Introduction to the Time after Pentecost

• Chapter 1: The History of the Time after Pentecost
• Chapter 2: The Mystery of the Time after Pentecost
• Chapter 3: The Practice During the Time after Pentecost
• Chapter 4: Morning and Night Prayers for the Time after Pentecost
• Chapter 5: On Hearing Mass During the Time after Pentecost
• Chapter 6: On Holy Communion During the Time after Pentecost
• Chapter 7: On the Office of Vespers for Sundays and Feasts During the Time after Pentecost
• Chapter 8: On the Office of Compline During the Time after Pentecost

From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.

THERE was in the days of Herod the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zachary, of the course of Abia, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name Elizabeth. And they were both just before God, walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame. And they had no son, for that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were well advanced in years. And it came to pass, when he executed the priestly function in the order of his course before God, according to the custom of the priestly office, it was his lot to offer incense, going into the temple of the Lord; and all the multitude of the people was praying without at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zachary seeing him was troubled, and fear fell upon him; but the angel said to him: Fear not, Zachary, for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John: and thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice in his nativity. For he shall be great before the Lord: and shall drink no wine nor strong drink: and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb. And he shall convert many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias; that he may turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children, and the incredulous to the wisdom of the just, to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people.[1]

This page which the Church reads to us to-day is precious in the annals of the human race, for here begins the Gospel itself, here we have the first word of the good tidings of salvation. Man had not been kept in total ignorance of heaven's plans for the rescue of our fallen race and the gift of a Redeemer, but weary and long had been this period of expectation, since the day when first the sentence pronounced against the accursed serpent pointed out to Adam and Eve a future wherein man should be healed by the Son of the woman, and God also by him should be avenged. Age upon age rolled on, and the promise, still unaccomplished, gradually assumed certain developments. Each generation saw the Lord, by means of the prophets, adding some new feature to the characteristics of this Brother of our race; in himself so great that the Most High would call him ‘my Son’;[2] so impassioned for justice that he would shed the last drop of his Blood to ransom earth's whole debt.[3] A Lamb in his immolation, he would rule the earth by his gentleness;[4] though springing from Jesse's root, yet was he to be the desired of the Gentiles;[5] more magnificent than Solomon,[6] he would graciously hearken to the love of these poor ransomed souls: taking the advance of their longing desires, he is fain to announce himself as the Spouse descending from the everlasting hills.[7]The Lamb laden with the crimes of the world, the Spouse awaited by the bride—such was to be this Son of Man, Son likewise of God, the Christ, the Messias promised unto earth. But when will he come, this desired of nations? Who will point out unto earth her Saviour? Who will lead the bride to the Bridegroom?

Mankind, gone forth in tears from Eden, had stood with wistful gaze fixed on futurity. Jacob, when dying, hailed from afar this beloved Son whose strength would be that of the lion, whose heavenly charms, still more enhanced by the blood of the grape, rapt him in inspired contemplation on his deathbed.[8] In the name of the Gentile world, Job, seated on the dunghill whereon his flesh was falling to pieces, gave response to ruin in an act of sublime hope in his Redeemer and his God.[9] Breathlessly panting under the pressure of his woe and the fever of his longing desires, mankind beheld century roll upon century, while consuming death continued its ravages, while his craving for the expected God waxed hotter within his breast. Thus, from generation to generation, what a redoubling of imploring prayer, what a growing impatience of entreaty! Oh! that thou wouldst rend the heavens and wouldst come down![10] ‘Enough of promises,’ cries out the devout St Bernard, together with all the fathers, speaking in the name of the Church of the expectation, and commenting the first verse of the Canticle of Canticles; ‘enough of figures and of shadows, enough of others’ parleying! I understand no more of Moses; no voice have the prophets for me; the Law which they bear has failed to restore life to my dead.[11] What have I to do with the stammerings of their profane mouths,[12] I to whom the Word hath announced himself? Aaron's perfumes may not compare with the oil of gladness poured out by the Father on him whom I await.[13] No more deputies, no more servants for me: after so many messages, let him come at last, let him come himself!’

Prostrate, in the person of the worthiest of her sons, upon the heights of Carmel, the Church of the expectation will not raise herself up till appears in the heavens the proximate sign of salvation's rain-cloud.[14] Vainly, even seven times, shall it be answered her that as yet naught can be descried arising seawards; still prolonging her prayer and her tears, her lips parched by the ceaseless drought, and cleaving to the dust, she will yet linger on, awaiting the appearance of that fertilizing cloud, the light cloud that beareth her God under human features. Then, forgetting her long fasts and weary expectant years, she will rise upon her feet, in all the vigour and beauty of her early youth; filled with the gladness the angel announceth to her, in the joy of that new Elias, whose birthday this Vigil promises on the morrow, she will follow him, the predestined Precursor running, more truly than did the ancient Elias,[15] before the chariot of Israel’s king.

We borrow from the Mozarabic Breviary the following beautiful liturgical formula, which will imbue us thoroughly with the spirit of the feast.

Capitula

Adsunt, Domine, principia christianæ laetitiæ, quibus olim nasciturum in carne Verbum vox santificata præcessit, et luminis ortum lucis protestator insigniter nuntiavit: ex quo et christianæ fìdei sacramenta, et salutaris lavacri prodierunt insignia: cujus conceptus miraculum, cujus nativitas gaudium approbatur: quæsumus ergo, ut qui natalem nunc Præcursoris tui ovantes suscipimus, ad festum quoque natalis tui purgatis cordibus accedamus: ut vox, quæ te prædicavit in eremo, nos purget in sæculo; et qui viam venturo Domino præparans corpora viventium suo lavit baptismate, nostra nunc corda suis precibus a vitiis et errore depurget: qualiter Vocis sequentes vestigia, ad Verbi mereamur pervenire promissa.

Lo! the first beginnings of Christian joy, O Lord, whereby erstwhile the sanctified Voice preceded the Word about to be born in the flesh, and the herald of light signally announced the rising of the Day-star he himself had witnessed: by him both faith's mysteries and salvation's fountains have produced marvels: he is approved whose conception is miracle, whose birth is joy; therefore do we beseech thee, that we who with glad ovations hail the birthday of thy Precursor, may with purified hearts draw nigh likewise unto thine own Nativity: so that the Voice which preached thee in the desert may cleanse us in the world; and he who, preparing the way for the coming Lord, washed in his baptism the bodies of living men, may now by his prayers purify our hearts from vices and errors: so that, following in the footprints of the Voice, we may deserve to come to the promises of the Word.

Let us here add two prayers from the Sacramentary of Gelasius.

Prayers

Beati nos, Domine, Baptistæ Joannis oratio, et intelligere Christi tui mysterium postulet et mereri.

May the prayer of blessed John Baptist, O Lord, plead for us, that we may both understand and merit the mystery of thy Christ.

Omnipotens, sempiterne Deus, qui instituta legalia et sanctorum præconia Prophetarum in diebus beati Baptistæ Joannis implesti: præsta quæsumus, ut cessantibus significationum figuris, ipsa sui manifestatione Veritas eloquatur, Jesus Christus Dominus noster.

O almighty and eternal God, who, in the days of blessed John Baptist, didst fulfil the institutions of the Law and the declarations of the holy prophets, grant, we beseech thee, that figures and signs being ended. Truth himself, by his own manifestation, may speak, Jesus Christ our Lord.

[1] St Luke i 5-17.
[2] Ps. ii 7.
[3] Isa. liii 7.
[4] Ibid. xvi x.
[5] Ibid. xi 10.
[6] Ps. xliv.
[7] Osee ii 19; Gen. xlix 26.
[8] Ibid. xlix 9-12, 18.
[9] Job xix 25-27.
[10] Isa. lxiv 1.
[11] 4 Kings iv 31.
[12] Exod. iv 10; Isa. vi 5.
[13] Ps. xliv 8.
[14] 3 Kings xviii 42-46.
[15] 3 Kings xviii 44-46.

From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.

ETHELDREDA, or Audrey, whom the Church offers to our veneration to-day, was one of the most popular saints among our English forefathers. She was bom in the middle of the seventh century, about a.d. 630, at Exning, near Newmarket, in Suffolk, and was the third daughter of Anna, the Christian king of East Anglia. In a meadow outside the village is still shown the brook in which, as village tradition tells us, the future queen and saint was baptized by St Felix, first bishop of Dunwich. Much against her will, for she had vowed herself to the religious life, she was given in marriage to Tondbert, a prince of East Anglia, who bestowed upon her the Isle of Ely as a dowry. He respected her vow, and on his death a short time after, she was married to Ecgfrid, king of Northumbria, with whom she lived twelve years in such manner as to keep all the while the glory of her virginal integrity, as St Bede the Venerable, to whom we owe the facts of her life, attests. She afterwards retired to the monastery of Coldingham, near Berwick-on-Tweed, where she was veiled a nun by St Wilfrid, bishop of York. In 673 she built a monastery on her property at Ely and was made its first abbess. There she became, in the words of Bede, ‘the virgin-mother of many virgins consecrated to God, instructing them by the example of her heavenly life and by her holy admonitions.’ She died on June 23, a.d. 679, in the sixth year of her abbacy, ‘being taken to the Lord in the midst of her own people,’ and, as she had herself ordered, was buried among them in a wooden coffin. During her last illness she was afflicted with a violent pain in her jaw and neck, and was wont to say: ‘I most certainly know that I deservedly bear the weight of this illness on my neck, on which, I remember, when I was very young, I carried the superfluous weight of pearls and jewels. I believe the divine goodness would for this reason have me endure this pain in my neck, that I may be absolved from the guilt of my former vanity, sending me now, instead of gold and precious stones for my neck, this swelling and burning.’

Sixteen years after Etheldreda's death her sister Sexburga, who had succeeded her as abbess, removed her incorrupt body and placed it in a white marble coffin, a relic of ancient Roman art found near the walls of Grantchester (Cambridge). During the ages that followed Etheldreda's shrine became one of the most famous places of pilgrimage in England, and many were the miracles wrought through the intercession of the virgin-queen. After various translations the white marble tomb containing the saint’s relics was placed in the new presbytery of Ely Cathedral built in a.d. 1257, and there it remained for two centuries until the overthrow of religion when it was demolished and the relics dispersed. The incorrupt hand of St Etheldreda escaped destruction and is in the possession of Catholics.

The Roman Breviary gives us the following lessons on the life of the saint.

Accepit rex Egfridus conjugem nomine Etheldredam filiam regis Orientalium Anglorum, quam ante illum princeps Australium Gerviorum habuit uxorem. Quo defuncto data est regi præfato cujus consortio cum duodecim annis uteretur perpetuo virgo permansit. Sed cum beata virgo continuis precibus a rege impetrasset, ut sæculi curis relictis, Regi Christo deserviret, mox intravit in monasterium Ebbæ amitæ regis Egfridi, accepto ibi velamine sanctimonialis habitus. Post annum vero monasterii Eliensis abbatissa est effecta, ubi virginum Deo devotarum mater cœpit esse, exemplis et monitis non minus quam omnimoda caritate.

Hæc pannis lineis tantum utens calidas balneas sprevit: raro plus quam semel in die comedit. Gravata tandem maxillæ tumore et dolore colli post annos septem ex quo abbatissæ susceperat officium, spiritum Deo reddidit anno Christi sexcentesimo septuagesimo nono, die vero vigesima tertia Junii, et in Martyrologio Romano honorifice nominatur; cui successit Sexburga soror ejus. Cumque sexdecim post annos corpus ejus omnino incorruptum repertum fuerit, intra ecclesiam translatum, ibique in magna veneratione a fidelibus habitum est.

Etheldreda, daughter of Anna, king of the East Angles, was given in marriage, first, to the prince of the Gervii in the south, and after his death to Ecgfrid, king of the Northumbrians. After she had lived with him for twelve years she still remained a virgin. She obtained from the king by constant entreaty permission to leave the cares of the world and to serve Christ the King. She entered the monastery of Ebba, paternal aunt to the said King Ecgfrid, where she took the veil of a nun. After a year she was made abbess of Ely, where she was a mother to the virgins vowed to God by her example and her admonitions not less than by her unfailing love.

She wore only woollen garments and abstained from hot baths, and seldom ate more than once in the day. She suffered from a swelling in the jaw and a pain in the neck, and seven years after she had held the office of abbess, she gave up her soul to God on the twenty-third of June in the year six hundred and seventy-nine. Honourable mention is made of her in the Roman Martyrology. She was succeeded by her sister Sexburga. Sixteen years later her body was found incorrupt and was translated into the church where it became an object of pious veneration to the faithful.

Let us make our prayer to God for the intercession of this glorious virgin-queen in the words holy Church makes use of on this her feast day. 'O God, who year by year dost gladden us by the festival of blessed Etheldreda thy virgin: mercifully grant that we who admire the splendid examples of her chastity may be helped by her merits.’

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.

The Liturgical Year Project
St. Lawrence Church
110 State Street
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17101