Part 2: The Celebration of the Christian Mystery (1066 - 1690)
Section 2: The Seven Sacraments of the Church (1210 - 1690)
Chapter 1: The Sacraments of Christian Initiation (1212 - 1419)
Article 3: The Sacrament of the Eucharist (1322 - 1419)
V. THE SACRAMENTAL SACRIFICE: THANKSGIVING, MEMORIAL, PRESENCE ⇡
The sacrificial memorial of Christ and of his Body, the Church ⇡
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The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of the Church. The Church which is the Body of Christ participates in the offering of her Head. With him, she herself is offered whole and entire. She unites herself to his intercession with the Father for all men. In the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of his Body. The lives of the faithful, their praise, sufferings, prayer, and work, are united with those of Christ and with his total offering, and so acquire a new value. Christ's sacrifice present on the altar makes it possible for all generations of Christians to be united with his offering. In the catacombs the Church is often represented as a woman in prayer, arms outstretched in the praying position. Like Christ who stretched out his arms on the cross, through him, with him, and in him, she offers herself and intercedes for all men.
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The whole Church is united with the offering and intercession of Christ. Since he has the ministry of Peter in the Church, the Pope is associated with every celebration of the Eucharist, wherein he is named as the sign and servant of the unity of the universal Church. The bishop of the place is always responsible for the Eucharist, even when a priest presides; the bishop's name is mentioned to signify his presidency over the particular Church, in the midst of his presbyterium and with the assistance of deacons. The community intercedes also for all ministers who, for it and with it, offer the Eucharistic sacrifice: Let only that Eucharist be regarded as legitimate, which is celebrated under [the presidency of] the bishop or him to whom he has entrusted it.191
Through the ministry of priests the spiritual sacrifice of the faithful is completed in union with the sacrifice of Christ the only Mediator, which in the Eucharist is offered through the priests' hands in the name of the whole Church in an unbloody and sacramental manner until the Lord himself comes.192
191.
St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Smyrn. 8:1;SCh 10,138.
192.
PO 2 § 4.
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To the offering of Christ are united not only the members still here on earth, but also those already in the glory of heaven. In communion with and commemorating the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, the Church offers the Eucharistic sacrifice. In the Eucharist the Church is as it were at the foot of the cross with Mary, united with the offering and intercession of Christ.
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The Eucharistic sacrifice is also offered for the faithful departed who "have died in Christ but are not yet wholly purified,"193 so that they may be able to enter into the light and peace of Christ: Put this body anywhere! Don't trouble yourselves about it! I simply ask you to remember me at the Lord's altar wherever you are.194
Then, we pray [in the anaphora] for the holy fathers and bishops who have fallen asleep, and in general for all who have fallen asleep before us, in the belief that it is a great benefit to the souls on whose behalf the supplication is offered, while the holy and tremendous Victim is present. ... By offering to God our supplications for those who have fallen asleep, if they have sinned, we ... offer Christ sacrificed for the sins of all, and so render favorable, for them and for us, the God who loves man.195
193.
Council of Trent (1562): DS 1743.
194.
St. Monica, before her death, to her sons, St. Augustine and his brother; Conf. 9,11,27:PL 32,775.
195.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. myst. 5,9,10:PG 33,1116-1117.
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St. Augustine admirably summed up this doctrine that moves us to an ever more complete participation in our Redeemer's sacrifice which we celebrate in the Eucharist: This wholly redeemed city, the assembly and society of the saints, is offered to God as a universal sacrifice by the high priest who in the form of a slave went so far as to offer himself for us in his Passion, to make us the Body of so great a head. ... Such is the sacrifice of Christians: "we who are many are one Body in Christ" The Church continues to reproduce this sacrifice in the sacrament of the altar so well-known to believers wherein it is evident to them that in what she offers she herself is offered.196
196.
St. Augustine, De civ Dei, 10,6:PL 41,283; cf. Rom 12:5.
Collect: Lord God, to whom belongs all creation, and who call us to serve you by caring for the gifts that surround us, inspire us by the example of Saint Isidore to share our food with the hungry and to work for the salvation of all people. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
o Paella I
o Paella II
o Explanation and Origin of Rogation Days
o Hymn: Holy God, We Praise Thy Name
o May, the Month of Mary
o The Man of the House
o Seed Planting: Prayer to St. Isidore
o Novena to St. Isidore the Farmer
o Prayer of the Christian Farmer
o Prayer of a Rural Family
o Prayer for Rain
o Prayer Against Pests
o Prayer Against Storms and Floods
o Prayer of Thanksgiving
o Litany of St. Isidore
o Prayer of the Christian Farmer and Gardener
o Novena to St. Rita
o Prayer to Saint Isidore the Farmer, Patron of Countrymen
o Prayer in Honor of Saint Isidore the Farmer
o Rogation Days Procession
o A Spiritual and Material Mission to Rural America | The Most Reverend Edwin V. O'Hara D.D.
o Animals in the Psalter | Marion Craig
o Back to the Land! | Emerson Hynes
o Farming with Integrity | Catherine Doherty
o For This We Stand | Mons. L. G. Ligutti
o Manifesto on Rural Life | Bishop Aloisius J. Muench D.D.
o Mater Et Magistra (Christianity and Social Progress) | Pope John XXIII
o Partnership with God: Christ Glorified in the Sacrifice of the Farmer | Bishop Aloisius J. Muench D.D.
o Prayers for Farmers | John Hennig M.A.
o Rural Life in a Peaceful World | National Catholic Rural LIfe Conference
o Sacramental Protection of the Family | Emerson Hynes
o Seven Keys to a Christian Home | Emerson Hynes
o Seven Keys to a Christian Home | Emerson Hynes
o Speech to Italian Farmers | Pope Pius XII
o Standing on Both Feet: The Rural Homestead | Rev. Patrick T. Quinlan
o The Land and the Spirit | The Most Reverend Peter W. Bartholome D.D.
o The Pope (Pius XII and Leo XIII) Speaks on Rural Life | Pope Pius XII
o The Task of Woman in the Modern World | Janet Kalven
o Towards a Better Distribution of Land: the Challenge of Agrarian Reform | Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
o Woman and Post-War Reconstruction | Janet Kalven
· Easter: May 15th
· Optional Memorial of St. Isidore (USA)
Old Calendar: St. John Baptist de la Salle, confessor; St. Dymphna, virgin and martyr (Hist)
Isidore was a Spanish laborer who worked most of his life as a ploughman for a nobleman who lived near Madrid, Spain. Although working many hours a day, he never failed to attend daily Mass, and spend time praying before the Holy Eucharist. He married a maid-servant, Maria de la Cabeza, who was also canonized a saint. They were always willing to help their neighbors and worked with the poor in the city slums. In 1947, he was proclaimed the Patron of the National Rural Life Conference in the United States.
According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. John Baptist de la Salle. He was inspired by God to give a Christian education to the poor, he founded the Brothers of the Christan Schools which soon spread throughout the world. In private life he treated himself with extreme rigor. He died in 1719. His feast in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is celebrated on April 7.
Historically today is the feast of St. Dymphna, the daughter of a pagan Celtic chieftain and a Christian. She fled from home on the death of her mother to escape the incestuous interest of her father and went to Antwerp accompanied by her confessor, St. Gerebernus, and two companions. They then built an oratory at Gheel where they lived as hermits. Tracked down by Dymphna's father, the two companions and the priest were murdered by his men, and Dymphna was beheaded by her father when she refused to return with him.
St. Isidore the Farmer
When he was barely old enough to wield a hoe, Isidore entered the service of John de Vergas, a wealthy landowner from Madrid, and worked faithfully on his estate outside the city for the rest of his life. He married a young woman as simple and upright as himself who also became a saint-Maria de la Cabeza. They had one son, who died as a child.
Isidore had deep religious instincts. He rose early in the morning to go to church and spent many a holiday devoutly visiting the churches of Madrid and surrounding areas. All day long, as he walked behind the plow, he communed with God. His devotion, one might say, became a problem, for his fellow workers sometimes complained that he often showed up late because of lingering in church too long.
He was known for his love of the poor, and there are accounts of Isidore's supplying them miraculously with food. He had a great concern for the proper treatment of animals.
He died May 15, 1130, and was declared a saint in 1622 with Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila and Philip Neri. Together, the group is known in Spain as "the five saints."
Patron: Farmers; farm workers; ranchers; rural communities; Madrid, Spain; National Catholic Rural Life Conference in the United States; death of children; for rain; livestock.
Symbols: White oxen; spade; hoe or rake; plough.
Things to Do:
St. Dymphna
Daughter of a pagan Irish chieftain named Damon, and a beautiful devoted Christian woman whose name has not come down to us. Her mother died when Dymphna was a teenager. Her father searched the Western world for a woman to replace his wife, but none could. Returning home, he saw that his daughter was as beautiful as her mother, and maddened by grief, he made advances on her. She fought him off, then fled to Belgium with Saint Gerebernus, an elderly priest and family friend.
Dymphna’s father searched for them, and his search led to Belgium. There an innkeeper refused to accept his money, knowing it was difficult to exchange. This told Damon that his daughter was close - it would be unusual for a village innkeeper to know a lot about foreign currency, and his knowledge indicated that had recently seen it. The king concentrated his search in the area. When he found them in Gheel, he beheaded Gerebernus, and demanded that Dymphna surrender to him. She refused, and he killed her in a rage.
The site where she died is known for its miraculous healings of the insane and possessed. There is now a well-known institution on the site, and her relics are reported to cure insanity and epilepsy.
— Saints.SQPN.com
Patron: Against sleepwalking; against epilepsy; against insanity; against mental disorders; against mental illness; epileptics; family happiness; incest victims; loss of parents; martyrs; mental asylums; mental health caregivers; mental health professionals; mental hospitals; mentally ill people; nervous disorders; neurological disorders; possessed people; princesses; psychiatrists; rape victims; runaways; sleepwalkers; therapists
Symbols: Being beheaded by the king; kneeling at Mass while her father murders the priest Gerebernus; lamp; praying in a cloud surrounded by a group of lunatics bound with golden chains; princess holding a lamp and sword; princess with a sword holding the devil on a leash; young woman with Saint Gerebernus
Things to Do:
16. Verily, verily, I say to you, The servant is not greater than his lord: neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
17. If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.
18. I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.
19. Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, you may believe that I am he.
20. Verily, verily, I say to you, He that receives whomsoever I send receives me; and he that receives me receives him that sent me.
CHRYS He continues to urge them to wash one another's feet; Verily, verily, I Say to you, The servant is not greater than his lord, neither He that is sent greater than He that sent Him; as if to say, If I do it, much more ought you.
THEOPHYL. This was a necessary admonition to the Apostles, some of whom were about to rise higher, others to lower degrees of eminence. That none might exult over another, He changes the hearts of all.
BEDE. To know what is good, and not to do it, tends not to happiness, but to condemnation; as James said, To him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin (James 4:17). Wherefore He adds, If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.
CHRYS. For all know, but all do not do. He then rebukes the traitor, not openly, but covertly: I speak not of you all.
AUG. As if to say, There is one among you who will not be blessed, nor does these things. I know whom I have chosen. Whom, but those who shall be happy by doing His commandments? Judas therefore was not chosen. But if so, why does He say in another place, Have not I chosen you twelve? Because Judas was chosen for that for which he was necessary, but not for that happiness of which He says, Happy are you, if you do them.
ORIGEN. Or thus: I speak not of you all, does not refer to, Happy are you if you do them. For of Judas, or any other person, it may be said, Happy is he if he do them. The words refer to the sentence above, The servant is not greater than his lord, neither He that is sent greater than He that sent Him. For Judas, being a servant of sin, was not a servant of the Divine Word; nor an Apostle, when the devil had entered into him. Our Lord knew those who were His, and did not know who were not His, and therefore says, not, I know all present, but, I know whom I have chosen, i.e. I know My Elect.
CHRYS. Then, that He might not sadden them all, He c adds, But that the Scripture must be fulfilled, He that eats bread with Me, has lifted up his heel against Me: strewing that He knew who the traitor was, an intimation that would surely have checked him, if anything would. He does not say, shall betray Me, but, shall lift up his heel against Me, alluding to his deceit and secret plotting.
AUG. Shall lift up his heel against Me, i.e. shall tread upon Me. The traitor Judas is meant.
CHRYS. He that eats bread with Me; i.e. who was fed by Me, who partook of My table. So that if injured ever by our servants or inferiors, we need not be offended. Judas had received infinite benefits, and yet thus requited his Benefactor.
AUG. They then who were chosen ate the Lord; he ate the bread of the Lord, to injure the Lord; they ate life, he damnation; for he that eats unworthily, eats damnation to himself (1 Cor 11:27).
Now I tell you before it come, that when it is come, you may believe that I am He, i.e. of whom that Scripture foretold.
ORIGEN. That you may believe, is not said, as if the Apostles did not believe already, but is equivalent to saying, Do as you believe, and persevere in your belief, seeking for no occasion of falling away. For besides the evidences the disciples had already seen, they had now that of the fulfillment of prophecy.
CHRYS. As the disciples were about to go forth and to suffer many things, He consoles them by promising His own assistance and that of others; His own, when He says, Happy are you if you do them; that of others, in what follows, Verily, verily, I say to you, He that receives whomsoever I send, receives Me; and he that receives Me receives Him that sent Me.
ORIGEN. For he that receives him whom Jesus sends, receives Jesus who is represented by him; and he that receives Jesus, receives the Father. Therefore he that receives whom Jesus sends, receives the Father that sent. The words may have this meaning too: He that receives whom I send, had attained unto receiving Me: he who receives Me not by means of any Apostle, but by My own entrance into his soul, receives the Father; so that not only I abide in him, but the Father also.
AUG. The Arians, when they hear this passage, appeal immediately to the gradations in their system, that as far as the Apostle is from the Lord, so far is the Son from the Father. But our Lord has left us no room for doubt on this head; for He said, I and My Father are one.
But how shall we understand those words of our Lord, He that receives Me, receives Him that sent Me? If we take them to mean that the Father and the Son are of one nature it will seem to follow, when He says, He that receives whomsoever 1 send, receives Me, that the Son and an Apostle are of one nature.
May not the meaning be, He that receives whosoever I send, receives Me, i.e. Me as man: But He that receives Me, i. e as God, receives Him that sent Me. But it is not this unity of nature, which is here put forth, but the authority of the Sender, as represented by Him who is sent. In Peter hear Christ, the Master of the disciple, in the Son the Father, the Begotten of the Only Begotten.
Catena Aurea John 13
