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New Years Eve - The Last Day of the Year

12/31/2019

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See, therefore, brethren, how you walk circumspectly: not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. EPHES. v. 15, 16.

I. As a traveller who has climbed to some lofty eminence, looks back upon the country through which he has passed, and tracing upon the plain below the dusty road along which he toiled so painfully, follows its winding course till it becomes a mere thread in the far distance, so on this, the last day of the year, do we also pause for a few moments to glance at it once again before it dies away and becomes a thing of the past. Yet a few short hours, and the year will have rolled by, like the waters of a rapid river, into the ocean of eternity. As we reflect upon the days and the months which were compressed within its limits, they seem but as yesterday. Such also will our whole life appear to us when we contemplate it from the brink of the grave, even though it should have gone beyond the limits marked out as the
earthly span of mortal men.

During the course of this year, joys and sorrows have come to gladden or to depress us. They have been like the sunshine and the storm of the material world. One day a murky fog enveloped us, and on the next the gloom lifted a little, and gave us a glimpse of the azure sky. Perhaps we have suffered in mind or in body, and the Cross, instead of chastening, made us more fretful and impatient. Then, again, there were times during the year when the option of good, or of evil, of life or of death, offered itself to us, and we may have stretched forth our hands to pluck forbidden fruit, and have greedily swallowed the tempting bait. Nay, more than this, not content with eating of the poisoned fruit, we may have persuaded others also to partake of it, and thus have involved them in our own destruction.

All these things have been, but now they are past and gone, together with the thoughts which flashed through our minds, the desires which grew out of these thoughts, and the actions which were begotten of both. They are past, indeed, but not one of them is forgotten, for an ever-wakeful eye has watched and marked them all. In God's great book they are recorded, and when the river of time shall have ceased to flow for us, that book will be opened, and these things will be brought to judgment against us.

II. If careful note has been taken by God s recording Angel of all that you have done during the past year, it is your interest to examine into your heart, and to see what charges he may have against you, in order that you may be able to answer them. For this purpose call to mind the reasons or motives for which God gave you the year which will so soon have passed away. He bestowed it upon you as a period of mercy, during which you were to prepare your self for heaven, and by your conduct to prove that you deserve the reward destined for you. Certain talents were committed to your keeping, to be so employed by you as to increase their value, in order that God, seeing your fidelity and trustworthiness in small matters, may set you over those which are greater and more important.

These talents are the various faculties and powers of your body and of your soul. God intended your soul to rule your body, and to keep its animal instincts in subjection to His laws by sternly refusing to the sensual appetite every unlawful gratification for which it craves. Hence the soul must treat the body much in the same way as that in which a rider treats a horse which has not been broken in. He puts a bit into its mouth to restrain its impetuosity, and applies a spur to its sides to urge it forward when it would wish to be at rest. But, in order that the soul may be able to effect this, it must first bring itself into subjection to God.

Its anger must be repressed, its pride humbled, its vanity trampled in the dust. When this has been accomplished, the soul becomes complete master of the body, and is able to rule it like an absolute monarch, whose slightest wish cannot be gainsaid.

Again, in your own particular case, God gave the year to you that you might develop your intellectual faculties, by diligent application to those studies which will mature the
powers of your soul, and that you might learn discipline by the observance of Rule, by silence, by submission to authority, and by humble reverence for Superiors. On all these points there is room for much serious reflection, and the few remaining moments at your disposal, before the year is gone for ever, will be profitably employed in examining yourself, to see in what way you have corresponded with His wishes.

III. When you have impressed upon your mind the purpose for which God gave the year to you, in the next place, examine seriously whether you have used it for the ends which He intended. You had a work to accomplish, the outlines of which we have just sketched for you. How has it been done? Has it even been begun? Alas! very many utterly neglect it, and we must acknowledge with sorrow that the number of people who do so is not by any means small. They do not take any pains to bring their animal nature into subjection to the spirit, and to submit the spirit to God. Some of them will not endure the slightest word of contradiction, but fly into a passion and lose all self-control. Others, through a cowardly fear of men, are neither truthful nor straightforward. Others set up self as an idol, and most devoutly fall down and worship it. Others are disobedient to Superiors ; they refuse to comply with their most reasonable wishes, and break through their most positive commands. Others are eaten up with pride and vanity, which, like canker-worms, consume the very heart of all their good works.

If, upon examination, you discover that during the past year you have not taken any pains to curb your temper, to love truth, to subdue self, to obey cheerfully, to repress pride, to labour conscientiously at the work of your intellectual development, the work for which God gave you the year has not been done. But even now there is time. The year has not quite gone. Do not allow its few remaining hours to pass by without making your peace with God. Go to Him in all humility; cast yourself upon your knees before Him; be heartily sorry for the misspent past; blot out, by tears of sincere repentance, the handwriting of sin which the recording Angel has set down against you, and promise God to make a better use of the year which is about to begin its course on the morrow.

Lectures for Boys, Volume I, 1896

We pray that you will live in such a way that the Good God will always constantly Bless you while He keeps you from all sin.  May Jesus, Mary, and Saint Joseph obtain for you every grace you need in the coming New Year!

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The Feast of the Circumcision or New Year's Day

12/29/2019

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      ON THE HOLY NAME OF JESUS AND OTHER SCRIPTURAL TITLES OF OUR LORD
"After eight days were accomplished that the child should be circumcised, his name was called Jesus."

THE eighth day is always the crowning day of the Church s greater festivals, and completes the celebration of the principal solemnities of the year. It is, as it were, linked with the first or opening day of the octave, just as our Lord in His Sermon on the Mount connected the eighth beatitude with the first by the promise of the kingdom of heaven.

When the Child that is born to us was circumcised He was called the Saviour, for it was then that He began the work of our salvation by shedding His precious blood for us. No Christian can now ask why Christ willed to be circumcised. For us He was born, for us He was circumcised, for us He suffered and died. Nothing of all this was for Himself, but all for His elect. He was not circumcised for His own sins, but for ours. The name He was called by the angel before His birth was His name from all eternity. This name of Saviour was His natural right; it was born with Him, not imposed by either angel or man.

The illustrious Prophet Isaias, predicting the birth of this Divine Child, calls Him by many great titles, but he seems to have been silent on this one name which the angel foretold, and to which the Evangelist bears testimony. Isaias, like Abraham, exulted that he might see Christ's day; he, too, saw it and was glad. Rejoicing and praising God, he says : "A child is born to us, a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace." These are indeed great names, but where is the name which is above all names, the name of Jesus at which every knee should bow? Perhaps we may find that one name expressed, or poured out in all, for it is the same that was spoken of by the Spouse in the canticle of love, "Thy name is as oil poured out." Therefore, from and in all these names and titles we have but the one name of Jesus. His office of Saviour includes all. If one had been wanting, He could neither have been called nor have been the Saviour. Has not each one of us found by experience that He has been Wonderful in the conversion and change of our wills ? For is it not the beginning of salvation when we loathe what we formerly loved, grieve over what we once delighted in, embrace what we had feared, follow after that which we had fled from, desire what we had contemned ? He that has wrought such wonders in us is assuredly Wonderful. Jesus shows Himself to be the Counsellor by directing us in the choice of penance and of a well-ordered life, lest our zeal be without knowledge and our good will without prudence.

It was likewise necessary that we should experience Him to be God the Mighty. God in the remission of our past sins, for none but God can forgive sin, and Mighty when enabling us to fight victoriously those sinful passions which are ever warring in us, and which are liable to render our last state worse than the first. Does anything still seem wanting to the office of Saviour ? Yea, truly, the chief thing would be lacking were He not also the Father of the world to come, so that we who are engendered in this world unto death may by Him be raised up to a glorious immortality.

A further title and quality is required that of the Prince of Peace Who has reconciled us to His Father, to Whom He is to give back the kingdom. Otherwise, as children of perdition, we might have risen again to punishment instead of reward. The government, which is upon His shoulder, shall be magnified by the number of the saved, that He may be truly called the Saviour; that there maybe no end of peace; and that we may know our salvation to be a true salvation which leaves no fear of failure. Oblessed Name! O sacred Oil! how widely hast thou been spread, how profusely poured out! Whence did this oil come? It came from heaven to Judea, and thence was diffused over the whole earth, to its uttermost bounds. The Church cries out, "Thy name is oil poured out." Poured out, indeed, to overflowing, since it is spread abroad, not only over the heavens and earth, but its influence reaches even to hell ; so that "in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth; and every tongue shall confess is and say, "Thy name is as oil poured out. "Behold the name of Christ and the name of Jesus were both communicated to the angels and poured out upon men. I am, then, made a participator in this salutary and life-giving name. I am a shareholder in His inheritance. I am a Christian. I am a brother of Christ. If a brother, then an heir also of God and co-heir with Christ.

And what wonder that the name of the Divine Spouse is poured out ? In His passion He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant. By this pouring out the plenitude of His divinity is diffused or spread abroad upon the earth, and of His plenitude all shall receive; and when refreshed with the life-giving perfume of this mystic oil they will exclaim,  "Thy name is as oil poured out." But why is this name compared to oil ? There is undoubtedly a similitude between the name of the Spouse and oil, and not without reason has the Holy Ghost drawn a comparison between them. Oil gives light, nourishes and strengthens the body, and alleviates pain. Hence it is light, food, and medicine. All these qualities may be recognized in the holy name of Jesus. It shines and gives light when preached, it feeds and strengthens by its remembrance, it alleviates sorrow and anoints the wounds of the soul by its invocation. Let us consider these three qualities singly.

How was it that the light of faith shone forth so suddenly over the whole earth, if not by the preaching of the blessed name of Jesus ? Is it not by the light of this name that God has called us "into his marvellous light," so that, being enlightened by it, we shall see light as the Apostle declares, "For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord." The Apostle was commanded to carry this name before kings and nations, and the children of Israel. He carried it as a brilliant torch, and by it enlightened the nations sitting in darkness, so that he could exclaim : "The night is past, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day." He lifted the light on high, and announced everywhere the name of Jesus and Him crucified. How brilliantly, too, did this light shine forth and attract the gaze of all when from the mouth of Peter the sacred name gave strength to the feet of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple ! Was he not diffusing this light when he said to this man, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth arise and walk?"
 
And to how many did he not restore sight, and health, and faith, by the power of this same name. But the name of Jesus is not only light, it is likewise food. Are you not strengthened and consoled as often as you call it to mind ? There is no thought that so replenishes and fills the soul with sweetness and spiritual joy; no exercise so efficaciously recruits and refreshes the wearied spirit, and even the senses; so repairs the inward strength, gives vigour to virtue, and cherishes pure affections, as the frequent invocation of the name of Jesus.

All food of the soul is unsavoury to me if this oil be not poured upon it ; it is insipid to me if not seasoned with this name. If you write, it does not relish if I read not there the name of Jesus. If you dispute or instruct, it does not satisfy me if I hear not the sweet sound of the name of Jesus. Jesus is honey to the mouth, music to the ear, jubilee to the heart.

The name of Jesus is, moreover, a sovereign medicine. If there be anyone overwhelmed with sorrow, let Jesus come into his heart, and thence to his lips, and behold, at the rising light of this sacred name all darkness and clouds will be dispersed, peace and joy will return, and the serenity of his mind will be restored. If there be anyone stained with crime, and driven headlong by despair to the pit of destruction, let him call upon this life-giving name, and he will speedily be restored to hope and salvation. Is there anyone amongst you in hardness of heart, in sloth, or tepidity, in bitterness of mind, if he will but invoke the name of Jesus his heart will be softened, and tears of contrition will flow gently and abundantly. In dangers and distress, in fears and anxieties, let him call on this name of power, and his confidence will return, his peace of mind will be restored. Doubts and embarrassments will be dispelled and give place to certainty. There is no ill of life, no adversity or misfortune, in which this adorable name will not bring help and fortitude. It is a remedy whose virtue our dear Saviour invites us to test.
"Call upon me in the day of trouble : I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me."

Nothing so efficaciously bridles anger and subdues the fire of all unruly passions as this holy name. When I pronounce the name of Jesus, I represent to myself a man meek and humble of heart, benevolent, chaste, merciful, a man endowed with all sanctity, all graces, all virtues, and I call to mind that this man is Divine, is the Almighty God, Who heals me by His example and strengthens me by His power., ,

All manner of good things come to my mind when the sacred name of Jesus sounds in my ear. I will, therefore, make to myself a sweet and sovereign ointment from the virtues of His humanity and the Omnipotence of His Divinity. It shall be to me a healing balsam, the like to which no physician was ever able to compound. And this electuary, my soul, thou hast laid up in the little vessel of the name of Jesus.

Let, then, this name of power be ever in my heart, that all my thoughts, desires, and actions may be directed by Jesus and unto Jesus. To this He Himself urges me :
"Place me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm."

Source:  Sermons of Saint Bernard on Advent and Christmas, Imprimatur 1909


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Advent and Christmas Prayers

12/24/2019

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On our download page you will find a booklet we made up many years ago for our Advent and Christmas prayers.  It's a little late for the Advent part but not for Christmas. It is meant to be printed as a booklet and either stapled in the center or cut and bound. All the prayers in it are taken from imprimatured sources prior to 1958.

You can also find Christmas coloring books here. 

May Our little Infant Saviour and His most Holy Mother richly bless you and yours this Christmas season! 
The Willson Family


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The Man of Sin

12/14/2019

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Veni in nomine Patris Mei, et non accipitis Me; si alius venerit in nomine suo, ilium accipietis.

I am come in the name of My Father, and you receive Me not; if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. (John 5:43)

In these words, addressed by our Blessed Lord to the Jews of Jerusalem, we are taught by some of the Fathers that He meant to foretell the future reception of Antichrist by that people which had rejected Himself. The other who is to come, not in the name of the Father, not in the name of any God but himself —" in his own name "—is the great enemy, the Man of Sin, the child of perdition, of whom St. Paul speaks in his Epistles. It is thought by Catholic and ancient writers that he will be Jewish by origin; at all events it seems probable that he will connect himself with the Jews and be received by them for a time before their final conversion, that he will build his false religion in some measure on Judaism, and that he will for a short time reign at Jerusalem, and make himself an object of worship at the Temple.

However this may be—for here we are touching on some details of the prophecies as to which we have no absolutely certain information to guide us we cannot but recognize in this sad prediction of our Lord an allusion to a general law which constantly operates in the providential course of human events. Our Lord is characterized in the Gospels as coming to His own, and not being received by them. You know how often He speaks of Himself and His Father as inviting, calling, beseeching people to come to the banquet or the kingdom which is prepared for them. Men reject God, and turn away from His offers and invitation with disdain. "I pray thee hold me excused," is their most courteous reply; at other times they turn upon His servants and messengers, beat them, handle them roughly, and slay them. And then comes in this law of retribution which is so observable in the providential government of the world. Those who refuse God are not able to refuse His and their own enemy. If they reject God's light service and loving invitation, they bring upon themselves the yoke of a hard master, and the burden of a hungry slavery instead. The prodigal son had to become a servant and a swineherd in a far country because he could not bear his happy dependence on his father in his own home. St. Paul tells us that the heathen were punished for their ingratitude to God by being allowed to fall into idolatry and degrade their moral nature in the hideous and nameless filthiness of paganism. We see the same law obtaining in the case of nations or persons, who emancipate themselves from the control of conscience to become the slaves of sin, who cast off the happy constraints of the Catholic faith to fall into endless delusions and fantastical forms of heretical error, or who cast aside: the bond of Catholic unity because they think the rule of Christ's Vicar too severe, only to find themselves bound hand and foot, gagged, in chains and in darkness, the prisoners of the civil power, whose aid they have invoked to free them from Rome. But of all instances of the working of this law, none will be more striking and more wonderful than that of which our Saviour here speaks; when those who have rejected Him, the blessed, the merciful, the gentle and humble, the very incarnation of the sweetness and tenderness of God's ineffable love, shall give themselves up body and soul into the power of the Antichrist, to be the willing slaves and eager worshipers of one who will be the most detestably diabolical of all those servants of Satan that have ever been let loose on the world to punish it for its neglect of God.

I. The prophecies in Holy Scripture which, with more or less of certainty, may be referred to the subject of the great enemy of God, the Man of Sin, are very numerous, and widely scattered over the several parts of the sacred volume. We may say that his figure is to be found at the source of the sacred stream of divine prediction, where the enmities placed by God between the woman and her seed on the one hand, and the serpent and his seed on the other, are spoken of, and where it is said of the serpent, Tu insidiaberis calcaneo ejus—"Thou shall lie in wait against her heel." (Gen iii, 15) I say, if we compare this prophecy with part of the Apocalyptic vision of St. John, we seem to see in it a distinct forecasting of the future Antichrist (Apoc.xii). Then again, we may observe that in a passage in which the Prophet Ezechiel seems to speak of Antichrist, he uses words which appear to show that this same Antichrist was a familiar subject to the Prophets before him. "Thou then art he," he says, "of whom I have spoken in the days of old by My servants the Prophets of Israel, who prophesied in the days of those times that I would bring thee upon them." (Ezech xxxviii, 13) Then again, we find him filling a large space in the prophecies of Daniel, (Dan. vii. 8, 20; xi. xii.) he is to be found in our Lord's words concerning the latter days, he is conspicuous in the passage of St. Paul which I quoted to you last Sunday, and we seem to feel his presence when St. Peter, St. Jude, and St. John, in their Epistles, (St. Peter, 2 Epist. iii. ; St. Jude, 4—18; St. John, 1 Epist. ii.) dwell on the evil times that were to come at the end of the world. Lastly, as so much of Daniel's prophecy relates to him, so also do large portions of the Apocalypse of the Beloved Disciple, (Apoc. xiii) who uses, concerning him and the events connected with him, language and imagery borrowed from the Prophets of the Old Testament, whose predictions he thus tacitly applies and fills up. Here then, my brethren, I have at once said enough to excuse myself from going in detail through the whole of this chain of prophecies, and, if the short time at our disposal did not preclude me from attempting it, I should still shrink from the task, because these predictions are in many parts, as we might naturally expect them to be, difficult and of doubtful interpretation. The great enemy of God of whom we are speaking is to have, and has already had, many types, many anticipations, many forerunners in history, just as the last great persecution of the Church has had so many preludes and fore shadowings. Many of these forerunners of Antichrist, many of these anticipations of his time and of his work in history, have been themselves the subjects of prophecy, and thus we may frequently be mistaking for predictions of him passages which refer more immediately to them. It is enough for us then, if we can put forward such general outlines of his history, and such prominent features of his character, as seem to stand out unmistakably from the sacred pages in which Daniel, St John, and St Paul appear evidently to speak of Antichrist, and thus to give ourselves clear and distinct ideas of the great evil which in course of time is to come upon the world.

In the first place, then, my brethren, it is hardly needful to say that Antichrist is to be one particular person, a child born of a woman. I say it is hardly needful to point out how utterly foolish, as well as how untrue, must such an interpretation be as that which would explain the prophecies concerning him as if they related to a power, a principle, a system, and, above all, to a chain and succession of persons reaching from the earliest ages of the Church to the latest, such as is that once common Protestant figment, that Antichrist in prophecy was a personification of the power of the Holy See, and of the Pontiffs who have succeeded St Peter. Antichrist could not come at the end of the world, and have a particular history, as we shall see, and a short and strongly- marked career, if he were merely the symbol of a line which began with Christianity itself and has endured ever since. Again, we are taught by Christian writers to put aside another wild notion, that Satan, or one of his evil angels, is to become actually incarnate, in imitation of the Incarnation of our Blessed Lord, and that thus the great enemy of the faith will be a demon in human form or nature. Satan is allowed much, but he will never be allowed so closely to imitate the blessed mystery of our Redemption, the greatest work of God, the union of two natures in one Person. No, Antichrist will be a man like other men, a child like other children; he will be borne in the womb, and suckled at the breasts of a woman, a daughter of Eve, and, moreover, he will have all the blessings granted to him, and all the prospects offered to him, which are the common heritage of the children of our race. A Guardian Angel will watch over him from the first, Saints will pray for him, he will have the door of the Church open to him as to others, the fatherly care of God will not neglect him in the ordinary course of providence, the tender and winning grace which is sufficient to enable him to do right and practice virtue, to imitate Christ and save his soul,
will not be denied to him. But we are told by the Fathers that he will at an early age fall under the corrupting power of the devil, and we see too much of the intense activity of the emissaries and tools of the Evil One to pollute and pervert Christian children even in their tenderest years, we are too much occupied in daily conflict, even in Christian countries, to maintain for the Church and for the - parent the right of Christian education for their offspring, to see anything incredible in what we are: taught will be the future of that unhappy child who  is to grow into the enemy of God. He is to begin in obscurity, and to rise from a contemptible rank; but in a short time he will obtain a kingly station, and find himself in the possession of immense wealth and influence. God will have given him wonderful natural abilities, and his character will impose on and fascinate all who come within his reach. After a rapid series of victories of unexampled brilliancy, Antichrist will be for the time the master of the world.

The character of this miserable man is drawn out for us from the Scriptures by the Fathers and Christian writers,* (The reader will find the authorities here referred to in Suarez* De Incarnatione, p. 2, disp. 54, and in Robertas Lezioni Sacre sopra la -Fine del Mondo, 1. 4 and 5.) and there is but little in it that has not been frequently foreshadowed by those who have been his types and precursors. Pride, cruelty, ambition, artifice, are among its leading features; and to these we may safely add, as a matter of course, extreme voluptuousness and licentiousness of manners. (Dan. xi. 37.) What is more peculiar to him is that he will be the author of a religion of his own. A great part of this will consist in the denial of the truth, and in insolence against God; but he will not only formally teach impiety and infidelity, and "speak great words against the High One," and deny " the God of his fathers," (Ibid, vii. 8, 25 ; xi. 36, 37.) but he will specifically teach that he himself, and not our Lord Jesus Christ, is the true Messiah, and he will set himself forth in the restored Temple of Jerusalem as the object of worship, as the only true God. (ii Thess. ii, 4 )  Here there are some lines in the prophetic description which seem to us as yet obscure and confused, because our eyes are not yet keen enough to see the harmony of statements, different though not conflicting—for we hear something of his making a god of his own to be worshipped, (Dan xi, 38) and something also of a kind of restoration of paganism,(Apoc. xiii, 3, 14-15) of which he will be the author. It is certain, however, that he will have the command of all the power of Satan for the purpose of working false and illusive miracles in confirmation of his teaching, among which will be that he will call down fire from heaven, and have the power to make an image of his false god to speak. (Apoc. xiii, 13, 15)

Once more, Antichrist will be a great persecutor of the Church; a persecutor in cruelty, and in refinement of malice, and, as it would seem, in success, surpassing all those who have hitherto played that fatal part in the history of the Church. He will make war with the Saints (Ibid. 7.) and overcome —not indeed the Church, which is immortal and indefectible, but large numbers of her weaker children. (Ibid.) He is to reign in his seductions "over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation." We are specially told that he will do what has already been done by former persecutors, and notably in the countries in which we live—he will proscribe and forbid the celebration of the Adorable Sacrifice of the Mass, the great act of worship of the Church. (Dan xii, 11) Moreover, he will impose by law the worship of his own false religion; and in this, again, he has been anticipated by his forerunners. "Whosoever will not adore the image of the beast shall be slain (Apoc. xiii, 15) Again, we find foretold of him a species of cunning legal persecution, by no means incredible when we remember what the devices are which have at various times been adopted by the enemies of our holy religion, and what is the inquisitive nature of modern legislation. It appears that he will in some way exact an impious homage to himself, as a condition to be complied with by every one who would mix in the ordinary business of life, in traffic, commerce, and the like, so that no one is to buy or sell except they have his mark on their right hand or on their forehead. (Ibid. 16, 17.) All this points to a skillful warfare against souls, combined with, and a refinement upon, the old brutal cruelty of heathen or Protestant persecutors a warfare which no doubt will be represented as a necessary condition for the security of government, as a just right of the State. Lastly, we are told that God will send special messengers and ministers of His Word, beside the ordinary Hierarchy and ministers of the Church, to oppose this great enemy of the truth.

You may remember how it stands recorded in different parts of the Scripture that two great servants of God have as yet not paid the common debt of mortality, but are preserved in some wonderful way as has always been thought among Christians, to re-appear at the end of the world, and then to die for the truth. From the Patriarchs before the Flood Enoch was taken, and from the Prophets in the days of the Jewish dispensation Elias was taken; and these two, as the tradition of the Church tells us, are to come and preach and work miracles, and, as it would seem, to convert at least a great part of the Jewish nation to God before the last day.(Apoc. xi, 3-7) They
are to oppose Antichrist, and at last are to be slain by him; and then, in the moment of his triumph, at the height of his power, when all the earth seems silent before him, the enemy of God will be destroyed by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, as St. Paul tells the Thessalonians—"Whom the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of His mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming." (2 Thess. ii, 8)

And now, my brethren, I suppose, when we look forward to these coming events in the history of the human race, our first view of them represents them to us as something perfectly novel and unheard of before, and we are inclined to suppose that all the conditions of society and the whole character of the world's history must be radically changed before such things can take place. What ! is a man to make himself worshiped in the temple of God ? Is heathenism again to rise ? Is the human race, after all its moral and material achievements, to grovel once more in idolatry, falsehood, and superstition ? Now, I do not deny that there are many features in the character and in the proceedings of this great enemy of Jesus Christ which will be unexampled, at least in greatness and intensity, in all that may have gone before. We are told that Satan will then be "let loose;" (Apoc, xx, 7) he has always by nature an immense power to hurt and to deceive the world, but he is permitted by God to exercise this power just as far as God sees fit, and there is a greater or less degree in this permission at various times. At the end of the world, when he makes what will be his last effort, God will permit him a greater amount of power, for the punishment of mankind who have treated the Gospel so ungratefully. This is true. In the latter days the power of evil will be in this sense increased, and the malice of the Evil One will be intensified, because, as St. John says, he knows that "he hath but a short time." (Apoc xii, 12)

And yet we may go a great deal too far in allowing that there will be an altogether new state of things in the days of Antichrist. It is a pernicious delusion as to the ancient history of man, as it is recorded in Scripture, to suppose that the persons and the events, the principles and the motives, which come into prominence in the sacred pages,
were entirely different from those with which we are familiar. I say it is a mischievous delusion, because it leads us to feel as if we had nothing practically to do with the sacred history, and thus we are prevented from realizing that the same things may happen in our day as happened then, that God is just as active in the guidance of human affairs, and in the notice which He takes of human crimes, as He was of old. And so I say, rather, that the days of Antichrist are to be the natural issue and outcome and fruit and development of the days in which we live, and that the elements and principles which are to be at work then in their greatest force are at this moment working around us. As to Antichrist himself, he will be a man of his own day, the legitimate child and offspring of the generation to which he belongs, gathering up in his own person and character its chief features and essential notes. To us, as he is described in the pages of Scripture, he is the enemy of God, the Man of Sin, the child of perdition, the persecutor of the Saints, the worker of lying wonders, the slave of Satan, the author and propagator of a false religion, the tyrannical proscriber of every worship but his own. To us he is, as he will be in reality, a man of blood, a soul stained with the deepest sin, given up to corruption, fearfully degraded, full of falsehood, vanity, impurity, cruelty, a soul in which evil has been carried to its highest pitch, as little mixed as it is possible to be in this world with the faintest shade of good; excluding, as far as may be, not only virtue and moral excellence, but even anything that can attract sympathy or admiration.

But Antichrist will not wear this aspect to the men of his day. Nay, I may venture to say still more—that, were he to come now, he would not look like this. No, my brethren, the world and the Church are always at war, and on each side there are heroes, great men, men who express the ideas and attract the sympathy and devotion of the side which they represent At the head of the heroes of the Church is the lovely and noble beauty of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God; at the head of the world's heroes, their fitting and proper leader, the natural object of their devotion, will be the enemy of Jesus, the Antichrist Evil and sin in this world do that much of homage to conscience and to virtue, that they never proclaim themselves to be what they are, and always present themselves, as it were, under the colours of their adversaries. Every giant of wickedness here calls himself the advocate of right and justice, every monstrous deed of public and world-wide wrong is done under the name of some watchword of goodness or of truth. It is liberty, or freedom, or enlightenment, or progress, or fraternity, that is inscribed on every banner that marshals behind it the hosts of evil. Words like these will be in the mouths of those who form the herd of the flatterers of Antichrist, who are the executors of his behests and the preachers of his doctrine. Men will talk then, as they talk now, of a great deliverance from the bondage under which religion has so long kept down the intellect and restrained the free exercise of the instincts of human nature. We shall hear of the emancipation of thought, the banishment of superstition, the breaking to pieces of the old fetters, the removal of old lines of distinction, the exploding of old fables about God, and judgment, and eternal punishment; about a nature infected with sin, and under sentence of degradation, a nature in need, forsooth, of a saviour and a deliverer, in need, forsooth, of grace from God to enable it to do right, a nature whose nobility lay in its being subdued, and whose highest perfection consisted in self-sacrifice and mortification! Humanity, it will be said then, has been groaning for centuries under a despotism which has withered its brightest flowers and poisoned its most enchanting pleasures by the old foolish chimeras of sin and responsibility and judgment hereafter; and the man who has revealed the glorious truth of the independence of nature will be hailed as the greatest of benefactors, and take his place, as it will be said, at the very summit of the historical grandeurs and glories of our race.

These things his admirers will say of Antichrist, as men like them may have said the same things of other conspicuous instruments of Satan and enemies of the truth, as it is in Jesus Christ, in ages before him. But the great fascination by which he will win the homage and submission of the men of his day, will be not only that he will give them an easy creed and persuade them that conscience is a bugbear and that the indulgence of their lowest passions is a right or a duty, but also the great and rapid and unexampled success which will mark his course. It will be permitted him to rise suddenly, and to be almost in a moment the victorious master of the world ; and his brilliant abilities and irresistible march to the highest power will so dazzle the eyes of men that they will forget to examine the legitimacy of his claims or the soundness of his policy, the truth of his creed or the honesty and purity of his life. You know how often we hear it said that "nothing succeeds like success," how ready the men of this world are to idolize prosperous adventurers, men who have made their own way, men who have left their mark on their age, even for evil, men who have gained the object of their ambition even at the cost of honour and truthfulness. You know what a fascination genius of the lowest kind, and success by the most unprincipled means, exercise over the bulk of men, and how often we are startled by some instance which reveals to us how little the standard of greatness which exists in the minds of the majority is in accordance with the character of our Lord, nay, how eagerly they will hail direct antagonism to Him. You may have read, my brethren, in the history of the last century, how that miserable man whose name has become famous as the patriarch and apostle of modern infidelity, the man who began, or at all events carried to its height, that system of calumniating and scoffing and sneering at Christianity which has so many followers still—though his contemporaries knew him, as we also know him from his biographies, to have been eaten up by meanness, petty spite, vanity, jealousy, avarice, insatiable pride, ostentation, and love of applause, so that his character appears to us to have nothing in it that any one could heartily admire or love in any way—yet how, at the very close of his long drawn-out life, when the hand of death was already creeping upon him, he had himself transported once more to Paris, and how he there became the object of universal homage and, it may almost be said, of worship. Worship, for no other reason so much as that he had been a brilliant forerunner of Antichrist in his doctrine, in laughing at religion and encouraging men in infidelity ! And then all ranks of that gay and thoughtless society, dancing, as it were, at that moment, its last fling over the half-wakened fires of the volcano beneath its feet, which was so soon to burst forth and engulf the revelers in destruction—all ranks, I grieve to say, from the partner of the throne of the successor of St. Louis down to the lowest hangers-on of the light literature and the theatres of the time—came or sent in succession to the ante-chamber of that dying infidel as if to burn incense before him. (Sec Maynard's Voltaire, sa Vie et ses CEuvres> t ii, p. 590. Voltaire died in 1778)  Ah! my brethren, have there not been triumphs in our day, and not far from us, which might remind us well enough of that last miserable triumph of Voltaire? triumphs, in which men of blood and crime and the most barefaced villainy, men who have hardly condescended to veil their rapine and violence under the cloak of some colourable pretext, have been made the heroes of a cultivated and refined society that calls itself Christian, while their chief claim on the homage of their worshipers has really been this, that they have been great enemies and injurers of the Church and of the Holy See ? What wonder then if we are led to think that Antichrist will be the idol of his day, when to the charm of being a great denier and assailant of the checks and restraints which God has placed upon the unbridled indulgence of natural appetites, he will add the fascination of success such as the world has never before seen, and when he will enforce his claims by the aid of lying wonders, and when—to add that last sad element of all—the men of his time, because they have resisted and hated the truth, will be handed over by the just judgment of God to a spirit of blindness and delusion, so as to believe a lie!

Yes, my brethren, the world is always ready for its Antichrist. Its principles, and motives, and manners of judging, its aims and desires and longings, are all such as will find themselves satisfied, encouraged, answered to, in him. On the other hand, there is this consolation for the children of the Church, for those who form their thoughts and minds, who regulate their judgments and their lives, on the pattern of Jesus Christ and of His Saints, that they have in their own hearts and consciences a light and an unction of the Holy Ghost which will enable them to withstand all the wiles and seductions of the Evil One, to see through all his false wonders and lying miracles, and to baffle his power, if it be so, even by death. Only, my brethren, let us not deceive ourselves by thinking that all this that we have been speaking of is a thing of the future, a matter of merely historical interest and excitement to ourselves. No, my brethren, whether the latter days fall now, or centuries hence, Antichrist, as we saw last Sunday, is in the world at present. We recognize the workings of Divine Providence in the events of our time, and we should think ourselves faithless if we did not see the finger of God both in what befalls the Church, and in what befalls ourselves. But we must recognize also the working of the enemies of God. There is another hand continually active all around us; and it behoves us very much not to mistake it or to ignore
it We need that holy simplicity of the Saints, which always saw Satan behind the forms of his instruments, and called by their right name the machinations of the Evil One. In the days of St Catharine of Sienna, there was a war against the Church at the head of which were many of the Church's own princes, and she, humble, meek, and charitable as she was, did not speak of these tools of evil as a party, or as representing an idea, or as advocating a policy or a mistaken principle, but in the plainest language she called them devils.  Well, my brethren, the hand that is to guide Antichrist is always plotting against the Church and against society. Satan is always, generation after generation, preparing men to be his instruments in the final conflict, he is always undermining our holy faith, always blinding and misleading the world, ever and anon setting forth his chosen instruments and servants in the work of impiety, and teaching them to clothe and bear themselves in such guise as to attract the attention, the interest, the influence, the popularity, which will at last centre around Antichrist himself.

Let us then, dear brethren in Jesus Christ, take care, in the first place, never to bow down or do homage to the world's idols—to intellect, to power, to success, to wealth, to the achievements of dishonest policy, to the prosperous lying, the unblushing wickedness, the boastful injustice of our time. Let us stand on the old paths, and give honour where alone honour is due, to humility, and purity, and meekness, and self-sacrifice, and charity, and zeal for the glory of God. Let us shrine in our heart of hearts, as the measure of all good, the object and centre of all love, Jesus Christ our Lord, Who has come to us in the name of His Father. And in the second place, let us be like men looking forwards rather than backwards, men waiting for, and looking out for their Lord—not so much counting up what those before us have done and suffered for the cause of God, as if, forsooth, the days of persecution and conflict were gone, never to return; as if henceforth we were to lead quiet and unruffled lives, enjoying our truce with the world, making the most of our position in society, eating, and drinking, and marrying, and giving in marriage, as in the days of Noe—like men who have hung up their fathers' armour in their halls, and sit round the fire telling tales of their prowess, and yet know not and think not themselves how to lift a hand in the fight in which their fathers bled. No, my brethren; the Church of God is now preparing herself for her last persecution, and she is preparing herself by nothing so much as by waging vigorous warfare now in our own days against the evil influences of the world, and in repelling its assaults upon her outworks, such as marriage and education, as well as upon her doctrines and upon her unity. The last persecution may come in your days, or in the days of your children, or in the days of your children's children; but your children and your children's children will be what you are, what your example and your teaching make them. If you are soldiers, watchful, self-denying, eager to beat back and advance upon the enemies of your souls and of the Church—then, my brethren, you will have done a twofold good. You will have served the Church and God in your own day, and so have weakened the power of evil in all days, and you will have left behind you and handed on to your little ones the tradition of faithfulness, warfare, toil, and sacrifice for God. If you are soft, self-indulgent, worldly, indolent, careless of the dangers, and at peace with the evils, of our time, then, though Antichrist come not yet, you will have done a twofold evil which will descend in misery upon those who come after you. You will have weakened the cause of God in your own day, and so you will have made the future triumph of evil more easy and more complete; and you will have bequeathed to your children the traditions and the training which will but ill fit them to withstand in their own generation the wiles, the seductions, and the cruelties of the great enemy of Jesus Christ.

Source: Sermons by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, Volume I,  1870

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Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M. - December 8th

12/7/2019

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                                              THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
                "O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee"

With such a glorious feast as this during the month of December, we are almost tempted to give up all hope of doing much penance during the season of Advent. On December 8th we celebrate the wondrous moment when the Blessed Virgin began her existence in this world. At the same time we celebrate the sublime privilege by which Mary, alone among all human beings and in virtue of the future merits of Christ, was preserved at the very first moment of conception from the stain of original sin. It is true, of course, that in origin and in principle this great feast does not have any relationship with the time of Advent. It was fixed on December 8 in order to separate the feast by nine months from the date of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin on September 8.

However, in celebrating this feast we may easily enter into the spirit of Christmastide, for the feast is like the dawn of the Sun of Christmas. Mary is our hope, guide, and mother along the path of salvation.

The vigil of the Immaculate Conception is an opportune time to introduce the children to the practice of lighting a special Advent candle in Mary's honor. The Advent candle expresses symbolically the words of Isaias, "There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of this root." A beautiful candle is placed in a candleholder, which is covered with a white silk cloth tied together with ribbon. The candle is then placed before an image, statue or icon of our Lady before which the family prays to the Mother of God. This ancient custom preaches its lesson with an eloquent simplicity which is comprehensible to little children. The covered candle holder represents the rod out of the root of Jesse, Our Lady, from whose womb will come the Saviour of the world. The candle represents Christ, the Light of the World, who shall come to dispel all darkness and stain of sin. In conjunction with this little ceremony, one of the family could tell of the purity and childlike simplicity of our Blessed Mother, and of how she came to be the mother of us all.

Some of the prophetic lessons of Isaias could also be read, along with Gertrude von le Fort's poem to Our Lady of Advent, from "Hymns to the Church." The singing of the "Alma Redemptoris Mater," or the beautiful "Tota Pulchra Es" of Dom Pothier would be a suitable conclusion for the little ceremony.

Several remarks may be added concerning the hymns which we teach children in honor of Our Lady. Much bad taste, musical and theological, has entered into the praises of Our Lady. It would indeed be wise always to teach children only the best, and that which is always truthful and in accord with reality. Would we dare to compare "Macula non est in te," "Mother Dear, O Pray for Me," "On This Day, O Beautiful Mother," or "Bring Flowers of the Rarest," with the "Ave, Maris Stella" (sung in English, perhaps; but you will find that the children easily come to love and understand the Latin); the "Ave Maria," as edited by Solesmes; the sequence "Inviolata"; the hymn "Maria Mater Gratiae," or the "Tota Pulchra Es" of Dom Pothier?

Mother Church recommends the "Ave Maris Stella," which is the vesper hymn of the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Compare the theology of this hymn with the sentimental ballads which are customarily taught to children in honor of their heavenly Mother and Mediatrix:

          Ave, Star of ocean,
          Child divine who bearest,
          Mother, ever Virgin,
          Heaven's portal fairest.

          Taking that sweet Ave
          Erst by Gabriel spoken,
          Eva's name reversing,
          Be of peace the token.

          Break the sinner's fetters,
          Light to blind restoring,
          All our ills dispelling,
          Every boon imploring.

          Show thyself a mother
          In thy supplication,
          He will hear who chose thee
          At His Incarnation.

          Maid all maids excelling,
          Passing meek and lowly,
          Win for sinners pardon,
          Make us chaste and holy.

          As we onward journey
          Aid our weak endeavor,
          Till we gaze on Jesus
          And rejoice forever.

          Father, Son, and Spirit,
          Three in One confessing,
          Give we equal glory
          Equal praise and blessing.

                         --Ethelstan Riley translation

Should we desire other hymns in honor of the Immaculate Conception, we may choose such hymns and carols as "A Child Is Born in Bethlehem," or the superb German Advent carol "Behold, a Branch Is Growing." The latter, a fifteenth-century carol harmonized by Praetorius, is given below:

          Behold a branch is growing
          Of loveliest form and grace.
          As prophets sung, foreknowing;
          It springs from Jesse's race.
          And bears one little flower.
          In midst of coldest winter,
          At deepest midnight hour.
          Isaiah hath foretold it
          In words of promise sure,
          And Mary's arms enfold it,
          A Virgin meek and pure.
          Through God's eternal will,
          This Child to her is given
          At midnight calm and still.

Even the cook is not allowed respite during the octave of the Immaculate Conception, for it is time to make Moravian "Spritz" for the children. Ordinarily these gingerbread cookies are made for the vigil of the Immaculate Conception since Mary, too, "gave forth sweet smell like cinnamon and aromatic balm and yielded a sweet odor like the best myrrh." These cookies are loaded with fine, aromatic spices, tempting the appetites of any child of Mary. The spirit of mortification enters in readily, for the cookies must stand for ten days in the refrigerator before baking, and are then shaped into Christmas figures, especially hearts and liturgical symbols. Later on in the season, when we come to Candlemas, we could cut the cookies into the form of candles and turtle-doves.

The Immaculate Conception is the Patroness of the United States. How often our Holy Father has stated in recent years that the hope of peace in the world does not lie in force of arms, but rather in prayers and recourse to the intercession of Our Lady. 

                                                      ~ True Christmas Spirit, Imprimatur 1955 ~

You can find a coloring picture of the Immaculate Conception here.

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The Immaculate Conception - December 8th

12/6/2019

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"Thou art all beautiful, Mary! and no stain of original sin is in thee; thou art the glory of Jerusalem, the joy of Israel, the honor of our people."

Such is the anthem of the Church in today's festival in honor of Mary. Today we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin and we are therefore full of joy.
From time immemorial the Church has conceded this privilege to Mary; the ancient doctors and saints taught it; but it was only in our day that it was made an article of faith, when Pius IX., in the year 1854, supported and surrounded by two hundred cardinals and bishops assembled in Rome from all parts of the world, proclaimed it as a dogma that Mary the Mother of God was preserved from original sin from the first instant of her conception; that she did not need to be purified from stain of sin; that God had created her pure and immaculate. The decree was applauded by all, amid demonstrations of the most profound respect and liveliest enthusiasm.

No less should be our joy at the recurrence of a festival that marks so wondrous a grace. But will you content yourselves with joy and exultation? Do you think it will suffice to Mary to know that you are happy? Mary desires above all that you imitate her purity. If your souls have been stained with sin she wants you to seek pardon at once, and in order that you may succeed the better she is anxious to come to your assistance. She herself wants to intercede for your pardon at the throne of the Most High. She herself wishes to be your advocate, for she is the refuge of sinners. Under this title invoke her today; with the grace of God I will prove to you how well she merits that title. Mary, who is all pure and all holy, deserves that we all should be pure and free from sin. Sin renders us abominable in the sight of God. Our soul is like a horrid desert filled with wild beasts; the vile passions of anger, revenge, and impurity dwell in it. Mary sees our unhappy condition, feels the greatest pity for us, and seeks to make us know the miserable state we are in. Many feel this and are converted, but, on the contrary, many, and among them a larger number of young people, have hardened their hearts and live in the indulgence of their vices because they prefer to walk in the broad road of sin which eventually leads to eternal death.

They get further and further away from that influence which could lead them back to conversion; they avoid the church, the sacraments, the word of God, the counsels of pious people and associates, and give up the little devotion they had to the Blessed Virgin. Mary has great compassion on even the most wicked men, and she does not desert them. She is the refuge of sinners, and provided they have a wish to lay aside the habit of sin, provided they say at least a little prayer, that bright immaculate Queen will strike off their fetters and they will be converted to God. St. Bridget says that this sweet Mother is a bait to catch souls for heaven. Honor her then, ye sinners! Find a joy in doing it and she will obtain for you grace and salvation.

A criminal once said, "What has the Blessed Virgin ever done for me?" "What has she ever done for you, ungrateful creature!" answered an interior voice. " Do you remember the sudden death of this and that sinner? It might have been the same with you, but she obtained for you the grace of a longer life and an opportunity to do better." She thus does good, even to those who are ungrateful. 

Mary of Egypt, when twelve years old, went to the wicked city of Alexandria against the express command of her mother, and there she lived a most sinful life for seventeen years. One day she saw a big crowd going to the shore to embark for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. She took a notion to go along. On the ship she behaved most scandalously and led many of the pilgrims into sin. The feast came, and she wished to witness these festivals also. When she arrived before the church she made an attempt to enter, but she felt a hand restraining her. Three times she attempted to cross the threshold, and though she made the greatest effort she could not succeed. Then she understood that her great sins were the cause of the mysterious force that prevented her from entering the church; that in her condition she was not worthy to enter the house of God and look upon the sacred relics of the Cross of Christ. She wept at the remembrance of her sins; she did not know what to do, when by the side of a house she saw a painting of the Blessed Virgin. Throwing herself at the feet of Mary she exclaimed, "Holy Virgin, who didst conceive an omnipotent God, I know well that since thou lovest purity so much and wert so pure thyself, thou oughtest to abhor such a person as I am. But 0, most merciful Mother, have mercy on me! The greater my misery, the greater is my right to thy intercession. Obtain for me the grace of seeing that holy wood of the cross; and I will go where thou leadest me to do penance." Mary heard her prayer, and obtained for her the grace to enter the church and adore the holy cross. Having come out of the church the sinner went to the desert and there did penance and became a great saint through the intercession and help of the Blessed Virgin. Thus you see that Mary feels compassion for the greatest and most disgusting sinners.

A youth of twenty-five years was dying. He had led a most sinful life, but having been converted, he was very devout to the Blessed Virgin, and became a model young man. He was on his sick-bed and held in one hand a crucifix and in the other an image of the Blessed Virgin. He looked from one to the other and in turn kissed them. When he had received the last sacraments he confidently said: "Father, I am going to heaven, for Mary has obtained for me this grace." You also, my dear young friends, if you commend yourselves to Mary, if you are converted with a sincere heart and abandon sin, you will surely go to heaven.

But you, my dear young friends who are still innocent, do not forget on this beautiful day of the Immaculate Conception to pray to Mary. You, too, have need of Mary's protection that you may preserve your baptismal purity. Pray to her in this wise: "Obtain for me, immaculate Virgin, that no sin may come into my soul. Obtain for me that my eyes may be preserved from the contamination of impurities; obtain for me that my ears may not hear any impious discourses against religion, purity, or charity; obtain for me that my tongue may not utter bad words, that my hands may do nothing wrong. Obtain for me, immaculate Virgin, that my whole heart and my body may be the temple of the Holy Ghost fitted for this divine habitation by the most scrupulous purity."

"Thou art all fair, Mary, and no stain of sin is to be found in thee."

                                                   Source: Sermons for Children's Masses, Imprimatur 1900

Below you will find coloring pages for the children. On our download page there is also an entire coloring book filled with images of our dear Blessed Mother. 


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A Little about St. Nicholas - and Some Coloring Pics

12/5/2019

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                               ST. NICHOLAS
                                (December 6)
Even though we resolve not to celebrate Christmas parties during  the season of Advent, Mother Church always seems to find some  reason or other to rejoice even during her most solemn penitential seasons. The Spouse just cannot be unhappy and joyless as long as the Bridegroom is present each day at Holy Mass. Even during Holy Week we hear of the "happy fault" of Adam, the "blessed Passion" of Christ, and the Cross becomes a symbol of triumph, the joy of Christians. Almost at the very outset of Advent, we gather the children together on the eve of St. Nicholas to celebrate the feast of this famous bishop.

St. Nicholas is the patron of many different groups of people, and for hundreds of years has been a popular saint in the East and in the West, greatly venerated as a wonder-worker. He is the patron of mariners, bankers, pawn-brokers, scholars and thieves!

One legend tells of an occasion when the saints were gathered in heaven to converse and drink a little wine together. St. Basil filled the golden cups from a golden jug, and while all were engaged in conversation, it was noticed that St. Nicholas was nodding. One of the blessed nudged him until he awoke, and asked the cause for his slumbers. "Well, you see," he told them, "the enemy has raised a fearful storm in the Aegean. My body was dozing, perhaps, but my spirit was bringing the ships safe to shore."

He is especially the saint of children, and is known in various countries as Santa Claus, Kris Kringle and Pelznickel. Servants have been invented to accompany him and to deal with those children who have been disobedient and naughty. Since St. Nicholas is considered too kind to give scoldings and punishments, in Austria it is Krampus, in Germany Knecht Ruprecht, and in Holland Black Peter who goes along with him armed with a stout switch, while St. Nicholas merely hands gifts to the children without even noticing the bad little boys and girls. A very old legend tells of his kindness to three daughters of a poor nobleman. Since they had no dowry, they were to be sold into slavery. St. Nicholas learned of this and on three successive nights dropped a bag of gold for them down the chimney. This is said to explain the three balls over the shops of pawnbrokers, and why St. Nicholas drops his gifts for children down the chimney.

Nicholas was born at Patara in Lycia in the third century. His parents, who had been growing old without having a child, are said to have obtained him by force of prayer. Nicholas, losing his father and mother at an early age, devoted his life to the poor and afflicted of every kind. Late in his life, after he had been made Bishop of Myra in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey) Nicholas suffered imprisonment for his faith. He died tranquilly in his episcopal city pronouncing the words, "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit"--words which have become the short responsory of Compline. Since 1087 his relics have been preserved at Bari in Italy.

Devotion to St. Nicholas began in his native Asia Minor, and was brought to Russia by an emperor who was witness to his miraculous works. The devotion spread through Lapland and into Scandinavia, thence to all Europe and across to the New World. In early times, Nicholas was pictured as a kind, lean, ascetic bishop, but in America he became fat and jolly. His miter turned into a winter bonnet, his vestments became a snow suit. He retained his reindeer from Lapland, his love for chimneys from his own Asia Minor, and his love of children from all time.

A French legend relates that Our Lady once gave him the whole of the province of Lorraine as a reward for his kindness. As the children of that province hang up their stockings, they say:

          "Saint Nicholas, mon bon patron,
          Envoyez-moi quelqu'chose de bon."

In Holland, St. Nicholas puts in an appearance on the eve of his feast, accompanied by Black Peter. As the children sing, the door flies open and candies and nuts begin to fly all over the floor. After the jolly saint leaves, hot punch, chocolate and boiled chestnuts with butter and sugar are served. The following morning children find their shoes filled with candy hearts spice cakes, letter bankets (candies or cake bearing the child's initials), ginger cakes, or taii-taii in patterns of birds and fish, and even in the form of the saint.

In Switzerland, St. Nicholas parades the streets with his arms full of red apples, cookies and prunes for the children. In Austria and Germany he throws gilded nuts in at the door while Krampus or Rupprecht may throw in a few birch twigs. In Poland, if there is a red sunset on Saint Nicholas' day, it is said to be because angels are busy baking the saint's honey cakes.

With this much background of legend and adventure, all sorts of ideas could be brought to the fore for a celebration and party for the children on the eve or on the feast of St. Nicholas Ordinarily, it would be well to have the party on the vigil as a preparation for the Mass of St. Nicholas on the following day. After Mass the children could return home to find their stockings filled with all sorts of good things. The person who takes the part of St. Nicholas should really look like a bishop, and preferably be dressed in the costume of an early Oriental bishop. What a wonderful opportunity to study ecclesiastical attire in the early Church as mothers and friends make vestments for St. Nicholas and the costume of his servant! Each child may be addressed personally by name by the bishop, praised for his good deeds, given a little gift. The party could continue with appropriate games and songs, with the story of St. Nicholas, and explanations of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. There is no longer any need for mothers and fathers to delude their children with nonsense about mythical Santas in outlandish snowsuits. Let us christianize our children's lives by retaining veracity and reality and substituting for Santa Claus the lean and kind ascetic bishop St. Nicholas. For inspiration and variety a little imagination and a prayer to St. Nicholas will do the trick. Perhaps at the party a prayer could be offered for the poor and orphan children of the world.

 Recipes for the feast are never wanting. Florence Berger's "Cooking for Christ," mentioned above, and Katherine Burton and Helmut Ripperger's "Feast Day Cookbook" supply the need for "speculatius," "ciastka miodowe" (honey cakes), and "rozijnon hoekies" (raisin cookies). A little "bishopwyn" for the cold vigil makes the parents glow with happiness. "Dutch Treat," an Advent cooky, goes well with that.

                                                             "True Christmas Spirit," Imprimatur 1955

You can find Coloring pictures of St. Nicholas here.


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Saint Nicholas Day - December 6th

12/5/2019

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V:  The Lord led the just man in right paths
R:  And showed him the kingdom of God.
Ant:  The Lord loved him and adorned him;
He clothed him with splendid apparel,
and crowned him at the gates of paradise 
                                              ~ from Vespers of St. Nicholas


The following was taken from, "Cooking for Christ" by Florence Berger, 1949

The children of the house have smelled the good smells of spices, and they are dancing around the table with mixing spoons and cookie cutters in their hands. "Don't forget St. Nicholas, Mother. Don't forget he comes tomorrow night."

There will be no forgetting St. Nicholas at our house, I can assure you. That is the eve when we all hang up our stockings. The hanging of stockings on the fireplace is great fun for the children. Most of the real sport, though, comes the day before when we make the treats to fill those stockings. One of our favorites is a spice cookie that came from the Netherlands, the land that loved St. Nicholas best. This Dutch cookie is called speculatius.

                                                                            SPECULATIUS
      1 cup butter                                                                         4 teaspoons cinnamon
      1 cup vegetable shortening                                           1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
      2 cups brown sugar                                                        1/2 teaspoon cloves
   1/2 cup sour cream                                                        4 1/2 cups sifted flour
   1/2 teaspoon baking soda                                                1/2 cup slivered almonds
      

 Cream the butter, shortening and sugar. Add sour cream alternately with sifted dry ingredients. Stir in the nuts. Knead the dough into rolls. Wrap the rolls in wax paper and chill them in the refrigerator overnight. Roll the dough very thin and cut into shapes. Bake at 375° for 10 to 15 minutes.

Sometimes, after the dough is chilled, we roll it very thin and try to cut it into the shape of good St. Nicholas himself. It is great fun to use a sharp knife as a stiletto and see how artistic you can be. The very best ginger cake figure is always named St. Nicholas. The others are good, bad and indifferent — until we call the worst of all the devil, which is about what it looks like. But if you have been good all year, you have nothing to fear when St. Nicholas comes knocking at your door.

Part of the dough can be cut into the shapes of birds or fish or animals. This is a feast day for school children — and what pleases them is the order of the day. Sometimes we frost these ginger cakes with white or pink icing, and decorate them with dried or candied fruits.

Waiting for the speculatius to chill is very trying for the fifty anxious fingers in our house. While we are waiting, we mix up a batch of raisin cookies that we can taste right now. These are drop cookies, and even a tiny child can drop bits of dough on a greased cookie sheet. What if a few miss the pan? What if they are all sizes, from dibs to dabs? The crumbs are the important things — the crumbs and enough whole ones to fill our stockings. (Bloggers note: We fill our stockings with these cookies, an orange, some nuts and of course a bag of gold the chocolate variety that is ;)

On the evening of December 5, the whole house is filled with the good smells of baking as we tell the beautiful legends of the charity of St. Nicholas. To give gifts in secret so that people would render him no thanks was surely a saintly act. With the people of the Netherlands, let us toast his memory with bishopwyn.


BISHOPWYN (BISHOP'S WINE)
1 bottle claret or other dry red wine
6 cloves
4 inches stick cinnamon, broken into pieces
Simmer wine and spices for about 5 minutes. Strain the wine.
Serve it hot. (In the chill of the night vigil,
it makes you feel like a bishop!)


I am sure it was the discretion and reticence of St. Nicholas that won him an extra high crown in Heaven. The children like his idea of throwing gold into an open window on the sly. In imitation, the older children put extra treats in the little ones' stockings. You will find traditions very easy to begin with children. When they are grown, they will be loath to cast them aside.

                                             INTRODUCTION TO COOKING FOR CHRIST

Of all the rooms in a house, the friendly, comforting kitchen is mother to us all. It is the source of our food, our learning and our virtue. Here the first pale green streaks of dawn find coffee brewing; the aroma wakes the family with a kindly call. Here the baby spills his milk with impunity. All during the day little helpers find new adventure here in the tasks which teach and amuse — even though it means sifting flour on the cat. Here the older children run, as soon as school is out to raid the apple bin or cookie jar. Even the high school gang prefers to kick off their shoes in the kitchen. At night there are lessons to do here, while debates and philosophizing split the ceiling. When the rest of the rooms are asleep at last, the light in the kitchen comforts a newborn baby or a visiting neighbor.
Thus the kitchen remains first and last in our affections and memories.

There is, I believe, a reason for this, and it lies in the woman who is the mistress of that kitchen. Cook, you may call her. I prefer to call her "Christian in Action." She herself is Christ-centered because she brings Christ home to her kitchen and, in corollary, her kitchen reflects the Christ within her.

To some it may seem sacrilegious to connect cookery and Christ, but that is exactly what this book means to do. If I am to carry Christ home with me from the altar, He will have to come to the kitchen because much of my time is spent in there. I shall welcome Him on Easter and He shall eat new lamb with us. I shall give him Homage to Him on Epiphany and shall cook a royal feast for Him and my family. I shall mourn with Him on Holy Thursday, and we shall taste the bitter herbs of the Passover and break unleavened bread. Then the cooking that we do will add special significance to the Church Year and Christ will sanctify our daily bread. That is what is meant by the liturgical year in the kitchen.

If I am to be creative, and I believe God made me to be just that, why can't I create feast day specials from eggs and milk and butter? These are materials which I know. I once tried to paint a picture, but the colors ran and the perspective was poor. I tried to write music, but even the dog howled to hear it. I tried to weave a piece of cloth, but the warp broke and the woof tangled. So I have resolved to stick to my cooking and beat my way into heaven.

The idea of serving certain foods on certain feast days is a very old one. You can go all the way back to Exodus and see how specific God was in giving instructions to the Jewish cooks who were to prepare the Passover meal. Christ and His family were careful to follow the letter of the law as they celebrated the Jewish festivals.

As the celebration of Christian feast days spread throughout Europe and the East, each group of people created their finest foods in celebration and used them over and over; in this way a tradition of feast day cookery grew up. The custom was so widespread during the Middle Ages that the Church had to call a halt to the many days of fine eating. After all, the people were not getting their work done and, I suppose, gout was on the increase.

With the Protestant revolt the saints' days were scattered. Instead of six or seven days in honor of Christ's mother, we of very recent date have drummed up a so-called Mother's Day. Instead of the holy thrill of the white garment of baptism given at Easter, we have silly little Easter bonnets to cover our silly little heads. If we are Christians, why must we de-Christianize things? When we encourage secularism, it is not a case of being neither fish nor fowl — we soon become all foul and no fish. Remember the fish was the one of the first signs of the Christian.

A cry has gone forth to revitalize our Christianity. Analysts have pointed to the lethargy that has crept upon the Christian spirit like a slow paralysis. Liturgists have called us back to a vision of the early Christian worship and have begged for more active lay participation in the Lord's service. Theologians have rewritten our New Testament in Modern English. Commentators lead us though Old Testament
pathways so we may come to know the ancient prophets. Now perhaps mothers and daughters can lead their families back to the Christ-centered living and cooking. Foods can be symbols that lead the mind to spiritual thinking. After Christ had preached to the multitude, He fed them. If our family is to hear the Gospel, I shall first feed them on symbols and then on more substantial meat. The one will help the digestion of the other.

Yet this book is not a part of a backward-looking movement. We do not revive past Catholic customs merely because they are antique. We use them because they are filled with the Christian spirit, which our modern days have sidetracked. We have tested the recipes, which we ask you to try, in a modern kitchen fully equipped with modern gadgets. We have changed the old procedure of measuring ingredients by weight and used our present quantitative system of cups and spoons. We have sweetened or enriched several of the recipes to suit America's sweet tooth. But, above all, the acid test
came when we asked a very real, growing matter-of-fact family to eat our feast day specials. If the feast was to be a day of joy, we should not mar it, but magnify it with our cooking. This tells you how our book was built, how the idea was sown and watered; only God can give the increase.

                                                                                                                                Florence S. Berger,
                                                                                                                                Hill Country House,
                                                                                                                                Exaltation of the Holy Cross,
                                                                                                                                September 14,1949

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First Sunday of Advent - The Last Judgment

12/1/2019

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They shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with great power and majesty. ST. LUKE xxi. 27.

I. As fear is the beginning of wisdom, the Church upon this day opens her ecclesiastical year, by recalling to the minds of her children the terrors of the great accounting-day, upon which neither saint nor sinner can reflect without a thrill of shuddering horror. It is no wonder that they fill us with dread; for the very shadows which that day of wrath shall cast before it, will be enough to make the strong man wither away with fear, and expectation of what shall come upon the earth. The great globe beneath his feet shall rock to its very centre; the sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall not give their light; the sea shall pile up its tumultuous billows to rush in over the land; and the fires hidden in the bowels of the earth shall break forth to consume and to destroy. It is, of course, uncertain whether you will be living when these things shall come to pass.  Yet, though it is uncertain whether you will live to see the signs which shall precede the coming of the Almighty Judge, of this one thing you may be perfectly certain that you, together with all the men who have ever breathed the breath of life, will be standing in the valley of judgment when the sign of the Son of man shall appear in the clouds of heaven.

Your eyes will look upon Jesus Christ, coming with great power and majesty to judge the living and the dead. You will stand there, surrounded by those who have sat by your side in the study and in the classroom. You will be seen by the professors who taught you, and whom you loved so well. Your parents, your brothers, your sisters, your relatives, will all be there with you. You will be there, not as an indifferent spectator, but as a prisoner at the bar, to answer to Almighty God for all the deeds done in the body, whether they have been good or evil.

II. You may perhaps ask the reason why God, Who at the moment of death has already decided the eternal doom of each of us, shall once again cite the human race collectively before His dread tribunal. Many and grave reasons are given by theologians; but let this one suffice, for it is sound, and calculated, moreover, to inspire us with salutary fear: God shall summon the whole human race to a general judgment, because each of us owes to his fellow-men a debt of truth.* His life ought to have been so blameless as to have enabled him to throw open the secret recesses of his soul to the gaze of all around him, and to bear their scrutiny without a blush. Has this debt of truth been paid by us to our brethren?

With sorrow we must confess that it has not. For nearly everyone bears about with him two personalities: one which is known to God and to himself, the other which is known to men. The man, as he stands before the eyes of God, is most studiously concealed from view, and little more than a mask is presented to the gaze of his neighbour. Hence it often happens that a scoundrel goes down to his grave with the reputation of an honest man; a libertine wears the garb of unspotted virtue; and pride the most detestable lies concealed beneath the cloak of humility. As a matter of fact, there is oftentimes as great a difference between the man as he really is, and the man as he appears to be, as there is between a smoothly-polished marble monument, and the rottenness and corruption which lie festering beneath it. God, therefore, has decreed that there shall be a great accounting-day, on which this debt of truth must be paid to humanity. He will then tear down the lying epitaph, and overturn the marble monument, and lay bare before the eyes of the whole world the rottenness and corruption of the soul.

The deeds which have been done in darkness shall be dragged forth into the light; the words which have been whispered in the ear shall be thundered forth by the Archangel's voice; the thoughts and the desires of the heart, springing into existence quick as the lightning-flash, multitudinous as the sands of the sea, shall all be made manifest and brought to judgment.

III. You are going this day to approach the Holy Altar, to partake of the victim which is there offered up for the sins of the world. You are going to receive into the tabernacle of your heart Him, before Whom you will one day stand in fear and trembling, to hear the sentence of your eternal doom. Therefore, look well into yourself, and see whether your soul is able to bear the searching glance of His all-seeing and all-holy eyes.

Is your life so pure that you could stand up fearlessly in the presence of your companions and professors, and let their eyes see you as you appear to the eyes of your God? Just examine into the nature of the thoughts which pass through your mind as you sit poring over your books. See
whether your words are so blameless that you would not fear to utter them before your masters. Are your desires always lawful? Are your actions always so innocent that they might be done in the light of day? If, after a careful scrutiny, you find that you have not harboured evil thoughts and desires, nor spoken wicked words, nor done anything that you would be ashamed of, you need not fear to approach the banquet in which Christ is received. For before God you are that which outwardly you appear to be before men, and therefore there is no debt of truth due from you unto them. But if you cannot do this if you are conscious to yourself of not being what you seem to be if you feel that you are like the whited sepulchre, fair without and foul within stand back! Go, first, and pay your debt of truth. Reveal yourself before man, and let him see you just as you are before God.

Our merciful Lord does not require you to do this before all men, but only before one who holds His place. Before him you must manifest yourself as you are. At his feet weep over your sins, and your kind, merciful God will blot them all out for you. Then you need fear nothing; for on the dreadful Judgment-day the sins of the just shall not be made a spectacle to Angels and to men, because, having been washed away by repentant tears, they are, before God, as if they had never been. Do not fail, while Jesus dwells within you, to ask for grace to lead so pure and holy a life, that you will never be ashamed to let the whole world look into the most secret recesses of your heart. If you can do this, the day of wrath will not have any terrors for you.

You will fear no evil, because you know no sin.
*Nicolas, Etudes Philosophiques, torn, iii., chap. xvi.
 
Source: Lectures for Boys, Volume I, Imprimatur 1896


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1st Sunday of Advent - The Day of Judgment

12/1/2019

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The day will surely come when there will be an end to all the wickedness that exists in the world, and no more insults will be offered to God. On this day almighty God will appear in all His glory and terrible majesty as the just Judge of the living and the dead. It will be a day of terror; the sun will be obscured, covered with a thick black veil; the moon will not give light, she will shine blood red; the stars will fall from the heavens, the whole universe will be shaken to its very foundations. On that day it will rain fire from the skies; burning coals will descend and destroy all that is on this earth. That day has been called by the prophets a cruel day, the day of wrath, the day of darkness, of tribulation and of no mercy. On that day God will pour out His wrath, and sinners will have to drink this chalice of bitterness to the dregs. Of this terrible day the Gospel of this Sunday speaks. It ought to be enough for Christians to hear the announcement of these dreadful occurrences once to make them sin no more, but, on the contrary, they hear these threats repeated several times during the year, and still they do not repent of their sins nor amend their lives.

I hope, my dear young people, that you are not of this number, but reflecting today on these solemn words, you will make a firm resolution not to commit a single mortal sin; and thus that dreadful day, so terrible for the sinner, will be for you a day of joy, of glory, of triumph, and the beginning of your eternal reward. When the hour of the great judgment shall arrive, St. Michael, accompanied by many other angels, will give a blast from his trumpet which shall be heard in all parts of the earth; because the sound shall be winged forth by the power of God's omnipotence. "And they shall hear the voice of the Son of God:" Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment." Great and small, kings and princes, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, all shall obey that summons. At the first sound of this blast, the bodies which for centuries have been reduced to dust will return to their former shapes, and will be reanimated by the voice of the Son of God. All shall come forth from their graves, but there will be a great difference among them. The elect will rise with bodies more brilliant than the stars and like to the angels; as St. Matthew says, "Then the just shall shine like the sun." The wicked shall be there in their former bodies too, but so loathsome that it will be to them as well as to their companions a day of horror. No wonder, for the just have risen to a new life but the wicked to eternal death.

Dear children, what would be your feelings if you should see yourselves in such an abominable body? And yet how many there are among the young who, through an inordinate love of their body, never go contrary to their passions, because they wish to indulge in unlawful pleasures. Then the angels will separate the good from the bad. Oh, what a dreadful separation! the wicked to the left, the good to the right; the good father to the right, the wicked son to the left, the good brother to the right, the wicked one to the left; now is the time to separate the wheat from the cockle. Now is the time to bind the cockle into bundles to burn. That young man who looked so deceptively innocent in his life, who appeared so good to his parents, is now the cockle because he was wicked, he and his companions; another seemed so devout, but he, too, is the cockle because his heart was full of sin. All the most hidden sins will then be manifest; those sins which were committed in the dark and in secret places, those sins which through shame were withheld from the knowledge of the confessor, and those sins, mark it well, which were confessed, but without sorrow and without the resolution to do better. Yes, father, mother, sisters, brothers and friends shall know all our secrets. Nahum the prophet says: "I will discover thy shame to thy face, and will show thy [wickedness] to the nations, and thy shame to kingdoms."

But now heaven opens, and the holy cross appears, carried by angels; the cross, the sign of redemption and of life; the wicked shall fall on their faces as if struck by lightning. What cries and shrieks will they utter! But the good will rejoice when they see the cross, and falling on their knees they will cry out: ''holy cross, we hail thee, our only hope! cross, our comfort in life and now our glory and triumph, we adore thee! '' But behold, in this tumult of voices, amid all this thunder and lightning, in the midst of these fiery clouds, appears the dread Judge, clothed in garments of revenge. The terrible Majesty, with eyes burning like coals of fire. What anger, what menacing looks! His anger shall burn like a fire (Ps. Ixxxviii. 47). A red mantle on His shoulders; from His mouth proceeds a two-edged sword. The sinner shall tremble at the sight; the eyes of Christ, the Judge, shall meet the terrified looks of the sinner. The guilty shall also see, but not for his consolation, the sweet face of Mary, the Mother of sinners, and he will exclaim: "Mary, help me! Mother, have pity on me, throw a glance of mercy toward me! Cover me, Mary, with thy mantle! '' But Mary shall turn from him and say: "No longer call me Mother; you are no son of mine: there is no longer time for mercy, but for justice and divine vengeance; I feel no pity for you; when in your life I wished you to be my son, you refused to come to me; now it is too late."

The angels, too, and all the saints of heaven will reaffirm God's dreadful damnation, and turn from you in disgust: ''He will speak to them in His anger." The great Judge will then speak in His wrath to the sinner, and call him to a rigorous account for all his sinfulness, even for the most secret deeds. 'Up to the present I have been silent and patient; now is My time to render you punishment for all your iniquities; give back what thou owest.' If I were your father where was the honor due Me as such? Hardly did you come to the use of reason when you began to insult Me. You arose in the morning and went to bed at night like an animal, without remembering your Creator; you did not know your prayers, but learned early to curse My holy name. Look at your youthful waywardness, your disobedience to your superiors. From your earliest childhood you took a pride in being unruly; you know your thefts, your quarrels, your lies, your filthy practices, by which you rent and soiled the white garment of your Baptism. You went to church only to dishonor Me; at Mass you laughed, talked, and did not pray, but disturbed others in their devotions. Give an account of all this; not only of this, but give an account, too, of the sins which you made others commit. Your companion was innocent, but you corrupted him, and you are guilty of the sins which he afterwards committed. How many souls redeemed by My precious blood you have destroyed! "Give back what thou owest, rise and give an excuse for all this, if you can. Tell Me if thou hast anything to justify thyself. "(Isaias xliii. 26). Will you plead ignorance? Were you not born in a Christian family, where you received holy teachings, and saw many examples of virtue? What advice did your parents, your teachers, and also your confessor give you? You knew the malice of sin, still you persisted in committing it; you knew there would be a judgment, when you would have to give an account of even an idle word; you knew that in your surroundings in the school and on the street that there was cockle sown among the wheat, but you would not be edified by good example. Will you give as an excuse, weakness: that your passions were too strong for you? You could, if you had wished, have made yourself strong, for you had at hand prayer and the sacraments; I gave you My Body as food and My Blood as drink, but they became a poison to you because you received them unworthily. You had the help of the saints, of the angels and of Blessed Mary. How many youths with less strength than you, weaker than you, more tempted than you, and more exposed to dangers, have preserved themselves from the contamination of vice. There is a young man who at home saw nothing but bad example, whose parents had no love for God, still he remained good. After your first communion you were pious for a while. Why did you cease to be pious? Why did not your piety last for life, as it should? Ah, wretch! you shall feel the effects of My anger; the blood which I shed for you will condemn you." The trembling sinner, convicted by the all-wise Judge, will not be able to open his mouth in his defence; he will call upon the mountains to cover him, the flames to destroy him; yes, he will even call upon hell itself to hide him in its bosom.

Then Christ, the Judge, with a sweet smile upon His face, will turn to the elect and say to them: "My beloved and faithful ones, now is the time come when I will reward you for the services which you have so faithfully rendered Me. Yes, I remember the good examples you have shown, the good advice given to your companions, the crust of bread and the glass of water given to the poor in My name. I remember that from your tenderest years you offered Me your innocent hearts. I remember your many acts of love, and while others have forgotten and offended Me, you have always honored, loved, and visited Me. Now has the time come for the great feast in paradise. "Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' Come now to eternal rest, come away from poverty to wealth, from tears to joy, from the cross to the crown.'' What joy there will be! Indeed you are the glory of God, for He will acknowledge you before the whole world as His faithful children; worthy of the delights and glory of heaven. Can you imagine a greater honor? "Thou art My servant Israel, for in thee will I glory" (Isaias xlix. 3). You are very happy, my dear young people, when a compliment is paid you by some great personage, and you never forget it. How great then will be your happiness to receive praise from God Himself !

Then again the eternal Judge will change His demeanor,and turning to the wicked will say: "Ah! you miserable beings, what have you to expect from Me? You did not love nor reverence Me in your life; I will not now acknowledge you. I know you not. You did not wish to have part with Me, and now you shall not. Go from my presence; you are objects of my hatred; go, ye damned, into eternal fire. "Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire" (Matt. XXV. 41). Cursed by My divine Father, cursed by Me, cursed by the Holy Ghost, cursed by Mary, by the angels and all the saints." What dreadful cries will these wretches send forth on hearing these maledictions! The saints will repeat the curses of God: "Away from here, ye accursed, away from here, ye accursed! "Then the saints will praise God for His justice. These wretches would throw themselves into hell if they could, but God wants them to be witnesses of the triumph of the good; and they must stand there to see it to their own great punishment. These good people whom they ridiculed during life: "They were those whom you held in derision formerly." They will burst with envy, "The sinner shall witness this and gnash his teeth." Ah! indeed we were fools, we were wrong! See that youth whom we laughed at so often because he was pious, and called him scrupulous or a bigot, because he never took part in our wicked talks, plays, and pastimes. There he is now, covered with glory and in triumph, while we are bound in chains, captives of the devil, and prisoners of hell. How foolish were we who considered their life absurd and their end without honor, but now we see them counted among the children of God and among the saints is their lot. The wicked will say, "Yes, we have enjoyed the world and all its vanities, but what has it given us in return? Not happiness, not contentment; what a life of restlessness was ours! There is no peace for the wicked; we surfeited our souls and bodies with sin. Oh! had we done half as much to save our souls as we did to enjoy the illusive joys of our life on earth, we would be saints. "We have grown tired in the way of iniquity and perdition, we have walked in difficult paths."

Then the saints, all robed in white, with palm branches in their hands in sign of triumph, will go joyfully to heaven, there to begin the eternal chant of paradise. The wicked, howling, blaspheming, and despairing, are caught in a terrible whirlpool that starts beneath their feet, sucking them down into eternal perdition: "And these shall go to eternal perdition but the just into life eternal." In this way the great judgment will be accomplished; we shall all see one another in the valley of Jehosophat. I shall see you and you shall see me. Shall we be on the right united with the saints, or shall we be found among the wicked, on the left? Alas, what a misfortune it would be if one of us were to be found among the ranks of the wicked! Shall I, your preacher, be found on the left, arrayed in sacerdotal garments, with the mark of the character of the priesthood impressed on my forehead? St. Jerome so feared this possibility that he retired into a cave and there meditated on the terrible sound of the trumpet which was to call him to judgment, and beat his breast with a rock till it became all livid with blows. "That dreadful voice rings still in my ears, I tremble with my whole body." Should not I, who am not a saint, but a humble priest, fear much more? Jesus, trembling in every limb in fear of that day, I throw myself at Thy feet to implore mercy for myself and for my young hearers. Now Thou art the Father of mercy; then Thou shalt be the inexorable Judge; then it will be too late to ask for mercy. What am I, miserable wretch, going to say; whom will I engage as my patron, when even the just will tremble? Look upon us now, humble and contrite, asking for the pardon of our sins. Never again will we commit a sin, never again will we utter bad words or blasphemies or curses, nor go with bad companions.

Dear Jesus, in Thy goodness make us faithful to Thee and let us not be separated from Thee. Remember, sweet Jesus, that for our salvation Thou didst come down from heaven. By the many sufferings Thou didst endure we pray Thee to have mercy on us and save us; we have cost Thee too much to be abandoned by Thy mercy. Yes; save us, save us, good God, God of mercy, of infinite goodness, save us! Remember, dear Jesus, that Thou didst come to save me: do not then destroy me on that day: Fountain of all goodness,
save me!

Sermons for Children's Masses, Imprimatur 1900

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