iratus fuisset in dæmone. Confortamur gratia doni, si non corrumpamur lege peccati. Ratio parcendi est præviso corrigendi. Non mutamur indulgentia, si non renovetur offensa. Qui nobis quod peccavimus indulsit, et ne ultra peccaremus admonuit. Profuit clementia, si profecit disciplina. Jam quidem hominem gratia adoptavit, sed necdum dæmonem gehenna suscepit. Violentia peccatum perdidit, non naturam. Dimicandi est facultas, non securitas otiandi. Spoliatus est adversarius, non exstinctus. Gravius necesse est ut frendeat in amissis, quibus præerat dominando subjectis. Accepimus castra per fidem, arma per crucem, signa per carnem, vexilla per sanguinem restat causa certaminis. Qui enim afferre necessitatem voluit pugnæ, spem voluit probare victoriæ. Præcessit quidem in adoptione donum, sed adhuc restat in conversatione judicium. Hic promissio est de munere, illic vicissitudo futura est post laborem. Sit itaque ille ante oculos nostros Domini miserantis affectus quod in taxatione nostra non argenti pondus, non auri talentum dedit, non gratiarum fudit ornatum, sed convitio subdidit patibulo, sepulchro sustinens carneam injuriam sepulturam, nihil majus potuit dare, nihil melius. Ut utique sit probandum quod that have been once ransomed if they again become slaves. The mercy of God implies power; and power, fear; and fear, chastisement. He would not have been merciful to man, unless he had first been angry with the devil. He strengthens us with his gratuitous gifts, that we may not be corrupted by our evil inclinations. No one spares another but with a hope of correction. Forgiveness can do no harm, when the offence is not repeated. He that pardoned us our sins, thereby admonished us to sin no more. Mercy has not been lost on us, if our conduct is what it should be. Grace has, indeed, made man the adopted child of God; but the devil is not yet shut up in hell. Sin, not nature, has been defeated. What we have gained is the power of fighting, not the privilege of inaction. Our enemy has been despoiled, not slain. His anger must be greatest against those who were once subject to his tyranny, but now are disenthralled. Faith has given us bulwarks; the Cross, armour; the Flesh, (assumed by Christ,) a standard and his Blood, a banner: the battle then is to be fought. The God who willed us to have the battle, willed us to have the hope of victory. We have already received the gift of adoption; our conduct is to decide what sentence is to be passed upon us in judgment. În this world we have the promise of reward; in the next, our lot will be decided according to our works. Let us, therefore, be mindful of the tender mercy of our Lord, who, as the price of our ransom, gave not sums of silver or gold, nor granted princely favours, but subjected himself to the infamy of the Cross, and suffered his Body to be humbled even to being buried in a Tomb. He could give nothing greater or better. So that the more it cost him to redeem us, the more diligently should we serve him; and it is this he demands of us. Therefore, in order that the work of his Redemption be perfected in us, it behoves us to pray with constancy and perseverance. diligentius nos sibi servire voluit, qui pretiosius nos redemit. Ergo ut in nobis redemptionis suæ beneficia dignetur perficere, constanter nos convenit ac perseveranter orare. K PASCH: TIME. 111. ROGATION DAYS. MONDAY. It seems strange that there should be anything like mourning during Paschal Time: and yet these three days are days of penance. A moment's reflection, however, will show us that the institution of the Rogation Days is a most appropriate one. True, our Saviour told us, before his Passion, that the children of the Bridegroom should not fast whilst the Bridegroom is with them:1 but is not sadness in keeping with these the last hours of Jesus' presence on earth? Were not his Mother and Disciples oppressed with grief at the thought of their having so soon to lose Him, whose company had been to them a foretaste of heaven? The Let us see how the Liturgical Year came to have inserted in its Calendar these three days, during which Holy Church, though radiant with the joy of Easter, seems to go back to her Lenten observances. Holy Ghost, who guides her in all things, willed that this completion of her Paschal Liturgy should owe its origin to a devotion peculiar to one of the most illustrious and venerable Churches of southern Gaul: it was the Church of Vienne. The second half of the 5th century had but just commenced, when the country round Vienne, which had been recently conquered by the Burgundians, was visited with calamities of every kind. The people were struck with fear at these indications of God's 1 St. Luke, v. 34 anger. St. Mamertus, who, at the time, was Bishop of Vienne, prescribed three days' public expiation, during which the Faithful were to devote themselves to penance, and walk in procession chanting appropriate Psalms. The three days preceding the Ascension were the ones chosen. Unknown to himself, the holy Bishop was thus instituting a practice, which was afterwards to form part of the Liturgy of the universal Church. The Churches of Gaul, as might naturally be expected, were the first to adopt the devotion. St. Alcimus Avitus, who was one of the earliest successors of St. Mamertus in the See of Vienne, informs us that the custom of keeping the Rogation Days was, at that time, firmly established in his Diocese.1 St. Cæsarius of Arles, who lived in the early part of the 6th century, speaks of their being observed in countries afar off; by which he meant, at the very least, to designate all that portion of Gaul which was under the Visigoths. That the whole of Gaul soon adopted the custom, is evident from the Canons drawn up at the first Council of Orleans, held in 511, and which represented all the Provinces that were in allegiance to Clovis. The regulations, made by the Council regarding the Rogations, give us a great idea of the importance attached to their observance. Not only abstinence from flesh-meat, but even fasting, is made of obligation. Masters are also required to dispense their servants from work, in order that they may assist at the long functions which fill up almost the whole of these three days. In 567, the Council of Tours, likewise, imposed the precept of fasting during the Rogation Days; and as to the obligation of resting from servile work, we find it Homil. de Rogationibus. 3 2 Serm. clxxii; amongst the Sermons of St. Augustine. recognised in the Capitularia of Charlemagne and Charles the Bald. The main part of the Rogation rite originally consisted, (at least in Gaul,) in singing canticles of supplication whilst passing from place to place, and hence the word Procession. We learn from St. Cæsarius of Arles, that each day's Procession lasted six hours; and that when the Clergy became tired, the women took up the chanting. The Faithful of those days had not made the discovery, which was reserved for modern times, that one requisite for religious Processions is that they be as short as possible. The Procession for the Rogation Days was preceded by the Faithful receiving the Ashes upon their heads, as now at the beginning of Lent; they were then sprinkled with Holy Water, and the Procession began. It was made up of the Clergy and people of several of the smaller parishes, who were headed by the Cross of the principal Church, which conducted the whole ceremony. All walked bare-foot, singing the Litany, Psalms and Antiphons. They entered the Churches that lay on their route, and sang an Antiphon or Responsory appropriate to each. Such was the original ceremony of the Rogation Days, and it was thus observed for a very long period. The Monk of St. Gall's, who has left us so many interesting details regarding the life of Charlemagne, tells us that this holy Emperor used to join the Processions of these three Days, and walk barefooted from his palace to the Stational Church.2 We find St. Elizabeth of Hungary, in the 14th century, setting the like example: during the Rogation Days, she used to mingle with the poorest women of the place, and walked bare-footed, wearing a dress of 1 Serm. clxxiv. Herbertus Turritanus. Miracul., lib. i. c. 21. 2 De rebus bellicis Caroli Magni, cap. xvi. |