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!

      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

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

                                              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.

NOVENA TO OUR GUARDIAN ANGEL FOR THE HOLY SOULS
TO BE SAID FOR NINE CONSECUTIVE DAYS

O HOLY ANGEL, whom God, by the effect of His goodness and His tender regard for my welfare, has charged with the care of my conduct, and who assists me in all my wants and comforts me in all my afflictions, who supports me when I am discouraged and continually obtains for me new favors, I return thee profound thanks, and I earnestly beseech thee, O most amiable protector, to continue thy charitable care and defense of me against the malignant attacks of all my enemies. Keep me away from all occasions of sin. Obtain for me the grace of listening attentively to thy holy inspirations and of faithfully putting them into practice, In particular, I implore thee to obtain for me the relief and deliverance of all the Souls in Purgatory, the ones who prayed for the Souls themselves while still on earth; the forgotten and abandoned Souls; the souls of my relatives and friends; the souls of priests and religious; the souls of all those to whom I am obligated by charity to pray for and may have neglected by laxity in memory; and most especially for the Soul I here name in this novena.

[Mention the person or think of him.]

Protect me in all the temptations and trials of this life. but most especially at the hour of my death, and do not leave me until thou hast conducted me into the presence of my Creator in the mansions of everlasting happiness. Amen.
                                                                                               
                                                                                                                     Source: Manual of Prayers, Imprimatur 1888

Below you will find the Catholic Churches teaching on True Charity.  We need this today more than ever.  The true meaning of Charity.  It is a long post but a good one. The following is taken from a book titled,
"An Illustrated Explanation of the Commandments," by Rev. H. Rolfus, D.D., Imprimatur 1897.

                       CHARITY
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength." The meaning of this commandment is this: We must love God by a deliberate act of the will (heart), we must reflect how we can put this love into action (soul), we must really love God with an ardent inward charity (mind), and what our will and our intellect have thus apprehended we must practise to the best of our ability (strength). And as the Israelites were always to have the law of God before their eyes, so it must ever be present to our soul, that its observance is the end for which we were created. It is impossible, however, for us to do this of our own selves, but only by means of a supernatural faculty which we receive in holy Baptism. Therefore we call charity, as well as faith, an infused virtue, and, because it has God for its object, a theological virtue. "The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given us" (Rom. v. 5).

1. God must be the object of our love, we must love God above everything else in the world. For the love of God we must, if necessary, sacrifice all the goods of this earth; we must leave father and mother, nay, even give our own life, if charity requires it. All we are allowed to love in this world, we may only love for the sake of God, and in so far as He permits it. We must rather lose everything than commit a sin, for sin separates us from God. " He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me ; and he that lovethson or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me"  (St. Matt. x. 37).

2. It it not at all opposed to the love of God that man love himself. He is a creature of God, a child of God, an heir of the kingdom of heaven, destined for eternal bliss. This high dignity confers on the Christian not only the right to love himself, but makes self-love a duty for him. Here, again, however, man may only love himself so far as this love coincides with the will of God, as no sin is committed, and as the honor of God is not offended. When charity is violated, all temporal gain, even the greatest, is a loss; but every loss we suffer for the love of God is a gain for us. " He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world keepeth it unto life eternal" (St. John xii. 25).

3. Although we must love God because He commands it, love from this motive would be a most imperfect love. We must rather love God because He is the Sovereign Good, because He is most worthy of our love, and because He contains in Himself all perfection. He is the most excellent, the most beautiful, the most perfect, and therefore the most amiable. He alone is the Sovereign and Eternal Good. Therefore Nehemias prays in these words: "O Lord God, Creator of all things, dreadful and strong, just and merciful, who alone art the good King, who alone art gracious, who alone art just, and almighty, and eternal" (2 Mach. i. 24, 25). But we also may and ought to love God for the sake of the many benefits which He has conferred on us and is still conferring every moment. Even before we began to live the Lord looked on us with an eye of mercy and called us to be His children. He says to us through the prophet : " I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee" (Jer. xxxi. 3).

From the very first moment of our life to our last breath the Lord loads us with undeserved benefits. And these benefits are at the same time the means of our salvation, for they sustain the life of the soul as well as that of the body, in order that we may fulfil both our earthly and our heavenly destiny. This love is called the love of gratitude. "Let us therefore love God, because God first hath loved us" (1 St. John iv. 19).

4. We must moreover love God, because He has prepared eternal beatitude for us. This beatitude consists in the possession and enjoyment of God Himself. Therefore those who love God feel a longing for God, which is thus described by the apostle : " I have a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ" (Phil. i. 23).

5. Charity does not only manifest itself in loving affections and emotions, but in an upright mind, instrong resolves, and above all in the observance of the commandments. It stands to reason that he who acts contrary to the will of God has no love for Him. Therefore Our Saviour says expressly: "He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me" (St. John xiv. 21).

Application.
1. Although charity does not consist in tender emotions, we must not omit to evoke loving affections in our hearts. Even when we are at work, and then more than ever, we can prove to God that for love of Him we are ready to do and suffer all, and to bear all hardships. Let us offer Him our thoughts, affections, desires, actions, toils, and privations, and let us unite them all with the great sacrifice of love which Our Saviour offered for us.

2. But let us also speak very often of the love of God, not only in order to animate ourselves, but also to enkindle divine love in the hearts of our fellow-men, for this is the will of God expressed in the following words: "I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?" (St. Luke xii. 49.)

Examples.
Abraham would have made the greatest sacrifice for the love of God: he would have killed his own son (Gen. xxii.). The three Israelites, Annias, Azarias, and Misael, allowed themselves to be thrown into the fiery furnace rather than adore the statue erected by Nabuchodonosor (Dan. iii. 20). Eleazar let himself be beaten to death with scourges, but he did not touch the swine's flesh which was put before him (2 Mach. vi.). The Machabean brothers and their mother showed equal fortitude (2 Mach. vii.). St. Stephen, the protomartyr, and all the other martyrs of Christ give us the same glorious example. All for the Love of God.

The heart of St. John of the Cross burned with such an ardent love of God that the hardest trials and privations seemed easy to him, because he bore all adversities with his eyes fixed on Him who first loved us. He went so far as never to accept an invitation to dine when he had preached in a strange place, for he said : " I do not want to accept pay from men for what I have done for the love of God." Once he was innocently imprisoned and even bodily ill-treated. But, when he was set free, he only complained that he had so little to suffer. To those who wondered at his lamentations, he answered: "Do not be astonished that I love suffering so much, for when I was in prison God gave me a great knowledge of the value of suffering borne for the love of Him." On his deathbed he kept on sighing for release. When askedby a brother whether he wished to be released on account of his pains, he answered with a smile: "No, dear brother, but because of my hearty desire to see God the hours seem so long to me." The Church therefore calls St. John of the Cross, in the
Collect of his feast, a lover of the Cross. Sins Against the Love of God*

Every sin violates charity. The effect of mortal sin is to kill the love of God in our soul, whereas venial sin only weakens its fervor. But there are sins which in themselves are opposed to the love of God. To these belongs above all:

1. Hatred of God. This is the devil's own sin. For he did not simply transgress a commandment, but he rebelled against God and would have deprived Him of His sovereignty, and put himself in His place, had he been able to do so. Then there is:

2. Impiety or contempt of God, when we turn away from God. An impious man of this kind is found in Pharao, who, on being asked by Moses in the name of God to let the Israelites depart, hardened his heart, and, in spite of all the divine judgments which he saw before his eyes, would not turn to God.

3. Forgetfulness of God, or indifference for God's honor. Of this sin those are chiefly guilty who know that their inferiors commit sin and do not interfere, or allow God to be blasphemed in their presence and do not raise their voice against it.

4. Murmuring against God's providence. In this way Jonas sinned, who tried to evade the command of God by taking ship for Tharsis, instead of going to Ninive. And when God spared the inhabitants of Ninive, because they did penance, put on sackcloth, and proclaimed a fast, he murmured against God and wished to die (Jonas i. 3; iv. 2-4).
The opposite virtue of these sins is zeal for God's honor, which boldly opposes all evil.

5. Lastly, we have to name idolatry in its extended sense, i.e., such an inordinate affection for creatures that we would rather transgress God's commandments and commit sin, or allow others to commit sin, than overcome the love of creatures or keep it in its proper bounds. Thus parents love their children more than God when they allow them to do as they like, and bring them up to vanity and pride, whereas God commands that they should be trained in modesty, obedience, and humility. So also many a one loves a person, and, in order to obtain her in marriage, he sacrifices his faith and the faith of his children if this is made a condition. Animals are often loved inordinately, and so much is spent on them that the poor would be glad to have only part of it. If anybody loves money and possessions so much that he strives to acquire them by unlawful means, or does not restore them when he has acquired them dishonestly, or if he becomes hard towards his fellow-men for the sake of worldly gain, he adores Mammon. The god of the glutton is his belly. This kind of idolatry is, moreover, committed by all those who trust more in man than in God. All the impious are guilty of it. Every inordinate affection leads to this creature worship, if we do not resist it from the very beginning. Zeal for the Honor of God.

In the time of Antiochus, king of Syria, there lived in the Jewish town of Modin a priest of the name of Mathathias. He was much honored in all Judea for his piety and zeal for the law of God. He had five sons, who, like their father, walked in the ways of the law ; Judas, who afterwards received the name of Machabeus the Hammer, was the greatest among them. To this man King Antiochus sent messengers to ask him and the inhabitants of Modin to sacrifice to heathen idols and eat swine's flesh, and to threaten him with death if he refused. If, on the contrary, Mathathias would offer sacrifice, he and his sons were to be counted among the friends of the king, and loaded with gold and silver and many presents. But Mathathias answered and said in a loud voice : " Although all nations obey King Antiochus, so as to depart every man from the service of the law of his fathers, and consent to his commandments, I and my sons, and my brethren, will obey the law of our fathers." And, when a Jew stepped forth in the sight of all to offer sacrifice on the altar which the messenger of Antiochus had erected, his wrath was kindled, and he slew him on the altar, and pulled down the altar. And he left the city with his sons and fled into the mountains, and many that sought after judgment and justice went up with him, and they went round about and threw down the altars, and they recovered the law out of the hands of the nations and yielded not the horn to the sinner (1. Mach. ii.).

Charity Towards Our Neighbor
The object of our love is God in the first place, but our neighbor in the second, and the commandment of charity towards our neighbor is expressly declared by Our Lord to be equivalent to the commandment of charity towards God. "And thesecond is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (St. Mark xii. 31).

1. The word neighbor does not only designate those who are nearly related to us by the ties of blood, or who live with us in the same house, not only our friends, our countrymen, our namesakes,but every one who has a claim on our help, whether he be of our faith or not, whether he be our friend or our enemy. Our Saviour clearly teaches this in the parable of the Good Samaritan (St. Luke x.). It is where the need is greatest that we must help first, and this is especially the case where the soul is in danger. But when the necessity is equally great, we may give the preference to our relatives, friends, and those of our own faith. We may also render greater assistance to those who are more worthy of charity, and we may refuse our help altogether to those who constantly abuse it. " Whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith" (Gal. vi. 10).

2. We must love our neighbor for the sake of God. In man we love and honor God Himself, for man is created after the image of God. Moreover, we are members of the same family, for we are children of God, we have God for our common Father, we have all the same vocation to attainheaven, whether we be rich or poor. The Prophet Malachias reproves the Jews for their want of charity when he says: "Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us ? Why then doth every one of us despise his brother?" (Mai. ii. 10).
Besides, love of our neighbor is the test by which we know whether love of God be genuine, for the Apostle says: " If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God, whom he seeth not? And this commandment we have from God, that he who loveth God love also his brother" (1 St. John iv. 20, 21).

3. When the commandment says: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," this does not imply that I am bound to love him in the same degree as myself, but that I must love him in the same manner as myself. St. Thomas Aquinas teaches expressly that the words " as myself" do not refer to the degree, but to the manner in which we must love. In the same way as we desire all good for ourselves and try to avoid all evil, we are to desire every blessing for our fellow-men, and grieve with them over their misfortunes. " Rejoice with them that rejoice, weep with them that weep" (Rom. xii. 15).
How we are to love our neighbor is summed up very simply in the following two precepts of the natural law : " Do not do to others what you do not wish them to do to you;" "Do to others as you wish to be done by." These precepts of the natural law are confirmed by Holy Scriptures. When the elder Tobias thought he was going to die, he exhorted his son in these words : " See thou never do to another what thou wouldst hate to have done to thee by another" (Tob. iv. 16). And Our Saviour teaches: "All things therefore whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them. For this is the law and the prophets" (St. Matt. vii. 12).

4. But charity must not be satisfied with empty words and wishes, it must show itself in works ofpractical help and assistance in corporal as well as in spiritual need. The apostle exhorts us in the name of God in these words : " Let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth (1 St. John iii. 18).

5. This precept of charity does not, however, give a right to the poor to claim our help and
assistance. They must look for charity and mercy, which they may invoke, but which they must try to merit by faith and confidence, by patience and content, by temperance and industry. The Apostle Paul could write of himself to the Christians: "When I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man : In all things I have kept myself from being burthensome to you, and so I will keep myself" (2 Cor. xi. 9).

6. Holy Scripture recommends to our charity above all widows and orphans, for they are those who have generally lost their protector and support. The impious take advantage of their helplessness, and injure and oppress them, because they have nobody to take up their cause. " Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation" (St. James i. 27).

7. How charity shows itself in our daily intercourse with our fellow-men is described by St. Paul in these words : " Charity is patient, is kind : charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (1 Cor. xiii. 4-7).

Examples.
Holy Scripture tells us the most beautiful and touching examples of charity. Abraham sat before his tent and saw three strangers come to him. He did not know them, but he adored them down to the ground, and said : " Lord, if I have found favor in Thy sight, pass not away from Thy servant; but I will fetch a little water and wash your feet, and rest ye under the tree. And I will send a morsel of bread, and strengthen ye your heart." Then Abraham hastened to the tent and said to Sara: "Make haste, temper together three measures of flour, and make cakes upon the hearth." He bade his servant to prepare a very tender calf; he himself took butter and milk, and the calf which he had boiled, and set it before his guests. (Gen. xviii. 2-8.) When Abraham's servant, Eleazar, asked Rebecca for a little water, she did not only give him to drink out of her pitcher, but she ran back to the well to draw water, and having drawn, she gave to all the camels (Gen. xxiv. 20). When the Israelites began to think that Moses had forsaken them, and made a golden calf in order to adore it, and God wanted to destroy the whole nation, Moses prayed thus to the Lord : "Either forgive them this trespass, or if Thou do not, strike me out of the book that Thou hast written" (Exod. xxxii. 31). He was ready to give up eternal bliss rather than let the people perish. Tobias daily went among all his kindred, and comforted them, and distributed to every one as he was able of his goods, so that he became poor himself (Tob. i. 19).
At the marriage of Cana, our Blessed Lady interceded for the guests when the wine failed (St, John ii. 3). The early Christians had all things in common, " neither did any one say that aught of the things which he possessed was his own" (Acts iv. 32). The pious Tabitha was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did. When she was dead, and they sent for St. Peter, all the widows stood about him weeping and showing him the coats and garments which Tabitha had made (Acts ix. 36-39)- How beautiful is the sympathy of the neighbors and kinsfolk of Elizabeth, who rejoiced when they heard that the Lord had showed His great mercy towards her (St. Luke i. 58). When the widow of Naim followed the body of her son to the grave, a great multitude of the city was with her. And when Our Lord had given back the son to his afflicted mother, they glorified God and rejoiced with her (St. Luke vii. 12-16). St. Paul says of himself that he had great sadness and continual sorrow in his heart, because his kinsmen would not receive the Gospel of Christ, and he wished, like Moses, to be anathema if only his brethren might be in union with Christ (Rom. ix. 23).

Love of Our Enemies
The commandment which God has given us to love our neighbor extends to our enemies. Nobody may be excluded from our love. This seems very hard to our poor human nature. But:

1. God has expressly commanded it, and this alone is sufficient for convincing us that we can love our enemies. Our Saviour says : " Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you. Bless them that curse you, and pray for them that calumniate you" (St. Luke vi. 27, 28).
He has, moreover, given us the example Himself: He did not only pray for His executioners, He also made excuses for them when He said : " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (St. Luke xxiii. 34). St. Leo says, in contemplating this wonderful love: "Our Lord did not remember that He was dying by His enemies, He only remembered that He was dying for them."

2. Our Lord has attached the pardon of our own sins to our readiness to forgive those who have injured us. He taught us to pray: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us." And He added expressly : "If you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences" (St. Matt. vi. 14, 15).
Whoever does not forgive his enemies draws down upon himself the curse of God in saying the Our Father, for he says: Do to me, O Lord, as I do to my enemies, and, because I do not forgive them, do Thou not forgive me either. We see how such an unforgiving man is dealt with in the parable of the unmerciful servant, who did not come out of prison till he had paid the last farthing, although his master had forgiven him his whole enormous debt before.

3. This precept of loving our enemies does not enjoin that we should love our enemies in the same way as we love our friends, parents, benefactors, i.e., not as sensibly and as tenderly, but we must not wish them any harm, but rather, as far as we can, shield them from evil. We must not only wish them all good from our hearts, we must do good unto them as far as we can. On no account may the Christian take revenge for injuries he has received. If he whom we deem our enemy has done us any injury, God will punish him, for He says: "Revenge is Mine, and I will repay them in due time" (Deut. xxxii. 35).
If we treat our enemy with charity, we imitate our heavenly Father, "who maketh His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust" (St. Matt. v. 45).

4. If we have been injured by any one, we may try to obtain just and legal reparation; when we are assaulted, we may defend ourselves as far as is necessary. On the other hand, we may not refuse to salute our adversary or to return his salute, we may not revile and insult him, or refuse him such services as usage and custom require, especially when he is in distress. We must altogether show by our outward conduct that we have no hatred or rancor in our heart, but are ready to be reconciled with our enemy, even should he himself not be willing to forgive.

Application.
1. Let us strive above all to banish all bitterness from our hearts, and let us consider that it is often mere thoughtlessness, and not malice, by which we have been offended. Let us pray forour adversaries, that God may give them a right understanding. But let us remember above all that, whatever men may do to injure us, their guilt towards us is only very small in comparison with the immense debt we have incurred by offending God.

2. As long as we harbor any enmity in our heart, all our good works are of no avail. Therefore Our Saviour exhorts us in these words: "If, therefore, thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother has anything against thee, leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother: and then coming, thou shalt offer thy gift" (St. Matt. v. 23, 24).

3. Let us render good for evil according to the words of the apostle: "If thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat : if he thirst, give him to drink. For, doing this, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head" (Rom. xii. 20).

Examples.
The sons of Jacob had treated their brother Joseph most cruelly and had deserved severe punishment. When Joseph held them in his power, he could easily have revenged himself on them. But he not only refrained from taking revenge, but moreover loaded them with benefits after the death of their father Jacob (Gen. 1. 21).
David was threatened with death by Saul, to whom he had rendered great service, and was obliged to flee. Saul pursued him with 3,000 men in the desert, and searched all the nooks and caves for him, but David knew the hiding-places in the desert better than he. Once he was so near Saul that he could have killed him, but he contented himself with cutting off the hem of his robe, and sent it to Saul in order to show him that he could have put him to death. Another time David went in the night with his armor-bearer Abisai into Saul's tent, and Abisai asked David to kill his persecutor. But David only took Saul's spear and his cup of water with him, and thus showed to the king that God had given him in his power, but that he had honored in Saul the anointed of the Lord (1 Kings xxiv. 1 -1 2). The proto-martyr St. Stephen gave us, like Our Saviour Himself, an example of love towards our enemies. He not only forgave, but he prayed with his dying breath for his murderers in these words : " Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" (Acts vii. 59).

I will continue this in another post - which talks of the Works of Mercy.