Holy Innocents
by VP
Posted on Thursday December 28, 2023 at 12:00AM in Saints
The Massacre of the Innocents Angelo Visconti (1829–1861)
These were the first victims of Jesus Christ. Offer yourself a sacrifice to Him, who was born to become a sacrifice for you. If your life be not in danger from the cruelty of enemies, be your own spiritual executioner, by dying to all that is contrary to the law of God. Thus will you become the victim of Christ; and this you are to pray for this day.
In these Holy Innocents, you see the fury of their enemies become the means of making them eternally happy. Pray that you may make this good use of whatever you suffer and remember that suffering, joined with innocence, is the way of the Gospel and of Christ, and such as leads to glory.
These children were cut off in the state of innocence. A day proper for all parents to pray for their children, that God would preserve them in their innocence, and rather take them out of this world, in that state of security, than permit them to grow up, if He foresees that they will take to evil ways, and be rebels against Him.
In these first victims of Christ, who were murdered by Herod, the Church honours persecuted and oppressed innocence, gives thanks for their glory, and teaches all the faithful that whatever malice God permits the wicked to exercise against the just, it is for the good of those who suffer it. So that to wonder at the sufferings of the innocent, is the effect of very weak reasoning, such as does not understand the conduct of Almighty God. For very often there is no other reason why He permits them to suffer than because they are innocent. This consideration ought to moderate in Christians all excesses of grief and disquiet, when they are under any kind of affliction. For as the malice of persecutors has been the advantage of the martyrs, who, if they had suffered less, would have been less glorious; so every occasion of trouble, if submitted to with patience, may be as the seed of glory. It may not be the scourge of anger, but the mercy of a loving father, designing by such steps to exercise and perfect His children, for obtaining an eternal rest. This is a lesson which these suffering innocents give to all Christians; and an encouragement to wait with patience under all the appointments of God, in hopes of the recompense which he has promised.
But these murdered
innocents give a more particular instruction to all parents; that while
they detest this barbarous fact in Herod, they would be careful to
secure their children against his cruelty, to which they are too often
exposed, not from the hand of Herod,
but by their proving Herods to their own children, and letting them
fall a sacrifice, not to their cruelty, but to their unnatural
carelessness and neglect. And this is often occasioned by the excessive fondness of parents, who ever humouring their children, lose by degrees their authority over them, and make them insensible of any duty commanded. And from this guilt none of those parents can be exempt, who observing any passion or ill
custom in their children, take no care to correct it. Neither can they
be excused who are so indulgent as to favour them in all their humours
and desires, who will see no fault in them themselves, and even shew
displeasure at those who would do this friendly part to them. For all
this is a mistaken love, and a real cruelty; being the direct
way to bring children to pride, obstinacy, passion, and self-love,
which when grown up with them, must cost them infinite labour to
overcome; and if not overcome, will prove their ruin. Parents thus indiscreetly fond of their children, are almost in as great danger of being Herods to them, as those who are in the other extreme of wholly neglecting them. Wherefore, as the obligation of parents is so great, and their task so difficult, they ought on this day particularly to beg the assistance of God for their help and direction, and also to make this the subject of their daily prayers, that as many as they bring into this world, they may likewise bring forth to salvation." The Catholic Year; Or Daily Lessons on the Feasts of the Church By Rev.John GOTHER 1861
Prayer of Parents for their Children:
O Heavenly Father, I commend my children unto Thee. Be Thou their God and Father; and mercifully supply whatever is wanting in me, through frailty or negligence. Strengthen them to overcome the corruptions of the world, to resist the solicitations of evil, whether from within or without; and deliver them from the secret snares of the enemy. Pour Thy grace into their hearts, and confirm and multiply in them the gifts of Thy Holy Spirit, that they may daily grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; and so, faithfully serving Thee here, may come to rejoice before Thee hereafter; through the merits of the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who with Thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth. Amen. The Garden of the Soul [by Bishop Challoner]. A Manual of Devotion 1874
