November 2008 Archives

Today's Collect

Da, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus,
hanc tuis fidelibus voluntatem,
ut, Christo tuo venienti
iustis operibus occurentes,
eius dexterae sociati,
regnum mereantur possidere caeleste.

Almighty God,
grant to your faithful, we beseech you,
the will to go forth with works of justice
to greet your Christ at His coming,
that they, having a place at His right hand,
may be found worthy of the kingdom of heaven.

Collected Into Unity

Today's Collect for the First Sunday of Advent in the Ordinary Form -- our collective prayer, and the prayer inspired by the Holy Spirit by which all our secret prayers are gathered together and presented to the Father, through the Son -- deserves to be repeated until it descends into the heart. Its ultimate function, and that of all liturgical prayer, is to bring us into the unity for which Our Lord prayed on the night before He suffered: unity among ourselves so as to form one single bridal body united to Christ the Bridegroom-Head and, through Him, unity with the Father, in the embrace of the Holy Spirit.

Omnipotens Deus

Almighty God: first of all we address the Father. Our prayer goes straightaway to "the Father of lights from Whom descends every good endowment and every perfect gift" (James 1:17). We call Him Omnipotens Deus, all-powerful or almighty God, thus echoing what the Archangel Gabriel said to the Virgin of Nazareth: "For with God nothing will be impossible" (Luke 1:37). Again, by addressing God as omnipotent, we appropriate the very expression used by the Virgin Mary, already with child, in her Magnificat: "He who is mighty has done great things for me" (Luke 1:49).

Primary School of Catholic Prayer

The liturgy of the Church -- and, in particular the Divine Office -- is the primary school of Catholic prayer: a school that is in session 365 days a year, a school that, according to the ancient tradition of the Hours, meets seven times a day and once during the night. It is a school of total immersion in a new language: the language of prayer given by the Holy Spirit to the Church. Every year on the First Sunday of Advent we are invited to enroll again in this primary school of Catholic prayer, the liturgy of Mother Church.

Ex Corde Ecclesiae

It is through the liturgy -- and again, especially through the Divine Office -- that "the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought" (Romans 8:27). Saint Paul says that the Holy Spirit "asketh for us with unspeakable groanings"; the liturgy articulates these groanings of the Spirit. Rising from the heart of the Church, the groanings of the Holy Spirit take form on her lips in antiphons and in psalms, in responsories and in Collects. One who prays in harmony with the Church, making all of her expressions his own, prays in the Holy Spirit (cf. Ephesians 6:18).

Da, quaesumus

Back to the text of our Collect: the second line makes us say, "grant to your faithful, we beseech you, the will to go forth with works of justice to greet your Christ at his coming."
The Church does not tell God what she wants like someone ordering from his menu in a restaurant, first of all, because she is not paying the bill! The Church uses the humble language of supplication: she entreats, she beseeches, she implores, she begs. The liturgy never allows us to lose sight of our own creatureliness, of our absolute and utter dependence on God, and of the grandeur of His Divine Majesty. And so she says, and she teaches us to say, "grant to your faithful, we beseech you."

Grace Before All

And what does she pray for on the First Sunday of Advent? "The will to go forth with works of justice to greet your Christ at His coming." The human will cannot, of itself, move toward God without the grace of God. The prayer does not say, "help us to go forth with works of justice"; it says quite pointedly, "grant to your faithful, we beseech you, the will to go forth with works of justice." "Apart from me," says the Lord Jesus, "you can do nothing" (John 15:5), and again, "No one comes to the Father but by me" (John 14:6). We do not ask God for a mere helping hand; we ask him to grant us even the will to get moving.

This is one of the first lessons in the Church's school of prayer: our utter dependence on God's merciful favour, on His free gift of grace. God is present before we call upon Him, making it possible for us to call upon Him: "I was ready," He says in Isaiah 65:1, "to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me."

Works of Justice

Specifically, we pray for the will to go forth with works of justice. What are these works of justice? They are the thoughts, words, and deeds by which God adjusts us to His will: our sanctification. "For this is the will of God," says Saint Paul, "Your sanctification." Concretely the works of justice are the seven spiritual and seven corporal works of mercy enumerated in the Catechism. The works of justice correspond also to what Saint Paul, in writing to the Galatians, calls, "the fruit of the Holy Spirit" (Galatians 5:22-23). Again, you would know them from the Catechism: charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, and chastity.

His Threefold Advent

It is with these works -- evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives -- that we are to go forth to greet Christ at His coming. His coming -- His advent -- is threefold.

Historical and Liturgicall

First, there is His historical advent, His descent into the womb of the Virgin, His birth at Bethlehem: this historical event is re-presented, actualized for us in the course of the liturgical year. The liturgy is not a pageant depicting an event locked in an irretrievable past: it is the mysterious inbreaking of that historical event into our here and now by means of sacred signs charged with grace by the Holy Spirit.

Visited by Grace

Then, there are His secret intermediate advents: so often as Our Lord visits a soul by His grace, principally through the Most Holy Eucharist and the other sacraments, but also through the Divine Office, and in lectio divina, we can say, "Behold, the Bridegroom is here!" (Mt 25:6).

At the End of Time

And finally, there will be His advent at the end of time. It is of this advent that today's Gospel speaks: "But of that day and hour no one knoweth, not the angels of heaven, but the Father alone" (Matthew 24:36).

The final line of today's Collect is a preview of all that we hope and pray for: "that, having a place at His right hand, they may be found worthy of the kingdom of heaven." The Father finds this petition irresistible because it corresponds to the prayer of His Son, our Eternal High Priest surrounded by His Apostles in the Upper Room: "Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, may be with Me where I am" (John 17:24). And if this were not enough we have this other word of His, a promise to which we have only to lay claim: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock. If any man shall hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with me in my throne: as I also have overcome, and am set down with my Father in his throne" (Apocalypse 3:20-1).

What the Spirit Saith to the Churches

There is all of this and more in the Collect by which the Church opens Holy Mass and concludes all the Hours today. "He that hath an ear," then, "let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches" (Apocalypse 2:29).

Keeping Watch in the Night

Nothing in the course of the liturgical year can be compared to Advent Matins (also called Nocturns, or Vigils, and in the Liturgia Horarum, Readings), prayed in the pre-dawn darkness. This morning's monastic Matins were blessedly long: after each Nocturn of psalmody came four readings, each followed by a responsory, with the whole vigil culminating in the Holy Gospel (Matthew 24:37-44) and the ancient hymn to the Holy Trinity, the Te Decet Laus. One needs to pray at length -- to persevere in keeping watch -- for the grace of the Word to touch the heart, and begin to change it.

Grazing Among the Responsories

If you are not familiar with the traditional Advent responsories at Matins, find yourself a monastic or Roman breviary, and pasture your soul among them. They are the distillation of the prayer of Israel brought to perfection in the prayer of the Church. In them every soul can discover how true it is that, through the sacred liturgy, the Holy Spirit "helpeth our infirmity. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings" (Romans 8:26).

Saint Cyprian Speaks

What most struck me this morning was the homily read before the Gospel. It was taken from Saint Cyprian's Treatise on the Unity of the Catholic Church. Rarely have I read a text that speaks so clearly to the present age. Judge for yourself. Here it is:

We Rather Buy and Increase Our Store

But in us unanimity is compromised in proportion to the abundance of good works become scarce. Then [he is referring to the Acts of the Apostles] they used to give for sale houses and estates; and that they might lay up for themselves treasures in heaven, presented to the apostles the price of them, to be distributed for the use of the poor. But now we do not even give the tenths from our patrimony; and while our Lord bids us sell, we rather buy and increase our store. Thus has the vigour of faith dwindled away among us; thus has the strength of believers grown weak.

Shall Our Lord Find Faith on the Earth?

And therefore the Lord, looking to our days, says in His Gospel, "When the Son of man cometh, think you that He shall find faith on the earth?" (St. Luke 18:8) We see that what He foretold has come to pass. There is no faith in the fear of God, in the law of righteousness, in love, in labour; none thinks of fearing the future, and none takes to heart the day of the Lord, and the wrath of God, and the punishments to come upon unbelievers, and the eternal torments decreed for the faithless. That which our conscience would fear if it believed, it fears not because it does not at all believe. But if it believed, it would also take heed; and if it took heed, it would escape.

Break the Slumber of Our Ancient Listlessness

Let us, beloved brethren, arouse ourselves as much as we can; and breaking the slumber of our ancient listlessness, let us be watchful to observe and to do the Lord's precepts. Let us be such as He Himself has bidden us to be, saying, "Let your loins be girt, and your lamps burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when He shall come from the wedding, that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open to Him. Blessed are those servants whom their Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching."

Unburdened and Disentangled

We ought to be girt about, lest, when the day of setting forth comes, it should find us burdened and entangled. Let our light shine in good works, and glow in such wise as to lead us from the night of this world to the daylight of eternal brightness. Let us always with solicitude and caution wait for the sudden coming of the Lord, that when He shall knock, our faith may be on the watch, and receive from the Lord the reward of our vigilance. If these commands be observed, if these warnings and precepts be kept, we cannot be overtaken in slumber by the deceit of the devil; watchful servants, we shall reign with the triumphant Christ.

The Novena in Preparation for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary begins today and continues through December 7th.

Tota pulchra es, Maria,
et macula non est in te.
Tu gloria Jerusalem,
tu laetitia Israel,
tu honorificentia populi nostri.
Tu advocata peccatorum,
O Maria, Virgo prudentissima,
Mater clementissima,
ora pro nobis
ad Dominum Jesum Christum.

V. Sicut lilium inter spinas.
R. Sic Amica mea inter filias Adae.

Oremus.

Deus, qui per immaculatam Virginis Conceptionem
dignum Filio tuo habitaculum praeparasti:
quaesumus; ut qui ex morte ejusdem Filii tui praevisa,
eam ab omni labe praeservasti,
nos quoque mundos ejus intercessione
ad te pervenire concedas.
Per eundem Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum,
Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat,
in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus:
per omnia saecula saeculorum.
Amen.

Thou art all-lovely, O Mary,
and in thee there is no stain.
Thou art the glory of Jerusalem,
Thou art the joy of Israel,
Thou art the honour of our people.
Thou art the advocate of sinners,
O Mary,Virgin most prudent,
Mother most clement,
pray for us
to our Lord Jesus Christ.

V. Like a lily among thorns.
R. So is my Beloved among Adam's daughters.

Let us pray.

O God, who by means of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin
didst prepare a worthy dwelling for Thy Son,
and foreseeing His death,
didst thereby preserve her from all stain,
grant that we too by her intercession
may come to Thee unstained by sin.
Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord,
Who is God, living and reigning with Thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

Power of the Mother With the Son

For if "God heareth not sinners, but if a man be a worshipper of Him and do His will, him He heareth"; if "the continual prayer of a just man availeth much"; if faithful Abraham was required to pray for Abimelech, "for he was a prophet"; if patient Job was to "pray for his friends," for he had "spoken right things before God"; if meek Moses, by lifting up his hands, turned the battle in favour of Israel, against Amalec; why should we wonder at hearing that Mary, the only spotless child of Adam's seed, has a transcendent influence with the God of grace?

And if the Gentiles at Jerusalem sought Philip, because he was an apostle, when they desired access to Jesus, and Philip spoke to Andrew, as still more closely in our Lord's confidence, and then both came to Him, is it strange that the Mother should have power with the Son, distinct in kind from that of the purest angel and the most triumphant saint?

If we have faith to admit the Incarnation itself, we must admit it in its fullness; why then should we start at the gracious appointments which arise out of it, or are necessary to it, or are included in it? If the Creator comes on earth in the form of a servant and a creature, why may not his Mother on the other hand rise to be the Queen of heaven, and be clothed with the sun, and have the moon under her feet? (The Venerable Servant of God John Henry Cardinal Newman, "Discourses to Mixed Congregations")

Spiritual Rescue Operations

Priests caring for souls -- and others as well: parents, spouses, and friends -- may find themselves at times engaged in a kind of spiritual rescue operation on behalf of a particular person. In such situations it is crucial to recall two words of Our Lord from Saint John's Gospel: "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (Jn 15:5), and "Behold your mother" (Jn 19:27).

The Name of Jesus

No human agent, however devoted to prayer and fasting he may be, can by his own power, restore a soul to health. It is by the name of Jesus, that is to say, by His adorable Person, that souls are delivered from bondage and oppression, healed, and raised to life.

Thus taught the Apostle Peter: "Here is a man you all know by sight, who has put his faith in that Name, and that Name has brought him strength; it is the faith which comes through Jesus that has restored him to full health in the sight of you all" (Ac 3:16).

Intercessory Prayer

When a soul, weakened by sin, hardened by impenitence, and sometimes blinded by the powers of darkness cannot invoke the Name of Jesus for herself, the consoling doctrine of the Mystical Body authorizes others to do this on her behalf. This is the mystery of intercessory prayer. In its simplest form, intercessory prayer is the invocation of the Name of Jesus.

The Immaculate Virgin Mary

That being affirmed, know that no creature in heaven or on earth can pronounce the saving Name of Jesus as can the Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God. The name of Jesus in the Heart of Mary, and on her lips, is a remedy of boundess efficacy. For this reason the sacred liturgy applies to the Mother of God the psalmist's prophecy: Diffusa est gratia in labiis tuis -- "Thy lips overflow with gracious utterance" (Ps 44:3).

Omnipotentia Supplex

Guided by a sure instinct coming from the Holy Spirit, Christians have, from the earliest centuries, besought the Mother of God to invoke the Name of Jesus on their behalf. Instructed by experience, the Church acclaims her as omnipotentia supplex, all-powerful in her supplication. There are critical situations in which the wisest and most efficacious course of action is to entrust or consecrate the person or persons concerned to the all-holy Mother of God, the Immaculate Conception. Saved in advance by the Precious Blood of the Lamb, and full of grace at the very instant of her conception in the womb of her mother Saint Anne, the Immaculata crushes the head of the ancient serpent beneath the weight of the grace that fills her.

A Prayer

Last year I served a fortnight as interim chaplain to the Benedictines du Saint-Sacrement at the Sanctuary of Notre Dame d'Orient in the Aveyron, France. (This particular title of the Mother of God refers not to the Orient (East), but rather to Our Lady's readiness to tend her ear to us at every moment: auriens.) While at Notre-Dame d'Orient I was inspired to write a prayer of intercessory consecration to Immaculate Virgin Mary.

This prayer of consecration may be helpful when one experiences a need to entrust particular souls in difficulty to the Immaculate Conception. When a priest prays it, he may want to don the stole and pray it before a blessed image of the Most Holy Virgin. This intercessory consecration is appropriate for the unbinding and healing of situations marked by habitual sin and moral suffering. The Immaculate Virgin Mary is ever-ready to intervene in the lives of her children. She is the Mother of Mercy and the Mediatrix of All Graces. Here is the prayer, first in English, and then in the original French.

In the name of the Father, + and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Most holy Virgin Mary.
-- thou whom the FATHER didst preserve from the first instant of thy conception
from all evil and from the least shadow of sin,
-- thou whom the Precious Blood of JESUS didst render immaculate and all-beautiful, even before that same Blood was formed in thy virginal womb and poured out upon the altar of the Cross,
-- thou whom the HOLY SPIRIT didst fill full with every grace in view of the glorious motherhood of the Son of God for which thou wast created,
-- thou art she who crusheth the head of the ancient serpent,
thou art she who alone overcometh the evil that is in us and around us.

To thee, O Mary,
thy Son hath entrusted the liberation of souls enchained by sin,
the healing of wounded souls,
and the sanctification of souls who have suffered evil's worst ravages.

Thou hast only to open thy immaculate hands over them,
and they are shot through with the rays of thy purity.
Through thee, entereth the light to shine in the darkest places.
Through thee, souls are washed in a downpour of graces.
Through thee, the Holy Spirit succoureth the weakest souls
and giveth to the sterile a wonderful fecundity.

Thou, O Mary, art the only hope of thy children scarred by sin
and poisoned by its venom.
To those whom the enemy hath made to go astray in bitterness and in fear,
thou openest the path of life and of beatitude.

This is why, impelled today by the boldness that cometh of the Holy Spirit,
and by a confidence that is altogether that of a son,
[and when the consecration is made by a priest:
and in virtue of my priesthood,]
I entrust to thee N. and N.,
in consecrating them to thy pierced and immaculate Heart.

Show thyself the Mother of mercy.
Show thyself our all-powerful Queen,
for there is nothing that resisteth thy supplication
in the presence of Jesus, the King of Love.

Mediatrix of all graces,
save these souls from the tentacles of evil.
Heal them, even in those secret and painful wounds,
that only thy most gentle motherly hand can touch
without adding to their pain.

From this moment on,
these souls are consecrated entirely to thee.
Do thou for them whatsoever thy maternal Heart will suggest to thee.
Purify them in the Precious Blood of thy Jesus, the Lamb without stain,
so that now, and even unto the ages of ages,
they may live for the praise of the glory
of the Father + and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

O LORD JESUS CHRIST, Who hast commanded
that the men whom Thou hast called
and set apart for the service of Thy holy altars,
should themselves be holy:
give them such holiness
that in them Thy Father may take delight
and Thy Bride, the Church, find consolation.

Send Thou upon them the promised Paraclete,
to keep them firm in their faith
in the midst of an unbelieving world;
to keep them ardent in their love
among those that love Thee not;
to keep them pure amidst the impure;
and to keep them Thine amidst those who are as yet not Thine,
but whom Thou, O gentle Shepherd,
didst come to seek and to save.

And give them grace,
through the intercession of our most gracious Lady and Queen,
Thy Mother, Blessed Mary Ever-Virgin,
so to serve Thee
among all the changes and chances of this passing world,
that hereafter they may be ready
to enter in with Thee, O Eternal High Priest,
to the sanctuary not made by human hands
where Thou livest for ever to make intercession for us,
and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost,
one God, world without end. Amen.

Those noble hymns, which had solaced anchorites on their mountains, monks in their cells, priests in bearing up against the burden and heat of the day, missionaries in girding themselves for martyrdom--henceforth became as a sealed book and as a dead letter.

A Disaster

One of the most scandalous post-conciliar ruptures with liturgical continuity occurred with the publication of the American edition of the Liturgy of the Hours by the Catholic Book Publishing Company in 1975. The American Catholic clergy and faithful were given four volumes flawed by scant regard for the model provided by the Editio Typica of the Liturgia Horarum. These volumes betray no understanding or experience of the exigencies of choral prayer.

What Were They Thinking?

The editors had no idea, for example, that the function of antiphons is to launch and repose the psalmody, both musically -- being in function of the mode of the psalm tone -- and theologically, by providing a hermeneutical key to the psalm in a given liturgical context. Stupidly, they placed the psalm prayer after the doxology and before the repetition of the antiphon, thus annihilating one of the antiphon's principal functions and fracturing the natural flow of the ending of the doxology into the antiphon. Is it really possible that no one in the employ of the American bishops noticed this in 1975?

And the Hymns

The most egregious deficiency of the American edition however, is, with precious few exceptions, the arbitrary replacement of the Church's official hymnody with a potpourri of compositions never intended for the Divine Office. This is a problem that John Mason Neale addressed in an article published in 1849:

Hymns of the Western Church

Among the most pressing of the inconveniences consequent on the adoption of the vernacular language in the office-books of the Reformation, must be reckoned the immediate disuse of all the hymns of the Western Church. That treasury, into which the saints of every age and country had poured their contributions, delighting, each in his generation, to express their hopes and fears, their joys and sorrows, in language which whould be the heritage of their Holy Mother until the end of time--those noble hymns, which had solaced anchorites on their mountains, monks in their cells, priests in bearing up against the burden and heat of the day, missionaries in girding themselves for martyrdom--henceforth became as a sealed book and as a dead letter.

Day Unto Day and Night Unto Night

The prayers and collects, the versicles and responses, of the earlier Church might, without any great loss of beauty, be preserved; but the hymns, whether of the sevenfold daily office, of the weekly commemoration of creation and redemption, of the yearly revolution of the Church's seasons, or of the birthdays to glory of martyrs and confessors--those hymns by which day unto day had uttered speech, and night unto night had taught knowledge--could not, by the hands then employed in ecclesiastical matters, be rendered into another, and that a then comparatively barbarous, tongue.

Still Expecting in Patience the Rest

One attempt the Reformers made--the version of the Veni Creator Spiritus in the Ordinal; and that, so far perhaps fortunately, was the only one. . . . The Church of England had, then, to wait. She had, as it has well been said, to begin over again. There might arise saints within herself, who, one by one, should enrich her with hymns in her own language; there might arise poets, who should be capable of supplying her office-books with versions of the hymns of earlier times. In the meantime the psalms were her own; and grievous as was the loss she had sustained, she might be content to suffice herself with those, and expect in patience the rest.

The Orbit Determined By Christ

"At the very moment when the Magi, guided by the star, adored Christ the new king, astrology came to an end, because the stars were now moving in the orbit determined by Christ. This scene, in fact, overturns the world-view of that time, which in a different way has become fashionable once again today. It is not the elemental spirits of the universe, the laws of matter, which ultimately govern the world and mankind, but a personal God governs the stars, that is, the universe; it is not the laws of matter and of evolution that have the final say, but reason, will, love--a Person. And if we know this Person and he knows us, then truly the inexorable power of material elements no longer has the last word; we are not slaves of the universe and of its laws, we are free."

Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

Until the Stars in Welcome Sing

This is my homespun translation of the seventh century hymn for Vespers in Advent: Conditor Alme Siderum. (John Mason Neale's translation is far superior to mine. Read it and hear the ancient syllabic melody here.) When Advent rolls round and I sing this hymn in Latin or in English translation, I see in my mind's eye Van Gogh's Starry Night. In the little church with the tall steeple at the bottom of the painting there must be a lingering scent of incense. Advent Vespers will have been sung. The Creator of the Starry Night is glorified.

O Light unconquered, Source of Light,
Whose radiance kindles stars and sun,
Shine tenderly on us this night;
Creation groans until you come.

Immense your grief to see our plight:
When sin had shrouded all, you came.
True Dayspring bursting death's dark bands,
Emmanuel, your saving name!

Night weighed upon a weary world
When silently you pitched your tent,
Enclosed within the Virgin's womb
True man, true God from heaven sent.

So to the darkened world in need,
Eternal Word, you came as man.
You came as Bridegroom, swift and strong,
To claim the prize the course you ran.

Until your glory fills the skies,
Until the stars in welcome sing,
Until you judge both small and great,
From sin, protect us, Sovereign King.

To God the Father, God the Son,
To God the Spirit ever be
Glad songs of praise throughout the night
While faith adores the mystery. Amen.

The Cross, the Passion, and the Most Holy Eucharist

Today's Saint Silvester Guzzolini (1177-1267), founder of the so-called Blue Benedictines (from the colour of their habit) or Silvestrines, exemplifies the monastic spirituality of the thirteenth century. Nourished by the Word of God, Silvester filled the gaze of his soul with the mysteries of the Passion of Our Lord, contemplating His wounds and desiring nothing so much as to follow Him along the way of the Cross. So strong was this desire of his that on one occasion he was mystically transported to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. As one might expect, Silvester's devotion to the Passion of Jesus found its highest expression in the ardent love he had for the Most Holy Eucharist. This is reflected in the beautiful Secret for his feast:

With all reverence, O Lord,
do we offer these gifts to Thy divine Majesty:
praying that by the devout preparation of our minds
and purity of heart,
we may be made imitators of the blessed Silvester,
and so deserve to receive in a holy manner
the Body and Blood of Thy Son.

The Mother of God

Silvester nurtured a tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Mercy, to whom he entrusted himself entirely. Our Lady responded by demonstrating her maternal love for him with singular graces. On one occasion, he fell in the staircase while descending to the Night Office. The Blessed Virgin came to help him and, in the twinkling of an eye, Silvester found himself safe and sound back in his cell. One hears of similar episodes in the lives of modern saints such as Padre Pio, Marthe Robin, and Mother Yvonne-Aimée of Malestroit.

Communion from the Hands of Our Lady

The most famous Marian prodigy in his life took place when, of a night, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him in a dream and said, "Silvester, dost thou desire to receive the Body of my Son?" With trepidation he answered, "My heart is ready, O Lady; let it be done unto me according to thy word." With that, the Mother of God gave him Holy Communion. Claudio Ridolfi painted the episode in 1632.

The Collects

There are two Collects for today's feast. The first alludes to the horrifying experience that caused Silvester to change his way of life and embrace the monastic state. In 1227, as a fifty year old canon of the cathedral of Osimo, he saw the decomposing body of a man who, in life, had been comely and strong. Silvester then said to himself: "What he was thou art, and what he is, thou shalt be." With that, he decided to withdraw into solitude.

The second prayer, found in the new Antiphonale Monasticum, reflects the two principle graces of his life: solitude and community. The Latin text has this magnificent conclusion: et in humili caritate ad aeterna tabernacula festinare!

O most clement God, Who,
when the holy abbot Silvester,
by the side of an open grave,
stood meditating on the emptiness of the things of this world,
didst vouchsafe to call him into the wilderness
and to ennoble him with the merit of a singularly holy life;
most humbly we beg of Thee, that like him,
we may despise earthly things,
and enjoy fellowship with Thee for evermore.

O God who bestowed upon Saint Silvester
zeal for the sweetness of solitude
and for the labours of the cenobitical life,
grant us, we beseech Thee,
to seek Thee always with a sincere mind
and in humble charity
hasten toward the eternal tabernacles.

The Suitable and the Unsuitable

There is much discussion in ecclesiastical and monastic circles about the discernment of vocations. One gets the impression, at times, that sinners -- even repentant ones -- are to be severely excluded as unsuitable. A monastery, or so it seems to me, is by its very nature a hospital for those afflicted with maladies of the soul. One enters a monastery to get better! My table reading of late is Dom Oury's biography of Dom Prosper Guéranger, Moine au coeur de l'Eglise. The following excerpt from one of the Abbot's letters to Madame Swetchine (13 January 1838) struck me. The translation from the French and the phrases in italics are my own.

As for the good Catholics of the Faubourg Saint-Germain who think that Solesmes is not a place of penitence, I have but one little word to say; it is that, like my Divine Master, I have not come to call the just, but sinners and that our house is at the service of all those touched by grace. Let them all come. I am quite ready to bear the reproach of eating with sinners, for I am a sinner myself and not just, like the One to whom this reproach was made.

O woman of little faith! Why did you think that? You don't know what a monk is. May this house of ours perish if there be in the world a single repentant soul to whom the statutes would close it. ( . . .)

Oh! I admit that I was humiliated to the quick to discover that our house was considered a house for the learned, but I am even more humiliated to learn that one thinks it open only to saints! Alas! If it were so, it would have nothing in common with heaven, which our Saviour opened so widely to the little ones and to the ignorant, but also to sinners and to women of wicked life: He spoke thus. Like Saint Paul, I do not blush on account of the Gospel.

Gone and Back Again

Filippino Lippi shows the mystical espousal of Saint Catherine of Alexandria with the Infant Christ. The Mother of God, Saint John the Baptist, Saints Peter and Paul, and Saint Sebastian are there as witnesses.

Saint Catherine of Alexandria vanished from the Roman Calendar in the reform of 1969 and, Deo gratias, reappeared in 2002. Why? Part of the answer can be found, I think, by comparing the lovely old Collect for Saint Catherine with the one newly composed for the 2002 edition of the Roman Missal.

In the traditional liturgy, on November 25th the Church prays:

O God Who gavest the Law to Moses on the summit of Mount Sinai,
and didst miraculously place the body of Thy blessed virgin-martyr Catherine
in the selfsame spot by the ministry of Thy holy angels,
grant, we beseech Thee, that her merits and pleadings
may enable us to reach the mountain which is Christ.

The Collect focuses on the image of Mount Sinai, the sacred mountain which prefigures Christ himself. The first phrase of the prayer takes up Exodus 31:18, the inspiration of the Great O Antiphon that we will be singing on December 18th:

O ADONAI, and Ruler of the House of Israel, who appeared unto Moses in the burning bush and gave him the Law on the summit of Sinai: come to redeem us with an outstretched arm!

Of Monks and Angels

The only problem (although not for me) with the fine old Collect, it would seem, is that it hinges on the legendary miraculous translation by angels of the body of Saint Catherine to Mount Sinai. Ah, but look again! In the Eastern tradition consecrated monks are designated "of the Angelic Habit."

Given that the life of monks, dedicated to the ceaseless praise of the Thrice-Holy God, has often been compared to that of the Angels, monks have, at various times, been called "angels." (See Père Louis Bouyer's classic book, The Meaning of the Monastic Life.) The translation by "angels" may have been carried out by monks!

Unity Among the Churches

The newly composed Collect for Saint Catherine does not make use of the biblical mountain imagery; instead it focuses on the work of Christian unity. Saint Catherine, cherished and greatly venerated in the East, becomes in the new Collect an intercessor for the unity of the Church.

Almighty and eternal God,
who gavest to Thy people the invincible virgin and martyr Saint Catherine,
grant that, by means of her intercession,
we may be strengthened in faith and constancy,
and spend ourselves unsparingly
in working for the unity of Thy Church.

The Patrimony of a Pilgrim Pope

The significance of Saint Catherine's reappearance in the pages of the Roman Missal cannot be understood apart from the historical pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai in Egypt on February 26, 2000. Today's feast of the Virgin Martyr of Alexandria recalls the commitment of the Church of Rome to the arduous work of unity with the Churches of the East through prayer and humble dialogue. In the Collect of the 2002 edition of the Missale Romanum we ask that, through the intercession of Saint Catherine, "we may be strengthened in faith and constancy, and spend ourselves unsparingly in working for the unity of the Church."

The homily that Pope John Paul II preached at the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai is, in its own way, a prophetic word to the churches:

Here He Revealed His Name

Our faith leads us to become pilgrims in the footsteps of God. We contemplate the path He has taken through time, revealing to the world the magnificent mystery of His faithful Love for all humankind. Today, with great joy and deep emotion, the Bishop of Rome is a pilgrim to Mount Sinai, drawn by this holy mountain which rises like a soaring monument to what God revealed here. Here He revealed his name! Here he gave his Law, the Ten Commandments of the Covenant!

Holy Ground

How many have come to this place before us! Here the People of God pitched their tents (cf. Ex 19:2); here the prophet Elijah took refuge in a cave (cf. 1 Kgs 19:9); here the body of the martyr Catherine found a final resting- place; here a host of pilgrims through the ages have scaled what Saint Gregory of Nyssa called "the mountain of desire" (The Life of Moses, II, 232); here generations of monks have watched and prayed. We humbly follow in their footsteps, to "the holy ground" where the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob commissioned Moses to set his people free (cf. Ex 3:5-8).

Adore Him

God shows Himself in mysterious ways - as the fire that does not consume - according to a logic which defies all that we know and expect. He is the God who is at once close at hand and far-away; He is in the world but not of it. He is the God who comes to meet us, but who will not be possessed. He is "I AM WHO I AM" - the name which is no name! I AM WHO I AM: the divine abyss in which essence and existence are one! The God who is Being itself! Before such a mystery, how can we fail to "take off our shoes" as He commands, and adore Him on this holy ground?

Listening to the Word

Pope John Paul II went on to acknowledge the age-old monastic presence on Sinai:

The monks of this Monastery pitched their tent in the shadow of Sinai. The Monastery of the Transfiguration and Saint Catherine bears all the marks of time and human turmoil, but it stands indomitable as a witness to divine wisdom and love. For centuries monks from all Christian traditions lived and prayed together in this Monastery, listening to the Word in whom dwells the fullness of the Father's wisdom and love. In this very Monastery, Saint John Climacus, wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent, a spiritual masterpiece that continues to inspire monks and nuns, from East and West, generation after generation.

The Things That Unite Us in Christ

The Pope concluded by praying that,

. . . in the new millennium the Monastery of Saint Catherine will be a radiant beacon calling the Churches to know one another better and to rediscover the importance in the eyes of God of the things that unite us in Christ.

The Catholic "Both And"

This, it seems to me, enriches the ancient feast of Saint Catherine of Alexandria with another perspective: "the importance in the eyes of God of the things that unite us in Christ." So then, which Collect should we use today? I would suggest that we do a very Catholic thing and use both of them. My preference would be to retain the traditional prayer at Holy Mass and the major Hours and use the new one at the Little Hours and, perhaps, to conclude the General Intercessions where these are done.

This anachronistic engraving of Saint Columban amuses me. Note that the Hermits of Saint Augustine claim him as one of their own! He is wearing the distinctive Augustinian cincture. And his crucifix is planted right on top of the indispensable skull.

Late November Saints

The saints of these last days of the liturgical year incite us to look beyond the conditions of this present life and to set our hope on the things that God has prepared for us in "the holy city, new Jerusalem" (Ap 21:2), "what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived" (1 Cor 2:9).

Last Saturday, Saint Cecilia was set before us: an icon of the Church, Virgin and Bride, "carrying the Gospel always on her heart and meditating therein day and night, talking with God in prayer" (Responsory).

Today, we monks remember Saint Columban, the Irish missionary monk who demonstrated that the search for God and zeal for the extension of His kingdom go hand in hand.

O God who, in Saint Columban,
wonderfully joined the work of evangelization
to the practice of the monastic life,
grant, we beseech Thee,
that through his intercession and example,
we may seek Thee above all things
and work to increase the number of those who believe.

Today also commemorates the Holy Martyrs of Vietnam, that "great cloud of witnesses" (Heb 12:1) put to death "for their testimony to Jesus and for the Word of God" (Ap 20:4).

Wednesday, November 26th will mark the feast of Saint Sylvester, a holy abbot of the thirteenth century who, according to legend, was shocked into a conversion of life while gazing into an open tomb.

All-merciful God,
who, when the holy abbot Sylvester
stood before an open grave,
called him from the vanity of perishable things
to a life of shining holiness in the wilderness,
we humbly entreat Thee
that, like him, we may prefer nothing to the love of Christ
and live, already in this world,
with our hearts fixed on the joys of heaven.

Death Daily Before One's Eyes

Saint Sylvester is well suited to these last days of November. Together with Saint Benedict, he calls us "to fear the Day of Judgment, to dread hell, to yearn for eternal life with all possible spiritual desire, and to keep death daily before one's eyes" (RB 4:44-46).

Dies Irae

Fittingly, during this last week of the year, the Church gives us ample opportunity to meditate the sublime Dies irae.The place of the Dies irae in Western civilization is immense, gripping the imaginations of poets, artists, and composers. As a small boy I knew only the plainchant setting of the Dies Irae and often hummed it to myself. Peculiar? In 8th grade, however, I sang as a treble in Britten's stupendous War Requiem. The experience gave me quite another impression of the Dies Irae.

In the course of the liturgical reforms following the Second Vatican Council the Dies irae was designated for use in the Divine Office throughout the week immediately preceding the First Sunday of Advent. The Dies irae was originally composed as an Advent hymn, trumpeting the One who comes come to judge the world.

The Trump that Wakes the Dead

In Canto VI of his Lay of the Last Minstrel, Sir Walter Scott condenses the Dies irae into twelve lines. We do well to ponder them this week.

That day of wrath, that dreadful day,
When heaven and earth shall pass away,
What power shall be the sinner's stay?
How shall he meet that dreadful day?

When, shriveling like a parchèd scroll,
The flaming heavens together roll;
When louder yet, and yet more dread,
Swells the high trump that wakes the dead:

Oh, on that day, that wrathful day,
When man to judgment wakes from clay,
Be thou the trembling sinner's stay,
Though heaven and earth shall pass away.

Monks no longer have the custom of keeping an open tomb at the ready as the salutary destination of a daily stroll. We do well nonetheless to bend ourselves to the wisdom of Saint Benedict and the example of Saint Sylvester by "keeping death daily before our eyes." And we do well to ruminate the poetry of the Dies irae.

The Right Perspective

If anything, these practices will place all other things in the right perspective, disposing us to detachment, showing us how narrow and petty are the things that hold us in their grip. In the end, heaven and earth will pass away, but the words of Christ our Lord and merciful Judge will remain.

The hymn at Vespers of Christ the King evokes both the feast of Corpus Christi and that of the Sacred Heart. This is consonant with the thought of Pope Pius XI who, in instituting the feast of Christ the King in 1925, situated it in the lineage of the two other later Christological feasts. Here are two the two pertinent stanzas:

Ad hoc cruenta ab arbore
pendes apertis bracchiis,
diraque fossum cuspide
cor igne flagrans exhibes.

For this Thou hangedst on the Tree
With arms outstretched in loving plea;
For this Thou shewedst forth Thy Heart,
On fire with love, pierced by the dart.

Ad hoc in aris abderis
vini dapisque imagine,
fundens salutem filiis
transverberato pectore.

And yet that wounded side sheds grace
Forth from the altar's holy place,
Where, veiled 'neath humblest bread and wine,
Abides for man the life divine.

"We institute the Feast of the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ to be observed yearly throughout the whole world. . . . We further ordain that the dedication of mankind to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which Our predecessor of saintly memory, Pope Pius X, commanded to be renewed yearly, be made annually on that day."

Quas Primas, Encyclical of Pope Pius XI, December 11, 1925.

The mandate of Pope Pius XI to recite publicly the Act of Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has never been rescinded. It was customary in the past to renew the Act of Consecration at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament on the afternoon or evening of the feast of Christ the King. Failing that, could it not be presented in the homily, and then recited at the end of Mass? In how many cathedrals and parish churches will the Act of Consecration be recited publicly today? Read it attentively. It is extraordinarily relevant to the current and coming situation of the Church in the United States.

Act of Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Most Sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us humbly prostrate before thy altar.  We are Thine, and Thine we wish to be; but to be more surely united to Thee, behold each one of us freely consecrates himself / today to Thy Most Sacred Heart. Many indeed have never known Thee; Many too, despising Thy precepts, have rejected Thee.  Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to Thy Sacred Heart.

Be Thou King, O Lord, not only of the faithful children / who have never forsaken Thee, but also of the prodigal children / who have abandoned Thee; Grant that they may quickly return / to their Father's house / lest they die of wretchedness and hunger.

Be Thou King of those / who are deceived by the erroneous opinions / of whom discord keeps aloof, and call them back to the harbor of truth / and unity of faith, so that soon there may be / but one flock and one shepherd.

Grant, O Lord, to Thy Church assurance of freedom and immunity from harm; give peace and order to all nations, and make the earth resound / from pole to pole with one cry; praise to the divine Heart that wrought our salvation; To it be glory and honor forever.  R. Amen.

Pope Pius XI promulgated this text on December 11, 1925, in the Encyclical Quas Primas, instituting the feast of Christ the King. Read it, if you will, in the light of the recent elections in the United States. My own comments are in italics.

A Remedy for the Plague Which Now Infects Society

If We ordain that the whole Catholic world shall revere Christ as King, We shall minister to the need of the present day, and at the same time provide an excellent remedy for the plague which now infects society. We refer to the plague of anti-clericalism, its errors and impious activities. This evil spirit, as you are well aware, Venerable Brethren, has not come into being in one day; it has long lurked beneath the surface.

Anti-clericalism here refers, among other things, to a systematic opposition to the right and duty of bishops and priests to address issues of faith and morals in public life. Anti-clericalism would silence the prophetic voice of the Church; its goal is to erase the Church from society insofar as she represents a "sign of contradiction" and a threat to the implementation of the societal agenda shaped by the powers of this world.

The Religion of Christ Under the Power of the State

The empire of Christ over all nations was rejected. The right which the Church has from Christ himself, to teach mankind, to make laws, to govern peoples in all that pertains to their eternal salvation, that right was denied. Then gradually the religion of Christ came to be likened to false religions and to be placed ignominiously on the same level with them. It was then put under the power of the state and tolerated more or less at the whim of princes and rulers.

One can only wonder if Catholics in the United States will soon experience what Catholics of other times and places have so often experienced in the past.

Secular Humanism and Aggressive Atheism

Some men went even further, and wished to set up in the place of God's religion a natural religion consisting in some instinctive affection of the heart. There were even some nations who thought they could dispense with God, and that their religion should consist in impiety and the neglect of God.

Look around. Both trends are alive and active today, especially in Europe, the United States, and Canada.

Insatiable Greed and Immoderate Selfishness

The rebellion of individuals and states against the authority of Christ has produced deplorable consequences. We lamented these in the Encyclical Ubi arcano; we lament them today: the seeds of discord sown far and wide; those bitter enmities and rivalries between nations, which still hinder so much the cause of peace; that insatiable greed which is so often hidden under a pretense of public spirit and patriotism, and gives rise to so many private quarrels; a blind and immoderate selfishness, making men seek nothing but their own comfort and advantage, and measure everything by these; no peace in the home, because men have forgotten or neglect their duty; the unity and stability of the family undermined; society in a word, shaken to its foundations and on the way to ruin.

The economic crisis is the result of greed, selfishness, the frenzied drive to secure one's own comfort and advantage, and the undermining of the family.

Slowness and Timidity in Good People

We firmly hope, however, that the feast of the Kingship of Christ, which in future will be yearly observed, may hasten the return of society to our loving Savior. It would be the duty of Catholics to do all they can to bring about this happy result. Many of these, however, have neither the station in society nor the authority which should belong to those who bear the torch of truth. This state of things may perhaps be attributed to a certain slowness and timidity in good people, who are reluctant to engage in conflict or oppose but a weak resistance; thus the enemies of the Church become bolder in their attacks. But if the faithful were generally to understand that it behooves them ever to fight courageously under the banner of Christ their King, then, fired with apostolic zeal, they would strive to win over to their Lord those hearts that are bitter and estranged from Him, and would valiantly defend His rights.

Catholic leaders reluctant to engage in conflict or opposing but a weak resistance? Sound familiar? Those fighting under the banner of Christ the King have a twofold mission: 1) to win over to their Lord those hearts that are bitter and estranged from Him; and 2) to valiantly defend His rights. His rights are, of course, the rights of those who cannot speak for themselves or defend themselves, beginning with the child in the womb.

Suppression of the Name of Our Redeemer

Moreover, the annual and universal celebration of the feast of the Kingship of Christ will draw attention to the evils which anticlericalism has brought upon society in drawing men away from Christ, and will also do much to remedy them. While nations insult the beloved name of our Redeemer by suppressing all mention of it in their conferences and parliaments, we must all the more loudly proclaim his kingly dignity and power, all the more universally affirm his rights.

I am thinking of the European Constitution and the refusal of entire nations to even acknowledge the Christian roots of their cultural patrimony. The principle is this: change words, that is, change the public discourse and, in the end, one will succeed in changing the face of society.

An Amazing Story

Madrid, Nov 12, 2008 / 09:21 pm (CNA).- The Spanish daily "La Razon" has published an article on the pro-life conversion of a former "champion of abortion." Stojan Adasevic, who performed 48,000 abortions, sometimes up to 35 per day, is now the most important pro-life leader in Serbia, after 26 years as the most renowned abortion doctor in the country.

"The medical textbooks of the Communist regime said abortion was simply the removal of a blob of tissue," the newspaper reported. "Ultrasounds allowing the fetus to be seen did not arrive until the 80s, but they did not change his opinion. Nevertheless, he began to have nightmares."

In describing his conversion, Adasevic "dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear. A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence. The dream was repeated each night and he would wake up in a cold sweat. One night he asked the man in black and white who he was. 'My name is Thomas Aquinas,' the man in his dream responded. Adasevic, educated in communist schools, had never heard of the Dominican genius saint. He didn't recognize the name"

"Why don't you ask me who these children are?" St. Thomas asked Adasevic in his dream.

"They are the ones you killed with your abortions,' St. Thomas told him.

"Adasevic awoke in amazement and decided not to perform any more abortions," the article stated.

"That same day a cousin came to the hospital with his four months-pregnant girlfriend, who wanted to get her ninth abortion--something quite frequent in the countries of the Soviet bloc. The doctor agreed. Instead of removing the fetus piece by piece, he decided to chop it up and remove it as a mass. However, the baby's heart came out still beating. Adasevic realized then that he had killed a human being,"

After this experience, Adasevic "told the hospital he would no longer perform abortions. Never before had a doctor in Communist Yugoslavia refused to do so. They cut his salary in half, fired his daughter from her job, and did not allow his son to enter the university."

After years of pressure and on the verge of giving up, he had another dream about St. Thomas.

"You are my good friend, keep going,' the man in black and white told him. Adasevic became involved in the pro-life movement and was able to get Yugoslav television to air the film 'The Silent Scream,' by Doctor Bernard Nathanson, two times."

Adasevic has told his story in magazines and newspapers throughout Eastern Europe. He has returned to the Orthodox faith of his childhood and has studied the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.

"Influenced by Aristotle, Thomas wrote that human life begins forty days after fertilization," Adasevic wrote in one article. La Razon commented that Adasevic "suggests that perhaps the saint wanted to make amends for that error." Today the Serbian doctor continues to fight for the lives of the unborn.

I have written several posts on Saint Cecilia in past years. You will find them here, and here, and here.

The title of today's entry comes not from me, but from Saint John Chrystostom. It was Saint John Chrysostom's homily at Matins that struck me this morning. He is preaching on the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, Matthew 25:1-13. Amazing! Would that all priests could preach as he did! My own comments are in italics.

Virginity then, being a thing in itself so great and so much esteemed among many, lest any man having attained unto it, and kept it undefiled, should think that he hath done all, and so leave the rest undone, the Lord putteth forth this parable, in order to show that if virginity, though it have all else, lack mercy, its owner will have his portion without among the fornicators, among whom Christ doth justly place the heartless and pitiless celibate.

Note the allusion to Matthew 23:23:

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you tithe mint and anise and cummin and have left the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and faith. These things you ought to have done and not to leave those undone."

And to 1 Corinthians 1:2-3:

And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

The lust for bodies and the lust for money are two very different things, whereof the flesh is by far the keener and the stubborner appetite. They that strive with the weaker enemy are therefore much less excusable if they fall. Wherefore the Lord hath called such virgins "foolish," for having first won the stern battle, and then been destroyed in the light one.

By the "lamps" spoken of in this parable, the Lord signifieth the actual gift of virginity and holy continency, and by the "oil" gentleness, almsgiving, and helpfulness toward the needy.

A haughty and coldhearted chastity is an affront to the King of Virgins. Purity of heart disposes one to receive the living flame of divine love, a love that manifests itself above all in mercy, in gentleness, and in humility. In this regard, I cannot help but think of Father Lev Gillet -- the "monk of the Eastern Church" -- who synthesized in his very person a childlike purity and a boundless compassion in the face of every weakness and sin.

In one of his dialogues with Our Lord, Father Lev hears Him say:

Take to thyself everything in the sinner which, however deviously, comes from Me and continues to be Mine. Discover in the midst of the visible impurities and egoisms the secret action of My absolute Purity, and of the generosity of Love. Unite thyself to My effort to transfigure what is not of Me. By thy brotherly prayer, by thy sympathy, not for the sin but for the sinner, join in My work of purification (In Thy Presence, p. 64).

Our Lady in the Temple

The solemn dedication of the Church of the Mother of God near the Temple in Jerusalem took place on November 21, 543; this felicitous association of the Mother of God with the Temple supports the ancient tradition of the Blessed Virgin Mary's presentation in the Temple as a child. Saint John Damascene -- interpreting the Holy Name of Mary as "Lady" -- tells us that the "Lady of every creature and the Mother of the Creator . . . first saw the light in Joachim's house, hard by the Pool of Bethesda, at Jerusalem, and was carried to the Temple."

Secundum Verbum Tuum

In the hidden recesses of the old Temple, the Holy Spirit prepares the new Temple, the all-holy Virgin, to become the Mother of God . She who is destined to be the living Temple of the Word dwells in the Temple of the Old Dispensation. She hears the chanting of the psalms, the prophets, and the Law. Was it there that she learned Psalm 118, the long litany of loving surrender to the Word? And was it from Psalm 118, held in her heart from so tender an age, that she drew her response to the message of the Angel, "Be it done unto me according to Thy Word" (Lk 1:38)?

There planted in the Lord, the dew of His Spirit made her flourish in the courts of her God, and like a green olive she became a tree, so that all the doves of grace came and lodged in her branches. (Saint John Damscene, Upon the Orthodox Faith, Book IV, ch. 15)

Virgin Mother of the Lamb

There she smells the fragrance of incense and burnt offerings. There she observes the faithful of Israel streaming towards Zion, filling the Temple, seeking the Face of the Lord. Priest, altar, and oblation are not unfamiliar to the Virgin who, gazing upon her Son, will recognize in Him the Eternal priest, the Altar of the New Covenant, the pure Victim, the holy Victim, the spotless Victim offered in unending sacrifice.

To Belong to God

In the seventeenth century -- the age of France's "mystical invasion" -- the mystery of the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple captivated the hearts of Monsieur Olier and of others on fire with zeal for the holiness of the priesthood, for the beauty of the consecrated life, and for the worthy praise of God. The so-called French School of spirituality, marked above all by the imperative of adoration and the virtue of religion, gravitated to the feast of November 21st as to the pure expression of the desire to be offered to God, to belong to God, and to abide in God's house.

Virgo Sacerdos

When, in 1641, Jean-Jacques Olier (1608 - 1657) established the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, he placed it under the patronage of the Virgin Mary in the mystery of her Presentation in the Temple. The Child Mary, hidden in the Temple, learns the meaning of sacrifice and oblation; she is the sacerdotal Virgin, prepared by the Holy Spirit to stand at the altar of the Cross united to her Son, High Priest and immolated Lamb. Under the influence of the French Sulpicians, many religious congregations, established after the horrors of the French revolution, chose the feast of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary as their foundation day, the day of religious profession, and of the renewal of vows.

In Domum Regis

Today's proper liturgical texts lead us after the Holy Child Mary into the mystery of the Temple. "The daughter of the King is clothed with splendour; she is led to the king with her maiden companions" (Ps 44:14-15). Holy Mary fills her eyes with the splendours of the Temple and there discovers the beauty of belonging to God alone in the splendour of holiness. Even today, she draws others after her. "Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words. . . . So will the King desire your beauty" (Ps 44:11-12).

Lovely and Pure in the Sight of God

In all her beauty and innocence the Child Mary stands before us to tell us that we, like her, are called to be lovely and pure in the sight of God. We are the object of His desire. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ: As he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in his sight in charity" (Eph 1:3-4). The Father would have us abide in the Temple of the Mystical Body of His Son, listening to His Word, and singing His praises in the sweetness of the Holy Spirit.

1. Before meeting anyone for spiritual counsel, humble yourself profoundly before God, acknowledging your inability to do the least good for souls without Him. "Separated from me," says the Lord, "you have no power to do anything" (Jn 15:5). "We have a treasure, then, in our keeping, but its shell is of perishable earthenware; it must be God, and not anything in ourselves, that gives it its sovereign power" (2 Cor 4:7).

2. Offer this spiritual work as an act of love to Our Lord Who says: "Believe me, when you did it to one of the least of my brethren here, you did it to me" (Mt 25:40).

3. Efface yourself as much as possible so that Christ alone may act. You are but the humble friend and servant of the Divine Bridegroom. "The bride," that is the soul, "is for the Bridegroom; but the bridegroom's friend, who stands by and listens to Him, rejoices too, rejoices at hearing the Bridegroom's voice . . . . He must become more and more, I must become less and less" (Jn 3:29-30).

Talk and act in the name of Jesus Christ and in utter dependence on His Spirit. "If any man speak, let him speak, as one who utters oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it by the power, which God supplies: that in all things God may be honoured through Jesus Christ" (1 P 4:11).

4. Seek not to attach souls to yourself. Beware of hidden motives of a self-serving natural order. Trusting in the grace of the Holy Spirit, orient those who come to you ad Patrem, towards the Father alone, Who reveals Himself in the Eucharistic Face and in the Heart of Jesus Christ.

5. Consecrate each and every soul who comes to you to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Mercy and Mediatrix of All Graces. Exercise your spiritual paternity in synergy with her motherhood. "And His Mother said to the servants, 'Do whatever He tells you'" (Jn 2:6).

In Sinu Patris

In the monastic calendar today is the feast of Saint Mechtilde of Hakeborn. Known as "the nightingale of Helfta" for her beautiful voice, Saint Mechtilde was fascinated by what she called the cor Dei, the heart of God. The Beloved Disciple speaks of it in his Prologue: "No man has ever seen God; but now His only-begotten Son, who abides in the bosom of the Father, has brought us a clear message" (Jn 1:18). (The same theme of the Son abiding in sinu Patris -- in the bosom of the Father -- runs through all the writings of Blessed Abbot Marmion.) For Mechtilde, as for Saint Gertrude, her student and friend in the thirteenth century Abbey of Helfta, there was but one way into the bosom of the Father: through the pierced side of the Son. Both saints would have us know that the soul who desires to abide in the bosom of the Father must enter through "the narrow gate that leadeth to life" (Mt 7:14), that is, the sacred side of the Crucified, opened by the soldier's lance (Jn 19:24).

Clusters of Holiness

We keep the feast of Saint Mechtilde only a few days after that of Saint Gertrude (November 16th), the friend with whom she shared her quest for God and her experience of fruitful union with the Divine Bridegroom. This suggests that holiness, like grapes, grows in clusters. It pleases the Holy Spirit to communicate His graces from one heart to another. There are no saints in isolation. Saints Mechtilde and Gertrude were not alone in their passion for Christ. They burned with the same love for the Word of God. They hastened to the same abbey church, day after day, to exercise their baptismal priesthood by singing the monastic liturgy they so loved.

Laboring at Charity With Chaste Love

The holiness of Saints Mechtilde and of Gertrude flourished within a Eucharistic organism: a living body assembled by the Holy Spirit around one Altar, for the offering of one Victim, by one Priest. Their holiness flourished in a community of women who were not only mothers and sisters by virtue of the same monastic consecration, but also friends. For them, fraternal charity took on the very human expression countenanced by Saint Benedict in the Holy Rule: "making allowance for one another's weaknesses, whether physical or moral; laboring with chaste love at the charity of the brotherhood; loving their abbot with sincere and humble charity" (RB 72:5, 8, 10).

The Gift of Friendship in Christ

The monastery of Helfta, assisted by the friars of the mendicant Orders, radiated the charism of "friendship in Christ" well beyond its enclosure walls into the wider Church, giving holiness a human face. Friendship forged in the praise of God, in listening to His Word, and in partaking of the adorable Body and Blood of Christ from the same altar, is not the friendship of perfect agreement on all things, nor is it the friendship of sentimental attraction. It is, rather, a gift of the Holy Spirit to the Body of Christ, making the voice of the Body sweeter, and making the face of the Body lovelier. It creates a lasting bond among souls: the bond of a single-hearted passion for Christ.

On this feast of the Dedication of the Roman Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul, my thoughts turn to the mystery of the altar in Christian worship. It was, in fact, at the dedication of the Vatican Basilica of Saint Peter on November 18, that Pope Saint Sylvester, who reigned from 314 to 335, decreed that, henceforth, altars should be made of stone.

"In this Church did the Pope set up an altar of stone, and pour ointment thereon, and ordain that from henceforth no altars should be set up, save of stone." (Lesson at Matins of the Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul at Rome, 18 November)

Altar, Sacrifice, and Priest

"Then Noah built an altar to the Lord" (Gen 8:20). While both Cain and Abel brought offerings to the Lord (Gen 4:3), they did so without presenting them upon an altar. Noah is the first altar-builder of the Bible. After the flood, Noah builds an altar and offers burnt offerings upon it (cf. Gen 8:20). Thus does the mystic triad of altar, offering, and offerer appear in the Bible for the first time. Noah, his altar, and his sacrifice already foreshadow the mystery of Christ sung in the Roman Missal's magnificent fifth Preface for Paschaltide:

Christ, by the offering of His own Body,
brought to perfection the ancient sacrifices in the truth of the cross
and, in commending Himself to you for our salvation,
showed Himself to be at once the priest, the altar, and the lamb.

Earth Rising Heavenward

After Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all built altars to the Lord. In addition to being the place of sacrifices and libations, the altars built by the patriarchs marked a place of divine intervention. They localized and memorialized the encounter of man with God. Originally a mound of rocks or elevation, the altar symbolizes the earth rising above itself and straining heavenward. It is, at the same time, the place where heaven bends low to touch the earth, to receive man's offering.

Sacrifice and Holocaust

When, in a sacrificial action, a creature is placed upon an altar, it is made over to God and given up to His hands. Jesus Himself says in Matthew 23:19 that it is, "the altar that makes the offering sacred." It is by virtue of being placed on the altar that the offering becomes a sacrifice. Saint Augustine (in Book X of The City of God) teaches that whatsoever is placed on the altar becomes sacrificium, a thing made over to God, a thing made sacred. When the same creature is set ablaze in a holocaust, its rising smoke carries the prayer of the offerer into heaven where God takes pleasure in its fragrance.

Communion

The altar is the place of a mysterious exchange. The altar of the sacrifice is, at the same time, the sacred table of a mysterious at-one-ment with God. Offerings of food and libations become the food and drink of God; food and drink received from the altar become the means of communion with God.

Bonding in Blood

The altar is also the place of a bonding in blood. Moses takes the blood of sacrifices, pours it upon altar, and throws it over the people (cf. Ex 24:5-8). Altar-blood becomes the blood of a covenant, the blood-bond between God and the people. "And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. . . . And Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people, and said, 'Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with these words" (Ex 24:6-8).

I am beginning today a novena to Father Lukas Etlin, O.S.B., a monk of Conception Abbey known for his tender devotion to the Mother of God and his ardent devotion to the Most Holy Eucharist. Father Lukas, born in Switzerland in 1864, died on December 16, 1927 in Stanberry, Missouri, as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident. Readers of Vultus Christi may want to join me in seeking the intercession of this zealous Benedictine adorer of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Prayer

O God, who didst bestow upon Thy faithful servant, Father Lukas Etlin,
a tender love for the Mother of Thy Son,
ferve