The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Commentary on Matins (First Nocturn, Psalm 8)

The term “First Nocturn” refers to the Psalm used at Matins on Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays.  These Psalms change for Tuesdays and Fridays (the Second nocturn), and for Wednesdays and Saturdays (the Third Nocturn).  My source’s commentary on the First Nocturn is 30 pages long, for this reason I’ll be posting only on Psalm 8 today.  The other two Psalms for the First Nocturn are 18 and 23, and these will also be dealt with in individual posts.

Antiphon: Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb.

The following psalm being concerned with the wonders of creation, the Antiphon directs our minds to Our Lady as the choicest and most perfect creature of God.  For if man be made a little lower than the angels and crowned with glory and honor, how much more honorable and glorious is She whose Office and holiness is far above that of the highest Angel?  For which one of them could say to their God as She could say: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee? (Heb 1:5).

Argument: Defines what the Psalm is about according to the views of Venerable Bede and Tomasi.

Tomasi:  That Christ, the Son of Man, was made in His Passion a little lower than the angels.  The voice of the ancient Church speaking of Christ and of faith.  Also of the Ascension of our Savior and of the infants that glorified Him and that said Hosanna in the highest! The voice of the Church giving praise to Christ for the fiath of all creatures.

Venerable Bede:  (The first verse of the Psalm is actually a directive and reads: To the Leader; according to the Gittih.  “Gittih” is probably a reference to a musical tune and is derived from the word “Gath,” meaning wine-press.  The gathering of the vintage harvest was a time of great joy, and it seems that the directive is indicating that the tune which accompanied the text was to be joyful.  This helps explain Bede’s argument).  For the wine-press; that is, a vintage song of thanksgiving.  As in the wine-press when the grapes are bruised and the hardest pips crushed the sweetest wine pours forth, so when obstinacy and pride are crushed in the Church,  which is the true wine-press, at the commencement of these Psalms sings the praises of her Lord God, setting forth His majesty and the greatness of His operations.  Then she speaketh more plainly of the nature of man which, from the low and depraved condition whereto Adam’s fall had reduced it, He raised to the height of glory; and the one Person of Christ in its two distinct and inconfused Natures is unhesitatingly acknowledged.

8:1 O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is Thy Name in all the world.

O Lord our Lord. God’s name is twice repeated; for He is twice our Lord, in that He made us and in that He redeemed us.  he is our Lord also through our knowledge and love of Him.  We also are His servants; by the special claim He has to our life, by our holy vocation; therefore His interests are in a special sense ours.  Again, our Lord naturally suggests Him Who by mortal birth is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh (Gen 2:23); our Elder Brother, Who has shown to us the infinite tenderness and love of the Father.

How admirable is Thy name: The name of God implying perfection, all beauty, all riches, all power, all wisdom, and implying also that sweetest of all relations, taught us by our Lord Himself, the Divine Fatherhood.  But the name of our Lord is still more admirable; for it is the name of Jesus, name above all other names at which every knee shall bow (Phil 2:10); the name which is the joy of the faithful and the true revelation of the Father.

8:2  For Thy magnificence is lifted up above the heavens.

Commentators take this for the most part literally of the Ascension according to the words of St Paul: Who descended, He it is also Who ascended above all the heavens that He might fill all things (Eph 4:10); For then Christ, sitting at the right hand of  God the Father, sent the Holy Ghost and charged His Apostles to speak salvation in His Name as the only means of reaching heaven, and that He was constituted Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42).  Others, and especially the Angelic doctor, see here implied the infinite distance between Christ Who is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24), and the very highest of the saints; not only the Apostles or the angels, but even Her who bare Him, Her whom Christian singers delight in styling the “new heaven.”  Father Lorin takes these words as implying the magnificence of glory of God is far beyond what we can gather from the Scriptures, which tell us of the mysteries of heaven, or from those wonderful manifestations of His power and wisdom, the seven sacraments.

8:3  Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou has perfected praise because of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest destroy the enemy and the avenger.

Literally, the Holy Innocents who thus glorified Christ by their death, and they cried Hosanna by their acclamations, as he Himself hath taught us (Matt 21:16).  Spiritually, the weaker members of the Church of whom the  Apostle writes: I have fed you with milk and not with strong meat (1 Cor 3;2).  And again, those who had the innocence and simplicity of babes; as the first-born of the Church, the Apostle, who, taught by their Lord to speak, fed by Him, like new-born babes with the sincere milk of the word (1 Pet 2:2), and called by Him His children (Jn 21:5).  So teach the Carmelite Angriani and Perez.  Also we may understand it of all religious souls who, in simplicity and innocence, look to God alone and receive from Him their meat in due season, the food of their souls, by the teaching of the Holy Ghost ever whispering to their conscience.

Because of thine enemies- for their conversion; or, if they will not turn, from their destruction, as it is written: The arrows of the little ones are made their wounds (Ps 63:8).

That Thou mightest destroy the enemy: for God has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the wise.

Avenger: Not only tyrants and unbelieving nations whom God has at various times raised up to chastise a sinful people, but the evil spirit himself who is only an instrument in his Creator’s hands, and whose power, like those other avengers, will be destroyed when the good designed to be done through them is accomplished.

2:4  For I see Thy heavens, the works of Thy fingers: the moon, and the stars, which Thou hast established.

The heavens, the works of Thy fingers: The whole course of events under God’s Providence, Who has declared that all things should work together for good to them that love Him (Rom 8:28).  Thy fingers, not hands, because, as St John Chrysostom says, this is but a small thing for God’s omnipotence.  .

The moon, that is, the Church, which is constantly renewed and receives all her light from the true Sun.  The stars, the Saints of God, as it is written: They that turn many to righteousness shall shines as the stars forever (Dan 12:3).  Note: He mentions not the sun, because the Sun of Righteousness (Mal 4:4, or, in some translations 3:20) was begotten not made.  Thus St Ambrose.  Again, the moon, says Jorgius, who was the confessor of Edward the First, denotes our ever dear and blessed Lady; and that for various reasons: as the moon draws all its brightness from the sun, and yet it is the most luminous object next to it, so Mary, made full of grace by Him whose countenance is as the sun shining in his strength (Rev 1:16), is the brightest of all the saints.  And yet, as the moon is nearest to earth, so our Lady is the lowliest of all in her humility.  As the moon rules the tides, so Mary by her prayers helps those who are tossed on the bitter surges of the world.  And as Easter, the festival of the Resurrection, follows the course of the moon, so the spiritual arising of the Man by the Incarnation followed the consent of Mary’s will to the message of the Angel.  The choirs of angels which are her fellows (Ps 44:15) and bear her company, are rightly compared to the stars; only less than the moon in glory and beauty.

8:5  What is Man that Thou art mindful of him? or the Son of Man that Thou visitest him?

When, therefore, the prophet considers all the things tending to man’s salvation, the Providence whereby all events work together for his good, the Church given him as a mother, the saints as examples and friends, his thoughts are naturally carried back to the one source of all, which is the Incarnation.  What is Man? The Psalmist answers in another place, Every man is bu vanity (Ps 39:12); and again, All men are liars (Ps 117:10).  Man: taken absolutely, as a sinner: the  Son of Man, those who are endeavoring to keep the law of God.  Thus St Augustine.  Also the Son of Man, our Lord’s own description of Himself.  In this sense the term is to be understood of His headship over the mystical body.

Visitest the Incarnation, was God visiting His people, as it is written: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His People (Lk 1:68).  And again, Thou visitest the earth and blessed it (Ps 65:9).

8:6  Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, with glory and honor hast Thou crowned him: and Thou hast set him above all the works of Thy hand.

The Carmelite says: For as much as Christ went not up unto joy, but first suffered pain, so here we see Him in His low estate first, and then in His glory; for the humility of His Passion was the merit of His exaltation.

Lower than the angels, in that He condescends to become mortal and passable.  A little lower:  And what marvel, then, of speaking in respect of His humanity, He saith: My Father is greater than I! (Jn 14:28).

With glory, as respects Himself; with worship, in reference to others.  Thus St Basil.  Again, a little lower, for it was but for a short time-a little, because He was mortal and passable of His own free will, and not like us, of necessity.  Glory, in the victory of the Resurrection; honor, on the throne of the Ascension.  And note, as St Albert the Great says, Christ is said to have many crowns, of which the chief are: the Crown of Mercy, wherewith He was crowned in the Incarnation and Nativity; the Crown of Sorrow, when the thorny diadem of the passion was given Him; that of Glory in the Resurrection and Ascension; and that of Dominion, which He will receive when the Court of the Redeemed gathers around Him.

Over the works of Thy hands: and therefore over those angels than whom for a season He was made a little lower.

8:7  All things Thou hast out beneath His feet, sheep and all oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field.

All things Thou hast put beneath His feet. Let the Apostle interpret: In that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put under Him (Heb 2:8).  But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted Who did put all things under Him (1 Cor 15:27).  Note in these three verses of the Psalm we have the four living creatures of the Apocalypse (4:7) for these might denote the four parts of Christ’s works of mercy, as well as the four Evangelists.  What is man? Here we have the face of a man.  Thou hast made Him a little lower than the angels, there we have the ox, the animal fit for sacrifice; Thou hast crowned Him with glory and honor, there the victorious lion; Thou hast put all things under His feet, there the eagle that soars above everything else.  So thinks Rupertus.

Beneath His feet.  As the head of Christ is His Divinity, so His feet are His manhood; and to Him, as Man, is given the empire, which, as God, was always His, Who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature…that in all things He might have the headship (Col 1:15, 18).

Sheep: By these we understand those whose business in Christ’s Church is not to teach but to learn: My sheep hear My voice (Jn 10:27).

And all oxen: Those who labor in His word and doctrine; according to that saying of St Paul, quoting from Deuteronomy 5:4, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn (1 Cor 9:9).  For by these great profit is obtained in His Church; as it is written: Much increase is by the strength of the ox (Prov 14:4).

Yea: The word shows that a change of subject is made, namely, from the good to the wicked.

The beasts of the field: Those that own no master, but follow their own hearts’ lusts, like brute beasts, as St Peter teaches, made to be taken and destroyed (2 Pt 2:12).  For the wicked as well as the good are made subject to Christ.  Thus St Bruno, of Aste-Perez remarks, not only are the sheep, the lowly and the docile who hear the voice of the Shepherd, put under Him, but even the oxen, the powerful rulers of the earth; and the beasts of the field, the wandering and barbarous tribes which knew no law before.

8:8  The fowls of the air and the fishes of the sea, and whatsoever walketh through the paths of the seas.

The fowls of the air are the saints who rise above the world, but only by means of the sign of the Cross (A bird with extended wings forms a cross).

The fishes of the sea: ordinary Christians regenerated of water and of the Holy Ghost, and who are made fellows of Jesus Christ, the Divine Fish (The fish was an ancient symbol for Christ found throughout the catacombs.  The Greek letters for fish form an acrostic: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior).

And whatsoever bad, as well as good, unholy, no less than holy; walketh through the paths of the seas, that is, exposed to the waves and storms of this troublesome world.  Thus Casiodorus.  But St Augustine will have the fowls of the air to be the proud and the ambitious, the fishes those who are restless and acquisitive.  While others see in the winged fowls the angels; in the fishes the evil spirits of the Abyss; or again, in a good sense the dwellers in the isles afar, and mariners in them who walk through the paths of the seas.  So Perez.

8:9  O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is Thy Name in all the world.

Admirable, not only because He is very God, as set forth in the first verse, but also because He is very Man, as taught in the succeeding verses.  Teh beginning and the ending of this Psalm is the same, as being in His praise Who is the First and the Last (Rev 22:13), the same yesterday, today, and for ever (Heb 13:8).

The Doxology: Glory be to the Father Who hath put all things under the feet of the Son of Man; Glory be to the Son Who vouchsafed to become Son of Man, made lower than the angels, but now crowned with glory and honor as Priest and King and Prophet; Glory be to the Holy Ghost, the Finger of God’s right hand by Whom the heavens were made.

The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Commentary on the Matins Hymn

The following is taken from Father Taunton’s public domain commentary on the little Office.  Text in red represent my additions and notes.

The God, Whom earth and sea and sky,
Quem terra, pontus, sidera
Adore and Laud  and magnify;
Colunt, adorant, praedicant,
Who o’er their threefold fabric reigns,
Trinam regentem machinam
The Virgin’s spotless womb Contains.
Claustrum Mariae bajulat.

Creation, as we see it, consists of earth, sea, and sky, and the three form, as it were, the machinam (“fabric,” apparatus) by which God works out His will.  The Claustrum Maria means her reverend womb, which for nine months did carry the Lord of all things.   (“claustrum”=cloister, enclosure.  The translation of the Little Office I use reads: “Mary’s frame”). Mary was the Tabernacle of Emmanuel-God with us-and the Most High sanctified His resting place (see Ps 14:4).  The Ark of the Covenant in the Temple of Solomon was of incorruptible wood covered with plates of massive gold.  It only contained the tables of the Law, a pot of manna, and Aaron’s flowering rod.  But Mary, the true Ark of the Covenant, incorruptible by her immaculate Conception and adorned with the gold of charity, contained within her, as in a most peaceful cloister, the very Giver of the Law, the very Bread of Life, and the true High Priest, Himself, Whom all creation worhips, adores, and proclaims.

The God whose will by Moon and Sun,
Cui luna, sol, omnia
And all things in due course is done,
Deserviunt per tempora,
Is borne upon a Maiden’s breast,
Perfusa caeli gratia
By fullest heavenly grace possessed.
Gestant puellae viscera.

That is: Our Lady, filled with heavenly grace, doth bear Him, Whom moon, sun, and all things serve according to the seasons and times appointed to them: And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made also the stars.  And God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good (Gen 1:16-18).  Notice the word perfisa, i.e., bathed through and through, soaked; like Gideon’s fleece was soaked with the dews of heaven (Judges 6:38); so Mary was full of grace.

How blest that Mother in whose shrine
Bedta Mater minere
The Great Artificer Divine,
Cujus supernus Artifex,
Whose Hand contains the earth and sky,
Mundum pugillo continens
Vouchsafed, as in His ark, to lie.
Ventris sub arca clausus est.

That is: “Blessed by the gift of the Holy Ghost is that Mother whose High Maker, that holdeth the world in His hand, is borne within the ark of her womb.  Our Lord is said to hold the world in His hand, for all the world is full little in regard to his greatness (i.e., the world is small when compared to His greatness).  And as a man may do what he wills with a thing he hath in his hand, so is everything in the power of His hand and all is kept in being by Him” (Myoure).  Artifex, i.e., artificer-one who works according to Art, according to design.  Art is the showing forth of the Beautiful; and in the Incarnation to which the verse refers, we have the most perfect manifestation of God’s art in adapting means to an end, in exhibiting the beauty of His power, and of His love, and of His wisdom.

Blest, in the message of Gabriel brought;
Beata caeli nuntio,
Blest, by the work of the Spirit wrought;
Fecunda sancto Spiritu,
From whom the great Desire of Earth
Desiderdtus gentibus
Took human flesh and human birth
Cujus per alvum fusus est.

Nuntio caeli-the message of Gabriel: Fecunda. (“Fecunda” can mean either “fertile,” or, “plentifully furnished.”  This last meaning can be synonymous with “blessed,” or “full of grace.”  obviously, “fecunda” can be used to sum up the Angel’s message to our Lady).  Sancto Spiritu-”The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee” (This is the high point of the Angel’s message of fecundity to Mary, see Lk 1:35). Desiderdtus gentibus: our Lord was the Longed-for One; the Desired of the nations: And the Desired of the nations shall come (Haggai 2:7).  His advent was the prayer of the prophets and holy ones of Israel: Drop down ye heavens from above and let the skies pour forth the Righteous, let the earth open and bring forth the Savior (Isa 45:8).  And when He came He told men that many kings had desired to see the things they saw (Lk 10:24); and that Father Abraham rejoiced to see His day, and saw it and was glad (Jn 8:56).  Fusus est:  poured forth as oil, or as light passing through a most pure crystal.  (In the translation the phrase Fusus est corresponds to the word “took” in the phrase “Took human flesh and human birth.”  The phrase can denote genorousity or liberality).

All honor, laud, and glory be,
Jesu, Tibi sit gloria,
O Jesus, Virgin-born, to Thee!
Qui natus est Virgine,
All glory, as is ever meet,
Cum Patre, et almo Spiritu,
To Father and to Paraclete.
In sempiterna saecula.

Amen.

This Doxology, or ascription of praise to the Adorable Trinity, is used for all the hymns in the Little Office.  Jesu, Tibi sit gloria: Our Lord as He is our thanksgiving, our Eucharist, so is He also our Praise.  Therefore to Him and through Him we give our praise to the Blessed Three in One.  The rememberance of His Mother, Qui natus est de Virgine, gives us the reason for the special act of worship-one of gratitude for the Incarnation which is Mary’s gift to mankind.  For, chosen herself by God, she freely consented to become the Mother of the Word made flesh.  Almo Spiritu: the revelation of the Holy Ghost to us is that of infinite love.   The Love of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us (Rom 5:5).  In sempiterna saecula:  The glory we give to God lasts forever; for He is the Father of lights with Whom there is no variableness neither shadow of turning (James 1:17); the Eternal God, The Great I Am (Ex 3:14).  This thought makes our act of worship deeper and fuller and brings a stillness over our soul as we think of the never-changing, never ending glory, which, as an everlasting fire, surrounds the Eternal.

The Translation I Use:

The Lord, whom earth, and sea, and sky
With one adoring voice proclaim;
Who rules them all in majesty,
Enclosed Himself in Mary’s frame.

Lo, in a humble Virgin’s womb
O’ershadowed by almighty power,
He, whom the stars and sun and moon
Each serve in their appointed hour!

O Mother blest, to whom was given
Within thy body to contain
The Architect of earth and heaven,
Whose hands the universe sustain:

To thee was sent an angel down,
In thee the Spirit was enshrined,
Of thee was born that Mighty One,
The long-desired of all mankind.

O Jesus, born of Virgin bright,
Immortal glroy be to Thee;
Praise to the Father infinite,
And Holy Ghost eternally.

Amen.

The edition I use is entitled “THE LITTLE OFFICE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY in English, Simply Arranged for use by Lay People” which is published by Franciscan University Press Quincy University. They have an online store but it is temporarily closed.  The edition I have uses Father Knox’s translation of the Bible, which some may find archaic.    An apparently more modern version designed for the Secular Franciscans can be found HERE (scroll down).

On The Way Of The Cross: 9th Station

11 Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I know not.
12 They requite me evil for good; my soul is forlorn.
13 But I, when they were sick — I wore sackcloth, I afflicted myself with fasting. I prayed with head bowed on my bosom,
14 as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; I went about as one who laments his mother, bowed down and in mourning.
15 But at my stumbling they gathered in glee, they gathered together against me; cripples whom I knew not slandered me without ceasing;
16 they impiously mocked more and more, gnashing at me with their teeth.
17 How long, O LORD, wilt thou look on? Rescue me from their ravages, my life from the lions!
18 Then I will thank thee in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise thee.
19 Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, and let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause.
20 For they do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet in the land they conceive words of deceit.
21 They open wide their mouths against me; they say, “Aha, Aha! our eyes have seen it!”
22 Thou hast seen, O LORD; be not silent! O Lord, be not far from me!
23 Bestir thyself, and awake for my right, for my cause, my God and my Lord!
24 Vindicate me, O LORD, my God, according to thy righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me!
25 Let them not say to themselves, “Aha, we have our heart’s desire!” Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.”
26 Let them be put to shame and confusion altogether who rejoice at my calamity! Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me!
27 Let those who desire my vindication shout for joy and be glad, and say evermore, “Great is the LORD, who delights in the welfare of his servant!”
28 Then my tongue shall tell of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long. (Psalm 35)

"My Son!  I came down from heaven for thy salvation; I took upon
Me thy miseries not of necessity, but drawn by love that thou
mightest learn patience and mightest bear temporal miseries
without murmuring.  For from the hour of My birth, until My death
upon the Cross, I ceased not from bearing of sorrow; I had much
lack of temporal things; I oftentimes heard many reproaches
against Myself; I gently bore contradictions and hard words; I
received ingratitude for benefits, blasphemies for My miracles,
rebukes for My doctrine."

2. Lord, because Thou wast patient in Thy life, herein most of
all fulfilling the commandment of Thy Father, it is well that I,
miserable sinner, should patiently bear myself according to Thy
will, and as long as Thou wilt have it so, should bear about with
me for my salvation, the burden of this corruptible life.  For
although the present life seemeth burdensome, it is nevertheless
already made very full of merit through Thy grace, and to those
who are weak it becometh easier and brighter through Thy example
and the footsteps of Thy saints; but it is also much more full of
consolation than it was of old, under the old Testament, when the
gate of heaven remained shut; and even the way to heaven seemed
more obscure when so few cared to seek after the heavenly
kingdom.  But not even those who were then just and in the way of
salvation were able, before Thy Passion and the ransom of Thy
holy Death, to enter the kingdom of heaven.

3. Oh what great thanks am I bound to give Thee, who hast
vouchsafed to show me and all faithful people the good and right
way to Thine eternal kingdom, for Thy way is our way, and by holy
patience we walk to Thee who art our Crown.  If Thou hadst not
gone before and taught us, who would care to follow?  Oh, how far
would they have gone backward if they had not beheld Thy glorious
example!  Behold we are still lukewarm, though we have heard of
Thy many signs and discourses; what would become of us if we had
not such a light to help us follow Thee? (Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ)

On The Way Of The Cross: The Seventh Station

For other posts on the stations go here.

1 I must boast; there is nothing to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3 And I know that this man was caught up into Paradise — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows — 4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. 5 On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. 6 Though if I wish to boast, I shall not be a fool, for I shall be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. 7 And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. 8 Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; 9 but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor 12).

Of this second fall there is no mention in the Gospel, but the devotion of the faithful has commemeorated the difficulties of the journey to Calvary in this way.

As the first fall was a sign of the weakness of the soul unsupported by God, so the second may be taken by us as a proof that human sympathy is of little avail in the trials God brings upon the soul.

After the first fall our Lord meets His Mother; after the second He meets the pious women who are devoted to Him.  He is desirous that we should sympathize with Him in His sufferings for our own sake, because the sympathy we give to Him is a test of our union with Him.  His sufferings, His labors and His trials, are borne for our sake to show us the value of all such things in life.  He, the most perfect, the most innocent, will submit to them, not because they were needed for the completeness of His sanctity, but because they are, in God’s dispensation, the necessary accompaniment of our growth in holiness.  He so identifies Himself with us that He suffers because we must suffer, and because we avoid suffering which entails humiliation, our Lord would fall under the cross.  He, the strong God who made the world and supports it, will allow His human nature to sink under the burden of the cross.  But this fall does not hinder His sacrifice.  He will not allow weakness to hinder His work.  In like manner, He will not allow my weakness to hinder His work.  Indeed, if I use the weakness, i.e., bear it and do not seek the sympathy of others, if I humble myself in my weakness and rely on God’s strength, my weakness will help forward God’s work.-MEDITATIONS ON THE PASSION OF OUR LORD by Fr. Joseph Oswald Smith, O.S.B.,

Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Commentary on the Inviatory

The following is a commentary on the most used of the inviatory Psalms, namely, Psalm 94 (95).  It is taken from a commentary on the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Father Tauton, which work is in the public domain.  Some text from the Little Office, along with some commentary can be found by clicking on the words “The Little Office” in the link field below this blogs header.

Antiphon:  Hail Mary! ful of Grace, the Lord is with thee.

“But for it sufficeth not to you to praise and to joy in God alone but you must stir others to the same.  Therefore, after Alleluia, or Laus Tibi, you begin the Inviatory, that is as much as to say, a ‘calling,’ or a ’stirring,’ wherebey each of you stirreth and exhorteth others to the praising of God and of our Lady.  And thereby also you call them that hear you and desire the others that are absent to come and praise with you.  And thereto accordeth the Psalm Venite that followeth and is sung with the Inviatory” (Myroure, pp. 82-83).

As these words were said by the Angel, it will be well to say them with the same feelings of joy, love, and reverence with which he greeted our Lady.

Psalm 94 (95):  A Prayer of a Son for David

Argument: Cardinal Tomasi in the collection of arguments collected from Origen, gives the following as meanings of this psalm.  That Christ, the Good Shepherd, predestinates His sheep with eternal rest.  The voice of the Church to the Lord touching the Jews.  The voice of Christ to the Apostles touching the Jews.  The voice of the Church advising to repentance.

Venerable Bede in his exposition of the Psalms says concerning this one: “Praise denotes devotion of voice; song, cheerfulness of mind, for David, Christ our Savior, to the end that we may come together and rejoice, not in vain delights, but in the Lord.  The prophet forseeing the rejection of Christ, invites the chosen people to come and praise God.  Secondly, the Lord Himself speaks that the aforesaid people should not harden its heart lest that if befall them which befell their fathers who did not reach the Land of Promise” (Migne P.L. vol xciiim p. 478).

1.  Oh, come let us sing unto the Lord.  Let us heartily rejoice in God our savior.  Let us come before His Face in confession, and in psalms let us rejoice before Him.

St Augustine (in Ennarationes in Psalmos), commenting on this verse, remarks that the prophet invites us to rejoice, not in the world, but in the Lord.  In saying Oh come, he means that those who are far off are to draw near.  But how can we be far off from Him Whom is present everywhere?  By unlikeness to Him, by an evil life, by bad habits.  A man standing still in one spot draws near to God by loving Him, and by loving that which is evil he withdraws from God.  Although he does not move his feet, he can yet both draw nigh and retire; for in this journey our feet are our affections.  Come, as sick men to a doctor to obtain relief, as scholars to a master to learn wisdom, as thirsty men to a fountain, as fugitives to a sanctuary, as blind men to the sun.  Thus writes the Carmelite, Michael Angriani.  Let us sing to the Lord.  Why then do we find it said: Blessed are they that mourn and Woe to you that laugh (Matt 5:4 and Luke 6:25)?  Surely because they are blessed who mourn to the world, and the woe is to them that laugh to the world; but blessed are they who exalt unto the Lord, who know not how to be glad of violence, of fraud, of their neighbor’s tears.  He joys in the Lord, who in word, deed, and work, exults not for himself but for his maker.  Thus states St Peter Chrysologus (Migne, P.L., vol liii. p. 328). Our Savior. St Jerome in his version of the psalms translates these words simply as “Jesus our Rock.”

Let us come before His face, that is, says St Augustine, let us make haste to meet Him, not waiting till He sends to call us before Him.  Not that we can in anyway forestall His grace and bounty to us, but that we may offer our thanksgiving with sufficient promptness to avoid the charge of ingratitude.

In confession, which may either be the confession of God’s might and goodness, or of our frailty and sin, the confession of praise, or the confession of grief.  In this second sense we are called upon to come away from our sins, to come in penance to God before He comes in judgment.  Confession in the Psalms is often used s equivalent to thanksgiving, for if we confess our unworthiness we must be filled with gratitude to God for His mercy in granting us forgiveness and restoring us to His favor.   The Face of God often stands in Holy Writ for His wrath, e.g., Turn away Thy Face from my sins (Psalm 50:9); and also for offering sacrifice (see Hosea 5:5-6; Habakkuk 2:20.  Modern translations may read ‘before, ‘ or ‘presence.’).   The sacrifice of thanksgiving under the Mosaic code was an oblation of cakes of fine flour and wafer bread; and thus in this place, says Fr. Lorin, S.J., we see a prophecy of the Sacrifice of the New Law, that Eucharistic oblation of praise and thanksgiving wherein Christ is Himself offered to the Father.

And in psalms let us rejoice before Him.-Psalms, says St Ambrose, denote the combination of will and action in good works because the word implies the use of an instrument as well as of a voice (Migne, P.L., vol xiv).  And, says Denis, the Carthusian, we may rejoice in psalms when we are alone, as well as when joining with others in the offices of the Church, saying, Oh come all ye powers of my soul, my whole being and all that is within me, especially my reason, memory and will, let us be glad together in the Lord.

2.  For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods: For the Lord will not repel His people, for in His hands are all the ends of the earth, and the heights of the mountains doth He behold.

Says Fr. Corder, To us the words teach the mystery of the Eternal Son, pointing out that our Lord even in His mortal body is a great God, by reason of the Hypostatic Union, and also because He is the express Image of the Father; whence we find this very title given Him by the Apostle saying: Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13).  Christ, says St Bruno, is moreover the King whom all the gods, all those saints and rulers of His Church whom He has made partakers of Him, obey and love: I have said ye are gods (Jn 10:34).

For the Lord will not repel His people, That Christian folk, says Cardinal Hugo, which He hath purchased with His own Blood, He will not reject it, crying, praying, seeking or knocking to Him.

In His hands are all the ends of the earth.-If we take this as descriptive of the power of God over creation there is no better commentary on them that the words of Isaiah: He hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance (Isaiah 40:12).  But the fuller explanation is to take it as showing that whilst false gods are worshipped in special places, He alone is Lord everywhere.  And thus we see here a reference to the Church, no longer confined to the narrow limits of one people, but made up from all the nations of the earth.  The ends of the earth may denote all the powers and faculties of man, a notion which is brought out better by the Hebrew-all the deep places of the earth.

The heights of the mountains are types of the exalted citizens of heaven: thus says Fr. Lorin.  St Bruno says the earth is often put for men of earthly nd groveling minds, mountains for the saints lifted high by contemplation of Divine things.

3.  For the sea is His and He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.  Come let us worship and fall down before God: Let us weep before the Lord who made us, for He is the Lord our God: but we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Besides the obvious interpretation concerning the wonder of creation, the sea, says St Augustine, denotes the Gentile nations tossed about in the bitterness and barreness of heathendom whom the Jews, in their spiritual pride, refused to believe God’s children.  Yet He made them, as it is written: Doubtless Thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer (Isaiah 63:16).   And His hands have formed the dry land. This land, differing from the sea in stability and in capacity of fruitfulness, denotes the Church or any holy soul.  It is dry, says St Bruno, because without the grace of God it can do nothing, as land will not bear unless it be watered, but gaspeth for Him as a thirsty ground (see Ps 144:6).  He formed it, which means more than he made it, implying that He gave shape and beauty and fulness to that which before was without form and void (Gen 1:2) by reason of Adam’s sin.  (Note: the commentator is applying a text about creation to the idea of re-creation.  Adam’s sin affected creation inasmuch as it caused disunity among men with one another and with God, as Genesis 3:8-13 shows.  Also, as a result of Adam’s sin, God cursed the earth so that in some ways it rebels against man, as we see in Gen 3:17-19.  In some sense it can be said that the earth is without form and is void because it no longer retains the fulness of purpose for which it was intended by God; this is why St Paul can write that “all creation groans in eager anticipation of the full revelation of the sons of God” in Romans 8:19).

We are to worship, that is, to bend the head as servants to their master, to fall down as subjects acknowledging their king.  To weep, for as Cassiodorus says: God calls His people first to rejoice, while they, yet, do not know the spiritual life, lest they be alarmed and repelled by its sorrows and austerities; but when they have once accepted the faith, He then summons them to repent of their sins (Migne, P.L., lxx).  But, says St Peter Chrysologus, they are tears of joy; for gladness, as well as sorrow, brings weeping, and grief for our past sins is blended with the hope of blessing and glory to come.  Some commentators, who take this Psalm as having special reference to our Lord’s nativity, see here a command to adore Him in the manger, undeterred ty the tokens of mortality and poverty around.

But we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.-St Augustine tells us that we are hereby taught that we, even as people, are sheep, in respect to God, needing Him as a Shepherd, and only to be satisfied with His green pastures.  Yet we are not unreasoning sheep to be driven with a staff.  We are guided with God’s Own hands, the very hands which made us and are so loving and ever heedful to prevent any harm that may come from negligence, ignorance, or malice of those inferior shepherds, to whom He commits, in a measure, the task of tending His flock.  He feeds us, says St Bruno, with Bread from heaven, as He once fed our spiritual forefathers with mann in the wilderness; and He cares for us as a shepherd cares for his flock, so that we need not be solicitous, but cast all our care on Him.  Says St Bonaventure, we must be like sheep in trustfulness, patience and innocence, and yet men in understanding, according to His Own saying: And ye My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord (Ezek 34:31).

4.  Today if ye shall hear His voice harden not your hearts, as in the provocation and as in the day of temptation in the desert: Where your fathers tempted Me, proved Me and saw My works.

Today, that is, daily while it is called today, as the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews explains in one of his threefold citations of this verse: But exhort one another daily while it is called today (Heb 3:13). So long as the night has not yet come, so long as the door of mercy is not shut.  today, at once, not deferring till tomorrow.

If you will hear His voice is the reply to the assertion in the previous verse: We are the sheep of His pasture; for the proof of being one of Christ;s flock is according to His own words-My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me (Jn 10:27).  This flock He gave in its entirety, both sheep and lambs, to His apostle Peter to be fed for Him (Jn 21:15-17).  So if we are fed by Peter we are fed by Christ, and belong to His one fold.  You call yourself His sheep; prove your claim, then, by hearing His voice.  And yet, as St Bernard tells us, there is no difficulty at all in hearing His voice; on the contrary, the difficulty is to stop our ears effectually against it, so clear is its sound, so constantly does it ring in our ears.  The Jews, remarks the Carmelite, sinned by refusing to listen to the voice of our Lord; and we also sin in the same way when we put off or refuse to repent.  Satan’s counsel, observes St Basil, is “today for me, tomorrow for God”; whereas, He that hath promised pardon to repentance hath not promised tomorrow to the sinner.

Harden not your hearts.-For in doing so, says St Albert the Great, you set yourselves in direct opposition to the will of God, which is to soften those hearts, in that He said: My doctrine shall drop as the rain, My speech shall distill as the dew (Deut 32:2), to moisten the dry ground that it may bring forth the tender buds of grace; whereas it is said of sinners that their hearts are stony: I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh (Ezek 36:26); and of Leviathan, the type of evil power, His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of nether millstone (Job 41:24).

As in the provocation and as in the day of temptation.-Some commentators refer the word provocation to the resistance of the Jews to the authority of Moses and temptation to their unbelief in the providence of God: And he called the naem of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us nor not? (Exodus 17:7).  Cardinal Hugo points out that the words which follow in the wilderness, are an aggravation of guilt, because it was exactly there, in the absence of all other help, that the thoughts of the Jews should have been most firmly set on God Who had so wonderfully brought them out of Egypt.  Those who come out of the Egypt of sin or worldliness, who begin a life of repentance, are at first in the wilderness.  They are deserted by those they have left behind; and, not attaining yet to what they seek, they re much exposed, in that stage of spiritual progress, to the risk of rebellion, of unbelief in God, and of resisting the pleadings of the Holy Ghost.

Where your fathers tempted Me.-There is a stress on your fathers, implying that we are the same nations which sinned in a former period of its history and are therefore likely to fall again.  The Carmelite remarks, we may tempt God in several ways: His mercy, by careless prayer; His patience, by remaining in sin; His justice, by desiring revenge; His power, by not trusting Him during perils; His wisdom, by undertaking to teach others without previous study and meditation.

Proved Me.-This is more than tempting, which denotes the bare experiment, whereas proving implies its success, for the God, whose power they doubted, slew them all in the wilderness.

And saw My works.-That is, says Fr. Lorin, although they saw them, and that during forty continuous years, yet they did not believe and were never subdued, but renewed their experiment after each miracle and judgment.

5.  Forty years was I nigh to this generation, and said, these do always err in heart; in truth they have not known My ways.  Unto whom I swore in My wrath that they should not enter into My rest.

Forty years.-The writers do not fail to point out the mystical meaning of the number forty, repeated in the fasts of Elijah and our Lord, and in the great forty days after Easter; and they tell us that as ten is the first limit we meet in computation, so that this number and its multiples give all the subsequent names to sums, it serves as a type of fulness; while four, as denoting either the seasons of the year or the quarters of the heavens, extends that fulness to all time and place; and thus forty years stands here for the entire span of our earthly sojourn.  Remigius, monk as St Germain (see Migne, P.L. 131), points out the stress on years, because the journey of Elijah teaches us that the Israelites could have passed through the desert in forty days had they only been obedient (1 Kings 19:8).

Nigh.-Some commentators take this word in the sense that one who punishes is near the criminal, or of a teacher who keeps beside an idle and refractory pupil to compel his attention.  St Augustine explains it of God’s continual presence in signs and miracles; while St Bernard interprets it of an inward voice and inspiration.  The cause of God’s anger was the ingratitude of the children of Israel for His unceasing watch over them.

This generation.-And whereas this applies literally to the 60,000 who came up out of Egypt, and then by accommodation, to all living men at any time while it is called today, there is also a special fitness in taking it of the Jews after the Passion of Christ; for, says Perez of Valentia, the interval which lay between that and the final destruction of Jerusalem was almost precisely forty years, up to which time the door of hope was still open for Israel, and it was still today ere that terrible night set upon the Temple worship.

Always do these err in their heart.-This is much more forcible, observes Cardinal Hugo, than if it were said, they err in act; for the error of an act has a definite end, whereas the error of the will has no end.  Death puts an end to the evil doings of a sinner, not because he has lost the will to sin, but because he has no longer the power to do so.

For they have not known My ways.-The word known does not here signify acquaintance with God’s ways which may be gathered from reading or meditation, but that knowing which comes from a careful keeping to His ways themselves, that is, from living lives fruitful in good works.  And the ways of God, as St Bonaventure remarks, are all reducible to one, that is Jesus Himself, the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Jn 14:6); moreover, they all lead to the same heavenly country.  They are one way in their making, their maker, and their end; they are many ways according to the diversities of the working of grace, the variety of vocations and of disposition among those who journey home through the wilderness.

Unto whom I swore in My wrath that they should not enter into My rest.-This He did when the spies brought back evil reports of the Land of Promise and the children of Israel prepared to elect a leader to take them back to Egypt (Num 14:26).  It is a terrible warning, comments St Augustine.  We began the Psalm with rejoicing but we end with awful dread.  It is a great thing that God should speak; but how much more that God should swear.  A man who hath sworn is to be feared, lest he should, for his oath’s sake, do aught against his will.  How much more then ought we not to fear God Who cannot swear rashly?  Let no one say in his heart, that which he promiseth is true, that which he threateneth is false.  As sure as thou art of rest,happiness, eternity, immortality, if thou keep the commandments, so certain shouldest thou be of destruction, of the burning of everlasting fire, of damnation with the devil, if thou despise His Law.  He hath sworn that these shall not enter into His rest, and yet, it remaineth that some must enter therein (Heb 4:6), for it could not be designed for no occupant.  And this rest, which meant the early Canaan to the Jews of old, means for us that Sabbath of the heavenly Fatherland whereof the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us: Now there remained a rest to the people of God (Heb 4:9).  Even here, on earth, says the Carmelite, before reaching the blessed Land, there remaineth a rest for God’s people, whereof the weekly Sabbath is a sign and a pledge.  This is the rest from sin, common to all the just, and the rest from bodily cares and stilling of temptation, which comes in measure to contemplative saints; while, crowning all, there is the rest of the blessed, whence sorrow is banished for evermore.  Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief (Heb 4:11) and be included under the terrible oath of exclusion; and in prayer for grace that it may not be so, O come let us worship and fall down and weep before the Lord our Maker. Thus says the Carthusian.

Gloria Patri:

Glory be to the Father, the great King above all gods; Glory be to the Son, the Strength of our salvation; Glory be to the Holy Ghost who saith, Today if ye hear His voice harden not your hearts.

Next installment in this series will be a commentary on the Matin Hymn The God, Whom earth and sea and sky, Adore and laud and magnify.

Our Blessed Lady of Victory

O God, who wast pleased that thy Word, at the message of an angel, should take flesh in the womb of the blessed Vrigin Mary: grant to us, thy suppliants, that, as we believe her to be truly the Mother of God, so we may be assissted by her intercessions with Thee.  Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.  Amen-Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the oration at Lauds.

O God, who didst vouchsafe to choose the chaste chamber of the blessed Virgin Mary in which to dwell: grant, we beseech Thee, that, fortified with her defence, we may find our joy in taking part in her commemoration.  Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy GhostGod, world without end. -Little Office of the BVM, the oration at prime

To the Master I serve the Lord’s promise was given sit here at my right hand,
While I make thy enemies a footstool under thy feet.
The Lord will make thy empire spring up like a branch out of Sion; thou art to bear rule in the midst of thy enemies.
From birth, princely state shall be thine, holy and glorious; thou art my son, born like dew before the day-star rises.
The Lord has sworn an oath there is on retracting: Thou art a priest forever in the line of Melchisedec.
At thy right hand, the Lord will beat down kings in the day of his vengeance.
He will pass sentence on nations, heap high the bodies, scatter far and wide the heads of the slain.
Now that he has drunk of the brook by the wayside, he will lift up his head in victory.

The Cure of Ars Telling It Like It Is

Alas, my dear brethren, what have we become since our conversion?  Instead of going always forward and increasing in holiness, what laziness and what indifference we display!  God cannot endure this perpetual inconstancy with which we pass from virtue to vice and from vice to virtue.  Tell me, my children, is not this the very pattern of the way you live?  Are your poor lives anything other than a succession of good deeds and bad deeds?  Is it not true that you go to confession and the very next day you fall again–or perhaps on the very same day?…How can this be, unless the religion you have is unreal, a religion of habit, a religion of long-standing custom, and not a religion rooted in the heart?  Carry on, my friend; you are only a waverer!  Carry on, my poor man; in everything you do, you are just a hypocrite and nothing else!  God has not the first place in your heart; that is reserved for the world and the Devil.  How may people there are, my dear children, who seem to love God in real earnest for a little while and then abandon Him!  What do you find, then,  so hard and so unpleasant in the service of God that it has repelled you so strongly and caused you to change over to the side of the world?  Yet at the time when God showed you the state of your soul(i.e., at their conversion) , you actually wept for it and realized how much you had been mistaken in your lives.  If you have persevered so little, the reason for this misfortune is that the devil must have been greatly grieved to have lost you because  he has done so much to get you back.  he hopes now to keep you altogether.  How many apostates there are indeed, who have renounced their religion and who are Christian in name only!

But you will say to me, how can we know that we have religion in our hearts, this religion which is consistent?

My dear brethren, this is how: listen well and you will understand if you have religion as God wants you to have it in order to lead you to Heaven.  If a person has true virtue, nothing whatever can change him; he is like a rock in the midst of a tempestuous sea.  If anyone scorns you, or calumniates you, if someone mocks at you or calls you a hypocrite or a sanctimonious fraud, none of this will have the least effect upon your peace of soul.  You will love him just as much as you loved him when he wa saying good things about you.  You will not fail to do him a good turn and to help him, even if he speaks badly of your assistance.  You will say your prayers, go to confession, to Holy Communion, you will go to Mass, all according to your general custom.

To help you to understand this better, I will give you an example.  It is related that in a certain parish there was a young man who was a model of virtue.  He went to Mass almost every day and to Holy Communion often.  It happened that another was jealous of the esteem in which the young man was held, and one day, when they were both in the company of a neighbor, who possessed a lovely gold snuffbox, the jealous one took it from its owner’s pocket and placed in, unobserved, in the pocket of the young man.  After he had done this he asked to see the snuffbox.  The owner expected to find it in his pocket and was astonished when he discovered that it was missing.  No one was allowed to leave the room until everyone had been searched, and the snuffbox was found, of course, on the young man who was a model of goodness.  Naturally, everyone immediately called him a thief and attacked his religious professions, denouncing him as a hypocrite and a sanctimonious fraud.  He could not defend himself, since the box had been found in his pocket.  He said nothing.  He suffered it all as something which had come from the hand of God.  When he was walking along the street, when he was coming from the church, or from Mass or Holy Communion, everyone who saw him jeered at him and called him a hypocrite, a fraud, a thief.  This went on for quite a long time, but in spite of it, he continued with all of his religious exercises, his Confessions, his Communions, and all his prayers, just as if everyone were treating him with the utmost respect.  After some years, the man who had been the cause of it all fell ill.  To those who were with him he confessed that he had been the origin of all the evil things which had been said about this young man, who was a saint, and that through jealousy of him, so that he might destroy his good name, he himself had put the snuffbox in the young man’s pocket.

There, my brethren, is a religion which is true, which has taken root in the soul.  Tell me, if all those poor Christians who make profession of religion were subjected to such trials, would they imitate this young man?  Ah, my dear brethren, what murmurings there would be, what bitterness, what thoughts of revenge, of slander, of calumny, even perhaps of going to law…They would storm against religion; they would scorn and jeer at it and say nothing but ill of it; they would not be able to say their prayers anymore;  they would not be able to go to Mass; they would not know what more to do or to say to justify themselves; they would collect every item of harm that this or that person had done, tell it to others, repeat it to everyone who knew them in order to make them out as liars and calumniators.  What is the reason for this conduct, my dear brethren?  Surely it is that our religion is only one of whim, of long-standing habit and routine, and, if we were to put it more forcefully, because we are hypocrites who serve God just as long as everything is going according to our wishes.  Alas, my dear brethren, all of these virtues which we observe in a great many apparent Christians are but like flowers of spring, which one gust of hot wind can wither.-Taken from a public domain text: Sermons of the Cure of Ars.  The Cure of Ars is, of course, St John Vianney. “Cure” is a French word derived from the Medieval Latin “curatus”, a care-giver or healer.  In the Middle Ages clergy were known as cura et animus, “healer/care-giver of souls.”  I’m not sure the Latin phrase I’ve given is absolutely correct, but it’s close.

On The Way Of The Cross: The Sixth Station

For other stations click on “The Way of the Cross” in the link field under this blogs header.

SIXTH STATION
Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.  We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R/. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.  Because by your holy cross you have redemed the world.

From the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. 53:2-3

He had no form or comeliness
that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces.

From the Book of Psalms. 42:2-3

As the deer longs for flowing streams
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirst for God,
for the living God.

MEDITATION

The face of Jesus is bathed with sweat,
streaming with blood,
covered with abusive spittle.
Who would dare draw near him?

A woman!

A woman steps out of the crowd,
keeping alight the lamp of our humanity,
… and wipes his Face
and finds his Face!

How many people today have no face!
How many people are relegated
to the margins of life,
exiled, forsaken,
by an apathy that kills the apathetic.

Only those afire with love are truly alive,
those who bend low before Christ who suffers
and awaits us in those who are suffering:  today!

---

PRAYER

Lord Jesus,
a single step
and the world could change!

A single step,
and peace could return to families,
a single step,
and the needy would no longer be alone;
a single step,
and the suffering could feel a hand
reaching out to take their hand
… and bring healing to both.

A single step,
and the poor could find a place at table,
lifting the sadness haunting the tables of the selfish,
who find no joy in feasting alone.

Lord Jesus,
a single step is all it would take!

Help us to take that step,
for our world is slowly depleting
all its store of joy.
Help us, Lord!

All:

Pater noster, qui es in cælis:
Our Father, who art in heaven:
sanctificetur nomen tuum;
Hallowed by Thy Name:
adveniat regnum tuum;
Thy Kingdom come;
fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Thy will be done, on Earth, as it is in Heaven.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
Give us this day our daily bread;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
and forgive us our trespasses,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
and lead us not into temptation;
sed libera nos a malo.
but deliver us from evil.

Quis non posset contristari
piam matrem contemplari
dolentem cum Filio?

Source: Click on icons for text

The Feast of St Joseph

St Joseph is the patron of my parish church.  I took the above picture early this morning in the convent school which was being set up for a reception after tonight’s Mass.

St Thomas Aquinas writes:  “Some Saints are privileged to extend to us their patronage in certain cases, but not in others, with peculiar efficacy; but to our holy Patron, St Joseph, it is given to assist us in all cases, in every necessity, in every undertaking.”

St Bernardine of Siena: “If you compare him to the whole Church of Christ, is he not the special and chosen being, by whom, and under whom, the Lord was introduced into the world with becoming dignity?  If all the faithful, then, are debtors to the Virgin Mother for being made worthy through her to receive the Redeemer; so, next to the Virgin Mother, do we not owe to St Joseph special honor and veneration?”

St Teresa of Avila: “Oh! that I could induce all to be devout to this glorious Saint, from the experience I have of this great power with God.  For many years past I have asked from him some favor on his feast, which he never failed to obtain for me: unless, perhaps, what I asked was not for my good.  For the love of God, I implore those who do not believe me, to make a trial of it, and they will soon find by experience how advantageous it is to have recourse to the glorious St Joseph, and become his devoted clients.  It is wonderful what favors God has granted me by means of this blessed Saint; from what dangers, both of body and soul, He has delivered me (see footnote 1).  God would seem to have given to other Saints the grace to help us in some one necessity; but from experience I have learned that St Joseph helps us in all, and therefore the Lord will have us understand that, as He was subject to St Joseph on earth, so likewise in heaven the Saint obtains whatsoever he asks.” (see footnote 2)

St Francis De Sales: “Oh! what a Saint is the glorious St Joseph!  he is not only a Patriarch, but the most distinguished among the Patriarchs.  He is not merely a confessor, but far more than a confessor; for in him are included the dignity of the bishop, the generosity of the martyr, the excellence of the other Saints.  St Joseph will obtain for us, if we put confidence in him, an increase in every kind of virtue, but particularly in those which he possessed in a pre-eminent degree: these are, a perfect purity of body and mind, humility, constancy, fortitude, and perseverance, virtues which will render us victorious over our enemies in this life, and enable us to obtain the grace of enjoying in the life to come those rewards which are prepared for the imitators of St Joseph.”

Footnotes:

1.  Notice that “He” is capitalized in the phrase “He has delivered me.”  God delivers through the intercession of Joseph who, like the Blessed Mother and all the Saints, must approach the Father on our behalf through Jesus.

2.  Because the Saints are united in will with God, they ask only what is beneficial for us, and not everything we ask.

A Meditation On Psalm 1

You can find an number of commentaries on Psalm 1 (and other Psalms) by clicking on the “Notes on the Psalms” link under this blog’s title header.  What follows below is a brief meditation on the Psalm from a Benedictine Monk.

The desire of the soul which has given herself to the religious life, avoiding both the counsel of the wicked and the way of sin, which is self-seeking.

And the seat of pestilence, which is a confirmed habit of sin, is that her will shall be with God, and that she occupy her heart with Him day and night.

She is so confirmed in her holy profession as to be like a tree planted by a brook of water; and she shall offer her fruit to God in His good time.  The brook is the fount of good example in community life, for the soul is always able to gain strength and encouragement from it.

The leaves which draw nourishment from the sun and the air, i.e., from the warmth of God’s consolations, and the freedom and constancy of His inspirations shall not fail; and whatever the soul does, relying on God, shall profit for the life everlasting.

On the other hand, those who despise the life of religion, though they seem to succeed here, will profit nothing before God, but the falseness of their ideals and aspirations will be exposed to the whole world at the last day.

In that day the light of God will make the hidden and despised life of a religious glorious to all.

As our Lord appreciates the life of perfection so He would have us grow in our love of it and desire to attain to it with our whole hearts.  In the last day the life of the sinner will be seen in its true light, and will be abhorred by all.  May God grant me the greatest constancy in the holy vocation which He has given to me.-An Easy Way to the Psalms, by Abbot Smith, O.S.B.