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MMACULATE
CONCEPTION OF BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (DECEMBER 8)
St.
Francis, by a sort of Divine instinct, recognized and
acclaimed the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin
when some of the greatest Saints and doctors of the Western
Church were still battling with certain preconceived difficulties
in accepting the dogma. For example, St. Bernard, whose
devotion to the Blessed Virgin knew no bounds, could not
find a theological explanation of how it was possible
for the Blessed Virgin to be descended from our first
parents and, nevertheless, escape the taint of original
sin. Even the great St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelic Doctor
and Prince of Theologians, was unable to solve the difficulty
and, whereas it remained for a son of St. Francis—
Duns Scotus—to supply the theological explanation,
St. Francis, by spiritual intuition, felt and knew that
the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of Christ, must be free
from all sin, actual or original, and affirmed the doctrine
accordingly, imposing the same faith upon all his spiritual
progeny until the end of time. (The Lamp Sept. 1926 p.284)
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FOUNDATION
DAY (DECEMBER 15)
It
was on this day, 37 years ago that Sister Lurana Mary
Francis, the Mother Foundress of the Sisters of the Atonement,
came into the Graymoor Valley to make her Foundation.
At that time Graymoor was a solitary wilderness. There
was no great State Highway from New York to Albany passing
through the Graymoor Valley. In fact, there were no automobiles
and a rumbling wagon or some slow horse-drawn vehicle
passed along the unfrequented road only at long intervals.
A half dozen scattered houses gave shelter to its few
inhabitants. Mother Lurana came with only two companions,
neither of whom intended to stay with her permanently.
In fact, one of them only for two or three days. The snow
lay deep on the ground and the house that gave her shelter
was cold as a barn, and it had weathered through a hundred
winters without so much as a single coat of paint to shield
its exterior from the decaying effects of the hostile
elements.
Today’s celebration of Foundation Day at Graymoor
differs from its predecessors in that the Mother Foundress
passed from the Graymoor Valley to her eternal reward.
It will always be remembered concerning this glorious
handmaid of Christ that like the valiant women of the
Proverbs, “She opened her hand to the needy and stretched
out her hands to the poor” (Prov. 31-20).
She it was who prepared the way for St. Christopher’s
Inn at Graymoor and she it was who ministered with her
own hands to that mysterious visitor to St. Francis Convent
in the summer of 1900, about which I told you many weeks
ago. That mysterious stranger, who performed the miracle
of filling the empty buckets at the kitchen door without
taking them to the well, may have been none other than
our Lord himself. Be that as it may, from that time forward
we gave the name of Bro. Christopher to every penniless,
way-faring man seeking our hospitality and without question
as to religion, race or color.
It is stamped indelibly upon the minds of the Friars and
Sisters of the Atonement the words of Christ, “Inasmuch
as you have done it to these my least brothers, you have
done it to me.” [Matt.25:40] (Fr. Paul Radio Talk
over WMCA Dec. 15, 1935)
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LAST
SUNDAY OF ADVENT (DECEMBER 18)
| Brethren,
let a man so account of us as of the ministers of
Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God.
[1 Cor.4:1] |
There
is a preeminent sense, of course, in which these words
of St. Paul, “being dispensers of the mysteries of
God and ministers of Christ,” applies to the priesthood.
We realize, for example, that in such an important thing
as receiving Our Lord worthily at Christmas, it is necessary
to have recourse to the minister of Christ. In the first
place, the central act of worship on Christmas is the
Mass, and without the priest we could not have the Mass,
for he alone has been commissioned by God to perform that
tremendous act by which bread and wine are converted into
the Body and Blood of Christ, Savior of the world. And
in order to purify our consciences from dead works, it
is not sufficient for us to know, confess and acknowledge
our sins to God, but he has ordained that we should go
to the minister to whom he has committed the office of
reconciliation and confess our sins. As the Lord commanded
the lepers to go and show themselves to the priests that
they might be healed by God, it was necessary for them
to be examined by a priest in order that the authenticity
of their healing might be proclaimed to the people. So,
God has provided for us to go and show the leprosy of
sin to the priests in order that they may apply the grace
of the Sacrament of Penance to the soul for the cleansing
of those sins, so that purified, we might worthily approach
without fear, the august majesty of Christ in the Eucharist,
who desires to take up his habitation in the hearts of
men.
But there is a secondary ministry. We are all the ministers
of Christ and should be the dispensers of the mysteries
of God, because, besides the priesthood of the sacerdotal
order, there is, also, a priesthood of the laity. In the
Book of the Apocalypse it is declared, “not only
a priest, but of all the faithful,” and God has so
bound us together in his mystical body that the people
are necessary for the priests and for the propagation
of the Gospel, because without the cooperation and assistance
of the laity, how could the priest live, and how could
the Gospel be spread abroad?
Therefore, I urge you, particularly at this important
event of the birth of Christ. Everything is governed by
our relationship with Christ. When it comes to the matter
of our Christmas Holy Communion we should desire, if everything
is not straight, if the King’s highway is not what
is should be, to set it in order.
It is related of one of the Czars that he brought his
councillors before him and there was a discussion of a
railroad that was to connect St. Petersburg and Moscow.
There were certain difficulties of the land, and they
brought their plans before him. The Czar spread a map
before him, took a ruler and pen and drew a straight line
from Moscow to St. Petersburg and said, “Make that
the route for the railroad, and whatever difficulties
there are, have them removed. If some places have to be
leveled up, level them up. If mountains have to be taken
away, take them away. Take away anything that would cause
that road to be crooked. The railroad from Moscow to St.
Petersburg must be straight.” And his will was executed.
And so it is with us--the road should be straight, all
the crookedness taken out in the way of access to God,
the King of Kings. (Fr. Paul Sermon, Fourth Sunday of
Advent Dec. 21, 1924)
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BEGINNING
OF UNION THAT NOTHING BE LOST (DECEMBER 21)
This
happens to be the twentieth anniversary of an institute
born at Graymoor, an institute which has already made
its influence for good, felt to the very limits of the
earth, and the possibilities of which in the future only
God can circumscribe. I refer to the Union-That-Nothing-Be-Lost.
Twenty years ago today, when the Father Founder of the
Society of the Atonement woke up in his little cell, while
the night was in its state of complete subactivity and
his own consciousness was not in control, by divine intervention,
his mind was filled with the words of Christ, “Gather
up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost.”
[Jn.6:12] And then immediately after this, while I was
dressing and preparing to go down to Office, the whole
conviction and idea of a missionary society, based on
substance, time and opportunity for the glory of God and
the salvation of souls, flooded over me and I said to
myself:
| If
all Catholics would save all they waste, it would
perhaps support the missionaries of the Church in
the field afar, or if not, in the missionary sections
of our own great country. These missionaries, instead
of being hampered in building churches and schools,
would be abundantly and richly supplied with all that
is necessary. |
That
is more true today even than it was then, because Catholics
have increased greatly in wealth and material possessions.
That was a conception which was placed into the soul of
the preacher by God, as the development of the Society
of the Atonement has demonstrated. Millions and millions
had read the same gospel before, but to none came that
idea of basing upon it the building of a missionary society.
Seven years later we found ourselves in union with the
Rock of Peter, and what we could not do apart from union
with the Rock of Peter, was now going to become a possibility.
The next day I took the host in my hands before Holy Communion
and said, “Lord, I have been thinking about this
thing for about seven years now, and if it does not come
from you, but from my own ambition, give me practical
proof from you.” Then came a man whom God himself
had trained and prepared to be the observer of that rule
to perfection. And he appeared on the scene that day,
or the next day. He came in with soiled raiment, old clothes,
but a gentleman, and he had all the aspects of being very
poor.
He stayed a day or two and then he came into my cell and
said to me, “Well, Father, I have been reading in
The Lamp about Mr. Potter in London who has an orphan
asylum, and I have written a letter to him, asking him
to send two young men over to America and I will educate
them for the priesthood.” And I said, “Mr. Reid,
we really ought to have a building for that purpose here.”
He said, “That being so, charity begins at home.
I will send you my check for five thousand dollars to
build with.” I said, “Why, Mr. Reid, I thought
you were a poor man.” He replied, “I was left
a little farm of about 40 acres outside of Waterbury,
which I have worked out, and it has been the principle
of my life never to waste a penny.
And on St. Thomas’ Day (Dec.21) , just exactly seven
days after the first conversation, he sent his check for
$5,200.00. There you have the five barley loaves represented
by the $5,000, and the two fishes by the $200. To all
outward appearances he was a miser. When he died in the
hospital without anything, because he had given everything
away, we had to send two of our Brothers, one of them
a priest, to arrange for his funeral, since there was
no one to be a pallbearer for that “miserable old
miser”.
All the while he did not let his right hand know what
his left hand was doing. He had denied himself actual
necessities. I do not believe he ever in all his life
bought a piece of paper, and when he came to Graymoor
instead of traveling by train, though he was well able
to do it, he traveled all night, although seventy years
of age, by trolley cars. When some friends called, he
met them with a kerosene lamp instead of turning on the
electric light. Could anyone go to a greater limit than
that? He beat any miser in the country, but he was a miser
for God, and his privations were felt all over the mission
field. He would read the missionary papers and then send
quietly something to help them.
So there was a man God raised up to be the embodiment
of the principles of the Union That Nothing Be Lost. And
now God is liable to make him the first saint of the Society
of the Atonement and raise him to the altars of the Church.
We live in an age when America has wonderful opportunities
of propagating the faith throughout the world. So let
us live that life of sacrifice for Christ so that when
he speaks to us through the voice of conscience we may
say with the Blessed Virgin, “Behold the handmaid
of the Lord” [Lk.1:46] or with St. Paul, “Behold
your slave, tell me what to do.” (Fr. Paul Sermon
Dec. 21, 1924)
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NATIVITY
OF THE LORD (DECEMBER 25)
With
all my heart I wish you a Happy Christmas. The Central
Text of the Society of the Atonement is, “We joy
in God, through Our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have
now received the atonement.” [Rom.5:11]
Atonement, according to its etymology means the state
of being at-one again after a disagreement or separation
has taken place. By his death on the cross, Jesus took
away the barrier of sin which separated man from his God,
and so it was through him we now possess that at-one-ment
with God which constitutes the solid and eternal basis
of our joy and happiness.
But, before Christ could make atonement for us by his
death, it was necessary for him first to assume our flesh
and to be born of the Virgin Mary. Therefore, that first
Christmas, when Our Lady of the Atonement brought forth
her first born son and laid him in a manger at Bethlehem,
was the beginning of our joy. Well then may we, her sons
and daughters of Calvary, be happy at Christmas, for there
is no such thing for mankind as perfect happiness or perfect
joy apart from the Incarnation of the son of God, without
which there could have been no Calvary and no atonement.
And, if there had been no atonement, then eternal joy
and happiness in heaven would not have been our portion,
but rather the outer darkness of hell where “the
worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.” [Mk.9:43]
The primal joy of Christmas for the sons and daughters
of the atonement should consist in attendance at Mass
and the receiving most devoutly in Holy Communion our
Divine Lord. And when the Incarnate Word is tabernacled
in our hearts from that center of our being, there should
radiate forth the love, happiness and joy which illuminates
the countenance, impels the feet on errands of love, and
directs the hands to kind and benevolent acts that minister
to the pleasure and happiness of all around us.
So once again I wish you as your daily experience the
wonderful meaning of the words of Saint John: “The
Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us; he came unto his
own, and his own received him not, but to as many as received
him, to them he gave the power to become the sons of God.”
[Jn.1:11-12, 14]
How often we see red mingled with the green of the holly
and the pine in the decorations of Christmas. This should
remind us of the red blood which Jesus derived in the
womb of his virginal mother from her immaculate heart,
the same blood which thirty-three years later he was destined
to pour out for our redemption on Calvary’s tree
to make an atonement for the sins of the world. (The Lamp
Dec. 1935 p.375)
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ST.
JOHN APOSTLE (DECEMBER 27)
You
know that the sorrowful mystery of Our Lady standing by
the cross is the one above all others that we should meditate
upon so as to better understand and appreciate how pleasing
it must be to the Mother of God to be addressed by the
title of Our Lady of the Atonement. Hear Jesus say to
her, “Woman, behold your son!” [Jn.19:26-27]
and then to St. John, “Son, behold your mother!”
In these words the Lord of heaven and earth crowns Mary
with the motherhood of all the elect, who should be redeemed
by his precious, atoning blood, and through St. John he
addresses himself to all the children of the atonement
until the end of the world, saying, “Behold your
mother!” (The Lamp Mar. 1915 p.139)
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HOLY
INNOCENTS (DECEMBER 28)
In connection with the birth of the world's Redeemer,
no one incident has made a profounder impression upon
the popular mind or has been more universally condemned
than the slaughter of the innocents by that jealous and
blood-thirsty tyrant, King Herod. Who will have the temerity
before the judgment of Christ to define the lesser degree
of guilt which rests upon the head of him who destroyed
the life of an infant a few short weeks prior to birth,
or killed a baby in its crib a few days after it was born?
The unborn infant has a body and soul within the mother's
womb as real and as true in its substance as that possessed,
by the same infant after birth.
When Our Lady visited Elizabeth and the latter announced
the fact that the little John the Baptist, three months
before his visible entrance into the world, had leaped
in his mother's womb to greet the Redeemer of mankind,
who at the time had been conceived but a few days in Mary's
womb by the operation of the Holy Spirit, both the infant
Jesus and his predestined forerunner were as real beings,
and quite as dear and precious in the sight of God as
when amid the rejoicing of relatives and friends the infant
son of Zacharias and Elisabeth was circumcised, or amid
the singing of the angelic hosts, Christ was born in Bethlehem.
(The Lamp July 1921 p.218)
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ONE
& TWO LINERS OF FR. PAUL
To
an aging lady:
May our dear Lord deal very graciously with you and give
you the grace to accept this state of actual poverty in
your declining years as part of the holy disciple by means
of which you will shine with brighter garments in the
celestial Kingdom. (Fr. Paul to M.J. May 19, 1931)
To the sister of an alcoholic who was found dead in an
alley:
What proof have you that your prayers of many years did
not avail that last conscious moment before his soul took
flight from the envelope of the body? Or who can say that
Our Lord did not extend the same mercy he extended to
the thief upon the cross, who by an 11th hour retribution
gained the promise, “This day you shall be with me
in paradise.” [Lk.23:43] (Fr. Paul to Miss A.B)
Christian unity before we expect it:
When we become one in love, we shall wake up some fine
day and find ourselves one in faith and last of all one
in communion. (The Lamp July 1913 p.178)
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