IS any grieved or tired? Yea, by God's Will:
Surely God's Will alone is good and best:
O weary man, in weariness take rest,
O hungry man, by hunger feast thy fill.
Discern thy good beneath a mask of ill,
Or build of loneliness thy secret nest;
At noon take heart being mindful of the west,
At night wake hope for dawn advances still.
At night wake hope. Poor soul, in such sore need
Of wakening and of girding up anew,
Hast thou that hope which fainting doth pursue?
No saint but hath pursued and hath been faint:
Bid love wake hope, for both thy steps shall speed
Still faint yet still pursuing, O thou saint.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
December 8
FEAST OF THE CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.
ST. MARY whom all generations call blessed, we so call.
Who bore the Saviour of all mankind we cherish in grateful memory.
Whom God the Son deigned to honor, we aspire to honor.
She whom God sanctified is holy: she who responded to God's call is "called and chosen and faithful."
Her gifts are His gifts to her, her graces His graces in her.
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
ST. MARY whom all generations call blessed, we so call.
Who bore the Saviour of all mankind we cherish in grateful memory.
Whom God the Son deigned to honor, we aspire to honor.
She whom God sanctified is holy: she who responded to God's call is "called and chosen and faithful."
Her gifts are His gifts to her, her graces His graces in her.
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
December 7
"And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl."--(Rev. xxi. 21.)
A NATURAL pearl is produced by the disease of an oyster.
Being such, who would have looked to find pearls in the holy and eternal New Jerusalem?
Whatever the "pearls" of heaven may stand for--for Bible language doubtless condescends to our present ignorance--one thing seems clear: since we read of pearls, pearls have a lesson for us.
These pearls form the gates of the celestial city. Gold and gems compose its foundations, its walls, its streets: but all its gates are pearls.
And because pearls stand connected with disease, that is, with one form of suffering, therefore (I think) we may view them as representative of the precious fruits of all worthily borne human suffering: and because they form gates of entrance--exit, thanks be to God, is not in question--they connect themselves vividly with that "great tribulation" out of which came the general assembly of the saints as St. John beheld them in vision:--
"Lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the Throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb. . . . And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the Throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His Temple." (Rev. vii. 9-15.)
A NATURAL pearl is produced by the disease of an oyster.
Being such, who would have looked to find pearls in the holy and eternal New Jerusalem?
Whatever the "pearls" of heaven may stand for--for Bible language doubtless condescends to our present ignorance--one thing seems clear: since we read of pearls, pearls have a lesson for us.
These pearls form the gates of the celestial city. Gold and gems compose its foundations, its walls, its streets: but all its gates are pearls.
And because pearls stand connected with disease, that is, with one form of suffering, therefore (I think) we may view them as representative of the precious fruits of all worthily borne human suffering: and because they form gates of entrance--exit, thanks be to God, is not in question--they connect themselves vividly with that "great tribulation" out of which came the general assembly of the saints as St. John beheld them in vision:--
"Lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the Throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb. . . . And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the Throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His Temple." (Rev. vii. 9-15.)
Sunday, December 1, 2013
December 6
FEAST OF ST. NICOLAS, BISHOP OF MYRA. Fourth Century.
THUS much and no more I find vouched for by my usual chief authority.
Legends, however, augment our scanty store of knowledge, and furnish St. Nicolas with a miraculous babyhood, pretty if uncertain. An ecstasy seized him in his first bath: and while still a suckling he voluntarily fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays.
At a more mature period of his life he saved three sister maidens from temptation and peril by casting three bags of gold, one at a time, through the window of their home, thereby providing their father with dowries for them.
Popularly he is supposed to have concurred in the Council of Nicaea, where among all the assembled Bishops "he shone . . . with so great clarity and opinion of sanctity, that he appeared like a sun among so many stars." Nevertheless carried away by zeal he smote Arius, and thereby incurred a heavy ecclesiastical penalty.
Each legend may teach us something, at any rate by suggestion.
Not to marvel at miraculous babies, but to nurse natural ones for God, is our at least as blessed privilege. And though grace "cometh not with observation" we may feel as certain that Divine Grace takes possession of them in the Baptismal Font, as we could possibly feel if we beheld them rapt in visible ecstasy.
We may study both matter and manner in the incident of the triple dower: the matter, liberality; the manner, delicacy.
While the Council sets before us how much may be lost in one hasty moment.
"Be not highminded, but fear."
THUS much and no more I find vouched for by my usual chief authority.
Legends, however, augment our scanty store of knowledge, and furnish St. Nicolas with a miraculous babyhood, pretty if uncertain. An ecstasy seized him in his first bath: and while still a suckling he voluntarily fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays.
At a more mature period of his life he saved three sister maidens from temptation and peril by casting three bags of gold, one at a time, through the window of their home, thereby providing their father with dowries for them.
Popularly he is supposed to have concurred in the Council of Nicaea, where among all the assembled Bishops "he shone . . . with so great clarity and opinion of sanctity, that he appeared like a sun among so many stars." Nevertheless carried away by zeal he smote Arius, and thereby incurred a heavy ecclesiastical penalty.
Each legend may teach us something, at any rate by suggestion.
Not to marvel at miraculous babies, but to nurse natural ones for God, is our at least as blessed privilege. And though grace "cometh not with observation" we may feel as certain that Divine Grace takes possession of them in the Baptismal Font, as we could possibly feel if we beheld them rapt in visible ecstasy.
We may study both matter and manner in the incident of the triple dower: the matter, liberality; the manner, delicacy.
While the Council sets before us how much may be lost in one hasty moment.
"Be not highminded, but fear."
December 5
BURY Hope out of sight,
No book for it and no bell;
It never could bear the light
Even while growing and well;
Think if now it could bear
The light on its face of care
And gray scattered hair.
No grave for Hope in the earth,
But deep in that silent soul
Which rang no bell for its birth
And rings no funeral toll.
Cover its once bright head;
Nor odors nor tears be shed:
It lived once, it is dead.
Brief was the day of its power,
The day of its grace how brief:
As the fading of a flower,
As the falling of a leaf,
So brief its day and its hour:
No bud more and no bower
Or hint of a flower.
Shall many wail it? not so:
Shall one bewail it? not one:
Thus it hath been from long ago,
Thus it shall be beneath the sun.
O fleet sun, make haste to flee;
O rivers, fill up the sea;
O Death, set the dying free.
The sun nor loiters nor speeds,
The rivers run as they ran,
Through clouds or through windy reeds
All run as when all began.
Only Death turns at our cries:--
Lo, the Hope we buried with sighs
Alive in Death's eyes!
No book for it and no bell;
It never could bear the light
Even while growing and well;
Think if now it could bear
The light on its face of care
And gray scattered hair.
No grave for Hope in the earth,
But deep in that silent soul
Which rang no bell for its birth
And rings no funeral toll.
Cover its once bright head;
Nor odors nor tears be shed:
It lived once, it is dead.
Brief was the day of its power,
The day of its grace how brief:
As the fading of a flower,
As the falling of a leaf,
So brief its day and its hour:
No bud more and no bower
Or hint of a flower.
Shall many wail it? not so:
Shall one bewail it? not one:
Thus it hath been from long ago,
Thus it shall be beneath the sun.
O fleet sun, make haste to flee;
O rivers, fill up the sea;
O Death, set the dying free.
The sun nor loiters nor speeds,
The rivers run as they ran,
Through clouds or through windy reeds
All run as when all began.
Only Death turns at our cries:--
Lo, the Hope we buried with sighs
Alive in Death's eyes!
December 4
I ONCE heard an exemplary Christian remark that she had never been accused of a fault without afterwards recognizing truth in the accusation.
And if she, how not I?
At the least her words should make me cautious not to rebut any charge in anger or in haste.
And if me, why not you?
And if she, how not I?
At the least her words should make me cautious not to rebut any charge in anger or in haste.
And if me, why not you?
December 3
3.
THERE remains on the foregoing subject one anxious question for us to ask and for our consciences to answer: are such speculations profitable, or are they trivial?
Profitable they are, if and so far as they encourage any poor soul to tread the path of obedience.
And perhaps they may effect this, because either line of thought (such as it is) tends to testify: that election is certified, and final perseverance is achieved, by one and the same process open to us all alike,--by simple obedience.
The mystery of predestination or of election may baffle our intellects: obedience will assuredly not transcend our powers.
And there is a second way in which our problem may, I hope, prove helpful: this shall we do, and leave weightier matters undone? We should have been--or at least, I should have been disappointed not to reach an accurate intelligible result by the foregoing calculation. A degree of shame often adds a sting to disappointment; for often we have ourselves, our own rashness or negligence to thank for our failures.
What will it be to have misstated or misworked the whole problem of life; to behold at length the perfect number of the elect made up to the last man, woman, child; and ourselves (God forbid!) to be left out in shame and everlasting contempt?
THERE remains on the foregoing subject one anxious question for us to ask and for our consciences to answer: are such speculations profitable, or are they trivial?
Profitable they are, if and so far as they encourage any poor soul to tread the path of obedience.
And perhaps they may effect this, because either line of thought (such as it is) tends to testify: that election is certified, and final perseverance is achieved, by one and the same process open to us all alike,--by simple obedience.
The mystery of predestination or of election may baffle our intellects: obedience will assuredly not transcend our powers.
And there is a second way in which our problem may, I hope, prove helpful: this shall we do, and leave weightier matters undone? We should have been--or at least, I should have been disappointed not to reach an accurate intelligible result by the foregoing calculation. A degree of shame often adds a sting to disappointment; for often we have ourselves, our own rashness or negligence to thank for our failures.
What will it be to have misstated or misworked the whole problem of life; to behold at length the perfect number of the elect made up to the last man, woman, child; and ourselves (God forbid!) to be left out in shame and everlasting contempt?
December 2
2.
BY a different process of arithmetic and of argument (if argument it can be termed) the same result by be reached:--
Once more in our search for the "hundred and fifty-three" brought safe ashore, if so be they indeed prefigure the completed number of the elect, we start from the Decalogue.
To fulfil each of the ten commandments man needs the full grace of God's Most Holy Spirit; which fulness of grace let us represent by the sacred number seven.
Multiply each commandment by the grace needed for its observance, one by seven; and this seven again by ten, the number of the commandments: and seventy appears.
Now as Joseph said unto Pharaoh, "For that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established:" therefore we will express final perseverance by doubling seventy, and obtain one hundred and forty.
But he who is wholly sanctified by God the Holy Ghost is truly owned and saved by the Most Holy Trinity in Unity: wherefore we place the Decalogue under favor of the Divine number Three; making up an additional thirteen.
Which thirteen and hundred and forty added together amount to the required hundred and fifty-three.
BY a different process of arithmetic and of argument (if argument it can be termed) the same result by be reached:--
Once more in our search for the "hundred and fifty-three" brought safe ashore, if so be they indeed prefigure the completed number of the elect, we start from the Decalogue.
To fulfil each of the ten commandments man needs the full grace of God's Most Holy Spirit; which fulness of grace let us represent by the sacred number seven.
Multiply each commandment by the grace needed for its observance, one by seven; and this seven again by ten, the number of the commandments: and seventy appears.
Now as Joseph said unto Pharaoh, "For that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established:" therefore we will express final perseverance by doubling seventy, and obtain one hundred and forty.
But he who is wholly sanctified by God the Holy Ghost is truly owned and saved by the Most Holy Trinity in Unity: wherefore we place the Decalogue under favor of the Divine number Three; making up an additional thirteen.
Which thirteen and hundred and forty added together amount to the required hundred and fifty-three.
December 1
1.
DR. NEALE, in the Introduction to his "Mediaeval Preachers and Mediaeval Preaching," quotes from one of St. Augustine's Paschal Homilies the following curious mystical interpretation of the hundred and fifty-three Fishes of the Second Miraculous Draught:--
"This number signifies the thousand thousands of the Saints and of the faithful. But why did the Lord vouchsafe to signify by these figures the many thousands who shall enter into the kingdom of heaven? Hear why. Ye know that the Law was given by Moses to the people of God; and that in that Law the Decalogue forms the chief part. . . . These ten precepts no man accomplishes by his own strength, unless he is helped by the grace of God. If, therefore, none can fulfil the Law unless God assist with his Spirit, ye must remember that the holy Ghost is set forth to us by the number seven. . . . Since, then, we need the Spirit to fulfil the Law, add seven to ten, and you have seventeen. Now, if you count from one to seventeen, you obtain one hundred and fifty-three. I need not count this up for you; count it for yourselves, and reckon thus: one and two and three and four make ten. In like manner add up the other numbers to seventeen, and you will have the holy number of the faithful and of the saints that shall be in heavenly places with the Lord."
This same calculation St. Augustine, we are informed, repeated substantially in a second and again in a third sermon: whence we may infer that however quaint such comments may appear to some hearers or readers, in others they arouse interest and promote edification.
DR. NEALE, in the Introduction to his "Mediaeval Preachers and Mediaeval Preaching," quotes from one of St. Augustine's Paschal Homilies the following curious mystical interpretation of the hundred and fifty-three Fishes of the Second Miraculous Draught:--
"This number signifies the thousand thousands of the Saints and of the faithful. But why did the Lord vouchsafe to signify by these figures the many thousands who shall enter into the kingdom of heaven? Hear why. Ye know that the Law was given by Moses to the people of God; and that in that Law the Decalogue forms the chief part. . . . These ten precepts no man accomplishes by his own strength, unless he is helped by the grace of God. If, therefore, none can fulfil the Law unless God assist with his Spirit, ye must remember that the holy Ghost is set forth to us by the number seven. . . . Since, then, we need the Spirit to fulfil the Law, add seven to ten, and you have seventeen. Now, if you count from one to seventeen, you obtain one hundred and fifty-three. I need not count this up for you; count it for yourselves, and reckon thus: one and two and three and four make ten. In like manner add up the other numbers to seventeen, and you will have the holy number of the faithful and of the saints that shall be in heavenly places with the Lord."
This same calculation St. Augustine, we are informed, repeated substantially in a second and again in a third sermon: whence we may infer that however quaint such comments may appear to some hearers or readers, in others they arouse interest and promote edification.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
November 23
FEAST OF ST. CLEMENT, BISHOP OF ROME. Died perhaps by martyrdom, about the year 100.
ST. PAUL writes to the Philippians (iv. 3): --"Clement, also, and . . . other my fellow-laborers, whose names are in the Book of Life."
Notwithstanding some alleged difficulty in the way of identification, this saint, certified as such by the voice of inspiration, is considered to be the same as the St. Clement we memorialize today, and who is counted either as the immediate or as the third successor of St. Peter.
His own writings survive as his worthy monument. Otherwise, despite its remaining historically uncertain whether or not he attained the martyr's palm branch, a legend assigns to him as monument a beautiful chapel raised by angels beneath the sea and enshrining his body. For, according to this tradition, he had been exiled from Rome to the marble quarries of Pontus; where he found and encouraged fellow-Christians, and converted pagans: for which latter good work he was condemned to be drowned with an anchor fastened to his neck. Afterwards, in answer to prayer, the sea receded and disclosed the angelic erection.
Another pretty legend relates how in his place of banishment water could only be procured from a spring six miles distant, adding to the weary toil of the quarries. "One day Clement saw a lamb scraping at the soil with one of its forefeet. He took it as a sign that water was there; dug, and found a spring."
Yet what matter mistakes or silence of earthly records concerning any "whose names are in the Book of Life?" Of all such we know assuredly that they shall thirst no more, but the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, where there shall be no more sea.
ST. PAUL writes to the Philippians (iv. 3): --"Clement, also, and . . . other my fellow-laborers, whose names are in the Book of Life."
Notwithstanding some alleged difficulty in the way of identification, this saint, certified as such by the voice of inspiration, is considered to be the same as the St. Clement we memorialize today, and who is counted either as the immediate or as the third successor of St. Peter.
His own writings survive as his worthy monument. Otherwise, despite its remaining historically uncertain whether or not he attained the martyr's palm branch, a legend assigns to him as monument a beautiful chapel raised by angels beneath the sea and enshrining his body. For, according to this tradition, he had been exiled from Rome to the marble quarries of Pontus; where he found and encouraged fellow-Christians, and converted pagans: for which latter good work he was condemned to be drowned with an anchor fastened to his neck. Afterwards, in answer to prayer, the sea receded and disclosed the angelic erection.
Another pretty legend relates how in his place of banishment water could only be procured from a spring six miles distant, adding to the weary toil of the quarries. "One day Clement saw a lamb scraping at the soil with one of its forefeet. He took it as a sign that water was there; dug, and found a spring."
Yet what matter mistakes or silence of earthly records concerning any "whose names are in the Book of Life?" Of all such we know assuredly that they shall thirst no more, but the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, where there shall be no more sea.
November 22
FEAST OF ST. CECILIA OR CICELY, ROMAN VIRGIN AND MARTYR. Third century.
LEGEND, if not history, represents St. Cecilia as given in marriage to a young man named Valerian; whom she converted to Christianity by holding out to him, on that condition, a hope of beholding an Angel who protected her. Valerian, returning from Baptism, beheld Cecilia at her prayers; and with her, an Angel who crowned the pair with roses and lilies before vanishing. Another version of the story shows us the Angel seated at an organ when the young husband lighted upon him. Tiburtius, brother of Valerian, noticing the flowers and understanding their source, was converted likewise. After which all three laid down life for the faith.
St. Cecilia ranks as patroness of music. Her name, too, whether we say Cecilia or Cicely, is musical. Her story exhibits that good and pleasant thing, a family dwelling in harmonious unity and angelic fellowship.
Music may surpass our powers: harmony and the communion of saints even we ourselves also can compass.
LEGEND, if not history, represents St. Cecilia as given in marriage to a young man named Valerian; whom she converted to Christianity by holding out to him, on that condition, a hope of beholding an Angel who protected her. Valerian, returning from Baptism, beheld Cecilia at her prayers; and with her, an Angel who crowned the pair with roses and lilies before vanishing. Another version of the story shows us the Angel seated at an organ when the young husband lighted upon him. Tiburtius, brother of Valerian, noticing the flowers and understanding their source, was converted likewise. After which all three laid down life for the faith.
St. Cecilia ranks as patroness of music. Her name, too, whether we say Cecilia or Cicely, is musical. Her story exhibits that good and pleasant thing, a family dwelling in harmonious unity and angelic fellowship.
Music may surpass our powers: harmony and the communion of saints even we ourselves also can compass.
Monday, November 18, 2013
November 21
EVERYTHING that is born must die:
Everything that can sigh may sing:
Rocks in equal balance low or high
Everything.
Honeycomb is weighed against a sting,
Hope and fear take turns to touch the sky,
Height and depth respond alternating.
O my soul spread wings of love to fly,
Wings of dove that soars on homebound wing:
Love trusts Love, till Love shall justify
Everything.
Everything that can sigh may sing:
Rocks in equal balance low or high
Everything.
Honeycomb is weighed against a sting,
Hope and fear take turns to touch the sky,
Height and depth respond alternating.
O my soul spread wings of love to fly,
Wings of dove that soars on homebound wing:
Love trusts Love, till Love shall justify
Everything.
November 20
FEAST OF ST. EDMUND, STYLED MARTYR, KING OF EAST ANGLIA. Born in the year 841; died in battle with the Danes, or was slain after the same battle, 870.
ACCORDING to one account King Edmund, finding himself unequal to resisting the Danish invaders, offered his own person as their prisoner if so his people might be spared. The Danes, however, after tempting him in vain to apostatize from the Christian Faith, treated him barbarously, and ended by shooting him to death with arrows. The town of Bury St. Edmunds is the place of his sepulture.
Another account simply state that he fell in battle against the same invaders.
"The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness."
ACCORDING to one account King Edmund, finding himself unequal to resisting the Danish invaders, offered his own person as their prisoner if so his people might be spared. The Danes, however, after tempting him in vain to apostatize from the Christian Faith, treated him barbarously, and ended by shooting him to death with arrows. The town of Bury St. Edmunds is the place of his sepulture.
Another account simply state that he fell in battle against the same invaders.
"The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness."
November 19
"Cursed is the ground for thy sake; . . . thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." --(GEN. iii.17, 18)
SHORT of reprobation, there is no Divine curse upon sin within which does not lurk a blessing ready for penitents. And this, although "God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent:" yea, rather, even because He is that Lord Who changeth not, therefore we are not consumed.
Which truth the penal thorn illustrates: for a veritable thorn it is which bears the rose.
SHORT of reprobation, there is no Divine curse upon sin within which does not lurk a blessing ready for penitents. And this, although "God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent:" yea, rather, even because He is that Lord Who changeth not, therefore we are not consumed.
Which truth the penal thorn illustrates: for a veritable thorn it is which bears the rose.
November 18
WE know not when, we know not where,
We know not what that world will be,
But this we know: it will be fair
To see.
With heart athirst and thirsty face
We know and know not what shall be: --
Christ Jesus bring us of His grace
To see.
Christ Jesus bring us of His grace,
Beyond all prayers our hope can pray,
One day to see Him face to face, --
One day.
We know not what that world will be,
But this we know: it will be fair
To see.
With heart athirst and thirsty face
We know and know not what shall be: --
Christ Jesus bring us of His grace
To see.
Christ Jesus bring us of His grace,
Beyond all prayers our hope can pray,
One day to see Him face to face, --
One day.
November 17
FEAST OF ST. HUGH, BISHOP OF LINCOLN. Born in Burgundy in the year 1140; died in London, 1200.
HAVING passed through a grave and pious childhood, Hugh, at the age of nineteen, visited the Grande Chartreuse, near Grenoble, and became enamoured of its spiritual beauty enshrined amid marvellous natural beauties of the Alps. Assuming there the Carthusian habit, he spent ten years under that austere but congenial rule. Then Henry II. of England summoned him to govern a Carthusian Priory at Witham: he obeyed, and by kindly virtues won the love of his new neighbors.
In 1186 he was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln: in which character he withstood or rebuked first Henry II., afterwards Richard Coeur de Lion, earning the nickname of Hammer-King by his intrepidity.
He died during the reign of King John, having returned from an embassy of peace with which that monarch had charged him to Philip Augustus of France.
Humility, sweetness, courage,--virtues not always combined--were united in St. Hugh.
At Witham he was pleased himself to carry stones and knead mortar for building-work.
At Lincoln he made friends with a swan which frequented his Palace moat; he fed it, and was habitually greeted by it.
Concerning him, Richard Coeur de Lion is reported to have said: "If all the Bishops in my realm were like that man, kings and princes would be powerless against them."
By our saint's own command his deathbed was made on the floor, being composed of ashes strewn in the form of a cross.
But after his death, we read how "his body was embalmed, and conveyed with great pomp to Lincoln, where it was met by king John of England and king William of Scotland. . . . The two kings put their shoulders under the bier as it was carried into the church."
HAVING passed through a grave and pious childhood, Hugh, at the age of nineteen, visited the Grande Chartreuse, near Grenoble, and became enamoured of its spiritual beauty enshrined amid marvellous natural beauties of the Alps. Assuming there the Carthusian habit, he spent ten years under that austere but congenial rule. Then Henry II. of England summoned him to govern a Carthusian Priory at Witham: he obeyed, and by kindly virtues won the love of his new neighbors.
In 1186 he was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln: in which character he withstood or rebuked first Henry II., afterwards Richard Coeur de Lion, earning the nickname of Hammer-King by his intrepidity.
He died during the reign of King John, having returned from an embassy of peace with which that monarch had charged him to Philip Augustus of France.
Humility, sweetness, courage,--virtues not always combined--were united in St. Hugh.
At Witham he was pleased himself to carry stones and knead mortar for building-work.
At Lincoln he made friends with a swan which frequented his Palace moat; he fed it, and was habitually greeted by it.
Concerning him, Richard Coeur de Lion is reported to have said: "If all the Bishops in my realm were like that man, kings and princes would be powerless against them."
By our saint's own command his deathbed was made on the floor, being composed of ashes strewn in the form of a cross.
But after his death, we read how "his body was embalmed, and conveyed with great pomp to Lincoln, where it was met by king John of England and king William of Scotland. . . . The two kings put their shoulders under the bier as it was carried into the church."
Friday, November 15, 2013
November 16
THE goal in sight! Look up and sing,
Set faces full against the light,
Welcome with rapturous welcoming
The goal in sight.
Let be the left, let be the right:
Straight forward make your footsteps ring
A loud alarum through the night.
Death hunts you, yea, but reft of sting;
Your bed is green, your shroud is white:
Hail! Life and Death and all that bring
The goal in sight.
Set faces full against the light,
Welcome with rapturous welcoming
The goal in sight.
Let be the left, let be the right:
Straight forward make your footsteps ring
A loud alarum through the night.
Death hunts you, yea, but reft of sting;
Your bed is green, your shroud is white:
Hail! Life and Death and all that bring
The goal in sight.
November 15
FEAST OF ST. MACHUTUS, BISHOP OF ALETH. I notice his date as assigned to either of two centuries, involving a difference of about sixty years. The earlier date proposed fixes his death in the year 564 or 565.
THIS Machutus, Maclovius, Maclou, or Malo, seems most familiar under the name of St. Malo; which last form connects him with the locality where he lived, though not with his native land which, it appears, was Wales.
Various legends embalm his memory. In boyhood he fell asleep on the seashore, and would have been drowned by the rising tide had not the sand and weed on which he lay floated upward with him.
Later on, when he had assumed the monastic habit, it was his office to light the candles for matins. No fire was within reach: he placed extinct cinders in his bosom, and drew them out aglow.
He died, apparently, while acting, not as Bishop of Aleth, but as Monastic Superior at Archambray.
His life was passed not without vicissitudes, but seems to have closed in peace.
THIS Machutus, Maclovius, Maclou, or Malo, seems most familiar under the name of St. Malo; which last form connects him with the locality where he lived, though not with his native land which, it appears, was Wales.
Various legends embalm his memory. In boyhood he fell asleep on the seashore, and would have been drowned by the rising tide had not the sand and weed on which he lay floated upward with him.
Later on, when he had assumed the monastic habit, it was his office to light the candles for matins. No fire was within reach: he placed extinct cinders in his bosom, and drew them out aglow.
He died, apparently, while acting, not as Bishop of Aleth, but as Monastic Superior at Archambray.
His life was passed not without vicissitudes, but seems to have closed in peace.
November 14
IT seems an easy thing
Mayhap one day to sing,
Yet the next day
We cannot sing or say.
Keep silence with good heart,
While silence fits our part:
Another day
We shall both sing and say.
Keep silence, counting time
To strike in at the chime;
Prepare to sound:--
Our part is coming round.
Cannot we sing or say?
In silence let us pray,
And meditate
Our love-song while me wait.
Mayhap one day to sing,
Yet the next day
We cannot sing or say.
Keep silence with good heart,
While silence fits our part:
Another day
We shall both sing and say.
Keep silence, counting time
To strike in at the chime;
Prepare to sound:--
Our part is coming round.
Cannot we sing or say?
In silence let us pray,
And meditate
Our love-song while me wait.
November 13
FEAST OF ST. BRITIUS OR BRICTIUS OR BRICE, BISHOP OF TOURS. Born in the fourth century; died about the year 443.
BRITIUS was brought up by St. Martin of Tours and succeeded him in that See.
In youth he appears to have been headstrong and worldly, and accusations beset him in afterlife. According to one version of his story these accusations were refuted; yet his flock appears to have lost, if it ever had entertained, confidence in him: another Bishop superseded him in his diocese, and was followed by yet another, while Britius spent seven penitential years in Rome.
Thence he travelled homewards with letters recommendatory from Pope Sixtus III.; the See once more fell vacant, and he resumed his former charge and dignity, holding them for another seven years until death removed him. Meanwhile he had acquired a saintly reputation.
I have seen a different coloring given to his story, but I follow the more favorable account.
"Charity . . . rejoiceth not in iniquity."
BRITIUS was brought up by St. Martin of Tours and succeeded him in that See.
In youth he appears to have been headstrong and worldly, and accusations beset him in afterlife. According to one version of his story these accusations were refuted; yet his flock appears to have lost, if it ever had entertained, confidence in him: another Bishop superseded him in his diocese, and was followed by yet another, while Britius spent seven penitential years in Rome.
Thence he travelled homewards with letters recommendatory from Pope Sixtus III.; the See once more fell vacant, and he resumed his former charge and dignity, holding them for another seven years until death removed him. Meanwhile he had acquired a saintly reputation.
I have seen a different coloring given to his story, but I follow the more favorable account.
"Charity . . . rejoiceth not in iniquity."
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