Talks on the Sacramentals, by Msgr Arthur Tonne - Blessed Cords

"They drew up Jeremias with the cords, and brought him forth out of the dungeon." Jeremias. 38:13.

Jeremias was one of the great prophets of the Old Testament. God had made known to him many of the misfortunes that were to come upon the Jewish people. The prophet was pathetic in his appeal to the chosen people to be true to their God. He saw the holy city of Jerusalem overrun with vice which he knew would ruin his country. Again and again he warned his fellow citizens of the calamities that would come upon them. His zeal displeased the wicked and angered those in power. He saw the gathering storm of persecution. But, undaunted, he continued to preach in even more animated and vigorous terms.

The wicked princes could stand him no longer. They asked King Sedecias for permission to throw the prophet into a cistern of deep mud. Though he admired Jeremias, the king weakly yielded. The preacher was thrown into a cistern where he surely would have stifled to death in a short time, had not an officer of the king by the name of Abdemelech begged the king to free the prophet. How they drew him out is interesting. Let Scripture tell it:

"So Abdemelech taking the men with him, went into the king's house that was under the storehouse: and he took from thence old rags, and old rotten things, and he let them down by cords to Jeremias into the dungeon.

"And Abdemelech said to Jeremias: Put these old rags and these rent and rotten things under thy arms, and upon the cords: and Jeremias did so.

"And they drew up Jeremias with the cords, and brought him forth out of the dungeon." Jeremias, 38:11-13.

Who would have thought that old rags and rotten things and cords could be the means of saving the life of a great man of God? Yet, by means of those material things the prophet was drawn forth from the dungeon of death.

In a similar but more spiritual way the Church uses cords to help save the souls of her children. A cord may seem a trifling, insignificant thing, but if it can save a prophet of God from physical death, it can also save a child of God from spiritual death. Blessed cords are sacramentals. They are cinctures or ropes worn by the members of certain pious associations in honor of some saint, to keep in mind some special grace or favor which they hope to obtain through that saint's intercession. Four such cinctures have been approved and indulgenced by Mother Church.

1. One is the black leathern belt of the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Consolation, or of the Black Belt of St. Monica, St. Augustine, and St. Nicholas of Tolentino. According to tradition St. Monica in a vision received a black leathern belt from the Blessed Virgin, who assured the holy widow that she would take under her special protection all those who wore it in her honor. St. Ambrose girded St. Augustine with it at the latter's Baptism. After the canonization of St. Nicholas it came into general use among the faithful. All confraternities of the black leather belt must be affiliated with the archconfraternity at Bologna in order to share its privileges and indulgences. The members are obliged to wear this black leather belt, to recite daily thirteen Our Fathers and Hail Marys, and the Salve Regina. They must fast on the vigil of the feast of St. Augustine, August 2. The general of the Augustinians has the faculties for this archconfraternity.

2. The Archconfraternity of the Cord of St. Francis of Assisi is perhaps the most wide-spread and well-known. After his conversion the Little Poor Man of Assisi girded himself with a rough cord over a rough habit in memory of the cords with which Christ had been bound during His passion. Later a white cord with three knots came to form a part of the Franciscan habit. As such, it is worn by more than four million members of the three orders of St. Francis.

Besides the ordinary requirements for the gaining of all plenary and partial indulgences, the wearing of the cord and enrollment in the archconfraternity are the only conditions imposed on members. Membership in one does not require membership in the Third Order.

3. Regarding the Archconfraternity of the Cord of St. Joseph we recall the miraculous cure of an Augustinian nun at Antwerp in 1657 through the wearing of a cord in honor of St. Joseph. This gave rise to the pious practice of wearing it to obtain the grace of purity through his intercession. Members must wear a cord with seven knots, and are urged to recite seven times daily the Glory Be. They must be affiliated with the church of San Rocco at Rome.

4. The Confraternity of the Cord of St. Thomas took its start from the incident in his life when the Angelic Doctor resisted a temptation to impurity. As a reward angels girded him with a cord that protected him against all such temptations in the future. To obtain a similar grace of purity many wear the cord of St. Thomas. Members must have their names enrolled, must wear a cord with fifteen knots and recite daily fifteen Hail Marys in honor of St. Thomas.

When any of these four types of religious cords is blessed it becomes a helpful sacramental, helping the wearer to rise from the dungeon of despair and doubt and indifference to new graces and spiritual blessings.

A cord was the means of saving the prophet Jeremias. Every day cords and ropes are used to save people who are drowning, people in burning buildings, people in dangerous situations.

Likewise, religious cords are the means of helping millions to remember the thrilling example of the saint they honor. By that remembrance they are helped spiritually.

One might say, for example, that the Franciscan cord encircles the globe, in the sense that the members of the three orders and the works and missions of all three orders encircle the world. May that cord help pull the world up closer to God. Amen.