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| Archbishop Lefebvre: Absolutely Against Agreement with a 'Modernist' Rome |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-07-2021, 08:34 AM - Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
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Archbishop Lefebvre: Absolutely Against Agreement with a 'Modernist' Rome
MONS. MARCEL LEFEBVRE: Excerpts from letters to the Dominicans of Avrillé. Le Sel de la Terre n ° 96, spring 2016
Ecône, December 29, 1986
“[…] Betting on an agreement with the Pope is an illusion. The Pope will grant us everything we want on the disciplinary and liturgical level, but on the condition of admitting his modernist ideas about religious freedom and ecumenism, that is, of our Catholic faith.
No hope must be seen on that side. Rome is occupied by modernism and liberalism! When will Our Lord decide to stop this scandal? He is the teacher! We wait patiently and have confidence in the Lord and His holy Mother who know better than us this tragic situation[...] ”
Ecône, January 10, 1989
“After being absent for 15 days, I take care to answer your good letter, accompanied by numerous interesting documents.
But I must tell you that it is the letter of Bishop Perl that has held my attention. He doesn't flatter you by saying that your community is a "sister" of Chémeré!
Do not rediscover it, I beg you, you will raise doubts among your friends. The only answer to give is that they initiate the Council Reform to remove the errors. It is only then that we can trust them.
Whatever the canonical privileges they may give, their acceptance means for them communion with the Holy See, with the Pope and with the Council, therefore an implicit acceptance of all that modernism that we fight following St. Pius X and all [Fathers] before the Council.
They want to neutralize Tradition, so that it is no longer an obstacle for their ecumenist companies and for the Revolution in the Church […]
Do not have a point of contact with the one who is in charge of destroying Tradition. They don't know what to do to divide us and are surprised at so much resistance. They seem not to understand that it is a problem of Faith from the beginning. ”
February 20, 1989
“[…]Roman modernists are bandits, revolutionaries under sheep skins. They have no supernatural spirit. It is about this that we must take our effort: relearning to live on faith like the Apostles, the Martyrs, the Fathers of the Church and Saint Thomas Aquinas, who has achieved the tour de force of using all the sciences for the queen of the sciences; the theology that is worked in Heaven by the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Summa is the great catechism of Saint Thomas Aquinas and that of the Church even more than that of Trent. I try to explain this to the seminarians so that they have the worry of living from the best catechism that exists and that they are taught. It is very important that in our seminarians we keep a safe and approved line by the Church, that of Saint Thomas, which should give us pastoral principles that give the faithful true spirituality away from Jansenism and charismatism. The morality that is limited to the commandments is disposable. The moral of grace, of the virtues, of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which does not forget the commandments, that which Saint Thomas advocates is more in line with the spirit of Our Lord, of the Gospel, and even more urgent for the fervent souls. It is time to return the Catholic faith exciting, generous, missionary, as it was for the first Christians. […] ”
Ecône, April 22, 1989
“[…]The consecrations have been the occasion to tell the true traditionalists, refusing to reconcile Rome. Unity has been made on this point and the division has been made with the ralliés to modernist Rome […] ”.
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| Archbishop Lefebvre: 'I Accuse the Council!' [online] |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-07-2021, 08:05 AM - Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
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Preface to the English Edition
The reader will no doubt find this a difficult book to read. But he will not fail to recognize that the struggle at Vatican II of a small number of conciliar Fathers became, in the long run, the same struggle carried on by the small number of those who resist the world-wide subversion of Socialism and Communism.
The triumph of ecumenical liberalism at the Council was the greatest victory for Communism. Christian civilization forthwith lost its self-confidence and thought it could adopt the principles of its enemies, viz. the rights of man, human dignity, and religious liberty. This adoption opened a one-sided dialogue and raised the banner of détente and of pacifism. Consequently, Communism has spread over the world without hindrance.
Vatican II, which should have been the anti-Communist Council as the Council of Trent was anti-Protestant, was taken over by the Liberals and became the instrument for the destruction of all the moral and spiritual barriers against Communism. When soldiers have lost the ideal for which they fight their weapons fall from their hands. Since there is no longer a Christian civilization to defend, the field is left open to the Satanic revolution.
In the discussions which appear in these pages, nothing less than the Catholic Faith and the future of so-called Christian nations is at stake. Those who worked to disarm the truth and surrendered it to error bear a heavy responsibility.
May these pages kindle the courage to revive the Catholic Faith for which so many martyrs shed their blood.
May those who contributed so much to this edition be abundantly rewarded. May God recompense them by a wide distribution of this book.
Marcel Lefebvre
Rickenbach, Switzerland
March, 1982
* * *
A Note on the Title
Why is this book called I Accuse the Council ? We have chosen this title because we are justified in asserting—a judgment based on both internal and external criticism—that the spirit which dominated the Council and which inspired so many of its ambiguous, equivocal and even clearly erroneous texts, was not that of the Holy Ghost, but the spirit of the modern world, the spirit of Liberalism, of Teilhard de Chardin, of Modernism, in opposition to the kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Submission to the official reforms and orientations coming from Rome is demanded and imposed in the name of that Council. The tendency of all of these, it will be noted, is openly Protestant and Liberal.
It is only since the Council that the Church, or at least churchmen in possession of key posts, has taken a direction definitely opposed to tradition and to the official Magisterium of the Church.
Such men have imagined themselves to be the living Church, and mistress of the truth, with freedom to impose new dogmas advocating progress, evolution, change, and a blind, unconditional obedience on clergy and laity alike. They have turned their backs on the true Church; they have given her new institutions, a new priesthood, a new form of worship, new teachings ever in search of something fresh, and always in the name of the Council.
It is easy to think that whoever opposes the Council and its new Gospel would be considered as excommunicated, as outside communion with the Church. But one may well ask them, communion with what Church? They would answer, no doubt, with the Conciliar Church.
It is imperative, therefore, to shatter the myths which have been built up around Vatican II. This Council had wished to be a pastoral Council because of its instinctive horror for dogma, and to facilitate the official introduction of Liberal ideas into Church texts. By the time it was over, however, they had dogmatized the Council, comparing it with that of Nicaea, and claiming that it was equal, if not superior, to the Councils that had gone before it!
Fortunately, this operation of exploding the erroneous ideas of the Council has already begun, and begun satisfactorily with the work of Professor Salet in the Courrier de Rome[2] on the Declaration on Religious Liberty. His conclusion is that this declaration is heretical.
There are a number of points about the Council which should be studied thoroughly and analyzed, for example:
-the questions of the relationship of the bishops and the Pope in the constitutions on the Church, on the Bishops, and on the Missions;
-the priesthood of clergy and laity in the introduction to Lumen Gentium;
-the purpose of marriage in Gaudium et Spes;
-liberty of worship and conscience and the concept of liberty in Gaudium et Spes;
-ecumenism and relations with non-Christian religions and with atheists, etc.
A non-Catholic spirit can quickly be discerned in all this. An examination of these points leads us inevitably to look at the reforms which came from Vatican II and suddenly we see the Council in a new and strange light. Then the questions follow: Had those who brought off this astonishing maneuver thought it out in depth before the Council opened? Who are they? Did they get together before the Council?
Gradually one’s eyes are opened to behold an astounding conspiracy prepared long beforehand. Such a discovery makes one wonder what part the Pope played in all this work and how responsible he was for what happened. In spite of the desire to find him innocent of this appalling betrayal of the Church, it would seem that his involvement was overwhelming.
Even, however, if we leave it to God and to Peter’s true successors to sit in judgment of these things, it is nonetheless certain that the Council was deflected from its purposes by a group of conspirators and that it is impossible for us to take any part in this conspiracy despite the fact that there may be many satisfactory declarations in Vatican II. The good texts have served as cover to get those texts which are snares, equivocal and denuded of meaning, accepted and passed.
We are left with only one solution: to abandon these dangerous examples and cling firmly to tradition, i.e., to the official Magisterium of the Church throughout two thousand years.
We hope that the pages which follow will throw the light of truth on the consciously or unconsciously subversive enterprises of the enemies of the Church.
Let us add that the reactions of Liberal clergy and laity, of Protestants, and of Freemasons to the Council only make our apprehensions stronger. Would not Cardinal Suenens be right in declaring that this Council has been the French Revolution of the Church![3]
Thus our duty is clear: to preach the kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ against that of the goddess Reason.
Marcel Lefebvre
Paris, France
August 27, 1976
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| Archbishop Lefebvre: 1976 Sermon on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-07-2021, 07:58 AM - Forum: Sermons and Conferences
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The Angelus - July 2013
The Name Written on Her Heart
Sermon by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, August 22, 1976
Dear Brethren,
The feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, whose solemnity we celebrate today, is a comparatively new feast and an example of what the Church can do and has done in relatively recent times to adapt the spirit and the riches of the Church to the present day. If any feast reminds us of the truths we need, of truths that when meditating we desire to apply to our souls, that of the Immaculate Heart of Mary certainly does.
This feast clearly has a special link to the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima, and it was Pius XII who wished that we honor the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the octave day of the Assumption.
Ah, yes, since the 17th century devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary has existed. We just celebrated this week the feast of St. John Eudes, who founded congregations under the patronage of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. But if our Holy Father Pius XII decided to honor in a special way the Immaculate Heart of Mary, it was because our times had need of the devotion.
In these times of hardship, in these times where Christians are deprived of what they formerly had, we need the manifestation of the charity of Our Lord, which was so clearly seen during other Christian centuries. One saw religious houses everywhere. Throughout Christendom monasteries, convents, and hospitals were thickly sown. So many religious houses peopled our villages, our countryside, and our cities, that we had the impression—I imagine that the people who lived in those times had the impression—to be entirely surrounded by the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. For His love was made manifest, as you might say, on every street corner. There were calvaries; there were images of Our Lady; there were hospitals run by religious; there were refuges for the poor, pilgrims, and those in suffering. Everywhere the charity of Our Lord was manifest.
But in our times, how harsh our world has become! We no longer find this charity of Our Lord in our cities or our countryside. Oh, there are still, of course, souls devoted to Our Lord, but how many compared to the total population? And how much work there remains to do in those countries that do not yet know of Our Lord’s charity, enormous lands like China, Africa, and many others that are still far from this charity!
And so it seems to me that we need the Blessed Virgin Mary in our times. We need the Blessed Virgin to help us keep the faith, to feel the warmth of Our Lord’s love for us. We no longer see His love with our eyes, and as we see it less and less, we need to feel that Our Lady is near us. And I think that is why Our Lady asked at Fatima that we pray to her Immaculate Heart. We need the divine love which fills the Heart of the Blessed Virgin.
And we also need her Immaculate Heart: immaculate, that is without stain, without sin. God knows that we no longer have around us the example of lives entirely devoted to our Lord Jesus Christ, who carry out the law of Our Lord, His law of love, for the commandments of God are contained in love of God and love of neighbor.
But today, you are witnesses of what goes on in our society, where we murder children, where people commit suicide. Did you know that here in Switzerland, there are more suicides than fatalities due to car accidents? A newspaper recently reported that there were 1800 suicides last year, but only 1600 deaths due to car accidents: 1800 suicides! And mostly of young people. What does that mean? It means that these poor souls no longer felt the love of Our Lord around them; they were disgusted by the life that surrounded them, to the point that they committed suicide. And if what happens in a large number of other countries was made public, we would be horrified.
When one thinks about divorce! So many abandoned children who are torn between father and mother. We live painful lives in a harsh society, where charity is no longer practiced.
Blessed Virgin Mary as Mother
I experienced this personally when I was sent to the African nations, where I worked for 30 years. What struck me the most was the hatred one sensed there. The people were full of hate: one village hated another, one family hated another. The result of this hatred was suicide, poisonings and murders. The love of our Lord Jesus Christ did not reign.
We do not know how fortunate we are to have our Lord Jesus Christ as our Father and the Blessed Virgin Mary as our Mother. From these examples we must draw our love for God and for our models. For if the Blessed Virgin Mary had a most loving heart, her love was all for our Lord Jesus Christ and for all those “attached” to Him, and to lead all souls to our Lord Jesus Christ, to her Son Jesus. She lived for this love.
And because she loved Our Lord she was never able to offend Him; she simply couldn’t. She was conceived immaculate, born immaculate, and she remains immaculate all her life. She is then for us a model of purity of heart, of obedience to the law of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And because she loved Our Lord, she wanted to suffer with Him and share His sufferings. Sharing suffering is a sign of love. She saw her Son Jesus suffer and she wished to suffer with Him. When the heart of Jesus was pierced, so was hers, the heart of Mary! These two pierced hearts lived in unity for the glory of God, for the reign of God, for the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. They fought for that alone.
And for this reason we too must be ready to suffer for the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. He no longer reigns in our societies, nor in our families, nor in our own selves. Yet we need His reign. It is the only reason for the existence of our souls, our bodies, of humanity, and this earth and all of God’s creation: that Jesus Christ may reign; that He may give to souls His life, His salvation, His charity, His glory.
It is because we are aware of what has been happening in the Church for over 15 years—a true revolution has occurred, attacking the Kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ, clearly and evidently intending to destroy His reign—that our eyes were opened and that we were able to see this. Our Lord Jesus Christ’s law is no longer followed, and, unfortunately, those who should teach us to follow His law encourage us on the contrary to disobey it.
For seeking the secularization of the state brings about the destruction of Christ’s Kingship. When doubt is cast on the reality of the sanctity of marriage and its laws, the love of our Lord Jesus Christ in our homes is destroyed.
When we fail to speak, or fail to speak loudly and openly against abortion, we do not build Christ’s reign.
Devotion to Christ the King
When devotion to Christ the King is torn down, the reign of Christ in souls is destroyed.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, dear brethren, is nothing other than the proclamation of the reign of Christ the King.
How did our Lord Jesus Christ reign? Regnavit a ligno Crucis. He reigned by the wood of the Cross. He defeated the devil and defeated sin with the wood of the Cross. So the renewal on the altar of the Holy Sacrifice of Our Lord at Calvary is a declaration of the royalty of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a declaration of His divinity.
And somehow, by destroying the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, one destroys the affirmation of the Kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is why adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has diminished so much in our times. Rather let us say that sacrileges have grown innumerably since the Council. It must be said. It is clear and obvious.
Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist has been sent away from the altar. He is no longer adored. People do not genuflect before the Blessed Sacrament any more. But recognizing the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ means recognizing that He is God. It means recognizing that He is our King. And therefore we must express this love of our Lord Jesus Christ, recognize the existence of His divinity.
For proof I need only refer to something that just occurred and is publicly known in the United States. At the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia, was a procession with the Blessed Sacrament held? No! There was no procession with the Blessed Sacrament, just like four years ago at the Eucharistic Congress in Melbourne, where I was present.
Why no procession with the Blessed Sacrament? Because they wanted to make the Eucharistic Congress an ecumenical congress. Ecumenical, that means bringing together Protestants and Jews, people who deny the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, who are opposed to His reign.
How can we pray with people who are opposed to our faith, who reject our faith?
The condition set by the non-Catholics invited was, “We will be happy to participate in the Eucharistic Congress as long as there is no procession with the Blessed Sacrament.” In other words, as long as no homage is paid to the One who is our King and our Father, our Creator and our Redeemer, the One who shed His blood for us. People no longer want to honor Him. And this condition was accepted: In order to have Protestants and Jews at the Congress, no procession with the Blessed Sacrament was held.
On top of that, a sort of concelebration was held with the Protestant ministers, and it was a Protestant minister who presided over the event!
All of this cries out to heaven for vengeance! Our Lord is no longer honored, our Lord is no longer King. He is insulted by events like these.
And if one day Communist armies take over our countries, well, we will have richly deserved it for the sacrileges committed that we allowed, that we did not put a stop to, for the honor denied to our Lord Jesus Christ. If we refuse our Lord Jesus Christ as our King, we will have the devil for king. He will come and then we will see what liberty is... Those who desired liberty wanted a liberty that would free man from the commandments of God and of the Church.
Liberation! They wanted to free themselves from our Lord… Another prince will come to teach us about liberty!
And so we who are fortunate enough to understand these things, who are fortunate enough to believe in the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His Kingship, we must make manifest, we must proclaim His Kingship in our families and wherever we are. We must join forces with those groups of Christians who still believe in the divinity of Christ and in His Kingship and who have love in their hearts, the love that the Blessed Virgin Mary had for her Son Jesus.
1789 in the Church
And may those who share that love join forces and hold fast, without faltering. Those Christians are the Church. They are the ones, not those who tear down the reign of our Lord. This fact must be proclaimed!1
Cardinal Suenens said: “The Council was 1789 in the Church.” I didn’t make up this definition. Yes, I believe he was right: it was 1789 in the Church. He rejoiced at it; we deplore it. For 1789 in the Church means the reign of the goddess Reason, worshipped by our ancestors of 1789, who worshipped the goddess Reason, who led clergy and religious to the scaffold, who pillaged our cathedrals, destroyed our churches, violated our houses of worship.
And is the revolution we are witnessing now not worse than that of 1789?
If we review what has happened since the Council in our churches, our homes, our schools, our universities, our seminaries, our religious congregations, the result is worse than in 1789.
For at least in 1789 the monks and nuns climbed the scaffold and spilled their blood for our Lord Jesus Christ, and I think that you are ready to give your blood for our Lord Jesus Christ.
But today, how shameful it is to see these priests who have abandoned their priesthood, and to see how every month still so many priests send to Rome a request for permission to abandon the vow they made to serve our Lord Jesus Christ so that they can get married. And a mere three weeks later they receive permission to marry.
Is that not worse? Would it not be better for these priests to climb the scaffold, declaring their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, instead of abandoning Him?
What has happened since the Council is worse than what happened in the Revolution. It is better to have enemies openly declaring war on the Church and on our Lord Jesus Christ. But that those who ought to honor our Lord Jesus Christ, who ought to adore Him, who ought to make their faith in Him known, that these should teach us to commit sacrilege, to abandon Our Lord, to vilify Him in a way—that, we cannot accept!
We are the Catholic Church. They have separated themselves from the Catholic Church.2 We are not schismatic. We long for the reign of our Lord. We want His Kingship proclaimed. We are ready to follow! If our pastors everywhere said, “We want one God alone, our Lord Jesus Christ. We have only one King, our Lord Jesus Christ,” then we would follow them!
But we cannot allow, for instance, the cross to disappear from our altars; we will not allow the cross to disappear from our churches. That we must maintain. We must be firm on these points.
And it is because I proclaim all of this that I am called disobedient, that I will soon be called schismatic. But not at all! I am neither disobedient nor schismatic because I obey the Church and our Lord Jesus Christ.
“You disobey the pope.”I disobey the pope insofar as the pope identifies with the revolution that took place at the Council and after the Council.
For this revolution is the Revolution of 1789, and I cannot obey the Revolution of 1789 in the Church. I cannot obey the goddess of Reason; I will not bow down to the goddess of Reason.
And that is what they want us to do. They want us to close this seminary so that all together we may adore the goddess of Reason, Man, and the cult of Man.
No. Never! We will not accept. We will obey God, submit ourselves to our Lord Jesus Christ. We will submit ourselves to the extent that those who must transmit to us our Faith submit themselves to the Faith as well. They have no right to sell off the Faith: it is not theirs. The Faith belongs to God, it belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ. And the pope and the bishops exist to transmit it.
Insofar as they transmit it, we fall to our knees, we obey; we are ready to obey immediately.
Insofar as they destroy our faith, we no longer obey. We cannot allow our faith to be destroyed.
Our faith is attached to our hearts until we die. That is what we must say and what we must proclaim.
So we are not disobedient; we are obedient to our Lord Jesus Christ. That is what the Church has always asked of the faithful.
And when we are told, “You are judgmental; you judge the pope, you judge the bishops,” it is not we who judge the bishops, but our Faith, our Tradition, our pocket catechism!
A five-year-old child can correct his bishop. If a bishop were to tell a child, “You have been taught that the Blessed Trinity has three Persons, but that is not true,” the child could refer to his catechism and say, “My catechism teaches me that there are three Persons in the Blessed Trinity. You are wrong, and I am right.”
The child would be right. He would be right because he has all of Tradition on his side, all of the Faith on his side.
And that is what we have, nothing else. We say, “Tradition condemns you; Tradition condemns what you are currently doing.”
We Must Stand Firm
We are with two thousand years of the Church, not with twelve years of a new Church, a conciliar Church, as we were told when Msgr. Benelli asked us to submit ourselves to the “conciliar Church.” I do not know this conciliar Church; I only know the Catholic Church.
So we must stand firm on our positions. For our Faith, we must accept everything, all the snubs, the scorn, excommunication, blows, persecution. Tomorrow, perhaps, the civil authorities may persecute us as well; that too may come.
Why? Because those who are currently destroying the Church are doing the work of Freemasonry. Freemasonry is in control everywhere.
So if Freemasonry realizes that we are a force that may threaten their plans, governments will persecute us.
Then we will return to the catacombs; we will go anywhere, but we will continue to believe; we will not abandon our Faith. We will be persecuted, but many others were persecuted before us for their Faith. We will not be the first. But we will at least honor Our Lord, be faithful to Him, not abandon Him, not betray Him. That is what we must do.
We must therefore be strong and ask the most blessed Virgin Mary on this day that we, like her, may have only one love in our hearts: that of our Lord Jesus Christ; only one name written on our hearts: that of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He is God! He is the Redeemer. He is the Eternal Priest. He is King of all and He is King in heaven. He is alone King in heaven. There is no other king than our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. He is the joy of the elect, of the angels, of His Blessed Mother, of St. Joseph.
And we too wish to partake of this honor, this glory, this love of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know Him alone and we wish to know Him alone.
In the name of the Father…
1 The year before delivering this sermon, Archbishop Lefebvre was suspended a divinis and commanded to shut down his seminary and the SSPX. These Roman punishments gave the appearance of placing the SSPX outside of the Church’s legal framework, and this appearance troubled some consciences, making them think that fidelity to Tradition was infidelity to the Church. Thus, the Archbishop emphasizes here that, in fact, those who destroy the Church cannot properly be said to belong to her, while those who are faithful to Tradition do properly belong to her. He is speaking of belonging to the Church in a specific sense, i.e. by sharing her ideals and mission. He is clearly not speaking of belonging to the Church through baptism or by being part of its visible hierarchy, as such a sense would falsify his statement. Such verbal ambiguity is part and parcel of the rhetorical context of a sermon, and is in fact needed to emphasize a key point, as the Archbishop does here.
2 In common speech, we do not say that a traitor or a spy within an army belongs to that army, because his intentions are completely contrary to those of the moral body of which he is a part. Similarly here, although certain Modernists are baptized Catholics and really are part of the visible hierarchy, yet they have separated themselves from the Church’s spirit and ideals, and in that sense do not belong to her. Such expressions, as Fr. Gleize points out, take the part for the whole. It is not just those who have the spirit of the Church (part) that make up the Catholic Church (whole), but it can be said in a certain sense that only those who have the spirit of the Church belong to the Church, a point the Archbishop wishes to emphasize here.
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| The Liturgical Year: January 7th - Second Day of the Octave of the Epiphany |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-07-2021, 07:50 AM - Forum: Christmas
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January 7 – Second Day within the Octave of the Epiphany
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)
A solemnity of such importance as the Epiphany could not be without an Octave. The only Octaves during the year that are superior to this of the Epiphany are those of Easter and Pentecost. It has a privilege which the Octave of Christmas has not; for no Feast can be kept during the Octave of the Epiphany, unless it be that of a Patron of first class; whereas, Feasts of a double and semi-double rite are admitted during the Christmas Octave. It would even seem, judging from the ancient Sacramentaries, that anciently, the two days immediately following the Epiphany were Days of Obligation, as were the Monday and Tuesday of Easter and Whitsuntide. The names of the Stational Churches are given, where the Clergy and Faithful of Rome assembled on these two days.
In order that we may the more fully enter into the spirit of the Church during this glorious Octave, we will contemplate, each day, the Mystery of the Vocation of the Magi, and we will enter, together with them, into the holy Cave of Bethlehem, there to offer our gifts to the Divine Infant, to whom the Star has led the Wise Men.
These Magi are the harbingers of the conversion of all nationals to the Lord their God; they are the Fathers of the Gentiles in the faith of the Redeemer that is to come; they are the Patriarchs of the human race regenerated. They arrive at Bethlehem, according to the tradition of the Church, three in number; and this tradition is handed down by St. Leo, by St. Maximus of Turin, by St. Cesarius of Arles, and by the Christian paintings in the Catacombs of Rome, which paintings belong to the period of the Persecutions.
Thus is continued in the Magi the Mystery prefigured by the three just men at the very commencement of the world: Abel, who by his death was the figure of Christ; Seth, who was the father of the children of God, as distinct from the family of Cain; and Enos, who had the honor of regulating the ceremonies and solemnity to be observed in man’s worship of his Creator.
The Magi also continued, in their own person, that other Mystery of the three new parents of the human family, after the Deluge, and from whom all races have sprung: Sem, Cham, and Japheth, the Sons of Noe.
And thirdly, we behold in the Magi that third Mystery of the three fathers of God’s chosen people: Abraham, the Father of believers; Isaac, another figure of Christ immolated; and Jacob, who was strong against God, (Genesis 32:28)and was the father of the twelve Patriarchs of Israel.
All these were but the receivers of the Promise, although the hope of mankind, both according to nature and grace, rested on them; they, as the Apostle says of them, saluted the accomplishment of that Promise afar off.
(Hebrews 11:13)The Nations did not follow them by serving the true God; nay, the greater the light that shone on Israel, and the greater seemed the blindness of the Gentile world. The three Magi, on the contrary, come to Bethlehem, and they are followed by countless generations. In them, the figure becomes the grand reality, thanks to the mercy of our Lord, who having come to find what was lost, vouchsafed to stretch out his arms to the whole human race, for the whole was lost.
These happy Magi were also invested with regal power, as we shall see further on; as such, they were prefigured by those three faithful Kings, who were the glory of the throne of Juda, the earnest maintainers among the chosen people of the traditions regarding the future Deliverer, and the strenuous opponents of idolatry: David, the sublime type of the Messias; Ezechias, whose courageous zeal destroyed the idols; and Josias, who re-established the Law of the Lord which the people had forgotten.
And if we would have another type of these holy pilgrims, who come from a far distant country of the Gentiles to adore the King of Peace, and offer him their rich presents—the sacred Scripture puts before us the Queen of Saba, also a Gentile, who hearing of the fame of Solomon’s wisdom, whose name means the Peaceful, visits Jerusalem, taking with her the most magnificent gifts—camels laden with gold, spices, and precious stones—and venerates, under one of the sublimest of his types, the Kingly character of the Messias.
Thus, O Jesus! during the long and dark night in which the justice of thy Father left this sinful world did the gleanings of grace appear in the heavens, portending the rising of that Sun of thine own Justice, which would dissipate the shadows of death and establish the reign of Light and Day. But now, all these shadows have passed away; we no longer need the imperfect light of types: it is thyself we now possess; and though we wear not royal crowns upon our heads like the Magi and the Queen of Saba, yet thou receivest us with love. The very first to be invited to thy Crib, there to receive thy teachings, were simple Shepherds. Every member of the human family is called to form part of thy court. Having become a Child, thou hast opened the treasures of thine infinite wisdom to all men. What gratitude do we not owe for this gift of the light of Faith, without which we should know nothing, even while flattering ourselves that we know all things! How narrow and uncertain and deceitful is human science, compared with that which has its source in thee! May we ever prize this immense gift of Faith, the Light, O Jesus! which thou makest to shine upon us, after having softened it under the veil of thy humble Infancy. Preserve us from pride, which darkens the soul’s vision, and dries up the heart. Confide us to the keeping of thy Blessed Mother; and may our love attach us forever to thee, and her maternal eye ever watch over us lest we should leave thee, O thou the God of our hearts!
Let us now listen to the Hymns and Prayers of the several Churches in praise of the Mysteries of the glorious Epiphany. We will begin with this of Prudentius, in which he celebrates that never-setting Star, of which the other was but a figure.
Hymn
Quicumque Christum quæritis,
Oculos in altum tollite:
Illic licebit visere
Signum perennis gloriæ
O ye, that are in search of Jesus, raise up your eyes aloft: there shall you see the sign of his eternal glory.
Hæc stella, quæ solis rotam
Vincit decore ac lumine,
Venisse terris nuntiat
Cum carne terrestri Deum.
This Star, which surpasseth the sun’s disc in beauty and light, announces that God has come upon the earth clothed in human flesh.
Non illa servit noctibus,
Secuta lunam menstruam:
Sed solam cœlum possidens
Cursum dierum temperat.
It is not a Star that is made to serve the night, following the monthly changes of the moon; but it seems to preside over the heavens and mark the course of the day.
Arctoa quamvis sidera
In se retortis motibus
Obire nolint; attamen
Plerumque sub nimbis latent.
‘Tis true, that Polar Stars are lights that never set; yet are they often hid beneath the clouds.
Hoc sidus æternum manet:
Hæc stella numquam mergitur:
Nec nubis occursu abdita
Obumbrat obductam facem.
But this Star is never dimmed: this Star is never extinguished; nor does a coming cloud o’er-shadow her blaze of light.
Tristis cometa intercidat,
Et si quod astrum Sirio
Fervet vapore, jam Dei
Sub luce destructum cadet.
Let comet, the harbinger of ill, and meteors formed by Dog-star’s vaporous heat, now fade away before this God’s own light.
We take the three following solemn Prayers from the Gregorian Sacramentary.
Prayers
Deus, illuminator omnium gentium, da populis tuis perpetua pace gaudere, et illus lumen splendidum infunde cordibus nostris, quod trium Magorum mentibus aspirasti.
O God, the enlightener of all nations, give thy people to enjoy perpetual peace, and infuse into our hearts that shining light which thou didst enkindle in the minds of the three Magi.
Omnipotens et sempiterne Deus, fidelium splendor animarum, qui hanc solemnitatem electionis gentium primitiis consecrasti; imple mundum gloria tua, et subditis tibi populis per luminis tui appare claritatem.
Almighty and eternal God, the light of faithful souls, who has consecrated this solemnity by the first-fruits of the vocation of the Gentiles; fill this world with thy glory, and manifest thyself to thy devoted people by the brightness of thy light.
Concede nobis, omnipotens Deus, ut Salutare tuum nova cœlorum luce mirabile, quod ad salutem mundi hodierna festivitate processit, nostris semper innovandis cordibus oriatur. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
Grant unto us, O Almighty God, that the Savior sent by thee, who was made known by a new light in the heavens, and comes down for the salvation of the world on this day’s solemnity, may arise in our hearts and give them a perpetual renovation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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The following Sequence is found in the ancient Roman-French Missals.
Sequence
Epiphaniam Domino canamus gloriosam,
Let us sing to the Lord the glorious Epiphany.
Qua prolem Dei vere Magi adorant:
Wherein the Magi adore the true Son of God.
Immensam Chaldæi cujus Persæque venerantur potentiam.
The Chaldeans and Persians offer homage to his infinite power.
Quem cuncti Prophetæ cecinere venturum, gentes ad salvandas:
All the Prophets had foretold that he would come to save the nations.
Cujus Majestas ita est inclinata, ut assumeret servi formam.
His Majesty so far humbled itself, as to assume the form of a servant.
Ante Sæcula qui Deus, et tempora, homo factus est in Maria:
He that was God before all ages and time, was made Man in Mary’s womb.
Balaam de quo vaticinans: Exhibit et Jacob rutilans, inquit, stella,
Balaam thus prophesied concerning him: There shall go forth a bright star from Jacob,
Et confringet ducum agmina regionis Moab, maxima potentia.
And with exceeding power he shall break the armies of the chiefs of Moab.
Huic Magi munera deferunt præclara: aurum, simul thus et myrrham.
The Magi bring him rich presents, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
Thure Deum prædicant, auro Regem magnum, hominem mortalem myrrha.
By the frankincense they confess him to be God; by the gold, the great King; by the myrrh, a mortal Man.
In somnis hos monet Angelus, ne redeant ad regem commotum propter regna;
An Angel warns them in their sleep, that they return not to King Herod, who feared to lose his kingdom.
Pavebat etenim nimium Regem natum, verens amittere regni jura.
For he was exceedingly troubled at the birth of the new King, and trembled lest he should be deprived of his throne.
Magi, stella sibi micante prævia, pergunt alacres itinera, patriam quæ eos ducebat ad propriam, liquentes Herodis mandata.
The Magi, guided by a Star that went before them, set out on their journey with joy. The Star guided them to their own country, and Herod’s commands were not heeded.
Qui percussus corde nimium præ ira, extemplo mandat eludia magica non linqui taliter impunita, sed mox privari eos vita.
This prince, struck to the heart with exceeding wrath, straightway commands that the disobedience of the Magi be chastised, and that they be speedily put to death.
Omnis nunc caterva tinnulum jungat lauidbus organi pneuma,
Now, therefore, let this assembly sing its songs of praise accompanied by the organ’s shrill sounding notes.
Mystice offerens Regi regnum Christo munera, pretiosa,
And offer to Christ, the King of kings, its precious mystic gifts,
Poscens ut per orbem regna omnia protegat in sæcula sempiterna. Amen.
Beseeching him that he protect all the kingdoms of the universe for ever and ever. Amen.
St. Ephrem gives us the following beautiful Hymn upon the Nativity of our Lord.
Hymn
Nascente Filio, altis resonat clamoribus Bethlehem. Cœlo delapsi Vigiles canunt vocibus tonitruum imitantibus. Concentu exciti novo convenere silentes, silentium rupere laudes nascentes Filii Dei.
The Son being born, Bethlehem resounds with loud shouts of joy. The ever wakeful Angels come down from heaven, singing their hymn with voices loud as thunder. Men that were in still silence ran to the cave, aroused by the strange music: they too broke the silence with their praises of the new-born Son of God.
Plaudamus, aiebant, Infanti qui Evæ Adæque juventutis restituit anos. Confluxere pastores, gregum suorum proventum portantes, dulcis lactis copiam, mundas carnes, et decoram laudam.
‘Let us,’ said they, ‘give praise to the Infant, who has restored to Adam and Eve the years of their youth.’ These Shepherds came brining with them the produce of their flocks, abundance of sweet milk, clean meats, and songs of praise.
Distinxere munera, carnes Josepho, Mariæ lac, Filio laudem. Obtulere agnum lactentem paschali Agno, primum Primo, hostiam Hostiæ, agnum caduci temporis Agno veritatis sempiternæ.
Thus did they divide the gifts: the meats to Joseph; the milk to Mary; their praise to Jesus. They offered a lambskin to the paschal Lamb, a first-born to the First-Born, a victim to the Victim, a mortal lamb to the true eternal Lamb.
Decorum sane spectaculum! agnus oblatus Agno! balavit agnus Unigenito præsentatus, agnus Agno acceptam referebat gratiam, quod suo adventu greges et armenta mactationi subtraxisset, et novum a veteri Paschata traductum Pascha Filii introduxisset.
Fair sight indeed! A lamb offered to the Lamb! The lamb bleated, thus offered to the Only Begotten Son of God; it thanked him for that his coming would save the flocks and herds from being immolated, and that a new Pasch, that of the Son of God, would be brought in in place of the Pasch of old.
Illum adoravere pastores, et prophetantes Pastorum Principem salutarunt. Mosaica virga, aiebant, tuum, universalis Pastor, sceptrum commendat, quique illam gestavit Moses te magnum prædicat, dolens gregum suorum mutatas formas, et agnos in lupos transiise, ac oves evasisse dracones, et ferocissimas bestias. Scilicet et istæ in illa horribili solitudine passæ fuerant malum, quando furentes rabidæ in suum incubuere Pastorem.
The Shepherds adored him, and prophesying, saluted him as the Prince of Shepherds. They said: ‘Thy sceptre, O universal Shepherd! is prefigured by the rod of Moses; and Moses, who held it in his hand, declares thy greatness. But he grieves over the change that befell his flock: he grieves to see his lambs changed into wolves, and his sheep transformed into dragons and savage beasts. This evil happened to them in that terrible desert, where this flock, grown mad with rage, attacked their Shepherd.
Divine Puer, hanc tibi acceptam profitentur gratiam pastores, quod lupos et agnos in easdem caulas congregaveris: Puer Noe antiquior, et Noe recentior, qui intra arcam, pelago fremente, pacem dissidentibus vectoribus sanxisti.
‘O Divine Child! the Shepherds give thee thanks, for that thou hast united into the one fold both wolves and lambs. O Child! that art older and younger than Noe! ’twas thou didst establish peace among them that sailed in the ark on the stormy sea, and were enemies.
David proavus tuus agni necem leonis cæde vindicavit: tu vero, fili David, occultum peremisti lupum, a quo interfectus fuerat Adamus, agnus ille simplex, qi in Paradiso pastus est et balavit.
‘Thy ancestor David avenged the massacre of a lamb by slaying the lion: but thou, O Son of David! didst slay the invisible lion, wo murdered that simple lamb, who fed and bleated in Eden—our first parent Adam.’
The Greek Church gives us, in honor of the Virgin-Mother, this beautiful song of Saint Joseph the Hymnographer.
Hymn
Ut inferiores superioribus ac cœlestibus conjungeret solus omnium Deus, virginalem uterum ingressus est, cumque in similitudine carnis apparuisset, intermedio inimicitiæ pariete sublato, pacem interposuit, vitamque ac divinam redemptionem largitus est.
The one only God of all, wishing to unite the inferior creation with the superior and heavenly, entered the womb of the Virgin; and when he had appeared in the likeness of the flesh, he established peace between God and man, having taken away the wall of enmity that had stood between them; he also bestowed on us life and divine redemption.
Virgo casta post partum permansisti, O sanctissima: Deum enim Verbum genuisti similem nobis factum sine peccato.
Thou, O most holy Mary! didst remain a pure Virgin after thy delivery; for thou didst give birth to God the Word, made like unto us in all save sin.
Sana vulnera cordis mei, o puella, et motus animæ meæ recta ac felici tramite dirige, o Virgo, ad Dei voluntatem faciendam.
Heal the wounds of my heart, O Virgin! and direct the movements of my soul in a bright and happy path, so that I may fulfil God’s will.
Salve, o unica Genitrix illius qui carnem emendicavit. Salve collapsi mundi erectio, o imaculatissima: salve, mœroris dissolutio; salve, salus fidelium; salve, throne Dei altissime.
Hail, incomparable Mother of Him who deigned to take our flesh! Hail, O most immaculate Mary, that didst bring the fallen world its resurrection! Hail, thou dispeller of sorrow! Hail, thou that givest the faithful their Savior! Hail, most high throne of God!
Mente revolventes divine-loqui Prophetæ mysterii tui profunditatem, o Virgo, prophetice prænunciaverunt illud divino Spiritu illustrati. Nos vero cum illorum vaticinia opere completa nunc læti intueamur, credimus.
The divinely-speaking Prophets, revolving in their minds the depth of thy mystery, O Virgin! prophetically foretold it, for they were enlightened by the divine Spirit. We that now joyfully behold their prophecies fulfilled, we believe.
O Puella omnibus miraculis admirabilior; illum genuisti qui est ante omnia sæcula, nobis similem factum propter sumam misericordiam suam, ut salvos faceret eos qui canunt: Benedictus es Deus Patrum nostrorum.
O Virgin! thou that art more admirable than all miracles! thou didst give birth to Him who was before all ages, and who was made like unto us through his great mercy, for he came that he might save them that sing: Blessed art thou, the God of our Fathers!
Divinis verbis tuis hominum generationes inhærentes, beatam te dicunt, o semper beatissima, suaviter concinentes: Benedicite omnia opera Dominum.
All generations of men, keeping to thy most sacred words, call thee Blessed, O most Blessed Mother! and sweetly sing in choral hymns: All ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord!
O Virgo bonorum amatrix, bonam effice animam meam, peccati malitia depravatam: tu enim bonum Deum ac Dominum peperisti.
O Virgin, that lovest holy souls! make mine holy, for it is depraved by the evil of sin: make it good, for thou hast given birth to the good God and Lord.
Horrescunt Cherubim atque universa cœlestis natura ob reverentiam venerandæ Prolis tuæ incomprehensibilis, o immaculatissima, quæ similis facta est nobis propter ineffabilem misericordiam suam, et secundum carnem baptizata est, cujus divinam Apparitionem nunc omnes exsultantes celebramus.
The Cherubim and the whole heavenly kingdom tremble in reverence before the incomprehensible majesty of thy Son, O most Immaculate Mother! He was made like unto us, through his ineffable mercy, and was baptized according to the flesh: and now do we all exultingly celebrate his divine Apparition.
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| The Liturgical Year: January 4th - Octave of the Holy Innocents |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-07-2021, 07:48 AM - Forum: Christmas
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January 4 – The Octave of Holy Innocents
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)
We finish today the Octave consecrated to the memory of the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem. Thanks be to God, who has given them to us, to be our intercessors and our models! Their name will not reappear on the Church’s Calendar until the return of the Christmas Solemnity; let us therefore devoutly approach these sweet Infant Saints—venerate them, love them, and address to them our farewell prayers.
The Holy Church, which on the feast vested in the color of mourning—and this out of condolence with Rachel’s grief—now, on the Octave day clothes herself in the red of her Martyrs in order to honor these Babes, who shed their blood for Jesus. Notwithstanding, she is full of tender compassion for these poor Mothers, who suffered such agonies of grief at the sight of the murder of their little ones: she continually alludes to it in today’s Liturgy and reads, in the Office of Matins, a passage from an ancient Sermon which vividly describes their feelings. We cannot withhold it from our readers. The Sermon from which it was taken was for a long time attributed to St. Augustine.
“When our Lord was born, there began lamentation, not indeed in heaven, but on earth! Lamentation for the Mothers, joy for the Angels, heaven for the Babes. He that is born is God: a victim must be offered him, and Innocents must be that offering, for he came to condemn the malice of this world. Tender lambs must be slain, for the Lamb who is come to take away the sins of the world is to be crucified. But the Mothers wail, because they lose their lambs that scarce have voice to make their bleatings heard. O wonderful martyrdom! O sight most cruel! The sword is unsheathed, and there is no enemy; jealousy alone spurs on the band, for He that is born would injure no man.
“There, then, sit the Mothers, weeping over their lambs. A voice in Rama is heard, lamentation and great mourning. These sweet pledges are not mere things entrusted to their care, they are the children of their own wombs; they are pledges, but they are not given, they are cruelly stolen from them. Nature herself is witness, it betrays the children whom the tyrant is in search of. The Mother tears her hair, for she has lost her beauty in losing her babe. Oh! how she sought to hide him, and the innocent one betrayed himself! He knew not how to be silent, for he had not yet learned to fear. The Mother struggled with the executioner; he seized her child, resolved to murder him; she clung to him, resolved to hold him to her bosom. ‘Why,’ she exclaimed, ‘why separate me from my child? I gave him birth, and I fed him at my breast untiringly. I bore him in my arms with fondest care, and thy cruel hand has dashed him to the ground! This fresh and lovely fruit—thus trampled on!’
“A second Mother bade the executioner take away her life together with that of her child: he would not, and she cried out to him: ‘Why dost thou send me away, having slain my son? If there was any fault, I only could be guilty: if there was no fault, let me die with my babe, and rid me of my wretched life.’ A third exclaimed: ‘What is it that ye seek? Ye are in search of one, and ye slay so many! and Him, who is One, ye cannot find!’ And again another cried out: ‘Come, O come, thou Savior of the world! How long shalt thou be sought for? Thou fearest no man: let these soldiers see thee, and so not slay our children.’ These were the lamentations of the Mothers; and the immolation of their Babes ascended as a sacrifice to heaven.”
Among these Children thus cruelly massacred, from the age of two years and under, there were some belonging to those Shepherds of Bethlehem, who had been called, on the Night of our Savior’s Birth, to go and adore him in his Crib. These, after Mary and Joseph, the first worshippers of the Incarnate Word, thus offered, to the God who had called them, the most precious treasure they possessed. They knew to what Child their children were sacrificed, and a holy pride filled their souls as they thought of this new proof of God’s singular mercy to them, in preference to so many others of their fellow creatures.
As to Herod, he was foiled in his schemes, as must ever be the case with them that wage war against Christ and his Church. His edict for the murder of every male child that was two years old or young, included Bethlehem and its entire neighborhood; but the Child he alone cared for and wished to destroy, escaped the sword and fled into Egypt. It was another proof of the world’s folly in opposing the designs of God; and in this instance, the very measure that was intended to effect evil, produced good—the tyrant enriched the Church of heaven with Saints, and the Church militant with so many fresh patrons.
Jesus, the newborn King of the Jews (Matthew 2:2), who causes Herod to tremble on his throne, is but a Little Child, without so much as one single soldier to defend him. Herod, like all the persecutors of the Church, has an instinctive knowledge which teaches him that this apparent weakness is real and formidable power: what neither he nor his successors knew was that it is worse than useless, and worse than folly, to attempt to crush a spiritual power by the sword. This apparent weakness of the Babe of Bethlehem will increase with his years; now he flees from the tyrant who seeks his life; but later on, when he has grown into Manhood, he will not escape from his enemies; they will fasten him to an infamous gibbet between two Thieves—but on that very day, a Roman Governor will declare this Jesus to be King; he will write, with his own hand, the inscription to be nailed on the Cross: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Pilate will give Jesus, and with all possible formality, that very Title which now makes Herod turn pale: the enemies of Jesus will protest, they will insist on the Title being altered; but Pilate will not change an iota, and will say: What I have written, I have written (John 19:22). As on the day of his Crucifixion, he will admit one of the two Thieves to share in his triumph; so now that he is laid in the Crib, he will share his glory with the Innocents of Bethlehem.
† † †
Let us once more honour these dear Innocents, by culling their praises from the various Liturgies. We will begin with three Responsories from the Roman Breviary.
RESPONSORIES
℟. These that are clad in white robes, who are they, and whence came they? And he said unto me: * These are they who are come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.
℣. I saw, under the altar of God, the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held. * These.
℟. These are they which have not defiled their garments; * They shall walk with me in white, because they are worthy.
℣. These are they who were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. * They.
℟. These Saints sang a new canticle before the throne of God and the Lamb; * And the earth resounded with their voices.
℣. These were purchased from among men, the first-fruits to God and to the Lamb, and in their mouth there was found no lie. * And the earth.
The two Collects which follow, are from the Leonine Sacramentary.
PRAYER
O God, who though great in great things, dost nevertheless work with exceeding glory in those that are the least: grant, we beseech thee, that we may rejoice on this the Feast of them, who bore testimony, though they spoke not, to thy Son, our Lord.
PRAYER
Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord, to thy faithful people, that, as thy Apostle saith, they may become children not in sense, but in malice; that thus they may imitate the Martyrs of this day’s Feast by the simplicity of their hearts, since they cannot attain to the merits they acquired. Through Christ our Lord.
We take the following beautiful prayer from the Mozarabic Breviary of the Gothic Liturgy of Spain.
CAPITULA
O Jesus, Light ineffable of the world! who, whilst yet in thy Crib, and not thyself a Martyr, didst give the palm of martyrdom to the army of Innocents: who, not being able to speak, did, by thy will, utter their many cries when being massacred by the cruel soldiers: whose souls, when thou didst freely die for all our sakes, were taken by thee from the depths of limbo: — to these same, O Jesus, inspire the desire of incessantly praying for us, the little and weak : that thus, not deserving to be cleansed from our sins by our own prayers, we may obtain both present and eternal purity by the intercession of them, that follow thee whithersoever thou goest, singing to thee their hymns and canticles.
The Missal of the same Church gives us also this prayer.
PRAYER
O God, whose mercy is granted to every age and sex; and who didst lavish on the Innocents such richness of fatherly love, that thou wouldst neither suffer them to be kept in Egyptian bondage, nor, (when they left this world under the Law, as their fathers had done,) to be deprived of the Gospel’s fullness of grace; but didst call them to thy kingdom, in common with them that were made perfect under the law of Grace, thus making them a lesson and an example to us of innocence that knows no evil: grant unto us thy servants, that laying aside our power for evil, and dying to the concupiscence of the flesh, we may have no will save that of being taught by thy instructions. May our soul be thus neither rigid nor proud; may she be gentle, and innocent, without being imprudent; may she be humble, without being weak; that hereby, by the timely judgment of discernment, she may both know thy good pleasure and do it, and ignore how to do that which offends thee. May she, moreover, possess that wholesome temperance, which flows from the guidance of counsel; that so, she both imitate the simplicity of these Innocents, in that they were children, and emulate their fortitude, in that they were combatants. Amen.
† † †
Prudentius, the Poet of the Mysteries and the Martyrs, and from whom the Church has taken her beautiful stanzas for the Feast of the Holy Innocents, Salvete, Flores Martyrum, celebrates the immolation of these lovely Babes of Bethlehem, in his exquisite Hymn for the Epiphany. It is from this Hymn that the Roman Liturgy has had recourse for several great Feasts; and we now extract from it the strophes which refer to our dear Innocents.
HYMN
The anxious Tyrant hears that the King of kings is come, who is to rule over the Jews, and sit on the throne of David.
Maddened by jealous fear, he calls a messenger, and says to him: “Our rival is at hand — we are in danger: go, slave, arm thee with thy sword, and bathe every cradle with blood.
“Let every male-child be slain, and every nurse be watched, and every Babe feel thy sharp-edged blade, even whilst he sucks his mother’s breast.
“Not a Mother about Bethlehem but I suspect her; then, watch them all, lest they hide their boys from thee.”
On this, the executioner goes, and, in his wild cruelty, plunges his naked dagger into the tender flesh and the but freshly formed hearts of these little ones.
But, where shall he strike? where find space enough to hold a gaping wound, in these infant-bodies not so big as the dagger in his hand?
Yet still these butchers murder every child. Here, it is an infant dashed against a rock, covering its flinty sides, oh! cruel sight! with blood, and brains, and eyes.
There, it is a lovely babe torn from his mother’s arms and thrown into a deep stream, whose gurgling waters weep whilst drowning sobs and life so sweet as these.
Hail, ye Flowers of the Martyrs! The enemy of Christ cut you down in the very threshold of life, as rose-buds are snapped by a storm.
First Victims for Jesus! Tender flock of his Martyrs! ye, with sweet simplicity, play with palms and your crowns, even at the very altar of your sacrifice!
And what does Herod gain by this dark crime? Does it give him what he sought? The single One he cared to kill is Jesus, and He still lives!
The stream of infant-blood has ceased to flow, and He alone is safe: the Virgin’s Child has escaped that sword, which robbed all other Mothers of their babes.
So was it in that time of old, when Moses, the liberator of his people, and the type of Christ, escaped the senseless edicts of the wicked Pharaoh.
We will close our selection by this Sequence of Notker, which is given in the collection of Saint Gall.
SEQUENCE
Praise be to thee, Jesus, Son of the all-perfect Father, Almighty God!
Unto whom the sweet hymns of the citizens of heaven are ever giving praise,
And the Innocent Babes are ever singing their melodious songs of praise in the courts above.
These Babes were slain by the ruthless sword, at the bidding of a wicked king, who hated thy name,
And now are richly rewarded in heaven, by thee Jesus, in return for the sufferings they endured;
Herein showing thy wonted mercy, which gives, to all who serve thee, crowns of richest beauty.
By the holy prayers of these Innocents, mercifully cleanse us, we beseech thee, from the sins of our past lives,
And lovingly grant, that they whom thou hast associated to thyself to give thee praise, may become our protectors here below.
On them bestow the light of endless glory; on us, the victory over earthly things,
That thus, by a life of holiness, we may merit an abundance of the riches of thy grace.
Of all that devoutly praise these thy holy Innocents, may none be made companions with Herod,
But may they all live for ever with thee, Lord, in the society of this sweet choir of. heaven. Amen.
† † †
Sweet Flowers of the Martyrs! your Feast is over in our Church on earth, but your patronage will never leave us. During this new year of the holy Liturgy which God has given us, you will watch over us, and pray for us to the Lamb who loves you so tenderly. We entrust to you the fruits of grace which our souls have gathered from the Christmas Feasts. We have become little children together with our Lord; we have begun a new life with him; pray for us, that we may grow with him in wisdom and age, before God and man (Luke 2:52). Secure us perseverance, by your prayers; and to this end, keep up in our hearts that Christian simplicity which is the special virtue of Children of Christ. You are innocent, we are sinners; still, we are brethren; love us, then, with brotherly love. You were garnered into heaven at the very dawn of the Law of Grace; our lives have fallen on the close of time, and the world has grown cold in charity; be near and help us; cheer and encourage us in our combat by showing us your lovely palms of victory; pray to our Lord, that we may speedily obtain by repentance the heavenly crown which his infinite mercy allowed you to win without the fatigues and risks of a battle.
Infant Martyrs! forget not the young generation which has just entered on the scene of life. You were taken to eternal glory at the age of infancy; these little ones are like you in their innocence; love them, watch over them, pray for them. The grace of their Baptism is upon them in all its freshness, and their pure souls reflect, as a mirror, the holiness of the God that dwells in them by grace. Alas! these Babes are to go through great trials; many of them will forfeit the grace of God, and their Baptismal garment will lose its unspotted purity. The world will seek to corrupt their heart and mind, and the frightful influence of bad example is almost always successful. Christian Mothers will have to weep over the ruin of their children’s souls, and what consolation is there for such a grief as theirs? There is a Christian Rama, and a Christian Rachel, ever wailing in the Church: do you, sweet Innocents of Bethlehem, comfort these mothers, by praying for their little ones. Pray that our times may grow less evil, and that parents may have less need to fear than they now have—that the first step taken by their children in the world will be death to their souls.
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| The Liturgical Year: January 2nd - Octave of St. Stephen |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-07-2021, 07:46 AM - Forum: Christmas
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January 2 – Octave of St Stephen, the First Martyr
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)
Yesterday, we finished the Octave of the Birth of Jesus; today, we shall finish the Octave of St. Stephen; but this, without losing sight, one moment, of the Divine Babe, whose Court is formed by Stephen, John the Beloved Disciple, the Holy Innocents, and St. Thomas of Canterbury. In five days, we shall see the Magi prostrate before the Crib of the newborn King; they are already on the way, and the Star is advancing towards Bethlehem. Let us spend the interval in reconsidering how great is the glory of our Emmanuel in his having lavished such extraordinary favors on these Saints whom he has chosen to be near him at his first coming into the world. Let us begin with Stephen, for this is the last day of the Octave dedicated to him by the Church. We must take leave of him now till the month of August, when we shall again meet him on the Feast of The Finding of his Relics.
In a Sermon, which was for a long time thought to have been written by St. Augustine, we find it mentioned that St. Stephen was in the flower of his youth when he was called, by the Apostles, to receive the sacred character of Deaconship. Six others were ordained Deacons with him; and these Seven, those office was to minister at the Altar here below, represented the Seven Angels whom St. John saw standing near the Altar in heaven. Stephen was appointed as the head of the Seven, and St. Irenæus, who lived in the second century, calls him the Arch-Deacon.
The characteristic virtue of a Deacon is fidelity. Hence, he is entrusted with the care of the treasures of the Church, treasures which consist not merely in the alms destined for the poor, but in that which is the most precious thing in heaven and earth—the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, of which the Deacon is the minister, in virtue of his Order. For this reason, the Apostle St. Paul, in his first Epistle to Timothy, bids the Deacons hold the Mystery of Faith in a pure conscience. (1 Timothy 3:9)
It was therefore more than an appropriate coincidence that the First of all the Martyrs was a Deacon, for Martyrdom is the great proof of fidelity, and fidelity is the official virtue of the Deaconate. This same truth is still more strongly impressed upon us by the fact that the three, who stand preeminent amongst the Martyrs of Christ, are vested in the holy Dalmatic—the three glorious Deacons: Stephen, the glory of Jerusalem; Laurence, the pride of Rome; and Vincent, of whom Spain so justly boasts. The present holy season gives us Stephen, who has been gladdening us with his festal presence ever since Christmas Day, and Vincent, whose Feast falls on January 22nd. Laurence will come to us, with his rich waving Palm, in the sunny month of August; and Stephen, in the same month, will visit us a second time in the Feast of the Finding of his Relics.
With the intention of paying respect to the Holy Order of Deaconship in the person of its first representative, it is a custom in the great many churches on the Feast of St. Stephen that Deacons should fulfill every office which is not beyond their order. For example, the Chanter yields his staff of office to a Deacon; the Choristers, who assist the Chanter, are also Deacons, vested in Dalmatics; and the Epistle of the Mass is sung by a Deacon, because it is the passage from the Acts of the Apostles which relates the history of the holy Martyr’s death.
The institution of St. Stephen’s Feast, and its being fixed on the day immediately following that of our Lord’s Birth, are so ancient that it is impossible to assign their date. The Apostolic Constitutions, which were compiled, at the latest, towards the close of the 3rdcentury, mention this Feast as already established, and that too on the morrow of Christmas Day. St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Asterius of Amasea, both of them earlier than the miraculous discovery of the Holy Deacon’s Relics, have left us Homilies for the Feast of St. Stephen, in which they lay stress on the circumstance of its having the honor to be kept the very day after the solemnity of Christmas. With regard to its Octave, the institution is less ancient, though the date cannot be defined. Amalarius, who wrote in the 9th century, speaks of this Octave as already established, and Notker’s Martyrology, compiled in the 10th century, makes express mention of it.
But how comes it that the Feast of a mere Deacon has been thus honored, while almost all those of the Apostles have no Octave? The rule followed by the Church, in her Liturgy, is to give more or less solemnity to the Feasts of the Saints, according to the importance of the services they rendered to mankind. Thus it is that the honor she pays to St. Jerome, for example, who was only a Priest, is more marked than that she gives to a great number of holy Popes. It is her gratitude which guides her in assigning to the Saints their respective rank in her Calendar, and the devotion of the Faithful to the saintly benefactors whom she now venerates as members of the Church Triumphant, is thus regulated by a safe standard. St. Stephen led the way to Martyrdom; his example inaugurated that sublime witnessing by the shedding one’s own blood, which is the very strength of the Church, ratifies the truths she teaches to the world and confirms the hopes of eternal reward promised by those truths. Glory, then, and honor to the Prince of Martyrs! As long as time shall last, so long shall the Church on earth celebrate the name of Stephen, who was the first to shed his blood for the God who died on Calvary!
We have already noticed St. Stephen’s imitating Jesus, by praying for and forgiving his enemies; it is the circumstance which the Church continually alludes to in her Office of his Feast. But there is another very important incident in the martyrdom of our Saint which we must, for a moment, dwell upon. One of the accomplices in the murder, which was being committed under the walls of Jerusalem, was a young man of the name of Saul. He made himself exceedingly active, for he was of an ardent temperament, and as the Fathers observe, he helped every man who stoned the holy Deacon, because he took care of the murderers’ garments while they committed the crime. Not long after, this same Saul, while travelling to Damascus, was converted into an Apostle of that Jesus whom he had heard Stephen confess as the Son of God. The blood of Stephen cried to heaven for mercy—and heaven sent to the Gentiles the Apostle who would bring them to the knowledge and love of Jesus. “What an admirable scene!” cries out St. Augustine. “Here is Stephen being stoned, and Saul taking care of the garments of them that stone him. But this Saul is now Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, and Stephen is the servant of Jesus Christ … O Saul! thou hast been prostrated, and raised up again: prostrated a Persecutor, raised up a Preacher. Everywhere are thy Epistles read; everywhere art thou bringing to Christ them that are his enemies; everywhere art thou the good Shepherd, surrounded by a numerous flock. Thou art now reigning with Christ, in company with him thou didst once stone. Both of you are looking upon us; both of you now hear what I am saying; do both of you pray, also, for us. He who crowned you both, will hear both. Stephen was a lamb; Saul was a wolf; now, both are lambs, and both will acknowledge us as of the flock of Christ, and will pray for us that the Church of their Master may be blessed with a peaceful and tranquil life.” (Sermon 316: Third for the Feast of St Stephen) Stephen and Paul both visit us during this grand season of Christmas, for we shall keep the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on the 25th of January; and thus, Stephen leads his spiritual conquest to the Crib of their common Lord and Master.
Catholic piety has chosen St. Stephen as one of the Patrons of a Happy Death. This choice was suggested by the death of the holy Martyr—a death so tranquil that the Scripture calls it a Sleep, in spite of the cruel torture to which his executioners put him. Let us therefore beg the intercession of St. Stephen for that awful hour of our death, when we must return to our Creator these Souls of ours; nay, let us ask him to pray that we may be habitually in such a disposition of mind as to be ever ready to make the total sacrifice of the life which God has given to us: it was a sacred deposit he entrusted to our keeping, and which we were to hold in readiness for him, whensoever he might demand it at our hands.
We will now select from the few additional pieces in honour of our Saint. We begin with two Responsories, and the proper Collect for this Octave-Day, as given in the Roman Breviary.
RESPONSORIES
℟. Stephen, the servant of God, whom the Jews stoned, saw the heavens opened; he saw and entered: * Blessed man, to whom the heavens were opened.
℣. While, therefore, the loud pelting of the storm of stones was beating against him, a divine brightness shone upon him from the ethereal recesses of the heavenly court. * Blessed man.
℟. The gates of. heaven were thrown open to Stephen, the blessed Martyr of Christ, who was the first among the Martyrs. * And he, therefore, triumphs in heaven, with his Crown upon him.
℣. For he was the first to pay back to the Saviour the Death our Saviour deigned to suffer for us. * And he.
† † †
The Church of Milan, in its Ambrosian Missal, consecrates this Preface to the praise of the Prince of Martyrs.
PREFACE
It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, that we should always, and in all places, give thanks to thee, O Eternal God, who didst call Stephen to be the first of Deacons. He was the first, that dedicated unto thee the offering of Martyrdom: he was the first to shed his blood for thee: he it was that merited to see the heavens opened, and the Son standing at the right hand of the Father. He adored Jesus the Man-God on earth, and he proclaimed him to be the Son of the Father in heaven. He repeated the words of his Master; for, what Christ said on the cross, that did Stephen teach when shedding his blood in death. Christ, on the Cross, sowed the seed of his pardon: so did Stephen beseech his Lord to have mercy on them that stoned him.
† † †
The same Liturgy has the following Collect for St. Stephen’s Feast:
COLLECT
O God, the teacher and ruler of them that are thy ministers, who didst adorn the early days of thy Church by the ministry and precious blood of blessed Stephen the Levite; grant, we beseech thee, that meeting with pardon at the hour of our death, we may deserve to follow his example, and be aided by his intercession. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
† † †
The Gothic Liturgy of Spain gives us, in its Mozarabic Missal, the following admirable Prayer to St. Stephen.
CAPITULUM
Most blessed Protomartyr Stephen I thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord hath named: for that thou, who didst suffer death for him, didst, by him, receive a Crown for thy name, and a Crown for thy virtue. Thou wast the first in Martyrdom, and first in its reward: first Martyr in the world, and the first in the courts of heaven. Here, stoned for Christ; there, exulting in the Crown he gave thee. Here, thou didst suffer, for his sake, the most cruel torments; there, thou didst receive the most precious Crown. Thou, therefore, that wast the first flower of the Church, be now her untiring patron; that so, by thy prayers, that Jesus, for whose sake thou wast a glorious Martyr, may be merciful unto us.
† † †
The following Hymn, remarkable for its unction and simplicity of style,
is to be found in most of the ancient Roman-French Breviaries.
HYMN
O holy Protomartyr Stephen, most dear to God! in the virtue of charity, wherewith thou wast armed on every side, thou didst beseech the Lord to have mercy on thine enemies.
Thou art the Standard-bearer of heaven’s martyr-host; the herald of truth; the first witness of Christian grace; the living foundation-stone, and ground-work of martyrdom.
Stones were the instrument of thy martyrdom, not the sword. The sharp-edged stones, like knives of a second circumcision, tore thine innocent flesh; but, tinged in thy blood, they were made rubies for thy Crown.
Thou wast the first to tread the stony rugged path, that leads to heaven; thou wast the first to breast that sword, which had slain our Lord and lost its keen edge by piercing Him; thou wast the earliest winnowed wheat, that graced the granaries of Christ.
To thee were heaven’s gates first opened, showing thee Jesus in his power, for whom thou didst so bravely fight: He, standing at the right hand of his Father’s majesty, is with thee incessantly.
Pray now for this thy devout people, that our Lord, through thy prayers, may mercifully forgive us our sins, and grant us fellowship with the citizens of heaven.
Glory and honour to the God who gave thee thy Crown of roses and thy throne above the stars. May he free us from the sting of death, and save us sinners. Amen.
† † †
We will close our selection with a Sequence, composed by Notker; we find it in the collection of Saint- Gall.
SEQUENCE
Let us solemnise this Feast in the union of fraternal charity,
Instructed by the sweet example of its Saint,
Who prayed for his guilty persecutors.
Hear us, O Stephen, thou standard-bearer of the infinitely merciful King,
Who heard the prayers thou didst offer him for thine enemies.
By thy prayers, O Stephen, that very Paul, who once persecuted thee, was converted to believe in Jesus,
And now exults with thee in that Kingdom, nigh which no persecutors come.
Then, we who humbly cry to thee for pity, and besiege thee with our prayers,
We, surely, shall be reconciled to our God by thy most holy prayers.
Peter ordained thee as a minister of Christ: and thou to the faithful Peter didst affirm and show this truth, that He, whom the mad populace crucified, is at the right hand of the Father.
Christ chose thee, O Stephen! as the example whereby he would give courage to his faithful ones, for he showed himself to thee amidst the shower of stones, and sweetly consoled thee.
Now amidst the red-robed army of the Martyrs thou shinest as The Crowned Prince.
† † †
We return thee our grateful thanks, glorious Stephen! for the help thou hast given us in this great Feast of Christmas. It is thy yearly office to initiate us into the sublime mystery of the Birth of Jesus. Thy Feast ever brings us into the company of this Divine Child, and the Church trusts to thy revealing him to the hearts of her children, as thou heretofore didst to the Jews. Thou hast done thy work, dear Saint! and here is our faith: — we adore this Babe of Bethlehem as the Word of God; we hail him as our King; we offer ourselves to him, to serve him as thou didst; we acknowledge his absolute right over us, and our obligation of serving him even to the last drop) of our blood, should he put our loyalty to that great test. Stephen, the Faithful Deacon! pray for us, that we may have the grace to give our whole heart to Jesus, from this time forward; that we may use our best efforts to please him; and that we may conform our lives and affections to his blessed will. Doing this, we shall have the grace to fight his Fight, if not before tyrants and persecutors, at least before the base passions of our own hearts.
We are the descendants of the Martyrs, and the Martyrs conquered the world; for Jesus, the Babe of Bethlehem, had conquered it before them: shall we, then, be cowards, and re-enslave ourselves to our eternal enemy? Obtain for us, also, that fraternal charity, which pardons every injury, and prays for them that hate us, and converts sinners and heretics when all means else have failed. O valiant Martyr of Jesus! watch over us at the hour of our death; assist us in our agony; show us that Jesus, whom thou hast shown us so often as the dear Babe of Bethlehem; show us him then as the glorified, the triumphant, but, above all, as the merciful Jesus, holding in his divine hands the Crown he has prepared for us; and may our last words be those which thou didst utter when going to thy God: Lord Jesus! receive my Spirit! (Acts 7:58)null
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| Congress certifies 2020 election for Biden, Trump promises peaceful transition of power |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-07-2021, 06:38 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Congress certifies 2020 election for Biden, Trump promises peaceful transition of power
'Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th'
January 7, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – President Donald Trump has committed to “an orderly transition” of power following the decision of Congress to confirm the electoral vote for Joe Biden as the next president of the U.S.
Vice President Mike Pence announced the results of the vote earlier this morning, pronouncing that Biden has finished with 306 electoral votes against Trump’s 232, giving Biden more than the baseline 270 votes necessary for the presidency.
In a tweet sent using White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino’s account, after Congress certified the vote, the president said that “[e]ven though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th.”
Trump continued, declaring that he is not yet done fighting for the true outcome of the election process: “I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”
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| Litany of Humility |
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Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-06-2021, 09:23 PM - Forum: Litanies
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The Litany of Humility
O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, Give ear to my prayer.
From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being exalted, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being honoured, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebuffed, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being made fun of, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being offended, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being the object of suspicion, Deliver me, O Jesus.
That others may be loved more than me,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than me,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may grow in the opinion of the world and myself diminish,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and myself set aside,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and myself neglected,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in all things,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become more holy than me, insomuch as I become as holy as I can,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
Composed by Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val,
Secretary of State under Pope St. Pius X and
Secretary of the Congregation of the Holy Office under Pope Benedict XV
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| Sermons by St. Vincent Ferrer |
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Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-06-2021, 09:14 PM - Forum: Sermons by the Saints
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St. Vincent Ferrer -- Sermon on the Feast of the Epiphany (Mt 2:1-12)
Mt. 2:1-12 [i]Douay When Jesus therefore was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of king Herod, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem. 2 Saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to adore him. 3 And king Herod hearing this, was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 And assembling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ should be born. 5 But they said to him: In Bethlehem of Juda. For so it is written by the prophet: [/i]
6 And thou Bethlehem the land of Juda
art not the least
among the princes of Juda:
for out of thee shall come forth the captain that shall rule my people Israel.
7 Then Herod, privately calling the wise men, learned diligently of them the time of the star which appeared to them; 8 And sending them into Bethlehem, said: Go and diligently inquire after the child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come to adore him. 9 Who having heard the king, went their way; and behold the star which they had seen in the east, went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was. 10 And seeing the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. 11 And entering into the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they adored him; and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country.
"And falling down they adored him," (Mt 2:11)
Today's feast is commonly called Epiphany or Appearance, which is the same. Because the Virgin Birth which had been hidden and secret, today was manifest to the nations. So the churchmen say and call this feast Epiphany, from "epi" which is "above" and "phanos" which is "appearance," because the star appeared over the nations. In order that God should wish to give us sentiments of sweetness of this feast in our souls, let us salute the Virgin Mary, etc.
"And falling down they adored him." The assigned reading reveals to us in a few words the great and perfect reverence which the three kings of the east offered today to our Lord Jesus Christ, "falling down, etc." Not only did they uncover their heads, nor were they content to bend their knees, but they folded their hands and arms, and even their whole body. "And falling down they adored him," (Mt 2:11).
Now to give us a reason for this adoration – for reason begets understanding, and authority confirms belief – I find in sacred scripture that for true, devout and perfect adoration two things are required: a reverent attitude of the interior mind, and a humble gesture of the outward body. As for the first, when man thinks of the infinite and incomprehensible majesty of God and his transcendent power, there comes a reverent trembling interiorly in the soul, and from this there follows exteriorly a humility in the body, joining the hands, genuflecting, or prostrating oneself in prayer to God. Divine adoration consists in these two.
To understand this reason, it must be understood that God created man in his substantial being different than other creatures. Man is a composite, substantially with respect to the soul, and materially with respect to the body. Not so the angels, who are only spiritual substances, nor the animals which are material substances. Because of this man is similar to the angels and animals, because he has both.
So God wishes to be worshipped by both: from the soul thinking of the majesty of God, and from the body through humble gestures. Just like a landowner who leases his field and vineyard for a certain assessment of use. He requires an accounting from both, otherwise he takes back to himself the whole commission. So God is with us. He gives us the vine, the soul which makes the heart drunk with the love of God, and the field of the body that it might bear the fruit of repentance and mercy. So from both he would have a reckoning of devout adoration. Of the angels he asks only spiritual adoration, reverential movements of the mind. Of the animals he asks only a reverential posture of the body, like the ox and ass when they adored Christ in the manger, because they could only bend their knees, but interiorly they had no thoughts. But from us God wishes both, namely the reverent motion of the mind, and bodily actions.
Christ said, "But the hour comes, and is now, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeks such to adore him. God is a spirit; and they who adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth," (Jn 4:23-24). Note, "the hour comes," the time of the law of grace, "when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit" with respect to the soul, "and in truth" with respect to the body, because that is truth, when the body conforms and corresponds to the mind. And he gives a reason, saying, "God is a Spirit," and so it is necessary to "adore him in spirit and in truth."
Think of the miracle found in John 9, of the man born blind, given sight by Christ, to whom he says: "'Do you believe in the Son of God?' He answered, and said: 'Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?' And Jesus said to him: 'You have both seen him; and it is he who is talking with you.' And he said: 'I believe, Lord. And falling down, he adored him,'" (Jn 9:35-38). See the reverential interior movement in the soul and the external bodily gesture, because "falling down he adored him."
The three kings acted thus when they saw the infant Jesus. Instantly there entered into their souls a movement of reverential fear from the presence of divine majesty. And so, "prostrating themselves they adored him."
Of these three kings I shall explain four points
First how they prepared themselves diligently [se paraverunt diligenter]
Second how they went forth courageously [ambulaverunt fortiter]
Third how they sought him persistently [quaesierunt firmiter]
Fourth how they adored him profoundly. [adoraverunt firmiter]
And from the fourth point the theme speaks, "Falling down they adored him."
DILIGENTLY PREPARED THEMSELVES
The first point is to tell how these three holy kings aptly prepared themselves. We need to know what God promised Abraham and the holy patriarchs, that he would send his son, born into this world of a virgin, true God and true man. About this he gave clear prophecies, not only to the Jews in Judea, but also to diverse parts of the world, as a sign that he would come not only to save the Jews, as they falsely believe, but also all those believing in him and obeying him.
He especially sent prophecies to the eastern regions – where there were great prophets and wise men – through the prophet Balaam saying: "I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not near. A star shall rise out of Jacob and a scepter shall spring up from Israel: and shall strike the chiefs of Moab," (Num 24:17). Note: "I shall see him," Christ, whom he saw not in himself but through his successors; "I shall see him, but not now," because from the text of the bible there were 1,500 years from Balaam to Christ. But these three kings were from their own time [genere], and he gave them signs saying: "A star shall rise out of Jacob," from the promised land, "and a scepter shall spring up from Israel," the Messiah king savior, and he "shall strike the kings of Moab," which is so interpreted. It [Moab] signifies the devil who is the father of sinners, to whom Christ said: "You are of your father the devil," (Jn 8.44), "the kings of Moab," i.e. of the devil or of Lucifer.
And there are seven princes who are the captains of the seven capital sins:
· The first prince, and captain of pride is called Leviathan, in Job 40, (v. 20). He is the king over all the sons of pride.
· The second prince, and captain of avarice is called Mammon, about whom Christ spoke in Matthew 6:24: "You cannot serve God and mammon."
· The third prince, and captain of lust is called Asmodeus, about whom we read in Tobit 3:8: "And a devil named Asmodeus had killed them," namely the lusting [bridegrooms].
· The fourth prince, of envy is called Beelzebub. Luke, 11:15 " He casts out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils," The word was about the envy of the Jews of Christ.
· The fifth prince, of gluttony is called Beelphegor. Ps. 105:28: "They also were initiated to Beelphegor: and ate the sacrifices of the dead."
· The sixth prince, of anger is called Baalberith. Judges 9:4: "..out of the temple of Baalberith: wherewith he hired to himself men."
· The seventh prince, of sloth is called Astaroth. I Kings 7:3: "Put away the strange gods from among you, Baalim and Astaroth: and prepare your hearts unto the Lord."
Lord Jesus Christ struck down these seven princes with the staff of his preaching. David said: "The Lord will send forth the scepter of your power out of Sion," (Ps. 109:2).
About this prophecy of Balaam, Chrysostom says, that his disciples and those who were of his kind, after his death wished to observe that star. And they ordained that certain ones of them would stand on the tall Mount Victory, to gaze at the heavens. There they would wash themselves, believing that by this their sins were forgiven, and they would pray saying, "O God of heaven, God of Israel, send the star," and fulfill the prophecy," (Cf. James of Voragine, Golden Legend). And so they divided up times [to watch] for themselves. And on the night of the nativity, by divine providence, these three Kings of the East, great philosophers and astrologers, on Mount Victory saw the predicted star. And at the moment when Christ was born of the Virgin's womb, the star appeared to them extremely bright, and low in the sky, nor did daylight dim its appearance.
Chrysostom repeats the opinion that there was the image of a child in that star, with a cross on his forehead. Some say that the Magi wanted to adore the star. But Augustine says that the angel of the Lord told them that they should not adore the star, but that they should make their way to adore the newly born Creator.
Then the kings took counsel how they should travel, how they should prepare, and what they should bring to offer to him, saying, "He is a great king and powerful. We should offer him gold. And he is God and creator, because the stars serve him, so we shall offer him incense. And in this sign of the cross it is revealed that he is to die on a cross, and so we shall offer him bitter myrrh." [Ecclesiast.] The Magi seeing the star, consulted each other. "This is the sign of a great king. Let us go and inquire of him and offer him gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh."
I believe, therefore, although it is not written, that the holy kings symbolized in their gifts what they believed about Christ. I believe that also [it was expressed] in their clothing, because the king who brought the gold, was clothed in a gold shirt, and the one who brought the incense, in a purple tunic, and the one with the myrrh, in a red scarf. See how they made themselves fit both in gifts as well as clothing.
Morally.
I find in sacred scripture that God promised men two stars, one in the old law, namely that which appeared to the eastern kings, which prefigured the redemption of mankind. The second, and better, was promised in the new testament saying: "And he that shall overcome, and keep my works unto the end, ... I will give him the morning star," (Rev 2:26,28). This signifies heavenly salvation. Note, he who shall conquer the devil through humility, the flesh through chastity, and the world through poverty, "and keep my works unto the end...I will give him the morning star," i.e. the good angel guiding the soul to Christ. See how the angels in sacred scripture are called stars. The reason is because just as the heavenly firmament is decorated and bedecked with stars, so the empyreal heaven is decorated and bedecked with angels, and so they are referred to as stars. Authority: "And the stars have given light in their watches, and rejoiced: They were called, and they said: Here we are: and with cheerfulness they have shined forth to him that made them," (Bar 3:34-36). Note "the stars," i.e. angels, "stars have given light in their watches" i.e. to men who were keeping watch. David: "For he has given his angels charge over you; to keep you, commanded to his angels to keep you," (Ps. 90:11). They bring to the understanding what ought to be believed, to the memory what is to be feared and remembered, and to the will what is to be hoped for, and to deeds, what is to be done. And when a man receives the light of their instruction, he rejoices.
And in the end, when a man is in the arms of death, God sends the morning star, i.e. an angel who leads the soul to Christ, just as that star led the kings to Christ. And so it happens that if this [Epiphany] star is corruptible, because it is immediately was changed back into the underlying material, once it had been observed and desired, how much more should we await that incorruptible star, by washing ourselves from all uncleanness and sins? First by washing our heart from anger, rancor and ill will; our mouths from blasphemies, lies and detractions; our hands from theft and extortion and the like; and the whole body from the corruptions of lust and carnal sins.
Note from the aforesaid evidence that this star which appeared brighter in the birth of Christ was not one of the heavenly stars, for five reasons, which St. Thomas gives III Pars, q. 36, a. 7. St. Thomas says, repeating the opinions of others, that the essence of this star most probably was of a new creation, not in the heaven, but in the atmosphere, which moved according to divine will. Augustine believed namely that it was not of the heavenly stars, because he says in his book Contra Faustum Bk, 2, "Besides, this star was not one of those which from the beginning of the world continue in the course ordained by the Creator. Along with the new birth from the Virgin appeared a new star." Chrysostom believes this too.
Proceeded With Courage
The second point is to declare how the three holy kings proceeded with courage, because from the head of the world, namely from the East, they came for thirteen days to Judea which is in the middle of the world. In fact, from what I have found in the text and in the Glosses of the doctors, having prepared themselves they immediately began their journey.
The star first rose ahead of them, showing them the way which they should take. So that when they had to climb a hill, first the star rose, and when they had to descend, it descended. When they had to cross a river, the star showed them the place to ford it. And when they were in a village in which they had to rest, the star would remain motionless over the hotel. Then when they were leaving the star would lead again and they would follow. Doesn't this seem to you to be a great miracle? In this way they came to their destination, the promised land.
And on the next day when they were to enter the land of Judah, the star disappeared from their sight. Imagine the sadness they had, saying, "O woe! What is this? Has the star disappeared because of some sin of one of us? What should we do?" St. Thomas Aquinas says that they took counsel on what they should do. One said that they should return, because to seek a new king in a foreign land would be very dangerous. Others said that they should at least go into the city of Jerusalem; "Such a king ought to be born in a noble city, or at least they would know where he had been born, because there were great rabbis and professors there, so let us do what we can." And they came to the city of Jerusalem.
And then was fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, saying: "Arise be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the people: but the Lord shall arise upon you, and his glory shall be seen upon you. And the Gentiles shall walk in your light, and kings in the brightness of your rising," (Is 60:1-2). The gentles speak to the Jews as if to a person sleeping saying: "Arise" city of Jerusalem, "be enlightened," with the brightness of the light of faith, "for your light is come," the Christ. Note: "And the Gentiles shall walk in your light," not just the Jews.
Morally:
The kings, having lost their star, came to Jerusalem, so that they can be instructed there. So should we do when we lose the star of the grace of God. You know that the grace of God is called a star, signified by the star of the kings. Why? Because just as that star directed and led the kings to Christ in Judea, so the grace of God directs and leads and shows the way to paradise to those who have it. At a fork in the road it points out the way, to the right. O how many forks in the road there are in this world for those who chose not to go to Christ.
· First is of pride and vanity to the left; of sweetness and humility to the right. The star of the grace of God points to the right, the way of humility, which is the correct way, straight and good and without danger.
· Second is [the fork] of avarice and desire; and of mercy and liberality.
· Third is [the fork] of lust and carnal desires; and purity and innocence.
· Fourth is [the fork] of envy and malice on the left; and of benevolence and goodness on the right, which the star of grace makes clear.
· Fifth is of gluttony and voraciousness; and abstinence and moderation.
· Sixth is [the fork] of anger and brutality; and of peace and unity.
· Seventh is [the fork] of torpor and laziness; of diligence and industriousness.
In these the star of the grace of God directs us, also the star of the grace of God shows the way, ascending through the contemplative way and descending through the active way for works of mercy and piety. It also shows the crossing on the river of worldly delights, where many are drowned, submerged by food and drink and clothing, and tastes, etc.
So Blessed John says: "Let the anointing, which you have received from him, abide in you. And you have no need that any man teach you; but as his anointing teaches you of all things," (1John 2:27) Note: "the anointing," Gloss, i.e. divine grace. But what must you do when the state of divine grace is lost, which is not lost but through mortal sin? I say you ought to do what those holy kings did, namely go to Jerusalem, i.e. to the church, to confess our sins, and so rediscover the star of the grace of God. Thus Christ said to Paul, who lost the star, "Go into the city, and there it shall be told you what you must do," (Acts 9:7). Note, "the city" i.e. Damascus, which is translated "bloody" and signifies the church in which the blood of Christ is consecrated and consumed.
Sought Him Discreetly
The third point is how these three holy kings sought Christ discreetly, the place of the birth of Christ, after they had been in the city of Jerusalem. When the kings were near the city, think how there was a disturbance in the city, especially because Herod, who was a new king, and a foreigner to the people of Judah, feared for himself, and kept himself apart from them. Think how Herod immediately sent for the kings to find out who they were, and whom they sought, and why they had come. The kings replied that they had come to seek the newly born king of the Jews. You can imagine that someone warned them "Do not tell, otherwise Herod would follow you." They did not deny the truth. "We have seen his star in the east, and have come to adore him," (Mt 2:2). Chrysostom: "Consider the devotion of the kings. They have not yet seen Christ, and they are prepared to die for him." Herod had asked why they had come. Think what fear and pain entered into his ear, especially because he was already afraid of this. And he had heard of the wonders which would happen at the birth of the Christ, on account of which he considered himself ruined and destroyed. About this the Evangelist Matthew writes: "[Herod] hearing this, was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him," (Mt 2:3). But he hid his malice, feigning joy at the birth of Christ. And because the kings of the east had come in simplicity, and unarmed, he permitted them to enter the city and received them honorably.
Next, he said to them, "My lords, why have you come?" They replied, "We seek the whereabouts of the one who has been born king of the Jews." See what peril they placed themselves in. Herod, dissimulating, said, "I have heard something of this, but I don't know whether it is certain that he has been born." The kings replied: "It is certain, because we have seen his star in the east." Then Herod said: "And now, my lords, what do you wish?" They responded, "We have come with gifts to adore him." Then Herod, in a loud voice, eagerly asked of them the time when the star appeared to them. In private he asked them, "Tell me exactly the day and time of his birth. And I, with my masters, doctors and rabbis shall tell you of the place where he has been born, that we all might come to adore him." O deceiver! With his other hand he already was readying the sword, that he might cut him down if he could. And gathering all the chief priests and the scribes he consulted them as to where the Christ would be born. They all agreed and responded it was in the city of Bethlehem according to the prophet Michea: "And you, Bethlehem Ephrata, are a little one among the thousands of Judah: out of you shall he come forth to me he who is to be the ruler in Israel," (Mic 5:2). Note "who is to be the ruler," ruler in virtues, by the example of his behavior and preaching. Then Herod informed the kings of the place, and sending them to Bethlehem said: "Go and diligently inquire after the child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I too may come to adore him,"(Matt. 2:8). O betrayer! Enemy of the Church! Wicked Herod, why do you fear the Christ to come? He who rules [gives] the celestial kingdom does not seize a mortal kingdom. Thus the holy kings sought him discreetly and with great diligence.
Morally:
The holy kings, before they came to Herod, were guided by a star, but after they had gone to King Herod, they turned again to holy scriptures to guide themselves, etc. Herod signifies the Antichrist, because just as Herod wishing to kill the Christ, killed the innocents, so the Antichrist wishing to destroy the faith of Christ, shall kill Christians contradicting him. And that star signifies human science, logic, philosophy, laws, canons, by which we are now directed and ruled. But in the time of the Antichrist it shall be necessary to turn again to sacred scriptures, because the Antichrist shall not believe in logic, nor philosophy nor poetry nor laws, etc. Only with sacred scripture shall we make a stand against him. Therefore how guilty are we now, because no one cares about the Bible. Laypeople give themselves to profitable sciences. And among religious, who ought to study sacred scripture, one devotes himself to Virgil, another to Ovid, another to Terence, and so for the others. This is one sign, among others, of the nearness of the Antichrist. Because the Antichrist, to prove his error that he is the Messiah and the son of God etc., shall bring forth only the text of the Bible and the prophets. How do you defend yourself, to refute him, if you are ignorant of the Bible? About this there is a prophecy of Solomon saying, "When prophecy shall fail, the people shall be scattered," (Prov 29:18). This prophecy speaks of the old testament. Christ speaks to all, saying, "Search the scriptures, for you think in them to have life everlasting; and the same are they that give testimony of me," (Jn 5:39).
adored him profoundly
The fourth point is how they adored him profoundly. After they had received the instruction or permission to depart from Herod, and when they had come to Jerusalem's gate, the star reappeared to them. O if one could express the joy which they had! And Matthew relates this. "And seeing the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy," (Mt 2:10) We now know the reason why the star hid from them, so that by a double sign, the star and the scriptures, they might be certified of the truth and would have a double testimony. And the star went before them as before.
When they were near Bethlehem, the judges and officials of Bethlehem, who had heard of their arrival, came to meet them saying, "What do you wish? And why do you come here?" They replied, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We have seen his star in the East and we come to adore him." They said, "We know no other king but Herod." O liars! That star illumined those three kings, and the sun, that is, Christ, was not able to illuminate them. Their sinfulness was blinding them, placing an obstacle on the night of the nativity, when [light] was shining. And the star was seen by all, as Maximus says in his sermon for today. "Rightly one star shone, the rays of which a faithless people were not able to hide, nor hide its truth; where the very heaven of the universe shone forth with a sidereal light to the eyes of everyone." Think when the Jews looked at the star, how it brought devotion to the good, and instilled terror on the wicked. How they wondered because it did not shine from very high up. The kings followed it and entered the city and finally came to the place where the child was.
The holy teachers tell us that the Virgin Mary was still in that cave with the child where she had given birth. And the Gloss says that Joseph, by divine providence, was not there at that time, lest he himself be thought to be the father of the child. When the Virgin Mary sensed that the army which she feared was coming, imagine how she hid the child in the manger and began sewing and knitting, praying, and her whole heart trembled.
The star stood above the place where the child was. And the kings were amazed when they did not see a palace there, or a noble house, and they looked at each other saying, "How is it that the star is not moving?" Maximus says that the star emitted new and brighter rays, which told the kings "Here is the king whom you seek." The kings dismounted from their horses and beasts, and one of them coming to the entrance of the cave lifted up the door-covering a little, and aske, "Who is here?" He saw the Virgin knitting and sewing. The other two kings approached, and when they saw the Virgin Mary, they immediately were seized with great devotion. She said to them, "My lords, what do you seek?" They asked: "Do you know where the one is who has been born King of the Jews, because we wish to adore him." The Virgin Mary did not say that she did not know, but she said, "Lords, the great ones, the rabbis and rectors of the city ought to know." She spoke the truth, and immediately the kings hearts were fully inflamed. And again going out they looked for the star. It was standing immediately overhead, and not moving. It was even more beautiful. They returned to the Virgin and they said to her, "Have you a son?" She responded, "Yes, my lords." "How long is it since you gave birth?" She replied, "Lords, today is the thirteenth day." The kings said "Dear young woman, please show him to us." Then the Virgin, knowing that they had come with good intentions, picked up the child from the manger, and held him out to them. They said: "What is his name?" The Virgin Mary replied, "Jesus." In hearing the name they prostrated themselves and adored him saying, "O Savior, it is good that you have come. O Lord such is your humility that you have wished to come in a stable of this miserable world. You who are infinite in divinity, are now confined in humanity. You who are Creator, have become a creature. You who are immortally and invulnerably safe, have become vulnerable and mortal. O Lord this is such a grace!" And weeping they kissed his feet. Then adoring the mother, they said, "O Chamber of Paradise, Temple of God, Chalice of the Holy Spirit. O Blessed, you have brought to us a Savior."
The evangelist says that opening their treasures they gave him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold for a great king, frankincense for the true God, and bitter myrrh for one who would suffer. And so the prophecy of David was fulfilled of this day saying, "The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents: the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts: And all kings of the earth shall adore him: all nations shall serve him," (Ps 71:10-11). Note, they "shall serve him," namely for the good reward and remuneration which he gives to his servants. Otherwise one serves the world, which brings death to his servants and delivers his soul to the devil, for eternal punishment. But Christ gives grace to his servants in this world, and glory in the next. Therefore he is to be served, and so Christ said, "The Lord your God shall you adore, and him only shall you serve," (Mt 4:10).
Then the holy kings prayed to God, that He might show them if they should return to Herod. But the Evangelist says, that "having received an answer in sleep," from an angel, "that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country," (Mt 2:11).
Think a moment here, when Joseph came and saw such gold, incense and myrrh, how he rejoiced. But on the other hand he was saddened, that he was not judged worthy to be present for such a special event. St. Bernard says that they gave all of their gold out of love of God.
Morally.
· From the example of the kings we ought to offer the gold of our conversion. Such a person can say with David, "I have loved your commandments above gold and topaz," which is a precious stone, "therefore was I directed to all your commandments: I have hated all wicked ways," (Ps 118:127-128).
· Second, the frankincense of devout prayer, saying, "Let my prayer be directed as incense [in your sight]," (Ps 140:2).
· Third we should offer the myrrh of voluntary penance. And such a one can say, "You shall ... make me to live. Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter: but you best delivered my soul that it should not perish," (Is 38:16-17).
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| Church Collapses in Croatia |
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Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-06-2021, 03:52 PM - Forum: Global News
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Croatian church organist found dead after church collapses following deadly 6.4 earthquake
By Brandon Showalter, Christian Post Reporter | Saturday, January 02, 2021
An organist was found dead, buried in the rubble of a Croatian church following a structural collapse after an earthquake registering 6.4 on the Richter scale struck the eastern European nation.
The 15-meter-high tower which topped Parish St. Nikola — a Catholic church in the town of Žažina, located approximately 30 miles southeast of the capital city of Zagreb — collapsed while Stanko Zec was inside with a few others after the quake shook the region Tuesday.
According to Vecernji, a Croatian daily newspaper, Stanko went inside the church with a few others to retrieve valuable items on the altars like embroidered blankets and to take down the manger. Božidar Škofac recounted that when Zec went to cover the organ with nylon to protect it from dust the ceiling fell in on them.
"It was a horrible blow, I saw a chandelier hanging from the vault falling, it was collapsing right in that central part. I knew the collapse would spread to the edges so I quickly hid under the coffee table. I crawled under it and there was a terrible noise and dust. The table was covered with bricks and dust, as well as benches. The entire ceiling fell, only the walls remained. I was captured, three colleagues escaped to the sacristy and started calling us," Škofac said.
He added that after the collapse a man ran up and began moving the bricks and freed him from the rubble.
"I led the church choir, and he played. He has three sons and a wife. He was very engaged in the church as a believer, he always helped. He was a good man," he said of the deceased organist.
Škofac and a few others managed to escape the church collapse with only minor injuries. A funeral was held for Zec on Thursday.
The earthquake was reportedly felt across the nation of just over 4 million people and the Balkan regions. Reports say the tremors were felt as far away as Vienna, Austria.
The epicenter of the quake was located 3 miles from the Croatian town of Petrinja, approximately 8 miles from Žažina.
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| February 9th - St. Cyril of Alexandria; St. Apollonia and the Martyrs of Alexandria |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 01-06-2021, 02:55 PM - Forum: February
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Saint Cyril of Alexandria
Doctor of the Church
(376-444)
Born at Alexandria, Egypt, and nephew of the patriach of that city, Theophilus, Cyril received a classical and theological education at Alexandria and was ordained by his uncle. He accompanied Theophilus to Constantinople in 403 and was present at the "Synod of the Oak" that deposed John Chrysostom, whom he believed guilty of the charges against him.
He succeeded his uncle Theophilus as patriarch of Alexandria on Theophilus' death in 412, but only after a riot between Cyril's supporters and the followers of his rival Timotheus. Cyril at once began a series of attacks against the Novatians, whose churches he closed; the Jews, whom he drove from the city; and Governor Orestes, with whom he disagreed about some of his actions.
In 430 Cyril became embroiled with Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, who was preaching that Mary was not the Mother of God since Christ was divine and not human, and consequently She should not have the word Theotokos (God-bearer) applied to Her. He persuaded Pope Celestine I to convoke a synod at Rome, which condemned Nestorius, and then did the same at his own synod in Alexandria. Celestine directed Cyril to depose Nestorius, and in 431 Cyril presided over the third General Council at Ephesus, attended by some two hundred bishops, which condemned all the tenets of Nestorius and his followers before the arrival of Archbishop John of Antioch and forty-two followers who believed Nestorius was innocent; when they found what had been done, they held a council of their own and deposed Cyril. Emperor Theodosius II arrested both Cyril and Nestorius but released Cyril on the arrival of papal legates who confirmed the council's actions against Nestorius and declared Cyril innocent of all charges. Two years later Archbishop John, representing the moderate Antiochene bishops, and Cyril reached an agreement and joined in the condemnation, and Nestorius was forced into exile.
During the rest of his life Cyril wrote treatises that clarified the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation and that helped prevent Nestorianism and Pelagianism from taking long-term deep root in the Christian community. He was the most brilliant theologian of the Alexendrian tradition. His writings are characterized by accurate thinking, precise exposition, and great reasoning skill. Among his writings are commentaries on Saint John, Saint Luke, and the Pentateuch, treatises on dogmatic theology, an Apologia against Julian the Apostate, and letters and sermons. He was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1882.
Saint Apollonia
Virgin
and the Martyrs of Alexandria
(† 249)
At Alexandria, in 249, a mob rose in savage fury against the Christians, during a persecution which the pagans of Alexandria instigated at the urging of a magician of that city. Metras, an old man, perished first. His eyes were pierced with reeds, and he was stoned to death. A woman named Quinta was the next victim. She was led to a heathen temple and told to worship; she replied by cursing the false god many times, and she too was stoned to death. After this the houses of the Christians were sacked and plundered; and they accepted the despoiling of their possessions with joy.
Saint Apollonia, an aged virgin, was the most famous among the martyrs, honored for her virtue and modesty. Her teeth were beaten out, and she was led outside the city, where a huge fire was kindled. She was told she must deny Christ, or else be burned alive. She was silent for a moment, and then, moved by a special inspiration of the Holy Ghost, she walked into the fire and died in its flames.
The same courage showed itself the next year, when Decius became emperor, and the persecution grew until it seemed as if the very elect must fall away. The story of the witness to Christianity given by a fifteen-year-old boy named Dioscorus illustrates both the courage of the Alexandrian Christians, and the esteem they had for the grace of martyrdom. To the arguments of the judge this young man returned wise answers, and then proved invincible under torture. His older companions were executed, but Dioscorus was spared on account of his tender years. The Christians could not suppose that he had been deprived of the martyr's crown, unless to receive it afterwards more gloriously. Dioscorus, writes Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria at this time, still is with us, reserved for some longer and greater combat.
There were indeed many Christians who came, pale and trembling, to offer the heathen sacrifices. But the judges themselves were struck with amazement at the multitudes who came spontaneously to receive the crown of martyrdom. Women triumphed over torture, until finally the judges were glad to execute them at once, and put an end to the ignominy of their own defeat.
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| February 8th - St. John of Matha |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 01-06-2021, 02:51 PM - Forum: February
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Saint John of Matha
Founder
(1160-1213)
The life of Saint John of Matha, born in southern France of an illustrious family, was consecrated to God by a vow at his birth. His life from his youth was exemplary, by his self-sacrifice for the glory of God and the good of his neighbor. As a child, his chief pleasure was serving the poor; and he would say to them that he had come into the world for no other end but to care for them. He served every Friday in a hospital, and obtained for the sick whatever they needed. Later he studied in Paris with such distinction that his professors advised him to become a priest, in order that his talents might render greater service to others. For this purpose John gladly sacrificed his high rank and other worldly advantages.
At his first Mass an Angel appeared, clad in white, with a red and blue cross on his breast, and his hands reposed on the heads of a Christian and a Moorish captive. To comprehend what this vision might signify, John went to Saint Felix of Valois, a holy hermit living near Meaux, under whose direction he led a life of extreme penance. Another sign was given the two hermits, by a stag they saw with a red and blue cross amid its antlers. The two Christians then set out together for Rome, to learn the Will of God from the lips of the Sovereign Pontiff. Pope Innocent III consulted the Sacred College and had a Mass offered in the Lateran basilica to understand what God was asking. At the moment of the Elevation, the Pope saw the same Angel in the same vision as had been given Saint John. He told the two servants of God to devote themselves to the redemption of captives, and for this purpose they founded the Order of the Holy Trinity, whose habit was first worn by the Angel.
The members of the Order fasted every day, and after preaching throughout Europe, winning associates for their Order and gathering alms to buy back captives, went to northern Africa to redeem the Christian slaves taken prisoner during the Crusades or while traveling on the seas. They devoted themselves also to the many sick, aged, and infirm captives whom they found in both northern Africa and Spain, and who were unable to travel and thus to return home. Saint John on one occasion was assaulted in Morocco and left, in his blood, for dead. He was preserved by a miracle, and took up his charitable services again.
The charity of Saint John of Matha in devoting his life to the redemption of captives was visibly blessed by God: the Pope approved the Constitution of the Order, and in 1198 it was canonically instituted with an establishment in Rome, where the liberated captives were taken from Ostia to give thanks to God and rest for a time.
On his second return from Tunis he brought back one hundred and twenty liberated slaves. But when he was about to undertake another voyage, the Moors attacked the ship and disabled it before it could sail, removing the rudder and sails. Saint John told the passengers to take the oars and set out just the same, then he prayed on his knees to the Star of the Sea, prayers which the sailors and passengers repeated after him. He tied his cloak to the mast, saying, Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered! O Lord, Thou wilt save the humble, and wilt bring down the eyes of the proud. Suddenly wind filled the small sail, and a few days later brought the ship safely to Ostia, the port of Rome, three hundred leagues from Tunis.
Worn out by his heroic labors, John died in 1213, at the age of fifty-three.
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| February 7th - St. Romuald |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 01-06-2021, 02:50 PM - Forum: February
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Saint Romuald
Founder and Abbot
(906-1027)
In the tenth century Sergius, a nobleman of Ravenna, quarreled with a relative over an estate and, in a duel to which his son Romuald was witness, slew him. The young man of twenty years was horrified at his father's crime, and entered a Benedictine monastery at Classe to do a forty days' penance for him. This penance led to his entry into religion as a Benedictine monk.
After seven years at Classe, Romuald went to live as a hermit near Venice, under the guidance of a holy man who had him recite the Psalter from memory every day. When he stumbled, the hermit struck his left ear with a rod. Romuald suffered with patience, but one day, noting that he was losing his hearing in that ear, asked the old man to strike him on his right ear. This episode supposes great progress in virtue. The two religious were joined by Peter Urseolus, Duke of Venice, who desired to do penance also, and together they led a most austere life in the midst of assaults from the evil spirits.
Saint Romuald, whose aim was to restore the primitive rule to the Order of Saint Benedict, succeeded in founding some hundred monasteries in both Italy and France, and he filled the solitudes with hermitages. The principal monastery was that at Camaldoli, a wild, deserted region, where he built a church, surrounded by a number of separate cells for the solitaries who lived under his rule; his disciples were thus called Camaldolese. For five years the fervent founder was tormented by furious attacks by the demon. He repulsed him, saying, O enemy! Driven out of heaven, you come to the desert? Depart, ugly serpent, already you have what is due you. And the shamed adversary would leave him. Saint Romuald's father, Sergius, was moved by the examples of his son, and entered religion near Ravenna; there he, too, was attacked by hell and thought of abandoning his design. Romuald went to visit him; he showed him the error of the devil's ruses, and his father died in the monastery, in the odor of sanctity.
Among his first disciples were Saints Adalbert and Boniface, apostles of Russia, and Saints John and Benedict of Poland, martyrs for the faith. He was an intimate friend of the Emperor Saint Henry, and was reverenced and consulted by many great men of his time. He once passed seven years in solitude and total silence. He died, as he had foretold twenty years in advance, alone in his monastery of Val Castro, on the 19th of June, 1027, in an advanced and abundantly fruitful old age.
By the life of Saint Romuald, we see how God brings good out of evil. In his youth Saint Romuald was much troubled by temptations of the flesh; to escape them he had recourse to hunting, and it was in the woods that he first conceived his love for solitude. His father's sin prompted him to undertake a forty days' penance in the monastery, which he then made his permanent home. Some bad examples of his fellow-monks induced him to leave them and adopt the solitary mode of life; the repentance of a Venetian Duke brought him his first disciple. The temptations of the devil compelled him to lead his severe life of expiation; and finally, the persecutions of others were the occasion of his settlement at Camaldoli, mother house of his Order.
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| Pope Francis declares 2021 will be year dedicated to error-filled Amoris Laetitia |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-06-2021, 08:48 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Pope Francis declares 2021 will be year dedicated to error-filled Amoris Laetitia
January 5, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis has announced a full year of reflections dedicated to his most controversial and error-filled document, Amoris Laetitia.
In his Angelus address of December 27, 2020, Pope Francis announced that beginning on March 19, 2021 – the Feast of St. Joseph – a year of reflection on his exhortation Amoris Laetitia would begin. It will last until June 2022. The Pope noted that March 19, 2021 would coincide with the upcoming fifth anniversary of the publication of his controversial exhortation and that the year of reflection “will be an opportunity to deepen the contents of the document.”
These reflections, he says, “will be made available to ecclesial communities and families, to accompany them on their journey. From now on I invite everyone to join the initiatives that will be promoted during the year and which will be coordinated by the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life.”
The lead up and aftershocks of the controversial exhortation were already enough to threaten schism for the Church. And playing out that disaster all over again is fraught with danger.
Recall that the 2014 and 2015 synods in Rome were all a lead-up to Amoris, which was released in 2016. During those first couple of years the suggestion to permit Holy Communion for remarried divorcees without annulments or even the need to live in continence (as brother and sister – without sexual intimacy) was unthinkable for all Catholics who held to the constant teaching of the Church. But despite all those who believed – including Cardinals with whom I spoke at the time – that it would never and could never happen, or that if that happened the Pope would be formally corrected, here we are now five years later with that so-called teaching still standing and mass confusion rampant in the Church and not only on that matter.
Remember that the key interpreter of Amoris Laetitia, by Francis’s own definition is Cardinal Schoenborn, who said that all tradition is to be interpreted in light of Amoris rather than Amoris in light of the constant tradition of the Church. And because it is modernist and relativist, we are headed again for a crisis the likes of which the Church has not yet seen.
Here is a summary first put out by 45 eminent theologians which gave a list of some of the most egregious errors in Amoris Laetitia. The controversial papal document posited these faulty notions:
- Living according to the teachings of the Gospel may be impossible for some people
- No one is condemned to hell
- “The divorced and civilly remarried who choose their situation with full knowledge and full consent of the will are not in a state of serious sin, and that they can receive sanctifying grace and grow in charity”
- “A Catholic believer can have full knowledge of a divine law and voluntarily choose to break it in a serious matter, but not be in a state of mortal sin as a result of this action”
- “A person with full knowledge of a divine law can sin by choosing to obey that law”
- One’s conscience can “truly judge” that sexual sins explicitly condemned by the Gospel “can sometimes be morally right or requested or commanded by God”
- “Our Lord Jesus Christ wills that the Church abandon her perennial discipline of refusing the Eucharist to the divorced and remarried and of refusing absolution to the divorced and remarried who do not express contrition for their state of life and a firm purpose of amendment with regard to it”
- “Absence of grave fault due to diminished responsibility can permit admission to the Eucharist in the cases of divorced and civilly remarried persons who do not separate, nor undertake to live in perfect continence, but remain in an objective state of adultery and bigamy”
- Wives should not submit to their husbands
- That the death penalty is always unjust
Moreover, Amoris Laetitia is also tied intimately to the new push for acceptance of homosexuality in the Church.
Remember during the first of the Synods on the family in 2014 when the mid-term report or relatio as it was called, called for “valuing” the homosexual sexual orientation, saying that “Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community.”
That connection between Amoris and a homosexual push in the Church became more clear as Pope Francis appointed all sorts of homosexuality-friendly Cardinals such as Blase Cupich. (During the second family synod in 2015 I asked Cupich if the new approach would allow homosexual couples to receive Holy Communion as it would remarried divorcees and he responded in the affirmative.)
That connection between Amoris and the promotion of the homosexual agenda in the Church was clearly foreseen by the infamous Father James Martin at the time of Amoris’s publication.
But it could not at the time be fathomed by apologists who tried to defend Pope Francis’s orthodoxy. Yet today after his having supported and met with countless pushers of the homosexual agenda in the Catholic Church including Fr. James Martin himself; the Pope's approval of a priest who gave a homosexual blessing; and the Pope’s own public statement in favor of homosexual civil unions (and so much more), those objections have been silenced.
So, the year of St. Joseph that was announced to the joy of all Catholics has now been usurped and the good Saint is being utilized to give a holy veneer to Amoris Laetitia. But that is where the powers of darkness always fail. In trying to use St. Joseph to give a holy appearance to an evil document, St. Joseph – known as the terror of demons – will demolish the falsehoods and re-establish the Truth of His Divine Son.
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| Epiphany Traditions |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-06-2021, 07:59 AM - Forum: Christmas
- Replies (2)
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Epiphany Traditions
[...] this Feast -- also known as the "Theophany" or "Three Kings Day" -- recalls Christ revealing Himself as Divine in three different ways: to the Magi, at His Baptism, and with His miracle at the wedding feast at Cana.
For families who practice traditions involving "the Magi" or "La Befana" leaving gifts for children, the day begins with the wee ones discovering what was left for them while they slept on Twelfth Night.
At today's Mass, there will be a blessing of gold, frankincense, myrrh, Epiphany Water, and, after Communion, a blessing of chalk. Bring small special items of gold to have with you during the Mass, and they will be blessed if they are exposed as you sit in your pew with them (wedding rings, rosaries, an heirloom piece of gold jewelry, for example).
When Mass is over, you will take some of the blessed chalk, frankincense, myrrh, and Epiphany Water home with you, so it's good to bring a container to transport Holy Water and one to put some grains of incense and a piece of chalk into. (Note: if you can, take and keep 5 pieces of blessed incense for your Paschal Candle this Easter),
When you get home, sprinkle some Epiphany water (otherwise and afterwards used as regular Holy Water) in the rooms of your house to protect it and bring blessings. This Holy Water recalls the waters of the Jordan, and is a visible reminder of Christ's Divinity, of Jesus's revealing Himself as God at His Baptism, when were heard the words from the Father: "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased." This rite of blessing the home -- led by a priest, if possible, or the father of the house if no priest is available -- goes like this:
Upon entering the house:
Priest/Father:
Peace be to this house.
All:
And to all who dwell herein.
Priest:
From the east came the Magi to Bethlehem to adore the Lord; and opening their treasures they offered precious gifts: gold for the great King, incense for the true God, and myrrh in symbol of His burial.
During the Magnificat, the room is sprinkled with holy water and incensed.
All:
My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For He hath regarded the humility of His handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For He that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is His Name. And His Mercy is from generation unto generations upon them that fear Him. He hath shewed might in His arm, He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away. He hath received Israel, His servant, being mindful of His mercy. As He spoke to our Fathers, Abraham and His seed forever.
After this is completed:
All:
From the east came the Magi to Bethlehem to adore the Lord; and opening their treasures they offered precious gifts: gold for the great King, incense for the true God, and myrrh in symbol of His burial.
Priest:
Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead and lead us not into temptation,
All:
But deliver us from evil.
Priest:
All they from Saba shall come
All:
Bringing gold and frankincense.
Priest:
O Lord, hear my prayer.
All:
And let my cry come unto Thee.
Priest:
Let us pray. O God, who by the guidance of a star didst on this day manifest Thine only-begotten Son to the Gentiles, mercifully grant that we who know Thee by faith may also attain the vision of Thy glorious majesty. Through Christ our Lord.
All:
Amen.
Priest:
Be enlightened, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee-- Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary.
All:
And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light and kings in the splendor of thy rising, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon thee.
Priest:
Let us pray. Bless, O Lord God almighty, this home, that in it there may be health, purity, the strength of victory, humility, goodness and mercy, the fulfillment of Thy law, the thanksgiving to God the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. And may this blessing remain upon this home and upon all who dwell herein. Through Christ our Lord.
All:
Amen.
After the prayers of the blessing are recited, walk through the house and bless each room by sprinkling with Epiphany water and incensing it.
Take the blessed chalk and first write the initials of the three Wise Men, connected with Crosses, over the inside of your front door (on the lintel, if possible). Then write the year, breaking up the numbers and the year so that they fall on both sides of the initials. It should look like this, for ex.:
20 C+M+B 19
with the "20 "being the millennium and century, the "C" standing for the first Wise Man, Caspar, the "M" standing for Melchior, the "B" standing for Balthasar, and the "19" standing for the decade and year. It is also popularly believed that the Kings' initials also stand for "Christus mansionem benedicat" ("Christ bless this house").
Note that some write the first Wise Man's name as "Gaspar," "Kasper," or "Jaspar," so the initials would be "G+M+B" or "K+M+B" or "J+M+B." In any case, these initials over our doorway serve to remind us of Who the Magi saw and how they saw Him. They remind us to adore Him as they did. The chalk markings remain over the door 'til Pentecost.
It is a popular custom among some people that all who enter or re-enter their home for the first time after the blessing should step with their right foot across the threshold so as to start things off "on the right foot."
It is customary in some religious orders to choose a new patron Saint today for the coming year. Families can do this, too, choosing a new Saint by designating someone (e.g., father or mother, etc.) to select the new Patron, by determing by lots who will select the new patron, by having family members write down their choices and choosing at random, by allowing the person to choose who presents the best argument for a particular Patron, etc. It would be very beneficial if the person who chooses teaches the rest of the family about that particular Patron, perhaps looking up the Saint in Butler's works, finding art work depicting the Saint, etc., and sharing it.
As to foods, the bread-like Three Kings Cake is eaten on this day. In some cultures (e.g., Mexico), whoever finds the piece with the trinket (usually shaped like Baby Jesus) inside has to host the Candlemas party. A recipe:
Three Kings Cake
Cake:
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 (1/4 oz.) envelopes active dry yeast
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 cup warm water (100 to 110 degrees)
2 eggs
6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened
Icing:
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Trinket, almond, other nut
Colored sugars, if desired
Cook first 4 ingredients in a saucepan over low heat, stirring often, until butter melts. Cool mixture to 100 degrees to 110 degrees.
Dissolve yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in 1/2 cup warm water in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Add butter mixture, eggs, and 2 cups flour; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer 2 minutes or until smooth. Gradually stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough.
Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Place in a well-greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85 degrees), free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in bulk. Stir together 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon; set aside.
Punch dough down; divide in half. Turn 1 portion out onto a lightly floured surface; roll to a 28- x 10-inch rectangle. Spread half each of cinnamon mixture and softened butter on dough. Roll dough, jellyroll fashion, starting at long side. Place dough roll, seam side down, on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bring ends together to form an oval ring, moistening and pinching edges together to seal. Repeat with remaining dough, cinnamon mixture, and butter.
Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, 20 minutes or until doubled in bulk. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden.
To finish: Make a tiny cut into the cake and hide a plastic or china trinket (shaped like Baby Jesus, if possible) inside (may substitute an almond or other nut). Mix the icing ingredients and do one of the following: 1) simply spread on cake (may dot with candied cherries), 2) spread on cake and then top with a colored sugard 3) spread on cake and sprinkle with alternating bands of colored sugar (in New Orleans, the traditional colors are green, gold, and purple).
In Rome today, a miraculous image of Our Lord as Divine Infant, il Santo Bambino di Ara Coeli, is honored, after having been brought out from its home in the Church of Santa Maria di Ara Coeli on the Capitoline Hill in Rome on Christmas Eve to be revered by the Roman people.
When the Octave of the Epiphany (13 January, the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord) is over in 8 days, the feeling of Christmastide begins to wane a bit. It is either today or on the Octave that some people take down their Christmas decorations, though many wait until the eve of Candlemas on February 2. Though the Season of Christmas liturgically ends with the Octave of the Epiphany, the celebration of Christ's entry into the world and His childhood doesn't truly end until Candlemas (also known as "The Feast of the Presentation and Purification) when we celebrate Christ's being presented in the Temple and Mary's Purification.
You can download the above blessing in Microsoft Word .doc format here: Blessing of the Home on the Feast of the Epiphany (1 page).
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