A Saint - Just Not in Either Martyrology

St John the Hermit, Priest of Ortega (so named after the nettles there, urtica in Latin), or, as he is called in Spanish, San Juan de Ortega – amusingly rendered into English as St John of the Nettle(s), or even, of the Thistle! – is a curious example of an undoubted saint, who nonetheless appears neither in the EF nor the OF Martyrology.

His feast, as found in many Spanish Breviaries, was and still is celebrated (by a fiesta, procession and Mass in his resting place) on the 2nd of June, the day of his death in 1163. The relevant volume of the Acta Sanctorum, published in 1695, details this and other accounts of his holy life, spent in the service of pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela; the tiny hamlet of San Juan de Ortega, named after him, is one of the stops along the Camino Francés, and his relics are still venerated there.

According to the Bollandists, Neque per Romani Breviarii susceptionem abolitum est festum, sed mutatum Officium – "And neither by the taking up of the Roman Breviary [in place of the old Diocesan Breviaries of Spain] was [his] feast abolished, but the Office was changed"; that said, I cannot find a copy thereof. At least, from the A.S., I have uncovered the Collect of his feast:

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui beatum Joannem, Confessorem tuum atque Presbyterum, Sanctorum tuorum collegio sociasti; concede nobis, adhuc in valle lacrymarum laborantibus, ut ejus preces et merita, ad impetrandam gratiam tuam tuta præstent auxilia. Per. 

(Almighty, everlasting God, who hast joined blessed John, thy Confessor and Priest, to the college of thy Saints, concede to us, still labouring in this vale of tears, that by his prayers and merits, his secure assistance may be provided for obtaining thy grace. Through…)

It ought be noted that in 1971 the Vatican, at the request of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, appointed him Patron Saint of Surveyors, which is not an honour conceded to mythical persons or those whose claim to sanctity is dubious. Furthermore, the particular calendar of the Archdiocese of Burgos  lists him on the 2nd of June.

How annoying an oversight, then, that even in the most recent edition of the Roman Martyrology, his name does not appear! I spent quite a bit of time searching in my copy through all the many Saints named John, to no avail.

Now for rubricians, a question: according to the letter of the law, in both the modern and 1962 Missals, a Votive Mass may be celebrated of any Saint listed in the relevant edition of the Roman Martyrology; thus, according to the letter of the law, it would seem that it is impossible to offer a Votive Mass in honour of St John of the Nettle – however, as his cultus is ancient and undoubted (it was good enough for the Servant of God Queen Isabella the Catholic, who visited in 1477), could the spirit rather than the letter be applied, and such a Votive be offered, for the intention of the many pilgrims traipsing across Spain to the tomb of St James?

Another Spanish Curiosity

At the back of Missæ quæ in Hispania specialiter celebrantur, one finds a note which, to paraphrase the Latin, allows all priests at all Masses, sung or said, to append the following collect to the collect(s), secret(s) and postcommunion(s), before the final long ending, as a sort of ever-repeated intercession; I would roughly translate the prayer thus:

"And keep from all adversity thy servants our Pope N., our Bishop N., and our King N., the Queen, and the Prince [of the Asturias – the title of the heir to the throne] with the Royal Issue, the people committed to them, and their army; concede to us peace and healthful times; and repel all evil from thy Church; and may the pagan and heretical nations be smashed by the power of thy right [hand]; and [deign to] set free by thy mercy the Christian captives, who are detained in the power of the Saracens; and vouchsafe to give and preserve the fruits of the earth."

A very Spanish take on the things to be prayed for!

And here is the actual text and rubrics:

SEQUENS COLLECTA:

Et famulos tuos, dici potest in Regnis Hispaniæ ex concessione Pii V & Gregorii XIII ab omnibus Sacerdotibus tum Sæcularibus, tum Regularibus, tàm in Missis Privatis, quàm cantatis, & conventualibus, quantùmcumque solemnibus, tàm post primas Orationes, quàm Secretas, & Postcommuniones. Et novissimè ex Decreto Sac. Rit. Congregationis 13 July 1675 à prædictis dici potest sequentibus verbis:

Et famulos tuos Papam nostrum N. Antistitem nostrum N. & Regem nostrum N. Reginam, & Principem cum Prole Regia, populo sibi commisso, & exercitu suo ab omni adversitate custodi: pacem, et salutem nostris concede temporibus: & ab Ecclesia tua cunctam repelle nequitiam; & gentes Paganorum, & Hæreticorum dexteræ tuæ potentia conterantur; & Captivos Christianos, qui in Saracenorum potestate detinentur, tua misericordia liberare, & fructus terræ dare, & conservare digneris.

Quando Missa habet unicam Orationem, dicitur immediatè post eam: si plures, post ultimam, semper sub eadem conclusione. Sed si Oratio concludit: Qui cum, terminabitur: Per eumdem Dominum.

Si in Missa dicitur Oratio pro Papa, vel vacante Sede Apostolica, omittuntur verba pro Papa; idem de Antistite, Rege, Regina, vel Principe.

Quando in Missa dicitur Oratio, A cunctis, Collecta dicitur sic:

Et famulos tuos Papam nostrum N. Antistitem nostrum N. & Regem nostrum N. Reginam, & Principem cum Prole Regia, populo sibi commisso, & exercitu suo ab omni adversitate custodi: & Captivos Christianos, qui in Saracenorum potestate detinentur, tua misericordia liberare, & fructus terræ dare, & conservare digneris.

Quando dicitur Oratio, Ecclesiæ, dicitur sic:

Et famulos tuos Papam nostrum N. Antistitem nostrum N. & Regem nostrum N. Reginam, & Principem cum Prole Regia, populo sibi commisso, & exercitu suo ab omni adversitate custodi: pacem, et salutem nostris concede temporibus; & Captivos Christianos, qui in Saracenorum potestate detinentur, tua misericordia liberare, & fructus terræ dare, & conservare digneris.

Same Collect, Different Collect

Having read the Collect of Advent Sunday quite a number of times in the Breviary this week, I was intrigued to hear it read in English at morning Mass at Carmel today, Friday the 6th (since sadly St Nicholas was not commemorated, his being but an optional celebration in the modern West):

Stir up your power, we pray, O Lord, and come, that with you to protect us, we may find rescue from the pressing dangers of our sins, and with you to set us free, we may be found worthy of salvation. Who live and reign…

This struck me as a very able rendering of the Latin:

Excita, quæsumus, Domine, potentiam tuam, et veni: ut ab imminentibus peccatorum periculis, te mereamur protegente eripi, te liberante salvari: Qui vivis et regnas…

However, the traditional Collect of St Nicholas – not reproduced in the Novus Ordo – was evidently a little too strongly worded for sensitive moderns, despite the great need the sinners of this age have of it:

Deus, qui beatum Nicolaum Pontificem innumeris decorasti miraculis: tribue, quæsumus; ut, ejus meritis et precibus, a gehennæ incendiis liberemur. Per…

That is, 

O God, Who didst adorn the blessed pontiff Nicholas with miracles uncountable, grant, we beg, that, by his merits and prayers, we may be delivered from the fires of hell. Through…

It saddens me to find that what our wicked and sinful age stands most in need of – above all, to be spared Hell, and at the intercession of the saints to be saved through Christ at the last – to have been by overly contented "experts" judged too controversial, when, given the slaughters and every vile crime of the past century, one would think there to be abundant motivation to utter such a plea daily.

As usual, Vetus melius est, "The old is better" – and we have the authority of Pope Francis for calling the traditional Roman Rite the Vetus Ordo, and hence my referring this text of the Gospels to the same.

May I extend to the Russian Catholic parish of Holy Trinity – St Nicholas in Melbourne, every good wish for their patronal feast: though, of course, as they keep to the Julian calendar, they will not serve the Divine Liturgy in his honour until the 19th of December according to the Gregorian.

I note that their services contains a similar prayer to St Nicholas (the 2nd troparion after the heirmos of the 2nd Canon of the 4th Ode at Matins):

Standing before the throne of God, cease thou never to make earnest supplication in behalf of all of us, thy faithful servants, O wise and wondrous Nicholas, that we may be delivered from everlasting fire, from the enemy, from the wicked tongue, and from affliction.

May St Nicholas intercede for us with Christ God, that He save our souls.

St Gertrude the Great

St Gertrude, mystic and prophetess, ornament of the Benedictine order, is a favourite saint of mine – would that I had relied more on her powerful prayers. I noticed to-day that her Collect in the Monastic Breviary (which has a whole proper Office for her feast) is subtly different to that in the Roman Breviary:

Monastic:

Deus, qui in purissimo corde beatæ Gertrudis Virginis tuæ jucundam tibi habitationem præparasti: ejus meritis et intercessione cordis nostri maculas clementer absterge; ut digna divinæ majestatis tuæ habitatio effici mereatur. Per...

Roman:

Deus, qui in corde beatæ Gertrudis Virginis jucundam tibi mansionem præparasti: ipsius meritis et intercessione; cordis nostri maculas clementer absterge, et ejusdem tribue gaudere consortio. Per…

I wonder which is the original, since they are obviously different versions of the same prayer; the Monastic appears to be the longer, but also to have a more unified theme as it were, so perhaps the Roman is a condensed edition.

The Royal Office

Why did Pius XI of happy memory appoint the last Sunday of October to be the Feast of the Kingship of Christ? He tells us in his encyclical: it is the Sunday before All Saints day. I recalled this when reading Matins of All Saints this morning, since the Invitatory for All Saints is:

Regem regum Dóminum veníte adorémus: * Quia ipse est coróna Sanctórum ómnium.

(The Lord, the King of kings, come let us worship: * For He is the crown of all the Saints.)

Compare this to the Invitatory of Christus Rex:

Jesum Christum, Regem regum: * Veníte, adorémus.

(Jesus Christ, the King of kings: * Come, let us worship.)

Just so, in the Byzantine Office, likewise inspired by Psalm 94, the cry resounds before reading the Psalter at each Hour:

O come let us worship and bow down to the King our God.

O come let us worship and bow down to Christ the King our God.

O come let us worship and bow down to Christ Himself the King and our God.

Most fittingly, before we celebrate the combined feast of all the triumphant citizens of the heavenly realm, the celestial kingdom, we first worship Our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords: this seems to be the motive behind Pius XI's choice of the last Sunday in October for the new feast he instituted. 

On all feasts, singing Te Deum we confess that Tu Rex gloriæ, Christe – Thou art the King of glory, O Christ.

From His royal office derives our share therein, as St Leo the Great declaims at Christmas: Agnoscere, o Christiane, dignitatem tuam! – O Christian, know thy dignity! For we are sons and daughters of the Most High King, and have in prospect a heavenly inheritance: once we have conquered, by the grace of His conquest, we shall sit with Him on His and His Father's throne.

Hence the last of the blessings for Matins of nine lessons is:

Ad societatem civium supernorum perducat nos Rex Angelorum. Amen.

(To the company of the citizens above may the King of Angels bring us. Amen.)

Of course, every day in the Roman Breviary, we salute Christ the King at Prime, when praying the following prayer:

Dirigere et sanctificare, regere et gubernare dignáre, Dómine Deus, Rex cæli et terræ, hódie corda et córpora nostra, sensus, sermónes et actus nostros in lege tua, et in opéribus mandatórum tuórum: ut hic et in ætérnum, te auxiliante, salvi et liberi esse mereámur, Salvátor mundi: Qui vivis et regnas in sǽcula sæculórum. Amen. 

(Deign to direct and sanctify, rule and govern, Lord God, King of heaven and earth, today our hearts and bodies, our senses, words and actions, in Thy law and in the works of Thy commandments: that here and in eternity, Thou assisting, we may merit to be saved and set free, O Saviour of the world: Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.)

This short prayer to do God's will, addressed to the royal Son of God, is as it were a daily reconsecration of our selves, our souls and bodies, to Christ the King.

The transfer of this feast in the modern Roman Rite to the last Sunday before Advent has had the unfortunate effect of spiritualising away the social reign of Christ, making it but a private devotion to an eschatological hope – whereas it ought be a foretaste here and now of, and a spur to work to bring about imperfectly here below, what is ever perfect: since as every Collect sings, with His Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, He liveth and reigneth world without end.

ANZAC Day

Over one hundred thousand Australians have died in wars; for them, and all slain in warfare, we pray:

Almighty everlasting God, who sent your Son to die that we might live, grant, we pray, eternal rest to those who gave themselves in service and sacrifice for their country. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

— Collect for ANZAC Day (Roman Missal)

Prayer in Time of Bushfires

Hear our prayers, O God, for the efforts to quench the fires that rage in our land; and, sustaining our spirits, keep us graciously from all harm and give success to the work of our hands. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

— Roman Missal, Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions, 37/1 (in Australia)

Hobart recorded its hottest-ever day yesterday: 41.8°C (and the second-hottest temperature recorded at any place in Tasmania). But the worst bushfires struck east of Hobart, and have burnt out much of the townships of Dunalley (65 properties destroyed) and surrounds, and cut off all road access to the Tasman Peninsula – they are still burning out of control. 

Amazingly, the Dunalley weather station recorded the passage of the firestorm thus:

4:00pm: 38.5°C
4:22pm: 54.9°C
4:23pm: 49.9°C
4:26pm: 44.5°C
4:30pm: 44.8°C
4:37pm: 47.2°C
5:00pm: 44.1°C
5:30pm: 41.7°C

Presumably the terrific surge of heat at 4:22pm marks the fire coming into the township; officially, the highest temperature at Dunalley yesterday was 41.7°C, since all measurements between 4pm and 5:30pm are due to radiant heat from the blaze, and not "ambient conditions".  Otherwise, Dunalley has broken the Australian record, most unenviably.  The locals had to dive into the canal to avoid being roasted alive.

Theosis

Deus, qui humanæ substantiæ dignitatem mirabiliter condidisti, et mirabilius reformasti: da nobis* ejus divinitatis esse consortes, qui humanitatis nostræ fieri dignatus est particeps, Jesus Christus Filius tuus Dominus noster: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia sæcula sæculorum. Amen. 

(O God, Who wonderfully didst create the dignity of human nature, and still more wonderfully didst restore it: grant to us* that we may be sharers in His divinity, Who didst deign to share in our humanity, Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord: Who with thee liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.)

This Collect, with per hujus vini et aquæ mysterium ("by the mystery of this water and wine") inserted after the asterisk, is used daily in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Mass; the original text, however, was more or less as given above, prior to its adoption as part of the offertory rite; and in the modern Ordinary Form, this Collect, slightly altered (with et also before mirabiliter, and quæsumus, before nobis), is used at the Day Mass of Christmas, while the central portion of it is still used daily at the mixing of the chalice, with esse replaced by efficiamur – Per hujus aquæ et vini mysterium ejus efficiamur divinitatis consortes, qui humanitatis nostræ fieri dignatus est particeps.

It is sometimes claimed that the Western Church focusses less on deification, theosis, than the Eastern: but seeing as the words of II Peter i, 4 about becoming "partakers of the divine nature" (divinæ consortes naturæ) are repeated in this Collect, whether at length or in abbreviated form, every day by every priest at the altar, whether in the older or newer forms of Mass (unless, say, a Dominican priest is offering the Sacrifice according to the proper Use of his Order), it can hardly be asserted that this doctrine is not prayed about very often indeed...

Another striking prayer, the Secret of the Masses of both the 4th Sunday after Easter and the 19th Sunday after Pentecost (EF; used a number of times in Eastertide in the OF), states that God makes us partakers of the one supreme Godhead by the rightly revered exchange of the Eucharistic Sacrifice – Deus, qui nos per hujus sacrificii veneranda commercia unius summæ divinitatis participes effecisti... Examples of this sort might be multiplied.

Especially at this Christmas season, we ought thankfully contemplate the unimaginable blessing whereby our good God did not merely (!) create us, but in a manner beyond all hope redeemed us, His Son becoming what He was not, while remaining what it was before, that, having vouchsafed to take upon himself our human nature, we might be made partakers of the one supreme divinity.  As one of the Fathers said (and the rest repeated), God became man, that men might be made gods – what the evil serpent lyingly promised could be achieved through sinful disobedience, God's Incarnate Son made truly possible to all engrafted into Him by graced obedience.

Just as power went forth from Him when the Hæmorrhissa dared to touch the fringe of His garment, so, too, the reception of every Sacrament in love and fear and faith is in truth the physical touch of Christ's Sacred Humanity, the Instrument of the Divinity, imparting life and grace, healing and salvation to us, and no mere moral connexion, no bare memorial. In the daring words of Suarez, Our Lady at the Annunciation "touched the hem of the Divinity"; we in our humility must dare to do likewise.  Thus we will be supernaturally uplifted beyond our nature, elevated, divinized, made capax Dei, able to enter Heaven and abide in God: and this is theosis.

The Eschatos

Christ is Emmanuel, God-with-us, Alpha and Omega, the Eschatos, the Fulfilment of all, the Word spoken to us last of all by God (Heb i, 1-2).  His Incarnation is the End and Completion of all.  Christian worship is not merely a happy remembrance of past events (what a Protestant notion), nor but a glance toward the last things (the Eschaton, or more properly, ta eschata), but an immersion in Him Who Is, the Eschatos, namely, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the one Liturgist, the Leitourgos (Heb viii, 2) – trust no other! – in Whom we have a participation in the economy of salvation, in His mighty acts past, present, and to come.

For this reason, amongst others, the churches of the Byzantine tradition very often address their prayers to "Christ our God", whereas the Holy Roman Church keeps in the main to the still older tradition whereby prayers are addressed to God the Father. The insights of both East and West coincide, of course, when considering the centrality of the Enfleshment of the Divine Word.  To-day's Collect at Mass, for the 31st of December, the 7th day of the Christmas Octave (found in both the Hadrianum and the Leonine Sacramentary, and thus dating back to the 7th century at least), repays much careful consideration in its magnificent encapsulation of this mystery:

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui in Filii tui nativitate tribuisti totius religionis initium perfectionemque constare, da nobis, quæsumus, in ejus portione censeri, in quo totius salutis humanæ summa consistit. Per...

This may be rendered as:

Almighty everlasting God, Who hast given, in the birth of Thy Son, the beginning and end of all religion to consist, grant us, we beg, in His portion to be reckoned, in Whom the sum of the whole of human salvation doth consist. Through...

Similarly, but not quite so painfully literally, the new translation of the modern Missal englishes the Latin original thus:

Almighty ever-living God, who in the Nativity of your Son established the beginning and fulfilment of all religion, grant, we pray, that we may be numbered among those who belong to him, in whom is the fulness of human salvation. Through...

Note the Latin particularly: in Filii tui nativitate... totius religionis initium perfectionemque constare – the beginning and the perfection of all religion consists in the birth, or, rather, in the Incarnation, of the Son of God Almighty and Eternal.  "Nativity", "birth" must be understood in the sense of the first unveiling of the Incarnation to human eyes (though known first by faith, then by revelation, and then by joyful interior awareness to the Most Holy Virgin at the Annunciation; and a little later to St Joseph), when Christ was born at Bethlehem, the "House of Bread".  The Incarnation is totius religionis initium perfectionemque; just as in due measure the Eucharistic Sacrifice, whereby He, the Eschatos, becomes present to us, in an extension of His Incarnation as it were, is the "source and summit" of Christian worship:

...Liturgia est culmen ad quod actio Ecclesiæ tendit et simul fons unde omnis ejus virtus emanat. ("...the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows.") 

— Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10.

While in many and varied ways God spoke to us through His prophets of old, in the fulness of time He spoke to us, lastly, in His Son, His Word, Who for us took flesh, and became the Verbum abbreviatum, the Infinite confined in a Body, God the Son become the Son of Man. (Like the TARDIS, Christ is "bigger on the inside"...)  As St John of the Cross rightly asks, why seek for some further or other communication from on High, when the Most Highest has spoken His Eternal Word to us?  In Christ is all the fulness of Divinity; He is the definitive revelation of the Father.

But there is still more to consider in this Collect, for its first phrase is paralleled by its last: in quo totius salutis humanæ summa consistit – in Whom the sum and height and total of all of human salvation is found, exists, consists.  For there is no other salvation than that found in Christ our God.  Note the repetition of the verb: constare, consistit.  Note the repetition of totius.  Note the paralleling of perfectionem and summa.

Religion, in St Augustine's words, is that by which man is "re-bound" to God, as if derived from re-ligare.  Hence, if the Nativity of Christ, the birth of the Incarnate God, is the beginning and the end of all religion, all re-connecting of man to the All-Highest, then of course in Him and His Nativity is found likewise the totius salutis humanæ summa.  These terms again parallel each other.

Therefore, what we pray for is detailed in the middle of the Collect: that we may have some part and share in Him.  Glory be to Christ, in Whom all glory is to God on high, and all peace to men of good will, those who enjoy His grace and favour.

From my Correspondents

I always esteem any kindly messages I receive regarding this blog (even the backhanded compliment about my waxing eloquent, paid me by a somewhat irascible, if, as I certainly do know from his support over the years, a really rather kind priest, albeit of a different theological outlook, when I ventured to ask if he knew who the next Archbishop would be). After all, I do aim to please, in a somewhat pathetic way.

Two emails recently received deserve comment.

Luke suggests my poor effort at an Advent collect would be better as follows – and I tend to agree:

O God, who by thy prophet Isaias hast revealed unto us the first coming of thine only-begotten Son in great humility to save that which was lost, and his coming again in glory to judge the quick and the dead and the world by fire: Grant us grace so to worship the infant Christ with faith and good works, that we may with sure confidence behold him when he shall come to be our judge; who liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen.

I left him the chore of latinizing it, and he has generously done so, altering it a little in the process so as to be truer to the Latin idiom:

Deus, qui per Isaiam prophetam revelasti nobis adventum primum unigeniti Filii tui magna in humiliate ad salvandum perditum et adventum secundum magna in gloria judicare vivos et mortuos et saeculum per ignem; Præsta, quæsumus, gratiam qua adoremus infantem Christum fide operibusque bonis, ut venientem judicem securi videamus, Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.

Alan, meanwhile, wrote to say:

I  do hope that you'll finish the Novena text soon. I looked up Gueranger's Liturgical Year but cannot find the "use" for Rorate caeli. Maybe just a pre-Mass Processional. I wonder why the Anglicans changed that one verse ??? There is nothing ultramontane in it, just as the order of the verses in "O Come O Come" is strange in some hymn books.

Respondeo dicens:

1. I will, Deo volente.

2. The Franciscans at the Holy Sepulchre certainly sing the Rorate cæli in procession; I have heard it sung at the Offertory at Mass, and I have seen its use suggested at Benediction. It is a sort of paraliturgical text that really constitutes a stand-alone musical meditation for Advent – last night, at our fortnightly schola practice, instead of Compline and Benediction (our priest being in hospital for a – we trust – minor operation), we sang the Rorate in procession at the end, and this seemed very moving, I believe.

3. As to why the Anglicans changed one verse, I suppose they wanted more unwatered-down Isaiah straight from the Bible, and less mish-mash from the Breviary (strange, since many Anglicans lust for all things Roman, much as they would never submit to the Pope, just as some Americans go mad over any royal personage that deigns to visit their republic, though they wouldn't give up their President).

4. Hymn books oft put "O come, O come, Emmanuel" first, even though it corresponds to the last O Antiphon, as it perhaps better sets the scene than to begin with the versified version of O Sapientia. Why sometimes less than all seven verses are sung is due to the modern love of brevity (a species of indifference and lack of love).

Draft Latin Collect

Some years back, I composed this prayer for use in Advent, especially when reading the prophet Isaias; I've just had a go at translating it into God's own Latin, but could do with some advice on how to do so better – please advise:

O God, who by Isaias thy prophet hast revealed unto thy servants the mysteries of the first advent of thine only-begotten Son in humility to save us by his incarnation, passion and resurrection, and of his second advent in glory to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire: grant us grace so to unite ourselves by faith and good works to the humble Christ, that the glorious Christ may number us among the chosen of his kingdom; who liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen.

 ******

Deus, qui per Isaiam prophetam tuam revelasti famulis tuis mysteria primi adventus unigeniti Filii tui in humilitatem ad salvandum nos per incarnationem, passionem et resurrectionem suam, et secundi adventus sui in gloria ad judicandos vivos et mortuos, et sæculum per ignem: da nobis gratiam ita unire nosmetipsos fide et bonis operibus Christo humili, ut Christus gloriosus annumeraret nos inter electos regni sui; qui vivit et regnat in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.

Pray Against Bushfires

Bushfires are burning in Western Australia and elsewhere, and around Margaret River many homes have been consumed in the blaze; the new Missal provides, for use in Australia, a Collect "in times of bushfires" (alongside prayers in time of drought, floods and cyclones):

Hear our prayers, O God, for the efforts 

to quench the fires that rage in our land; 

and, sustaining our spirits, 

keep us graciously from all harm 

and give success to the work of our hands. 

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 

one God, for ever and ever.

Stir Up Sunday

The Last Sunday of the Church's Year of Grace gives evidence of Advent having five weeks at a much earlier period – since its collect, Excita q͠ms Dñe, is so manifestly similar to those of that season (as four of the traditional Advent collects begin with the same word).  It is in a way both alpha et omega (should that be alpha kai omega?), both the Last and the First Sunday.

The collect of this Sunday, with the new literal translation thereof for use at the Ordinary Form Mass during the last week of Ordinary Time, is as follows:

Excita, quæsumus, Domine, tuorum fidelium voluntates: ut divini operis fructum propensius exsequentes, pietatis tuæ remedia majora percipiant. Per...

Stir up the will of your faithful, we pray, O Lord, that, striving more eagerly to bring your divine work to fruitful completion, they may receive in greater measure the healing remedies your kindness bestows. Through...

Having again celebrated Christus Rex last night at the parish OF Vigil Mass, it was a great way to mark the end of the long green season after Pentecost by praying this collect at the end of Lauds this morning.

Interestingly, this prayer was reasonably well-rendered by that heresiarch Cranmer:

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

However, it is curious that he refocussed the prayer on the reward owing to good works, since that, surely, is not a very Protestant thing to focus on at all!

Referring to this prayer, playing on words, this Sunday cooks were traditionally meant to "stir up" the Christmas pudding mixture, and get it bagged, ready to be boiled up on Christmas morn once the delectable contents had matured.

(Myself, I enjoyed a family picnic, albeit overtaken by a thunderstorm! at which my birthday yester-day was celebrated.  My aunt makes a most delicious pavlova.)

First Sunday using the New Missal

This Sunday, at my parish of St Francis, the new translation of the Mass was at last used for all parts of the liturgy, with the arrival of the new Missal and our priest's usage of it, not just for all the Ordinary (as he had been doing since Pentecost) but for the Proper as well – in other words, to-day, the 32nd Sunday  in Ordinary Time, we heard the Collect, Prayer over the Offerings and the Prayer after Communion in the new translation for the first time.

Before Mass began, the very handsome "chapel edition" of the new Missal was on display, open to some of its beautiful illustrations – in Australia, the Missals are published by CTS, and are very fine.  Father told me after Mass that the large altar edition was even more grand, with gold-edged pages.  Name-plates listing all parishioners who donated funds towards the purchase of these volumes will be inserted soon as a memorial to their largesse.

My own copy of the new Missal is still in transit, but such are the wonders of the Internet that I have these texts to hand:

Collect 
Almighty and merciful God, 
graciously keep from us all adversity, 
so that, unhindered in mind and body alike, 
we may pursue in freedom of heart 
the things that are yours. 
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 
one God, for ever and ever.

Prayer over the Offerings 
Look with favour, we pray, O Lord, 
upon the sacrificial gifts offered here, 
that, celebrating in mystery the Passion of your Son, 
we may honour it with loving devotion. 
Through Christ our Lord.


Prayer after Communion 
Nourished by this sacred gift, O Lord, 
we give you thanks and beseech your mercy, 
that, by the pouring forth of your Spirit, 
the grace of integrity may endure 
in those your heavenly power has entered. 
Through Christ our Lord.

Standing in the pews hearing these prayed, it was obvious that the priest read them with good diction and evident comprehension; likewise, as I listened and considered their words, it was easy to understand them – not that it is my ears for whom they are meant, seeing as it is God they address! – so that furphy about the new translation being impossible to understand is easily confuted as a most stupid claim.

It is interesting to compare and contrast my own parish's uneventful reception of the new texts, and easy adjustment to the new words, to what I hear of the difficulties and unwelcoming attitude (played up and encouraged, I suspect, by the priests) in our neighbouring parish...

Come Advent Sunday, out with the old and in with the new: willy-nilly, the new Missal will be the only one allowed to be used at the Mass in the Ordinary Form.  Those who have dragged their heels and belly-ached will have to stop whining eventually and move with the times!  I must say, it amuses me no end to say this; perhaps the experience that some liberals are having will give them compassion for those who have endured far more in order to get Mass in the Extraordinary Form, but I doubt it.  How amusing it will be, that those who love the 1970's, and all its works, and all its empty promises, will have the choice of the more-accurately-translated Mass, some first fruit of the Reform of the Reform (and, with the upsurge in musical settings of the Propers in English, not to mention a push for a more solemn liturgy, is not this movement bearing yet further fruit?), or of the Mass of the Ages.

I suppose if they don't like either option they can become refugees from the Roman Rite.

Good St Martin de Porres

I heard Mass of St Martin de Porres, juxta formam ordinariam, on Thursday the 3rd; I read Lauds of his feast to-day, according to the pre-Conciliar Dominican Calendar and Breviary, while waiting to go to confession.  How good to have a Saint twice over, to be an intercessor and support!  (It reminds me of a few years ago, when I kept Epiphany twice – once transferred to the Sunday, once on the 6th of January itself – and also Christmas twice! – once according to the Gregorian, and once the Julian Calendar.)

I am reminded again of one of great St Martin's miracles, worked here in Australia some decades ago: a lady, unsure of whether to accept a proposal of marriage (having been jilted before), came out from the confessional, knelt down to pray, turning all this over in her mind, and looking up beheld none other than St (or as he was then, Blessed) Martin kneeling in front of her: he sagely nodded his head to confirm the verdict of Providence on her suitor's suitability, and then, when she looked away, disappeared.  She and her husband lived a long and happy marriage ere they too passed into eternity – pray for them – and their son is now a Dominican priest.

The Collect of St Martin in the Dominican Rite:

Deus, humilium celsitudo, qui beatum Martinum Confessorem tuum ad cælestia regna transire fecisti: ejus meritis et intercessione concede nos ejus humilitatem ita imitari in terris, ut cum ipso exaltari mereamur in cælis. Per...

(O God, exaltation of the humble, Who didst make blessed Martin Thy Confessor to pass over to the heavenly kingdom: by his merits and intercession grant us so to imitate his humility on earth, that with him we may merit to be exalted in heaven. Through...)

I like the way this collect plays on the contrast between humility and exaltation (humilium celsitudo... humilitatem... exaltari) and also the interesting manner in which "kingdom", "earth" and "heaven" are in fact all plurals in the Latin (regna... terris... cælis).

The Lord solemnly warned us, "And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted" ( St Matthew xxiii, 12) – and again, "Because every one that exalted (or exalteth*) himself shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" ( St Luke xiv, 11 and xviii, 14b*): I am proud, and must learn the way of humility – which is but the way of reason, since what have I to boast about?  Whatever I have, I have received from the Lord.  As the Apostle put it, "Or what hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" (I Cor. iv, 7).  As the Forerunner taught, "He must increase: but I must decrease" (St John iii, 30).  The very word humility is derived from humus, the earth, from which we come and to which we shall return: to be humble is but to acknowledge the truth of our finitude.  Pride, as well as being the deadly sin at the root of all, is stupid foolishness, mere braggadocio, pretending to what is not really in our possession.  Yet so hard it is to eradicate it!

St Martin de Porres, pray for us.

Bl James of Mevania, O.P.

My 1956 Dominican Diurnal – but not my 1962 Dominican Breviary – adorns to-day, the 23rd of August, with a Collect in honour of one Bl James of Mevania, with the following picturesquely unusual text:

Deus, qui prodigiosa tui sanguinis aspersione dignatus es beatum Jacobum Confessorem secura æternæ salutis fiducia roborare: dilata super nos eadem viscera misericordiæ tuæ; ut, redemptionis nostræ imbuti signaculo, inter oves dexteræ tuæ perpetuo computemur: Qui vivis...

(O God, Who didst deign, by an amazing sprinkling of Thy Blood, to strengthen blessed James the Confessor with secure trust in eternal salvation: open out above us the same bowels of Thy mercy; that, imbued with a little sign of our redemption, we may be counted for ever amongst the sheep of Thy right: Who livest...)

Wondering at this, I found the following statement in an old book available online:

"His virgin purity, the fame of his learning, his innocency of life, and the admiration and esteem of the people, instead of alleviating his fear of hell only increased his anxiety almost to despair, till one day (he supposed) the crucifix before which he was praying rained blood upon him from the wound in the Side, and a voice from Heaven assured him, 'This is the sign of thy salvation.'"

Well!  That explains his Collect then.

God grant us all such an assurance of salvation in the sacred laver of Christ's Blood.  As we sing in Viva, viva Gesù, "Grace and life eternal in that Blood I find; / Blest be His compassion, infinitely kind... Louder still and louder, praise the Precious Blood."

Easy Pentecost Novena

How best to make the Pentecost Novena?

I.  It was Our Lady and the Apostles (plus the holy women and Our Lord's near relations) who made the first Novena: they and the rest of the believers (whom we trust joined with them in petition), to the number of about 120 persons, were the whole Church of God on earth in those days, and it was their united supplication that won from the Father through the risen and ascended Christ – as He commanded them to ask – the uncreated Gift of the Holy Ghost.

Therefore, believing in the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church and the communion of saints, no less than in Father, Son and Holy Ghost, it seems most reasonable to ask Our Lady and the Apostles, being the pillars and foundations of the Church, to once again join us in prayer for the descent of the Spirit, the Sanctifier, the Lord and Vivifier, that He may hallow and bless us, infusing us with grace whereby we may be supernaturalized and made perfect men.

One should thus invoke the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles, that they may pray with and for us:

Sancta Maria, Mater Jesu, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Petre, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Joannes, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Jacobe, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Andrea, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Philippe, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Thoma, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Bartholomæe, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Matthæe, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Jacobe, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Simon, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Juda, ora pro nobis.

Omnes sancti Apostoli, orate pro nobis.

Omnes sancti Discipuli Domini, orate pro nobis.

******

II. Since Our Lady is Queen of the Apostles and Queen of All Saints, and is of all creatures the closest to her Divine Son, it is only most rightful to especially call upon her loving maternal intercession.  

To this end, the Regina cæli, as sung by the Dominicans, having the Ascensiontide variant Jam ascendit, sicut dixit, is perfectly suitable, if it have subjoined the usual versicle, suitably adapted, with the Collect for Friday after the Octave of the Ascension from the 1738 Paris Missal (with per Dei Genitricem Mariam supplied):

Regina cæli, lætare, alleluja:

Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluja,

Jam ascendit, sicut dixit, alleluja.

Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluja.

V/. Gaude et lætare Virgo Maria, alleluja.

R/. Quia ascendit Dominus vere, alleluja.

Oremus.

Deus, qui nos Resurrectionis et Ascensionis Dominicæ solemnia celebrare fecisti: da famulis tuis, ut (per Dei Genitricem Mariam) et advenientis Spiritus sancti gratiam purificatis mentibus suscipere mereamur. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. R/. Amen.

(This Collect is especially good, and in itself sums up all we wish for: "O God, Who hast made us to celebrate the solemnities of the Lord's Resurrection and Ascension, grant unto Thy servants, that, by Mary the Mother of God, we likewise may deserve to receive the grace of the Holy Ghost with purified minds. Through the same Christ our Lord.  Amen.")

******

III. It ought go without saying that fundamentally and primarily we should adore and beseech God the Holy Ghost Himself, with the well-known Veni Sancte Spiritus, its versicle Emitte and the Pentecost Collect Deus qui corda fidelium (as it were thus anticipating the feast); and append the Magnificat antiphon of Ascension Day:

O Rex gloriæ, Domine virtutum, qui triumphator hodie super omnes cælos ascendisti: ne derelinquas nos orphanos, sed mitte promissum Patris in nos, Spiritum veritatis, alleluja.

As the versicle and the Collect address God the Father, while the O Rex gloriæ addresses God the Son, thus all Three Persons of the Adorable Trinity are properly worshipped, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost rightly besought.

******

I think that these three elements – asking those first pray-ers to pray with and for us, praying in especial to Our Lady, and calling upon the Holy Spirit direct – are eminently suitable and easy ways to make a good Pentecost Novena.  And as I noted above, even alone the Collect from the Missale Parisiense would do as a super-succinct Novena prayer.

Elizabethan Prayers I and II

From the time of Elizabeth I comes "The Order Of Prayer upon Wednesdays and Fridays, to avert and turn God's wrath from us threatened by the late terrible earthquake, to be used in all Parish Churches" (Liturgical Services of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, 562-566) – a service appointed in consequence of the great earthquake that shook England and sundry lands around on the 6th of April 1580.  

I spare readers the immensely lengthy and rather over-enthusiastic prayer, but I do like the choice for the First Lesson of either Joel i or ii (or Isaias lviii), and in particular find the choice of proper psalms very apt: Psalms 30 (Vulg. 29), 46 (45), and 91 (90), which I append in the Prayerbook version (which is approved for Catholic use):

Psalm 30. Exaltabo te, Domine

I WILL magnify thee, O Lord, for thou hast set me up : and not made my foes to triumph over me.

2. O Lord my God, I cried unto thee : and thou hast healed me.

3. Thou, Lord, hast brought my soul out of hell : thou hast kept my life from them that go down to the pit.

4. Sing praises unto the Lord, O ye saints of his : and give thanks unto him for a remembrance of his holiness.

5. For his wrath endureth but the twinkling of an eye, and in his pleasure is life : heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

6. And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be removed : thou, Lord, of thy goodness hast made my hill so strong.

7. Thou didst turn thy face from me : and I was troubled.

8. Then cried I unto thee, O Lord : and gat me to my Lord right humbly.

9. What profit is there in my blood : when I go down to the pit?

10. Shall the dust give thanks unto thee : or shall it declare thy truth?

11. Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me : Lord, be thou my helper.

12. Thou hast turned my heaviness into joy : thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.

13. Therefore shall every good man sing of thy praise without ceasing : O my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

Psalm 46. Deus noster refugium

GOD is our hope and strength : a very present help in trouble.

2. Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be moved : and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea;

3. Though the waters thereof rage and swell : and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same.

4. The rivers of the flood thereof shall make glad the city of God : the holy place of the tabernacle of the most Highest.

5. God is in the midst of her, therefore shall she not be removed : God shall help her, and that right early.

6. The heathen make much ado, and the kingdoms are moved : but God hath shewed his voice, and the earth shall melt away.

7. The Lord of hosts is with us : the God of Jacob is our refuge.

8. O come hither, and behold the works of the Lord : what destruction he hath brought upon the earth.

9. He maketh wars to cease in all the world : he breaketh the bow, and knappeth the spear in sunder, and burneth the chariots in the fire.

10. Be still then, and know that I am God : I will be exalted among the heathen, and I will be exalted in the earth.

11. The Lord of hosts is with us : the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Psalm 91. Qui habitat

WHOSO dwelleth under the defence of the most High : shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

2. I will say unto the Lord, Thou art my hope, and my strong hold : my God, in him will I trust.

3. For he shall deliver thee from the snare of the hunter : and from the noisome pestilence.

4. He shall defend thee under his wings, and thou shalt be safe under his feathers : his faithfulness and truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

5. Thou shalt not be afraid for any terror by night : nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

6. For the pestilence that walketh in darkness : nor for the sickness that destroyeth in the noon-day.

7. A thousand shall fall beside thee, and ten thousand at thy right hand : but it shall not come nigh thee.

8. Yea, with thine eyes shalt thou behold : and see the reward of the ungodly.

9. For thou, Lord, art my hope : thou hast set thine house of defence very high.

10. There shall no evil happen unto thee : neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

11. For he shall give his angels charge over thee : to keep thee in all thy ways.

12. They shall bear thee in their hands : that thou hurt not thy foot against a stone.

13. Thou shalt go upon the lion and adder : the young lion and the dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet.

14. Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him : I will set him up, because he hath known my Name.

15. He shall call upon me, and I will hear him : yea, I am with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and bring him to honour.

16. With long life will I satisfy him : and shew him my salvation.

From the reign of Elizabeth II, albeit from Italian sources, comes the following Collect in the modern Roman Missal, evidently a conflation of the old Collect and Secret for use in time of earthquake, with some additions made that supply the last two phrases:

Deus, qui fundásti terram super stabilitátem suam, parce metuéntibus, propitiáre supplícibus, ut, treméntis terrae perículis pénitus amótis, cleméntiam tuam iúgiter sentiámus, et, tua protectióne secúri, tibi serviámus gratánter. Per...

My unofficial translation:

O God, “Who didst establish the earth on firm foundations” (Ps 103:5a), spare those who are afraid, show Thy mercy to those who implore Thee, that, by wholly removing the perils of earthquake, we may evermore enjoy Thy mercy, and, kept safe by Thy protection, may we serve Thee with joy.  Through...

Unfortunately any mention of God's wrath was judged unacceptable to "modern man" (whoever he is) by the relevant cœtus, so they snipped and pasted the bits they liked to compile this pastiche prayer. At least it is vastly shorter than the Elizabethan prayer alluded to above.

Commemoration of Our Lady of Mt Carmel

Flos Carmeli, vitis florigera, splendor cæli, Virgo puerpera, singularis.

Mater mitis, sed viri nescia, Carmelitis da privilegia, stella maris.

(Flower of Carmel, blossoming vine, splendor of heaven, childbearing Virgin, unique.

(Meek Mother, though unknowing man, to Carmelites give privileges, star of the sea.)

While unfortunately, because of work commitments, I couldn't make it to Mass this morning at Carmel, I ask my Guardian Angel to attend in my place, worshipping God, honouring Our Lady, interceding for all, and procuring graces for me and all mine.  May he visit the dear nuns there, and as an agent of the Deity, in concert with their angelic wardens, bestow upon them especial blessings on this sacred feast.  God grant it!

What a joy for all Carmelites to rejoice in their Patroness, and to direct their gladness to their hope of salvation: for where Mary now is, there we all hope to follow.  Wearing the habit of their Order, they are specially devoted to her service, having taken the yoke upon themselves that is at once that of service to Our Lord in the first place and secondarily to Our Lady, for the large scapular worn over their habits signifies this; for their lay associates, wearing the small brown scapular has a like meaning.

As any good Catholic should, I wear the Brown Scapular, to which I was long ago admitted; as the prayer says, thereby one is admitted to a share in the merits and prayers of all Carmelites - thanks be to God! - and, yet more, one trusts in the Blessed Virgin through this sign of filial consecration to obtain of the Lord the fulfilment of the well-known promises associated with pious use of this sacramental.

He who dies clothed in the Scapular shall not die eternally - this promise made, 'tis said, to St Simon Stock, the Church recognizes, clarifying it by repeating a like phrase in the proper Carmelite Preface of this feast, but inserting the adverb pie, "piously": for one who impiously wears the Scapular, thinking it a cloke for sin, and presuming on a free ticket to heaven, will be no beneficiary of the special intercession of the Holy Virgin.

How to understand this?  We pray that by her all-prevailing prayer with her Son, Who fulfils the Commandment perfectly to honour His Father and His Mother, all who wear the Scapular, as a sign of their commitment to Christ through His Mother, may be converted by God's grace and brought to salvation.  Is this not but an instance of God's own revealed will being fulfilled, since He would that all men be saved?  Our Lady can in no wise pray save in conformity with the will of God: it were very madness to think otherwise.

Why do we commemorate the Blessed Virgin under this title?  The simplest and original reason is that St Albert of Avogadro, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem (d. 1214), who composed the Rule for the hermits on Mt Carmel to follow, counselled them therein to build a chapel in the midst of their lowly dwellings – and as is universally done out of Catholic piety, this was naturally dedicated to Our Lady, adding the name of the place: Mt Carmel.

Later ages saw the deeper significance of this: from Carmel's heights, having prayed and prayed again, St Elias saw a little cloud arising out the sea, bringing a prodigal rain to break the cruel drought tormenting Israel - and this is an apt symbol, image and type of Our Lady's coming forth as star of the sea, fulfilling all Israel's hopes and prayers down the ages, for she brought forth the Messias, Christ our God, thus bringing forth the very Incarnate Source of divine grace to a thirsty earth bereft of saving blessings.  Our Lady thus shines forth on Carmel as Mother and Mediatrix.

The Collect in my Dominican Diurnal:

Deus, qui beatissimæ semper Virginis et Genetricis tuæ Mariæ singulari titulo Carmeli Ordinem decorasti: concede propitius ut, cujus hodie Commemorationem solemni celebramus officio, ejus muniti præsidiis ad gaudia sempiterna pervenire mereamur.  Qui vivis...

O God, Who didst adorn the Order of Carmel with the unique title of the most blessed ever-Virgin Mary Thy Mother: propitiously concede that we, who with solemn office celebrate her commemoration to-day, may merit to attain to everlasting joys, strengthened by her protection.  Who livest...

The Martyrs of Gorkum

Deus, qui beatorum martyrum tuorum Joannis et sociorum ejus, gloriosum pro fide tua certamen æternitatis laurea decorasti: concede propitius, ut eorum meritis et imitatione certantes in terris, cum ipsis coronari mereamur in cælis.  Per eumdem...

O God, Who adorned with the laurel of immortality the glorious battle of Thy blessed martyrs John and his companions for the Faith: graciously grant, that by their merits and exampledoing battle on earth, with them we may deserve to be crowned in heaven.  Through the same...

— Collect, St John of Cologne and Companions, MM (Dominican Rite)

It is only and ever through the Prince of Martyrs, the Faithful Witness, the Firstborn from the dead, by Whose Blood we are washed from our sins, Christ Jesus our Lord, that we may fight the good fight of the Faith.  By His grace we are compassed about by a great cloud of witnesses, who have now run the race before us, and by faith conquered; as they triumphed over pain and death in Him, so we may hope to finish the course.

To-morrow, Friday the 9th of July, marks the 438th anniversary of the martyrdom of St John of Cologne and eighteen companions, captured in and around Gorkum, most cruelly tortured, abused and finally hanged by Dutch Calvinists in the town of Brielle, which has been ever since a place of pilgrimage in honour of their witness unto death to our most holy Faith: for they refused to renounce their belief in the Blessed Sacrament and the Papal supremacy, and for this they were hanged out of devilish fanatical hatred.

Hæresum surgunt nova monstra, "New monstrosities of heresies arose", begins the hymn at Matins of this feast.  What good ever came of the blasphemies of Calvin, his hellish perversion of Christianity into a religion of fear, not of love?  Only the white-robed army of martyrs sent to heaven by the bloodstained hands of its sectaries!  Whose was the "total depravity"?  His and theirs who refused belief in sacramental regeneration, and made God into a monster worse than sinful men, a deceiving distortion of the Lord into what the ancient heretic, Marcion, misrepresented as the vengeful deity of the Old Testament.

Of the witnesses for Jesus who stood against such wicked folly, the larger part of this saintly company were Franciscans, nine priests and two lay brothers, but also four secular priests, two Norbertines, an Augustinian, and the Dominican, John, mentioned above - who, having heard of the incarceration of the first fifteen, hastened to bring them the sacraments and was himself captured, tormented and slain with the rest.  Greater love hath no man...

"Behold how they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints."

– Wisdom v, 5 (Communion)

The Postcommunion for this feast in the Dominican Missal addresses Our Lord thus:

Deus, virtutis auctor ac largitor, per sanctorum martyrum tuorum fidem et constantiam concede, ut nos ad sacrum convivium accedentes, eodem accendamur ardore, quo ipsi pro veritate corporis et sanguinis tui, vitam tibi in holocaustum obtulere.  Qui vivis et regnas...

O God, the author and giver of strength, for the sake of Thy holy martyrs' faith and steadfastness, bestow on us who draw near this hallowed banquet the same enkindling flame wherewith they gave their life as a holocaust to Thee, for the truth of Thy Body and Blood: Who livest and reignest...