Meditations for Easter.., p.459, 462:

from The Passion and the Death of Jesus Christ by St. Alphonsus de Liguori

 Oh, happy are we if we suffer with patience on earth the troubles of this present life! Distress of circumstances, fears, bodily infirmities, persecutions, and crosses of every kind, will one day all come to an end; and if we be saved, they will all become for us subjects of joy and glory in paradise: Your sorrow  (says the Saviour, to encourage us) shall be turned into joy. So great are the delights of paradise, that they can neither be explained nor understood by us mortals: Eye hath not seen (says the Apostle) nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for those who love Him. Beauties like the beauties of paradise, eye hath never seen; harmonies like unto the harmonies of paradise, ear hath never heard; nor hath ever human heart gained the comprehension of the joys which God had prepared for those that love him. Beautiful is the sight of a landscape adorned with hills, plains, woods, and views of the sea. Beautiful is the sight of a garden abounding with fruit, flowers, and fountains. Oh, how much more beautiful is paradise!

…It is enough to know that in that blessed realm resides a God omnipotent, whose care is to render happy his beloved souls. St Bernard says that paradise is a place where “there is nothing that thou wouldst not, and everything there that thou wouldst.” There shalt thou not find anything displeasing to Thyself, and everything thou dost desire thou shalt find.

…What consolation will it not feel in meeting there with relatives and friends of its own who have previously entered into heaven! …

A meditation for Easter Sunday… from a Dominican friar

How supreme the change that has taken place since the dolor and darkness of Good Friday! Then, the agonized Spouse of Christ was submerged in an ocean of bitter sorrow. Her altars were denuded; her ministers were clothed in the sable garments of mourning; a wail of grief went forth from her bosom, piercing the highest heaven.

Behold the glorious transformation of Easter Sunday! Our weeping Mother has dried her tears and hushed her sighs of grief. Her priests appear in vestments of white and gold; her altars are decked with lovely flowers and flaming lights; her organs peal forth exultant paeans, and, in a very rapture of gladness, she calls upon heaven and earth to join in her song of triumph, repeating again and again her thrilling “Alleluias.”

Nor is the Mater Dolorosa forgotten in those joyful canticles of Easter. Tenderly mindful of the sorrows of Mary, the Church cries to her to rejoice in the golden dawn of the Resurrection: “Regina cœli, lætare,” (she chants), “O Queen of Heaven! rejoice, because He whom thou didst merit to bear, hath risen, as He said. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary! because He is truly risen from the dead!” Yes, Blessed Mother, rejoice and be glad! No longer have hell and Satan power over your adorable Son. He lives and reigns forever, the immortal Conquerer of sin and death, and one day, when your grand work for God and His Church is completed, you shall share everlastingly in the joys of His kingdom!

O sweet and gentle Mother! recalling your profound emotions immediately after the death of your Divine Son, assist us to dwell awhile with you on the action of His adorable soul after its separation from the flesh upon Calvary’s cross. You remember the promise the dying Redeemer made to the poor penitent thief that he would be with Him that day in Paradise (Luke 23. 43). That pledge was faithfully fulfilled.

Our Lord appeared to His Blessed Mother just after His Resurrection, changing her sorrow into intense joy, and giving her in anticipation a share of the glory and happiness that awaited her in Heaven. How sweet and consoling must have been the converse of Our Lord with His Blessed Mother! How she must have thanked and congratulated Him for choosing her to be His companion in the sublime work of the world’s redemption — and for having vouchsafed her a share in His manifold sufferings and sorrows! And how Jesus, in turn, must have thanked His Blessed Mother, and praised and blessed her for all she did and suffered for Him from the moment of His Incarnation to His expiration on the cross! Let us try to picture to ourselves the overflowing rapture of Mary’s immaculate Heart when she beheld the glorified body of her divine Son. She did not go with the devout women when (as the Evangelist tells us) they went very early in the morning to anoint the body of Christ. She well knew that it had no need of the embalming spices or agents, since it was not destined to molder in the grave. She did not go to visit the tomb on Easter morn with the weeping Magdalen, for she was well aware that the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea was vacant of its divine Tenant. Already her adorable Son had visited and consoled her. And with what ecstatic joy must she have gazed on those hands and feet, lately so livid and lacerated, now shining as if adorned with dazzling jewels; on that glorified body, so horribly torn by the scourges, now resplendently arrayed with heavenly vesture; on that sacred face, once clouded by blood and bruises, now more brilliant than ten thousand suns, thence diffusing the light of the Lamb, which shall fill the New Jerusalem with ineffable delight, from everlasting to everlasting!

Palm Sunday - Blessing and Distribution of the Palms

Agony of Jesus in the Garden of Olives

An excerpt from the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ by St. Alphonsus de Ligurori

Simple Exposition of the Passion: Chapter V: Agony of Jesus in the Garden of Olives (p.174-176)

I.    And a hymn being said, they went out to Mount Olivet…  Then Jesus came with them to a country place, which is called Gethsemani.  As soon as they had said grace, Jesus leaves the supper room with his disciples, goes into the garden of Gethsemani, and begins to pray. But, alas, at the commencement of his prayer, he is assailed with a great fear, an oppressive tediousness, and an overwhelming sadness. He began to fear and be heavy, says St. Mark. St. Matthew adds, He began to grow sorrowful and to be sad. Hence our Redeemer, overwhelmed with sadness, said that his blessed soul was sorrowful even unto death. Then was presented before him the melancholy scene of all the torments and ignominies which were prepared for him. In his Passion these afflicted him one by one; but in the garden, the buffets, the spittle, the scourges, the thorns, the nails, and the reproaches which he was to suffer, came all together to torment him. He there embraced them all, but in embracing them, he trembled, he agonized, and prayed: And being in an agony, He prayed the longer. But, my Jesus, who compels Thee to submit to such torments? The love, he answers, which I bear to men constrains me to endure them. Ah, how great must have been the astonishment of heaven at the sight of omnipotence become weak, of the joy of paradise oppressed with sadness! A God afflicted! And why? To save men, his own creatures. In the garden he offered the first sacrifice: Jesus was the victim, love was the priest, and the ardor of his affection for men was the blessed fire with which the sacrifice was consummated.

II.   My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me. Thus Jesus prayed. My Father, he says, if it be possible, save me from drinking this bitter chalice. But he prayed thus not so much to be delivered from the torments that he was to endure, as to make us understand the pain which he suffered and embraced for the love of us. He prayed thus, also, to teach us that in tribulations we may ask God to deliver us from them, but that we should at the same time conform entirely to his divine will, and say with him, Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt. And during the whole time of his prayer he repeated the same petition. Thy will be done…And He prayed the third time, saying the self-same word.

Yes, my Lord, for Thy sake, I embrace all the crosses which Thou wilt send me. Thou, an innocent, hast suffered for my sake, and shall I, a sinner, after having so often deserved hell, refuse to suffer in order to please Thee, and to obtain from Thee the pardon of my sins, and Thy grace? Not as I will, but as Thou wilt: let not my will, but Thine, be always done.

III.   He fell flat on the ground. In his prayer in the garden, Jesus fell prostrate on the ground, because, seeing himself clothed with the sordid garment of all our sins, he felt, as it were, ashamed to raise his eyes to heaven.

My dear Redeemer, I would not dare to ask pardon for so many insults which I have committed against Thee, if Thy sufferings did not give me confidence. Eternal Father, look on the face of Thy Christ: look not on my iniquities, behold this, Thy beloved Son, trembling, agonizing, and sweating blood in order to obtain Thy pardon for me. And his sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground. But, my Jesus, in this garden there are not executioners to scourge Thee, nor thorns, nor nails to torture Thee: what, then, extracts so much blood from Thee? Ah! I understand Thee: it was not the foresight of Thy approaching sufferings that then afflicted Thee so grievously; for to these pains Thou didst spontaneously offer Thyself: He was offered because it was His own will. It was the sight of my sins; these were the cruel press which forced so much blood from Thy sacred veins. Hence, it was not the executioners, nor the nails, nor the thorns, that were cruel and barbarous in Thy regard: no, my sins, which made Thee so sorrowful in the garden, have been barbarous and cruel to Thee, my sweet Redeemer. Then, in Thy great affliction, I too have added to Thy sorrows, and have grievously afflicted Thee by the weight of my sins. Had I been guilty of fewer sins, Thou shouldst have suffered less.

THE SYMBOLISM OF THE OFFERTORY - PART 10 (CONCLUSION)

Part X (Conclusion) - Angelus Press Conference 2014 – The Mass, Heart of the Church

4th Point: The Spirit of the Offertory continued:

St Thomas speaks of that consent, that ‘yes’ to things which are also beyond our control, the general hardships of life, a tsunami, an accident, a cancer, whatever painful falls on you without your control.  It is in the Summa when he speaks of the third element of confession, which is satisfaction. (Supplement Q15, a.2)

If the scourges, which are inflicted by God on account of sin, become in some way the act of the sufferer they acquire a satisfactory character. Now they become the act of the sufferer in so far as he accepts them for the cleansing of his sins, by taking advantage of them patiently. Fiunt autem ipsius inquantum ea acceptat ad purgationem peccatorum,eis utens patienter.

They become our asset when we say yes to God’s mysterious will.  That is our offertory in our daily life, and life’s unpredictable circumstances. They become ours, if we say yes to God. Fiat, fiat.

Finally, before concluding, I would like to highly recommend to you a little video, professionally made, comparing the Holy Mass and the Passion.  It is on YouTube.  Just type: A Meditation on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  You will discover new depths in the symbolism, not only of the Offertory, but of the whole Mass.

Conclusion

Let us conclude and sum up what I have tried to do during this little conference.

I hope that you now see more clearly that behind each gesture, each word of the Holy Mass, there are mysteries.  Please follow that up with the reading of commentaries on the Mass. It is sad to see that the enemies of the Church often know this better than we do.  They knew what they were changing when they made all the liturgical changes, when they changed the signs and the things signified by them.

I hope that you now see more clearly how the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, expresses the mystery of the whole Catholic Church, of the Communion of Saints.

I hope that you now see more clearly the wisdom of these repeated Dominus Vobiscum, particularly the 4th one, asking for the gift of fortitude as we begin the offertory.  We ought to daily hand ourselves over to Our Lord asking Him to accept us, and all we have to offer, to offer us with Him to the Eternal Father, to consecrate, to transubstantiate, to change us into Himself, as He does with the bread and the wine.

Dominus Vobiscum!

PRIOR'S WORD: TRADITION (III/Conclusion)

I would like to continue stressing that the popes in their teaching did not write differently than these Fathers of the Church (see Part I and II).  They were deeply conscious that they had received a treasure and had to transmit it perfectly to the next generations. as it is defined in the First Vatican Council, dogmatic Constitution Pastor Aeternus :

“The Roman Pontiffs, moreover, according as the condition of the times and affairs advised, sometimes by calling ecumenical Councils or by examining the opinion of the Church spread throughout the world; sometimes by particular synods, sometimes by employing other helps which divine Providence supplied, have defined that those matters must be held which with God's help they have recognized as in agreement with Sacred Scripture and apostolic tradition. For, the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter that by His revelation they might disclose new doctrine, but that by His  help they might guard sacredly the revelation transmitted through the apostles and the deposit of faith, and might faithfully set it forth.” (Denzinger Sch. 3069-3070). Here are two examples.

Tradition in the liturgy:

In a decretal letter of 416 A.D., Pope St Innocent I wrote: "If the priests of the Lord wanted to preserve the ecclesiastical institutions, as they are regulated by the tradition of the Holy Apostles, there would be no discordance in the offices and the consecrations. But when everyone thinks he can observe, not what comes from Tradition but what seems good to him, it follows that we witness a diversity in the manner of celebrating, according to the diversity of places and of Churches.  This inconvenience causes scandal for the people, who not knowing that the antique traditions have been altered by a human presumption, think that either the Churches don't agree among themselves, or that the Apostles have established contradictory things." (Dom Guéranger)

Tradition in Church law:

For example, on the order of the goals of marriage in canon 1013: “The primary end of marriage is the procreation and education of children; the secondary end is mutual support and a remedy for concupiscence”. The sources of this text are found in numerous documents of the Church over the centuries given in the footnotes of the Code of 1917 (NB. look at the years):

Eugenius IV, in the Council of Florence, Const. “Exultate Deo”, Nov. 22, 1439, n. 16; Benedict XIV, Const. “Dei miseratione” Nov. 3, 1741, n. 1; Leo XIII, Encycl. Letter “Arcanum”, Feb. 10, 1880; Holy Office, instr. (to the bishop of St Albert), Dec. 9, 1874, n. 5; Cong. of Prop. Fide, instr. (to the Greek-Rumen Bishop) 1858.

Popes always quotes their predecessors of past centuries.  That is the sign that they want to be faithful to Tradition.  So do we!

The Symbolism of the Offertory - Part 9

4th Point: The Spirit of the Offertory continued.....

We see here the link, the dramatic link between the infinite value of the Sacrifice of Our Lord, vastly sufficient to redeem the whole world, and all the interior problems of personal sanctification.  This relation is such, writes Fr. Combes, that each one of us, each soul carries within itself the responsibility of the concrete failures of the Redemption.  Each sinful autonomy, every lack of generosity partially renders inefficient the Sacrifice which by right should save a million worlds. 

However, it goes both ways, Father Combes rightly points out.  If selfishness paralyses Redemption, fidelity fulfills it. And it is no longer just about one’s personal sanctity, it is the secret to render effective the sanctification of all souls.

Let us continue with the words of St Therese Couderc herself, how she understood this total offering of oneself, ‘se livrer’.

But then, what does it mean to hand oneself over? I understand the whole extension of this word ‘to hand oneself over’ but I can’t explain it.  I only know that it is very vast, that it includes the present and the future.  To hand oneself over is more than to be devoted to, it is more than the gift of self, it is even more than to abandon oneself to God.  To hand oneself over is to die to all and to self, to have no more care of oneself except to make sure it is always turned towards God.  Moreover, to hand oneself over, it is also to seek ourselves in nothing, whether for the spiritual or for the corporal, I mean to no longer seek any personal satisfaction, but only the divine good pleasure.  We must add that to hand oneself over is also that spirit of detachment that holds on nothing, whether persons, things, time, places.  It is to cling to all, to accept all, to submit ourselves to all.

That is a beautiful description of what the offertory signifies for our spiritual life.

I would dare say that, secundum quid, from this point of view, quoad nos, for us, the Offertory could be the most important moment of the Holy Mass. And it is all signified, we could add, in these few drops of water, blessed by the priest, and mingled to the wine.

As we have briefly seen with St Therese Couderc, we must give our consent, our ‘yes’ to the mystery of the Redemption. That is our part in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The Hebrews were told to eat the Pascal Lamb, with bitter herbs, standing, holding a walking stick.  All this was a clear figure that we must unite ourselves to the Holy Eucharist by bringing to it our own consents, our own crosses, and our own little and big sacrifices.

This is expressed in these drops of water.  When we see the priest at the Epistle side blessing the water and pouring it in the chalice, let us ask ourselves, What have I done since my last mass that can be offered on the altar, in the chalice?  Have I consented to all the sacrifices my Savior has asked from me?   Oh, I know that it can be so hard at times to give that ‘yes’ to the Will of God!

Yes to a sickness that breaks bright projects, a promising future, yes to a vocation, to yet another child, to an act of forgiveness, to a humiliation, to an act of obedience !

Prior's Word: Tradition (II)

Here are some famous texts to prove how Tradition was understood in the first centuries:

Tertulian wrote about 200 A.D. his book The Prescription against Heretics:

“(The Father sent His Son who in turn sent His Apostles:) Immediately, therefore, so did the apostles, whom this designation indicates as the sent.  (…) After first bearing witness to the faith in Jesus Christ throughout Judæa, and founding churches (there), they next went forth into the world and preached the same doctrine of the same faith to the nations. They then in like manner founded churches in every city, from which all the other churches, one after another, derived the tradition of the faith, and the seeds of doctrine, and are every day deriving them, that they may become churches. Indeed, it is on this account only that they will be able to deem themselves apostolic, as being the offspring of apostolic churches. Every sort of thing must necessarily revert to its original for its classification. Therefore the churches, although they are so many and so great, comprise but the one primitive church, (founded) by the apostles, from which they all (spring). In this way all are primitive, and all are apostolic, while they are all proved to be one, in (unbroken) unity, by their peaceful communion, and title of brotherhood, and bond of hospitality — privileges which no other rule directs than the one tradition of the selfsame mystery.

“From this, therefore, do we draw up our rule. Since the Lord Jesus Christ sent the apostles to preach, (our rule is) that no others ought to be received as preachers than those whom Christ appointed; for no man knows the Father save the Son, and he to whomever the Son will reveal Him. Matthew 11:27 Nor does the Son seem to have revealed Him to any other than the apostles, whom He sent forth to preach — that, of course, which He revealed to them. Now, what that was which they preached — in other words, what it was which Christ revealed to them — can, as I must here likewise prescribe, properly be proved in no other way than by those very churches which the apostles founded in person, by declaring the gospel to them directly themselves, both vivâ voce, as the phrase is, and subsequently by their epistles. If, then, these things are so, it is in the same degree manifest that all doctrine which agrees with the apostolic churches— those molds and original sources of the faith must be reckoned for truth, as undoubtedly containing that which the (said) churches received from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, Christ from God. Whereas all doctrine must be prejudged as false which savors of contrariety to the truth of the churches and apostles of Christ and God. It remains, then, that we demonstrate whether this doctrine of ours, of which we have now given the rule, has its origin in the tradition of the apostles, and whether all other doctrines do not ipso facto proceed from falsehood. We hold communion with the apostolic churches because our doctrine is in no respect different from theirs. This is our witness of truth.” (Chapters 20 and 21)     http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0311.htm

St Vincent of Lerins, in his Commonitory, (434 A.D.) gives the golden rule of the Catholic faith:

“Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all (ubique, semper et ab omnibus). For that is truly and in the strictest sense Catholic, which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is manifest were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of almost all priests and doctors.”  http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3506.htm 

These texts from the early Fathers and Christian writers give the clear teaching of the first centuries of the Church on the nature of Tradition.

The Symbolism of the Offertory - Part 8

Second Part: The Symbolism of the Offertory (Cont)

 A few moments before the Incarnation, Our Lady too, understanding the message of the Angel inviting her, the New Eve, to be the ‘adjutorium sibi simile’, the helper like unto himself, of the New Adam in the mystery of the redemption of the world through a terribly painful sacrifice, Our Lady also offered herself completely for this work:

Behold the Handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word. (Lk 1:38)

We can find an authorized commentary of her answer, what she herself felt, in what she asked the children of Fatima on the day of her very first apparition to them

– Will you offer yourselves to God, and bear all the sufferings He sends you? In atonement for all the sins that offend Him? And for the conversion of sinners?

– Oh, we will, we will!, the children spontaneously replied.

– Then you will have a great deal to suffer, but the grace of God will be with you and will strengthen you.

You are all familiar with two St Teresas. Few, especially in the English-speaking world, have heard of the third one, St Therese Couderc, 1805-1885, the foundress of the Congregation of the Cenacle, nuns specializing in giving the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius to women, in the 19th century. Her main biographer is Fr. André Combes, the same who wrote so much on the Saint of Lisieux.

Fr. Combes relates the following historical moment, one of the highest mystical point in the life of this little known saint.  It was June 26, 1864. Notice that there are three progressing stages in what you will hear.

First, she wrote:

This morning (…) I was just about to start my meditation, when I heard the sound of numerous bells calling the faithful to attend the divine mysteries.  At that moment, I desired to unite myself to all the masses that were being said, and directed my intention to unite myself to them all.

Secondly, she is lifted to the mystical level:

Then I had a general view of the whole Catholic universe and of a multitude of altars where the adorable Victim was simultaneously being offered.  The blood of the spotless Lamb flowed in abundance on each of these altars, which seemed to me to be enveloped in a very light smoke rising towards Heaven.

My soul was captivated and penetrated by a sentiment of love and gratitude at the sight of this superabundant satisfaction offered for us by Our Lord.

But at the same moment I was deeply astonished that the whole world was not sanctified thereby.

And so I asked how come the Sacrifice of the Cross having been offered only once, being sufficient to redeem all souls, and now, renewed so many times, was not sufficient to sanctify them all?

We now come to the third phase of this event:

Here is the answer I seemed to have heard.

The sacrifice without doubt is sufficient by itself, and the blood of Jesus Christ more than sufficient for the sanctification of millions of worlds, but souls lack correspondence and generosity.

Now the great means to enter in the way of perfection and holiness is to deliver oneself, to hand ourselves over, to surrender ourselves totally to our Good God. (in French, “se livrer au Bon Dieu”).

Prior's Word: Tradition (I)

To be a Catholic is to have the mind of the Catholic Church, the Sensus Ecclesiae, to submit to the teaching, the morals, the liturgy and the discipline of the Catholic Church. Faith is a submission of the intellect to the truth revealed by God and proposed by His Church.

As we have seen in the readings of the Second Sunday of Lent, God the Father orders us to listen to His Divine Son who passes on to us the Truth He Himself received from His Father.  Jesus, in His turn, orders His Apostles to go and teach all nations whatsoever He has taught them.  He who hears them hears Him, he who rejects them, rejects Him.  It is clear.  The Apostles are one with Our Lord, they are His ambassadors. The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ.

They taught the very same things to their own disciples and the chain of Tradition has thus been linked ever since, until our own days, and will be so until the end of the world.  That is also what is called the note of apostolicity: the unbroken chain of teaching and of the succession in the hierarchy.

Here are some famous texts to prove how Tradition was understood in the first centuries on different aspects of the faith, the morals, liturgy.  It helps to know these things today; it strengthens our own faith, since we are part of this uninterrupted chain, this apostolic faith.

St Paul’s famous text to the Galatian (about 53 A.D.) is a revealed landmark:

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. As we said before, so now I say again: If any one preach to you a gospel, besides that which you have received, let him be anathema. (…) For I give you to understand, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For neither did I receive it of man, nor did I learn it; but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Gal 1:8-12)

St Ireneus wrote around the year 180 A.D., in his book Against the Heresies about tradition and the necessity of apostolic continuity:

“But, again, when we refer them (the heretics) to that tradition which originates from the apostles, [and] which is preserved by means of the succession of presbyters (bishops and priests) in the Churches, they object to tradition, saying that they themselves are wiser not merely than the presbyters, but even than the apostles, because they have discovered the unadulterated truth. For [they maintain] that the apostles intermingled the things of the law with the words of the Saviour; (…) It comes to this, therefore, that these men do now consent neither to Scripture nor to tradition.

“It is within the power of all, therefore, in every Church, who may wish to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world; and we are in a position to reckon up those who were by the apostles instituted bishops in the Churches, and [to demonstrate] the succession of these men to our own times…

“(…) tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its preeminent authority…”

“(List of the first Popes, Linus, Anacletus, Clement, etc. up to Eleutherius -- the pope reigning then) In this order, and by this succession, the ecclesiastical tradition from the apostles, and the preaching of the truth, have come down to us. And this is most abundant proof that there is one and the same vivifying faith, which has been preserved in the Church from the apostles until now, and handed down in truth.” (Book 2, chapters 2 and 3)  http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103302.htm