Sanctus Simplicitus

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. 1894

March 30.—ST. JOHN CLIMACUS.

JOHN made, while still young, such progress in learning that he was called the Scholastic. At the age of sixteen he turned from the brilliant future which lay before him, and retired to Mt. Sinai, where he put himself under the direction of a holy monk. Never was novice more fervent, more unrelaxing in his efforts for self-mastery. After four years he took the vows, and an aged abbot foretold that he would some day be one of the greatest lights of the Church. Nineteen years later, on the death of his director, he withdrew into a deeper solitude, where he studied the lives and writings of the Saints, and was raised to an unusual height of contemplation. The fame of his holiness and practical wisdom drew crowds around him for advice and consolation. For his greater profit he visited the solitudes of Egypt. At the age of seventy-five he was chosen abbot of Mt. Sinai, and there "he dwelt in the mount of God, and drew from the rich treasure of his heart priceless riches of doctrine, which he poured forth with wondrous abundance and benediction." He was induced by a brother abbot to write the rules by which he had guided his life; and his book called the Climax, or Ladder of Perfection, has been prized in all ages for its wisdom, its clearness, and its unction. At the end of four years he would no longer endure the honors and distractions of his office, and retired to his solitude, where he died, in 605.

Reflection.—"Cast not from thee, my brother," says the Imitation of Christ," the sure hope of attaining to the spiritual life; still hast thou the time and the means."

1.) Spicy Walnut Sweet Potato Burritos from Malina @ Best Food Forward

2.) Pasta and Vegetables with White Sauce

3.) Quinoa and Kale Mini Quiches

4.) Zucchini Quinoa Burgers (any reason to make sweet potato fries!)

5.) Potato Leek and Feta Tart

Around the Year with the Von Trapps ; Lent
By Maria Von Trapp

Lent is primarily known as a time devoted to fast and abstinence. Our non-Catholic friends feel sorry for us because we have to watch our food. "Isn't it an awful strain?" But this is only one side of the season of Lent, and not even the most important one. First and foremost, these weeks between Ash Wednesday and Holy Saturday are set aside as a time of preparation for the greatest feast of the year, Easter. We are not fasting in commemoration of Our Lord's fast of forty days, but are imitating Him in his fast of preparation--preparation for His great work of Redemption. It is the same with us. Once a year we take forty days out of the three hundred and sixty-five, and we too fast in preparation: in preparation for the commemoration of our Redemption. We all should get together and work toward the restoration of the meaning of Lent. People nowadays see in it just a gloomy time full of "must nots." That is a great pity, because Lent is a solemn season rich in hidden mysteries.

We must also keep in mind that Lent is only a part of the great Easter season, that it is for Easter what Advent was for Christmas, and that Lent taken by itself would make no more sense than Advent without Christmas at its end. Therefore, we should let Holy Mother Church take us by the hand and lead us--not each soul alone, but the whole family as a group--away from the noise of the world into a forty-day retreat. No other time of the year has been so singled out by the Church as this, in that a completely different Mass is provided for every single day, beginning with Ash Wednesday and continuing through the octave day of Easter; and again for the crowning feast of the Easter season, the eight days of Pentecost.

If we keep the closed time as faithfully as our forefathers did--which means keeping away from all noisy outside entertainment such as cocktail parties and dances--then we shall find ample time for the imitation of Christ as it is outlined in every morning's Mass. The restoration of the season of Lent was begun in the year when the Holy Father gave back to us the Easter Night. As we now know that in this holiest of all nights we shall be permitted to be reborn in Christ, renewing solemnly, with a lighted candle in our hands, our baptismal vows, we understand more and more clearly the two great thoughts which the Church is developing throughout the whole of Lent: the instruction of the catechumens and the deepening of the contrition of the penitents. Instruction and penance shall become our motto also for these holy weeks.

Instruction--this brings us to the Lenten reading program. The time saved through abstention from movies--and it is astonishing to find how much it is!--will be devoted to a carefully chosen reading program. Every year we should divide our reading into three parts: something for the mind, something for the heart, something for the soul. Something for the mind: This should mean doing serious research. One year we might work on the history of the Church; another year on the sacraments; or we might carefully study a scholarly life of Our Lord Jesus Christ; or a book on Christian ethics; or the Encyclicals of the Pope; or a book on dogma. For the soul: This should be spiritual reading of a high order, from the works of the saints or saintly writers. For example, "The Ascent of Mt. Carmel," by St. John of the Cross; "The Introduction to a Devout Life," by St. Francis de Sales; "The Story of a Soul," by St. Therese of Lisieux; "The Spiritual Castle," by St. Teresa of Avila; "The Soul of the Apostolate," by Abbot Chautard; the books of Abbot Marmion, and similar works.

For the heart: According to the old proverb, "Exempla trahunt," it is most encouraging to read the biographies of people who started out as we did but had their minds set on following the word of Our Lord, "Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect." In other words, to read a well-written biography of a saint (canonized or not) will have the same effect on us as it had once on St. Augustine, who said, after watching saintly people living a holy life: "If he could do it, and she, why not I?"

If every member of a family adopts this threefold reading program and comments on the books he has been working on, a great benefit will be flowing from one to the other as they exchange the spiritual goods obtained from their reading. I remember how the enthusiasm of each reader made us exchange books after Lent was over. Years ago it began with the books of Henry Gheon first, "The Secret of the Little Flower," followed by the other secrets of the saints. Another year it was "The History of a Family," with its background story of the most irresistible saint of our days, Therese of Lisieux. Recently we all found "St. Teresa of Avila," by Marcelle Auclair, the best and most readable of all biographies of this great saint.

After we had seen the great film, "Monsieur Vincent," we were naturally interested in reading Monsignor Jean Calvet's version of the saint's life, "St. Vincent de Paul." There is no saying how much such an extensive reading program adds to the richness of family life, how many new topics are introduced, to be talked about during the family meals. And one book that should certainly be read aloud during these days of the great retreat is the Holy Bible. It would be a good idea to lean, for one year at least, close to the selections the Church herself makes in the breviary of the priests. In another year one could take one of the prophets (Isaias during Advent, Jeremias during Lent), and go on from there until every book of Holy Scriptures has been read aloud and discussed in the family. In this way we have read through the books of the Old and New Testaments more than once, and have found them an unending source of happiness and spiritual growth. Any family that has tried it will never want to give it up.

To set aside the "closed times" of the year for daily reading aloud is one of the most profitable uses of the time gained. As many questions will be asked, it will be necessary to obtain some source in which to find at least some of the answers. A commentary on the Holy Scriptures should be in every Christian house. If the first thought recurring through the liturgy of Lent is instruction, the second is penance. To understand better what was originally meant by that word, let us go back to the beginning when the Church was young and the zeal and fervor unbroken.

Father Weiser, in his "Easter Book," tells us about it: "Persons who had committed serious public sin and scandal were enjoined on Ash Wednesday with the practice of "public penance." The period of the penance lasted until Holy Thursday when they were solemnly reconciled, absolved from their sins, and allowed to receive Holy Communion....The imposition of public penance on Ash Wednesday was an official rite in Rome as early as the fourth century; and soon spread to all Christianized nations. Numerous descriptions of this ancient ceremony have been preserved in medieval manuscripts and, in every detail, breathe a spirit of harshness and humility really frightening to us of the present generation. "Public sinners approached their priests shortly before Lent to accuse themselves of their misdeeds and were presented by the priests on Ash Wednesday to the bishop of the place. Outside the cathedral, poor and noble alike stood barefoot, dressed in sackcloth, heads bowed in humble contrition. The bishop, assisted by his canons, assigned to each one particular acts of penance according to the nature and gravity of his crime. Whereupon they entered the church, the bishop leading one of them by the hand, the others following in single file, holding each other's hands. Before the altar, not only the penitents, but also the bishop and all his clergy recited the seven penitential psalms. [Psalms 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129, 142.] Then, as each sinner approached, the bishop imposed his hands on him, sprinkled him with holy water, threw the blessed ashes on his head, and invested him with the hair shirt. Finally he admonished ("with tears and sighs" as the regulation suggests): "Behold you are cast out from the sight of holy mother Church because of your sins and crimes, as Adam the first man was cast out of Paradise because of his transgression." After this ceremony the penitents were led out of the church and forbidden to re-enter until Holy Thursday (for the solemn rite of their reconciliation).

Meanwhile they would spend Lent apart from their families in a monastery or some other place of voluntary confinement, where they occupied themselves with prayer, manual labor, and works of charity. Among other things they had to go barefoot all through Lent, were forbidden to converse with others, were made to sleep on the ground or on a bedding of straw, and were unable to bathe or cut their hair. "Such was the public penance (in addition to the general Lenten fast) for "ordinary" cases of great sin and scandal....For especially shocking and heinous crimes a much longer term was imposed.

An ancient manuscript records the case of an English nobleman of the eleventh century who received a penance of seven years for notorious crimes and scandals committed. The duties of his first year of public penance consisted of the following details: he must not bear arms (a bitter humiliation for a nobleman of that time!); he must not receive Holy Communion except in danger of death; he must not enter the church to attend Mass but remain standing outside the church door; he must eat very sparingly, taking meat only on Sundays and major feasts; on three days of the week he must abstain from wine; he must feed one poor person every day from what he would have spent on himself. The document closes with the words: `If, however, thou shalt have borne this penance willingly for one year, in the future, with God's grace, thou shalt be judged more leniently.'" (Francis X. Weiser, "The Easter Book," pp. 46f. New York, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1954) And Father Weiser adds a helpful remark. "These examples will make clear, perhaps, what an indulgence granted by the Church means in our time. An indulgence of seven years is the remission of temporal punishment for sins already forgiven to the extent of a seven years' personal penance such as just described."

After having seen what penance meant to our fathers in the faith, it will be interesting to see how much of it is still alive in our times. The first day of Lent is Ash Wednesday. As we are summoned into church we find the program all laid out for us. Following the example of the people of Nineveh, who did penance in sackcloth and ashes, the Church wants today to humble our pride by reminding us of our death sentence as a consequence of our sins. She sprinkles our head with ashes and says: "Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust shalt thou return." The ashes used have been made from burning the palm from the previous Palm Sunday. These ashes belong to the very powerful sacramentals (such as Epiphany water or candles from Candlemas Day). The four prayers preceding the blessing of the ashes are so beautiful and so rich in meaning that they should be read aloud and discussed in the family circle on Ash Wednesday night.

In our time, when "how to" books are so popular, the Gospel seems most appropriate to instruct us on how to fast: "At that time Jesus said to His disciples, `When you fast, be ye not as hypocrites, sad, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward, but thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face that thou appear not to men to fast but to thy Father Who sees in secret, and thy Father, Who sees in secret, will repay thee.'" It is interesting to remind ourselves that fast and abstinence are such ancient practices that they are much older than the Catholic Church, as are ashes and haircloth as means of penance. The pages of the Old Testament are filled with references to sackcloth and ashes (Jonas 3 :5-8; Jeremias 6:26; 25:34; Judith 9:1).

The ancient notions about fast and abstinence compare to our modern Lenten regulations as a Roman chariot compares to a modern sports car. Let us, first of all, straighten out what is fasting and what is abstinence. The first has to do with the quantity of food that can be taken, and the latter refers to the kind of food. In ancient times fasting really was fasting. The first meal was taken after vespers, and vespers were sung at sundown as evening prayer of the Church. Abstinence in the old times (and the old times reached almost to the days of our grandparents) meant that nothing was eaten (or kept in the house) which comes from animals: no meat, no fish, no lard, no milk, butter, cheese, cream. The Lenten fare consisted exclusively of vegetables, fruit, and a bread made of flour and water and salt. For our generation the law of abstinence means that all meat of warm-blooded animals and of birds and fowl and the soup made thereof is forbidden. It leaves free the wonderful world of seafood and the meat of other cold-blooded animals such as frogs, turtles, snails, etc.

The fast means that we are allowed one full meal every day and two other meals which, if put together, do not exceed in quantity the full meal. When I inquired once why the law of fast and abstinence is so much more lenient for us than it was for previous generations, I was told that modern man is much too frail to undergo the awful rigors of the ancient practice. After all, have we not experienced two world wars in our generation which have weakened our constitutions? That seemed to make perfect sense to me until just recently.

I got infected by a neighbor of ours in Stowe with the popular preoccupation of which is the best diet. Together we searched through a library of books, one more interesting than the other, the sum total of all them most confusing and astounding, however. Among other things I learned that almost all the ancient and modern sages of the science of "how to live longer and look younger" (they all boast of a tradition going back into the gray dawn of time with the yogis of India) agree on several points: (1) We are all over-eating--we should eat much less. (2) We are all eating too much meat, which sours our system, and we absolutely have to abstain from meat for longer or shorter periods every year. (3) If we could adapt ourselves to a diet of raw vegetables and fruit and whole-wheat bread, that would be the ideal. (4) And now I could hardly believe my eyes when I read, not once, but in several places, that it would do simply miracles for our constitution if we only would let ourselves be persuaded to undergo a period of complete fast. (One authority suggests three days, others a week, ten days, up to thirty, forty, and even sixty days!) I cannot help but think sadly: Woe if the Church ever had dared to make such a law or even give only a slight hint in the direction of undergoing a complete fast--for the love of God! Obviously, modern man, after all, is not too frail to undergo the awful rigors of ancient fast and abstinence.

The constitution of man seems not to have changed at all, then. What has changed are the motives. While the early Christians abstained from food and drink and meat and eggs out of a great sense of sorrow for their sins, and for love of God took upon themselves these inconveniences, modern man has as motive the "body beautiful," the "girlish figure," the "how to look younger and live longer" motive. These selfish motives are strong enough to convince him that fasting is good for him--in fact, it is fun. We ought to be grateful to these modern apostles, whether from India, Switzerland, Sweden, or Wisconsin, because their teaching shows that Holy Mother Church is equally interested in the spiritual welfare of her children and in their physical health. It also should make us better Christians. It should be absolutely unbearable to us to think that there are thousands of people around us who pride themselves on rigorous feats of fast and abstinence for motives as flimsy as good looks, while we cannot bring ourselves to give up a bare minimum. And so it might not be a bad idea after all, in fact a very modern one, to go back to the practice of former days and clear our house during the last day of Carnival of every trace of meat and butter and eggs, fish and lard and bouillon cubes, and spend six wholesome weeks in complete harmony with the health-food store around the corner: eating fresh fruit salads, drinking carrot juice, reveling in the exceeding richness of the vitamins we find in raw celery, fresh spinach, and pumpernickel.

I have repeatedly read now that there is absolutely nothing to it to undergo a complete fast. One can even continue one's occupation, and afterwards (the afterwards can be after thirty days, I was assured) one feels newly born and twenty years younger. All right, if this is so, let us not be so soft any more. What can be done "To feel twenty years younger" must be possible for our own reason: "that our fasts may be pleasing to Thee, O Lord, and a powerful remedy." (Post Communion, Ash Wednesday). Today we do eat too much--we eat too may things at one meal; we eat much too much meat; we consume an unhealthy amount of strong liquor and too much coffee and tea, which are bad for our nerves; and (this is perhaps our deepest conviction) the bread we can buy in stores is not the daily bread we pray for in the "Our Father," but something on the line of soft, tender sponger rubber, white sponge rubber. It has made us return to the dark rye bread, the home-made rye bread we used to have in Austria. All our guests rave about it, and so we want to share our recipe with others.

Dark Rye Bread
4 cups medium rye flour
1/2 tsp. caraway seed
2 cups regular white flour
1 cake yeast, or 1 package dry
1 tbsp. salt yeast
4 cups warm water

Dissolve yeast in 1 cups warm water until it starts to rise and make bubbles. Pour this on the flour. Add three more cups of warm water to the flour and stir until fluid is all soaked up. Then knead (with your own hands) until it is a firm, fairly stiff dough. Put in warm place to rise, covering it with a cloth. After two hours or more (depending on temperature of the room), the dough should rise to twice the size. Punch it down and knead for about 10 minutes again. Cover it up and let it rise again until not quite double the size. It will rise in a short while (1/2 hour to 3/4 hour). Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Then put dough upside down on a flour-sprinkled cookie sheet. Make holes in the dough with a knitting needle (or something similar) while in the hot stove. Leave there for an hour, then "wash" the bread: take it half way out and brush it freely with water. Push back into oven for another quarter hour, turning heat down to 300 degrees F. Then take it out. Makes 1 loaf.

And here we should not forget that the pretzel, which is now quite popular at our parties, goes back to the early times when only bread made of flour and water, with a little salt, was allowed during Lent. In order to make it a little more appealing, it was first shaped in the form of a ring and a cross in memory of the Cross of Our Lord, and later it took on the present-day shape of two arms crossed in prayer. It is said to have been used in the monastery schools of the medieval abbeys as a prize for the pupils and that the name comes from the Latin word "pretiolum". In Austria, southern Germany, and Poland, on St. Joseph's Day, March 19th, a man would go around and sell pretzels on the streets and the people would eat them for lunch, together with a "Josephi beer," a special dark, very malted beer.

In the middle of Lent comes the Sunday Laetare, also called "Rose Sunday." It is as if Holy Mother Church wants to give us a break by interrupting the solemn chant of mourning, the unaccompanied cadences and the use of the violet vestments, bursting out suddenly in the word "Laetare" ("Rejoice"), allowing her priests to vest in rose-colored garments, to have flowers on the altar and an organ accompaniment for chant. It is also called "Rose Sunday" because on that day the Pope in Rome blesses a golden rose, an ornament made of gold and precious stones. The Holy Father prays that the Church may bring forth the fruit of good works and "the perfume of the ointment of the flowers from the root of Jesse." Then he sends the golden rose to some church or city in the world or to a person who has been of great service to the Church.

Only recently I discovered that this Sunday used to be known as "Mothering Sunday." This seems to go back to an ancient custom. People in every city would visit the cathedral, or mother church, inspired by a reference in the Epistle read on the Fourth Sunday of Lent: "That Jerusalem which is above, is free, which is our Mother." And there grew up, first in England, from where it spread over the continent, the idea that children who did not live at home visited their mothers that day and brought them a gift. This is, in fact, the precursor of our Mother's Day. Expecting their visiting children, the mothers are said to have baked a special cake in which they used equal amounts of sugar and flour (two cups of each); from this came the name "Simmel Cake," derived from the Latin word "similis", meaning "like" or "same." Here is the recipe:

Simmel Cake (Click for Printable PDF... blog authors addition, also visit here for the Simmel Cookie Recipe)
3/4 cup butter
1/3 cup shredded lemon & 2 cups sugar orange peel
2 cups flour
1 cup currants
4 eggs almond paste
1/2 tsp. salt.

Cream the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Sift the flour and salt and add to the first mixture. Dust the peel and currants with a little flour and add to the batter. Line cake tin with waxed paper and pour in half the dough. Add a layer of almond paste and remaining dough. Bake at 300 degrees F. for one hour. Ice with a thin white icing, flavored with a few drops of almond extract.

And every evening in Lent, we sing a Lenten hymn--two of our favorite ones are given here.

O HEAD ALL SCARRED AND BLEEDING
Original melody by Hans Lee Hassler, 1601. Used in this form by J.S. Bach in the "St. Matthew Passion." Translation, Henry S. Drinker.

1. O Head all scarred and bleeding, And heaped with cruel scorn! O Head so filled with sorrow, And bound with crown of thorn! O Head that was so honored, So lovely fair to see, And now so low degraded! My heart goes out to Thee.

2. Thou countenance so noble, Yet now so pale and wan, Which all the world should honor, Now foully spat upon. No more Thine eyes are shining, That once did shine so bright, Ill-usage and maligning, Affliction, shame and spite.

OPEN, O HARD AND SINFUL HEART! Test, Angelus Silesius, 1637; melody, 1638.

1. Open, oh hard and sinful heart, God will return to heed you. Think of His pain and bitter part, Let not more guilt impede you. He who to penance is inspired, Shall then in truth be living. The sinner's death God ne'er desired, His mercy is forgiving.

2. Open your eyes, believe, be wise, With God there's no pretending. Your sorry soul in danger lies Of death and pains unending. Come back, come back, O wayward one, Shake off the sins that bind you. Surely God's own almighty Throne Plentiful grace will find you.

3. Open your heart, your God behold, With outstretched hands so tender, On the dread cross in grief untold His life for you surrender. A trembling rends the hardest stone, Sun, moon and stars are darkened. Are you unsoftened, you alone, Have you to Him not harkened?

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. 1894

ST. ALBINUS was of an ancient and noble family in Brittany, and from his childhood was fervent in every exercise of piety. He ardently sighed after the happiness which a devout soul finds in being perfectly disengaged from all earthly things. Having embraced the monastic state at Tintillant, near Augers, he shone a perfect model of virtue, living as if in all things he had been without any will of his own; and his soul seemed so perfectly governed by the spirit of Christ as to live only for Him. At the age of thirty-five years he was chosen abbot, in 504, and twenty-five years afterwards Bishop of Angers. He everywhere restored discipline, being inflamed with a holy zeal for the honor of God. His dignity seemed to make no alteration either in his mortifications or in the constant recollection of his soul. Honored by all the world, even by kings, he was never affected with vanity. Powerful in works and miracles, he looked upon himself as the most unworthy and most unprofitable among the servants of God, and had no other ambition than to appear such in the eyes of others as he was in those of his own humility. In the third Council of Orleans, in 538, he procured the thirtieth canon of the Council of Epaone to be revived, by which those are declared excommunicated who presume to contract incestuous marriages in the first or second degree of consanguinity or affinity. He died on the 1st of March, in 549.

Reflection.—With whatever virtues a man may be endowed, he will discover, if he considers himself attentively, a sufficient depth of misery to afford cause for deep humility; but Jesus Christ says, "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

1.) Homemade Fish Sticks (served with yummy looking red potatoes and green beans!)

2.) Green Curry Vegetables over Rice

3.) Parmesan Encrusted Tilapia

4.) Baked Southwestern Egg Rolls

5.) Veggie Pizza OR Taco Pizza with these homemade refried beans, using this home made pizza crust? YUM!

From the book Catholic Life; Feasts, Fasts and Devotions
Imprimatur 1908


"He who is accustomed to renounce lawful gratifications easily abstains from forbidden pleasures."
-  St. Gregory

Ember days, or Quarter Tense, are three fast days - Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday - in each of the four seasons. In winter they occur in the third week of Advent; in spring, in the first week of Lent; in summer, during Whit week ; and in autumn, the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14).

These fasts were instituted to sanctify each season of the year, and thus obtain the favours of God, especially His mercy. They were also established to obtain the blessing of  the Almighty on the fruits of the land. In spring we pray for fertility; in summer, for preservation of the crops; in autumn, for a good harvest; and in winter we offer up our grateful thanksgiving for the blessings received.

The Church, too, wishes us to pray for those who are to be ordained priests on these days, that they may obtain the graces necessary to fulfill all their obligations, and the virtues that adorn their sacred calling. "And when they had ordained for them priests in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, in Whom they believed" (Acts xiv. 22).

As alms generally accompany fasting and prayer, a donation towards the education of priests for the foreign mission would be keeping with the spirit of the Church on these occasions. We ought also to pray for vocations, especially  for the foreign missions. "The harvest is great, but the labourers few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send labourers into the vineyard" (Matt. ix. 37, 38).

These days should also remind us of asking ourselves how we stand with regard to God. If there be anything troubling our conscience, we ought to set it right, and then make good resolutions for the coming quarter. Thus, keeping ourselves always ready for the final summons, death will be disarmed of its terrors, and the close of life will be marked with a beautiful serenity.

"And grant us, while by fasts we strive,
This mortal body to control,
To fast from all the food of sin,
And so to purify the soul.'

Example - The Machabees

Seven brothers, commonly known as the Machabees, were apprehended and ordered to eat swine's flesh, which was forbidden by the law of Moses. On refusing they were ordered to be tortured. Antiochus himself presided at the martyrdom, and being enraged to see such constancy in age so tender, he tried every means to terrify and torture them into a compliance with his impious demands. He condemned them to undergo the same torments one after another, that the sufferings of the foregoing might intimidate the next, The eldest was first called out, in the presence of his mother and brothers.  He declared that he was ready to die rather than to transgress the laws of God, received from his forefathers. The executioners cut out his tongue, chopped off the extremities of his hands and feet, drew the skin from off his head, and then cast the body into a cauldron, where the remains of agonizing life were consumed by slow fire.

The first being thus barbarously slain, the rest were successively tormented and slain in the same manner. Each advanced  in his turn, each with the same manly fortitude bore the tyrant's tortures, and each with the same steady perseverance triumphed over his savage inhumanity.

They adored the decrees of God, Who was pleased to make this trial of their faith. They readily submitted to the torments in punishment for their sins,.

 They cheerfully resigned a life which they hoped to receive again by a glorious resurrection. And as if the sight of sufferings had inspired them with fresh courage, they told the tyrant that he was not to fancy them abandoned by their God; that it was impious folly in him thus to fight against the Almighty; that he was but a passing scourge in the Almighty's hand, and would himself soon feel the vengeance prepared for his chastisement. Antiochus would willingly have pardoned their reproaches if he could have got the better of their fortitude. Six of the brothers had gloriously conquered by their death; the seventh only remained, the youngest of them all, and him the tyrant hoped to gain by caresses and fair promises. He promised him his friendship, wealth, and happiness, if he would only abjure the laws of his forefathers. When he perceived that his words made no impression, he called upon the mother, and desired her, if she had any fondness left for an only surviving son, to disabuse him of his error, and by her advice to preserve his life. The incomparable woman, who to a mother's tenderness joined a manly fortitude of mind, despised the tyrant's solicitations, and in derision promised that she would advise her son, since he desired it.

Wherefore, bending towards the young man, she exhorted him in her native tongue that he would have pity on her who had borne him in her womb and reared him; that he would not fear the tormentor, but look up to God, the Creator of all things; and that he would courageously follow the glorious example of his brothers, that so, by the Divine mercy, she might be worthy to receive them all again in life eternal. Animated with fresh resolution, the young man said to the executioners: "Behold me fixed in the resolution of obeying the law; nor will I disobey God to obey the King." The tyrant foamed with rage to see himself thus defeated. With fiercer barbarity than he had shown against the other six brothers, he discharged his fury upon the seventh, and tortured him to death. The illustrious mother, having nothing more to fear for her sons, followed them with redoubled vigour in their victorious career, and with them laid down her own life, on the same day in the same glorious cause.

Antiochus shortly afterwards ended a miserable life by a most miserable death.

Spring time is getting near and so is the time for our new Home*School*Liturgical Year Planner! Visit here for more details and make sure to sign up for our weekly newsletter so you don't miss out on new information!

Today marks the 6th day of Lent and we are sharing the history of Lent along with another free file folder game (see below) which we will be using especially on the Feast of St. Patrick. The Holy Trinity Fact Family File Folder games go great with the St. Patrick math games for the Saint's Feast day coming up in only a few weeks.


THE HISTORY OF LENT
The Liturgical Year
By: Dom Gueranger, Impr. 1867

The Forty Days’ Fast, which we call Lent [In most languages the name given to this Fast expresses the number of the day, Forty. But our word Lent signifies the Spring-Fast; for Lenten-Tide, in the ancient English-Saxon language, was the season of Spring. Translator.], is the Church’s preparation for Easter, and was instituted at the very commencement of Christianity. Our Blessed Lord himself sanctioned it by his fasting forty days and forty nights in the desert; and though he would not impose it on the world by an express commandment, (which, then, could not have been open to the power of dispensation,) yet he showed plainly enough by his own example, that Fasting, which God had so frequently ordered in the Old Law, was to be also practised by the Children of the New.

The Disciples of St. John the Baptist came, one day, to Jesus, and said to him: Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but thy Disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them: Can the children of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast. [St Matth. ix. 14,15].

Hence, we find it mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, how the Disciples of our Lord, after the Foundation of the Church, applied themselves to Fasting. In their Epistles, also, they recommended it to the Faithful. Nor could it be otherwise. Though the divine mysteries, whereby our Saviour wrought our redemption, have been consummated, - yet are we still Sinners: and where there is sin, there must be expiation.

The Apostles, therefore, legislated for our weakness, by instituting, at the very commencement of the Christian Church, that the Solemnity of Easter should be preceded by a universal Fast; and it was only natural, that they should have made this period of Penance to consist of Forty Days, seeing that our Divine Master had consecrated that number by his own Fast. St. Jerome [Epist. xxvii. ad Marcellam], St. Leo the Great [Serm. ii, v, ix. de Quadragesima], St. Cyril of Alexandria [Homil. Paschal.], St. Isidore of Seville [De Ecclesiast. Officiis, lib vi., cap. xix.], and others of the holy Fathers, assure us that Lent was instituted by the Apostles, although, at the commencement, there was not any uniform way of observing it.

We have already seen, in our Septuagesima, that the Orientals begin their Lent much earlier than the Latins, owing to their custom of never fasting on Saturdays, (or, in some places, even on Thursdays). They are, consequently, obliged, in order to make up the forty days, to begin the Lenten Fast on the Monday preceding our Sexagesima Sunday. These are the kind of exceptions, which prove the rule. We have also shown, how the Latin Church, - which, even so late as the 6th Century, kept only thirty-six fasting days during the six weeks of Lent, (for the Church has never allowed Sundays to be kept as days of fast,) - thought proper to add, later on, the last four days of Quinquagesima, in order that her Lent might contain exactly Forty Days of Fast.

The whole subject of Lent has been so often and so fully treated, that we shall abridge, as much as possible, the History we are now giving. The nature of our Work forbids us to do more, than insert what is essential for the entering into the spirit of each Season. God grant, that we may succeed in showing to the Faithful the importance of the holy institution of Lent! Its influence on the spiritual life, and on the very salvation, of each one among us, can never be over-rated.

Lent, then, is a time consecrated, in an especial manner, to penance; and this penance is mainly practised by Fasting. Fasting is an abstinence, which man voluntarily imposes upon himself, as an expiation for sin, and which, during Lent, is practised in obedience to the general law of the Church. According to the actual discipline of the Western Church, the Fast of Lent is not more rigorous than that prescribed for the Vigils of certain Feasts, and for the Ember Days; but it is kept up for Forty successive Days, with the single interruption of the intervening Sundays.

We deem it unnecessary to show the importance and advantages of Fasting. The Sacred Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament, are filled with the praises of this holy practice. The traditions of every nation of the world testify the universal veneration, in which it has ever been held; for there is not a people, nor a religion, how much soever it may have lost the purity of primitive traditions, which is not impressed with this conviction, - that man may appease his God by subjecting his body to penance.

St. Basil, St. John Chrysostom, St. Jerome, and St. Gregory the Great, make the remark, that the commandment put upon our First Parents, in the earthly paradise, was one of Abstinence; and that it was by their not exercising this virtue, that they brought every kind of evil upon themselves and us their children. The life of privation, which the king of creation had thenceforward to lead on the earth, - (for the earth was to yield him nothing of its own natural growth, save thorns and thistles,) - was the clearest possible exemplification of the law of penance, imposed by the anger of God on rebellious man.

During the two thousand and more years, which preceded the Deluge, men had no other food than the fruits of the earth, and these were only got by the toil of hard labour. But when God, as we have already observed, mercifully shortened man’s life, (that so he might have less time and power for sin), - he permitted him to eat the flesh of animals, as an additional nourishment in that state of deteriorated strength. It was then, also, that Noah, guided by a divine inspiration, extracted the juice of the grape, which thus formed a second stay for human debility.

Fasting, then, is the abstaining from such nourishments as these, which were permitted for the support of bodily strength. And firstly, it consisted in abstinence from flesh-meat, because it is a food that was given to man by God, out of condescension to his weakness, and not as one absolutely essential for the maintenance of life. Its privation, greater or less according to the regulations of the Church, is essential to the very notion of Fasting. Thus, whilst in many countries, the use of eggs, milk-meats, and even dripping and lard, is tolerated, - the abstaining from flesh-meat is everywhere maintained, as being essential to Fasting. For many centuries, eggs and milk-meats were not allowed, because they come under the class of animal food: even to this day, they are forbidden in the Eastern Churches, and are only allowed in the Latin Church by virtue of an annual dispensation. The precept of abstaining from flesh-meat is so essential to Lent, that even on Sundays, when the Fasting is interrupted, Abstinence is an obligation, binding even on those who are dispensed from the fasts of the week, unless there be a special dispensation granted for eating meat on the Sundays.

In the early ages of Christianity, Fasting included also the abstaining from Wine, as we learn from St. Cyril of Jerusalem [Catech. iv], St. Basil [Homil. i. De Jejunio], St. John Chrysostom [Homil. iv. Ad populum Antioch.], Theophilus of Alexandria [Litt. Pasch, iii], and others. In the West, this custom soon fell into disuse. The Eastern Christians kept it up much longer, but even with them it has ceased to be considered as obligatory.

Lastly, Fasting includes the depriving ourselves of some portion of our ordinary food, inasmuch as it only allows the taking of one meal during the day. Though the modifications introduced from age to age in the discipline of Lent, are very numerous, yet the points we have here mentioned belong to the very essence of Fasting, as is evident from the universal practice of the Church.

It was the custom with the Jews, in the Old Law, not to take the one meal, allowed on fasting days, till sun-set. The Christian Church adopted the same custom. It was scrupulously practised, for many centuries, even in our Western countries. But, about the 9th century, some relaxation began to be introduced in the Latin Church. Thus, we have a Capitularium of Theodulph, Bishop of Orleans, (who lived at that period,) protesting against the practice, which some had, of taking their repast at the hour of None, that is to say, about three o’clock in the afternoon [Capitul. xxxix. Labb. Conc. tom. viii.]. The relaxation, however, gradually spread; for, in the 10th century, we find the celebrated Ratherius, Bishop of Verona, acknowledging, that the Faithful had permission to break their fast at the hour of None [Serm. 1, De Quadrages.  D’Archery. Spicilegium, tom. ii.]. We meet with a sort of reclamation made as late as the 11th century, by a Council held at Rouen, which forbids the Faithful to take their repast before Vespers shall have begun to be sung in the Church, at the end of None [Orderic Vital. Histor., lib. iv.]; but this shows us, that the custom had already begun of anticipating the hour of Vespers, in order that the Faithful might take their meal earlier in the day.

Up to within a short period before this time, it had been the custom not to celebrate Mass, on days of Fasting, until the Office of None had been sung, (which was about three o’clock in the afternoon,) - and, also, not to sing Vespers till sun-set. When the discipline regarding Fasting began to relax, the Church still retained the order of her Offices, which had been handed down from the earliest times. The only change she made, was to anticipate the hour for Vespers; and this entailed the celebrating Mass and None much earlier in the day;- so early, indeed, that, when custom had so prevailed as to authorise the Faithful taking their repast at mid-day, all the Offices, even the Vespers, were over before that hour.

In the 12th century, the custom of breaking one’s fast at the hour of None everywhere prevailed, as we learn from Hugh of Saint-Victor [In regul. S. Augustini, cap.iii]; and in the 13th century, it was sanctioned by the teaching of the School-men. Alexander Hales declares most expressly, that such a custom was lawful [Summa, Part. iv. Quaest. 28,  art. 2.]; and St. Thomas of Aquin, is equally decided in the same opinion [2a 2ae Q. 147, a. 7].

But even the fasting till None, (i.e. three o’clock,) was found too severe; and a still further relaxation was considered to be necessary. At the close of the 13th century, we have the celebrated Franciscan, Richard of Middleton, teaching, that they who break their fast at the Hour of Sext, (i.e. mid-day,) are not to be considered as transgressing the precept of the Church; and the reason he gives, is this: that the custom of doing so had already prevailed in many places, and that fasting does not consist so much in the lateness of the hour at which the faithful take their refreshment, as in their taking but one meal during the twenty-four hours [In iv. Dist. xv., art. 3., quaest. 8].

The 14th century gave weight, both by universal custom and theological authority, to the opinion held by Richard of Middleton. It will, perhaps, suffice if we quote the learned Dominican, Durandus, Bishop of Meaux, who says, that there can be no doubt as to the lawfulness of taking one’s repast at mid-day; and he adds, that such was then the custom observed by the Pope, and Cardinals, and even the Religious Orders [In iv. Dist. xv., Quaest. 9., art 7]. We cannot, therefore, be surprised at finding this opinion maintained, in the 15th century, by such grave authors as St. Antoninus, Cardinal Cajetan, and others. Alexander Hales and St. Thomas sought to prevent the relaxation going beyond the Hour of None; but their zeal was disappointed, and the present discipline was established, we might almost say, during their life-time.

But, whilst this relaxation of taking the repast so early in the day as twelve o’clock rendered fasting less difficult in one way, it made it more severe in another. The body grew exhausted by the labours of the long second half of the twenty-four hours; and the meal, that formerly closed the day, and satisfied the cravings of fatigue, had been already taken. It was found necessary to grant some refreshment for the evening, and it was called a Collation. The word was taken from the Benedictine Rule, which, for long centuries before this change in the Lenten observance, had allowed a Monastic Collation. St. Benedict’s Rule prescribed a great many Fasts, over and above the ecclesiastical Fast of Lent; but it made this great distinction between the two:- that whilst Lent obliged the Monks, as well as the rest of the Faithful, to abstain from food till sunset, these monastic fasts allowed the repast to be taken at the hour of None. But, as the Monks had heavy manual labour during the summer and autumn months, (which was the very time when these Fasts “till None” occurred several days of each week, and, indeed, every day from the 14th of September;) the Abbot was allowed by the Rule to grant his Religious permission to take a small measure of wine before Compline, as a refreshment after the fatigues of the afternoon. It was taken by all at one and the same time, during the evening reading, which was called Conference,  (in Latin, Collatio,) because it was mostly taken from the celebrated Conferences (Collationes) of Cassian. Hence, this evening monastic refreshment got the name of Collation.

We find the Assembly, or Chapter of Aix-la-Chapelle, held in 817, extending this indulgence even to the Lenten fast, on account of the great fatigue entailed by the Offices, which the Monks had to celebrate during this holy Season. But experience showed, that unless something solid were allowed to be taken together with the wine, the evening Collation would be an injury to the health of many of the Religious; accordingly, towards the close of the 14th, or the beginning of the 15th century, the usage was introduced of taking a morsel of bread with the Collation-beverage.

As a matter of course, these mitigations of the ancient severity of Fasting soon found their way from the cloister into the world. The custom of taking something to drink, on Fasting Days, out of the time of the repast, was gradually established; and even so early as the 13th century, we have St. Thomas of Aquin discussing the question, whether or no drink is to be considered as a breaking of the precept of Fasting [In iv. Quaest. cxlvii. art, 6]. He answers in the negative; and yet he does not allow that anything solid may be taken with the drink. But when it had become the universal practice, (as it did in the latter part of the 13th century, and still more fixedly during the whole of the 14th,) that the one meal on Fasting Days was taken at mid-day, a mere beverage was found in sufficient to give support, and there was added to it bread, herbs, fruits, &c. Such was the practice, both in the world and the cloister. It was, however, clearly understood by all, that these eatables were not to be taken in such quantity as to turn the Collation into a second meal.

Thus did the decay of piety, and the general deterioration of bodily strength among the people of the Western nations, infringe on the primitive observance of Fasting. To make our history of these humiliating changes anything like complete, we must mention one more relaxation. For several centuries, abstinence from flesh-meat included likewise the prohibition of every article of food that belonged to what is called the animal kingdom, with the single exception of Fish, which, on account of its cold nature, as also for several mystical reasons, founded on the Sacred Scriptures, was always permitted to be taken by those who fasted. Every sort of milk-meat was forbidden; and in Rome, even to this day, butter and cheese are not permitted during Lent, except on those days whereon permission to eat meat is granted.

Dating from the 9th century, the custom of eating milk-meats during Lent began to be prevalent in Western Europe, more especially in Germany and the northern countries. The Council of Kedlimburg, held in the 11th century, made an effort to put a stop to the practice as an abuse; but without effect [Labbe, Concil., tom. x.]. These Churches maintained that they were in the right, and defended their custom by the dispensations, (though, in reality, only temporary ones,) granted them by several Sovereign Pontiffs: the dispute ended by their being left peaceably to enjoy what they claimed. The Churches of France resisted this innovation up to the 16th century; but in the 17th, they too yielded, and milk-meats were taken during Lent, throughout the whole Kingdom. As some reparation for this breach of ancient discipline, the City of Paris instituted a solemn rite, whereby she wished to signify her regret at being obliged to such a relaxation. On Quinquagesima Sunday, all the different Parishes went in procession to the Church of Notre Dame. The Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and Augustinians, took part in the procession. The Metropolitan Chapter, and the four Parishes that were subject to it, held, on the same day, a Station in the court-yard of the Palace, and sang an Anthem before the Relic of the True Cross, which was exposed in the Sainte Chapelle. These pious usages, which were intended to remind the people of the difference between the past and the present observance of Lent, continued to be practised till the Revolution.

But this grant for the eating milk-meats during Lent, did not include eggs. Here, the ancient discipline was maintained, at least this far, - that eggs were not allowed, save by a dispensation, which had to be renewed each year. In Rome they are only allowed on days when Flesh-meat may be taken. In other places, they are allowed on some days, and on others, especially during Holy Week, are forbidden. Invariably do we find the Church, seeking, out of anxiety for the spiritual advantage of her Children, to maintain all she can of those penitential observances, whereby they may satisfy Divine Justice. It was with this intention, that Pope Benedict the Fourteenth, alarmed at the excessive facility wherewith dispensation were then obtained, renewed, by a solemn Constitution, (dated June 10, 1745,) the prohibition of eating fish and meat, at the same meal, on fasting days.

The same Pope, whose spirit of moderation has never been called in question, had no sooner ascended the Papal Throne, than he addressed an Encyclical Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic world, expressing his heartfelt grief at seeing the great relaxation that was introduced among the Faithful by indiscreet and unnecessary dispensations. The Letter is dated May 30th, 1741. We extract from it the following passage: “The observance of Lent is the very badge of the Christian warfare. By it, we prove ourselves not to be enemies of the Cross of Christ. By it, we avert the scourges of divine justice. By it, we gain strength against the princes of darkness, for it shields us with heavenly help. Should mankind grow remiss in their observance of Lent, it would be a detriment to God’s glory, a disgrace to the Catholic religion, and a danger to Christian souls. Neither can it be doubted, but that such negligence would become the source of misery to the world, of public calamity, and of private woe.” [Constitution: Non ambigimus.]

More than a hundred years have elapsed since this solemn warning of the Vicar of Christ was given to the world; and during that time, the relaxation, he inveighed against, has gone on gradually increasing. How few Christians do we meet, who are strict observers of Lent, even in its present mild form! The long list of general Dispensations granted, each year, by the Bishops to their flocks, would lead us to suppose that the immense majority of the Faithful would be scrupulously exact in the fulfilment of the Fasting and Abstinence still remaining; but is such the case? And must there not result from this ever-growing spirit of immortification, a general effeminacy of character, which will lead, at last, to frightful social disorders? The sad predictions of Pope Benedict the Fourteenth are but too truly verified. Those nations, among whose people the spirit and practice of penance are extinct, are heaping against themselves the wrath of God, and provoking his justice to destroy them by one or other of these scourges, - civil discord, or conquest. In our own country, there is an inconsistency, which must strike every thinking mind:- the observance of the Lord’s Day, on the one side; the national inobservance of days of penance and fasting, on the other. - The first is admirable, and, (if we except puritanical extravagances,) be speaks a deep-rooted sense of religion: but the second is one of the worst presages for the future. No:- the word of God is too plain: unless we do penance, we shall perish [St. Luke, xiii. 3]. But, if our ease-loving and sensual generation were to return, like the Ninivites, to the long-neglected way of penance and expiation, - who knows, but that the arm of God which is already raised to strike us, may give us blessing, and not chastisement?

Let us resume our History, and seek our edification in studying the fervour wherewith the Christians of former times used to observe Lent. We will first offer to our readers a few instances of the manner in which Dispensations were given.

In the 13th century, the Archbishop of Braga applied to the reigning Pontiff, Innocent the Third, asking him, what compensation he ought to require of his people, who, in consequence of a dearth of the ordinary articles of food, had been necessitated to eat meat during the Lent? He at the same time, consulted the Pontiff as to how he was to act in the case of the sick, who asked for a dispensation from abstinence. The answer given by Innocent, which is inserted in the Canon Law [Decretal., lib. iii. cap. Concilium; de Jejunio. Tit. xlvi.], is, as we might expect, full of considerateness and charity; but we learn from this fact, that such was then the respect for the law of Lent, that it was considered necessary to apply to the Sovereign Pontiff, when dispensations were sought for. We find many such instances in the history of the Church.

Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia, being seized with a malady, which rendered it dangerous to his health to take Lenten diet, - he applied, in the year 1297, to Pope Boniface the Eighth, for leave to eat meat. The Pontiff commissioned two Cistercian Abbots to enquire into the real state of the Prince’s health: they were to grant the dispensation sought for, if they found it necessary; but on the following conditions: that the King had not bound himself by a vow, for life, to fast during Lent; that the Fridays, Saturdays, and the Vigil of St. Matthias, were to be excluded from the dispensation; and, lastly, that the King was not to take his meal in the presence of others, and was to observe moderation in what he took [Raynaldi, Ad ann. 1297].

In the 14th century, we meet with two Briefs of dispensation, granted by Clement the Sixth, in 1351, to John, King of France, and to his Queen consort. In the first, the Pope, - taking into consideration, that during the wars in which the King is engaged he frequently finds himself in places where fish can with difficulty be procured, - grants to the Confessor of the King the power of allowing, both to his majesty and his suite, the use of meat on days of abstinence, excepting, however, the whole of Lent, all Fridays of the year, and certain Vigils; provided, moreover, that neither he, nor those who accompany him, are under a vow of perpetual abstinence [D’Archery. Spicilegium. tom. iv.]. In the second Brief the same Pope, replying to the petition made him by the King for a dispensation from fasting, again commissions his Majesty’s present and future Confessors, to dispense both the King and his Queen, after having consulted with their Physicians [D’Archery. Spicilegium. tom. iv.].

A few years later, that is, in 1376, Pope Gregory the Eleventh sent a Brief in favour of Charles 5th, King of France, and of Jane, his Queen. In this Brief, he delegates to their Confessor the power of allowing them the use of eggs and milk-meats, during Lent, should their Physician, think they stand in need of such dispensation; but he tells both Physicians and Confessor, that he puts it upon their consciences, and that they will have to answer before God for their decision. The same permission is granted also to their servants and cooks, but only as far as it is needed for their tasting the food to be served to their Majesties.

The 15th century, also, furnishes us with instances of this applying to the Holy See for Lenten dispensations. We will cite the Brief addressed by Xystus the Fourth, in 1483, to James 3rd, King of Scotland; in which he grants him permission to eat meat on days of abstinence, provided his Confessor consider the dispensation needed [Raynald, Ad ann. 1484]. In the following century, we have Julius the Second granting a like dispensation to John, King of Denmark, and to his Queen Christina [Ibid. Ad ann. 1505]; and, a few years later, Clement the Seventh giving one to the Emperor Charles the Fifth, [Ibid. Ad ann. 1524], and, again, to Henry the Second of Navarre, and to his Queen Margaret [Ibid. Ad ann. 1533].

Thus were Princes themselves treated, three centuries ago, when they sought for a dispensation from the sacred law of Lent. What are we to think of the present indifference wherewith it is kept? What comparison can be made between the Christians of former times, who, deeply impressed with the fear of God’s judgments and with the spirit of penance, cheerfully went through these forty days of mortification, - and those of our own days, when love of pleasure and self-indulgence is for ever lessening man’s horror for sin? Where there is little or no fear of having to penance ourselves for sin, there is so much the less restraint to keep us from committing it.

Where now that simple and innocent joy at Easter, which our forefathers used to show, when, after their severe fast of Lent, they partook of substantial and savoury food? The peace, which long and sharp mortification ever brings to the conscience, gave them the capability, not to say the right, of being light-hearted as they returned to the comforts of life, which they had denied themselves, in order to spend forty days in penance, recollection, and retirement from the world. This leads us to mention some further details, which will assist the Catholic reader to understand what Lent was in the Ages of Faith.

It was a season, during which, not only all amusements and theatrical entertainments were forbidden by the civil authority [It was the Emperor Justinian who passed this law, as we learn from Photius; Nomocanon. tit. vii., cap. i. It is still in force in Rome.], but when even the Law Courts were closed; and this, in order to secure that peace and calm of heart, which is so indispensable for the Soul’s self-examination, and reconciliation with her offended Maker. As early as the year 380, Gratian and Theodosius enacted, that Judges should suspend all lawsuits and proceedings, during the forty days preceding Easter (Cod. Theodos., lib. ix., tit. xxxv., leg. 4.]. The Theodosian Code contains several regulations of this nature; and we find councils, held in the 9th century, urging the Kings of that period to enforce the one we have mentioned, seeing that it had been sanctioned by the Canons, and approved of by the Fathers of the Church [Labbe, Concil., tom. vii. and ix.]. These admirable Christian traditions have long since fallen into disuse in the countries of Europe; but they are still kept up among the Turks, who, during the forty days of their Ramadan, forbid all law proceedings. What a humiliation for us Christians!

Hunting, too, was for many ages considered as forbidden during Lent;- the spirit of the holy season was too sacred to admit such exciting and noisy sport. The Pope, St. Nicholas the First, in the 9th century, forbade it the Bulgarians [Ad Consultat. Bulgarorum. Labbe, Concil., tom. viii.], who had been recently converted to the Christian Faith. Even so late as the 13th Century, we find St. Raymund of Pegnafort teaching, that they who, during Lent, take part in the chase, if it be accompanied by certain circumstances, which he specifies, cannot be excused from sin [Summ. cas. Poenit., lib. iii, tit. xxix. De laps. et disp., §1]. This prohibition has long since been a dead letter; but St. Charles Borromeo, in one of his Synods, re-established it in his province of Milan.

But we cannot be surprised that Hunting should be forbidden during Lent, when we remember, that, in those Christian times, War itself, which is sometimes so necessary for the welfare of a nation, was suspended during this holy Season. In the 4th century, we have the Emperor Constantine the Great enacting, that no military exercises should be allowed on Sundays and Fridays, out of respect to our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered and rose again on these two days, as also in order not to disturb the peace and repose needed for the due celebration of such sublime mysteries [Euseb. Constant. vita, lib. iv.. cap. xviii. et xix.]. The discipline of the Latin Church, in the 9th century, enforced everywhere the suspension of war, during the whole of Lent, except in cases of necessity [Labbe, Concil. tom. vii]. The instructions of Pope St. Nicholas the First to the Bulgarians recommend the same observance [Ibid. tom. x]; and we learn, from a letter of St. Gregory the Seventh to Desiderius, Abbot of Monte Cassino, that it was kept up in the 11th century [Ibid. tom. x]. We have an instance of its being practised in our own country, in the 12th century, when, as William of Malmesbury relates, the Empress Matilda, Countess of Anjou, and daughter of King Henry, was contesting the right of succession to the throne against Stephen, Count of Boulogne. The two armies were in sight of each other;- but an armistice was demanded and observed, for it was the Lent of 1143 [Willhelm. Malmesbur. Hist. nov. no. 30].

Our readers have heard, no doubt, of the admirable institution called God’s Truce, whereby the Church, in the 11th century, succeeded in preventing much bloodshed. It was a law that forebade the carrying arms from Wednesday evening till Monday morning, throughout the year. It was sanctioned by the authority of Popes and Councils, and enforced by all Christian Princes. It was a continuing, during four days of each week of the year, the Lenten discipline of the suspension of war. Our saintly King, Edward the Confessor, gave a still greater extension to it, by passing a law, (which was confirmed by his successor, William the Conqueror,) that God’s Truce should be observed, without cessation, from the beginning of Advent to the Octave of Easter, from the Ascension to the Whitsuntide Octave; on all the Ember Days; on the Vigils of all feasts; and, lastly, every week, from None on Wednesday till Monday morning, which had been already prescribed [Labbe, Concil. tom. ix.].

In the Council of Clermont, held in 1095, Pope Urban the Second, after drawing up the regulations for the Crusades, used his authority in extending the God’s Truce, as it was then observed during Lent. His decree, which was renewed in the Council held the following year at Rouen, was to this effect: that all war proceedings should be suspended from Ash Wednesday to the Monday after the Octave of Pentecost, and on all Vigils and Feasts of the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles, over and above what was already regulated for each week, that is, from Wednesday evening to Monday morning [Orderic Vital. Hist. Eccles. lib. ix.].

Thus did the world testify its respect for the holy observances of Lent, and borrow some of its wisest institutions from the seasons and feasts of the liturgical year. The influence of this Forty-Days’ penance was great, too, on each individual. It renewed man’s energies, gave him fresh vigour in battling with his animal instincts, and, by the restraint it put upon sensuality, ennobled the soul. Yes, there was restraint everywhere; and the present discipline of the Church, which forbids the Solemnisation of Marriage, during Lent, reminds Christians of that holy continency, which, for many ages, was observed during the whole Forty Days as a precept, and of which the most sacred of the liturgical books - the Missal - still retains the recommendation [Missale Romanum. Missa pro sponso et sponsa].

It is with reluctance that we close our history of Lent, and leave untouched so many other interesting details. For instance, what treasures we could have laid open to our readers from the Lenten usages of the Eastern Churches, which have retained so much of the primitive discipline! We cannot, however, resist devoting our last page to the following particulars.

We mentioned in the preceding Volume, that the Sunday we call Septuagesima, is called, by the Greeks, Prophoné, because the opening of Lent is proclaimed on that day. The Monday following it is counted as the first day of the next week, which is Apocreos, the name they give to the Sunday which closes that week, and which is our Sexagesima Sunday. The Greek Church begins abstinence from flesh-meat with this week. Then, on the morrow, Monday, commences the week called Tyrophagos, which ends with the Sunday of that name, and which corresponds to our Quinquagesima. White-meats are allowed during that week. Finally, the morrow is the first day of the first week of Lent, and the Fast begins, with all its severity, on that Monday, whilst, in the Latin Church, it is deferred to the Wednesday.

During the whole of Lent, (at least, of the Lent preceding Easter,) milk-meats, eggs, and even fish, are forbidden. The only food permitted to be eaten with bread, is vegetables, honey, and, for those who live near the sea, shell-fish. For many centuries, wine might not be taken: but it is now permitted: and on the Annunciation and Palm Sunday, a dispensation is granted for eating fish.

Besides the Lent preparatory to the feast of Easter, the Greeks keep three others in the year: that which is called of the Apostles, which lasts from the Octave of Pentecost to the feast of Saints Peter and Paul; that of the Virgin Mary, which begins on the first of August, and ends with the Vigil of the Assumption; and lastly, the Lent of preparation for Christmas, which consists of forty days. The fasting and abstinence of these three Lents are not quite so severe as those observed during the great Lent. The other if Christian nations of the East also observe several Lents, and more rigidly than the Greeks; but all these details would lead us too far. We, therefore, pass on to the mysteries which are included in this holy season.

Visit the previous posts on All Hallow's Eve, All Saint's Day and All Souls Day Here

Feast of All Saints
 Sermons of the Cure d'Ars

 "I beseech thee, my son, look upon heave." - II. Mach. vii 28.
 
To-day, my dear Christians, is a day on which, more than on any other, the faithful look up to heaven and reflect, how supremely happy the saints who enjoy the bliss of heaven at the throne of Go; a day on which, by meditating on the never-ending happiness of the saints, an ardent longing is stirred in our hearts that we may one day take part in this happiness. But to reach this happiness we must not be satisfied with meditation alone. We must consider the way of living of the saints upon earth, and ask the question, How did they obtain their blissful state in heaven? We will consider in turn - 
 

I. The state of the saints on earth and


II. The state of the saints in heaven.


May the Lord bless our meditation.


I. The state of the saints on earth, my dear Christians, was neither pleasant, nor easy, not sweet, as the children of this world desire it or try to make it. No. Theirs was a lot both hard and difficult! They trod the paths which their Saviour himself had pointed out to them in the words: "So likewise every one of you that doth not renounce all that he possesseth cannot be my disciple" (Luke xvi 33). They followed the path on which Jesus Christ had promised them crosses and tribulations with these words: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matt. xvi. 24). They followed the path which Jesus calls a "narrow" waythat leadeth to life" (Matt. vii. 14). They followed in the service of God
at threefold hard path - namely, the path of renunciation. They renounced all worldly treasures and goods; they often gave all that they possessed to the poor, and then they themselves led a life of poverty. They wanted to be the disciples of Jesus, who in this world "had nowhere to lay his head" (Matt. viii. 20). They renounced all honors, all the dignities of man. Many of them came of princely and royal families renounced their title to the princely or royal throne which would have given them in the eyes of the world the highest honors, and they lived, unnoticed by the world, a life of greatest humility and retirement, bearing in mind the words of Jesus: "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Luke xviii. 14). They renounced all the pleasures and delights of the world, for they knew that they draw the heart from God and defile the soul with sin, and they sought only their joy in God by leading a holy life in His service, through which they said in the words of the prophet Isaias: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God" Isaias lxi. 10). And by all this renunciation they felt in their souls the highest possible happiness; in them was the world of the Psalmist fulfilled: "Blessed is the man who hath not had regard to vanities" (Ps. xxxix. 5.).
 
Dear Christians! We all have to-day the desire - yes, even the ardent longing - to enjoy one day with the saints in heaven their glory and their happiness.  But let us
consider well that the Christian whose thoughts and actions are only directed toward transitory treasures, honors, and pleasures is not on the path where the joys of heaven are found. Christians must not desire what is earthly but what is heavenly; not what is false,  but what is true; not what is temporary and fleeting, but what is eternal and never-ending. Therefore our hearts must not be set upon the treasures, honors, and pleasures of this world, so that we may not miss the end for which we were created -heaven. "For what doth is profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?" (Matt. xvi. 26.). Our Saviour calls to us Christians and exhorts us to strive after the happiness of heaven with these words: "Seek first the kingdom of God" (Matt. vi. 33). "The fool," says St. Ambrose, "holds with them who are of the world; the wise man prefers the eternal glory of heaven" (Serm. 37).
 
The saints of heaven, I will say further, chose to reachheaven by the way of mortification. The saints got to heaven by their virtues. Virtue and sin cannot dwell together in the soul. So that virtue might grow and strengthen, the saints uprooted the wicked propensity to sin in their flesh by practicing mortification. They considered it the object of their lives daily to mortify the desires of the flesh through the spirit, to overcome them, to struggle against them, and to uproot them entirely. "That was," as one of the  saints said, "their work and their struggle." For that reason they fasted  strictly; only tasted the poorest kind of food so as to give to their bodies only strength absolutely necessary, St. Makarius, to mortify himself, for seven long years only ate raw herbs and vegetables moistened in water. We know that many of the holy hermits lived on herbs and roots. Besides this strict fasting, they practiced mortification by chastising and scourging their bodies. They wore hair shirts and coarse garments of penance next to the skin, scourged their bodies with heavy cords and whipped themselves till the blood came. At night they did not lie on a soft bed, but most often on the hard ground, and only for a few hours to rest from their labors. We read in the life of St. Casimir, a Polish prince, that he wore a hair shirt in the midst of the gay pleasures and frivolities of the court; of Louis, King of France, that he never left off his hair shirt; of the pious Philip II. of Spain, that on his dying bed he gave his own son Philip a scourge covered with blood, with these words: "Keep this scourge which has so often been stained with my blood."

 You see, dear Christians, this is how the saints mortified themselves. They crucified their bodies inclined to sin, rooted out the cause of sin, so as to overcome all the temptations of the wicked one. What would some of the delicate children of the world say to this, those who never do the least harm to their worldliness, nor fast, nor deny their bodies anything, and therefore in time of temptation they are exposed to sin? Do they not think that what the saints did was a great deal too hard? That they did unnecessary things which God did not require of them? If God does not require such a harsh life of penance, still our Saviour's words are there when He says: "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away" (Matt. xi. 12).

 Lastly, the saints in heaven chose, so as to reach heaven, the way of the cross and suffering. They understood those words of Jesus: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me" (Matt. xvi. 24). For this reason they endured patiently the dungeon and fetters, the agonies of the stake and the scaffold;  allowed themselves to be torn asunder by wild beasts and, like their Lord and Master, be bound to the cross, remembering the worlds of St. Paul: "If we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him" (Rom, viii. 17). That
is why they bore all sufferings, not only with the greatest patience, but also gladly with joy. As St. Paul said of himself: "I am filled with comfort; I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation" (II. Cor. vii. 4). So could these saints say. "Never in my life," cried out St. Dorothy, in the midst of her martyrdom, "have I experienced such joy." and St. Andrew saluted the cross on which he was nailed with these words: "O, thou cherished and ardently longed-for cross! Thou bringest me happiness; therefore I approach thee with joy!" The saints, besides bearing with the greatest joy every pain which God sent them, even prayed to God when they were free from suffering that HE would not send them pleasures, but sufferings. St. Teresa's lifelong desire was "to suffer or to die." St.Francis Xaiver had such a great desire to suffer for Christ that once, when he was filled with consolation and happiness, he cried out, "It is enough, O Lord, it is enough!" while, on the other hand, when tribulation and suffering beset him, he cried: "Still more, O Lord, still more!" He was often heard to say these words: "O Lord, take not this cross away from me, or if so, then give me in its place a heavier one."

 My dear Christians, are we not astonished at what the saints have suffered, at the patience which they exhibited in all this suffering, at the longing which they showed for crosses and sufferings? And we complain when we have to suffer a little! We bear with impatience the slightest adversity sent to us from God. Let us remember that "through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God," and let us bear the little suffering which God sends us with patience and submission, so that we may by this,  like the saints, obtain the everlasting joys of heaven.

 So as to encourage us, let us consider what rewards the saints have obtained in heaven for their hard and difficult lot while on this earth.

 My dear Christians, the saints of God have undertaken and borne great things while on earth, and great things will God give them for all eternity, namely, heaven. They renounced everything in this world; they can, therefore, according to God's own promises, expect great things in the other world. They mortified themselves on earth, and therefore they can enjoy themselves for all eternity. And what are the joys which they have received from the Giver of all good gifts? I answer:

 (a) Joy without pain. Whenever man has any happiness the pain is not far off. If we enjoy a day of festivity, it is soon followed by a day of suffering. If we enjoy good health it is soon followed by indisposition or probably sickness. Here below our happiness is never perfect; it never lasts long; it is never enduring/ But what is the joy of the saints in heaven? Inchangeable and undisturbed. "Joy and gladness," says the Holy Ghost through the prophet Isaias (li. II). "they shall obtain; sorrow and mourning shall flee away." "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes," so we read in the Apocalypse of St. John (xxi. 4): "and death shall be no more; nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more." Oh, true life! Oh, eternal life! Oh, life of never-ending happiness!  There is joy without pain; rest without work, abundance without want, life without death, happiness without suffering. St.
Augustine says: "It is easier to say what is not in heaven than what is in heaven." There is found no death, no mourning, no weariness, no weakness, no hunger, n thirst, no heat, no sickness, no infirmity, no sadness, no melancholy. Now these things are not there. Do you wish to know what is there? There is an everlasting home where youth never grows old, where love never grows cold, where beauty never fades, where pleasure never ceases. For this reason the angels are portrayed as beautiful, youthful figures, although they have been creatures created for over six thousand years; there nothing decays; nothing loses its strength and beauty. 

 
(b) These joys without suffering are then unspeakable, great joys. "Oh, how great," says the Paslmist David, "is the multitude of Thy sweetness, O Lord, which Thou has hidden from them that fear Thee!" (Ps. xxx. 20). And he himself gives this answer: and Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of Thy pleasure. For with Thee is the fountain of life; and in Thy light we shall see light" (Ps. xxxv. 9). "For better is one day in Thy courts above thousands" (Ps. lxxxiii. II). And what reward our blessed Lord has Himself promised His servants in heaven with these words: "Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven" (Matt. v. 12). And what was the joy of St. Paul when he was deemed worthy to look into the third heaven! He is not able to describe it, therefore he falters the words: "The eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him" (I. Cor. ii. 9).



The holy fathers of the Church have often taken pains to try to express the sweetness and pleasantness of heavenly joys; but they were not able, as the great thinker St.  Augustine himself says, to describe these things as they really are, only in a certain way to feel them. "So great," saysSt. Augustine, comparingly, "is the glory of heavenly bliss that man, if he had only spent a single day there, would give
years of bliss and pleasures of this life for it."



"The reward of the saints in heaven," writes ST. Bernard, "is so great that man cannot measure it, so rich that man cannot give it utterance, and so precious that man cannot price it." And, therefore, to give us an idea of the joys of heaven, he breaks out in these words: "O joy above all joys! Joy that over reachest every joy, and out of thee there is no joy!" "O gaudium super gaudium! gaudium vincens
omne guadium, extra quod non est gaudium!"



"Place," writes a great theologian, "all the many great
happinesses which the world has together: the happiness to posses all earthly
treasures, the happiness of all power and honors, all the joys and pleasures of
a worldly life; multiply these happinesses a hundred, a thousand, a million
times, multiply them as much as and as often as you can, and they are not to be
compared with the never-ending joys of heaven. Compare, as in Holy Scripture,
the joys of heaven to a magnificent feast, a brilliant, joyous feast, and you
are still immeasureably short of the truth. As here below, trouble and
suffering, so there above the elect enjoy bliss and joy on all sides; and joy in
Jesus, their Saviour and their King, whose divine gracious countenance they love
to look upon; bliss and joy in Mary, their Mother and their Queen, whose
unutterable beauty delights them; bliss and joy at the exalted thorns which they
themselves occupy and at the glorious crown which adorns their heads; bliss and
joy at the hymns of praise us, by the choirs of heaven; bliss and joy at the
sight of the glory of their triumphant breathern." Truly, the prophet is right
when he says: "With the stream of Thy glory, O Lord, wilt Thou drown
them."



(c) Lastly, the joys of heaven are everlasting. The soul
of man is immortal, and everlasting and eternal is the reward for the souls of
the just. From the kingdom of God the Son in heaven the angel said to Mary: "And
of His kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke i. 33). Our Divine Saviour says
Himself of the reward of the just: "But the just into life everlasting" (Matt.
xxv. 46). When Christ spoke to His disciples of His return to the Father, He
said also to console them: "So also you now indeed have sorrow, but I will see
you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from
you" (John xvi. 22). That is to say, it shall last forever. And lastly,
St.  Paul
writes: "For our present tribulation, which is momentary and light, wortketh for
us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory" (II. Cor. iv.
17).



The eternal joy of heaven! What a glorious reward for the
  saints for their short renunciation of earthly things, for a short struggle
  with sin, for a short suffering borne with patience! "A short time," says
St. Augustine,
  "does work in this world last; eternal is the rest in heaven: short is the
  pain; eternal is the glory: short is the suffering; without end the joy" (in
Ps. 26). Source of Life, when shall I enter into Thy joys, from which no more
will be kept away? Oh true, sweet, and peasant life! O most sure rest, the most
restful happiness." And how long have the saints enjoyed this heavenly
happiness? For many decades, many hundreds of years. And how much of eternity
has passed for them already? Not a moment. And how much longer will they enjoy
the happiness in heaven? Centuries? No, forever! Or thousands of years? No,
forever! Or millions of years? No, forever! Or for as many years as there are
grains of sand on the earth or drops of water in the ocean? No, much longer,
much longer - forever! Oh, you saints in heaven, how inexpressibly happy are
you!
 
Now, my dear Christians, what are we going to do after the contemplation of the happiness of the saints in heaven? We all wish to cry out with ST. Aloysius: "We want to go to heaven! We want to go to heaven!" And so that we may reach heaven we must place all our though there, and not on this transitory world. As St. Symphorianus was led to the place of martyrdom, his pious  mother, who followed him, to give him encouragement to bear his triumphs steadfastly, repeated these words over and over again: "My child, my child, think of everlasting life!" Dear
 Christians, when it seems hard for you to renounce the world, to fight against
 sin, to return to God after sinning, to lead a Christian life and steadfastly
 walk in the paths of virtue; when trials frighten you, which no one is without;
 then think of the eternal reward which awaits you in heaven. Consider that for
 a little trouble you will receive a great reward, for an easy victory a good,
 and for a momentary trouble an everlasting reward. Undertake, therefore, this
 light this little, this short trouble which the way of virtue requires, and you
 will receive in reutrn a good, a great, and an everlasting reward in heaven.
 Amen.

This week's Keeping It Cathlic Monday is about keeping the season change Catholic. We are about to leave the days of summer and officially enter that season of fall, which brings us even close to the end of one Liturgical Year and the begining of another! I know many of us are counting down the days until we get to celebrate the feast days that come with the begining of the new Liturgical cycle. The Catholic Church many years ago turned a pagan celebration of the change of seasons into the Catholic Ember Days. If you are looking for some fast and abstinance recipes please visit our Feria Friday blog posts for great ideas!! Please enjoy the following article from Catholic Life (Impr. 1908) on Ember Days:

"He who is accustomed to renounce lawful gratifications easily abstains from forbidden pleasures." 
-  St. Gregory
 
Ember days, or Quarter Tense, are three fast days - Wednesday,
Friday, and Saturday - in each of the four seasons. In winter they occur in the
third week of Advent; in spring, in the first week of Lent; in summer, during
Whit week ; and in autumn, the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the Feast
of the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14).
 
These fasts were instituted to sanctify each season of the year,
and thus obtain the favours of God, especially His mercy. They were also
established to obtain the blessing of 
the Almighty on the fruits of the land. In spring we pray for fertility;
in summer, for preservation of the crops; in autumn, for a good harvest; and in
winter we offer up our grateful thanksgiving for the blessings
received.

 The Church, too, wishes us to pray for those who are to be ordained
priests on these days, that they may obtain the graces necessary to fulfill all
their obligations, and the virtues that adorn their sacred calling. "And when
they had ordained for them priests in every church, and had prayed with fasting,
they commended them to the Lord, in Whom they believed" (Acts xiv. 22).

 As alms generally accompany fasting and prayer, a donation towards
the education of priests for the foreign mission would be keeping with the
spirit of the Church on these occasions. We ought also to pray for vocations,
especially  for the foreign
missions. "The harvest is great, but the labourers few. Pray ye therefore the
Lord of the harvest, that He send labourers into the vineyard" (Matt. ix. 37,
38).

 These days should also remind us of asking ourselves how we stand
with regard to God. If there be anything troubling our conscience, we ought to
set it right, and then make good resolutions for the coming quarter. Thus,
keeping ourselves always ready for the final summons, death will be disarmed of
its terrors, and the close of life will be marked with a beautiful
serenity.

 
"And grant us, while by fasts we strive,
 This mortal body to control,
 To fast from all the food of sin,
 And so to purify the soul.'



Example - The Machabees

 Seven brothers, commonly known as the Machabees, were apprehended
and ordered to eat swine's flesh, which was forbidden by the law of Moses. On
refusing they were ordered to be tortured. Antiochus himself presided at the
martyrdom, and being enraged to see such constancy in age so tender, he tried
every means to terrify and torture them into a compliance with his impious
demands. He condemned them to undergo the same torments one after another, that the sufferings of the foregoing might intimidate the next, The eldest was first
called out, in the presence of his mother and brothers.  He declared that he was ready to die rather than to transgress the laws of God, received from his forefathers. The executioners cut out his tongue, chopped off the extremities of his hands and feet, drew the skin from off his head, and then cast the body into a cauldron, where the remains of agonizing life were consumed by slow fire.
 
The first being thus barbarously slain, the rest were successively
tormented and slain in the same manner. Each advanced 
in his turn, each with the same manly fortitude bore the tyrant's
tortures, and each with the same steady perseverance triumphed over his savage
inhumanity. They adored the decrees of God, Who was pleased to make this trial
of their faith. They readily submitted to the torments in punishment for their
sins.

  They cheerfully
resigned a life which they hoped to receive again by a glorious resurrection.
And as if the sight of sufferings had inspired them with fresh courage, they
told the tyrant that he was not to fancy them abandoned by their God; that it
was impious folly in him thus to fight against the Almighty; that he was but a
passing scourge in the Almighty's hand, and would himself soon feel the
vengeance prepared for his chastisement. Antiochus would willingly have pardoned
their reproaches if he could have got the better of their fortitude. Six of the
brothers had gloriously conquered by their death; the seventh only remained, the
youngest of them all, and him the tyrant hoped to gain by caresses and fair
promises. He promised him his friendship, wealth, and happiness, if he would
only abjure the laws of his forefathers. When he perceived that his words made
no impression, he called upon the mother, and desired her, if she had any
fondness left for an only surviving son, to disabuse him of his error, and by
her advice to preserve his life. The incomparable woman, who to a mother's
tenderness joined a manly fortitude of mind, despised the tyrant's
solicitations, and in derision promised that she would advise her son, since he
desired it. 
 
Wherefore, bending towards the young man, she exhorted him in her
native tongue that he would have pity on her who had borne him in her womb and
reared him; that he would not fear the tormentor, but look up to God, the
Creator of all things; and that he would courageously follow the glorious
example of his brothers, that so, by the Divine mercy, she might be worthy to
receive them all again in life eternal. Animated with fresh resolution, the
young man said to the executioners: "Behold me fixed in the resolution of
obeying the law; nor will I disobey God to obey the King." The tyrant foamed
with rage to see himself thus defeated. With fiercer barbarity than he had shown
against the other six brothers, he discharged his fury upon the seventh, and
tortured him to death. The illustrious mother, having nothing more to fear for
her sons, followed them with redoubled vigour in their victorious career, and
with them laid down her own life, on the same day in the same glorious
cause.
 
Antiochus shortly afterwards ended a miserable life by a most
miserable death.


 

Welcome to another Feria Friday! Here are this weeks Fabulous Five Recipes!

1.) Pumpkin Lasagna from Taste of Home (Thank you Kris for the recommendation!)

2.) Skillet Eggplant & Lentils with Almond Parmesan from Fat Free Vegan Blog

3.) Chili Stuffed Pepers from Fat Free Vegan Blog

4.) Mexican Bean Burgers from Allrecipes.com

5.) Maple Glazed Salem with Pineapple Salsa by Food.com

What are you having for dinner tonight? Please leave a comment and let us know, or share your favorite Friday dish!