p. 81Vespers

1. Mysteries of This Office

If the night was illumined by the rays of Bethlehem, the dawn by the glories of the empty sepulchre, noon by the splendors of the Ascension, evening, with its sorrows, has also its light, splendors and glories.

It was in the world’s evening that Our Lord came to bring us salvation. “The people,” say the holy doctors, “were plunged in the darkness of paganism. The shades of evening stretched themselves everywhere; it was the fulness of time and the end of days, the old age of the world, and its last age, as the prophets have sung.” (Orig., Hom. 7. in Exod.; St. Aug., Serm. lxxv. de Temp.) At Vespers the object of the Church’s praise is “the Word made flesh, and dwelling among us.” That beautiful canticle of the Incarnation, the Magnificat, each day carries to God the tribute of her gratitude and love.

It was evening when Our Lord instituted the Eucharist. Not satisfied to clothe Himself with our nature, His love led Him to unite Himself to each one of us in that adorable sacrament, so well named “the extension of the Incarnation.” Then was consummated the union of the Spouse with His bride, of Christ with the Church, the soul with God.

The Church, not knowing how to fittingly celebrate this blessing, puts on the lips of her children the canticle In Exitu Israel, said by the Jews at the celebration of the Passover, and which Our Lord Himself said after the last supper. It was evening when Jesus Christ received the great wound in His heart, become the fifth of the wounds venerated by the Church; in the evening He was taken down from the cross, and given back to His Mother. Around that afflicted Mother the angels united to console her sorrow. The Church invites us to join their ranks, and to come to weep on Calvary, at the foot of the cross. Go then, O my soul, during that office, to the mountain of myrrh, as the prophet calls it; there is myrrh in abundance; on the cross, around the cross, at the foot of the cross; everywhere sorrow, suffering, and anguish.

With the Spouse of the Canticles, let us make a mystical bouquet of all these bitter flowers; the bad odor of sin will be driven away by its perfume; your wounds will be healed by contact with this blessed balm. Of all these mysteries we will treat most particularly those of Jesus on the cross. The considerations which flow from them always find easy access to our minds, and the heart which loves cannot cease to think of Jesus, and of Jesus crucified.

2. Method of Assisting Piously at Vespers

It is the hour when Our Lord is dead for my salvation; around His blessed cross the Church assembles her children to repeat with them the canticles of gratitude: this thought alone should unite all the Christian family in the holy place for the evening office.

How many men, how many women even, remain deaf to the call of grace and the invitation of the Church! While Jesus Christ, on His new Calvary, sees around Him but a small number of faithful disciples, the public promenades, the pleasure-places are filled with a merry crowd.

For us, more docile, when the bell announces the office of praise, let us imagine we hear the voices of angels who chant in heaven: “Christ is fastened to the cross, pierced by five wounds; come and adore Him together.” Vespers are composed of five psalms, in memory of Our Saviour’s wounds. To sing them we should place ourselves in thought at the foot of the cross; our heart will find Mary there, with the beloved disciple, and the holy women.

We will recite the first psalm in the wound of the right foot of Jesus Christ; the second in the wound of the left foot; the third and fourth in the wounds of the right and left hands; the fifth in that of the side. We read in the life of St. Francis Xavier an incident that shows us that we should love this practice. During a frightful tempest the vessel on which he was sailing was about to be submerged. Sailors, soldiers, and passengers, crowding together in confusion, waited but for death. Then St. Francis, mounting the deck, raised his eyes and hands to heaven. “Jesus,” he cried, “Jesus, love of my soul, help us. I ask Thee by the five wounds which Thou hast received for us on the cross.” And instantly the vessel, which already was sinking, rose up of itself, and gained the top of the waves. Our soul is perhaps like this ship; the tempest roars in heavens black with clouds; the waves of passion threaten to engulf it. Let us fly to the five wounds of Our Saviour; calm will reign at once in our soul.

The presence of angels will also arouse our fervor. “At the signal for the divine office,” says St. Bernard, “a multitude of cherubim and archangels descend to our temples. They hasten eagerly to join us; they p. 83mingle in our ranks to praise God with us, and animate our chants by inspiring us with their burning fervor.” Our angel guardian must not be forgotten. See him at our side; what is he doing?

The chronicles of Citeaux will tell us. During the office, St. Bernard saw beside each religious an angel. As soon as a verse of a psalm was chanted, he wrote in a book with a golden pen. And the saint noticed that the letters sometimes shone like gold, sometimes like silver, sometimes seemed black, and again pale like water. And sometimes even the pen made no mark. St. Bernard, astonished, asked God to explain to him the meaning of this mysterious vision. The Lord told him that this angel was the guardian angel of each religious. The difference in colors indicated the fervor with which each one sung the praises of God. If we would have our good angel write in golden letters in that book where our works are recorded, let us practise the pious method of hearing Vespers of which we have spoken.

The Venerable de Bérulle, founder of the Oratory in France, has written a pious tract on the manner of reciting the office. The following lines which we copy from him will enkindle the fervor of many souls:

“Think that you have to praise God for an infinite number of creatures who are incapable or unworthy to do so. Some are dumb, without voice or soul; they borrow your mind and lips to praise the Creator.”

“Others are as if in the state of childhood and in their minority; they look to your height in grace to render homage through you to their sovereign Lord. Others, deprived by their own fault of the grace offered to them, are cursed by God, and unfit to praise Him.”

“Double and triple blessing then is given you to praise God for them and for yourself. From this point of view, and with this thought, regard yourself as delegated by all creatures to praise the Lord of all, and pay Him their common tribute. You, then, praise the Lord for all—for the heavens and the earth, the creatures animate and inanimate; for Christians and infidels; for Catholics and heretics; for the blessed and reprobate; for hell itself, though it shudders and resists with its perverse will. You are placed between heaven and hell. Hell is under your feet, and God grant that you have as much fervor to praise the Divine Majesty as the reprobate have obstinacy in cursing it. Heaven is open above your head, and God grant that you have as great elevation of mind and piety as heaven has of rest, of glory, of joy in the possession of its Lord!”

May the Spirit of God, by the unction of His grace, engrave these noble thoughts in our souls, and may they be always present at the beginning of the divine office! Let the empty places around us excite our devotion; we will love for those that love not, pray for those who pray not, praise for those who praise not.