Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 11-22-05, Memorial, St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr

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Tuesday, November 22, 2005
St. Cecilia, Virgin, Martyr (Memorial)

First Reading:
Psalm:
Gospel:

Daniel 2:31-45
Daniel 3:57-61
Luke 21:5-11

If people would do for God what they do for the world, my dear people, what a great number of Christians would go to Heaven! But if you dear children, had to pass three or four hours praying in a Church, as you pass them at a dance or in a cabaret, how heavily the world would press upon you.

-- St John Vianney

Verse 11 got cut off:

There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.

The incorrupt body of Saint Cecilia
Stefano Maderno

Note the gash in Saint Cecilia's neck from the executioner's incomplete strike. Note, too, the three fingers extended in her right hand and the one in her left -- the dying saint's final testimony of faith in the Trinity.

Fantastic photo, thanks.

Catholic Culture

Collect:
Lord of mercy, be close to those who call upon you. With Saint Cecilia to help us hear and answer our prayers. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Recipes:

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» Cecilias

Activities:

Prayers:

» Daily Acceptance of Death

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November 22, 2005

Memorial of St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr

Old Calendar: St. Cecilia

Today the Church celebrates the memorial of St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr. St. Cecilia is one of the most famous and most venerated of Roman martyrs. Her body was discovered in 822 and transferred to the title church that bears her name in Trastevere in Rome. It is difficult to determine the date at which she lived. The legend which recounts the Saint's martyrdom and that of her husband St. Valerian, as also of St. Tiburtius, her brother-in-law, places her martyrdom in the pontificate of Urban I (222-230); but the authenticity of this account cannot be established, nor can we be sure of the persons who suffered with her nor of the date of her martyrdom.

St. Cecilia
Cecilia was so highly venerated by the ancient Roman Church that her name was placed in the Canon of the Mass. Already in the fourth century there was a church of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, erected on the site where her home had stood. Her martyrdom probably occurred during the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus, about the year 230. In 1599 her grave was opened and her body found in a coffin of cypress wood. It lay incorrupt, as if she had just breathed forth her soul. Stephen Maderna, who often saw the body, chiseled a statue that resembled the body as closely as possible. Since the Middle Ages, Cecilia has been honored as patroness of Church music, a practice having its source in a false application of a passage from the Office (cantantibus organis).

Apart from the fact of her martyrdom, we know practically nothing about her that is historically genuine. Among other details the breviary offers the following:

Cecilia led a life of prayer and meditation and had vowed lifelong virginity, but a youth by the name of Valerian, relying upon the approval of her parents, hoped to marry her. When the wedding night arrived, she confided to Valerian, "There is a secret, Valerian, I wish to tell you. I have as a lover an angel of God who jealously guards my body." Valerian promised to believe in Christ if he would be enabled to see that angel. Cecilia explained how such was impossible without baptism, and Valerian consented to be baptized. After he was baptized by Pope Urban and had returned "He found Cecilia in her little room lost in prayer, and next to her the angel of the Lord was standing. When Valerian saw the angel, he was seized with great terror." The angel handed to them a bouquet of fiery red roses and snow-white lilies as a reward for Cecilia's love of chastity, a bouquet that would not wither, yet would be visible only to those who love chastity. As a further favor Valerian besought the conversion of his brother Tiburtius.

Upon arriving to congratulate the newlyweds, Tiburtius was astounded by the unspeakably beautiful roses and lilies. As soon as he was informed regarding their origin, he too asked for the waters of baptism. "St. Cecilia said to Tiburtius: Today I acknowledge you as a brother-in-law, because the love of God has made you despise the idols. Just as the love of God gave me your brother as a spouse, so it has given you to me as a brother in-law." When Almachius, the prefect, heard of the conversions, he ordered Maximus, his officer, to arrest and imprison all of them. Before being put to death, they instructed Maximus and his family, and baptized them during the night preceding execution.

At dawn Cecilia roused the two brothers to struggle heroically for Christ, as the glow of morning disappeared, Cecilia called: "Arise, soldiers of Christ, throw away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light." Cecilia pursued her victory as the soldiers willingly listened, "We believe that Christ is the true Son of God, who has chosen such a servant." Led before the prefect, she professed her faith in Christ, "We profess His holy Name and we will not deny Him."

In order to avoid further show, the prefect commanded her to be suffocated in the baths. She remained unharmed and prayed, "I thank You, Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, that through Your Son the fire was extinguished at my side." Beheading was next in order. The executioner made three attempts (the law prohibited more) and let her lie in her blood. She lived for three days, encouraging the poor and dedicating her home into a church.

Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch.

Patron: Albi, France; composers; martyrs; music; musicians; musical instrument makers; archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska; poets; singers.

Symbols: Holding a lute; playing the organ; holding roses.

Things to Do:

Read and discuss the Church documents on music and liturgy. Read the Fitting Role of Sacred Music in the Liturgy by John Paul II. Adoremus has a collection of the most important music documents. Although these documents cover over a century, all of the recent documents on the liturgy and music pull from these original documents. Very little has changed in the directives on music, even with Vatican II.
For more reading on sacred music, see Adoremus Bulletin on Music.
If you are a parent spend some time thinking about how you can teach your children to practice the virtue of fortitude — read this article, Educating in Virtue, by James Stenson which offers some excellent advice.
St. Cecilia's body was found to be incorrupt in the Catacombs of Saint Callistus. Her body was later moved to St Cecilia in Trastevere. See Crypt of St. Cecilia for some more information on the catacombs. Every year there is a festival, Festa di Santa Cecilia on her feast day at Santa Cecilia in Trastevere and Catacombs of San Callisto.
Read the account from The Golden Legend by Jacob Voragine about the life and death of St. Cecilia to your children.
One legend of St. Cecilia tells of "pipes" played at her wedding. Although these pipes were probably the bagpipes common throughout Europe, ancient translations rendered the word "organ pipes." Consequently, St. Cecilia has often been portrayed near a pipe organ. Another legend calls her "the inventor of the organ," while another says an angel fell in love with her because of her musical skill. This heavenly visitant gave both her and her husband a crown of martyrdom, brought from heaven. With such ample fable and long-standing tradition, she is considered the patron of music and musicians. Since St. Cecilia is the patron of music (her music was the outpouring of a heart filled with love for God), have a family night of singing or playing instruments, or if you are not graced with musical talent, listen to some of the beautiful traditions the Church has in Her sacred music, such as Gregorian Chant and Polyphony

musicians' ping!

She's the patron of poets, too!

You are so right. I remember reading that as I posted the Catholic Culture info.

Saint Cecilia, Patron Saint of:

Albi, France; composers; martyrs; music; musicians; musical instrument makers; archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska; poets; singers.

If she's the patroness of Omaha she is doing an OUTSTANDING job! Why, I'll bet even Albi, France is a good place.

Thanks for the readings and links, Salvation..... but... no commentaries today?

Faith-sharing bump.

ping for Gregorian chants!

Here's a link to my blog entry from today on St. Cecilia:

Catholic Masterpieces X: St. Cecilia (and an Angel)

Neat! Thanks for sharing!

Salvation,Mass bump.

Daniel Describes the King’s Dream (Continuation)

(Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar,) [31] ”You saw, 0 king, and behold, a
great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood
before you, and its appearance was frightening. [32] The head of this
image was of fine gold, its breast and arms of silver, its belly and
thighs of bronze, [33] its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and
partly of clay. [34] As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human
hand, and it smote the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke
them in pieces; [35] then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver,
and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the
chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away,
so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck
the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Daniel Interprets the King’s Dream

[36] ”This was the dream; now we will tell the king its
interpretation. [37] You, 0 king, the king of kings, to whom the God
of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the
glory, [38] and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the
sons of men, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air, making
you rule over them all--you are the head of gold. [39] After you shall
arise another kingdom inferior to you, and yet a third kingdom of
bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. [40] And there shall be a
fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and
shatters all things; and like iron which crushes, it shall break and
crush all these. [41] And as you saw the feet. and toes partly of
potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom; but
some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron
mixed with the miry clay. [42] And as the toes of the feet were partly
iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly
brittle. [43] As you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, so they will
mix with one another in marriage,” but they will not hold together,
just as iron does not mix. with clay. And in the days of those kings
the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be
destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people. It
shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and
it shall stand for ever; [45] just as you saw that a stone was cut
from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the
iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has
made known to the king what shall be hereafter. The dream is certain,
and its interpretation sure.”

Commentary:

2:25-35. Daniel claims no personal credit for knowing the content of
the king’s dream; he makes it plain that God revealed the Secret to
him; only God knows what will happen in the “latter times” (vv.
27-28). We have entered the area of divine revelation, which is what
this book is all about-- the world of the End time, which as yet
exists only in the mind of God. Our Lord himself will say that “of
that day and hour no one knows...“ (Mt 24:36).

Daniel uses the opportunity to lead the king to the true God, the God
of heaven, who knows all mysteries.

In line with the thread of the story, Daniel first tells the king
about the content of his dream (2:31-35) and then interprets it
(3:13-22). The king’s vision is full of symbolism In the Bible,
statues connote idolatry, insofar as they are graven images (cf Ex
32), even though the passage does not expressly say that the image is
an idol. As one moves from head to feet, the metals used in the statue
decrease in value. In contrast with the materials of the statue are
the stone and the mountain, symbols of solidity and stability. The
interpretation reads the metals as representative of the various
kingdoms. This is a classical symbolic image: Hesiod, a Greek
historian of the eighth-to-seventh century BC, in his book "Works and
Days", 199—201, had used the very same metals and in the same order to
signify periods of history; something similar is to be found in
Polybius ("Historia", 38, 22) and other classical authors. Now, in
Daniel’s vision, the four metals all appear together, at the same
time, so to speak--a sign that, for God, history is all of a piece.

The image with “feet of clay” (vv. 32-33) is often taken as a reminder
that human nature is frail and that nevertheless it is endowed with
precious gifts from God: “Our Lord and our God: how great you are! It
is you who give our life supernatural meaning and divine vitality. For
love of your Son, you cause us to say with all our being, with our
body and soul: ‘He must reign!’ And this we do against the background
of our weakness, for you know that we are creatures made of clay--and
what creatures! Not just feet of clay, but heart and head too” (St
JosemarIa Escrivá, "Christ Is Passing By", 181).

2:36-45. Daniel is not being sychophantic by addressing the king as he
does in vv. 37-38; he is simply saying that the king has an impressive
empire because he has been given it by God, who rules over all things;
he wants the king to see that the power and glory that he enjoys are
part of God’s plans. The other metals (silver, bronze, iron), as one
can deduce from the rest of the book, stand for the empires of the
Medes, Persians and Greeks, though that interpretation is not
perfectly clear because the silver could stand for the empire of the
Medes and Persians together. The divided kingdom made of clay and iron
is a reference to the Greek empire after the death of Alexander the
Great (cf. 11:4) and to the political marriages made between the
Seleucid and Lagid Greeks (Antiochus II marrying Bernice; Ptolemy V
marrying Cleopatra: cf. 11:6, 17) that failed to bring about unity or
union. This passage would have been composed when the Seleucids and
Lagids were at loggerheads, and it was against the same background
that the prophecy about the end of time seeing the
establishment by God of an everlasting kingdom was made (God’s action
is symbolized by the stone that strikes the image; there is no sign of
any human power at work). It does not say here who will be given the
kingdom, but in the light of 7:26 and the fact that it says that the
kingdom will not be left to another people (v. 44), the implication is
that it will be given to faithful Israelites.

The symbol of the stone has a messianic dimension insofar as it is the
means by which the everlasting kingdom will be established and the
previous kingdoms destroyed. There are echoes here of images in other
prophetical works and in the psalms. Isaiah speaks of God as a “stone
of offense”, a stumbling-block for Israel (cf. Is 8:14) and in Psalm
118:22 the people of God are compared to a stone which the builders
have rejected and which has become the cornerstone. In
the New Testament that stone is Christ, and the kingdom which he
ushers in is the Kingdom of God which will be taken from Israel, to be
given to another people that will produce fruit (cf. Mt 21:42-43);
Christ also says that anyone who falls on that stone will be broken to
pieces (cf. Lk 20: 17-18). Using this Christological interpretation of
the stone, some Fathers interpret the mountain from which the stone
comes as being the Blessed Virgin, and the stone cut off “by no human
hand” as an image of the conception of Jesus in the Virgin’s womb
without the involvement of a man: “When Daniel says that the one who
inherits the eternal kingdom is like a son of man, who can he mean, if
not the Lord himself? For he was born of a woman, like a son of man,
but he showed that his life and power were not of human origin. To say
that he is a stone that moves under no external force is a mysterious
description: it means that Christ is not the fruit of the work and
will of men; he is the fruit of the providence of God, the Father of
the universe” (St Justin, "Dialogus Cam Tryphone", 76, 1).

The interpretation of the dream, the message it contains, would
interest the reader of the book--but not Nebuchadnezzar, who died
centuries earlier. It describes how, after the kingdoms of this world
which succeed one another over the course of history, an everlasting
kingdom will be established by God himself--a kingdom surpassing any
that man could create. A Christian will read this as heralding the
Kingdom of Christ, although that will not be an earthly, political
kingdom, but a spiritual one, as Jesus will tell Pilate at his trial:
“My kingship is not of this world” (Jn 18:36).

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: Luke 21:5-11

Discourse on the Destruction of Jerusalem and the End of the World

[5] And as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with noble
stones and offerings, He (Jesus) said, [6] "As for these things which
you see, the days will come when there shall not be left here one stone
upon another that will not be thrown down." [7] And they asked Him,
"Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign when this is
about to take place?" [8] And He said, "Take heed that you are not
led astray; for many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He!' and,
'The time is at hand!' Do not go after them. [9] And when you hear of
wars and tumults, do not be terrified; for this must first take place,
but the end will not be at once."

[10] Then He said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom
against kingdom; [11] there will be great earthquakes, and in various
places famines and pestilences; and there will be terrors and great
signs from heaven."

Commentary:

5-36. The disciples are in awe of the magnificence of the temple, and
Jesus uses the occasion to give a long discourse, known as the
"eschatological discourse" because it has to do with the last days of
the world. The account given here is very similar to those in the
other Synoptic Gospels (cf. Mt 24:1-51; Mk 13:1-37). The discourse
deals with three inter-connected subjects--the destruction of Jerusalem
(which took place some forty years later), the end of the world, and
the second coming of Christ in glory and majesty. Jesus, who also
predicts here the persecution of the Church will experience, exhorts
His disciples to be patient, to pray and be watchful.

Our Lord speaks here in the style and language of prophecy, using
images taken from the Old Testament; also, in this discourse prophecies
which are going to be fulfilled very soon are mixed in with others
which have to do with the end of the world. It is not our Lord's
intention to satisfy people's curiosity about future events, but to
protect them from being discouraged and scandalized about what is going
to happen in the days immediately ahead. This explains why He exhorts
them: "Take heed that you are not led astray" (v. 8); "do not be
tempted" (v. 9); "watch at all times" (v. 34).

8. On hearing that Jerusalem is going to be destroyed, the disciples
ask what sign will be given as a warning of these events (vv. 5-7).
Jesus answers by telling them "not to be led astray," that is to say,
not to expect any warning; not to be misled by false prophets; to stay
faithful to Him. These false prophets will come along claiming to be
the Messiah ("I am He!"). Our Lord's reply in fact refers to two
events which in the Jewish mind were interrelated--the destruction of
the Holy City and the end of the world. This is why He goes on to
speak of both events and implies that there will be a long gap between
the two; the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem are a kind of
sign or symbol of the catastrophes which will mark the end of the
world.

9-11. Our Lord does not want His disciples to confuse just any
catastrophe--famine, earthquake, war--or even persecution with the
signals of the end of the world. He exhorts them quite clearly: "Do
not be tempted," because although all these has to happen, "the end
will not be at once;" in spite of the difficulties of all kinds the
Gospel will spread to the ends of the earth. Difficulties should not
paralyze the preaching of the faith.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Homily of the Day

Homily of the Day

Title:	Give the Truth as a Gift
Author:	Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.
Date:	Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Daniel 2:31-45 / Lk 21:5-11

As we saw in yesterday's Old Testament reading from the book of Daniel, the young man Daniel had grown wise and true by walking with the Lord with an open and undivided heart. Now his wisdom and truth show themselves as the King of Babylon calls upon him to interpret the king's dream. The news is not good, but Daniel speaks it truthfully and completely: Another inferior kingdom will replace Babylon, and will in turn be replaced by successively more and more inferior kingdoms. In the end, God will establish a kingdom which will overwhelm all the rest, and which shall stand forever.

It was the truth, but unpleasant truths can be dangerous to speak when people don't wish to hear them. It has always been thus, and that poses a useful question for us. How are we at truth telling, especially when the truth is unwelcome? Do we flee the scene or 'fudge' the truth? On the other hand, do we use the truth as a weapon for evening old scores or feeding our self-righteousness? Have we learned to watch wisely for a moment when the truth can be received and heard? (Do we place that moment somewhere in the fourth millennium?!)

To speak the truth as Jesus would is to speak it in love and not to wield it as a weapon. Give the truth as a gift and you'll never go wrong.