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Commemoration of St Paul

6/30/2014

At that time: Jesus said unto his disciples: Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.

Sermon by St. John Chrysostom

It is as though he said: Let not your heart be troubled, even though I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, and bid you be harmless as doves; for even if I would, I could not now make things otherwise. Even if I could make it so that ye should not have to bear anything grievous, or be at the mercy of the wolves as are other sheep, but on the contrary, could make you more dreadful to the lions than the lions to you, nevertheless I would not do it. For thus must it needs be: and yourselves it will make more glorious; and my power it will wholly shew forth. For thus was it that afterwards the same Lord said unto Paul: My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. That is to say, It is I that have made you to be what ye are.

But let us look what wisdom it is which the Lord requireth. It is the wisdom of the serpent. The serpent draweth all the rest of his body after his head, and it is no matter to him if his body be cut through, so long as he keepeth his head unharmed. Thus, O Christian, is it with thee. It is no matter to thee that for thy Faith's sake thou shouldest lose all things else―money, or body, or, if need be, life itself. Thy Faith is thy head, and the root of thy being; hold fast to that, and, as long as thou hast that, although thou shouldest lose all things else, it will only be to receive them back again with interest an hundredfold. And thus it is that the Lord biddeth us, not to be single-hearted only, nor wise only, but both together, that therefrom we may be strong.

If thou wilt see how these words were brought to the proof in very deed, read the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. There thou wilt see how that oftentimes the Jewish people rose up against the Apostles, and gnashed on them with their teeth. But they, with dove-like guilelessness, gave them smooth answers, and turned away their wrath, and quenched their fury, and stopped their onset. When the Jews said: did not we straitly command you, that ye should not teach in this Name? although the Apostles could have worked any miracles they chose, yet they neither said nor did anything sharp, but answered them with all meekness: Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. Here thou hast the harmlessness of doves; listen now to the wisdom of serpents: We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

Feast of Sts Peter and Paul

6/29/2014

The Lesson is taken from a Sermon by St. Leo the Pope

Dearly beloved, in the joy of each and every holy feast the whole world may have a share. For there is but one love of God, and whatsoever is solemnly called to memory, if it hath been done for the salvation of all, must needs be worth the honour of a joyful memorial at the hands of all. Nevertheless, this feast which we are keeping today, besides that world-wide worship which it doth of right get throughout all the earth, deserveth from this our City of Rome an outburst of gladness altogether special and our own. For in this place it was that the two chiefest of the Apostles did so right gloriously finish their race. And upon this day whereon they lifted up that their last testimony, let it be that the memory thereof receiveth in this place the chiefest of all its jubilant celebrations. O Rome! these twain are the men who brought the light of the Gospel of Christ to shine upon thee! These are they by whom thou, from being the teacher of lies, wast turned into a learner of the truth.

These twain are thy fathers; they truly are thy shepherds! These twain are they who laid foundations for thee (that thou mightest upbuild the kingdom of heaven) better and happier than did the Romulus (from whom thou art named), when he first planned thine earthly ramparts; which same he polluted with his brother's blood. These twain are they who have set on thine head this day thy glorious crown, so that thou art become an holy nation, a chosen people, a city both priestly and kingly, whom the sacred throne of blessed Peter hath exalted till thou art become the Lady of the world, unto whom the world-wide love for God hath conceded a broader lordship than is the possession of any mere earthly empire. Thou wast once waxen great by victories until thy power was spread haughtily over land sea, but thy power was narrower then, which the toils of war had won for thee, than that thou now hast which hath been laid at thy feet by the peace of Christ.

It was convenient for the doing of the work which God had decreed, that the whole multitude of kingdoms should be bound together under one rule, and that so the universal preaching of the Gospel should find easier entry unto all people, since all were governed by the empire of one city. But this City, knowing not him who had been pleased to make her great, used her lordship over almost all nations to make herself the minister of all their falsehoods; and seemed to herself exceedingly godly because there was no false god whom she rejected. But the tighter that Satan had bound her, the more wondrous was the work of Christ in setting her free.

Saint for Today - St Irenaeus

6/28/2014

Irenaeus was born in proconsular Asia, not far from the city of Smyrna. There he had already as a boy entrusted himself to the teaching of Polycarp, disciple of John the Evangelist, and bishop of Smyrna. Under such an excellent master, he made remarkable progress in learning and in the precepts of the Christian religion. When Polycarp was taken up to heaven by a glorious martyrdom, although Irenaeus was eminently versed in sacred letters, nevertheless, he burned with an incredible zeal to learn what articles of belief the others who were instructed by the Apostles had received, to be preserved in the deposit of faith. For this reason he brought together as many of those men as he could, and whatever things he heard from them, he carefully retained in his mind. Thus he could advantageously bring them to bear in the future against those heresies, which he saw were being diffused more widely day by day to the great detriment of the Christian people, and he diligently planned thoroughly to confute them. Then, having set out for Gaul, he was appointed as a priest of the church of Lyons by Pothinus the bishop. And this office he discharged in such a manner, labouring both by word and by teaching, that (according to the testimony of the holy Martyrs who, when Marcus Aurelius was emperor, were engaged in a vigorous combat for the true religion) he distinguished himself as an imitator of the testament of Christ.

These very Martyrs, together with the clergy of Lyons, began to be anxious concerning the peace of the churches of Asia, which the faction of the Montanists had disturbed. And so they selected Irenaeus, whose person they considered of the greatest importance, as the one before all others whom they should send to Rome to Pope Eleutherius to ask, that, with the condemnation of the new dissidents by the authority of the Apostolic See, the cause of the dissensions might be removed. Already the bishop Pothinus had died a martyr and Irenaeus succeeded him. He applied himself so well to the duties of a bishop, that in a short time he saw not only all the citizens of Lyons, but also many of the inhabitants of other cities in Gaul cast aside their superstitions and errors, and enroll themselves in the Christian army. Meanwhile, a dispute had arisen concerning the date of the celebration of Easter. As the bishops of Asia were disagreeing with nearly all their fellow-bishops, the Roman Pontiff Victor had cut them off from the communion of the faithful. Irenaeus, however, who was zealous for peace, admonished him in a becoming manner, and urged, by examples of the practice of previous Pontiffs, that he should not suffer so many Churches to be cut off from Catholic unity, on account of a rite which they said they had received from their ancestors.

He wrote many works, which are mentioned by Eusebius of Caesarea and by St. Jerome, a great part of which have perished through the ravages of time. There are extant five books of his against heresies, written down about the year 180, while Eleutherius was still ruling the Christian commonwealth. In the third book, the man of God, instructed by those who, it is certain, had been hearers of the Apostles, gives to the Roman Church and to the succession of her bishops a testimony surpassing all others in weight and brilliancy, when he calleth her the faithful, perpetual, and most assured guardian of divine tradition. For he said, that with this Church it is necessary that the whole Church (that is, those in all places who are of the faithful) should agree, because of its more powerful preeminence. At length with almost countless others, whom he had himself brought over to the true faith and its practice, being crowned with martyrdom he passed to heaven in the year of salvation 202. At that time Septimius Severus Augustus had commanded that all those who wished to remain constantly steadfast in the practice of the Christian religion should be condemned to the most cruel torments and to death. The supreme Pontiff Benedict XV extended the feast of St. Irenaeus to the universal Church.

Eleison Comments CCCLXIII (363)

6/28/2014

CARDINAL PIE – I

Cardinal Pie (1815-1880) was a great churchman of 19th century France, one of the great defenders of the Faith against that liberalism which was eating up the world from the French Revolution (1789) onwards. Pope Pius X kept his works by his bedside and read them constantly. No doubt the Cardinal's profound grasp of the key ideas driving the modern world played a major part in enabling Pius X to obtain a 50-year reprieve, say from 1907 to 1958, for the doomed Catholic Church.

Doomed ? But the Catholic Church cannot be doomed ! True, by God's protection it will last to the end of the world (Mt. XXVIII, 20), but at the same time by God's Word we know that by then the Faith will scarcely be found on earth (Lk. XVIII, 8), and that it will have been given to the forces of evil to defeat the Saints (Apoc. XIII, 7). These are two important quotes to bear in mind in 2014, because everything around us today tells us that the followers of Christ must be prepared for one seeming defeat after another, e.g. the fall of the Society of St Pius X. Here is what Cardinal Pie had to say on the matter, some 150 years ago ! --

“Let us fight, hoping against hope itself, which is what I wish to tell faint-hearted Christians, slaves to popularity, worshippers of success and shaken by the least advance of evil. Given how they feel, please God they will be spared the agonies of the world's final trial. Is that trial close or is it still far off ? Nobody knows, and I will not dare to make a guess. But one thing is certain, namely that the closer we come to the end of the world, the more and more it is wicked and deceitful men who will gain the upper hand. The Faith will hardly be found on earth, meaning that it will almost have disappeared from earthly institutions. Believers themselves will hardly dare to profess their belief in public, or in society.

"The splitting, separating and divorcing of States from God which was for St Paul a sign foretelling the end, will advance day by day. The Church, while remaining always a visible society, will be reduced more and more to dimensions of the individual and the home. When she started out she said she was being shut in, and she called for more room to breathe, but as she approaches her end on earth, so she will have to fight a rearguard action every inch of the way, being surrounded and hemmed in on all sides. The more widely she spread out in previous ages, the greater the effort will now be made to cut her down to size. Finally the Church will undergo what looks like a veritable defeat, and the Beast will be given to make war on the Saints and to overwhelm them. The insolence of evil will be at its peak.”

These are prophetic words, coming truer by the day, not at all pleasant to admit, but anchored in Scripture. A wise Anglican Bishop (Butler) said in the 18th century, "Things are what they are. Their consequences will be what they will be. Why then should we seek to deceive ourselves ?" Notice especially how the Cardinal foresees the impossibility of defending the Faith on any larger scale than just the home. Not everybody agrees that we have already reached that point in 2014. I might wish they were right, but I have yet to be persuaded that with disintegrated people one can make an integrated society. Contrast with us democratic citizens of today the Roman centurion in the Gospel who understood a chain of command and recognized naturally the authority of Our Lord (Mt. VIII, 5-18) -- how Our Lord praised him !

Patience. See next week how the Cardinal himself reacted to what he foresaw. He was no defeatist !

Kyrie eleison.

A Cardinal saw how far the Church must shrink
In these end times, yet never will it sink.

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Feast of the Sacred Heart

6/27/2014

At that time: The Jews, because it was the Preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath Day, for that Sabbath Day was an high day, besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

Sermon by St. Bonaventure the Bishop

In order that the Church might be taken out of the side of Christ, in his deep sleep on the Cross, and that the Scripture might be fulfilled which saith: They shall look on him whom they pierced: it was divinely ordained that one of the soldiers should pierce his sacred side with a spear, and open it. Then forthwith there came flowing out blood and water, which was the price of our salvation, pouring forth from its mountain-source, in sooth, from the secret places of his Heart, to give power to the Sacraments of the Church, to bestow the life of grace, and to be as a saving drink of living waters, flowing up to life eternal for those who were already quickened in Christ. Arise, then, O soul beloved of Christ. Cease not thy vigilance, place there thy lips, and drink the waters from the fount of salvation.

Because we are now come to the sweet Heart of Jesus, and because it is good for us to be here, let us not too soon turn away therefrom. O how good and joyful a thing it is to dwell in this Heart. What a good treasure, what a precious pearl, is thy Heart, O most excellent Jesu, which we have found hidden in the pit which hath been dug in this field, namely, in thy body. Who would cast away such a pearl? Nay, rather, for this same I would give all my pearls. I will sell all my thoughts and affections, and buy the same for myself, turning all my thoughts to the Heart of the good Jesus, and without fail it will support me. Therefore, o most sweet Jesu, finding this Heart that is thine and mine, I will pray to thee, my God: admit my prayers into the shrine of hearkening: and draw me even more altogether into thy Heart.

Thoughts for Feast of the Sacred Heart

6/27/2014

The Blessed Sacrament & The Sacred Heart

Today we celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Devotion to the Sacred Heart is based on the sublime doctrine of the Incarnation, which teaches us that the Son of God became man by uniting to Himself a human nature, so that He is one divine Person in two natures, the nature of God and the nature of man. Since, even in His human nature, He is a divine Person, his human nature and all its parts, when considered as united to His divine personality, is worthy of the highest type of adoration. Hence, the living, physical Heart of Jesus Christ, united to the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, can be adored as the Heart of God Himself.

The reason why we select the Heart of Our Lord for special veneration is that the human heart is a symbol of love. In our ordinary speech we refer to the heart as the source of a person's affection and devotion. Now, since Our Divine Lord has certainly shown His love for mankind in an extraordinary degree from the very beginning of His life until His death on the cross, we naturally desire to venerate His Heart by a special form of devotion. Such is the devotion of the Sacred Heart. The human Heart of Christ also reminds us of the eternal love which He, in union
with the Father and the Holy Ghost, has maintained for us from all eternity.

It is the wish of the Church that all her members foster a great love for the Sacred Heart. Besides instituting the Feast, which we celebrate annually on the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi, the Church has composed a beautiful Litany in honour of the Sacred Heart, together with an Act of Consecration for public devotions. Holy Communion on every First Friday in honour of the Sacred Heart is also an approved Catholic custom.

The devotion of the Sacred Heart is not precisely the same as the devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, but the two are closely connected. For, surely, one of the most striking manifestations of the love of Our Divine Redeemer for the human race was the institution of the Holy Eucharist. Hence, in adoring the Blessed Sacrament, we adore the Sacred Heart.

One of the objects of the devotion to the Sacred Heart is to make atonement to Our Lord for the many sins committed throughout the world. All sins are acts of ingratitude toward Christ, insofar as the sinner rejects the Blood that He shed for mankind. Included in such sins are acts of irreverence and profanation of the Blessed Sacrament.

Practical Application
Try to cultivate the habit of making short ejaculations in honour of the Sacred Heart, such as "Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us"... "Sacred Heart of Jesus, protect our families" which are richly indulgenced prayers.

Saints for Today - Sts John and Paul

6/26/2014

John and Paul were two Roman brethren, the godly and trustworthy servants of Constantia, daughter of Constantine. At her death they spent in feeding Christ's poor the property which she left them. Julian the Apostate asked them to enter his household, but they bravely answered that they would not be servants to one who had abandoned the service of Jesus Christ. Julian gave them ten days to consider on their choice, whether, at the end of that time, they would cleave to him, and sacrifice to Jupiter, or most surely die.

This interval they spent in distributing to poor creatures all that remained of their goods, that they might be quite free to depart hence to the Lord, and so succoured many by whom they have long since been received into everlasting habitations. On the tenth day Terentian, Prefect of the Praetorian Cohort, was sent to them, bringing with him the image of Jupiter. He explained to them the command of the Emperor, that they should worship the said image or die. They were engaged in prayer, but answered him that for their loyalty to Christ, whom their understanding acknowledged and their mouths confessed to be God, they felt no hesitation in choosing to suffer death.

Terentian, to avoid the uproar, which might have been caused by their public execution, caused their heads to be cut off at home where they then were. They lifted up their last earthly testimony upon the 26th day of June. They were privately buried, and a story set about that they had been sent into exile. The fact of their death was made generally known by the unclean spirits by whom the bodies of many were tormented, and among others that of Terentian's own son, who was possessed with a devil, and delivered by being brought to the grave of the Martyrs. By this miracle he was led to believe in Christ, and so likewise was his father Terentian, who is said to have been the writer of the life of these blessed Martyrs.

Nativity of St John the Baptist

6/24/2014

The Lesson is taken from a Sermon by St. Augustine the Bishop

In addition to the most holy Nativity of the Lord, we find celebrated in the Gospel the birth of only one other, namely, that of blessed John Baptist. As for all others among God's holy and chosen ones, we know that for their feast is observed the day whereon, with their work finished, and the world conquered and finally trampled down, they were born from this into a better life, even into everlasting blessedness. Thus in others is honoured the day on which their merits were completed, that is, the last day of their dying life. But in John is honoured the first day, for in him the very beginning is found hallowed. And the reason that the Nativity of John is so much made of in Scripture is, without doubt, that the Lord wished John to be an attestation to his own first coming; for if Christ had come too suddenly and unexpectedly, men might not have recognized him. And on this wise John was a figure of the Old Testament, and shewed in his own person a typical embodiment of the Law; for he heralded beforehand the coming of the Saviour, even as the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us to the grace of Christ.

But as touching this, that he prophesied while yet in the hidden depths of his mother's womb, and while himself lightless bore testimony to the truth, we are to understand it as a figure how that while himself wrapped round with the veil and carnal ordinances of the letter, he by the spirit preached unto the world a Redeemer, and testified that Jesus is our Lord even while for himself, working under the law, the birth of the new dispensation was still in the womb of the future, and not come to day. The Jews were estranged from the womb, that is from the Law, that womb heavy with the Christ that was to be; they went astray from the belly, speaking lies, and therefore John came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.

But as for this, that when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, this is the Law sending to the Gospel. For John here was a figure of the Law, imprisoned in ignorance, lying in the dark, and in a hidden place, and he was fettered through Jewish misunderstanding within the bonds of the letter. But of him was it said, as is written in the Blessed Evangelist, He was a burning and a shining light, that is to say, that, when the whole world was wrapt in the night of ignorance, this Saint was kindled by the fire of the Holy Ghost, to shew before men the light of salvation, and at the hour of the thickest darkness of sin, appeared like a bright morning star to herald the rising of that sun so right gloriously radiant, the Son of righteousness, Christ our Lord. And this is why John said of himself: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.

Vigil of St John the Baptist

6/23/2014

In the days of Herod the King of Judaea, a certain Priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

Homily by St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.

The Divine Scriptures teach us that we are behoven to praise the lives, not only of those concerning whom we are to speak honourably, but the lives also of their fathers, so as to show that that which we will praise in our subjects was in them a gift inherited from the bright purity of the source from which they came. What other meaning can the holy Evangelist have had in this place but to glorify St John the Baptist, as well for having been the offspring of such parents, as for his miracles, his life, his gifts, and his sufferings So likewise is praise ascribed to Hannah, the mother of Samuel so also did Isaac draw from his parents that noble godliness which he in his turn bequeathed to his children. Thus it is told not only that Zacharias was a Priest, but a Priest of the course of Abia, that is to say, of a family noble among the noblest.

And his wife was of the daughters of Aaron. Thus we see that the noble blood of St John was inherited not only from parents, but from an ancient ancestry, not illustrious indeed by worldly power, but worshipful for the tradition of a sacred succession. Such were the forefathers whom it well became the Fore-runner of the Christ to have, that it might manifestly fall to his lot, not as a sudden gift, but as an heir-loom, to preach belief in the coming of the Lord. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless. What do they make of this text who, to take them some consolation for their own sins, hold that man cannot exist without oftentimes sinning, and quote to that end that which is written in Job Not one is clean, even though his life on the earth be but one day

To such we must reply by asking them first to tell us what they mean by a man without sin whether it be one who hath never sinned, or one who hath ceased to sin. If they mean by a man without sin one who hath never sinned, I myself agree in their position, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Rom. iii. 23. But if they mean to deny that he who hath reformed his old crooked ways, and changed his life for a new one, on purpose to avoid sin, cannot avoid sin, I am not able to subscribe to their opinion while I read that Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Thoughts for the Second Sunday after Pentecost

6/22/2014

The Eucharistic Banquet

“A certain man gave a great supper, and he invited many” (Luke, 14:16)

Last Thursday we celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Feast of The Blessed Sacrament. The day of the institution of the Blessed Sacrament was the day before Our Lord's painful death on the cross and we commemorate this event during Holy Week, on Holy Thursday. However, since this day occurs at the mournful time of Our Lord's Passion, we cannot manifest the joy and exaltation which this great Sacrament deserves. Hence, the Church has assigned for this purpose another day, the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. Today we are sail within the octave of this glorious Feast, and so the Church reads in the Mass of this Sunday the Gospel of the man who gave a great supper and invited many. The reference of this Gospel is clearly to Our Lord Who has prepared for us a banquet of His own body and blood, and invited all the members of His Church to partake of this feast.

The incident of the Gospel, the reluctance of certain persons to come to the banquet, is verified in the reaction of our own day toward the reception of Holy Communion. There are Catholics in great numbers who will not approach the altar to partake of the Blessed Sacrament, except very rarely--perhaps only once or twice a year. These persons are accustomed to make many excuses for their negligence, such as their unworthiness, the difficulty of getting to confession because of their work, the hct that they feel no devotion, etc. But none of these excuses is valid. The only thing that should keep Catholics away from frequent Holy Communion is mortal sin; and mortal sin is entirely due to a person's own will. Furthermore, those who find it difficult to avoid mortal sin will receive abundant graces to overcome temptations if they receive Holy Communion frequently.

The definite doctrine of our Catholic faith that the Blessed Sacrament contains the real body and blood of Jesus Christ should suffice to urge us to frequent communion. What greater privilege could the human soul enjoy than to have the Son of God as its Guest? How can we better solve the problems of life and meet its difficulties courageously than by seeking the aid of Him who is the divine source of supernatural light and strength? On this Sunday, while the Church is rejoicing in the great gift of the Blessed Sacrament, every practical Catholic should resolve to receive Holy Communion at least once a month.

Practical Application

Remember the conditions for frequent communion laid down by Pope St. Plus X-the state of grace and a good intention. Even daily communion is open to all who fulfil these conditions and it will bring the fullness of grace and joy into our Catholic life.

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