The Festival of Your Holy City

All Saints Day, a holy day of obligation, was observed throughout the Catholic Church today. Through our celebration of the great cloud of witnesses (c.f. Hebrews 12:1) who have gone before us in faith, we can be inspired to lives of greater personal sanctity. As our priest remarked during the homily this evening, "Each saint took a unique path of holiness toward God's presence." If we take the time to learn about the lives of the saints, we can begin to understand that no path is more holy than another: we can lead holy lives in even the most ordinary circumstances.

However interesting that subject may be, it is not the focus of this post. The chief idea that struck me about the mass of All Saints was how our liturgical prayers are shaped directly by scripture. The first reading was taken from the book of Revelation and read thus:

I, John, saw another angel come up from the East, holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, "Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God." I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the children of Israel. After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb." All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed: "Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen." Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, "Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?" I said to him, "My lord, you are the one who knows." He said to me, "These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb." - Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14

In this passage we receive a glimpse of heavenly worship. The object of worship is the Lamb of God, who is seated in majesty on the throne. Around the throne are people gathered from "every tribe of Israel". Again, as we remarked in yesterday's post, we can discern the connection between God's people of Israel and the Church instituted by Christ. There are people from all over the world who had been gathered into Israel, and are worshipping in the heavenly Jerusalem.

We Catholics believe that the worship described in Revelation is the eternal liturgy of heaven. The mass, the liturgy on earth, is mystically united with the liturgy in heaven by the eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross, which gained salvation for humanity. Imagine my delight, then, when during mass we reached the preface of the Eucharistic prayer (the prayer that comes immediately before the "Holy, Holy, Holy" and changes with the day):

Today we keep the festival of Your holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem, our mother. Around Your throne the saints, our brothers and sisters, sing Your praise for ever. Their glory fills us with joy, and their communion with us in Your Church gives us inspiration and strength as we hasten on our pilgrimage of faith, eager to meet them.

The Church is truly universal. The saints in heaven whom we honor today are truly our brothers and sisters. Christ has but one body and it spans earth, purgatory, and heaven. This is what is meant by the phrase "communion of saints" and the concept helps us understand prayer to the saints, and prayer for those holy souls in purgatory - we are all one, and we all must pray for each other, as St. Paul recommends (c.f. 1 Timothy 2:1).

These doctrines, though taught by the Church, may not have been as apparent to me had I not connected it with how we were worshipping during mass. What we say and hear during mass aside from the Scriptures adds layers of insight to what we hear proclaimed in the Scriptures. This is why what we say and how we pray communally is important - it reinforces the revelation of God. I have heard a few complaints about the revised translation of the mass that will go into effect in a few weeks. However, it is my firm belief that this revision will make the biblical basis of our worship so much clearer, and will thus strengthen the connection between prayer and Scripture in rich and meaningful ways.

Blessed Charles, pray for us

Today is the feast of Blessed Charles of Austria, the last emperor of Austria-Hungary. In our current age, when most politicians are barely decent, let alone saintly, we need the prayers of Blessed Charles ever more urgently. Charles is recognized by the Church as having been a lone voice for peace during World War I, as well as a personally holy man. His marriage to his wife Zita was exemplary of Christian matrimony, and his sense of duty to God and his subjects is worth imitating. In my estimation, it is a shame that the Allies pushed Charles off the throne after the war. A man of his moral character would have been a good bastion against the increased radicalism in Europe in the interwar period. But, alas, the Twentieth Century saw Christian monarchs as unfashionable, and deposed them without pity.

In any event, let us pray unceasingly through the intercession of Blessed Charles for the strengthening of the moral fiber of all of our leaders of authority, both civil and religious.

Photo: The blessed Emperor greets one of his subjects

St. Matthew

Today is my name-day. Once upon a time, the feast day of the saint after whom one was named was celebrated much as we celebrate birthdays today. Today is the feast day of St. Matthew, the repentant tax collector who wrote one of the four canonical gospels. St. Matthew is often portrayed with an angel, the symbol of his gospel (the others are: an eagle for John, a winged ox for Luke, and a winged lion for Mark). The painting is by Caravaggio, who did a series of paintings on St. Matthew's life as portrayed in the gospels.

Just some other facts about this Evangelist: tradition says he was martyred spreading Christianity to Ethiopia, the name "Matthew" means "Gift of Yahweh", Matthew's gospel was addressed to the Jews and written in Hebrew.

Also, Matthew's feast day has excellent personal timing as tomorrow is my birthday. St. Matthew, pray for us!

St. Justin, the Ancient Mass, and Martyrdom

This post is one of those hodge-podgey assemblages full of things that your author doesn't have the patience to sort into nice and tidy categories (much as he would like). Today just seemed like a good day to throw together some wisdom from the Church Fathers (when isn't there a good time for that) and some even more enlightening wisdom from G.K. Chesterton (always a good time for that!).

Today is the feast day of St. Justin Martyr, an 2nd Century early Christian convert from Palestine who lived from 103 until his martyrdom by beheading in 165. Justin Martyr is notable to us today both for his devout faith that he clung to even to death, and his apologetical works that he authored. His First and Second Apologies offer numerous insights into the early doctrine and worship of the Church; insights and descriptions that align with the ritual and beliefs of the Church today. Most notable (in my opinion) is his description of the Eucharist in his day:

And this food is called among us Εὐχαριστία [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, This do in remembrance of Me, this is My body; and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, This is My blood; and gave it to them alone. Which the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras, commanding the same thing to be done. For, that bread and a cup of water are placed with certain incantations in the mystic rites of one who is being initiated, you either know or can learn. - First Apology, LXVI

That seems to put to bed the myth of the Catholic "invention" of transubstantiation during the Middle Ages (as Luther and his companions unwisely maintained). You will also note, patient reader, that Justin slips in a mention of the sacramental view of baptism "the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration" - a view that was tossed out by many of the more radical Protestant sects who claim baptism as a mere symbol. Additionally, this passage and the one immediately following, describe a liturgical church, focused on orderly worship and weekly reception of the Eucharist. This "proto-mass" described by Justin Martyr was the "source and summit of the Church's life" (Lumen Gentium, 11) just as it is for Catholics today. It is certainly comforting to know that our ancestors and forefathers in faith worshiped in the 2nd Century much as we do in the 21st Century.

To switch gears a bit, I thought I'd add a tidbit on martyrdom from the famed Catholic apologist and sometimes funny man, G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936). Chesterton struggled in his path toward Catholicism (and Christianity in general) to understand why the Church upheld martyrs as the greatest of the saints, but cast suicides as the worst of the sinners:

About the same time I read a solemn flippancy by some free thinker: he said that a suicide was only the same as a martyr. The open fallacy of this helped to clear the question. Obviously a suicide is the opposite of a martyr. A martyr is a man who cares so much for something outside him, that he forgets his own personal life. A suicide is a man who cares so little for anything outside him, that he wants to see the last of everything. One wants something to begin: the other wants everything to end. In other words, the martyr is noble, exactly because he confesses this ultimate link with life; he sets his heart outside himself: he dies that something may live. The suicide is ignoble because he has not this link with being: he is a mere destroyer; spiritually, he destroys the universe. - G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, Chapter 5. Sam Torode Book Arts. Nashville, TN. 2009.

Good things to keep in mind, especially in these confusing times of suicide-bombers acting like martyrs. The two are diametrically and forcefully opposed.

St. Justin Martyr, pray for us!

The Daily Niblet

February 3 marked the feast day of St. Blaise, a bishop and martyr of the early Church. Blaise was bishop as well as a physician in modern-day Armenia, and was martyred there in 316 AD.

It is traditional on the Sunday nearest his feast day, for a blessing of throats to occur during the context of the Holy Mass. St. Blaise's intercession is commonly invoked for protection against various diseases, specifically those of the throat. The blessing is done by the priest taking two crossed, unlit candles and holding them near the neck of the person being blessed. The following is then said by the priest:

Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God protect you from all illness of the throat and all evil, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Pictured is the spectacular abbey church of a monastery dedicated to the patronage of St. Blaise in the German village of Sankt Blasien. It is a large, neoclassical domed church with a striking white interior. The exterior is also quite fantastic and stands distinctly in the surrounding landscape of Germany's Black Forest.

The monastery is quite near to Florian's hometown, but I unfortunately did not have the time to visit it during my trip last spring.