August
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
ALTHOUGH Mary's glory is within her, beauty appears also in the garment wherewith she is clad: a mysterious robe woven of the virtues of the saints, who owe to her both their justice and their reward. As every grace comes to us through our Mother, so all the glory of heaven converges towards that of the Queen.
Now among the blessed souls there are some more immediately connected with the holy Virgin. Prevented by the peculiarly tender love of the Mother of grace, they left all things, when on earth, to run after the odour of the perfumes of the Spouse she gave to the world; in heaven they keep the greater intimacy with Mary which was theirs even in the time of exile. Hence it is, that at this time of her exaltation beside the Son of God, the Psalmist sings also of the virgins entering joyously with her into the temple of the King. The crowning of our Lady is truly the special feast of these daughters of Tyre, who have themselves become princesses and queens in order to form her noble escort and her royal court.
If the saint proposed to our veneration to-day is not adorned with the diadem of virginity, she is nevertheless one of those who have deserved in their humility to hear the heavenly message: Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear; and forget thy people and thy father's house.[1] In reply, such was her eagerness in the ways of love, that numberless virgins followed in her footsteps in order to be more sure of reaching the Spouse. She also, then, has a glorious place in the vesture of gold, with its play of colours, wherewith the Queen of Saints is clad in her triumph. For what is the variety noticed by the psalm in the embroideries and fringes of that robe of glory, if not the diversity of tints in the gold of divine charity among the elect? In order to bring forward the happy effect produced by this diversity in the light of the saints, Eternal Wisdom has multiplied the forms under which the life of the counsels may be presented to the world. Such is the teaching given in the holy liturgy, by bringing together the feasts of yesterday and to-day on its sacred cycle. Between Cistercian austerity and the more interior renouncement of the Visitation of holy Mary there seems to be a great distance: nevertheless the Church unites the memory of St. Jane de Chantal and of the Abbot of Clairvaux in homage to the Blessed Virgin during the happy octave which consummates her glory; it is because all rules of perfection are alike in being merely variations of the one rule, that of love, of which Mary’s life was a perfect pattern. ‘Let us not divide the robe of the Bride,’ says St. Bernard. ‘Unity, as well in heaven as on earth, consists in charity. Let him who glories in the rule not break the rule by acting contrary to the Gospel. If the kingdom of God is within us, it is because it is not meat and drink; but justice, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.[2] To criticize others on their exterior observance, and to neglect the rule in what regards the soul, is to take out a gnat from the cup and to swallow a camel. Thou breakest thy body with endless labour, thou mortifiest with austerities thy members which are on the earth; and thou dost well. But while thou allowest thyself to judge him who does not so much penance, he perhaps is following the advice of the Apostle: more eager for the better gifts, keeping less of that bodily exercise which is profitable to little, he gives himself up more to that godliness which is profitable to all things.[3] Which, then, of you two keeps the rule better? doubtless he that becomes better thereby. Now which is the better? The humbler, or the more fatigued? Learn of me, said Jesus,[4]because I am meek and humble of heart.'[5]
St. Frances de Sales, in his turn, speaking of the diversity of religious Orders, says very well: 'All religious Orders have one spirit common to them all, and each has a spirit peculiar to itself. The common spirit is the design they all have of aspiring after the perfection of charity; but the peculiar spirit of each is the means of arriving at that perfection of charity—that is to say, at the union of our souls with God, and with our neighbour through the love of God.' Coming next to the special spirit of the institute he had founded together with our saint, the Bishop of Geneva declares that it is 'a spirit of profound humility towards God and of great sweetness towards our neighbour, inasmuch as there is less rigour towards the body, so much the more sweetness must there be in the heart.’[6] And because 'this Congregation has been so established that no great severity may prevent the weak and infirm from entering it and giving themselves up to the perfection of divine love,’[7] he adds playfully: 'If there be any sister so generous and courageous as to wish to attain perfection in a quarter of an hour by doing more than the Community does, I would advise her to humble herself and be content to become perfect in three days, following the same course as the rest. For a great simplicity must always be kept in all things: to walk simply, that is the true way for the daughters of the Visitation, a way exceedingly pleasing to God and very safe.’[8] With sweetness and humility for motto, the pious Bishop did well to give his daughters for escutcheon the divine Heart whence these gentle virtues derive their source. We know how magnificently Heaven justified the choice. Before a century had elapsed, a nun of the Visitation, St. Margaret Mary, could say: 'Our adorable Saviour showed me the devotion to His divine Heart as a beautiful tree which He had destined from all eternity to take root in the midst of our institute. He wills that the daughters of the Visitation should distribute the fruits of this sacred tree abundantly to all those that wish to eat of it, and without fear of its failing them.’[9]
‘Love! love! love! my daughters; I know nothing else.' Thus did Jane de Chantal, the glorious cooperatrix of St. Francis in establishing the Visitation of holy Mary, often cry out in her latter years. ' Mother, said one of the sisters, ‘I shall write to our houses that your charity is growing old, and that, like your godfather St. John, you can speak of nothing but love.' To which the saint replied: ‘My daughter, do not make such a comparison, for we must not profane the saints by comparing them to poor sinners; but you will do me a pleasure if you tell those sisters that if I went by my own feelings, if I followed my inclination, and if I were not afraid of wearying the sisters, I should never speak of anything but charity; and I assure you, I scarcely ever open my mouth to speak of holy things, without having a mind to say: Thou shalt love the Lord with thy whole heart, and thy neighbour as thyself.'[10]
Such words are worthy of her who obtained for the Church the admirable Treatise on the Love of God, composed, says the Bishop of Geneva, for her sake, at her request and solicitation, for herself and her companions.[11] At first, however, the impetuosity of her soul, overflowing with devotedness and energy, seemed to unfit her to be mistress in a school where heroism can only express itself by the simple sweetness of a life altogether hidden in God. It was to discipline this energy of the valiant woman without extinguishing its ardour, that St. Francis perseveringly applied himself during the eighteen years he directed her. ‘ Do all things,' he repeats in a thousand ways, ' without haste, gently, as do the angels; follow the guidance of divine movements, and be supple to grace; God wills us to be like little children,' And this reminds us of an exquisite page from the lovable saint, which we cannot resist quoting: ‘ If one had asked the sweet Jesus when He was carried in His Mother’s arms, whither He was going, might He not with good reason have answered: I go not, 'tis My Mother that goes for Me: and if one had said to Him: But at least do You not go with Your Mother? might He not reasonably have replied: No, I do not go, or if I go whither My Mother carries Me, I do not Myself walk with her nor by My own steps, but by My Mother's, by her, and in her. But if one had persisted with Him, saying: But at least, O most dear divine Child, You really will to let Yourself be carried by Your sweet Mother? No, verily, might He have said, I will nothing of all this, but as My entirely good Mother walks for Me, so she wills for Me; I leave her the care as well to go as to will to go for Me where she likes best; and as I go not but by her steps, so I will not but by her will; and from the instant I find Myself in her arms, I give no attention either to willing, or not willing, turning all other cares over to My Mother, save only the care to be on her bosom, to suck her sacred breast, and to keep myself close clasped to her most beloved neck, that I may most lovingly kiss her with the kisses of My mouth. And be it known to you that while I am amidst the delights of these holy caresses which surpass all sweetness, I consider that my Mother is a tree of life, and Myself on her as its fruit, that I am her own heart in her breast, or her soul in the midst of her heart, so that as her going serves both her and Me without My troubling Myself to take a single step, so her will serves us both without My producing any act of My will about going or coming. Nor do I ever take notice whether she goes fast or slow, hither or thither; nor do I inquire whither she means to go, contenting Myself with this, that go whither she please I go still locked in her arms, close laid to her beloved breasts, where I feed as among lilies. .... Thus should we be, Theotimus,[12] pliable and tractable to God’s good pleasure.’[13] The Church abridges for us far better than we could the life of St. Jane Frances de Chantal:
Joanna Francisca Fremiot de Chantal, Divione in Burgundia clarissimis orta natalibus, ab ineunte ætate eximiæ sanctitatis non obscuras edidit significationes. Eam enim vix quinquennem nobilem quemdam Calvinistam solida supra ætatem argumentatione perstrinxisse ferunt, collatumque ab eo munusculum fiammis illico tradidisse in hæc verba: En quomodo hæretici apud inferos comburentur, qui loquenti Christo fidem detrectant. Matre orbata, Deiparæ Virginis tutelæ se commendavit, et famulam, qua ad mundi amorem eam alliciebat, ab se rejecit. Nihil puerile in moribus exprimens, a sæculi deliciis abhorrens, martyriumque anhelans, religioni ac pietati impense studebat. Baroni de Chantal nuptui a patre tradita, virtutibus omnibus excolendis operam dedit, liberos, famulos, aliosque sibi subjectos in fidei doctrina, bonisque moribus imbuere satagens. Profusa liberalitate pauperum inopiam sublevabat, annona divinitus non raro multiplicata: quo factum est, ut nemini se umquam Christi nomine roganti stipem abnegaturam spoponderit.
Viro in venatione interempto, perfectioris vitæ consilium iniens, continentiæ voto se obstrinxit. Viri necem non solum æquo animo tulit, sed, in publicum indultæ veniæ testimonium, occisoris filium e sacro fonte suscipere sui victrix elegit. Modica familia, tenui victu atque vestitu contenta, pretiosas vestes in pios usus convertit. Quidquid a domesticis curis supererat temporis, precibus, piis lectionibus, laborique impendebat. Numquam adduci potuit ut alteras nuptias, quamvis utiles et honorificas, iniret. Ne autem a proposito castimoniæ observandæ in posterum dimoveretur, illius voto innovato, sanctissimum Jesu Christi nomen candenti ferro pectori insculpsit. Ardentius in dies caritate fervescens, pauperes, derelictos, ægros, teterrimisque morbis infectos ad se adducendos curabat; eosque non hospitio tantum excipiebat, solabatur, fovebat, verum etiam sordidas eorumdem vestes depurgabat, laceras reficiebat, et manantibus fcetido pure ulceribus labia admovere non exhorrebat.
A Sancto Francisco Salesio, quo spiritus moderatore usa fuit, divinam voluntatem edocta, proprium parentem, socerum, filium denique ipsum,quem etiam vocationi obsistentem, sua e domo egrediens, pedibus calcare non dubitavit, invicta constantia deseruit, et sacri instituti Visitationis sanctæ Mariæ fundamenta jecit. Ejus instituti leges integerrime custodivit, et adeo paupertatis fuit amans, ut vel necessaria sibi deesse gauderet. Christianæ vero animi demissionis et obedientiæ, virtutumque denique omnium perfectissimum exemplar se præbuit. Altiores in corde suo ascensiones disponens, arduissimo efficiendi semper id quod perfectius esse intelligeret, voto se obstrinxit. Denique, sacro Visitationis instituto ejus potissimum opera longe lateque diffuso, verbo, exemplo et scriptis etiam divina sapientia refertis, ad pietatem et caritatem sororibus excitatis, meritis referta, et sacramentis rite susceptis, Molinis, anno millesimo sexcentesimo quadragesimo primo, die decima tertia Decembris, migravit ad Dominum,ejusque animam, occurrente sancto Francisco Salesio, in cœlos deferri sanctus Vincentius a Paulo procul distans adspexit. Ejus corpus postea Annecium translatum est: eamque miraculis ante et post obitum claram Benedictus decimus quartus beatorum, Clemens vero decimus tertius Pontifex Maximus albo sanctorum adjecit. Festum autem ejusdem die duodecimo Kalendas Septembris ab universa Ecclesia Clemens decimus quartus Pontifex Maximus celebrari præcepit.
Jane Frances Frémiot de Chantal was born at Dijon in Burgundy, of noble parents, and from her childhood gave clear signs of her future great sanctity. It was said that when only five years of age she put to silence a Calvinist nobleman by substantial arguments, far beyond her age, and when he offered her a little present she immediately threw it into the fire, saying: 'This is how heretics will burn in hell, because they do not believe Christ when He speaks.' When she lost her mother, she put herself under the care of the Virgin Mother of God, and dismissed a maid-servant who was enticing her to love of the world. There was nothing childish in her manners; she shrank from worldly pleasures, and thirsting for martyrdom, she devoted herself entirely to religion and piety. She was given in marriage by her father to the Baron de Chantal, and in this new state of life she strove to cultivate every virtue, and busied herself in instructing in faith and morals her children, her servants and all under her authority. Her liberality in relievingthe necessities of the poor was very great, and more than once God miraculously multiplied her stores of provisions; on this account she promised never to refuse anyone who begged an alms in Christ’s name.
Her husband having been killed while hunting, she determined to embrace a more perfect life and bound herself by a vow of chastity. She not only bore her husband’s death resignedly, but overcame herself so far as to stand godmother to the child of the man who had killed him, in order to give a public proof that she pardoned him. She contented herself with a few servants and with plain food and dress, devoting her costly garments to pious usages. Whatever time remained from her domestic cares she employed in prayer, pious reading, and work. She could never be induced to accept offers of second marriage, even though honourable and advantageous. In order not to be shaken in her resolution of observing chastity, she renewed her vow, and imprinted the most holy name of Jesus Christ upon her breast with a red-hot iron. Her love grew more ardent day by day. She had the poor, the abandoned, the sick, and those who were afflicted with the most terrible diseases brought to her, and not only sheltered and comforted and nursed them, but washed and mended their filthy garments, and did not shrink from putting her lips to their running sores.
Having learnt the will of God from St, Francis de Sales her director, she founded the Institute of the Visitation of our Lady. For this purpose she quitted, with unfaltering courage, her father, her fatherin-law, and even her son, over whose body she had to step in order to leave her home, so violently did he oppose her vocation. She observed her Rule with the utmost fidelity, and so great was her love of poverty, that she rejoiced to be in want of even the necessaries of life. She was a perfect model of Christian humility, obedience, and all other virtues. Wishing for still higher ascensions in her heart, she bound herself by a most difficult vow always to do what she thought most perfect. At length when the Order of the Visitation had spread far and wide, chiefly through her endeavours, after encouraging her sisters to piety and charity by words and example, and also by writings full of divine wisdom; laden with merits, she passed to the Lord at Moulins, having duly received the Sacraments of the Church. She died on December 13, in the year 1641. St. Vincent de Paul, who was at a great distance, saw her soul being carried to heaven, and St. Francis de Sales coming to meet her. Her body was afterwards translated to Annecy. Miracles having made her illustrious both before and after her death, Benedict XIV placed her among the blessed, and Pope Clement XIII among the saints. Pope Clement XIV commanded her feast to be celebrated by the universal Church on the twelfth of the Kalends of September.
The office of Martha seemed at first to be destined for thee, O great saint! Thy father, Francis de Sales, forestalling St. Vincent de Paul, thought of making thy companions the first Daughters of Charity. Thus was given to thy work the blessed name of Visitation, which was to place under Mary’s protection thy visits to the sick and neglected poor. But the progressive deterioration of strength in modern times had laid open a more pressing want in the institutions of holy Church. Many souls called to share Mary’s part were prevented from doing so by their inability to endure the austere life of the great contemplative Orders. The Spouse, who deigns to adapt His goodness to all times, made choice of thee, O Jane, to second the love of His Sacred Heart, and come to the rescue of the physical and moral miseries of an old, worn-out, and decrepit world.
Renew us, then, in the love of Him whose charity consumed thee first; in its ardour thou didst traverse the most various paths of life, and never didst thou fail of that admirable strength of soul, which the Church presents before God to-day in order to obtain through thee the assistance necessary to our weakness.[14] May the insidious and poisonous spirit of Jansenism never return to freeze our hearts; but at the same time as we learn from thee, love is only then real when, with or without austerities, it lives by faith, generosity, and selfrenunciation, in humility, simplicity, and gentleness. It is the spirit of thy holy institute, the spirit which became, through thy angelic Father, so amiable and so strong; may it ever reign amidst thy daughters, keeping up among their houses the sweet union which has never ceased to rejoice heaven; may the world be refreshed by the perfumes which ever exhale from the silent retreats of the Visitation of holy Mary!
[1] Ps. xliv. 11.
[2] Rom. xiv. 17.
[3] 1 Tim. iv. 8.
[4] St Matt. xi. 29.
[5] Bernard. Apologia ad Gulielm.
[6] Entretiens spirituels.
[7] Constitutions of the Visitation, Introduction.
[8] Entretiens spirituels.
[9] Letter of June 17, 1689, to Mother de Saumaise.
[10] Memoirs of Mother de Chaugy, Part III., chap. v.
[11] Treatise on the Love of God, Preface; Memoirs of Mother de Chaugy.
[12] ‘A great servant of God informed me not long ago that by addressing my speech to Philothea in the “Intro duction to a Devout Life,” I hindered many men from profiting by it: because they did not esteem advice given to a woman to be worthy of a man. I marvel that there were men who, to be thought men, showed themselves in effect so little men. . . . Nevertheless, to imitate the great Apostle in this occasion, who esteemed himself a debtor to everyone, I have changed my address in this treatise and speak to Theotimus; but if perchance there should be any woman (and such an unreasonableness would be more tolerable in them) who would not read the instructions which are given to men, I beg them to know that Theotimus to whom I speak is the human spirit desirous of making progress in holy love, which spirit is equally in women as in men.’—'Treatise on the Love of God,’ Preface.
[13] ‘Treatise on the Love of God,’ Book IX, chap. xiv. (We have preferred the translation by Dom H. B. Mackey, O.S.B.)
[14] Collect, Secret, and Postcommunion of the Feast.
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year:
HE alone who could understand Mary’s holiness could appreciate her glory. But Wisdom, who presided over the formation of the abyss, has not revealed to us the depth of that ocean, beside which all the virtues of the just and all the graces lavished upon them are but streamlets. Nevertheless, the immensity of grace and merit, whereby the Blessed Virgin’s supernatural perfection stands quite apart from all others, gives us a right to conclude that she has an equal supereminence in glory, which is always proportioned to the sanctity of the elect. Whereas all the other predestined of our race are placed among the various ranks of the celestial hierarchy, the holy Mother of God is exalted above all the choirs, forming by herself a distinct order, a new heaven, where the harmonies of angels and saints are far surpassed. In Mary God is more glorified, better known, more loved than in all the rest of the universe. On this ground alone, according to the order of creative Providence, which subordinates the less to the more perfect, Mary is entitled to be Queen of earth and heaven. In this sense, it is for her, next to the Man-God, that the world exists. The great theologian, Cardinal de Lugo, explaining the words of the saints on this subject, dares to say: 'Just as, creating all things in His complacency for His Christ, God made Him the end of creatures; so, with due proportion we may say He drew the rest of the world out of nothing, through the love of the Virgin Mother, so that she, too, might thus be justly called the end of all things.’[1]
As Mother of God, and at the same time His firstborn, she had a right and title over His goods; as Bride she ought to share His crown. 'The glorious Virgin,' says St. Bernardine of Siena, 'has as many subjects as the Blessed Trinity has. Every creature, whatever be its rank in creation, spiritual as the angels, rational as man, material as the heavenly bodies or the elements, heaven and earth, the reprobate and the blessed, all that springs from the power of God, is subject to the Virgin. For He who is the Son of God and of the Blessed Virgin, wishing, so to say, to make His Mother's principality in some sort equal to His Father's, became, God as He is, the servant of Mary. If, then, it be true to say that everyone, even the Virgin, obeys God, we may also convert the proposition, and affirm that everyone, even God, obeys the Virgin.'[2]
The empire of Eternal Wisdom comprises, so the Holy Spirit tells us, the heavens, the earth, and the abyss: the same, then, is the appanage of Mary on this her coronation day. Like the divine Wisdom to whom she gave Flesh, she may glory in God. He whose magnificence she once chanted to-day exalts her humility. She who is blessed above all others has become the honour of her people, the admiration of the saints, the glory of the armies of the Most High. Together with the Spouse, let her, in her beauty, march to victory; let her triumph over the hearts of the mighty and the lowly. The giving of the world's sceptre into her hands is no mere honour void of reality: from this day forward she commands and fights, protects the Church, defends its head, upholds the ranks of the sacred militia, raises up saints, directs apostles, enlightens doctors, exterminates heresy, crushes hell.
Let us hail our Queen, let us sing her mighty deeds; let us be docile to her; above all, let us love her and trust in her love. Let us not fear that, amidst the great interests of the spreading of God’s kingdom, she will forget our littleness or our miseries. She knows all that takes place in the obscurest comers, in the furthest limits of her immense domain. From her title of universal causeunder the Lord is rightly deduced the universality of her providence; and the masters of doctrine show us Mary in glory sharing in the science called of vision, whereby all that is, has been, or is to be is present before God. On the other hand, we must believe that her charity could not possibly be defective: as her love of God surpasses the love of all the elect, so the tenderness of all mothers united, centred upon an only child, is nothing to the love wherewith Mary surrounds the least, the most forgotten, the most neglected of all the children of God, who are her children too. She forestalls them in her solicitude, listens at all times to their humble prayers, pursues them in their guilty flights, sustains their weakness, compassionates their ills, whether of body or of soul, sheds upon all men the heavenly favours whereof she is the treasury. Let us, then, say to her, in the words of one of her great servants: ' O most holy Mother of God, who hast beautified heaven and earth, in leaving this world thou hast not abandoned man. Here below thou didst live in heaven; from heaven thou conversest with us. Thrice happy those who contemplated thee and lived with the Mother of life! But in the same way as thou didst dwell in the flesh with them of the first age, thou now dwellest with us spiritually. We hear thy voice; and all our voices reach thine ear; and thy continual protection over us makes thy presence evident. Thou dost visit us; thine eye is upon us all; and although our eyes cannot see thee, O most holy one, yet thou art in the midst of us, showing thyself in various ways to whomsoever is worthy. Thy immaculate body, come forth from the tomb, hinders not the immaterial power, the most pure activity of that spirit of thine, which being inseparable from the Holy Ghost, breathes also where it wills. O Mother of God, receive the grateful homage of our joy, and speak for thy children to Him who has glorified thee: whatsoever thou askest of Him, He will accomplish it by His divine power; may He be blessed for ever!'[3]
The inexhaustible Adam of St. Victor gives us another sequence for the Assumption; it was sung at Saint Victor on the octave day.
Sequence
Gratulemur in hac die
In qua sanctæ fit Mariæ celebris Assumptio;
Dies ista, dies grata
Qua de terris est translata in cœlum cum gaudio.
Super choros exaltata
Angelorum, est prælata cunctis cœli civibus.
In decore contemplatur
Natum suum, ut precatur pro cunctis fidelibus.
Expurgemus nostras sordes
Ut illius, mundicordes, assistamus laudibus;
Si concordent linguis mentes,
Aures ejus intendentes erunt nostris vocibus.
Nunc concordes hanc laudemus
Et in laude proclamemus: Ave, plena gratia!
Ave, Virgo Mater Christi,
Quæ de Sancti concepisti Spiritus præsentia!
Virgo sancta, Virgo munda,
Tibi nostræ sit jocunda vocis modulatio.
Nobis opem fer desursum,
Et, post hujus vitæ cursum, tuo junge Filio.
Tu a sæclis præelecta,
Litterali diu tecta fuisti sub cortice;
De te, Christum genitura,
Prædixerunt in Scriptura prophetæ, sed typice.
Sacramentum patefactum
Est, dum Verbum, caro factum, ex te nasci voluit,
Quod nos sua pietate
A maligni potestate potenter eripuit.
Te per thronum Salomonis,
Te per vellus Gedeonis præsignatam credimus;
Et per rubum incombustum,
Testamentum si vetustum mystice perpendimus.
Super vellus ros descendens
Et in rubo flamma splendens (neutram tamen læditur),
Fuit Christus carnem sumens,
In te tamen non consumens pudorem, dum gignitur.
De te virga processurum
Florem mundo profuturum Isaias cecinit,
Flore Christum præfigurans
Cujus virtus semper durans nec cœpit, nec desinit.
Fontis vitæ tu cisterna,
Ardens, lucens es lucerna;
Per te nobis lux superna suum fudit radium:
Ardens igne caritatis,
Luce lucens castitatis,
Lucem surnmæ claritatis mundo gignens Filium.
O salutis nostræ porta,
Nos exaudi, nos conforta,
Et a via nos distorta revocare propera:
Te vocantes de profundo,
Navigantes in hoc mundo,
Nos ab hoste furibundo tua prece libera.
Jesu, nostrum salutare.
Ob meritum singulare
Tuæ Matris, visitare
In hac valle nos dignare tuæ dono gratiæ.
Qui neminem vis damnari,
Sic directe conversari
Nos concedas in hoc mari,
Ut post mortem munerari digni simus requie.
Amen.
Let us rejoice on this day
whereon is celebrated the Assumption of holy Mary;
this day, this happy day
when from earth she was translated into heaven with joy.
Exalted above the choirs of angels,
she is set over all the citizens of heaven.
She contemplates her Son in His beauty,
and prays for all the faithful.
Let us cleanse away our stains,
that clean of heart we may take part in her praises;
if our minds be in accord with our tongues,
her ears will be attentive to our voices.
Let us, then, praise her with one accord,
and in her praise cry out: Hail, full of grace!
hail, Virgin Mother of Christ,
who didst conceive Him by the presence of the Holy Spirit!
Holy Virgin, spotless Virgin,
may the music of our voice be pleasing to thee.
Bring us help from on high,
and after this life’s course, unite us to thy Son.
O thou elect from all eternity,
long wast thou hidden in the shell of the letter;
of thee as future Mother of Christ,
the Prophets foretold in the Scripture, but in types.
The Mystery was unveiled
when the Word made Flesh willed to be born of thee,
who in His love did powerfully
snatch us from the power of the wicked one.
Thee by the throne of Solomon,
thee by the fleece of Gedeon, we believe to be foreshown,
and by the bush unburnt,
if the ancient Testament we mystically ponder.
On the fleece the dew descending,
in the bush the flame resplendent (yet neither hurt thereby),
was Christ assuming flesh in thee,
yet not destroying thy purity by His birth.
The flower that was to spring from thee,
the stem, and benefit the world, Isaias sang;
by the flower prefiguring Christ,
whose power everlasting neither began nor endeth.
Thou art the reservoir of the fountain of life,
thou art a lamp burning and shining:
through thee the light supernal on us hath shed its ray;
burning with fire of charity,
shining with light of chastity,
bringing into the world thy Son, the light of supreme brightness.
O gate of our salvation,
hear us and comfort us,
and from our crooked ways hasten to call us back:
we are calling on thee from the abyss,
sailing on the sea of the world;
from the furious enemy deliver us by thy prayer.
O Jesus our salvation,
by the incomparable merit
of Thy Mother, deign to visit
us in this valley with the gift of Thy grace.
Thou who willest that no one be condemned,
grant us to steer our course so straightly
through this sea that after death
we may be worthy to be rewarded in Thy rest.
Amen.
The following prayer is remarkable for the symbolism wherewith it is inspired. It is used at the blessing of medicinal herbs and fruits, given from time immemorial, in certain places, on the day of the Assumption.
Prayer
Deus qui virgam Jesse, Genitricem Filii tui Domini nostri Jesu Christi, hodierna die ad cœlorum fastigia ideo evexisti, ut per ejus sufiragia et patrocinia fructum ventris illius, eumdem Filium tuum, mortalitati nostræcommunicares: te supplices exoramus; ut ejusdem Filii tui virtute, ejusque Genitricis glorioso patrocinio, istorum terræ fructuum præsidiis per temporalem ad æternam salutem disponamur. Per eumdem Dominum nostrum.
O God, who on this day didst raise up to the height of heaven the rod of Jesse, the Mother of Thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ, in order that through her prayers and patronage Thou mightest communicate to our mortality the same Thy Son the fruit of her womb: we humbly beseech Thee, that by the power of this Thy Son, and by the glorious patronage of His Mother, we may, by the help of these fruits of the earth, be disposed by temporal health for eternal salvation. Through the same Christ our Lord.
But let us close the radiant octave by hearing Mary herself speak in this beautiful antiphon, appointed amongst others in certain manuscripts to accompany the Magnificat on the feast. Our Lady there appears, not in her own name alone, but as representing the Church, which begins in her its entrance in body and soul into heaven. The present happiness of the Blessed Virgin is the pledge for us all of the eternal felicity promised us; the triumph of the Mother of God will not be complete until the last of her children has followed her into glory. Let us, then, join in this prayer so full of sweet love: it is truly worthy to express the feelings of Mary as she crossed the threshold of her heavenly home.
Antiphon
Maria exsultavit in spiritu, et dixit: Benedico te, qui dominarla super omnem benedictionem. Benedico habitaculum gloriæ tuæ, benedico te, cui factum est habitaculum in utero meo; et benedico omnia opera manuum tuarum, qua obediunt tibi in omni subjeetione. Benedico dilectionem tuam qua nos dilexisti. Benedico omnia verba qua exierunt de ore tuo, qua data sunt nobis. In veritate enim credam, quia sicut dixisti sic fiet.
Alleluia.
Mary exulted in spirit and said: I bless Thee who art Lord over every blessing. I bless the dwelling of Thy glory, I bless Thee for whom was made a dwelling in my womb, and I bless all the works of Thy hands which obey Thee in all subjection. I bless Thy love wherewith Thou hast loved us. I bless all the words that have come forth from Thy mouth and are given to us. For I believe in truth that as Thou hast said, so shall it be done.
Alleluia.
[1] De Lugo, De Incarnat disput vii, sect. 11.
[2] Bernardin. Sen. Sermo v de festiv. B.M., cap. 6.
[3] German. Constantinof. In Dormit. B.M., Oratio i.
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year:
Let us honour the group of martyrs which forms the rearguard of our triumphant Queen. Timothy, who came from Antioch to Rome, Hippolytus, Bishop of Porto, and Symphorian, the glory of Autun, suffered for God at different periods and at different places; but they gathered their palms on the same day of the year, and the same heaven is now their abode. ' My son, my son,' said his valiant mother to Symphorian, 'remember life eternal; look up, and see Him who reigns in heaven; they are not taking thy life away, but changing it into a better.' Let us admire these heroes of our faith; and let us learn to walk like them, though by less painful paths, in the footsteps of our Lord, and so to rejoice Mary.
Prayer
Auxilium tuum nobis, Domine, quæsumus, placatus impende: et intercedentibus beatis martyribus tuis Timotheo, Hippolyto et Symphoriano, dexteram super nos tuæ propitiationis extende. Per Dominum.
We beseech Thee, O Lord, to be appeased, and to impart to us Thy help: and, by the intercession of blessed Timothy, Hippolytus, and Symphorian, Thy martyrs, extend over us the right hand of Thy mercy. Through our Lord, etc.
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
OUR Lady is now reigning in heaven. Her triumph over death cost her no labour; and yet it was through suffering that she like Jesus entered into her glory. We too cannot attain eternal happiness otherwise than did the Son and the Mother. Let us keep in mind the sweet joys we have been tasting during the past week; but let us not forget that our own journey to heaven is not yet completed. ‘Why stand ye looking up into heaven?’ said the angels to the disciples on Ascension day, in the name of the Lord who had gone up in a cloud; for the disciples, who had for an instant beheld the threshold of heaven, could not resign themselves to turn their eyes once more down to this valley of exile. Mary, in her turn, sends us a message to-day from the bright land whither we are to follow her, and where we shall surround her after having in the sorrows of exile merited to form her court: without distractiug us from her, the apostle of her dolours, Philip Benizi, reminds us of our true condition of strangers and pilgrims upon earth.
Combats without, fears within:[1] such for the most part was Philip’s life, as it was also the history of his native city of Florence; of Italy too, and indeed of the whole Christian world, in the thirteenth century. At the time of his birth, the city of flowers seemed a new Eden for the blossoms of sanctity that flourished there; nevertheless it was a prey to bloody factions, to the assaults of heresy, and to the extremity of every misery. Never is hell so near us as when heaven manifests itself with greatest intensity; this was clearly seen in that age, when the serpent’s head came in closest contact with the heel of the woman. The old enemy, by creating new sects, had shaken the faith in the very centre of the provinces surrounding the eternal city. While in the east, Islam was driving back the last crusaders, in the west the papacy was struggling with the empire, which Frederick II had made as a fief of satan. Throughout Christendom social union was undone, faith had grown weak, and love cold; but the old enemy was soon to discover the power of the reaction heaven was preparing for the relief of the aged world. Then it was that our Lady presented to her angered Son Dominic and Francis, that, by uniting science with self-abnegation, they might counterbalance the ignorance and luxury of the world; then, too, Philip Benizi, the Servite of the Mother of God, received from her the mission of preaching through Italy, France, and Germany, the unspeakable sufferings whereby she became the co-redemptress of the human race.
Philippus ex nobili Benitiorum familia Florentiæ natus, futuræ sanctitatis jam inde ab incunabulis indicium præbuit. Vix enim quintum ætatis mensem ingressus, linguam in voces mirifice solvit, hortatusque fuit matrem, ut Deiparæ servis eleemosynam impertiret. Adolescens, dum Parisiis litterarura studia cum pietatis ardore conjungerct, plurimos ad cœlestis patriæ desiderium inflaminavit. Reversus in patriam, et singulari visione a beatissima Virgine in Servorum suorum familiam nuper institutam vocatus, in Senarii montis antrum concessit, ubi asperam quidem jugi corporis castigatione, sed Christi Domini cruciatuum meditatione suavem vitam duxit: indeque per universam pene Europam, magnamquo Asiæ partem, quam evangelicis prædicationibus obivit, sodalitia septem dolorum Dei Matris instituit, suumque ordinem eximio virtutum exemplo propagavit.
Divinæ caritatis et catholicæ fidei dilatandæ ardore vehementer accensus, sui Ordinis generalis reluctans atque invitus renuntiatus, fratres ad prædieandum Christi Evangelium in Scythiam misit; ipse vero plurimas Italiæ urbes coneursans, gliscentes in eis civium discordias composuit; multasque ad Romani Pontificis obedientiam revocavit; nihilque de studio alienæ salutis omittens, perditissimos homines e vitiorum cœno ad pænitentiam ac Jesu Christi amorem perduxit. Oratione summopere addictus, sæpe in extasim rapi visus est. Virginitatem vero adeo coluit, ut ad extremum usque spiritum voluntariis ac durissimis suppliciis illibatam custodierit.
Effloruit in eo jugiter singularis erga pauperes misericordia, sed præcipue cum apud Camilianum agri Senensis vicum leproso nudo eleemosynam petenti propriain, qua indutus erat, vestem fuit elargitus: qua ille contectus, statim a lepra mundatus est. Cujus miraculi cum longe lateque fama manasset, nonnulli ex Cardinalibus, qui Viterbium, Clemente quarto vita functo, pro successore deligendo convenerant, in Philippum, cujus cœlestem etiam prudentiam perspectam habebant, intenderunt. Quo comperto vir Dei, ne forte pastoralis regiminis onus subire cogeretur, apud Tuniatum montem tamdiu delituit, donec Gregorius decimus Pontifex Maximus fuerit renuntiatus: ubi balneis, quæ etiam hodie sancti Philippi vocantur, virtutem sanandi morbos suis precibus impetravit. Deriique Tuderti, anno millesimo ducentesimo octogesimo quinto in Christi Domini e cruce pendentis amplexu, quem suum appellabat librum, sanctissime ex hac vita migravit. Ad ejus tumulum cæci visum, Claudi gressum, mortui vitam receperunt. Quibus aliisque plurimis fulgentem signis Clemens decimus Pontifex Maximus sanctorum numero adscripsit.
Philip was born at Florence of the noble family of the Benizi, and from his very cradle gave signs of his future sanctity. When he was scarcely five months old he received the power of speech by a miracle, and exhorted his mother to bestow an alms on the servants of the Mother of God. As a youth, he pursued his studies at Paris, where he was remarkable for his ardent piety, and enkindled in many hearts a longing for our heavenly fatherland. After his return home he had a wonderful vision in which he was called by the blessed Virgin to join the newly-founded Order of the Servites. He therefore retired into a cave on Mount Sonario, and there led an austere and penetential life, sweetened by meditation on the sufferings of our Lord. Afterwards he travelled over nearly all Europe and great part of Asia, preaching the Gospel and instituting everywhere the sodality of the sevendolours of the Mother of God, while he propagated his Order by the wonderful example of his virtues.
He was consumed with love of God and zeal for the propagation of the Catholic faith. In spite of his refusals and resistance he was chosen general of his Order. He sent some of his brethren to preach the Gospel in Scythia, while he himself journeyed from city to city of Italy repressing civil dissensions, and recalling many to the obedience of the Roman Pontiff. His unremitting zeal for the salvation of souls won the most abandoned sinners from the depths of vice to a life of penance and to the true love of Jesus Christ. He was very much given to prayer and was often seen rapt in ecstasy. He loved and honoured holy virginity, and preserved it unspotted to the end of his life by means of the greatest voluntary austerities.
He was ramarkable for his love and pity for the poor. On one occasion when a poor leper begged an alms of him, at Camegliano a village near Siena, he gave him his own garment, which the beggar had no sooner put on than his leprosy was cleansed. The fame of this miracle having spread far and wide, some of the Cardinals who were assembled at Viterbo for the election of a successor to Clement IV, then lately dead, thought of choosing Philip, as they were aware of his heavenly prudence. On learning this, the man of God, fearing lest he should be forced to take upon himself the pastoral office hid himself at Montamiata until after the election of Pope Gregory X. By his prayers he obtained for the baths of that place, which still bear his name, the virtue of healing the sick. At length, in the year 1285, he died a most holy death at Todi, while in the act of kissing the image of his crucified Lord, which he used to call his book. The blind and lame were healed at his tomb, and the dead were brought back to life. His name having become illustrious by these and many other miracles, Pope Clement X. enrolled him among the saints.
‘Philip, draw near, and join thyself to this chariot.’[2] When the world was smiling on thy youth and offering thee renown and pleasures, thou didst receive this invitation from Mary. She was seated in a golden chariot which signified the religious life; a mourning mantle wrapped her round; a dove was fluttering about her head; a lion and a lamb were drawing her chariot over precipices from whose depths were heard the groans of hell. It was a prophetic vision: thou wast to traverse the earth accompanied by the Mother of sorrows; and this world, which hell had already everywhere undermined, was to have no dangers for thee; for gentleness and strength were to be thy guides, and simplicity thy inspirer. Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land.[3]
But this gentle virtue was to avail thee chiefly against heaven itself; heaven, which wrestles with the mighty, and which had in store for thee the terrible trial of an utter abandonment, such as had made even the God-Man tremble. After years of prayer and labour and heroic devotedness, for thy reward thou wast apparently rejected by God and disowned by the Church, while imminent ruin threatened all those whom Mary had confided to thee. In spite of her promises, the existence of thy sons the Servites was assailed by no less an authority than that of two general Councils, whose resolutions the vicar of Christ had determined to confirm. Our Lady gave thee to drink of the chalice of her sufferings. Thou didst not live to see the triumph of a cause which was hers as well as thine; but as the ancient patriarchs saluted from afar the accomplishment of the promises, so death could not shake thy calm and resigned confidence. Thou didst leave thy daughter Juliana Falconieri to obtain by her prayers before the face of the Lord, what thou couldst not gain from the powers of this world.
The highest power on earth was once all but laid at thy feet; the Church, remembering the humility wherewith thou didst flee from the tiara, begs thee to obtain for us that we may despise the prosperity of the world and seek heavenly goods alone;[4] deign to hear her prayer. But the faithful have not forgotten that thou wert a physician of the body before becoming a healer of souls; they have great confidence in the water and bread blessed by thy sons on this feast, in memory of the miraculous favours granted to their father: graciously regard the faith of the people, and reward the special honour paid to thee by Cristian physicians. Now that the mysterious chariot, shown thee at the beginning, has become the triumphal car whereon thou accompaniest our Lady in her entrance into heaven, teach us so to condole, like thee, with her sorrows, that we may deserve to be partakers with thee in her eternal glory.
[1] 2 Cor. vii. 5.
[2] Acts viii. 29.
[3] St. Matth. v. 4.
[4] Collect of the day.
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
A witness of the Son of God, one of the princes who announced His glory to the nations, lights up this day with his apostolic flame. While his brethren of the sacred college followed the human race into all the lands whither the migration of nations had led it, Bartholomew appeared as the herald of the Lord at the very starting point, the mountains of Armenia, whence the sons of Noe spread over the earth. There had the figurative Ark rested; humanity, everywhere else a wanderer, was there seated in stillness, remembering the dove with its olive branch, and awaiting the consummation of the alliance signified by the rainbow which had there for the first time glittered in the clouds. Behold, blessed tidings awake in those valleys the echoes of ancient traditions: tidings of peace, making the universal deluge of sin subside before the Wood of salvation. The serenity announced by the dove of old, was now far outdone. Love was to take the place of punishment. The ambassador of heaven showed God to the sons of Adam, as the most beautiful of their own brethren. The noble heights whence formerly flowed the rivers of paradise, were about to see the renewal of the covenant annulled in Eden, and the celebration, amid the joy of heaven and earth, of the divine nuptials so long expected, the union of the Word with regenerated humanity.
Personally, what was this apostle whose ministry borrowed such solemnity from the scene of his apostolic labours? Under the name or surname of Bartholomew,[1] the only mark of recognition given him by the first three Gospels, are we to see, as many have thought, that Nathaniel, whose presentation to Jesus by Philip forms so sweet a scene in St. John’s Gospel?[2] A man full of uprightness, innocence, and simplicity, who was worthy to have had the dove for his precursor, and for whom the Man-God had choice graces and caresses from the very beginning.
Be this as it may, the lot which fell to our saint among the twelve, points to the special confidence of the divine Heart; the heroism of the terrible martyrdom which sealed his apostolate reveals his fidelity; the dignity preserved by the nation he grafted on Christ, in all the countries where it has been transplanted, witnesses to the excellence of the sap first infused into its branches. When, two centuries and a half later, Gregory the Illuminator so successfully cultivated the soil of Armenia, he did but quicken the seed sown by the apostle, which the trials never wanting to that generous land had retarded for a time, but could not stifle.
How strangely sad, that evil men, nurtured in the turmoil of endless invasions, should have been able to rouse and perpetuate a mistrust of Rome among a race whom wars and tortures and dispersion could not tear from the love of Christ our Saviour! Yet, thanks be to God! the movement towards return, more than once begun and then abandoned, seems now to be steadily advancing; the chosen sons of this illustrious nation are labouring perseveringly for so desirable a union, by dispelling the prejudices of her people; by revealing to our lands the treasures of her literature so truly Christian, and the magnificences of her liturgy; and above all by praying and devoting themselves to the monastic state under the standard of the father of western monks.[3] Together with these holders of the true national tradition, let us pray to Bartholomew their apostle; to the disciple Thaddeus[4] who also shared in the first evangelization; to Ripsima the heroic virgin, who from the Roman territory led her thirty-five companions to the conquest of a new land; and to all the martyrs whose blood cemented the building upon the only foundation set by our Lord. Like these great forerunners, may the leader of the second apostolate, Gregory the Illuminator, who wished to 'see Peter’ in the person of St. Sylvester and receive the blessing of the Roman Pontiff, may the holy kings the patriarchs and doctors of Armenia, become once more her chosen guides, and lead her back entirely and irrevocably to the one fold of the one Shepherd!
We learn from Eusebius[5] and from St. Jerome,[6] that before going to Armenia, his final destination, St. Bartholomew evangelized the Indies, where Pantænus a century later found a copy of St. Matthew’s Gospel in Hebrew characters, left there by him. St. Denis records a profound saying of the glorious apostle, which he thus quotes and comments: ‘The blessed Bartholomew says of theology, that it is at once abundant and succinct; of the Gospel, that it is vast in extent and at the same time concise; thus excellently giving us to understand that the beneficent Cause of all beings reveals or manifests Himself by many words or by few, or even without any words at all, as being beyond and above all language or thought. For He is above all by His superior essence;and they alone reach Him in His truth, without the veils wherewith He surrounds Himself, who, passing beyond matter and spirit, and rising above the summit of the holiest heights, leave behind them all reflexions and echoes of God, all the language of heaven, to enter into the darkness wherein He dwelleth, as the Scripture says, who is above all.’[7]
The city of Home celebrates the feast of St. Bartholomew to-morrow, as do also the Greeks who commemorate on August 25 a translation of the apostle’s relics. It is owing, in fact, to the various translations of his holy body and to the difficulty of ascertaining the date of his martyrdom that different days have been adopted for his feast by different Churches, both in the east and in the west. The twenty-fourth of this month, consecrated by the use of most of the Latin Churches, is the day assigned in the most ancient martyrologies, including that of St. Jerome. In the thirteenth century Innocent III, having been consulted as to the divergence, answered that local custom was to be observed.[8]
The Church gives us the following notice of the apostle of Armenia.
Bartholomæus apostolus, Galilæus, cum in Indiam citeriorem, quæ ei in orbis terrarum sortitione ad prædicandum Jesu Christi Evangelium obvenerat, progressus esset, adventum Domini Jesu juxta sancti MatthæiEvangelium illis gentibus prædicavit. Sed cum in ea provincia plurimos ad Jesum Christum convertisset, multos labores calamitatesque perpessus, venit in majorem Armeniam.
Ibi Polymium regem et conjugem ejus, ac præteroa duodecim civitates ad Christianamfidem perduxit. Quæ res in eum magnam invidiam concitavit illius gentis sacerdotum. Nam usque adeo Astyagem Polymii regis fratrem in apostolum incendcrunt, ut is vivo Bartholomæo pellem crudeliter detrahi jusserit, ac caput abscindi: quo in martyrio animam Deo reddidit.
Ejus corpus Albani, quæ est urbs majoris Armeniæ, ubi is passus fuerat, sepultum est: quod postea ad Liparam insulam delatum, inde Beneventum translatum est: postremo Romain ab Othone tertio imperatore portatum, in Tiberis insula, in ecclesia ejus nomine Deo dicata, collocatum fuit. A gitur autem Romæ dies festus octavo Kalendas Septembris, et per octo consequentes dies illa basilica magna populi frequentia celebratur.
The apostle Bartholomew was a native of Galilee. It fell to his lot to preach the Gospel in hither India; and he announced to those nations the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of St. Matthew. But after converting many souls to Jesus Christ in that province and undergoing much labour and suffering, he went into eastern Armenia.
Here he converted to the Christian faith the king Polymius and his queen and twelve cities. This caused the pagan priests of that nation to be exceedingly jealous of him, and they stirred up Astyages the brother of king Polymius against the apostle, so that he commanded him to be flayed alive and finally beheaded. In this cruel martyrdom he gave up his soul to God.
His body was buried at Albanapolis, the town of eastern Armenia where he was martyred; but it was afterwards taken to the island of Lispari, and thence to Beueventum. Finally it was translated to Rome by the emperor Otho III and placed on the island of the Tiber in a church dedicated to God under his invocation. His feast is kept at Rome on the eighth of the Kalends of September, and during the eight following days that basilica is much frequented by the faithful.
On this day of thy feast, O holy apostle, the Church prays for grace to love what thou didst believe and to preach what thou didst teach.[9] Not that the bride of the Son of God could ever fail either in faith or in love; but she knows only too well that,though her Head is ever in the light, and her heart ever united to the Spouse in the holy Spirit who sanctifies her, nevertheless her several members, the particular churches of which she is composed, may detach themselves from their centre of life and wander away in darkness. O thou who didst choose our west as the place of thy rest; thou whose precious relics Rome glories in possessing, bring back to Peter the nations thou didst evangelize; fulfil the now reviving hopes of universal union; second the efforts made by the vicar of the Man-God to gather again under the shepherd's crook those scattered flocks whose pastures have become parched by schism. May thine own Armenia be the first to complete a return which she began long ago; may she trust the mother-Church and no more follow the sowers of discord. All being reunited, may we together enjoy the treasures of our concordant traditions, and go to God, even at the cost of being despoiled of all things, by the course so grand and yet so simple taught us by thy example and by thy sublime theology.
[1] Son of Tholmai.
[2] St. John i. 45-51.
[3] Mekhitarists, Armenian monks of St. Benedict.
[4] One of the seventy-two.
[5] Hist. Eccl. Lib. v. c. 1.
[6] De Script. Eccl. c. xxxvi.
[7] Dion. De mystica theolog. c. i. §. 3.
[8] Decretal, lib. iii. tit. xlvi, c. 2.Consilium.
[9] Collect of the day.