The Golden Rose
by VP
Posted on Sunday December 17, 2023 at 10:53AM in Meditations
"The lights of hope and joy, the shadows of despondency and sorrow are ever flitting over the surface of human life, teaching the heart the solemn lesson of detachment from earth and giving it glimpses of heaven, that city of perpetual brightness whose "light is the Lamb," the uncreated splendor of the Father. We need this succession of light and shade; continual prosperity would make us love the world, and we would forget that the days of our pilgrimage are few and evil, whilst lasting adversity would deaden the elasticity of the heart and drive it to despair. The Church knows the requirements of our nature in this respect and provides for them. The penitential seasons of Advent and Lent are succeeded by the joys of Christmas and the glories of Easter. The sorrows of Holy Week are interrupted by the Gloria of Holy Thursday, and then again the last notes of the Angelic Hymn die away in the wail of the Miserere of Tenebrae and the Improperia of Good Friday.
Advent has its Gaudete Sunday,
when the Church bids her children rejoice in the Lord always, because
He is near, because He is soon to be manifested to the world as the Babe
of Bethlehem; so too on the fourth Sunday of Lent a cry of joy resounds
through the office, Rejoice O! Jerusalem! Rejoice thou barren that
bearest not. The time for the reconciliation of the penitents is
approaching; the children that were dead in sin will come to life and be
restored to the arms of their mother, and in anticipation her heart
beats high with gladness. Then her eye turns to Palestine, ranges the
dark sky that overhangs the scenes of the Passion and rests on the
horizon just reddening with the first faint streaks of light from the
Easter Sun. Sorrow and penance yield for a moment to the exultation of
triumphant love and from her lisp breaks forth an anthem of gladness
Laetare, Laetare, Rejoice, Rejoice."
The Sacramentals of the Holy Catholic Church; Or, Flowers from the Garden of the Liturgy By Rev. William James BARRY, 1858
St. Olympias, Widow, A.D. about 410
by VP
Posted on Sunday December 17, 2023 at 12:00AM in Saints
"This saint lived at Constantinople in the time of St. John Chrysostom. Her husband having been dead some time, the Emperor Theodosius proposed to her to marry Elpidius, his own near relation: to whom she answered, that God having taken away her husband, because she was not fit for the duties of the married state, she was resolved no more to engage in it. She was true to her resolution; and employed both her money and time in the relief of widows, orphans, and the sick. Her austerities were great, her habit mean, her humility edifying, her tears continual: and that nothing might be wanting to consummate her virtue, she was persecuted by the Emperor Arcadius, for espousing the cause of oppressed innocence in the person of her pastor, St. John Chrysostom. For this, being forced into banishment, she found her way by a happy death, to a better country which she had long desired.
Make use of this example as your state requires. There are difficulties in all conditions, and that of marriage cannot properly be Christian, without the self-denials of the cloister. If humility and charity helped her to heaven, will not prodigality and vanity shut you out from it? Take not your measures from the world, but from the Gospel; and then say who has given you power so much to dispense with it. Follow the Gospel, if you hope to come to the promises of the Gospel. The saints all studied to husband every moment to the best advantage, knowing that life is very short, and that the night is coming on apace when no man can work. Let no moments be spent merely to pass away time. Diversions and corporal exercise ought to be used with moderation, only as much as may seem requisite for bodily health and the vigour of the mind. Every one is bound to apply himself to some serious employment. This, and his necessary recreations, must be referred to God, sanctified by a holy intention, and seasoned by humility, patience, prayer, and other virtues. Thus will our lives be an uninterrupted sacrifice of divine praise and love." The Catholic Year; Or Daily Lessons on the Feasts of the Church by Rev. Fr. John GOTHER
