The Martyrs of Alexandria, A.D. 261-2-3.
by VP
Posted on Friday February 28, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
"THESE were many holy priests, deacons, and laymen, who when the city of Alexandria, for its sins, lay under the scourge of a most severe plague, in the third century, exposed their lives for the service and comfort of those who were infected. There was not a single house in that great city which entirely escaped the pestilence, or had not to mourn for some dead. All places were filled with groans, and the living appeared almost dead with fear. This sickness was the greatest of calamities to the Pagans, but an exercise and trial to the Christians, who shewed on that occasion, how contrary the spirit of charity is to the interested spirit of self-love. In the time of this public calamity, most of them, regardless of their own lives, visited, relieved, and attended the sick, and comforted the dying. They closed their eyes, and buried them; and the charity of many of them being rewarded by death, the Church has thought proper to honour their memory, making but little difference between so glorious a death, and that of the martyrs. "Thus," adds St. Dionysius, "the best of our brethren have departed this life; some of the most valuable both of priests, deacons, and laics; and it is thought that this kind of death is nothing different from martyrdom."
If the Church has such value for this generous charity, learn also to set a value on it, and practise it as far as your circumstances will permit. There are frequent occasions of giving comfort and help to your neigbour. As many as are diseased, afflicted, or in prison, call upon your charity; and whatever you can do for them, either by visits or money, Christ takes it as done to himself, and has promised himself for your reward. Happy are you if this charity be the business of your life: and happy too, if whatever time you can spare from other business, be employed in this. To how much better account will this turn, than what is given to idleness, unprofitable conversation, and dangerous amusements? Learn only to offer what you do of this kind to God, and you will lay up for yourself treasures in heaven." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
Saint Proterius
THE FURY OF HATRED. Proterius having been elected patriarch of Alexandria, in 452, in the place of Dioscorus, who had been deposed by the Council of Chalcedon, and was a partisan of the arch-heretic Eutychius, great troubles prevailed in the city. The civil power succeeded in repressing them, without, however, being able to prevent a third patriarch, named Timotheus, from being consecrated and violently expelling Proterius from his see. The civil power once more intervened and exiled the intruder. Under this blow, the Eutychians, who were aware of the unbending firmness of Proterius, could no longer contain themselves: they pursued him furiously, on the Good Friday in the year 457, even to the baptistry of the church of St. Quirinus, there trampled him under foot and bound him with cords; thereupon, according as their rage was being glutted, they accumulated their blows and trailed him through the streets. They tore him limb from limb, burnt the mangled remains, and scattered the ashes to the wind. The bishops of Thrace bore a glorious testimony to his memory in a letter addressed by them to the Emperor Leo.
MORAL REFLECTION. The apostle depicts in other
features the charity which should animate Christians: "It is patient, is
kind. Charity believeth all things, rejoiceth not in iniquity, and
thinketh no evil."-(1 Cor. xiii. 4.) Abbe Lecanu
Frequenting the Sacraments
by VP
Posted on Sunday February 09, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons
Confessional, Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Toulouse
"Let the peace of Christ reign in your hearts."—Col. 3. 13.
"FREQUENT Confession and Holy Communion are, my dear brethren, the food which we need to take with us in climbing the mountain of heaven. If we try to get along without them, we shall faint by the way. Do not imagine, then, that confession is only a means of getting rid of mortal sin; do not think for a moment of putting off confession till you have fallen into a mortal sin, or, perhaps, into quite a number of them.
For though we are not required by any positive law to go to confession unless we have fallen into mortal sin, still we are required to keep out of mortal sin, and we cannot do this without going to confession before we have fallen into it. So it comes to the same thing; we really are obliged, for the honor of God and the care of our own souls, to go to confession when we have nothing but venial sin on our conscience, and to go quite often too. Confession and Holy Communion may be compared, not only to food, but to medicine; and to a medicine such as people would take in a place, for instance, where the fever and ague, or some other disease, is prevalent, not to cure themselves of the disease, but to keep from taking it. For we all are in a place where the terrible disease of sin prevails; and we ought to go to confession often, so as not to take it.
But some good people do not seem to understand this at all; and there is a remark, common enough, and which I suppose you may have heard made about this matter of frequent confession. It is this: "I don't see what these people have to tell who go to confession so often." One who makes such a remark as that cannot, it would seem, have any idea of the reason why people are urged to frequent Sacraments at all. He would stay away from confession, for his part, till he "did something,”—that is, fell into some mortal sin. For such a one, if when the time came for his Easter duty, he had by good luck fallen into no mortal sin, the only course would be, one would think, to do something on purpose, so as to have something to tell. He does not understand that these people who go to confession often are not supposed to have any grave burden on their consciences.
Of course they will be likely to have venial faults, which, though the Easter penitent might not think them matters for absolution, really are so. And by the help of the Sacraments they may be overcoming these faults. But a good enough reason for their going to confession once a month, or even oftener, would be simply to avoid grievous sins; on the principle that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
They go so often, also, in order to get light, as well as strength, to avoid sin; to know beforehand what they ought to do. You may think that they ought to have sense enough to tell for themselves without bothering the priest about it; but if I am not mistaken, many who think so will find, if they look back a little, that there were some occasions when they did not know exactly which course to take, and had to go very much at hazard. Perhaps they asked about it afterwards, and perhaps they forgot all about it. But why not ask about these matters beforehand? For, after all, though you can read, there are some things rather special to yourself and your own circumstances that you cannot get from books. It is good to have a guide sometimes, who has more thorough knowledge than you, to show you the way; to point the road up the mountain which you have to climb.
You consult a lawyer, or a doctor, about your temporal matters; why not consult a priest about spiritual matters, in the place where he waits to help you so far as he can, and where the Holy Ghost also will help him to help you? For Almighty God has commissioned the priest specially to guide the faithful in spiritual matters, as you know; and he can often show others the way where he cannot well find it for himself.
But even if the priest does not help you much, our Lord Himself will, in the Sacraments which He has provided. He will guide and direct you by means of them,
if you will only come to Him in them. That is one great reason why He
is there. I hope I have now said enough, my dear brethren, to give you
some idea of the necessity of approaching the Sacraments frequently, if you really have a purpose of amendment, and a desire to save your soul. Too much could not be said. Think of the matter
seriously, and you will see this necessity more and more, and will
seriously purpose to go often and regularly to confession and Holy
Communion." Five-minute Sermons for Low Masses on All Sundays of the Year by the Paulist Fathers, 5th Sunday after Epiphany
