him? You say that you blaspheme through the anger caused by your children, your wife, or your master. Your wife or your master put you into a passion, and you take revenge on the saints. What injury have the saints done to you? They intercede before God in your behalf, and you blaspheme them. But “the devil tempts me at that time.” If the devil tempts you, follow the example of a certain young man, who, when tempted to blaspheme, went for advice to the Abbot Pemene. The abbot told him, that as often as the devil tempted him to commit this sin, his answer should be: Why should I blaspheme that God who has created me, and bestowed so many benefits upon me? I will forever praise and bless him. The young man followed the advice, and Satan ceased to tempt him. When you are excited to anger, can you speak nothing but blasphemies? Say on such occasions: “Accursed sin, I hate thee: Lord, assist me: Mary, obtain for me the gift of patience.” And if you have hitherto contracted the abominable habit of blaspheming, renew every morning, as soon as you rise, the resolution of doing violence to yourself to abstain from all blasphemies during the day: and then say three Aves to most holy Mary, that she may obtain for you the grace to resist every temptation by which you shall be assailed.

St. Elizabeth of Hungary

November 12, 2023 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: 11 November Saints, St. Elizabeth of Hungary Leave a Comment

November 19 – St. Elizabeth of Hungary

Before her death I heard her confession. When I asked what should be done about her goods and possessions, she replied that anything which seemed to be hers belonged to the poor. She asked me to distribute everything except one worn-out dress in which she wished to be buried. When all this had been decided, she received the body of our Lord. Afterward, until vespers, she spoke often of the holiest things she had heard in sermons. Then, she devoutly commended to God all who were sitting near her, and as if falling into a gentle sleep, she died. – from a letter by Conrad of Marburg, spiritual director of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

Daughter of the King of Hungary, Elizabeth was taken at the age of four to the castle of her future husband, Louis IV, Duke of Thuringia, who was then eleven. The pair grew up together, loved each other deeply, and were married in 1221. During their brief married life, Elizabeth extended her ceaseless charity toward the needy and the sick of the kingdom. After Louis had joined Emperor Frederick II on the Fifth Crusade, he caught the plague at Otranto and died. His uncle drove Elizabeth and her three children from the court in midwinter. After she had suffered great hardships, the Duke’s companions returned from the Crusade and she was restored. Her children provided for, Elizabeth became a Franciscan tertiary. She died at the age of 24.

Mass of a HOLY WOMAN, except

Patronage:

against in-law problems
against the death of children
against toothache
bakers
beggars
brides
charitable societies
charitable workers
charities
countesses
exiles
falsely accused people
hoboes
homeless people
hospitals
lacemakers
lace workers
nurses
nursing homes
nursing services
people in exile
people ridiculed for their piety
tertiaries
tramps
widows

Pictorial Lives of the Saints – Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

Elizabeth was daughter of a king of Hungary, and niece of Saint Hedwige. She was betrothed in infancy to Louis, Landgrave of Thuringia, and brought up in his father’s court. Not content with receiving daily numbers of poor in her palace, and relieving all in distress, she built several hospitals, where she served the sick, dressing the most repulsive sores with her own hands. Once as she was carrying in the folds of her mantle some provisions for the poor, she met her husband returning from the chase. Astonished to see her bending under the weight of her burden he opened the mantle which she kept pressed against her, and found in it nothing but beautiful red and white roses, although it was not the season for flowers. Bidding her pursue her way, he took one of the marvellous roses, and kept it all his life. On her husband’s death she was cruelly driven from her palace, and forced to wander through the streets with her little children, a prey to hunger and cold; but she welcomed all her sufferings, and continued to be the mother of the poor, converting many by her holy life. She died in 1231, at the age of twenty-four.

Reflection – This young and delicate princess made herself the servant and nurse of the poor. Let her example teach us to disregard the opinions of the world and to overcome our natural repugnances, in order to serve Christ in the persons of His poor.

Saints and Saintly Dominicans – 19 November

detail of a stained glass window of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary giving alms during the miracle of the roses; late 19th century by Glasmalerei Oidtmann; choir of the church of Saint Martin, Wormersdort, Germany; photographed on 6 October 2010 by Reinhardhauke; swiped from Wikimedia Commons

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Widow

She was a king’s daughter, and her brother Bela was the father of Blessed Margaret of Hungary, venerated in the Order of Saint Dominic. Whilst still a child, Elizabeth gave all her money to the poor, on condition that they should recite a Hail Mary for her. Rich ornaments displeased; her; she spoke little and very gravely, taking care not to speak to the prejudice of anyone. In the marriage state she was an example of charity and fidelity to duty to all her relations. Every day she fed several hundred of poor persons, without counting those whom she maintained in the country. Neither the difficulty of the roads, nor the dirtiness of the streets, or the bad odor and infection of their houses deterred her. Her docility of her director. Father Conrad, was absolute, and he tried her in various ways; in particular by removing from her two pious women who were her consolation, and in substituting for them two others who were rough and severe, reproving her wrongfully and disrespectfully. Having lost her husband, who died in Sicily on his way to fight for the deliverance of the Holy Land, she passed from abundance to want, from honor to abjection. But she loved her humiliation so well that she desired to remain in it up to her death. She is the Patroness of the Third Order of Saint Francis, as Saint Catherine of Siena is that of Saint Dominic. (1231)

Reflections

The poor in spirit have poverty for Queen; there are no wars in her kingdom, always peace, tranquillity and justice; the walls of the city are strong; its ornaments are piety and mercy. (Maxims of the saints).

Practice

Approach to God with so much the more confidence as you have less support from creatures.

– taken from the book Saints and Saintly Dominicans, by Blessed Hyacinthe-Marie Cormier,

Fr. Weninger’s Lives of the Saints – Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Landgravine of Hesse and Thuringia

illustration of Saint Elizabeth and a Beggar, artist unknown; from 'Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Patroness of the Third Order', by Father Hilarion Duerk, OFM, 1919

Saint Elizabeth, a model of devotion and purity to those who live singly, a mirror of love and retirement for married people, a most perfect example of patience for widows, and whose virtues deserve to be followed by all, high and low, was born in Hungary. She was a daughter of Andrew II, King of Hungary, and of Gertrude, daughter of the Duke of Carinthia. According to the Roman Breviary, Elizabeth began in early childhood to fear God, and increased in piety with age. The walk she loved best of all was going to church, where she prayed with angelic devotion, and whence it was a difficult task to bring her home, as her greatest delight consisted in praying. At the door of the church, she always took off the jewelled coronet which she wore, and when asked why she did this, she replied: “God forbid that I should ever appear with such a crown before the face of Him who was crowned with thorns, and who, out of love for me, was nailed to the cross.” She called Mary, the divine Mother, her mother, and entertained great devotion towards Saint John, the Apostle and Evangelist, whom she chose as the special protector of her chastity. She never refused what was asked of her in the name of the Blessed Virgin or in that of Saint John. The money allotted to her for her recreation, she gave to the poor, requesting them to say the Ave Maria. She was an enemy to luxury, vain adornments and idleness. Nature had not only bestowed upon her unusual personal beauty, but had also endowed her with great qualities of mind.

In obedience to her parents, she gave her hand to Louis, Landgrave of Hesse and Thuringia, and lived with him in continual harmony, her conduct being as blameless in the married state as it had been during her maidenhood. She gave one hour every night to prayer, and spent the day in attendance at the divine service in the church, in devout reading and in working for the poor. She always treated her husband with love and respect, and was a model of all virtues to her subjects. She watched over her domestics with a most careful eye, in order that they might lead a Christian life; but took always a mother’s interest in seeing that their wages were punctually paid. She herself carried to the church the princes and princesses to whom she gave birth; and it was her custom, on these occasions to lay a rich offering on the Altar, and to give abundant alms to the poor. Under her royal robes, she continually wore a garment of hair-cloth. For the sick and the forsaken she had more than a mother’s care and solicitude. She erected a hospital in which she nursed the sick and sheltered orphans; besides feeding nine hundred poor people, every day, at the palace, and sending alms to the dwellings of those who were ashamed to beg. She also visited the sick in their houses, and served them most tenderly even when they were leprous. She kissed their hands and feet, and encouraged them to patience. Never did a poor person leave her without receiving alms, and more than once, when she had no money with her, she gave away the veil from her head. She did not hesitate even to mend the clothes of the needy, and during a severe famine, gave all her corn to the sufferers. In one word, she did not neglect anything that Christian charity could do; so that she was universally called the mother of the poor.

There were at court many who, on account of her great charity, laughed at and derided her; some even accused her of extravagance. Elizabeth, however, did not allow herself to be diverted from her deeds of kindness, and the Landgrave dismissed her accusers with indignation, probably because he perceived that the more charitable his spouse was, the more he was blessed with temporal goods. Hence he not only abstained from disturbing her in her kind deeds, but assisted her in them as long as he lived. He ended his life in a crusade, in which he joined with several other Christian princes in order to conquer the Holy Land from the infidels. Elizabeth grieved deeply when the news of his death reached her, but submitted to the will of the Almighty, saying: “It is known to Thee, O my God, that I loved no one on this earth more than my husband; not only because he was my husband, but also because he loved Thee with his whole heart. But as it has pleased Thee to call him, I am well contented with Thy holy will; and if I could, against Thy decree, raise him from the dead by reciting one Pater Noster, I would not do it. I only beg of Thee to give him eternal peace, and bestow upon me the grace to serve Thee faithfully until the end of my days.” After this heroic submission to the will of God, she caused many masses and prayers to be said for the deceased, gave large alms to the poor, divested herself of her royal robes, and, though but twenty years old, she vowed to live in chaste widowhood for the rest of her days. It pleased the Almighty to try His zealous handmaid most painfully. The nobility made the brother of the deceased Landgrave regent, and accused the holy princess of having impoverished the state by her charity to the poor. Under this pretext, they deprived her of all her possessions, and banished her from the Court, with three children, a son and two daughters. Her former vassals, fearing to draw upon themselves the disfavor of the new government, durst not give her lodgings. Even the hospitals, which she herself had founded, were closed against her. Hence she had to lodge mostly in a stable and to live on the bread she begged. In such unexpected and more than painful circumstances, Saint Elizabeth showed a truly heroic, and, to the children of the world, incomprehensible strength and patience. She complained to no one of the injustice of the nobility, not even to her royal father, who was still living; but rejoiced that she could suffer for the love of God. After the first night of her banishment, she went to the Church of the Franciscans and requested them to sing the “Te Deum,” or “Great God! we praise thee,” to give thanks to God for the sorrows with which He had visited her. The wrongs and outrages which the holy princess suffered, besides her banishment, can hardly be described. An old woman, who had formerly received clothing and nourishment from Saint Elizabeth, dared to push her into a pool of stagnant water, in the street, abusing her at the same time most shamefully, for not having immediately made way for her. This outrage aroused not in the least the wrath of the holy princess; she quietly raised herself out of the pool, cleansed her garments, and offered herself to the Almighty for more suffering. God did not fail to comfort His handmaid in her adversity. Christ appeared to her, during her prayers, encouraged her, and promised never to abandon her. After some time, through her father’s influence, a dwelling, suitable to her rank, was conceded to her, and her dowry was refunded. The Saint immediately used one part of the building for a hospital, made her home in the same, and nursed the sick, as if she had been a servant, hired to wait upon them. All her spare time was employed in prayer and other devout exercises. She also chastised her body by fasting and other penances. At the age of twenty-four years, she learned by revelation, that her end was approaching, for which she prepared herself by most devoutly receiving the holy sacraments. She exhorted all those who were around her death-bed, to love God with their whole heart and to assist the poor to the best of their ability. After this, she continued in prayer, until her soul, richly adorned with virtues and merits, went to her Creator, in the year of Our Lord 1231. The funeral took place at Marburg, in Hesse, where her holy remains still rest, honored not only by Catholics, but also by many Protestants. Luther himself, though a declared enemy of the Saints, believed our Elizabeth to have been one, and called her so, thereby acknowledging that one can be saved and become a saint in the Catholic faith. The miracles that have taken place at the shrine of the holy princess, have made her celebrated throughout the whole world. Sixteen dead persons are known to have been restored to life, through her intercessions, and the number of the sick, who were restored to health, is incomparably greater.

Practical Considerations

• The life of Saint Elizabeth may serve as a model to persons of every age and station. Children may learn to fear God from their earliest years, and to increase their devotion with their age; single persons, how to live chastely in their state; married people, how husband and wife ought to live together; and the widowed how to sanctify their solitude. Masters and mistresses may learn how to take care of their domestics, and pay their wages regularly. Those of a higher station may learn to set a good example to others, and not to be ashamed to appear at public worship. All Christians can find instruction in it, for employing their time well, helping the needy, and bearing crosses and trials sent by heaven. God permitted a Landgravine, a royal princess, to be banished unjustly from court, to beg her bread, and, besides other ignominies, to be refused a shelter among her own subjects. Still she complained not; but, submissive to the decrees ot Providence, gave humble thanks to the Almighty for all that He, in His wisdom, had sent her. Even at the death of her husband, what fortitude, what submission to the divine will she manifested! Oh! that all would endeavor, in trials of much less severity, to unite their will with that of God, and patiently bear the cross that He has laid upon them.

• The favorite walk of Saint Elizabeth, when she was still a child, was to go to church, where she manifested most angelic devotion, and was so happy, that she could hardly be persuaded to leave. What is your favorite walk? Where do you like to remain? And when you do go to church, why are you in such haste to leave it again? Why do you much oftener go to theatres, frivolous societies, vain amusements, bar-rooms and ball-rooms, than to Church, to prayers, to sermons, or to public worship? Why does the sermon, the mass, or conversation with God in prayer so soon become wearisome to you, when many hours, nay, even half the day or night seem not long, when you occupy them in gaming, dancing, or silly conversation? Answer these questions if you can; and then tell me, do you expect to justify yourself before God, and to enter the same heaven into which Saint Elizabeth entered? “Ah! truly, heaven becomes not the dwelling of those who sleep and are idle, but of those who earnestly endeavor to gain it.” Thus speaks the holy pope, Saint Leo.

Father Francis Xavier Weninger, DD, SJ. “Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Landgravine of Hesse and Thuringia”. Lives of the Saints, 1876.

St. Gregory Thaumaturgus

November 12, 2023 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: 11 November Saints, St. Gregory Thaumaturgus Leave a Comment

November 17 – St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop & Confessor

There is one God, the Father of the living Word, who is His subsistent Wisdom and Power and Eternal Image: perfect Begetter of the perfect Begotten, Father of the only-begotten Son. There is one Lord, Only of the Only, God of God, Image and Likeness of Deity, Efficient Word, Wisdom comprehensive of the constitution of all things, and Power formative of the whole creation, true Son of true Father, Invisible of Invisible, and Incorruptible of Incorruptible, and Immortal of Immortal and Eternal of Eternal. And there is One Holy Spirit, having His subsistence from God, and being made manifest by the Son, to wit to men: Image of the Son, Perfect Image of the Perfect; Life, the Cause of the living; Holy Fount; Sanctity, the Supplier, or Leader, of Sanctification; in whom is manifested God the Father, who is above all and in all, and God the Son, who is through all. There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor estranged. Wherefore there is nothing either created or in servitude in the Trinity; nor anything superinduced, as if at some former period it was non-existent, and at some later period it was introduced. And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without variation and without change, the same Trinity abideth ever. – a declaration of faith by Saint Gregory

Patronage:

against earthquakes
against floods
desperate causes
forgotten causes
impossible causes
lost causes

Pictorial Lives of the Saints – Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus

Saint Gregory was born in Pontus, of heathen parents. In Palestine, about the year 231, he studied philosophy under the great Origen, who led him from the pursuit of human wisdom to Christ, who is the Wisdom of God. Not long after, he was made Bishop of Neocaesarea in his own country. As he lay awake one night, an old man entered his room, and pointed to a lady of superhuman beauty and radiant with heavenly light. This old man was Saint John the Evangelist; and the lady told him to give Gregory the instruction he desired. Thereupon he gave Saint Gregory a creed which contained in all its fullness the doctrine of the Trinity. Saint Gregory set it in writing, directed all his preaching by it, and handed it down to his successors. Strong in this faith, he subdued demons, he foretold the future. At his word a rock moved from its place, a river changed its course, a lake was dried up. He converted his diocese, and strengthened those under persecution. He struck down a rising heresy; and when he was gone, this creed preserved his flock from the Arian pest. Saint Gregory died in the year 270.

Reflection – Devotion to the blessed Mother of God is the sure protection of faith in her Divine Son. Every time that we invoke her, we renew our faith in the Incarnate God; we reverse the sin and unbelief of our first parents; we take our part with her who was blessed because she believed.

Fr. Weninger’s Lives of the Saints – Saint Gregory, Thaumaturgus

Saint Gregory, bishop of Neo-Caesarea in Pontus, was born in that city, of rich but heathen parents. He is called Thaumaturgus, or Worker of Wonders, on account of the many and great miracles which he wrought during his life. He was naturally inclined to be good, and was filled with an intense desire to gain knowledge; therefore, on coming to riper years, he went to Caesarea in Palestine, and thence to Alexandria, to study the liberal arts. The reading of heathen books disgusted him with paganism; for he learned by it how weak and unstable its doctrines are; and at the same time, becoming acquainted with the true faith by reading some Christian books, he began highly to esteem Christianity. He led a blameless life and especially abhorred the vice of unchastity, so general among the heathens. This displeased some of his fellow-students, and they persuaded a wicked woman, to ask him, in the presence of many others, the money that he had promised her. This was done at the moment when Gregory, in the presence of a great crowd of people, was disputing on some subject with some other learned men. All were startled at the woman’s words, as they had never heard anything wrong of Gregory. The latter best knew his own innocence, but would neither talk to the woman, nor allow himself to be disturbed in his disputation. He quietly requested one of his friends to give her as much money as she demanded; but she had hardly got it, when the Evil One took possession of her, and tormented her so that she howled terribly, made a public confession of her wickedness and begged Gregory’s pardon. The young man, although he had not received holy baptism, called with confidence on the God of the Christians and relieved the possessed. Thus did the Almighty save Gregory, and bring the wickedness of his enemies to shame. This incited him anew not to delay any longer to embrace Christianity. After he had been baptized, he endeavored to live in accordance with the promises he had made, and to conform his actions entirely to the maxims of the Christian faith. He continued his studies for several years, and then returned to his home, where he passed his time in solitude, prayer and meditation. To those who visited him he spoke rarely of other things than the blindness of idolatry, the truth of the Christian faith, the beauty of virtue, and the horror of vice, which caused him to be highly esteemed by the inhabitants of the city, although most of them were heathens. Phaedimus, bishop of Amasea, informed of this, resolved to consecrate Gregory bishop of Neo-Caesarea. The humble servant of the Lord endeavored to avoid this honor by flight; but Phaedimus was firm in his resolution and declared Gregory, in the presence of all the people, bishop of the city, and thus silenced all further objections. At that time, there were only seventeen Christians in the city and all the other inhabitants were idolaters. Before the new bishop commenced his functions, he retired for several days into solitude, where he prayed to God to bestow upon him, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, the grace to lead his small flock in the right path, and to increase its small number by converting the heathen. During his prayers the Virgin Mother appeared to him, in the night, accompanied by Saint John, whom she commanded to instruct Gregory, how to conduct himself and to teach others. Having received these instructions, Saint Gregory left his solitude, comforted and strengthened, and began to labor for the conversion of the heathens. The miracles he wrought had the happiest results. Before he entered the city, he was obliged to take shelter, with his companion, in the most celebrated heathen temple, where Satan, speaking through the idols, answered various questions. Gregory passed the whole night in prayer, and, making the sign of the cross over the whole building, he drove Satan away. When the chief of the idolatrous priests came, on the following day, with his sacrifice, he heard before the temple a terrible howling of the devils, who lamented that, driven away by Gregory, they could not return into their old dwelling. The heathens ran after the bishop and complained of what he had done. Gregory improved the opportunity, to explain to them the power of the Christian God, in whose name he had driven away Satan and his legions, but could also force him to return. Of this the heathen priest desired a proof. Gregory wrote on the tablet the word “Enter,” gave it to the idolatrous priest, and told him to lay it on the Altar, and then, he added, the devils will be obliged to return to the temple, in the name of Jesus. The heathen did as he was told, and as all happened as the bishop had said, he recognized the power of the Christian God, was converted with his wife and children, and received holy baptism. This first conversion was daily followed by others. As the number of the Christians greatly increased in this manner, the Saint resolved to build a church. The place was selected, but a high mountain prevented him from giving the building the dimensions he desired. In this emergency, the bishop had recourse to prayer, and the mountain, by the power of God, retired, in the presence of a multitude of heathens and Christians, as far back as was needed. This and many other miracles which the Saint almost daily wrought, had such influence over the minds of the pagans, that they came in crowds to be baptized, and in all their troubles they asked his advice. The river Lycus, which flowed by the city, was frequently so swollen, that the surrounding fields were overflowed, with great damage. Some of the sufferers came and asked the bishop to help them. Going with them, he first prayed; then he stuck his staff into the ground near the bank of the river. The staff took root immediately, and since that time, the river has never overstepped the place thus marked. Two brothers quarrelled on account of a pond abounding in fishes. Each desired to be the possessor of it, and they became so embittered, that they intended to kill each other. Gregory succeeded several times in calming them, but on seeing that this never lasted long, he prayed to God to end the contention, and in the same night, the whole pond so thoroughly dried up, that neither water nor fishes were to be seen. In this manner, peace was restored between the brothers. How highly the Saint was esteemed for these and other miracles can easily be supposed, although he endeavored to decline all honors, by ascribing his wonders to a holy relic which he always carried with him. But the more he fled from human praise, the more was he venerated and loved. Still there were some who disliked him and who even dared to mock him. Among these were two Jews, one of whom, pretending to be dead, laid himself down in a place where the Saint was to pass. The other remained standing there also, and when Gregory came, he began to weep and lament for his dear dead friend, begging the Saint to give him an alms to enable him to bury him. The intention of these deceivers was to deride the bishop on account of his miracles, and to make others laugh at him. Gregory, who had no money with him, gave the man his cloak and went on. Rejoiced at having thus deceived the Saint, the man called his pretended dead companion, telling him to rise; but found, to his horror, that the man was really dead. Many volumes would hardly suffice to contain all the miracles wrought by the holy man on the possessed and the sick, and to recount the labors he undertook to propagate the true faith. After a long, well spent and holy life, he felt, at last, that his end was approaching, and visiting once more his whole diocese, he redoubled his zeal in instructing his flock, admonished all to constancy, and endeavored to practice more good works then ever before. Soon after, he fell sick, and ended his days by a happy death. Shortly before closing his eyes, he asked if there were yet some in the city who had not received holy baptism. “Seventeen,” was the answer. The Saint, already in his agony, raised his eyes to heaven and said: “Thanks and praise to God! When I took possession of my See, I found only seventeen Christians. May God preserve all in the true faith, and give to all infidels, in the whole world, the light of the Saviour’s divine Word!” The death of Saint Gregory took place in the seventieth year of his age, and the 270th of the Christian Era.

Practical Considerations

Saint Gregory took especial care to keep the promise he had made when receiving holy baptism. In baptism, we renounce Satan and all his works, and make an alliance with God, by the promise that we will serve Him and keep His commandments. This alliance we break as often as we commit a mortal sin. How is it with you? Have you kept your promise? May not the words of Saint Bernard be applied to you? “You have renounced the devil and yet you serve him. You have renounced his works, and yet strive only after that which is evil.” You have promised to serve God alone and to keep His commandments; and yet you do in everything the contrary. Ah, be ashamed before your God and weep bitter tears for your perjury. Renew your baptismal vows and be in future true to them. “When the priest asked you: do you renounce the devil and all his works, what was your answer? I renounce them. Remember these words and let them never part from your memory,” says Saint Ambrose.

I will take this occasion to give you another instruction. Many who are not Catholics refuse to be converted, because they are told that they must not break their baptismal vows. But they ought to know that they do not break them by becoming Catholics; for, by their baptism they made an alliance with the true Christ and the true Church. This true Church is the Catholic Church only; hence by becoming Catholics, they only fulfill the vow they made. They broke it when, after coming to the use of reason, they gave their free consent to a false religion, and thus fell into heresy. By turning from this error and becoming Catholics, they renew their first alliance with the true Church of Christ, and thus fulfill the first promise made for them when they were baptized.

Father Francis Xavier Weninger, DD, SJ. “Saint Gregory, Thaumaturgus”. Lives of the Saints, 1876.

Saints and Saintly Dominicans – 17 November

Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus

The great Thaumaturgus is Jesus. “He worked” says Saint Thomas, “miracles relating to demons, to angels, to the heavens, to men, to animals, to the material elements. He wrought them by His own power and made them serve to manifest the better His heavenly doctrine.” But he has communicated this gift, more or less to His principle disciples, and in particular to Saint Gregory of Neocaesarea. That faith, which our Saviour so much praised when He said it was powerful enough to remove mountains is realized in him to the letter. By prayer alone, but prayer full of faith and seconded by penance, he displaced a mountain and caused it to draw back into the sea. This miracle and numberless others, procured him by excellence the surname of Thaumaturgus, and caused him to be compared by Saint Basil to Moses, to the Prophets and Apostles. The town of Neocaesarea, when he became its Bishop was entirely pagan, counting among them only seventeen Christians. He effected there so much good that at his death all the inhabitants excepting seventeen were believers. Above all he was distinguished by a profound humility, a rare modesty, a great love for the truth, resembling in this Saint Dominic, who said to his companions: “Let truth be dear to you above all else.” Hence his zeal to confute Paul of Samosata, who covertly attacked the Divinity of Jesus Christ. (266)

Prayer

Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus, obtain a new miracle – that of my conversion.

Practice

Examine if your prayers are made in a spirit of faith, asking in the name of Jesus Christ and in virtue of His infinite merits.

– taken from the book Saints and Saintly Dominicans, by Blessed Hyacinthe-Marie Cormier, O.P.

A Sectional Confession of Faith, by Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus

I – Most hostile and alien to the Apostolic Confession are those who speak of the Son as assumed to Himself by the Father out of nothing, and from an emanational origin; and those who hold the same sentiments with respect to the Holy Spirit; those who say that the Son is constituted divine by gift and grace, and that the Holy Spirit is made holy; those who regard the name of the Son as one common to servants, and assert that thus He is the first-born of the creature, as becoming, like the creature, existent out of non-existence, and as being first made, and who refuse to admit that He is the only-begotten Son, – the only One that the Father has, and that He has given Himself to be reckoned in the number of mortals, and is thus reckoned first-born; those who circumscribe the generation of the Son by the Father with a measured interval after the fashion of man, and refuse to acknowledge that the aeon of the Begetter and that of the Begotten are without beginning; those who introduce three separate and diverse systems of divine worship, whereas there is but one form of legitimate service which we have received of old from the law and the prophets, and which has been confirmed by the Lord and preached by the apostles. Nor less alienated from the true confession are those who hold not the doctrine of the Trinity according to truth, as a relation consisting of three persons, but impiously conceive it as implying a triple being in a unity (Monad), formed in the way of synthesis and think that the Son is the wisdom in God, in the same manner as the human wisdom subsists in man whereby the man is wise, and represent the Word as being simply like the word which we utter or conceive, without any hypostasis whatever.

II – But the Church’s Confession, and the Creed that brings salvation to the world, is that which deals with the incarnation of the Word, and bears that He gave Himself over to the flesh of man which He acquired of Mary, while yet He conserved His own identity, and sustained no divine transposition or mutation, but was brought into conjunction with the flesh after the similitude of man; so that the flesh was made one with the divinity, the divinity having assumed the capacity of receiving the flesh in the fulfilling of the mystery. And after the dissolution of death there remained to the holy flesh a perpetual impassibility and a changeless immortality, man’s original glory being taken up into it again by the power of the divinity, and being ministered then to all men by the appropriation of faith.

III – If, then, there are any here, too, who falsify the holy faith, either by attributing to the divinity as its own what belongs to the humanity – progressions, and passions, and a glory coming with accession – or by separating from the divinity the progressive and passible body, as if subsisted of itself apart, – these persons also are outside the confession of the Church and of salvation. No one, therefore, can know God unless he apprehends the Son; for the Son is the wisdom by whose instrumentality all things have been created; and these created objects declare this wisdom, and God is recognised in the wisdom. But the wisdom of God is not anything similar to the wisdom which man possesses, but it is the perfect wisdom which proceeds from the perfect God, and abides for ever, not like the thought of man, which passes from him in the word that is spoken and (straightway) ceases to be. Wherefore it is not wisdom only, but also God; nor is it Word only, but also Son. And whether, then, one discerns God through creation, or is taught to know Him by the Holy Scriptures, it is impossible either to apprehend Him or to learn of Him apart from His wisdom. And he who calls upon God rightly, calls on Him through the Son; and he who approaches Him in a true fellowship, comes to Him through Christ. Moreover, the Son Himself cannot be approached apart from the Spirit. For the Spirit is both the life and the holy formation of all things; and God sending forth this Spirit through the Son makes the creature like Himself.

IV – One therefore is God the Father, one the Word, one the Spirit, the life, the sanctification of all. And neither is there another God as Father, nor is there another Son as Word of God, nor is there another Spirit as quickening and sanctifying. Further, although the saints are called both gods, and sons, and spirits, they are neither filled with the Spirit, nor are made like the Son and God. And if, then, any one makes this affirmation, that the Son is God, simply as being Himself filled with divinity, and not as being generated of divinity, he has belied the Word, he has belied the Wisdom, he has lost the knowledge of God; he has fallen away into the worship of the creature, he has taken up the impiety of the Greeks, to that he has gone back; and he has become a follower of the unbelief of the Jews, who, supposing the Word of God to be but a human son, have refused to accept Him as God, and have declined to acknowledge Him as the Son of God. But it is impious to think of the Word of God as merely human, and to think of the works which are done by Him as abiding, while He abides not Himself. And if any one says that the Christ works all things only as commanded by the Word, he will both make the Word of God idle, and will change the Lord’s order into servitude. For the slave is one altogether under command, and the created is not competent to create; for to suppose that what is itself created may in like manner create other things, would imply that it has ceased to be like the creature.

V – Again, when one speaks of the Holy Spirit as an object made holy, he will no longer be able to apprehend all things as being sanctified in (the) Spirit. For he who has sanctified one, sanctifies all things. That man, consequently, belies the fountain of sanctification, the Holy Spirit, who denudes Him of the power of sanctifying, and he will thus be precluded from numbering Him with the Father and the Son; he makes nought, too, of the holy (ordinance of) baptism, and will no more be able to acknowledge the holy and august Trinity. For either we must apprehend the perfect Trinity in its natural and genuine glory, or we shall be under the necessity of speaking no more of a Trinity, but only of a Unity; or else, not numbering created objects with the Creator, nor the creatures with the Lord of all, we mast also not number what is sanctified with what sanctifies; even as no object that is made can be numbered with the Trinity, but in the name of the Holy Trinity baptism and invocation and worship are administered. For if there are three several glories, there must also be three several forms of cultus with those who impiously worship the creature; for if there is a distinction in the nature of the objects worshipped, there ought to be also with these men a distinction in the nature of the worship offered. What is recent surely is not to be worshipped along with what is eternal; for the recent comprehends all that has had a beginning, while mighty and measureless is lie who is before the ages. He, therefore, who supposes some beginning of times in the life of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, therewith also cuts off any possibility of numbering the Son and the Spirit with the Father. For as we acknowledge the glory to be one, so ought we also to acknowledge the substance in the Godhead to be one, and one also the eternity of the Trinity.

VI – Moreover, the capital clement of our salvation is the incarnation of the Word. We believe, therefore, that it was without any change in the Divinity that the incarnation of the Word took place with a view to the renewal of humanity. For there took place neither mutation nor transposition, nor any circumscription in will, as regards the holy energy of God; but while that remained in itself the same, it also effected the work of the incarnation with a view to the salvation of the world: and the Word of God, living on earth after man’s fashion, maintained likewise in all the divine presence, fulfilling all things, and being united properly and individually with flesh; and while the sensibilities proper to the flesh were there, the divine energy maintained the impassibility proper to itself. Impious, therefore, is the man who introduces the passibility into the energy. For the Lord of glory appeared in fashion as a man when He undertook the economy upon the earth; and He fulfilled the law for men by His deeds, and by His sufferings He did away with man’s sufferings, and by His death He abolished death, and by his resurrection He brought life to light; and now we look for His appearing from heaven in glory for the life and judgment of all, when the resurrection of the dead shall take place, to the end that recompense may be made to all according to their desert.

VII – But some treat the Holy Trinity in an awful manner, when they confidently assert that there are not three persons, and introduce (the idea of) a person devoid of subsistence. Wherefore we clear ourselves of Sabellius, who says that the Father and the Son are the same. For he holds that the Father is He who speaks, and that the Son is the Word that abides in the Father, and becomes manifest at the time of the creation, and thereafter reverts to God on the fulfilling of all things. The same affirmation he makes also of the Spirit. We forswear this, because we believe that three persons – namely, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – are declared to possess the one Godhead: for the one divinity showing itself forth according to nature in the Trinity establishes the oneness of the nature; and thus there is a (divinity that is the) property of the Father, according to the word, “There is one God the Father;” and there is a divinity hereditary in the Son, as it is written, “The Word was God;” and there is a divinity present according to nature in the Spirit into wit, what subsists as the Spirit of God – according to Paul’s statement, “Ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.”

VIII – Now the person in each declares the independent being and subsistence. But divinity is the property of the Father; and whenever the divinity of these three is spoken of as one, testimony is borne that the property of the Father belongs also to the Son and the Spirit: wherefore, if the divinity may be spoken of as one in three persons, the trinity is established, and the unity is not dissevered; and the oneness Which is naturally the Father’s is also acknowledged to be the Son’s and the Spirit’s. If one, however, speaks of one person as he may speak of one divinity, it cannot be that the two in the one are as one. For Paul addresses the Father as one in respect of divinity, and speaks of the Son as one in respect of lordship: “There is one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him.” Wherefore if there is one God, and one Lord, and at the same time one person as one divinity in one lordship, how can credit be given to (this distinction in) the words “of whom” and “by whom,” as has been said before? We speak, accordingly, not as if we separated the lordship from the divinity, nor as estranging the one from the other, but as unifying them in the way warranted by actual fact and truth; and we call the Son God with the property of the Father, as being His image and offspring; and we call the Father Lord, addressing Him by the name of the One Lord, as being His Origin and Begettor.

IX – The same position we hold respecting the Spirit, who has that unity with the Son which the Son has with the Father. Wherefore let the hypostasis of the Father be discriminated by the appellation of God; but let not the Son be cut off from this appellation, for He is of God. Again, let the person of the Son also be discriminated by the appellation of Lord; only let not God be dissociated from that, for He is Lord as being the Father of the Lord. And as it is proper to the Son to exercise lordship, for He it is that made (all things) by Himself, and now rules the things that were made, while at the same time the Father has a prior possession of that property, inasmuch as He is the Father of Him who is Lord; so we speak of the Trinity as One God, and yet not as if we made the one by a synthesis of three: for the subsistence that is constituted by synthesis is something altogether partitive and imperfect. But just as the designation Father is the expression of originality and generation, so the designation Son is the expression of the image and offspring of the Father. Hence, if one were to ask how there is but One God, if there is also a God of God, we would reply that that is a term proper to the idea of original causation, so far as the Father is the one First Cause. And if one were also to put the question, how there is but One Lord, if the Father also is Lord, we might answer that again by saying that He is so in so far as He is the Father of the Lord; and this difficulty shall meet us no longer.

X – And again, if the impious say, How will there not be three Gods and three Persons, on the supposition that they have one and the same divinity? – we shall reply: Just because God is the Cause and Father of the Son; and this Son is the image and offspring of the Father, and not His brother; and the Spirit in like manner is the Spirit of God, as it is written, “God is a Spirit.” And in earlier times we have this declaration from the prophet David: “By the word of the Lord were the heavens stablished, and all the power of them by the breath (spirit) of His mouth.” And in the beginning of the book of the creation it is written thus: “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” And Paul in his Epistle to the Romans says “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” And again he says: “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” And again: “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” And again: “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.” And again: “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, by the power of the Holy Ghost.”

XI – And again, writing to those same Romans, he says: “But I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God, that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the Gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God. For I dare not to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Holy Spirit.” And again: “Now I beseech you, brethren, for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and by the love of the Spirit.” And these things, indeed, are written in the Epistle to the Romans.

XII – Again, in the Epistle to the Corinthians he says: “For my speech and my preaching was not in the enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” And again he says: “As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” And again he says: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.”

XIII – Seest thou that all through Scripture the Spirit is preached, and yet nowhere named a creature? And what can the impious have to say if the Lord sends forth His disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit? Without contradiction, that implies a communion and unity between them, according to which there are neither three divinities nor (three) lordships; but, while there remain truly and certainly the three persons, the real unity of the three must be acknowledged. And in this way proper credit will be given to the sending and the being sent (in the Godhead), according to which the Father hath sent forth the Son, and the Son in like manner sends forth the Spirit. For one of the persons surely could not (be said to) send Himself; and one could not speak of the Father as incarnate. For the articles of our faith will not concur with the vicious tenets of the heresies; and it is right that our conceptions should follow the inspired and apostolic doctrines, and not that our impotent fancies should coerce the articles of our divine faith.

XIV – But if they say, How can there be three Persons, and how but one Divinity? – we shall make this reply: That there are indeed three persons, inasmuch as there is one person of God the Father, and one of the Lord the Son, and one of the Holy Spirit; and yet that there is but one divinity, inasmuch as the Son is the Image of God the Father, who is One, – that is, He is God of God; and in like manner the Spirit is called the Spirit of God, and that, too, of nature according to the very substance, and not according to simple participation of God. And there is one substance in the Trinity, which does not subsist also in the case of objects that are made; for there is not one substance in God and in the things that are made, because none of these is in substance God. Nor, indeed, is the Lord one of these according to substance, but there is one Lord the Son, and one Holy Spirit; and we speak also of one Divinity, and one Lordship, and one Sanctity in the Trinity; because the Father is the Cause of the Lord, having begotten Him eternally, and the Lord is the Prototype of the Spirit. For thus the Father is Lord, and the Son also is God; and of God it is said that “God is a Spirit.”

XV – We therefore acknowledge one true God, the one First Cause, and one Son, very God of very God, possessing of nature the Father’s divinity, – that is to say, being the same in substance with the Father; and one Holy Spirit, who by nature and in truth sanctifies all, and makes divine, as being of the substance of God. Those who speak either of the Son or of the Holy Spirit as a creature we anathematize. All other things we hold to be objects made, and in subjection, created by God through the Son, (and) sanctified in the Holy Spirit. Further, we acknowledge that the Son of God was made a Son of man, having taken to Himself the flesh from the Virgin Mary, not in name, but in reality; and that He is both the perfect Son of God, and the (perfect) Son of man, – that the Person is but one, and that there is one worship for the Word and the flesh that He assumed. And we anathematize those who constitute different worships, one for the divine and another for the human, and who worship the man born of Mary as though He were another than the God of God. For we know that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And we worship Him who was made man on account of our salvation, not indeed as made perfectly like in the like body, but as the Lord who has taken to Himself the form of the servant. We acknowledge the passion of the Lord in the flesh, the resurrection in the power of His divinity, the ascension to heaven, and His glorious appearing when He comes for the judgment of the living and the dead, and for the eternal life of the saints.

XVI – And since some have given us trouble by attempting to subvert our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and by affirming of Him that He was not God incarnated, but a man linked with God; for this reason we present our confession on the subject of the aforementioned matters of faith, and reject the faithless dogmas opposed thereto. For God, having been incarnated in the flesh of man, retains also His proper energy pure, possessing a mind unsubjectcd by the natural and fleshly affections, and holding the flesh and the fleshly motions divinely and sinlessly, and not only unmastered by the power of death, but even destroying death. And it is the true God unincarnate that has appeared incarnate, the perfect One with the genuine and divine perfection; and in Him there are not two persons. Nor do we affirm that there are four to worship, viz., God and the Son of God, and man and the Holy Spirit. Wherefore we also anathematize those who show their impiety in this, and who thus give the man a place in the divine doxology. For we hold that the Word of God was made man on account of our salvation, in order that we might receive the likeness of the heavenly, and be made divine after the likeness of Him who is the true Son of God by nature, and the Son of man according to the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ.

XVII – We believe therefore in one God, that is, in one First Cause, the God of the law and of the Gospel, the just and good; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, true God, that is, Image of the true God, Maker of all things seen and unseen, Son of God and only-begotten Offspring, and Eternal Word, living and self-subsistent and active. always being with the Father; and in one Holy Spirit; and in the glorious advent of the Son of God, who of the Virgin Mary took flesh, and endured sufferings and death in our stead, and came to resurrection on the third day, and was taken up to heaven; and in His glorious appearing yet to come; and in one holy Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the flesh, and life eternal.

XVIII – We acknowledge that the Son and the Spirit are consubstantial with the Father, and that the substance of the Trinity is one, – that is, that there is one divinity according to nature, the Father remaining unbegotten, and the Son being begotten of the Father in a true generation, and not in a formation by will, and the Spirit being sent forth eternally from the substance of the Father through the Son, with power to sanctify the whole creation. And we further acknowledge that the Word was made flesh, and was manifested in the flesh-movement received of a virgin, and did not simply energize in a man. And those who have fellowship with men that reject the consubstantiality as a doctrine foreign to the Scriptures, and speak of any of the persons in the Trinity as created, and separate that person from the one natural divinity, we hold as aliens, and have fellowship with none such. There is one God the Father, and there is only one divinity. But the Son also is God, as being the true image of the one and only divinity, according to generation and the nature which He has from the Father. There is one Lord the Son; but in like manner there is the Spirit, who bears over the Son’s lordship to the creature that is sanctified. The Son sojourned in the world, having of the Virgin received flesh, which He filled with the Holy Spirit for the sanctification of us all; and having given up the flesh to death, He destroyed death through the resurrection that had in view the resurrection of us all; and He ascended to heaven, exalting and glorifying men in Himself; and He comes the second time to bring us again eternal life.

XIX – One is the Son, both before the incarnation and after the incarnation. The same (Son) is both man and God, both these together as though one; and the God the Word is not one person, and the man Jesus another person, but the same who subsisted as Son before was made one with flesh by Mary, so constituting Himself a perfect, and holy, and sinless man, and using that economical position for the renewal of mankind and the salvation of all the world. God the Father, being Himself the perfect Person, has thus the perfect Word begotten of Him truly. not as a word that is spoken, nor yet again as a son by adoption, in the sense in which angels and men are called sons of God, but as a Son who is in nature God. And there is also the perfect Holy Spirit supplied of God through the Son to the sons of adoption, living and life-giving, holy and imparting holiness to those who partake of Him, – not like an unsubstantial breath breathed into them by man, but as the living Breath proceeding from God. Wherefore the Trinity is to be adored, to be glorified, to be honoured, and to be reverenced; the Father being apprehended in the Son even as the Son is of Him, and the Son being glorified in the Father, inasmuch as He is of the Father, and being manifested in the Holy Spirit to the sanctified.

XX – And that the holy Trinity is to be worshipped without either separation or alienation, is taught us by Paul, who says in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with yon all.” And again, in that epistle he makes this explanation: “Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God, who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” And still more clearly he writes thus in the same epistle: “When Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

XXI – And again Paul says: “That mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.” And again he says: “Approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities,” and so forth. Then he adds these words: “By kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God.” Behold here again the saint has defined the holy Trinity, naming God, and the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And again he says: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” And again: “But ye are washed, but ye are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” And again: “What! know ye not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God?” “And I think also that I have the Spirit of God.”

XXII – And again, speaking also of the children of Israel as baptized in the cloud and in the sea, he says: “And they all drank of the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” And again he says: “Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the sane Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.” And again he says: “For if he who comes preaches another Christ whom we have not preached, or ye receive another spirit that ye have received not, or another gospel which ye have not obtained, ye will rightly be kept back.”

XXIII – Seest thou that the Spirit is inseparable from the divinity? And no one with pious apprehensions could fancy that He is a creature. Moreover, in the Epistle to the Hebrews he writes again thus: “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost?” And again he says in the same epistle: “Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness; when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; for they have not known my ways: as I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest.” And there, too, they ought to give ear to Paul, for he by no means separates the Holy Spirit from the divinity of the Father and the Son, but clearly sets forth the discourse of the Holy Ghost as one from the person of the Father, and thus as given expression to by God, just as it has been represented in the before-mentioned sayings. Wherefore the holy Trinity is believed to be one God, in accordance with these testimonies of Holy Scripture; albeit all through the inspired Scriptures numberless announcements are supplied us, all confirmatory of the apostolic and ecclesiastical faith.

– text taken from The Ante-Nicene Fathers, v6, 1886, translated by S D F Salmond

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

October 22, 2023 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: Archbishop Lefebvre, Time after Pentecost Leave a Comment

Forgiveness of Injuries

“So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if you do not each forgive your brothers from your hearts” (Matt., 18:35)

Four of our five boys serving at the altar

The meaning of the parable in today’s Gospel is easy to understand. In fact, Our Lord Himself explained it, pointing out that, just as the master refused to condone the debt of his servant because he would not forgive a debt to his fellow-servant, so God will refuse His pardon to human beings who will not forgive the offences they receive from their fellow men.

That we must forgive those who offend us is one of the most definite teachings of Jesus Christ. He commanded: “Love your enemies, do good to those who persecute and calumniate you” (Matt., 5:44). In His own prayer He bids us to say: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Theologians teach that even to those who wrong us we are obliged to show ordinary or common signs of friendship. Thus, we must greet them when we meet, and speak kindly to them. On the other hand, we are not obliged to show them extraordinary or special signs of friendship, such as conferring gifts on them or writing them affectionate letters.

It is not easy to forgive those who have treated us harshly, but with the aid of God’s grace we can do so. It is quite natural that the remembrance of what we have suffered should cause a feeling of resentment, but this is not necessarily an indication that we have not forgiven these persons. The best proof that we have forgiven them “from our hearts” (to use Our Lord’s expression) is the [act that we pray for them.

It is a well known fact that a person who allows hatred for another to abide in his soul not only offends God but also renders himself unhappy. He is soured and miserable. On the other hand, one who does not allow himself to be disturbed by the unkindness and injustice he receives from others is usually a very happy and contented person.

The most deplorable form of enmity occurs when the parties are intimate relatives, particularly if they dwell in the same house. It is indeed a sad violation of Christian charity when brothers and sisters keep up a feud for years, under the same roof. Often such a situation begins with a trifling incident, but with the passing of the years this is magnified into extravagant proportions. Such persons should remember the parable of the unforgiving servant.

Practical Application

If you receive unkindness or injustice from others, ask for the grace to forgive them in the spirit manifested by Our Lord when He prayed on the Cross: “Father, forgive them.”

2021 Who am I?

October 21, 2023 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: 10 October, All Hallow's Eve, All Saints Day, Bl. Charles the Good, Fr. Emil Kapaun, St. Isaac Jogues Leave a Comment

*posted 2023, only a few years behind

This is one of the feastdays that we fully live out and spend a good amount of time preparing for — Hallowtide brings the way for two major feastdays.

We typically celebrate All Saints Day with festivities among family & friends on All Hallow’s Eve and assist at Holy Mass on the actual feast which is a Holy Day of Obligation. We try to start the Octave of All Souls with a visit to the cemetery for prayers of the deceased on Nov. 2.

One of the highlights is the Who Am I? presentations. The children present a bio of their saint. Many spend a great deal of time in researching the saints and getting to know their newfound patron.

We now have only 4 left to dress up. Below are the bios of our 2021 saint lineup. Orate pro nobis!

I was small and mighty. I beat the beast by slinging a stone at his head.

WHO AM I?

I was an Earl who became a knight in the Second Crusade to recover the Holy Land from the Moors. Upon my return, I received the County of Flanders

I had a great love for justice. I even forbade any of my subjects to blaspheme or take the name of God in vain. The punishment for blaspheming was to lose a hand or foot. My love for justice made me hated by many evildoers.

I declined to take over the throne because I wanted to focus on serving those in need. I gave all I could and would even sell the clothes off my back if needed. One day, I gave away 7,800 loaves.

I walked every morning barefoot to the church for my prayers and devotions. I was warned that some were plotting against me. I answered: “We are always surrounded by dangers, but we belong to God. If it be his will, can we die in a better cause…. than that of justice and truth?”

While I was reciting the penitential psalms before the altar, a mob rushed in and split open my head, in 1124.

WHO AM I?

I was beatified in 1884.

Patron of Crusaders

I became a priest in France in 1624. I went to the new lands to work and share the Faith.

I was kidnapped and held captive for over 1 year. The natives tortured me be by fire, removed fingernails, gnawed away my fingers, and much more. I even had to throw my finger in the woods so I wouldn’t be forced to eat it.

I was rescued from martyrdom a number of times. And eventually, I returned home. No one recognized me because my condition was so poor.

The Pope gave me special permission to offer Holy Mass since my critical fingers were missing.

I eagerly wanted to go back to the new lands in 1644. I told my friend, “I will go, but I will not return.”

Just two years later, on Oct. 18 1646, I was captured and tomahawked to death. My head was placed on a stake as a trophy of sorts and thrown into the river.

WHO AM I?

I was torn between the priestly duties at home and the need to serve the brave men in the military fighting in World War II. My bishop recommended me for the U.S Army Chaplain Corps (KORZ). I joined the post-world war peacekeeping force and experienced firsthand the horrors of the Korean War.

————————–

I was compelled to fight in the front lines with my troops. Due to the circumstances I offered Holy Mass on the hoods of our jeeps and prayed with my men in foxholes. I never carried a gun or fired a weapon. One day we were ambushed by the communists, rather than retreating with the others I and a doctor stood behind to care for the dying and wounded. We became Prisoners of War.

————————-

I risked my life every day by sneaking out to find food for the other prisoners. When the Chinese guards discovered that I had a blood clot in my leg, they moved me to the death house. There, I died, alone on May 23, 1951.

I forgave my captors and told the prisoners of the camp “Don’t worry about me, I am going to where I always wanted to go and I will pray for you!”WHO AM I?

2021 Saint Line up in order: David (fought Goliath), Bl. Charles the Good, St. Issac Jogues, and Fr. Emil Kapaun

All Saints Day 2020 – Patron Saints of Police Officers

October 21, 2023 by Lena {JOYfilledfamily} Filed Under: 10 October, All Hallow's Eve, All Saints Day Leave a Comment

All Saints’ Day is one of those feastdays that we spend much time preparing for — costume making, studying the saints, memorizing saint bios, practicing presentations, and the sheer joy of anticipating the festivities.

I’m now down to having only 4 children who dress up, soon it will be 3. So, I relish in seeing this feastday through the eyes of my children and reminiscing on all our fond memories.

Pictured in this video is the year that the three littles opted to be patron saints of police officers – 2020. They wanted the costumes at Costco so badly and I didn’t want to spend double the money.

So, they were…

St. Ambrose with the added homemade pipe cleaner bees on his cap along with a bottle of honey. He was called the Honey Tongued Doctor as he converted many and he is also a patron of bee keepers. 🐝

St. Sebastian with arrows in hand and one piercing his body. He was shot with arrows and left to die but survived and went on to preach until he was beaten to death. 🎯