Byzantine New Year

A more in-depth explanation of the Byzantine New Year, from 2016,  than in my short Happy New Year Post. But Happy New Year again!

From New Liturgical Movement

By Gregory DiPippo

Although the First Sunday of Advent is generally considered the start of the liturgical year in the Roman Rite, this is purely a matter of logic and convention, and is in no way formally indicated in the liturgy itself. In point of fact, many ancient liturgical books of the Roman Rite, such as the early sacramentaries and lectionaries, began with Christmas Eve, and placed Advent at the end of the temporal cycle. The liturgical texts for the feast of the Circumcision on January 1st do not refer explicitly to the civil New Year, although there are some oblique references to the riotous pagan celebrations thereof. Many places in the Middle Ages kept the feast of the Annunciation as New Year’s Day, a custom which lasted in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany until 1749, but this is also not mentioned in the liturgical texts of the feast.

This inscription records the abolition of the “Tuscan New Year”, as it was often called, by the Grand Duke of Tuscany Francesco II. (This is displayed in the famous Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence, one of the many Italian monuments that seems to be eternally under restoration, so I had to take this photo from an odd angle.)

In the Byzantine Rite, on the other hand, the liturgical year has a formally designated beginning on September 1st, a custom which has its origin partly in an ancient Roman cycle of taxation known as the Indiction. I say “partly” for the following reason. The Byzantine tradition distinguishes twelve feasts, eight of Our Lord and four of Our Lady, as “Great Feasts”, with Easter in a category of its own as the Feast of Feasts. The first of these twelve to occur after the Indiction, and the first to occur in history, is the Nativity of the Virgin Mary on September 8th; the last to occur before the Indiction, and the last to occur in history, is the Assumption. It seems very unlikely that this arrangement is merely coincidental.

Medieval liturgical calendars from the West often note a variety of different historical events in March, with the beginning of the Creation frequently marked on March 18. Theologically, this indicates that the old Creation was completed on the same day that its renewal began in the Incarnation, and for the same reason, many calendars mark the Passion of Christ on that day, with the Resurrection on the 27th, even though the liturgical celebration of these events is movable. (This year was in fact the last time that any man now alive will see the coincidence of Good Friday and the Annunciation on the Gregorian Calendar, but on the Julian, it will next take place in 2034.)

The calendar of the Sarum Missal for March, from the 1882 critical edition of Francis Proctor and Christopher Wordsworth. Note the “Entrance of Noah in the Ark” on March 17, (one day before the anniversary of the beginning of Creation,) the creation of Adam on the 23rd, and the Resurrection on the 27th.

In the Byzantine tradition, however, the Creation of the world is considered to have taken place on the Indiction, a fact to which the liturgical texts of the day refer repeatedly. For example, the tropar at the Divine Liturgy reads as follows.

Maker of all creation, Who settest times and seasons in Thy power, bless the crown of the year of Thy goodness, o Lord, keeping in peace Thy kings and Thy city, by the prayers of the Mother of God, and save us.

And likewise these two kontakia:

Maker and Master of the ages, God of all things, and truly greater than all, bless this year, saving in Thy boundless mercy, o Compassionate One, all that serve Thee, the only Master, and cry out in reverence: o Redeemer, grant a bountiful year to all.
O Thou that created all things in unspoken wisdom, and settest the seasons in Thy power, grant victory to Thy people that loveth Christ, blessing the going and coming of the year, and guiding our works towards Thy will.

The connection between the Indiction and the Virgin Mary is highlighted by the addition of a second troparion to Her, with some common themes and vocabulary.

Rejoice, o full of grace, Mother of God and Virgin, safe harbor and defense of the race of men. For from Thee the Redeemer of the world was incarnate. For Thou alone art Mother and Virgin, ever blessed and glorified. Pray to Christ God to grant peace to all the world.

An 18th-century Russian icon of the Creation of the World.

Many early Christians attempted to calculate the age of the world, as the Jews had before them, working from the relevant statements of the Bible, and, not surprisingly, coming up with varying results. According to the reckoning most commonly accepted in the Byzantine world, the creation began in 5509 B.C, making this Annus Mundi 7525. (The traditional Roman reckoning as stated in the Martyrology on Christmas Eve puts the Birth of Christ in the 5199st year from the creation of the world, making this year only 7305.) This reckoning is still used by some Orthodox Christians in conjunction with the Anno Domini system for things like ecclesiastical calendars and the inscription of dates on the cornerstone of a church. September 1st was celebrated as the civil New Year in the Byzantine Empire until the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and in Russia until in 1699, when it was changed by Peter the Great as part of his Westernizing reforms.

The Carrington Event: History’s Greatest Solar Storm

On this day in 1859,  the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history began.

From Space.Com

By Daisy Dobrijevic, Andrew May

Extreme solar storms such as the 1859 Carrington Event can play havoc with technology on Earth.

The Carrington Event was a large solar storm that took place at the beginning of September 1859, just a few months before the solar maximum of 1860.

In August 1859, astronomers around the world watched with fascination as the number of sunspots on the solar disk grew. Among them was Richard Carrington, an amateur skywatcher in a small town called Redhill, near London in England.

On Sep. 1, as Carrington was sketching the sunspots, he was blinded by a sudden flash of light. Carrington described it as a "white light flare" according to NASA spaceflight(opens in new tab). The whole event lasted about five minutes.

The flare was a major coronal mass ejection (CME), a burst of magnetized plasma from the sun's upper atmosphere, the corona. In 17.6 hours, the CME traversed over 90 million miles (150 million km) between the sun and Earth and unleashed its force on our planet. According to NASA spaceflight, it usually takes CMEs multiple days to reach Earth.

The day after Carrington observed the impressive flare, Earth experienced an unprecedented geomagnetic storm, with telegraph systems going haywire and auroral displays — normally confined to polar latitudes — visible in the tropics, according to NASA Science(opens in new tab).

Carrington put two and two together and realized that the solar flare he'd seen was almost certainly the cause of this massive geomagnetic disturbance. This was a connection that had never previously been made, according to NASA Spaceflight. The solar storm of 1859 is now known as the Carrington Event in his honor.

The origins of space weather can be traced to contortions in the sun's magnetic field, leading to dark blotches or sunspots on its surface, according to NASA Earth Observatory(opens in new tab).

It's from these spots that solar flares, coronal mass ejections and other electromagnetic phenomena can emerge — with potentially hazardous consequences for our technological way of life.

Sunspot activity rises and falls on an 11-year cycle, and we're currently approaching the next solar maximum in 2025. So now is a good time to look at the worst solar storms.

Sunspots of 1 September 1859, as sketched by Richard Carrington. A and B mark the initial positions of an intensely bright event, which moved over the course of five minutes to C and D before disappearing.

Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Today's Holy Mass from SSPX District of Asia. You may follow the Mass at Divinum Officium.

St Giles, Abbot ~ Dom Prosper Guéranger

Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost ~ Dom Prosper Guéranger

St Giles, Abbot

From Dom Prosper Guéranger's Liturgical Year:

“A simple and upright man, and fearing God, and avoiding evil:” (Job 1:8) such is the description of the just man in the lessons of the night Office for the time, and it is the portrait of the holy monk whom the Church offers us today for our admiration, our imitation, and our devotion. Fleeing from men in order to find God, he quitted his native land, where his rank, and still more his virtues, prevented him from being unknown. He wandered from the coasts of Greece to the borders of the Rhone, and stopped at length in the forests of Septimania, where he seemed to have found his desired solitude. There for three years he dwelt in a cave hidden among the brambles, spending his time in giving thanks to God and praying for the salvation of the people. (Acts S. Ægidii) He lived on herbs and water, until our Lord sent him a hind to nourish him with her milk. But his little friend was soon to betray him. One day, hard pressed by the hounds, she fled in terror to the saint, followed by the royal huntsmen. Safe with her protector her fears were calmed; but an arrow, aimed at her, pierced Saint Giles’s hand, which was never afterwards healed; for he refused to have it dressed, in order that he might bear the pain of it for the rest of his life. But a greater trial awaited him: his retreat having been thus discovered, a monastery soon rose upon the spot, and he was forced to become its abbot; moreover he worked so many miracles that crowds came to see him. Farewell to the silence and oblivion of his beloved forest!

After the death of the servant of God, the place became more and more frequented. From north and east and south pilgrims poured in, to offer up their prayers and fulfill their vows at the tomb of one, who soon became known as one of the most helpful saints in heaven (St. Giles is the only confessor in the group of fourteen saints known as helpers, whose names are given in ancient missals in the following order: George, Blase, Erasmus, Pantaleon, Vitus, Christopher, Giles, Achatus or Acathius, Denis, Cyriacus, Eustace, Catharine, Margaret, and Barbara. He was even reckoned among the five privileged saints, vis. Denis, George, Christopher, Blase, and Giles, honored in a more special manner in certain places). Among the crowds came Pontiffs (Urban II, who consecrated the altar of the basilica where the holy body rested, Gelasius II, Callistus II, Innocent II; Clement IV was born at St. Giles’s; Julius II had held the abbey in commendam) and kings (Boleslas III of Poland, and St. Louis of France). But the most numerous classes of visitors to the holy relics were soldiers and little children, the former equipped for the crusades, the latter borne in their mothers’ arms; all confiding in the humble, gentle monk who, at the risk of his life, calmed the terror of the poor little hind; all imploring his assistance against the fear which even the bravest may feel in the hour of battle, or the fright that disturbs the little one in his cradle. St. Giles’s ranked as one of the three great pilgrimages of the west; the other two being Rome and Compostello.

Over the relics of the saint was raised a colossal church, which has been described as “the most perfect type of the Byzantine style when at the height of its splendor.” (Mérimée, Notess d’un voyage dans le midi de la France.) Around it a town of thirty thousand households has sprung up, where formerly there was but a desert. The most illustrious of the powerful Counts of Toulouse gave the preference over his other titles to the one he held from this noble city; he would be known to posterity as Raymund of St. Giles. A hundred years later, Raymund VI did penance at the threshold of the celebrated basilica, for his connivance with heresy; our saint, who had just given hospitality to Peter of Castelnau for his last resting place, opened his gates for the reconciliation of the martyr’s presumed murderer.

We should never end, were we to enumerate the churches, parishes, abbeys, and altars consecrated to St. Giles, in all parts of Christendom, which are so many sources of grace, and new centers for pilgrimages. Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Bavaria, Poland, rival France in this respect. England is second to no country in the world; she has one hundred and forty-six sanctuaries dedicated to the pious monk, and even the established church continues to honor him.

Let us hasten to give the short legend that remains to the holy abbot since the sixteenth century, when his feast ceased to be celebrated with nine lessons. Most of his precious relics are preserved in the rich treasury of the church of Saint-Sernin at Toulouse; Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, which had been obliged to give them up in order to save them from the sacrilegious hands of the armed heretics, had, in 1865, the consolation of discovering his original tomb.

Giles was an Athenian, of royal race, who from his childhood applied him so earnestly to the study of divine things and to works of charity, that he seemed to care for nothing else. On his parents’ death he distributed his whole fortune among the poor; even stripping himself of his own garment in order to clothe a poor sick man, who was cured as soon as he put it on. Many other miracles soon made his name so famous, that for few of renown he fled to St. Caesarius at Arles. After two years Giles departed thence and retired into a desert, where he lived a life of wonderful holiness: his only food being the roots of herbs and the milk of a hind who came to him at fixed times. One day the hind being pursued by the royal huntsmen took refuge in his cave. Upon his discovery of the holy man, the king of France begged Giles to allow a monastery to be built on the site of the cave. At the king’s desire he was obliged, against his will, to undertake the government of this monastery; and after having, for several years, discharged that office with much piety and prudence, he passed away to heaven.

“Go to my servant … and offer for yourselves a holocaust: and my servant … shall pray for you: his face I will accept, that folly be not imputed to you.” (Job 42:8) This word is unceasingly fulfilled, O blessed Giles, in the innumerable sanctuaries where thou art honored. Make use of thy prerogatives for our benefit; hear our prayers, for the glory of Him who has crowned thy humility. In return for the beautiful peace thou didst ever preserve in thy soul, thou now hast power over the countless troubles which disturb our miserable existence, from the cradle even to the tomb. Thou aidest mothers to drive away from their babes the nightly phantoms raised by the enemy of the innocents; thou preservest the little ones from the terrible maladies to which childhood is liable. Thou watchest over the youth, to secure his good morals; and givest him the fear of God, which will make him a courageous and upright man. Thou makest him brave and calm in the midst of dangers, whether in thunderstorms or on the field of battle. Above all, thou preservest thy client from the most cowardly of all fears, that of human respect; and from the saddest kind of shame, that which would withhold him from acknowledging his sins in the sacred tribunal of Penance. The cares and disappointments of middle life do not disturb the peace of him who trusts in thee; old age has no anxious future for him; he falls into his last sleep, in the bosom of God, as in infancy he fell asleep in his mother’s arms. Deign to accept us among thy devout clients, and disappoint us not in our expectations.

=======

Beneventum offers to our homage twelve brothers martyrs, natives of Africa, who suffered in diverse places, but whose bodies she glories in possession. Let us unite in the prayer which the Church offers to God, in honor of this admirable group of heroes.

COLLECT

May the fraternal crown of thy martyrs rejoice us, O Lord, and may it procure for our faith increase of virtue, and console us with multiplied intercession. Through our Lord, etc.

We must not omit to mention briefly that with the Greeks this day is the first of the Calendar; they celebrate it as a feast, called of the Indiction, or of the new year.

Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost

From Dom Prosper Guéranger's Liturgical Year:

This Sunday’s Introit—which now goes under the name of the Sunday of the widow of Naim, because of the Gospel read on it—gives us a sample of the prayers we should address to our Lord in our necessities. Last Sunday, we heard our Jesus promising to provide for all our wants, on the condition that we would serve him faithfully, by seeking his kingdom. When we present our petitions to him, let us show him the confidence he so well deserves from us; and we shall be graciously heard.

INTROIT

Incline thine ear, O Lord, unto me, and hear me: save thy servant, O my God, who hopeth in thee: have mercy on me, O Lord, for I have cried to thee all the day.

Ps. Give joy to the soul of thy servant: for, to thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul. Glory, etc. Incline.

The humility wherewith our holy Mother the Church presents her supplications to God should serve as a model to us. If the Bride herself thus treats with God, what ought not be our sentiments of lowliness, when we appear in the presence of sovereign Majesty? We may well say to this tender Mother of ours what the Disciples said to Jesus: Teach us how to pray! (Luke 11:1) Let us unite with her in this Collect.

COLLECT

May thy continued mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend thy Church; and because, without thee, she cannot keep safe, may she always be governed by thy Gift. Through, etc.

The other Collects, as in the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost.

EPISTLE

Lesson of the Epistle of Saint Paul, the Apostle, to the Galatians 5:25-6:10

Brethren: If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be made desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying on another. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in any fault, you, who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens; and so, you shall fulfill the law of Christ. For if any man think himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let everyone prove his own work, and so he shall have glory in himself only, and not in another. For everyone shall bear his own burden. And let him that is instructed in the word, communicate to him that instructeth him, in all good things. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting. and in doing good, let us not fail. For in due time we shall reap, not failing. Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

Holy Church resumes the lesson of St. Paul, where she left it last Sunday. The Spiritual life, the life produced in our souls by the Holy Spirit, in place of the former life of the flesh—this is still the subject of the Apostle’s teaching. When the flesh has been subdued, we must take care and not suppose that the structure of our perfection is completed. Not only must the combat be kept up after the victory, under penalty of losing all we have won, but we must also be on the watch lest one or other of the heads of the triple concupiscence take advantage of the soul’s efforts being elsewhere directed, to raise itself against us, and sting us all the more terribly, because it is left to do just as it pleases. The Apostle warns us here of vainglory, and well he may; for vainglory is, more than other enemies, always in a menacing attitude, ready to infuse its subtle poison even into acts of humility and penance; hence the Christian, who is desirous to serve God and not his own gratification, by the virtues he practices, must keep up an especially active vigilance over this passion.

Just let us think, for a moment, on the madness that culprit would be guilty of who, having his sentence to death commuted for a severe flogging, should take pride in the stripes left on his body by the whip! May this madness never be ours! It would seem, however, as though it were far from being impossible, seeing how the Apostle, immediately after his telling us to mortify our flesh, bids us take heed of vainglory. In fact, we are not safe on this subject, excepting inasmuch as the outward humiliation, inflicted by us on our body has this for its principle, that our soul should voluntarily humble herself at the sight of her miseries. The ancient Philosophers, too, had their maxims about the restraint of the senses; but those among them who practiced those admirably worded maxims found them a stepping-stone for the pride to mount of mountains high in self-conceit. It could not be otherwise; for they were totally devoid of anything like the sentiments which actuated our Fathers in the faith who, when they clad themselves in sackcloth and prostrated on the ground, (1 Chronicles 21:16) cried out from the heartfelt conviction of the miseries of human nature: Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy! for I was conceived in iniquities, and my sin is ever before me! (Psalm 50:3, 7)

To practice bodily mortification with a view to get the reputation of being saints, is it not doing what St. Paul here calls sowing in the flesh, that in due time, that is, on the day, when the intentions of our hearts will be made manifest, (1 Corinthians 4:5) we may reap not life and glory everlasting, but endless disgrace and shame? Among the works of the flesh mentioned in last Sunday’s Epistle, we found contentions, dissensions, jealousies, (Galatians 5:19-21) all of which are the ordinary outcome of this vainglory, against which the Apostle is now warning us. The production of such rotten fruits would be an unmistakable sign that the heavenly sap of grace had gone from our souls and that, in its stead, there had been brought the fermentation of sin; and that now, having made ourselves slaves, as of old, we must tremble because of the penalties threatened by God’s law. God is not mocked; and as to the confidence which generous fidelity of love imparts to those who live by the Spirit—it would, in the case we are now supposing, be but a hypocritical counterfeit of the holy liberty of the children of God. They alone are his children whom the Holy Spirit leads, (Romans 8:14) and leads them in charity; those others are led on by the flesh, and such cannot please God. (Romans 8:8)

If, on the contrary, we would have an equally unmistakable sign, which is quite compatible with the obscurities of faith that we are really in possession of divine Union, let us not take occasion from the sight of others’ defects and faults to be puffed up with pride, but rather, from the consideration of our own miseries, be indulgent to everyone else. If others fall, let us give them a helping and prudent hand. Let us bear one another’s burdens along the road of life, and then, having thus fulfilled the law of Christ, we shall know (and oh! the joy there is in such knowing!) that we abide in Him, and He in us. (1 John 4:13) These most thrilling words, which were made use of by our Lord to express the future intimacy he would have with whomsoever should eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood in holy Communion, (John 6:57) St. John, who had told them to us, takes them and uses them in his Epistles, and (let us mark the deep mystery of the application) applies them to whomsoever, in the Holy Ghost, observes the great commandment of loving his neighbor. (1 John 3:23-24;4:12-13)

Would to God we could ever have ringing in our ears the saying of the Apostle: Whilst we have time, let us work good to all men! For the day will come, and it is not so very far off, when the Angel, carrying the mysterious Book, and having one foot on the earth and the other on the sea, shall make his mighty voice as that of a lion be heard through the universe and, with his hand lifted up towards heaven, shall swear by Him that liveth forever and ever, that time shall be no more! (Apocalypse 10:1-6) Then will man reap with joy what he shall have sown in tears; (Psalm 125:5) he failed not, he grew not weary of doing good while in the dreary land of his exile—still less will he ever tire of the everlasting harvest which is to be in the living light of the Eternal Day.

As we sing the Gradual, let us remember that the only praise which gives God pleasure is that which goes up to him from a soul where reigns the harmony of the several virtues. The Christian life, which is regulated by the ten commandments, is the ten-stringed psaltery (Psalm 143:9) on which the Finger of God, who is the Holy Ghost, (Luke 11:20; Matthew 12:28) plays to the Spouse the music that he loves to hear.

GRADUAL

It is good to give praise to the Lord: and to sing to thy name, O Most High!

℣. To show forth thy mercy in the morning, and thy truth in the night.

Alleluia, alleluia.

℣. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King over all the earth. Alleluia.

GOSPEL

Sequel of the holy Gospel according to St. Luke 7:11-16

At that time: Jesus went into a city that is called Naim; and there went with him his disciples, and a great multitude. And when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow: and a great multitude of the city was with her. Whom when the Lord had seen, being moved with mercy towards her, he said to her: Weep not. And he came near and touched the bier. And they that carried it, stood still. And he said: Young man, I say to thee, arise. And he that was dead, sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother. And there came a fear on them all: and they glorified God, saying: A great prophet is risen up among us: and God hath visited his people!

This is the second time, during the Year, holy Church offers this Gospel to our consideration; we cannot be surprised at this, for the fathers selected by her, as its interpreters (Ambrose on Luke 5; Augustine Sermon 44, de Verb. Dom.) tell us, on both of these occasions, that the afflicted mother who follows her son to the grave is the Church herself.

The first time we saw her under this symbol of a mother mourning for her child was in the penitential season of Lent. (Thursday, 4th Week of Lent) She was then, by her fasting and prayer (united as those were with her Jesus’ sufferings), preparing the resurrection of such of our brethren as were dead in sin. Their resurrection was realized, and we had them, in all the fullness of their new life, seated side by side with us at the Paschal Table. What exquisite joy on that Feast of Feasts inundated the Mother’s heart as she thus shared in the triumphant gladness of her divine Spouse! He, her Jesus was, by his one Resurrection, twice over the conqueror of death—he rose from the grave, and he gave back the child to the Mother. The Disciples if this Risen Lord, who follow him closely by their observance of the evangelical counsels, yes, they, and the whole multitude that associated themselves with the Church, glorified Jesus for his wonderful works and sang the praises of that God who thus vouchsafed to visit his people.

The Mother ceased to weep. But since then, the Spouse has again left her to return to his Father; she has resumed her widow’s weeds, and her sufferings are continually adding to the already well-nigh insupportable torture of her exile. And whence these sufferings? From the relapses of so many of those ungrateful children of hers to whom she had given a second birth (Galatians 4:19) and at the cost of such pains and tears! The countless cares she then spent over her sinners, and that new life she gave them in the presence of her dying Jesus—all this made each of the penitents, during the Great Week, as though he were the only son of that Mother. What an intense grief, says St. John Chrysostom, that so loving a Mother should see them relapsing, after the communion of such mysteries, into sin which kills them! “Spare me,”—as she may well say, in the words which the holy Doctor puts into the Apostle’s mouth—”Spare me! No other child, once born into this world, ever made his Mother suffer the pangs of childbirth over again!” To repair the relapse of a sinner costs her no less travail than the giving birth to such as had never believed. (Chrysostom, Against those who say demons govern human affairs, Hom. I)

And if we compare these times of ours with the period when sainted Pastors made her words be respected all over the world—is there a single Christian who is still faithful to the Church who does not feel impelled, by such contrast, to be more and more devoted to a Mother so abandoned as she now is? Let us listen to the eloquent words of St. Laurence Justinian on this subject. “Then,” says he in his De compuncti et planctu christianem perfectus, “all resplendent with the mystic jewels wherewith the Bridegroom had beautified her on the wedding day, she thrilled with joy at the increase of her children, both in merit and number; she urged them to ascend to ever greater heights; she offered them to God, she raised them, in her arms, up towards heaven. Obeyed by them, she was, in all truth, the mother of fair love and fear; (Ecclesiasticus 24:24) she was beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array. (Song of Solomon 6:9) She stretched out her branches as the turpentine-tree, and beneath their shadow, she sheltered them she had begotten, against the heat, and the tempest, and the rain. So long, then, as she could, she labored, feeding at her breasts all those she was able to assemble. But her zeal, great as it was, has redoubled from the time she perceived that many, yea very many, had lost their first fervor. Now for many years, she is mourning at the sight of how, each day, her Creator is offended, how great are the losses she sustains, and how so many of her children suffer death. She that was once robed in scarlet has put on mourning garments; her fragrance is no longer felt by the world; instead of a golden girdle, she has but a cord, and instead of the rich ornament of her breast, she is vested in haircloth. (Isaiah 3:24) Her lamentations and tears are ceaseless. Ceaseless is her prayer, striving if, by some way, she may make the present as beautiful as in times past; and yet, as thou it were impossible for her to call back that lovely past, she seems wearied at such supplication. The word of the prophet (Psalm 13:3) has come true: They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together; there is none that doth good, no, not one! … The manifold sins committed by the Church’s children against the divine precepts show that they who so sin are rotten members, members alien to the body of Christ. Nevertheless, the Church forgets not that she gave them birth in the laver of salvation; she forgets not the promises they then made to renounce the devil, and the pomps of the world, and all sin. Therefore does she weep over their fall, being their true mother, and never losing the hope of winning their resurrection by her tears. O what a flood of tears is thus every day shed before God! What fervent prayers does not this spotless virgin send, by the ministry of the holy Angels, up to Christ, who is the salvation of sinners! In the secret of hearts in lonely retreats, as well as in her public temples, she cries out to the divine mercy that they who are now buried in the filth of vice may be restored to life. Who shall tell the joy of her heart, when she receives back living the children she mourned over as dead? If the conversion of sinners is such a joy to heaven, (Luke 15:7) what must it be to such a Mother? According to the multitude of the sorrows of her heart, (Psalm 93:19) so will be the consolations, giving joy to her soul.”

It is the duty of us Christians, who, by God’s mercy, have been preserved from the general decay to share in the anguish of our Mother, the Church; we should humbly but fervently cooperate with her in all her zealous endeavors to reclaim our fallen brethren. We surely can never be satisfied with not being the number of those senseless sons who are a sorrow to their Mother, (Proverbs 17:25) and despise the labor of her that bore them. (Proverbs 30:17) Had we not the Holy Spirit to tell us how he that honoreth his Mother is as one that layeth up to himself a treasure (Ecclesasticus 3:5) —the thought of what our birth cost her (Tobit 4:4) would force us to do everything that lies in our power to comfort her. She is the dear Bride of the Incarnate Word; and our souls, too, aspire to union with Him; let us prove that such Union is really ours by doing as the Church does—that is, by showing in our acts the one thought, the one love, which the divine Spouse always imparts to souls that enjoy holy intimacy with him, because there is nothing he Himself has so much at heart—the thought of bringing the whole world to give glory to his Eternal Father, and the love of procuring salvation for sinners.

Let us unite with the Church, our Mother, in singing now in the Offertory, the realization, in part at least, of her expectations; let not our lips ever be shut up in senseless silence, when we have our God bestowing favors on us.

OFFERTORY

With expectation, I have waited for the Lord, and he was attentive to me: and he heard my prayer; and he put a new canticle into my mouth, a song to our God.

In the Secret let us put ourselves, and everything that belongs to us, under the custody, the keeping all-powerful, of the divine Mysteries.

SECRET

May thy mysteries, O Lord, be custody unto us: and always defend us against the attacks of the devil. Through, etc.

The other Secrets, as in the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost.

Jesus’ word called back from death the son of the widow of Naim; his Flesh is the Life of the world, for it is the Bread, whose praise we are now to celebrate in our Communion-Anthem.

COMMUNION

The bread, which I will give, is my flesh for the life of the world.

Divine Union is not perfect in us, unless the Mystery of love so predominates over both our minds and bodies, as that they be fully possessed by it as our Mother here words its efficacy; we must be influenced and directed by it, and not by nature, that is, by the dictates of flesh and blood and human sense.

POSTCOMMUNION

May the operation of the heavenly Gift possess our minds and bodies, we beseech thee, O Lord: that our own sense may not rule us, but may the efficiency (of that Gift) ever take the lead in us. Through, etc.

The other Postcommunion, as in the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost.

VESPERS

The psalms, capitulum, hymn, and versicle, as above.

ANTIPHON OF THE MAGNIFICAT

A great Prophet hath risen up among us, and God hath visited his people.

LET US PRAY

May thy continued mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend thy Church; and, because without thee she cannot keep safe, may she always be governed by thy gift. Through, etc.

St Giles ~ Anti-Social for Christ

A sermon for today. Please remember to say 3 Hail Marys for the Priest. 

Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost

A sermon for today. Please remember to say 3 Hail Marys for the Priest. 

Twelve Brothers, Martyrs: Butler's Lives of the Saints

An audio reading of the entry on the Twelve Holy Brothers.

St Giles, Abbot: Butler's Lives of the Saints

Twelve Brothers, Martyrs

From Fr Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints: 

FELIX, Donatus, Arontius, Honoratus, Fortunatus, Sabinianus, Septimius, Januarius, Felix, Vitalis, Satyrus, and Repositus, were natives of Adrumetum in Africa, and after suffering grievous torments for the faith in that city, were sent into Italy, where they finished their glorious martyrdom at Benevento, in the persecution of Valerian in 258, or according to others in that of Dioclesian. See Baronius Annot. in Martyr, Rom. and Georgi Annot. in Adonis Martyrol.

St Giles, Abbot

From Fr Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints: 

The Life of St. Giles was compiled by one who collected whatever memorials he could amass together without discernment, and who confounded the saint with the abbot of Arles of the same name. See Mabillon, Annal. Ben. t. 3, p. 433, et. Sæc. 3, Bened. in Proleg. And especially the learned dissertation and remarks of Stilting the Bollandist, Sept t. 1, p. 284. Also the Maurist monks, Hist. Littér. de la France, t. 10, p. 60.

ABOUT THE END OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY

THIS saint, whose name has been held in great veneration for several ages in France and England, is said to have been an Athenian by birth, and of noble extraction. His extraordinary piety and learning drew the admiration of the world upon him in such a manner, that it was impossible for him to enjoy in his own country that obscurity and retirement which was the chief object of his desires on earth; and he dreaded the sunshine of temporal prosperity and the applause of men, as fraught with dangerous poison, which easily insinuates itself into the heart. Therefore, leaving his own country, he sailed to France, and chose a hermitage first in the open deserts near the mouth of the Rhone, afterward nigh the river Gard, and lastly, in a forest in the diocess of Nismes. He passed many years in this close solitude, using no other subsistence than wild herbs or roots, and water, conversing only with God, and living rather like an angel than a man; so perfectly was he disengaged from earthly cares, and with so great purity of affections, with such constancy and ardor was his soul employed in the exercises of heavenly contemplation. His historian relates, that he was for some time nourished with the milk of a hind in the forest, and that a certain prince discovered him in hunting in those woods, by pursuing the chase of that hind to his hermitage, where the beast had sought for shelter at his feet. The reputation of the sanctity of this holy hermit was much increased by many miracles which he wrought, and which rendered his name famous throughout all France. Some, by mistake, have confounded this saint with one Giles, whom St. Cæsarius made abbot of a monastery near the walls of Arles, and whom he sent to Rome with his secretary Messianus in 514, to pope Symma chus, to obtain of him a confirmation of the privileges of the metropolitical church of Arles. But the Bollandists prove very well, in a long and learned dissertation, that the great St. Giles lived only in the end of the seventh, and beginning of the eighth century, not in the sixth; and that the French were at that time masters of the country about Nismes. Messianus and Stephen, in the second book of the life of St. Cæsarius, inform us, that the French took Arles in 541, the year before the death of St. Cæsarius; after which the Goths yielded up to them that whole province. St. Giles was highly esteemed by the French king; but could not be prevailed upon to forsake his solitude. He, however, admitted several disciples, and settled excellent discipline in the monastery of which he was the founder, and which, in succeeding ages, became a flourishing abbey of the Benedictin Order, though it has been long since converted into a collegiate church of canons. A considerable town was built about it, called St. Giles’s, which was famous in the wars of the Albigenses. This saint is commemorated in the Martyrologies of Bede, Ado, and others; and is the patron of many churches in France, Germany, Poland, &c.

Entire constant solitude, is a state which few are able to bear with unabated fervor in the uninterrupted exercises of arduous penance and contemplation. A man in solitude, whom sloth often warps, or whose conversation is not always with God and his holy angels, is his own most dangerous tempter and worst company. Aristotle having defined man a social creature,* or one born for society, added, that he who lives alone must either be a god or a beast. But that philosopher was unacquainted with the happiness of religious contemplation. The ancient Christian proverb is more exact, that he who lives always alone is either an angel or a devil. This state therefore is not without snares and dangers; nor does a hermitage necessarily make a saint. But when a person, by an extraordinary call, embraces it with fervor, and strenuously applies himself to all the exercises of holy retirement and penance, such a one being disengaged in his affections from all earthly ties, exchanges the society of a vain and sinful world for that of God and holy spirits, and the contagious commerce of foolish toys for the uninterrupted glorious employment of the angels, and has certainly attained the highest degree of happiness under heaven; this state is its novitiate, and in some degree an anticipation of its eternal sweet and noble employ. He who accompanies these most fervent exercises of contemplation and divine love with zealous and undaunted endeavors to conduct others to the same glorious term with himself, shall be truly great in the kingdom of heaven.1

Collect of the Holy Twelve Brothers, Martyrs ~ Indulgenced on the Saint's Feast

According to the Apostolic Penitentiary, a partial indulgence is granted to those who on the feast of any Saint recite in his honour the oration of the Missal or any other approved by legitimate Authority.

V. O Lord, hear my prayer.

R. And let my cry come unto thee.
Let us pray.

Lord, let the crown of the Brethren, thy Martyrs rejoice us, and their example give nerve to our faith, and their prayers in many ways strengthen us.

Through Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.

R. Amen. 

Collect of St Giles, Abbot & Confessor ~ Indulgenced on the Saint's Feast

According to the Apostolic Penitentiary, a partial indulgence is granted to those who on the feast of any Saint recite in his honour the oration of the Missal or any other approved by legitimate Authority.

V. O Lord, hear my prayer.

R. And let my cry come unto thee.
Let us pray
May the pleading of blessed Giles, Abbot, make us acceptable unto thee, O Lord, we pray; that what we may not have through any merits of ours, we may gain by means of his patronage.

Through Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.

R. Amen.