The musings and meandering thoughts of a crotchety old man as he observes life in the world and in a small, rural town in South East Nebraska. I hope to help people get to Heaven by sharing prayers, meditations, the lives of the Saints, and news of Church happenings. My Pledge: Nulla dies sine linea ~ Not a day without a line.
Pope to heretics: "We are already one!" Pope to the SSPX: this is a "schismatic act."
Ecône Diary: Tuesday, 30th June, Commemoration of St Paul
Swiss wine may not be the first accompaniment one would turn to for a roast beef garni but the southern Canton of the Valais is the most notable wine region in the country. The deep Rhône Valley is sheltered by the surrounding Alps, creating one of Switzerland’s driest and sunniest climates – ideal for viticulture. The Valais merlot I enjoyed with my dinner on Monday evening had all the mellowness, and slight jamminess of summer red fruits, that one would look for in a red wine on a balmy evening. Unfortunately, Brazil were playing Japan in the football World Cup meanwhile and, seeing immodestly clad supporters of the former team dancing in the street after their team scored a goal (how could there be so many Brazilians in this Swiss valley?), this Catholic had the familiar experience of feeling like living in a completely different world to the secular crowds. Truly two cities.
Next morning began early for my train journey to the Ecône seminary. This feast day of the Commemoration of St Paul, the newly-ordained Society priests were each offering their first masses in the meadow tent, crypt and seminary church, respectively. I was able to attend the first mass of Fr Bunge in the church as the morning sun filled the spectacular valley.
Despite the early hour, the church was full to capacity and many other faithful, priests and seminarians were to be found on the seminary site. Fr Pagliarani, Superior General of the SSPX, gave the sermon in Italian.
Following Holy Mass, I went to visit the crypt of the church where the first Mass of Fr Gandia was to be offered. Here was the tomb of the founder of the Society, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre – a marble sarcophagus and a recumbent stone effigy in full episcopal garb.
The question presented itself: will this final resting place of the Archbishop, undoubtedly the central figure of the traditionalist “movement” in the postconciliar decades, become a future place of pilgrimage for Catholics from across the world?
For those Catholics who attend the Traditional Roman Rite offered by diocesan parishes or Ecclesia Dei communities, a strange tension is presented in the person of Archbishop Lefebvre. It is easy to condemn him as a schismatic, and many do, principally for what he did exactly thirty-eight years ago today and what the Society intends to repeat tomorrow. However, the uncomfortable fact that cannot be dismissed is that very few non-sedevacantist traditional Masses would be celebrated today were it not for this man.
The origins of the FSSP in splitting from the SSPX as a result of the 1988 consecrations are well known. There is also the Institute of the Good Shepherd, established by another breakaway group of Society priests in 2006. But the significance of both these ancestrally ‘Lefebvrist; congregations is superseded by the wider championing of the traditional liturgy that Archbishop Lefebvre represented and which led to a gradual series of concessions from Rome, culminating in the 2007 motu proprio of Benedict XVI.
Some Catholics point to other groups of priests who kept the Traditional Roman Rite alive like those English priests who were granted permission via the ‘Agatha Christie’ indult by Paul VI in 1971. Such priests, however, were always restricted in number, as they depended on the ordinary’s willingness to give permission in each case. As Pope Francis made clear, the intent of the liturgical reform was to replace the Traditional Roman Rite with the Novus Ordo Missae (already perfectly clear from the behaviour of the postconciliar hierarchy). Any concessions granted were intended, at least by the revolutionaries, to anaesthetise the withering away process.
In the revolutionary turmoil of the 1970s, the survival of the traditional Mass throughout the world was thus due to the actions of small groups of laity and priests erecting non-canonical chapels, without reference to their ordinaries, and continuing to practice the pre-Vatican II liturgy and Catholic life as peacefully as they could. More often than not, these small traditionalist chapels began to attach themselves to the growing Society of St Pius X.
As John Lane has pointed out, Catholics who today condemn Archbishop Lefebvre and the Society may be wont to argue that Providence would have arranged matters differently to ensure the survival of Tradition had everyone been holy and obedient, but the fact is this path of “disobedience” was the route by which the traditional mass was saved and Catholics were able to hold fast to that which they had received. To subsequently condemn those Catholics who took such measures, often at significant personal cost, and nearly always in the face of the hostility of their hierarchy, while simultaneously benefitting from the fruits of their stand, is to implicitly take the side of the Modernist persecutors and would represent a particularly egregious hypocrisy.
Sooner or later, all Catholics who today attend and love the traditional mass must ask: What was the right reaction to the de facto prohibition of this Mass in the 1970s? Perhaps this question would be one that comes to mind at the tomb of Archbishop Lefebvre.
Later in the day the news of Pope Leo’s warning letter to the Society, that the consecrations tomorrow will constitute ‘a schismatic act’, ‘tear the seamless garment of Christ’ and be ‘a sin of extreme gravity’ did not seem to disturb the serene atmosphere here at Ecône. Perhaps there is a sense that something like this was inevitable. Of course, Leo declined to meet with the Society in the preceding months and has left his response to the last minute. Older traditional Catholics will recall that Leo’s argument is essentially the same as that of Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI since the beginning of this agony of the Church – faithful Catholics must “obey” but manifest heretics like the German bishops remain in good standing with the Pope.
The contrast between Leo’s statement declaring himself “already one” with the schismatic-heretical pseudo-archbishop of Canterbury during a homily closing the 2026 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January and today’s threatened excommunication (which effectively declares ‘we do not have unity with’) the SSPX couldn’t be clearer, if only Catholics care to remember.
How long the glaring irony of the modern Church’s subjectivist “medicine of mercy” conciliation towards false religions, Protestant sects and Eastern schismatic churches (not to mention Liberal and revolutionary secular groups) – while resorting to preconciliar objectivity and discipline solely towards faithful traditional Catholics (inside and outside the SSPX) – can continue before something gives, remains to be seen.
John the Baptist has pointed out the Lamb, Peter has firmly fixed His throne, Paul has prepared the Bride; this their joint work, admirable in its unity, at once suggests the reason for their feasts occurring almost simultaneously on the cycle. The alliance being now secured, all three fall into shade; while the Bride herself, raised up by them to such lofty heights, appears alone before us, holding in her hands the sacred cup of the nuptial-feast.
This gives the key of today’s solemnity; revealing how its illumining the heavens of the Holy Liturgy, at this particular season, is replete with mystery. The Church, it is true, has already made known to the sons of the New Covenant, and in a much more solemn manner, the price of the Blood that redeemed them, its nutritive strength, and the adoring homage which is its due. Yes; on Good Friday, earth and heaven beheld all sin drowned in the saving stream, whose eternal floodgates at last gave way, beneath the combined effort of man’s violence and of the love of the divine Heart. The festival of Corpus Christi witnessed our prostrate worship before the altars whereon is perpetuated the Sacrifice of Calvary, and where the outpouring of the Precious Blood affords drink to the humblest little ones, as well as to the mightiest potentates of earth, lowly bowed in adoration before it. How is it, then, that Holy Church is now inviting all Christians to hail, in a particular manner, the stream of life ever gushing from the sacred fount? What else can this mean, but that the preceding solemnities have by no means exhausted the mystery? The peace which the Blood has made to reign in the high places as well as in the low; the impetus of its wave bearing back the sons of Adam from the yawning gulf, purified, renewed, and dazzling white in the radiance of their heavenly apparel; the Sacred Table outspread before them, on the waters’ brink, and the Chalice brimful of inebriation; all this preparation and display would be objectless, if man were not brought to see therein the wooings of a Love that could never endure its advances to be outdone by the pretensions of any other. Therefore, the Blood of Jesus is set before our eyes, at this moment, as the Blood of the Testament; the pledge of the alliance proposed to us by God; (Exodus 24:8, Hebrews 9:20) the dower stipulated upon by Eternal Wisdom for this divine union to which he is inviting all men, and whereof the consummation in our soul is being urged forward with such vehemence by the Holy Ghost. This is why the present festival, fixed as it is upon a day that must necessarily be one of the Sundays after Pentecost, does not interrupt, in any way, the teaching which these Sundays are particularly meant to convey, but tends rather to confirm it.
“Having therefore, Brethren, a confidence in the entering into the Holies by the Blood of Christ,” says the Apostle, (Hebrews 13:20) “a new and living way which he hath dedicated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, let us draw near with a pure heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with clean water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he is faithful that hath promised. Let us consider one another to provoke unto charity and to good works. (Hebrews 10:19-24) And may the God of peace who brought again from the dead the great pastor of the sheep, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Blood of the everlasting Testament, fit you in all goodness, that you may do his will: doing in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom is glory for ever and ever. Amen!”
Nor must we omit to mention here, that this feast is a monument of one of the most brilliant victories of Holy Church, in our own age. Pius IX had been driven from Rome in 1848, by the triumphant revolution; but the following year, just about this very season, his power was re-established. Under the ægis of the Apostles on June 28th and the two following days, the eldest daughter of the Church, faithful to her past glories, swept the ramparts of the Eternal City; and on July 2nd, Mary’s festival, the victory was completed. Not long after this, a twofold decree notified to the City and to the world the Pontiff’s gratitude and the way in which he intended to perpetuate, in the sacred Liturgy, the memory of these events. On August 10th, from Gaeta itself, the place of his exile in the evil day, Pius IX, before returning to re-assume the government of his States, addressing himself to the invisible Head of the Church, confided her in a special manner to His divine care, by the institution of this day’s Festival; reminding him that it was for His Church that He vouchsafed to shed all His Precious Blood. Then, when the Pontiff re-entered his Capital, turning to Mary, just as Pius V and Pius VII had done under other circumstances, he, the Vicar of Christ, solemnly attributed the honor of the recent victory to Her who is ever the “Help of Christians,” for on the Feast of Her Visitation it had been gained; and he now decreed that this said Feast of July 2nd should be raised from the rite of double-major to that of second class throughout the whole world. This was but a prelude to the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which the immortal Pontiff had already in project, whereby the crushing of the serpent’s head would be completed.
MASS
The Church, gathered by the Apostles from the midst of all the nations under heaven, advances toward the Altar of the spouse who hath redeemed her in his Blood, and in the Introit hails his Merciful Love. She, henceforth, is the Kingdom of God, the depository of Truth.
Thou hast redeemed us, O Lord, in thy Blood, out of every tribe and tongue, and people and nation, and hast made us to our God a kingdom.
Ps. The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever: I will show forth thy truth with my mouth to generation and generation. ℣. Glory, etc. Thou hast.
The Blood of the Man-God being the pledge of peace between heaven and earth, the object of profoundest worship, yea, itself the very center of the whole Liturgy, and our assured protection against all the evils of this present life, deposits, even now, in the souls and bodies of those whom it has ransomed, the germ of eternal happiness. The Church, therefore, in her Collect, begs of the Father, who has given us His Only-Begotten Son, that this divine germ may not remain sterile within us, but may come to full development in heaven.
COLLECT
Almighty and everlasting God, who hast appointed thy Only-Begotten Son to be the Redeemer of the world, and hast been pleased to be appeased by his Blood: grant us, we beseech thee, so to venerate with solemn worship the price of our salvation, and to be on earth so defended by its power from the evils of this present life, that we may rejoice in its perpetual fruit in heaven. Through the same Lord, etc.
A commemoration is here made of the Sunday, which cedes to the Feast of the Precious Blood the first honors of this day.
Brethren, Christ, being come an High Priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hand, that is, not of this creation: Neither by the blood of goats, or of calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the holies, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God? And therefore, he is the mediator of the New Testament: that by means of his death, for the redemption of those transgressions, which were under the former testament, they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance; in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Epistle that has just been read to us is the confirmation of what we were saying above, as regards the special character of this festival. It was by his own Blood that the Son of God entered into heaven; this divine Blood continues to be the means whereby we also may be introduced into the eternal alliance. Thus, the Old Covenant founded, as it was, on the observance of the precepts of Sinai, had likewise by blood consecrated the people and the law, the tabernacle and the vessels it was to contain; but the whole was bug a figure. “Now,” says Saint Ambrose, “it behooves us to tend to Truth. Here below, there is the shadow; here below, there is the image; up yonder, there is the Truth. In the law was but the shadow; the image is to be found in the Gospel; the Truth is in heaven. Formerly a lamb was immolated; now Christ is sacrificed, but he is so only under the signs of the mysteries, whereas in heaven it is without veil. There alone, consequently, is full perfection, unto which our thoughts should cleave, because all perfection is in Truth without image and without shadow.” (Ambrose De Offic. 1:48) Yea! there alone is rest: thither, even in this world, do the sons of God tend; without indeed attaining fully thereunto, they get nearer and nearer, day by day; for there alone is to be found that peace which forms saints.
“O Lord God,” cries out in his turn another illustrious Doctor, the great Saint Augustine, “give us this peace, the peace of repose, the peace of the seventh day, of that Sabbath whose sun never sets. Yea! verily the whole order of nature and of grace is very beautiful unto thy servitors, and goodly are the realities they cover; but these images, these successive forms, bide only awhile, and their evolution ended, they pass away.” The days thou didst fill with thy creations are composed of morning and of evening, the seventh alone excepted, for it declineth not, because thou hast forever sanctified it, in thine own rest. Now what is this rest, save that which thou takest in us, when we ourselves repose in thee, in the fruitful peace which crowns the series of thy graces in us? O sacred rest, more productive than labor! the perfect alone know thee, they who suffer the divine Hand to accomplish within them the work of the six days.” (Confessions xiii 35-37; de Genesi ad litt. iv 13-17; et alibi passim)
And, the Apostle goes on to say, interpreting, by means of other parts of Scripture, his own words, just read to us by holy Church, and therefore today if ye shall hear his voice,harden not your hearts. (Hebrews 3:7-8,Psalm 94:8) The Blood Divine hath rendered us participators of Christ: it is our part not to squander, as though it were worthless, this immense treasure, this initial incorporation which unites us to Christ, the divine Head; but let us abandon ourselves, without fear and without reserve, to the energy of this precious leaven whose property it is to transform our whole being into him. Let us be afraid lest we fall short of the promise referred to in our today’s Epistle, that promise of our entering into God’s Rest, as Saint Paul himself tells us. (Hebrews 3, 4) It regards all believers, he says, and this divine Sabbath is for the whole people of the Lord. Therefore, to enter therein, let us make haste; let us not be like those Jews whose incredulity excluded them forever from the Promised Land.
The Gradual brings us back to the great testimony of the love of the Son of God, confided to the Holy Ghost, together with the Blood and Water of the Mysteries; a testimony which is closely linked here below with that which is rendered by the Holy Trinity in heaven. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, sings the Verse. What is this, but to say, once again, that we must absolutely yield to these reiterated invitations of love? None may excuse himself, by arguing either ignorance, or want of vocation to a way more elevated than that wherein tepidity is dragging him. Let us hearken to the Apostle addressing himself to all, in this same Epistle to the Hebrews: “Yea, verily; great and ineffable are these things. But if you have become little able to understand them, it is your own fault; for whereas for the time you ought to be masters; you have need to be taught again what are the first elements of the words of God: and you are become such as have need of milk, though your age would require the solid meat of the perfect. Wherefore, as far as concerns us in our instructions to you, leaving the word of the elementary teaching of Christ, let us go on to things more perfect, not laying again the foundation of penance from dead works, and of faith towards God. Have you not been illuminated? have you not tasted also the heavenly gift? have you not been made partakers of the Holy Ghost? What showers of graces, at every moment, water the earth of your soul! it is time that it bring in a return to God who tills it. Ye have delayed long enough: be now, at last, of the number of those who by patience and faith shall inherit the promises, casting your hope like an anchor sure and firm, and which entereth in within the veil, where the forerunner Jesus is entered for us, that is, to draw us in thither after Him.” (Hebrews 5:11-14; 6:1-4,19-20 passim.)
This is He that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ: not by water only, but by water and blood.
℣. There are three that give testimony in heaven; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that give testimony on earth; the Spirit, the water, and the blood: and these three are one.
Alleluia, alleluia.
℣. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Sequel of the holy Gospel according to John 19:30-35
At that time, when Jesus had taken the vinegar, he said: It is consummated. And bowing his head, he gave up the ghost. Then the Jews, (because it was the parasceve,) that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath day, (for that was a great sabbath day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. The soldiers therefore came; and they broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with him. But after they were come to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water. And he that saw it, hath given testimony, and his testimony is true. And he knoweth that he saith true; that you also may believe.
On that stupendous Day, Good Friday, we heard for the first time this passage from the Beloved Disciple. The Church, as she stood mourning at the foot of the Cross whereon her Lord had just died, was all tears and lamentation. Today, however, she is thrilling with other sentiments, and the very sane narration that then provoked her bitter tears, now makes her burst out into anthems of gladness and songs of triumph. If we would know the reason of this, let us turn to those who are authorized by her to interpret to us the burden of her thoughts this day. They will tell us that the new Eve is celebrating her birth from out the side of her sleeping Spouse; (Augustine, Homilies on Gospel of John) that from the solemn moment when the new Adam permitted the soldier’s lance to open his Heart, we became, in very deed, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. (Genesis 2:23) Be not then surprised, if holy Church sees naught but love and life in the Blood which is gushing forth.
And thou, O soul, long rebellious to the secret touches of choicest graces, be not disconsolate; say not: “Love is no more for me!” How far away soever the old enemy may, by wretched wiles, have dragged thee, is it not still true that to ever winding way, yea, alas! perhaps even to every pitfall, the streamlets of this Sacred Fount have followed thee? Thinkest thou, perhaps, that thy long and tortuous wanderings from the merciful course of these ever-pursuant waters may have weakened their power? Do but try: do but, first of all, bathe in their cleansing wave; do but quaff long draughts from this stream of life; then, O weary soul, arming thee with faith, be strong, and mount once more the course of the divine torrent. For, as in order to reach thee, it never once was separated from its fountain head, so likewise be certain that by so doing, thou needs must reach the very Source Itself. Believe me, this is the whole secret of the Bride, namely, that whence soever she may come, she has no other course to pursue than this, if she would fain hear the answer to that yearning request expressed in the Sacred Canticle: Show me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou liest in the mid-day! (Song of Solomon 1:6) So much so indeed, that by re-ascending the sacred Stream, not only is she sure of reaching the Divine Heart, but moreover she is ceaselessly renewing, in its waters, that pure beauty which makes her become, in the eyes of the Spouse, an object of delight and of glory to him. (Ephesians 5:27) For thy part, carefully gather up today the testimony of the Disciple of love; and congratulating Jesus, with the Church, his Bride and thy Mother, on the brilliancy of her empurpled robe, (Prima Ant. in Vespers) take good heed likewise to conclude with St. John: Let us then love God, since he hath first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
The Church, while presenting her gifts for the sacrifice, sings how that Chalice which she is offering to the benediction of her sons, the priests, becomes by virtue of the sacred words, the inexhaustible source whence the Blood of her Lord flows out upon the whole world.
The chalice of benediction which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord?
The Secret begs for the full effect of the divine alliance, of which the Lord’s Blood is both the means and the pledge; since its effusion, continually renewed in the Sacred Mysteries, has hushed the cry of vengeance that the blood of Abel had sent up from earth to Heaven.
SECRET
By these divine mysteries, we beseech thee that we may approach to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Testament; and that upon thy Altars, O Lord of Hosts, we may renew the sprinkling of that Blood, speaking better than that of Abel. Through the same, etc.
A Commemoration of the Sunday is then made: and the Priest entones the triumphant Preface of the Cross, for thereon was the ineffable union concluded in the divine Blood.
PREFACE
It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, that we should always, and in all places, give thanks to thee, O holy Lord, Father Almighty, eternal God. Who hast appointed that the salvation of mankind should be wrought on the wood of the Cross; that from whence death came, thence life might arise; and that he who overcame by the tree, might also by the Tree be overcome; through Christ our Lord; by whom the Angels praise thy Majesty, the Dominations adore it, the Powers tremble before it; the Heavens and the heavenly virtues, and the blessed Seraphim, with common jubilee glorify it. Together with whom, we beseech thee that we may be admitted to join our humble voices, saying: Holy, Holy, Holy, etc.
The Communion Antiphon hails the merciful love of which our Lord gave proof by his coming, not suffering himself to be turned aside from his divine projects by the accumulation of crimes which he must destroy in his own Blood, in order to purify the Bride. Thanks to the adorable mystery of faith operating in the secret of hearts, when he shall come again visibly, nothing will remain of this sad past but a memory of victory.
Christ was offered once to exhaust the sins of many; the second time he shall appear without sin to them that expect him, unto salvation.
Inebriated with gladness at the Savior’s fountains, his sacred Wounds, let us pray that the Precious Blood now empurpling our lips may remain unto eternity, the living Source whence we may ever draw beatitude and life.
POSTCOMMUNION
Having been admitted to the holy Table, O Lord, we have drawn waters in joy from the fountains of our Savior: may his Blood, we beseech thee, become within us a fountain of water springing up to Eternal Life. Who liveth and reigneth, etc.
Then is made a Commemoration of the Sunday, the Gospel of which is likewise read instead of that of Saint John, at the end of Mass.
VESPERS
Yesterday, at the opening of the feast, the Church sang ‘Who is this that cometh from Bosra, in Edom, with his robe so richly dyed? Comely is he in his vesture! ‘It is I,’ replied he, ‘I whose word is full of justice, I who am a defender, to save.’ He that spoke thus was clad in a garment dyed with blood, and the name given unto him is the Word of God. ‘Wherefore, then,’ continued the Church, ‘is thy robe all bespotted, and thy garments like to those who tread in the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone, and among men none was there to lend aid.’
Thus did he appear, by the virtue of his divine Blood, to whom the psalmist exclaimed: ‘Arise in thy glory and beauty, march forward unto victory!’ (Psalm 44) After this first sublime dialogue concerning the Spouse, another, this morning, pointed out to us the bride drawing for herself from this precious Blood that superhuman loveliness which beseems the nuptial banquet of the Lamb. The Lauds antiphons brought upon the scene the members of holy Church, especially her martyrs in whom her radiant beauty glitters most of all: ‘These who are clad in white robes, who are they, and whence come they? These are they stand before the throne of God, ministering to him day and night. They have conquered the dragon by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of the Testament. Blessed are they who have washed their robes in the Blood of the Lamb!’
This evening the Church returns to her Lord, repeating at her Second Vespers the same antiphons as at her first.
ANT. Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra, this beautiful one in his robe?
Ps. Dixit Dominus.
ANT. I that speak justice and am a defender to save.
Ps. Confitebor tibi Domine.
ANT He was clothed in a robe sprinkled with blood, and his name is called the Word of God.
Ps. Beatus vir.
ANT. Why then is thy apparel red, and thy garments to them that tread the winepress?
Ps. Laudate pueri.
ANT. I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the Gentiles there is not a man with me.
PSALM 147
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem: praise thy God, O Sion.
Because he hath strengthened the bolts of thy gates, he hath blessed thy children within thee.
Who hath placed peace in thy borders: and filleth thee with the fat of corn.
Who sendeth forth his speech to the earth: his word runneth swiftly.
Who giveth snow like wool: scattereth mists like ashes.
He sendeth his crystal-like morsels: who shall stand before the face of his cold?
He shall send out his word, and shall melt them: his wind shall blow, and the waters shall run.
Who declareth his word to Jacob: his justices and his judgments to Israel.
He hath not done in like manner to every nation: and his judgments he hath not made manifest to them.
ANT. I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the Gentiles there is not a man with me.
CAPITULUM (Hebrews ix)
Brethren, Christ, being come to a High Priest of the good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, neither by the blood of goats nor of calves, but by his own Blood, entered once into the Holies, having obtained eternal redemption.
HYMN
Let the streets re-echo with festive song, let the brow of every citizen beam gladsomeness; let young and old file along, in order due, bearing lighted torches.
Being mindful of that Blood which Christ, upon the cruel tree, did dying shed for many a thousand wounds, let us at least, the while, pour forth our mingling tears.
Grave loss befell the human race, by the old Adam’s sin. The new Adam’s sinlessness and tender love have life restored to all.
If the eternal Father heard on high the strong cry of his expiring Son, far more is he appeased by this dear Blood and is thereby enforced to grant us pardon.
Whosoever in this Blood his robe doth wash, is wholly freed from stain, and roseate beauty gains, whereby he is made like unto angels well-pleasing to the King.
Henceforth, let none inconstant from the straight path withdraw but let the furthest goal be fairly touched. May God, who aideth them that run the race, bestow the noble prize.
Be though propitious to us, O almighty Father, that those whom thou didst purchase by the Blood of thine only-begotten Son, and whom thou dost re-create in the Paraclete Spirit, thou mayest one day transfer unto the heavenly heights.
Amen.
℣. We beseech thee, therefore, help thy servants.
℟. Whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious Blood.
Though this feast passes away like all else here below, the object it celebrates remains, and is the treasure of the world. Let, then, this feast before each one of us, as it indeed is for the Church herself, a monument of heaven’s sublimest favors. Each year, as it recurs in the cycle, may our hearts be found bearing new fruits of love, that have budded forth, watered by the fructifying dew of the precious Blood.
ANTIPHON OF THE MAGNIFICAT
Ye shall observe this day for a memorial, and ye shall keep it holy unto the Lord, in your generations, with an everlasting worship.
COLLECT
Almighty and eternal God, who has appointed thy only-begotten Son to be the Redeemer of the world, and hast been pleased to be appeased by His Blood: grant us, we beseech thee, so to venerated with solemn worship the price of our salvation, and to be on earth so defended by its power from the evils of this present life, that we may rejoice in its perpetual fruit in heaven. Through the same Lord, etc.
We here add the Matins hymn of the feast, which is redolent of grace and tenderness.
HYMN
The just ire of the Creator did erst the guilty world submerge beneath the vengeful rain of waters, Noah, in the Ark sequestered safe the while. But yet more wondrous still the violence of love that hath the world in Blood now laved.
The happy world, watered by such salubrious rain, now buds forth fair flowers, where erst sprang naught but thorns: yea, now hath wormwood nectar’s savory sweetness e’en assumed.
The cruel serpent hath suddenly laid aside his poison dire, and vanished is the wild ferocity of beasts: such the victory of the wounded Lamb all meek!
O depth inscrutable of heavenly wisdom! O benignant tenderness of love Thus every heart aloud proclaims: The slave was worthy of death, and the King, in goodness infinite, did undergo the punishment.
When by his sin we provoke the wrath of the judge divine, then by the pleading of this eloquent Blood may we be protected.
Then may the throng of threatened evils pass from us away!
Let the ransomed world praise thee, bringing her grateful gifts, O thou, the leader and loving author of eternal salvation, who, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost, dost possess the blessed kingdom. Amen.
HE was of the family of the counts palatine of Champagne, and son of count Arnoul. He was born at Provins in Brie in 1017, and was called Theobald from the most virtuous archbishop of Vienne, who was his uncle. In his youth he preserved his heart free from the corruption of the world amidst its vanities; and the more pains others took to make him conceive a relish for them, the more diligent he was in fencing his heart against their dangers, the more perfectly he discovered their emptiness and secret poison. In reading the lives of the fathers of the desert he was much affected by the admirable examples of penance, self-denial, holy contemplation, and Christian perfection, which were set before his eyes as it were in a glass, and he earnestly desired to imitate them. The lives of St. John the Baptist, of St. Paul the hermit, St. Antony, and St. Arsenius in their wildernesses, charmed him, and he sighed after the like sweet retirement, in which he might without interruption converse with God by prayer and contemplation He often resorted to an holy hermit named Burchard, who lived in a little island in the Seine; and by making essays he began to inure himself to fasting, watching, long prayers, and every rigorous practice of penance. He declined all the advantageous matches and places at court or in the army which his father could propose to him. His cousin Eudo, count palatine of Champagne, and count of Chartres and Blois, upon the death of his uncle Rodolph, the last king of Burgundy, in 1034, laid claim to that crown as next heir in blood; but the emperor Conrad the Salic seized upon it by virtue of the testament of the late king.* Hereupon ensued a war, and count Arnoul ordered his son to lead a body of troops to the succor of his cousin. But the young general represented so respectfully to his father the obligation of a vow by which he had bound himself to quit the world, that he at length extorted his consent.
Soon after the saint and another young nobleman called Walter, his intimate friend, each taking one servant, went to the abbey of St. Remigius in Rheims, and thence having sent back their servants with their baggage, they set out privately; and in the clothes of two beggars, in exchange for which they had given their own rich garments, they travelled barefoot into Germany. Finding the forest of Petingen in Suabia a convenient solitude for their purpose, they built themselves there two little cells. Having learned from Burchard that manual labor is a necessary duty of an ascetic or penitential life, and not being skilled in the manner of working to make mats or baskets, they often went into the neighboring villages and there hired themselves by the day to serve the masons, or to work in the fields, to carry stones and mortar, to load and unload carriages, to cleanse the stables under the servants of the farmers, or to blow the bellows and to make fires for the forges. With their wages they bought coarse brown bread, which was their whole subsistence. Whilst they worked with their hands, their hearts were secretly employed in prayer; and at night retiring again into their forest, they watched long, singing together the divine praises, and continuing in holy contemplation. Their carriage and the tenderness of their complexion discovered that they had not been trained up in manual labor, and the reputation of their sanctity after some time drew the eyes of men upon them. To shun which they resolved to forsake a place where they were no longer able to live in humiliation and obscurity. They performed barefoot a pilgrimage to Compostella, and returned into Germany.
Passing through Triers, it happened that Theobald there met his father count Arnoul; but with his tanned face, and in his ragged clothes, passing for a beggar, he was not known by him. He was strongly affected, and was scarcely able to stifle the tender sentiments with which his heart was quite overcome at the sight of so dear and affectionate a parent. However he suppressed them; but to quit the neighborhood where he might be again exposed to the like trial, he undertook a pilgrimage to Rome. The two fervent penitents travelled everywhere barefoot; and after they had visited all the holy places in Italy, they chose for their retirement a hideous woody place called Salanigo, near Vicenza, where with the leave of the lord of the manor they built themselves two cells, near an old ruinous chapel. Prayer and the exercises of penance were their constant employment, till after two years God called Walter to himself. Theobald looked upon this loss as a warning that he had not long to live, and he exerted his whole strength, redoubling his pace to run with greater vigor as he drew near the end of his race. He had lived on oat bread and water, with roots and herbs, but at length he interdicted himself even the use of bread, taking no other food but herbs and roots. He always wore a rough hair shirt; his bed was a board, and for the five last years of his life he took his rest sitting on a wooden seat. The bishop of Vicenza promoted him to priest’s orders, and several persons put themselves under his direction. His lineage and quality being discovered, his aged parents were no sooner informed that their son was alive, and that the hermit of Salanigo, the reputation of whose sanctity, prophecies, and miracles filled all Europe, was that very son whose absence had been to them the cause of so long a mourning; but they set out with great joy to see him. His frightful desert, his poor cell, his tattered clothes, and above all his emaciated body, made so strong impressions upon their hearts at the first sight that they both cast themselves at his feet, and for a considerable time were only able to speak to him by their tears. When they were raised from the ground, and had recovered from their first surprise, faith overcame in them the sentiments of nature, and converted their sorrow into joy. The sight of so moving an example extinguished in their hearts all love of the world, and they both resolved upon the spot to dedicate themselves to the divine service. The count was obliged by his affairs to return into Brie, but Gisla, the saint’s mother, obtained her husband’s consent to finish her course near the cell of her son. The saint made her a little hut at some distance from his own, and took great pains to instruct her in the practice of true perfection. He was shortly after visited with his last sickness; his body was covered over with blotches and ulcers, and every limb afflicted with some painful disorder. The servant of God suffered this distemper with a most edifying patience and joy. A little before his death he sent for Peter the abbot of Vangadice, of the order of Camaldoli, from whose hands he had received the religious habit a year before. To him he recommended his mother and his disciples: and having received the viaticum he expired in peace on the last day of June, 1066, being about thirty-three years old, of which he had spent twelve at Salanigo and three in Suabia, and in his pilgrimages. His relics were translated to the church dependent on the abbey of St. Columba, at Sens, and afterward to a chapel near Auxerre called St. Thibaud aux Bois. He was canonized by Alexander III. and his name is in great veneration at Sens, Provins, Paris, Auxerre, Langres, Toul, Triers, Autun, and Beauvais. See his life faithfully written by a contemporary author.
The blood of our Divine Saviour. Jesus, at the Last Supper, ascribes to it the same life-giving power that belongs to His flesh (see EUCHARIST). The Apostles, St. Peter (I Peter, i, 2, 19), St. John (I John, i, 7; Apoc. i, 5 etc.), and above all St. Paul (Rom., iii, 25; Eph., i, 7; Hebr., ix, x) regard it as synonymous with Jesus's Passion and Death, the source of redemption. The Precious Blood is therefore a part of the Sacred Humanity and hypostatically united to the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. In the fifteenth century some theologians, with a view of determining whether the blood shed by the Saviour during His Passion remained united to the Word or not, raised the point as to whether the Precious Blood is an essential part or only a concomitant of the Sacred Humanity. If an essential part, they argued, it could never be detached from the Word; if a concomitant only, it could. The Dominicans held the first view, and the Franciscans the second. Pius II, in whose presence the debate took place, rendered no doctrinal decision on the point at issue, However, chiefly since the Council of Trent (Sess, XIII, c. 3) called the body and blood of Jesus "partes Christi Domini the trend of theological thought has been in favour of the Dominican teaching. Suarez and de Lugo look askance at the Franciscans' view, and Faber writes: "It is not merely a concomitant of the flesh, an inseparable accident of the body. The blood itself, as blood, was assumed directly by the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity" (Precious Blood, i). The blood shed during the triduum of the Passion therefore reunited to the body of Christ at the Resurrection, with the possible exception of a few particles which instantly lost their union to the Word and became holy relics to be venerated but not adored. Some such particles may have adhered and yet adhere to the instruments of the Passion, e.g. nails, scourging pillar, Scala Sancta. Several places like Saintes, Bruges, Mantua etc. claim, on the strength of ancient traditions, to possess relics of the Precious Blood, but it is often difficult to tell whether the traditions are correct. Viewed as a part of the Sacred Humanity hypostatically united to the Word, the Precious Blood deserves latreutical worship or adoration. It may also like the Heart or the Wounds from which it flowed, be singled out for special honour, in a way that special honour was rendered it from the beginning by St. Paul and the Fathers who so eloquently praised its redeeming virtue and rested on it the Christian spirit of self-sacrifice. As Faber remarks, the lives of the saints are replete with devotion to the Precious Blood. In due course of time the Church gave shape and sanction to the devotion by approving societies like the Missionaries of the Precious Blood; enriching confraternities like that of St. Nicholas in Carcere, in Rome, and that of the London Oratory; attaching indulgences to prayers and scapulars in honour of the Precious Blood; and establishing commemorative feasts of the Precious Blood, Friday after the fourth Sunday in Lent and, since Pius IX, the first Sunday of July.
BENEDICT XIV, De servorum Dei Beatificatione, II, 30; IV, ii, 10, de Festis, I, 8 (Rome, 1747); FABER, The Precious Blood (Baltimore, s.d.); HUNTER, Outlines of Dogm. Theol. (New York, 1896); IOX, Die Reliquien des Kostb. Blutes (Luxemburg, 1880); BERINGER, Die Ablässe (12th ed., Paderborn, 1900).
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