Saint Thomas the Apostle, Dec 21

Saint Thomas the Apostle, Dec 21

The Apostle Thomas ( whose name signifieth a twin, for which reason in Greek he is called Didymus) was a Galilean. The historian Eusebius saith that after the descent of the Holy Ghost Thomas preached the Gospel to many different peoples, such as the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, and Bactrians. It is believed that he went last of all to India (for his ministry there is mentioned by holy Ephraem the Syrian, blessed Jerome, and others ) where, because of his holiness and wondrous works, he drew many after him, and brought them to Christ Jesus. For which reason he is said to have provoked the anger of the idolatrous king, who condemned him to be pierced with lances, whereby he crowned the dignity of his apostleship with the glory of martyrdom. Eight miles from Madras, on Big Hill in the Coromandel coast (called in the Martyrology Calamina), is a spot still pointed out as the place of his holy death. His relicks were reputed to have been translated to Edessa, thence to Chios in the Aegean, and later to Ortona in the Abruzzi, where they are to this day venerated with much devotion by the faithful.

A Homily by St. Gregory the Pope

Dearly beloved brethren, what do ye chiefly notice in this passage? Think ye that is was by accident that this chosen Apostle was not with them when Jesus came? Or that when he came, he heard? Or that when he heard, he doubted? Or that when he doubted, he touched? Or that when he touched, he believed? None of these things was accidental, but providential. It was a wonderful provision of divine mercy, that this incredulous disciple, by thrusting his fingers into the bodily wounds of His master, should apply a remedy to the spiritual wounds of unbelief in our souls. The doubts of Thomas have done us more good than the faith of all the disciples that believed. While he feeleth his way to faith by touching, our minds are freed from doubt, and settled in faith.

Antiphon on Magnificat:

O Thomas Didymus to whom it was given to touch the risen Christ, and who now with him art evermore on high, * we entreat thee to pray for us who suffer amidst the evils of this world, lest amongst the lost we receive the sentence of doom, when the Judge appeared.

Collect:

Almighty and everliving God, who for the more confirmation of the Faith didst suffer thy holy Apostle Thomas to be doubtful in thy Son’s resurrection, grant us so perfectly, and without all doubt, to believe in thy Son Jesus Christ; that our faith in thy sight may never be reproved, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Antiphon on the Benedictus:

Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed, * blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.

Fourth Sunday in Advent : From a sermon by St. Leo the Great

Fourth Sunday in Advent

From a sermon by St. Leo the Great

Dearly beloved, if we study diligently the history of the creation of our race, we shall find that man was made in the image of God, to the end that he might grow into his Maker’s likeness. This is the natural dignity of human nature, that in us, as in a mirror, there can be a reflection of the goodness of the divine nature. To help us attain this dignity, we are daily offered the grace of our Saviour, for as in the first Adam all men are fallen, so in the second Adam all men can be raised up again.

The cause of our restoration is the mercy of God, and nothing else. We could not love him unless he had first loved us, and scattered the darkness of our ignorance by the light of his truth. This the Lord promised by Isaiah, where he saith : I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not ; I will lead them in paths they that they have not known : I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight : these things will I do unto them and not forsake them. And again : I was found of them that sought me not ; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.

From the Apostle John we learn how this was fulfilled : We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son. And again : we love him, because he first loved us. God, by loving us, reneweth his image in us. And that he may find in us the likeness of his goodness, he giveth us grace to do his works. To this end he lighteth the soul as though it were a candle. And so it is that he doth enkindle in our hearts the fire of his holy charity, in order that we may love both him and whatsoever he loveth.

Fifth day in the Octave of the Conception of BVM, Dec. 12th

Fifth day in the Octave of the Conception of BVM, Dec. 12^th



A Homily by St. Tharasius, the Patriarch of Constantinople

O Mary where shall I find words to praise thee? Maiden undefiled, Virgin unstained, exaltation of women, thy glory is in thy guilelessness, and thy name is a name of purity. In thee the curse of Adam is done away, and the debt of Eve paid. Thou art the clean offering of Abel, chosen out of the firstlings of the flock, a pure sacrifice. Thou art the hope of Enoch, that firm hope that he had in god, and was not ashamed.

Thou art the vision of the Prophets and the fulfilment of those things which they foretold. Thou art the gate whereof Ezekiel spake, when he prophesied and said : This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it ; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. Thou art the Rod of Jesse, whereof Isaiah spake, even the Rod whose flower is Christ, and whose offshoots shall choke out all the seedlings of sin, and fill the earth with plants of grace.

And now we, the people of God, a holy generation, an acceptable congregation, the nestlings of the dove of peace, the children of grace do with purified minds and unpolluted lips, praise God in the tongues of all nations on this joyful solemnity of the Virgin. This is a noble feast wherein the Angels keep holiday and men do most fitly offer praise, even a feast wherein we echo with reverence and joy that salutation first spoken by Gabriel. Hail Mary! Hail, thou Paradise of God the Father, whence the knowledge of him floweth in broad rivers to the ends of the earth. Hail, Dwelling-place of God the Son, whence he came forth clothed in flesh. Hail, mysterious Tabernacle of God the Holy Ghost. Hail, thou that art full of grace, the Lord is with thee, even the Lord that is before thee, and from thee, and that now is with us. To him, with the Father, and the most holy and lifegiving Spirit, be ascribed all praise, now and ever, world without end. Amen.

Dec. 9th, Second Day in the Octave of the Conception of BVM

 

A Homily by St. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem


When the blessed Angel was sent to the most pure Virgin, what did he say? In what words did he break the happy news of redemption? Hail, that that art full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Now this word hail in the original signifieth Rejoice. This this messenger of joy in his first word biddeth her rejoice. He knew well that his message was one of good tidings of great joy to men, yea, to all creatures, a message of healing to sicknesses. He knew well that his message was one of God’s light to a dark world, that it proclaimed the end of error, that it blunted the sting of death, that it broke the power of corruption, that it brought victory over hell. He knew well that it told of salvation to all the fallen children of Adam, groaning under that yoke of malediction which fell on them when they were thrust out of Eden, and banished from that happy home.

Wherefore, when he began to speak, he spake in tones of rejoicing, and opened his message with sounds of gladness. Therefore he made Joy the herald of these tidings of good things where were to be for a joy unto all believers. And, of a truth, it was fitting that God’s proclamation of joy should open with the accents of gladness. And this s the reason why the Angel nameth joy first, because he knew that the coming fruits of his message, and his converse with the Virgin, were to bring joy to the whole world. Can we find any joy or any brightness like the joy and the brightness of that salutation addressed to the Blessed Mother of Holy Joys?

Who will hold himself able to tell of all thy splendour? Thou art the exaltation of humanity ; thou art made much higher that the Angels ; thy brightness hath thrown the brightness of the Archangels into shadow ; thou lookest down upon the lofty seats of the Thrones ; thou makest the height of the Lordships to seem low ; thy rank taketh precedence before the rank of the Principalities ; compared with thee the Powers are weakness ; thou art a mighty one mightier than all the Mights ; thine earthly eyes see further than the contemplation of the Cherubim can reach ; the Seraphim have six wings, but thy flight is nobler than theirs. In a word, thou hast far excelled every other work of God ; for thou wast of a purity beyond any other creature ; and thou hast conceived the Creator of all creatures, carried him in thy womb, and brought him forth ; thou hast been chosen, out of all that he hath made, to be his Mother.

Dec. 6, Saint Nicholas, Bishop and Confessor

Dec. 6, Saint Nicholas, Bishop and Confessor
Nicholas was a most holy bishop of Myra in Asia Minor, who died about the year 352, and was there buried, and thence onwards held in highest veneration. Histories agree that he suffered imprisonment for the Faith, and made a glorious confession thereof in the latter part of Diocletian’s persecution, and that he was one of the conciliar fathers at Nicea. But the extraordinary devotion to him from the earliest days, which hath but increased with time, in the West as well as in the East, would seem to be the fruit of his saintliness and his consequent glory with God. * In the West he is reverenced as the patron of children, because of his miracles wrought to protect their innocence, and because of the prodigies of his own precocious devotion ; whereof it is related that as an infant he kept the fasts prescribed for adults, and hence never suckled more than once on Wednesdays and Fridays, and that always after sunset, according to the Canon Law of that day. Exemplifying his great charity is his secret aid to a certain poor man with three marriageable daughters, who for want of a dowry were in danger of being forced into harlotry ; he went to their house by night, and threw in a window ( some tellings make it the chimney) money sufficient for a dowry ; and this he did a second and third time, so that by his charity all three were honorably given in marriage. * In the East he is reverenced as the patron of sailors because, at their behest, he stilled a great tempest by his prayers whilst journeying by ship on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land ; so that the eastern greeting to seafarers is : May Saint Nicholas hold the tiller. Also, on his return from this pilgrimage, he came to Myra when the bishops of the province were deliberating as to the choice of a bishop for that See ; and they were warned to choose the first man that next crossed the threshold of the church, which same was Nicholas, who entered therein to make his devotions. By the Russians he is accounted with Saint Andrew the joint Patron of their nation. In addition to this, he is reckoned as the Patron also of Greece, Apulia, Sicily, and Lorraine. In 1034 his great shrine at Myra passed into the hands of the Saracens, whereat the merchants of Venice and Bari tried to outbid each other for the ransom of his relicks, and in 1087 the latter were permitted to carry them to Bari in Apulia, where they are still venerated by pilgrims from all over the world.

Collect:

O God, who didst adorn thy blessed Bishop Saint Nicholas, with power to work many and great miracles, grant, we beseech thee that by his prayers and merits we may be delivered from the fires of everlasting torment, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Saint Andrew the Apostle, November 30

Saint Andrew the Apostle

Saint Andrew the first called

The Apostle Andrew, who was blood-brother to Peter, was born at Bethsaida, a town of Galilee. He first became a disciple of the Baptist. But when he heard John say : Behold the Lamb of God : he straightway became a disciple of Jesus, to whom he brought his brother Peter also. Some while after, when they went fishing in the Sea of Galilee, the Lord Christ came by and called them both, before any other of the Apostles, in the words : Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Whereat without delay they left their nets, and followed him. After the death and resurrection of Christ, according to the ancient historian Eusebius, Andrew was allotted European Scythia as the province of his preaching Other ancient writers say that he went through Epirus and Thrace, and there turned many souls to Christ by his teaching and wondrous works. Finally he is said to have gone to Patras in Achaia, and to have brought many there also to the knowledge of Gospel truth. The particulars of his death were written down by the priests and deacons of Achaia, which same were eye-witnesses of his last sufferings. According to this account, when Aegeas the Proconsul resisted the preaching of the Gospel, the Apostle freely rebuked him, bidding him know that whilst he set himself up as a judge of his fellow men, he was himself in such wise deceived by evil spirits that he was unable to recognize the divine Judge of all men in the person of Christ.
And according to the aforementioned record, blessed Andrew’s martyrdom was on this wise. Aegeas answered the Apostle wrathfully, saying: Boast no more of this matter, for thy Lord Christ spake words even such as thine, but they availed him not, and he was crucified by the Jews. Whereto Andrew boldly answered that Christ of his own will had given himself up to die for man’s salvation. But the Proconsul with blasphemy interrupted him, and bade him look to his own interests ; and if he would save himself, to sacrifice to the gods. Then said Andrew : We have an altar, whereon day by day I offer up to God Almighty, the one and only true God: not the flesh of bulls nor the blood of goats, but a Lamb without spot ; and when all they that believe have eaten of the Flesh thereof, the Lamb that was slain abideth whole and liveth. Then Aegeas, filled with wrath, bound the Apostle in prison. Now the people could easily have accomplished his deliverance, were it not that he himself calmed them, and earnestly besought them not to take from him the crown of martyrdom, for which he longed, and which was drawing near.
And it is said that a short while thereafter, Andrew was brought before the judgement-seat, where he extolled the Mystery of the Cross, and again rebuked Aegeas for his ungodliness. Whereupon Aegeas would bear with him no longer, but commanded him to be crucified, in imitation of Christ. Then was Andrew led to the cross. And when as yet he saw it afar off, he cried out : O gracious cross, made so fair and goodly by the sweet body of my Lord! Long have I desired thee! Constantly have I sought thee! And now that thou art made ready, my soul is drawn to thee! Welcome me from amongst men, and join me anew to my Master, that as by thee in death he redeemed me, so by thee he may take me unto himself once and for all! So he was fastened to the cross, whereon he hung living for two whole days, during which time he ceased not to preach the Faith of Christ, and finally, passed into the presence of him the likeness of whose death he had loved so well. Under the Emperor Constantine the relicks of the Apostle were first taken to Constantinople, whence they were afterwards brought to Amalfi. But in the pontificate of Pope Pius II his head was carried to Rome, where it is kept in the Basilica of Saint Peter, that the relicks of these two blood-brothers might be nigh each other. Blessed Andrew is revered as the Patron of Scotland and Russia, and his name is twice read in the Gregorian Canon ; namely, first in the Canon proper, and secondly in the Embolism.
　

Antiphon of the Magnificat:

One of the two which followed the Lord was Andrew, * Simon Peter’s brother, Alleluia.

Collect:

Almighty God, who didst give such grace unto thy holy Apostle Saint Andrew, that he readily obeyed the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed him without delay : grant unto us all , that we, being called by thy holy Word, may forthwith give up ourselves obediently to fulfil thy holy commandments, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Antiphon on the Benedictus:

And the bystanders pleaded for him: Spare this innocent man! Restore to us this holy one! Slay not him that is so dear to God! * for he is just and meek and godly.

A Homily by Saint Gregory the Pope

Dearly beloved, ye have heard how Peter and Andrew, at one word of command, left their nets, and followed their Saviour. As yet they had seen none of his miracles. As yet they had received no promise of their eternal and exceeding great reward. Nevertheless, at one word from the Lord they forgat all those things which they seemed to have. We on the contrary have seen many of his miracles. We have received many of his gracious chastenings. Many times hath he warned us of the wrath to come. How is it then that when the Lord calleth we do not follow?
Christ who calleth us to be converted is now enthroned in heaven. He hath bowed the necks of the Gentiles under the yoke of the Faith. He hath laid low the glory of the world, and the ruins thereof on all sides do preach unto us that day when he is to be revealed as our Judge is drawing nigh. Yet so stubborn is our mind that we will not freely abandon what willy nilly we are each day losing. Dearly beloved, what shall we answer at his judgement-seat, we whom no lessons can persuade and no stripes can break from the love of this present world?
Some one perchance will ask in his heart, what these two fishermen had to lose by obeying the call of the Lord? Dearly beloved, we must consider here the intention, rather than the loss incurred by this obedience. He that keepeth nothing for himself giveth up much. He that sacrificeth his all, sacrificeth what is to him a great deal. Beyond doubt, we cling to whatever we have, and what we have least, that we desire most. Peter and Andrew therefore gave up much when they gave up even the desire of possessing anything.

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr

Catherine of Alexandria, since the tenth century, hath been held in great veneration, and that more in the West than in the East. She is esteemed as the Patroness of learned folk and of wheel-wrights and millers, and the Dominicans have adopted her as one of their Patrons. Her fame is as follows. She was a noble maiden of Alexandria who became, through her studies, a very learned woman, and prevailed over the chief wits of the day. * And she went boldly to Maxentius, and rebuked him for his savage cruelty toward Christians, bringing forward likewise most sage reasons why the Faith of Christ should be needful for salvation. Maxentius marveled at her wisdom, and detained her, whilst he gathered together the most learned men from all quarters, and offered them great rewards if they could confute Catherine, and bring her to worship idols. But the event fell contrariwise, for many of the philosophers who had come to dispute with her were overcome by the force and skill of her reasoning, so that the love of Christ Jesus was kindled in them, and they were content even to die for his sake. Then did Maxentius strive to beguile Catherine with fair words and promises, and when he found it was lost pains, he caused her to be cast into prison and starved. * Afterwards Catherine was brought out of the ward, and a wheel was set, wherein were fastened many and sharp blades, so that her virgin body might be most direfully cut and torn in pieces. But when it was set in motion it flew to pieces, which so enraged Maxentius that he forthwith commanded to behead Catherine. So, on November 25, about the year 310, she attained the twin crowns of martyrdom and virginity. It is said that her body was carried by Angels to Mount Sinai, and there enshrined, in the famous monastery called by her name. And this by some writers is interpreted to mean that it was carried thither by the monks of Sinai, to be their great treasure, for of old times the monastic habit was known as the angelical habit, and those that wore the same were sometimes given the honorific title of Angel, to signify that state of heavenly worship wherein they should live.

Collect:

O God, who on Mount Sinai didst give the law to Moses, and afterwards, through the ministry of holy Angels, didst mystically give rest thereon to the body of blessed Catherine thy Virgin and Martyr : grant, we beseech thee, that by her intercession, we may be brought unto that mountain which is Christ, by the same thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.