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THE SENTENCE pronounced by the Almighty upon our first parents was to fall upon their children to the end of time. We have been considering, during this week of Septuagesima, the penalties of the great sin; but the severest and most humiliating of them all remains to be told. It is the transmission to the whole human race of original sin. It is true that the merits of the promised Redeemer will be applied to each individual man, in the manner established by God at various periods of time; still, this spiritual regeneration, while cleansing us from the leprosy...

THE CURSE, which is henceforth to lie so heavily on every human being, has been expressed in the sentence pronounced against Eve; the curse, to which the earth itself is to be subjected, is Adam’s sentence. “Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work (that is, on account of what thou hast done).” Adam had excused his sin. God does not admit his excuse; yet He mercifully makes allowance for him, seeing that he sinned...

FORGIVENESS IS PROMISED; but atonement must be made. Divine justice must be satisfied, and future generations be taught that sin can never pass unpunished. Eve is the guiltier of the two, and her sentence follows that of the serpent. Destined by God to aid man in peopling the earth with happy and faithful children, formed by this God out of man’s own substance “flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bones,” woman was to be on an equality with man. But sin has subverted this order, and God’s sentence is this: conjugal union, notwithstanding the humiliation of concupiscence...

THE GUILTY PAIR appear before the great God, whom they have offended; and instead of acknowledging their guilt, they seek to palliate and excuse it. But divine justice pronounces their condemnation, and the sentence will be felt by their posterity, even to the last generation. The two beings that had committed the heinous crime had been enriched with every gift of nature and grace. It was not with them as it is with us. Concupiscence, which gives us an inclination for what is wrong; ignorance and forgetfulness, which cloud the intellect of fallen man—these miseries had nothing whatever to...

THE SERPENT’S PROMISES had stifled, in Eve’s heart, every sentiment of love for the God that had created her and loaded her with blessings: she ambitions to be God like Him! Her faith, too, is wavering; she is not sure that God may not have deceived her, by threatening her with death should she disobey His command. Flushed by pride, she looks up to the forbidden fruit; it seems good to eat, and it is fair to her eyes. So that her senses too conspire against God, and against her own happiness. The sin is already committed in her...

THE SERPENT said to the woman: “Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?” Thus opened the conversation which our mother Eve so rashly consents to hold with God’s enemy. She ought to refuse all intercourse with Satan; she does not; and thereby she imperils the salvation of the whole human race. Let us recall to mind the events that have happened up to this fatal hour. God, in His omnipotence and love, has created two beings, upon whom He has lavished all the riches of His goodness. He has destined them...

Violet Semidouble (Privilege of the Second Class) THE HOLY CHURCH calls us together today in order that we may hear from her lips the sad history of the fall of our first parents. This awful event implies the Passion and cruel Death of the Son of God made Man, who has mercifully taken upon Himself to expiate this and every subsequent sin committed by Adam and us his children. It is of the utmost importance that we should understand the greatness of the remedy; we must, therefore, consider the grievousness of the wound inflicted. For this purpose, we will...

THE CALENDAR of the liturgical year will soon bring us to the commemoration of the Passion and Resurrection of our Redeemer; we are but nine weeks from these great solemnities. It is time for the Christian to be preparing his soul for a fresh visit from his Savior; a visit even more sacred and more important than that He so mercifully paid us at His Birth. Our holy mother the Church knows how necessary it is for her to rouse our hearts from their lethargy, and give them an active tendency towards the things of God. On this day,...

1962 Sunday Missal Mass Readings/Propers for Septuagesima Sunday Colors:  Purple   INTROIT  Psalm 17: 5-7The sorrows of death surrounded me, the sorrows of hell encompassed me; and in my affliction I called upon the Lord, and He heard my voice from His holy temple. -- (Ps.17. 2, 3). I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength: the Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. V.: Glory be to the Father . . . -- The sorrows of death surrounded me . . .     COLLECT - Graciously hear, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the prayers of...