November 21 — The Presentation

The new feast, enriched with Indulgences by Paul II., had gradually become general, 1 when St. Pius V., wishing to diminish the number of Offices on the universal Calendar, included this one among his suppressions. But Sixtus V. restored it to the Roman Breviary in 1585, and shortly afterwards Clement VIII. raised it to the rank of Double Major. Soon the Clergy and Regulars adopted the custom of renewing their holy vows on this day, whereon their Queen ' had opened before them the way that leads by sacrifice to the special love of our Lord.

Hearken, 0 daughter, and see, and incline thy ear, and forget thy people and thy father's house ; and the King shall greatly desire thy beauty. Thus, wording the wishes of the daughters of Tyre, sang the Church of the expectation, on the summit of Mount Moriah ; and penetrating the future with her inspired glance, she added : After her shall virgins be brought to the King, her neighbours shall be brought to thee; they shall be brought with gladness and rejoicing : they shall be brought into the temple of the King. Hailed beforehand as beautiful above the sons of men, this King, the most mighty, makes on this day a prelude to his conquests ; and even this beginning is wonderful. Through the graceful infant now mounting the temple steps, he takes possession of that temple, whose priests will hereafter vainly disown him : for

1 From sources which do not come within the learned author's scope, it appears, that in England, the feast is of much more ancient institution, though the evidence so far collected confines its observance to the monasteries. As Oblatio S. Maria in templo Domini cum esset trium annorum, it occurs in several monastic Calendars of Saxon times, and, still under the title of Oblatio, in some of later date. This is only one of many interesting facts illustrating the English movement of the 10 th and early 11 th centuries in its devotional aspect : a side of the question which still awaits special study. (Tram* lator y 8 note). this child, whom the temple welcomes to-day, is his throne. Already his fragranoe precedes and announces him, in the Mother in whose bosom he is to be anointed with the oil of gladness, as the Christ among his brethren ; already the Angels hail her as the Queen whose fruitful virginity will give birth to all those consecrated souls, who keep for the divine Spouse the myrrh and the incense of their holocausts, those daughters of kings, who are to form her court of honour. 1

But our Lady's Presentation also opens new horizons before the Church. On the Cycle of the Saints, which is not so precisely limited as that of the Time, the mystery of Mary's sojourn in the sanctuary of the Old Covenant is our best preparation for the approaching season of Advent. Mary, led to the temple in order to prepare in retirement, humility, and love for her incomparable destiny, had also the mission of perfecting at the foot of the figurative altar the prayer of the human race, of itself ineffectual to draw down the Saviour from heaven. She was, as Saint Bernardino of Siena says, the happy completion of all the waiting and supplication for the coming of the Son of God; in her, as in their culminating point, all the desires of the saints who had preceded her found their consummation and their term. 2

Through her wonderful understanding of the Scriptures, and her oonformity, daily and hourly, to the minutest teachings and prescriptions of the Mosaio ritual, Mary everywhere found and adored the Messias hidden under the letter ; she united herself to him, immolated herself with him in each of the many victims sacrificed before her eyes ; and thus she rendered to.the God of Sinai the homage, hitherto vainly expected, of the Law understood, practised, and made

1 Ps. xliv. 2 Bernabdin. Sen. Pro festivitatibus V. Marue, Senno iy. to fructify, in all the fulness that beseemed its divine Legislator. Then could Jehovah truly say : As the rain and the mow come down from heaven and return no more thither, but soak the earth and water it, and make it to spring : so shall my word be: .... it shall not return to me void, but it shall do whatsoever I p lease. 1

Supplying thus for the deficiencies of the Gentiles as well as of the Synagogue, Mary beheld in the Bride of the Canticle the Church of the future. In our name she addressed her supplications to him whom she recognised as the Bridegroom, without however knowing that he was to be her own Son. Such yearnings of love, coming from her, were sufficient to obtain from the divine "Word pardon for the infidelities of the past, and the immorality into which the wandering world was plunging deeper and deeper. 2 How well did this Ark of the New Covenant replace that of the Jews, which had perished with the first temple! It was for her, though he knew it not, that Herod the Gentile had continued the construction of the second temple, after it had remained desolate since the time of Zorobabel ; for the temple, like the tabernacle before it, was but the home of the ark destined to be God's throne ; but greater was the glory of the second temple which sheltered the reality, than of the first which contained but the figure.

The Greeks have chosen for the Lessons of the feast the passages of Scripture which describe the carrying of the Ark into the tabernacle of the desert, 3 and afterwards into the temple of Jerusalem. 4 The historical Lesson relates the traditions concerning the oblation of the Blessed Virgin by her holy parents to God in the temple, at the age of three years, there

1 Isaias, lv. 10, 11. 2 Olter, Vie interieure de la tres-sainte

Yierge, Presentation. 3 Exod. xl. 4 III Kings viii.

A to dwell until, after the lapse of twelve years, the mystery of our salvation was to be accomplished in her.

In the sixth century, the emperor Justinian built, in honour of the Presentation, a magnificent church, on the southern part of the platform on which had formerly stood the temple and its annexes. It is now the mosque El-Aksa.

The next century gives us the following strophes, which bear witness to the antiquity of the feast.

DE B. VIRGINE IN

Salvatoris templum maxime mundum, ilia tanti sestimanda ovis et Virgo, sacra ilia area thesaurum divinse continens gloriae hodie adducitur in domum Domini; gratiam secum affert divini Spiritus, dum angeli Dei earn concelebrant : Ipsa palam est coeleste tabernaculum.

Dei ineffabilium et sacrorum myste riorum dum cerno in hac Virgine gratiam ostensara et aperte cumulatam, gaudeo, nec modos intelligere valeo insolitos et dictu difficiles, quibus electa ilia immaculata, sola praestat super omnem creaturam, tarn oculis quam mente perceptam ; ideo faustis vocibus volens illi plaudere, stupeo vehementer animo et eloquio: audeo tamen earn praedicare, magnamque dicere. Ipsa siquidem est coeleste tabernaculum.

TEMPLUM RECEPTA.

The exceedingly pure temple of the Saviour, the inestimable sheep, the holy Virgin, the sacred ark containing the treasure of the divine majesty, is led to-day into the house of the Lord ; thither she brings the grace of the divine Spirit, while the Angels of God sing her praises, saying : Truly she is the heavenly tabernacle.

While I contemplate the grace of God's ineffable and sacred mysteries, revealed in its plenitude in this Virgin, I am full of joy, and I cannot comprehend the wonderful and inexpressible way in which this chosen and immaculate Virgin surpasses all creatures visible and invisible. Desiring then to applaud her with joyful voice, my thoughts and words fail me; yet I dare to roclaim her praises and exalt er, for she is the heavenly tabernacle.

Berum omnium conditor, opifex et Dominus, ex arcana misericordia et sola dementia sua, se ad nos inclinans, cum lapsum eum videret, quern propriis compegit manibus, misertus est, eumque restituere dignatus est, opere sublimiore, quippe bonus quum esset et misericors,semetexinanivit; propterea Mariam uti Yirginem et immaculatam, ascivit sibi participem mysterii, quo genus nostrum sponte assumpsit: ipsa est cceleste tabernaculum.

Pro nobis igitur redemptor et Yerbum in carne, cum vellet ostendi, turn Yirginem in terram induxit, et novo adventu stupendoque incremento intemeratam lllam honestavit ; precibus enim hunc fructum concessit, eamque nuntio et praeconio promisit justis Joachim et Annse: receptoquo cum fide oraculo, parentes cum am ore et laetitia voverunt, se illam Domino oblaturos esse : ipsa est cceleste tabernaculum.

Divino jam numine exorta alma Yirgine, justi, prout epoponderant, earn creatori dandam adducebant in templum ; laeta ergo Anna palam exclamavit, sacerdotem aff ata : Eccillam recipito et introduc ad inaccessa templi penetralia, et circumtuere earn : mearum enim precum hie fructus datus est ; hanc Deo auctori cum lsetitia et

The Creator, Author, and Lord of all things, out of his incomprehensible mercy and compassion, bent down towards us, and seeing the creature he had made with his own hands fallen away, he in his pity, deigned to restore it by a sublimer work than the creation ; for he, so good and merciful, emptied himself; and in the mystery whereby he freely took on him our nature, he associated the immaculate Virgin Mary with himself: and she is the heavenly tabernacle.

The Word of God, our Redeemer, willing to show himself for our sake in the flesh, brought the Virgin into this world, and honoured the coming of that spotless one with new and stupendous gifts; for he gave her as the fruit and reward of prayer, and promised and announced her to Joachim and Anne. Her parents believed the word, and with i'oyful love they vowed to offer Ler to the Lord : for she is the heavenly tabernacle.

The lovely Virgin being born according to the divine decree, her holy parents led her to the temple, to fulfil their promise, and give her to her Creator. Anne in her joy thus cried out to the priest : Receive this child, lead her into the most secluded parts of the temple surround her with all care ; for she was given to me as the fruit of my prayers. fide promisi dicandam : ipsa est cceleste tabernaculum. and in the joy of my faith I promised to devote her to God ner;Creator : she is the heavenly tabernacle.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, many churohes used to sing on this day the following Prose, oomposed as an acrostic on the words : Ave Maria, benedico te, Amen. Hail Mary, I praise thee, Amen.

SEQUENCE.

-iltissima providente Cuncta rite disponente

Dei Sapientia : Fho nexu conjugatis Joachim et Anna, gratis

Jnga sunt sterilia.

Ex cordis affectu toto Domino fideli voto

Se strinxerunt pariter : if ox si prolem illis dare Dignetur, hanc dedicare

In templo peronniter.

4ngelus apparuit Lucidus qui docuit

Exaudita vota : ifegis summi gratia TJt his detur nlia

Gratiosa tota.

7n utero consecrata, Miro modo generata,

Gignet mirabilius ^Lltissimi Patris natum Virgo manens, qui reatum

Mundi toilet gratius.

The Wisdom of God with inscrutable providence, disposeth all things rightly : Joachim and Anne are united in wedlock, but their union is sterile.

With all the heart's affection they together bind themselves by inviolable vow to the Lord: that if he deign to give them offspring, they without delay will consecrate it to him for ever in the temple.

A bright Angel appears, and tells them their prayers are heard, and by the grace of the most high King, a daughter shall be given them, full of grace.

Holy even in her conception, she is born in a wondrous manner, yet in a way more wondrous still will she give birth, remaining a virgin, to the Son of the most high leather, when he comesj^to/ freely, cancel the guilt of the world.

2?enedicta virgo nata, Templo trima praesentata

It ter quinis gradibus : J£recta velox ascendit Et uterque parens tendit

Se ornando vestibus.

Nova fulsit gloria Templum, dum eximia

Virgo prsesentatur : ^docta divinitus, Visitata coelitus,

Angelis lsetatur.

Dum ut nubant jubet multis Princep puellis adultis,

Primo virgo renuit : ipsam namque devovere Parentes, ipsa manere

Virgo yoto statuit.

Cbnsultus Deus responsum Dat, ut virgo sumat sponsum

Quern pandet flos editus : Ostensus Joseph puellam Ad parentum duxit cellam,

Nuptiis sollicitus.

Tunc Gabriel ad virginem Ferens conceptus ordinem

Delegatur ; ifrudita stat tacita, Verba quae sint insolita

Meditatur.

At cum ille tradidit Modum, virgo credidit, Sicque sacro flamine Mox Verbum concipitur, Et quod nusquam clauditur

Condi tur in virgine.

She is born then, that blessed Virgin, and at the age of three years is presented in the temple ; swift and erect, adorned with her beautiful robe, she ascends the fifteen steps, beneath her parents' gaze.

The temple shines with a new glory, when this august Virgin is presented ; there she is taught oy God, is visited by the Angels from heaven, and rejoices with them.

When the chief priest bids the maidens of adult age prepare for marriage, the Virgin at first refuses ; for her parents have devoted her to God, and she herself has vowed to remain a virgin.

God, being consulted, answers that the virgin shall take him for her spouse whom a miraculous flower shall designate; Joseph thus chosen weds the maiden and leads her to his home.

Then Gabriel is sent to her, telling her how she is to become a mother; but the prudent Virgin stands silent, pondering over the strangeness of the message.

But when he explains how this shall be, she believes him ; and thus by the Holy Spirit the Word is conceived, and he whom no space can contain is concealed in the Virgin's bosom.

TIME AFTER PBNTECOST.

JEcce virgo singularis, Quanta laude sublimaris,

Quanta fulges gloria : Noa ergo sic tuearis, Ut fructu, quo gloriaris,

Fruamur in patria.

Amen.

0 peerless maiden, how dost thou surpass all praise in thy dazzling glory! Protect us now, that in our fatherland we may enjoy thy fruit, whereby thou art so honoured. Amen.

" Congratulate me, all ye that love the Lord, be- " cause when I was a little one I pleased the Most "High." 1 Suoh is the invitation thou addressest to us, 0 Mary, in the Office chanted in thy honour ; and on what feast couldst thou do so more appropriately ?

When, even more little in thy humility than by thy tender age, thou didst mount, in thy sweet purity, the steps of the temple, all heaven must have owned that it was henceforth just for the Most High to take his delight in our earth. Having hitherto lived in retirement with thy blessed parents, this was thy first publio act ; it showed thee for a moment to the eyes of men, only to withdraw thee immediately into deeper obscurity. But, as thou wast officially offered and presented to the Lord, he himself doubtless, surrounded by the princes of his court, presented thee not less solemnly to those noble spirits, as their Queen. In the fulness of the new light that then burst upon them, they understood at once thy incomparable greatness, the majesty of the temple where Jehovah was receiving a homage superior to that of their nine choirs, and the august prerogative of the Old Testament to have thee for its daughter, and to perfec^ by its teachings and guidance during those twelve years, the formation of the Mother of God.

Holy Church, however, declares that we oan imitate thee, 0 Mary, in this mystery of thy Presentation,

1 Second Responsory in the Common Office of our Lady, as in all others. 1 Deign to bless especially those privileged souls who, by the grace of their vooation, are even here below dwellers in the house of the Lord : may they be like that fruitful olive enriched by the Holy Spirit, to which St John Damasoene compares thee. 2 But is not every Christian, by reason of his Baptism, an indweller and a member of the Church, God's true sanctuary, prefigured by that of Moriah ? May we, through thy intercession, follow thee so closely in thy Presentation, even here in the land of shadows, that we may deserve to be presented after thee to the Most High in the temple of his glory. 8

1 2 nd Lesson of 2 nd Nocturn. Ambr. de Virginibus ii.

2 l 8t Lesson of 2 nd Nocturn. Damasc. de Fide orthodoxa, iv.

3 Collect of the feast.

*BNT. VI.

2a

November 22. SAINT CECILIA

VIRGIN AND MARTYR.

Cecilia united in her veins the blood of kings with that of Rome's greatest heroes. At the time of the first preaching of the Gospel, more than one ancient patrician family had seen its direot line become extinct. But the adoptions and allianoes, whioh under the Republic had knit more closely the great families by linking them all to the most illustrious among them, formed as it were a common fund of glory, which, even in the days of decline, was passed on intact to the survivors of the aristocracy.

It has now been demonstrated by the undeniable witness of monuments, that Christianity from the very beginning took possession of that glory, by adopting its heirs ; and that by a wonderful disposition of divine Providenoe, the founders of the Rome of the Pontiffs were these last representatives of the Republic, thus preserved in order to give to the two phases of Roman history that powerful unity whioh is the distinguishing note of divine works. Heretofore bound together by the same patriotism, the Coruelii and the GEmilii, alike heirs of the Fabii, the

NOV. 22. SAINT oasciLiA.

Csecilii, Valerii, Sergii, Purii, Claudii, Pomponii, Plautii, and Acilii, eldest sons of the Gentile Church, strengthened the connections formed during the Republic, and firmly established, even in the first and second centuries of Christianity, the new Roman society. In the same centuries, and under the influence of the religion preached by Saints Peter and Paul, there came to be grafted on the ever vigorous trunk of the old aristocracy the best members of the new imperial and consular families, worthy by their truly Roman virtues, practised amid the general depravity, to re-inforce the thinned ranks of Rome's founders, and to fill up, without too sudden a transition, the voids made by time in the true patrician houses. Thus was Rome working out her destiny ; thus was the building up of the eternal City being accomplished by the very men, who had formerly, by their blood or by their genius, established her strong and mighty on the seven hills.

Cseoilia, the lawful representative of this unparalleled aristocracy, the fairest flower of the old stem, was also the last. The second century was passing away ; the third, which was to see the empire fall from the hands of Septimus Severus first to the Orientals and then to the barbarians from the banks of the Danube, offered small chance of preservation for the remnants of the ancient nobility. The true Roman society was henceforth at an end ; for, save a few individual exceptions, there remained nothing more of Roman but the name : the vain adornment of freedmen and upstarts, who, under princes worthy of them, indulged their passions at the expense of those around them.

Csecilia therefore appeared at the right moment, personifying with the utmost dignity the society that was about to disappear because its work waa accomplished. In her strength and her beauty, adorned with the royal purple of martyrdom, she represents ancieilt Rome rising proud and glorious to the skies, before the upstart Caesars who, by immolating her in their jealousy, unconsciously executed the divine plan. The blood of kings and heroes flowing from her triple wound, is the libation of the old nobility to Christ the conqueror, to the Blessed Trinity the Ruler of nations ; it is the final consecration, which reveals in its full extent the sublime vocation of the valiant races called to found the eternal Rome.

But we must not think that to-day's feast is meant to exoite in us a mere theoretical and fruitless admiration. 1 The Church recognizes and honours in Saint CsBcilia three characteristics, which, united together, distinguish her among all the Blessed in heaven, and are a source of grace and an example to men. These three characteristics are, virginity, apostolic zeal, and the superhuman courage which enabled her to bear torture and death. Such is the threefold teaching conveyed by this one Christian life.

In an age so blindly abandoned as ours to the worship of the senses, is it not time to protest, by the strong lessons of our faith, against a fascination which even the children of the promise can hardly resist ? Never, since the fall of the Roman empire, have morals, and with them the family and society, been so seriously threatened. For long years, literature, the arts, the comforts of life, have had but one aim : to propose physical enjoyment as the only end of man's destiny. Society already counts an et la Societe romaine aux deux premier* et Martyre,

1 So far we have summed up the thoughts of our illustrious Father and Master in his Sainte Cecile siecles ; what follows is quoted directly from the Preface to his first Histoire de Sainte Cecile, Vierge romaine

NOT. 22. SAtNT CjBCILTA. immense number of members who live entirely a life of the senses. Alas for the day when it will expect to save itself by relying on their energy ! The Eoman empire thus attempted several times to shake off the yoke of invasion : it fell never to rise again.

Yes, the family itself, the family especially, is menaced. It is time to think of defending itself against the legal recognition, or rather encouragement, of divorce. It can do so by one means alone : by reforming and regenerating itself according to the law of God, and becoming once more serious and Christian. Let marriage, with its chaste consequenoes, be held in honour ; let it cease to be an amusement or a speculation ; let fatherhood and motherhood be no longer a calculation, but an austere duty : and soon, through the family, the city and the nation will resume their dignity and their vigour.

But marriage cannot be restored to this high level, unless men appreciate the superior element, without which human nature is an ignoble ruin : this heavenly element is continence. True, all are not called to embrace it in the absolute sense ; but all must do honour to it, under pain of being delivered up, as the Apostle expresses it, to a reprobate sense. 1 It is continence that reveals to man the secret of his dignity, that braces his soul to every kind of devotedness, that purifies his heart and elevates his whole being. It is the culminating point of moral beauty in the individual, and at the same time the great lever of human society. It is because the love of it became extinot, that the ancient world fell to decay ; but when the Son of the Virgin came on earth, he renewed and sanctioned this saving principle, and a

1 Rom. i. 28. new phase began in the destinies of the human race.

The children of the Church, if they deserve the name, relish this doctrine, and are not astonished at it. The words of our Saviour and of his Apostles have revealed all to them ; and at every page, the annals of the faith they profess set forth in action this fruitful virtue, of which all degrees of the Christian life, each in its measure, must partake. St. CsBoilia is one example among others offered to their admiration. But the lesson she gives is a remarkable one, and has been celebrated in every age of Christianity. On how many occasions has C»oilia inspired virtue or sustained courage ; how many weaknesses has the thought of her prevented or repaired ! Such power for good has God placed in his Saints, that they influence not only by the direct imitation of their heroio virtues, but also by the inductions which each of the faithful is able to draw from them for his own particular situation.

The second characteristic offered for our consideration in the life of St. Caeoilia, is that ardent zeal, of whioh she is one of the most admirable models ; and we doubt not that here too is a lesson calculated to produce useful impressions. Insensibility to evil for which we are not personally responsible, or from whioh we are not likely to suffer, is one of the features of the period. We acknowledge that all is going to ruin, and we look on at the universal destruction without ever thinking of holding out a helping hand to save a brother from the wreck. Where should we now be, if the first Christians had had hearts as cold as ours ? If they had not been filled with that immense pity, that inexhaustible love, which forbade them to despair of a world, in the midst of which Gtad had placed them to be the salt of the earth ? Eaoh one felt himself accountable beyond measure for the gift he had received* Freeman or