SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY
The Liturgical
Year
Dom Guéranger, O.S.B.
The
Church offers to our consideration, during this week of Sexagesima, the history
of Noah and the deluge. Man has not profited by the warnings already given him.
God is obliged to punish him once more, and by a terrible chastisement. There is
found out of the whole human race one just man; God makes a covenant with him,
and with us through him. But, before He draws up this new alliance, He would
show that He is the sovereign Master, and that man, and the earth whereon he lives,
subsist solely by His power and permission.
As the ground-work of this
week’s instructions, we give a short passage from the Book of Genesis: it is
read in the Office of this Sunday’s Matins.
From the Book of Genesis.
Ch. vi.
And
God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the earth, and that all the
thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times, it repented him that he
had made man on the earth. And being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, he
said: I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, from
man even to beasts, from the creeping thing even to the fowls of the air. For
it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace before
the
Lord.
These are the generations of Noah: Noah
was a just and perfect man in his generations: he walked with God. And he begot
three sons: Sem, Chain, and Japheth. And the earth was corrupted before God,
and was filled with iniquity. And when God had seen that the earth was corrupted
(for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth), he said to Noah: The end
of all flesh is come before me: the earth is filled with iniquity through them,
and I will destroy them with the earth.
This awful chastisement of the
human race by the deluge was a fresh consequence of sin. This time, however, there
was found one just man; and it was through him and his family that the world was
restored. Having once more mercifully renewed His covenant with His creatures,
God allows the earth to be repeopled, and makes the three sons of Noah become
the fathers of the three great families of the human race.
This is the mystery of the
Divine Office during the week of Sexagesima. The mystery expressed in today’s
Mass is of still greater importance, and the former is but a figure of it. The
earth is deluged by sin and heresy. But the word of God, the seed of life, is
ever producing a new generation: a race of men, who, like Noah, fear God. It is
the word of God that produces those happy children, of whom the beloved
disciple speaks, saying: ‘They are born not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.’ Let us endeavour to be of this
family; or, if we are already numbered among its members, let us zealously maintain
our glorious position. What we have to do, during these days of Septuagesima, is to escape from the deluge of worldliness,
and take shelter in the Ark of salvation; we have to become that good soil, which yields a hundredfold
from the heavenly seed. Let us flee
from the wrath to come, lest we perish with the enemies of God: let us hunger
after that word of God, which converteth and giveth life to souls.
With the Greeks, this is the seventh day
of their week Apocreos, which begins on the Monday after our Septuagesima
Sunday. They call this week Apocreos, because they then begin to abstain from flesh-meat,
which abstinence is observed till Easter Sunday.
SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY PROPERS
Semi-double Second Class
Violet vestments
At Rome the Station is in the
basilica of St. Paul outside the walls. It is around the tomb of the Doctor of
the Gentiles, the zealous sower of the divine seed, the father by his preaching
of so many nations, that the Roman Church assembles her children on this
Sunday, whereon she is about to announce to them how God spared the earth on
the condition that it should be peopled with true believers and with faithful
adorers of His name.
INTROIT - Psalm 43: 23-26
Exsúrge,
quare obdórmis, Dómine? exsúrge, et ne repéllas in finem. Quare fáciem tuam
avértis, oblivísceris tribulatiónem nostram? adhǽsit in terra venter
noster: exsúrge, Dómine, ádjuva nos, et
líbera nos. Ps. 43. 2 Deus, áuribus nostris
audívimus: patres nostri annuntiavérunt nobis. V. Glória Patri.
Exsúrge, quare obdórmis…
Arise,
why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, and cast us not off to the end. Why turnest
thou thy face away? and forgettest our tribulation? Our belly cleaveth to the
earth. Arise, O Lord, help us, and deliver us.
Ps. We have heard, O God, with our ears: our fathers have
declared to us thy wonders. V. Glory be.
Arise, why sleepest thou…
In the Collect, the Church
expresses the confidence she puts in the prayers of the great apostle St. Paul,
that zealous sower of the divine seed, who laboured more than the other
apostles in preaching the word to the Gentiles.
COLLECT
O
God, who seest that we place no confidence in anything we do: mercifully grant
that, by the protection of the Doctor of the Gentiles, we may be defended
against all adversity. Through our Lord.
The Epistle is that admirable
passage from one of St. Paul’s Epistles, in which the great apostle, for the
honour and interest of his sacred ministry, is necessitated to write his
defence against the calumnies of his enemies. We learn from this his apology
what labours the apostles had to go through, in order to sow the word of God in
the barren soil of the Gentile world, and make it Christian.
EPISTLE - 2 Corinthians 11: 19-33; 12:
1-9
Brethren:
You gladly suffer the foolish: whereas yourselves are wise. For you suffer if a
man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take from you, if a
man be lifted up, if a man strike you on the face. I speak according to dishonor,
as if we had been weak in this part.
Wherein if any man dare (I speak foolishly), I dare also. They are
Hebrews, so am I. They are Israelites, so am I. They are the seed of Abraham,
so am I. They are the ministers of Christ (I speak as one less wise), I am
more: in many more labours, in prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure,
in deaths often. Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes save one.
Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck,
a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea: in journeying often, in perils
of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from
the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in
the sea, in perils from false brethren: in labour and painfulness, in much
watching, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness;
besides those things which are without, my daily instance, the solicitude for
all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am
not on fire? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my
infirmity. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for
ever, knoweth that I lie not. At Damascus the governor of the nation under
Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes, to apprehend me: and
through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and so escaped his
hands. If I must glory (it is not expedient indeed) but I will come to visions
and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ about fourteen years ago,
whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knoweth:
such a one caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man, whether in the
body or out of the body I know not, God knoweth: that he was caught up into
paradise, and heard secret words which it is not granted to man to utter. For
such a one I will glory: but for myself
I will glory nothing but in my infirmities. For, though I should have a mind to
glory, I shall not be foolish: for I will say the truth: but I forbear, lest
any man should think of me above that which he seeth in me, or anything he
heareth from me. And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me,
there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me. For
which thing, thrice I besought the Lord that it might depart from me. And He
said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee, for power is made perfect in
infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of
Christ may dwell in me.
In the Gradual, the Church
beseeches her Lord to give her strength against those who oppose the mission He
has entrusted to her, of gaining for Him a new people, adorers of His sovereign
Majesty.
GRADUAL - Psalm 82: 19, 14
Let
the Gentiles know that God is Thy name: Thou alone art the Most High over all
the earth.V. O my God, make them like a wheel, and as stubble
before the wind.
Whilst the earth is being moved, and is suffering those terrible
revolutions which, deluge-like, come first on one nation and then on another,
the Church prays for her faithful children, in order that they may be spared,
for they are the elect, and the hope of
the world. It is thus she prays in the following Tract, which precedes the
Gospel of the word.
TRACT - Psalm 59: 4, 6
Thou
hast moved the earth, O Lord, and hast troubled it.
TRACT - Psalm 59: 4, 6
Thou
hast moved the earth, O Lord, and hast troubled it.
V. Heal Thou the breaches thereof, for it has been moved.
V. That they may flee from before the bow: that Thine
elect may be delivered.
GOSPEL - Luke 8: 4-15
At that time, when a very great multitude was gathered together and
hastened out of the cities unto Jesus, He spoke by a similitude: The sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the
wayside, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And
other some fell upon a rock: and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away,
because it had no moisture. And other some fell among thorns, and the thorns
growing up with it choked it. And other some fell upon good ground: and being
sprung up yielded fruit a hundredfold. Saying these things, He cried out:
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And His disciples asked Him what this
parable might be. To whom He said: To you it is given to know the mystery of
the kingdom of God, but to the rest in parables: that seeing they may not see,
and hearing may not understand. Now the parable is this: The seed is the word
of God. And they by the wayside are they that hear: then the devil cometh and
taketh the word out of their heart, lest believing they should be saved. Now
they upon the rock are they who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and
these have no roots: for they believe for a while, and in time of temptation
they fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they who have heard and,
going their way, are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this
life, and yield no fruit. But that on the good ground are they who in a good
and perfect heart, hearing the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit in
patience.
St. Gregory the Great justly remarks, that this parable needs no explanation, since
eternal Wisdom Himself has told us its meaning. All that we have to do, is to
profit by this divine teaching, and become the good soil, wherein the heavenly
seed may yield a rich harvest. How often have we, 'hitherto, allowed it to be
trampled on by them that passed by, or to be torn up by the birds of the air!
How often has it found our heart like a stone, that could give no moisture, or
like a thorn plot, that could but choke! We listened to the word of God; we
took pleasure in hearing it; and from this we argued well for ourselves. Nay,
we have often received this word with joy and eagerness. Sometimes, even, it
took root within us. But, alas! something always came to stop its growth.
Henceforth, it must both grow and yield fruit. The seed given to us is of such
quality, that the divine Sower has a right to expect a hundred-fold. If the
soil, that is, our heart, be good; if we take the trouble to prepare it, by
profiting of the means afforded us by the Church; we shall have an abundant
harvest to show our Lord on that grand day, when, rising triumphant from His
tomb, He will come to share with His faithful people the glory of His
Resurrection.
OFFERTORY - Psalm 16: 5, 6-7
Perfect
Thou my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps be not moved: incline Thy ear,
and hear my words: show forth Thy wonderful mercies, Thou who savest them that
trust in Thee, O Lord.
SECRET
May
the sacrifice offered unto Thee, O Lord, ever quicken and protect us. Through our Lord.
PREFACE OF THE HOLY TRINITY
It
is truly meet and just, right and for our salvation, that we should at all
times and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty,
everlasting God: Who, together with Thine only-begotten Son, and the Holy
Ghost, are one God, one Lord: not in the oneness of a single Person, but in the
Trinity of one substance. For what we believe by Thy revelation of Thy glory,
the same do we believe of Thy Son, the same of the Holy Ghost, without difference
or separation. So that in confessing the true and everlasting Godhead,
distinction in persons, unity in essence, and equality in majesty may be
adored. Which the Angels and Archangels, the Cherubim also and Seraphim do
praise: who cease not daily to cry out with one voice saying:
The visit, which our Lord makes
to us in the Sacrament of His love, is the grand means whereby He gives
fertility to our souls. Hence it is that the
Church invites us, in the
Communion antiphon, to draw nigh to the altar of our God; there, our heart shall
regain all the youthful fervour of its best days.
COMMUNION – Psalm 43: 4
I
will go in unto the Altar of God. Unto God, who giveth joy to my youth.
POSTCOMMUNION
We
humbly beseech Thee, almighty God to grant that they whom Thou refreshest with
Thy sacraments, may serve Thee worthily by a life well pleasing unto Thee. Through our Lord.
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