Good Annunciation Friday

What does the date of Christmas have to do with Good Friday? Good Friday is the reason that Christmas is observed on December 25.

There are many popular explanations for why Christmas is on December 25. These are mostly modern revisionist attempts to explain away the significance of Christian holy days and generally relate to supposed attempts to suppress or appropriate earlier pagan practices. For example, Christmas was supposedly meant to replace Saturnalia, but this Roman bacchanal began on December 17 and never extended later than December 23. Another popular myth propagated by Bill Maher in his "mockumentary" Religulous is that attempts to suppress the cult of Sol Invictus was the reason for fixing the date, but this is hard to believe because the cult of Sol Invictus dates from the late third century, well after Christmas was fixed, and Sol Invictus was on the day of the solstice, which is not December 25.

The reason for Christmas on December 25 is the date of Easter. Methods used to calculate the date of Easter in the early Church varied; some continued to observe 14 Nisan as the date of Easter based on the Jewish Passover feast whether or not it fell on a Sunday; in parts of the west such as Gaul, the date of Easter was fixed on March 27, a practice that continued right up to the 6th century, and therefore Good Friday was March 25. If you are aware of the temporal cycle of the Church's calendar, you probably know March 25 as the day that the Solemnity of the Annunciation is observed, and this is not by accident; a common belied in the ancient world was that a great man's date of death coincided with that of his birth or conception. The Fathers of the western Church used this common belief when they established March 25 as the date of commemoration for both the conception and death of Jesus.

There was a different method of calculation used in the east, but despite that the dates agree and March 25 and December 25 are also observed in the Byzantine Churches (although the Orthodox retain the Julian Calendar which is now 12 days behind). The reasoning was more theological: it was held that the day of the new creation (Resurrection) corresponded to the date of the first creation, and these also shared the date of the Incarnation. The understanding was that there is an inextricable connection between all the mysteries of salvation, beginning with creation and including all the mysteries of Christ. Therefore it was natural to celebrate the new creation annually with its cardinal mysteries of the Incarnation and Resurrection. (See Ratzinger, Spirit of the Liturgy, 106).

It is obvious that December is nine months after March, but what I learned in Patristics class last semester is that the date of birth was figured from the date of conception, not the other way around as the importance assumed by the second holy day in contemporary public awareness might have led me to assume.

Resurrection and Annunciation, details from opposite doors of the Isenheim Altarpiece, Matthias Grünewald, 1515.

This connection  between the feasts was lost later when the calculation of Easter was standardized for the most part (the calculation long continued to vary, not being fixed by a council until Nicaea in 325, which also explains the ancient Armenian observance of the Nativity and Theophany on 6 January because of a different Easter dating). Another reason the connection is lost is the later change that when 25 March falls within Holy Week, the Solemnity of the Annunciation is transferred to the second Monday of Easter. This preserves it as a separate celebration, which only makes sense if it is seen separately.

The Fathers of the Church intended that the whole mystery of Christ from Incarnation to Pasch be celebrated together and that they be seen as inextricably connected. Although this connection has been lost in all but historical record, the two coincide (at least formally) a few times a century when Easter falls on 27 March*, a unique occasion, especially in this Jubilee of Mercy, to reflect on the unity of history in Christ who makes all things new.

*This actually happened twice recently, 2005 and 2016, and will not recur until year 2157.

Bishop Robert Baron on Punishment and Gift

I occasionally catch up on Bishop Robert Baron's Word on Fire videos, my nearest attempt to keeping up with popular culture. His commentaries generally start with a current event and connect it with other current events, philosophical thinkers, ecclesial teaching, etc., so I generally find them interesting.

This particular video was fascinating to me. It explores the connection of American comedian Stephen Colbert to J.R.R. Tolkien and John Henry Cardinal Newman.

The historical connection of providence is interesting, but in particular the Tolkien quote that prompted his reflection struck me.

 "Are not all of God's punishments also gifts?"

I noticed this partly because of my own experience and partly because of my Old Testament Narratives course, in which a major focus is the Babylonian Exile and post-exilic period in which the Jewish people had to reexamine their past and relationship to God in light of a traumatic experience.

From the very beginning of human experience when man sinned, God gave punishments not for despair but for hope. Work could be man's burden but also a source of his dignity; childbearing would be painful but also how God himself would enter the world in the most intimate way; the relationships of men and women would be plagued by misunderstanding and strife, but a constant reminder that their search for fulfillment is ultimately a search for God and not each other.

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me if you seek me with all your heart.         Jeremiah 29:11-13

God has allowed trials and suffering in my life. Often I do not want to reflect on it and speak to God about my experience; often I just want to cry out for relief from pain. 

And how do I see my suffering? Is it a poison or a medicine? 

Jesus entered into the world of suffering and pain not as a teacher but as a priest and victim to make us an offering to God (cf. Friday vespers responsory). He sanctified suffering beyond what God decreed in the Protoevangelium (Genesis 3:15) so that it is no longer simply a spur to rouse us from complacency and reveal our need for God but actually a way to encounter him in our brokenness. 

Nowhere is this more explicit than the message of Divine Mercy. 

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Luke 5:32).

The greater the sinner, the greater the right he has to My mercy (Divine Mercy in My Soul, 723).

My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).

The icon of this Mercy is Blood and Water flowing from the pierced side of Christ, the grace he pours out in Sacraments to fill suffering sinners beginning at the points of greatest brokenness and pain in our life. 

This means opening the wounds, allowing the dead tissue to be removed and the salve to be applied, which is scary! It demands deep trust, but there is only One who heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds (Psalm 147:3). 

Saint Francis de Sales on Sadness

I wanted to share another gem from Saint Francis de Sales from Introduction to the Devout Life. This excerpt gives advice for times of struggle with sadness and melancholy, the times when it is difficult to pray and to embrace the will of God and these become necessary as sacrifices. The principle that Saint Ignatius enshrined in his Exercises is apparent here- to work against the evil spirit and ignore the suggestive thoughts that arise in spiritual desolation.



The Evil One delights in sadness and melancholy, because they are his own characteristics.

He will be in sadness and sorrow through all Eternity, and he would fain have all others the same.

The “sorrow of the world” disturbs the heart, plunges it into anxiety, stirs up unreasonable fears, disgusts it with prayer, overwhelms and stupefies the brain, deprives the soul of wisdom, judgment, resolution and courage, weakening all its powers.

In a word, it is like a hard winter, blasting all the earth’s beauty, and numbing all animal life; for it deprives the soul of sweetness and power in every faculty.

Should you, my daughter, ever be attacked by this evil spirit of sadness, make use of the following remedies.

[…] Prayer is a sovereign remedy, it lifts the mind to God, Who is our only Joy and Consolation.

But when you pray let your words and affections, whether interior or exterior, all tend to love and trust in God.

“O God of Mercy, most Loving Lord, Sweet Saviour, Lord of my heart, my Joy, my Hope, my Beloved, my Bridegroom.”

Vigorously resist all tendencies to melancholy, and although all you do may seem to be done coldly, wearily and indifferently, do not give in.

The Enemy strives to make us languid in doing good by depression, but when he sees that we do not cease our efforts to work, and that those efforts become all the more earnest by reason of their being made in resistance to him, he leaves off troubling us.

Make use of hymns and spiritual songs; they have often frustrated the Evil One in his operations, as was the case when the evil spirit which possessed Saul was driven forth by music and psalmody.

It is well also to occupy yourself in external works, and that with as much variety as may lead us to divert the mind from the subject which oppresses it, and to cheer and kindle it, for depression generally makes us dry and cold.

[…] Moderate bodily discipline is useful in resisting depression, because it rouses the mind from dwelling on itself; and frequent Communion is specially valuable; the Bread of Life strengthens the heart and gladdens the spirits.

Lay bare all the feelings, thoughts and longings which are the result of your depression to your confessor or director, in all humility and faithfulness; seek the society of spiritually-minded people, and frequent such as far as possible while you are suffering.

And, finally, resign yourself into God’s Hands, endeavouring to bear this harassing depression patiently, as a just punishment for past idle mirth. Above all, never doubt but that, after He has tried you sufficiently, God will deliver you from the trial.

Francis de Sales (1567-1622): Introduction to the Devout Life, 4, 12.

Spiritual Thought: Sentire and Sapere

Novitiate is an experience that is difficult to describe, partly because much of it is deeply personal, but also because of its nature as raw experience, a direct communication through sense powers.

Saint Ignatius expressed this in the Spiritual Exercises by using the verb sentir rather than saber to express what is important in the spiritual life. (The words in Latin are sentire and sapere, which correspond to French sentir and savoir and Armenian kidenal and imanal).

The neat difference between the two verbs is something difficult to describe concisely in English, but roughly it is the difference between experiential knowledge and pure intellectual knowledge; sentir knowledge is felt and experienced through the senses, whether the external senses or the internal senses of imagination and memory. It is knowledge acquired through first-hand rather than second-hand experience, and can therefore be more difficult to communicate because it comes through wordless sensation rather than a verbal formula.

Saint Ignatius explains this in his Second Annotation to the Exercises, in which he instructs the retreat director to relate the points for meditation briefly in order to allow the exercitant more freedom for the experience that occurs in the meditation, 

For, if the person who is making the Contemplation takes the true groundwork of the narrative, and, discussing and considering for himself, finds something which makes the events a little clearer or brings them a little more home to him -- whether this comes through his own reasoning, or because his intellect is enlightened by the Divine power -- he will get more spiritual relish and fruit than if he who is giving the Exercises had much explained and amplified the meaning of the events. For it is not knowing much [saber], but realizing and relishing things interiorly [sentir], that contents and satisfies the soul.

-Spiritual Exercises, Second Annotation

His insight into prayer and how the human person experiences God through the senses relates what many consider arcane mysticism to the life of everyman. By the sixteenth century, Christian spirituality in the west threatened to split into scholastic intellectualism and spiritualist quietism, but his understanding of an integrated person calls for balance between sense experience and intellect within the mind.

This is why I contend that Ignatius has an Eastern Soul, one that transcends the dichotomy between mystical experience and intellectual definition and bridges the gap between the pietist and rationalist world views that later sprang up and have come to dominate modern thought. 

People versed in Catholic theology would be puzzled if Ignatius were referred to as a theologian; he studied but never taught nor wrote what are considered works of theology. But in the original sense used by the Cappadocian Doctors, a theologian is one who has a deep experience of God and shares it with others, in which sense the Spiritual Exercises is a profoundly theological work and Ignatius a theologian par excellence. 

New Advent

Preparing for the season of Advent today, I came across a recommendation for approaching the daily readings. This is very helpful for me because I meditate on the readings every day, but even if you only focus on the Sunday readings it is still beneficial for entering into the readings more deeply.

The Two Parts of Advent 

(from Creighton University's Online Ministries)

Part 1: up until December 16
While most liturgical seasons have the gospel as their main focus, during the first weeks of Advent, the Church gives us daily readings from the prophet Isaiah.  With the eyes of faith, these foretell the coming of the Messiah. Rather than a continuous gospel narrative familiar to us for most of the year, this part of Advent offers a wide variety of gospel readings that support the first reading of the day. 

After almost two weeks of Isaiah readings, we hear the foretelling of a Messiah from other prophets from the Hebrew scriptures - in Sirach, Numbers, Zephaniah and returning to Isaiah. With each passing week, the prophets speak more clearly of the coming of a Savior. 

So, in reading the first reading, for the first part of Advent, we listen to the anticipation, expectation, hope and promise.  In listening to the second reading, we listen for the fulfillment or connection with the gospel.

Part 2: December 17 - 24

In these last eight days before Christmas, the relationship between the readings changes.  Now the gospel brings us to our celebration of Christmas.  The gospels are taken from the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke. 

Each of these days, the first reading is taken from the Hebrew scriptures, and chosen to match the gospel.  In many cases we can imagine Matthew or Luke having the first reading open on their desks while they wrote the gospel.

So, we can read the gospel first and then read the first reading.  The sense of anticipation and fulfillment builds as we read the story of the preparation for Jesus' first coming into this world for us.

The Counsels in Daily Life

This week, the evangelical counsels have been prominent in both our novitiate conferences and in the Gospel readings. The Wednesday Gospel, for example, is one in which the counsels really stood out to me even though they are hidden in the parable: the servants received an extravagant gift (one talent was about fifteen years' wages) that is unmerited (chastity), given to them in trust for another (poverty) to use according to the master's will (obedience).

In meditating on this, what came up was living these counsels in daily life. Not having taken public vows can seem to make living the counsels a lofty goal in the future; as a novice I am obliged to live the counsels now in a 'hidden' way, but my daily life (custody of the senses, material dependence on others, fulfilling my obligations and obeying superiors willingly) is that of religious life, of living the counsels in the ordinary actions of everyday life.

I also reflected on responsibility, that those faithful in small matters are to be entrusted with greater matters. In the human mind, responsibility is something to be earned, something given after trustworthiness has been proven. But what I had from this Gospel was a sense of divine pedagogy: we do not prove ourselves to God in order to earn gifts but rather he trains us for greater responsibilities through lesser ones. It is for our own sake, for our own growth that some things are withheld and others allowed, that growing pains occur before new doors are opened and we are given our food in the proper season.

Spiritual Thought: Sympathy/Antipathy

In my colloquies after meditation, there is often a thought that stays with me. Sometimes it is a clear message that came in prayer, sometimes it is a summary of what I experienced; a "spiritual thought" to take and carry through the day. Sometimes they seem transitory, but sometimes they recur and surface repeatedly during a period of days, weeks, or months.

One such thought concerns sympathy and antipathy in relationships. Here I do not mean sympathy in the sense of feeling sorry for someone but rather in the word's primitive sense of "feeling with" them, being "in synch" or "on the same wavelength," and antipathy as the opposite of this.

Every person has this experience: there are people we sense a connection with or identify with  strongly; wet find them easy to get along with and that they understand our thoughts and experiences with minimal explanation. There are other people who we do not feel this connection with; sometimes it seems they do not understand us with any amount of explanation and attempts to relate to them can be exasperating. We encounter both types in all situations of life: school, work, church, and even family.

I was struggling with this realization a couple of weeks ago and how it is manifested in religious community: the temptation to develop particular friendships or "cliques." I considered this and how it can be presented as a false charity: a convenient way to keep everyone happy by avoiding conflicts and uncomfortable situations, but leading to the far more sinister prospect of a fractured and dysfunctional community. (This is something Pope Francis has addressed several times, even very recently, and strongly cautioned against).

I took this to prayer and had a strong confirmation:
"I have given you the sympathetic for your edification, but the antipathetic for your perfection."

This gave me new terms for my reflection, and I further considered how both types of relationship are necessary: I have those sympathetic to me with whom I can relate more easily when I am tired and frustrated because I need the comfort of feeling understood and being encouraged; I have those antipathetic to me who stretch me and make me work hard to develop deep relationships. It is through the latter, not the former, that I am invited to grow in the perfection of charity.

Saint Augustine of Hippo on the Second Coming

Well, we are in the last two weeks of Ordinary Time, something that the Office of Readings today brought home to me with a discourse by Saint Augustine that focuses on preparation for the second coming of Christ. 

Some of my reflection (full text below):

What is more true than that they should not themselves expect mercy from the judge, who themselves were unwilling to show mercy. What is imputed to those placed on his left side? That they refused to show mercy. 

The only criterion ever given by Jesus for particular judgment is whether mercy was freely given, and it should therefore be the most desirable of attributes. Mercy cannot be understood without justice: we know what we deserve and fear to suffer those consequences. Thinking of them as separate, I want to prefer one over the other, but in the Divine Essence these are not separate: God is entirely Mercy, God is completely Justice, and they are therefore inseparable. 

Let us hate our sins and love him who will exact punishment for them.

It is a strange idea that we should be grateful for punishment, that this ought to increase our love for God. But justice is an attribute of our Creator and something built into our nature: to love justice is essentially human, and by overcoming fear we come to desire it even for our own offenses. It is a gift that allows us to grow through our faults, a demonstration of God's desire that we overcome obstacles in order to increase and purify our love; he gives us the remedy of mercy by the treatment of justice.

If you wish to receive mercy, be merciful before he comes; forgive whatever has been done against you; give of your abundance. 

Here the Doctor makes it clear that he is referring to giving of material wealth, yet even those of us who lacking that have much to give in forgiveness. Everyone who receives God's forgiveness and mercy will receive it in abundance and therefore have much to give to others.

Second reading
From a discourse on the Psalms by Saint Augustine, bishop
Let us not resist the first coming, so that we may not dread the second

All the trees of the forest will exult before the face of the Lord, for he has come, he has come to judge the earth. He has come the first time, and he will come again. At his first coming, his own voice declared in the gospel: Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds. What does he mean by hereafter? Does he not mean that the Lord will come at a future time when all the nations of the earth will be striking their breasts in grief ? Previously he came through his preachers, and he filled the whole world. Let us not resist his first coming, so that we may not dread the second.

What then should the Christian do? He ought to use the world, not become its slave. And what does this mean? It means having, as though not having. So says the Apostle: My brethren, the appointed time is short: from now on let those who have wives live as though they had none; and those who mourn as though they were not mourning; and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing; and those who buy as though they had no goods; and those who deal with this world as though they had no dealings with it. For the form of this world is passing away. But I wish you to be without anxiety. He who is without anxiety waits without fear until his Lord comes. For what sort of love of Christ is it to fear his coming? Brothers, do we not have to blush for shame? We love him, yet we fear his coming. Are we really certain that we love him? Or do we love our sins more? Therefore let us hate our sins and love him who will exact punishment for them. He will come whether we wish it or not. Do not think that because he is not coming just now, he will not come at all. He will come, you know not when; and provided he finds you prepared, your ignorance of the time of his coming will not be held against you.

All the trees of the forest will exult. He has come the first time, and he will come again to judge the earth; he will find those rejoicing who believed in his first coming, for he has come.

He will judge the world with equity and the peoples in his truth. What are equity and truth? He will gather together with him for the judgment his chosen ones, but the others he will set apart; for he will place some on his right, others on his left. What is more equitable, what more true than that they should not themselves expect mercy from the judge, who themselves were unwilling to show mercy before the judge’s coming. Those, however, who were willing to show mercy will be judged with mercy. For it will be said to those placed on his right: Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world. And he reckons to their account their works of mercy: For I was hungry and you gave me food to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

What is imputed to those placed on his left side? That they refused to show mercy. And where will they go? Depart into the everlasting fire. The hearing of this condemnation will cause much wailing. But what has another psalm said? The just man will be held in everlasting remembrance; he will not fear the evil report. What is the evil report? Depart into the everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels. Whoever rejoices to hear the good report will not fear the bad. This is equity, this is truth.

Or do you, because you are unjust, expect the judge not to be just? Or because you are a liar, will the truthful one not be true? Rather, if you wish to receive mercy, be merciful before he comes; forgive whatever has been done against you; give of your abundance. Of whose possessions do you give, if not from his? If you were to give of your own, it would be largess; but since you give of his, it is restitution. For what do you have, that you have not received? These are the sacrifices most pleasing to God: mercy, humility, praise, peace, charity. Such as these, then, let us bring and, free from fear, we shall await the coming of the judge who will judge the world in equity and the peoples in his truth.

Spiritual Thought: "Skandala"

After my daily meditation, there is often a thought that stays with me. Sometimes it is a clear message that came in prayer, sometimes it is a summary of what I experienced; a "spiritual thought" to take and carry through the day. Sometimes these are themes that surface repeatedly during a period of days, weeks, or months.

One of those recurring has been about skandala (obstacles) in the spiritual life. "My sins and faults are obstacles for me; they are not obstacles for God."

This is something worthwhile for meditation in moments of discouragement and failure; simply calling this to mind can allow me to access God's mercy and be reminded that humanity is an instrument not an obstacle for God.

Consider that temptations, faults, and sins are allowed by God as occasions of humility to remind me of my constant need for him and allow me to grow in my desire for him. This becomes an opportunity to enter into deeper prayer and be reminded that God is infinitely greater than my sins and limitations.

Saint Aphrahat the Persian on Love

This week I discovered the writings of a rather obscure saint- Saint Aphrahat the Persian.
His sermon really grabbed my attention because charity was a big theme in my prayer last week and the line If [Jesus] commanded us to love our enemies and to pray for those who hate us, what shall be our excuse to Him in the day of judgment, who have hated our brothers and our own members? stayed with me after reading.

I had the opportunity to work at a soup kitchen with the other novices on Saturday morning and while peeling turnips I was thinking about love of neighbor, specifically the remote versus the proximate neighbor. I noted that while it is easier to serve others in charity in the place, time, and manner of my choosing, this exercise is foundational for learning to do so in other contexts as well and that it trains the heart to respond in charity when it is not convenient.

Saint Ephrem, Saint Isaac the Syrian, Saint Aphrahat

Love is more excellent than anything else, and by it the righteous ones of the old times were perfected.

Scripture shows concerning Moses that he gave himself in behalf of the sons of his people, and he wished that he might be blotted out of the book of life if only the people might not be blotted out.

And also when they rose up against him to stone him, he offered up prayer before God in their behalf that they might be saved.

And David also showed an example of love when he was persecuted by Saul, and a trap was continually set for his life so that they might kill him.

David by love was generously performing acts of mercies in behalf of Saul his enemy, who was seeking his life.

Saul was twice delivered into the hands of David, and he did not kill him and repaid good in place of evil. Because of this good did not depart from his house, and he who forsook him was forsaken.

And Saul who repaid evil in place of good, evil did not depart from his house, and He called to God and He did not answer him, and he fell by the sword of the Philistines, and David wept over him bitterly.

And David fulfilled beforehand the precept of our Saviour, who said: “Love your enemies,” and “forgive, and it shall be forgiven unto you.” Thus David loved and was loved, and forgave and it was forgiven unto him.

And Elisha also showed love in respect to this, when his enemies came against him to take him so that they might do evil to him, and he, doing good to them, set forth bread and water before them and sent them away from him in peace.

Elisha fulfilled the word which is written: “If thine enemy is hungry feed him, and if he thirsts give him to drink.”

And also Jeremiah the prophet in behalf of those who made him a captive in a pit and were continually putting him to torture, but he also prayed ardently for them before God.

By this example of those who went before our Saviour taught us that we should love our enemies and pray for those who hate us.

And if He commanded us to love our enemies and to pray for those who hate us, what shall be our excuse to Him in the day of judgment, who have hated our brothers and our own members?

Because we are of the Body of Christ and members of His members. For he who hates one of the members of Christ will be separated from the whole body, and he who hates his brother will be separated from the sons of God.

Aphrahat the Persian (c.270-c.345): Demonstrations, 2 – On Love (17; 18).

The Wisdom of the Saints

A year ago I stole an idea from Fr. John Cameron and the Magnificat daily prayer companion to take the Litany of the Saints and collect favorite sayings of each individual. Since then, my collection has grown steadily and proved to be a repository of holy counsel worth returning to frequently.

For the Solemnity of All Saints and the month of November, I decided to share some selections that I will be reflecting on over the next few weeks. It can be prayed like the Litany in its entirety, but I usually prefer to select one or a few quotes to reflect on and appropriate more deeply.


Holy Mary, Mother of God: “Do whatever he tells you."

Saint Gabriel: “With God nothing is impossible."

Saint Michael: “Who is like God?”

Saint Raphael: "It is good to praise God and to exalt his name, worthily declaring the works of God."

Saint John the Baptist: “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance."

Saint Joseph: [pause in reverent silence]

Saint Peter: "Rejoice inasmuch as you participate in Christ's sufferings, so you may rejoice when his glory is revealed.”

Saint Paul: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Saint James: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance."

(+ 99) Saint Clement of Rome: “You have searched the scriptures, which are true, which were given through the Holy Spirit; and you know that nothing unrighteous or counterfeit is written in them.”

(+107) Saint Ignatius of Antioch: "I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire." 

(+165) Saint Justin Martyr: “The greatest grace God can give someone is to send him a trial he cannot bear with his own powers – and then sustain him with his grace so he may endure to the end and be saved.”

(+ 180) Saint Cecilia: “To die for Christ is not to sacrifice one’s youth but to renew it. Jesus Christ returns a hundredfold all offered him, and adds to it eternal life.”

(+ 202) Saint Irenaeus of Lyons: “The Glory of God is man fully alive.”

(+ 216) Saint Clement of Alexandria: “’Eat my flesh, and drink my blood.’ The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutrients, he delivers over his flesh and pours out his blood, and nothing is lacking for the growth of his children." 

(+ 298) Saint Athanasius: “Devils take great delight in fullness, and drunkeness, and bodily comfort. Fasting possesses great power and it works glorious things. To fast is to banquet with angels.”

(+ 304) Saint Agnes of Rome: “Christ made my soul beautiful with the jewels of grace and virtue. I belong to Him whom the angels serve.”

(+ 304) Saint Lucy of Syracuse: “No one's body is polluted so as to endanger the soul if it has not pleased the mind."

(+ 356) Saint Anthony the Great: "Do not trust in your own righteousness, do not worry about the past, but control your tongue and your stomach. Some have afflicted their bodies by asceticism, but they lack discernment, and so they are far from God."

(+ 368) St. Hilary of Poitiers: “There is no space where God is not; space does not exist apart from Him. He is in heaven, in hell, beyond the seas; dwelling in all things and enveloping all. Thus He embraces, and is embraced by, the universe, confined to no part of it but pervading all.”

(+ 373) Saint Ephrem the Syrian: “O Jesus, in that hour when darkness like a cloak shall be spread over all things, may your grace shine on us in place of the earthly sun.”

(+ 379) Saint Basil the Great: “Silence is the beginning of purifying the soul.”

(+ 386) Saint Cyril of Jerusalem: “This synthesis of faith was not made to accord with human opinions, but rather what was of the greatest importance was gathered from all the Scriptures, to present the one teaching of the faith in its entirety.”

(+ 390) Saint Gregory Nazianzen: "Give something, however small, to the one in need. For it is not small to one who has nothing. Neither is it small to God, if we have given what we could." 

(+ 395) Saint Gregory of Nyssa: "Whatever name we may adopt to signify the perfume of divinity, it is not the perfume itself which we signify by our expressions; rather, we reveal just the slightest trace of the divine odor by means of our theological terms."

(+ 397) Saint Ambrose: “Every soul who has believed both conceives and generates the Word of God and recognizes his works. Let the soul of Mary be in each one of you to magnify the Lord.”

(+ 407) Saint John Chrysostom: “Jesus Christ gave you all; he left nothing for himself.”

(+ 420) Saint Jerome: “May your actions never be unworthy of your words, may it not happen that, when you preach in church, someone might say to himself: ‘Why does he therefore not act like this?’ How could a teacher, on a full stomach, discuss fasting; even a thief can blame avarice; but in the priest of Christ the mind and words must harmonize.”

(+ 430) Saint Augustine: “We have been promised something we do not yet possess. It is good for us to persevere in longing until we receive what was promised, and yearning is over.”

(+ 444) Saint Cyril of Alexandria: “If you feel scorched by the fever of impurity, go to the banquet of the Angels; and the spotless Flesh of Christ will make you pure and chaste.”

(+ 445) Saint Arsenius the Great: “I have often been sorry for having spoken, but never for holding my tongue.”

(+ 450) Saint Peter Chrysologus: “Peace is the plenitude that fulfills our desires. As Christ left the world, he wished to leave the gift he wanted to find when he returned.”

(+ 461) Saint Leo the Great: “Let us be raised to the one who made the dust of our lowliness into the body of his glory.”

(+ c. 493) Saint Patrick: “I arise today through the strength of Christ with his baptism, through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial, through the strength of his Resurrection with his Ascension.”

(+ 523) Saint Brigid of Kildare: "I would like myself to be a rent payer to the Lord; that I should suffer distress, that he would bestow a good blessing upon me. I would like a great lake of beer for the King of Kings. I would like to be watching Heaven's family drinking it through all eternity."

(+ 547) Saint Benedict: “It is only we who brood over our sins. God does not brood over them, God dumps them at the bottom of the sea.”

(+ 604) Saint Gregory the Great: “We have been truly set free from subjection to sin because we are united to him who is truly free.”

(+ 615) Saint Columban: “The more the soul loves, the more it desires to love, and the greater its suffering, the greater its healing.”

(+ 636) Saint Isidore of Seville: “Confession heals, confession justifies, confession grants pardon of sin, all hope consists in confession; in confession there is a chance for mercy. “

(+649) Saint John Climacus: “Even though one is well advanced in virtue, should he stop mortifying himself, he soon would lose his modesty and virtue - just as fertile soul quickly becomes dry and arid and produces nothing but thorns and thistles if it is not cultivated.”

(+ 662) Saint Maximus the Confessor: “God made us so that we might become partakers of the divine nature and sharers in eternity, and so that we might come to be like him through deification by grace.”

(+ 700) Saint Isaac the Syrian: “This life has been given to you for repentance; do not waste it in vain pursuits.”

(+ 1101) Saint Bruno of Cologne: "No act is charitable if it is not just." 

(+ 1109) Saint Anselm: “God who made all things made himself of Mary, and thus he refashioned everything he had made.”

(+ 1153) Saint Bernard of Clairvaux: “We are to love God for Himself, because of a twofold reason; nothing is more reasonable, nothing more profitable." 

(+ 1179) Saint Hildegard of Bingen: “God has arranged all things in the world in consideration of everything else.”

(+ 1221) Saint Dominic: “I shall be more useful to you after my death and I shall help you more effectively than during my life.”

(+ 1226) Saint Francis of Assisi: “May I feel in my heart, as far as possible, that abundance of love with which you, Son of God, are inflamed.”

(+ 1231) Saint Anthony of Padua: “Consider every day that you are then for the first time beginning; and always act with the same fervor as on the first day you began.”

(+ 1250) Saint Albert the Great: “He who enters into the secret place of his own soul passes beyond himself, and does in very truth ascend to God.”

(+ 1253) Saint Clare: “Live and hope in the Lord, and let your service be according to reason.”

(+ 1274) Saint Thomas Aquinas: “The life of man consists in the love that principally sustains him and in which he finds his greatest satisfaction.”

(+ 1302) Saint Gertrude the Great: “Once again I give you thanks for your merciful love, kindest Lord, for having found another way of rousing me from my inertia.”

(+ 1274) Saint Bonaventure: “God created all things not to increase his glory, but to show it forth and communicate it.”

(+ 1380) Saint Catherine of Siena: “When we love something we don’t care what sort of abuse or injury or pain we might have to go through to get it; we are concerned only with satisfying our desire for the thing we love.”

(+ 1419) Saint Vincent Ferrer: “In time of temptation continue the good you have begun before temptation.”

(+ 1444) Saint Bernardine of Siena: “If we but recollect the name of Jesus, it is to fight with confidence—for this name subjects all the fury of our enemies to us.”

(+ 1510) Saint Catherine of Genoa: “God lets the soul share his goodness so that it becomes one with him. The nearer the soul comes to him, the more it partakes of what is his.”

(+ 1535) Saint Thomas More: "Tribulation is a gift from God - one that he especially gives His special friends." 

(+ 1540) Saint Angela Merici: “Strengthen, O Lord, my senses and my affections, that they may not stray into betrayal of trust.”

(+ 1552) Saint Francis Xavier: “God our Lord knows the intentions which he in his mercy has wished to place in us, and the great hope and confidence which he in his goodness has wished that we should have in him.”

(+ 1556) Saint Ignatius of Loyola: “As long as obedience is flourishing, all the other virtues will be seen to flourish and bear fruit.”

(+ 1562) Saint Peter of Alcantara: “Truly, matters in the world are in a bad state; but if you and I begin in earnest to reform ourselves, a really good beginning will have been made.”

(+ 1582) Saint Teresa of Jesus: "From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us!" 

(+ 1584) Saint Charles Borromeo: “The candle that gives light to others must itself be consumed. Thus we also have to act. We ourselves are consumed to give a good example to others.”

(+ 1591) Saint John of the Cross: “In giving us His Son, His only Word, He spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word -- and He has no more to say...because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son.”

(+ 1591) Saint Aloysius Gonzaga: “As God is above all created things, honors, possessions, so should our internal esteem of his Divine Majesty surpass our esteem or idea of anything whatever.”

(+ 1595) Saint Philip Neri: "A joyful heart is more easily made perfect than a downcast one."

(+ 1595) Saint Robert Southwell: “Jesus, possess my mind with your presence and ravish it with your love, that my delight may be to be embraced in the arms of your protection.”

(+ 1607) Saint Mary Magdalene di Pazzi: “A little drop of simple obedience is worth a million times more than a whole vase of the choicest contemplation.”

(+1617) Saint Rose of Lima: "Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven." 

(+ 1621) Saint Robert Bellarmine: "Charity is that with which no man is lost, and without which no man is saved." 

(+ 1622) Saint Francis de Sales: “The more one mortifies his natural inclinations, the more he renders himself capable of receiving divine inspirations and of progressing in virtue.”

(+ 1646) Saint Isaac Jogues: “My hope is in God, who needs not us to accomplish his designs. We must endeavor to be faithful to him.”

(+ 1654) Saint Peter Claver: “Man’s salvation and perfection consists in doing the will of God, which he must have in view in all things, and at every moment of his life.”

(+ 1660) Saint Vincent de Paul: “He who gives little import to exterior mortifications, claiming that interior mortifications are more perfect, clearly shows that he is not mortified at all, exteriorly nor interiorly.”

(+ 1682) Saint Claude de la Columbiere: “My Jesus, let me live in your heart and pour all my bitterness into it, where it will be utterly consumed.”

(+ 1690) Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque: “All my pleasure in this land of exile is that of having every kind of suffering found on the cross, deprived of every other consolation except that of the Sacred Heart.”

(+ 1716) Saint Louis de Montfort: “He who fights even the smallest distractions faithfully, when he says even the smallest prayer, will also be faithful in great things.”

(+ 1719) Saint Jean Baptiste de La Salle: “Never speak to anyone except with kindness.”

(+ 1775) Saint Paul of the Cross: “It is an excellent and holy practice to call to mind and meditate on our Lord's Passion, since it is by this path that we shall arrive at union with God. In this, the holiest of all schools, true wisdom is learned, for it was there that all the saints became wise.”

(+ 1787) Saint Alphonsus di Liguori: “We must love God in the way that pleases him, and not just in a way that suits ourselves. God wishes people to empty themselves of everything and to be filled with his divine love.”

(+ 1820) Saint Clement Hofbauer: “Something can be done everywhere for the glory of God.”

(+ 1821) Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton: “O Jesus, sure joy of my soul, give me but a true love of you. Let me seek you as my only good.”

(+ 1859) Saint Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney: "We will either accuse ourselves or excuse ourselves." 

(+ 1860) Saint John Neumann: “Though God hates sin more than any other thing, he loves us poor miserable sinners. He ardently desires the welfare of our souls as if his own happiness depended on it.”

(+ 1868) Saint Peter Julian Eymard: “Abide in the home of the divine and fatherly goodness of God like his child who knows nothing, does nothing, makes a mess of everything, but nevertheless lives in his goodness.”

(+ 1870) Saint Anthony Marie Claret: “Our Lord has created persons for all states in life, and in all of them we see people who achieved sanctity by fulfilling their obligations well.”

(+ 1876) Saint Catherine Labouré: “I knew nothing; I was nothing. For this reason God chose me.”

(+ 1889) Saint Damien de Veuster of Moloka’i: “In the face of the too real dangers that surround me I repeat: ‘Lord, I have placed all my hope in you. I will never be confounded.”

(+ 1897) Saint Therese of Lisieux: “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.” 

(+ 1898) Saint Charbel Makhloof: “Just as one person's sins affect all, so a person's holiness becomes like a light for others.” 

(+ 1914) Saint Pius X: "Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to heaven."

(+ 1917) Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini: “Stretch every fiber of my being, dear Lord, that I may more easily fly towards you. May your Spirit, which once breathed over the chaos of the earth, give life to all the powers of my soul.”

(+ 1920) Saint Teresa of the Andes: “True friendship consists in mutually perfecting one another and drawing closer to God.”

(+ 1928) Saint Toribio Romo: "Christ said, 'I am the Truth'; he did not say 'I am the custom.'" 

(+ 1938) Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: “Jesus, I trust in you.”

(+ 1941) Saint Maximilian Kolbe: “Shall the urge for complete and total happiness, inherent to human nature, be the only need to remain unfulfilled and unsatisfied? No, even this longing can be fulfilled by the infinite and eternal God.”

(+ 1942) Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross: “Holy realism has a certain affinity with the realism of the child who receives and responds to the impressions with unimpaired vigor and vitality, and with uninhibited simplicity.”

(+ 1968) Saint Pius of Pietrelcina: "Our Lord loves you and loves you tenderly; and if He does not let you feel the sweetness of His love, it is to make you more humble and abject in your own eyes."  

(+ 2005) St. John Paul II: "Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors to Christ." 

The Consummation of Love

Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

                                                                                                                                                   Luke 12:35-38, RSVCE

I was given a very interesting meditation on this Gospel from Tuesday mass this week. When reflecting on it, what seems most immediately obvious is an exhortation to servants to be responsible and be prepared for the master's return. But consider the master, who is Jesus, is returning from his wedding feast, his marriage to the Church; his marriage is an act of sacrifice, a sacrifice that continues after the feast.

There are numerous places in the Gospel that lend themselves to considerations of love and others to sacrifice, but I am finding that they are often connected in subtle ways like the above example. Considering what love looks like in my life and how God is calling me to grow took me back to a conversation earlier in the year when I was speaking to friends about love and sacrifice, and sacrifice rather than pleasure as the consummation of love. It struck me again deeply how these are inseparable. 

It is possible to have pleasure without love; it is not possible to sacrifice without love.

Saint Peter Chrysologus on the New Adam

I wanted to share something from the Office of Readings that really struck me this week. The novitiate year is largely about personal transformation, part of life for every Christian but done under a magnifying glass in religious life. The theme of recreation and redemption by the incarnation of the New Adam has come up several times and it struck me that this sermon by Saint Peter Chrysologus is a very succinct teaching about what this really means.

One thing that struck me after reading it was realizing that the 'New Adam' is not truly a 'second Adam' but rather the True Adam in whose image the Old Adam was made; the second Adam stamped his image on the first Adam when he created him. It seems rather confusing to express it that way, but it was a little clearer as an experience in prayer!

Office of Readings: Second reading
From a sermon by Saint Peter Chrysologus, bishop
The Word, the Wisdom of God, was made flesh

The holy Apostle has told us that the human race takes its origin from two men, Adam and Christ; two men equal in body but unequal in merit, wholly alike in their physical structure but totally unlike in the very origin of their being. The first man, Adam, he says, became a living soul, the last Adam a life-giving spirit.

The first Adam was made by the last Adam, from whom he also received his soul, to give him life. The last Adam was formed by his own action; he did not have to wait for life to be given him by someone else, but was the only one who could give life to all. The first Adam was formed from valueless clay, the second Adam came forth from the precious womb of the Virgin. In the case of the first Adam, earth was changed into flesh; in the case of the second Adam, flesh was raised up to be God.

What more need be said? The second Adam stamped his image on the first Adam when he created him. That is why he took on himself the role, and the name, of the first Adam, in order that he might not lose what he had made in his own image. The first Adam, the last Adam; the first had a beginning, the last knows no end. The last Adam is indeed the first; as he himself says: I am the first and the last.

I am the first, that is, I have no beginning. I am the last, that is, I have no end. But what was spiritual, says the Apostle, did not come first; what was living came first, then what is spiritual. The earth comes before its fruit, but the earth is not so valuable as its fruit. The earth exacts pain and toil; its fruit bestows subsistence and life. The prophet rightly boasted of this fruit: Our earth has yielded its fruit. What is this fruit? The fruit referred to in another place: I will place upon your throne one who is the fruit of your body. The first man, says the Apostle, was made from the earth and belongs to the earth; the second man is from heaven, and belongs to heaven.

The man made from the earth is the pattern of those who belong to the earth; the man from heaven is the pattern of those who belong to heaven. How is it that these last, though they do not belong to heaven by birth, will yet belong to heaven, men who do not remain what they were by birth but persevere in being what they have become by rebirth? The reason is, brethren, that the heavenly Spirit, by the mysterious infusion of his light, gives fertility to the womb of the virginal font. The Spirit brings forth as men belonging to heaven those whose earthly ancestry brought them forth as men belonging to the earth, and in a condition of wretchedness; he gives them the likeness of their Creator. Now that we are reborn, refashioned in the image of our Creator, we must fulfill what the Apostle commands: So, as we have worn the likeness of the man of earth, let us also wear the likeness of the man of heaven.

Now that we are reborn, as I have said, in the likeness of our Lord, and have indeed been adopted by God as his children, let us put on the complete image of our Creator so as to be wholly like him, not in the glory that he alone possesses, but in innocence, simplicity, gentleness, patience, humility, mercy, harmony, those qualities in which he chose to become, and to be, one with us.

True Humility

In Scripture are the words, "I humbled myself, and the Lord hastened to rescue me" (Psalm 114:6); and these words are there instead of "I have fasted," "I have kept vigil," "I lay down on the bare earth."

Saint John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 25: On Humility


Prudence in the ascetic life has been an important area of spiritual awareness for me over the past year, and the past few months in particular. It is also significantly connected to the major theme of my retreat last week: discerning true humility from false humility.

The humble heart is turned to God and acts for love and longing for the Beloved; the proud heart is turned inward on itself and acts for its own insatiable appetites. The difference shows in their attachment to their activities; the humble heart, open to God, is willing to renounce mortifications as well as pleasures, and the proud heart may cling to either or to both but is equally unwilling to let go of them, because it holds them for its own sake rather than for God's.

The Third Way

Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people:

"What is your opinion?

A man had two sons.

He came to the first and said,

'Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.'

He said in reply, 'I will not, '

but afterwards changed his mind and went.

The man came to the other son and gave the same order.

He said in reply, 'Yes, sir, ‘but did not go.

Which of the two did his father's will?"

They answered, "The first."

Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you,

tax collectors and prostitutes

are entering the kingdom of God before you.

When John came to you in the way of righteousness,

you did not believe him;

but tax collectors and prostitutes did.

Yet even when you saw that,

you did not later change your minds and believe him."

-Matthew 21:28-32

One of the aspects of the Gospel that I reflected on today is the two ways presented by Jesus: the first that of those who rejected God but repented and the second that of the observers of the Law who thought they had no need of repentance. 

One way to engage with this is to explore how in my life that I have lived either of these ways, and I did spend time considering how I have alienated myself from God because of pride or because of shame. But after bringing these areas of my life before Jesus, I also began to reflect on the Third Way, that of both observing the law and repenting. The law of the Church is of course the new commandment, love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another (John 13:34), but the nature of this commandment can also easily be reduced to moralism in practice that excludes the need to repent.  

One of the most difficult aspects of the spiritual life in the beginning is accepting who I am right now. I want to be much better than I am, and I do not want to approach God before I have improved myself. It is a difficult truth that I must accept myself in order to accept that God loves me as I am right now. It goes against the implicit human approach to repentance, that I repent because I want God to love me, while in fact it is because God loves me that I repent.  

I sincerely repent when I come to know that God loves me and desires repentance for salvation; any other approach to repentance is not life-altering, unless the imperfect contrition of fear leads to the perfect contrition of love. It is the forgiveness of the penitent that opens one to love, for the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little (Luke 7:42) and the one who is forgiven much loves much. Repentance opens the heart to the love of God that is then shared freely in keeping the Lord's command.