August 2007 Archives

Collect

O God, by whose grace
Saint Joseph of Arimathea
was emboldened to ask
for the sacred Body of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that together with Saint Nicodemus
he might prepare it for burial and lay it in his own tomb,
give us such an increase of faith and courage
that we may not fear to bear reproach for the sake of Christ,
but rather may serve Him with sincere devotion
all the days of our life.
Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

Collect at the General Intercessions

O God,
who did leave us traces of your sufferings
on the holy Shroud in which your sacred Body,
taken from the cross, was wrapped by Joseph,
mercifully grant that, by your death and burial,
we may be brought to the glory of your resurrection.
Who live and reign forever and ever.

1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
Psalm 96: 1 and 2b, 5-6, 10, 11-12 (R. 12a)
Proper Gospel: Mark 15:42–47

The Will of God

Did you hear what Saint Paul said to the Thessalonians— and to us — today? “This is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Th 4:3). Each of us is called to become a saint together with the saints. And in the same place the Apostle says, “God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto sanctification” (1 Th 4:7). He tells us that we are to abstain from the impure passions of lust, and from cheating and dishonesty in our dealings with one another, adding that “the Lord is the avenger of all these things” (1 Th 4:6). Sin and God’s call to holiness are not things to be taken lightly. “For he who despiseth these things, despiseth not man,” says the Apostle, “but God, who also hath given His Holy Spirit in us” (1 Th 3:8).

The Martyrology

We are, at every moment, surrounded by “so great a cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1) who encourage us by their example and support us by their prayers. This is why the Church, in her wisdom, invites us every day to open her Martyrology and to become familiar with those whose “intercession is our unfailing pledge of help” (Euch. Pr. III).

Opening to the first entry for August 31st in the Roman Martyrology, we read:

At Jerusalem, the commemoration of Saints Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who received the body of Jesus taken down from the cross, wrapped it in a shroud and placed it in the sepulchre. Joseph, a noble official and disciple of the Lord, was seeking the Kingdom of God; Nicodemus, for his part, a member of the Pharisees and a ruler among the Jews, came to Jesus by night to inquire of his mission and defended him in the presence of the high priests and Pharisees who sought to arrest him.

One also reads in the 2004 edition of the Roman Martyrology the following provision at Article 30:

The Mass and also the Office of any Saint inscribed in the Roman Martyrology . . . may with just cause be celebrated on the day whereupon the name is inserted, when that day is a feria or when an optional memorial is permitted.

Today is also the feast of Blessed Jeanne Jugan (1792-1879), foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor. I take this opportunity to thank her daughters for their faithful loving service of the elderly, especially of those without resources. The Little Sisters of the Poor are especially attentive to the needs of the aged parents of priests. Tomorrow, in fact, they will be welcoming the mother of a dear priest friend of mine. Un tres grand merci, mes chères petite soeurs!

Advice for Moments of Crisis

Go and find Him when your patience and strength give out and you feel alone and helpless. Jesus is waiting for you in the chapel. Say to Him, "Jesus, you know exactly what is going on. You are all I have, and you know all. Come to my help.' And then go, and don't worry about how you are going to manage. That you have told God about it is enough. He has a good memory.

Collect

Almighty God, who made Blessed Alfredo Ildefonso
a good shepherd,
to build up with exemplary virtue
the flock entrusted to him;
grant that we may follow his teachings
and walk without wavering
under the guidance of the Gospel
until, at length, we come to contemplate you
in your eternal Kingdom.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

Collect at the General Intercessions

O God by whose grace
Blessed Ildefonso Schuster
served at your altars
in perfect recollection and quietness of heart,
radiating peace even in the midst of war,
grant, we beseech you, through his intercession,
that we may prefer nothing to the praise of your majesty
and never despair of your mercy.
Through Christ our Lord.

I first came to know of Blessed Cardinal Schuster by reading his Liber sacramentorum, Historical and Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal. It is hard to find now. I hope that, in the wake of Summorum Pontificum, it will be reprinted and, once again, become widely available.

Our Contemporary

The Benedictine calendar of the saints, like that of the Universal Church, grows as the Church makes her pilgrim way through history. In recent years a number of holy Benedictines have been glorified by the Church and Christ has been glorified through them.

I have the impression that as we all advance in age the saints are coming closer and closer to our own lifetimes. This is certainly the case of the Blessed Ildefonso Cardinal Schuster, the Benedictine monk and archbishop of Milan whom we remember today. He died on August 30th, 1954.

If you were to look at photos of Cardinal Schuster — and there are many of them — you would see the serene face of a gentle ascetic. In his eyes there is something that suggests that he saw the invisible; his gaze is that of a man whose life was profoundly interior.

Essentially Adorers

Ildefonso Schuster, the son of a Roman tailor, the Abbot of Saint Paul–Outside–the–Walls, and the Cardinal–Archbishop of Milan, was at the same time a scholar learned in the Church’s liturgy, in history, in art, in catechesis, spirituality, and archeology; he was a shepherd of souls, a diplomat, and a peace–maker. Beneath the scarlet robes of a Prince of the Church, he remained a monk, a child of Saint Benedict. Thus was he able to say:

Before all other things, and even above all things, O Venerable Brothers, we are essentially adorers. “This is how one should regard us, as ministers of Christ” (1 Cor 4:1). After that we must also be ministers of the people, the salt of the earth, and fishers of men, etc. but first, it is absolutely necessary that we be true servants of God: Ministers of Christ . . . appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God (Heb 5:1).

The Devil Is Afraid of Holiness

As Cardinal–Archbishop, Blessed Schuster never failed to direct the energies of his priests toward the One Thing Necessary. A few days before his death he withdrew to the seminary he had built and there he delivered a final message to his seminarians, warning them of the futility of an apostolate without personal holiness:

I have no memento to give you apart from an invitation to holiness. It would seem that people are no longer convinced by our preaching; but faced with holiness, they still believe, they still fall to their knees and pray. People seem to live ignorant of supernatural realities, indifferent to the problems of salvation. But when an authentic saint, living or dead passes by, all run to be there. . Do not forget that the devil is not afraid of our [parish] sports fields and of our movie halls: he is afraid, on the other hand, of our holiness.

At the Altar

When Blessed Schuster celebrated Holy Mass, his entire being was absorbed in the Divine Mysteries. There are many eyewitness accounts of the impact of his priestly devotion on the faithful. Archbishop Marini, the Papal Master of Ceremonies writes that, “the greatness of Schuster, more than in his writings, was in fact in his witness as a master of the prayer of the Church in his capacity to manifest through his body and to extend into daily life the spirit drawn from the celebration of the liturgy.” Cardinal Giacomo Biffi says: “The simple folk ran to contemplate this slight and frail man who, in his liturgical vestments, became a giant.” Seeing him at the altar people recognized a man in communication with the invisible power of God.

There is no doubt that, if Cardinal Schuster were alive today, he would greatly rejoice in the Holy Father’s Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. One of Cardinal Schuster’s great works is his three volume Liber Sacramentorum, Historical and Liturgical Notes on the Roman Missal. He loved the Church of Rome, loved the Church of Milan, and loved their ancient liturgies because in them he recognized the heartbeat of the Bride of Christ and the true sound of her voice.

When I was a lad in New Haven, Connecticut, I had the privilege of knowing Father Philip T. Weller. He spent a year or two in residence at Saint Francis Parish. For a boy who spent his free time reading The Church's Year of Grace by Pius Parsch, meeting Father Weller and serving his Mass was a dream come true. Father Weller was gifted with a melodious voice and loved Gregorian Chant. He sang Mass with a quiet reverence, with loving attention to the rubrics, and with manly devotion. His preaching was outstanding. Father Weller was a shining example of priestly liturgical piety. For all of that, he was never stuffy or distant. I remember him once interrupting the distribution of Holy Communion to say to Mrs. Zullo, "Madame, you have a lovely voice!" I have never forgotten him.

Preserving Christian Publications has made Father Weller's classic Latin-English three volume version of The Roman Ritual for the traditional Roman Rite available once again. Published originally between 1946 and 1950, the folks at PCP have faithfully and handsomely reprinted all three volumes in simulated leather hardbound with gold-embossing, sewn binding, a marking ribbon, and as in the originals: red and black text throughout with plainchant notation! All three volumes are also completely indexed in both Latin and English!

In his introduction to the books, Father Weller presents a mystagogical catechesis that is itself worth the price of the set. "Christ has sacramentalized the world," he writes, "and Christian man, therefore, is destined to live, and grow, and mature into Christian perfection chiefly by means of sacramental action. This is the ordinary way unto sanctification. . . . The true Christian spirit demands that man accepts the fact that supernatural life is concurrent with physical life, that spiritual contents are wed to material or external forms."

What treasures will you find in Father Weller's Roman Ritual apart from the rites of Sacraments and the Processions of the Liturgical Year? Here are just some of them:

— The Blessing of Holy Water
— The Blessings of an Infant, of a Child, and of Children
— The Blessing of Wine for Saint John's Day
— The Blessing of Chalk for the Epiphany
— The Great Blessing of Epiphany Water
— The Blessing of Homes
— The Blessings of Lamb, Eggs, Bread, New Produce, and Oil
— The Blessing of a Bonfire for the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
— The Blessing of Herbs on the Assumption
— The Blessings of Pilgrims, of Sick Pilgrims, of a Sick Adult, of Sick Children
— The Blessing of an Expectant Mother
— The Blessing of a Mother After Childbirth
— The Blessings of a Cross, of Sacred Images, of a Cincture, of a Votive Habit,
of Lilies in Honour of Saint Anthony of Padua, of an Organ, of a Church Bell, of Sick Animals, of Cattle and Herds, of Bees, of Silkworms, of Salt or Oats for Animals, of a Stable, of Linens for the Sick, of a Wheelchair, of Wine for the Sick, of Medicine, of Bread and Cakes, of Ale, of Cheese and Butter, of Fowl Meat, of Grapes, of a Fishing Boat, and of a Fire Engine.

There is so much more, including the blessings of devotional scapulars and other items at one time reserved to priests of particular Orders. I know of no other set of books containing so complete a collection of the sacramental rites of the Church.

Writing of the use of sacramentals (little sacraments), Father Weller says:

As he leaves the Eucharistic altar and banquet-table of the new Jerusalem, the Christian goes out, oftentimes into the atmosphere of a veritable Babylon. Fortified with Christ's kiss of peace, he launches the attack against Satan, using the auxiliary weapons which the Church, the worthy Spouse of Christ and our holy Mother dispenses with a lavish hand to her children. May the little sacraments treated of in this volume become powerful allies to the Holy Seven, to hasten our sacramental sanctification unto the full stature of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

In their presentation of the The Roman Ritual, our friends at Preserving Christian Publications, affirm that Father Weller "prepared it for the clergy 'as a manual and reference' and for the laity's 'interest and enthusiasm for the rites and prayers of so important a part of the liturgical books of the Church.'"

One of the books on my summer reading list was The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century, A Comprehensive World History, by Robert Royal. George Weigel calls it, “essential reading for anyone who cares about the Church in the modern world.” More Catholics were persecuted, tortured, and put to death for their faith in the twentieth century than in any previous century. Naively, and sometimes blithely, we appraise the last century in terms of scientific and technological progress. We forget that a mighty river of blood courses through the twentieth century during which more than one million believers were killed for their faith. The passion and death of Saint John the Baptist was but the beginning of two thousand and more years of bloody persecution for the Friends of the Bridegroom and Witnesses of the Lamb. How many of these can you identify?

Jeremiah 1:17–19
Psalm 70:1–2, 3–4a, 5–6ab, 15ab and 17 (R. 15ab)
Mark 6:17–29

Birth, Passion, Death

Each year the Church gives us two feastdays of Saint John the Baptist: the first on June 24th to mark his nativity, and today’s feast to mark his passion and death. We celebrate the nativity of Saint John the Baptist because, unlike everyone else with the exception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, John was born in holiness. Our Lord Jesus Christ sanctified John when both of them were still hidden in the wombs of their mothers.

Appearance and Disappearance

Jesus hidden in Mary approached John hidden in Elizabeth and, when the voice of the Holy Mother of God reached the ears of Elizabeth, the babe in her womb leaped for joy (cf. Lk 1:44). Although John, like all men, was conceived marked by Adam’s sin, he was born already touched by the saving grace of Christ mediated by His Immaculate Mother. Clearly, a child born in such extraordinary circumstances was destined by the Lord for even greater things. At the peak of summer on June 24th we celebrated the appearance of John the Baptist. Today, as summer begins to fade, we celebrate his disappearance.

More Than A Prophet

“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High” (Lk 1:76). John the Forerunner is a prophet and he is more than a prophet. By his preaching he speaks truth in the breath of the Holy Spirit. By his captivity, passion and death, he prefigures the Suffering Servant, the immolated Lamb who takes away the sins of the world, the Victim “by whose wounds we are healed” (1P 2:24). Our Lord Himself says: “A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John” (Lk 7:27-28).

This Joy of Mine

John the Baptist recognizes in Jesus the Light, the Christ, the Lamb of God and the Bridegroom. “Behold the Lamb of God!” (Jn 1:29). All John’s joy is to gaze upon His Face and to hear His voice. “I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full. He must increase but I must decrease”(Jn 329–30).

The Burning and Shining Lamp

The vocation of John was to be visible only for a time. “He was a burning and shining lamp,” says Jesus, “and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light” (Jn 5:25). John’s shining light was hidden away in the darkness of a prison cell. The Bridegroom had arrived; the Friend of the Bridegroom had to disappear.

This is a most unusual depiction of Saint Augustine washing the feet of Christ. A Capuchin friar named Strozzi painted it in 1629. Augustine, wearing an apron over his black monastic habit, is assisted by an angel. A tonsured monk looks on from a distance. With his right hand Augustine clasps the foot of Our Lord. His gaze is wholly turned towards the Face of Christ, who appears to be instructing him on what he is doing.

1 John 4:7-16
Psalm 118: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Matthew 23; 8-12

The Doctor of Charity

The words of Saint John in today's First Lesson are the perfect expression of Saint Augustine's own experience. Augustine is called the "Doctor of Charity," and with good reason. Saint John speaks of the discovery of charity that grounds every Christian life:

"Dearly beloved, let us love one another, for charity is of God. And every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is charity. By this hath the charity of God appeared towards us, because God hath sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we may live by Him. In this is charity: not as though we had loved God, but because He hath first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins" (1 Jn 4:7-10).

He Hath First Loved Me

For Saint Augustine, however, the words of the Beloved Disciple became intensely personal: "By this hath the charity of God appeared towards me, Augustine, because God hath sent His only begotten Son into the world, that I may live by Him. In this is charity: not as though I had loved God, but because He hath first loved me, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for my sins."

The discovery of the love of God came late in Augustine's life. It is always late. One cannot discover the love of God too soon. And so, the Doctor of Charity laments his tardy discovery of the One Thing Necessary:

Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new!
Too late have I loved Thee.
And lo, Thou wert inside me and I outside,
and I sought for Thee there, and in all my unsightliness
I flung myself on those beautiful things which Thou hast made.
Thou wert with me and I was not with Thee.
Those beauties kept me away from Thee,
though if they had not been in Thee, they would not have been at all.
Thou didst call and cry to me and break down my deafness.
Thou didst flash and shine on me and put my blindness to flight.
Thou didst blow fragrance upon me and I drew breath,
and now I pant after Thee.
I tasted of Thee and now I hunger and thirst for Thee.
Thou didst touch me and I am aflame for Thy peace....
(Confessions, Book X:38)

I offered the Sunday Vigil Mass in a suburban parish last Saturday in order to help out a friend and brother priest. Father is very dedicated and I have immense esteem for him. The observations that follow are no reflection on him. He inherited a difficult situation and hasn't yet completed his first year in the parish. But, like the prophet Jeremias, I am "weary with holding in." Disclaimer: the images below are in no way related to the place or persons mentioned in this rant. Any resemblance is purely coincidental.

Chatter

The first thing that disconcerted me was the idle chatter in church before Mass. It was like being in a theatre waiting for the lights to dim and the curtain to go up. People seated in little groups around the church held exchanged news and joked with absolutely no regard for the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, the sacredness of the place, or the few faithful who were actually trying to pray. I knelt in the back of the church surrounded by prattle on all sides and felt an immense sadness in my heart. The words of the Mass of the Sacred Heart came to mind: "I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none; and for one that would comfort me, and I found none" (Ps 68:21). Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament was alone among his own: ignored and treated with ingratitude and indifference in His own house. The chatter resumed immediately after Mass.

The Place

The unfortunate architecture of this particular church does not easily lend itself to recollection or to a spontaneous focus on the presence of our Lord. In spite of the large crucifix above the tabernacle, there is something about the building that is inimical to prayer. But there is more: the faithful seem to have lost any awareness of the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. There is no "eucharistic amazement." One does not find there the hush ordinarily commanded by an experience of the sacred.

Reverence

Not that long ago there was still a lively sense of reverence among Catholics. People would sign themselves with Holy Water upon entering the church. They would genuflect before entering the pew, then kneel in adoration for a few moments. It was not uncommon to see people lighting candles before Mass or visiting the side altars and the shrines of their favourite saints. Some folks would pray the rosary quietly. Others would read over the Mass of the day in their missals. All of this has been swept away. When Pope John Paul II proclaimed the "Year of the Eucharist" his stated aim was the recovery of "Eucharistic amazement" — call it reverence, awe, or the spirit of adoration — in the whole Church. Instead of things improving in the average parish, they seem to be getting worse.

A number of factors have contributed to this desolate situation. I will enumerate a few of them:

1) The loss of any notion of sacred space. I think this is directly related to the removal of the Communion Rail or other effective delineation of the sanctuary of the church. Time to rally 'round the rood screen again! The Tractarians were right.

2) Mass "facing the people." This, more than anything else, undermined and continues to undermine the faithful's experience of the Mass as a Sacrifice offered to God in adoration, propitiation, thanksgiving, and supplication. The altar has become the big desk of the clerical CEO behind it: The Presider. It has become a stage prop for the "performing priest," complete with The Microphone.

3) Holy Communion in the hand. I see it every time I offer Mass in a parish church: the casual approach prevails. If one receives the Holy Mysteries like ordinary bread and a sip of ordinary wine, one begins rather sooner than later, will-nilly, to think of them as mere bread and wine.

4) No bells. Instead of ringing a sacristy bell to announce the beginning of Mass, the organist leaned into His Microphone and said, "Let us stand to greet Father Kirby." Sorry. That is not what the Entrance Procession is about. It is a humble, joyful, and orderly movement into the Holy Place, a crossing-over from chronos (worldly, stressful, clocked time) to kairos (the heavenly, tranquil, timeless moment of God), an entering into the adorable presence of the God who is like a consuming fire, a making-ready for the inbreaking of the Kingdom of Heaven. A bell says it better.

Same thing during the Eucharistic Prayer. People need to be warned of the imminence of the most sacred moment of the Mass, even when the Eucharistic Prayer (Canon) is prayed aloud and in the vernacular. A bell does the job quite nicely. And another thing: saying the whole Eucharistic Prayer aloud and in the vernacular does not automatically guarantee "full, conscious, and actual participation" in the Holy Sacrifice. Silence, on the other hand, at least for certain parts of the Eucharistic Prayer, effectively opens a door onto the Holy Mysteries.

5) Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. Alas, they are not extraordinary. They are ubiquitous and, I think, superfluous. Does expediting the distribution of Holy Communion really constitute grave necessity? In the church where I offered Mass last Saturday there were four Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, all of whom were women. Three were wearing casual slacks and one was showing cleavage. They could have been serving lemonade at the parish garden party. It was frightfully inappropriate.

Could there not be properly instituted acolytes for the service of the Holy Mysteries where such are needed? These would be adult men — few in number — suitably vested in amice, alb, and cincture and, most of all, schooled in reverence, attention, and devotion, and carefully trained for the service of the sacred liturgy.

This brings up yet another issue? Where have all the men gone? At last Saturday's Mass, the four Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, the Server, and one Lector were all women. I am not a misogynist. But honestly, this situation does nothing to foster priestly vocations.

6) The Music. Dare I call it that? Oh, the music! Show-tuney, trite, tired, and sickeningly sentimental with the organist/crooner singing into His Microphone. Might we not try singing the Mass itself: the Ordinary and the Propers? More than anything else celebrants must begin taking their sacerdotal obligations seriously by learning to cantillate the dialogical parts of the Mass, the orations, the Preface Dialogue and Preface, and the other elements that belong uniquely to them as priests.

I am not a gloomy person by nature, but last Saturday's Mass left me very sad indeed. "For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry?" (Lk 23:31).

At First Vespers

Holy Father Saint Augustine,
Hearken to thy children's cry;
Plea for us as now thou standest
Near the throne of God on high:
Guide thy flock, O loving Shepherd,
Who to us in Christ art nigh.

Holy poverty's true lover,
All Christ's poor ones hymn thy praise,
Truth's own champion and defender,
Loved by all who seek her ways;
Scripture's God-enlightened teacher,
All her wealth thy pen displays.

Lighting depths obscure and hidden,
Thou dost break us heavenly bread
From the doctrine of our Saviour,
From the gracious words He said;
With the Psalms life-giving nectar
All who learn of thee are fed.

For the white-robed canon's choir
Laws of wisdom thou didst frame:
Those who love thy words and keep them,
Thy sure patronage may claim;
Safe, they tread the ways of Sion,
Calling on thy worthy name.

Glory to the King of Ages;
Praise and triumph to his reign;
Joining with the choir of Angels,
Let us sound our answering strain;
E'en now, 'neath our Patron's banner,
Citizens of heaven's domain. Amen.

Sirach 26:1-4, 13-16
Psalm 130: 1bcde, 2, 3
Luke 7: 11-17

Walking in the Light of His Face

Today we see Jesus on his way into the town of Naim, accompanied by His disciples. “And there went with Him His disciples, and a great multitude” (Lk 7:11). Those who follow Our Lord and walk with Him are an image of the Church, the body of those who walk “in the light of His face” (Ps 88:15).

Death and Life

“And when He came night to the gate of the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow: and a great multitude of the city was with her” (Lk 7:12). In the dead man the Church sees an image of Augustine before his conversion. In the widowed mother the Church sees an image of the holy mother Monica. In the crowd of mourners, the Church sees an image of those who experience sin and desire to be delivered from it: “those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Benedictus). Saint Luke depicts a striking scene: two crowds, arriving from opposite directions, meet. One is the community of death. The other is the community of life: an image of the Church.

Those Tears of Hers

“And when the Lord saw her, being moved with mercy towards her, he said to her, 'Weep not'" (Lk 7:13). Our Lord looked upon Saint Monica just as he looked upon the mother of the man being carried out for burial. Tears were the language of Saint Monica’s prayer. Saint Augustine himself says: “Thou didst listen to her, O Lord, and Thou didst not despise those tears of hers which moistened the earth wherever she prayed” (Benedictus Antiphon).

Dry Confessions

In Chapter 20 of the Holy Rule, Saint Benedict says: “Indeed we must grasp that it is not by using many words that we shall get our prayers answered, but by purity of heart and repentance with tears” (RB 20:3). I am always moved at the number of people, lay people especially, who make their confession with tears. If truly we hate our sins and regret them, it is normal that we should weep in going to confession.

It is easy to become indifferent to our sins, or coldly analytical. We may confess them insofar as we see them, but our confessions become a matter of routine. Our examinations of consciences rarely probe beneath the surface. We come to the sacrament with our pathetic little list of peccadillos. Having grown accustomed to our sins, they no longer fill us with horror. And so we begin to make dry confessions. The so-called dry confession is one of the signs of spiritual lukewarmness. “But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot," says the Lord, "I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth” (Ap 3:15).

Joy Comes with the Dawn

Touched by her tears, Jesus told the widow to stop weeping. He did not tell her to stop praying but to stop weeping. He wanted to change the language of her prayer from tears to cries of joy. The psalm says: “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the dawn. Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; thou hast loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness” (Ps 29:5.11).

My brother Terence and nephew Michael Colin visited on Sunday from New Hampshire. The Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, Connecticut was one of several destinations. The hall of dinosaurs is, in Michael Colin's own words, "just amazing."

Michael Colin is a four year old expert on dinosaurs. He knew their names and their distinctive traits. He was also very good at identifying other animals in a photo exhibition in the museum.

The Peabody Museum is something of a tradition in our family. With Michael Colin another generation is discovering it.

La Petite Arabe

The message of the “Little Arab,” Mariam Baouardy, Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified cannot but touch our hearts in these days when the Middle East is so much a part of the daily news. Mariam was born in Abbelin, a village of Galilee, on January 5th, 1846. She was plunged into the water of Holy Baptism and chrismated in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church fifteen days after her birth. After an astonishingly adventurous life that took her from Alexandria in Egypt to Marseilles and then Pau in France, and then to Mangalore, India, she was instrumental in founding the Carmel of Bethlehem in the Holy Land where she died on August 26th, 1878.

Humble

Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified illustrates the fundamental principle of holiness according to the Gospel: “Whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Mt 23:12). In Carmel she was a “sister of the white veil,” that is a religious charged with the monastery’s menial tasks and not bound to the Divine Office in choir. She was often “lifted up by the Spirit” (Ez 43:5) even literally, and shown the glory of the Lord. Though illiterate and ignorant of every worldly sophistication, Blessed Mary could say with the psalmist, “Let me hear what God the Lord will speak” (Ps 84:8). What she heard in prayer, she communicated in simplicity of heart.

Listen to Little Mariam

Rather than write about Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified, I will allow her to speak for herself. Here are some of her sayings;

Prayers to the Holy Spirit

First, there is her famous little prayer to the Holy Spirit. Today it is known and prayed by people all over the world:

Holy Spirit, inspire me.
Love of God, consume me.
Along the true road, lead me.
Mary my Mother, look upon me.
With Jesus, bless me.
From all evil, from all illusion,
from all danger, preserve me.

Again, to the Holy Spirit:

Source of peace, Light,
come and enlighten me.
I am hungry, come and nourish me.
I am thirsty, come and quench my thirst.
I am blind, come and give me light.
I am poor, come and enrich me.

Devotion to the Holy Spirit

The world and religious communities are seeking novelties in devotions, and they are neglecting true devotion to the Paraclete. That is why there is error and disunion, and why there is no peace or light. They do not invoke light as it should be invoked, and it is this light that gives knowledge of truth. It is neglected even in seminaries . . . .
Every person in the world that will invoke the Holy Spirit and have devotion to Him will not die in error.

Message to Priests

Personally, I have taken this message to heart. As a rule I offer a Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit on the first ferial day of each month.

Every priest that preaches this devotion will receive light while he is speaking of it to others. I was told that each priest in the world should be required to say one Mass of the Holy Spirit each month, and all who assist at it will receive very special grace and light.

This mosaic of Christ the Redeemer revealing His pierced Side adorns the apse of one of my favourite Roman churches, Sant'Alfonso on the Via Merulana. Sant'Alfonso is also the shrine of the original miraculous icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help.

Twenty-First Sunday of the Year C

Isaiah 66:18-21
Psalm 116:1-2
Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13
Luke 13:22-30

The Salvation of God

Today, the Word of God shocks us out of any kind of narrowness. The salvation of God will not be shrunken, diminished, limited, or measured by men. People have never been comfortable with the inclusiveness of God. The arms of God are not only divinely comforting; they are frightening in their immensity, disconcerting in their embrace.

A Procession of Return

In the First Reading Isaiah describes an immense procession of return to Jerusalem: a grand liturgy of conversion and of convergence. “They shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign among them” (Is 66:18-19). The return to Jerusalem signifies a return to God; that is conversion. The reunion of all peoples in Jerusalem signifies the coming together of all peoples in Christ; that is convergence.

Missionaries and Priests

Isaiah announces that missionaries, witnesses to the glory of God and “brethren” to the Chosen People, will be sent forth to the most distant lands. God even announces that he intends to take priests from among the Gentiles, from among those who have no hereditary claim to the priestly office. “And some of them I will take for priests and for Levites, says the Lord” (Is 66:21). The excluded are included; the unchosen, chosen; those afar off, brought near.

The Divine Hospitality

In the Gospel, Our Lord explodes an exclusive and narrow vision of His Father’s hospitality. Those who have always assumed that they have, by right, a place inside, at the table, may find themselves outside, while those whom many considered outsiders, discover — to the scandal of some, and to the joy of others — that a place inside, at the table, has been reserved for them. This is the mystery of the Divine Hospitality.

Magnificat I

Strive to enter by the narrow door,
for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter,
and shall not be able (Lk 13:24).

Benedictus

Many shall come from the east and the west,
and shall sit at table with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob
in the kingdom of heaven (Mt 8:12).

Magnificat II

Behold, they are last that shall be first;
and they are first that shall be last, says the Lord (Lk 13:30).

Saturday of the Twentieth Week of the Year I

Ruth 2:1-3, 8-11; 4:13-17
Psalm 127: 1-5
Matthew 23:1-12

A Virtuous Woman

The book of Ruth is one of the most charming in all of Sacred Scripture. Its tone is quiet and reflective. Ruth, the book’s heroine is a Moabitess, but she has all the virtues of a daughter of Israel pleasing to God. She is humble, tender, faithful, gentle, and courageous. When her mother-in-law Naomi was not only widowed, but also left bereft of her two sons, and this in a foreign land, Ruth was moved to compassion and chose to remain united to her mother-in-law, and to return from Moab to Bethlehem with her.

Thy God My God

Ruth’s words to Naomi are among the most beautiful expressions of friendship in the Bible. “Be not against me, to desire that I should leave thee and depart: for whithersoever thou shalt go, I will go: and where thou shalt dwell, I also will dwell. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. The land that shall receive thee dying, in the same will I die: and there will I be buried.” (Ruth 1:16-17).

Boaz Marries Ruth

In today’s reading, the two women have arrived in Naomi’s country of origin where Ruth asks leave of Naomi to go and glean in the field of Boaz. Boaz is smitten by the young widowed Moabitess and takes her as his wife. The child born of this union is Obed, the father of Jesse, and the grandfather of David.

The Genealogy

The names recalled in today’s reading are familiar to us from the genealogy of Our Lord Jesus Christ given by Saint Matthew (Mt 1:1-17). This is the genealogy that the Church reads on December 17, the first day of the Great O Antiphons, and again at the solemn Office of Vigils that precedes the Mass of Christmas during the night. The Church’s musical tradition has graced this text with a chant melody that renders the long list of names strangely moving and memorable.

Revelation 21: 9b-14
Psalm 144: 10-11, 12-13, 17-18
John 1:45-51

A Learned Rabbi

Today is the feast of Saint Bartholomew, the apostle whose other name is Nathanael. A native of Cana in Galilee and a friend of the Apostle Philip, Nathanael was a rabbi learned in the Scriptures. Tradition says that he preached the Gospel in Armenia and India. Apart from that we know little about him. In art, one can recognize him by the flaying knife that he holds in his hand, a symbol of his martyrdom.

Come and See

Philip introduced Nathanael to Jesus. Philip simply repeated the words of Jesus to Andrew and Simon Peter: “Come and see”(Jn 1:39). The most effective apostolate is the one by which souls are brought directly to Jesus by means of a simple invitation. Arguments, disputes and debates are to no avail; it is the experience of Christ that convinces and converts. How often has exposure to the Most Holy Eucharist — the sacramental experience of the living Christ truly present — been the occasion of a complete conversion!

A Man Without Guile

Our Lord saw in Nathanael a man free of the torturous complications that so often affect pious people. Nathanael had the prized virtue of simplicity; Jesus called him “a true Israelite in whom there is no guile” (Jn 1:47). Nathanael had no hidden agenda. What came out of his mouth was what he held in his heart.

My "little" brother and godson Terence turns 40 today! Terence is married to Sandy. They have three beautiful children, all of whom have been featured on Vultus Christi: Michael Colin (4 years old), Mary Elizabeth (2 years old), and Jonah Daniel (6 months old). Terence owns and operates My Dogs Mind in Hampton, New Hampshire.

Roses

Saint Rose of Lima is nearly always depicted in conversation with the Infant Christ. Sometimes she appears to be playing with him. The picture I have been looking at today shows a barefooted Child sitting in what appears to be Rose’s sewing basket and tugging at the rosary beads that she is wearing around her neck. In paintings of Saint Rose there are always roses in abundance: the roses that He offers her, and the roses that she offers him. Rose is also depicted holding the Cross. A lot of things about Saint Rose remind us of Saint Thérèse, the Little Flower: not just the roses, the Infant Christ, and the Cross, but also her youth, her ardour, her stubbornness, her rejection of every compromise.

Friends of the Infant Christ

The place of the Infant Christ in the spiritual experience of the saints would make for a fascinating study. I am thinking of Saint Simeon beaming with happiness at the sight of Him in the temple at Jerusalem and of crusty old Saint Jerome’s tenderness for the Child of the Cave of Bethlehem. I am thinking of Saint Bernard and of Blessed Guerric of Igny, of Saint Gertrude, Saint Mechthilde, and Saint Lutgarde. I am thinking of the Child Jesus sitting on Saint Anthony of Padua’s open book and looking at him as if to say, “Preach me! Preach me!” I am thinking of the Italian Cistercian mystic Veronica Laparelli and of the French Trappist, Dom Vital Léhodey who in the midst of a whirlwind of activities and crushing responsibilities lived in the intimacy of the Divine Child. Even closer to us are Mother Yvonne–Aimée with her Little Jesus, the King of Love, and Caryll Houselander who during World War II wrote a book called The Passion of the Infant Christ.

There are other friends of the Infant Christ too, some of them still living. What do they all have in common? I don’t pretend to have this all figured out but it seems to me that the friends of the Infant Christ share two things: an immense need for love and a need to be taught to let go, a need to learn what Dom Léhodey called le saint abandon, holy abandonment.

A Chat With the Divine Little One

I knew a priest who used to hear the confessions of Yale professors and graduate students at Saint Mary’s Church on Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven. The church also happens to be the Shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague. These very intense, frightfully earnest intellectual types would show up in his confessional with all their sins calculated, analyzed, categorized, de–structurized, alphabetized . . . . You get the picture. Father would invariably give these types the same penance. “Go off to the Shrine of the Infant Jesus and have a chat with the Divine Little One.” What does a professor or a graduate student up to his ears in a doctoral dissertation have to say to a toddler, even if the toddler is the Eternal Logos? Nothing. The abandonment to love begins where every learned discourse gives way to silence.

Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini's painting from the early 1700s shows anguish and distress on the face of Jephte, the victorious warrior come home from battle. His daughter is the very image of innocence and purity.

Thursday of the Twentieth Week of the Year I

Judges 11:29-39a
Psalm 39: 4, 6-7a, 7b-8, 9
Matthew 22:1-14

The Spirit Breatheth Where He Will

Today’s First Lesson relates the astonishing and tragic story of the judge Jephte, son of Gilead. The judges were not self-appointed. One became a judge in Israel by virtue of a mysterious action of the Spirit of the Lord. Suddenly and powerfully the Spirit of the Lord would fall upon the least likely candidates, inspiring them to heroic deeds that filled the people with awe. “The Spirit,” says the Lord Jesus, “breatheth where he will; and thou hearest his voice, but thou knowest not whence he cometh, and whither he goeth” (Jn 3:8).

Jephtee

Jephte did not seem to be made of the stuff of judges. He was a thug, and the son of a harlot (Judg 11:1). His half-brothers threw him out of his father’s house. He joined a gang and became a marauding raider (Judg 11:2-3), a kind of gangster in Canaan. When the Ammonites starting causing trouble, the elders of Gilead turned to Jephte for help. Apparently he had made a reputation for himself as a rather formidable fighter. Jephte took a perverse delight in letting them hang for a bit. “Are not you the men who hated me, and cast me out of my father’s house, and now you are come to me constrained by necessity?” (Judg 11:7). Sheepishly, the delegation promises that Jephte will be reinstated with honour among his own if he accepts to lead the sally against the Ammonites.

A Reckless Vow

A lot is at stake for Jephte. He makes an imprudent and reckless vow to the Lord. “If thou wilt deliver the children of the Ammonites into my hands, whosoever shall first come forth out of the doors of my house, and shall meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, the same will I offer a holocaust to the Lord” (Judg 11:31). Jephte does slaughter the Ammonites. Returning in triumph, who should come out to greet him first but his daughter, his only child?

Human sacrifice was not unknown in Canaan. Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac, his only son comes immediately to mind. The all-important difference is that Jephte’s sacrifice of his daughter was in fulfillment of a vow that the Lord had neither inspired nor required, whereas God himself had called to Abraham and commanded him to offer his son, his only Isaac whom he loved, to test Abraham’s obedience and faith (Gen 22:2).

This morning at the Monastery of the Glorious Cross we had the Blessing of Herbs and Flowers to mark the Octave Day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Christians of both East and West have, from very early times, blessed herbs and fruit on the Feast of the Assumption. Thus blessed, these creatures become sacramentals of the Church and portents of divine protection from dangers to soul and body. In some places the herbs were placed on the altar, and even beneath the altar linens, so that from this proximity to the Most Holy Eucharist they might receive a special hallowing, beyond that conferred by the blessing prayers of the Church.

The prayers of the rite suggest that this custom of the Church hearkens back to the ancient customs ordained by God through Moses. According to Christian tradition, when the Apostles accompanied Saint Thomas, who had been absent at the time of the Blessed Virgin's death, to her tomb, upon opening it they discovered that her body was not there. Instead, they found the tomb filled with fragrant herbs and flowers. Blessed herbs recall the lingering fragrance of the virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Church.

I regret that I was not able to take photos of the rite of blessing. Sister Elfriede had prepared a table covered with a white linen cloth. I brought my own basket containing spearmint, lavender, oregano, sage, thyme, and black-eyed susans. We used the rite given by my boyhood mentor, Father Philip T. Weller, in his magnificent Roman Ritual. Father Weller's three volume edition of the Roman Ritual was recently reprinted and is now available from Preserving Christian Publications.

Farewell

Today is the last day of the Octave of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We take leave of the great liturgical festivals in much the same way as Jews take leave of the Sabbath, with a sweet sorrow. The Jewish farewell to the Sabbath is called escorting the Queen. Queen Sabbath leaves, escorted to the door by devout hearts and leaving behind her unmistakable fragrance.

The Need for Octaves

Our Catholic liturgical tradition of the Octave respects one of the human heart’s deepest needs; the need to prolong the feast, the need to linger in the presence of the loved one, savouring every moment and storing up precious memories. For those who enter into the great liturgical festivals of the year there is an unwillingness to let them go, even after eight days. The Church has always honoured the need to prepare, to celebrate, and to prolong her solemnities. The custom of fasting before a feast is a way of making room in one’s soul for the graces flowing from the mystery commemorated. The custom of lingering over the same mystery for eight days is a way of assimilating those graces.

Pius XII

The Octave Day of the Assumption has been celebrated in various ways. In 1944, in the midst of the Second World War, Pope Pius XII entrusted the whole world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He decreed that the feast of her Immaculate Heart would be celebrated on August 22nd, the Octave of the Assumption. The same Pope Pius XII, in his encyclical of October 11, 1954, instituted the feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary on May 31st.

The Octave Day of the Assumption

With the revision of the Roman Calendar in 1969, the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was moved from the Octave Day of the Assumption to the Saturday after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The feast of the Queenship of Mary was moved from May 31st to the Octave Day of the Assumption, and May 31st became the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Writing in 1974, Pope Paul VI explained the reason for this adjustment:

The solemnity of the Assumption is continued into the celebration of the Queenship of Mary on the Octave Day. She who is enthroned next to the King of ages is contemplated as the radiant Queen and interceding Mother.

Pope Paul VI, writing in 1974, after the 1969 reform of the calendar, deliberately refers to the Octave Day of the Assumption. It would seem that he never intended the suppression of the Octave of the Assumption. Just as in the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary follows the Assumption, so too does the feast of the Queenship of Mary on August 22nd complete and crown the celebration of her Assumption on August 15th.

The Collect

The Collect for today’s feast calls Mary “our Mother and our Queen.” It echoes the language of the Salve Regina: "Hail, O Queen, Mother of mercy." Mary’s participation in her Son’s work of redemption surpasses that of every other creature. Being the Mother of the Redeemer, she entered at the foot of the Cross into the bloody sacrifice of the Fruit of her womb, offering Him and offering herself with Him.

Coredemptrix

Mary is the Coredemptrix not because of any deficiency in the redemption wrought by Christ, but because the Father willed that it should be so. This was the Father’s design from all eternity: that Mary, the New Eve, should enter fully into the saving work of the New Adam; that with Him she should become "obedient unto death on the Cross" (Phil 2:8); and that with Him she should be exalted forever in glory (cf. Phil 2:9).

Mediatrix of All Graces

Mary is the Mediatrix of All Graces because the Father willed that His Son should be “born of a woman” (Gal 4:4). The Father has given us all things in His Son. Saint Paul writes to the Romans, saying: “He that spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how hath He not also, with Him, given us all things?” (Rom 8:32). “And of His fullness we all have received, and grace for grace” (Jn 1:16).

Everything is given us in Christ. Christ is given us through Mary. Everything, then, is given us in Christ through Mary. Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins put it this way: “(Mary) mothers each new grace /
That does now reach our race.”

The maternal role of Mary did not come to an end after the birth and childhood of her Son. Her participation in His divine mission grew and unfolded day by day, until on the day He suffered, she heard Him say from the Cross, “Woman, behold thy Son” (Jn 19:26). In that hour Mary became the mother of the Beloved Disciple and of every disciple until the end of time; and in that hour Our Lord provided her with the means to exercise her universal maternity freely and lavishly on behalf of all her children. This is the divine logic of her universal mediation. In his homily for the canonization of Saint Anthony of Saint Anne Galvão in Brazil last May 11th, Pope Benedict XVI pronounced one of the clearest statements ever made by the Popes on Mary as Mediatrix of All Graces. This is what the Holy Father said: “There is no fruit of grace in the history of salvation that does not have as its necessary instrument the mediation of Our Lady.”

The Lord Is With Thee

Today’s First Lesson gives us the Angel’s greeting to Gideon. “The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘The Lord is with thee, O most valiant of men” (Jgs 6:12). The Archangel Gabriel greeted the Virgin of Nazareth with similar words: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee” (Lk 1:28). Now that “the fullness of time has come” (Gal 4:4), that greeting from heaven has passed into the liturgy of the Church on earth.

At the beginning of Holy Mass and at key moments within the celebration, the priest greets the people, saying, Dominus vobiscum, “The Lord be with you.” He refers to the presence of the Lord in the midst of the Church. The phrase can be understood either as a wish, May the Lord be with you, or as a declaration, The Lord is with you.

When the Angel says to Gideon, “The Lord is with thee, valiant warrior,” he is inviting him to take heart, trusting in the unfailing presence of the Lord. Thus do we hear Gideon say at the end of the mysterious encounter, “I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face” (Jgs 3:22). “And the Lord said to him: ‘Peace be with thee, fear not, thou shalt not die’” (Jgs 3:23).

Presence of Christ

How are we to understand the Dominus vobiscum of the Mass? It is a solemn and joyful affirmation of the presence of the Lord in the midst of the assembly. By His grace Christ is present and living in each baptized person for He is the Vine and we are the branches (Jn 15:5). According to Our Lord’s promise He is present also in the midst of those who come together in His Name. “Where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20).

The Voice of Thy Salutation

A thrill of jubilation should pass through the church every time the greeting of the priest, ancient and ever new, reaches the ears of the faithful. Recall what happened when the Virgin Mary greeted her cousin Elizabeth: “And she entered into the house of Zachary, and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost” (Lk 1:41). At what precise moment did this infilling take place? Elizabeth says, “Behold as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears” (Lk 1:44).

Chant

The musical tradition of the Roman Church has clothed this greeting in a little melody of two notes (sol and la) that is as sublime as it is simple. Dominus vobiscum. Only at the dialogue that precedes the Preface of the Mass does the greeting assume a more ample and solemn musical treatment, and this is to signify that at that very moment the priest and people are poised to enter into the Holy of Holies of the Mass.

Gesture

In singing these words, the priest extends his arms towards the assembly. He opens his hands as if to embrace all present and draw them into one single prayer to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. This particular gesture is reserved to bishops and priests. Though deacons are allowed to say, “The Lord be with you,” they do so with folded hands. It belongs to the bishop and to the priest to impart the grace of the Lord’s presence to the faithful, and to take them up with him into the prayer of Christ to the Father.

For today's feast: some of my favourite photos of Pope Saint Pius X.

Itching Ears Among Us

Saint Pius X exemplified the words of the Apostle to Timothy: “Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths” (2 Tim 4:2–4). One hundred years after Pope Saint Pius X we have to ask ourselves if there are not still “itching ears” among us.

What causes one’s ears to itch? Curiosity. Lack of discernment. A weak background in Catholic doctrine. Faithful Catholics cannot permit themselves to read just anything. To read authors of dubious orthodoxy or authors critical of the Magisterium is like scratching an itch. It becomes worse. Why would one would even want to read such authors when one can choose from among the inexhaustible richness of the writings of the saints of every age?

Weeds Among the Wheat

We flatter and deceive ourselves by saying that we are adults, that we are discerning, that we are capable of recognizing error, and that we are not affected by being exposed to questionable teachings. But we are wrong. Error is pernicious. It is like a little seed that, after a time, takes root, and then grows up as menacing weed. You know the parable of Our Lord: “While men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this’” (Mt 13:25–28). Be watchful lest, while you sleep, an enemy sow weeds among the wheat of your field.

Purity of Doctrine

Pope Saint Pius X was fearless in exposing error and he was selfless in sowing the seed of truth, of beauty, and of goodness in the field of the Church. “We had confidence in our God, to speak unto you the Gospel of God in much carefulness” (1 Th 2:2). Pope Pius X was an intrepid defender of the purity of Christian doctrine. He exposed and condemned the heresy of Modernism with energy and clarity.

Gregorian Chant

We remember Pope Saint Pius X especially for his famous Motu Proprio of November 22, 1903 on the reform of Sacred Music and the restoration of the Church’s plainchant. Like Pope Benedict XVI today, Pope Pius X was a musician; he was above all concerned that the faithful of the Catholic Church might pray in beauty. He recognized in Gregorian Chant the native idiom of the Roman liturgy. Gregorian chant shines with an evangelical poverty. It is chaste in its expression. It is entirely obedient to the Word of God that it clothes, carries, and delivers.

Worthy of the Temple

Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have reiterated his insistence on the primacy of Gregorian Chant and the value of the traditional Roman polyphony in the liturgy of the Church. On November 22, 2003, the anniversary of Pius X’s Motu Proprio, Pope John Paul II said, “With regard to compositions of liturgical music, I make my own the general rule that St Pius X formulated in these words: ‘The more closely a composition for church approaches in its movement, inspiration and savour the Gregorian melodic form, the more sacred and liturgical it becomes; and the more out of harmony it is with that supreme model, the less worthy it is of the temple.’” On June 24, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI spoke in similar terms: “An authentic renewal of sacred music can only happen in the wake of the great tradition of the past, of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony.”

The Holiness of Priests

Pope Pius X was also zealous for the holiness of the clergy. Writing to priests in 1908, he said, “Your sanctification has, indeed, first place in our thoughts and in our cares; therefore, with our eyes raised to heaven, we frequently pray for the whole clergy, repeating the words of Christ, our Lord: Holy Father . . . sanctify them (Jn 17:11, 17). Intercession for priests was integral to Pius X’s program for the restoration of all things in Christ.

Children

It was Saint Pius X who opened Holy Communion to little children. He invited the Catholic faithful to frequent, even daily Holy Communion. Pius X came to be known as the “Pope of the Eucharist,” a title that he now shares with Pope John Paul II, the author of Ecclesia de Eucharistia and of Mane Nobiscum, Domine.

Two Popes of the Eucharist

Divine Providence marked both the beginning and the end of the last century with Popes utterly devoted to the Most Holy Eucharist. Pray for us, Saint Pius X, that rejecting all that opposes the splendour of the truth, we may enter with pure hearts into the liturgy of the Church, and so "offer a worthy ritual to the Divine Majesty, to the praise and glory of His name, and to the benefit of all His Holy Church (Benedict XVI, Summorum Pontificum).

Sirach 15:1-16
Psalm 118: 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
John 17:20-26

Inflamed With Zeal

The Collect for Saint Bernard describes him as a man inflamed with zeal for the house of the Lord. The little phrase, inflamed with zeal, is the liturgy’s way of telling us that Saint Bernard was given to Church as a new Elias, the ardent prophet given to Israel. When Elias was on Mount Horeb, the Lord visited him in “the whistling of a gentle air” (1 K 19:12). “And when Elias heard it, he covered his face with a mantle, and coming forth stood in the entering in of the cave, and behold a voice unto him, saying: ‘What dost thou here, Elias?’ And he answered: ‘With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of hosts’” (1 K 19:14).

By way of Psalm 68:9, one of the great prophetic psalms of the sufferings of Our Lord, the same expression, inflamed with zeal, identifies Saint Bernard with Jesus in the mysteries of His Passion. After Jesus had driven the moneychangers out of the temple, His disciples remembered that it was written, “The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up” (Ps 68:9). The same burning zeal for the glory of the Father was to consume Jesus in His Sacrifice on Calvary.

The Mystical Embrace

The traditional iconography of Saint Bernard shows him held fast in the embrace of Jesus Crucified, who detaches His arm from the cross to draw Bernard to himself. The theme of the amplexus, or mystical embrace, is repeated in depictions of Saint Bernard again and again. The fire that burned in the pierced Heart of Jesus Crucified passed into Bernard, filling him with an astonishing capacity to s