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That we may thoroughly understand the meaning and influence of the season of the liturgical year upon which we have no entered, it is requisite for us to grasp the entire sequel of mysteries, which holy Church has celebrated in our presence and company; we have witnessed her services, and we have shared in them. The celebration of those mysteries was not an empty pageant, acted for the sake of being looked at. Each one of them brought with it a special grace, which produced in our souls the reality signified by the rites of the liturgy. At Christmas, Christ was born within us; at Passiontide He passed on and into us His sufferings and atonements; at Easter He communicated to us His glorious, His untrammeled life; in His Ascension, He frew us after Him, and this even to heaven's summit; in a word, as the apostle expresses all this working, 'Christ was formed in us.' Christians listen to sermons, pray, flagellate themselves, and show charity—by Francois Maitre, ca. 1475
But, in order to give solidity and permanence to the image of Christ formed within us, it was necessary that the Holy Ghost should come, that so He might increase our light, and enkindle a fire within us that should never be quenched. This divine Paraclete came down from heaven; He gave Himself to us; He wishes to take up His abode within us, and take our life of regeneration entirely into His own Hands. The liturgy of this Time After Pentecost signifies and expresses this regenerated life, which is to be spent on the model of Christ's, and under the direction of His Spirit.
Two objects here offer themselves to our consideration: the Church and the Christian soul. As to holy Church, the Bride of Christ, filled as she is with the Paraclete Spirit, Who has poured Himself forth upon her, and from that time forward is her animating principle, she is advancing onwards in her militant career, and will do so till the second coming of her Heavenly Spouse. She has within her the gifts of truth and holiness. Endowed with the infallibility of faith and authority to govern, she feeds Christ's flock, sometimes enjoying liberty and peace, sometimes going through persecutions and trials. Her divine Spouse abides with her, by His grace and the efficacy of His promises, even to the end of time; she is in possession of all the favors He has bestowed upon her; and the Holy Ghost dwells with her, and in her, forever. All this is expressed by this present portion of the liturgical year. It is one wherein we shall not meet with any of those great events which prepared and consummated the divine work; but, on the other hand, it is a season when holy Church reaps the fruits of the holiness and doctrine, which those ineffable mysteries have already produced, and will continue to produce during the course of ages. It is during this same season that we shall meet with the preparation for, and in due time, the fulfillment of, those final events which will transform our mother's militant life on earth into the triumphant one in heaven. As far, then, as regards holy Church, this is the meaning of the portion of the cycle we are commencing.
As to the faithful soul, whose life is but a compendium of that of the Church, her progress, during the period which is opened to her after the pentecostal feasts, should be in keeping with that of our common mother. The soul should live and act in imitation of Jesus, who has united Himself with her by the mysteries she has gone through; she should be governed by the Holy Spirit, whom she has received. The sublime episodes peculiar to this second portion of the year will give her an increase of light and life. She will put unity into these rays, which, though scattered in various directions, emanate from one common centre; and, advancing from brightness to brightness, she will aspire to being consummated in Him whom she now knows so well, and whom death will enable her to possess as her own. Should it not be the will of God, however, to take her as yet to Himself, she will begin a fresh year, and live over again those mysteries which she has already enjoyed in the early portion of previous liturgical cycles, after which she will find herself once more in the season that is under the direction of the Holy Ghost, till at last her God will summon her from this world, on the day and at the hour which He has appointed from all eternity.
Between the Church, then, and the soul, during the time intervening from the descent of the divine Paraclete to the consummation, there is this difference—that the Church goes through it but once, whereas the Christian soul repeats it each year. With this exception, the analogy is perfect. It is our duty, therefore, to thank God for thus providing for our weakness by means of the sacred liturgy, whereby He successively renews within us those helps which enable us to attain the glorious end of our creation.
Holy Church has so arranged the order for reading the Books of Scripture during the present period, as to express the work then accomplished both in the Church herself and in the Christian soul. For the interval between Pentecost and the commencement of August, she gives us the four Books of Kings. They see a prophetic epitome of the Church's history. They describe how the kingdom of Israel was founded by David, who is the type of Christ victorious over His enemies, and by Solomon, the king of peace, who builds a temple in honour of Jehovah. During the centuries comprised in the history given in those books, there is a perpetual struggle between good and evil. There are great and saintly kings, such as Asa, Ezechias, and Josias; there are wicked ones, like Manasses. A schism breaks out in Samaria; infidel nations league together against the city of God. The holy people, continually turning a deaf ear to the prophets, give themselves up to the worship of false gods, and to the vices of the heathen, till at length the justice of God destroys both temple and city of the faithless Jerusalem; it is an image of the destruction of this world, when faith shall be so rare, that the Son of Man, at His second coming, shall scarcely find a vestige of it remaining.
During the month of August, we read the Sapiential Books, so-called because they contain the teachings of divine Wisdom. This Wisdom in the Word of God, who is manifested unto men through the teachings of the Church, which, because of the assistance of the Holy Ghost permanently abiding within her, is infallible in the truth.
Supernatural truth produces holiness, which cannot exist, nor produce fruit, where truth is not. In order to express the union there is between these two, the Church reads to us, during the month of September, the books called “hagiographic;” these are Tobias, Judith, Esther, and Job, and they show Wisdom in action.
At the end of the world the Church will have to go through combats of unusual fierceness. To keep us on the watch, she reads to us, during the month of October, the Books of Machabees; for there we have described to us the noble-heartedness of those defenders of the Law of God, for which they gloriously died; it will be the same at the last days, when power will be “given to the beast to make war with the saints, and to overcome them.”
The month of November gives us the reading of the Prophets: the judgments of God impending upon a world which He is compelled to punish by destruction are there announced to us. First of all, we have the terrible Ezechiel; then Daniel, who sees empire succeeding empire, till the end of all time; and finally the Minor Prophets, who for the most part foretell the divine chastisements, though the latest among them proclaim, at the same time, the near approach of the Son of God.
Such is the mystery of this portion of the liturgical cycle, which is called the Time after Pentecost. It includes also the use of green vestments, for that colour expresses the hope of the bride, who knows that she has been entrusted by her Spouse to the Holy Ghost, and that He will lead her safe to the end of her pilgrimage. St. John says all this in those few words of his Apocalypse: “The Spirit and the bride say, Come!”
I would like to thank Meaning of Catholic for sponsoring this episode. Meaning of Catholic has just launched its online store offering PDF copies of “The Definitive Guide to Catholic Fasting and Abstinence” (in 3 languages), “The Roman Catechism Explained for the Modern World,” and a few other great books to add to your library by authors like Timothy Flanders and Kennedy Hall. Please visit https://meaningofcatholic.com/shop/ to check them out today.
Learning Our Religion: A Commandment for the Modern Catholic
“For there is no other Name [than Jesus] under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved” (Act 4:12), and yet, how many of us feel a pull on our hearts because of it? How about when we hear St. Paul remind us elsewhere: “How then shall they call on Him, in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe Him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear, without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14). How often do we think about the vast numbers of souls who die each day? How many go to hell? Do we ever think to ourselves, “Is there anything that I can do to stop it?”
We live in a state of complete moral collapse and deterioration in Catholic belief. Since 1970, according to data analyzed from USCCB records, the number of students in religious education has decreased by 60%, adult baptisms have fallen by 68%, and the annual number of infant baptisms has fallen by 18%. Furthermore, according to Sherry Weddell's research published in Forming Intentional Disciples (Our Sunday Visitor, 2012), only 30% of Americans who were raised Catholic still practice the Faith, and 10% of all adults in the United States are fallen-away Catholics.
In our modern age, it is easy to become distracted by the use of technology, the day-to-day responsibilities of life, and the physical demands placed on us each day. How often does the average Catholic in the pew step back and actually pray? Do we attend daily Mass, recite the Divine Office, get in our daily Rosary, and practice thirty minutes of mental prayer a day? Part of the mission of our priests and deacons – as well as our lay teachers – is to help foster a true love of God and the Catholic Faith in the lives of ordinary Catholics.
Religious Education Is A Responsibility for Everyone but Especially The Ordained
Religious education is not an obligation for children alone. It is our responsibility as adults to continue learning our Faith in order to live it out and spread it. And it is a grave responsibility – and an honor – to help pass it on to others.
As stated by Holy Mother Church, "The faithful who devote twenty minutes to a half hour to teaching or studying Christian Doctrine may gain an indulgence of 3 years. The indulgence is plenary on the usual conditions twice a month if the above practice is carried out at least twice a month."
The Church not only bestows upon parents the responsibility to educate their children, but She offers all the Faithful involved in learning and teaching religious Doctrine the temporal remission of sins. How truly generous Holy Mother Church is. Many times when we are given an obligation, and we perform, we do not receive a great reward for doing our duty. But in this instance, we are given, for the performance of this duty, the partial remission of the punishment due to our sins.
Teaching Christian Doctrine Is A Spiritual Work of Mercy
Our Lord Himself observed the Jewish law to the letter and affirmed that He had come to perfect, not abolish, the law (cf. Matt. 5:17). And the law of charity imposes on us who have been given the grace to be Catholic the responsibility to spread the Faith, to admonish sinners, to instruct the ignorant, to raise children in the Catholic Faith, and to be a role model to others. As King David exclaimed in the Psalms, “O how have I loved Thy law, O Lord! it is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 118:97). But, do we really love the Lord’s law? Do we love it enough to set down the television remote, the football, and our other comforts in order to pick up a copy of the Roman Catechism or the Lives of the Saints? And we do seek to pass on to others the fruit of our contemplation every week?
The world and the Church herself are in a state of unprecedented crisis, a crisis that is greatly exacerbated by the average lay Catholic failing to understand his religion. It was only a few decades ago that the illustrious Archbishop Fulton Sheen remarked: “Who is going to save the Church? Not our Bishops, our priests, and our religious. It is up to the laity. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops and your religious act like religious” (Address to the Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus, June 1972). And we can help turn the tide by helping pass on both the knowledge of the fullness of the Faith and love for practicing the Faith.
Resources for Faith Formation in 2023 and Beyond
In our societal moral crisis, clarity is desperately needed. That is why using resources like the Baltimore Catechism or the Catechism of the Council of Trent is necessary still in our day. To this end, I’m happy to have just published “The Roman Catechism Explained for the Modern World” (available at https://amzn.to/3Q4AqZz), which explains for today’s Catholics the teachings of the Catechism of the Council of Trent applied against modern errors like liberalism, modernism, materialism, communism, and others.
I would also highly recommend the programs of CatechismClass.com, which I am honored to have helped since July 2010. The lessons follow a 7-step format with a final test at the end of each lesson. This format has been very effective for those we serve and may be a good format for any religious education classes that priests, deacons, or lay catechists lead:
Introduction: Saint for the Day based on Liturgical Calendar, Description of the Lesson Topic
Opening Prayer: For adults, a decade of the Rosary; for children, it is another prayer. Typically it is learned in both Latin and English.
Scripture: A link to daily Mass readings and mention of Scripture that concerns the lesson topic.
Catechism References: References as they relate to the topic from a variety of catechisms.
Integration: A personally written section that explains and expands upon the Scriptures and Catechism in light of the Church teaching, beliefs, writings of the saints, and other pertinent considerations.
Activity: A way to put the lesson into practice. It may be prayers, a spiritual or corporate work of mercy, or many other activities meant to actualize what has been intellectually learned.
Closing Prayer: For adults, it is an hour from the Divine Office; for children, it is a decade of the Rosary.
May St. Charles Borromeo, the patron of catechists, and St. Stephen, the patron of deacons, pray for our efforts to save souls and spread the doctrine of Christ to every corner of the globe, starting with our own family, friends, and parish.
I would like to thank Meaning of Catholic for sponsoring this episode. Meaning of Catholic has just launched its online store offering PDF copies of “The Definitive Guide to Catholic Fasting and Abstinence” (in 3 languages), “The Roman Catechism Explained for the Modern World,” and a few other great books to add to your library by authors like Timothy Flanders and Kennedy Hall. Please visit https://meaningofcatholic.com/shop/ to check them out today.
I would like to thank CatechismClass.com for sponsoring this episode. CatechismClass.com, the leader in online Catholic catechism classes, has everything from online K-12 programs, RCIA classes, adult continuing education, marriage preparation, baptism preparation, confirmation prep, quince prep classes, catechist training courses, and much more. They have a wonderful 10-part course on Mariology available for only $29.95.
The first catalog of Holy Days comes from the Decree of Gratian in c. 1150 AD, which shortly thereafter gave way to Decretals of Pope Gregory IX in 1234, which listed 45 Holy Days. In 1295, Pope Boniface VIII enacted the decretal Gloriosus which "commanded that each of the feasts of the twelve apostles, four evangelists, and four doctors of the Church be celebrated as an officium duplex" (The Cambridge History of Medieval Canon Law by Anders Winroth and John Wei).
In 1642, His Holiness Pope Urban VIII issued the papal bull Universa Per Orbem which mandated the required Holy Days of Obligation for the Universal Church to consist of 34 days as well as the principal patrons of one's one locality (e.g. city and country). Those days were the Nativity of Our Lord, the Circumcision of Our Lord, the Epiphany of Our Lord, Monday within the Octave of the Resurrection, Tuesday within the Octave of the Resurrection, Ascension Thursday, Monday within the Octave of Pentecost, Tuesday within the Octave of Pentecost, Most Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi, the Finding of the Holy Cross, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Dedication of St. Michael, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, St. Andrew, St. James, St. John (the December feast day), St. Thomas, SS. Philip and James, St. Bartholomew, St. Matthew, SS. Simon and Jude, St. Matthias, St. Stephen the First Martyr (the December feast day), the Holy Innocents, St. Lawrence, St. Sylvester, St. Joseph, St. Anne, and All Saints.
Ultimately Universa Per Orbem helped bring more uniformity to the Church since some parts of the Catholic world observed even more holy days of double precept (i.e., mandatory attendance at Mass and rest from servile work). One of those former days which kept in some places as the Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist.
For instance, in modern-day Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, which were included in the ecclesiastical province of Mexico, the feasts were regulated by the Third Council of Mexico in 1585, as American Catholic Quarterly Review states:
"In these parts besides those already mentioned, the faithful observed as holy days of obligation St Fabian and St Sebastian (January 20th), St Thomas Aquinas (March 7th), St Mark (April 25th), St Barnabas (June 1), the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin (July 2), St Mary Magdalene (July 22), St Dominic (Aug 4), the Transfiguration (Aug 6), St Francis (Oct 4), St Luke (Oct 18), St Catharine (Nov 25), the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin (Dec 18).
And while our ancestors in the New World in Florida and Louisiana would not have kept St. Mark's Day as a Holy Day of Obligation, it was kept as a day of abstinence from meat on account of it being the Major Rogation Day. See A History of Holy Days of Obligation & Fasting for American Catholics for more information on this forgotten history. The same can be said for English Catholics who were bound to abstain from fleshmeat on the Major and Minor Rogation Days until they were dispensed by Pope Pius VIII in 1830 (A Catholic Dictionary from 1893 by William Edward Addis).
Thus this year, on April 25th, in addition to praying the Litany of the Saints for the Rogation Day and observing abstinence, let us honor the memory of St. Mark by reading his Gospel and by attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links on this blog are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate, for instance, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made by those who click on the Amazon affiliate links included on this website. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
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Matthew is a Third Order Dominican from Chicago and an expert on Catholicism, with an emphasis on Traditional Fasting. He has written for "A Catholic Life" since 2005. Matthew is a Certified Catechist and is a speaker available to address your next parish or Catholic conference gathering. Matthew spends his leisure time traveling, teaching, writing, and enjoying Catholic culture. He is also a writer for "Catholic Family News" and "The Fatima Center." Please contact Matthew directly regarding advertising requests for A Catholic Life or in regard to speaking engagements.
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