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Martyrology -10th February
Upon the 10th day of February, were born into the better life:
At Monte Cassino, [in the year 543,] the holy Virgin Scholastica, sister of the holy Abbot Benedict, who saw her soul leave her body and soar heavenward in a bodily shape, like a dove.
At Rome, the holy martyrs Zoticus, Irenaeus, Hyacinth, and Amantius, [all in the year 304.]
At Rome likewise, [under Decius,] upon the Lavican Way, ten holy martyrs, all soldiers.
Also at Rome, [in the year 304,] upon the Appian Way, the holy Virgin and martyr Soteres, who, as holy Ambrose writeth, was born of a noble family, but for Christ's sake despised the consular and prefectural dignities of her race. When she was commanded to offer sacrifice and would not, she was long and heavily buffeted, and when she had overcome other punishments also, she was smitten with the sword and so departed joyfully hence, to be ever with Christ the Bridegroom.
In Campania, the holy Confessor Silvan, Bishop of [Terracine, in the fourth or fifth century.]
At Mala-Vallis, in the country of Siena, [in the year 1157,] the holy hermit William.
At Rouen, [in the year 704,] the holy Virgin Austreberta, famous for 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 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...
Ask the Prayers of the Blessed Virgin, your Guardian Angel, and your Patron Saint.
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:
Holy Virgin, Mother of God, my Mother and Patroness, I place myself under thy protection, I throw myself with confidence into the arms of thy compassion. Be to me, O Mother of mercy,my refuge in distress, my consolation under suffering, my advocate with thy adorable Son, now and at the hour of my death.
Angel of God, my guardian dear, To whom His love commits me here, Ever this day be at my side, To light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.
O great Saint whose name I bear, protect me, pray for me, that like thee I may serve God faithfully on earth, and glorify Him eternally with thee in heaven. Amen.
Litany of the Most Holy Name of Jesus
Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Jesus, hear us. Jesus, graciously hear us. God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us. God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, ... Jesus, Son of the living God, ... Jesus, splendour of the Father, ... Jesus, brightness of eternal light, ... Jesus, king of glory, ... Jesus, sun of justice, ... Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary, ... Jesus, most amiable, ... Jesus, most admirable, ... Jesus, mighty God, ... Jesus, father of the world to come, ... Jesus, angel of great council, ... Jesus, most powerful, ... Jesus, most patient, ... Jesus, most obedient, ... Jesus, meek and humble of heart, ... Jesus, lover of chastity ... Jesus, lover of us, ... Jesus, God of peace, ... Jesus, author of life, ... Jesus, model of virtues, ... Jesus, zealous for souls, ... Jesus, our God, ... Jesus, our refuge, ... Jesus, father of the poor, ... Jesus, treasure of the faithful, ... Jesus, good shepherd, ... Jesus, true light, ... Jesus, eternal wisdom, ... Jesus, infinite goodness, ... Jesus, our way and our life, ... Jesus, joy of angels, ... Jesus, king of patriarchs, ... Jesus, master of apostles, ... Jesus, teacher of evangelists, ... Jesus, strength of martyrs, ... Jesus, light of confessors, ... Jesus, purity of virgins, ... Jesus, crown of all saints, ...
Be merciful, Spare us, O Jesus. Be merciful, graciously hear us, O Jesus.
From all evil, Jesus, deliver us. From all sin, Jesus, deliver us. From Thy wrath, ... From the snares of the devil, ... From the spirit of fornication, ... From everlasting death, ... From the neglect of Thy inspirations, ... Through the mystery of Thy holy incarnation, ... Through Thy nativity, ... Through Thine infancy, ... Through Thy most divine life, ... Through Thy labours, ... Through Thine agony and passion, ... Through Thy cross and dereliction, ...Through Thy faintness and weariness, ... Through Thy death and burial, ... Through Thy resurrection, ... Through Thine ascension, ... Through Thy joys, ... Through Thy glory, ...
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Spare us, O Jesus. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Graciously hear us, O Jesus.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us, O Jesus.
Jesus, hear us. Jesus, graciously hear us.
Let us pray.
O Lord Jesus Christ, who hast said: Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; grant, we beseech Thee, unto us who ask, the gift of Thy most divine love, that we may ever love Thee with all our hearts, and in all our words and actions, and never cease from showing forth Thy praise. Make us, O Lord, to have a perpetual fear and love of Thy holy Name; for Thou never failest to govern those whom Thoudost solidly establish in Thy love. Who livest and reignest, world without end. Amen.
The Angelus
℣ The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
℟ And she conceived of the Holy Ghost.
Hail, Mary...
℣ Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
℟ Be it done unto me according to thy word.
Hail, Mary...
℣ And the Word was made flesh.
℟ And dwelt among us.
Hail, Mary...
℣ Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.
℟ That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray.
Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord! Thy grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may, by His passion and Cross, be brought to the glory of His resurrection. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
Evening Prayer
Friday after Septuagesima: The Duty, Honour, and Glory of the Service of
God
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
We will resume tomorrow, in three words, our meditations of this week; to be wholly God’s is a duty, a glory, and a happiness. We will then make the resolution: first, to sacrifice to God the slightest attachments we are able to perceive in ourselves; second, often to repeat as an ejaculatory prayer: All to God alone, all for God alone. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the Psalmist: “What have I in heaven? and besides Thee what do I desire upon earth? For Thee my flesh and my heart hath fainted away” (Ps. lxxii:25–26).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore God as the supremely amiable Being, the only amiable One to whom it is just, honourable, and infinitely advantageous to attach ourselves. Yes, my God, to be Thine alone, Thine entirely, Thine always, is a duty, a glory, and a happiness.
First Point
To be wholly God’s is a duty
It is a duty of justice, because our whole being is from Him and of Him; it is a duty of gratitude, because we exist only by His benefits; it is a duty of conscience, since we cannot subtract anything from Him without our conscience telling us that we are doing wrong, and very wrong; it is a duty of honour and delicacy, since if God deigns, through compassion for our weakness, to leave many things in the rank of counsels, and not to press us in what He desires of us by making of it an express commandment, it ought to be an additional reason to make us generous in His service, and to do for Him as much as we can, and in the best possible manner; not that we ought to be troubled by our infidelities in what is not of precept, and allow ourselves to be thrown into scruples, but we ought to humble ourselves and be confounded in the presence of God, and repair past negligence by a greater fidelity.
Second Point
To be wholly God’s is a glory
To give up a portion of our heart and of our time to serve creatures, the world, our passions, or bad inclinations, is a shame, an indignity, a degradation of the dignity of man and of the character of a Christian. True glory consists in raising all our intentions to God, without ever descending to the creature. Amongst men it is considered an honour to labour only for kings, and we ought to look upon it as an honour to labour only for God. We are too great to labour for the world; the world will pass, and we shall never pass away. We are the children of God; nay, we are even of the very same race as God (Acts xvii:28), the friends, the confid- ants, the favourites of God; and being in so lofty a position, we ought not to lower ourselves to act for an end which is below God. Our vocation is to imitate God, to act in God, to live like God. Now, God proposes Himself alone as the end of all that He does. Our glory is to remain at this height, and not to descend to the little and low aims of the creature. What a shame it is for us to degrade ourselves when our destination is so sublime! Let us henceforth have more pride, and let us do nothing except for God.
Third Point
To be wholly God’s is a happiness
If we have regard, in even the smallest degree, to any other end than God alone, we are unhappy; we fear, we desire, and a mere nothing which may be wanting to us poisons all the rest. Even when nothing is wanting, we feel that all is deception and vanity, trouble and bitterness, danger and a precipice. If, on the contrary, our hearts are wholly God’s, we have peace, confidence, and happiness. We are well with God, because He becomes our friend as soon as ever we desire He should be, and a sure friend, who will not fail us except in proportion as we will to have it so. We are well with our neighbour, because the more we are God’s, the more meek and humble, charitable, disinterested and equitable we are; that is to say, we become everything that gains the heart’s esteem and affection. We are well with ourselves, because the heart which reposes fully in God is in its element; it finds therein life, happiness, an anticipated paradise. Let us reflect on how much pain we spare ourselves in being wholly God’s, and how many subjects of affliction we create for ourselves
by serving the creature.
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.
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