℣. In resurrectione tua, Christe, alleluia. ℟. Cœli et terra laetentur, alleluia.
℣. In thy resurrection, O Christ, alleluia. ℟. Let heaven and earth rejoice, alleluia.
THIS Church founded and maintained by Christ —is it nothing more than a society of minds that know, and of hearts that love, the truths revealed to it by heaven? Have we adequately defined it, when we call it ‘a spiritual society'? No, most assuredly; for we are told that it was to spread, and actually has been spread, throughout the whole world. Now how could such progress and conquest have taken place, if the spiritual society founded by our Redeemer had not also been exterior and visible? On earth, souls cannot hold intercommunication without bodies. Faith cometh by hearing, says the Apostle: and how shall they hear without a preacher?[1] When,
therefore, our Risen Jesus says to his Apostles: Go, teach all nations![2] he distinctly implies that the word of God will be heard, that it will resound throughout the world, and that its sound will be heard both by them that obey and by them that reject the teaching of his ministers. Has this word a right to circulate thus freely, independently of any permission from earthly powers? Yes; for the Son of God has said: Go, teach all nations! He must be obeyed; the word of God cannot be fettered.[3]
The word, then, the exterior word is free; and being free, it obtains numerous disciples. Will these disciples live isolatedly? Will they not rather group around their apostle, the better to profit by his teaching? Will they not look on one another as brethren, and members of the same family? And if so, they must hold their assemblies. Thus the new people is brought before the notice of the world. It was necessary that this should be; for if this people, which is to attract all others to itself, be not visible, how can it do its work?
But the people thus assembled must have their buildings, their temples. Therefore do they erect houses of preaching and prayer. The stranger—that is, he who is not a Christian—seeing these new places of worship, asks: ‘What means all this? Whence come these people who pray aloof from their fellow-citizens? Would not one be inclined to say that we have a nation within the nation?’ The stranger is right; there is a nation within the nation, and it will continue to be so until the whole nation itself have passed into the ranks of this new people.
Every society stands in need of laws; the Church, therefore, will not be long without giving outward proof of her internal government. There are her festivals, her solemnities, which denote a great people; her ritual rules, forming a visible bond of union between the members of her society, and this not merely during the hours of divine service; there are commandments and orders made by the various degrees of the hierarchy, which are promulgated and claim obedience; there are institutions and corporations existing within the great society itself, and they add to her strength and beauty; in a word, there is everything that is needed, even penal laws against offending and refractory members.
But it does not suffice the Church that she have places where her children can assemble together; provision must also be made for the support of her clergy, for the expenses attendant on the divine worship, for the necessities of her indigent members. Aided by the generosity of her children, she enters into possession of certain landed properties, which become sacred by reason of their use, as also because of the superhuman dignity of her who owns them. Nay more; when the princes of this earth, tired of their vain efforts to stay the Church’s progress, shall ask to be admitted as her children, a new necessity will arise from this: the supreme Pontiff can be no longer the subject of any temporal sovereign, and he himself must become king. The Christian world hails with joy this crowning of the work of Christ, to whom all power has been given in heaven and on earth ,[4] and who was one day to reign, with temporal power, in the person of his Vicar.
Such is the Church: a spiritual, but at the same time an exterior and visible society; just in the same way as man is spiritual because of his soul and material because of his body, which is an essential part of his being. The Christian, therefore, should love the Church such as God has made her; he should detest that false and hypocritical spiritualism which, with a view to subvert the work of Christ, would confine religion within the exclusively spiritual domain. We never can admit such a limitation. The Divine Word has assumed our fiesh; he permitted his creature man to hear and see and handle him;[5] and when he organized his Church on earth, he made it speaking, visible, and so to say palpable. We are a vast state; we have our king, our magistrates, our fellow-citizens; and we should be willing to lay down our lives for this supernatural country, whose excellence is as far superior to that of our earthly country as heaven is better than the whole earth. Satan has an instinctive hatred for this country, which is to bring us to the Paradise whence he has been driven; he has used every means in his power to ruin it. He began by attacking the liberty of the word which is preached to men, and leads them to the Church. Did not his first agents forbid the Apostles to speak at all in the name of Jesus to any man?[6] The strategy was shrewd enough; and although it failed to arrest the progress of the Gospel, it has ever been resorted to by the enemy, even to this very day.
The powers of the world have always been jealous of Christian assemblies; the jealousy began early, and has periodically manifested its fury during these eighteen centuries. Frequently during a fit of persecution we have been obliged to flee to caves and forests, and seek the hours of night for our celebrations of the mysteries of light, and for singing the praises of the divine Sun of Justice: Our dearest churches, which had been erected by the piety of our ancestors, and were sacred by innumerable memories—how many times have they not been made ruins! Satan's ambition is to efface every vestige of Christ's kingdom on earth, for that kingdom is his defeat.
The laws promulgated by the Church, and the communications of the pastors with one another and with the sovereign Pontiff—these, also, have excited the most tyrannical jealousy. The right of self-government has been denied to the Church; servile men have aided emperors and kings to fetter the Spouse of Christ. Her temporal possessions, too, have tempted the avarice of sovereigns. These possessions procured her independence; it was, therefore, considered necessary to rob her of them, that she might become the creature of the state. It was a wicked attempt, and has brought the most terrible chastisements upon the countries where it was perpetrated, yet there was one more wicked still, which aimed at depriving of his throne, venerable by its thousand years’ duration, the Pontiff who holds in his sacred hands the keys of the kingdom of God.
Meanwhile, the most detestable errors are being propagated. Among these, we would mention one, which in spite of its impious absurdity, finds favour with thousands: we mean the doctrine that the Church should be purely spiritual, or, if it is to be a visible Church, that it should be an instrument in the hands of government, for political purposes. Let us hold such doctrine in execration; let us think of those countless martyrs, who have shed their blood in order to maintain and secure to the Church of Christ her position as a society, visible, external, independent of every human power, in a word, complete in herself. It may be that we are the last inheritors of the promise; and if so, it would be an additional reason for our proclaiming the rights of the Spouse of Christ, upon whom he has conferred the empire of the world, which only exists because of her, and will be destroyed as soon as it refuses her a resting-place.
Let us close these reflections with a hymn of praise to our divine Head. The ancient Missal of Saint Gall gives us this other Sequence in honour of our paschal mystery.
Sequence
Eia harmoniis, Socii, laudum resonis
Hujus splendide vernantis Celebremus gaudia Simul temporis,
In quo patriae coelestis Per Christum patet Reserata spes nobis.
Nunc gemit Pharao sibi raptos, plaga mortis Quos afflixit vernaculos.
Nos autem referamus supremo Grates regi, Qui nos redemit Barathro.
Et qui per Christum canopica, More Judaeorum, solvimur pæno, Mentes pariter praeparemus, Typicam ut immolemus Victimam,
Et digne Mysticis ut ejus Epulemur carnibus, Fermenta criminum purgemus, Sinceriter vivamus.
Sic eripi in hujus Eremo vitæ quimus Per coeleste lumen De tetris hostibus;
Per lavacrumque Christi inimicis elapsi, Digne ipsum laudare hymno Moysi, Qui suos maligno pressos Pharaone alumnos liberat, obstructo Atris abyssis inimico.
Quapropter certante nunc voto, jubilemus Tantae potestatis Domino, et suae januam Praecelsae pietatis pulsemus
Precibus devotis, Moriendo ut qui mortis legem rupit atrocis, Hic redemptos custodiat, Ne post tergum decidant, Sed ut regnum scandant promissum.
Amen.
Come, brethren! let us, in sweetest hymns of praise,
Together celebrate the joys of this bright spring time,
When, through Christ, our hopes of heaven revive.
Now Pharaoh pines with grief to see himself deprived of the slaves he tortured with the scourge of death.
But let us give thanks to the divine king, who delivered us from the abyss.
And being, as the Jews of old, delivered by Christ from Egyptian tyranny, let us prepare ourselves to offer up the mystic Lamb.
His Blood most holy shall mark the dwelling of our souls, and we not fear the avenging sword of the destroying angel.
And that we may worthily partake of his sacred Flesh, us put away the leaven of and make our lives the unleavened bread of sincerity.
Thus, by the aid of heavenly light, we shall be delivered from the wicked enemies that fill the desert of this world.
The waters, prepared for us by Christ, shall save us from our enemies, and we will praise him in the canticle which Moses sang when he rescued his Israelites from Pharaoh’s cruelty, and saw the dark waves close upon the pursuant foe.
Wherefore let us strive to outdo each other in the praise we sing to this almighty Lord; and knocking at the door of his infinite mercy,
let us devoutly beseech him, that having by his own dying broken the yoke of death, he may watch over the people he has redeemed, preserve them from lagging behind, and aid them to reach the Promised Land above.
Amen.
[1] Rom. x 17,14. [2] St Matt xxviii 19. [3] 2 Tim ii 9. [4] St Matt. xxviii 18. [5] St John i 1. [6] Acts iv 17, 18.
CLAD in his bright coat of mail, mounted on his war-steed, and spearing the dragon with his lance, George, the intrepid champion of our Risen Jesus, comes to gladden us today with his feast. From the East, where he is known as the great Martyr,devotion to St George soon spread in the Western Church, and our Christian armies have always loved and honoured him as one of their dearest patrons. His martyrdom took place in Paschal Time; and thus he stands before us as the guardian of the glorious sepulchre, just as Stephen, the Protomartyr, watches near the crib of the Infant God.
The Roman Liturgy gives no lessons on the life of St George; but, in their stead, reads to us a passage from St Cyprian on the sufferings of the martyrs. This derogation from the general rule dates from the fifth century. At a celebrated Council held in Rome in the year 496, Pope St Gelasius drew up, for the guidance of the faithful, a list of books which might or might not be read without danger. Among the number of those that were to be avoided, he mentioned the ‘Acts of St Georg,' as having been compiled by one who, besides being an ignorant man, was also a heretic. In. the East, however, there were other ' Acts ' of the holy martyr, totally different from those current in Rome; but they were not known in that city. The cultus of St George lost nothing, in the holy city, by this absence of a true legend. From a very early period, a church was built in his honour; it was one of those that were selected as Stations, and gave a Title to a Cardinal; it exists to this day, and it is called Saint George in Velabro (the Veil of Gold) .
The Bollandists were in possession of several copies of the forbidden ‘Acts '; they found them replete with absurd stories, and, of course, they rejected them. Father Papebroch has given us other and genuine ‘Acts ' written in Greek, and quoted by St Andrew of Crete. They bring out the admirable character of our martyr, who held an important post in the Roman army during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian. He was one of the first victims of the great persecution and suffered death at Nicomedia. Alexandra, the Emperor's wife, was so impressed at witnessing the Saint’s courage, that she professed herself a Christian, and shared the crown of martyrdom with the brave soldier of Christ.
As we have already said, devotion to St George dates from a very early period. St Gregory of Tours gives us several proofs of its having taken root in Gaul. St Clotilde had a singular confidence in the holy martyr, and dedicated to him the Church of her dear Abbey of Chelles. But this devotion became more general and more fervent during the Crusades, when the Christian armies witnessed the veneration in which St George was held by the Eastern Church, and heard the wonderful things that were told of his protection on the field of battle. The Byzantine historians have recorded several remarkable instances of the kind; and the Crusaders returned to their respective countries publishing their own experience of the victories gained through the Saint's intercession. The Republic of Genoa chose him for its patron; and Venice honoured him as its special protector, after St Mark. But nowhere was St George so enthusiastically loved as in England. Not only was it decreed in a Council held at Oxford, in the year 1222, that the feast of the Great Martyr should be observed as one of obligation; not only was devotion to the valiant soldier of Christ encouraged, throughout Great Britain, by the first Norman Kings; but there are documents anterior to the invasion of William the Conqueror, which prove that St George was invoked as the special patron of England even so far back as the ninth century. Edward III did but express the sentiment of the country when he put the Order of the Garter, which he instituted in 1330, under the patronage of the warrior Saint. In Germany, King Frederic III founded the Order of St George in the year 1468.
St George is usually represented as killing a dragon; and where the representation is complete, there is also given the figure of a princess, whom the Saint thus saves from being devoured by the monster. This favourite subject of both sacred and profane art is purely symbolical, and is of Byzantine origin. It signifies the victory won over the devil, by the martyr's courageous profession of faith; the princess represents Alexandra, who was converted by witnessing the Saint’s heroic patience under his sufferings. Neither the ' Acts 'of St George nor the hymns of the Greek Liturgy allude to the martyr's having slain a dragon and rescued a princess. It was not till after the fourteenth century that this fable was known in the West; and it arose from a material interpretation of the emblems with which the Greeks honoured St George, and which were introduced among us by the crusaders.
Although, as has been said, the Office of St George in the Roman Breviary has been taken from the Common of Martyrs in Paschal Time, the following historical lesson has recently been approved for the Dioceses of England:
Georgius, inter orientales Martyres Magni nomine commendatus, in persecutione Diocletiani gloriosam pro Christo mortem subiit. Quum paulo post sub Constantino pax Ecclesiæ data fuisset, Martyris memoria celebran coepit, erectis sub ejus invocatione templis in Pal æstina prope Liddam et Constantinopoli; deinceps autem in aliis partibus Orientis, et postea in Occidente Celebris fuit erga ilium fidelium devotio. Ab antiquis temporibus christiani exercitus contra hostes pugnaturi sanctos Georgium, Mauritium et Sebastianum patronos invocaverunt. Porro sanctum Georgium Martyrem jamdudum in Anglia specialiter cultum Benedictus decimus quartus Pontifex Maximus totius Regni Protectorem declaravit.
George, who among the martyrs of the East has received the name of the Great Martyr, suffered a glorious death for the sake of Christ in the persecution of Diocletian. When shortly afterwards peace was given to the Church under Constantine, the memory of St George began to be celebrated. Churches were erected to his honour in Palestine and at Constantinople, and devotion to him spread through the East and into the West. From early times Christian armies have invoked the protection of St George, together with SS Maurice and Sebastian, when going into battle. Special devotion was shown to St George in England for many centuries, and Pope Benedict XIV declared him the special Protector of that kingdom.
Let us, in honour of our glorious patron, recite the following stanzas, taken from the Menæa of the Greek Church:
Hymn (Die XXIII Aprilis)
Fidelis amice Christi, princeps athletarum ejus, splendidissimum luminare terræ, astrum lucidissimum vigilans honorantium te custos, custodi nos, martyr Georgi.
Beate Georgi, tua celebramus certamina, quibus idolorum simulacra destruxisti, et omnem dæmoniorum errorem ad nihilum redegisti, gloriosissime martyr Christi.
Cœlestis exercitus particeps effectus, beate Georgi, et divinam substantiam in quantum possibile est, contemplans, omnes nos te cum fide venerantes, protegere digneris.
Magnus miles Georgius, desideranter diligens Christum regem, qui animam suam pro mundi salute posuit, mortem propter ipsum subire festinat. Divino enim zelo inflammatus in corde, seipsum tradidit. Hunc ergo nos etiam cum fide hymnis celebremus, ut ardentem defensorem nostrum, ut gloriosum Christi ministrum, ut fidelem Domini sui imitatorem, et apud Deum semper intercedentem, ut omnibus largiatur remissionem et veniam peccatorum.
Certamina tua angelorum exercitus admiratur, princeps militiæ; et rex angelorum admiratione perculsus, tuam concupivit pulchritudinem, martyr; ideo dignatus est te regno suo in æternum consociare.
Dominum tuum imitatus, martyr, libens et sponte tua ad certamina temetipsum tradidisti; et victoriam reportans, Ecclesiæ Christi custos effici meruisti; illam semper defensione tua et protectione custodiens.
Ut martyr invictus, ut præmia ferens, ut insuperabilis fidei propugnator, nunc esto turris inconcussa pro celebrantibus te, sapiens Georgi, illos undique tuis supplicationibus protegens.
Corona radiante redimitus, et regio diademate et sceptro decoratus, et veste purpurea tuo sanguine rubicunda indutus, beate martyr, nunc in cœlis regnas cum rege angelicarum virtutum.
Venite omnes, festive splendidam, gloriosam resurrectionem Domini hymnis celebrantes; iterum etiam splendidam festive celebremus memoriam Georgii martyris; et ilium vernis coronemus floribus, ut invictum athletam; ut ejus precibus tribulationum simui et peccatorum liberationem accipere mereamur.
Ver advenit nobis, gaudio exsultemus; resurrectio Christi illuxit nobis, laetabundi gaudeamus; memoria martyris Georgii præmia ferentis, fideles suo splendore lætificans apparuit; ideo omnes festivitatis amantes, venite, illam mysticis celebremus canticis. Ipse enim Georgius, velut fortis miles, contra tyrannos virilem ostendit fortitudinem; et illos confusione perfudit, imitator factus passionis Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi. Pro vase corporis lutoso non est misericordia commotus; sed illud in tormentis velut æneum fundens, penitus transformavit. Illi ergo clamemus; Martyr praemia ferens, Deum deprecare ut salvet animas nostras.
Faithful friend of Christ prince of his soldiers most brilliant luminary of earth star of fairest light watchful guardian. of such as honour thee! be thou our guardian, O martyr George.
Blessed George! we celebrate thy combat, whereby thou didst destroy the idols, and bring to nought the manifold errors that were spread by the demons, O most glorious martyr of Christ.
Thou hast been made a member of the heavenly army, O blessed George! Thou contemplatest, as far as may be, the Divine Nature. Vouchsafe to protect us all who venerate thee.
Out of ardent love for Christ his King, who gave his life for the world’s salvation, the great soldier George longed to suffer death for his sake. He delivered himself up, for his heart was inflamed with divine zeal. Let us, therefore, full of faith, celebrate his praise in our hymns, as our earnest defender, as the glorious servant of Christ, as the faithful imitator of his Lord, as one that is ever beseeching God to grant us the forgiveness and pardon of our sins.
The angelic host is in admiration at thy combat, O thou prince of warriors! The very King of angels, struck with admiration, desired thy beauty, O martyr!—therefore did he deign to make thee his companion for ever in his kingdom.
Imitating thy Lord, O martyr, thou didst cheerfully and willingly deliver thyself up to the battle. Thou didst gain the victory and merit to become the guardian of the Church of Christ, which thou dost unceasingly defend and protect.
As the invincible martyr, as the prizebearing victor, as the unconquerable defender of the faith, be now an impregnable tower to them that celebrate thy praise, O wise George! and protect them from all dangers by thy intercession.
Decked with a brilliant crown, beautified with a royal diadem and sceptre, and clad in a purple robe reddened with thy blood, thou, O happy martyr, now reignest in heaven with the King of the angelic hosts.
Come, all ye people, let us celebrate in festive song the bright and glorious Resurrection of the Lord; let us also joyously celebrate the bright memory of 22 George the martyr: let us crown him, as the invincible soldier, with the flowers of spring; that by his prayers we may deserve to be freed from tribulation and sin.
Spring is come; let us exult with joy: the Resurrection of Christ hath shone upon us; let us rejoice in gladness: the feast of the prize-bearing martyr George hath appeared, gladdening the faithful with its brightness; come, then, let us who love his feast celebrate it with our spiritual canticles. For, like a brave soldier, George stood with manly courage before the tyrants, and covered them with confusion, being an imitator of the Passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ. He had no pity on the earthen vessel of his body, but wholly transformed it by delivering it to torments, as brass is melted by fire. Thus, then, let us cry out unto him: O prize-bearing martyr! beseech God that he save our souls.
Thou, O George, art the glorious type of a Christian soldier. Whilst serving under an earthly monarch, thou didst not forget thy duty to the King of heaven. Thou didst shed thy blood for the faith of Christ; and he, in return, appointed thee protector of Christian armies. Be their defender in battle, and bless with victory them that fight in a just cause. Protect them under the shadow of thy standard; cover them with thy shield; make them the terror of their enemies. Our Lord is the God of Hosts; and he frequently uses war as the instrument of his designs, both of justice and mercy. They alone win true victory who have heaven on their side; and such soldiers, when on the battle-field, seem to the world to be doing the work of man, whereas it is the work of God they are furthering. Hence are they more generous, because more religious, than other men. The sacrifices they have to make, and the dangers they have to face, teach them unselfishness. What wonder, then, that soldiers have given so many martyrs to the Church!
But there is another warfare, in which we Christians are all enlisted, and of which St Paul speaks, when he says: Labour as a good soldier of Christ; for no man is crowned, save he that striveth lawfully.[1] That we have thus to strive and fight during our life, the same Apostle assures us in these words: Take unto you the armour of God, that ye may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of the hope of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.[2] We, then, are soldiers, as thou wast, O holy martyr! Before ascending into heaven, our divine leader wishes to review his troops; do thou present us to him. He has loaded us with honours, notwithstanding our past disloyalties; we must, henceforth, prove ourselves worthy of our position. In the Paschal Communion which we have received, we have a pledge of victory; how can we ever be so base as to permit ourselves to be conquered! Watch over us, O sainted warrior! Let thy prayers and example encourage us to fight against the dragon of hell. He dreads the armour we wear; for it is Jesus himself that prepared it for us, and tempered it in his own precious Blood: may we, like thee, present it to him whole and entire, when he calls us to our eternal rest!
There was a time when the whole Christian world loved and honoured thy memory with enthusiastic joy: but now, alas! this devotion has grown cold, and thy feast passes unnoticed by thousands. O holy martyr! avenge this ingratitude by imitating thy divine King, who maketh his sun to rise upon both good and bad; take pity on this world, perverted as it is by false doctrines, and tormented at this very time by the most terrible scourges. Have compassion on thy dear England, which has been seduced by the dragon of hell, and by him made the instrument for effecting his plots against the Lord and his Christ. Take up thy spear as of old; give the monster battle, and emancipate the isle of Saints from his slavish yoke. Heaven and earth join in this great prayer! In the name of our Risen Jesus, aid thine own and once devoted people to a glorious resurrection!
[1] 2 Tim. ii 5. [2] Eph. vi 13, 17.
This email message is part of the Liturgical Year Project at LYP.network, a project of the FSSP apostolate, St. Lawrence Church, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. We are in the process of transcribing and formatting the text of Dom Prosper Guéranger's massive 15-volume series, The Liturgical Year. His many meditations on the history and faith behind the feasts and the seasons of the Church's year have edified many people over the years, and we hope to share these with more people through our website and via email.
Also, this project is in a test phase as we edit and prepare the texts. As such, you can expect to find some typographical errors. If you do, please take a screen shot of the error and email it to us at typos@stlawrence.cc. Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com.