Commentary of St. Bede the Venerable: An exposition of the 1st Epistle of St. Peter, 1, 3, and 2, 9

 

Commentary of St. Bede the Venerable: An exposition of the 1st Epistle of St. Peter, 1, 3, and 2, 9: You are risen with Christ

 

Blessed be that God, that Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has begotten us anew, making hope live in us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We have good reason to bless God, we who, if treated as we deserved, should have been born only to die, and who, by his mercy, are born again to live. And that, by the resurrection of his Son; for he has so loved our life that he has obtained it for us at the price Of the death of Christ, and, destroying this same death by his resurrection, he has given us the hope and the first fruits of our own resurrection. Now Christ is dead we cannot fear death. He has risen from the dead that we may hope for our own resurrection, through him.

 

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people God means to have for himself. This praiseworthy testimony was first given by Moses to those who at the time were the people of God, but now it is given to the nations by the Apostle St. Peter: they have believed in Christ, who like a corner-stone has joined them together, uniting them to the salvation which was formerly reserved for Israel. The Apostle calls them a chosen race because of their faith, to distinguish them from those who rejected the living stone and thus brought about their own rejection. Again he calls them a royal priesthood, because they are united to the body of him who is the supreme King and true Priest, giving royalty to his members, as king, cleansing them from their faults, as priest offering his own blood; this same name of royal priesthood should also remind them to hope for an eternal kingdom and recall to them the duty of offering ceaselessly to God the sacrifice of an irreproachable life. St. Peter also calls the Gentiles a consecrated nation, a people God means to have for himself; like St. Paul, who, commenting on Habakkuk’s prophecy: It is faith that brings life to the man whom I accept as justified: if he shrinks back, he shall win no favor with me, adds: Not for us to shrink away, and be lost; it is for us to have faith, and save our souls.

 

It is yours to proclaim the exploits of the God who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Just as the Jews, delivered from the captivity of Egypt, sang to the Lord by the mouth of Moses a canticle of triumph, when they had crossed the Red Sea and seen the troops of Pharaoh swallowed up therein, so in our turn should we, who in baptism have received pardon for our sins, render becoming thanks for these heavenly blessings. Indeed, the Egyptians, who persecuted the people of God, and whose name signifies darkness, or misfortune, are a good symbol for the sins which torment us but which baptism destroys. The deliverance of the Israelites and their travels to the Promised Land harmonize excellently with the mystery of our Redemption, because it makes us advance towards the light of the eternal country, led and guided by the grace of Christ. And this light of grace, too, is typified in the pillar of smoke and of fire, which throughout their journey, protected the chosen people from the darkness of the night and led them by a mysterious route to rest in the Promised Land.

St. Peter Chrysologus: The Holy Feast of Easter: Sermon 75

 

St. Peter Chrysologus: The Holy Feast of Easter: Sermon 75

 

TODAY'S FEAST, brothers, does not connect the old with the new, nor does it keep the flesh of the lamb for tomorrow, but while it makes the past a partner with the present in solemn devotion, and joins our Passover with the Passover that returns, it weans the infants newly regenerated, because as the Apostle says, "The old has passed away, [and] see all things have been made new." The year of the Lord progresses through seasons, it does not grow old, since it repeats its cycle for as long as it takes to lead us to the day of recompense.  Today's solemnity of Easter now withdraws from milk those whom it bore earlier, so that they might be strengthened by eating more solid food and be made into the perfect man of Christ.

 

2. That Abraham held a great banquet, and that he spread joy throughout all his house when Isaac was weaned, we know from what divine history relates.  And if the child born to aged parents,  indeed and only child of a barren mother, prompted and moved the hearts of the whole family to rejoice with dancing choruses, lyre, timbrel, and the psaltery all playing in harmony, how much more today is it appropriate for us to exult in spiritual hymns or canticles, when the numerous offspring of a fertile virgin are weaned?

 

Anna, barren like Sarah, wet her dry body and nature with the tears of her prayers for as long as posterity had been denied her over the lengthy period of her life. Since she had received Samuel as a gift from God, she soon returned him weaned as a gift to God, and she added her own happiness to the sacrificial victims to make a plentiful libation; all the more is it right for us to offer a sacrifice of praise, 10 to pay our vows, and to present sweet incense and offerings, as ample as any holocaust, to God the Father, since the Virgin Mother presents to the Father children from throughout the whole world who have been nourished and weaned and are as numerous as the stars of the sky, so that the words of the prophet might be fulfilled: 'You will bless the crown of the year with your bounty, and your fields will be full of a fertile harvest. "

 

3. So let no one believe that the saving mystery that we celebrate in this feast is of no benefit, nor think that we sew a new patch onto an old cloak,  where we join none of the old Jewish ways to the new Christian ones, knowing, as the Apostle teaches, that for us the whole of creation has emerged new in Christ,  but we contribute to their growth in heavenly virtue and in the knowledge of God. Consequently, while the recently born are trained in what they ought to do, and at the same time those who were born earlier15 are instructed in how much thanks they owe to God on account of their being perfected, those who have just been born  cleave to the neck and completely devote themselves to clinging to the breasts of their Mother the Church, they' swallow the food of innocence in their tender throats, give thought to extending their arms in holy work, and strive to make their trembling steps firm on the journey of faith. Are those who have been nourished now to be abandoned? Shouldn't they instead be governed by the care of the Father, by the hand of the Father, and by the will of the Father, and likewise be protected by the counsel of the Mother and by the faith of the Mother, such that they take and make off with not merely human things but even the saving divine wisdom?

 

4. Thus Jacob, very timid on his own, but quite daring when his mother provided her counsel, more symbolically than deceitfully came forward to make off with his father's blessing, for he did not lie when he said that he was the firstborn, since he was the first that heavenly grace, not mortal nature, generated. When he was wearing goatskin, he prefigured us who, in order to die to sin, at the encouragement of our Mother the Church put on the clothes of a mortified body and reek of the odor of the field with the continuous and abundant fruits of professing our faith, until we profit from deluding the Jews in their blindness and make off with the Father's blessing by the completely mysterious workings of faith, as the Apostle says: "Blindness has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the gentiles come in.”

Burial of Jesus

 

Holy Saturday

 

  Holy Saturday

 

 

Ad Officium lectionis: saec. V-VI

 

Christe, cælórum Dómine,

mundi salvátor máxime,

qui crucis omnes múnere

mortis solvísti légibus,

 

Te nunc orántes póscimus,

tua consérves múnera,

quæ sacra per mystéria

cunctis donásti géntibus.

 

Tu agnus mitis, ínnocens,

oblátus terræ víctima,

sanctórum vestes ómnium

tuo lavásti sánguine.

 

Quos redemísti prétio

tui sacráti córporis,

cælo resúrgens ádvehis

ubi te laudant pérpetim.

 

Quorum nos addas número,

te deprecámur, Dómine,

qui Patri nos ex ómnibus

fecísti regnum pópulis. Amen.

 

O Christ, Lord of the heavens, most high Savior of the world, who by the gift of the cross loosen all from the law of death. Now we pray you that you preserve the gifts which through the sacred mysteries you have given to all nations. You the gentle, innocent Lamb offered as a sacrificial victim for the world have washed the robes of all the saints in your blood. Rising lead to heaven those whom you have redeemed at the cost of your holy body that they may praise you forever.  Add us to their number, we ask you, O Lord, you who have made us a kingdom from all peoples. Amen.

 

Ad Laudes matutinas: saec. V-VI

 

Tibi, Redémptor ómnium,

hymnum defléntes cánimus;

ignósce nobis, Dómine,

ignósce confiténtibus.

 

Qui vires hostis véteris

per crucem mortis cónteris,

qua nos vexíllum fídei,

fronte signáti, férimus,

 

Illum a nobis iúgiter

repéllere dignáveris,

ne possit umquam lædere

redémptos tuo sánguine.

 

Qui propter nos ad ínferos

descéndere dignátus es,

ut mortis debitóribus

vitæ donáres múnera,

 

Tu es qui certo témpore

datúrus finem sæculo,

iustus cunctórum mérita

remunerátor státues.

 

Te ergo, Christe, quæsumus,

ut nostra cures vúlnera,

qui es cum Patre et Spíritu

laudándus in perpétuum. Amen.

 

To you, O Redeemer of all, we weep and sing a hymn: forgive us, O Lord, forgive us who confess our sins. You who crush the strength of the ancient enemy through the cross of death, by which we, signed on our foreheads, bear the banners of the faith. Vouchsafe always to drive him away from us, so that he may no longer injure those redeemed by your blood. You who for our sake deigned to descend into hell that you might give to those charged with death the gift of life. May you, who will at the appointed time bring the world to an end, justly acknowledge and reward the merits of all. You, therefore, we pray, O Christ, that you heal our wounds, who are with the Father  and the Spirit, ever praise-worthy. Amen.

 

Ad Vesperas: saec. X

 

Auctor salútis únice,

mundi redémptor ínclite,

rex, Christe, nobis ánnue

crucis fecúndæ glóriam.

 

Tu morte mortem díruens

vitámque vita lárgiens,

mortis minístrum súbdolum

devíceras diábolum.

 

Piis amóris ártibus

somno sepúlcri tráditus,

sedes reclúdis ínferi

patrésque dicis líberos.

 

Nunc in Paréntis déxtera

sacráta fulgens víctima,

audi, precámur, vívido

tuo redémptos sánguine,

 

Quo te diébus ómnibus

puris sequéntes móribus,

advérsus omnes ímpetus

crucis ferámus lábarum.

 

Patri, tibi, Paráclito

sit æqua, Iesu, glória,

qui nos crucis victória

concédis usque pérfrui. Amen.

 

O sole Author of our salvation, great Redeemer of the world, King, O Christ, bestow upon us the grace of the fruitful cross. You have destroyed death by death and granted life by life. You conquer the crafty devil, the minister of death. Handed over by the skill of love to sleep in the tomb, you open up the habitations of hell and command our fathers to be set free. Now on the Father’s right hand, the resplendent holy sacrifice, hear, we pray, and see those redeemed by your blood. That following you all our days in a pure life, we may bear the standard of the cross against every attack. To the Father, to you, to the Paraclete, O Jesus, equal glory, who grants us to enjoy forever the victory of the Cross. Amen.

From an ancient homily for Holy Saturday

 

From an ancient homily for Holy Saturday

The Lord's descent into the underworld

Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

  He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

  I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

  See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

  I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

  Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

Crucifixion

 

From the Treatise of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Upon the Psalms On Psalm lxiii, 7 Holy Saturday

 

From the Treatise of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Upon the Psalms On Psalm lxiii, 7

 Holy Saturday

We shall attain to thoughts that are very deep: but God shall still be exalted. The enemies of our Lord had communed of laying snares privily; they had said, Who shall see them? They had searched out iniquities; they had accomplished a diligent search. And Man attained even unto (the realization of) their counsels, for the Lord, as Man, suffered Himself to be taken. For He had not been taken at all, unless He had been a Man, or seen, unless He had been a Man, or smitten, unless He had been a Man, or crucified, unless He had been a Man, or have died, unless He had been a Man. Man therefore, He attained unto all those sufferings, which had had nothing in Him, unless He had been a Man. But if He had not been Man, man had not been redeemed. And the Lord as Man attained to thoughts that were very deep, yea, secret; showing the Manhood to the eyes of men, and keeping the Godhead within Him; veiling the form of God, as touching Which, He is Equal to the Father, and manifesting the form of a servant, as touching which, He is inferior to the Father.

 

How far did the accomplishment of their diligent search reach? Even to the setting a watch of soldiers at the sepulcher, to guard the Lord, even after He was dead and buried. For they said unto Pilate: Sir, we remember that that deceiver Matth. xxvii. 63. This was the term by which they designated the Lord Jesus Christ, and the remembrance that He was so named is a sweet consolation to us His servants, when we are called impostors. So, they said unto Pilate, that deceiver said, while He was yet alive: After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day, lest His disciples come and steal Him away, and say unto the people: He is risen again from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them: Ye have a watch; go your way; make it as sure as ye can. So they went and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

 

So they went, and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch and anon, behold, there was a great earthquake, and the Lord arose. So great wonders were wrought about the sepulcher that the very soldiers, which were put to guard it, were witnesses thereto, if only they would have told the truth. But the same love of money which had made a slave of that disciple who was a companion of Christ, made slaves also of the soldiers that were put to watch His sepulcher. Some of the watch came into the city, and showed unto the chief-priests all the things that were done: and when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying: Say ye, His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we slept. In good sooth, their diligent search had been accomplished and ended before this. What didst thou say, O stupid cunning? Wast thou indeed so utterly void of the light of godly wisdom, and confounded in the bottomless pit of thine own falsehood as to tell them to say: His disciples came by night, and stole Him away while we slept? Part of the testimony of thine eye-witnesses was that they were asleep at the time: thou thyself wast asleep not to be able to see that on their own testimony, their testimony must have been worthless.

 

 

Holy Week Collects

 

Holy Week Collects

Palm Sunday

 

Omnípotens sempitérne Deus, qui humáno géneri, ad imitándum humilitátis exémplum, Salvatórem nostrum carnem súmere et crucem subíre fecísti, concéde propítius, ut et patiéntiæ ipsíus habére documénta et resurrectiónis consórtia mereámur.

 

Almighty eternal God, who in order to give the human race an example of humility to imitate, has caused our Savior to take flesh and to endure the cross, graciously grant that we may be worthy to follow the example of his patience and share in his resurrection.

 

The following notes are taken from Lauren Pristas, Collects of the Roman Missals and she follows the commentary of Sr. Mary Gonzaga Haessly, Rhetoric in the Sunday Collects of the Roman Missal.

 

Not only is the Palm Sunday collect the same in the 1962 and 1970/2002 missals but the collect has been unchanged since the eighth century.  This collect is in the 1962 missal the first of the Sunday collects since Lent II to have a laudatory qui clause. Notice also the unusual length of the collect.

 

The qui clause is elaborate: with a purpose clause ad imitándum humilitátis exemplum and two infinitive clauses governed by one verb: carnem súmere et crucem subíre fecísti.

 

Haessly says that this the only collect Tridentine Missal which the Savior is presented as our model.

 

Holy Monday

 

Da, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus, ut, qui ex nostra infirmitate deficimus, intercedente Unigeniti Filii tui passione, respiremus.

 

Pre 1970 Collect

 

Da, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus: ut, qui in tot adversis ex nostra infirmitate deficimus: intercedente unigeniti Filii tui passione respiremus.

 

Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that we who fail through infirmity in our many difficulties, may be relieved through the merits of the passion of Thine only-begotten Son.

 

Monsignor Knox’s translation:

 

Fainting, thou seest us, Almighty God; so many perils about us, and we so frail! Let but the Passion of thy only-begotten Son come between, to grant us breathing space: who with thee in the bond of the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth and is God, world without end.

 

Holy Tuesday

 

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, da nobis ita dominicae passionis sacramenta peragere, ut indulgentiam percipere mereamur.

 

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

 

Almighty everlasting God, grant us so to celebrate the mysteries of the Lord’s Passion, that we may merit to receive pardon.

 

This prayer was in the 1962MR on Tuesday of Holy Week. It was in the Hadrianum and Paduenese of the ancient Gregorian Sacramentary for the same day, when the Station is at Santa Prisca. So, it seems that today we have a prayer which The Redactors of theNovus Ordo didn’t fiddle around with. They left it on the same day as it had always been, and didn’t change or cut out any words.

 

The verb perago means, according to the dark blue bound Lewis & Short Dictionary, in its fundamental sense “to thrust through, pierce through, transfix”. It can then come to mean by logical extension “to drive about, harass, disturb, disquiet, agitate, annoy a person or thing”. However, in our context here, it is probably “to carry through, go through with, execute, finish, accomplish, complete. . . .

 

The verb percipiois “to take wholly, to seize entirely”. Often when you see a prepositional prefix per on verbs, you get an intensification of the concept of the verb. At the same time percipio is “to perceive, observe” and “to feel” and “to learn, know, conceive, comprehend, understand, perceive”. Blaise/Dumas gives us “recevoir (l’eucharistie)”. I think this gets us close to the meaning for our prayer.

 

Holy Wednesday

 

Deus, qui pro nobis Filium tuum crucis patibulum subire voluisti, ut inimici a nobis expelleres potestatem, concede nobis famulis tuis, ut resurrectionis gratiam consequamur.

 

©copyrighted by Michael Martin: Thesaurus Precum Latinarum

 

This ancient prayer from the first millennium is found in the 1970 Missal as the collect for Holy Wednesday, the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross (Sept 14), and votive Masses of the Holy Cross. In the 1962 Roman Missal it is used as the collect for Holy Wednesday and for votive Masses of the Holy Cross during Pascal time.

 

O GOD, who for our sake didst will Thy Son to undergo the torments of the Cross, that Thou mightest drive far from us the power of the enemy; grant unto us Thy servants that we may attain to the grace of His Resurrection. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Maundy Thursday: Lauds

 

Deus, quem diligere et amare iustitia est, ineffäbilis grätiæ tuæ in nobis dona multiplica, et, qui fecisti nos in morte Filii tui speräre quæ crédimus, fac nos, eödem resurgénte, pervenire quo téndimus. Qui tecum.

 

This collect was previously used in the Blessing of the Palms on Palm Sunday.

 

O God, whom it is right to cherish and love, multiply upon us the gifts of your ineffable grave and in as much as you have caused by the death of your Son to hope for what we believe, make us through his resurrection to attain the end we seek.

 

Maundy Thurday: Vespers

 

Deus, qui ad gloriam tuam et generis humani salutem Christum voluisti, summum aeternumque constituere sacerdotem, praesta, ut populus, quem sanguine suo tibi acquisvit, ex eius memorialis participatione, virtutem crucis ipsius capiat et resurrectionis.

 

O God, who for your glory and the salvation of the human race, desired that Christ be made an eternal high priest, grant that, the people he acquired by his blood, by partaking in his memorial, might receive the power of his cross and resurrection.

This collect is now used in the restored Mass of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest.

 

Good Friday: Lauds

 

Respice, quaesumus, Domine, super hanc familiam tuam, pro qua Dominus noster Jesus Christus non dubitavit minibus tradi nocentium, et cruces subire tormentum

 

This is taken from the Prayer over the People at the end of Good Friday Liturgy

 

Watch over, we beseech you, O Lord, this your family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed and to be delivered into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer the torment of the cross.

 

Holy Saturday: Lauds

 

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, cuius Unigenitus ad inferiora terrae descendit, unde et gloriosus ascendit, concede propitious, ut fideles tui, cum eo conseptuli in baptismate, ipso resurgente, ad vitam proficiant sempiternam. Qui tecum.

 

Almighty, eternal God, whose only-begotten Son descended to the realm of the dead, and from there he also ascended gloriously, graciously grant that your faithful, having been buried with him in Baptism, by his rising, may attain to everlasting life. who with. 

The Venerable Bede: Homily 11:3: Palm Sunday

 

The Venerable Bede: Homily 11:3: Palm Sunday

 

The Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who had come down to earth from to suffer for the salvation of the human race, as the hour of his passion was drawing near, willed to draw near the place of his passion. Even by this it was to become apparent that he would not be suffering unwillingly but of his own volition. He willed to come [riding] upon a donkey, and be called 'king' and praised by the crowd, so that everyone, guided again by this, might recognize that the Christ whom once upon a time the promise  of the prophecy had designated the one who would come in this manner. He willed to come five days before the Passover, we have learned from the gospel of John, that by this again he might show that he was the stainless lamb who would take away the sins of the world.

 

It was commanded that the paschal lamb, by whose immolation the people of Israel were freed from slavery in Egypt should be selected five days before the [feast of] the Passover, that is, on the tenth [day of the lunar] at sundown. This signified the one who was going to redeem us by his blood, since five days before the [feast of] Passover (that is, today), accompanied by the great joy and praise of people going ahead and following, he came into God's temple, and he was there teaching daily. At last, after five days, having observed up to that point the sacraments of the old Passover, he brought them to perfection, and he handed over the new sacraments to his disciples to be observed henceforth. [Then], having gone out to the Mount of Olives, he was seized by the Jews and crucified [the next] morning. He redeemed us from the sway of the devil on that very day when the ancient people of the Hebrews cast aside the yoke of slavery under the Egyptians by the immolation of a lamb.

 

Our Lord, the counterpart of the paschal lamb, five days before he entered upon his suffering, came to the place of his passion, to teach that he was the one concerning whom Isaiah had predicted, Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb he became silent before his shearers and opened not his mouth; and a little before that, But he was wounded for our iniquities, and by his stripes we were healed. But the hearts of the envious leaders preferred to persecute him in everything that he providentially carried out rather than to believe in him. The wretched men strove mightily to hand over to death the author of life rather than to be themselves brought to life by him. Let us, avoiding the blindness of these faithless ones, follow the example rather of those who faithfully praised our Lord, and let us investigate thoroughly his mystical path by our mystical interpretation, as is proper.  

Blessed Denis the Carthusian

 

Blessed Denis the Carthusian - March 12

Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

Excerpt by Blessed Denis (1402-1471):

Beatitude and the reward of the Saints in Heaven consist in the clear, immediate knowledge of the Divinity and the full happiness it brings. In this vision a person sees together the entire Holy Trinity with his sight full of glory because the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are one only essence, the one same God, the same sovereign good that the person enjoys.

Blessed Denis (1402-1471)

Now then, this beatific vision is ineffable in its joy and sweetness, and it completely fulfills, completes and satisfies all the desires of the Saints. For this reason, the Prophet speaking of God writes: “Only the sight of Thy Face will inebriate me with joy for Thou will make those at Thy right hand enjoy endless delights. I will be satiated for I will be able to contemplate Thy glory.”

In effect, the more a thing is superior in effect and excellence, the more we feel the happiness of clearly possessing it, above all if we love its presence and fervently desire it. Now, God is the infinite beauty. Or, better said: by His essence He is invariable beauty; moreover, He is beauty that never ends, most pure, brilliant, complete and agreeable; the original beauty whence comes all the beauty of the creatures – all infinitely far from His – emanating as from a fountain.

The more a thing is superior to us in beauty and excellence, the more we feel the joy of definitively possessing it.

What is more beautiful than the truth? God is truth itself. What is more pure than sanctity? God is sanctity itself. What is more luminous than wisdom? God is wisdom itself.

God is the first truth that subsists of itself, the eternal sanctity that never ends and the fountain of wisdom that cannot be measured or dimmed in its effusion. He is, therefore, truly, essentially and incomparably beautiful and most amiable in Himself.

We also say that the Saints in the Celestial Kingdom love God most ardently. This is why they contemplate Him, as in a delirium of inexpressible joy, all the greater since they no longer desire anything else.

It is certain that when we see goodness, perfection and sweetness in a person, we appreciate him more. Now, God is the sovereign goodness, the immense sweetness and the complete perfection; He is all treasures, all richness and all delights joined together in an infinite degree.

Then, what delight in possessing this infinite joy, this divine goodness, enjoying them through the clear knowledge of the beatific vision! Doubtless this is the sweetest and most joyous banquet! It is the sacred banquet where the Divinity and the Eternal Trinity become food for men!

Alcuin Reid: SPIRITUAL CONFERENCES ON THE MONASTIC OFFICE

 

Alcuin Reid: SPIRITUAL CONFERENCES ON THE MONASTIC OFFICE

GIVEN AT THE AD FONTES SUMMER SCHOOL

IN KRAŽIAI, LITHUANIA, 2013 & 2014

 

 After Friday Vespers:

 

Dirigatur, Domine, oratio mea; sicut incensum in conspectu tuo. This short verse and response that occur before the Magnificat in ferial vespers have a lot to teach us.

 

I come to the Divine Office with “my prayer” – perhaps with my heart full of joy at the mercy of God I have experienced and the blessings I have been given. Perhaps, more often, I arrive with a heart that is tired because of so many things – concerns and worries, the burdens of each day and even of the days ahead. I may even come with a heart that is wounded, or scarred by sin.

 

In praying the Divine Office all and any of these realities can be transformed into prayer. I can ask the Lord to take the prayers of my heart and make them like incense in his sight: a sweet-smelling offering that rises heavenward.

 

This is what the solemn celebration of Lauds and Vespers so beautifully celebrates in its use of incense.

But it celebrates something more. The incense is used ritually. It is used hierarchically. It is used ecclesiastically.  

 

And so too, our prayers which we ‘send up to heaven’ with the incense are no longer ours. They become the Church’s prayer. The Church gives them wings, as it were. 

 

Let us not underestimate this. The Divine Office forms a large part of the Church’s Sacred Liturgy – even if we must pray it by ourselves. In taking my place in celebrating it I, and my prayers, are no longer simply my own. They become part of the Church’s prayer. And I place myself at the service of the Church by giving voice to her prayers also.

 

This commercium, this exchange, is integral to praying the Sacred Liturgy and is particularly poignant in the Divine Office. From it we each have much to gain.

FEAST OF SAINT JOSEPH, HUSBAND OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY: Instruction of St. Augustine

 

FEAST OF SAINT JOSEPH, HUSBAND OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY:

Instruction of St. Augustine

 

The Carmelite nun Sister Clare Mary was greatly 

responsible for Pope Clement X raising the rank of St. 

Joseph's feast 19 March to that of a double of the second 

class and providing a revised office for that feast.

It was not misleading of the angel to say to Joseph: Do not be afraid to take thy wife Mary to thyself. Although she had not known his bed and never would, Joseph could still call her his wife, because at her betrothal she had pledged herself to be his wife. The term had not become obsolete or deceptive, merely there had been no carnal union in the past and there would be none in the future. She was more of a joy to her husband as a virgin, and the relationship was a more sacred and wonderful thing. As her Fruit came to her without her husband's help, their partnership did not extend to the realm of childbearing, but they were partners all the same because they had pledged their word to each other.

 

Because this marriage resting on plighted troth was a true marriage, they were deservedly called Christ's parents. It was not simply that Mary was called his mother but that Joseph was called his father, just as he was called the husband of Christ's mother. He was both these things spiritually, not physically. But whether we envisage Joseph as Christ's father spiritually or Mary as his mother both spiritually and physically, we have to admit that both of them were the parents of the lowly element in him, not of the exalted: they were the parents of his weak human nature, not of his divinity and his strength. The gospel is not misrepresenting the situation when it says: His mother said to him, My Son, why hast thou treated us so? Think, what anguish of mind thy father and I have endured, searching for thee. As he wanted to make it clear that they were not his only parents, and that he also had a Father who had begotten him without his mother's aid, he answered: What reason had you to search for me? Could you not tell that I must needs be in the place which belongs to my Father? Fearing that this question might give a false impression, and that people might think Christ meant that Mary and Joseph were not his parents at all, the evangelist goes on to say: These words which he spoke to them were beyond their understanding; but he went down with them on their journey to Nazareth, and lived there in subjection to them. l Thus, if we ask who he was subject to, the answer is: his parents. And if we ask who was subject to his parents, the answer is: that same Jesus Christ, who though his nature is, from the first, divine, yet did not see, in the rank of Godhead, a prize to be coveted. If, then, he lived in subjection to Mary and Joseph, who were far below the rank of Godhead, it must have been because he dispossessed himself, and took the nature of a slave, which was his parents' nature. But since when Mary bore him she was not reaping a harvest sown by Joseph, it is clear that they could not both have been the parents of his servile nature unless they actually were husband and wife, even though they had had no carnal knowledge of each other.

 

It was right, too, that when the lists of Christ's ancestors came to be drawn up, the series of generations should be made to center on Joseph, as in fact it was. Otherwise, an injustice would have been done to the male partner in the marriage, the more prominent of the two. This did not involve tampering with the truth. Joseph too, as well as Mary, belonged to the line which the prophets had said would produce the Christ—they were both of the line of David.