Sancte Michael Archangele

On October 13, 1884,  Pope Leo XIII paused at the foot of the altar after Mass, and fell into a sort of coma. When the Pope recovered, he spoke of a terrifying vision he had of the battle between the Church and Satan. Afterwards, Pope Leo went to his office and composed this now famous prayer to St. Michael the Archangel and ordered it to be recited after Low Mass. This was duly done until it was removed after Vatican II.

Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio, contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur: tuque, Princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo, divina virtute, in infernum detrude. Amen.





Carlo Crivelli, National Gallery. 1476. [CC BY 3.0 ].
From an altarpiece which Crivelli painted for a side chapel in the Dominican church at Ascoli Piceno, in the Italian Marche. Framed print is in author's dining room.

Holy Michael the Archangel, defend us in the day of battle; be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray and do thou, Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God thrust into hell Satan and all the wicked spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.

The raising of the widow's son (Luke 7, 11-17)

The raising of the widow's son. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Today's reading comes from Chapter 7 of  St Luke's Gospel. In the Eosarium Aureum, the incident is included with two others in the ninth stanza of the second decade or Act.

Qui Lazarum cum filio:
viduae suscitavit:
puellam cum prodigio:
ad vitam revocavit.

Who Lazarus and the widow's son
With mighty word did quicken;
And back to life and parents won
A maid with sickness stricken. 

[11] And it came to pass afterwards, that he went into a city that is called Naim; and there went with him his disciples, and a great multitude.
Et factum est : deinceps ibat in civitatem quae vocatur Naim : et ibant cum eo discipuli ejus et turba copiosa.
[12] And when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow: and a great multitude of the city was with her.
Cum autem appropinquaret portae civitatis, ecce defunctus efferebatur filius unicus matris suae : et haec vidua erat : et turba civitatis multa cum illa.
[13] Whom when the Lord had seen, being moved with mercy towards her, he said to her: Weep not.
Quam cum vidisset Dominus, misericordia motus super eam, dixit illi : Noli flere.
[14] And he came near and touched the bier. And they that carried it, stood still. And he said: Young man, I say to thee, arise.
Et accessit, et tetigit loculum. ( Hi autem qui portabant, steterunt.) Et ait : Adolescens, tibi dico, surge.
[15] And he that was dead, sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother.
Et resedit qui erat mortuus, et coepit loqui. Et dedit illum matri suae.
[16] And there came a fear on them all: and they glorified God, saying: A great prophet is risen up among us: and, God hath visited his people.
Accepit autem omnes timor : et magnificabant Deum, dicentes : Quia propheta magnus surrexit in nobis : et quia Deus visitavit plebem suam.
[17] And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judea, and throughout all the country round about.
Et exiit hic sermo in universam Judaeam de eo, et in omnem circa regionem.[Luke 7]

Notes, after Cornelius a Lapide

Ver. 11.—And it came to pass the day after that He went into a city called Nain. A city of Galilee two miles distant from Mount Tabor, situated on the river Kison, and called Nain, from the Hebrew word which denotes beauty. Thus Naomi says, “Call me not Naomi,” i.e. fair or beautiful, “call me Mara; for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me” (Ruth 1:20)—words which the widow of Nain, mourning the loss of her only son, might well make her own. So also Ps. 133., “Behold how good and how pleasant (Nain) it is for brethren to dwell together in unity,” and therefore how sad and sorrowful for brother to be separated from brother, mother from son, by the hand of death.

The place is specially mentioned for the confirmation of the miracle, and also because “Jesus went about all the cities and villages, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people” (S. Matt. 9:35); and to show the bitterness of the mother’s grief, for the death of her son at Nain was a greater trial to the mother than if they had been living in some country place. Just as it seems more hard for a man to be cut off in youth than in age, in health than in sickness, in prosperity than in adversity, in the springtide rather than in the winter of life, as it is written (Ecclus. 41:1), “O Death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions, unto the man that hath nothing to vex him, and that hath prosperity in all things. O Death, acceptable is thy sentence unto the needy and unto him whose strength faileth, to whom everything is a care.”

Ver. 12.—Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, &c. “Behold.” i.e. by accident, humanly speaking, Christ met the bier; but the meeting was foreseen and fore-ordained of Christ, that He might raise the dead to life He willed, however, that it should seem accidental and not designed, in order that it might be the more esteemed; for as the proverb runs, “that is of little value which is voluntarily offered for sale.”

“There was a dead man carried” without the city. Because, for sanitary and other reasons, the Jews had their burial places without the walls.

So the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathæa, in which the body of Christ lay, was without Jerusalem. So also the valley of Jehoshaphat, the scene of the judgment to come and the general resurrection, is the common burial-place of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with the exception of the kings, for whom David had provided a sepulchre in Zion. 1 Kings 2:10. For similar reasons the Romans, who were forbidden by the twelve tables to bury their dead within the city, used the Campus Martius as a place of sepulture, until Theodoric revoked the law; and there is abundant evidence to show that the Christians also, in the time of the persecution, used the crypts which they had excavated without the city for purposes of interment, but afterward, when peace was given to the Christians, they consecrated burial places within the walls near the temples in which they were wont to worship:

1. That the remembrance of death might be continually presented to the faithful as an incentive to a holy life. Like as the Spartans were commanded by Lycurgus to bury their dead within the city, in order to teach their young men that death was to be honoured and not to be feared.

2. That by their consecration they might be secure against the wiles of the devils, who are wont to dwell in the tombs and possess the bodies of those departed. S. Luke 8:27.

3. And also that the faithful when on their way to worship might be led to pray that those who lay buried around might be released from purgatory, and counted worthy of a glorious resurrection at the last day, and also that they might be partakers in the holy sacrifices offered in the temples and might benefit by the merits and by the prayers of those Saints who either lie buried, or are in some way especially commemorated therein. Thus Constantine the Great wished to be buried in the porch of the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople, and Theodosius in the Church of S. Peter at Rome. And so, as most of the churches at Rome show, the Christians built altars over the tombs of the martyrs, for reasons which I have given in my comments on the text, “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain.” Rev. 6:9.

The only son, μονογενὴς, i.e. the only child of his mother, and therefore the sole object of her love. For he was to her her hope and her future, the support of her declining years, and the light of her eyes. Hence the mother’s grief was of the bitterest kind, like to that which the prophets tell of: “They shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son,” Zech. 12:10. And again, “O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation.” Jer. 6:26.

And much people of the city was with her. This widow seems to have been a woman highly esteemed by her fellow-citizens, “out of respect for whom they joined in the funeral procession.” S. Ambrose. Furthermore, there is generally at the gate of a city a great crowd of people going in and coming out, particularly as formerly the gate was not only the market-place, but also the seat of judgment.

Hence God willed that the miracle should be thus publicly wrought, that many being witnesses of it, many might be led to give praise to Him. Bede.

Ver. 13.—And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said unto her, Weep not. Nay, rather begin to rejoice, for I will restore your son to life again, mourn not as dead one whom thou shalt soon see brought back again to life. Bede. He forbids her to weep for him, who was about to rise from the dead, S. Ambrose.

Ver. 14.—And He came and touched the bier: and He said Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. The bier, an open bier surely, as is common amongst the Jews.

Arise. Elijah, Elisha, and others restored the dead to life by means of prayer to God, but Christ at a word, as Lord of life and death, and therefore very God. He touched the bier, says Cyril, to show that his body was effectual for the salvation of men, for as iron heated in the fire does the work of fire, and kindles the chaff, so the flesh united to the Word gives life to mankind.

Ver. 15.—And he that was dead sat up and began to speak. Sat up, raised himself up into a sitting posture, and so returned to life; for to sit up and to begin to speak are sure signs of returning animation.

And He delivered him to his mother, i.e. He took him by the hand and placed him on his feet, then led him to his mother. [As when from death through sin, a man rises unto life through baptism and later through Confession, and is then led by the Lord to his mother, Maria, Virgo et Mater, gloriosa et benedicta]  Behold thy son! Take him home with thee, that thou mayest rejoice over him, and that he may render thee true filial obedience.

Ver. 16.—And there came a fear on all.

Ver. 17.—And this rumour of Him went forth throughout all Judœa, and throughout all the region round about. Fear, i.e. reverence, and a sacred awe, mixed with admiration and joy.

A great prophet. The Messiah, of whose coming all were in anxious expectation.

Allegorically. The widow is the Church who mourns her sons—those who have fallen into mortal sin and forfeited the grace of God—as dead, and seeks by her tears for their restoration; and in answer to her prayers, Christ—1. Causes the bearers to stand still, checks those evil passions which gain the mastery over the young, and breaks their power. 2. Touches the bier, i.e. the wood of the Cross, and by it raises the dead to life. For by virtue of Christ sinners are moved to repentance, and restored to favour with God. Hence, 3. The dead man sits up and begins to speak, begins to lead a new life and give praise unto God, so that those who are witnesses of this marvellous change are filled with admiration and are led to give glory unto God. So S. Ambrose and others.

Of this we have a living example in S. Monica, for she mourned unceasingly for her son, who was dead in trespasses and sins, but recalled by her prayers to such holiness of life that he afterwards became a chief doctor of the Church. S. Augustine, Confessions.

Again, more particularly, the widow is the Church, the son the people of the Gentiles enclosed in the bier of concupiscence, and borne along to hell as to a sepulchre. By touch of the bier, i.e. by the wood of the Cross, Christ gave life to the world.

Figuratively. By the example of the widow we see how a priest or director should act when any of his spiritual children have fallen into mortal sin and are being borne to the grave of everlasting misery. He should follow the bier with weeping and much lamentation, for thus he will receive comfort from the Lord who—(1.) Touching the bier will cause the bearers to stand still, i.e. cause evil lusts and passions to cease; (2.) will recall the dead to life; and (3.) will raise him up to the performance of good works, so as to confess his sins and tell of the loving-kindness of God.

Thus at last he is restored to the Church, his mother, whose past sorrow will be eclipsed by her present joy, and thus also many will be led to extol the goodness of God.

Again, the widow represents the soul, her son the understanding, inactive and dead. When such a soul laments her spiritual death, especially if others also join in her mourning, Christ will grant an awakening. The bier is a conscience in a state of false security. The bearers, the evil enticements and flatteries of companions which stand still, i.e. are restrained at the touch of Christ. Bede. Or, as Theophylact interprets it, the widow is the soul which has lost its husband, i.e. the word of life; the son is the understanding; the body, the coffin or bier.

To sum up. We read that Christ on three occasions recalled the dead to life.

1. The daughter of the ruler of the synagogue in the house, i.e. one who sins in thought and intention.

2. The son of the widow at the gate, i.e. one who sins openly, and imparts his guilt to others.

3. Lazarus in the tomb, the habitual sinner who lies as it were buried in sin without hope of recovery or release.

The first, Christ raised to life by secret prayer apart from others; the second by a word; the third by crying with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. Hence different degrees of sin have different remedies, but to rescue the habitual sinner from the death of sin there needs no less than the voice of Christ speaking loudly to the sinner’s heart.

Our Lady of Sorrows: 2019

STABAT Mater dolorosa
iuxta Crucem lacrimosa,
dum pendebat Filius.

AT, the Cross her station keeping,
stood the mournful Mother weeping,
close to Jesus to the last.

Cuius animam gementem,
contristatam et dolentem
pertransivit gladius.

Through her heart, His sorrow sharing,
all His bitter anguish bearing,
now at length the sword has passed.

O quam tristis et afflicta
fuit illa benedicta,
mater Unigeniti!

O how sad and sore distressed
was that Mother, highly blest,
of the sole-begotten One.

Quae maerebat et dolebat,
pia Mater, dum videbat
nati poenas inclyti.

Christ above in torment hangs,
she beneath beholds the pangs
of her dying glorious Son.

Quis est homo qui non fleret,
matrem Christi si videret
in tanto supplicio?

Is there one who would not weep,
whelmed in miseries so deep,
Christ's dear Mother to behold?

Quis non posset contristari
Christi Matrem contemplari
dolentem cum Filio?

Can the human heart refrain
from partaking in her pain,
in that Mother's pain untold?

Pro peccatis suae gentis
vidit Iesum in tormentis,
et flagellis subditum.

Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled,
she beheld her tender Child
All with bloody scourges rent:

Vidit suum dulcem Natum
moriendo desolatum,
dum emisit spiritum.

For the sins of His own nation,
saw Him hang in desolation,
Till His spirit forth He sent.

Eia, Mater, fons amoris
me sentire vim doloris
fac, ut tecum lugeam.

O thou Mother! fount of love!
Touch my spirit from above,
make my heart with thine accord:

Fac, ut ardeat cor meum
in amando Christum Deum
ut sibi complaceam.

Make me feel as thou hast felt;
make my soul to glow and melt
with the love of Christ my Lord.

Sancta Mater, istud agas,
crucifixi fige plagas
cordi meo valide.

Holy Mother! pierce me through,
in my heart each wound renew
of my Savior crucified:

Tui Nati vulnerati,
tam dignati pro me pati,
poenas mecum divide.

Let me share with thee His pain,
who for all my sins was slain,
who for me in torments died.

Fac me tecum pie flere,
crucifixo condolere,
donec ego vixero.

Let me mingle tears with thee,
mourning Him who mourned for me,
all the days that I may live:

Iuxta Crucem tecum stare,
et me tibi sociare
in planctu desidero.

By the Cross with thee to stay,
there with thee to weep and pray,
is all I ask of thee to give.

Virgo virginum praeclara,
mihi iam non sis amara,
fac me tecum plangere.

Virgin of all virgins blest!,
Listen to my fond request:
let me share thy grief divine;

Fac, ut portem Christi mortem,
passionis fac consortem,
et plagas recolere.

Let me, to my latest breath,
in my body bear the death
of that dying Son of thine.

Fac me plagis vulnerari,
fac me Cruce inebriari,
et cruore Filii.

Wounded with His every wound,
steep my soul till it hath swooned,
in His very Blood away;

Flammis ne urar succensus,
per te, Virgo, sim defensus
in die iudicii.

Be to me, O Virgin, nigh,
lest in flames I burn and die,
in His awful Judgment Day.

Christe, cum sit hinc exire,
da per Matrem me venire
ad palmam victoriae.

Christ, when Thou shalt call me hence,
by Thy Mother my defense,
by Thy Cross my victory;

Quando corpus morietur,
fac, ut animae donetur
paradisi gloria. Amen.

While my body here decays,
may my soul Thy goodness praise,
safe in paradise with Thee. Amen.

New from Dr Wolfgang Smith

“One of the best-kept secrets of science,” physicist Nick Herbert writes, “is that physicists have lost their grip on reality.” [Chapter 2, Physicists Losing Their Grip, p. 15]

Dr Wolfgang Smith explores this and a number of other 'secrets of science' in his recently published monograph: Physics & Vertical Causation, the End of Quantum Reality (Angelico Press, 2019, available on Amazon Kindle). The book accompanies a film which is due to be released in Autumn 2019: The End of Quantum Reality, featuring Dr Smith and produced by Rick Delano, producer of 'The Principle'.

Wolfgang Smith graduated from Cornell University at the age of eighteen with majors in physics, philosophy, and mathematics. He received his master's degree in theoretical physics from Purdue University and was subsequently employed at Bell Aircraft Corporation as an aerodynamicist. After taking his Ph.D. in mathematics from Columbia University, Smith held faculty positions at M.I.T., U.C.L.A., and Oregon State University. His published work includes Cosmos and Transcendence, The Wisdom of Ancient Cosmology, and The Quantum Enigma: Finding the Hidden Key.

Physics & Vertical Causation is a veritable tour de force, reflecting the unique background of Dr Smith in mathematics, science, traditional (including scholastic) philosophy as well as eastern philosophy and tradition. His style is eminently readable for the non-specialist such as this reviewer, although one or two passages require very careful reading and reflection.

The book is relatively short (150 pages in hardback) and is divided into seven chapters. For a thought-provoking review, please visit the Philos-Sophia Initiative website.

Rather than writing a formal review, I aim in this and subsequent posts to give readers a flavour of Dr Smith's remarkable, countercultural insights.

For more, please visit our sister blog at BloorBooks.

The Nativity, by Willem Vrelant: A Commentary

Commentary on the image

[The numbers in brackets [ ]  are cross-references to text at the end of the commentary]
  
There are many similarities between the details in the image  and The Prophecies and Revelations of Saint Bridget (1303-1373). I have included excerpts at the end of this commentary.[1]

The manuscript words are as follows:
Deus in Ad primam
adjutorium meum
inténde. Domine, ad
adjuvándum me fes-
tina.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui S(an)c(t)o.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et
[semper, * et in sæcula sæculórum. Amen.]






At the hour of Prime
O God, come to my assistance;O Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, * and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, 
[and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.]

Two scenes are presented in the image, one earthly and one heavenly. In the foreground, a group of figures surround a little Baby. Above them, God the Father looks down from Heaven towards the scene on earth below.

The divine gaze and the the rays from Heaven point towards the baby and His mother. The figures on earth are also gazing reverently at the Baby. Our own eyes are thus drawn irresistibly to the little Baby, Who is in truth the Word made Flesh, the Second Person of the Triune God become incarnate; one Person uniting two natures, human and divine: Jesus, God who saves us, God with us, the Seed promised in the Book of Genesis, the Messiah, the Christ, the Holy One of God.

His right hand seems as if raised in blessing as He gazes up lovingly towards His mother, Mary. She kneels in adoration before her God, her Lord, her Son.[2] She has laid Him on folds of her own cape; so closely does the artist represent the mother and her Son, whom she wishes to enfold with all the love of her heart. She wears a tunic and a cape, both blue, trimmed with gold. Blue is for the Heaven of which she will be annointed Queen after the end of her earthly life. Gold symbolises the love she has for her royal baby, flesh of David's royal lineage.

A man with a beard has brought a candle to provide, as he thinks, light for Mary. This is Joseph, the fidelis servus et prudens, quem constituit Dominus suae Matris solatium, suae carnis nutritium (the faithful and wise servant, whom the Lord appointed to be the consolation of His Mother, the foster-father of His flesh). Dazzling light radiates outwards from the baby, totally eclipsing the light from the candle.[4] Later in His earthly life, Jesus would say to His disciples:

Ego sum lux mundi : qui sequitur me, non ambulat in tenebris, sed habebit lumen vitae.
I am the light of the world: he that followeth me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life. [John 8, 12]

His divine light is mirrored above in the radiance that emanates from God the Father, who wears a crown and holds an orb, representing our world [Ps 94, 5] His right hand is raised in blessing. The third Person of the Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, is present in the form of a dove and three angels are in attendance around the Triune Godhead. This upper image within the picture forms a trinity when considered with two similar scenes described in the Gospels, namely Christ's Baptism and His Transfiguration. We can almost hear the words of the Father: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

[16] Baptizatus autem Jesus, confestim ascendit de aqua, et ecce aperti sunt ei caeli : et vidit Spiritum Dei descendentem sicut columbam, et venientem super se.
And Jesus being baptized, forthwith came out of the water: and lo, the heavens were opened to him: and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him.
[17] Et ecce vox de caelis dicens : Hic est Filius meus dilectus, in quo mihi complacui.
And behold a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
[Matt 3]

Coming back down to earth, we see a wingéd angel kneeling before Jesus. Three other figures kneel before the Christ child. Although represented on the same scale as the angel, they have no wings. They are not the Kings or Magi and may possibly be the patron and family who gave the artist Vrelant the commission.

The ox and the ass are a discrete presence to the left, recalling the words of Isaiah:

[3] Cognovit bos possessorem suum, et asinus praesepe domini sui; Israel autem me non cognovit, et populus meus non intellexit.
The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood. [Isa 1]

One sense of the word 'ox' is a castrated bull and some have seen this as a reference to the physical seed of Abraham, the people of the circumcision. Accordingly, the 'ass' represents the nations or gentiles who were to become the spiritual heirs or seed of Abraham.

The animals are themselves kneeling behind the 'manger' containing their hay. 'Manger' derives from a word meaning 'to eat' and here denotes that which provides for the animals their daily sustenance. The manger and stable are in Bethlehem, which word denotes 'house of bread'. Jesus will later reveal through His teaching that He is the 'bread from Heaven' and that His disciples should include in the prayer He teaches them: 'Give us this day our daily [or supersubstantial] bread' [Matt 6, 9]. We may meditate upon the following verses from the beloved Disciple's Gospel when we contemplate the Nativity image:

[31] Patres nostri manducaverunt manna in deserto, sicut scriptum est : Panem de caelo dedit eis manducare.
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
[32] Dixit ergo eis Jesus : Amen, amen dico vobis : non Moyses dedit vobis panem de caelo, sed Pater meus dat vobis panem de caelo verum. 
Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you; Moses gave you not bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
[33] Panis enim Dei est, qui de caelo descendit, et dat vitam mundo.
For the bread of God is that which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world.
[34] Dixerunt ergo ad eum : Domine, semper da nobis panem hunc.
They said therefore unto him: Lord, give us always this bread.
[35] Dixit autem eis Jesus : Ego sum panis vitae : qui venit ad me, non esuriet, et qui credit in me, non sitiet umquam.
And Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger: and he that believeth in me shall never thirst.[John 6]

Other features of the picture include three water fowl which may be a little family of swans, themselves traditionally regarded as royal birds, payin g hommage to Christ the King, the Prince of Peace, in the royal city of David.

The Vision of St Bridget. Miniature, dated 1530.

[1] Saint Bridget (Birgitta) of Sweden

Born about 1303; died 23 July, 1373.

In 1316, at the age of thirteen, she was married to Ulf Gudmarsson, who was then eighteen. The happy marriage was blessed with eight children, among them St. Catherine of Sweden. The saintly life and the great charity of Bridget soon made her name known far and wide. Her husband died in 1344 returning from a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella.

Bridget now devoted herself entirely to practices of religion and asceticism, and to religious undertakings. The visions which she believed herself to have had from her early childhood now became more frequent and definite. She believed that Christ Himself appeared to her (see the image left), and she wrote down the revelations she then received, which were widely read and esteemed during the Middle Ages.

The Vision of St Bridget. The Risen Christ, displaying the wound from Longinus' spear, inspires the writings of Saint Bridget. Detail of initial letter miniature, dated 1530, probably made at Syon Abbey, England, a Bridgettine House. (BL Harley MS 4640, f.15)

St. Bridget founded a new religious congregation, the Brigittines, or Order of St. Saviour. She journeyed to Rome in 1349, and remained there until her death, except while absent on pilgrimages, among them one to the Holy Land in 1373. Bridget made earnest representations to Pope Urban, urging the removal of the Holy See from Avignon back to Rome. She died in 1373  and her remains were conveyed to the monastery at Vadstena. She was canonized, 7 October, 1391, by Boniface IX. 


The Prophecies and Revelations of Saint Bridget

Excerpts dealing with the Nativity

A vision that Lady Bridget had in Bethlehem, where the Virgin Mary showed to her the whole manner of her childbearing and how she gave birth to her glorious Son just as the Virgin herself had promised the same Lady Bridget in Rome fifteen years before she went to Bethlehem as can be seen in the first chapter of this book.

Chapter 21

When I was at the manger of the Lord in Bethlehem, I saw a Virgin, pregnant and very beautiful, clothed in a white mantle and a finely woven tunic through which from without I could clearly discern her virginal flesh. Her womb was full and much swollen, for she was now ready to give birth. With her there was a very dignified old man; and with them they had both an ox and an ass. When they had entered the cave, and after the ox and the ass had been tied to the manger, the old man went outside and brought to the Virgin a lighted candle and fixed it in the wall and went outside in order not to be personally present at the birth.

And so the Virgin then took the shoes from her feet, put off the white mantle that covered her, removed the veil from her head, and laid these things beside her, remaining in only her tunic, with her most beautiful hair - as if of gold - spread out upon her shoulders. She then drew out two small cloths of linen and two of wool, very clean and finely woven, which she carried with her to wrap the infant that was to be born, and two other small linens to cover and bind his head; and she laid these cloths beside her that she might use them in due time.[3] And when all these things had thus been prepared, then the Virgin knelt with great reverence, putting herself at prayer; and she kept her back toward the manger and her face lifted to heaven toward the east. And so, with raised hands and with her eyes intent on heaven, she was as if suspended in an ecstasy of contemplation, inebriated with divine sweetness. And while she was thus in prayer, I saw the One lying in her womb then move; and then and there, in a moment and the twinkling of an eye, she gave birth to a Son, from whom there went out such great and ineffable light and splendour that the sun could not be compared to it. Nor did that candle that the old man had put in place give light at all because that divine splendour totally eclipsed the material splendour of the candle. [4]
And so sudden and momentary was that manner of giving birth that I was unable to notice or discern how or in what member she was giving birth. But yet, at once, I saw that glorious infant lying on the earth, naked and glowing in the greatest of neatness. His flesh was most clean of all filth and uncleanness. I saw also the afterbirth, lying wrapped very neatly beside him. And then I heard the wonderfully sweet and most dulcet songs of the angels. And the Virgin's womb, which before the birth had been very swollen, at once retracted; and her body then looked wonderfully beautiful and delicate.[2] When therefore the Virgin felt that she had now given birth, at once, having bowed her head and joined her hands, with great dignity and reverence she adored the boy and said to him: ”Welcome, my God, my Lord, and my Son!” And then the boy, crying and, as it were, trembling from the cold and the hardness of the pavement where he lay, rolled a little and extended his limbs, seeking to find refreshment and his Mother's favour. Then his Mother took him in her hands and pressed him to her breast, and with cheek and breast she warmed him with great joy and tender maternal compassion.

Then, sitting on the earth, she put her Son in her lap and deftly caught his umbilical cord with her fingers. At once it was cut off, and from it no liquid or blood went out. And at once she began to wrap him carefully, first in the linen cloths and then in the woolen, binding his little body, legs, and arms with a ribbon that had been sewn into four parts of the outer wollen cloth. And afterward she wrapped and tied on the boy's head those two small linen cloths that she had prepared for this purpose.

When these things therefore were accomplished, the old man entered; and prostrating on the earth, he adored him on bended knee and wept for joy. Not even at the birth was that Virgin changed in colour or by infirmity. Nor was there in her any such failure of bodily strength as usually happens in other women giving birth, except that her swollen womb retracted to the prior state in which it had been before she conceived the boy. Then, however, she arose, holding the boy in her arms; and together both of them, namely, she and Joseph, put him in the manger, and on bended knee they continued to adore him with gladness and immense joy.

A revelation in Bethlehem at the manger of the Lord, on the same matter as above.
Chapter 22

Afterwards again in the same place, the Virgin Mary appeared to me and said: ”My daughter, it is a long time ago that I promised you in Rome that I would show to you here in Bethlehem the manner of my childbearing. And even though I showed to you in Naples something about this - namely, what state I was in when I gave birth to my Son - nevertheless, know for very certain that I was in such a state and gave birth in such a manner as you have now seen: on bended knee, praying alone in the stable. For I gave birth to him with such great exultation and joy of soul that I felt no discomfort when he went out of my body, and no pain. But at once I wrapped him in the small clean cloths that I had prepared long before.

When Joseph saw these things, he marveled with great gladness and the joy from the fact that I had thus, without help, given birth. But because the great multitude of people in Bethlehem were busy about the census, they were therefore so attentive to it that the wonders of God could not be publish among them. And therefore know for a truth that however much human beings, following their human perception, try to assert that my Son was born in the common manner, it is nevertheless more true an beyond any doubt that he was born just as I elsewhere told you and just as you now have seen.”

It was at the manger of the Lord that this revelation was made to the same lady in Bethlehem: how the shepherds came to the manger to adore the newborn Christ.

Chapter 23

I saw also in the same place, while the Virgin Mary and Joseph were adoring the boy in the manger, that shepherds and guardians of the flock then came to see and adore the infant. When they had seen it, they first wished to inquire whether it were male or female because the angels announced to them that the Saviour of the world had been born and had not said ”savioress.” Therefore the Virgin Mother then showed to them the infant's natural parts and male sex; and at once they adored him with great reverence and joy; and afterward they returned praising and glorifying God for all these things that they had heard and seen.

This revelation she had in Bethlehem, in the chapel where Christ was born. In it, Mary tells her how the three magi kings adored Christ, her Son.

Chapter 24

The same Mother of the Lord also said to me: ”My daughter, know that when the three magi kings came into the stable to adore my Son, I had foreknown their coming well in advance. And when they entered and adored him, then my Son exulted, and for joy he had then a more cheerful face. I too rejoiced exceedingly; and I was gladdened by the wonderful joy of exultation in my mind, while being attentive to their words and actions, keeping those things and reflecting on them in my heart.”

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Mary as a young girl.

The Church celebrates the birthdays of three persons: Our Blessed Lord, Our Lady and St John the Baptist. All three were born without stain of sin.

In honour of Our Heavenly Mother's birthday, here is the beautiful hymn Ave Maris Stella.

Ave Maris Stella is a popular liturgical hymn of unknown origin. It can be dated back to at least the 9th century for it is preserved in the Codex Sangallensis, a manuscript in the Swiss Monastery of St. Gallen. It is found in ancient codices of the Divine Office for Vespers on Marian feasts. Today it is still in use in the Divine Office and in the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin.

Ave maris stella,
Dei Mater alma,
Atque semper Virgo,
Felix cæli porta.

Ave, star of ocean,
Child divine who barest,
Mother, ever-virgin,
Heaven’s portal fairest.

Magnificat anima mea

Sumens illud Ave
Gabriélis ore,
Funda nos in pace,
Mutans Hevæ nomen.

Taking that sweet Ave
Erst by Gabriel spoken,
Eva’s name reversed,
Be of peace the token.

Solve vincla reis,
Profer lumen cæcis,
Mala nostra pelle,
Bona cuncta posce.

Break the sinners’ fetters,
Light to blind restoring,
All our ills dispelling,
Every boon imploring.

Venite adoremus. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Virgo singuláris,
Inter omnes mitis,
Nos culpis solútos
Mites fac et castos.

Maid all maids excelling,
Passing meek and lowly,
Win for sinners pardon,
Make us chaste and holy.

Mary cradles her Son. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Vitam præsta puram,
Iter para tutum,
Ut vidéntes Jesum,
Semper collætémur.

As we onward journey
Aid our weak endeavour,
Till we gaze on Jesus
And rejoice forever.

After her Assumption, Mary is crowned Queen of Heaven.

Sit laus Deo Patri,
Summo Christo decus,
Spirítui Sancto,
Tribus honor unus.

Father, Son, and Spirit,
Three in One confessing,
Give we equal glory
Equal praise and blessing.

Amen.
Amen.

Totus tuus ego sum 
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum tutus semper sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam

September - The Seven Sorrows of Our Lady: 7/7

Memorare, O piissima Virgo. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

September is a month in which we are invited to remember the Sorrows of Our Blessed Mother. In the seven days leading up to the feast of her nativity, we are reposting her Seven Sorrows, praying that she will help us daily to offer reparation for sins, in the spirit of the prayer given to the three little seers at Fatima:

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.

The following post is the seventh in a series presenting the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, based on the meditations of St Alphonsus de Liguori. I have inserted references in the text to numbered footnotes. These references are not hyperlinked but may be found by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Quis est homo qui non fleret,
matrem Christi si videret
in tanto supplicio?    

Is there one who would not weep,
whelmed in miseries so deep,
Christ's dear Mother to behold? 

 (From the 13th century Latin hymn, Stabat Mater Dolorosa)

Jesus is laid in the Sepulchre (the Seventh Sorrow)

When a mother is by the side of a suffering and dying child, she no doubt then feels and suffers all his pains; but when the afflicted child is really dead and about to be buried, and the sorrowful mother takes her last leave of him, oh God! the thought that she is to see him no more is a sorrow that exceeds all other sorrows. Behold, the last sword of sorrow which we are to consider, when Mary, after being present at the death of her Son upon the cross, after having embraced His lifeless body, was finally to leave Him in the sepulchre, never more to enjoy His beloved presence.

Mary cradles her son. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

But that we may better understand this last dolour, let us return to Calvary, again to look upon the afflicted mother, who still holds, clasped in her arms, the lifeless body of her Son.


Oh my Son, she seems then to continue to say in the words of Job, my Son, thou art changed to be cruel towards me: “Mutatus es mihi in crudelem.”[1] Yes, for all thy beauty, grace, virtue, and loveliness, all the signs of special love thou hast shown me, the peculiar favours thou hast bestowed on me, are all changed into so many darts of sorrow, which the more they have inflamed my love for thee, so much the more cause me cruelly to feel the pain of having lost thee. Ah, my beloved Son, in losing thee I have lost all. Thus St. Bernard speaks in her name: Oh truly begotten of God, thou wast to me a father, a son, a spouse; thou wast my life! Now I am deprived of my father, my spouse, and my Son, for with my Son whom I have lost, I lose all things.

They bear Him to the sepulchre. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Thus Mary, clinging to her Son, was dissolved in grief; but those holy disciples, fearing lest this poor mother would expire there through agony, went to take the body of her Son from her arms, to bear it away for burial. Therefore, with reverential force they took Him from her arms, and having embalmed Him, wrapped Him in a linen cloth already prepared, upon which our Lord wished to leave to the world his image impressed, as may be seen at the present day in Turin. And now they bear Him to the sepulchre. The sorrowful funeral train sets forth; the disciples place Him on their shoulders; hosts of angels from heaven accompany Him; those holy women follow Him; and the afflicted mother follows in their company her Son to the grave.

In the Sepulchre. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

When they had reached the appointed place, how gladly would Mary have buried herself there alive with her Son! “Oh how willingly,” said the Virgin to St. Bridget, “would I have remained there alive with my Son, if it had been his will!”  But since this was not the divine will, the authors relate that she herself accompanied the sacred body of Jesus into the sepulchre, where, as Baronius[2] narrates, they deposited the nails and the crown of thorns. In raising the stone to close the sepulchre, the disciples of the Saviour had to turn to the Virgin, and say to her: Now, oh Lady, we must close the sepulchre; have patience, look upon thy Son, and take leave of Him for the last time. Then, oh my beloved Son, must the afflicted mother have said, then shall I see thee no more? Receive then, this last time that I look upon thee, receive the last farewell from me thy dear mother, and receive my heart which I leave buried with thee. 




The Virgin, says St. Fulgentius, earnestly desired that her soul should be buried with the body of Christ. And Mary herself made this revelation to St. Bridget: “I can truly say, that at the burial of my Son, one sepulchre contained as it were two hearts.” Finally, they take the stone and close up in the holy sepulchre the body of Jesus, that great treasure, greater than any in heaven and on earth. And here let us remark, that Mary left her heart buried with Jesus, because Jesus was all her treasure: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”[3]

And where shall we keep our hearts buried? With creatures? In the mire? And why not with Jesus, who, although he has ascended to heaven, has wished to remain, not dead but alive, in the most holy sacrament of the altar, precisely in order that He may possess our hearts? But let us return to Mary. Before quitting the sepulchre, according to St. Bonaventure, she blessed that sacred stone, saying: Oh happy stone, that doth now inclose that body which was contained nine months in my womb, I bless thee, and envy thee; I leave thee to guard my Son for me, who is my only good, my only love. And then turning to the eternal Father, she said: Oh Father, to thee I recommend him, who is thy Son and mine; and thus bidding a last farewell to her Son, and to the sepulchre, she returned to her own house.

This poor mother went away so afflicted and sad, according to St. Bernard, that she moved many to tears even against their will: “Multos etiam invitos ad lacrymas provocabat;” so that wherever she passed, all wept who met her: “Omnes plorabant qui obviabant ei,” and could not restrain their tears. And he adds, that those holy disciples, and the women who accompanied her, mourned for her even more than for their Lord. St. Bonaventure says, that her two sisters covered her with a mourning cloak: The sisters of our Lady wrapped her in a veil as a widow, covering as it were her whole countenance. And he also says, that passing, on her return, before the cross, still wet with the blood of her Jesus, she was the first to adore it: Oh holy cross, she exclaimed, I kiss thee and adore thee; for thou art no longer an infamous wood, but a throne of love, and an altar of mercy, consecrated by the blood of the divine Lamb, who has been sacrificed upon thee, for the salvation of the world.

She then leaves the cross and returns to her house; there the afflicted mother casts her eyes around, and no longer sees her Jesus; but instead of the presence of her dear Son, all the memorials of His holy life and cruel death are before her. There she is reminded of the embraces she gave her Son in the stable of Bethlehem, of the conversations held with Him for so many years in the shop of Nazareth: she is reminded of their mutual affection, of His loving looks, of the words of eternal life that came forth from that divine mouth. And then comes before her the fatal scene of that very day; she sees those nails, those thorns, that lacerated flesh of her Son, those deep wounds, those uncovered bones, that open mouth, those closed eyes.

Alas! what a night of sorrow was that night for Mary! The sorrowful mother turned to St. John, and said mournfully: Ah, John, where is thy master? Then she asked of Magdalen: Daughter, tell me where is thy beloved? Oh God! who has taken him from us? Mary weeps, and all those who are with her weep. And thou, oh my soul, dost thou not weep! Ah, turn to Mary, and say to her with St. Bonaventure: Let me, oh my Lady, let me weep; thou art innocent, I am guilty. At least entreat her to permit thee to weep with her: “Fac ut tecum lugeam.” She weeps for love, and thou dost weep through sorrow for thy sins. And thus weeping, thou mayest have the happy lot of Him of whom we read in the following example.

Example

Father Engelgrave relates that a certain religious was so tormented by scruples, that sometimes he was almost driven to despair, but having great devotion to Mary, the mother of sorrows, he had recourse to her in the agony of his spirit, and was much comforted by contemplating her dolours. Death came, and the devil tormented him more than ever with scruples, and tempted him to despair. When, behold our merciful mother, seeing her poor son so afflicted, appeared to him, and said to him: “And why, oh my son, art thou so overcome with sorrow, thou who hast so often consoled me by thy compassion for my sorrows? Be comforted,” she said to him;” Jesus sends me to thee to console thee; be comforted, rejoice, and come with me to paradise.” And at these words the devout religious tranquilly expired, full of consolation and confidence.

Prayer

My afflicted mother, I will not leave thee alone to weep; no, I wish to keep thee company with my tears. This grace I ask of thee to-day: obtain for me a continual remembrance of the passion of Jesus, and of thine also, and a tender devotion to them, that all the remaining days of my life may be spent in weeping for thy sorrows, oh my mother, and for those of my Redeemer. I hope that these dolours will give me the confidence and strength not to despair at the hour of my death, at the sight of the offences I have committed against my Lord. By these must I obtain pardon, perseverance, paradise, where I hope to rejoice with thee, and sing the infinite mercy of my God through all eternity: thus I hope, thus may it be. Amen, amen.

Notes

[1] [21] Thou art changed to be cruel toward me, and in the hardness of thy hand thou art against me.
Mutatus es mihi in crudelem, et in duritia manus tuae adversaris mihi. [Job 30]

[2] Cesare Baronio (Venerable):  1538 – 1607. Italian cardinal and ecclesiastical historian.

[3] [34] For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Ubi enim thesaurus vester est, ibi et cor vestrum erit. [Luke 12]

Totus tuus ego sum 
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum tutus semper sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam

September - The Seven Sorrows of Our Lady: 6/7

Memorare, O piissima Virgo. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

September is a month in which we are invited to remember the Sorrows of Our Blessed Mother. In the seven days leading up to the feast of her nativity, we are reposting her Seven Sorrows, praying that she will help us daily to offer reparation for sins, in the spirit of the prayer given to the three little seers at Fatima:

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.

The following post is the sixth in a series presenting the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, based on the meditations of St Alphonsus de Liguori. I have inserted references in the text to numbered footnotes. These references are not hyperlinked but may be found by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Quis est homo qui non fleret,
matrem Christi si videret
in tanto supplicio?    

Is there one who would not weep,
whelmed in miseries so deep,
Christ's dear Mother to behold? 

 (From the 13th century Latin hymn, Stabat Mater Dolorosa)

The Piercing of the Side of Jesus and His Descent from the Cross

“Oh, all ye that pass by the way attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow.”[1] Devout souls, listen to what the sorrowful Mary says to you to-day: My beloved children, I do not wish you to console me; no, for my heart can never again be consoled on this earth after the death of my dear Jesus. If you wish to please me, this I ask of you, turn to me and see if there has ever been in the world a grief like mine, when I saw him who was all my love torn from me so cruelly.

But, oh Lady, since thou dost not wish to be consoled, and hast such a thirst for suffering, I must say to thee that thy sorrows have not ended with the death of thy Son. To-day thou wilt be pierced by another sword of sorrow, when thou shalt see a cruel lance piercing the side of this thy Son, already dead, and shalt receive him in thy arms after he is taken from the cross.

Jesus dies on the Cross. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

And now we are to consider to-day the sixth dolour which afflicted this sorrowful mother. Attend and weep. Hitherto the dolours of Mary tortured her one by one, but to-day they are all united to assail her.

To make known to a mother that her child is dead, is sufficient to kindle her whole soul with love for the lost one. Some persons, in order to lighten their grief, will remind mothers whose children have died, of the displeasure they had once caused them. But if I, oh my Queen, should wish to lighten thy sorrow for the death of Jesus in this way, what displeasure has he ever caused thee, that I could recall to thy mind? Ah, no; He always loved thee, obeyed thee and respected thee. Now thou hast lost Him, and who can describe thy sorrow? Do thou who hast felt it explain it.





A devout author says, that when our Redeemer was dead, the heart of the great mother was first engaged in accompanying the most holy soul of the Son, and presenting it to the Eternal Father. I present thee, oh my God, Mary must then have said, the immaculate soul of thy and my Son, which has been obedient to thee even unto death: receive it, then, in thy arms. Thy justice is now satisfied, thy will accomplished; behold, the great sacrifice to thy eternal glory is consummated. And then turning to the lifeless members of her Jesus: Oh wounds, she said, oh loving wounds, I adore you, I rejoice with you, since through you salvation has been given to the world. You shall remain open in the body of my Son, to be the refuge of those who will have recourse to you. Oh how many, through you, shall receive the pardon of their sins, and then through you shall be inflamed to love the Sovereign Good!

That the joy of the following Paschal Sabbath should not be disturbed,the Jews wished the body of Jesus to be taken down from the cross; but because they could not take down a criminal until he was dead, they came with iron mallets to break His legs, as they had already done to the two thieves crucified with Him. And Mary, while she remains weeping at the death of her Son, sees those armed men coming towards her Jesus. At this sight she first trembled with fear, then she said: Ah, my Son is already dead, cease to maltreat him, and cease to torture me a poor mother longer. She implored them not to break his legs: “Oravit eos, ne frangerent crura,” as St. Bonaventure writes.

The Piercing. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Satelles latus domini
lancea perforavit:
hinc aqua iuncto sanguine
abunde emanavit. Ave Maria.

And now behold! His sacred Side
The soldier's spear is rending;
Whence gusheth forth a plenteous tide
Of blood with water blending. Hail Mary.


But while she is thus speaking, oh, God! she sees a soldier with violence brandishing a spear, and piercing the side of Jesus: “One of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water.”[2] The cross shook at the stroke of the spear, and, as was revealed to St. Bridget, the heart of Jesus was divided: “Ita ut ambæ partes essent divisæ.”

There came out blood and water, for only a few drops of blood remained, and those also the Saviour wished to shed, in order to show that He had no more blood to give us.


The injury of that stroke was offered to Jesus, but the pain was inflicted on Mary: Christ, says the devout Lanspergius, shared with His mother the infliction of that wound, for He received the insult and His mother the pain.

The holy Fathers explain this to be the very sword predicted to the Virgin by St. Simeon; a sword, not of iron, but of grief, which pierced through her blessed soul in the heart of Jesus, where it always dwelt. Thus, among others, St. Bernard says: The spear which opened his side passed through the soul of the Virgin, which could not be torn from the heart of Jesus. And the divine mother herself revealed the same to St. Bridget, saying: “When the spear was drawn out, the point appeared red with blood; then I felt as if my heart were pierced when I saw the heart of my most dear Son pierced.”

The angel told St. Bridget, that such were the sufferings of Mary, that she was saved from death only by the miraculous power of God. In her other dolours she at least had her Son to compassionate her; and now she had not even Him to take pity on her. The afflicted mother, still fearing that other injuries might be inflicted on her Son, entreats Joseph of Arimathea to obtain from Pilate the body of her Jesus, that at least after His death she may be able to guard it and protect it from injuries. Joseph went to Pilate, and made known to him the sorrow and the wish of this afflicted mother; and St. Anselm thinks that compassion for the mother softened the heart of Pilate, and moved him to grant her the body of the Saviour.

The Descent from the Cross. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

And now Jesus is taken from the cross. Oh most holy Virgin, after thou with so great love hadst given thy Son to the world for our salvation, behold the world returns him to thee again! But oh, my God, how dost thou return Him to me? said Mary to the world. My Son was white and ruddy: “Dilectus meus candidus et rubicundus:”[3] but thou hast returned Him to me blackened with bruises, and red, not with a ruddy color, but with the wounds thou hast inflicted upon Him; He was beautiful, now there is no more beauty in Him; he is all deformity. All were enamoured with His aspect, now He excites horror in all who look upon Him. Oh, how many swords, says St. Bonaventure, pierced the soul of this mother, when she received the body of her Son after it was taken from the cross: “O quot gladii animam matris pertransierunt!”





Let us consider what anguish it would cause any mother to receive the lifeless body of a son! It was revealed to St. Bridget, that to take down the body of Jesus, three ladders were placed against the cross. Those holy disciples first drew out the nails from the hands and feet, and according to Metaphrastes[4], gave them in charge to Mary. Then one supported the upper part of the body of Jesus, the other the lower, and thus took it down from the cross.

Mary cradles her son. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Bernardine de Bustis[5] describes the afflicted mother as raising herself, and extending her arms to meet her dear Son; she embraces Him, and then sits down at the foot of the cross. She sees His mouth open, His eye shut, she examines the lacerated flesh, and those exposed bones; she takes off the crown, and sees the cruel injury made by those thorns, in that sacred head; she looks upon those pierced hands and feet, and says: Ah, my Son, to what has the love thou didst bear to men reduced thee! But what evil hast thou done to them, that they have treated thee so cruelly?


Thou wast my Father, Bernardine de Bustis imagines her to say, my brother, my spouse, my delight,my glory, my all. Oh, my Son, behold how I am afflicted, look upon me and console me; but thou dost look upon me no more. Speak, speak to me but one word, and console me; but thou dost speak no more, for thou art dead. Then turning to those barbarous instruments, she said: Oh cruel thorns, oh nails, oh merciless spear, how could you thus torture your Creator? But what thorns, what nails? Alas! sinners, she exclaimed, it is you who have thus cruelly treated my Son. Thus Mary spoke and complained of us.

But if now she were capable of suffering, what would she say? What grief would she feel to see that men after the death of her Son, continue to torment and crucify Him by their sins? Let us no longer give pain to this sorrowful mother; and if we also have hither to grieved her by our sins, let us now do what she directs. She says to us: Return, ye transgressors, to the heart: “Redite, prævaricatores, ad cor.” Sinners, return to the wounded heart of my Jesus; return as penitents, for He will receive you. Flee from Him to Him, she continues to say with Guerric the Abbot[6] ; from the Judge to the Redeemer, from the tribunal to the cross.

The Virgin herself revealed to St. Bridget that she closed the eyes of her Son, when He was taken down from the cross, but she could not close His arms; “Ejus brachia flectere non potui.” Jesus Christ giving us to understand by this, that he desired to remain with open arms to receive all penitent sinners who return to him. Oh world, continues Mary, behold, then, thy time is the time of lovers: “Et ecce, tempus tuum, tempus amantium.”[7] Now that my Son, oh world, has died to save thee, this is no longer for thee a time of fear, but of love: a time to love Him who has desired to suffer so much in order to show thee the love He bore thee. Therefore, says St. Bernard, is the heart of Jesus wounded that, through the visible wound, the invisible wound of love may be seen. If then, concludes Mary, in the words of the Abbot of Celles[8] , my Son had wished his side to be opened that he might give thee his heart, it is right, oh man, that thou shouldst give him thy heart.

And if you wish, oh children of Mary, to find a place in the heart of Jesus without fear of being cast out, go, says Ubertino of Casale[9] , go with Mary, for she will obtain grace for you; and in the following example we have a beautiful proof of this.

Example

The Disciple relates that there was once a poor sinner who, among other crimes, had killed his father and a brother, and therefore became a fugitive. Happening to hear one day during Lent, a sermon upon the divine mercy, he went to the preacher himself to make his confession. The confessor having heard his crimes, sent him to an altar of the sorrowful mother to pray that she might obtain for him compunction and pardon of his sins. The sinner obeyed, and began to pray, when behold, suddenly overpowered by contrition, he falls down dead. On the following day when the priest recommended to the people to pray for the deceased, a white dove appeared in the church and let fall a card at the feet of the priest. He took it up, and found these words written on it: “The soul of the dead, when it left the body, immediately went to paradise; and do you continue to preach the infinite mercy of God.”

Prayer

Oh afflicted Virgin! oh soul, great in virtues and great also in sorrows! for both arise from that great fire of love thou hast for God; thou whose heart can love nothing but God; ah mother, have pity on me, for I have not loved God, and I have so much offended him. Thy sorrows give me great confidence to hope for pardon. But this is not enough; I wish to love my Lord, and who can better obtain this for me than thou—thou who art the mother of fair love? Ah Mary, thou dost console all, comfort me also. Amen.

Notes

[1] [12] Lamed. O all ye that pass by the way, attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow: for he hath made a vintage of me, as the Lord spoke in the day of his fierce anger.
LAMED. O vos omnes qui transitis per viam, attendite, et videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus! quoniam vindemiavit me, ut locutus est Dominus, in die irae furoris sui. [Lamentations 1]

[2] [34] But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water.
sed unus militum lancea latus ejus aperuit, et continuo exivit sanguis et aqua. [John 19]

[3] [10] My beloved is white and ruddy, chosen out of thousands.
SPONSA. Dilectus meus candidus et rubicundus; electus ex millibus. [Cant 5]

[4] Metaphrastes: He lived in the second half of the 10th century. The author of a 10-volume collection of saints' lives.

[5] Bernardino de' Bustis: Milano, 1450  – 1513) Italian religious and theologian.

[6] Blessed Guerric of Igny: c. 1070-1157; Tournai, Belgium; Cistercian monk, abbot of Igny, and an influential spiritual writer.

[7] [8] And I passed by thee, and saw thee: and behold thy time was the time of lovers: and I spread my garment over thee, and covered thy ignominy. And I swore to thee, and I entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God: and thou becamest mine.
Et transivi per te, et vidi te : et ecce tempus tuum, tempus amantium : et expandi amictum meum super te, et operui ignominiam tuam : et juravi tibi, et ingressus sum pactum tecum, ait Dominus Deus, et facta es mihi. [Ezech 16]

[8] Abbot of Celles: Peter Cellensis: 1115 - 1183;  French Benedictine and bishop.  highly regarded by many other churchmen of his time such as Thomas Becket, Pope Eugene III and Pope Alexander III

[9] Ubertino of Casale: 1259 – c. 1329; Italian Franciscan and one of the leaders of the Spirituals, the stricter branch of the Franciscan order.

Totus tuus ego sum 
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum tutus semper sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam

September - The Seven Sorrows of Our Lady: 5/7

Memorare, O piissima Virgo. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

September is a month in which we are invited to remember the Sorrows of Our Blessed Mother. In the seven days leading up to the feast of her nativity, we are reposting her Seven Sorrows, praying that she will help us daily to offer reparation for sins, in the spirit of the prayer given to the three little seers at Fatima:

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.

The following post is the fifth in a series presenting the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, based on the meditations of St Alphonsus de Liguori. I have inserted references in the text to numbered footnotes. These references are not hyperlinked but may be found by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Quis est homo qui non fleret,
matrem Christi si videret
in tanto supplicio?    

Is there one who would not weep,
whelmed in miseries so deep,
Christ's dear Mother to behold? 

 (From the 13th century Latin hymn, Stabat Mater Dolorosa)

Jesus dies on the Cross

And now we have to admire a new sort of martyrdom, a mother condemned to see an innocent son,whom she loved with all the affection of her heart, put to death before her eyes, by the most barbarous tortures. There stood by the cross of Jesus his mother: “Stabat autem juxta crucem mater ejus.” There is nothing more to be said, says St. John, of the martyrdom of Mary: behold her at the foot of the cross, looking on her dying Son, and then see if there is grief like her grief.

 

Let us stop then also to-day on Calvary, to consider this fifth sword that pierced the heart of Mary, namely, the death of Jesus. 

As soon as our afflicted Redeemer had ascended the hill of Calvary, the executioners stripped him of his garments, and piercing his sacred hands and feet with nails, not sharp, but blunt: “Non acutis, sed obtusis;” as St. Bernard says, and to torture him more, they fastened him to the cross.

Jesus is nailed to the cross. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Calvariae quem vestibus:
loco exuerunt:
et manibus cum pedibus:
cruci affixerunt. Ave Maria.

Him of His garments they denude;
To Calvary they hale Him;
And there, unto the Holy Rood,
By hands and feet they nail him. Hail Mary.

JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

When they had crucified Him, they planted the cross, and thus left Him to die. The executioners abandon Him, but Mary does not abandon him. She then draws nearer to the cross, in order to assist at His death. “I did not leave him,” thus the blessed Virgin revealed to St. Bridget, and stood nearer to His cross.”



Stabat Mater dolorosa
iuxta Crucem lacrimosa,
dum pendebat Filius.
   
At the Cross her station keeping,
stood the mournful Mother weeping,
close to Jesus to the last.






But what did it avail, oh Lady, says St. Bonaventure, to go to Calvary to witness there the death of this Son? Shame should have prevented thee, for His disgrace was also thine, because thou wast His mother; or, at least, the horror of such a crime as that of seeing a God crucified by His own creatures, should have prevented thee. But the saint himself answers: Thy heart did not consider the horror, but the suffering: “Non considerabat cor tuum horrorem, sed dolorem.” Ah, thy heart did not then care for its own sorrow, but for the suffering and death of thy dear Son; and therefore thou thyself didst wish to be near Him, at least to compassionate Him.

Ah, true mother! says William the Abbot, loving mother! for not even the terror of death could separate thee from thy beloved Son. But, oh God, what a spectacle of sorrow, to see this Son then in agony upon the cross, and under the cross this mother in agony, who was suffering all the pain that her Son was suffering! Behold the words in which Mary revealed to St. Bridget the pitiable state of her dying Son, as she saw him on the cross: “My dear Jesus was on the cross in grief and in agony; his eyes were sunken, half closed, and lifeless; the lips hanging, and the mouth open; the cheeks hollow, and attached to the teeth; the face lengthened, the nose sharp, the countenance sad; the head had fallen upon his breast, the hair black with blood, the stomach collapsed, the arms and legs stiff, and the whole body covered with wounds and blood.”

Mary also suffered all these pains of Jesus. Every torture inflicted on the body of Jesus, says St. Jerome, was a wound in the heart of the mother. Any one of us who should then have been on Mount Calvary, would have seen two altars, says St. John Chrysostom, on which two great sacrifices were consummating, one in the body of Jesus, the other in the heart of Mary. But rather would I see there, with St. Bonaventure, one altar only, namely, the cross alone of the Son, on which, with the victim, this divine Lamb, the mother also was sacrificed. Therefore the saint interrogates her in these words: Oh Lady, where art thou? Near the cross? Nay, on the cross, thou art crucified with thy Son. St. Augustine also says the same thing: The cross and nails of the Son were also the cross and nails of the mother; Christ being crucified, the mother was also crucified.

Yes, because, as St. Bernard says, love inflicted on the heart of Mary the same suffering that the nails caused in the body of Jesus. Therefore, at the same time that the Son was sacrificing his body, the mother, as St. Bernardine says, was sacrificing her soul. Mothers fly from the presence of their dying children; but if a mother is ever obliged to witness the death of a child, she procures for him all possible relief; she arranges the bed, that his posture may be more easy; she administers refreshments to him; and thus the poor mother relieves her own sorrows. Ah, mother, the most afflicted of all mothers! oh Mary, it was decreed that thou shouldst be present at the death of Jesus, but it was not given to thee to afford him any relief.  

Sitio. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Mary heard her Son say: I thirst: “Sitio;”[1] but it was not permitted her to give Him a little water to quench his great thirst. She could only say to Him, as St. Vincent Ferrer remarks: My Son, I have only the water of my tears: “Fili, non habeo nisi aquam lacrymarum.” She saw that her Son, suspended by three nails to that bed of sorrow, could find no rest. She wished to clasp Him to her heart, that she might give Him relief, or at least that He might expire in her arms, but she could not. She only saw that poor Son in a sea of sorrow, seeking one who could console Him as He had predicted by the mouth of the prophet: “I have trodden the winepress alone; I looked about and there was none to help; I sought and there was none to give aid.”[2] But who was there among men to console him, if all were his enemies?






Even on the cross they cursed and mocked him on every side: “And they that passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads.”[3] Some said to him: “If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.”[4] Some exclaimed: “He saved others, himself he cannot save.” 18784 Others said: “If he be the King of Israel, let him come down from the cross.”[5] The blessed Virgin herself said to St. Bridget: “I heard some call my Son a thief; I heard others call him an impostor; others said that no one deserved death more than he; and every word was to me a new sword of sorrow.” But what increased most the sorrows which Mary suffered through compassion for her Son, was to hear Him complain on the cross that even the eternal Father had abandoned Him: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”[6] Words which, as the divine mother herself said to St. Bridget, could never depart from her mind during her whole life.

Mater dolorosa. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Thus the afflicted mother saw her Jesus suffering on every side; she desired to comfort him, but could not. And what caused her the greatest sorrow was to see that, by her presence and her grief, she increased the sufferings of her Son. The sorrow itself, says St. Bernard, that filled the heart of Mary, increased the bitterness of sorrow in the heart of Jesus.


Cuius animam gementem,
contristatam et dolentem
pertransivit gladius.    

Through her heart, His sorrow sharing,
all His bitter anguish bearing,
now at length the sword has passed.





St. Bernard also says, that Jesus on the cross suffered more from compassion for His mother than from His own pains: he thus speaks in the name of the Virgin: I stood and looked upon him, and he looked upon me; and he suffered more for me than for himself. The same saint also, speaking of Mary beside her dying Son, says, that she lived dying without being able to die: Near the cross stood His mother, speechless; living she died, dying she lived; neither could she die, because she was dead, being yet alive.

Passino writes that Jesus Christ himself, speaking one day to the blessed Baptista Varana [7], of Camerino, said to her, that He was so afflicted on the cross at the sight of his mother in such anguish at his feet, that compassion for His mother caused him to die without consolation. So that the blessed Baptista, being enlightened to know this suffering of Jesus, exclaimed: Oh my Lord, tell me no more of this thy sorrow, for I cannot bear it.

Mater dolorosa. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Men were astonished, says Simon of Cassia[8], when they saw this mother then keep silence, without uttering a complaint in this great suffering. But if the lips of Mary were silent, her heart was not so; for she did not cease offering to divine justice the life of her Son for our salvation. Therefore we know that by the merits of her dolours she co-operated with Christ in bringing us forth to the life of grace, and therefore we are children of her sorrows: Christ, says Lanspergius, wished her whom He had appointed for our mother to co-operate with Him in our redemption; for she herself at the foot of the cross was to bring us forth as her children.






And if ever any consolation entered into that sea of bitterness, namely, the heart of Mary, it was this only one; namely, the knowledge that by means of her sorrows, she was bringing us to eternal salvation; as Jesus himself revealed to St. Bridget: “My mother Mary, on account of her compassion and charity, was made mother of all in heaven and on earth.” And, indeed, these were the last words with which Jesus took leave of her before his death; this was His last remembrance, leaving us to her for her children in the person of John, when He said to her: Woman, behold thy Son: “Mulier ecce filius tuus.”[9]

The penitent thief. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Qui latroni omnia
crimina dimisit:
ac paradisi gaudia
ilico promisit. Ave Maria.

Who put all his offence away
From that good thief believing,
Him unto Paradise that day
To promised rest receiving. Hail Mary.










And from that time Mary began to perform for us this office of a good mother; for, as St. Peter Damian [9] declares, the penitent thief, through the prayers of Mary, was then converted and saved: Therefore the good thief repented, because the blessed Virgin, standing between the cross of her Son and that of the thief, prayed her Son for him; thus rewarding, by this favor, his former service. For as other authors also relate, this thief, in the journey to Egypt with the infant Jesus, showed them kindness; and this same office the blessed Virgin has ever continued, and still continues to perform.

Example

A young man in Perugia once promised the devil that if he would help him to commit a sinful act which he desired to do, he would give him his soul; and he gave him a writing to that effect, signed with his blood. The evil deed was committed, and the devil demanded the performance of the promise.

He led the young man to a well, and threatened to take him body and soul to hell if he would not cast himself into it. The wretched youth, thinking that it would be impossible for him to escape from his enemy, climbed the well-side in order to cast himself into it, but terrified at the thought of death, he said to the devil that he had not the courage to throw himself in, and that, if he wished to see him dead, he himself should thrust him in.

The young man wore about his neck the scapular of the sorrowing Mary; and the devil said to him: “Take off that scapular, and I will thrust you in.” But the youth, seeing the protection which the divine mother still gave him through that scapular, refused to take it off, and after a great deal of altercation, the devil departed in confusion. The sinner repented, and grateful to his sorrowful mother, went to thank her, and presented a picture of this case, as an offering, at her altar in the new church of Santa Maria, in Perugia.

Prayer

Ah, mother, the most afflicted of all mothers, thy Son, then, is dead; thy Son so amiable, and who loved thee so much! Weep, for thou hast reason to weep. Who can ever console thee? Nothing can console thee but the thought that Jesus, by His death, hath conquered hell, hath opened paradise which was closed to men, and hath gained so many souls. From that throne of the cross He was to reign over so many hearts, which, conquered by His love, would serve Him with love. Do not disdain, oh my mother, to keep me near to weep with thee, for I have more reason than thou to weep for the offences that I have committed against thy Son. Ah, mother of mercy, I hope for pardon and my eternal salvation, first through the death of my Redeemer, and then through the merits of thy doloUrs. Amen.

Notes

[1] [28] Afterwards, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said: I thirst.
Postea sciens Jesus quia omnia consummata sunt, ut consummaretur Scriptura, dixit : Sitio.
[29] Now there was a vessel set there full of vinegar. And they, putting a sponge full of vinegar and hyssop, put it to his mouth.
Vas ergo erat positum aceto plenum. Illi autem spongiam plenam aceto, hyssopo circumponentes, obtulerunt ori ejus. [John 19]

[2] [3] I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the Gentiles there is not a man with me: I have trampled on them in my indignation, and have trodden them down in my wrath, and their blood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my apparel.
Torcular calcavi solus, et de gentibus non est vir mecum; calcavi eos in furore meo, et conculcavi eos in ira mea; et aspersus est sanguis eorum super vestimenta mea, et omnia indumenta mea inquinavi.
(...)
[5] I looked about, and there was none to help: I sought, and there was none to give aid: and my own arm hath saved for me, and my indignation itself hath helped me.
Circumspexi, et non erat auxiliator; quaesivi, et non fuit qui adjuvaret; et salvavit mihi brachium meum, et indignatio mea ipsa auxiliata est mihi [Isa 63]

[3] [39] And they that passed by, blasphemed him, wagging their heads,
Praetereuntes autem blasphemabant eum moventes capita sua [Matt 27]

[4] [40] And saying: Vah, thou that destroyest the temple of God, and in three days dost rebuild it: save thy own self: if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.
et dicentes : Vah qui destruis templum Dei, et in triduo illud reaedificas : salva temetipsum : si Filius Dei es, descende de cruce. [Matt 27]

[5] [42] He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.
Alios salvos fecit, seipsum non potest salvum facere : si rex Israel est, descendat nunc de cruce, et credimus ei : [Matt 27]

[6] [46] And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying: Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani? that is, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Et circa horam nonam clamavit Jesus voce magna, dicens : Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani? hoc est : Deus meus, Deus meus, ut quid dereliquisti me? [Matt 27]

[7] Camilla Battista da Varano, O.S.C.: 1458 – 1524, from Camerino, Italy, was an Italian princess and a Poor Clare nun and abbess. She wrote fluently in Latin and Italian and was accounted one of the most accomplished scholars of her day. Her work includes Pregheria a Dio (1488–1490), Remembrances of Jesus (Ricordi di Gesu) (1483–1491), Praise of the Vision of Christ (1479–1481), and The Spiritual Life (Vita Spirituale) (1491), an autobiography from 1466-1491.

[8] Blessed Simon of Cascia: c. 1295–1348; an ascetic and preacher from Cascia, Italy.

[9] [26] When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son.
Cum vidisset ergo Jesus matrem, et discipulum stantem, quem diligebat, dicit matri suae : Mulier, ecce filius tuus. [John 19]

[10] Peter Damian: 1007 – 1072 or 1073). Benedictine monk and cardinal. Declared a Doctor of the Church in 1828. His Liber Gomorrhianus (Book of Gomorrah) is a powerful treatise regarding the evil of sodomy.

Totus tuus ego sum 
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum tutus semper sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam