Fifth Week after Epiphany.
"The way that leads to God-practical counsels for those who aspire after true piety" by Abbe A Saudreau, translated by Leonora L.Yorke Smith. R&T Washbourne, Ltd, London 1911.

§3. Pride - continued

And to what devices will he not resort to secure admiration! Before clever people he too must be clever; he displays his powers of imagination, his knowledge, his ability. With the virtuous he shows himself a strong advocate of virtue; he affects the language of probity and integrity, he inveighs loudly against vice. The wish to obtain admiration is never absent from him; it makes him compose his countenance, dress his phrases, disguise his thoughts. Sweet simplicity has no attraction for him. "What will my audience think of me?" This is his continual anxiety. If needs be, he will relinquish his own ideas, he will run counter to his own tastes; for what would he not sacrifice to his desire of being admired? And if he exaggerates his merits, he also always finds excuses for his faults; conceals his weaknesses. If he is without any particular virtue, he simulates it; he will even at times control his other passions in order to satisfy his pride. Is he lazy? he will shake off his slothfulness; he will accomplish difficult tasks in the hope of magnifying himself in his own eyes and in the eyes of others. Such were the haughty Pharisee, whom Our Lord reproached with practising their virtues to be seen of men. The vain man is not only capable of almsgiving and fasting (as was the case with these enemies of Our Lord), but he is so athirst for admiration that he even strives to win it by acts which, if inspired by a better motive, would deserve to be called heroic. Gladiators and others greedy for glory have been seen to face death calmly and impassively, having no other care at that awful moment than the thought of bequeathing a reputation for courage to posterity.
46. Of what blindness is not this pride the cause! The humble man is honest and sincere; convinced as he is of his own misery, and making confession of it to God, he does not endeavour to hide it from men, and thus all his path are truth. He is simple and upright in all his doings, with the great and the small, the learned and the ignorant. He is at peace, not being troubled as to what anyone might say or think about him; he is a stranger to those agonies which the proud man endures - agonies as numerous as the persons with whom he comes in contact. But the proud man is not in search of truth. Absorbed as he is in the desire to please or to astonish, he sets himself to deceive others by seductive appearances. He likes to deceive himself, and, wishing at all costs to rise in his own esteem, he ends by thinking himself quite different from what he really is. Those alone know the truth who sincerely desire to do so. The proud man fears it, because it would show him his transgression, and so he flies in the opposite directionn. Is it necessary to add that the Devil, the Father of Lies, encourages this fatal tendency, encompasses the proud man with his snares, entangles him in a host of misconceptions and false ideas, obscures his intellect and enshrouds it little by little in a thick darkness? Very soon these errors,consented to, desired and sought after, becomes invincible, and the proud man finishes by persuading himself that everyone takes him at his own high valuation. If he could fear that he might be mistaken, he would perhaps pray for that light which God grants to the humble. But he loves his delusion, and he intends to go on admiring and idolizing himself to the end. And what deplorable consequences ensue: jealousy with regard to those who might eclipse him; antipathy - hatred, even - towards those who fail to admire, or refuse to submit to him; anger when he is contradicted or thwarted. The proud man is the docile instrument in satan's hands; the Enemy of mankind prefers him to the miser, to the sensual, and even to the impure man, as an assistant in his work of pervertingg souls. For the proud man, provided that he knows how to conceal his repulsive arrogance and to avoid exciting disgust, dominates weaker natures and forces them to accept his errors, or he ingratiates himself by his flatteries. For all means are good to him provided that he be accepted as a teacher whose words must be listened to, as a clever man whose advice is to be followed. All the heresiarch were inordinately proud; in all times those who have founded false schools, who have been the originators, or even propagators, of false doctrines, who have tampered with their brothers' faith and in many instances destroyed it, have been drawn to the novelties of belief by their exaggerated confidence in their own enlightenment. They made an idol of their knowledge or their talents; unconsciously at first, and then deliberately, they have cast God out of their hearts by denying the Divine teaching. These men are the real agents of Satan. So it is with those who, in the Church's conflicts, side with her enemies; those who, without breaking with her openly, show disloyal tendencies, throwing doubt upon her teachings, criticizing the measures taken by those in authority. What is the motive with which they are usually inspired but that of an infatuation for self?
48. The cases in which this insane pride makes a man an idolater of his own person, are less rare than might be supposed. Perhaps the reader is now thinking: "I am very far from falling into these deplorable follies. I do not blind myself to this point; I do not sacrifice everything to the wish to please or to shine. I am aware that I may not be particularly humble, but I see no signs of this senseless pride." It is true that those who read these pages have not, thank God, arrived at the excess which we have just depicted; but do not let us forget that in order to know any monster thoroughly, it is necessary to study it in the adult stage! To get a correct idea of a tree you must not examine it when the first shoot is rising above the ground. The newly hatched snake cannot yet kill with his fangs; the poisonous plant, when it first appears, is still harmless. But take the serpent and rear it, cultivate the poisonous plant, and the day will come when the one and the other will be able to destroy the life of the imprudent person who has cherished them.
The budding voluptuousness, the pride which is just budding to show itself, bears within it the seeds of perdition. If it does not actually slay, it paralyzes, it destroys the spiritual vigour. Those who fight feebly and make concession to their passions, who yield deliberately to the love of ease, to sensual pleasures, to feelings of self-complacency (more especially when the yielding becomes habitual), are doing to their souls an injury the gravity of which they do not understand; they are depraving themselves for all eternity of that superabundance of joy and glory which Our Saviour reserves in Heaven for those who have been His true friends here below. Those, on the other hand, who, realizing the hideousness of these two vices, and how displeasing they are to God, wage a relentless war against them, acquire by this means alone a title to the Divine favours.
Reader, if you have no cause to reproach yourself even of weakness with regard to these worst enemies of your salvation, if your generous soul is sullied only with those few light faults which proceed from the frailty of our poor human nature and are not the result of a considered and deliberate consent, it was none the less important that you should be shown the grave disorders into which a large number of your brethren fall. Your compassion for sinners will be increased thereby, and you will the better understand what prayers, what sacrifices, are necessary to obtain their conversion and their salvation. You will also understand what expiations such sins call for. It was to an innocent soul that the Immaculate Virgin at Lourdes spoke the words:"Penance! Penance! Penance!" Mary desired that this call, addressed to Bernadette, should be heard by all alike-by the just no less than by sinners. Has she been obeyed? And is it not because the good have not thought to make expiation for the guilty that the Divine justice is smitting us today? The epiatory oblations of God's friends are of the greatest worth in His eyes; they are necessary for the appeasing of His justice, and if they are not offered voluntarily, will He not exact them after another and a yet more terrible manner? Read whole post......

St Romuald

Catholic Encyclopedia
Born at Ravenna, probably about 950; died at Val-di-Castro, 19 June, 1027. St. Peter Damian, his first biographer, and almost all the Camaldolese writers assert that St. Romuald's age at his death was one hundred and twenty, and that therefore he was born about 907. This is disputed by most modern writers. Such a date not only results in a series of improbabilities with regard to events in the saint's life, but is also irreconcilable with known dates, and probably was determined from some mistaken inference by St. Peter Damian. In his youth Romuald indulged in the usual thoughtless and even vicious life of the tenth-century noble, yet felt greatly drawn to the eremetical life. At the age of twenty, struck with horror because his father had killed an enemy in a duel, he fled to the Abbey of San Apollinare-in-Classe and after some hesitation entered religion. San Apollinare had recently been reformed by St. Maieul of Cluny, but still was not strict enough in its observance to satisfy Romuald. His injudicious correction of the less zealous aroused such enmity against him that he applied for, and was readily granted, permission to retire to Venice, where he placed himself under the direction of a hermit named Marinus and lived a life of extraordinary severity. About 978, Pietro Orseolo I, Doge of Venice, who had obtained his office by acquiescence in the murder of his predecessor, began to suffer remorse for his crime. On the advice of Guarinus, Abbot of San Miguel-de-Cuxa, in Catalonia, and of Marinus and Romuald, he abandoned his office and relations, and fled to Cuxa, where he took the habit of St. Benedict, while Romuald and Marinus erected a hermitage close to the monastery. For five years the saint lived a life of great austerity, gathering round him a band of disciples. Then, hearing that his father, Sergius, who had become a monk, was tormented with doubts as to his vocation, he returned in haste to Italy, subjected Sergius to severe discipline, and so resolved his doubts. For the next thirty years St. Romuald seems to have wandered about Italy, founding many monasteries and hermitages. For some time he made Pereum his favourite resting place. In 1005 he went to Val-di- Castro for about two years, and left it, prophesying that he would return to die there alone and unaided. Again he wandered about Italy; then attempted to go to Hungary, but was prevented by persistent illness. In 1012 he appeared at Vallombrosa, whence he moved into the Diocese of Arezzo. Here, according to the legend, a certain Maldolus, who had seen a vision of monks in white garments ascending into Heaven, gave him some land, afterwards known as the Campus Maldoli, or Camaldoli. St. Romuald built on this land five cells for hermits, which, with the monastery at Fontebuono, built two years later, became the famous mother-house of the Camaldolese Order (q.v.). In 1013 he retired to Monte-Sitria. In 1021 he went to Bifolco. Five years later he returned to Val-di-Castro where he died, as he had prophesied, alone in his cell. Many miracles were wrought at his tomb, over which an altar was allowed to be erected in 1032. In 1466 his body was found still incorrupt; it was translated to Fabriano in 1481. In 1595 Clement VIII fixed his feast on 7 Feb., the day of the translation of his relics, and extended its celebration to the whole Church. He is represented in art pointing to a ladder on which are monks ascending to Heaven.

[Note: By the Apostolic Constitution Calendarium Romanum, promulgated in 1969, the feast of St. Romuald was assigned, as an "Optional Memorial," to 19 June, the day of his death.] Read whole post......

Fifth Week after Epiphany.
"The way that leads to God-practical counsels for those who aspire after true piety" by Abbe A Saudreau, translated by Leonora L.Yorke Smith. R&T Washbourne, Ltd, London 1911.

§3.Pride.
44. Voluptuousness is the most degrading of all the passions, but it is not the hardest to cure or the most dangerous. Separation from, and, above all, the deceptions and treacheries of those by whom he believed himself to be loved, may bring a man back from the idolatry of the creature to the true God. Sickness may compel the sensualist to control his gross inclinations; serious reverses may detach the avaricious from wordly possessions. At times also the example of virtous lives may make the debauchee enter into himself; the drunkard, his health undermined by excess, groans over his fatal tendency; a wholesome feeling of shame takes possession of those who have been weak enough to yield to all these vices, and occasionally, at any rate, they will conceive a longing to escape from their degradation. But pride, the fatuous admiration for his own qualities, the idolatry of the 'me' - who will cure this grave disease? The proud man is satisfied with himself; he perceives none of his faults, he sees no reasone for wishing to alter his life.
The pride man is his own idol; he holds to it even more tenaciously than the miser to his gold, than the sensualist to the pleasures of the table, or the man caught in some guilty entanglement to the object of his infatuation. Those who carry their incense to other idols admit by this very fact that something is wanting in themselves, and that they require to seek it outside. The proud man, on the contrary, will in no wise admit his own poverty, or owe anything to any other creature. Troubles and obstacles which often daunt other sinners and check their rebellion only irritate the proud man, and strenghten, instead of weakening, his pride. For he kicks against humiliations, and inflates himself the more if anyone seeks to belittle him.
45. What a terrible disorder pride becomes when, from never being resisted, it develops to the point of deserving the name of idolatry! He indeed is a self-wrshipper who makes himself the centre of everything, who feasts himself upon the contemplation of his fancied qualities, judging his fellow-creatures severely, despising them, and considering himself superior to everyone. Nothing can undeceive them. All those who come near him are disgusted with his self-sufficiency, his ridiculous presumption; but he remains none the less pleased with himself. He is so enamoured of self, he makes so little of all that is not self, that even God is of small account in his eyes. Such is his confidence in his own industry and talents that he feels no need of the Divine assistance. One would think that he could dispense with God - that he aspires to usurp His place, and direct the affairs of the world. If annyone points out to him that God's designs may be in opposition to his private aims, and that all his efforts may therefore be in vain, the thought revolts him. There exists within him a germ of that pretension of Lucifer: "I will ascend above the height of the clouds; I will be like the Most High."(Isa. XIV, 14).
He adores himself, and he also wishes to be adored. That people should think about him, should occupy themselves with him, is a joy to him; to be admired and loved is a yet greater delight. But still he is not satisfied. He demands that others ahould be subject to him, for he has a thirst for power. In order to be really contended, he must be able to impose the laws of his will and the decrees of his own wisdom upon others. Read whole post......

"The Church's Year - FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY" by Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine's
On this Sunday mention is made of the practice of Christian virtues, and of God's sufferance of the wicked upon earth, that by them the just may be exercised in patience.
COLLECT Keep, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy household by Thy continual mercy;that as it leans only upon the hope of Thy heavenly grace, so it may ever be defended by Thy protection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, etc.
EPISTLE (Col. III. 12-17.) Brethren, put ye on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience;bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if any have a complaint against another; even as the Lord hath forgiven you, so you also. But above all these things, have charity, which is the bond of perfection: and let the peace of Christ rejoice in your hearts, wherein also you are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly, in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another, in psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing in grace in your hearts to God. All whatsoever you do in word or in work, all things, do ye in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Why does St. Paul call charity the bond of perfection?
Because charity comprises in itself and links all the virtues in which perfection consists. For whoever truly loves God and his neighbor, is also good, merciful, humble, modest, patiently bears the weakness of his neighbor, willingly forgives offences, in a word, practices all virtues for the sake of charity.
When does the peace of God rejoice in our hearts?
When we have learned to conquer our evil inclinations, passions, and desires, and have placed order and quiet in our hearts instead. This peace then, like a queen, keeps all the wishes of the soul in harmony, and causes us to enjoy constant peace with our neighbor, and thus serve Christ in concord, as the members of one body serve the head. The best means of preserving this peace are earnest attention to the word of God, mutual imparting of pious exhortations and admonitions, and by singing hymns,psalms, and spiritual canticles.
Why should we do all in the name of Jesus?
Because only then can our works have real worth in the sight of God, and be pleasing to Him, when they are performed for love of Jesus, in His honor, in accordance with His spirit and will. Therefore the apostle admonishes us to do all things,eat,drink, sleep, work &c. in the name of Jesus, and so honor God, the Heavenly Father, and show our gratitude to Him. Oh, how grieved will they be on their death-bed who have neglected to offer God their daily work by a good intention, then they will see, when too late, how deficient they are in meritorious deeds. On the contrary they will rejoice whose consciences testify, that in all their actions they had in view only the will and the honor of God! Would that this might be taken to heart especially by those who have to earn their bread with difficulty and in distress, that they might always unite their hardships and trials with the sufferings and merits of Jesus, offering them to the Heavenly Father, and thus imitating Christ who had no other motive than the will and the glory of His Heavenly Father.
ASPIRATION O God of love, of patience, and of mercy, turn our hearts to the sincere love of our neighbor, and grant, that whatever we do in thoughts, words and actions, we may do in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and through Him render thanks to Thee.
ON CHURCH SINGING
"Admonish one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing in grade in your hearts to God." (Col. III. 16.)The custom of singing in the Church-choir* has its foundation as far back as the Old Testament, when by the arrangement of David, Solomon, and Ezechias,the psalms and other sacred canticles were sung by the priests and Levites.This custom the Catholic Church has retained, according to the precepts of the apostles, (I. Cor. XIV. 26; Eph. V. 19.) and the example of Jesus who,after they had eaten the Pasch, intoned a hymn of praise with His apostles, Matt XXVI. 30)that Christians on earth, like the angels and saints in heaven, (Apoc. V. 8. 9., XIV. 3.) who unceasingly sing His praises, might at certain hours of the day, at least, give praise and thanks to God. In the earliest ages of the Church, the Christians sang hymns of praise and thanksgiving during the holy Sacrifice and other devotional services, often continuing them throughout the whole night; in which case the choir-singers probably were bound to keep the singing in proper order and agreement. In the course of time this custom of all the faithful present singing together ceased in many churches, and became confined to the choir, which was accompanied later by instruments in accordance with the words of David who calls to the praise of the Lord with trumpets, with timbrels, with pleasant psaltery and harps. (Ps, CL. 3, 4., LXXX. 3. 4.) In many churches, where the faithful still sing in concert, if done with pure hearts and true devotion,it is as St. Basil says, "a heavenly occupation, a spiritual burnt offering;it enlightens the spirit, raises it towards heaven, leads man to communion with God, makes the soul rejoice, ends idle talk, puts away laughter,reminds us of the judgment, reconciles enemies. Where the singing of songs resounds' from the contrite heart there God with the angels is present."
*The choir is usually a gallery in the Church in which the singers are stationed; the place where the clergy sing or recite their office, is also called the choir.
GOSPEL (Matt. XIII. 24-30,) At that time, Jesus spoke this parable to the multitudes: The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seed in his field. But while men were asleep, his enemy came, and oversowed cockle among the wheat, and went his way. And when the blade was sprung up, and had brought forth fruit, then appeared also the cockle. And the servants of the good man of the house coming, said to him: Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? whence, then, hath it cockle? And he said to them: An enemy bath done this. And the servants said to him: Wilt thou that we go and gather it up? And he said: No, lest perhaps, gathering up the cockle,you root up the wheat also together with it. Suffer both to grow until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye
into my barn. What is understood by the kingdom of heaven? The Church of God, or the collection of all orthodox Christians on earth,destined for heaven. What is meant by the good seed, and by the cockle? The good seed, as Christ Himself says, (Matt. XIII. 38.) signifies the children of the kingdom, that is, the true Christians, the living members of the Church, who being converted by the word of God sown into their hearts become children of God, and bring forth the fruit of good works. The cockle
means the children of iniquity, of the devil, that is, those who do evil; also every wrong, false doctrine which leads men to evil.Who sows the good seed, and by the cockle? The good seed is sown by Jesus, the Son of Man not only directly, but
through His apostles, and the priests, their successors; the evil seed is sown by the devil, or by wicked men whom he uses as his tools.
Who are the men who were asleep?
Those superiors in the Church; those bishops and pastors who take no care of their flock, and do not warn them against seduction, when the devil comes and by wicked men sows the cockle of erroneous doctrine and of crime; and those men who are careless and neglect to hear the word of God and the sacrifice of the Mass, who neglect to pray, and do not receive the Sacraments. In the souls of such the devil sows the seeds of bad thoughts, evil imaginations and desires, from which spring, later, the cockle of pride, impurity, anger, envy, avarice, etc.
Why does not God allow the cockle, that is, the wicked people, to be rooted
out and destroyed?
Because of His patience and long suffering towards the sinner to whom He gives time for repentance, and because of His love for the just from whom He would not, by weeding out the unjust, take away the occasion of practicing virtue and gathering up merits for themselves; for because of the unjust, the just have numerous opportunities to exercise patience, humility, etc.
When is the time of the harvest?
The day of the last judgment when the reapers, that is, the angels, will go out and separate the wicked from the just, and throw the wicked into the fiery furnace; while the just will be taken into everlasting joy. (Matt.XIII. 29.)
PRAYER O faithful Jesus, Thou great lover of our souls, who hast sown the good seed of Thy Divine Word in our hearts, grant that it may be productive, and bear in us fruit for eternal life; protect us from our evil enemy, that he may not sow his erroneous and false doctrine in our hearts, and corrupt the good; preserve us from the sleep of sin, and sloth that we may remain always vigilant and armed against the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, overcome them manfully, and die a happy death. Amen.
ON INCLINATION TO EVIL
Whence then hath it cockle? (Matt. XIII. 27.) Whence comes the inclination to evil in man?
It is the sad consequence of original sin, that is, of that sin which our first parents, by their disobedience, committed in paradise, and which we as their descendants have inherited. This inclination to evil remains even in those who have been baptized, although original sin with its guilt and eternal punishment is taken away in baptism, but it is no sin so long as man does not voluntarily yield. (Cat. Rom. Part. II. 2. .43.)
Why, the sin being removed, does the inclination remain?
To humble us that we may know our frailty and misery, and have recourse to God, our best and most powerful Father, as did St. Paul, when he was much annoyed by the devil of the flesh; (II. Cor. XII. 7. 8.) that the glory of God and the power of Christ should be manifested in us, which except for our weakness could not be; that we might have occasion to fight and to conquer. A soldier cannot battle without opposition, nor win victory and the crown without a contest. Nor can we win the heavenly crown, if no occasion is given us, by temptations, for fight and for victory. "That which tries the combatant," says St. Bernard, "crowns the conqueror." Finally, the inclination remains, that we may learn to endure, in all meekness, the
faults and infirmities of others and to watch ourselves, lest we fall into
the same temptations.

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Fifth Week after Epiphany. The "Roman Breviary"
Matins - lessons 1-3
From the first Epistle to Timothy, chapter 3, 1-16

A faithful saying: if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. It behoveth therefore a bishop to be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, prudent, of good behaviour, chaste, given to hospitality, a teacher, not given to wine, no striker, but modest, not quarrelsome, not covetous: but one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all chastity. But if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Not a neophyte: lest being puffed up with pride, he fall into the judgment of the devil. Moreover he must have a good testimony of them who are without: lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Deacons in like manner chaste, not double tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre: holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved: and so let them minister, having no crime. The women in like manner chaste not slanderers, but sober, faithful in all things. Let deacons be the husbands of one wife: who rule well their children and their own houses. For they that have ministered well, shall purchase to themselves a good degree, and much confidence in the faith which is in Jesus Christ.

These things I write to thee, hoping that I shall come to thee shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And evidently great is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the spirit, appeared unto angels, hath been preached unto the Gentiles, is believed in the world, is taken up in glory. Now the Spirit manifestly saith, that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error and doctrines of devils. Read whole post......

Fifth Sunday after Epiphany. The Roman Breviary, part 3: Winter, Burns Oates&Washbourne Ltd, London 1936

Matins, Lesson IV-VI
Sermon 8 of St. Augustine, Bishop, on the words of the Apostle,

This is a saying made for man, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Listen to the Gospel: The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. If man had not been lost, the Son of man would not have come. Man, then, was lost, God came, being made man, and man was found. Man had perished by his own free-will; God made man came by the grace which was to set man free.

Do you ask, how free-will can do evil? Call to mind a sinner. Do you ask what God made man can do to help him? Consider that in him is the grace that sets man free. What the will of man can do when, ruled by pride, it tries to avoid evil without the help of God, could never be better or more clearly shown that in the first man. Behold, the first man perished, and where would he have been if the second man had not come? Because he who was lost was a man, therefore he who came to save him was made man; that was why we said it was a saying made for man.

And neither does the sweetness of grace and the generosity of God's almightness anywhere appear so clearly as in the man Christ Jesus, mediator between God and man. For what do we say, my brethren? I speak to those brought up in the Catholic faith, or to those who have won to Catholic peace. We know and we hold that the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, inasmuch as he was man, was of the same nature as we are. For our flesh is not of another nature than his soul. He took upon himself this nature which he had determined to save.

Lessons VII-IX
Homily of St Augustine, Bishop
Book of questions on the Gospel of Matthew, cap.II, tom.4

When they who were set over the Church grew careless, or since the Apostles have slept the sleep of death, the devil came, and oversowed those whom the Lord designates as wicked children. But, ye ask, are these heretics, or Catholics living bad lives? For even heretics might be called the children of the wicked one, who, although they have sprung up from the seed of the Gospel, and have been begotten in the name of Christ, have turned aside to false doctrines through listening to erroneous opinions.

When it is said that they were sown among the wheat, it would seem that only those are meant who are of the same communion with us. Yet since the Lord interpreted this field as signifying, not the Church, but the world, the cockle may well be understood to mean heretics, because in this world they are mingled with the good, not in the fellowship of the one Church, or of the one faith, but only as sharing the name of Christian. But the wicked who are of the same faith are to be considered as straw rather than cockle; for the straw grows up together with the wheat and has one common root.

By the net in which were gathered together fish both bad and good, bad Catholics may reasonably be understood. For, on the one hand, the sea is a more fitting symbol of the world; and, on the other hand, the net seems to point to the communion of one faith, or of one Church. The difference between heretics and bad Catholics is, that the former believe false doctrine, while the latter, though believing aright, do not live according to to their faith.

Blessing for the lesson 9:
May our sins be blotted out by the words of the gospel.
R. Amen. Read whole post......

St Agatha

Catholic Encyclopedia

One of the most highly venerated virgin martyrs of Christian antiquity, put to death for her steadfast profession of faith in Catania, Sicily. Although it is uncertain in which persecution this took place, we may accept, as probably based on ancient tradition, the evidence of her legendary life, composed at a later date, to the effect that her martyrdom occurred during the persecution of Decius (250-253).

Historic certitude attaches merely to the fact of her martyrdom and the public veneration paid her in the Church since primitive times. In the so-called Martyrologium Hieronymianum (ed. De Rossi and Duchesne, in Acta SS., Nov. II, 17) and in the ancient Martyrologium Carthaginiense dating from the fifth or sixth century (Ruinart, Acta Sincera, Ratisbon, 1859, 634), the name of St. Agatha is recorded on 5 February. In the sixth century Venantius Fortunatus mentions her in his poem on virginity as one of the celebrated Christian virgins and martyrs (Carm., VIII, 4, De Virginitate: Illic Euphemia pariter quoque plaudit Agathe Et Justina simul consociante Thecla. etc.). Among the poems of Pope Damasus published by Merenda and others is a hymn to St. Agatha (P.L., XIII, 403 sqq.; Ihm, Damasi Epigrammata, 75, Leipzig, 1895). However, this poem is not the work of Damasus but the product of an unknown author at a later period, and was evidently meant for the liturgical celebration of the Saint's feast. Its content is drawn from the legend of St. Agatha, and the poem is marked by end-rhyme. From a letter of Pope Gelasius (492-496) to a certain Bishop Victor (Thiel. Epist. Roman. Pont., 495) we learn of a Basilica of St. Agatha in fundo Caclano, e.g., on the estate of that name. The letters of Gregory I make mention of St. Agatha at Rome, in the Subura, with which a diaconia or deaconry was connected (Epp., IV, 19; P.L., LXXVII, 688). It was in existence as early as the fifth century, for in the latter half of that century Rieimer enriched it with a mosaic. This same church was given the Arian Goths by Rieimer and was restored to Catholic worship by Pope Gregory I (590-604).

Although the martyrdom of St. Agatha is thus authenticated, and her veneration as a saint had even in antiquity spread beyond her native place, we still possess no reliable information concerning the details of her glorious death. It is true that we have the Acts of her martyrdom in two versions, Latin and Greek, the latter deviating from the former (Acta SS., I, Feb., 595 sqq.). Neither of these recensions, however, can lay any claim to historical credibility, and neither gives the necessary internal evidence that the information it contains rests, even in the more important details, upon genuine tradition. If there is a kernel of historical truth in the narrative, it has not as yet been possible to sift it out from the later embellishments. In their present form the Latin Acts are not older than the sixth century. According to them Agatha, daughter of a distinguished family and remarkable for her beauty of person, was persecuted by the Senator Quintianus with avowals of love. As his proposals were resolutely spurned by the pious Christian virgin, he committed her to the charge of an evil woman, whose seductive arts, however, were baffled by Agatha's unswerving firmness in the Christian faith. Quintianus then had her subjected to various cruel tortures. Especially inhuman seemed his order to have her breasts cut off, a detail which furnished to the Christian medieval iconography the peculiar characteristic of Agatha. But the holy virgin was consoled by a vision of St. Peter, who miraculously healed her. Eventually she succumbed to the repeated cruelties practised on her. As already stated, these details, in so far as they are based on the Acts, have no claim to historical credibility. Allard also characterizes the Acts as the work of a later author who was more concerned with writing an edifying narrative, abounding in miracles, than in transmitting historical traditions.

Both Catania and Palermo claim the honour of being Agatha's birthplace. Her feast is kept on 5 February; her office in the Roman Breviary is drawn in part from the Latin Acts. Catania honours St. Agatha as her patron saint, and throughout the region around Mt. Etna she is invoked against the eruptions of the volcano, as elsewhere against fire and lightning. In some places bread and water are blessed during Mass on her feast after the Consecration, and called Agatha bread. Read whole post......

Saturday - Day of Our Lady

Mary's charity towards Her neighbour" chapter from the book "The Glories of Mary" by St Alphonsus de Liquori

Love toward God and love towards our neighbour are commanded by the same precept: :And this commandment we have from God,that he who loveth God love also his brother". Saint Thomas says that the reason for this is, that he who loves God loves all that God loves. Saint Catherine of Genoa one day said, 'Lord, Thou willest that I should love my neighbour, and I can love none but Thee'. God answered her in these words: 'All who love Me love, what I love'. But as there never was, and never will be, any one who loved God as much as Mary loved Him, so there never was, and never will be, any one who loved her neighbour as much as she did. Father Cornelius a Lepide, on these words of Canticles, "King Solomon hath made him a litter of the wood of Libanus...the midst he covered with charity for the daughters of Jerusalem", says, that 'this litter was Mary's womb, in which the Incarnate Word dwelt, filling it with charity for the daughters of Jerusalem; for Christ, who is love itself, inspired the Blessed Virgin with charity in its highest degree, that she might succour all who had recourse to her.' So great was Mary's charity when on earth, that she succoured the needy without even being asked; as was the case at the marriage-feast of Cana, when told her Son that family's distress;"They have no wine," and asked Him to work a miracle. O, with what speed did she fly when there was question of relieving her neighbour! When she went to the house of Elizabeth to fulfil an office of charity, "she went into the the hill-country with haste". She could not, however, more fully display the greatness of her charity than she did in the offering which she made of her Son to daeth for our salvation. On this subject Saint Bonaventure says, ''Mary so loved the world as to give her beloved only-begotten Son". Hence Saint Anselm exclaims,'O blessed amongst woman, the purity surpasses that of the angels, and thy compassion that of the Saints!' Nor has this love of Mary for us,' says Saint Bonaventure, 'diminished now that she is in heaven, but it has increased; for now she better sees the miseries of men.' And therefore the Saint goes on to say: 'Great was the mercy of Mary towards the wretched when she was still in the exile on earth; but far greater is it now that she reigns in heaven.' Saint Agnes assured Saint Bridget that 'there was no one who prayed without receiving graces through the charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.' Unfortunate, indeed, should we be, did not Mary intercede for us! Jesus Himself, addressing the same Saint, said, 'Were it not for the prayers of My Mother, there would be no hope of mercy.'
Blessed is he, says the Divine Mother, who listens to my instructions, pays attention to my charity, and , in imitation of me, exercises it himself towards others: 'Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that watcheth daily at my gates, and waiteth at the posts of my doors.' Saint Gregory Nazianzen assures us that 'there is nothing by which we can with greater certainty gain the affection of Mary than by charity towards our neighbour.' Therefore, as God exhorts us, saying, "Be you merciful, as your Father also is merciful." It is certain that our charity towards our neighbour will be measure of that which God and Mary will show us: "Give, and it shall be given to you. For with the same measure that you shall mete withal, it shall be measured to you again." Saint Methodius used to say, 'Give to the poor, and receive paradise.' For the apostle writes, that charity towards our neighbour renders us happy in this world and in the next: "But piety is profitable to all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." Saint John Chrysostom, on the words of Proverbs," that hath mercy on the poor lendeth to the Lord." makes a remark to the same effect, saying, 'He who assists the needy makes God his debtor.' O Mary of Mercy, thou art full of charity for all; forget not my miseries; thou seest them full well. Recommend me to God, who denies thee nothing. Obtain me the grace to imitate thee in holy charity, as well towards God as towards my neighbour. Amen. Read whole post......

Forth Week after Epiphany. "Spiritual Canticle" by St John of the Cross, translated and edited by E.Allison Peers, Image Books, 1961
Stanza II part 2

IF PERCHANCE YE SEE...
4. This is as much as to say: If my good fortune and happiness are such that ye reach His presence so that He sees you and hears you. Here it is to be observed that, although it is true that God knows and understands all things, and sees and observes even the least of the thoughts of the soul, yet He is said to see our necessities, or to hear them, when He relieves them or fulfills them; for not all necessities or all petitions reach such a point that God hears them in order to fulfill them, until in His eyes the number of them is sufficient and there has arrived the proper time and season to grant them or relieve them. And then He is said to see them or to hear them, as may be seen in the Book of Exodus, where, after the four hundred years during which the children of Israel had been afflicted in the bondage of Egypt, God said to Moses: I have seen the affliction of My people and have heard their cry; and I am come down to deliver them. Yet He had ever seen it, but he said
that He had seen it only when He willed to fulfil their request by His deed. Even so said Saint Gabriel to Zacharias: Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard. That is, He now granted him the son for which he had been begging Him many years; yet He had ever heard him. And thus it is to be understood by every soul that, albeit God may not at once hearken to its necessity and prayer, yet it follows not that, if they merit it, He will not hearken to its necessity and prayer, yet follows not that, if they merit it, He will not hearken to them when the time is opportune and due. For, as David says, he is a helper in due time and in tribulations. This, then, is signified here by the soul that says, 'If perchance ye see...': If by my good fortune the time and season has arrived wherein my desires and petitions have reached the point at which he sees them to fulfil them for me.
...HIM THAT I MUST LOVE,
5. That is to say: more than all things; speaking ideally, when the soul loves Him more than all things is when naught that presents itself to hear impedes her from doing and suffering, whatsoever it be, for His sake. to Him, then, Whom she most loves, she sends her desires as messengers with the petition of her needs and afflictions, saying:

TELL YE HIM THAT I LANGUISH, SUFFER AND DIE.
6. Three kinds of need the soul represents here, to wit: languor, suffering and death; for the soul that loves truly suffers ordinarily from feeling the absence of God in these three ways aforesaid, according to the three faculties of the soul, which are understanding, will and memory. She languishes in the understanding, because she sees not God, Who is the health of the understanding. She suffers as to the will because she lacks the possession of God, Who is the rest, refreshments and delight of the will. She dies as to the memory, because, remembering that she lacks all the blessings of the understandings, which are the sight of God, and all the delights of the will, which are the sight of God, and all the delights of the will, which are the possession of Him, and that it is likewise very possible to be deprived of Him for ever, she suffers at this memory as it were death.
7. These three needs Jeremias likewise represented to God, saying: Remember my poverty, the wormwood and the gall. The poverty refers to the understanding, because to it belong the riches of the wisdom of God, wherein, as Saint Paul says, are hid all the treasures of God. The wormwood, which is a herb most bitter, refers to the will, for to this faculty belongs the sweetness of the possession of God: lacking which, the soul is left with bitterness, even as the Angel said to Saint John in the Apocalypse, in these words: Take the book and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter - the belly being taken to mean the will. The gall refers to the memory, and signifies the death of the soul, even as Moses writes in Deuteronomy, when he speaks of the damned, saying: Their wine will be the gall of dragons and the venom of asps, which is incurable. This signifies there the lack of God, which is the death of the soul; and these three needs and affliction are founded upon the three theological virtues- faith, charity and hope - which relate to the three faculties aforementioned: understanding, will and memory.
8. And it is to be observed that in the line aforementioned the soul does no more than represent her need and affliction to the Beloved. For one that loves discretely has no care to beg for that which he lacks and desires, but only shows forth his need, so that the Beloved may do that which seems good to Him. As when the Blessed Virgin spake to the beloved Son at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, not begging Him directly for wine, but saying: "They have no wine." Or as when the sisters of Lazarus sent to Him, not to say that He should heal their brother, but to tell Him to see how he whom He loved was sick. And the reason for which it is better for the lover to show forth his need to the Beloved than to beg Him to fulfil it is threefold. First, because the Lord knows our necessities better than we ourselves; second, because the Beloved has the greater compassion when He beholds the necessity of His lover and is moved when He sees his resignation; third, because the soul is on surer ground with respect to self-love and love of possession if she represents her need than if she begs Him for that whereof she believes herself to have need. It is precisely this that the soul does in this present line, where she represents her three necessities. For to say: "Tell ye Him that I languish, suffer and die" is, as it were, to say: Since I languish, and He alone is my health, may He give me health, may he give me my rest. Since I die, and He alone is my life, may He give me my life. Read whole post......

Purification of the Blessed Virgin
'The Purification: its mystery' chapter from "The Liturgical year" - vol.3, Christmas Book II, by Dom Prosper Gueranger OSB, Jubilee 2000 edition.

The Forty Days of Mary's Purification are now completed, and she must go up to the Temple, there to offer to God her Child Jesus. Before following the Son and his Mother in this mysterious journey, let us spent our last few moments at Bethlehem, in lovingly pondering over the mysteries at which we are going to assist. The Law commanded that a woman who had given birth to a son should not approach the Tabernacle for the term of forty days; after which time she was to offer a sacrifice for her purification...By another ordinance of the Law, every first-born son was to be considered as belonging to God, and was to be redeemed by five sicles, each sicle weighing, according to the standard of the Temple, twenty obols. Mary was a Daughter of Israel - she had given birth to Jesus - he was her First-born Son. Could such a Mother and such a Son be included in the laws we have just quoted? Was it becoming that Mary should observe them?
If she considered the spirit of these legal enactments, and why God required the ceremony of Purification, it was evident that she was not bound to them. They for whom these laws had been made were espoused to men; Mary was the chaste Spouse of the Holy Ghost, a Virgin in conceiving and a Virgin in giving birth to her Son; her purity had ever been spotless as that of the Angels; but it received an incalculable increase by her carrying the God of all sanctity in her womb, and bringing him into this world. Moreover, when she reflected upon her Child being the Creator and Sovereign Lord of all things, how could she suppose that he was to be submitted to the humiliation of being ransomed as a slave, whose life and person are not his own?
And yet the Holy Spirit revealed to Mary that she must comply with both these law. She, the holy Mother of God, must go to the Temple like other Hebrew mothers, as though she had lost something which needed restoring by a legal sacrifice. He that is the Son of God and Son of Man must be treated in all things as though he were the poor Jewish boy. Mary adores the will of God, and embraces it with her whole heart.... The Divine Will was dear to Mary in this as in every circumstances of her life. The Holy Virgin knew that by seeking this external rite of Purification, she was in no wise risking the honour of her Child, or failing in the respect due to her own Virginity. She was in the Temple of Jerusalem what she was in the house of Nazareth, when she received the Archangel's visit; she was the Handmaid of the Lord. She obeyed the Law because she seemed to come under the Law. Her God and her Son submitted to the ransom as humbly as the poorest Hebrew would have to do; he had already obeyed the edict of the emperor Augustus in the general census; he was to be obedient even unto death, even to the death of the Cross. The Mother and the Child both humbled themselves in the Purification, and man's pride received, on that day, one of the greatest lessons ever given it.... At length the Holy family enter Jerusalem. The name of this holy City signifies Vision of Peace; and Jesus comes to bring her Peace. Let us consider the names of the three places in which Redeemer began, continued and ended his life on earth. He is conceived at Nazareth, which signifies a Flower; and Jesus is, as he tells us in the Canticle, the Flower of the Field and the Lily of the Valley (Cant, II,1), by whose fragrance we are refreshed. He is born in Bethlehem, the House of Bread; for he is the nourishment of our souls. He dies on the Cross in Jerusalem, and, by His Blood, he restores peace between heaven and earth, peace between men, peace within our own souls; and, on this day of his Mother's Purification, we shall find him giving us the pledge of this peace..... The Emmanuel has left Bethlehem; he has come among the people; he is about to take possession of his Temple, and the mere fact of his entering it will at once give it a glory, which is far above that of its predecessor. He will often visit it during his mortal life, but his coming to it today, carried as he is in Mary's arms, is enough for the accomplishment of the promise, and all the shadows and figures of the Temple at once pale before the rays of the Sun of the Truth and Justice. But this great event could not be accomplished without a prodigy being wrought by the Eternal God as a welcome to His Son.... this time it is the Holy Ghost himself who sends a witness to the Infant, now in the great Temple. There was then living in Jerusalem an old man whose life was wellnigh spent. He was a Man of desires (Dan X 11) and his name was Simeon; his heart had longed unceasingly for the Messaias, and at last his hope was recompensed. The Holy Ghost has revealed to Him that he should not see death without first seeing the rising of the Divine Light. As Mary and Joseph were ascending the steps of the Temple, to take Jesus to the altar, Simeon felt within himself the strong impulse of the Spirit of God: he leaves his house, and walks toward the Temple; the ardour of his desires makes him forget the feebleness of age. He reaches the porch of God's House, and there, amids the many mothers who had come to present their children, his inspired gaze recognizes the Virgin of whom he had so often read in Isaias, and he presses through the crowd to the Child she is holding in her arms. Mary, guided by the same Divine Spirit, welcomes the saintly old man, and puts into his trembling arms the dear object of her love, the salvation of the world. Happy Simeon! figure of the ancient world, grown old in its expectation, and near its end.....He cannot keep silence; he must sing a Canticle; he must do as Shepherds and Magi had done, he must give testimony: Now, says he, now, O Lord, thou dost dismiss thy servant in Peace, because my eyes have seen thy Salvation, which thou has prepared - a Light that is to enlighten the Gentiles, and give glory to thy people Israel.
Immediately there comes, attracted to the spot by the same Holy Spirit, the holy Anna, Phanuel's daughter, noted for her piety, and venerated by the people on account of her great age. Simeon and Anna, the representatives of the Old Testament, unite their voices, and celebrate the happy coming of the Child who is to renew the face of the earth; they give praise to the mercy of Jehovah, who in this place , in this second Temple, gives peace to the world, as the prophet Aggeus had foretold. This was the Peace so long looked forward to by Simeon, and now in this Peace will he sleep...Anna has some years still to pass on earth; as the Evangelist tells us, she has to go and announce the fulfilment of the promises to such of the Jews as were spiritually minded, and looked for the Redemption of Israel (St Luke II,38). The divine seed is sown; the Shepherds and the Magi, Simeon and Anna, have all been its sowers; it will spring up in due time; and when our Jesus has spent his thirty years of hidden life in Nazareth, and shall come for the harvest-time, he will say to his Disciples: Lift up your eyes, and see the countries, for they are white already for the harvest: pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that he send labourers into the harvest (St Luke X,2). Simeon gives back to Mary the Child she is going to offer to the Lord. The two doves are presented to the priest, who sacrifices the on the Altar; the price for the ransom is paid; the whole law is satisfied; and after having paid her homage to her creator in this sacred place, where she spent her early years, Mary, with Jesus pressed to her bossom, and her faithful Joseph by her side, leaves the Temple. Such is the mystery of this fortieth day, which closes, by this admirable feast of the Purification, the holy season of Christmas. Several learned writers, among whom we may mention Henschenius and Pope Benedict XIV, are of opinion that this Solemnity was instituted by the Apostles themselves. This much is certain, that it was a long-established feast even in the fifth century....The honour paid thus by the Church to the Mother tends in reality to the greater glory of her Divine Son, for He is the Author and the End of all those prerogatives which we revere and honour in Mary. Read whole post......

Tuesday - Fourth Week after Epiphany
"Spiritual Canticle" - St. John of the Cross. Translated and edited by E.Allison Peers, Image Books, 1961
Stanza II, part 1
Exposition.
In this stanza the soul seeks to make use of intercession and intermediaries with her Beloved, begging them to tell Him of her pain and affliction; for it is a characteristic of the lover, when she cannot commune with her Beloved because of His absence, to do so the best means that she may. And so at this point the soul would fain use her desires, affections and sighs as messengers, who are also able to make known the secrets of her heart. And thus she says:

SHEPHERDS, YE THAT GO
2. Calling the affections and desires shepherds, because they feed soul on spiritual good things. For shepherds signifies 'one who feeds' and by their means God communicates Himself to her (which without them He does not). And she says: 'Ye that go'. That is to say, Ye that go forth from pure love; because they go not all to God, but those only that go forth from faithful love.

YONDER, THROUGH THE SHEEPSCOTES, TO THE HILL,
3. By the 'sheepscotes' she means the choirs of the angels, by whose ministry, from choir to choir, our sighs and prayers travel to God; Whom she calls 'the hill', because the hill is high, and, even so, God is the greatest of all heights; and because in God, as on the hill, are spied out and seen all things. To Him go our prayers, which the angels offer Him, as we have said; for it is they who offer Him our prayers and desires, according as the angel said to holy Tobias, in these words: When thou didst pray with tears and did bury the dead, I offered thy prayer unto the Lord. We can likewise understand by these shepherds of whom the soul here speaks the angels themselves, for not only do they bear our messages to God but they also bring God's messages to our souls, feeding our souls, like good shepherds, with sweet inspirations and communications from God, which He also creates by means of them. And they protect us from the wolves, who are the evil spirits, and defend us from them like good shepherds. Read whole post......

Fourth Week after Epiphany.
'Prayer' - part 2 of the chapter form the book by Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen OCD, "Unity with God according to St John of the Cross".

St John of the Cross wants us to pray, uniting faith and love. For him, faith is the obscure but secure adhesion to the divine word, which particularly reveals to us the divine transcendence, the supreme grandeur of our God, who is so sublime, and so good, so omnipotent, but also so merciful. Faith places us in the presence of God as He is; not that it makes us see Him, but it makes us believe, and so places our intellect in contact with Him. Faith is then followed by charity, understanding by love. The soul that believes intensely that God is truly God, that He is the supreme Being to whom we all belong and who merits all our love, will love Him vehemently, and then will be fulfilled in him that which the Saint promised here: "The soul will merit that love will reveal what faith contains in itself" (Canticle I,II); thus faith speaks to us of the divine transcendence above all creatures. Love will make us delight in it and almost experience it; love will do this in contemplative prayer. The love of charity however is pure benevolence toward God; its purity is the condition of its perfection and its intensity. Thus this love ought to consist in one sole desire, that of pleasing God, without seeking self-satisfaction. It will not be directed to God in view of His gifts, but only for Him, meriting to be loved in the highest degree for His infinite lovableness. Our prayer perhaps is not yet so disinterested, so theocentric so purely directed toward the divine interests, interests that Jesus in the Pater Noster teaches us to put always in the first place: Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done. - We will sometimes be tempted to put in the first place: give us this day our daily bread, including in this bread all our interest, all our satisfaction. Although God wishes to grant us all we need from Him (He makes us ask for this precisely), He wishes however that we subordinate our satisfaction to His will, and to the fulfillment of the divine plans which, besides, aim only at procuring man's supernatural happiness. If we do not as yet find ourselves at this moral and spiritual height, nothing on that account hinders us from tending to it. As we possess divine grace, we can legitimately hope that, by maturing this grace within us, and together with its tendencies to raise us to God and to unite us to Him, we will at last arrive there. Hence there is also hope for us that prayer may one day become that intense exercise of faith and charity in which "love reveals what faith contains in itself", in which, namely, love lets us enjoy what faith simply teaches, and so communicates the "sense of God": of His uniqueness, of His grandeur, of His transcendence.
If this initial and quasi experimental perception of God then increases in our soul, why should not the Saint's promise regarding contact with God present in the soul also be accomplished in us?"... Then in the secret place you will feel Him and you will love Him and will enjoy Him... above all that language and sense can attain." (Canticle I,9)
The Spiritual Canticle which from its first lines places before our eyes a vision so enchanting, prospects so immense, and a doctrinal synthesis so rich and well-balanced, seems therefore the book most suitable for fully understanding our Saint.
From the beginning of the meditation on the first strophe, we already know where the Saint wants to lead us; to the summit of contemplative union with God, where the soul, still on earth, attains a certain possession of Him by feeling Him and enjoying Him. Not only that, but the Saint has put it, I would say, almost under our eyes, so close is the union to us, since that God with whom we are to be united already present in the soul, or rather, dwelling in it, He offers Himself to it to be known and loved. With knowledge and love, then, we will come near to God. However, this knowledge and this love are exercised especially in prayer, will not develop and will not attain the necessary intensity unless they are nourished in the climate of abnegation and renunciation of the creatures. There are two wings with which the soul rises to divine union: mortification and prayer, that is, spoliation and recollection, or in other words, detachment and prayer. We have already learned their necessity, and we have also understood that these means, indicated by the Saint, are within reach of all Christian souls, not only of religious, but also of persons in the world: to these latter also are possible therefore the beautiful achievement described by the Saint. For that reason we will gladly follow the Saint now in his lesson of total detachment; we will no longer fear his demands. It is with the pain of imposing on ourselves a little effort to reach so sublime a goal, to embrace a little suffering in order to attain even on this earth, so serene a joy. Let us conclude with St John:
"Arise, then beautiful soul; since you know that your so-desired Beloved dwells in your heart, endeavor to be well hidden with Him, and in your breast embrace Him and you will feel Him with tenderness of love." (Canticle I,10)
Next: Stanza II of Spiritual Canticle Read whole post......

Fourth Week after Epiphany.
'Prayer' chapter from the book "Union with God according to St. John of the Cross" by Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen, OCD 1990 reprint of 1961 edition. Part I

...After having invited us, by the renunciation of excessive preoccupations regarding created things, to descent into the inmost seclusion of our spirit where we are in the presence of God, the Saint continues:"Here, with the door closed behind you, that is with the will closed to everything, pray to your Father in secret."
These words of the Saint recall the teaching of Jesus with respect to the conditions for good prayer: "When you wish to pray, enter into your room, close the door, and pray there to your heavenly Father; and your heavenly Father, who sees what is done in secret, will repay you. "(Matt.6,6)
Jesus, to teach us to pray well, begins by making us withdraw from creatures. St. John of the Cross has only expounded the teachings of Jesus; we see here why his doctrine has the universal character of the gospel doctrine. Let us pay attention therefore with faith to what he teaches us regarding prayer. The search for God comprises a double movement, the first of separation from creatures, the second of approach to God. In what way, then, do we approach Him? Listen to the Saint's instructions: "You hear a word full of substance and of inaccessible truth: seek it in faith and in love, without wishing to derive satisfaction from anything, neither enjoying it, nor understanding it, any more than one is obliged to do. (Canticle 1,11).
The Saint is teaching us pure prayer, prayer in which the soul seeks God and not itself, in that it does not wish to find its own satisfaction, but to give satisfaction to God. How mean are the concepts we often have of our relations with God! It seems that certain persons pray only to achieve their particular ends, or rather only to succeed with the help of the Lord, in obtaining what they cannot procure through their own efforts. Then if they do not quickly obtain what they desire they become impatient, and are almost offended, as if God ought to be benevolently at the service of their human interests. How shallow is our sense of the divine transcedence! We are not the masters but He. He has created and prepared us for His glory, so that we will be able to procure the accomplishment of His most holy will in everything. That is the reality of things that we sometimes turn upside down, carried away by the impetuousity of our desires.
In St John of the Cross we find instead a most profound sense of the divine supereminence. God is, and we, of ourselves, we are nothing; we exist only through God. God is the center of the universe, not we. Our perfection and holiness consist in being united to Him, not in becoming persons who have "brought their talent of humanity to the greatest and most harmonious development", as a recent "formula of sanctity" would have us believe. To speak in this way one must have lost the sense of supernatural realities which, strictly speaking, are "super human" and with which alone man may attain holiness.
It is divine grace that makes us live in God and God in us. This will certainly bring about the harmony of all our faculties which will all apply themselves in concert, each according to its own mode, to procure with their operations "the honour and glory of God". This is simply an effect of holiness which, as Pope Pius XI of venerated memory one day admirably defined it, is none other than "the Christian life carried out according to the thought and desire of the divine Inventor". Holiness is not anthropocentric, it is theocentric! Holiness is not simply human life, it is Christian life, and that signifies the supernaturalization of human life, through the working of divine grace. In our days, one needs to insist on the divine transcendence, on its absolute elevation above all creatures, even above us human creatures, made by Him and for Him. We ourselves are not to dictate laws of to God, but He imposes them on us, and imposing them, He indicates to us the way of true happiness , the way that leads to union with Him in which our beatitude consists. We cannot be truly and entirely happy unless we are united to our Principle. True happiness of the present life consists in being united with God even on earth. We will procure this happiness for ourselves by seeking to please our God, entering into His divine plan, through which we are prepared to render Him honour and glory. The surest way to become happy is to seek to serve God in everything, forgetting ourselves.
It is exactly this disinterested search for God that our Saint recommends when he teaches: "Seek Him in faith and in love, without wishing to draw satisfaction from anything". Oh, how pleasing to the Lord is the prayer of a heart detached from itself that seeks only to please Him, who truly merits this sincere and total homage from His creature! Read whole post......

29th of January

Feast of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the Church.
Born in a castle to a well-placed family, his parents intended that he become a lawyer, enter politics, and carry on the family line and power. Studied at La Roche, Annecy, Clermont College in Paris, and law at the University of Padua. Doctor of Law. He returned home, and found a position as Senate advocate. It was at this point that he received a message telling him to "Leave all and follow Me." He took this as a call to the priesthood, a move his family fiercely opposed. However, he pursued a devoted prayer life, and his gentle ways won over the family. Provost of the diocese of Geneva, Switzerland, a stronghold of Calvinists. Preacher, writer and spiritual director in the district of Chablais. His simple, clear explanations of Catholic doctrine, and his gentle way with everyone, brought many back to the Roman Church. Bishop of Geneva at age 35. Travelled and evangelized throughout the Duchy of Savoy, working with children whenever he could. Friend of Saint Vincent de Paul. Turned down a wealthy French bishopric. Helped found the Order of the Visitation with Saint Jeanne de Chantal. Prolific correspondent (information from the Patron Saint Index).
In the lesson 5 in the Matins for today Feast, we read:....He had to suffer the harshest treatment on the part of the heretics, who frequently sought to take his life, calumniated him, and laid plots against him. But he showed heroic courage in the midst of all these dangers and persecutions, and, by the divine assistance, converted, as it is stated, seventy two thousand heretics to the Catholic faith, among whom were many distinguished by high position and by learning.

Collect
O, God, by whose gracious will blessed Francis, thy Confessor and Bishop, became all things unto all men for the saving of their souls; mercifully grant, that, being filled with the sweetness of thy love, we may, through the guidance of his counsel and by the aid of his merits, attain unto the joys of life eternal. Through our Lord.

Let us reflect on the excerpt from Saint Francis writing in His famous treatise "Introduction to the devout life" The Newmann Press, 1951. This fragment is compatible with main meditation theme, based on today's Liturgy which encourage us to have unfailing confidence in Our Lord's love and mercy in difficulties and temptations of our everyday life; in all these innumerable little obstacles on the way to Christian perfection.

Chapter VIII
That we must resist small temptations.

Although we must fight great temptations with invincible courage, and although the victory which we gain over them is very profitable to us, yet perhaps we may be able to gain great greater profit in fighting well against small temptations; for just as the great temptations surpass the small ones in quality, so the small ones surpass the great ones so much in number, that the victory over these may be comparable to that over the greater ones. Wolves and bears are certainly more dangerous than flies, but they do not cause us so much annoyance, nor do they exercise our patience so much. It is easy to refrain from murder, but it is difficult to avoid those little outbursts of anger, whereof the occasions present themselves every moment. It is easy for a man or a woman to refrain from adultery, but it is not easy to refrain from amorous glances, from giving or receiving love, from seeking little favours, from saying and receiving words of flattery. It is easy to admit of no rival to the husband or to the wife, as far as the body is concerned, but it is not so easy to do the same in regard to the heart; very easy not to defile the marriage bed, but very difficult to refrain from everything that may be injurious to married love; easy not to steal the goods of others, but difficult to refrain from envy and covetousness; easy not to bear false witness in a court of law, but difficult never to lie in conversation; easy never to get drunk, but difficult always to be temperate; easy never to desire the death of another, but difficult never to wish ill to him; easy never to defame him, but difficult never to despise him.
In a word, these little temptations to anger, suspicion, jealousy, envy, flirtation, frivolity, vanity, duplicity, affectation, artifice, impure thoughts, continually exercise those very persons who are most devout and resolute; and therefore, my dear Philotea, we must prepare ourselves for this combat with great care and diligence; and rest assured that for every victory which we gain over these little enemies, a precious stone will be set in the crown of glory which God is preparing for us in heaven. It is for this reason that I say, that whilst we must be ready to fight well and valiantly against great temptations, should they come, we must defend ourselves well and diligently against these little and weak assaults.

Chapter IX
Of remedies against small temptations

Now, as to these small temptaions to vanity, suspicion, peevishness, jealousy, envy, flirtation, and such like follies, which like flies and midgets, hover before our eyes, and sometimes sting us on the cheek, sometimes on the nose, because it is impossible to be altogether free from their importunity, the best way of resisting them is not to allow ourselves to be worried by them; for they cannnot hurt us, although they can annoy us, provided that we are firmly resolved to serve God.
Despise, then, these little attacks, and do not so much as think of what they suggest, but let them buzz about your ears as much as they like, and fly here and there about you, just as we do with the flies; and when they are about to sting you, and you see them settling on your heart, do nothing more than quite quietly to drive them away, not fighting against them, nor answering them, but performing acts contrary to them, whatever they may be, and especially acts of the love of God. For if you will believe me, you will not persist in wishing to oppose to the temptation which you feel the virtue which is contrary to it, because that would be, as it were, to have a mind to dispute with it; but after having performed an act of the contrary virtue, if you have had the leisure to recognize the quality of temptation, you will turn your heart simply towards Jesus Christ Crucified, and by an act of love of him, you will kiss his sacred feet. It is the best way to overcome the enemy both in small and great temptations, for the love of God, containing in itself all the perfections of all the virtues, and more excellently than the virtues themselves, is also a sovereign remedy against all vices; and your soul, accustoming herself in all temptations to resort to this general rendezvous, will not be obliged to consider and examine what the temptations she has had; but on feeling herself troubled, she will without more ado ask calm in this great remedy, which is, moreover, so terrifying to the evil spirit, that, when he sees that these temptations stir us up to this divine love, he ceases to trouble us with them.
So much for the little and frequent temptations; whosoever would occupy himself with them in detail would waste his time and accomplish nothing. Read whole post......

Saturday - Day of Our Lady

Third Week after Epiphany. The Virtues of Mary. From "The Glories of Mary" by St. Alphonsus of Liquori. TAN Books reprint from 1868 edition.

Section II. Of Mary's Charity towards God.
Saint Anselm says, that 'wherever there is the greatest purity, there is also the greatest charity' (ubi major puritas, ibi major charitas). The more a heart is pure, and empty of itself, the greater is the fulness of its love toward God. The most holy Mary, because she was all humility, and had nothing of self in her, was filled with divine love, so that 'her love towards God surpassed that of all men and angels' (Serm. de Glor. Nom. M. art.I cap.2) as Saint Bernardine writes. Therefore Saint Francis of Sales with reason called her 'the Queen of love'. God has indeed given men the precept to love Him with their whole hearts, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart;" (Matt. XXII.37) but, as Saint Thomas declares, 'this commandment will be fully and perfectly fulfilled by men in heaven alone, and not on earth, where it is only fulfilled imperfectly'.(2.2.q.XXIV.art.8). On this subject, blessed Albert the Great remarks, that, in a certain sense, it would have been unbecoming had God given a precept which was never to have been perfectly fulfilled. But this would have been the case, had not the Divine Mother perfectly fulfilled it. The Saint says, 'Either some one fulfilled this precept, or no one; if any one, it must have been the Most Blessed Virgin. (Sup.Missus.q.135). Richard of Saint Victor confirms this opinion, saying, 'The Mother of our Emmanuel practised virtues in their very highest perfection. Who has ever fulfilled as she did that first commandment, "Thou shalt love the Lord the God with thy whole heart"? In her Divine love was so ardent, that no defect of any kind could have access to her.' (Lib. II. de Emanuele, cap.29,30). 'Divine love', says Saint Bernard, 'so penetrated and filled the soul of Mary, that no part of her was left untouched; so that she loved with her whole heart, with her whole soul, with her whole strength, and was full of grace. Therefore Mary could well say, "My beloved has given Himself all to me, and I to Him". 'Ah! well might even the Seraphim', says Richard, 'have descended from heaven to learn, in the heart of Mary, how to love God'.
God, who is love (1 Joan, IV.8), came on earth to enkindle in the hearts of all the flame of His Divine love; but in no heart did He enkindle it so much as in that of His Mother; for her heart was entirely pure from all earthly affections, and fully prepared to burn with this blessed flame. Thus Saint Sophronius says, that 'Divine love so inflamed her, that nothing earthly could enter her affections; she was always burning with the heavenly flame, and, so to say, inebriated with it'. Hence the heart of Mary became all fire and flames, as we read of her in the sacred Canticles: "The lamps thereof are fire and flames, burning within through love, as Saint Anselm explains it, and flames shining without, by the example she gave to all in the practice of virtues. When Mary, then, was in this world, and bore Jesus in her arms, she could well be called, 'fire carrying fire'; and with far more reason than a woman spoken of by Hippocrates, who was thus called because she carried fire in her hand. Yes, for Saint Ildephonsus said, that 'the Holy Ghost heated, inflamed, and melted Mary with love, as fire does iron; so that the flame of this Holy Spirit was seen, and nothing was felt but the fire of the love of God. Saint Thomas of Villanova says, that the bush seen by Moses, which burnt without being consumed, was a real symbol of Mary's heart. Therefore with reason, says Saint Bernard, was she seen by Saint John clothed with the sun: "and there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun;" 'for', continues the Saint, she was so closely united to God by love, and penetrated so deeply the abyss of divine wisdom, that, without a personal union with God, it would seem impossible for a creature to have a closer union with Him'.
Hence Saint Bernardine of Sienna asserts that the most Holy Virgin was never tempted by hell; for, he says: 'As flies are driven away by a great fire, so were the evil spirits driven away by her ardent love; so much so, that they did not even dare to approach her'. Richard of Saint Victor also says, that 'the Blessed Virgin was terrible to the princes of darkness, so that they did not presume to tempt or approach her; for the fire of her charity deterred them.(In Cant.cap.XXVI)' Mary herself revealed to Saint Bridget, that in this world she never had any thought, desire, or joy, but in and for God: 'I thought, 'she said, 'of nothing but God, nothing pleased me but God; so that her blessed soul being in the almost continual contemplation of God whilst on earth, the acts of love which she formed were innumerable, as father Suarez writes:'The acts of perfect charity formed by the Blessed Virgin in this life, were without the number; for nearly the whole of her life, was spent in contemplation, and in that state she constantly repeated acts of love. But a remark of Bernanrdine de Bustis pleases me still more: he says that Mary did not so much repeat acts of love as other saints do, but that her whole life was one continued act of it; for, by a special privilage, she always actually loved God. As a royal eagle, she always kept her eyes fixed on the Divine Sun of Justice: 'so that' Saint Peter Damian says, ;the duties of active love did not prevent her from loving, and love did not prevent her from attending to these duties.' Therefore Saint Germanus says, that the altar of propitiation, on which the fire was never extinguished day or night, was a type of Mary. Neither was sleep an obstacle to Mary's love for God; since Saint Augustine asserts, 'the dreams, when sleeping, of our first parents, in their state of innocence, were as happy as their lives when waking; and if such a privilage were granted them, it certainly cannot be denied that it was also granted to the Divine Mother, as Suarez, the Abbot Rupert, and Saint Bernardine fully admit. Saint Ambrose is also of this opinon; for speaking of Mary, he says, 'while her body rested, her soul watched, verifying in herself the words of the wise man: "Her lamp shall not be put out in the night." Yes, for while her blessed body took its necessary repose in the gentle sleep, 'her soul' says Saint Bernardine, 'freely tended towards God; so much so, that she was then wrapped in more perfect contemplation than any other person ever was when awake. Therefore could she well say with the Spouse in the Canticles, "I sleep, and my heart wacheth." (Cant.V.2). 'As happy in sleep as awaking', as Suarez says. In fine, Saint Bernardine asserts, that as long as Mary lived in this world she was continually loving God: 'The mind of the Blessed Virgin was always wrapped in the ardour of love'. The Saint moreover adds, that she never did anything which the Divine Wisdom did not show her to be pleasing to Him; and that she loved God as much as she thought He was to be loved by her; so much so, indeed, that, according to blessed Albert the Great, we can well say that Mary was filled with so great charity, that greater was not possible in any pure creature on earth. Hence saint Thomas of Villanova affirms, that by her ardent charity the Blessed Virgin, became so beautiful, and enamoured her God, that, captivated as it were by her love, He descended into her womb and become man. Wherefore Saint Bernardine exclaims, 'Behold the power of the Virgin Mother: she wounded and took captive the heart of God.'
But since Mary loves God so much, there can be nothing which she so much requires of her clients as that they also should love Him with their utmost. This precisely she one day told blessed Angela of Foligno after communion, saying, 'Angela, be thou blessed by my Son, and endeavour to love Him as much as thou canst'. She also said to Saint Bridget, 'Daughter, if thou desirest to bind me to thee, love my Son'. Mary desires nothing more that to see her beloved, who is God, loved. Novarinus asks why the Blessed Virgin, with the Spouse in the Canticles, begged the angels to make the great love she bore Him known to Our Lord, saying, "I adjure you, O daugthers of Jerusalem, if you find my Beloved, that you tell Him that I languish with love." Did not God know how much she loved Him? 'Why did she seek to show the wound to her Beloved, since He it was who had inflicted it?' The same author answers, that the Divine Mother thereby wished to make her love known to us, not to God; that as she was herself wounded, so might she also be enabled to wound us with Divine love. And 'because Mary was all on fire with the love of God, all who love and approach her are inflamed by her with this same love; for she renders them like unto herself'. For this same reason Saint Catherine of Sienna called Mary 'the bearer of fire', the bearer of the flame of Divine love. If we also desire to burn with these blessed flames of Divine love, let us endeavour always to draw nearer to our Mother by our prayers and the affections of our souls. Ah, Mary, thou Queen of love, of all creatures the most amiable, the most beloved, and the most loving, as Saint Francis of Sales addressed thee, - my own sweet Mother, thou wast always and in all things inflamed with love towards God; deign, then, to bestow at least a spark of it in me. Thou didst pray thy Son for the spouses whose wine had failed: "They have no wine". And wilt thou not pray for us, in whom the love of God, whom we are under such obligations to love, is wanting? Say also, 'They have no love', and obtain us this love. This is the only grace for which we ask. O Mother, by the love thou bearest to Jesus, graciously hear and pray for us. Amen

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Third Week after Epiphany.
"The way that leads to God - practical counsel for those who aspire after true piety" by Abbot A.Saudreau, R&T Washbourne, LTD, London 1911.
On recollection and the union with God, part 3. How the mind should be nourished with the Holy Thoughts.

92. It is impossible, as a matter of fact, to maintain the intelligence in a state of absolute repose; the mind is incessantly at work; thought is as necessary to it as air is to the lungs. According to the Fathers of the desert, as transmitted by Cassian (Conf.,I,18), our minds are the mills, the wheels of which, set in motion by the water of the river, communicate a continuous movement to the millstones. The river's flowing does not depend upon the human will, but lies in the power of the master to decide whether the mill should be employed in the grinding of wheat, barley, or tares. So we are free to offer to our minds either idle thoughts or salutary reflections. Often, it is true, we shall not be the absolute masters; in spite of us, the mill will fill itself with trifles and vanities. These will be the tares which find their way in; but often, also, we shall provide it with materials for its labours, and we shall constrain it to produce for our heart's nourishment pure and strengthening food.

93. Amongst all the holy thoughts that might occupy our minds, which should we prefer? We must consult the supernatural instincts implanted in us by the Holy Spirit, and return faithfully to those truths which He renders ever more and more luminous and attractive to us. Some are taken captive, as it were, by the thought of the salvation of souls. The picture of the Good Shepherd, seeking after His lost sheep, lavishing His devotion upon them, desiring at all costs of snatching them from the evil which threatens them, is ever before their eyes. To these the Divine Master communicates His burning zeal for souls. Others feel themselves constantly drawn towards the Tabernacle; the Most Adorable Sacrament is the centre of all their thoughts, of their care, their love. Some nourish their hearts with meditations upon the Holy Childhood and the Holy Family; they steep themselves in the simplicity and the humility of Nazareth. Others are never at rest away from Calvary; they are penetrated with the patience and the love of the Cross.
But whatever the virtue for which the individual soul feels an attraction, it is important that we should not consider it in itself, after the manner of the philosophers, contenting themselves with examining its foundation and weighing its advantages. We should be in great danger of not considering it long under its supernatural aspects, and of passing involuntarily from the thought of this virtue to some worldly consideration. The heart which is made for God must have God Himself. We must look at each virtue of Jesus, the model of all virtues, rising from the consideration of His Sacred Humanity to the thought of His Divinity. Jesus is the Way that leads to the Father. He calls the faithful soul, bidding it plunge into that infinite ocean of beauty and love in which it is to take delight, and from which it will never again entirely emerge, even when it applies itself to its ordinary and profane duties. For so it is that, whatever the road by which it has come to God, when once a soul has found Him and tasted of His sweetness, it can never again depart from Him; for it finds in Him its light and its strength, its joy and its all. Such is the life of faith in its full perfection, and thus the just soul live by faith - justus ex fide vivit. Read whole post......

Third Week after Epiphany
"Spiritual Canticle" by St. John of the Cross. 'Stanza the First' cont. Translation by E. Allison Peers, Image Books edition, 1961

I WENT OUT AFTER THEE, CALLING, AND THOU WERT GONE.

11. There can be no medicine for the wounds of love save that which comes from him that dealt the wounds. For this cause the soul says that she went out, calling - that is, after Him that had wounded her - begging for medicine and crying out at the violence of the burning that was caused by the wound. And it must be known that this going out is understood in two ways: the one, a going forth from all things, which she does by holy abhorrence of herself through love of God; and this raises her after such wise that it makes her to go out from herself and from her judgment and the ways that are natural to her, and to call for God. And to these two ways of going forth the soul refers when she says: 'I went out'; for both these, and no less, are needful for one that would go after God and enter within Him. And thus it is as if though she said: By this Thy torch and wound of love, my Spouse, Thou hast drawn me forth, not only from all things, from which Thou hast far withdrawn me, but likewise from myself (for truly it seems at such a time that God is drawing the soul away from her very flesh) and hast raised me up to Thyself, so that I cry for Thee and loose myself from all things that I may cling to Thee. 'And thou wert gone'.

12. As though she had said: At the time when I desired to possess Thy presence I found Thee not, and for Thy sake I remained empty and loosed from all things, and yet I bound not myself to Thee; I was buffeted woefully by the gales of love and found support neither in myself nor in Thee. This going forth in order to go to God, as the soul here terms it, is called by the Bride in the Songs to 'rise', where she says: I will rise and go about the city; in the streets and the broad ways I will seek
Him Whom my soul loveth. I sought Him and I found Him not. This rising is here understood, spiritually, as of an ascent from the low to the high, which is the same as to go out from oneself - that is, from one's own low way of life and love of self to the high love of God. But she gives it to be understood that she was afflicted because she found Him not. Thus one that is enamoured of God goes through this life ever in affliction, for he is already surrendered to God, and has expectation of being paid in the same coin - to wit, by the surrender to him of the clear possession and vision of God, for which he 'calls' and which in this life is not granted him. He has lost himself already for love of God, yet has found no gain to compensate him for his loss, for he lacks the said possession of the Beloved for which he lost himself. Wherefore, if a man goes about afflicted for God, it is sign that he has given himself to God and that he loves Him.

13. This affliction and sorrow for the absence of God is wont to be so great in those that are approaching ever nearer to perfection, at the time of these Divine wounds, that, if the Lord provided not for them, they would die. For, as they have kept the palate of the will and the spirit clean, healthy and well prepared for God, and as in that experience whereof we have spoken He gives that to taste something of the sweetness of love, for which they yearn above all things. For there is shown to them in glimpses an immense good and it is not granted to them; wherefore their affliction and torment are unspeakable. Read whole post......

Third Week after Epiphany. 25th January.
Conversion of St. Paul. Fragments from "The Liturgical Year, vol3, Christmas Book 2, by Dom Prosper Gueranger OSB, Jubilee Edition, 2002

...Oh! the power of our dear Jesus! How wonderful! how irresistible! He wishes that the first worshippers at His Crib should be humble Shepherds- and he invites them by his Angels, whose sweet hymn is enough to lead these simple-hearted men to the Stable, where, in swaddling-clothes, he lies who is the hope of Israel. He would have the Gentiles Princes, the Magi, do him homage - and bids a star to arise in the heavens, whose mysterious apparition, joined to the interior speaking of the Holy Ghost, induces these men of desire to come from the far East, and lay at the feet of an humble Babe their riches and their hearts. When the time is come for forming the Apostolic College, he approaches the banks of the sea of Tiberias, and with this single word: Follow me, he draws after him such as he wishes to have as his Disciples. In the midst of all the humiliations of his Passion, he has but look at the unfaithful Peter, and Peter is a penitent. Today, it is from heaven that he evinces his power: all the mysteries of our redemption have been accomplished, and he wishes to show mankind that he is the sole author and master of the Apostolate, and that his alliance with the Gentiles is now perfect: he speaks; the sound of his reproach bursts like thunder over the head of the Pharisee, who is bent on annihilating the Church; he takes this heart of the Jew, and, by his grace, turns it into the heart of the Apostle, the Vessel of the election, the Paul who is afterwards to say of himself: I live, not I, but Christ liveth in me (Gal. II 20).
The commemoration of this event was to be a Feast in the Church, and it had a right to be kept as near as might be to the one which celebrates the martydrom of St. Stephen, for Paul is the Protomartyr's convert. The anniversary of his martydrom would, of course, have to be solemnized at the summer solstice; where, then, place the feast of his Conversion if not near Christmas, and thus our own Apostle would be at Jesus' Crib, and Stephen's side? Moreover, the Magi, could claim him, as being the conqueror of that Gentile world of which they were the first-fruits. And lastly, it was necessary, in order to give the court of our Infant-King its full beauty, that the two Princes of the Church - the Apostle of the Jews, and the Apostle of the Gentiles - should stand close to the mystic Crib; Peter with his Keys, and Paul with his Sword. Bethlehem thus becomes the perfect figure of the Church, and the riches of this season of the Cycle are abundant beyond measure. Let us borrow from the ancient Liturgies a suitable expression of our admiration of our Apostle's Conversion. The following Sequence, which belongs to the tenth century, is found in the old Missals of the Churches of Germany. It is full of mysterious allusions, which bear a certain grandeur of thoughts.

SEQUENCE
The Lord said: I will turn him from Basan (the land of bareness); I will turn him into the deep sea (of my faith)
What he said he did, when he prostrated Saul, and raised him up Paul.
By his Incarnate Word, by whom also he made the world.
It was whilst opposing this Word, that the Jew heard the voice: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
I am Christ: it is hard for thee to kick against the goad.
The earth was moved at the presence of the Lord; it trembled and then was at rest.
Paul, when he knew the Lord Jesus, believed, and ceased to persecute Christians.
He became, O God, the tongue of thy faithful ones; leaving thine enemies, he returned to thee.
For it is Paul who, by the mouth of the priests throughout the world, proclaims the commandments,
Teaching that the Crucified is no other than God, the Christ,
Who reigneth with the Father and the Holy Ghost; and Paul is his witness.
By the light of his teaching the priests meditate on the law and the Gospel; and by these, as with two mill-stones, have pounded.
And prepared every spiritual medicine, whereby the wounded are healed, and the hungry are fed.
O Jesus! hear his prayers for us sinners; turn to us; give us life;
Who didst turn Paul into a true convert, for the sake of all who are to return to thee,
and didst make him the vessel of election.
When he preached God to men, the sea beheld and fled, the Jordan was turned back,
Because the multitude of the nations, returning from the depths of sin, to the confusion of Og the King of Basan,
Now adore but thee, O Christ! their creator, whom they believe to have come in the flesh to redeem them. Amen Read whole post......