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Martyrology - 9th of April
On the 9th day of April, were born into the better life:
At Antioch, holy Prochorus, one of the seven first deacons. He was illustrious for his faith and miracles, and was crowned with martyrdom. [He was the 3rd of the seven deacons, and 66th of the 72 disciples. He was a nephew of St Stephen. After being with St John in Asia, he was made Bishop of Nicomedia, in Bithynia, by St Peter, and later on sent to Antioch.]
At Rome, the holy martyrs Demetrius, Concessus, Hilary, and their Companions.
At Sirmium, suffered seven holy Virgins, all martyrs, who purchased eternal life at the price of their blood.
At Caesarea, in Cappadocia, [in the year 362,] the holy martyr Eupsychius, who was crowned with martyrdom under the Emperor Julian the Apostate for casting down the shrine of Fortune.
In Africa, the holy martyrs of Massylita, [probably Fez,] upon whose birthday holy Augustine made a discourse.
At Diarbekr, in Mesopotamia, [in the fifth century,] holy Acatius, Bishop of that see, who even melted down and sold the vessels of the Church to redeem captives withal.
At Rouen, the holy Confessor Hugh, Bishop of that see, [in the year 730.]
In the city of Die, [in the sixth century,] holy Marcellus, Bishop thereof, who was famous for miracles.
In Judea, holy Mary of Cleophas, sister of Mary the most Holy Mother of God.
At Rome is commemorated the translation of the body of holy Monica, mother of the blessed Austin, Bishop [of Hippo,] which the supreme Pontiff Martin V caused to be brought into the city from Ostia, and honourably buried in the church of the said blessed Augustine, [in the year 1439.]
At Mons, in Hainaut, [in the year 686,] the blessed Waldetrude, [First Abbess of Mons and Foundress of that City,] famous for the holiness of her life and for her miracles.
And elsewhere many other Holy Martyrs, Confessors and Holy virgins.
R. Thanks be to God
Morning Prayer
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Place Yourself in the Presence of God, and adore His holy Name.
Most holy and adorable Trinity, one God in three Persons, I believe that Thou art here present: I adore Thee with the deepest humility, and render to Thee, with my whole heart, the homage which is due to Thy sovereign majesty.
An Act of Faith
O my God, I firmly believe that Thou art one God in three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; I believe that Thy divine Son became man, and died for our sins, and that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, who canst neither deceive nor be deceived.
An Act of Hope
O my God, relying on Thy infinite goodness and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of Thy grace, and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer.
An Act of Love
O my God, I love Thee above all things, with my whole heart and soul, because Thou art all-good and worthy of all my love. I love my neighbour as myself for the love of Thee. I forgive all who have injured me, and ask pardon of all whom I have injured.
Thank God for All Favours and Offer Yourself to Him.
O my God, I most humbly thank Thee for all the favours Thou hast bestowed upon me up to the present moment. I give Thee thanks from the bottom of my heart that Thou hast created me after Thine own image and likeness, that Thou hast redeemed me by the precious blood of Thy dear Son, and that Thou hast preserved me and brought me safe to the beginning of another day. I offer to Thee, O Lord, my whole being, and in particular all my thoughts, words, actions, and sufferings of this day. I consecrate them all to the glory of Thy name, beseeching Thee that through the infinite merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour they may all find acceptance in Thy sight. May Thy divine love animate them, and may they all tend to Thy greater glory.
Resolve to Avoid Sin and to Practice Virtue.
Adorable Jesus, my Saviour and Master, model of all perfection, I resolve and will endeavour this day to imitate Thy example, to be, like Thee, mild, humble, chaste, zealous, charitable, and resigned. I will redouble my efforts that I may not fall this day into any of those sins which I have heretofore committed (here name any besetting sin), and which I sincerely desire to forsake.
Ask God for the Necessary Graces.
O my God, Thou knowest my poverty and weakness, and that I am unable to do anything good without Thee; deny me not, O God, the help of Thy grace; proportion it to my necessities; give me strength to avoid anything evil which Thou forbiddest, and to practise the good which Thou hast commanded; and enable me to bear patiently all the trials which it may please Thee to send me.
The Lord’s Prayer...
The Hail Mary...
The Apostles’ Creed...
At this point, please go to the relevant text of Fr Hamon’s Meditation. Once I have read and meditated on the text, and its various points . I complete my meditation by saying:
Evening Prayer
Easter Day: The Resurrection the Triumph of Faith and of Hope
At that time Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought sweet spices, that, coming, they might anoint Jesus. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they come to the sepulchre, the sun being now risen. And they said one to another: Who shall roll us back the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And looking, they saw the stone rolled back. For it was very great And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed with a white robe: and they were astonished. Who saith to them: Be not affrighted; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: He is risen, He is not here; behold the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples, and Peter, that He goeth before you into Galilee: there you shall see Him, as He told you.
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
We will consecrate our meditation on the great feast of tomorrow to the consideration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the triumph, first, of our faith; second, of our hope. We will then make the resolution: first, to praise, glorify, and bless the risen Christ by frequent aspirations, alleluia! second, often to give expression to acts of faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ, in His religion, and in His Church, as well as acts of hope of a future life. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the exclamation of the Church on this great feast: “Praise and love to the risen Jesus Christ.”
Meditation for the Morning
Let us celebrate this morning in praising, adoring, and loving the risen Jesus. Let us rejoice and be thrilled with gladness. This is the day which the Lord has made, the day of victory and of triumph. Let us unite with the angels in singing glory to God, alleluia!
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the triumph of our faith
Jesus Christ has really risen again. The apostles who attest it and who sealed with blood their testimony could not have been deceived, seeing that they had conversed with Him during forty days; they could not have wished to deceive us, seeing that their dearest interests in this world and in the next were opposed to such an idea (I Cor. xv:19), and besides, Jesus Christ, if He had not risen again, could not have been, in their eyes, anything else but an impostor who had cheated them in predicting His resurrection; they would not have been able to deceive us even if they had wished to do so, since the Roman soldiers, who had been appointed to guard the sepulchre, would not have allowed them to carry away the body. It is therefore quite certain, O Lord Jesus, that Thou didst really rise again; it is really quite certain, therefore, that Thou art the great Almighty God, since a dead man cannot rise of himself (Rom. i:4), and that God alone, who is the Master of life and death, is capable of such a miracle. O holy feast of Easter! how dear thou art to me; the resurrection of my Saviour is a guarantee to me of His divinity, and is thereby the complete guarantee of all my beliefs (II Tim. i:12); for if Jesus Christ be God, His religion is divine; the Gospel, which is His word, is divine; the sacraments which He has established are divine; the Church which He has founded is divine, and in believing it I am certain of not deceiving myself. In following my faith, I am therefore following an infallible guide; and in making the sacrifices it demands from me, I know I do not lose my pains, and that God will recompense me. In vain the infidel attacks my belief, in vain the nations rage, the Jews cry out scandal, and the Gentiles folly; Jesus Christ risen replies to all, and there is not a single objection which does not fall into pieces against the stone of His sepulchre. What a consolation! what a triumph for faith which has no need of anything except this single fact in order to be fully justified! How just it is to reanimate this faith on this beautiful day, to believe the things which religion teaches us even as though we saw them (Heb. xi:27), and to show ourselves to be men of faith in our conduct, in our language, at prayer, in church, everywhere and always.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the triumph of our hope
Man, who lives only a little while here below in the midst of many miseries, has need of hope; but let him rejoice today by singing with the Church: “Jesus Christ, my hope, is risen.” The resurrection of the Saviour is the warrant and the assurance to us of a similar resurrection, which will compensate us for all the troubles of this life. “Christ is risen from the dead, the first fruit of them that sleep” (I Cor. xv:20), says the Apostle. Therefore, after Him, the others who are dead will also rise again from their ashes. We form with Him one perfect whole, a body of which He is the head, says the same apostle; but the members must follow the state in which is their head. What would a body be of which the head would be on one side and the limbs on another? Would it be suitable for the Holy Spirit thus to have designated, under the figure of a head and of members, Jesus Christ and the faithful, if they were to live separate from one another? As, therefore, we form but one body with Jesus Christ, His resurrection implies ours also, even as ours supposes His; the one is essentially connected with the other. “If Christ be preached” says St Paul, “that He arose again from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” (I Cor. xv:12) a consoling dogma, which forms the triumph of our hope amidst the labours and sufferings of this life; for, if we are destined to rise with Jesus Christ, our tears will be therefore changed into joy, our trials into delights, our poverty into abundance, our confusion into glory, our death into eternal life. “I know,” says Job, “that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth, and I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see my God, whom I myself shall see and my eyes shall behold. This my hope is laid up in my bosom” (Job xix:25–27). “The King of the world,” says the second of the Maccabees, “will raise us up, who die for His laws, in the resurrection of eternal life.” “These I have from heaven” said the third, “but for the laws of God I now despise them, because I hope to receive them again from Him.” “It is better” said the fourth, “being put to death by men, to look for hope from God, to be raised up again by Him” (II Macc. vii:9, 11, 14). Lastly, all the martyrs and all the just have died in this hope, awaiting a new earth and new heavens, where the bodies of the saints will be glorious, impassible, immortal, shining like the sun, agile like spirits, where there will be no more sorrows or tears, but where all will be glory and happiness. O magnificent hope! How thankful shall then be to have suffered in patience, to have mortified and deprived ourselves of the vain enjoyments of this world!
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.
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