THE HOLY VIATICUM
by VP
Posted on Sunday October 27, 2024 at 01:00AM in Sermons
Come, lay Thy hand upon her, and she shall be safe."MATT. ix. 18.
1. The one thing necessary for us is a holy death.
2. The thrice-told miracle.
3. We, too, must pray and desire the Lord to come.
4. Then our soul shall be safe.
THERE is one thing that should be the constant theme of our prayers: the one thing above all to be desired. A good life must be crowned by a holy death. And we have confidence in this, that our Blessed Lord will graciously hear our prayers. "Thou hast given him his heart's desire; and hast not withholden from him the will of his lips " (Ps. xx. 2).
We have such a perfect model before us in this day's gospel in the ruler, who besought our Blessed Lord to come to his daughter, who was at the point of death. His faith, his earnest entreaty is pictured before us three times over, as SS. Matthew, Mark, and Luke each give us an account of this miracle that was granted to the father's desire and prayer. Our Savior was so touched that at once, to allay the father's fears, He said, "Fear not, only believe, 'and she shall be safe. And Jesus rising up, followed him with His disciples." A delay occurred through the woman that touched the hem of Christ's garment, and our Lord speaking to her. The father's fears redoubled, and friends hastened to meet him, saying: "Thy daughter is dead; why dost thou trouble the Master any further? But Jesus . . . saith, Fear not, only believe" (Mark v. 35). That father's faith and earnestness were rewarded by his child being raised to life and restored to him.
We have something more precious to us than that young maiden was to her father. Does it not shame us to remember his love for her, and his faith in Christ our Lord, contrasted with our apathy about our souls? Where is our daily earnest prayer, our anxiety about the state of our souls, whether dangerous, dying, or dead? Do we fall at our Lord's feet, praying Him to come into our house?
If we were ill, you will say, we should pray thus, and be as anxious as that father was. No, the preparation for a holy death is not made when we come to die. It is during life that we should prepare for the end. If we have little or no desire, no fervent longing for Holy Communion during life, we shall not have it when we come to die. Each Communion should be a preparation for the last one. And oh, how much depends on our Blessed Lord coming to us then! For so great a favor, is it not well worth to pray for it day after day? Each time we receive our Blessed Lord in the Holy Eucharist our most earnest prayer and desire should be, that He will come to us at the end, and then our soul" shall be safe."
How the saints longed for that safeguard when death approached! St. Benedict had himself borne to the church, and, supported in the arms of his brethren, standing before the altar after receiving His Master and his true King Christ, he gave up his soul to God. A fitting end for such a blessed life. And St. Thomas Aquinas, when the Holy Viaticum was brought to him, though dying, raised himself and knelt and prayed aloud,
I firmly believe that Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, is present in this most holy sacrament. I receive Thee, the price of my soul's ransom, I receive Thee, the Viaticum of my soul's pilgrimage. Thou, O Christ, art the King of glory, Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father." And so needful and precious is it to our souls to receive the Holy Viaticum that St. Mary Magdalen was transported by a miracle from her hermitage to receive It ere she died.
If hitherto we have been careless and negligent in this respect-seldom thinking and praying for a holy death, and piously longing that our Lord in His sweet mercy may come to us at the end, let us begin at once, heartily, fervently to make it our daily supplication. Our divine Lord longs to save us, but He does expect to be asked, to be implored, to be desired and yearned for. Let us pray like that father in the gospel, and say like David, "O God, I have declared to Thee my life. Thou hast set my tears in Thy sight. In what day soever I shall call upon Thee, behold, I know that Thou art my God. In God I have hoped. . . ..because Thou hast delivered my soul from death; that I may please in the sight of God, in the light of the living " (Ps. lv. 9, 13).
Prepare in life, pray in life, for at our last illness, through misery, pain, and weakness, there may be little zest for prayer. The faithful Lord will remember all the supplications and holy desires and He will come to us, with Peter and James and John, as the gospel says, typifying faith and hope and charity, and our soul shall be safe. The words with which the priest administers Holy Viaticum show us the danger of that hour, and how, indeed, we need an almighty guardian. The priest holding the Blessed Sacrament, which is
given to us as the food of the wayfarer, for our soul's journey to the other world, says, "Receive, brother, the Viaticum of the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who may guard thee from the malignant enemy and lead thee to life everlasting."
Thus our dear Redeemer comes to our soul that it may be safe and may live. Yes, this life may pass away, but our soul's life is just beginning-the eternal
blessed life, to which our Lord will lead it. That blessed life which
we shall pass in beholding, glorifying, loving our good God, our Savior
for ever and for ever." Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Fr. Francis Paulinus Hickey (23rd Sunday after Pentecost)
Saint Frementius
by VP
Posted on Sunday October 27, 2024 at 01:00AM in Saints
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"THE WAYS OF GOD.- God preordains all things with reference to His designs; this consoling truth is too often absent from our minds in times of affliction. Frumentius and Edesius had been brought to Abyssinia while still children, by one of their relatives who had business there, and, while resting under a leafy shade, intent on their studies, were carried off by some of the inhabitants. They grew up in the midst of this half-barbarous race, and were raised to the highest dignities. The king, when at the point of death, restored to them their liberty. Frumentius, on returning to Tyre, his native town, concerted plans with St. Athanasius for the conversion of Abyssinia. He was soon afterwards sent thither as bishop; the inhabitants, being accustomed to respect and obey him, yielded to his appeal with such perfect docility that before long the entire kingdom was Christianized. In vain did the emperor Constantius strive to harass it by seeking to introduce the errors of Arianism; new though they were in Christianity, they refused to listen to his missionaries or to deliver up their bishop. Abyssinia remained and continues to be Catholic. Frumentius died towards the end of the fourth century.
MORAL REFLECTION.-With reference to how many events may the Christian who reflects well exclaim, as in the above instance: "The finger of God is there!"-(Exod. viii. 19.) Source: Pictorial half hours with the saints by Rev. Fr Auguste François Lecanu
"In every age, from Christ down to this very time, some new nations have
been added to the fold of Christ, as the annals of the Church show; and
the apostasy of those that have forsaken the path of truth, has been
repaired by fresh acquisitions. This is the work of the Most High; the
wonderful effect of all-powerful grace. It is owing to the divine
blessing that the heavenly seed fructifies in the hearts of men, and it
is God who raises up, and animates with his spirit zealous successors of the apostles, whom he wouchsafes to make His instruments in this great work. We are indebted to his gratuitous mercy for the inestimable benefit of this light of faith. If we correspond not faithfully, with fear and trembling, to so great a grace, our punishment will be so much the more dreadful. " Source: The Lives of the Saints by Rev. Fr. Alban Butler.
THE FEAST OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, KING OF THE UNIVERSE.
by VP
Posted on Sunday October 27, 2024 at 01:00AM in Tradition
Prayer
to Christ the King
O
CHRIST, JESUS, I acknowledge Thee as Universal King. For Thee all creatures
have been made. Do Thou exercise over
me all the rights that Thou hast.
Renew my Baptismal Vows,
I renounce Satan, with all his works and
pomps, and I promise to live as a good
Catholic: Especially, do I pledge myself, by all
the
means in my power, to bring about the triumph of the rights
of God and of Thy Church.
Divine
Heart of Jesus, I offer Thee all my poor actions to obtain that all hearts may
recognize Thy Sacred Royalty, and that thus the reign of Thy Peace may be established throughout the entire world.
Amen.
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XI ON THE FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING: Quas Primas
4. If We ordain that the whole Catholic world shall revere Christ as King, We shall minister to the need of the present day, and at the same time provide an excellent remedy for the plague which now infects society. We refer to the plague of anti-clericalism, its errors and impious activities. This evil spirit, as you are well aware, Venerable Brethren, has not come into being in one day; it has long lurked beneath the surface. The empire of Christ over all nations was rejected. The right which the Church has from Christ himself, to teach mankind, to make laws, to govern peoples in all that pertains to their eternal salvation, that right was denied. Then gradually the religion of Christ came to be likened to false religions and to be placed ignominiously on the same level with them. It was then put under the power of the state and tolerated more or less at the whim of princes and rulers. Some men went even further, and wished to set up in the place of God's religion a natural religion consisting in some instinctive affection of the heart. There were even some nations who thought they could dispense with God, and that their religion should consist in impiety and the neglect of God. The rebellion of individuals and states against the authority of Christ has produced deplorable consequences. We lamented these in the Encyclical Ubi arcano; we lament them today: the seeds of discord sown far and wide; those bitter enmities and rivalries between nations, which still hinder so much the cause of peace; that insatiable greed which is so often hidden under a pretense of public spirit and patriotism, and gives rise to so many private quarrels; a blind and immoderate selfishness, making men seek nothing but their own comfort and advantage, and measure everything by these; no peace in the home, because men have forgotten or neglect their duty; the unity and stability of the family undermined; society in a word, shaken to its foundations and on the way to ruin.
