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The Roman Martyrology
Upon the 15th of April, were born into the better life:
At Rome, the noble ladies Basilissa and Anastasia, disciples of the Apostles. Forasmuch as they stood firm in the faith under the Emperor Nero, their tongues and feet were cut off, and they gained the crown of martyrdom by being slain with the sword.
Upon the same day, the holy martyrs Maro, Eutyches, and Victorinus. They were first exiled to the island of Ponza, along with the blessed Flavia Domitilla, for confessing Christ, but were afterwards liberated in the reign of the Emperor Nerva. They converted many to the faith, and were at length put to death with diverse torments by order of the Judge Valerian, in the persecution under the Emperor Trajan.
In Persia, under the Emperor Decius, the holy martyrs Maximus and Olympias. They were first hided with cudgels and scourges loaded with lead, and at length their heads were beaten with the cudgels until they gave up the ghost.
At Fiorentino, in Campania, the holy martyr Eutychius, [at the end of the first century, possibly with some companions.]
At Myra, in Lycia, holy Crescens, who achieved martyrdom by fire.
Likewise the holy martyrs Theodore, [a Priest,] and Pausilippus, who suffered under the Emperor Hadrian, [at Heracleia, on the Sea of Marmora.]
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
Saturday in Easter Week: His Apparition to the Holy Women and to the Apostles
And on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene cometh early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre; and she saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre. She ran, therefore, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and saith to them: They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid Him. And they both ran together, and that other disciple did out run Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And when he stooped down he saw the linen cloths lying: but yet he went not in. Then cometh Simon Peter, following him, and went into the sepulchre, and saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin that had been about His head not lying with the linen cloths, but apart, wrapt up into one place. Then that other disciple also went in who came first to the sepulchre: and he saw and believed. For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
We will meditate tomorrow upon two visits to the tomb of Our Lord, as recounted in the gospel of the day, and made, the one by the holy women, the other by St Peter and St John. We will then make the resolution: first, to bring to the service of God the same fervour as the holy women did when they were seeking the risen Jesus; second, to animate ourselves to the practice of virtue by means of the good example set us by our neighbour. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of St Augustine: “What such and such persons have done, why should I not do?”
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore Jesus, who has risen gloriously from His tomb, allowing Himself to be sought for by the holy women and by the apostles St Peter and St John. He acts from love. He hides Himself from the soul in order that it may seek Him; that, in seeking Him, it may desire Him more and more, and that, in desiring Him more and more, it may increase in love and in merits. Oh, how good and amiable is Jesus in all His ways! Let us render Him our homage of adoration, praise, and love!
Visit of the holy women to the sepulchre
Early in the morning (John xx:1) of the Sabbath, before day had dawned, the holy women came to the sepulchre of the Saviour, and, finding the stone, which had closed the entrance to it, removed; they ran, filled with grief, to tell the apostles that the body had been taken away. The apostles took these accounts to be only dreams, and would believe nothing. It was an incredulity which entered marvellously into the designs of God; for it was thereby proved that the witnesses and the preachers of the resurrection did not belong to the number of those credulous minds who believe, without any proof, all that is said to them. They were not only seriously-minded men, who do not believe excepting after strict examination and upon good evidence, but they were also cautious men, who were disposed not to believe mere indifferent proofs, and to yield to nothing except on evidence that was perfectly clear. Now, this was precisely what was necessary, as much to decide the adhesion of the whole universe to the great fact of the resurrection, the basis of the whole of our belief, as to teach us to be neither too credulous nor too incredulous. To believe lightly, and without discernment, is to be imprudent and to be wanting in good sense; not to believe, because we are determined not to do so, without even being willing to examine whether solid reasons for believing exist, is an infidelity. Wisdom consists in keeping ourselves between the two extremes: to believe nothing lightly, that we may not be deceived; to lend ourselves willingly to the examination of reasons, with a disposition to believe whatever may be proved. Is this our manner of proceeding? Do we not turn sometimes into ridicule, before having made any examination, the simplicity of those who believe in certain extraordinary facts? Are we ourselves as reserved in our criticisms as we are in our praises? When we study a fact which seems to us strange, do we not do it with prejudice and a desire to find that it is false? Do we bring to this study candour and the love of truth?
The visit of St Peter and St John to the sepulchre
Less prompt than the other apostles to condemn the holy women, St Peter and St John set out for the sep- ulchre (John xx:3). They go there joyfully, because they see, in the absence of the body, the proof that He has risen, according as He had predicted. Faith and love seem to give them wings, and they run with great haste to the sepulchre. Marvellous effect of faith and love! He who believes and loves does everything joyfully; he runs, he flies; nothing stops him; he does not feel the difficulty; he knows nothing of the impossible. With his gaze fixed upon heaven, and with love in his heart, his courage knows no limit. Not only do St Peter and St John set out joyfully, but there is between them a holy emulation, which teaches us to rival one another as to who shall be the most fervent, the most humble, the most charitable. St John arrives the first, doubtless because he was younger, but he does not enter; he remains outside at the door, mortifying in this way his curiosity and, at the same time, yielding to St Peter the honour of being the first to enter, in order to honour in him the head of the apostolate, the doctor of the faith in whose footsteps all the flock must follow. Peter arrives, sees the linen cloths, with the shroud folded up in a place apart. John comes next; he sees like Peter, and both of them believe without hesitation, not like Mary Magdalene, that their Master had been taken away, but that Jesus had really risen, and therefore was truly God. What a beautiful lesson of mortification, humility, and faith in these holy apostles!
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.
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