St. Sylvester

I am, as I do a lot, going to let our Beloved Abott Gueranger, describe what has happened this past week, as well as what our future can hold for us. Today we honor St. Sylvester, who was Pope during the controversy concerning the Divinity of Christ. He called the Council of Nicea, straightened out some things to be done by us and the Church during Her celebrations, as well as many other things. Anyway:

'So far, the only ones we have seen standing around the Crib of our Jesus have been Martyrs: Stephen, overwhelmed with the shower of stones; John, the Martyr in heart, who survived his fiery torture; the Holy Innocents, massacred by the sword; Thomas a'Becket, Bishop of Canterbury, who was murdered in his cathedral. These are the champions of Christ, who keep guard in the palace of Bethlehem. Yet all Christians are not called to be Martyrs. Besides this countless battalion of the King's favorite soldiers, there are other troops of sainted heroes which form the heavenly army; and amongst these there are the Confessors, who conquered the world without shedding their blood in the combat. Though the place of honor in the service of the King belongs to the Martyrs, yet did the Confessors fight manfully for the glory of His Name and the spreading of His Kingdom. The palm is not in their hands, but they are crowned with the crown of justice, and Jesus, Who gave it to them, has made it be part of His own glory that they should be near His throne.

The Church would therefore grace this glorious Christmas Octave with the name of one of her Children, who should represent at Bethlehem the whole class of her un-martyred Saints. She chose a Confessor--St. Sylvester: a Confessor who governed the Church of Rome; and therefore the universal Church; a Pontiff whose reign was long and peaceful; a Servant of Jesus Christ adorned with every virtue, who was sent to edify and guide the world immediately after those fearful combats that had lasted for three hundred years, in which millions of Christians had gained victory by martyrdom, under the leadership of thirty Popes--predecessors of St. Sylvester--and they, too, all Martyrs.

So that Sylvester is messenger of the Peace which Christ came to give to the world, of which the Angels sang on Christmas Night. He is the friend of Constantine; he confirms the Council of Nicea; he organizes the discipline of the Church for the new era on which she is now entering: the era of Peace. His predecessors in the See of Peter imagined Jesus in His sufferings; Sylvester represented Jesus in His triumph. His appearance during this Octave reminds us that the Divine Child Who lies wrapped in swaddling clothes, and is the object of Herod's persecution, is, notwithstanding all these humiliations, the Prince of Peace, the Father of the world to come.' (Isias ix, 6)

Now a prayer to this great Pope, taken in parts from 'The Liturgical Year':

'Supreme Pastor of the Church of Christ!, thou lendest to the beauty of the holy Octave of Christmas the luster of thy glorious merits....saintly Vicar of Christ!, forget not the Christian people, which was once thy flock. It asks thee, on this thy Feast, to make it know and love the mystery of the Birth of Jesus. By the sublime Symbol which embodies the Faith of Nicea, and which thou didst confirm and promulgate throughout the whole Church, thou hast taught us to acknowledge this sweet Infant as God of God, Light of Light, begotten not made, Consubstantial with the Father. Thou biddest us to come and adore this little Child as He by Whom all things were made. Holy Confessor of Christ, vouchsafe to present us to Him, as the Martyrs have done, whose feasts have filled up the days since this Nativity. Pray to Him for us, that our desires for true virtue may be fulfilled, that we may persevere in His holy love, that we may at length obtain the Crown of Justice, which is to be the reward of our confessing Him before men, and is the only object of our ambition...'

Let us also, on this Seventh Day within the Christmas Octave, consider the new-born Babe wrapped in the swaddling clothes of Infancy. They are the indications of weakness; the Child that is swathed in them is helpless, and dependent on others; another's hand must loosen His bands, and until then He is not free to move. It was in this infantine helplessness, and in the bondage of human weakness, that He Who gives life and motion to every creature first appeared on our earth!

Let us contemplate our Blessed Lady wrapping the limbs of her Child, her God, in these swathing bands; but who can picture to himself the respectful love wherewith she does it? She adores His humiliations--humiliations which He has taken upon Himself in order that He may sanctify every period of man's life, even that feeblest of all, Infancy. So deep was the wound of our pride, that it needed a remedy of such exceeding efficacy as this! Can we refuse to become little children, now that He Who gives us the precept sets us so touching an example? Sweet Jesus! we adore thee wrapped in thy Swaddling Clothes, and our ambition is to imitate thy Divine humility.


A holy Abott named Guerric states:

"Let not the eye of your Faith be offended or shocked, brethren, at these outward humble coverings. As the Mother of Jesus wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, so do Grace and Wisdom, your spiritual mother, veil over with certain material things the Truth of our Incarnate God, and hide under the representation of symbolical figures the majesty of this same Jesus. When I, brethren, deliver to you, by my words, the Truth, which is Jesus, I am swathing Jesus in bands of exceeding great poverty. Happy the soul that loves and adores its Jesus not the less because he receives Him thus poorly clad! Let us therefore most devoutly think upon our Lord clothed in the swathing bands wherewith His Mother covered His infant limbs; that so, in the world of eternal happiness, we may see the glory and beauty wherewith His Father hath clad Him; and this glory is that of the Only-Begotten Son of the Father."