Collect for St. Athanasius

Collect for St. Athanasius Old

O Lord, hear the prayers we offer on the feast of your blessed confessor bishop Athanasius; forgive us all our sins through the merits and intercession of this saint who served you so well on earth . . .

New

COLLECT
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui beatum Athanasium episcopum divinitatis Filii tui propugnatorem eximium suscitasti, concede propitius, ut, eius doctrina et protectione gaudentes, in tui cognitione et amore sine intermissione crescamus.

Almighty ever-living God, who raised up the Bishop Saint Athanasius as an outstanding champion of your Son's divinity, mercifully grant, that, rejoicing in his teaching and his protection, we may never cease to grow in knowledge and love of you.

SS. Odo, Majolus, Odilo, and Hugo: April 29: Sermon by St. Peter Damian

SS. Odo, Majolus, Odilo, and Hugo: April 29: Sermon by St. Peter Damian 

What else shall I call the monastery of Cluny, but the Lord's fertile field, where the choir of so many monks living together in love is as the harvest is of the heavenly seed? That field is tilled each day with the hoe of holy preaching, and the seeds of heavenly eloquence are sown in it. There the harvest of spiritual fruit is stacked up so that it may soon be brought into the storehouse of heaven. The field of Cluny, moreover, is a kind of plain, where heaven and earth are met together, and where as in an arena, frail flesh stands forth to wrestle with the powers of the air. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual wickedness in high places. There, Jesus, not the son of Nun, but the leader of the heavenly hosts, he who is the instructor of spiritual warriors, teaches his own soldiers to trample on the necks of the five proud kings: truly they are taught how to gain the glorious victory, for day by day they restrain and discipline their bodily senses by means of strict watchfulness. 

St. Anselm of Canterbury

 

O supreme and inaccessible light, O complete and blessed truth, how far you are from me, even though I am so near to you! How remote you are from my sight, even though I am present to yours! You are everywhere in your entirety, and yet I do not see you; in you I move and have my being, and yet I cannot approach you; you are within me and around me, and yet I do not perceive you.

O God, let me know you and love you so that I may find my joy in you; and if I cannot do so fully in this life, let me at least make some progress every day, until at last that knowledge, love and joy come to me in all their plenitude. While I am here on earth let me learn to know you better, so that in heaven I may know you fully; let my love for you grow deeper here, so that there I may love you fully. On earth then I shall have great joy in hope, and in heaven complete joy in the fulfilment of my hope.

From a sermon by Saint Gaudentius of Brescia, bishop

 

St. Gaudentius of Brescia, Bishop: Patron of the Blessed Sacrament

Born at Brescia, Italy, about the middle of the 4th century, St. Gaudentius was educated under St. Philastrius, Bishop of Brescia, whom he terms his “father”. After earning a reputation for sanctity, he travel to the East where he gained even more fame. In his absence, he was elected Bishop by the people on the death of St. Philastrius; though he left unworthy to receive such an honor, he was influenced to accept it by the Eastern Bishops, and in 387 he was consecrated by St. Ambrose.

Gaudentius was a powerful preacher and ten of his twenty-one Sermons have survived, offering ample testimony to this fact. He governed his See with prudence and humility, inspiring his flock to imitate the Divine Master constantly.

In 405, the Saint was sent with two others by Pope innocent I and the Emperor Honorius to the East to defend St. John Chrysostom before Arcadius. However, the party was prevented from reaching Arcadius and never formally interceded for John; the tree men were shipped back home on a vessel so unseaworthy that it almost sank and had to be left at Lampsacus. Subsequently, st. John wrote St. Gaudentius a letter of thanks for his efforts even though they had not borne fruit. This saintly man died about 410 and was called by Rufinus: “the glory of the Doctors of the age in which he lives”.

From a sermon by Saint Gaudentius of Brescia, bishop

The heavenly sacrifice, instituted by Christ, is the most gracious legacy of his new covenant. On the night he was delivered up to be crucified he left us this gift as a pledge of his abiding presence.

  

This sacrifice is our sustenance on life’s journey; by it we are nourished and supported along the road of life until we depart from this world and make our way to the Lord. For this reason he addressed these words to us: Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life in you.

  

It was the Lord’s will that his gifts should remain with us, and that we who have been redeemed by his precious blood should constantly be sanctified according to the pattern of his own passion. And so he commanded those faithful disciples of his whom he made the first priests of his Church to enact these mysteries of eternal life continuously. All priests throughout the churches of the world must celebrate these mysteries until Christ comes again from heaven. Therefore let us all, priests and people alike, be faithful to this everlasting memorial of our redemption. Daily it is before our eyes as a representation of the passion of Christ. We hold it in our hands, we receive it in our mouths, and we accept it in our hearts.

  

It is appropriate that we should receive the body of Christ in the form of bread, because, as there are many grains of wheat in the flour from which bread is made by mixing it with water and baking it with fire, so also we know that many members make up the one body of Christ which is brought to maturity by the fire of the Holy Spirit. Christ was born of the Holy Spirit, and since it was fitting that he should fulfil all justice, he entered into the waters of baptism to sanctify them. When he left the Jordan he was filled with the Holy Spirit who had descended upon him in the form of a dove. As the evangelist tells us: Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan.

  

Similarly, the wine of Christ’s blood, drawn from the many grapes of the vineyard that he had planted, is extracted in the wine-press of the cross. When men receive it with believing hearts, like capacious wineskins, it ferments within them by its own power.

  

And so, now that you have escaped from the power of Egypt and of Pharaoh, who is the devil, join with us, all of you, in receiving this sacrifice of the saving Passover with the eagerness of dedicated hearts. Then in our inmost being we shall be wholly sanctified by the very Lord Jesus Christ whom we believe to be present in his sacraments, and whose boundless power abides forever.

Homily by St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. Bk. x Comm. on Luke xxiv

Homily by St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. Bk. x Comm. on Luke xxiv

Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to Luke

Luke 24:36-47

At that time: Now while they were speaking these things, Jesus stood in the midst of them, and said to them: Peace be to you; it is I, fear not. And so forth.

We see here the marvelous nature of the Lord's glorified Body. It could enter unseen, and then become seen. It could easily be touched, but Its nature is hard to understand. The disciples were afraid and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And therefore, the Lord, that He might show us the evidence of His Resurrection, said: Handle Me, and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. Therefore, it was not by being in a disembodied state, but by the peculiar qualities of the risen and glorified Body that He had passed through closed doors. John xx. 19. For that which is touched or handled is a body.

We shall all rise again with our bodies. But it is shown to be a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. 1. Cor. xv. 44. The spiritual body is the finer, and the natural body is the grosser, begotten as yet by the corruption of earth. Was not that a real Body, wherein remained those marks of His Wounds, those holes of the nail-prints, which the Lord bade His disciples to handle? Hereby, also, He hath not only strengthened our faith, but also quickened our love, since we know that it has been His will to carry to heaven those Wounds which He bore for our sake, and wherewith He would not make away; but plainly shown to His Eternal Father the price of our freedom. It is as marked with these Wounds and embracing the trophy of our salvation that the Father said to Him, Sit Thou at My right Hand: and it is, like Him, marked with their wounds, that He has shown us that the Martyrs, whose Crown He is, are, and will be with Him there.

And now, if our Lesson from Luke here fails, let us have recourse to John, and consider how that, according to him, xx. 20, then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord, and received the grace of faith. According to Luke, He upbraided them with their unbelief, but according to John He said also, Receive the Holy Ghost. Luke, not John, has, Tarry  in the city of Jerusalem, until you endued with power from on high. Indeed, to me it seems as though the one Evangelist had busied himself with the greater and higher matters, and the other with the narrative, and such things as are more human: the one with the course, the other with the essence, of history. For as it is impossible to doubt the word of him who testifies of these things, John xxi. 24, and who saw these things, and concerning whom we know that his testimony is true, xxi. 24, so is it sinful to think of negligence or falsehood as attaching to the other, even Luke, who earned the title of Evangelist, although he was not an Apostle, and therefore we hold that both are truthful, neither are they at variance one with the other, either in the difference of the words they use, or in the sacredness of their characters as Evangelists. For though Luke said that at the first the Apostles believed not, yet he records that afterward they believed: and although, if we regard only the first fact, the Evangelists seem divergent one from the other, yet, when we consider what comes afterward, we see that they are at one.

From Amalar of Metz quoting John Chrysostom

 

From Amalar of Metz, on the Liturgy, quoting John Chrysostom 

In his homily On the Cross and the Thief, John Chrysostom says: "The cross is the hope of Christians, the cross is the resurrection of the dead, the cross is the leader of the blind, the cross is a path for the hopeless, the cross is a staff for the crippled, the cross is the consolation of the poor, the cross is the restraint of the wealthy, the cross is the destruction of the proud, the cross is punishment for those who lead evil lives, the cross is a triumph over demons, the cross is the ruin of the devil, the cross is the tutor of youth, the cross is the support for the needy, the cross is the hope of the desperate, the cross is the helmsman of sailors, the cross is a harbor for those in peril, the cross is a wall for the besieged, the cross is the father of orphans, the cross is the defender of widows, the cross is the counselor of the just, the cross is rest for the troubled, the cross is the guardian of children, the cross is a leader of men, the cross is the end of old age, the cross is a light for those sitting in the darkness, the cross is the magnificence of kings, the cross is an everlasting shield, the cross is the intelligence of the foolish, the cross is the freedom of slaves, the cross is the wisdom of emperors, the cross is the law of the impious, the cross is the proclamation of prophets, the cross is the message of the apostles, the cross is the exultation of martyrs, the cross is the abstinence of monks, the cross is the chastity of virgins, the cross is the joy of priests, the cross is the foundation of the church, the cross is the surety of the world, the cross is the destruction of temples, the cross is the rejection of idols, the cross is the stumbling block of the Jews, the cross is the damnation of the impious, the cross is the strength of the weak, the cross is medicine for the sick, the cross is the cleansing of lepers, the cross is rest for 'the paralyzed, the cross is bread for the hungry, the cross is a spring for the thirsty, the cross is covering for the naked."

From the Treatise of St. Augustine, Bishop (of Hippo) Upon the Psalms On Psalm liv

Behold the Glory of the Cross

From the Treatise of St. Augustine, Bishop (of Hippo) Upon the Psalms On Psalm On Psalm liv, 1

Give ear to my prayer, O God, and despise not my supplication: attend unto me and hear me. These are the words of a man travailing, anxious, and troubled. He prayeth in the midst of much suffering, longing to be rid of his affliction. Our part is to see what that his affliction was, and when he hath told us, to acknowledge that we also suffer therefrom; that so, partaking in his trouble, we may take part also in his exercise, and am troubled. Wherein mourned he? Wherein was he troubled? He saith: In my exercise. In the next words he giveth us to know that his affliction was the oppression of the wicked, because of the voice of the enemy, and because of the oppression of the wicked, and this suffering which came upon him at the hands of wicked men, he hath called his exercise. Think not that wicked men are in this world for nothing, or that God doth no good with them. Every wicked man liveth, either to repent, or to exercise the righteous.

Would to God that they which now exercise us were converted and exercised with us! Yet, while they are as they are, and exercise us, we will not hate them: for we know not of any one of them whether he will endure to the end in his sin. Yea, oftentimes, when thou deemest that thou hatest thine enemy, he whom thou hatest is thy brother, and thou knowest it not. The Holy Scriptures show us that the devil and his angels are already damned unto everlasting fire, and therefore of their repentance it behoveth us to despair; but of theirs only. These are they against whom we wrestle within; to the which wrestling the Apostle stirreth us up where he saith: We wrestle not against flesh and blood, (that is, not against men whom we see,) but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. Eph. vi. 12. He saith not the rulers of this world, lest perchance thou shouldest deem that devils are the lords of heaven and earth; what he doth say is, rulers of the darkness of this world, of that world which they love who love the world, of that world wherein the ungodly and unrighteous do prosper, of that world, in fine, of which the Gospel saith: And the world knew Him not.

We have seen iniquity and strife in the city. v. 10. Behold, the glory of the Cross. That Cross which was the object of the insults of God's enemies, is established now above the brows of kings. The end hath shown the measure of its power: it hath conquered the world, not by the sword, but by its wood. The enemies of God thought the Cross a meet object of insult and ridicule, yea, they stood before it, wagging their heads and saying: If He be the Son of God, let Him come down from the Cross! Matth. xxvii. 39, 40. And He stretched forth His Hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. Rom. x. 21. If he is just which liveth by faith, Rom. i. 17; Hab. ii. 4, he is unjust that hath not faith. Therefore where is written iniquity we may understand unbelief. The Lord therefore saith that He saw iniquity and strife in the city, and that He stretched forth His Hands unto that disobedient and gainsaying people, and, disobedient and gainsaying as they were, He was hungry for their salvation, and said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Luke xxiii. 34.

Oblivioni datus sum,

 tamquam mortuus a corde; 

factus sum tamquam vas perditum: 

THE SWEET ODOUR OF CHRIST (Monday in Holy Week) Aemiliana Lohr

 

THE SWEET ODOUR OF CHRIST (Monday in Holy Week) 

Aemiliana Lohr

We are in the great week now. Yesterday, at its beginning, we were already aware that for all its seriousness this is not a passion week, a week of mourning, suffering, and sorrow which some tried to make of it at a time when there was no more understanding for the real moods of the liturgy. The double melody of suffering and triumph which touched us so strongly yesterday is once more audible now. We hear it throughout all the days of this week, and always the notes of triumph, the free sounds of peace and glory, master the tones of suffering and complaint. 

Fundamentally, even in this most serious week of the liturgical year, joy receives the main accent whenever the Church prays or sings: that joy in God and all his great works which we see taking place before us in the liturgy as marvelous as they were on the first day. Like Jesus himself, who looked up and beyond to God's saving design and his Father's glory when his hour had come, so too, now that the time has come to perform the liturgical memorial of his death, his bride the Church, who might be expected to remain full of sorrow at his cross and wound, turns gently to the ' glorifying and not destroying end of his pain. This is what distinguishes the divinity of the Church's worship from the ways of merely human piety: she regards the events of history as well as the mystical events of her ritual with the eye of God, and therefore her first and last word is always an expression of her joy in God, of his praise, the ardor and breath of life that never fades.

Homily by St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. 9th Book on Lu

From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew

Matt 21:1-9

At that time, when Jesus drew nigh to Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto mount Olivet, then Jesus sent two disciples, Saying to them: And so on.

Beautiful is the type, when the Lord, about to leave the Jews, and to take up His abode in the hearts of the Gentiles, goeth up into the Temple; a figure of His going to the true Temple wherein He is worshipped, not in the deadness of the letter, but in spirit and in truth, even that Temple of God whereof the foundations are laid, not in buildings of stone, but in faith. He leaveth behind Him such as hate Him, and getteth Him to such as will love Him. And therefore cometh He unto the Mount of Olives that He may plant upon the heights of grace those young olive-branches, whose Mother is the Jerusalem which is above. Upon this mountain standeth He, the Heavenly Husbandman, that all they which be planted in the House of the Lord may be able each one to say: "But I am like a fruitful olive-tree in the House of God." Ps. li. 10.