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Martyrology - 3rd of March
On the morrow we keep the feast of the holy Confessor Aelred, Abbot of Rievaux, of the Cistercian Order, famous for his knowledge of sacred letters, uprightness of life, self-content, wondrous long-suffering, spirit of prophecy, heavenly conversation, and great miracles, who departed this life upon the 12th day of January.
Upon the same 3rd day of March, were born into the better life:
At Caesarea, in Palestine, in the persecution under the Emperor Valerian, the holy martyrs Marinus the soldier and Asterius the senator.
Marinus was accused by his comrades of being a Christian, and when asked by the judge so declared with a loud voice, and was beheaded.
Asterius took off his own garment, wrapt in it the headless body of the martyr, and took it upon his own shoulder, and for so doing himself received the honour of martyrdom.
In Spain, the holy martyrs Hemiterius, [or Madir,] and Chelidonius.
They were stationed as soldiers in camp at Leon in Galicia, when the storm of persecution broke. On account of their confession of the Name of Christ they were taken to Calaxorra, where they were put to diverse torments and crowned with martyrdom. [Their bodies rest in the Cathedral of Calal they are the patrons.]
Upon the same day the holy martyrs Felix, Luciolus, Fortunatus, Marcia, and their Companions.
Likewise the holy soldiers Cleonicus, Eutropius, and Basiliscus, who won a happy triumph upon the cross under the President Asclepiades, in the persecution under the Emperor Maximian.
At Brescia, [in the year 526,] the holy Confessor Titian, Bishop of that see.
At Bamberg, holy Cunegunda, Empress of the Romans, bride of the Emperor Henry the First, with whose consent she remained always a Virgin. She fell asleep in peace, richly adorned with good works, and after her death was famous for miracles, [in the year 1040.]
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...
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
Friday in the First Week: The Devotion to the Nails and Lance of the Passion
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
In conformity with the Roman liturgy, we will meditate tomorrow: first, on the nails that fastened Jesus to the cross; second, on the lance which opened His sacred side. We will then make the resolution: first, to make frequent acts of love to the crucified Jesus, and not to refuse Him any sacrifice; second, to excite ourselves to this love by often kissing the feet, the hands, and the sacred side of our crucifix, which recall to us the wounds made by the nails and the lance in the body of the Saviour. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of St Paul: “The charity of Christ presseth us” (II Cor. v:14).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us transport ourselves in spirit to Calvary; let us there contemplate Jesus on the cross; let us press our lips to His feet and His hands pierced by the nails, and to His sacred side opened by the lance; let us mingle our tears with the blood which flows; let us love the God who has so loved us.
On devotion to the nails which attached Jesus to the cross
Doubtless if we see in these nails only a piece of common iron, they do not deserve any worship; but if we look upon them as empurpled with the divine blood which they caused to spring forth from the veins of Jesus; as impregnated with His flesh which they tore; as consecrated by their sojourn in that same flesh, who is there that does not see how venerable they are and what lessons they impart to us?
First, they recall that spirit of obedience and submission which is the real spirit of Christianity, and which is so opposed to the spirit of the world which dreams of nothing but liberty and independence. The executioners said to Jesus: Stretch out Thy hands, stretch down Thy feet, that we may pierce them with nails. Jesus obeys; they nail Him to the cross, and He loses all power of movement; second, in fastening Jesus by a visible link to the cross, these nails make us to feel more acutely the invisible links of His charity which kept Him so firmly attached to it; third, they tell us how we ought to weep over the bad use we have made of our hands and our feet, the irregularity which marks our acts and our affections, since it cost Jesus so much to expiate them; fourth, they preach patience to us; for who can conceive all that Jesus suffered, and the patience with which He suffered it, whether when the executioners, driving the nails with great blows of their hammers into the most sensitive and nervous parts of the body, made four great wounds in it, whence flowed forth four rivulets of blood; or when, after having raised the cross, they let it fall into the excavation below with a terrible concussion which renewed all His sufferings and enlarged His wounds.
O my Saviour, I adore Thee raised between heaven and earth, as the victim upon the altar of sacrifice to reconcile the one with the other; as our doctor and our master teaching us all truth. I love, O Jesus, those outstretched arms which tell us that Thou dost embrace us in Thy love; that head bristling with thorns, which, having nothing on which to lean, bows itself down to give us the kiss of peace and of reconciliation; that breast bruised with blows, but which still rises and falls with the beatings of love which agitate Thy heart; those hands which the weight of the body suspended in the air drags violently down; and those feet, the wounds in which widen under the weight of the body with which they are laden! Oh, who would not love Him whose nails reveal to us so much love!
On devotion to the lance which opened the sacred side of Jesus
St Bonaventure had a very special devotion for the lance which opened the sacred side. O happy lance! he exclaimed, which wast worthy to make that opening. Oh, if I had been in the place of that lance, I would not have come out again from the side of Jesus; I should have said: Here is the place of repose which my heart has chosen, I will dwell therein forever, and nothing shall ever be able to tear me away from it. At least, adds the pious doctor, I will keep myself near the opening; there I will speak to the heart of my master and I shall obtain all that desire. St Bernard thought the same. That most blessed lance, he said, although handled by a soldier, was guided by Jesus, who thus opened to us His sacred side in order to show us thereby His divine heart all palpitating with love for us, or rather that He might give it us, and make us enter into it. O mysterious entrance! It is by it that we reach the heart of Jesus; that heart so good, so amiable, so loving and entirely ours; that heart, the true holy of holies, where the soul, shutting up itself therein, prays, adores, and loves as it ought; the true ark of salvation in which all should take refuge who do not desire to perish in the deluge of the world. Oh, a thousand times venerable, a thousand times blessed be the lance, which opened to us the door by which have come to us such great blessings, so many graces, and so much love!
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.
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