Blessed Margaret Pole

O God, who didst adorn the life of blessed Margaret, wondrous in virtue, with the crown of martyrdom: grant by her merits and intercession: that we being affrighted by no adversity, may have power to dedicate our life and death to thy service: Through.

Blessed Margaret Pole (pronounced ‘pool’), Countess of Salisbury (1473 – 1541), is sometimes called ‘the last of the Plantagenets’. Her early history was eventful, to say the least, and like all those close to the crown, she experienced the fickleness of royal favour. Her father was executed for treason; her mother and younger brother died when she was three; widowed  in 1504, with five children, scanty resources and no prospects, she lived with the Bridgetines of Syon for a few years. Restored to royal favour in 1509, she enjoyed the sunshine of Henry VIII’s regard for a while but, when she refused to countenance his divorce from Katherine of Aragon, was treated mercilessly. Her eldest son, Henry, was executed; Margaret herself was imprisoned in the Tower for two and a half years and, despite her age, subjected to rough and inhuman treatment. Her death, when at last it came, was at the hands of a ‘blundering youth’ who, instead of cutting off her head cleanly, ‘hacked her head and shoulders’ so that eleven blows were needed to kill her. The following verse was found on the wall of her cell:

For traitors on the block should die;
I am no traitor, no, not I!
My faithfulness stands fast and so,
Towards the block I shall not go!
Nor make one step, as you shall see;
Christ in Thy Mercy, save Thou me!

Hymn for Vespers: St. Augustine of Canterbury

St. Gregory the Great and St. Augustine of Canterbury

Hymn for Vespers: St. Augustine of Canterbury

The following is a hymn to St Augustine which may have been composed in Winchester in the late tenth or early eleventh century, attributed to Wulfstan, precentor of Old Minster, Winchester (text and translation from Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, ed. Inge B. Milfull (Cambridge, 1996), pp.320-1):

Caelestis aule nobiles

mundique recti principis

concorditer ferant deo

laudum trophea precluo,

qui maxima clementia

genus humanum tartara

terendo vite reddidit

&, ut hanc sciret, indidit.

Apostolos nam colligit,

Gregorius de quis venit,

qui filium dat Anglicis

Augustinum fanaticis,

non de carnali semine,

sed spiritali vimine,

emisit, ut Cristi decus

conferret acris plebibus.

Quod ut perægit omnibus

deo iuvante nisibus,

vocatur ex tholis poli,

ut colletetur angelis.

Hinc te precamur, artifex

opime rerum, supplices,

ut huius ore militis

tuis tuum des servulis.

Sit glorie nitor patri,

sit filio lux & iugis,

sit procedenti flamini

ab his venustas luminis.

I Let the nobles of the celestial court and of the true prince of the world offer unanimously praises in honor of his victory to the most glorious God,

II It who in surpassing mercy brought the human race back to life and taught it to know that life, when he crushed Hell.

III For he gathers apostles to himself. From these Gregory is descended, who gives his son Augustine to the idolatrous English;

IV He sent out his son, not by the seed of the flesh, but by spiritual growth, to bring the glory of Christ to fierce nations.

V As soon as he has carried that out with all effort and with the help of God, he is summoned from the vaults of heaven to share there the joy of the angels.

VI Therefore we suppliants pray to you, excellent maker of created things, to give your humble servants what is yours according to the speech of this your soldier.

VII Glory and splendor be to the Father and perpetual light be to the Son. Glowing beauty be to the Spirit that proceeds from them.

Hymn for St. Philip Neri

Hymn for St. Philip Neri

Pangamus Nerio debita cantica, Quem supra nitidi sidera verticis, Virtus, et meritum sustulit inclytum Carpturum pia gaudia.

Sicuri subitis dum videt ignibus Aedes, quas habitat, fletibus abstinet, Flammas cum penitus quiverit horridas Paucis vincere lacrymis.

Oblatum patrui munus, et aureos Nummos magnanimus calcat, et impiger Romam digreditur, quam magis omnibus Illustrem facit urbibus.

Noctes sub specubus, corpora martyrum Quas implent, vigilat sedulus integras ; Ex ipsis satagens discere mortuis Normam, qua bene viveret.

Almae sit Triadi gloria perpetim, Quam caelum, barathrum, terraque suscipit : Quae nobis Nerii det prece iugia Dulcis gaudia Patriae. Amen 

Hymn

 1. Due praises sing in Philip's sight, Who now 'mid heaven's stars so bright There dwells in sweet delight; Reward for virtue famed.

 2. While home he sees consumed by flame, From weeping, heedless, yet refrains, E'en through few tears would serve to tame The menace of the blaze.

 3. He spurns, for such his noble heart, His uncle's wealth and swift departs To Rome, whose name he sets apart: A city of renown.

 4. Whole nights of prayer in catacombs, Amid the martyrs' many tombs He learns from those who've met their doom The art of living well.

 5. To loving Trinity e'er be praise, Whom heaven, abyss and earth upraise, Whose gift Heaven's joy for all our days, Bestowed on Philip's prayer. Amen.

HIC SUNT IN FOSSA BEDAE VENERABILIS OSSA: here in his tomb are the bones of the venerable Bede

Durham Cathedral: Taken from the Venerable Bede’s Commentary on Revelation: 

Christus est stella matutina, 

Qui nocte saeculi transacta, 

Lucem vitae sanctis promittit,

Et pandit aeternam,

Christ is the morning star

Who when the night

Of this world is past

Brings to his saints

The promise of

The light of life

& opens everlasting day.

Homily by S. Gregory the Great: 29 on the Gospels: Monastic Breviary: Wednesday in Octave of the Ascension

THE first thing we must ask is this: How is it that at the Lord's Birth, when the Angels appeared, it is not said that they were arrayed in white garments, while it is said that they were arrayed in white at his Ascension? For it is written, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel. Now, white garments signify joy and festivity. Surely then, if at the Lord's Birth the Angels did not appear in white apparel, while at his Ascension they did, it shows how greatly they rejoiced when God-made-Man penetrated the highest heavens. The humiliation of the Divinity is manifested in the Birth of the Lord, whereas the exaltation of the Humanity is shown in the Ascension. White apparel is more in keeping with exaltation than with humiliation.

IT is fitting, then, that at the Ascension the Angels were seen in white garments, for while in his Birth God appeared in his lowliness, in his Ascension he showed forth the sublimity of his Manhood. We must dwell on this point, beloved brethren, during this festival, for to-day is blotted out the handwriting of the day of our condemnation, and the sentence of our corruption is changed. No longer is it said of our human nature, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return; for to-day it returns to heaven. So, foreshadowing the resurrection of the body, blessed Job is a figure of the Lord when he is called a bird. He saw too that the Jews would not understand the mystery of the Lord's Ascension, and so he pronounced sentence on them, saying, He knew not the path of the bird.

THE Lord is rightly termed a bird, he who in a body of flesh soared up into the sky, and whoever does not believe that he ascended into heaven does not know the path of the bird. This festival was foretold by the Psalmist: Thou hast set thy glory above the heavens ; and again, God is gone up with a merry noise, and the Lord with the sound of the trump; and, Thou art gone up on high, thou hast led captivity captive and received gifts for men. And indeed, when Christ ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, for our corruption was swallowed up by the power of his incorruption. He did indeed give gifts to men, for by sending the Holy Spirit from above, to one was given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another faith, to another the gift of healing, to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

Fr. Ronald Knox: The Ascension: from the London Oratory, 13 May 1956

Since the Ascension, we have found it easier to realize the love of God, because it is mirrored for us in the human sympathy of Jesus Christ. But there is something else—since the Ascension, it has been easier for us to imagine heaven as a desirable goal. Try as we will, the idea of heaven eludes us. Are we to think of it as place, from which every element of unhappiness is excluded? But we know how much our love of places is conditioned by moods and sentiments, by the desire for change, by association and by history! Or are we to think of it as a state? But then, how are we to think of a state except in terms of selfish enjoyment? Or should we look forward to being reunited with those we have loved? But how frail they are, these earthly bonds; how time impairs them! No, when we have tried everything, we shall find no better window on eternity than St Paul's formula, "to depart and be with Christ". If he has left us, and gone to heaven, it is so that we may no longer be disconcerted by the barrier of cloud that stands between us and it. We are not concerned to "go" here or there, to be in this or that state of existence. We want to find him. So little, and so much it is given us to know about the ascended Christ.

Homily of St. Leo the Great: The Ascension of our Lord

The sacred period of forty days following the blessed and glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, wherein by divine power he raised up in three days the true Temple of God which the impious Jews had destroyed—that period, dearly beloved, prescribed by God's holy providence that we might have the instruction we needed, has now come to an end. By thus prolonging his corporal presence, our Lord intended that faith in his Resurrection should rest on irrefutable proofs. The death of Christ had deeply troubled the hearts of his disciples. The anguish of the Cross, the yielding up of the spirit, the burial of the lifeless body, had gravely saddened their minds; the lethargy of doubt overshadowed them. Throughout the period from the Resurrection to the Ascension of our Lord, divine providence had in view that which God wished to teach to  his own, to impress upon their minds and hearts, the certitude that  the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ was as true as his birth, his passion and his death.

Whence the blessed Apostles and all the disciples, though they had trembled at the outcome of the crucifixion and been left in doubt about the Resurrection, were so strengthened by the clear perception of this truth, that when our Lord was ascending, not only were they not sad, but were even filled with great joy. And a truly great and ineffable cause of rejoicing it was, when in the sight of a holy multitude, human nature ascended above the dignity of all celestial creatures, to pass above the angelic rank, to be raised beyond the highest archangels, to advance unimpeded from height to height until it was admitted to the presence of the Father, there to sit at his right hand and share the glorious throne of him to whose nature it was united in the person of the Son!

And since the Ascension of Christ is our ascension, and where the glory of the head has gone before, thither is the hope of the body summoned, let us exult, beloved brethren, with befitting joys, and rejoice with devout thanksgiving. To-day, not only have we been confirmed in the possession of Paradise, but in Christ have even penetrated to the heights of heaven. The blessings which the ineffable grace of Christ has merited for us outweigh those which the envy of Satan deprived us of; for those whom the venomous enemy cast down from the happiness of their first estate, these the Son of God has made to be of one body with himself and placed at the right hand of the Father.