Paschal Time and Pentecost

1. Paschal Time

The Feast of Easter.—Christmas is the feast of love, but Easter is the feast of hope. “This solemnity,” says St. Gregory the Great, “snatches us from earth to p. 167transport us into the delights of heaven.” (Homil. xxii., In Evangel.) On this day which our fathers so well named “the day of days,” we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but we salute also with transports of unspeakable joy the dawn of our own resurrection. The paschal solemnity comes to say to man: “Thou shalt not die: the tomb shall be to thy flesh, stricken by the breath of sorrow or of time, as the earth is to the grain confided to her; there it shall germinate in the silence of centuries, to burst forth glorious and immortal.” To the pure soul everything speaks of resurrection. Nature, which seems to sleep through the days of winter, clothes herself again with verdure and joy; upon the branches, yesterday so dry, bloom to-day the loveliest flowers, and everything has a voice to say to us: “If God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” (St. Matt. vi. 30.)

The sun, which until now was wrapped in a sombre mantle of fog and clouds, appears to us all resplendent with new fires; in this more radiant sun the Christian will find a pledge of hope: one day in glory his risen flesh shall seem “like to it.” (St. Matt. xiii. 43.)

And in the holy place the Church, in all the forms which tenderness suggests to her, recalls to her children the consoling dogma. Ornaments of joyous colors have replaced the signs of mourning; rich embroideries adorn the altars; the bells ring out their most solemn peals, and in the sanctuary a chant from heaven rises in all voices: “Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.”

Pasch in Hebrew means passage. This name alone p. 168awakens in the Christian soul the greatest memories. Pasch: it is the passage of the angel of death in the midst of Egypt. Pasch: it is the passage of the Hebrews through the waves of the Red Sea. Pasch: it is the passage of Jesus Christ from death to life. Pasch: it is the passage of the souls of the just from Limbo to heaven. Pasch: it is the passage of the catechumens from unbelief to the light of the faith. Pasch: it is for us the passage from sin to grace, from the dust of the tomb to the glory of the resurrection. The Church makes mention of these different mysteries in the liturgy of this day, but she seems to prefer to occupy herself with the joys of the Resurrection and of Baptism.

Easter Eggs.—The egg was regarded as a symbol of the resurrection of the body. (St. Augustine, Serm. cv.) In the tomb of several martyrs have been discovered marble eggs, like hen’s eggs, or even the shells of natural eggs. For the Christian the egg is an image of the tomb; he remains there, without movement and without life, until He Who has vouchsafed to compare His tenderness to that of a hen gathering her chickens beneath her wings comes to break the chains which hold him the captive of death. It is to this eminently religious origin that the Easter egg can be traced. In some churches to this day an ostrich-egg is hung in the middle of the sanctuary as a pledge of hope, and at the domestic hearth blessed eggs are eaten before any other food on Easter, which is called, for this reason, pasch of the egg. (Dict. des Antiq. Chrét.; Godard, Archéol.)

Symbolism of Paschal Time.—Now the days of penitence are fled. No more tears, no more mourning in the liturgy. The Church, opening out the vast horizons of eternity, transports us to them on the wings of hope, to show us that after the sufferings of this life a shining crown will be laid upon the brow of the victor, and he will rejoice in the boundless joys of the vision of God. Catholic worship translates this consoling thought during the paschal time. This embraces a period of fifty days. The jubilee year, which falls every fifty years, has stamped this number with a joyful character. “And as the number forty is taken for the punishment of penitence, this is the figure of recompense and rest,” says St. Gregory. (Mor. l. i. c. 15.)

Throughout all the paschal time the first Christians prayed standing. St. Justin, asking himself the reason of such a custom, answers: “It is to place unceasingly before our eyes the blessing of our resurrection. The humiliation of our bodies during the other periods is a symbol of our fall by sin, but the position which we assume during these days which belong to the Lord is a sign of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Who has delivered us from the chains of sin and of death.” (Quaest. ad Orthod. Resp. cxv.) The Council of Nice raised this custom into a canonical law. (Canon ult.) It has been retained, as we have already said, during the paschal time for the recitation of the Regina Cœli, and on Sundays for the Angelus.

Quasimodo Sunday opens the series of five Sundays that belong to the paschal time. The first words of the Introit give it the name which it bears. It was the eve of the day when the newly baptized laid off their white robes; this made it also called Sunday in albis depositis.

Procession of St. Mark, 25th of April.—Under the p. 169pontificate of Pelagius, in 589, the swollen waters of the Tiber rose to the summit of the temple of Nero. In subsiding they left such an infectious deposit that there resulted a violent plague. To turn away the divine wrath the Pope ordered a general procession. But God demanded an illustrious victim: Pelagius was taken away by the contagion, in the very procession, with seventy other persons. St. Gregory the Great, his successor, ordered a second procession, at the head of which was carried the picture of the Blessed Virgin painted by St. Luke. Before this venerated relic the plague disappeared. When they had come to the castle of Adrian (now the castle of San Angelo) St. Gregory saw an angel sheathing a sword wet with blood. It was the signal of pardon. As a thanksgiving the Church renews this procession each year. (We have seen in a preceding chapter that the Regina Cœli was said by angels on this occasion.)

According to several authors, the pagans had a procession on the 25th of April to call down the blessings of the gods on the fruits of the earth. They carried a statue of Ceres, the goddess of the harvest. The Church probably chose this day for the procession of which we have spoken in order to interest the pagans themselves in the prescribed prayers for the cessation of the plague.

Processions and Rogations.—Plagues, ceaselessly recurring, desolated the Church in Vienne: droughts, earthquakes, fires, and the ravages of wild beasts. St. Mamertus, to appease heaven, ordered prayers, or rogations, sanctified by fasting and accompanied by a solemn procession. Copying those of the Ninivites, they were three days in duration, and the three days immediately preceding the feast of the Ascension were chosen. Is it not the Gospel of the last Sunday after Easter which says: “Ask and you shall receive”? St. Mamertus remembered this, and put under the protection of this solemn promise his celebrated institution, which the entire Church soon adopted. “It seemed,” says Bossuet, “that the Church wished to lay upon Jesus Christ ascending into heaven all her desires, as the true Mediator for man with God.” (Catech. des Fêtes.)

In the processions of the rogation-days, as in that of St. Mark, the Church prays for the fruits of the earth. Not to join therein is to affect a stupid independence: the rich as well as the poor, and more than the poor, because His domains are vaster; the city man as well as he who tills the fields, need God. (See what has been said of processions in general, page 64.)

The Ascension.—The fortieth day following His resurrection, Our Lord appeared a last time to His disciples, ate with them, led them to the Mount of Olives, and there, toward noon, arose into heaven in their presence: this is the mystery celebrated on this day. The paschal candle is extinguished after the gospel, to indicate that Jesus Christ, the true light, has left the earth.

The Finding of the Holy Cross, May 3d.—We borrow from the Roman breviary the story of this marvellous event. “After the signal victory which the Emperor Constantine won over Maxentius, thanks to the divine sign revealed by heaven, Helena, his mother, admonished in a dream, went to Jerusalem, to discover the sacred tree of our redemption. In the first place she threw p. 170down the marble statue which paganism, to efface all vestige of the passion, had raised to Venus on the very spot of the crucifixion. By her orders were also destroyed the statues of Adonis and Jupiter on the Saviour’s cradle and the tomb of the Resurrection. Then they proceeded to the excavations on Calvary. Three crosses were found at a great depth; the inscription placed above the Saviour’s head was discovered on another side. It was important to know which of these three crosses had been consecrated by the blood of the adorable Victim. God dissipated all doubts by a miracle. Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, prayed fervently to heaven, and had the crosses brought to the bedside of a lady who was dangerously ill. The first two had no effect, but the third restored her instantly to health.

“In the place where she had found the cross, the pious empress built a magnificent church, where was religiously preserved, in a silver case, a part of the holy relic; the other part was sent to Constantine at Rome, who placed it in the church called ‘the Holy Cross of Jerusalem.’”

The feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross was in the beginning celebrated in the temple built by St. Helena on Calvary; it spread through the Catholic world with the fragments of the true cross. Each church enriched by this precious treasure wished to celebrate the anniversary of its miraculous discovery, which took place on May 3d in the year 326. If we would enter into the spirit of this feast, let us think that the cross is to many Christians lost and hidden. In sufferings they murmur, or revolt, or blaspheme; but suffering is a treasure, a precious stone, a crown. Whence comes such conduct? The cross is not known; let us ask God, for ourselves and our brethren, that we may discover this rich treasure.

2. Pentecost Time

The Feast of Pentecost.—Jesus Christ has given us part of all that He possessed. As God He had a Father; He gave Him to us when He taught us to pray “Our Father Who art in heaven.” As man He had a mother; she became ours on Calvary. In the Incarnation His Divinity was clothed with a body and soul; He presents us with them in the Eucharist, with His divine nature, that they may become our food. King of heaven, He has gone there to prepare a place for us. What has Jesus Christ that man has not possessed in his turn? His Spirit; and behold, He gives Him to us in the great solemnity of Pentecost.

On this day Our Lord put the last touch to the work of our redemption. The perfect alliance of God with man, promised for forty centuries, was then accomplished. That which the jubilee year, or the fiftieth year, was to the Jews, the fiftieth day was to the disciples of Jesus Christ and the entire world. The jubilee brought liberty to all; Pentecost has given it to the earth; for, says St. Paul, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (II. Cor. iii. 17.)

The Church, as a mother full of wisdom, wishes that the joys of which her Spouse has made her the repository should be the recompense to Christians for their prayers and their desires. Advent has prepared us for the joys of the crib; Lent for those of the Resurrection; paschal time for those of Pentecost.

Blessing of the Fonts.—On the eve of Pentecost the fonts are blessed, as on Holy Saturday. This ceremony was formerly followed by the solemn administration of baptism to those who had not been able to receive it at Easter. Different motives pointed out this day to the choice of the Church: the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles had been announced as being to them a second baptism (Acts i.); the apostles baptized three thousand Jews on Pentecost; the regeneration of the soul by baptism is the first operation of the Holy Spirit.

Symbolism of Pentecost Time.—Pentecost is the memorable day of the birth of the Church, in the upper room of the last supper; the days which are to follow to Advent recall to us her life of pilgrimage across the centuries. As the liturgic time of Pentecost rolls away, the days become shorter and colder, image of life and of the world; the light of charity and of faith fades little by little; scarcely will it show its feeble rays at the coming of the Sovereign Judge.

The gospel of the last Sunday after Pentecost unfolds before our eyes the judgment, the supreme drama in the world’s existence; then the Church militant will enter into the joy of beatitude and rest. Filled with the Spirit from on high, the laborers of the Father of the family went after Pentecost to water with their sweat or their blood the divine heritage, and for the Church began the labors of her spiritual harvest. Green, which is worn in this liturgic period, symbolizes well the harvest which sprouts and which increases.

Feast of the Holy Trinity.—This feast, placed at the beginning of the Pentecost season, recalls to us that the p. 172apostles, after the descent of the Holy Ghost, hastened to preach the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The Church has already honored by a special feast each one of the divine Persons: Christmas was for the Father, Easter for the Son, Pentecost for the Holy Ghost. But on this day the liturgy unites them in the same feast, in order to chant the great dogma of the Unity in the Trinity.

Corpus Christi.—After His ascension, Jesus Christ has willed to remain in the tabernacle, to be the strength of His spouse in the combats of her pilgrimage. The grateful Church has instituted a feast to celebrate the greatness of a God humbled and concealed under the eucharistic veils: it is Corpus Christi, or the feast of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Corpus Christi was not always celebrated in the Church. A venerable religious hospitaller, Juliana of Mont-Corneillon, of the city of Liége, learned from Our Lord in a revelation that He desired the institution of a feast to honor the sacrament of His love. The plan received the approbation of Urban IV., but the death of the Pontiff delayed its execution. The glory of definitely establishing this solemnity was reserved to a French pope. It was Clement V., in the general Council held at Vienne in 1311.

Feast of the Sacred Heart.—A humble religious named Margaret Mary Alacoque, of the Order of the Visitation, was in adoration during the octave of Corpus Christi, when Our Lord appeared to her and expressed the desire to see the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi consecrated to the celebration of a particular feast in honor of His Heart, to repair the outrages which He receives in the Sacrament of the Altar.

The pious maiden, treated as a visionary, saw a violent storm arise around her, but Jesus Christ watched over her, and with a look calmed the tempest. We will not repeat all the divers phases through which this devotion has passed. The institution of the new feast was not obtained until the pontificate of Clement XIII., in 1765, and did not become general till the time of Pius IX., in 1857. There is now no part of the Catholic world where the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is not established.

Nativity of St. John the Baptist, June 24th.—This feast, one of the oldest in the liturgy, was for a long time preceded by a fast-day and a Lent of three weeks, in memory of the penitent life of the holy Precursor. An angel had announced that “many should rejoice at His birth.” (St. Luke i. 14.) This joy flowed down through the Christian world from the mountains of Hebron. The fires which are lighted upon the heights in the evening of this day are a souvenir of the joy brought by this feast to all Christian hearts.

Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, June 29th.—In the year 67 of the Christian era, and the 29th day of June, Saint Peter and Saint Paul left the damp cell in the Mamertine prison to be led to execution. The former was to be crucified; but the latter, because his title of Roman citizen gave him the right to a more honorable death, was to be decapitated by the sword. At a little distance from Rome, on the Ostian Way, the two apostles separated.

“Peace be with thee, head of the Church, shepherd of all Christ’s lambs,” said St. Paul.

“Go in peace, herald of heavenly joys, guide of the just in the way of salvation,” responded St. Peter.

The veneration of centuries has carved these words on the pediment of the Church of the Farewells, built on the spot of the separation, and there they are still to be read.

The procession divided. St. Peter, taken to the Janiculum, the place of common executions, was scourged, and crucified head downwards. Two Christian women remained at the foot of the cross, like the women on Calvary; they gathered up in linen cloths the blood of the glorious martyr.

St. Paul continued on the Ostian Way. The patrician lady Plautilla, a new Veronica, weeping, accompanied the mournful procession. Upon the place of martyrdom she took off her veil at St. Paul’s request, and gave it to him to bandage his eyes, according to the Roman custom. After a fervent prayer he offered himself to the executioners. His head bounded thrice upon the ground, and where it came in contact with the earth three fountains burst forth, which are to be seen at this day.

Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, July 2d.—This is the feast commemorative of the visit of Mary to St. Elizabeth in the mountains of Hebron. “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,” cried the spouse of Zachary at the sight of the august Virgin whose divine maternity had been revealed to her by the Holy Spirit. The beautiful canticle of the Magnificat was the response of the humble Mary.

This feast was established because of a great schism in the West. The Church had striven for a long time to put an end to these deplorable divisions; the charity shown by Mary in her visit to her cousin prompted Pope Urban VI. to place under the protection of the mystery of the Visitation such an important enterprise. He hoped by the intercession of the Mother of Beautiful Love to lead these two parties to give each other the kiss of peace; his hope was not deceived, as history shows us.

If Mary unites the sad divisions of the Church, let us have recourse to her, begging her to bring into the pale of unity those who live separated from it. Many sheep have been stolen from the fold of Christ by schism; let us pray this tender shepherdess to lead them back to the Church’s sheepfold.

Perhaps more than one reader has asked himself why the Visitation is celebrated on July 2d. In the beginning of April Mary left Nazareth to go to Hebron; it would seem that the date of the feast should have been then. Some churches, it is true, at first chose that period, but generally it was preferred to transfer the celebration because of Holy Week, with which it often would have collided. It was thought then that there was no better time to select than July 2d, anniversary of Mary’s return. She passed three months in Elizabeth’s house, remaining in Hebron till the octave of the birth of St. John the Baptist, the day of his circumcision; but the next day, July 2d, she set out for Nazareth.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, July 16th.—From the heights of Carmel Elias had the vision of the mysterious little cloud which, changing into rain, brought blessed fruitfulness upon the sterile fields.

This cloud, according to the doctors, prophesied Mary. And Elias and his disciples honored on Mount Carmel her who was to be in the course of ages the blessed Mother of the Redeemer. Mary, long before her birth, was already the Lady of Mount Carmel.

The delicious solitudes of this mountain, and, still more, its great memories, drew there many Christians. It is even believed that a chapel in Mary’s honor was raised there during her life, in the very place where the prophet had seen the mysterious cloud. Thus Carmel was the first place on earth to be solemnly dedicated to Mary, where the powerful name of the Advocate of the Church was invoked. As heirs of the devotion of the prophets and the first Christians, in the twelfth century some religious took Our Lady of Mount Carmel for their founder and superior, and called themselves Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or simply Carmelites. The Holy See authorized them to celebrate an annual feast, to solemnize the dedication of the first oratory built on Carmel and to recognize the graces which the Blessed Virgin had poured forth from there so abundantly. This solemnity was fixed for the 16th of July, in memory of a signal favor shown their order on that day. Mary appeared to Simon Stock, general of the Carmelites, accompanied by a multitude of heavenly spirits, and holding in her hand a scapular, a little brown woollen habit. She told him that she would be favorable to all who associated themselves with the Congregation of Carmel by wearing this holy habit; that she would consider them as her children, protect them in dangers, and assist them in the hour of their death to escape the eternal flames. Fifty years later the Blessed Virgin appeared to Pope John XXII., and promised especial assistance on the Saturday following their death to the p. 175members of the Confraternity of the Scapular condemned to purgatory, provided that during their life they had observed the three following conditions: 1st, to carefully wear the scapular even to their death; 2d, to guard inviolate chastity, each according to his state; 3d, to recite each day the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, or, if they could not read, to fast on the days commanded by the Church, and abstain every Wednesday and Friday of the year, except on Christmas, or during illness, or when prevented by some other valid reason. The bull in which John XXII. accorded these favors bears the name of Sabbatine, or of Saturday, and from this the promise of Mary to her faithful servants of consolation on the Saturday after their death is called the Sabbatine indulgence.

Our Lady of the Snow, August 5th.—The sanctuary the dedication of which the Church celebrates to-day bears different names. It is called the Liberian basilica, after Pope Liberius, its founder. Later it was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and enriched by the precious gift of the crib of Our Lord, whence it took its name of Santa Maria ad Præsepe, and also Santa Maria Maggiore, or major, the greatest, for, as Peter the Venerable says, after the basilica of the Lateran, dedicated to Our Saviour, this of which we speak is the most celebrated, not in Rome only, but throughout the entire world. (Lib. ii., De Miracul.)

This church owes its renown above all to the miraculous event which gave it its name of Our Lady of Snows. Under the pontificate of Liberius, a patrician named John and his wife, being childless, had consecrated all their goods to the Blessed Virgin. By fervent prayers they supplicated her to show them the use to which they should put their riches. On August 5th, when the heat is greatest at Rome, the Esquiline hill was whitened by a fall of snow during the night. At the same time these pious people received in a dream the answer of the Blessed Virgin to their request, who ordered them to build a temple on the spot which they should find covered with snow. The tidings were carried to Pope Liberius, who had the same dream. The people went to the Esquiline in procession, and all were witnesses to the event, the memory of which is perpetuated through the ages by the feast of this day.

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, August 15th.—A death without suffering, a tomb without corruption, the anticipated resurrection of a glorious body, this is the triple mystery solemnized under the name of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.

The God Who from all ages had exempted her who was to be His mother from the corruption of Adam’s sin, would not suffer the pure body from which the body of Jesus Christ was formed to see corruption in death. She was taken up into heaven to be crowned the Queen of angels, and to be man’s advocate and help in his struggle to reach the eternal goal. The Introit of this day gives us the key to the Church’s feeling; and what should be our own when we think that our mother and advocate is seated at the right hand of her Son in bliss eternal! “Let us all rejoice in the Lord, while we celebrate this festival in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for whose assumption the angels rejoice and praise the Son of God.”

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, September 8th.—For p. 176the third time the Church unites her children around a cradle. If the first two were surrounded with glory, this one is enveloped with veils of silence. We find nothing in the Gospel of the different circumstances which must have accompanied the birth of the Blessed Virgin. Who were her father and her mother? What place saw her birth? The Scriptures do not tell us. The humble Virgin had no wish that she should be spoken of in those pages which retraced the life of Jesus Christ. All that we know has been transmitted by tradition. Her father was called Joachim, and was of the race of the kings of Juda. Anne, her mother, descended from the high-priest Aaron. She was born at Nazareth, on the 8th of September, and the name of Mary was given her, which means queen, and star of the sea.

Several authors tell us that the establishment of this feast is owing to a miraculous event. A holy religious every year heard during the night concerts of angels who celebrated a feast in heaven. He asked God to show him the reason for this joy, and it was revealed to him that the celestial choirs honored the birth of Mary, which took place on that day. This being laid before the Holy See, the feast was established. To-day is the feast of the birth of our mother; let us offer her a bouquet of those flowers which she best loves, and among them the flower which she looks upon with the keenest pleasure, humility. If our birth be humble, let us never blush for it; if it be illustrious, let us avoid speaking of it. May this resolution, laid at the feet of Mary, be our birthday bouquet!

Feast of the Holy Name of Mary.—This feast is appointed for the Sunday following the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. Established in Spain in the year 1513, it became universal toward the year 1683, under Innocent XI., in gratitude for the protection of Mary during the siege of Vienna. The Christians, strong in the help of her who is “terrible as an army in battle array,” forced the Turks to raise the siege. If this bulwark of Christianity had fallen into their power, one trembles at the thought of the evils which would have been poured over Europe. This name, given by God Himself, according to tradition, to her who should be His Mother, signifies Star of the sea, Ocean of bitterness, and Illuminator. “Thou art,” says one of her pious servants, “an ocean of bitterness to the demons, a shining star to those who sail through this poor world, a radiant light for those who are plunged in darkness, and even for the angels who rejoice in heaven.” (Fasciculus precum Cathol.)

Exaltation of the Holy Cross, September 14th.—When Jesus Christ went up to Calvary laden with His cross, He met upon His way only insult and contempt; according to the Jewish law a curse covered with its anathema the man condemned to this infamous execution. Who would then have dared say that this insulted cross would one day be glorious and venerated, that it would become as a shining throne from which Jesus Christ would receive the homage of people and kings? Yet even then a few hours had scarcely elapsed when already the voice of entire nature proclaimed the triumph of the cross. The murderers beat their breasts; one of the thieves crucified beside the Saviour recognized Him as his God. This was the first exaltation of the cross: Jesus Christ crucified received then the homage of p. 177sorrowing nature and of the repentant murderers. Miraculously recovered by the care of the Empress Helena, the cross had become the object of holy veneration to the Christians. But at the end of the sixth century, Khosru, king of Persia, having taken possession of Jerusalem, carried into his states the wood of the true cross. The Emperor Heraclius made offers for the ransom of this precious relic; the barbarous king accepted them, on the condition that the Romans would renounce their religion and adore the sun. The negotiations were broken off, and a campaign entered upon. Khosru was vanquished, and put to death by his son, who accepted the conditions of peace imposed upon him by the victor. The cross was returned, and Heraclius himself wished to bear it upon his shoulders to Calvary. Six centuries after this event, the memory of which is for ever consecrated by the feast of this day, St. Louis of France came to receive at the gates of Paris the cross and the instruments of the passion, presents from Baldwin, emperor of Constantinople; the king, denuded of all royal apparel and barefooted, bore them upon his shoulders to the holy chapel, which he had built to receive these sacred relics. This was on the 14th of September, 1241. It must be said, however, that God had not waited for Heraclius and St. Louis to exalt the cross in the world. Since Constantine it had been shining on the pediments of public monuments, on the standards of armies. This was the second exaltation of the cross: Jesus Christ received the homage of power and of courage; He called to Himself every grandeur.

But another, more complete and more solemn triumph is promised to the cross: on the last day it will judge the world. When it shines forth, luminous upon the clouds of heaven, all heads will bow before it, the angels and the demons, the elect and the reprobate. This is the supreme exaltation of the cross which will receive then the homage of all generations. May all these great memories excite in our hearts sentiments of respect for the instrument of our salvation! Let us give it a place of honor in our houses; let us form the holy habit of wearing it religiously on our hearts; let us salute it with love when we meet it in our way. And let us not forget that there are infidel countries where the cross does not yet shine; the missionary has the pang of seeing it trodden under foot. Let us pray that soon it will arise, like a luminous star, in the midst of the pagan countries of the far East.

Our Lady of the Rosary.—This feast, instituted by Pope St. Pius V., recalls to us the victory won by the Catholic army over the Turks at Lepanto on October 7, 1571. The triumph was obtained through the prayers of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, and bore its name. The suitability of the chant of the Ave Maris Stella on this feast is striking; the Church sings it at Vespers, at the hour when the sea beheld the triumph of the Christian fleet protected by Mary.

The devotion to the rosary is older than the feast which bears its name. Under its actual form it dates from St. Dominic, but its origin goes back much further. The anchorites of the first centuries, in order not to interrupt the work of their hands, learned certain prayers, principally psalms, and repeated them each day a definite number of times. For those who could not read it was the Lord’s Prayer, or other formulas p. 178short and easy to remember. That they might not forget one, they had under the skirts of their vestments a number of little stones corresponding to the number of prayers which had been imposed upon them, and they threw away one for each prayer recited.

In the eleventh century we learn from William of Malmesbury (De Pontif., l. iv. c. 4) that Godiva, wife of Count Leofric, had the habit of rolling in her fingers a circle of precious stones strung upon a cord, and of reciting a prayer as she touched each gem, that she might not omit any. Some years later, Peter the Hermit, to make the means of prayer easier to those crusaders who could not read, put into their hands the chaplet properly so called. St. Dominic then followed and gave this devotion its definite form.

The word chaplet and the word rosary signify a crown of roses. Each of its beads is like a flower serving to make the crown of the Queen of heaven, whom the Church calls the Mystical Rose.

All Saints, November 1st.—The liturgic year is the life of the human race. With its four weeks Advent figures the four thousand years of prayers and sighs before the coming of the Messias. From Christmas to the Ascension we kneel by turns at the foot of the crib, the cross, the sepulchre, and, filled with the rich blessings of Jesus ascending into heaven, we wait prayerfully the coming of the Holy Ghost into our souls. Then begins, as we have seen, the life of pilgrimage of the Church. To raise his courage the traveller loves to turn his eyes toward that side of the horizon where his hopes lie. Now, in her pilgrimage, the goal toward which the Church aspires is heaven. This is why we keep the feast of heaven at this period. It was introduced into the liturgy in the seventh century. Pope Boniface IV. in 610, having obtained the Pantheon for a church, dedicated it to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs, which gave this monument the name of Holy Mary of the Martyrs. In the following century Gregory III. consecrated, in the church of St. Peter, a chapel in honor of all the saints. By degrees, because of the intimate connection of this solemnity with the preceding one, the two feasts formed but one, and their celebration was fixed for November 1st. The saints are classed by the Church in different orders: the apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, and holy women. None of these terms, except confessor, needs explanation; we will speak of this here. In the primitive Church the name of confessor was given to any Christian who, after having confessed the faith of Jesus Christ openly before his judges, was condemned to another punishment than death. The name of martyr was reserved for those who suffered the extreme penalty. The era of persecution passed, and the title of confessor was given to the just who, after having lived in the practice of all the virtues, died in the odor of sanctity. Have they not also given testimony to the religion of Christ by the splendor of their works? Have they not, by strong combat with vice, confessed Our Lord?

All Souls, November 2d.—Nature has taken care to prepare our hearts for the sadness of this day. For the joyous feast of the Eucharist she had her bluest sky, her sweetest flowers; on the day of All Souls she is clad in mourning. This is the first harmony which springs from this feast. But there are more. To man, p. 179forgetful of his last end, God has been pleased to constantly recall the inexorableness of death. Each of the days which make up our short existence he has made an image of our life. Dawn is youth, so fleeting; its glow lasts but a little time. Scarcely has the sun arisen than it descends to the horizon, and no sooner has man attained the strength of maturity, of intelligence, than he leans toward the decline of his days. Evening is old age, and night is death; its silence, its obscurity, the abandonment of creatures, are they not a faithful image of the tomb? The year in its turn places before our eyes these great reminders, annoying to the majority. The smile of springtime figures the graces of early youth, and icy winter—winter with its mantle of snow, winter from which we seek to flee—does it not remind us of that dreaded age when cold will numb our vigor, our hair will whiten, when we shall find but empty spaces around our hearth? The wise man, then, sees around him the twilight of eternity.

The Church, in choosing this season for the celebration of All Souls, has, as always, given proof of her profound wisdom. What a delicate thought to choose for it the day after All Saints, and even to begin it on the evening of that solemnity! In doing this she has wished to show us that All Saints is the true feast of the Church triumphant, the Church militant, and the Church suffering. The canticles of joy, interrupted by the plaintive accents of the De Profundis, tell us that the three sisters have joined hands to help one another to reach supreme happiness.

The feast or the commemoration of the dead was originally a holy-day, like Sunday; then it was reduced to p. 180a half-holyday which ended at noon, and for this reason it has no second Vespers.

Feast of the Dedication.—Our churches are the tents of the God of the Eucharist. He remains therein perpetually, to be the strength and the support of humanity in its combats. To this temple sanctified by the prayers of the Church, and by the presence of the thrice-holy God, a feast has been consecrated to recall the grandeur of our edifices, and to thank God for the graces which He gives us there each day. This feast, under the name of the Dedication, is celebrated in France on the Sunday which follows the Octave of All Saints. The liturgic period, which represents the pilgrimage of the Church throughout the centuries, draws to a close. Soon the last gospel of Pentecost time will recount the history of the Last Day. This date is not far distant; this is why the spouse of Jesus Christ, raising her eyes toward heaven, considers there the eternal temple which will replace that built by man to the Lord: Jesus Christ is its altar; the elect are its stones; the apostles its foundation. This heavenly Jerusalem is the object of the divine chants of this solemnity.

Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, November 21st.—Tradition says that Mary, at the age of three years and two months, was offered to God in the Temple at Jerusalem by her pious parents. It is commonly believed that this was done in fulfilment of a vow made to the Lord. For many years childless, they had promised to consecrate to Jehovah the child which should be given them. This child of miracle was Mary. Her first years literally passed in the shadow of the Lord’s wings, in the part of the Temple destined to receive Israel’s young maidens. Prayer, the study of the Scriptures, and work divided her moments. This is all that we know of the eleven years that the Blessed Virgin passed in the Temple. The feast of the Presentation, celebrated in the East from all antiquity, was introduced into the West toward 1372. Avignon, then the residence of the popes, had the glory of first celebrating the new solemnity.

Patron Feast.—The Church, in her solicitude for the salvation of her children, has given a protector to each kingdom, each diocese, each parish, each confraternity, to each Christian. This protector, chosen among the saints in heaven, is honored under a name which expresses the affection of a father for his family: the name of patron.

In the first centuries the churches were not distinguished from each other but by a title which bore directly upon God, under the invocation of a mystery. Thus there were churches dedicated to Our Saviour, Christ, the Trinity, the Paraclete, the Transfiguration, etc. But as a temple was never built but on the burial-place of some saint, or upon his relics, the custom soon spread of giving the sacred edifice the name of this saint, although the temple was always consecrated to God only. It happened that certain churches took for patrons saints whose relics and tombs they did not possess; a particular devotion fixed their choice. The patronage most often claimed was without question that of the Blessed Virgin; it is necessary but to look around us to be convinced of this. When several altars can be erected in the same church there is always one to the Mother of God.

Formerly the patron feast of the diocese was of p. 181obligation, like Sunday; that of the parish was only obligatory to those who belonged to it. This celebration is now transferred to the following Sunday.

Sundays after Pentecost.—There cannot be between Pentecost and Advent less than twenty-three Sundays nor more than twenty-eight. The office of the twenty-fourth is always said on the Sunday before Advent. If between the twenty-third and the last Sunday there is but one Sunday, the Mass of the sixth Sunday after Epiphany is said. If there are two, the Masses of the fifth and sixth are said. If there are three, those of the fourth, fifth, and sixth are said; and if there are four, those of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth.