Martyr, cujus est jucundum Nomen in Ecclesia, Languescentem fove mundum Cœlesti fragrantia. Amen. O Martyr, whose name is so dear to the Church! refresh our fainting world by celestial fragrance. Amen. With these praises, which the venerable ages of old offered to thee, O Prince and First of Martyrs! we presume to unite ours. Fervently do we congratulate thee, that thou hast had assigned thee, by the Church, the place of honour at the Crib of our Jesus. How glorious the confession thou didst make of his Divinity, whilst thy executioners were stoning thee! How rich and bright the scarlet thou art clad in, for thy victory! How honourable the wounds. thou didst receive for Christ! How immense, and yet how choice, that army of Martyrs, which follows thee as its leader, and to which fresh recruits will for ever be added, to the end of time! Holy Martyr! help us, by thy prayers, to enter into the spirit of the mystery of the Word made Flesh, now that we are celebrating the Birth of our Saviour. Thou art the faithful guardsman of his Crib: who could better lead us to the Divine Babe, that lies there? Thou didst bear testimony to his Divinity and Humanity; thou didst preach this ManGod before the blaspheming Synagogue. In vain did the Jews stop their ears; they could not stifle thy voice, which charged them with deicide, in that they had put to death Him, who is at once the Son of Mary and the Son of God. Show this Redeemer to us also, not, indeed, standing in glory at the right hand of his Father, but the sweet and humble Babe, as he now manifests himself to the world, into which he has just been born, wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and laid in a manger. We, too, wish to bear witness to him, and to tell how his Birth is one of love and mercy; we wish to show, by our lives, that he has been born in our hearts. ness to the Divine Infant, which gave thee such courage on the day of trial: we shall have devotedness, if, like thee, we are simple-hearted and fearless in our love of Jesus; for love is stronger than death. May we never forget, that every Christian ought to be ready for martyrdom, simply because he is a Christian. May the life of Christ, which has again begun within us, so grow within us, by our fidelity and our conduct, that we may come, as the Apostle expresses it, to the fulness of Christ.1 Obtain for us that devoted But, be mindful, O glorious Martyr! be mindful of the Holy Church in those countries, where it is the will of God that she resist even unto blood. May the number of thy fellow-martyrs be thus filled up, and let not one of the combatants grow faint-hearted. May every age and sex be staunch; that so, the testimony may be perfect, and the Church, even in her old age, win immortal laurels and crowns, as in the freshness of her infancy, when she had such a champion as thyself. But, pray, too, that the blood of these Martyrs may be fruitful, as it was in times. past; pray that it be not wasted, but become the seed of abundant harvests. May infidelity lose ground, and heresy cease to canker those noble hearts, who, once in the Truth, would be the glory and consolation of the Church. Our own dear Land has had her Martyrs, who, in the hope that God would avenge their blood by restoring her to the Faith, gladly suffered and died-oh! Prince of Martyrs! pray, that this their hope may be speedily fulfilled. We must not end this second day of the Christmas Octave without visiting the Stable of Bethlehem, and adoring the divine Son of Mary. Two days have scarce elapsed, since his Blessed Mother placed him in this humble Crib; but these two days are of more value, for the salvation of the world, than the four thousand years which preceded the Birth of this Babe. The work of our Redemption has made a great step; the cries and tears of the New-Born Child have begun the atonement of our sins. On this the Feast of the First Martyr, let us consider how the cheeks of the Infant Jesus are moistened with Tears, and how these tears are the first expression of his sufferings. "Jesus weeps," says St. Bernard, “but not like other children, certainly not for "the same cause as other children. * * They weep from passion; He, from compassion. They 66 weep because they are galled by the yoke, that sits "heavy on all the children of Adam; Jesus weeps, "because he sees the sins of the children of Adam." (3rd Sermon for the Nativity.) Oh! how dear to us ought to be these Tears of a God, who has made himself our Brother! Had we not sinned, God would not have wept. Ought not we, too, to weep over sin, which thus saddens, by the sufferings it causes to our sweet Infant Jesus, the heavenly joy of his Birth among us? Mary, also, sees these Tears, and her maternal heart is pained. She feels that her Child is to be the Man of Sorrows; and, before many days are over, the same awful truth will be told her in prophecy. With the consolation she offers to her Babe, let us unite ours, by giving him our love. It is the one thing he seeks by all the humiliations he has taken upon himself. It is to gain our love that he has come down from heaven, and been born among us in the midst of the mysteries we are now celebrating. Let us love him, therefore, with all our love, and ask our Lady to present him our humble offering. The Psalmist has said: The Lord is great, and exceedingly to be praised: let us add, with St. Bernard: The Lord is a Little Babe, and exceedingly to be loved. We will honour the Birth of our Jesus, to-day, by this venerable Sequence of St. Gall's Monastery, written by the Blessed Notker. It recounts the combat of our Emmanuel against Satan, and his victory. This victory is the source of those won by Stephen and all the Martyrs. SEQUENCE. Come! let us resume our holy songs of praise in strains worthy of this Day, Whereon the much-loved Light rises to the world. It is in the gloomy hour of Night, that the dark shadows of our sins are made to disappear. This day, did the Star of the sea bring forth to the world the joy of its new salvation. Her Child makes hell tremble; nay, cruel Death is filled with fear at the sight of Him who is to be its death. Long-triumphant pestilence, now captive, mourns out her sighs; and the crushed serpent lets go his prey. Fallen man, the strayed sheep, is carried back to the eternal joys. The heavenly host of Angels are full of joy to-day; For, the tenth groat was lost and is found. O Child blessed above all! by whom mankind was redeemed. Eia, recolamus Hujus diei carmina, Noctis inter nebulosa, Hodie sæculo Novæ salutis gaudia. Gemet capta Coluber lividus perdit Homo lapsus, Ovis obducta, Revocatur ad æterna Gaudent in hoc die Et est inventa. Deus, qui creavit omnia, Manens quod erat. Ruit hostis spicula. In quibus fidebat, Ad patriam In Duxit post victoriam. qua sibi laus est Eterna. Amen. The God, who created all things, is born of a Woman. He, whose nature is admirable, clothes himself by an admirable mystery, assuming what he was not, and remaining what he had ever been. A divine Person puts on human nature: I beseech thee, tell me, was aught like this ever heard of? The Good Shepherd came to seek that which was lost. He puts on the helmet, and, as a soldier, fights in armour. The enemy is defeated and falls upon his own arrows. The weapons he trusted in are taken from him, his booty is divided, his prey is taken from him. Our true salvation comes of this most glorious battle of Christ; Who, after the victory, led us to his own kingdom, Where everlasting praise is given to him. Amen. And now, turning towards his Blessed Mother, we will offer her the tribute of this beautiful Sequence, taken from the Cluny Missal, of 1523. Angelicæ nos respice, O dignitatis Domina. Cum Filio in solio Coelo regnas per sæcula. Dulcis Maria, SEQUENCE. Look down upon us, O Queen of the Angel kingdom. With thy Son, thou reignest for ever on the heavenly throne. Sweet Mother Mary! truly sweet, and loving, and most gentle ! |