Of Sermons and Doxologies

I've been privileged to meet up with a friend, a young Dominican priest, Fr Paul, who has been here this week-end in order to say Mass for the Carmelite nuns; in response to a question of mine (I having noted this at each of his Masses, Friday, Saturday and Sunday), he confirmed that he concludes all his sermons with a doxology, that is, an ascription of praise to God (very good that: the Fathers did so), having heeded the suggestion of Fr Joseph, another Dominican, to do so.

He tells me that it influences him to turn his sermons toward the goal of eternal life and heaven: if so, Amen!  What else should a sermon turn toward?  I recall Fr Rowe telling me that he basically preached but one theme, and that is to win through to eternal life; I think yet another Friar Preacher, Fr Bernard, said the same; and if only all priests had such a right orientation toward the one thing necessary, we might be spared much foolish nonsense.  "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness..." – so may we ever give glory to the Trinity!

Just now, while searching for something else, I came across the ending of a homily of St John Chrysostom (Homily 6 on Hebrews) that indeed ends aright:

For if when we go out into a plain, and there see the soldiers' tents fixed with curtains, and the spears, and helmets, and bosses of the bucklers glittering, we are lifted up with wonder; but if we also chance to see the king himself running in the midst or even riding with golden armor, we think we have everything; what do you think [it will be] when you see the everlasting tabernacles of the saints pitched in heaven? – for it is said, They shall receive you into their everlasting tabernacles (Luke 16:9) – when you see each one of them beaming with light above the rays of the sun, not from brass and steel, but from that glory whose gleamings the eye of man cannot look upon? And this indeed with respect to the men. But what, if one were to speak of the thousands of Angels, of Archangels, of Cherubim, of Seraphim, of thrones, of dominions, of principalities, of powers, whose beauty is inimitable, passing all understanding?

But how far shall I go in pursuing what cannot be overtaken? For eye has not seen, it is said, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him. (1 Corinthians 2:9) Therefore nothing is more pitiable than those who miss, nor anything more blessed than those who attain. Let us then be of the blessed, that we may attain to the everlasting good things that are in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father together with the Holy Ghost be glory, might, honor, now and for ever and world without end. Amen.

St John Chrysostom

The Traditional Rite (incl. the Dominican form) keeps to-day the memory of St John Chrysostom, Bishop, Confessor (indeed, all but Martyr) and Doctor - why now? because in the Byzantine Rite, the 27th of January is the feast of the transfer of his relics... which repose under one of the side altars of St Peter's Basilica, where I venerated them a few weeks ago.

I recall that, even in the suffering of his exile, or rather of his being hounded to death, he never ceased to exclaim, Glory be to God for all things.  There is an Akathist of this title and on a like theme, composed by an orthodox bishop who suffered in the Arctic gulags of Soviet Russia.

His Troparion and Kontakion:

The grace that shines forth from your mouth like a torch has enlightened the universe, bestowed treasures of generosity upon the world and shown us the depth of your humility.  While you teach us by your words, Father John Chrysostom, pray to the Word, Christ our God, that He may save our souls.

From heaven you received divine grace, and from your lips we all learn to worship One God in the Trinity, O Blessed and Holy John Chrysostom.  It is meet that we praise you, for you are indeed a teacher revealing the things of God.

Relics - III

While I have been unable to locate the Breviary Office for Holy Relics pro aliquibus locis, I have found, via Google Books, the Neo-Gallican Office of this feast, which in the Paris Breviary was celebrated on the 8th of November, the Octave Day of All Saints (see the Autumn volume of the Breviarium Parisiense, pages 493 to 500).  

As was the fashion in the eighteenth century among innovating liturgists, all the antiphons, responsories, versicles and such were taken from Holy Writ alone, and that a very fulsome and rich collection of apposite passages was assembled it must be admitted; the only Ecclesiastical compositions present were the Patristic texts for the second and third Nocturn (from St Chrysostom's 26th Homily on II Corinthians, n. 5; and St Jerome's Letter LXXV against Vigilantius), the reading of a short canon approving the cult of relics from a 1584 French provincial synod (a peculiarity of Prime according to the French diocesan breviaries), the two Office hymns O vos unanimes and Adeste sancti plurimo (by a contemporary French writer) and the collect, which is the same as the Roman.

Here's the Canon:

Breviarium Parisiense 

(We honour the Relics of the Martyrs, that God, Whose servants they are, we may adore: we honour the servants, that the honour of the servants may redound to the Lord.  For if the bones of the Martyrs pollute those who touch them, how, Elias the Prophet being dead, did he raise the dead?)

To give an idea of some modernistic notions of the compilers of the Paris Breviary, for the whole feast, at every Hour, the ferial psalms are prescribed, and there are no proper Scripture readings for the 1st Nocturn; instead, they were to be taken from the occurring lectio continua!

Here, then, are the proper Lessons (for the 2nd and 3rd Nocturns) from the Parisian Breviary for the feast of Holy Relics:

A Sermon of St John Chrysostom

[Homily 26 on II Corinthians, n. 5]

And the tombs of the servants of the Crucified are more splendid than the palaces of kings; not for the size and beauty of the buildings, (yet even in this they surpass them,) but, what is far more, in the zeal of those who frequent them. For he that wears the purple himself goes to embrace those tombs, and, laying aside his pride, stands begging the saints to be his advocates with God, and he that has the diadem implores the tent-maker and the fisherman, though dead, to be his patrons. Will you dare then, tell me, to call the Lord of these dead; whose servants even after their decease are the patrons of the kings of the world? And this one may see take place not in Rome only, but in Constantinople also. For there also Constantine the Great, his son considered he should be honoring with great honor, if he buried him in the porch of the fisherman; and what porters are to kings in their palaces, that kings are at the tomb to fisherman.

But if you will compare these tombs with the royal palaces, here again the palm remains with them. For there indeed there are many who keep off, but here many who invite and draw to them rich, poor, men, women, bond, free; there, is much fear; here, pleasure unutterable. 'But,' says one, 'it is a sweet sight to look on a king covered with gold and crowned, and standing by his side, generals, commanders, captains of horse and foot, lieutenants.' Well, but this of ours is so much grander and more awful that that must be judged, compared with it, to be stage scenery and child's play. For the instant you have stepped across the threshold, at once the place sends up your thoughts to heaven, to the King above, to the army of the Angels, to the lofty throne, to the unapproachable glory.

… the bones of the saints… summon demons and put them to the torture, and loose from those bitterest of all bonds, them that are bound. What is more fearful than this tribunal? Though no one is seen, though no one piles the sides of the demon, yet are there cries, and tearings, lashes, tortures, burning tongues, because the demon cannot endure that marvellous power. And they that once wore bodies, are victorious over bodiless powers; [their] dust and bones and ashes rack those invisible natures. And therefore in truth it is that none would ever travel abroad to see the palaces of kings, but many kings and have often traveled to see this spectacle. For the Martyries of the saints exhibit outlines and symbols of the judgment to come; in that demons are scourged, men chastened and delivered. Do you see the power of saints, even dead?

A Homily of St Jerome the Priest.

[Ep. 75 adversus Vigilantium, n. 5]

It is nothing less than the relics of the martyrs which he is vexed to see covered with a costly veil, and not bound up with rags or hair-cloth, or thrown on the midden, so that Vigilantius alone […] may be worshipped. Are we, therefore guilty of sacrilege when we enter the basilicas of the Apostles? Was the Emperor Constantius [I] guilty of sacrilege when he transferred the sacred relics of Andrew, Luke, and Timothy to Constantinople? In their presence the demons cry out, and […] confess that they feel the influence of the saints. And at the present day is the Emperor Arcadius guilty of sacrilege, who after so long a time has conveyed the bones of the blessed Samuel from Judea to Thrace? Are all the bishops to be considered not only sacrilegious, but silly into the bargain, because they carried that most worthless thing, dust and ashes, wrapped in silk in golden vessel? […] You show mistrust because you think only of the dead body, and therefore blaspheme. Read the Gospel— [Matthew 22:32] “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob: He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

[n. 6]  You say, in your pamphlet, that so long as we are alive we can pray for one another; but once we die, the prayer of no person for another can be heard, and all the more because the martyrs, though they [Revelation 6:10] cry for the avenging of their blood, have never been able to obtain their request. If Apostles and martyrs while still in the body can pray for others, when they ought still to be anxious for themselves, how much more must they do so when once they have won their crowns, overcome, and triumphed? A single man, Moses, oft wins pardon from God for six hundred thousand armed men [cf. Exodus 12:37, etc.]; and [Acts 7:59-60] Stephen, the follower of his Lord and the first Christian martyr, entreats pardon for his persecutors; and when once they have entered on their life with Christ, shall they have less power than before? The Apostle Paul [Acts 27:37] says that two hundred and seventy-six souls were given to him in the ship; and when [Philippians 1:23], after his dissolution, he has begun to be with Christ, must he shut his mouth, and be unable to say a word for those who throughout the whole world have believed in his Gospel? 

[n. 8]  Does the bishop of Rome do wrong when he offers sacrifices to the Lord over the venerable bones of the dead men Peter and Paul, as we should say, but according to you, over a worthless bit of dust, and judges their tombs worthy to be Christ's altars? And not only is the bishop of one city in error, but the bishops of the whole world, who, despite […] Vigilantius, enter the basilicas of the dead, in which “a worthless bit of dust and ashes lies wrapped up in a cloth,” defiled and defiling all else. Thus, according to you, the sacred buildings are [Matthew 23:27] like the sepulchres of the Pharisees, whitened without, while within they have filthy remains, and are full of foul smells and uncleanliness. […] Oh, monster, who ought to be banished to the ends of the earth! 

The Αἴτησις - III

Today is a public holiday - Foundation Day, commemorating the establishment of the Swan River Colony in 1829 by Lt-Governor James Stirling; he himself instituted the keeping the anniversary, as a means to unite settlers and natives, masters and servants! The Parmelia, carrying Stirling and another 67 first settlers, sighted the coast on this day. However, Captain Charles Fremantle had claimed what is now Western Australia for King George IV of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on the 25th of April (now ANZAC Day), while Stirling proclaimed the colony in an official ceremony on the 11th of June. Nowadays, the State has two million inhabitants...

Today, for me, has been a lazy day again: I regard a long weekend as a chance to keep a triduum devoted to sacred leisure! I must get on and say the rest of the Office - only Lauds, Prime, and Terce, so far... at least I made it to Confession, always a blessing.

The good parishioners of the Latin Mass community have been busy with a working bee at our new-church-to-be, St Anne's, earlier on; I dropped by in the afternoon, and did some small jobs for Fr Rowe, and ended up feeding him some dinner here at my place, since I don't live far from St Anne's. There still remains a lot of work to do: the sanctuary isn't far off, but the high altar still needs to be installed, and so much else must be done.

But now for more about the Litany of Supplication (Αἴτησις): it appears, from the Apostolic Constitutions, and more proximately from the homilies of St John Chrysostom on the second Epistle to the Corinthians, that the petitions of this synapte were originally prayed by the catechumens immediately before their dismissal, hence the prayer for angelic aid (which otherwise seems inappropriate to the time of the Liturgy, when the faithful remain in God's presence and protection, offering up and receiving the Sacrifice of Christ) -

St John Chrysostom, Homilies on II Corinthians, Homily 2, 10 (commenting on II Cor. i, 10-11)

... After all this [the preceding petitions of the special Litany for the Catechumens], he [the deacon] bids them [the catechumens] stand up during what follows. For having before cast them to the ground, when they have asked what they have asked and have been filled with confidence, now the word given raises them up, and bids them during what follows engage for themselves also in supplication to God. For part we say ourselves, and part we permit them to say, now opening unto them the door of prayer, (exactly as we first teach children [what to say], and then bid them say it of themselves,) saying, “Pray ye, Catechumens, for the angel of peace;” for there is an angel that punishes, as when He says, “A band of evil angels,” [Psalm 78:49] there is that destroys. Wherefore we bid them ask for the angel of peace, teaching them to seek that which is the bond of all good things, peace; so that they may be delivered from all fightings, all wars, all seditions. “That all that is before you may be peaceful;” for even if a thing be burdensome, if a man have peace, it is light. Wherefore Christ also said, “My peace I give unto you” [John 14:27] for the devil has no weapon so strong as fighting, and enmity, and war. “Pray that this day and all the days of your life be full of peace.” Do you see how he again insists that the whole life be passed in virtue? “That your ends be Christian;” [“For] your highest good, the honorable and the expedient[”]; for what is not honorable is not expedient either. For our idea of the nature of expediency is different from that of the many. “Commend yourselves to the living God and to His Christ;” for as yet we trust them not to pray for others, but it is sufficient to be able to pray for themselves. ...

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Apostolic Constitutions VIII, 6:

[After the faithful pray for them, the deacon exclaims:] …Rise up, you catechumens, beg for yourselves the peace of God through His Christ, a peaceable day, and free from sin, and the like for the whole time of your life, and your Christian ends of it; a compassionate and merciful God; and the forgiveness of your transgressions. Dedicate yourselves to the only unbegotten God, through His Christ. ...