His Heart in Hiding: The Priesthood of Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ

From Dr Peter Kwasniewski

In late September 1877, in a quiet corner of Wales, Gerard Manley Hopkins, newly ordained to the priesthood, ascended the altar for the first time. The Jesuit chroniclers did not record the day of his first Mass. Of all that is known of his life, this intimate detail remains appropriately hidden. The moment must have been unspeakably precious for him after a painful conversion and nine long years of preparation. With the fragrance of chrism lingering on his hands, he took up the paten, and prayed the Offertory in a low voice...

The Litany of the Precious Blood

The Litany of the Precious Blood is one of five Litanies to which a partial indulgence is attached, for private or public recitation. The others are the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Litany of Loreto, the Litany of St. Joseph, and the Litany of the Saints.

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

God, the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us.

Blood of Christ, only-begotten Son
of the Eternal Father, save us. (after each line)
Blood of Christ, Incarnate Word of God,
Blood of Christ, of the New and Eternal Testament,
Blood of Christ, falling upon the earth in the Agony,
Blood of Christ, shed profusely in the Scourging,
Blood of Christ, flowing forth in the Crowning with Thorns,
Blood of Christ, poured out on the Cross,
Blood of Christ, price of our salvation,
Blood of Christ, without which there is no forgiveness,
Blood of Christ, Eucharistic drink and refreshment of souls,
Blood of Christ, stream of mercy,
Blood of Christ, victor over demons,
Blood of Christ, courage of martyrs,
Blood of Christ, strength of confessors,
Blood of Christ, bringing forth virgins,
Blood of Christ, help of those in peril,
Blood of Christ, relief of the burdened,
Blood of Christ, solace in sorrow,
Blood of Christ, hope of the penitent,
Blood of Christ, consolation of the dying,
Blood of Christ, peace and tenderness of hearts,
Blood of Christ, pledge of Eternal Life,
Blood of Christ, freeing souls from purgatory,
Blood of Christ, most worthy of all glory and honor,

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.

V. Thou hast redeemed us, O Lord, in Thy Blood.
R. And made us, for our God, a kingdom.

Let us pray:
Almighty, eternal God, Who made thy only-begotten Son the Redeemer of the world, and willed to be reconciled by His Blood, grant us, we beseech thee, so to worship in this sacred rite the price of our salvation, and to be so protected by its power against the evils of the present life on earth, that we may enjoy its everlasting fruit in heaven.
Through the same Jesus Christ, thy Son, Our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.

 Amen.

The Catholic Case for Social Credit: An Interview With Felix Martin Antoniano

I have a series of videos on Major C.H. Douglas's Social Credit (No! It has nothing to do with the ChiCom "social credit"), which I'll be sharing.

From One Peter Five

By Theo Howard

What Douglas was proclaiming was simply that the financial system should return to its proper function.

Félix M.ª Martín Antoniano holds a degree in Law from the Complutense University (Madrid) and completed a Master’s degree in Stock Market and Financial Markets from the Institute of Stock Market Studies (Madrid). He is a member of the Madrid Bar Association. He has published various works in the magazines Verbo and Anales de la Fundación Elías de Tejada, and is a frequent contributor to the Catholic-Legitimist-Royalist newspaper La Esperanza.

TH: Thank you for joining me Señor Martin. Today, there is renewed debate about the welfare state as an unsustainable Ponzi scheme that is accelerating the decline of the West. Could you describe how “social security is a system of slavery” devised by revolutionaries to better control hapless and decaying Western societies?

FM: The purely technical debate about whether the structure of “Social Security” should operate according to a Ponzi scheme, that is, a “pay-as-you-go system” (or, as it is pejoratively called, a “pyramid system”), or whether it would be better to establish a “capitalization system” instead, is, in my opinion, a completely irrelevant debate. The question we should really be asking is whether or not the structure of “Social Security,” considered in itself, is adequate for achieving a correct social and economic order (understood according to the Social Doctrine of the Church), and, therefore, whether it would be advisable to eliminate it and replace it with other measures that would be more in keeping with that order.

The question can be approached from two points of view: one philosophical, and the other technical-financial.

From a philosophical perspective, it is clear that the many Social Security plans that emerged throughout the last century fundamentally originated in the Fabian school of socialism, whose way of thinking is completely imbued with the prejudices of puritanism. This mentality is characterized by a desire to control people’s lives down to the smallest detail “for their own good,” leaving no room for human free will or choice. The Catholic apologists Chesterton and Belloc were the greatest opponents of this monstrous forma mentis, which translated, within the socioeconomic sphere, into the provision of a public constitution that Belloc aptly called the “Servile State,” “Secure Capitalism,” or “State-guaranteed Capitalism.” Chesterton and Belloc, in their critiques, emphasized above all the mandatory nature of the “Social Security” structure for employees or wage earners, manifested in a dual perspective: on the one hand, not allowing them to choose whether to allocate a portion of their salary to pay a specific pension contribution (of any kind) or to keep that portion of their salary; and, on the other hand, not allowing them, when receiving social security benefits, to decide when and how to receive and use them, requiring them, on the contrary, to submit in these matters to the parameters dictated by the administrative apparatus.

From a technical-financial perspective, economist Clifford Hugh Douglas summed up the futility of the financial mechanism associated with the structure of “Social Security,” which basically consists of a policy of redistributing a portion of the aggregate or general quantity of money existing at a given time within a political community. This redistribution is carried out under the fallacious assumption that the true cause of the lack of money (with which to satisfy their needs) suffered by one sector of the population is exclusively due to an alleged excess of that general quantity of money in the hands of another sector of the same population. Douglas, on the other hand, argued that this lack of money was in fact ultimately due not to a relative but to an absolute shortage in the general quantity of money within the political community, which could obviously only be solved by the issuance of newly created money, given directly to the entire population. This money would be in the nature of a dividend, not a subsidy, because its issuance was justified by the general production and consumption data available within the political community. In his BBC speech, broadcast in November 1934, and transcribed shortly afterward under the title “The Causes of War: Is Our Financial System to Blame?”, Douglas stated, among other things, the following:

The practical effect of a National Dividend would be, firstly, to provide a secure source of income to individuals which, though it might be desirable to augment it by work, when obtainable, would, nevertheless, provide all the necessary purchasing power to maintain self-respect and health. By providing a steady demand upon our producing system, it would go a long way towards stabilising business conditions, and would assure producers of a constant home market for their goods. We already have the beginnings of such a system in our various pension schemes and unemployment insurance, but the defect for the moment of these is that they are put forward in conjunction with schemes of taxation which go a long way towards neutralising their beneficial effect. While this is inevitable under our present monetary system, it is far from being inevitable when the essentially public nature of the monetary system receives the recognition which is its due, but is not yet admitted by our bankers.

TH: When Douglas talked about the need for a recognition of the public nature of the monetary system, did he have in mind the rampant phenomenon of private banks creating the money supply (credit) which Pius XI refers to in Qudragesimo Anno as “this dictatorship being most forcibly exercised by those who, since they hold the money and completely control it, control credit also and rule the lending of money. Hence they regulate the flow, so to speak, of the life-blood whereby the entire economic system lives, and have so firmly in their grasp the soul, as it were, of economic life that no one can breathe against their will?”

Secondly, what would be your response to the objections of some traditional Catholics who might say that such a social credit system sounds worryingly similar to the notion of a “universal basic income” promoted by various revolutionary oligarchs today?

FM: Regarding the first question, Douglas always publicly denounced what he called “the Credit Monopoly” as the greatest tyranny ever exercised over societies, and which coincides perfectly with Pope Pius XI’s definition. The economy has no other purpose than to produce the goods and services required by the population to cover their real needs without undermining their freedom and social independence. And the financial system linked to an economy is a mechanism that must serve to streamline and facilitate this socioeconomic objective. And for the financial system to fulfill this purpose, it must always adapt to the physical realities of the economy. But what the “Credit Monopoly” does is precisely the opposite: it molds or subordinates the economy (and, therefore, the entire social order) to the financial system, turning it into the most powerful mechanism of social control that has ever existed in history.

Douglas distinguishes between the “real credit” of a political community—that is, the community’s capacity to produce goods and services as, when, and where required by the people—and “financial credit,” that is, the capacity to issue money as, when, and where required by the people. Well, “financial credit” must always be placed at the service of the “real credit” of the political community, and there is no reason why this should not always be the case.

What Douglas was proclaiming was simply that the financial system should return to its proper function, which is to reflect the real data of the economy, rather than manipulating and distorting it for the private interests of an oligarchy. In other words, it is simply a matter of changing “financial policy,” which effectively has a “public nature” per se. It is important to emphasize that all this has nothing to do with a policy of “nationalizing the banks” or anything like that, as the latter would only have to do with “financial administration,” which is something completely different. Douglas, at the end of his speech before the King of Norway and prominent figures from the business world on February 14, 1935, said it clearly:

The great difficulty, of course, is that it is extraordinarily hard to bring sufficient pressure to bear upon this world-wide monopoly of credit. That is the practical difficulty. If that can be done I believe that nobody will lose. I am not myself, for instance, and advocate of the nationalisation of the banks. I believe this again to be one of those misapprehensions so common in regard to these matters, for nationalisation of the banks is merely and administrative change: it does not mean a change in policy, and mere administrative change cannot be expected to produce any result whatever in regard to this matter. A change in monetary policy can be made without interfering with the administration or ownership of a single bank in the world; and if it could be got into the heads of the comparatively few people who control these enormous monetary institutions that they would lose nothing but power –and that they will lose that power anyway– the thing would be achieved.

The question, ultimately, is not whether banking institutions should be publicly or privately owned, but whether the financial credit of a political community should be considered a public good, subject to objective rules regarding its issuance and withdrawal from circulation for the common good, or whether, on the contrary, it should be considered a private asset of bankers, which they could manage (issue or withdraw) at will for their own private interests. A clear manifestation of this dilemma could be seen in the public confrontation on this extremely important issue between Douglas and Reginald McKenna, former British Chancellor of the Exchequer, who at the time held the presidency of the Midland Bank, which at that time was the world’s largest commercial bank in terms of deposits.

Regarding your second question, I must first emphasize that the Dividend is only one device or tool among others with which to effectively achieve the aforementioned purpose of the Economy. But there are other mechanisms, alternative or complementary, that could implement this proper alignment of “financial credit” with the “real credit” of the community. The “universal basic income” is a measure that fits within the philosophy and structure of “Social Security,” previously rejected, and therefore runs counter to the policy advocated by Douglas. I think the Canadian publicist M. Oliver Heydorn perfectly summarized the substantial differences between this “universal income” and the Dividend instrument proposed by Douglas in an article titled “The (Big!) Difference Between a ‘Basic Income’ and the National Dividend” (later expanded in another titled “A National Dividend vs. a Basic Income – Similarities and Differences”), which appeared on his excellent website, the “Clifford Hugh Douglas Institute.” Mr. Heydorn condensed the essential differences between the two concepts into three. I cite them briefly:

1) The Structural Nature of the Proposed Benefit: Whereas the basic income is typically conceived as a fixed amount that would be granted unconditionally and would be enough for a person to survive on, the National Dividend would vary depending on the performance of the economy. In other words, the dividend is indexed to productivity. No productivity, no dividend. The greater society’s productivity, the greater the dividend.

2) The Social Purpose of the Proposed Benefit: Whereas the basic income is normally allied to a policy of full employment (i. e., the amount given to citizens must not be so great as to serve as a disincentive to seeking work in the formal economy), the National Dividend is allied to a policy of increasing leisure. Social Credit is opposed to full employment as a fixed objective.

3) The Financing of the Proposed Benefit: Whereas the basic income is usually conceived as being funded within the financial constraints of existing economic orthodoxy, i.e., through redistributive taxation, or an increase in public indebtedness, or the redistribution of profits from publicly owned corporations, etc., the National Dividend is financed through the debt-free creation of new credit that would be issued by a National Credit Office.

Figure 2. The Circulation of Financial Credit in a Social Credit system

TH: Was Douglas proposing a kind of cooperativism for the entire national economy? I believe C.H. Douglas was an Anglican. How have Catholics responded to his ideas over the years? If we consider distributism, corporatism, and social credit in the same period, why was the interwar period such a fertile time for alternative economic models?

FM: In response to the first question, one could draw some analogy between the political economy advocated by Douglas and the functioning of cooperatives, but it seems to me that these comparisons serve to confuse rather than clarify the issue. Douglas focused his attention on the accounting applied to the economic activity of modern industrial societies and realized that it was erroneous and flawed. The amount of money reaching the consumer population during the production process was not sufficient to cover the prices of those goods and services produced. In other words, supply is incapable of creating its own effective demand. Since the purpose of economics is the production and distribution of goods and services that satisfy the needs or requirements of consumers, the financial system fails to achieve this objective, causing, on the one hand, the generation of enormous quantities of goods that cannot be sold, and, on the other hand, large masses of the population unable to purchase them. In other words, the capitalist system is not self-liquidating. H. Belloc, in a speech given on May 26, 1933, later transcribed in G. W.’s Weekly of June 8, 1933, under the title “The Restoration of Property,” expressed it as follows:

We have had during the last fifty or sixty years inventions and discoveries, such as the internal combustion engine and the distribution of electric power, which might have aided enormously the distribution of property if our philosophy [= the philosophy prevailing in the modern economic world] had been right. But more important in my judgment is this. Industrial Capitalism has broken down. It has broken down for a very simple arithmetical reason–it distributes less purchasing power than [the amount of monetary prices] it creates. I am not going to speak of Major Douglas’s scheme of Social Credit, because that is merely an indirect method of distributing property, which I prefer to achieve by direct means. Industrial Capitalism has broken down, not because it is tired or old or wicked, but because it is producing an amount of wealth greater than it is distributing purchasing power for [buying] that wealth; and to put it very crudely indeed, if I want to make a hundred thousand boots, or rather employ men to make those boots, by the time the boots are made I have distributed to the men who make them the money wherewith to purchase thirty thousand boots, and what I am to do with the seventy thousand boots left? I must sell them to the Colonies. And supposing they also learn to turn a handle, and produce the boots themselves, where are you? That is why Industrial Capitalism has broken down.

To correct this defective financial accounting and to readjust “financial credit” to the “real credit” of civil society, so that the economy fulfills its proper purpose, Douglas established his three principles for the proper functioning of any financial system associated or linked to the economic system of a political community. He presented them on May 2, 1930, as an annex to the report he had drafted for the “Committee on Finance and Industry” (better known as the “MacMillan Committee,” which had been created to investigate the causes of the global economic crisis arising from the New York Stock Exchange crash of October 1929). The annex read as follows:

a) That the cash credits of the population of any country shall at any moment be collectively equal to the collective cash prices for consumable goods for sale in that country (irrespective of the cost prices of such goods), and such cash credits shall be cancelled or depreciated only on the purchase or depreciation of goods for consumption.

b) That the credits required to finance production shall be supplied, not from savings, but be new credits relating to new production, and shall be recalled only in the ratio of general depreciation to general appreciation.

c) That the distribution of cash credits to individuals shall be progressively less dependent upon employment. That is to say, that the dividend shall progressively displace the wage and salary, as productive capacity increases per man-hour.

Turning now to your second question, I think the interwar period was a fruitful period for reflection on the “social question” for three reasons. First, especially in the Catholic sphere, because of the impetus the Popes had given to social thought since Leo XIII published his encyclical Rerum Novarum. Furthermore, the appearance of Quadragesimo Anno in 1931 further promoted this desire to find solutions to the social problem. The second reason, of a more general nature, is simply what (as we have seen before) Belloc denounced as the breakdown or collapse of industrial capitalism. After the First World War, the classical capitalist model simply entered into crisis and fell into total disrepute. Douglas’s reflections on the functioning of the capitalist system came to mind precisely during the First World War, while he was working as an accountant in a British RAF factory. The third and final reason was the global economic crisis following the crash of 1929, which further deepened the crisis of capitalism and, as a side effect, helped to foster and strengthen the analysis and diagnosis of the ills of capitalism in order to find the appropriate treatment.

Special mention should be made of the intellectual movements and publications that developed during the interwar period in Great Britain, constituting truly fertile ground conducive to the proliferation of multiple ideas on this transcendental subject. Among the main currents that emerged, two clearly defined and completely opposed battlefields quickly formed: on the one hand, what we might call the “Catholic camp,” composed of the Social Credit and Distributist schools (at least until Chesterton’s death in 1936 and Belloc’s incapacitation in 1940); and, on the other hand, the “reformed capitalist camp,” composed fundamentally of Fabian Socialism, whose principal mastermind in the discipline of finance was J. M. Keynes, the absolute antithesis of Major Douglas. It is also worth mentioning separately (adopting a unique position, although tending more towards the erroneous Fabian side) the Guild-Socialist or National-Guildist movement, more or less related to the corporatist or fascist system. Douglas was an Anglican, but of the “Anglo-Catholic” branch, and, although he did not take the final step of converting to the true Religion, he himself recognized that his ideas were only compatible with the worldview of the Social Doctrine of the Church. For example, in the July 24, 1948, issue of the weekly The Social Crediter, the official organ of the “Social Credit Secretariat,” Douglas wrote (emphasis added):

We have from time to time expressed the opinion that the Roman Catholic outlook on economics and sociology is the essentially Christian outlook; and that no other Christian body of opinion is so consistent in its official attitude. It is beyond question that the anti-Christian venom of the Communists is focused on Roman Catholicism, and that Protestant bodies, when not used as tools (and even then), merely excite contempt.

Douglas also acknowledged that his financial proposals were designed to foster a socio-economic order that departed from the ideologies of Guild Socialism and Fabianism, but which were in perfect harmony with the social philosophy of Chesterton and Belloc’s Distributism. Thus, for example, in relation to the latter, Douglas, in a critique of the drift that Distributism had taken after Chesterton’s death and Belloc’s incapacity, made the following statement in the January 16, 1943, issue of “The Social Crediter” (emphasis added):

It is profoundly significant that what is now called Socialism, and pretends to be a movement for the improvement of the under-privileged, began as something closely approaching the Distributivism of Messrs. Belloc and Chesterton, of which the financial proposals embodied in various authentic Social Credit Schemes form the practical mechanism, although developed without reference to it. It was penetrated by various subversive bodies, and perverted into the exact opposite of Distributivism—Collectivism.

And more explicitly (if that were possible) he acknowledged this convergence of Social Credit with Distributism in the quarterly magazine “The Fig Tree,” in its June 1938 issue, with these words:

Mr. Chesterton and his Distributists, in common with the Catholic Church, were fundamentally right in recognising stable property tenure as essential to liberty. The terms of tenure are probably far from satisfactory, either now or in the past, but they are most certainly not being improved by being transferred to the mercy of international usurers, whose policies are rooted in spurious values.

In short, Douglas’s proposals received enormous support and publicity among the Catholic community of the Canadian Province of Quebec, with the main driving force being the publicist Louis Even and his magazine Vers Demain, which is still published today. In fact, when a controversy arose in the 1940s between the Anglo-Protestants of Western Canada and the Franco-Catholics of Quebec over the true interpretation of Douglas’s doctrine, Douglas did not hesitate for a second to side with the Quebec Catholics as those who had truly and correctly understood his thinking. Regarding the Catholic reception of Douglas’s teachings in general, and particularly in Quebec, I wrote a monograph entitled “The Catholic Critical Reception of Social Credit,” which was published in the January-February 2024 issue of Verbo magazine, where more information can be found.

TH: And is it not the case that Pius XII spoke favourably with regard to Douglas’ Social Credit ideas? Have these ideas for Social Credit Schemes been implemented on a local or regional level at all? If so, what kind of fruits were there?

FM: Regarding Pope Pius XII and his pro-Social Credit stance, the only information I know is provided by Mr. Alain Pilote, a Catholic apologist for the “Louis Even Institute,” an organization based in the Province of Quebec dedicated to disseminating the Social Credit doctrine and publishing the aforementioned publication Vers Demain as its official organ. The information in question is included in his book “Economic Democracy in the Light of the Social Doctrine of the Church.” In the second edition (2019) of the English version of the book, it appears specifically on page 187 and reads as follows:

In 1950, a group of influential businessmen asked a bishop, H. E. Albertus Martin of Nicolet, Quebec, to go to Rome and obtain from Pope Pius XII a condemnation of Social Credit. Upon returning to Quebec, the Bishop told the businessmen: “To get a condemnation of Social Credit, Rome is not the place to go to. Pius XII said to me: ‘Social Credit would create, in the world, a climate that would allow the blossoming of family and Christianity.’”

Mr. Pilote does not, however, provide any source for the origin of this information. In any case, more important seems to us to be the fact that the Bishops of the Province of Quebec, in view of the enormous spread of Douglas’s proposals in the French-Canadian Province during the second half of the 1930s, mainly thanks to the actions of publicist Louis Even, in August 1939 commissioned a commission of nine theologians to conduct a study on Social Credit, as some Catholic sociologists in the Province accused him of being inclined toward socialism. Once the report was completed, it was published for the first time in the official organ of the Bishopric of the Diocese of Quebec City on November 7, 1939. Its conclusion, as reproduced in English translation on page 187 of Pilote’s book, reads as follows:

The Commission therefore answers in the negative to the question: ‘Is Social Credit tainted with Socialism?’ The Commission cannot see how the basic principles of the Social Credit system, as explained above, could be condemned on behalf of the Church and of her social doctrine.

Regarding the second question, to my knowledge, only one serious attempt has been made to implement Social Credit to date. I am referring to the momentous events that occurred in the Province of Alberta, in Western Canada, following the takeover of the Provincial Government by a Social Credit Cabinet in August 1935. It should be noted that the Provincial Government was unable to implement a Social Credit policy for the simple reason… that it was not allowed to do so. The opposition that arose from the Federal Government, supported by international banking and its media, was brutal, unlike anything ever seen before. Everyone was asking the same question: what did the omnipotent international powers care about the attempt to test Social Credit in a remote province of Canada, in the most remote corner of the world? Why such fierce and ruthless opposition to what, in principle and at first glance, one might consider an insignificant policy promoted in a province lost in the world? Added to this was the subsequent attempt to “interpret” that “experiment” in a multitude of academic publications that, in reality, had no other purpose than to misrepresent the facts as much as possible.

The current President of the Social Credit Secretariat since 2001, Frances Hutchinson, a convert to the Catholic religion, was the first to attempt a summary of those surprising events in Chapters 5 and 6 of her book Understanding the Financial System: Social Credit Rediscovered, published in 2010. At the beginning of Chapter 6, this economist makes the following warning:

In August 1935 the vast yet sparsely populated Province of Alberta, in the West of Canada, was big news on a world scale. Over the subsequent decades of the twentieth century volumes of academic works were written to explain away the aberration of a popularly elected government attempting to buck the trend by introducing revolutionary legislation in defiance of the colonial constitution and the conventional party system. Although the events in Alberta gave rise to an immense literature, the full history of events is told here for the first time.

Figure 3. William Aberhart, founder of the Alberta Social Credit Party, with his cabinet in 1935

I obviously cannot go into detail here on the description of those events, but I would at least like to excerpt a fragment from a brief summary, which appeared in the January 24, 1953, issue of The Social Crediter, which might help give us a slight idea of ​​what really happened in Alberta (emphasis added):

During the latter part of [1937] and in 1938, seven Acts specifically designed to implement Social Credit were passed into Law by the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. All these were disallowed by the actions of the Federal Government, the Lieutenant Governor of the Province or the Courts. With the advent of war in 1939 the Alberta Government abandoned its offensive to implement Social Credit and, until William Aberhart’s death [= Provincial Prime Minister] in 1943, confined its efforts to the resistance of the Federal Government’s pressure to centralise power under cover of the war. Aberhart’s strategy was to use the war years to consolidate his position and to win wider and better informed support for a determined renewal of the offensive. When [Ernest] Manning succeeded to the Premiership the ground which had been gained was thrown away. The policy of the Alberta Government underwent a fundamental change. […] With the end of the war, the Alberta Government’s departure from any pretence of pursuing Social Credit became more open and shameless. Douglas was repudiated. Informed Social Crediters were purged from the ‘Party’ and from key Government positions. The Social Credit Board [= an advisory body] –the only reliable local source of information on Social Credit– was dissolved. The Alberta Government became the Canadian model of orthodox administration acclaimed by big business and the money monopoly. In 1938 the last of the Social Credit Acts was disallowed. That is fourteen years ago and since then no attempt has been made to introduce Social Credit. Social Credit has not only ‘not been tried’, it is no longer attempted in Alberta. Progressively the emphasis of legislation has been shifted to ‘welfare’ measures (collectivism, socialism). The Alberta Government has become a Welfare State Government, but it is still called a Social Credit Government.

It is impossible to address in detail, within the narrow scope of an interview, the essence of the problem in the contemporary financial-economic system and the response given by Social Credit for its proper correction. I have limited myself to only the fundamental points, constituting a first approximation so that the novice reader will then be encouraged to study and delve deeper into this extremely important issue on their own. In this regard, although it may be somewhat lengthy, I believe it appropriate to reproduce an editorial published by Arthur Brenton, editor of the weekly The New Age from July 1923 until its closure in April 1938, in its issue of March 8, 1934. It read as follows (emphasis added):

The Douglas Movement bases its educational activities on two fundamental propositions, the one being technical and the other political. The first is that the financial system automatically causes a shortage of purchasing power. The second is that something called the Money Monopoly exits, and that the people at the head of it are deliberately preventing the public from getting to understand that this is so. The Douglas advocate, insofar as he is able to make contact with the public, is called upon to explain the “how?” of the technical proposition, and the “who?” of the political one. “Give us a reason–give us a name“, cry the multitudes, oblivious of the fact that in the first case they are without a background which would make the reason intelligible to them; and that, in the second, no direct evidence can be brought against any person at all. “Show as a sign”, cried the multitudes of old, “that the words you speak are true”; and they were told that they were not going to be given a sign–that if they could not feel the power of the truth in the words spoken, no sign would communicate that feeling.

It is true that the reason is intelligibly communicable, but only to those who are patient enough to undergo the discipline of systematic research. But to the Douglas advocate the task of contacting such people and persuading them, in an atmosphere of mass-incredulity, to assume the antecedent possibility of the proposition being true (without which assumption who is going to spend time on study?) comes as near to being insuperable as any task that can be conceived. The masses, when they demand a reason, are demanding something which is really a substitute for reasoning–something which commands conviction without demanding thought. This is because they have been trained to expect instruction in that form, and because it has always been possible for them to get it in that form in respect of the policies and programmes which political parties have strewn about for them to wrangle over. Little pieces of irreconcilable truths is all they want, and it has been all that they have been allowed to have. And, mentally disarmed as they have become by this armoury of heterogeneous convictions about trivialities, they yet expect, mostly subconsciously, to understand the financial technique for economic synthesis and political reconciliation merely by inspecting an article in a newspaper or hearing a speech in a meeting-place.

The Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Today's Holy Mass from Corpus Christi Church, Tynong AUS. You may follow the Mass at Divinum Officium.

The Octave Day of St John the Baptist ~ Dom Prosper Guéranger

Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ ~ Dom Prosper Guéranger

The Octave Day of St John the Baptist

From Dom Prosper Guéranger's Liturgical Year:

The Church unites on June the 24th in one same glad celebration, the memory both of the Birth of the Precursor and of his Circumcision, surrounded as it was by prodigies, related in the Gospel of the feast itself. But, properly speaking, this is the day whereon these wonders were operated, according to the words of the Gospel: “It came to pass that on the Eighth Day the child was circumcised.” By placing on the morrow of this Eighth Day the celebration of Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth, the Church seems to insinuate, besides, that Our Lady, who had been staying in Zachary’s house during the last three months, prolonged her stay and her tender care of the infant and his mother up to this date. The babe that three months ago, at her first arrival, had leaped as though fain to force the prison of the maternal womb, seemed at the moment of his birth to spring towards her; she received him into her arms, and pressed him to her breast wherein the Son of God still lay reposing. She gave herself entirely to him during these eight days; for she knew they would be the only ones in which the Friend of the Bridegroom would taste here below, although without seeing him, the intimate presence of him unto whom his whole heart turned. Save the solemn moment of his Baptism, the sublime majesty of which would hold in subjection every sentiment in the soul of the Precursor but that of self-annihilation and of adoration, John is never to behold (excepting once or twice at a distance) the Well-Beloved he has come to announce. Profound mystery this of plan divine! John is never to know the Bridegroom, never to enjoy our Jesus, save in Mary.

Nevertheless, even tomorrow must the farewell be; even tomorrow the desert is to open before him; a desert of the soul, more terrific a thousand times than that which affects the outward senses. His flight from the world to the desert of Judea, far from being a trial to John, will be rather a solace to this infant soul for whom earth was already too narrow. In the wilderness, at least, the air is pure, heaven seems ready to open, and God gives answer to the soul that calls upon him. (Origen, in Luc. Hom. xi, translatio Hieron.)Let us then not be astonished that scarcely is John born than he searches for solitude, and passes almost at once from his mother’s breast to the desert wilds. (Hieron. Dialog. contra. Lucif. 8) There was no childhood for the man who three months previous to his birth had attained, at one bound, to the plenitude of the age of Christ; (Ambrose, in Luc 2:30) no need of human master had he whom heaven had undertaken to instruct, (Chrysost. Hom. xiii al. xii in Joan. 2.) who knew both the past and the future, in God (lines 216-217 of Poema vi., “De S. Johanne Baptista Christi Praecursore”), and whose own plenitude of knowledge, transmitted by him to his parents, had turned them also into prophets (Guerric, Sermone I. de nativitate Iohannis Baptistae). Better far than Elizabeth had he entered into the meaning of Our Lady in her Magnificat; even on this day he quite comprehends Zachary hailing him as Prophet of the Highest, in the Benedictus: (Ambrose, in Luc 2:34) and from whom, save from the Word Himself, could the Voice of the Word have received the science of language? Gifted with the full use of his will, (Peter Chrysol. Serm. 87, 88, 91)what progress, on the other side, must he not have made, in love, during these three months! The Mother of divine grace neglected nothing in the formation of this natural disposition so singularly favored, where no obstacle opposed the full development of the divine germs. St. Ambrose, whose exquisite delicacy had so wonderfully penetrated into these mysteries, shows us John under Mary’s influence, exercising himself in the several virtues, anointing his limbs like a valiant athlete, and essaying, even from his mother’s womb, the combats which await him. (Ambrose, in Luc 2:29, Origen, in Luc. Hom. vii-ix) The eight days which have just elapsed for him in the arms of Our Lady have completed the work. His sweet Mistress, whom he is to see no more, may even now bespeak their meeting again, in heaven, he at the left of her Son’s throne, she at the right, according to the tradition of which Christian Art has made itself the faithful interpreter up to our own time. (Grmiouard de Saint-Lauret, Guide de l’ Art Chrétien, t. v.)

While awaiting for another six months the birth of the Virgin’s Son, earth is meanwhile in possession of him who is the greatest amongst all that are born of women. No human ken in its highest soarings may touch the summits whereon this child of but eight days holds fixed the gaze of his intelligence; no sanctity may stretch to further limits than his, the heroism of love. Fully enlightened on all the bearings of the approaching farewell, he will not shrink at seeing the Son and the Mother depart on the morrow. Like the divine Spouse himself, he, the Friend of the Bridegroom, is strong enough to have no other food than the accomplishment of the Will of the Father who has sent them both. (John 4:34) His soul, filled henceforth with the memory of these days wherein his heart has been throbbing to the pulsations of that of Jesus, while Mary has been clasping him to her breast, will, by its fidelity, despite the distant parting, ever keep up between his own and these two Hearts the sublime concert wherein, during these happy hours, the Eternal Trinity has been listening for the first time to an echo, in the flesh, of Its own harmony. Like to the sunflower, friend of the day-star, which, without quitting earth whereon it is placed, keeps ever turning towards him its wistful corolla, John, from the desert’s midst, will follow in heart and thought every step of Jesus; but yet will he keep restraint upon his soul. With that eagle-glance of his which heretofore espied him in Our Lady’s womb, he will behold him despite all intermediaries, now a child, now grown up to manhood, passing by not far from his solitude; yet never once will the impetuosity of his love carry him away to climb the few hills then separating him from Jesus, and to throw himself at his sacred Feet; never once will the zeal which devours him, the Voice, the Witness of the Word, urge him to anticipate by one moment the hour that Heaven has fixed for him to cry out to the ignorant crowd: “Behold your God, the Lamb that is to save you, the expected Messias!” And when at last, in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Cæsar, he manifests the Bridegroom at the divine command, he, the great Baptist, is not the one to come nigh to Jesus saying: Master, where dwellest thou? nor is he the one that receives the answer: Come and see! (John 1:38-39) To others, yea, even to all others, the happy lot to follow Jesus, to abide with Jesus: but as to John, he thrills indeed at his blissful meeting; yet for his part, he keeps afar off, he disappears even until that day, now fast approaching, when the prison of the adulterous Herod is to become his grave.

“O God!” cries out the gentle St. Francis de Sales, “such an example as this overwhelms my mind with its grandeur.” (Letter, 14 October 1604, Ste Jeanne-Francoise de Chantal) “Oh! what divine abstinence,” exclaims the Eagle of Meaux, in his turn, “Oh! abstinence more admirable far than all those other abstinences related of St. John the Baptist!” (Bossuet, Elevations sur les Myst. 15 sem. el. 7)Let us, too, share with the Church in her admiring gladsomeness, while during these days she makes echo to Gabriel’s voice proclaiming at once the dignity both of the Son of Zachary and of our Savior himself. Let us enter into the enthusiasm wherewith so many fathers and doctors (hailing first of all Mary blessed above all) are loud in their applause of the eulogium given to John by the Word Himself. (Matthew 11) Let us understand them, when they declare that amongst all men, Christ alone is more exalted than he; (Augustine, Sermon 66:2) that whosoever else is born of woman is inferior to him; (Maxim. Taurin. Homily on St John) that he is the most excellent of all saints; (Imitation of Christ 4:17) yea, more than saint is he (Guerric, Sermone I. de nativitate Iohannis Baptistae), a demi-god (line 252 of Poema vi., “De S. Johanne Baptista Christi Praecursore”), marking the limit of human merit; so great, in fine, that a greater must necessarily be God (Augustine, Sermo cclxxxvii on John). Contemplating a perfection so sublime which surpasses the ken of human intelligence (Guerric, Sermone I. de nativitate Iohannis Baptistae), we cannot be surprised to learn that, according to the doctrine laid down in the works of Gerson, whose authority here is of such great weight, John the Baptist is exalted in heaven above all the choirs of the celestial hosts, and holds the place left vacant by Lucifer at the foot of the throne of God. (Lectiones duæ super Marcum)

Having during this Octave been following with holy Church the teachings which it inspires, we shall conclude this day with the words of Saint Ambrose which compose the last lesson of the Matins Office now in use: “John is his name, writes Zachary, and forthwith his tongue is unloosed. Let us also write these mysteries spiritually, and we shall know how to speak. Let us engrave the Precursor of Christ, not on inanimate tablets, but on our living hearts. For to name John is to announce Christ. Let, then, these two names, John and Jesus Christ, be united upon our lips; and therefrom perfect praise will arise; like to that which issued from the mouth of that priest whose hesitating faith concerning the Precursor had rendered him dumb!” (Ambrose, in Luc. 2:32)

Let us now hear the conclusion of St. Ephraim’s song in which he gives the meeting of the Bridegroom and the Friend of the Bridegroom on the banks of the Jordan. John continues to expose the endless difficulties wherewith his humility inspires him, in order to decline the honor of baptizing the Word made Flesh.

HYMN

Feeble am I, nor am I able with my hands to handle thy Body which is all Fire. But flaming are thy heavenly legions; give command unto one of thine Angels to baptize thee.

— Not of Angels have I assumed a body, that an Angel I should call to baptize Me. With a human body I am clad, by a man am I to be baptized.

— The waters saw thee and trembled exceedingly; the waters saw thee and were troubled; the stream bubbled by reason of its agitation, and shall I, frail man, dare to confer baptism upon thee?

By my baptism, the waters are sanctified, and receive of me spirit and fire. Now, unless I receive baptism, they will not have the power of generating sons immortal.

— Fire, if it approach to thy Fire, burneth like straw. Mount Sinai endured thee not, how then may I, frail man, be able to baptize thee?— By My Baptism, the Waters are sanctified, and receive of Me Spirit and Fire. Now, unless I receive baptism, they will not have the power of generating sons immortal.

— I am Burning Fire, made for man’s sake a Babe in the Virgin’s chaste womb, but now about to be baptized in Jordan’s flood.

— Fitting it were that thou shouldst baptize me, thou who art so holy that thou canst make all things clean. By these are the contaminated sanctified; since therefore, so holy art thou, what availeth that thou receive baptism?

— It behooveth much that thou, without contention, do baptize Me, as I command. Lo! I did baptize thee in the womb, do thou baptize Me in the Jordan.

— I am a slave wholly wretched; O thou who settest all men free, have mercy upon me. To loosen the latchet of thy shoes, I am utterly unqualified; who then can render me worthy to touch thine august Head?

— By My Baptism slaves obtain liberty; the handwriting is torn in pieces: the seal is put to their manumission, in the waters. If I be not baptized, all these things shall be left undone.

— In the air, above Jordan, lo! a sparkle of fire expecteth thee; if thou consentest thereunto and wishest to be baptized, do thou lave thyself, and accomplish all things.

— It behooveth that thou confer Baptism on Me, lest anyone should err and say of Me: “If he were not alien to the Father, wherefore did the Levite fear to baptize him?”

— When thou receivest Baptism, how shall I speak the prayer upon Jordan? The Father and the Holy Ghost appearing over thee,—whom then, according to priestly custom, shall I invoke?

— The Prayer shall be accomplished in silence; do thy part; set merely thy hand upon Me, and the Father, in place of Priest, will proclaim what behooveth of His Son.

— Lo! all the Elect are present; Behold those who are invited by the Bridegroom, they are my witnesses that daily have I spoken thus unto them: The Voice am I, not the Word.

— O thou Voice of him who crieth in the wilderness, accomplish the work whereunto thou art come, so that the desert may proclaim that thou art gone forth unto Him in the vast plain where thou didst preach.

— The cry of the Angels reacheth unto mine ears. Behold I hear from out the House of the Father the heavenly Virtues exclaiming: “Thine Epiphany, O Spouse, giveth life to the world.”

— Time is speeding apace, and the paranymphs are awaiting to behold what shall take place; Ah then! do thy part, confer Baptism upon Me, so that the Father’s Voice, which will presently sound forth, may be praised.

— Lord, I hear, I obey; according to thy Word,—Oh! come thou unto the Baptism to which thy love urgeth thee. With extremest veneration is it that man, who is dust, perceiveth himself to presume so as that he should lay his hand on his Maker.

There stood the heavenly hosts in silence; the Most Holy Bridegroom descended into the Jordan; having received Baptism, he presently ascended, and his Light shone forth upon the world.

Heaven’s portals were opened and the Voice of the Father was heard: “This is My Beloved Son in Whom I am well-pleased.” Oh! then, adore Him, all ye people.

They that saw it were amazed, seeing that the Spirit came down to render testimony unto him. Praise, O Lord, be unto thine Epiphany which maketh all to be glad. In thy manifestation all the world is made resplendent!

Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesust Christ

From Dom Prosper Guéranger's Liturgical Year:

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.

INTROIT

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.

EPISTLE

Lesson of the Epistle of St Paul to the Hebrews 9:11-15

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.)

GRADUAL

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.

OFFERTORY

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.

COMMUNION

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 wine-press? I have trodden the wine-press 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.