Tune your heart : reflections on the offertory chants of the Sunday masses and some of the greater f


Reflections on the Offertory Chants of the

Sunday Masses and some of the greater

Feasts.

iy ^/aciJus

Price twenty-five cents

a Grail Publication

St. M e I n r a d, n d I a n a





Reflections on the Offertory Chants of the

Sunday Masses and some of the greater

Feasts.

lif ^UciJus

Price twenty-five cents

a Grail Publication

St. Meinrad, Indiana



Imprimi Potest:

Ignatius Esser, O.S.B.

Abbot of St Meinrad's Abbey

Nihil Obstat:

Francis J, Reine, S.T,D,
Censor librorum

Imprimatur:

^ Paul C, Schulte, D,D,
Archbishop of Indianapolis

November 28, 1950

These Reflectians are reprinted from THE MASS
YEAR for 1950.

Copyright, 1950

by
St. Meinrad^s Abbey, Inc.



TUNE YOUR HEART

What is in a word? By transposing a single
letter — “s** — you can change "Offerings’* into
"Offer—sing." These two words remind you of
your daily duty that, while you "offer" yourself

with the Divine Victim on the altar, your heart

should "sing", that is, should be filled with the

proper dispositions. These are furnished to you

by the Offertory Chant that is said by the priest

before offering the sacrificial elements, and sung
(or recited) by the choir whilst he is doing so.

Sipce today the "Offertory Procession" consists

In one or more ushers going up and down the
aisles of the church at this part of the Mass to
collect the money offerings of the attending faith-
ful, it will be well briefly to recall the original

purpose of the Offertory Procession and the Of-
fertory Chants In order to use the latter to give
you the "pitch" according to which you should
"tune your heart."

From apostolic times until about the eleventh
century there was always a procession at the
Offertory during the celebration of the Holy Mys-
teries. All the faithful who were to be admitted
to the table of the Lord, and only these, were
authorized and at the same time bound to offer
their gifts at the Offertory. Bread and wine were
brought as offerings from which the materials of
the sacrifice were selected. But besides these gifts
placed in the service of Christ, the faithful
brought other material gifts for the support of
His Head, the priests, and also for His Feet, for
the relief of the poor. The procession of the

3



priests and faithful at the Offertory was accom-
panied by singing in order to excite and foster
a joyful disposition in the givers, since “God
loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7).

The form of the Offertory song was an anti-
phon and several verses of a psalm, or even an
entire psalm, if such was demanded by the length
of the procession. At present the Offertory is a

shorter or longer verse, usually taken from the

Psalms, sometimes from the other books of Holy

Scripture, and only a few are composed by the
Church herself. The verse gives expression to the
dominant thought of the feast or mystery cele-
brated that day, and thus strengthens our festal
dispositions, awakens new thoughts and feelings
with which we should offer, not merely our tithe
of material gifts to the usher, but the gift of

ourselves with the Offering on the altar. It is
for this purpose that the thoughts in the Offertory

chant of the Sundays and principal feasts are
given here—to serve as a little dry stick for your
fire of devotion. They presuppose the fire of
love and devotion in your heart. This is made
and kept alive by often recalling the significance
of making your offering.

A gift represents the giver; it is the manifesta-
tion of his love and affection for another; it is,
in a way, the offering of his heart and of himself.
By your offering at Mass you surrender yourself
to God. The Offertory gifts are bread and wine;
bread, the symbol of man’s labor, earned in the
sweat of his brow; wine, the symbol of suffering,
for the grapes are crushed in the wine press.
You offer the bread of your labor and the wine
of your sufferings—your whole self.

4



Feast of the Circumcision

EARTH JOINS HEAVEN

‘‘Thine are the heavens and thine is the earth**

(Ps. 88:12).

Today, when the eight-day-old Divine Infant
receives His Most Holy Name of Jesus, so con-
soling to us because it means “Savior,” we are
reminded that heaven really touches earth in

His Person, for He is both God and man. Both
were essential to fulfil His divine mission of

Savior. As God He could not suffer for man's
sins; as mere man His great and lifelong suf-
fering would not have been able to atone for

the infinite malice of sin. Because His human
sufferings were endured by His Divine Person,

the least of these, yes, the smallest human act
that He performed, such as a mere sigh, would
have sufficed for atoning for the guilt of all

sins of all men. The fact that He chose suffer-
ing, and today begins His life of suffering by

experiencing the pain of circumcision in His

most tender Body, is but a proof of His infinite

love of us, and an encouraging example for us

to suffer as gladly as He did all the little pains
the Heavenly Father inflicts on us out of love

to wean us from the earth and to draw us up
to heaven, “to live in this present world a life

of order, of justice, and of holiness” (Epistle).

6



Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus
IN THY NAME

“ThoU/ O Lord, art sweet and mild and plenteous
in mercy” (Ps. 85:5).

A person's name may be called his second self.
It not only distinguishes him from every other
human being, but also calls to mind his personal
characteristics. In the Name of the Lord the
Psalmist finds “sweetness, mildness, and mercy.”

The Heavenly Father Himself chose the Most
Holy Name of Jesus for His Son. Explaining
the words of the Canticle of Canticles, “Thy
name is as oil poured out” (1:2), St. Bernard
says: “The Name of Jesus bears resemblance
to oil in the threefold use to which the latter

lends itself, namely, for lighting, for food, and

for healing. It feeds the fiame, it nourishes the

flesh, it soothes pain. It is light, and food, and

medicine. Consider now how the same proper-
ties belong to the Bridegroom's name. When
preached, it gives light

;
when meditated, it

nourishes; when invoked, it soothes and soft-
ens There is nothing so efficacious as the

Name of Jesus for restraining the violence
of anger, depressing the swellings of pride,

healing the smarting wound of envy, curbing
the passions of the flesh, extinguishing the fire

of concupiscence, tempering the thirst of av-

arice, and banishing every unlawful desire.

... So salutary is it, that it shall never prove

ineffectual against any spiritual ailment what-

soever.”

6



Feast of the Epiphany

WHEN KINGS SERVE

“All kings of the earth shall adore him" (Ps.

71 : 11 ).

A ruler of a nation is the head of his people.
He performs towards them the functions that
the head performs to the members of the human
body. A head without a body, or a body without
a head cannot live and function properly. The
head ^oes not live for itself, but only to ‘'serve'*

the bodily members by directing them and pro-
viding for their needs, in a word, by seeking
always the common good. A good ruler will do
just that. Need we wonder, then, if the best
and greatest Ruler, the King of Kings, should
do the same? He “Who for us men and for our
salvation came down from heaven" (Creed).
Through their official representatives, the Three
Kings, the nations of the East adored the new-
born Savior, whilst these rulers in turn showed
their subjection to Him by the royal gifts they
offered Him. Through our official representative
at God's court, the altar, we offer our gift, a
little wheaten wafer, which the King will change
into Himself and then give back to us, that He
may serve us and our soul's needs. What a
beautiful example of complete submission and
service! Shall we still find it hard to serve our
God by making the constant offering of our will
to His?

7



Feast of the Holy Family

OUR FAMILY TREE

“The parents of Jesus carried Him to Jerusalem”

(St. Luke 2:22).

Family trees are interesting subjects of study,
whether we consider the individual fruit (good
and bad), the interlacing limbs, or the common
root. But these show merely that we are chil-
dren of Adam and his relatives in the nth de-
gree. Each morning we are offered another
simple study that shows us that we belong also,
and especially to the holy family of God, that

we are brothers and sisters of Christ, the Son
of God, and our elder Brother. In His humanity
Jesus united Himself to the whole human race.
He became a child of Adam in order to redeem
all the sons and daughters of Adam together
with their first, common parents. Because of
His death on the Cross they live a new life;
they share in the very life of God by sanctify-
ing grace. Not content with giving Himself for
all men, our Elder Brother gives Himself to all

men in the Holy Eucharist, to perfect the initial
grace of baptism. It is humanly impossible toi
trace our human lineage back to Adam, our
earthly father. It is a very simple task to trace

our lineage to the Creator of our soul, our

Heavenly Father. By a single step, through
Jesus, we are at our goal, we are one with God.

8



Sunday within the Octave of the Epiphany

FAITH AND REVERENCE

“For the Lord, He is God” (Ps. 99:3).

Psalm 99 is a thanksgiving hymn of those
entering the temple. What a hymn of thanks-
giving must have been chanted by Mary's throb-

bing heart when, after a fruitless search of

three days she again heard the familiar voice

and gkzed upon the well-known face of her Boy
in the temple! Yet, her maternal emotions were

held in check by her reverence and her faith,

for “He is God!” The same Christ is hidden
in our temples, awaiting all who seek Him in
faith. In a few moments our gift will be “The
Lord,” and we shall adore Him with reverence,
for “He is God.” Our faith should not merely
make us reverent in our external bearing before
our God, but above all in our dispositions of

mind and heart. It should close the church door,
so that our thoughts do not wander “among
kinsfolk and acquaintances,” drawing our heart
and its affections away from Christ to earthly
things. Should not gratitude chain our hearts

to the altar before which we “sing joyfully to
God,” our Creator and Shepherd, for “He made
us, and we are His people, and the sheep of
His pasture . . . The Lord is good, his mercy is
forever, and his faithfulness from generation
to generation” (Ps. 99:3,6).

9



2nd Sunday after Epiphany

COME AND HEAR
“What great things the Lord hath done for my
soul” (Ps. 65:16).

Taking up our pen we add up, with Father
Faber, the things that go to the saving of a

single soul. It was absolutely necessary that God
should become man, according to the dispensa-
tion of God. It was absolutely necessary that
Jesus should be born, teach, act, pray, merit,

satisfy, suffer, bleed, die; that there should be

a Catholic Church, faith, sacraments, saints, the

Pope, and the Sacrifice of the Mass; that there

should be sanctifying grace, manifold actual

graces ; that martyrs must die, doctors must
write, popes and councils must expose and con-
demn heresy, missionaries must travel, priests
must be ordained. When, after these prepara-
tions, by an act of merciful omnipotence the
soul is created out of nothing, a Guardian Angel

must be appointed over it. All through its life
Jesus must be occupied about it; all the angels
and saints must pray and interest themselves
about it. Unseen evil spirits have to be warded
off from it. The Precious Blood has to be com-
municated to it through extraordinary sacra-

ments. The Body, Soul, and Divinity of the
Incarnate Word have to be communicated to it
over and over again, till it becomes quite a

common occurrence, though each time it is in
reality a more stupendous action than the crea-
tion of the world.

10



3rd Sunday after Epiphany

I WILL

“The right hand of the Lord hath wrought
strength” (Ps. 117:16).

A strong man, beyond a doubt, was Atlas, the
mythological giant who supported the universe
on his shoulders, steadying it with his hands.

Greater is the strength of the “right hand” of

the Creator, for who, like Him, “hath measured
the waters in the hollow of his hand, and

weighed the heavens with his palm? who hath
poised with three fingers the bulk of the earth?”

(Is. 40:12) Yet, God the Father, the Creator
of the universe, never assumed a human body
and hence has no hands. His “right hand,” that

created all things and that sustained them in
their existence is His almighty Will. Over His
creation He placed man, a microcosm, a little
world, and in him a reminder of His right
hand—man's free will. He made man's will free,
not that he might do as he pleases, but as God
commands. Only that is the right use of his
gigantic power. God made man's will free that
he might, by his filial obedience to his Creator's
will, make a free offering or sacrifice of this
great gift and thereby merit an eternal reward.
Man can choose to obey or refuse to serve. His
present and future bliss or misery depends on
that free choice. What more agreeable offering
could we place on the altar and ask that our
will be most fully united to His—always?

n



Ath Sunday after Epiphany

TOCK! TICK!

“The right hand of the Lord hath exalted me“
(Ps. 117:16).

Psalm 117 was a thanksgiving song used at
the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles. The heart of
the psalmist overflows with joy in the Lord, Who
has been his Savior so many times in answer
to his pleading prayer. The history of the
chosen people might be compared to the pendu-
lum of a gigantic grandfather’s clock with its
mighty tock (won’t) tick (will), sounding its
turning away from and again back to God. Israel
wilfully turned away from God and was rightly
punished. Punishment gave time for reflection,
followed by repentance and return to God. Psalm
77 lists God’s benefits to His people, but they

soon forgot His benefits and rebelled against

Him. Yet, even when inflicting punishment upon
the ingrates, the Psalmist says: ‘‘Many a time

did He turn away His anger, and did not kindle
all His wrath. And He remembered that they
are flesh: a wind that goeth and returneth not”

(Ps. 77:38,39). He was true to His promise:
“I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee:
for I will utterly consume all the nations, among
whom I have scattered thee: but I will not ut-
terly consume thee: but I will chastise thee in

judgment, that thou mayest not seem to thyself

innocent” (Jer. 30:11). Despite your own past
infidelities Jesus will soon be present again on

the altar as your Redeemer.

12



5th Sunday after Epiphany

I SHALL LIVE

“I shall not die but live” (Ps. 117:17).

Periodically God had to reassure His chosen
people with the comforting words: ‘‘God made
not death, neither hath He pleasure in the de-
struction of the living” (Wisd. 1:13). “I desire

not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord
God, r%tum ye and live” (Ez. 18:32). “Say to
them, as I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not
the death of the wicked, but that the wicked
turn from his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye
from your evil ways : and why will you die, 0
house of Israel?” (Ez. 33:11) From the past
they could predict the future. God, who does
not change, will remain true*to His word. Hence

we know that we shall not succumb to our just
punishment, but shall live because of the merits

of the Savior, Who is to be born of our race.
But that word “shall” can mean more than a
mere future event. It can and must mean the
“firm determination of each man's will” to turn

from the way of sin and consequent, self-in-
flicted spiritual death, and the return to God,

the Author and Restorer of the life of the soul
by sanctifying grace. Just as sin is self-willed,

so must also the return to spiritual life begin
with our repentant will, moved and aided by
grace.

13



6th Sunday after Epiphany

TELEVISION

“I shall declare the works of the Lord” (Ps.

117 : 17 ).

For a fourth time the same verses of Ps. 117
are used for the Offertory Chant. The ‘‘wonder-
ful works of the Lord” which have been brought
before our eyes during this Christmas season,

and which we should declare or broadcast to the
whole world, are those which He alone could
and did perform. God’s Incarnation and birth

“is wonderful in our eyes” (v. 23). That the

Creator should become a creature, and conceal

His divine majesty beneath the form of a lowly
Infant, that Infinite Riches should become poor.
Almighty Power, helpless. Eternal Glory, unat-
tractive, Boundless ‘Freedom, wrapped in swad-
dling clothes. Divine Immensity, cramped into a
little crib, this is, indeed, the “Lord’s doing,”

and the greatest of all His wonderful works, the

source of all His wonders of grace and glory.

In a few moments that Power will repeat these
marvels for us in the mystery of transubstantia-

tion to which we shall be witnesses. The Holy
Eucharist is the memorial of all God’s wonderful

works, indeed, the greatest of His works, for,

as Father Faber reminds us, God performs
twelve miraculous actions in this single mystery.

And we make it possible for the Almighty to
do so by our offering of the host.

14



Septuagesima Sunday

PRAISE HIM

“It is good to give praise to the Lord” (Ps. 91:2).

The violet color of the priest's vestments and
of the tabernacle veil reminds us that we are
entering upon a season of penance, are begin-

ning our remote preparation for the sabbath

of Easter. Psalm 91, a “canticle for the sab-

bath,” reminds us that the Holy Sacrifice should

be a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for the

grace of true conversion. The soul can celebrate
its “sabbath” or “rest” only if it is free from
sin and united to God. The repentant soul sings

:

“0 Lord, Thou hast given me a great delight
in Thy merciful doings in my soul when Thy
all-powerful Hand wrought my conversion. How
great are the wonders that Thou performest in
a soul's return to Thee ; how deep are Thy
thoughts, the designs of Thy boundless mercy,
which the senseless man in his stupidity and
folly does not recognize. I was a miserable sin-
ner, a blade of grass, useless, spared only for

the sickle and the fire. Then Thy eye looked
upon me in pity, and from a weed I became a
royal palm tree and a majestic cedar tree, deeply

rooted in Thee, and striving upwards towards
heaven, green with the foliage of grace and

laden with its blossoms and ripening fruits.

Truly it is fitting and just to give praise to
the Lord, Whose grace has wrought this change
in me.”

15



Sexagesima Sunday

HELP IN NEED

“Show forth Thy wonderful mercies’* (Ps. 16:7).

In Psalm 16 David, who by God’s help has
kept his heart and lips guileless, cries to the

Lord, “his justice” in his dire need. After free-

ing the inhabitants of Ceila from the Philistines,
David and his 600 men fled from before the
face of Saul to a mountain of the desert of

Ziph. The Ziphites told Saul of David’s where-
abouts and the king pursued David in the wil-

derness of Maon. When David saw himself
surrounded by his enemies and “despaired of
being able to escape from the face of Saul”
(I Kings 23:26), he poured out his heart to the

Lord in the verses of Psalm 16, and not in vain.
At the moment of greatest danger a messenger
came to tell Saul that the Philistines had
“poured in themselves upon the land. Wherefore

Saul returned, leaving the pursuit of David,

and went to meet the Philistines. For this cause
they called that place, the Rock of division”
(v.27,28). Our “Rock of Help” is the altar stone,
our new Mount Calvary, where our soul’s enemy
was and is vanquished. It is this confidence
that gives strength to our petitions. We have
but to see that we, also, by God’s over-abundant
help, keep our heart and lips guileless as
David did.

16



Quinquagesima Sunday

LIVE OR DIE

“Teach me Thy justifications” (Ps. 118:12).

Psalm 118 is not only the longest Psalm in

the Psalter, but its 176 verses are divided into

twenty-two sections according to the letters of

the Hebrew alphabet (that we may learn it from
our infancy), and each of the eight verses that

form the individual sections begin with the same
letter. Furthermore, as the whole Psalm con-
tains the praises of the Lord and His holy

“Law,” each verse, except the 122nd, contains
the word “law” or a synonym. The term used
in the verse of today's chant is “justifications”

or “statutes.” The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
reminds us of God's first statute or law that He
promulgated in the Garden of Eden, when He
told Adam: “Of the tree of knowledge of good
and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day
soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the

death” (Gen. 2:17). By eating of the forbidden
fruit, Adam and Eve committed spiritual suicide,
and it was only by Christ's death on the Cross
that that life in God through sanctifying grace
was again made possible to their soul-dead chil-
dren. At Holy Mass we should learn to die to
self, the cause of our sins and consequent spir-
itual death, and to live for Christ.

17



1st Sunday of Lent

SAFE!

“Under His wings thou shalt trust” (Ps. 90:4).

Jesus uses a well-known comparison to show
His touching solicitude for His people when He
says : “Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . How often I
would have gathered thy children together, as

a hen gathers her young under her wings, but
thou wouldst not” (St. Luke 13:34). The Psalm-
ist in Psalm 90 uses the same image, and the
Offertory Chant today would put his trust into
our hearts. The “shoulders” that overshadow
us are those of Christ upon the Cross, Who
took our sins upon Himself. Under His out-
stretched “wings” or arms we can safely hide
from the just anger of our Heavenly Father.
Holy Mass is the continuation of the sacrifice
of Christ on the Cross. His shoulders and arms
still give us protection. It has been said that

when the Heavenly Father’s just anger has been
aroused by the crimes that rise up to Him from
every portion of the inhabited globe, and He
raises His Hand to strike the criminals. He
sees there the outstretched arms of His well-
beloved Son in Holy Mass or in the Real Pres-
ence in that portion of the globe pleading for

pardon, and He is appeased. Under this “shield”
we shall be safe, whether we are actually assist-
ing at Holy Mass, or uniting in spirit with all

the Holy Masses being offered each moment of
the day and night on the globe.

18



2nd Sunday of Lent

THINK AND DO

“I will lift up my hands to Thy commandments”
(Ps. 118:48).

The words of today's Offertory may be called
”true to nature.” If you hold an object before

a child, its bodily eyes will see the beauty of

the object and send a secret message of appre-

ciation to the mind, the eye of its soul, which

will appraise the object as good, and hence de-

sirable. Flashing this message of desire to the

blind faculty, the human will, this in turn sends
a flash to the organ for seizing objects, the

human hand, which is immediately extended to
grasp and clutch the desired object. God's com-

mandments are ”good” because they are mani-
festations of His Will for our good. Hence we
should ”love” them and “lift up our hands to
them,” that is, make them our own by a faithful
observance of them. Because of our weakness

to observe God's laws faithfully, we “lift up
our hands” to Him in suppliant prayer for the
necessary help to keep them faithfully. And to
give strength to our weak hands and weaker
hearts, we join both to our Divine Intercessor
on the altar. Who “was heard because of His
reverent submission” (Heb. 5:7). Thinking,

meditating on the commandments of God will
cause us to love them, and true love will cause
us to observe them.

19



3rd Sunday of Lent

GOD’S LAWS

“Thy servant keepeth them” (Ps. 18:12).

The theme of Psalm 18 is—”God’s praise in
nature, and God’s praise in the Law.” God’s
law is the “sun” for the invisible world of the

soul. Like the straight, unbroken, cheering rays

of the sun the “justices of the Lord shine down,”
rejoicing hearts. “The commandment of the
Lord is lightsome, enlightening the eyes.” Just

as the light of day permits man to see and act
rightly, and avoid dangers, so the light of God’s

commandments, by commanding and forbidding,
becomes the “sun” of man’s moral world, mak-
ing him by this light to see and serve God.
Furthermore, the “judgments of the Lord are
more to be desired than gold and many precious
stones and sweeter than honey and the honey-

comb.” God’s law surpasses in worth the most

precious and prized treasures of earth. If gold
is king in the mineral kingdom, beautiful to the

eye because of its pure sun-like gleam, compared
with the brightness and beauty of God’s law,
with its undefiled, heavenly purity, it is as worth-

less as the dust of the earth. And in the realm
of taste, if honey holds the first place, far more
“tasty” and soul-satisfying and nourishing is
God’s law. Realizing all this, God’s servant must
show his appreciation of these treasures by
“keeping them.” Only in this way do they be-
come the soul’s possession.

20



Fourth Sunday of Lent

REST A BIT

“Sing ye to His Name” (Ps. 134:3).

Holy Mother Church has led her children half
way through the desert of Lent and permits
them to rest a bit at the oasis of Mid-Lent or
Laetare Sunday. In anticipation of Easter’s

joys the choir praises the “Lord’s goodness” and
the “sweetness of His Name.” “Whatsoever the
Lord pleased He hath done, in heaven, on earth,
in the sea, and in the deeps. He bringeth up
clouds from the end of the earth : He hath made
lightnings for the rain. He bringeth forth winds
out of His stores” (v.6,7). Just as God rescued
the Children of Israel “by signs and wonders,”

so He also works great wonders of grace and
conversion in eager, docile souls. Lenten ser-

mons, instruction, and reading are the grace-

laden clouds that He brings from the end of
the earth. Their “lightning” produces soul-re-

freshing rain, torrents of penitential tears, and

rejuvenating comfort. God’s word is like the
‘winds” from His storehouse of truth and life.

Hence the Prophet Ezechiel prayed : “Come,

spirit, from the four winds, and blow upon these

slain, and let them live again” (37:9). “God
punishes sin, threatens with divine judgment,

instructs in matters of faith and morals, and

encourages to progress in holiness,” says Car-

dinal Hugo.

21



Passion Sunday

EAT AND LIVE

“EnlFven me according to Thy word” (Ps.
118:107).

Life, or the vital energy in our body, is

continually being used up by a chemical process

that may be likened to the fire that consumes
the fuel in the home furnace. This is speeded up
by hard, strength-consuming work, or by con-
flicting causes from without. In a similar way
our supernatural life, or its energy and power
of activity, is consumed by the heat of the pas-
sions, by strenuous exertion, and by resisting
temptations from without and within. Hence it

must constantly be renewed and increased, like
our bodily life, by proper nourishment. Just as

our bodily life is fed by the matter that the

body assimilates from the proper food, so also
our supernatural life is fed by spiritual food.
The highest type of soul-nourishment are the
Body and Blood of Christ. The soul, however,
does not assimilate, that is, change Christ, re-

ceived in Holy Communion, into herself, but
rather it is He Who changes the soul into Him-
self, into being like Him. That this Food is
destined for the soul, as well as Its effects, we
learn from Christ's “word.” “I am the living
bread that came down from heaven. If anyone
eat of this bread he shall life forever; and the

bread that I will give is my flesh for the life
of the world” (St. John 6:52).

22



Palm Sunday

DRINK!

“In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink”
(Ps. 68:22).

During His bitter Passion, whilst exteriorly

He remained mute as a lamb, it is thought that
Jesus silently and constantly prayed those pas-

sages of the Psalms* that referred to His suffer-

ings, as they now found their fulfilment in Him.
Concerning the drink mentioned in Psalm 68,
St. Matthew tells us: “They gave him wine to
drink mixed with gall; but when he had tasted
it, he would not drink” (27:34). Because Jesus

wanted to feel the full torture of His painful

crucifixion and cruel death. He would not drink
this mixture that was destined to deaden his
sense of feeling pain. He merely tasted it to
thank the sympathetic hand that had mixed it
for Him. The night before the Heavenly Fa-
ther offered Him through the cupbearer Death
a cup into which had been poured all the gall,

vinegar, and bitterness of Good Friday. Yet,
His excruciating bodily pains are nothing com-
pared to the moral filth and bitterness that this

cup contained—all the thoughtlessness, infidelity,
sensuality, forgetfulness of duty, dishonesty,

indifference—things which people of the world
drink down like flies, but which cause indescrib-
able horror to the most tender conscience of the
God-man. “Can you drink of the cup I am about
to drink?” (St. Matth. 20:22)

23



Easter Sunday

SILENCE!

“The earfh trembled and was still” (Ps. 75 :9 ],

The short Offertory today is very dramatic.
It reminds us of a large hall crowded with eager

listeners. The chairman raps for silence, and,
in the deathlike stillness that follows, makes his
introductory remarks and introduces the speaker.
Today all eyes are riveted on the stage—the
empty tomb. Now the glorious figure of the
risen Savior appears, and He gives His Easter
greeting: “Take courage; it is I, do not be

afraid” (St. Matth. 11:27). “I am with you all
days, even to the consummation of the world”

(St. Matth. 28:20). The small, white Host is
His new tomb. In a few moments the appear-
ance of bread will be the stone that envelops

and seals His glorified Body. No angel will re-
move this stone. His Body will not pass through
this sacramental seal, but with it will enter into

our souls. His glorified resting place for all the

days of our earthly life. We need not go far to
seek and find Him, merely to the nearest church
with its communion rail. He comes. Our glad
soul trembles with Easter joy. It is still—its
varied emotions are merged into one—the bliss-
ful rest of heavenly peace brought by the risen
Savior.

24



Low Sunday

LIVE WIRES

“He has risen** (St. Matth. 28:5).

At dawn of the first Easter Sunday “Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the
sepulchre** (St. Matth. 28:1). The empty tomb
was to be the microphone with which an angel

from heaven was to deliver his message. “Do
not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus,
who was crucified. He is not here, for he has
risen even as he said ... Go quickly and tell his
disciples that he has risen** (St. Matth. 28:5-7).

Here is the broadcasting station. The fearing,
doubting Apostles, scattered throughout the city

are the audience. What is needed are “live
wires** to carry the glad message to the eager

audience. The two Marys, fired by faith and
love, are the living wires that carry the glad

tidings back to Jerusalem. “They departed
quickly from the tomb in fear and great joy,
and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus
met them, saying, “Hail!** And they came up
and embraced his feet and worshipped him** (St.
Matth. 28:8-9). What a reward for living faith
and love! A “live wire** must carry the message
of meeting Jesus at Holy Mass to all His breth-
ren who were not there this morning.

26



2nd Sunday after Easter

GOOD MORNING!

“To Thee do I watch at break of day*’ (Ps. 62:2).

Psalm 62 is one of the most intimate and

deeply emotional songs of the Psalter. Tender-

ness, truth, and warmth characterize it. It is
an expression of pure, confident love of God.

In the desert, night has spread her black cloak

over the earth. Thousands of stars glitter in

the sky, symbols of God’s watchful eye. David,

worried and wearied, had not slept. Now a
streak of light over the earth heralds the ap-

proaching day. The purple fingers of dawn play
on the harp of his heart and entice from it this
beautiful song. “0 God, my God, to Thee do I
watch at break of day.’’ The growing, golden
light penetrates into his soul and fills it with

hope and trust. However dark the night of pain,
trouble, and doubt in the human soul may be,
there is always the certainty of a coming day
of light and hope. The dawn of each day gilds
the altar, where our peace and truth, our Savior,
offers Himself for His needy children. To Him
we “watch at break of day.” In person, or at
least in intention, we begin our day at the foot
of the altar, and, whatever the new day may
have in store for us, we go to meet it with
childlike trust and confidence in God’s almighty

help.

26



Srd Sunday after Easter

PERPETUAL PRAISE

“I will sing to my God as long as I shall be"
(Ps. 145:2).

When the human soul is created by God and
infused into the material furnished by the par-

ents to form a body, it contracts original sin

and becomes a child of death. In this state, in

the prison of the body, the soul can praise only

the justice of God. But when, by the merits of
the death of Christ, the soul of the new-born

child descends, as it were, into the baptismal

font, it rises therefrom new-born, joined as a

child of God to its Creator, Savior, and Sancti-
fier by sanctifying grace. Now it sings, in the
temple of the body, the praises of God's good-

ness and mercy. In God's plan, it's stay on

earth should be but a single, uninterrupted hymn
of praise, a practice lesson for singing the

praises of God eternally in the vast cathedral
of heaven. In order to learn how to praise, to
tune itself to the proper pitch, it must attend
daily in body, or at least in spirit, the school

of the Lord's chant service—the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass. It is there that the soul learns

to become self-less and God-like. Self is the
cause of the discordant notes, the sharps and
flats in the soul's life—its sins, great and small.
At Mass the soul learns how to sustain the one
note of love in ever-increasing clearness and
volume.

27



Uh Sunday after Easter
GREAT THINGS

*‘l will tell you what great things he hath done
for my soul** (Ps. 65:16).

All these ‘‘great things*’ may be told in one
word—EVERYTHING. According to St. Paul,
Christ “emptied Himself” (Philip. 2:7). Jesus
on the Cross exclaimed: “It is consummated”
(St. John 19:30). His omnipotence, as it were,
is exhausted. He has not only done all that
was necessary to redeem and sanctify each in-
dividual human soul, but He has done all that
was possible to Him, the Almighty. He paid the
price of salvation for each human soul, but He
does not force salvation upon the soul. He does
not push souls into heaven by force. The soul
must freely accept His extended Hand by her
cooperation with the merited and offered graces

or helps. Holy Mass is, therefore, not merely the
memorial of His act of redemption, it is also

the means of accepting and applying it individu-
ally. Can you count up the number of times
that you have assisted at the Holy Sacrifice

during your past life? You cannot count up the
graces offered to you in the past; their enor-

mous number is known only to the Divine Author
and Giver. Neither can you know or count the
number you have rejected or not used for this
end. It is time today to show your gratitude
for ALL that Jesus has done for you by using
well the manifold graces He gives you today
and every day.

28



5th Sunday after Easter

ARISE!

*‘Who hath set my soul to live” (Ps. 65:9).

Again today three verses of the “Resurrection

Psalm” are taken to thank God for the sinner's
resurrection from the death of grave sin to the

supernatural life of sanctifying grace. The “ris-
en” soul is filled with true Easter joy, and all

in her sings: “Alleluia!” It is not a self-cen-

tered joy, but a joy that finds its highest trans-

port in God, the Savior, and which expresses

itself in gratitude to Him: “I will go into thy
house with burnt offerings; I will pay thee my
vows, which my lips have uttered, and my mouth
hath spoken when I was in trouble” (v. 13,14).
To the Victim on the altar the glad soul offers
herself and her slain victims. These latter are
the evil tendencies, the inordinate desires of her

heart, the roots of her sins, of her spiritual

death. To rise in God there must be a complete
death to self-will, the cause of sin. This is the

“holocaust” that is so pleasing to God. With
the help of God the soul has made that offering.
Therefore “God has not turned away her prayer
nor His mercy from her.” Now that God has
raised the soul to life, the will, with His help,
preserves and perfects it by fearing, hating, and
fleeing the death of sin.

29



Feast of the Ascension

LOOK UP!

“God is ascended with jubilee’* (Ps. 46:6).

The thirty-three years’ crusade, which the
Divine Ark led, has ended victoriously on Gol-
gotha, the leagued enemy, the world and hell,

has been conquered, and during the three day’s

rest in the grave the spoil has been gathered.

Not on the fourth, but on the fortieth day did
the glorious Conqueror return to the heavenly

Jerusalem by His triumphant ascension. God’s
victory has changed our earth into a valley of

blessings. The freed souls from Limbo and Pur-
gatory, the first trophies of redemption, intone,

with the heavenly choirs, the triumphant song

of praise in honor of their ascending King.

Gradually since then, nation after nation has

ascended and taken its place around the Divine

Victor. But His kingdom was founded then, then
He took lawful possession of His throne. Then
above Jerusalem, on the top of Mt. Olivet, at

whose base He had begun the vital conflict, the
glorious Ark rises to heaven. “0 clap your hands,
all ye nations: shout unto God with the voice
of joy. ... He has chosen for us his inheritance.
God is ascended with jubilee, and the Lord with
the sound of the trumpet . . . God sitteth on his
holy throne” (Ps. 46:2,5,6,9). Today, and every

day, we must imitate the “men of Galilee” and
keep ‘‘looking up to heaven” (Ep.) with the eyes
of faith and a heart of love.

30



Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension

FANFARE

“With the sound of the trumpet” (Ps. 46:6).

To the Apostles, who were “gazing up to
heaven as He went,” two "men in white gar-
ments said that Jesus “will come in the same
way as you have seen Him going up to heaven”
(Acts 1:10-11). Christ will come again at the
end of the world as a strict Judge. He tells us
that then we shall “see the Son of Man coming
upon the clouds of heaven with great power and
majesty. And he will send forth his angels with
a trumpet and a great sound, and they will

gather his elect from the four winds, from end
to end of the heavens” (St. Matth. 24:30-31).

Or, as St. Paul describes this great event: “The
Lord himself with cry of command, with voice
of archangel, and with trumpet of God will de-
scend from heaven” (I Thess. 4:16). We shall
not fear judgment day when it dawns, and we
are awakened from the sleep of death by the
blast of the angel's trumpet, if we use well our
few days on earth and profit by the dwelling in

our midst, on our altars, of this same Judge,
but now in the lowly form of Savior and Ser-
vant. There is no outward glory or fanfare
around this earthly throne—the altar and taber-
nacle—that we might approach Him without
fear and ever keep close to Him by love and
fidelity.

31



Pentecost Sunday

COMPLETE VICTORY

“Confirm O God, what thou hast wrought in us“
(Ps. 67:29).

From ancient times Psalm 67 was considered
a Pentecostal hymn, and like a victory march
its glad music resounds today and during the

week. Today's feast forms the climax to the

redeeming act of our Savior, and the beginning
of the triumphal march of Christ throughout
mankind. The Holy Spirit is, as it were, the
triumphal chariot or the ark of the covenant

that bears the incarnate God-King, accompanied

by the victorious nations, triumphantly up to

heaven's Mt. Sion. What David's prophetic eye
had foreseen and his words had foretold, is now
a reality. The Roman Catholic Church is now
the messianic, universal Church that comprises
all nations, and the Feast of Pentecost is the

liturgical reminder of her manifestation and

spreading. That world conquest of souls is re-

peated in the soul of each member of the uni-
versal Church, it is the conquest from a mere

foothold on the soil of our soul (conquered by

Christ in baptism), to the complete subjection

of all her powers to her lawful Lord and King.

The “kings" now offer presents, all the soul's
powers, to this King—their undivided fealty
and service. But lest they again prove traitors,
we pray most ardently that God may “confirm,"
make lasting, irrevocable this due submission.

82



Trinity Sunday

MERCY

“Bless ye the God of heaven” (Tob. 12:6).

Today’s Offertory chant, as also the Introit

and Communion, are an adaptation of the words
of the Archangel Raphael to^Tobias and his son.

“Bless ye the God of heaven, give glory to him
in the sight of all that live, because he hath

shown his mercy to you” (Tob. 12:6). The mer-
cies of God are summed up in our creation,
redemption, and sanctification. The little word
“mercy” is full of meaning. The Latin word
for mercy is “misericordia.” St. Thomas ex-
plains this word as meaning “miseria-in-corde,”
(misery into the heart). God, as it were, takes

our “misery into His Heart,” and His love im-

pels Him to relieve it, especially by forgiving
the cause of all our misery—our sins. God is
goodness and infinite love. In the presence of

misery His goodness and love become mercy. As
the Psalmist sings: “Unto thee, 0 my helper,
will I sing, for thou art God, my defense: my
God, my mercy” (Ps. 58:18). “God,” says St.
Thomas, “acts mercifully, not, indeed, by acting
contrary to justice, but by doing something a-
bove justice.” The faithful angels sing their
“Holy, holy, holy!” to praise the holiness of God.

But we shall sing of His mercies. “The mercies
of the Lord I shall sing forever” (Ps. 88:2).
This will be the canticle of love and gratitude
that we shall sing to God for all eternity.

33



Feast of Cor'pus Christi

CADET FIRE

“They shall be holy to their God” (Lev. 21:6).

If the priests of the Old Law were to be
‘‘holy to their God'" because they offered “the

burnt offering of the Lord, and the bread of

their God" (Lev. 21:6), how much more pure
and holy ought not the priests of the New Law
be who offer, not a symbolic sacrifice to God,
but the Son of God Himself as a real sacrifice
to His Father for the sins of His children. The
priest at the altar is the representative of all

the faithful, but also their means of uniting
themselves as co-offerers of the Holy Sacrifice.

The attending faithful, therefore, like him, must
be as pure and holy as possible, for they offer

Christ to the Father with the priest. With the
priest they offer their personal offerings of “in-

cense" (their prayers) and “loaves" (their whole

person, body and soul). Fire releases the sweet-
smelling soul of the grains of incense, and it

also changes the soggy dough into tasty bread.

The fire of love does the same in the human
soul. It destroys the root and fruit of sin, and

makes our soul “tasty" to the Lord. He who
said: “I have come to cast fire upon the earth,
and what will I but that it be kindled?" (St.
Luke 12:49), remains in our midst in the
Blessed Sacrament for that same purpose.

34



Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

WANTED: A COMFORTER

*‘l looked for one that would comfort me, and I

found none” (Ps. 68:21).

God is self-sufficient. He is infinitely perfect
and happy. Yet, when love causes the second
Person of the Most Blessed Trinity to become
Man, He seems to be in need of everything,
especially of our love, our comforting. His hu-

man Heart, weighed down by the sins of all
men, longs for a sympathetic word or glance.
To show us how much the human heart needs
sympathy. Holy Mother Church places the words
of David in the 68th Psalm in His mouth today.
”I looked for one that would grieve together

with me, but there was none: and for one that
would comfort me, and I found none” (Ps.

68:21). I, who can truly be consoled by God
alone, am able to console the Heart of my
Savior! Have I always done so? Or, has my
protestation of love, made to His Face, been
followed by a stab in His Back and Sacred
Heart by a sinful deed? Words are cheap and
deceptive. God looks to the heart. From that
never-closed station should come a constant,
throbbing message of comfort to the ever-wait-
ing Heart of Jesus. It is the least I can do
for His great comfort and consolation to me.
And if I measure His longing for comfort by
my own, I shall not hesitate to do so quickly,
yes, constantly.

36



2nd Sunday after Pentecost

MERCY!

“Turn to me, O Lord” (Ps. 6:5).

Psalm 6, from which today's Offertory chant
is taken, is the first of the seven so-called Peni-

tential Psalms (Ps. 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129, 142),
that portray so vividly the sentiments of the

sinner, both by pleading plaints and comforting
prayers. They are, as it were, the sinner's “Our
Father," a seven-branched candlestick, burning

before the tabernacle of the Most High, or like

the seven-tinted rainbow that weaves the sun

of grace and peace into man's veil of dripping

tears. In our Psalm gripping descriptions of

the misery and destruction of sin alternate with

the tenderest emotions of hope, confidence, and

repentant love. In verse 5 the royal Psalmist,

fleeing, sick in body and soul, deeply moved by
repentance and inexpressible pain of heart, ex-

periences the still greater pain of being for-

saken by God. Lord, where art Thou ? How long
wilt Thou turn Thy Face from me? Oh, turn
back from the great distance Thou seemest to
be removed from me. Turn to Thy helpless child
Thy sweet, comforting, paternal eye. Save my
soul from darkness, offenses, and dangers of
death. Heal me in body and soul, not out of
justice, but out of infinite mercy for Thy pun-
ishable servant.

36



Srd Sunday after Pentecost

SEEK GOD!

“Thou hast not forgotten them that seek Thee,

O Lord” (Ps. 9:11).

We find that we seek—God or self. In Psalm
9 King David, who has just won a glorious
victory over his enemies, takes his harp and

sings: “The Lord is become a refuge for the
poor; a helper in due time in (time of) tribu-

lation” (v.lO). Then he continues in the verse
of today's Offertory. To “seek God” is the be-
ginning and end of perfection, is the condition

and interior being of faith, hope, and charity.

According to the Rule of St. Benedict, the nov-

ice should be observed to see “whether he truly
seeks God” (Ch.58). To seek God truly means
to seek Him candidly and exclusively, at all
times and in all things, to strive towards Him
with all one's ability, as the flame tends ever

upward and the arrow flies to its goal. It means
in need and oppression to flee to Him alone, and
to expect help from Him alone with confidence
and holy certainty. Truly, 0 Lord, all that seek
Thee, build on Thee, surrender themselves to

Thee, rest in the shadow of Thy omnipotence,
these Thou wilt not, canst not, desert, canst not
deceive their hope, canst not resist their child-

like petition. Thus the grateful soul invites
others to join in her way of peace and gratitude.

37



Uh Sunday after Pentecost

ASLEEP IN DEATH

"Enlighten my eyes that I never sleep in death"
(Ps. 12:4).

Psalm 12 is a prayer to be said when the
soul feels herself oppressed by temptation and

apparently forsaken by God. One of the trials
of life is temptation, which means a "trial" or
a "test." The "light" that the tried soul needs
is to realize that temptations do not come by
mere chance, that they are no duel between the
soul and Satan, but that God also has His Hand
in them. The most violent attack of the souFs
enemy takes place with His permission, is an
act of His love, is regulated and stamped by
His eternal wisdom. Before the soul engages
in it. His mercy has accurately weighed it, has
measured it against her weakness, tallied its

effects, and foreseen its outcome. Under His
paternal eyes, yes, resting like a babe in its

mother's arms, the soul engages in the conflict,

equipped with the weapons of grace, whilst the
enemy, by Christ's merits, has already been
made powerless, a chained dog that cannot bite
unless the soul draws too near and permits him.

Her need to cry for help should increase her
courage and cause her to realize the truth of

the words of St. James: "Blessed is the man
who endures temptation; for when he has been
tried, he will receive the crown of life which

God has promised to those who love him" (St.
James 1:12).

38



5th Sunday after Pentecost

MY HELP

“He is at my right hand that I be not moved**
(Ps. 15:8).

Psalm 15 is a Messianic Psalm. It is a

memorial of victory erected to the Son of David,

according to the flesh, Who triumphs over sin,
death, and hell. Redemption is more glorious
than the creation of a thousand worlds; it is

the masterpiece of Omnipotence, the eternal

glory of Wisdom, the crown of God’s Love. It
is the greatest and eternal gloriflcation of Christ

and the Blessed Trinity. Therefore the Savior,

looking forward to this glorious reward of His
sufferings, prays: “Praise the Lord, praise to

My heavenly Father, Who has given Me under-
standing of the decrees of His Love, of the
happy result of My sufferings.” To encourage
Himself in His approaching sufferings, the

Savior reminds Himself of His own future
glory, which He will receive for being obedient
to death on the Cross. “I see the Lord constantly
before me; He is always at my right hand that
I be not moved.” Could we do better than imi-
tate our Savior in our own little trials by
looking beyond them to our reward, and not
forgetting the nearness of God’s help by which
we shall attain it?

39



6th Sunday after Pentecost

STEP BY STEP

“Perfect thou my goings in thy paths: that my
footsteps be not moved” (Ps. 16:5).

An act, often repeated, forms a habit. If the
repeated act is morally good, the habit formed

is called a virtue; if morally bad, a vice. Once

the habit has been formed, the act is performed

with ease, at times almost unconsciously. That

is what the Psalmist asks in the above verse.
He asks God to make his walking on ”His”
paths, the paths of the Lord's commandments,
such a constant action that he does so almost

unconsciously. Some habits of virtue are ac-
quired more easily than others by certain people.
A person who is not easily aroused to impa-
tience or anger will have little difficulty in

acquiring the virtue of patience and meekness.
But it is doing the hard things that makes
virtue genuine and meritorious. Again, things

that are hard at first to corrupt nature become

easier the more this nature is subjected to the
guidance of the spirit. This holds for daily

prayers, attendance at daily Holy Mass, and so
on. The trick in acquiring a virtuous habit con-
sists in performing the act with attention and

perseverance. And not the least encouragement
in striving for this goal is the fact that each

act in the striving is meritorious.

40



7th Sunday after Penteeost

HOLOCAUSTS

“So let our sacrifice be made that it may please
thee” (Dan. 3:40).

The sacrifice of ‘‘rams and bullocks and fat

lambs” was ordered by God of old in place of

man’s sacrifice of himself. The sacrifices of the

Old Law were symbolical of the one true Sac-
rifice of the New. As our Divine Priest and
Victim says: “Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldst

not, but a body thou hast fitted to me: in holo-

causts and sin-offerings thou hast had no pleas-

ure. Then said I, ‘Behold I come—(in the head
of the book it is written of me)—to do thy
will, 0 God’” (Heb. 10:5-7). In the “holocaust”
the “whole” victim was completely consumed.
This, of course, could happen but once to each

victim. Man was not allowed to offer himself
as a burnt offering. If he had been permitted

to do so, he could have done that only once.

But, by offering the highest faculty of his soul,

his will, on God’s altar, he not only offers the

best part of himself to his Lord, but he also

can offer it daily, thus making the offering of
himself ever more perfect, and consequently more
pleasing to God. Besides the offering of self

each morning at Holy Mass, you can make this
offering as often as you think of it during the

day in union with the Divine Victim being of-

fered on some altar somewhere at that very
moment.

41



8th Sunday after Pentecost

LOOK UP

“Thou wilt bring down the eyes of the proud’*
(Ps. 17:28).

It is a law of physics that “water seeks its

own level.’’ Nature follows the wise laws that
an all-wise Creator has placed in it. It is man
who upsets the right order by following the
dictates of his own proud and selfish nature. As
a creature, dependent on his Creator for every-

thing, even for the use of his free will, his

proper position is to be ever “looking up” to

his Lord and Master for all he needs, and that
he may, therefore, confidently expect from Him.
However, he makes himself a god, and usurps
his Creator’s right by “looking down” in dis-
dain upon his fellow creatures, who are shaped
from the same dust from which his own body
was fashioned. The Holy Spirit speaks of “a
generation, whose eyes are lofty, and their eye-
lids lifted up on high” (Prov. 30-13). “The
eyes of the lofty shall be brought low. And
the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment,
and the holy God shall be sanctified in justice,”
says Isaias (5:15-16). If man does not get
down from his high perch (his review stand of
his big self) God must put him down in justice,
so that he may assume his natural position and
“look up.”

42



9th Sunday after Pentecost

ALL-DAY SUCKERS

‘‘The justices of the Lord are right,
^
rejoicing

hearts” (Ps. 18:9).

When we speak of pleasure we usually think
of the gratification of our bodily senses. The
soul, however, also has its gratifications that

far surpass the pleasing sensations in the body.

The proper object of the human mind is truth,
and the proper food of the will is goodness.

The degree attained in both these proper ends
is also the measure of the souFs pleasure. The
soul may have this pleasure every day and all
day long, in ever-increasing volume if the mind
and will are engaged in “enjoying” God. In

Psalm 118, written in praise of the law of God,
the Psalmist sings: “Set before me for a law
the way of thy justifications, 0 Lord: and I
will always seek after it. Give me understand-
ing, and I will search thy law; and I will keep
it with my whole heart. Lead me into the path
of thy commandments; for the same I have de-
sired. Thy justifications I will never forget:
for by them thou hast given me life. O how I
have loved thy law, 0 Lord! it is my meditation
all the day. How sweet are thy words to my
palate! more than honey to my mouth. I have
sworn and am determined to keep the judgments
of thy justice” (Ps. 118:33,34,35,93,97,103,106).

43



10th Sunday after Pentecost

ON TWO WINGS

“To thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul”
(Ps. 24:1).

Psalm 24 was, already in the Old Testament,

a powerful prayer for every need, and may have
been used much by the Israelites in their Baby-
lonian Captivity. The Psalmist has again reached
a critical stage of his life. Grave dangers hang
over him like menacing storm clouds and threat-
en him with certain destruction. To whom shall
he flee? Where shall he seek help, rescue, safe-
ty? As the hunted bird flies to its sheltering
nest, the frightened child to its mother's pro-

tecting arms and lap, the harassed poet now
hastens, yes, flies to God. To Thee, 0 Lord, I
lift up, I swing my soul. Heavy anxieties, press-
ing cares bend down my soul. But see, I give
it two wings, and it easily flies aloft to Thee,
to Thy protection and tender care. These two
wings are deep humility and tender trust. I am
the least, an unworthy servant; Thou art the
commanding, the Almighty Lord. We have, or
can have, the same two stout wings. But per-
haps they need a few more feathers or a
strengthening of the wing muscles by daily
exercise.

44



11th Sunday after Pentecost

ARISE!

“O Lord^ I have cried to thee and thou hast
healed me” (Ps. 29:3).

The Gospel of today's Holy Mass relates the
cure of the man that was deaf and dumb. The
Offertory may be considered a song of thanks-
giving for every soul, which, when the impure
spirit of sin has been driven out, opens its heart

and mouth to due praise of God. This bodily
healing is a reminder of the rejuvenation that

will take place at the general judgment. For the

just man this will be the solemn consecration
of the eternal dwelling of his glorified soul, of

that splendid house that God will raise up out
of the dust into which it had fallen, and will

‘‘remodel” most exquisitely. The glorified human
body, no less than the glorified soul, becomes
the altar of God upon which fire descends from
heaven, not to destroy it, but to shine through
it with ecstatic splendor. In happy expectation
of this rejuvenation the soul Jthanks and praises
God. “I will extol Thee, 0 Lord, for Thou wilt
one day take me up with body and soul, and not
let the archfiend and murderer of men triumph
over me. On the eternal Easter morning Thou
wilt heal all the ills of the body of this death.
Then my salvation will be perfect and will last
forever.”

45



Feast of the Assumption

HIGH PRAISE

“With one voice offer high praise to Him.”

The Latin word used in today's Offertory
chant to designate the Angels' art of praising

God means “to praise or commend in all re-
spects, to extol very much." God, being infinite

in His perfections, deserves infinite praise. A
finite or limited creature, however, is incapable

of rendering Him this “due" praise. A creature
can extol its Creator only “very much," to the

limits of its weak powers. When, however, that
creature is God's own Mother, sinless and per-
fect in soul, and now also glorified in body,
Mary becomes, as it were, a “living harp" that
gives forth most perfect music, that for all
eternity will not cease its “high praise," so dear

and captivating to the Blessed Trinity. From
today on the angelic choirs have not merely a

Queen and choir directress, to lead them in their
chant, but the entire human family also has a
chant leader, each one of which is destined one

day to share in her glory and to join in her

song of highest praise and highest thanksgiving.

Each Feast of the Assumption, therefore, should
serve as a time of “tuning" our fickle soul, and

each day serve as a practice period in “offering

high praise" to God.

46



12th Sunday after Pentecost

COVERED HANDS

“The Lord was appeased from doing the evil

which he had spoken against his people” (Exod.

32 : 14 ).

The historic incideilt, referred to in today's
Offertory, is a striking proof of the truth of

the words of St. James: “The unceasing prayer
of a just man is of great avail” (5:16). Re-
minding God of His promises to the Patriarchs
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses pleads that
God may pardon the wickedness of His idola-
trous people. Later he prays: “Either forgive

them this trespass, or if thou do not, strike me
out of the book that thou hast written” (Exod.

32:31-2). Moses boldly dictates to God, and his
terms are—either, or. We do the same at each
Holy Mass. Like Jacob of old, we cover our
hands, folded in prayer, with the merits of

Christ, our elder Brother, Who will be present
on the altar personally in a few moments, that
when we pray in His Name — “Through our
Lord, Jesus Christ, Thy Son,”—the Heavenly
Father, as Isaac did of old, must exclaim: “The
voice (ascending from the pews) is indeed the
voice of John or Mary, but the hands (merits)
are those of my well-beloved Son.” And He is
appeased from punishing us for our infidelities.
It remains for us to try to resemble this well-
beloved Son ever more, and strive to pray with
His sentiments.

47



Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

GREAT THINGS

“He who is mighty has done great things for
me“ (St. Luke 1:49).

Mary is not a splendor, a marvel, a trophy.
She is a living person. God has not overpow-
ered her with His magnificence. He has given
her distinctness by His gifts and thereby brought
out in relief the beauty of her sinless nature.

Her Immaculate Heart is so human, but her
sanctity and purity have become so constrain-
ingly beautiful that their constraints reach even

to the Eternal Word Himself, and He yields to
the force of their attractions, anticipates His

time, and hastens with inexplicable desire to

take up His dwelling in His created home. God
has done great things for Mary in view of
Himself. “When Mary’s soul and body,” says
Father Faber, “sprang from nothingness at the
word of God, the Divine Persons encompassed
their chosen creature in that selfsame instant,

and the grace of the Immaculate Conception was
their welcome and their touch. The use of rea-
son from the first moment of her Immaculate
Conception enabled her to advance in grace and

merits beyond all calculation. Her complete ex-
emption from the slightest shade of venial sin
raised her as nearly out of the imperfections

of a creature as was consistent with finite and
created holiness.”

48



13th Sunday after Pentecost

FROM NOTHING

“My times are in thy hands” (Ps. 30;16).

Man is not* a mechanical manikin that the
Creator winds up once, lets it run down, and
then permits it to lie neglected in some dark
comer of the vast playhouse of this world. After
creating him, that is, making him out of noth-
ing, God must also preserve him in being, in
existence, lest he again sink back into the bot-

tomless pit of nothingness from which he was
taken. In that sense we may understand the
saying of the Psalmist: “My times are in Thy
hands.” I may, however, with equal truth say:

“My times are in my hands,” that is, my life
is such as I choose to make it, either by the
proper use of or the base abuse of God's precious

gifts of life in time. Earthly life is made up
of successive moments of time. The use of these
succeeding moments forms the seed of eternity,
that everlasting “now” when we shall remain
in the state or condition fixed by our own choice
as indicated by the use we have made of the
successive moments of our mortal life, which
have been determined from all eternity as to
their number. We have but to make our times
agree with God's view of and purpose in them
and all will be well.

49



lUtlfi Sunday after Pentecost

OUR SHIELD

"The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about

them that fear him” (Ps. 33:8).

When enemies press upon God's faithful chil-
dren, those that ”fear Him” with a childlike
dread of displeasing Him, the "angel of his

presence” (Is. 63:9) will save them. When the
Syrian King Benadad wished to capture Eliseus
at Dothan, and for that purpose had the city

surrounded by night, the servant of the prophet
cried out in fear: "Alas, alas, alas, my Lord,
what shall we do ? But he answered : Fear not

:

for there are more with us than with them . .

.

And the Lord opened the eyes of the servant,
and he saw: and behold the mountain was full
of horses and chariots round about Eliseus” (4
Kings 6:15-17). Yes, God's angels camp round
about us to guard us. But more than that.
Because of the words of the priest, "the angel
of the Lord of hosts” (Mai. 2:7), "presently
the Lord, whom you seek, and the angel of the
testament, whom you desire, shall come to his
temple” (Mai. 3:1). He comes, not to destroy
but to save, not to deliver up to justice, but to
save in His mercy. To His shielding arms we
can fly for safety. For, whenever the Heavenly
Father would strike any portion of the earth
for its deluge of crimes. He sees outstretched
there the Hands of His Son on the altar, plead-
ing for mercy.

50



15th Sunday after Pentecost

AN OLD SONG

‘‘He put a new canticle into my mouth’* (Ps.
39 :4 ).

We are creatures of routine. Whatever we
do repeatedly soon becomes a habit, and we
do it thoughtlessly, mechanically. So mechanical

the performance of our daily duties may become
that at times we have to stop to consider whether
we have really performed some of them. Un-
fortunately the same rule holds for our acts of
worship. Attendance at Holy Mass and the reci-
tation of certain formulas of prayer can become
very mechanical. We must “rout” the “rut” out
of routine by putting into our various actions

and duties the ever-invigorating and stimulating

principle of love. It is the mind that moves the
will to act, to love. That is the “new canticle”
that the Lord wants to hear from our mouth,
or rather, from our heart. He knows the words
of this song of praise already. He always knows
them. But, each act of love is, as it were, a

new act, and can and should be more perfect
than the one that just preceded it. It is this

incessant song of love, which the human heart
plays on its delicate fibres, that delights the ear

and heart of God. He puts inspiration and the
power of expression into our hearts, but He
waits until we freely give expression to our
canticle of love issuing from our heart.

51



16th Sunday after Pentecost

LOOK DOWN

“Look down, O Lord, to help me” (Ps. 39:14).

The Offertory chant repeats the above prayer
of the Psalmist to emphasize the soul’s need.

Much is suggested by the two words—“look
down.” In them the Psalmist expresses his com-
plete dependence on the Lord as well as his
deep humility, which is the truthful acknowl-

edgment of what we are in the sight of God.
In her weakness, misery, and sinfulness the soul

would like to run away and hide, so that the
all-searching eye of God would have to “look”
long for her, play a game of divine “hide and
seek.” And, when spied by the divine eye, the
soul prays, not that God in His justice may
punish her many infidelities, but that in His
mercy He may pardon all her offenses, heal the
many and deep wounds caused by sin, replace
her fickleness by strength of will and courage.
The soul, on her part, must “look up” to God,
whence alone help can come, by childlike trust
in His infinite mercy. Her confidence is in-
creased by the words of the Psalmist: “The
Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is
in heaven. His eyes look on the poor man: his
eyelids examine the sons of men” (Ps. 19:5).
Hence “our eyes are unto the Lord, our God,
until he have mercy on us” (Ps. 122:2).

52



17th Sunday after Pentecost

PRAY THUS

“Upon whom fhy name is invoked, O God“
(Dan. 9:19).

In His farewell discourse to His Apostles Jesus

assured their sad hearts: “Amen, amen, I say
to you, if you ask the Father anything in my
name, he will give it to you. Hitherto you have

not asked anything in my name. Ask, and you
shall receive, that your joy may be fuir’ (St.
John 16:23-4). That is just what Holy Mother
Church does. When she asks for any grace of
the Father, she concludes her petition with the

words “through Jesus Christ, Thy Son.“ At this
holy Mother's knee we learn to lisp our prayers
by uniting our childish voices with her maternal

pleadings. Not only do we learn from her how
to pray, but we also learn the more important
lesson always to pray with her, to unite our
weak prayers with her all-powerful pleadings,
for she always prays in the name of and through
the merits of Christ, her Head, Who “in the
days of his earthly life, with a loud cry and
tears, offered up prayers and supplications to
him who was able to save him from death, and
was heard because of his reverent submission"
(Heb. 5:7). The prayer of our High Priest
rises incessantly from our altars. We have but
to unite our prayers with His,

53



18th Sunday after Pentecost

EVENING MASS

“He made an evening sacrifice to the Lord God”
(Exod. 24:5).

Periodically a plea is made for having an
evening Mass. It may be the novelty that at-
tracts at first, but it is safe to say, with human
nature being what it is, that, were it introduced,
there would soon be just as many reasons given,
and perhaps a few more than for the morning
Mass, why it is impossible to attend this evening
Mass. But, granted the best dispositions, a

person can attend bodily only the mass (or

masses) celebrated in a church. The solution
seems to be much simpler. Holy Mass is one
sacrifice, celebrated from the rising to the set-
ting of the sun. Just now, somewhere it is
evening, and Holy Mass is being celebrated. A
mere act of the will, a union of the worshipper
with the Divine Victim on the altar where He
is offering Himself at this moment, makes it

possible to assist at this Mass. Thus you can
assist at Mass all day and night long, irrespec-
tive of the time shown by your watch or clock.
This does not mean, however, that you should

not assist bodily at Mass as often as possible,
but it indicates a simple method of offering a
continuous sacrifice to the Lord God.

54



19th Sunday after Pentecost

QUICKEN ME

“Thou wilt quicken me, O Lord” (Ps. 137:7).

The Introit of today's Mass represents the
Lord as saying: ‘T am the salvation of the
people; in whatever tribulation they shall cry

to Me, I will hear them; and I will be their

Lord forever.” When the Psalmist is “in ‘the
midst of tribulation” he knows that God will
“stretch forth His right hand against the wrath

of his enemies,” and that “His right hand shall

save him.” But the Lord must do more. He
must not merely give life to His creature, and
then preserve that life against all man's enemies,

but He must also “quicken” him, that is. He
must constantly give him new life and vigor.
The blessing of life is such a great treasure
that the Creator gives it to man only a moment
at a time in order that he may not squander
or lose it, but use it to its fullest advantage.

To do that we must offer it each moment with
our Victim on the altar as a continual sacrifice

of praise and thanksgiving. For, life is not a
gift, it is a loan. It is not our property that

we may squander at will, but the deposit of
the Lord that must be returned to Him with
interest. If in the past we have been wasteful
of this great treasure, we must now take “quick-
en” in its second meaning and—“get busy.”

55



20th Sunday after Pentecost

HOMESICK

“There we sat and wept” (Ps. 136:1).

Psalm 136 is very dramatic. It describes very
graphically the sad lot of the chosen people of

God in their captivity in Babylon. On the willow
trees that grew on the banks of its rivers they
hung up their harps because their hearts were
too heavy to “sing the song of the Lord in a
strange land’' (v.4). We, children of God, des-
tined for our true country—heaven, must spend
our years of exile on earth. During the week
our work and cares distract us and cause us to
feel less the pain of our exile. But on the Lord’s
day, when, as it were, we draw nearer to God
and dwell more in spirit in our true country,
our heart becomes a prey to real homesickness

and ardent longing for heaven. Yet, we are just
as near to God during the days of labor and
suffering as we are on the day of rest and
prayer. What we need to do is to make the
spirit and spiritual work of Sunday into a golden
thread that runs through the bodily work and
cares of the weekdays, so that these also speed

us on our way home. Sunday will then not be
the round of a ladder to heaven, but the sign-

post along life’s highway that directs and speeds
our steps.

66



21st Sunday after Pentecost

IN CAPITAL LETTERS

“All that he hath is in thy hand** (Job 1:12).

When we wish to stress a word, we say that
it is written in “all caps** (capital letters).

Thus—JOY. In today*s Offertory chant we have
a condensation of Job*s dramatic life story. Job

sums it up in the words: “The Lord gave, and
the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased

the Lord so is it done:* blessed be the name of
the Lord** (1:21). The devil, with God*s per-

mission, did a thorough “job** on Job, for he

robbed him of everything but his life—and his
complete trust in God. Then God spelled this
“job** with a capital “J** and made it Job, whose
latter end He blessed more than his beginning.
“And he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six
thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen,

and a thousand she asses. And he had seven
sons and three daughters. And Job lived after
these things, a hundred and forty years, and he

saw his children, and his children*s children,

unto the fourth generation, and he died an old

man, and full of days** (42:12,13,16). The words
of the Offertory, quoted above, were spoken by

God to Satan. We must speak them to God:
“I, and all that I have is in Thy Hand.**

67



Feast of Christ the King

MY KING

“I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance”

IPs. 2:8).

Man is by nature gregarious. He likes to be
one of a large crowd, to live in a community.

It is the exception that merely proves this rule.

Though sharing his life with his neighbor, he
may not so readily share his talents and pos-
sessions with him. To satisfy man's ‘‘hoarding”
instinct God comes to his rescue. He gives Him-
self completely to each human being. Not only
once in a lifetime does the Savior enter into

the human soul, but even daily, and each time
completely. As the Father gives the nations to
His Son as His rightful inheritance, the Son in

turn gives Himself as liberal inheritance to each

one of His people. His children. The Son gives
himself completely. The individual gives of
himself, according to his own measure of gen-
erosity and gratitude. In order to receive more
of Christ, who gives Himself to the soul com-
pletely, the individual must make more room for
God by reducing his self-love. We are, then,
as rich as we choose to be, possessing of the
eternal goodness, riches, and essence of the Di-

vine Person as much as we choose for ourselves.
Will it then be hard to “seize” all, the Divine

Being, and to leave all frail, sinful human na-
ture? My King, make me Thy selfless footstool.

58



22nd Sunday after Pentecost

PROPER MAKEUP

“Give me a well-ordered speech in my mouth”
(Esther 14:13).

It is second nature to a woman to make herself
look attractive. Queen Esther was no exception.
“She laid away the garments she wore, and put
on her glorious apparel. And glittering in royal
robes . . . with a rosy color in her face, and with

gracious and bright eyes . . . stood before the

king, where he sat upon his royal throne, clothed

with his royal robes, and glittering with pre-

cious stones, and he was terrible to behold”
(Esther 15:4-9). But before that royal audience
she “laid away her royal apparel, she put on
garments suitable for weeping and mourning:

instead of divers precious ointments, she cov-

ered her head with ashes, and she humbled her
body with fasts: and all the places in which
before she was accustomed to rejoice, she filled
with her torn hair” (14:2). That make-up moved
the Lord to “give her a well-ordered speech”
which moved the king to save her people from
their enemies. Proper dress is in place in the

house of God at all times, but especially during
times of worship. But more important still is
the proper state of soul that will make the
soul's well-ordered speech of prayer and praise
please and glorify God.

69



23rd Sunday after Pentecost

SOUL NEGATIVES

“Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord*’
(Ps. 129:1).

There is nothing perfect in this world. Things

are not as good nor as bad as they might be.

Things would be better if we, and especially

our free will, were better disposed. Things are
no worse than they actually are because God
has placed His world-encircling palm beneath
our little evils. It is “out of the depths’" that

we cry constantly to the Lord and He so gra-
ciously hears us. What a pit of miseries our
poor human nature encloses! Bodily ailments,
labelled with fancy and unpronounceable names,

seem to be without number. And who will num-
ber and classify all the ailments of the soul—the
weakness of the mind (eye) and the ailments
of the will (the spine and limbs of the soul),
and so on? Well does Job paint his picture:
“Man born of a woman, living for a short time,
is filled with many miseries. Who cometh forth
like a fiower, and is destroyed, and fieeth as a
shadow, and never continueth in the same state
. . . The days of man are short, and the number
of his months is with thee : thou hast appointed
his bounds which cannot be passed” (14:1,2,5).
That is the dark negative from which the bright
print of hope in God is made.

60



2Ath Sunday after Pentecost

SEED OF HOPE

“Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord**
(Ps. 129:1).

Today's Offertory chant is the same as that
of last Sunday. It again repeats the cry of the

Psalmist that comes “from the depths." The
“De Profundis" (Ps. 129), is usually associated
with a departed soul, for whose repose it is
fervently said. Yet it is also said as the 4th
Psalm of the second Vespers on Christmas Day,
and there is surely nothing “dead" about the

newly-born Divine Infant. Because of His

“birth" there is life and hope for all sinners.
It is that “seed of hope," planted deep down in
the fertile soil of our needy soul,, and watered

by the abundant tears of repentance, that strains
ever upwards to the source of light and life

—

the Divine Savior in the heavens, to God. The
winter of preparation and expectation will soon
be past, and the seed df hope will sprout anew,
for the Savior will soon be nigh “Who singu-
larly has settled me in hope" (Ps. 4:10). It is
the Divine Sun of the Mass that must help
this sprouting plant of hope to grow ever strong-
er and taller until it finally blossoms and blooms
into possession. That will be a lifelong task,
but one that should have new thrills in the
doing each day, yes, each moment of each day
of our earthly life.

61



Feast of the Immaculate Conception

WITH THEE

“The Lord is with thee” (St. Luke 1:28).

Today we celebrate a Feast of great spiritual
joy because, as we pray in the Oration, the
Father, “through the death foreseen” of His

Son, preserved His Mother “unsullied by sin,”

and we ask that, by her intercession, we, “pure
in heart,” may come to Him. These last three
words—“come to Him”—deserve our attention.
We may render these words by—“turn to Him,”
Who dwells in our souls by grace. Jesus, by
His death, prevented Mary from contracting the
taint of inherited sin, and by that same death
has removed that inherited stain from our souls
as well as the guilt of all personal sins com-

mitted after the reception of holy baptism. The
Lord is, therefore, truly “with us,” though in

a much less perfect manner than “with Mary.”
The perfection of His dwelling in our souls is
due, not to His own wish or will, but according
to the imperfection of our cooperation with

divine grace. He is with us only as much as
we let Him. What we need, therefore, is not
merely to be “pure in heart,” but also to be

“generous of will.” We must not keep back the
least spot of His lawful domain—our little souls,
—but subject our whole soul to His lawful rule.

62



1st Sunday of Advent

MY TRUST

“In thee, O my God, I put my trust’* (Ps. 24:2).

The Offertory chant today is the same as that
for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost. It is plain
that the important word in the above text is
“Thee.” “In the Lord I put my trust” (Ps.
10:2). “My soul trusteth in thee, and in the
shadow of thy wings will I hope” (Ps. 56:2).
He alone is the solid basis for our confidence.
All other trust is “upon the broken staff of a

reed . . . upon which if a man lean, it will go
into his hand, and pierce it” (Is. 36:6). The
Holy Spirit warns us: “He that trusteth in his
riches shall fall” (Prov. 11:28). “He that trust-
eth in his own devices doth wickedly” (Prov.
12:2). “He that trusteth in his own heart, is
a fool” (Prov. 28:26). Hence, what we are and
what we have are no solid basis for confidence.
“They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount
Sion : he shall not be moved for ever that dwell-
eth in Jerusalem. Mountains are round about it:

so the Lord is round about his people from
henceforth now and for ever” (Ps. 124:1-2).
And by the mouth of His prophet Jeremias God
speaks: “Cursed be the man that trusteth in
man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart
departeth from the Lord. Blessed be the man
that trusteth in the Lord, and the Lord shall
be his confidence” (17:5,7).

63



2nd Sunday of Advent

OUR TURN

“Thou wilt turn, O Lord, and bring us to life”
(Ps. 84:7).

To understand these words of the Psalmist
we must read the preceding verse. “Wilt thou
be angry with us for ever: or wilt thou extend
thy wrath from generation to generation?'' (v.6)
“Thou wilt turn" is a Hebrew expression and
may be translated by the simple word “again."
“0 God," prays the Psalmist, “change Thy anger
again into favor. Thy strict justice into paternal
love! Then we shall, as it were, arise from the
dead, we shall raise ourselves from the grave of
sorrow and affliction to a life of hope and trust.
If Thou wilt “turn" Thy Face, turned away
from us in anger, back to us with pardon and
favor, it will be like the spring sun that makes
all things sprout, grow, and come to full ma-
turity." God has done that long ago. God still
does that each moment of the day and night.
Holy Mass is both the record of God's goodness
and pardon as well as the instrument of grace

and peace. He is always “turned" to us. It is
we who fail to turn to Him with the proper
dispositions of soul, necessary for pardon and

reinstatement in God's favor and grace. To
Thee, 0 Lord, we turn with all our hearts.

64



3rd Sunday of Advent

BROKEN BARS

“Thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob”
(Ps. 84:2).

Man's most prized possession is his personal

liberty. His most irksome punishment is, there-

fore, to be confined behind the bars of a prison

for a longer or shorter period of time. His

gnawing desire would, if it could, cut the re-
straining bars in two. Yet, he sometimes has a

false notion of the nature of true liberty, and

fails to realize that he can be his own jailer,
or even hangman. God, the Creator, has given
His noblest creature a free-will that he may
freely choose to serve His Creator by doing His
Will. If man chooses to serve himself, by heed-
ing the dictates of self-will or of the devil, by
obeying his suggestions to evil, he becomes the
basest slave. Just as man by his free-will makes
himself the slave of Satan and sin, so, by an
act of contrition he freely turns away from
slavery to liberty, to God, by accepting the Hand
that has “blessed the land” of his soul by “turn-
ing it from its captivity” by “forgiving its
iniquity.” The Savior has come in human form
as our Divine Liberator. He will come in a few
moments in His Eucharistic form to be the help
we need to break the bars of sin and enjoy the
freedom of the children of God.

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Ifth Sunday of Advent

THE WORD MADE FLESH

“Blessed is the fruit of thy womb” (St. Luke 1:42).

These words, which we recite so often each
day, mark the beginning of our salvation. Fa-
ther Faber thus sketches this dramatic moment
for us. “Innumerable decrees of God, decrees

without number, like the waves of the sea, de-

crees that included or gave forth all other

decrees, came up to the midnight room at Naz-
areth, as it were to the feet of that most won-
derful of God's creatures, with the resistless

momentum which had been given them from
eternity, all glistening with the manifold splen-

dors of the divine perfections, like huge billows

just curling to break upon the shore; and they

stayed themselves there, halted in full course,

and hung their accomplishment upon the Maid-
en's word.'' At Mary's word of consent the
“Word was made flesh.'' In a few moments,
at the words of consecration, the Savior will be
present for us under the chaste appearance of

the sacramental species. He comes again for us,
for our salvation, to be present in our body and
soul, to fill us with grace, and to make us really
“blessed.” His coming to us rests on our con-
sent, and the fruits of His coming, on our dis-
positions of soul. If in the past Jesus could not

work in our souls as He so eagerly wished,
shall we bind His Hands again today?

66



Feast of the Nativity—I Mass
HE COMES

“Let the earth be glad” (Ps. 95:11).

The thought of the Offertories of the three
Christmas Masses may be expressed in a single
sentence. Jesus “comes down from heaven” to
“establish His throne” upon the solid foundation

of “justice and judgment.” Jesus comes as lova-

ble Babe, as mighty King, as stern Judge. He
came to earth on the first Christmas night as a
lovable Babe. He reigns in heaven now as glori-
ous King. He will come at the end of our life and
at the end of the world as a stern Judge. Let

us consider Him as a charming Babe, soon to
come in the earthly form of the host now being
offered. In a few moments, at the elevation, we
shall look “upon the Face” of the Babe, come
again from heaven to be our prized possession,
our most precious Christmas gift. He comes to
give Himself to us that we may give ourselves,
together with Him, back to the Father. The
Christmas Mass is Jesus' gift to us, but it is
also our choicest gift to the Father. Without
the Mass there would be no Jesus; without Jesus
there would be no Christmas. Should we not,
then, be glad? And, to increase our ecstatic joy,
Jesus triples the offering of Himself, for ac-

cording to an old proverb, “all good things are
three in number.”

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Feast of the Nativity—II Mass
HE REIGNS

“Thy throne is prepared from of old’* (Ps. 92:2).

Thirty-three years were required for the

charming Babe of Bethlehem to grow to full,
perfect manhood, to complete His bloody con-

quest of souls, and then to enter heaven as

crowned King to ascend the throne “that the
Father had prepared from the beginning.” Only
a few moments, the time that elapses between
the elevation and the communion of the Mass,
are required for the Eucharistic Babe to grow
to full manhood and to enter our hearts as lawful
King and to take possession of this holy land
that He has bought back from the slavery of
sin and Satan. Jesus is present in the Holy

Eucharist as He is now in heaven, with His
glorious, kingly life. Our soul, into which our
King comes, wearing the royal robes of the
Eucharistic Species, is, therefore, truly His

throne. The more lowly that throne, the more
He delights to sit on it, for, as Mary sings in
her Magnificat: “He has put down the mighty
from their seat, and exalted the lowly” (St.
Luke 1:53). Our body is the lowly footstool by
which He ascends to the throne of our soul to
sit (live) there until expelled by the tyrant,
self-will, and the sword of grave sin.

68



Feast of the Nativity—III Mass
HE JUDGES

"Justice and judgment are the preparation of thy

throne" (Ps. 88:15).

The remainder of verse 13 of Psalm 95, the

first part of which was used in the Offertory

chant of the 1st Mass, is : "Because he cometh

to judge the earth. He shall judge the world
with justice, and the people with his truth" (Ps.

95:13). God is the only essential Being, the
Supreme Being, a Simple Act. There can really
be no separate attributes in God, because He
is a Simple Being, and is, therefore. His own
Attributes. His Attributes are not distinguished

from the Divine Essence, nor among themselves.
These perfections are the way in which He in-
vites us to regard Him. They are different sides
of His character, different aspects of His majes-

ty. Today's chant calls attention to His Justice,

and especially to the necessity of justice in our

souls, for it is the throne room of the God-man,
the just Judge, Who, by right of conquest, can
lay claim to this holy land and regal throne.
If in our soul "justice and peace have kissed"
(Ps. 84:11), if we have made our peace with
God by using the merits of Christ to restore
our soul to the state of justice or innocence,

then the new-born King will come to reign in
U8, not to judge us.

69



Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity

ROYAL BLOOD

"Thou art from everlasting” (Ps. 92:2).

Royal lineage among earthly rulers can be
traced back at farthest to the beginning of the

human race, to Adam who was created king of
the creation which antedated his own creation.
But it is still "human” lineage. Our new-born
King is divine, and "from everlasting.” By His
very nature He is outside and infinitely above
space, and bodies, and time. He is "eternal,”
because His existence, having neither beginning

nor end, nor succession of time, is simple and

indivisible in duration. In God there is neither
past nor future, but an eternal present. He "is”
God and our King. He, Who is outside of time,
enters into the narrow circle of the few days
of our earthly life in order to make our present
moments one with His eternal present. What
an exhilarating moment the present can become
if, with the firm grip of faith, we use it to
cling more closely to and to unite ourselves more
unreservedly with our ever-present King. Con-

tact is necessary for a blood-transfusion. Our
King comes to impart His divine life to us by
sanctifying grace, that we may one day sit on
the throne and wear the crown prepared for
us "from everlasting” in the mind of God.

70



Mass for the Dead

FROM DEATH TO LIFE

“From the deep pit.”

This is the only Offertory chant that has

retained its original form. In a very dramatic

way Holy Mother Church, as it were, calls the
dead back to life, that is, to the hour of death,

which decided their eternal destiny. She repre-

sents the departed at that moment, when in the
presence of death they could still prepare for

the divine judgment. She represents her children

in their death agony, surrounded by wicked ene-

mies, and on the brink of a frightful precipice,

which threatens to swallow them up. Accord-
ingly the Church prays to the Lord to preserve
them “from the pains of hell and from the deep
abyss, and to deliver them from the lion's mouth,
lest hell swallow them up and lest they sink
into darkness." These petitions are the more
appropriate and touching because we unite our
gifts and prayers with the Holy Sacrifice of the
Altar, and thus accompany the departing soul
to God's judgment-seat, that she may experience
the goodness and clemency of the Lord and be
permitted to pass “from the temporal death of
the body into the eternal life of glory." Be-

sides being a very efficacious means of alleviating
the pains of the departed soul, this prayer also

fills the living survivors (all of us), with holy

gravity and wholesome fear.

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MASS YEAR REFLECTIONS

Each year the Reflections from THE MASS YEAR
are printed separately in pamphlet form. Below is
the list :

—

lilTUBGICAIi ESSAYS by Benedictine Monks, 25^
Some of the symbols and ceremonies of the Church are

the subjects of these essays which demonstrate the beauty
and the influence of the Eiturg^y on the spiritual life of
the Faithful.

DIGEST OF THE EITUBGICAE SEASONS, compiled
from the works of Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., by
Bernard Beck, O.S.B., S.T.D., 254

The Six Seasons of the Church Year are explained and
a brief history of each given.

BOUSE THY MIGHT by Sister M. Gonzaga, 254
Beflections on the *^Collects,” the greater petition prayers

of the Church, contain meditation material for Sundays
and the greater Feasts.

NEWNESS OF EIFE by Flacidus Kempf, O.S.B., 254
Beflections on the **Introits” for the Sundays and great-

er Feasts will help attune your soul to sing more in
harmony with the Church.

FBUITFUE DAYS by Placidus Kempf, O.S.B., 254
Beflections on the **Communion Chants’* of the Sundays

and greater Feasts will foster greater devotion toward
the reception of Holy Communion as an active participa-
tion in the Holy Sacriflce.

CHBIST’S FACE by Placidus Kempf, O.S.B., 254
Beflections on the ^'Gospels’* of the Sundays and greater

Feasts are the best way to mirror the Face of Christ in
our daily lives.



POSTSCRIPTS TO THE EPISTLES by Placidns Eempf,
O.S.B., 25^

Reflections on the **Epistles’* of the Sundays and g^reatev
Feasts are after-thoughts for applying St. Paul’s sugges-
tions to your own liTes.

TELLING SECRETS by Placidus Eempf, O.S.B.,
Reflections on the ^'Secrets*’ of the Sundays and greater

Feasts bring more quickly to mind the needs buried deep
in the heart as the Priest more solemnly presents the
petitions of the Faithful.

TUNE YOUR HEART by Placidus Kempf, O.S.B., 25e
Reflections on the **Oflertory Chants” of the Sundays

and greater Feasts are meant to fill your heart with the
proper dispositions for offering the Holy Sacrifice witii
the Priest.

Order from:

—

The GRAIL

St. Meinrad, Indiana