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Martyrology - 7th of April
Upon the 7th day of April, were born into the better life:
At Rouen, [in the year 17 19,] the holy Confessor John Baptist de la Salle. He was foremost in the teaching of the young, the poor especially, and deserved well of both religion and civil society. He founded the Congregation of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
In Africa, the holy martyrs Epiphanius, the Bishop, also Donatus, Rufinus, and thirteen others.
At Synope, in Pontus, two hundred holy martyrs, [in the year 310.]
[At Soti,] in Cilicia, the holy martyr Calliopius, who after diverse torments under the prefect Maximian was crucified head downwards, and so gained a noble crown of martyrdom, [in the year 304.]
At Nicomedia, the holy martyrs Cyriacus and ten others.
At Alexandria, the holy martyr Peleusius the Priest.
At Rome, holy Hegesippus, who came to Pope Anicetus, at Rome, [in the year 157,] very soon after the time of the Apostles, and abode there until the time of Pope Eleutherius, [and died in the year 180.] He wrote in plain words a Church history from the Passion of the Lord until his own time, to set forth the lives of those in whose footsteps he followed.
At Verona, the holy Confessor Saturninus, Bishop of that see, [in the fourth century.]
In Syria, the holy Hermit Aphraates, who defended the Catholic faith by the power of his miracles against the Arians, in the time of the Emperor Valens.
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
Good Friday: Love and Conversion
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
We will consecrate our meditation of tomorrow to the consideration of Good Friday: first, as a day of love; second, as a day of conversion. We will then make the resolution: first, to spend this holy day in recollection and in frequent aspirations of love towards Jesus crucified; second, to practise, in honour of the cross, some little mortifications, adding to them the sacrifice which costs us most. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the Apostle: “The charity of Christ presseth us; judging this, that if one died for all then all were dead. And Christ died for all, that they also who live may not now live to themselves, but unto Him who died for them and arose again” (II Cor. v:14–15).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us transport ourselves in spirit to Calvary; let us there adore Jesus lifted up on the cross for our salvation; and at the sight of His body, which is but as one great wound, let our hearts overflow with compassion, gratitude, contrition, praise, and love.
Good Friday a day of love
Let us with loving eyes gaze at the divine crucified Saviour; everything from the sole of His feet up to the crown of His head, from the least movement of His heart up to His deepest emotion; everything constrains us to love Him; everything cries out to us: “My Son, give me Thy heart” (Prov. xxiii:26). His outstretched arms tell us that He embraces us all in His love; His head, which could not repose on aught save the thorns with which it is crowned, inclines towards us to give us the kiss of peace and of reconciliation; His breast, wounded with blows, rises with the beatings of His heart, which is moved with love towards us; His hands, violently torn by the weight of the body; His feet, the wound in which is enlarged by the weight they have to bear; His bruised face; His veins exhausted of their blood; His mouth parched with thirst; lastly, all the wounds with which His body is covered form as it were a concert of voices which cry out to us: “See how I have loved you.” And if we could but penetrate into His heart, we should see it wholly occupied with each one of us, as though He had only each one of us to love, begging mercy for our ingratitude, our luke warmness, and our sins; soliciting for us the help of all the grace which we have received, and which we shall receive; offering His blood for us to His Father, together with His life, all His interior and exterior sufferings; lastly, consuming Himself in the indescribable ardours of love, without anything being able to turn away His thoughts from it.
O love, would it be too much to die of love for so much love! O good Jesus, I will say to you with St Bernard: “Nothing touches me, nothing moves me, nothing constrains me to love Thee so much as does Thy holy Passion. It is there I gain the most from Thee, it is that which unites me the most closely to Thee, and which attaches me to Thee the most strongly.” Oh, what good reason had St Francis de Sales to say that the Mount of Calvary is the mountain of love; it is there that in the wounds of the Lion of the tribe of Judah faithful souls find the honey of love, and that even in heaven, next to divine goodness, Thy Passion is the most powerful of motives, the sweetest, the most violent, to ravish all the blessed with happiness! And I, after that, O crucified Jesus! could I live any other life than one of love for Thee?
Good Friday a day of conversion
In order to prove to Jesus that I really love Him, I must be converted, that is to say, I must die at the foot of the cross to all which belongs to the old man in me; to all my negligences and all my lukewarmness; all my self-love and my pride, all the effeminacy which is so eager in seeking after comfort and enjoyment, so inimical to everything that annoys or displeases; the susceptibility which is hurt by everything; the spirit of backbiting and calumny which finds continually some thing to speak against; the frivolity and dissipation and want of application which will not permit the soul to give itself up to recollection; the licence of the tongue which pours forth all that is in the mind; lastly, all that is incompatible with the love which Jesus crucified asks of His disciples. We must substitute for these evil inclinations the solid virtues taught by the cross; humility, meekness, charity, patience, abnegation. Jesus asks it of us by all His wounds, as though they were so many tongues. Can I refuse Him? Can I still adhere to my attachments when I see Him naked on the cross, and not make my garment of His nakedness, my livery of His opprobriums, my riches of His poverty, my glory of His confusion, my enjoyments of His sufferings?
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.
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