St. Apollonia, Virgin and Martyr

Ecclesiastical historians have claimed that in the last years of Emperor Philip the Arab (reigned 244–249), during otherwise undocumented festivities to commemorate the millennium of the founding of Rome (traditionally in 753 BC, putting the date about 248), the fury of the Alexandrian mob rose to a great height, and when one of their poets prophesied a calamity, they committed bloody outrages on the Christians, whom the authorities made no effort to protect.

Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria (247–265), relates the sufferings of his people in a letter addressed to Fabius, Bishop of Antioch, of which long extracts have been preserved in Eusebius' Historia Ecclesiae. After describing how a Christian man and woman, Metras and Quinta, were seized and killed by the mob, and how the houses of several other Christians were pillaged, Dionysius continues:

"At that time Apollonia, parthénos presbytis, (mostly likely meaning a deaconess), was held in high esteem. These men seized her also and by repeated blows broke all her teeth. They then erected outside the city gates a pile of fagots and threatened to burn her alive if she refused to repeat after them impious words (either a blasphemy against Christ, or an invocation of the heathen gods). Given, at her own request, a little freedom, she sprang quickly into the fire and was burned to death."


Apollonia and a whole group of early martyrs did not await the death they were threatened with, but either to preserve their chastity or because they were confronted with the alternative of renouncing their faith or suffering death, voluntarily embraced the death prepared for them, an action that runs perilously close to suicide, some thought (I don't). St. Augustine of Hippo touches on this question in the first book of The City of God, apropos suicide:

"But, they say, during the time of persecution certain holy women plunged into the water with the intention of being swept away by the waves and drowned, and thus preserve their threatened chastity. Although they quitted life in this wise, nevertheless they receive high honour as Martyrs in the Catholic Church and their feasts are observed with great ceremony. This is a matter on which I dare not pass judgment lightly. For I know not but that the Church was divinely authorized through trustworthy revelations to honour thus the memory of these Christians. It may be that such is the case. May it not be, too, that these acted in such a manner, not through human caprice but on the command of God, not erroneously but through obedience, as we must believe in the case of Samson? When, however, God gives a command and makes it clearly known, who would account obedience there to a crime or condemn such pious devotion and ready service?"


The narrative of Dionysius does not suggest the slightest reproach as to this act of St. Apollonia; in his eyes she was as much a martyr as the others, and as such she was revered in the Alexandrian Church. In time, her feast was also popular in the West. A later narrative mistakenly duplicated Apollonia, making her a Christian virgin of Rome in the reign of Julian the Apostate, suffering the same dental fate.

After she had willingly thrown herself into the fire prepared for her, there was within her the intenser flame of the Holy Ghost Her body was soon consumed, and her most pure soul took its flight, and was graced with the everlasting crown of martyrdom.

I can relate my experience with this great Saint: A few years ago I had a tooth pulled out. The dentist seemed to be having a hard getting this particular tooth out, and, after some mental prayers to St. Apollonia, the tooth popped right out. She is amazing. If you have an experience with dentistry, try prayers to St. Apollonia for the doctor and yourself. God would have us seek the protection of His saints, not only in our spiritual, but even in our bodily sufferings.


Awaken within our hearts, Apollonia, the fear of sin; for sin gnaws eternally the souls of them who die with its guilt upon them. If the fire, which had a charm for thee, seems to us the most frightful of tortures, let us turn our fear of suffering and death into a preservative against sin, which plunges men into that abyss, whence the smoke of their torments shall ascend for ever and ever, as St. John tells us in his Revelation. Have pity on us, most brave and prudent martyr. Pray for sinners. Open their eyes to see the evils that threaten them. Procure for us the fear of God, that so we may merit His mercies, and may begin in good earnest to love Him. Amen.

SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY

This Sunday is the second Sunday into our penitential season, Sexagesima, meaning approx. 60 days til Easter. St. Paul tells us that we should be ready, willing, and able to suffer for Christ and His Church, as he did. After his conversion, he was taken up into heaven just as John was. He saw things we can only read about. Jesus, in the Gospel from St. Luke, gives us the meaning of the seeds of faith spread onto different types of soil. We need to be firmly grounded in the Faith that comes to us from the Apostles and hold on for dear life for it. As Jesus Himself will tell us tomorrow, "Let him who has ears hear."







I, once again, am going to copy from our beloved Abbot Gueranger. This is a hymn taken from the ancient breviaries of the Churches of France:


The days of ease are about to close; the days of holy observance are returning; the time of temperance is at hand; let us seek our Lord in purity of heart.

Our sovereign Judge will be appeased by our hymns and praise. He who would have us sue for grace, will not refuse us pardon.

The slavish yoke of Pharaoh, and the fetters of cruel Babylon, have been borne too long: let man now claim his freedom, and seek his heavenly country, Jerusalem.

Let us quit this place of exile: let us dwell with the Son of God. Is it not the servant's glory, to be made co-heir with his Lord?

O Jesus! be thou our guide through life. Remember that we are thy sheep, for whom thou, the Shepherd, didst lay down thine own life.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son; honor too be to the Holy Paraclete: as it was in the beginning, now is, and shall ever be. Amen.

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Because of the importance and necessity of the doctrine which was contained in the parable. For to hear the word of God is absolutely necessary for salvation, as the Apostle indicates: How shall they believe him (Jesus) of whom they have not heard? (Rom. X. 14.) Jesus calls those happy who hear the word of God and keep it. (Luke XI. 28.) And on this subject St. Augustine says: "Be assured, my brethren, that as the body becomes weakened by want and hunger, and wastes to a mere shadow, so the soul that is not nourished by the word of God, becomes shrunken, worthless and unfit for any good work."

We should endeavor to purify our conscience, for, as St. John Chrysostom demands; "Who would pour precious juice into a vessel that is not clean, without first washing it?" We should, therefore, at least cleanse the vessels of our hearts by an ardent sorrow for our sins, because the spirit of truth enters not into the sinful soul (Wisdom I. 4.). We should ask the Holy Ghost for the necessary enlightenment, for little or no fruit can be obtained from a sermon if it is not united with prayer; we should listen to the sermon with a good motive; that is, with a view of hearing something edifying and instructive; if we attend only through curiosity, the desire to hear something new, to criticize the preacher, or to see and to be seen, we are like the Pharisees who for such and similar motives went to hear Christ and derived no benefit therefrom. “As a straight sword goes not into a crooked sheath, so the word of God enters not into a heart that is filled with improper motives." We should strive to direct, our minds rightly, that is, to dispel all temporal thoughts, all needless distraction, otherwise the wholesome words would fall but upon the ears, would not penetrate the heart, and the words of Christ be fulfilled: They have ears, and hear not.


Grant me, O God, thy grace that in these evil days of false doctrines I may remain steadfast to Thy holy Gospel which in the Holy Catholic Church remains pure and unchanged; never let me be deterred from obeying its precepts, neither by the charms of the world nor by the mockery and reproaches of the wicked.

FIRST SATURDAY

Today is the first Saturday of the month. I just felt that I wanted to write something about Our Blessed Mother.

Mary, Help of Christians


"Whenever I behold the image of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, I cry: 'O Immaculate Mother of God, pray to your Son and my God to have mercy on me, in goodness and in mercy, for the prayers of Mary are of great weight in gaining the clemency of the Master. Do not despise the prayer of a sinner, O all-venerable one, for He can save us Who deigned to suffer for us'"

St. John of Damascus (8th Century_




O thou Virgin, spotless, undefiled, incorruptible, most chaste and pure, Lady, Bride of God, who by thy glorious giving birth hast united God the Word with men, and linked our apostate nature with heavenly things; who art the one hope of the hopeless, the helper of the oppressed, the ready protection of them that flee unto thee, and the refuge of all Christians; despise me not, a defiled sinner, who by my impious thoughts, words and deeds have made myself an unprofitable servant, and by reason of my sloth am become a slave of sensual pleasure.....Accept this my prayer offered unto thee with unhallowed lips, and using thy maternal influence with thy Son, our Lord and Master, beseech Him to open to me the loving tenderness of His grace...

Byzantine Horologion, Prayer at Compline. (Circa 9th century?)




Let us all praise the holy Virgin, as the gate of salvation and a garden enclosed, and as having been the cloud over the Everlasting Light: to her let us say: "All Hail!"

Byzantine Triodion, for Great Thursday, Service of the Holy Passion. (circa 6th to 8th century)

Blessed Pope Pius IX

Saturday is the anniversary of the death of Pope Pius IX. I am sharing these thoughts on him because my last name of Miles means 'soldier' in Latin, and I'm just trying to live up to my name.



Blessed Pius IX: Death and Miracles

December 8, 2014 marked the 100th Anniversary of Blessed Pius IX's magnificent Syllabus of Errors.
(I believe that Card. Ratzinger said Vat. II was a 'counter-Syllabus', but still he continued with the 'deforms' of it)

“They write that I am tired,” said Pius IX fives weeks before his death. “They are right. I am tired of so much iniquity and discord.”

The date was December 29, 1877. In what would be his final Consistory, the 85-year-old Pius IX continued, “I am tired of seeing religion attacked every day. I am above all tired of seeing young people perverted at school without God. But if I am tired, I am not yet ready to lay down my arms, to compromise, or to stop doing my duty. No, thank God, I am not so tired to do any of these things, and I hope I never shall be.” (If he could see what the Church has gone through in the past 50+ years, he would be really sick, as I am.)

Pius, the uncompromising foe of liberalism, knew his health was failing and prepared for his final end.

In the last week of Pius’s life, he was consoled by the presence by his bedside of England’s Cardinal Manning, the staunch defender of the rights of the Papacy. Manning arrived in Rome on December 2, 1877, and remained constantly with the Pope until the day of his death.

“More than once in those weeks,” said Manning, “I was able, as I hope, to bring before him some momentary solace; and I thank God that my lot was so ordered that I stood beside the Pontiff, whom we have so revered and loved, in the last days and in the last moments of his great and glorious life.”

The Pope's health continually deteriorated. On February 7, 1878, he grew significantly worse. The Blessed Sacrament was exposed in all churches, prelates, diplomats and other personalities from the Papal Court and Roman aristocracy filled the Pontifical antechamber. The Cardinal Camelengo Pecci approached the Pope saying, “Holy Father, bless us all in the sacred College, bless the whole Church.”

In a weak but clear voice, Pius replied, “May the whole Sacred College be blessed. I pray to God that He will enlighten you to make a good choice.” Pius was here referring to the Papal Conclave that would come to elect this same Cardinal Pecci as the magnificent Pope Leo XIII, indeed a “good choice.” Pius also blessed the whole Catholic world.

“Toward five o’clock in the afternoon,” writes Catholic historian Roberto de Mattei, “Cardinal Bilio intoned the Proficiscere [“Go forth from this world Christian soul ...”] The Pope expired after pronouncing the word Proficiscar, ‘as if he were looking at an invisible object which gave him great consolation and sweetness. Those present conjectured that he could see the Most Blessed Virgin’.” It was 5:40 p.m., February 7, 1878, and the bells were ringing the Ave Maria.

Saint John Bosco, who was in Rome at the time, noted on the day of the Pope’s death, “Today was extinguished the supreme and incomparable star of the Church, the Pontiff Pius IX. Within a very short time, he will most certainly be on our altars.”


Miracles:

After Pius’ death, many prayed to him for special favors. Among these was St. John Bosco. He had long revered the profound spirituality, sanctity and heroic charity of Pius IX. In his school paper he published a number of articles and bulletins describing the inner beauty of the Pope’s last years and the many favors obtained through his intercession.

From all over the world, particularly from France and Italy, came innumerable testimonies that spoke of the celestial power of Pius IX. Some examples from this remarkable record are as follows:

At the time of the Pope’s death in Rome, a Belgian child, dying from an undiagnosed illness, told his mother he had a vision of Pius IX being crowned by the Virgin in Heaven. The child was instantly cured. Since news of the Pope’s death had not yet reached Belgium, the mother sent a telegram to Rome. The answer indicated the child had been cured at the very moment of the Pope’s death.
In September 1878, Sister Agnes Serafina of Jesus, aged twenty-five, was ill with typhus. Doctor Monti, her physician, said there was no possible chance of recovery. The nuns started a novena to Pius IX. On the last day of the novena Sister Agnes felt a tingling sensation all over her body. She was cured immediately, and Doctor Monti issued a statement that the cure could only have been supernatural.

During the same month, Salvatore de Angelis, a layman, was suffering terrible agony from a tumor on the liver. Doctors Topai and Scalzi said an immediate operation was the only possible way of saving the young man’s life. A friend of the family, Carlo Insegna, urged the family to pray to Pius IX. Insegna brought a relic of the dead Pope, which was applied to the afflicted spot. Within two hours the tumor had disappeared, the young man’s temperature was normal. The doctors were amazed and quite willingly gave their testimony to a cure beyond nature.

De Angelis would go on to become a priest and spent most of his clerical life as pastor of Sassia. Father de Angelis was noted for his lifelong devotion to Pius IX.

Achille Beccalori, a poor farmer, aged sixty-four, of Borgo San Donnino, was skinning a calf that had died of a malignant disease. In the hasty process of skinning the animal, Beccalori cut his arm with the knife. Within twenty-four hours the man became desperately ill; his arm was swollen to an enormous size. At the hospital to which he was moved, Doctor Cenci, the resident physician, and Professor Ingami of Parma, said there was no hope for Beccalori’s recovery. Sister Anna Maria Valentina, a nurse, urged Beccalori to pray to Pius IX. She applied a relic to the swollen arm. Beccalori at once went to sleep, and by morning he was cured.

In the same town, in March of 1878, a young man named Giuseppe Flori was dying from cancer of the liver. The doctor said he could not possibly live. A neighbor, Mrs. Elena Papini, begged the family to pray to the Pope who had recently died. Mrs. Papini applied a picture of Pius IX to the diseased spot, Flori was cured within a few hours.

The wonders, carefully documented, and many others too numerous to mention, impelled thousands to pay private honor to Pius IX. The miracles listed above are found in the out-of-print book 'Cross Upon Cross' that bears the 1955 Imprimatur of Archbishop Murray from St. Paul, MN.


A Soldier of Our Lady


Pius IX’s Pontificate was the longest in Church history, thirty-two years. There had been a belief that no pope would reign longer than St. Peter’s 30 years. Pius surpassed it.

He suffered the malice and persecution of liberals and “liberal Catholics,” which exposes the true anti-Catholic nature of these counter-syllabus forces.

Pius was the great Pope of 'Quanta Cura' and the 'Syllabus', he defined the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, and convoked the First Vatican Council that included that dogmatic definition of Papal Infallibility.

His strong devotion to Our Blessed Mother is manifest in these great magisterial documents. All of these acts were accomplished on December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

December 8, 1854 was the date of the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

December 8, 1864 was the date of the promulgation of Quanta Cura and the Syllabus.

December 8, 1869 was the date of the opening of the First Vatican Council.

As noted elsewhere in this issue, all of Pius’ magisterial doctrine defending Catholic truth against modern error was accomplished with the indirect acknowledgment of Our Blessed Virgin under the title, “Conqueror of All Heresies”.



Pope Pius’ Body Attacked: “Throw the old pig into the Tiber!”


A special note of glory for Pius IX is the hatred he inspired among liberals. Pius was not a sentimental clergyman of dialogue, of seeking “common ground,” with anti-Christian forces. He was a fighting General of the Church Militant. The liberals hated him for it.

Pius IX’s will requested that he be buried in the Church of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, about nine kilometers from the Vatican. The church had always been dear to him because of the martyr’s memory. Three years after the Pope’s death, July 13, 1881, Pius’ desire was fulfilled and his remains were transferred from the Basilica of St. Peter to Mura. During the translation of the body, Masonic and anti-clerical agents of the counter-syllabus attacked the cortege.

In the book 'Cross Upon Cross', Francis Beauchesne Thornton describes the outrage:

“July 13, 1881 was the appointed day. The Vatican [anticipating the violent reaction of the liberals] had agreed that the funeral should be kept very quiet. To insure this result the hour was set for midnight.
“The night of July 13 was heavy and still. The jets of the tinkling fountains before St. Peter’s were woven with starlight. From the bell-cote of the basilica the ancient bells chimed out the hour of twelve. On the echo of the last note a simple cortege formed in the wide piazza. There were two closed carriages following the hearse. After these walked a small number of Saint Peter’s clergy, the diplomats accredited to the Holy See, and a considerable group of Roman citizens who loved Pius IX and had somehow got wind of his funeral. The mourners carried massive, lighted candles.

“The slow procession went down the Borgo di Santo Spirito (now the Via della Conciliazione). A menacing crowd suddenly materialized along the narrow sidewalks. They shouted ugly words and made obscene gestures of derision.

In the wider space before the Castle of Sant’e Angelo a larger crowd waited, ugly in temper and armed with knives, stones and clubs. There was a rush toward the hearse and carriages, there were organized blasphemies, and torrents of horrible invective swept from the sewers of the mind. Above all this foul background rose a concerted scream.

’Throw the old pig into the Tiber! Throw the old pig into the Tiber!’ Knives flashed, clubs rose and fell. The screams of the injured pierced through the shouting.

The attending prelates, ambassadors, and groups of the faithful formed a thick cordon about the hearse. They used their massive wax candles to good advantage in defense of their lives and the Pope’s body.

At last they were across the bridge. The most serious rioting was over. No more than a token police effort had been made in attempting to control the passions of the organized mob.

The remaining distance across the city was dogged with shouted insults and blasphemies. An occasional stick or stone fell with a thud on the simple hearse.

By the time the filth-spattered profession had reached the Piazza Verano, wiser heads in government had decided to stage a face-saving incident. Files of soldiers were in waiting. The mob leaders faded away in the crowd.

The mortal remains of Pius IX were entombed in eloquent silence … The next day, July 14, Mancini, the Foreign Minister, [in another face-saving attempt] imposed a rigid censorship on all telegrams describing the disgraceful episode. Meanwhile Mancini, by note, instructed his ambassadors abroad, indicating the false light in which they were to represent the sordid affair.”

As an act of reparation of the ferocious outrages against Pius IX’s body and memory, Count Giovanni Acquaderni proposed the idea of erecting a great monument in the modest place where he was buried, in the crypt of the Basilica. It was done. This noble and secluded mausoleum houses Pius’s remains to this day.

The great life of Pius IX gives us pause. The Pope of the Syllabus is blessed by Our Lady and is the worker of miracles. The forces of the counter-syllabus are intellectually aligned with the same radicals who sacrilegiously attacked Pius’ holy remains to heave his body into the Tiber.

Blessed Pius IX, scourge of liberal Catholics, pray for us.


• • •

SNOW TIME LIKE THE PRESENT

THINGS TO DO WHILE IN MICHIGAN DURING WINTER. This is why I haven't written anything this week. BUSY!

This was years ago, but the effect is the same.

DITTO

This is getting boring! I think I'll take a couple of Aleve and call it a day.

See you tomorrow. I have something for you to think about. Otherwise, see you Sunday.

THE PURIFICATION OF OUR BLESSED MOTHER

Candlemas. This day is the official end of the Christmas season. The candles that are blessed and carried today are to remind us that Jesus is the Light of the world. We hear Jesus telling to love our neighbor in the Epistle. Also, we see Him calming the sea after the Apostles got afraid of it. He tests them; just like He does to us every day. Life is a test. It just depends how we respond that matters.

This is also the day when Our Blessed Mother goes to the Purification ceremony.

Although she didn't need purification of her soul (since she is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit), she goes to the temple for it anyway, so as to not cause scandal. She is carrying the Redeemer of the world in her arms through the crowds, and no one but Simeon and Anna seem to be aware of it. They are the last of the Old Testament to recognize Him as The One.

The Law of this testament commanded that a woman who had given birth to a son should not approach the Tabernacle for the term of forty days; after which time she was to offer up a lamb as a holocaust, and a turtle dove or a partridge as a sin-offering. But if she were poor, and could not provide a lamb, she was to offer in its stead a second turtle dove or another partridge. The poor offer these meager gifts. Mary is the richest person in the world! She has the Faith of God within her, and she wishes to share it with us.

She is the Tabernacle, the Ark, the Vessel, etc., of God Himself, and she is offering the Lamb of God Himself to the Father as a testament to the world. As our beloved Abbot Gueranger says: '...these laws had been made were espoused to men; Mary was the chaste Spouse of the Holy Ghost, a Virgin in conceiving and a Virgin in giving birth to her Son; her purity had ever been spotless as that of the Angels; but it received an incalculable increase by her carrying the God of all sanctity in her womb, and bringing Him into this world. Moreover, when she reflected upon her Child being the Creator and Sovereign Lord of all things, how could she suppose that he was to be submitted to the humiliation of being ransomed as a slave, whose life and person are not his own? And yet, the Holy Spirit revealed to Mary that she must comply with both these laws...'

I guess we are told by this to obey the laws, but know that we belong to God, and that our offerings are to Him, since being with Him is our ultimate goal. I'd like to end with something from the past, which we don't hear anymore. It is a sequence written by Adam of Saint-Victor in the Middle Ages.


Let us adorn the temple of our souls, and with new hearts bring back again that old man's joy, whose long-cherished wish is granted, as his arms press Jesus to his breast.

This Child is the Standard of the people, filling the Temple with light, our choirs with praise, and our hearts with jubilee. This day is He presented in the Temple, and will another day, when grown to manhood, be offered on the Cross, the offering for sin.

On one side Jesus, on the other Mary; here the sweet Infant, and there the sweet Mother; oh! what a glad sight! But let us devoutly carry within us the work of Light which our lighted tapers symbolize.

The Father's Word is the light; His virginal flesh is the wax; our lighted taper is Christ Himself, who enlightens our hearts with that wisdom which rescues the sinner from the error of his way, and sets him on virtue's path.

He that holds Jesus by love, carries, as our Feast would have him do, the Candle blest with light. So did Simeon love the Father's Word, and fondly carry in his arms the Mother's Babe.

Be glad, O Mother of thy God! simple, pure, unwrinkled, spotless Mother! O Maiden! chosen by the God of thy love, and loved by the God of thy choice.

All beauty is clouded, deformed, and displeasing to him that has seen thine. All sweetness seems bitter, sour or insipid, to the soul that has tasted of thine.

All fragrance, put near thine, grows faint or foul; all other love must cease, or be put but an afterthought, in hearts that feed on thine.

Beautiful Star of the sea! Thou beautiful honour of all mothers! O true Mother of Truth! O path of holy living! O remedy of the world's ills! Source of the fount of that Wine of Life, for which all men should thirst, and whose strength-giving chalice is sweet to the healthy and the sick, and restores the drooping heart!

O Fount sealed up in holiness! pour out on us thy streams! O Fount of inner gardens! water with rivulet's wave our parched and stony hearts!

Overflowing Fount! flow out on us, and wash our hearts' defilements. O Fount sublime, limpid above our thoughts, cleanse thy servants' hearts from an unclean world. Amen.


Let us pray for the 'eyes of Faith' that Simeon and Anna in the temple had. That we may see, Lord.

Let us also strive to imitate the humility of the ever-blessed Mother of God, remembering that humility is the path which leads to lasting peace and brings us closer to God, who gives His grace to the humble.

SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY

This Sunday is Septuagesima Sunday, or 70 days before Easter, and we begin to get ready for the penitential season of Lent. During this period from this Sunday to Ash Wednesday, the Liturgy speaks no more of our greatness, but contemplates the misery of fallen man, the fatal consequences of original sin and actual sin, and the sacrifice that God asked of the faithful Melchisedech, the symbol of the sacrifice that Jesus brings for the whole human race. We no longer will say or sing the Alleluia or the Gloria, until the great Feast of Easter Sunday. During this time, we prepare for the fasting and penance of the Season of Lent. The preface for Lent states: 'Who by this bodily fast dost curb our vices, lift our minds and bestow strength and rewards.' Our souls are slaves of the devil, the flesh, and the world. Jesus came into the world, not to be crowned king of the Jews, but to deliver us from this threefold bondage and to restore to us the divine life which we had lost.

The upcoming season is one of most serious thought. The words from Ivo of Chartres in the 11th century pretty much sum it up: "We know that every creature groans, and travails in pain even til now; and not only it, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God, the redemption of our body."

Tomorrow we hear a multiple of things to keep in mind as we begin the Lenten season of 2015. First, we hear about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; their fall; then their expulsion from the garden to work the earth forever. Also, we hear about what God Himself will do about it. He will eventually send His only-begotten Son to earth in the form of a baby, Who will grow up as we all do, then offer His divine Body to His Eternal Father as the 'sacrificial Lamb' on the Cross at Calvary. All this because of our first parents, Adam and Eve. We have ALL inherited this sin onto our souls, which needs to be cleansed by Baptism and self sacrifices which we can offer to the Eternal Father for our sins.

Then, in the Gospel of Matthew, we hear about the vineyard, where many are chosen to work at various times of the day, with the same pay at the end. According to St. Augustine and St. Gregory the Great, they offer the following, which I am taking from our beloved Abbot Gueranger:

'...The vineyard is the Church in its several periods, from the beginning of the world to the time when God Himself dwelt among men, and formed all true believers into one visible and permanent society. The morning is the time from Adam to Noah; the third hour begins with Noah and ends with Abraham; the sixth hour includes the period which elapsed between Abraham and Moses; and lastly, the ninth hour opens with the age of the prophets, and closes with the birth of the Saviour. The Messias came at the eleventh hour, when the world seemed to be at the decline of its day. Mercies unprecedented were reserved for this last period, during which salvation was to be given to the Gentiles by the preaching of the Apostles. It is by this mystery of mercy that our Saviour rebukes the Jewish pride. By the selfish murmuring made against the master of the house by the early labourers, our Lord signifies the indignation which the scribes and pharisees would show at the Gentiles being adopted as God's children. Then He shows them how their jealousy would be chastised: Israel, that had laboured before us, shall be rejected for their obduracy of heart, and we Gentiles, the last comers, shall be made first, for we shall be made members of that Catholic Church, which is the bride of the Son of God.'

These two holy doctors of the Church offer a second meaning of these passages:

The Gospel reading from Matthew 'signifies the calling given by God to each of us individually, pressing us to labor, during this life, for the kingdom prepared for us. The morning is our childhood. the third hour, accord to the division used by the ancients in counting their day, is sunrise; it is our youth. The sixth hour, by which name they called our midday, is manhood. The eleventh hour, which immediately preceded sunset, is old age. The Master of the house calls His laborers at all these various hours. They must go that very hour. They that are called in the morning may not put their starting for the vineyard, under pretext of going afterwards, when the Master shall call them later on. Who has told them that they shall live to the eleventh hour? They that are called at the third hour may be dead at the sixth. God will call to the laborers of the last hour such as shall be living when that hour comes; but, if we should die at midday, that last call will not avail us. Besides, God has not promised us a second call, if we excuse ourselves from the first.'

Purple during the 'Penitential' season: The purple hue is a royal robe, purple being the traditional colour of kings and emperors; but it's also the colour of blood and of mourning, and so a reminder that Christ is born to die.


I'd like to end with the following Anthem to Our Blessed Lady, the Virgin. This is the same one the Church uses on the feast of the Purification.

Hail Queen of heaven! Hail Lady of the angels! Hail blessed root and gate, from which came light upon the world! Rejoice, O glorious Virgin, that surpasses all in beauty! Hail, most lovely Queen! and pray to Christ for us. Vouchsafe, O holy Virgin, that I may praise thee. Give me power against thine enemies.

Let us pray.

Grant, O merciful God, thy protection to us in our weakness; that we who celebrate the memory of the holy Mother of God, may, through the aid of her intercession, rise again from our sins. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Let's pray for a holy and fruitful 'penitential' season. We need all the help we can get.


I like the Sundays preceding the season of Lent. It gets you prepared to try to get closer to Christ and His teachings. I can't read Latin, but I can follow along at the Traditional Mass. I prefer to call it Traditional instead of Tridentine, because Tridentine means from Trent (the Council in the 16th century), and this Mass has been around for almost 2000 years! Kind of a misnomer in a way. Especially when it is referred to as the "Extraordinary" Mass! It should be the only Mass!!!!!

Anyway, we have been going to the Traditional Mass for over 20 years. I like it because it takes us into the area that all of the saints, Doctors, martyrs, etc. have enjoyed throughout the life of the Church. I even started serving this Mass about 27 years ago, and going on to teach young men, and some older ones, how to serve it in a correct way. Not bad for a dumb little convert boy to have come so far in such a short period of time. And, if you are going to get a GOOD Mass, sometimes you have to travel to get to one. The wife and have been traveling all of this time, since spirituality in our city is pretty much dead.