Homily by Pope St. Gregory the Great. 33rd on the Gospels

 Homily by Pope St. Gregory the Great. 33rd on the Gospels

Reading 1

Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to Luke

Luke 7:36-50

In that time, one of the Pharisees desired him to eat with him. And he went into the house of the Pharisee, And so on.

Homily by Pope St. Gregory the Great.

33rd on the Gospels

When I think of the repentance of Mary Magdalene I feel closer to weeping than to charging. Is there indeed any man, however stony his heart, who is not somewhat moved to follow the example of her repentance by the tears of that poor sinful woman? She weighed what she did, and would not that what she did should be niggardly. She came unbidden among the guests, and obtruded her tears upon the banquet. You may hence gather her sorrow, that she was content to weep at a feast.

We believe that this woman, of whom Luke saith that she was a woman in the city, which was a sinner, and whom John names Mary,  was the same as she of whom it is written in Mark xvi. 9 that the Lord had cast out of her seven devils. And what signify seven devils but all manner of sin? For even as seven days do represent all time, so doth the number seven stand for all. Therefore, is it said that Mary had seven devils, because she was full of all sin.

But see how she realized the depth of her own sin, and came to be washed to the Well of Mercy, before all them which were bidden to the feast. The bitterness of her inward shame made her esteem it a light thing to be despised outwardly. At what then do we marvel, my brethren? That she came, or that the Lord welcomed her? Or would it be truer for me to say that He drew her to Him and welcomed her when she came? for His mercy inwardly drew her, and, when she came, His gentleness openly welcomed her.

Wednesday in the Fifth Week of Lent: Collect

 

Wednesday in the Fifth Week of Lent

COLLECT
Sanctificata per paenitentiam tuorum corda filiorum, Deus miserator, illustra, et, quibus praestas devotionis affectum, praebe supplicantibus pium benignus auditum.

Enlighten, O God of compassion, the hearts of your children, sanctified by penance, and in your kindness grant those you stir to a sense of devotion a gracious hearing when they cry out to you.

Aemiliana Lohr 

LOOK Now, DANIEL IS SITTING AMID THE LIONS

(Tuesday in Passion Week)

Again, we see the image of the suffering and threatened Christ: Daniel in the lion-pit. Once again, we hear the cry of dread, the 

prayer of begging from the man who is guiltless and persecuted:

'Rescue me, O God of Israel, from all my anguish. ' The Mass, late like all the Tuesday Masses in Lent, is a happy composition from the whole liturgy of Passiontide. It shows once more the spirit of continuity in the liturgy. The line of yesterday's Mass could not be drawn out in a more subtle way: yesterday Jonas rescued from the belly of a sea monster as God's living judgment and the messenger of its salvation to Nineveh; and today, Daniel, kept safe amongst the lions as a witness to the true God in Babylon. Both are prophets of Israel who bring faith and salvation to the pagans.

 

The contrast is a shaking one: Jesus amongst his unbelieving brethren, 'for even his brethren were without faith in him' and Daniel amongst the God-fearing beasts. The hunger of these beasts has made them more savage, yet they do not dare to touch the holy man, God's favored one;

 

These beasts that have no reason obey blindly the mysterious power and attractiveness which comes from the prophet and the God-bearer. But the man with his reason shuts himself off from the love of God shining out in the words and actions of his incarnate son. One has only to contemplate the figure of Daniel in the Cathedral of Worms to feel the shaming and thrilling gesture of these dumb animals; they are lying under the prophet's feet and licking his hand and foot. It is impossible to say what is more compelling, the expression of complete security, a loving knowledge of being in God’s protection in the face and figure of the prophet who sits so peacefully and praises God or the indiscernible devotion on the faces of the dumb creatures under the influence of the saint.

Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Lent: Collect

 Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Lent

COLLECT
Da nobis, quaesumus, Domine, perseverantem in tua voluntate famulatum, ut in diebus nostris et merito et numero populus tibi serviens augeatur.

Grant us, we pray, O Lord, perseverance in obeying your will, that in our days the people dedicated to your service may grow in both merit and number.

COLLECT: Monday in the Fifth Week of Lent

 

Monday in the Fifth Week of Lent

COLLECT
Deus, per cuius ineffabilem gratiam omni benedictione ditamur, praesta nobis ita in novitatem a vetustate transire, ut regni caelestis gloriae praeparemur.

O God, by whose wondrous grace we are enriched with every blessing, grant us so to pass from former ways to newness of life, that we may be made ready for the glory of the heavenly Kingdom.

Passion Sunday: Aemiliana Lohr

 Passion Sunday: Aemiliana Lohr

                  

"Christ, the pure and innocent one, good as no other man can be, is in the power of the evil one. His prayer goes up to the Father for rescue, for help and protection. It is the prayer which rises in the mountain of Olives from his mind's anxiety, the prayer of the suffering man, Jesus. But the consciousness he has of himself as God's son is there as well; he knows that the Father's power is with him.

This consciousness speaks out even more strongly in the Gospel. The whole battle of words with the Pharisees which continues throughout the week to come is upheld by the divine rest which comes from Jesus' knowledge that he is God, and that his manhood is united to the Father in perfect obedience and love. In perfect peace, step by step, he goes forward, speaking without the least backward look of fear upon the ever more exciting bearing of his enemies, until he makes the solemn profession of his own eternity: 'Before Abraham ever came to be, I am.' The end seems near now; hands are already raised to stone him. But Jesus is there no longer; he has hidden himself and left the temple. What a revelation of divine security and strength there is".]

From a sermon of Saint Leo the Great, pope

Some mornings, but fewer rather than more, I make a visit to the blessed Sacrament at St. Monica's, while taking a walk. I always take the opportunity to read the text from the Office of Readings. Some of them, especially the autobiographical listings are pretty lame. But the readings from the Fathers are great. The are in fact better than what I get in the older Office. 

I am told that the clergy for the most part do not read the long readings. That is what they tell me at least. But I knew it from their sermons. 

The best way for lay folks to learn the faith is to read the Fathers. And the easiest way to read the Fathers is to subscribe to an on line service. I think the best is Universalis, found on the net for 9.99 and you never have to give them anymore money. 

From a sermon of Saint Leo the Great, pope

Contemplating the Lord's passion

True reverence for the Lord’s passion means fixing the eyes of our heart on Jesus crucified and recognising in him our own humanity.

The earth – our earthly nature – should tremble at the suffering of its Redeemer. The rocks – the hearts of unbelievers – should burst asunder. The dead, imprisoned in the tombs of their mortality, should come forth, the massive stones now ripped apart. Foreshadowing's of the future resurrection should appear in the holy city, the Church of God: what is to happen to our bodies should now take place in our hearts.

No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ. His prayer brought benefit to the multitude that raged against him. How much more does it bring to those who turn to him in repentance.

Ignorance has been destroyed, obstinacy has been overcome. The sacred blood of Christ has quenched the flaming sword that barred access to the tree of life. The age-old night of sin has given place to the true light.

The Christian people are invited to share the riches of paradise. All who have been reborn have the way open before them to return to their native land, from which they had been exiled. Unless indeed they close off for themselves the path that could be opened before the faith of a thief.

The business of this life should not preoccupy us with its anxiety and pride, so that we no longer strive with all the love of our heart to be like our Redeemer, and to follow his example. Everything that he did or suffered was for our salvation: he wanted his body to share the goodness of its head.

First of all, in taking our human nature while remaining God, so that the Word became man, he left no member of the human race, the unbeliever excepted, without a share in his mercy. Who does not share a common nature with Christ if he has welcomed Christ, who took our nature, and is reborn in the Spirit through whom Christ was conceived?

Again, who cannot recognize in Christ his own infirmities? Who would not recognize that Christ’s eating and sleeping, his sadness and his shedding of tears of love are marks of the nature of a slave. It was this nature of a slave that had to be healed of its ancient wounds and cleansed of the defilement of sin. For that reason the only-begotten Son of God became also the son of man. He was to have both the reality of a human nature and the fullness of the godhead.

The body that lay lifeless in the tomb is ours. The body that rose again on the third day is ours. The body that ascended above all the heights of heaven to the right hand of the Father’s glory is ours. If then we walk in the way of his commandments, and are not ashamed to acknowledge the price he paid for our salvation in a lowly body, we too are to rise to share his glory. The promise he made will be fulfilled in the sight of all: Whoever acknowledges me before men, I too will acknowledge him before my Father who is in heaven.

John 7:14-31 In that time, about the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. And the Jews wondered. And so on.

 

 Homily by St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo.

29th Tract on John

He Who had gone up unto the Feast, not openly, but as it were in secret, the Same taught, and spake openly, and no man laid hands upon Him. That He had hid Himself, was for example's sake; that He manifested Himself, was to show His power. And when He taught, the Jews marvelled. As seemeth to my mind, they all marvelled, but were not all converted. And wherefore marvelled they? Because many of them knew where He was born, and how He had been brought up. They had never seen Him learn letters; but they heard Him dispute concerning the law, and allege the testimony of the same, as no man could do who had not read it; and no man can read unless he learn; and therefore they marvelled. But their marvelling was unto the Teacher an occasion for the revealing of higher truth.

For when they marvelled and whispered, the Lord said a certain deep thing, yea, a thing worthy of very careful thought and discussion. And what was this thing which the Lord gave for an answer to such as marvelled that He knew letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them and said: My doctrine is not Mine, but His That sent Me. Here is the first depth, for He seemeth in these few words to enunciate a contradiction. He saith not: This doctrine is not Mine but: My doctrine is not Mine. O how is it thine? If it be thine, wherefore sayest Thou that it is not thine? For Thou sayest: My doctrine is not Mine.

Let us then carefully regard what this same holy Evangelist saith in the beginning of his Gospel, and we shall find there wherewith to loose the knot of this difficulty. There it is written: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. i. 1. What is the doctrine of the Father but the Word of the Father? If Christ therefore be the Word of the Father, He is the doctrine of the Father. But a Word cannot be of no one, but must needs, if it be a Word, have some one whose word it is. Christ therefore saith that His doctrine is Himself, and therefore not His, forasmuch as He is the Word of the Father. And what hast thou that is so much thine own as thy self? Or what is there that is so little thine own as thyself, if that which thou art is another's?

St. Augustine: Gospel of St. John: Chapter 29

St. Joseph: Matins

 

From the Sermons of St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux.

2nd on Luke i. 26

What and what manner of man the blessed Joseph was, we may gather from that title wherewith, albeit only as a deputy, God deemed him fit to be honoured he was both called, and supposed to be the Father of God. We may gather it from his very name, which, being interpreted, signifieth Increase. Remember likewise that great Patriarch who was sold into Egypt, and know that the Husband of Mary not only received his name, but inherited his purity, and was likened to him in innocence and in grace.

If then, that Joseph that was sold by his brethren through envy, and was brought down to Egypt, was a type of Christ sold by a disciple, and handed over to the Gentiles, the other Joseph flying from the envy of Herod carried Christ into Egypt. That first Joseph kept loyal to his master, and would not carnally know his master's wife; that second Joseph knew that the Lady, the Mother of his Lord, was a virgin, and he himself remained faithfully virgin toward her. To that first Joseph it was given to know dark things in interpreting of dreams; to the second Joseph it was given in sleep to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

Homily by St. Jerome, Priest at Bethlehem.

Book of Commentaries, on Matth. i.

Why was the Lord conceived of an espoused virgin rather than of a free? First, for the sake of the genealogy of Mary, which we have obtained by that of Joseph. Secondly, because she was thus saved from being stoned by the Jews as an adulteress. Thirdly, that Himself and His mother might have a guardian on their journey into Egypt. To these, Ignatius, the martyr of Antioch, has added a fourth reason namely, that the birth might take place unknown to the devil, who would naturally suppose that Mary had conceived by Joseph.

Homily by St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo: Lent IV

24th Tract on John

The miracles which our Lord Jesus Christ did were the very works of God, and they enlighten the mind of man by mean of things which are seen, that he may know more of God. God is Himself of such a Substance as eye cannot see, and the miracles, by the which He ruleth the whole world continually, and satisfieth the need of everything that He hath made, are by use become so common, that scarce any will vouchsafe to see that there are wonderful and amazing works of God in every grain of seed of grass. According to His mercy He kept some works to be done in their due season, but out of the common course and order of nature, that men might see them and be astonished, not because they are greater, but because they are rarer than those which they lightly esteem, since they see them day by day.

Collect: Lent: III: Saturday

 

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Dóminus nos benedícat, et ab omni malo deféndat, et ad vitam perdúcat ætérnam.   Amen.

The Lord bless us, and keep us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.   Amen.

Collect: Week III Friday Lent

COLLECT

Cordibus nostris, quaesumus, Domine, gratiam tuam benignus infunde, ut ab humanis semper retrahamur excessibus, et monitis inhaerere valeamus, te largiente, caelestibus.

Kindly pour out your grace into our hearts, O Lord, that we may be ever delivered from unruly desires and come to embrace by your gift the admonitions of heaven.

COLLECT: Thursday: Lent III

COLLECT: Thursday: Lent III
 

Maiestatem tuam, Domine, suppliciter imploramus, ut, quanto magis dies salutiferae festivitatis accedit, tanto devotius ad eius celebrandum proficiamus paschale mysterium.

We humbly implore your majesty, O Lord, that, as the feast of our salvation draws ever more close, so we may press forward all the more eagerly towards the devout celebration of the Paschal Mystery.

Venantius Fortunatus: Crux benedicta nitet

These hymns of Fortunatus ( Pange linqua, Vexilla regis, Crux benedicta) celebrate the arrival of the relic of the True Cross at Poitiers about 567. 

Crux benedicta nitet, Dominus qua carne pependit.

Atque cruore suo vulnera nostra lavat.

Mitis amore pio pro nobis victima factus,

Traxit ab ore lupi qua sacer Agnus oves. (1)

Transfixis palmis ubi mundum a clade redemit,

Atque suo clausit funere mortis iter.

Hic manus illa fuit clavis confixa cruentis.

Quae eripuit Paulum crimine, morte Petrum.

Fertilitate potens, o dulce et nobile lignum,

Quando tuis ramis tam nova poma geris.

Cujus odore novo defuncta cadavera surgunt,

Et redeunt vitae qui caruere die.

Nullum uret aestus sub frondibus arboris hujus:

Luna nec in noctem, sol neque meridie.

Tu plantata micas secus est ubi cursus aquarum:

Spargis et ornatas flore recente comas. 

Appensa est vitis inter tua brachia, de qua

Dulcia sanguineo vina rubore fluunt.

(1) The lamb (Christ) rescues the sheep from the wolf (Satan), a nice roll reversal.

Brightly shineth the blessed cross, whereon hung the Body of our Lord, when, with his Blood, he washed our wounds.

Become, out of tender love for us, a meek Victim, this divine Lamb did by the cross rescue us his sheep from the jaws of the wolf.

'Twas there, with his hands nailed to the wood, that he redeemed the world from ruin, and by his own death, closed the way of death.

Here was fastened with cruel nails that hand which delivered Paul from sin, and Peter from death.

O sweet and noble tree! how vigorous in thy growth, when, on thy branches, hang fruits so rare as these!

Thy fresh fragrance gives resurrection to many that lay in the tomb, and restores the dead to life.

He that shelters beneath thy shade, shall not be scorched either by the moon at night or by the midday sun.

Planted near the running waters, thou art lovely in thy verdure, and blossoms ever fresh blow on each fair branch.

Between thine arms hangs the pendant Vine, whence wine most sweet flows in a ruddy stream.

Holy Week: Lauds

 

Holy Week: Ad Laudes matutinas: Fortunatus

En acétum, fel, arúndo, (1)

sputa, clavi, láncea;

mite corpus perforátur,

sanguis, unda prófluit; (2)

terra, pontus, astra, mundus (3)

quo lavántur flúmine!



Crux fidélis, inter omnes (4)

arbor una nóbilis!

Nulla talem silva profert (5)

flore, fronde, gérmine.

Dulce lignum, dulci clavo

dulce pondus sústinens!



Flecte ramos, arbor alta, (6)

tensa laxa víscera,

et rigor lentéscat ille

quem dedit natívitas,

ut supérni membra regis

miti tendas stípite.



Sola digna tu fuísti

ferre sæcli prétium, (7)

atque portum præparáre (8)

nauta mundo náufrago, (9)

quem sacer cruor perúnxit

fusus Agni córpore.



Æqua Patri Filióque,

ínclito Paráclito,

sempitérna sit beátæ

Trinitáti glória,

cuius alma nos redémit

atque servat grátia. Amen.

1.WH: ‘the catalogue of indignities’  is assembled from Matt: 27.30, arúndo; Matt: 27:34, fel; Matt: 27.48, acetum; and John 19:34: láncea; John 19:34: clavi; 2. W: sanguis, unda: In this Fortunatus  is thinking of the consecration of baptism by the cross; 3.  W: terra, pontus, astra: the  threefold division of the universe;  mundus: ' the universe ' ; the whole, of which the three preceding words are the component parts ; all things, whether with or without life, ar included, as by St Paul, Col. 1. 20;  4. W: fidelis:  'faithful,' in that this tree did its duty, accomplished what was expected of it. Or it may mean that it was faithful as opposed to the tree of knowledge in Eden, which was treacherous; WH: perhaps also implying “on which our faith depends”; 5. W:nulla silva: i.e. no ordinary forest : this tree came from Paradise; The thought works backwards from blossom to leaf and from leaf to bud ; and the fruit comes in the next line (pondus); 6. W: flecte ramos: 'bend,' that the ascent may be the easier; WH: ‘the personification of the cross reaches its noble climax; 7. W: pretilum saeculi:  the ransom of the world ' was the death of Christ ; here by an easy transition it is applied to the body which suffered death; 8. WH: portum praepare: ‘to pave the way for the harbor of heaven, which the shipwrecked world attains through Christ’s death on the cross. 9. W: nauta: the cross itself floating over the waves of this troublesome world The metaphor is mixed, but Fortunatus is given to combining incongruous notions, of set purpose; WH: the sailor in the barque of the Church under the mast that is the cross.

Behold the vinegar, the gall, the reed, the spit, the nails, and the lance; his tender body pierced through, blood, water flow. Earth, sea, stars and the world washed clean by this river. Faithful Cross, only noble tree above all others, such as no other forest produces, in fruit, leaf or seed; sweet the wood, sweet the nails, sweet the weight it holds.  Bend your branches, lofty tree, relax your inward tension, may your hardness become soft, which nature gives, that your gentle trunk may bear the limbs of the King of heaven. You alone were worthy to bear the ransom of the world and provide a safe port for the sailor in a shipwrecked world, you whom the sacred blood anointed, poured forth from the body of the Lamb.  Equal and eternal glory to the Father and the Son, the glorious Paraclete , to the blessed Trinity, whose nourishing grace redeems and preserves us. Amen.

Collect: Wednesday: Lent: III

Praesta, quaesumus, Domine, ut, per quadragesimalem observantiam eruditi et tuo verbo nutriti, sancta continentia tibi simus toto corde devoti, et in oratione tua semper efficiamur concordes.

Grant, we beseech you, O Lord, that, taught by Lenten observance and nourished by your word, through holy restraint we may be devoted to you with all our heart and be ever united in prayer.

Collect: LENT III: TUESDAY

 Missale Parisiense of 1738. Volume 3.

Gratia tua ne nos, quaesumus, Domine, derelinquat, quae et sacrae nos deditos faciat servituti, et tuam nobis opem semper acquirat.

We beseech you, O Lord, that we not be abandoned by your grace, which consecrates us to your holy service, and likewise always acquires for us your help.

Pange, lingua, gloriósi

 

Matthias Grünewald (c. 1470 – 31 August 1528) was a German Renaissance painter of religious works who ignored Renaissance classicism to continue the style of late medieval Central European art into the 16th century. His first name is also given as Mathis and his surname as Gothart or Neithardt.

Only ten paintings—several consisting of many panels—and thirty-five drawings survive, all religious, although many others were lost on their way to Sweden as war booty. He was obscure until the late nineteenth century, when many of his paintings were attributed to Albrecht Dürer, who is now seen as his stylistic antithesis.

His largest and most famous work is the Isenheim Altarpiece created c. 1512 to 1516.

Pange, lingua, gloriósi (1)

prœlium certáminis, (2)

et super crucis tropæo

dic triúmphum nóbilem,

quáliter redémptor orbis (3)

immolátus vícerit. (4)



De paréntis protoplásti

fraude factor cóndolens, (5)

quando pomi noxiális

morte morsu córruit,

ipse lignum tunc notávit,

damna ligni ut sólveret.



Hoc opus nostræ salútis (6)

ordo depopóscerat, (7)

multifórmis perditóris

arte ut artem fálleret, (8)

et medélam ferret inde, (9)

hostis unde læserat.



Quando venit ergo sacri

plenitúdo témporis, (10)

missus est ab arce Patris

Natus, orbis cónditor,

atque ventre virgináli

carne factus pródiit.



Lustra sex qui iam perácta (11)

tempus implens córporis, (12)

se volénte, natus ad hoc,

passióni déditus,

agnus in crucis levátur

immolándus stípite. (13)



Æqua Patri Filióque,

ínclito Paráclito,

sempitérna sit beátæ

Trinitáti glória,

cuius alma nos redémit

atque servat grátia. Amen.



W = A.S. Walpole, Early Latin Hymns

C = Joseph Connelly, Hymns of the Roman Liturgy

WH = Peter G. Walsh and Christopher Husch, One Hundred Latin Hymns

M = Inge B. Milfull, The Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church

 1.   C: Pange: tell, relate, sing; 2. W,C: commenting on the Urban VIII text substituting laurem certaminis for proelium certaminis: the poet was thinking of the struggle, not its result; W: quotes John Mason Neale: ‘it is not to the glory of the termination of our Lord’s conflict with the devil that the pet would have us look but to the glory of the struggle itself.”  3.  Super = de, ‘about’  with the ablative tropæo; 3.  C: quáliter = ‘how, in what way’; W: ‘one of Fortunatus’s favorite words;  4. W: immolátus vícerit: ‘placed side by side form a sharp contrast. The victim was the conqueror’; WH: cite Augustine, Confessions 10: 43-69: ideo victor quia victim; also WH: protoplásti fraude: the reference is to Satan’s hoodwinking of [the first  formed] Adam; m 6. W: hoc opus: the reparation by means of the cross of the bane wrought by the tree of knowledge;  7. ordo = plan; depopóscerat = had demanded in the everlasting counsel of the Father;  8. Arte = craft: ‘that by craft He might foil the craft of the many-shaped destroyer.' Satan appeared to Eve as a serpent, and ' fashioneth himself into an angel of light,' 2 Cor. xi. 14: ipse enim Satanas transfigurat se in angelum lucis; 9. inde…unde: C: cf. Preface of the Cross: ut unde mors oriebatur, inde resurgeret; et qui in lingo vincebat, in lingo quoque vinceretur; 10. plenitúdo témporis: Galatian 4.4; Ephesians 1.10; 11. W: ‘when thirty years were now accomplished’; 12. W: tempus corpus = ‘his life on earth’; 13. W: the altar being the Cross, where the Lamb is offered.

Sing, O tongue, of the glorious battle strife, and tell of the noble triumph upon the trophy of the Cross, how the Redeemer of the world was sacrificed and conquered. Because of our first parent’s deceit the Creator mourned, when Adam bit that baneful apple and fell to death, then he chose the wood that would restore the wood’s harm. The plan of our salvation demanded that the craftiness of the multiform destroyer be stopped by divine craftiness and that healing might come from where the enemy had struck.  When therefore the fullness of sacred time had come, the Son, the Creator of the world,  was sent from the Father’s fortress and from a virginal womb he made flesh went forth. When he had completed thirty years, finishing the time of his body, by his own will, born for this, given to the passion, the Lamb raised up and sacrificed on the tree of the cross. Equal and eternal glory to the Father and the Son, the glorious Paraclete , to the blessed Trinity, whose nourishing grace redeems and preserves us. Amen.

Collect: Lent: Saturday: Week 2

Deus, qui nos gloriosis remediis in terris adhuc positos iam caelestium rerum facis esse consortes, tu, quaesumus, in ista qua vivimus nos vita guberna, ut ad illam, in qua ipse es, lucem perducas.

O God, who grant us by glorious healing remedies while still on earth
to be partakers of the things of heaven, guide us, we pray, through this present life and bring us to that light in which you dwell. 

 Office of Readings: the considerably shortened Hymn: according to current use a movable hour.

Attributed to Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604). In the Roman Breviary this hymn is used in its entirety for Matins from the first Sunday in Lent until the Saturday before Passion Sunday. Today the hymn is still used, but from Ash Wednesday until the Fifth Sunday of Lent and it is broken into two hymns. The first half, Ex more docti mystico, is used for the Sunday Office of the Readings. The second half, Precemur omnes cernui is used for Sunday Lauds. 

1. The Fast as taught by holy lore

We keep in solemn course once more;

The fast to all men known, and bound

In forty days of yearly round.

2. The law and seers that were of old
In divers ways this Lent foretold
Which Christ, all seasons’ king and guide,
In after ages sanctified.

3. More sparing therefore let us make
The words we speak, the food we take,
Our sleep and mirth, and closer barred
Be every sense in holy guard.

7. Forgive the sin that we have wrought;
Increase the good that we have sought;
That we at length, our wanderings o’er,
May please Thee here and evermore.

8. We pray Thee, holy Trinity,
One God, unchanging Unity,
That we from this our abstinence
May reap the fruits of penitence.

Collect: Second week of Lent: Friday

 

Da, quæsumus omnípotens Deus: ut, sacro nos purificánte jejúnio, sincéris méntibus ad sancta ventúra fácias perveníre.

Grant, we ask almighty God, that, the holy fast of Lent may purify us, so that with sincere minds we may celebrate the coming holy days. 

The same prayer: old and new.

Deus, qui nobis in beata Francisca singulare dedisti coniugalis et monasticae conversationis exemplar, fac nos tibi perseveranter deservire, ut in omnibus vitae adiunctis te conspicere et sequi valeamus.

O God, who have given us in Saint Frances of Rome a singular model of both married and monastic life, grant us perseverance in your service, that in every circumstance of life we may see and follow you.

Homily for Don Shirk

 I do not think that we ever talked about it, but Don and I shared one thing: motorcycles. For one thing, my short spin with the infernal machine was nothing compared to Don's life- long passion. For me it was just a matter of getting from one place to another. But for Don it was a pathway to the stars. Even long after he no longer was riding, his eyes shown bright, when he talked about his trips, he glowed. 

But when it comes down to it, it is a matter of getting from one place to another, So is life and death. Laura told me that Don mainly came to Mass to see his friends. Not a bad reason to come to Mass on several levels. 

In fact, Don could teach the Mega Church crowd a thing or two. Mega Church protestant or catholic. 

We can easily forget the theological truth: "with Angels and Archangels and all the company of Heaven". And all those for whom we continue to pray and remember that they get from one point to another. 

In the midst of life we are in death: says an old medieval hymn which was used by Catholics, Anglicans and Lutherans, but applies to all with no exceptions. 

Media vita in morte sumus-in life we are in the midst 

In those days even after the Reformation Latin remained the theological language. It remained the language of Church music. 

In the midst of life, we are in death. A medieval notion, but true for all that.

It is easy to forget but it is the one thing we cannot forget, our own mortality. It is not a matter of morbid curiosity but of remembering how you get from here to there.

Through my active priesthood my prayers were a matter of a prayer list, but when I retired I had to make my own list of the living and the dead. At my age there is nothing abstract about it. Don, may he rest in peace.

But the dead come first. It is easy for us to imagine that we have done our bit and now it is God's turn. But to get from here to there takes God's intervention and our participation as well. Battles were fought at reformation about that, but the simple truth is without God we won't and without him we cannot.

If you do not have one, make a list of departed: remember all the departed you can. Pray for them every day, shoot twice a day. May they rest in peace. May they get here to from there.

No one wants to die, but death is a good way to get over all our resentments because it doesn't matter what your politics are, the size of your bank account, your brand new car and so forth. Maybe even getting over what the true church is.

But for Christians the most important thing is that Jesus died. He entered fully into the experience of humanity that he might redeem us, that death might be conquered, that terrible theft of human life. Where does every thing lead?

For me at least it takes better poetry than we have currently to speak of this:

In the midst of hell would Sin
Drive us to despair;
Whither shall we flee away?
Where is refuge, where?
With Thee, Lord Christ, alone!
For Thou hast shed Thy precious blood,
All our sins Thou makest good,

In the midst of death the jaws
Of hell against us gape.
Who from peril dire as this
Openeth us escape?
'Tis Thou, O Lord, alone!
Our bitter suffering and our sin

Pity from Thy mercy win,
Holy Lord and God!
Strong and Holy God!
Merciful and Holy Saviour!
Eternal God!
Let not dread our souls o'erwhelm
Of the dark and burning realm,
Kyrie Eleison!

Holy Lord and God!

Strong and Holy God!
Merciful and Holy Saviour!
Eternal God!
Leave us not to fall in death
From the hope of Thy true Faith,
Kyrie Eleison!

In the midst of life, we are in death. May Don rest in peace; may he rise in glory. Rest eternal grant unto him and light perpetual shine upon him. 

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