Window in the Church of Saint Dymphna in Geel, Belgium

This evening at 8:00 at Silverstream Priory: Sermon with Novena Prayer and Blessing with the Relic of Saint Dymphna.

Silence, Solitude, Prayer

Speaking through the prophet Osee, God says, « Behold I will allure her, and will lead her into the wilderness: and I will speak to her heart » (Osee 2:14).  Whenever God draws a soul into a closer relationship with Himself, he attracts that soul into some measure of silence and solitude. You may be thinking, « This happens in the lives of the great hermit saints, but surely not in the lives of ordinary people. » Yes, it happens in the lives of ordinary people — husbands, and wives, and even children. » Not everyone is called to silence and solitude in the same measure or in the same way, but the call is universal nonetheless. “Come apart into a desert place,” says Our Lord, “and rest a little” (Mark 6:31). There are ages and seasons in life when we count ourselves blessed to have even five minutes of quiet to ourselves. There are other ages and seasons in life when we find ourselves alone for long hours, either by choice or by circumstances.

Hidden in the Forest

Saint Dymphna was fourteen years old when she fled Ireland and settled close by Saint Martin’s chapel in the forest of Flanders. Our Lord guided Saint Dymphna into a place of profound stillness, removed from the clamour and excitement of her father’s court, far from the whisperings and intrigues of people contending for power, money, and pleasure. Though young, Dymphna had seen and heard enough of life. Our Lord gave her a year of silence and of rest. Father Gerebernus was with her to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Nourished with the Bread of Life and enlightened by Father Gerebernus’ teaching, Dymphna grew in holiness. Did she know that this year in the forest was to be the noviceship in preparation for her martyrdom and the courtship in preparation for her wedding to the Bridegroom of her soul?

In the Presence of God

Saint John the Baptist, the Friend of the Bridegroom, had his years hidden away in the Judean desert. Our Lord lived quite hidden and unnoticed as the carpenter’s son in Nazareth. After His Baptism, the Holy Ghost drove Him into the wilderness where He fasted and prayed for forty days and forty nights. During His public life, Our Lord withdrew frequently into desert places and prayed to His Father through the whole night. After Saint Joseph’s death, Our Blessed Lady lived as a widow, veiled in her solitude with God like a tabernacle in some deserted chapel.

Dymphna too had to experience what it is to be alone for God, to be alone with God, to prefer the presence of God to the company of every other friend, confidant, or lover. Even in the best of marriages, there are hours of aloneness and silence. The children grow up and leave home for lives of their own. One’s spouse may be absorbed by work or other interests. How does one live this loneliness and silence fruitfully? How does one bear it without becoming cynical or bitter? Only by opening one’s heart to the presence of God.

Solitude and Hospitality

Saint Dymphna, like Saint Thérèse so many centuries later, had to grow up quickly. Her allotted time on this earth was very brief. God condensed all that she needed to experience of life into fifteen years, the last of which was spent in a solitary place with nought but the song of birds to accompany her prayers and, only occasionally, the visit of someone poor, sick, hungry, or in need of shelter. Saint Dymphna teaches us the secret of being content in solitude without forsaking the duty of hospitality.

When God Prepares the Heart

Do not flee from solitude. Do not seek to escape from the few moments of quiet that may come your way in the course of a busy day. Rather treasure such moments, and savour them. God may be giving them to you to prepare you for some sacrifice, some unexpected joy, some blessing undeserved and never imagined.

This evening at 8:00 at Silverstream Priory: Sermon with Novena Prayer and Blessing with the Relic of Saint Dymphna.

Saint Gerebernus

There is a magnificent stained glass window by Harry Clarke in Saint Joseph’s Church, Carrickmacross, County Monaghan; it depicts a noble Saint Dymphna looking very courageous and resolute; her father’s court jester turned out in full costume; the jester’s wife bearing a bowl with candles in it; and, at the very end, Saint Gerebernus the priest. Saint Gerebernus is shown dressed as a monk, with prayer beads hanging to the side of his habit. He has a beautiful gaze; Harry Clarke has given him big eyes, open wide, and radiant with purity. Looking at him, one wants to cry out: “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God!”

In his hands, Saint Gerebernus is holding a golden chalice, the symbol of his priesthood and of much more. I seem to hear the mysterious conversation between the mother of the Apostles James and John and Our Lord:

Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, adoring and asking something of him. Who said to her: What wilt thou? She saith to him: Say that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom. And Jesus answering, said: You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink? (Matthew 20:20–22)

A Priest for the Altar

Let us dwell, for a moment, on this magnificent depiction of Saint Gerebernus. What is it really saying? First of all, he comes last in this little procession of four, just as the priest enters last when going to the altar for the Holy Sacrifice. He is holding the chalice; the bishop presents the chalice to a priest in the rite of ordination with these words: “Receive the power to offer sacrifice to God, and to celebrate Masses for the living and the dead, in the name of the Lord.” Saint Gerebernus knows what he is about. He is a priest for the altar, that is , to offer the Holy Sacrifice standing before the altar, and to be offered from the altar as a victim with Christ. The life of a priest only makes sense if he is on his way to the altar or coming from the altar.

Sine Dominico Non Possumus

Saint Gerebernus is bearing the chalice so that Dymphna will not, at any time of her journey, be without the divine assistance of the Holy Mysteries. I am reminded of what one of the holy martyrs of Abitina said in the year 304, under the great persecution of Diocletian: Sine dominico non possumus, “Without this thing that is the Lord’s, without Sunday, the Day of the Lord —the Day of the Eucharist— we cannot live. These Christians were apprehended in flagrant violation of imperial law; they were found guilty of assembling on Sunday to celebrate the Most Holy Eucharist. When the Proconsul interrogated them, demanding to know why they violated the law, Emeritus, the man who hosted the gathering in his own house, responded, “Because without what belongs to the Lord, sine dominico, we cannot live, we cannot go on, non possumus.” For these Christians, Sunday was the Day of the Sacred Mysteries, the Day of the Holy Sacrifice, the one day on which they assembled to receive the life–giving Body and Blood of the Lord. Emeritus’ response means, “Without the Most Holy Eucharist, Sacrament and Sacrifice, we cannot survive.” This is why Harry Clark pictures Saint Gerebernus bearing the chalice; Gerebernus and Dymphna, like the martyrs of Abitina, knew that without the Most Holy Eucharist there would be nothing to sustain them.

Without It I Could Not Go On

My own grandmother, Margaret Gilbride Kirby, who went to daily Mass for as long as her legs would carry her down the street to church each morning, used to say something very similar to what Emeritus said in the year 304: “Without it I could not go on”. And she used to add, “I don’t know how people get along without it.” It was the Catholic faith; the mystery of faith, the Holy Mass itself.

Martyrdom

Saint Gerebernus, carrying his chalice, accompanied Saint Dymphna because he was, first of all and above all, a sacrificing priest or what the English Protestants called, with derision, “a massing priest.” His function was to provide Dymphna, even as she fled her homeland, with the one thing that only a priest can give: the adorable Body and Blood of Christ offered in sacrifice and given in Holy Communion. When, at length, the chieftain Damon and his man discovered where Dymphna was hiding, it was the solemn hour of the chalice, that is, the hour of the sacrifice. Gerebernus enters into the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemani:

Father, if thou wilt, remove this chalice from me: but yet not my will, but thine be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed the longer. (Luke 22:42–43)

Damon ordered his men to behead Gerebernus, making him, in that hour, a priest fully accomplished, for the complete priest is the martyred priest. Gerebernus was there to consecrate Dymphna, and to offer her in advance as “a pure victim, a holy victim, a spotless victim”, a victim united to the immolated Lamb who, centuries later, would show Himself standing upon an altar at Knock.

What shall I render to the Lord, for all the things he hath rendered unto me? I will take the chalice of salvation; and I will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord before all his people: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.(Psalm 115:12–15)

Saint Dymphna and Companions by Goswin van der Weyden (1504–1505)

This evening at 8:00 at Silverstream Priory: Sermon with Novena Prayer and Blessing with the Relic of Saint Dymphna.

Traveling with Saint Dymphna

A most unusual detail in the account of Saint Dymphna’s life and martyrdom is the conspicuous presence of her father’s court jester and his wife. While some have contested the historicity of the story of Saint Dymphna, the inclusion of these two characters is, to my mind, makes the story all the more convincing. Life often introduces the comic into what is tragic.

Jesters and Fools

From ancient times in Ireland, kings and chieftains maintained fools, jesters, and jugglers in their courts, just for the craich. The early Irish Tales of the Kings are rich in the sayings and deeds of such characters. It was not uncommon for them to live in small companies, honing their drolleries.  The word for a jester or clown was drúth, not to be confused with druid. It was said of King Conari’s three jesters, that they were so outrageously whimsical that no man could keep from laughing at their antics, even though the dead body of his father or mother lay stretched out before him.

Witnesses

Why did Damon’s jester and his wife choose to flee with Dymphna and Father Gerebernus? It is not likely that the jester would have been Christian. Jesters and fools were considered disreputable and of loose morals. Often they incurred the ire of bishops and abbots. It may be that the couple had known Dymphna since since infancy. They may have been very attached to her, almost as to their own daughter; they would have wanted to protect her from her father’s mad threats. When one considers the whole story of Saint Dymphna, it is clear that the only people who would have been able to relate it from beginning to end would have been the jester and his wife. Both Gerebernus and Dymphna were martyred. The good people of Geel in Belgium would not have known the full story except as related to them by the jester and his wife. They were first–hand witnesses of what really happened and it is thanks to them that we know the details of Saint Dymphna’s adventure.

Touched by Grace

We are not told what happened to the jester and his wife. My personal belief is that they were touched by the grace of Christ and converted to the Gospel. “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians.” How could they have witnessed the martyrdom the priest Gerebernus and their dear Dymphna without being moved to embrace the Holy Faith? I think that the jester and his wife were the first–fruits of Saint Dymphna’s martyrdom. This is conjecture on my part, but I think it highly probable.

The World Needs Saints

When it comes to winning souls to the Faith — or winning them back to the Faith — arguments, discourses, and pleading are of little use. Ultimately it is the witness of our lives and the grace of the Christ that wins brings souls into — or back to — the Church. The world needs saints. The most convincing sign of the truth of the Church’s claims is the number of saints to whom she has given birth. Listen to what Pope Benedict XVI said in Cologne in 2005:

It is the great multitude of the saints – both known and unknown – in whose lives the Lord has opened up the Gospel before us and turned over the pages; he has done this throughout history and he still does so today. In their lives, as if in a great picture-book, the riches of the Gospel are revealed. They are the shining path which God himself has traced throughout history and is still tracing today.

The saints and the blesseds did not doggedly seek their own happiness, but simply wanted to give themselves, because the light of Christ had shone upon them.They show us the way to attain happiness, they show us how to be truly human. Through all the ups and downs of history, they were the true reformers who constantly rescued it from plunging into the valley of darkness; it was they who constantly shed upon it the light that was needed to make sense – even in the midst of suffering – of God’s words spoken at the end of the work of creation:  “It is very good”.

The Way of Love

There is nothing more winning than simple, humble holiness of life. Very few people can be talked into embracing the Truth. One embraces willingly only what one loves. The saints reveal the way of love, and it is love that leads to life, to abundant life here below, and to life eternal in heaven.

Beloved, let us love one another; love springs from God; no one can love without being born of God, and knowing God. How can the man who has no love have any knowledge of God, since God is love? What has revealed the love of God, where we are concerned, is that he has sent his only-begotten Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. That love resides, not in our shewing any love for God, but in his shewing love for us first, when he sent out his Son to be an atonement for our sins. (1 John 4:7–10)

Our  novena in preparation for the feast of Saint Dymphna, Virgin and Martyr ended this evening.

O glorious Saint Dymphna,
virgin martyr and chaste bride of Christ,
child of Ireland,
bereft of thy mother,
object of thy grief-stricken father’s unlawful desires,
pure dove who, to preserve thy purity,
didst fly to foreign shores,
dauntless follower of the immolated Lamb,
willing exile from thy homeland,
spiritual daughter of the holy priest Gerebernus,
traveler through the dark of unknown forests,
treasure hidden in the shadow of Saint Martin,
lover of solitude and living sanctuary of ceaseless prayer,
compassionate handmaid of the poor and afflicted,
thou art no stranger to suffering.

O virgin nourished by the Bread of Life,
virgin strong in thy weakness,
virgin ablaze with the fire of the Holy Ghost,
victim of thy demented father’s cruel rage,
victim with the Immaculate Host,
victim mingling thy blood with the Blood of the Lamb,
turn thy gaze upon us who seek thy intercession today,
and hearken to our supplications.

Thy name, O Saint Dymphna, is spread abroad in the churches of Christ,
where the suffering faithful invoke thee
 as the friend of exiles and of those in flight from persecution,
as the unfailing advocate of the mentally ill, 
the emotionally distraught, and the despondent,
as the light of those in the darkness of depression,
the hope of the hopeless,
the cheer and comfort of the sorrowing,
the deliverer of those in the grip of anxiety,
the courage of those stricken with panic,
the healer of confused minds,
and the solace of grieving hearts.

Confident in thy powerful intercession,
we beseech thee, Saint Dymphna
to comfort all who, burdened by mental anguish or confusion,
struggle daily to make their way in this valley of tears.
Give them a garland for ashes,
the oil of joy for sadness,
and a garment of praise for the spirit of grief.

Let no one who seeks thy help today go away empty,
for thou art powerful over the heart of Christ,
and He will heed thy pleading on our behalf
with the healing of darkened minds,
the consolation of broken hearts,
and the gracious manifestation of His merciful goodness towards all.
Amen.

Saint Kevin’s Church, Harrington Street, Dublin

Fourth Sunday After Easter
Saint Kevin’s, Harrington Street
18 May 2014

The Gift Above All Gifts

Already today, the sacred liturgy begins to prepare our souls for the Gift above all gifts: the outpouring of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. Thus does Saint James tell us in the Epistle that, « Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration » (James 1:17).

The Holy Ghost Poured out Upon the Church

What are these best and perfect gifts if not the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost: wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord? And above all these gifts there is the Giver Himself, the Giver who, in an excess of love, makes Himself the Gift. Just as the Father, out of love, sent His only–begotten Son into the world, so too do the Father and the Son send the Holy Ghost upon the Church to make her the joyful mother of many children, the mother of a people of saints

The Cenacle

The festival of the Ascension will soon be upon us and, then, after persevering nine days in prayer, together with Our Lady and the Apostles in the Cenacle, we will find ourselves all illumined and set ablaze by the Divine Fire of Love, the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth.

A Great Yearning for God

Today, even as we gaze upon the Face of the Risen Christ, even as we contemplate His glorious wounds, and listen to the sound of His voice, the Church is inviting us to make ready for the Other Paraclete, the Other Comforter, the Divine Spirit whom He will send to prolong His work and manifest His presence until the end of time. The Church is saying, « Begin now to open your hearts, begin to desire with an immense desire, for your capacity to receive the Gift will be proportionate to your desire. Let everything in you become a great yearning for God. Surrender yourselves to the Giver and to the Gift. »

Ubi Vera Sunt Gaudia

Wherever the Holy Ghost is at work, His gentle and compelling influence in souls produces a unity and a peace that the world can neither produce nor give. The Collect describes the Church as a people of one mind and one heart, loving one thing only, seeking one thing only, cleaving to one thing only — in the midst of the world and all its passing fashions. 

The Church is the body of those who, united to Christ the Head, « seek the things that are above; where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God » (Colossians 3:1). The Church is the mother of a new family, generated by the Holy Ghost, a people who « mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth ». The more we identify with our mother the Church, and with the sentiments and movements of the heart of her Head and Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, revealed in the sacred liturgy, the more securely will our hearts be anchored, as the Collect says, ubi vera sunt gaudia, « there where true joys are found ».

Invisibly Radiating Joy

If a monastery is anything at all, it is a place ubi vera sunt gaudia, « where true joys are to be found ». These joys are not purchased cheaply, they come to us wrapped in a circle of thorns: the sign of our communion with Christ in His Passion. This makes them all the more precious and all the more worth possessing. The joy of a monastery is not something kept under lock and key; it is not bottled up and distributed begrudgingly to a select few. The joy of a monastery renews the Church from within. It is like the fragrance of a precious ointment filling the whole house. The health of the Church in any nation is directly proportionate to, and can be measured by, the Catholic faithful’s support of the contemplative monastic life which, although hidden, invisibly radiates a joy that the world cannot take away.

Your Help

It is for this reason that I have come to you today. I will be speaking in the hall immediately after Holy Mass. I will telling you about a place ubi vera sunt gaudia — where true joys are found — and that place is my own fledgling monastery: Silverstream Priory in County Meath. My community are with me to meet you, to speak with you, to answer your questions. I will be asking for your help, and I am confident that you will give it. We have urgent, pressing needs. Please give me a few moments of your Sunday, the Day of the Lord. And we, for our part, will pray that your homes too will become places ubi vera sunt gaudia, where true joys are found.

Today is the feast of Pope Saint Peter Celestine, monk, Supreme Pontiff, and hermit. On 4 July 2010, in the context of the Year of Saint Celestine, proclaimed by the bishops of the Molise and Abruzzi regions of Italy, Pope Benedict XVI went to Aquila in pilgrimage to the saint. The Holy Father left his pallium on Saint Peter Celestine’s tomb as a token of devotion to this remarkable saint who, after five months, resigned the papacy and retreated to his beloved solitude. Three years later, Pope Benedict was to follow the example of Saint Peter Celestine. Pope Benedict XVI explained his momentous decision on 27 February 2013:

I am not abandoning the cross, but remaining in a new way at the side of the crucified Lord. I no longer bear the power of office for the governance of the Church, but in the service of prayer I remain, so to speak, in the enclosure of Saint Peter. Saint Benedict, whose name I bear as Pope, will be a great example for me in this. He showed us the way for a life which, whether active or passive, is completely given over to the Work of God.

On the occasion of his visit to Aquila, Pope Benedict XVI Holy Mass and pronounced the following remarkable homily:

Hermit Elected Pope

Dear friends! My visit takes place on the occasion of the Jubilee Year proclaimed by the bishops of Abruzzo and Molise to celebrate the 800th anniversary of birth of St. Peter Celestine. Flying over your land I was able to contemplate the beauty of its landscape and, above all, admire some places closely linked to the life of this renowned figure: Mount Morrone, where Peter lived as a hermit for many years; the Hermitage of Sant’Onofrio, where in 1294 he received news of his election as Supreme Pontiff, which occurred at the conclave in Perugia; and the Abbey of Santo Spirito, whose main altar was consecrated by him after his coronation in the Basilica of Collemaggio in L’Aquila. In April of last year, after the earthquake that devastated this region, in this basilica I myself came to venerate the casket that contains his remains and leave the pallium that I received on the first day of my pontificate. More than 800 years have passed since the birth of St. Peter Celestine V, but he remains in history on account of the notable events of his pontificate and, above all, because of his holiness.

Ever Greater Luminosity of Holiness

Holiness, in fact, never loses its own power of attraction, it is not forgotten, it never goes out of fashion, indeed, with the passage of time, it shines with ever greater luminosity, expressing man’s perennial longing for God. From the life of St. Peter Celestine, I would like to gather some teachings that are also valid for our days.

Silence

Peter Angelerio was a “seeker of God” from his youth, a man who was desirous to find the answers to the great questions of our existence: Who am I? Where do I come from? Why am I alive? For whom do I live? He went in search of truth and happiness, he went in search of God and, to hear his voice, decided to separate himself from the world and to live as a hermit. Silence thus became the element that characterized his daily life. And it is precisely in external silence, but above all in internal silence, that he succeeded in perceiving God’s voice, a voice that was able to guide his life. Here a first aspect that is important for us: We live in a society in which it seems that every space, every moment must be “filled” with initiatives, activity, sound; often there is not even time to listen and dialogue. Dear brothers and sisters! Let us not be afraid to be silent outside and inside ourselves, so that we are able not only to perceive God’s voice, but also the voice of the person next to us, the voices of others.

Divine Grace

But it is important to underscore a second element too: Peter Angelerio’s discovery of God was not only the result of his effort but was made possible by the grace of God itself that came to him. What he had, what he was, did not come from him: it was granted to him, it was grace, and so it was also a responsibility before God and before others. Even if our life is very different from his, the same thing is also true for us: the entirety of what is essential in our existence was bestowed upon us without our intervention. The fact that I live does not depend on me; the fact that there were people who introduced me to life, that taught me what it means to live and be loved, who handed down the faith to me and opened my eyes to God: all of that is grace and not “done by me.” We could have done nothing ourselves if it had not been given to us: God always anticipates us and in every individual life there is beauty and goodness that we can easily recognize as his grace, as a ray of the light of his goodness. Because of this we must be attentive, always keep our “interior eyes” open, the eyes of our heart. And if we learn how to know God in his infinite goodness, then we will be able to see, with wonder, in our lives — as the saints did — the signs of that God, who is always near to us, who is always good to us, who says: “Have faith in me!”

Beauty of Creation

In interior silence, in perceiving the Lord’s presence, Peter del Morrone developed a lively experience of the beauty of creation, the work of God’s hands: he knew its deepest meaning, he respected its signs and rhythms, he used it for what is essential to life. I know that this local Church, like the others of Abruzzo and Molise, are actively engaged in a campaign of sensitivity to and promotion of the common good and of safeguarding creation: I encourage you in this effort, exhorting everyone to feel responsible for their own future, and that of others, respecting and caring also for creation, fruit and sign of God’s love.

The Wide Open Arms of the Crucified God

In today’s second reading, taken from the Letter to the Galatians, we heard a beautiful expression of St. Paul, which is also a perfect spiritual portrait of St. Peter Celestine: “For me the only boast is in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world” (6:14). Truly the cross was the center of his life. It gave him the strength to face bitter penances and the most difficult times, from youth to his last hour: he was always aware that through it comes salvation. The cross also gave St. Peter Celestine a clear awareness of sin that was always accompanied by an awareness that was just as clear of God’s mercy for his creature. Seeing the wide-open arms of his crucified God, he felt himself transported into the infinite sea of God’s love. As a priest he experienced the beauty of being the administrator of this mercy, absolving penitents of sin, and, when he was elected to the See of the Apostle Peter, he wanted to grant a special indulgence called “The Pardon.” I would like to exhort priests to be clear and credible witnesses of the good news of reconciliation with God, helping the man of today to recover the sense of sin and God’s forgiveness, to experience that superabundant joy that the prophet Isaiah spoke to us about in the first reading (cf. Isaiah 66:10-14).

Evangelization Rooted in Prayer

Finally, a third element: St. Peter, although he lived as a hermit, was not “closed in on himself” but was filled with passion to bring the good news of the Gospel to his brothers. And the secret of his pastoral fruitfulness was precisely in “abiding” in the Lord, in prayer, as we were also reminded by today’s Gospel passage: the first priority is always to pray to the Lord of the harvest (cf. Luke 10:2). And it is only after this invitation that Jesus outlines some of the essential duties of the disciples: the serene, clear and courageous proclamation of the Gospel message — even in moments of persecution — without ceding to the allurement of fashion nor to that of violence and imposition; detachment from worry about things — money, clothing — confiding in the providence of the Father; attention and care especially for the sick in body and spirit (cf. Luke 10:5-9). These were also the characteristics of the brief and trying pontificate of Celestine V and these are the characteristics of the missionary activity of the Church in every age.

Remain Solid in the Faith

Brothers and sisters! I am among you to confirm you in the faith. I would like to exhort you, firmly and with affection, to remain solid in that faith that you have received, which gives meaning to life and gives one strength to love. May the example and intercession of the Mother of God and of St. Peter Celestine accompany us on this journey. Amen!

Saint Yves

Today is also the feast of Saint Yves, the patron of barristers, solicitors, and jurists. (Saint Yves is also the patron saint of Mother Yvonne–Aimée de Jésus.) We are mindful today of the kind lawyers who have helped Silverstream Priory with the complicated and often bewildering process of becoming established. All our lawyer friends will be remembered at Holy Mass today.  There is a delightful little jingle about Saint Yves: Sanctus Ivo erat Brito, Advocatus et non latro, Res miranda populo.

Litanies of Saint Yves

Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

Heavenly Father who art God, have mercy upon us.
Son, Redeemer of the world, who art God, have mercy upon us.
Holy Ghost, who art God, have mercy upon us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy upon us.

Holy Mary, Queen of All Saints, pray for us.

Saint Yves, father of the poor,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, light of Brittany,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, model of charity,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, advocate of priests,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, servant of the Cross,
pray for us.

Saint-Yves, devoted to penitence,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, example of all the virtues,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, guardian of households,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, friend of young people,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, companion of adolescents,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, protector of widows and orphans,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, defender of the innocent,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, model of purity,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, worker of miracles,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, terror of demons,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, healer of the sick,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, safety of seafarers,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, consoler of the afflicted,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, provider of food for the hungry,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, refuge of the downtrodden,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, helper of all who invoke thee,
pray for us.

Saint Yves, bright light among men of law,
pray for us.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.

V. Pray for us, O glorious Saint Yves,
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray.
O God, from whom cometh all that is right and just, Thou didst establish Saint Yves as a judge in the midst of his brethren, making him the friend and advocate of the poor. Do Thou make us, by his intercession, steadfast in the pursuit of justice and confident in Thy merciful goodness. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Model for Monks

Today is the feast of Saint Bede the Venerable, a model for all Benedictine monks by reason of his serene fidelity to the regular observance, to liturgical prayer, and to study, all within the enclosure of the monastery. This stained glass window is a delightful depiction of Saint Bede: he is in his cell, seated at his desk. Before him, on his desk, there is a crucifix and, on a reading stand, the open book of the Scriptures. In both the crucifix and the Scriptures Saint Bede sees Christ; he contemplates Christ; he is absorbed by Christ. On the wall behind Saint Bede one sees various notes and letters arranged in a kind of filing system. Saint Bede’s cell is tidy and bright. On his desk there is nothing superfluous. A clear desk fosters a clear mind, making lectio divina easier. The expression on Saint Bede’s face reveals a profound humility of heart and a childlike purity. Characterized by “the love of learning and the desire for God”, Saint Bede remains a model of single–hearted devotion to Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI on Saint Bede the Venerable
Wednesday, 18 February 2009

Study, Observance, Singing

The Saint we are approaching today is called Bede and was born in the north-east of England, to be exact, Northumbria, in the year 672 or 673. He himself recounts that when he was seven years old his parents entrusted him to the Abbot of the neighbouring Benedictine monastery to be educated: “spending all the remaining time of my life a dweller in that monastery”. He recalls, “I wholly applied myself to the study of Scripture; and amidst the observance of the monastic Rule and the daily charge of singing in church, I always took delight in learning, or teaching, or writing” (Historia Eccl. Anglorum, v, 24). In fact, Bede became one of the most outstanding erudite figures of the early Middle Ages since he was able to avail himself of many precious manuscripts which his Abbots would bring him on their return from frequent journeys to the continent and to Rome. His teaching and the fame of his writings occasioned his friendships with many of the most important figures of his time who encouraged him to persevere in his work from which so many were to benefit.

Forever before Your Face

When Bede fell ill, he did not stop working, always preserving an inner joy that he expressed in prayer and song. He ended his most important work, the Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, with this invocation: “I beseech you, O good Jesus, that to the one to whom you have graciously granted sweetly to drink in the words of your knowledge, you will also vouchsafe in your loving kindness that he may one day come to you, the Fountain of all wisdom, and appear forever before your face”. Death took him on 26 May 737: it was the Ascension.

The One Word of God: Christ

Sacred Scripture was the constant source of Bede’s theological reflection. After a critical study of the text (a copy of the monumental Codex Amiatinus of the Vulgate on which Bede worked has come down to us), he comments on the Bible, interpreting it in a Christological key, that is, combining two things: on the one hand he listens to exactly what the text says, he really seeks to hear and understand the text itself; on the other, he is convinced that the key to understanding Sacred Scripture as the one word of God is Christ, and with Christ, in his light, one understands the Old and New Testaments as “one” Sacred Scripture. The events of the Old and New Testaments go together, they are the way to Christ, although expressed in different signs and institutions (this is what he calls the concordia sacramentorum).

The Church

For example, the tent of the covenant that Moses pitched in the desert and the first and second temple of Jerusalem are images of the Church, the new temple built on Christ and on the Apostles with living stones, held together by the love of the Spirit. And just as pagan peoples also contributed to building the ancient temple by making available valuable materials and the technical experience of their master builders, so too contributing to the construction of the Church there were apostles and teachers, not only from ancient Jewish, Greek and Latin lineage, but also from the new peoples, among whom Bede was pleased to list the Irish Celts and Anglo-Saxons. St Bede saw the growth of the universal dimension of the Church which is not restricted to one specific culture but is comprised of all the cultures of the world that must be open to Christ and find in him their goal.

The Historian

Another of Bede’s favourite topics is the history of the Church. After studying the period described in the Acts of the Apostles, he reviews the history of the Fathers and the Councils, convinced that the work of the Holy Spirit continues in history. In the Chronica Maiora, Bede outlines a chronology that was to become the basis of the universal Calendar “ab incarnatione Domini”. In his day, time was calculated from the foundation of the City of Rome. Realizing that the true reference point, the centre of history, is the Birth of Christ, Bede gave us this calendar that interprets history starting from the Incarnation of the Lord. Bede records the first six Ecumenical Councils and their developments, faithfully presenting Christian doctrine, both Mariological and soteriological, and denouncing the Monophysite and Monothelite, Iconoclastic and Neo-Pelagian heresies.

Lastly he compiled with documentary rigour and literary expertise the Ecclesiastical History of the English Peoples mentioned above, which earned him recognition as “the father of English historiography”. The characteristic features of the Church that Bede sought to emphasize are: a) catholicity, seen as faithfulness to tradition while remaining open to historical developments, and as the quest for unity in multiplicity, in historical and cultural diversity according to the directives Pope Gregory the Great had given to Augustine of Canterbury, the Apostle of England; b) apostolicity and Roman traditions: in this regard he deemed it of prime importance to convince all the Irish, Celtic and Pict Churches to have one celebration for Easter in accordance with the Roman calendar. The Computo, which he worked out scientifically to establish the exact date of the Easter celebration, hence the entire cycle of the liturgical year, became the reference text for the whole Catholic Church.

Teacher of Liturgical Theology

Bede was also an eminent teacher of liturgical theology. In his Homilies on the Gospels for Sundays and feast days he achieves a true mystagogy, teaching the faithful to celebrate the mysteries of the faith joyfully and to reproduce them coherently in life, while awaiting their full manifestation with the return of Christ, when, with our glorified bodies, we shall be admitted to the offertory procession in the eternal liturgy of God in Heaven. Following the “realism” of the catecheses of Cyril, Ambrose and Augustine, Bede teaches that the sacraments of Christian initiation make every faithful person “not only a Christian but Christ”. Indeed, every time that a faithful soul lovingly accepts and preserves the Word of God, in imitation of Mary, he conceives and generates Christ anew. And every time that a group of neophytes receives the Easter sacraments the Church “reproduces herself” or, to use a more daring term, the Church becomes “Mother of God”, participating in the generation of her children through the action of the Holy Spirit.

Messages for Various States of Life

By his way of creating theology, interweaving the Bible, liturgy and history, Bede has a timely message for the different “states of life”: a) for scholars (doctores ac doctrices) he recalls two essential tasks: to examine the marvels of the word of God in order to present them in an attractive form to the faithful; to explain the dogmatic truths, avoiding heretical complications and keeping to “Catholic simplicity”, with the attitude of the lowly and humble to whom God is pleased to reveal the mysteries of the Kingdom; b) pastors, for their part, must give priority to preaching, not only through verbal or hagiographic language but also by giving importance to icons, processions and pilgrimages. Bede recommends that they use the Vulgate as he himself does, explaining the “Our Father” and the “Creed” in Northumbrian and continuing, until the last day of his life, his commentary on the Gospel of John in the vulgate; c) Bede recommends to consecrated people who devote themselves to the Divine Office, living in the joy of fraternal communion and progressing in the spiritual life by means of ascesis and contemplation that they attend to the apostolate no one possesses the Gospel for himself alone but must perceive it as a gift for others too both by collaborating with Bishops in pastoral activities of various kinds for the young Christian communities and by offering themselves for the evangelizing mission among the pagans, outside their own country, as “peregrini pro amore Dei”.

A Hard–Working Church

Making this viewpoint his own, in his commentary on the Song of Songs Bede presents the Synagogue and the Church as collaborators in the dissemination of God’s word. Christ the Bridegroom wants a hard-working Church, “weathered by the efforts of evangelization” there is a clear reference to the word in the Song of Songs (1: 5), where the bride says “Nigra sum sed formosa” (“I am very dark, but comely”) intent on tilling other fields or vineyards and in establishing among the new peoples “not a temporary hut but a permanent dwelling place”, in other words, intent on integrating the Gospel into their social fabric and cultural institutions.

The Domestic Church

In this perspective the holy Doctor urges lay faithful to be diligent in religious instruction, imitating those “insatiable crowds of the Gospel who did not even allow the Apostles time to take a mouthful”. He teaches them how to pray ceaselessly, “reproducing in life what they celebrate in the liturgy”, offering all their actions as a spiritual sacrifice in union with Christ. He explains to parents that in their small domestic circle too they can exercise “the priestly office as pastors and guides”, giving their children a Christian upbringing. He also affirms that he knows many of the faithful (men and women, married and single) “capable of irreproachable conduct who, if appropriately guided, will be able every day to receive Eucharistic communion” (Epist. ad Ecgberctum, ed. Plummer, p. 419).

Bede: A Builder of Christian Europe

The fame of holiness and wisdom that Bede already enjoyed in his lifetime, earned him the title of “Venerable”. Pope Sergius I called him this when he wrote to his Abbot in 701 asking him to allow him to come to Rome temporarily to give advice on matters of universal interest. After his death, Bede’s writings were widely disseminated in his homeland and on the European continent. Bishop St Boniface, the great missionary of Germany, (d. 754), asked the Archbishop of York and the Abbot of Wearmouth several times to have some of his works transcribed and sent to him so that he and his companions might also enjoy the spiritual light that shone from them. A century later, Notker Balbulus, Abbot of Sankt Gallen (d. 912), noting the extraordinary influence of Bede, compared him to a new sun that God had caused to rise, not in the East but in the West, to illuminate the world. Apart from the rhetorical emphasis, it is a fact that with his works Bede made an effective contribution to building a Christian Europe in which the various peoples and cultures amalgamated with one another, thereby giving them a single physiognomy, inspired by the Christian faith. Let us pray that today too there may be figures of Bede’s stature, to keep the whole continent united; let us pray that we may all be willing to rediscover our common roots, in order to be builders of a profoundly human and authentically Christian Europe.

The Ascension of the Lord

Forty-two years ago, in the springtime of my monastic journey, my Father Master — he must have been all of 34 at the time — told me that of all the festivals of the Church Year none was more intrinsically contemplative than the Ascension of the Lord. He spoke to me of the virtue of hope, calling it the most monastic of virtues, and meditated with me on the Vespers hymn of the Ascension, the incomparable Fourth Mode, Jesu, Nostra Redemptio. The melody is perfectly suited to the text. It has been, in some way, the musical accompaniment to my monastic journey with its sorrows and joys, with its valleys of darkness and glimmers of light. It expresses better than any other hymn the prayer of yearning by which, already here and now, a monk can hope to be united to his love and his desire. I translated the metred Latin text into prose.

Jesu, nostra redemptio,
Amor et desiderium,
Deus Creator omnium,
Homo in fine temporum.

O Jesus, our redemption,
our love, and our desire,
God, Creator of all things,
become Man in the fullness of time.

Quae te vicit clementia,
Ut ferres nostra crimina,
Crudelem mortem patiens,,
Ut nos a morte tolleres!

What tender love, what pity
compelled Thee to bear our crimes,
to suffer a cruel death
that we, from death, might be saved?

Inferni claustra penetrans,
Tuos captivos redimens,
Victor triumpho nobili
Ad dextram Patris residens:

Into death’s dark cloister didst Thou descend,
and from it captives free didst bring;
Thy triumph won, Thou didst take Thy place,
Thou, the Victor, at the Father’s right.

Ipse te cogat pietas,
Ut mala nostra superes,
Parcendo, et voti compotes
Nos tuo vultu saties.

‘Twas a tender love, a costly compassion
that pressed Thee our sorrows to bear;
granting pardon, Thou didst raise us up
to fill us full with the splendour of Thy face.

Tu esto nostrum gaudium,
Qui es futurus praemium:
Sit nostra in te gloria
Per cuncta semper saecula.

Thou art already the joy of all our days,
Thou Who in eternity will be our prize;
let all our glory be in Thee,
forever, and always, and in the age to come.

I am ascended to My Father,
but I remain present to My Church.
The same desire that caused Me to return to the Father
with an inexpressible joy
causes Me to remain present to My Church
with an inexpressible love.

When I said, “I go to My Father”,
I did not mean by that, “I abandon My Church”,
for the Church is My Spouse
and with her I am one Body,
and I am the Head of My Church.

My own Spirit animates the Church in all her members,
so that I live in My Church,
and My Church lives united to Me.
My presence to the Father is not an absence from My Church.
I am present in the adorable mysteries of My Body and Blood,
just as I am present, Body and Blood, in the glory of the Father,
in the hidden sanctuary of heaven,
where I serve as High Priest
and offer Myself ceaselessly as a spotless Victim of propitiation.

What I do in heaven, I do ceaselessly on earth.
Every tabernacle where I am present in the Sacrament of My Body and Blood
is an image of the heavenly tabernacle into which I have ascended,
and in which I offer Myself to the Father in a sacrifice that is unending.
My life in so many earthly tabernacles is the very life that is Mine
in the glorious tabernacle of heaven,
in the Holy of Holies where I carry out My priestly service of the Father
by offering Myself to Him as a glorious Victim,
as the pure Victim, the holy Victim, the spotless Victim
by whom earth is reconciled to heaven, and heaven to earth;
by whom the Father’s perfect plan is brought to completion;
and by whom the Kingdom of God is established forever.

Come to Me in the Sacrament of My Love,
and enter there into the mystery of My oblation.
I am not inactive nor am I present
after the manner of a thing that has in itself no life, no movement, no breath.
I am present in all the glory of My humanity
and in all the power of My divinity;
just as I am present in heaven,
so am I present in the tabernacles of My Church on earth.

In heaven My glory is the bliss of all My saints;
on earth that same glory is veiled in the Most Holy Sacrament
to be the bliss of my saints here below.
My sacramental joy is the unfailing joy of the saints on earth.
If there is, at times, so little evidence of joy among My people on earth
it is because they ignore My real presence
and fail to seek Me out where I am to be found:
in the Sacrament where I wait for sinners;
to love them, to forgive them, to heal them,
to hold conversation with them,
and to nourish them even with My very self.

Priests of mine, priests who serve with Me in the sanctuaries of My Church on earth,
even as the angels serve with Me in the sanctuary of heaven,
priests who represent Me on earth,
even as I present Myself before My Father in heaven,
make known the mystery of My presence!
Call the faithful to My tabernacles!
Tell them that I await them there;
that I am no absent God and that, even in the mystery of My Ascension,
I remain bodily present, though hidden beneath the sacramental veils,
to all who seek My Eucharistic Face.

Why are My churches empty?
Why am I forsaken in the Sacrament of My Love?
Why have men rendered vain the intentions of My Heart
when, in the Cenacle, I instituted the sacrament of My abiding presence in My Church?
Is My present not to benefit those for whom I instituted so great a mystery of love?
Am I to be rejected and forsaken in the sacrament of My divine friendship for souls?
Have my priests altogether forgotten that they are raised to configuration with Me
in order to effect My sacramental presence,
to offer Me to the Father in the perfect sacrifice of My death on the Cross,
and to nourish the souls of the faithful with My own Body and Blood?
Why are My priests so cold towards Me in the Sacrament of My Love?
Why do My priests remain far from My altars?
The priest is for the altar, and the altar is for the priest.
It is the Evil One, the enemy of My Church on earth, who has driven a wedge
between too many of My priests and the altars at which they are united to Me
in a holy victimhood, in a perfect oblation.
Let nothing come between My priests and their altars,
just as nothing came between Me and the wood of My Cross,
the altar of My bloody sacrifice on Calvary.

Let the hearts of My priests be turned, at every moment, to the altar
where they are to offer themselves in sacrifice with Me to the Father,
where I am present,
and where I wait, silent and humble, for their companionship,
for their adoration, and for their grateful love.

If the reality of heaven has become vague
and far from the thoughts of so many in My Church,
it is because they have forsaken the very mystery of heaven
already present and given them
in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
The Eucharist is heaven on earth;
the Eucharist is My Church on earth already assumed into heaven.
Heaven is wheresoever the words of consecration have been pronounced
over the bread and wine in the holy oblation,
for there I am present even as I am present, in the glory of My Ascension,
adored by the angels, praised by all the saints,
held in the divine gaze of My Father,
and burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Amen. Amen.
Believe this and you will find heaven on earth,
while waiting and hoping to see My Face in glory.

(From In Sinu Iesu, The Journal of a Priest)

Rogation and Ascension Sermons

Dom Benedict has posted audio files of my sermons for Rogationtide and Ascension Thursday here.

Saturday, 31 May 2014
Feast of Our Lady of the Cenacle

My dear Oblate family,

Turn to Mary

The Invitatory for today’s feast — Our Lady of the Cenacle — is drawn from the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles: Alleluia! Let us persevere in prayer * with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, alleluia. The presence of Mary makes perseverance in prayer possible. Without Mary, in our midst and at our side, we would grow weary and listless, and so lose the virile spirit of perseverance in prayer. So often prayer seems futile, or empty, or not worth the effort; at moments such as these we must turn to Mary, confident that she will pray in our stead and, gradually, almost imperceptibly, draw us into her own prayer until, as if by surprise, we find that we have persevered in praying after all.

Faith and Hope

Resolve never to pray apart from Mary. Her presence in the Cenacle was a living flame of love, a hearth of fire and of light in the midst of a community bewildered by the mysterious Ascension of the Lord. Absent, but present, and present, but absent, the Lord was, already, in these days before Pentecost, schooling His Church in the prayer of faith, a persevering prayer, that goes on hoping even when the object of her hope seems far removed from her.

Present in the Cenacle

Just how was Our Lord present in the Cenacle after His Ascension? He was present, first of all, in faithfulness to His promise that where two or three gather in His Name, there would He be, in the midst of them. He was present too in His words, repeated, remembered, and held in the heart. He was present in Peter, who in spite of all his weaknesses and failings, remained the rock chosen by Christ. He was present in John, the Beloved Disciple in whose heart burned an inextinguishable fire of love, the one enkindled at the Last Supper when, for the first time, Jesus fed Him with the mysteries of His Body and Blood. He was present in the silence, in the face, and in the voice of His Virgin Mother. She is the pillar of faith against whom every lie, every temptation, and every heresy is smashed to pieces. Finally, He was present in the bread become His Body, and in the chalice of wine mixed with water become His Blood.

The Lamb, the Altar, and the Holy of Holies

What must Our Lady have felt when, in the Cenacle, she beheld, lying before her on the table, the very Flesh of her her own flesh and the very Blood of her own blood? Her Maternal Heart leapt in recognition of the Lamb. The table had become her altar. The Cenacle itself had become her Holy of Holies.

Here was her Son, the very fruit of her womb: the Jesus whom she had carried, nourished, washed, clothed, and kissed. Here, veiled, was the Face that disappeared from her sight on the Mount of Olives, when He ascended. Here, beating with a passionate love His Bride, the Church, was the very Heart that she saw pierced by the soldier’s lance on Calvary.

Perseverance in Prayer

There is but one way to persevere in prayer, and that is by remaining close to Mary. Distance from Mary is distance from the Church, and distance from the Church is distance from Christ. Moreover, where Mary is, there too is the Holy Ghost. To abide with Mary is to abide under the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. To withdraw from Mary’s presence and to withdraw from beneath the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. It is to choose sterility over fecundity, self-assertion over obedience, and fleeting things over the imperishable treasures of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Most Humble Heart of Mary

One who remains close to Mary will grow in humility of heart, and one who grows in humility of heart becomes like a vessel emptied out, ready to be filled to overflowing with the sweet and fragrant anointing of the Holy Ghost. An antiphon in the Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary places these words in her mouth: “Ego placui Altissimo cum essem parvula” — “I was pleasing unto the Most High because I was so lowly”.  As I prayed this morning, it seemed that Our Lord was saying to me:

Humility draws down the grace of the Holy Spirit
and an abundant outpouring of His gifts.
Without humility there is no space into which the Spirit of God can descend.
Humility prepares the dwelling  of God in the midst of men.

It was by her humility
that my most pure Mother
caused the heavens to open over the Church
gathered in the Cenacle.

It was by her humility as much as by her ceaseless prayer
that she obtained the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
God resists the proud,
but pours out His Love upon the lowly of heart.

The Immaculate Heart of my Mother is the lowliest of hearts,
free of all self–seeking, free of all reference to herself,
and open to all the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
And these were given her in such abundance
that the Church, even now,
continues to receive all graces from her Heart
as from a pure and inexhaustible fountain.

You Will Find Her in the Cenacle

More than anything else, my prayer for you today, asks that you may never depart from Mary. You will find her today in the Cenacle, all silent and absorbed in adoration. Approach her as closely as you can, and if you are too weak to make your way to her, ask her to make her way to you. This she will do, for hers is a Maternal Heart, and no weakness of our repels her. On the contrary, she has for the weakest and most unstable of her children, a tenderness that must be experienced in order to be understood. Blessed feast, then, of Our Lady of the Cenacle, our life, our sweetness, and our hope.

With my loving blessing to each one,
Father Prior

The Cenacle

Silverstream Priory was, at its conception, placed under patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Cenacle. The Cenacle is the upper room in which Our Divine Lord instituted the adorable Sacrament of His Most Holy Body and Blood, making His Apostles the first priests of the Church, and humbling Himself to wash their feet. In the splendour of His Resurrection, Our Lord appeared to His Apostles, again in the Cenacle. It was in the same Cenacle that the Apostles, assembled around the Virgin Mother of Jesus, awaited the promised Gift of the Holy Ghost, by persevering together in prayer. When, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost descended upon them in tongues of fire and in a mighty wind, this too took place in the Cenacle.

Marked by this mystery of the Cenacle, the ecclesial mandate of the Benedictine Monks of Perpetual Adoration is to adore the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar in a spirit of reparation, and to intercede for the sanctification of priests by “persevering with one mind in prayer with Mary, the Mother of Jesus” (Acts 1. 14).

Our Lady of the Cenacle

Many years ago and long before I had any idea that I would one day play a role in establishing a monastery under the patronage of Our Lady of the Cenacle, I was searching out the treasures of my missal, and discovered, among the Masses for Certain Places, the Mass of Our Lady of the Cenacle for the Saturday within the Octave of the Ascension. The Proper texts of the Mass stirred my heart.

The Mass for today’s feast was composed and approved in 1886 at the request of Mother Marie-Aimée Lautier, Superior General of the Congregation of the Cenacle. The humble foundress of the Society of Our Lady of the Cenacle, Saint Thérèse Couderc, died in 1885. It is a pity that, with Ascension Thursday being observed in so many places on the following Sunday, both the Pentecost Novena and the feast of Our Lady of the Cenacle are adversely affected.

Collect
Deus, qui beatam Mariam semper Virginem matrem tuam
in Cenaculi solitudine cum discipulis orantem
Sancti Spiritus donis cumulasti:
fac nos, quaesumus, cordis recessum diligere;
ut sic rectius orantes
Spiritus Sancti gratiis repleri mereamur.

O God, who, in the solitude of the Cenacle, didst fill with the gifts of the Holy Ghost
Blessed Mary ever Virgin, Thy mother, united in prayer with Thy disciples;
grant that we may so withdraw into the secret places of the heart
that by praying aright,
we may be made worthy to be filled with these graces in abundance.
Who with God the Father livest and reignest
in the unity of the same Holy Ghost,
one God, world without end.

Secret or Prayer Over the Oblations

Haec sacra, Domine, tibi in honorem beatae Mariae Virginis Matris tuae litantes.
humiliter petimus,
ut sicut ipsa verba tua sancta in corde suo sollicite servavit,
nobis quoque ejus intercessione concedas,
ita in lege tua assidue meditari,
ut fidelius opere implere eam valeamus.

Offering Thee, O Lord,
these sacred gifts in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary Thy mother,
we humbly ask that,
by the example and intercession of her
who carefully kept Thy holy words in her heart,
we too may meditate Thy law assiduously,
so as to put it into practice more faithfully.

Postcommunion

Deus, qui fideles tuos in Cenaculi recessu cum Maria Matre tua sacratissima
perseverantes et unanimes in oratione effecisti:
praesta, quaesumus;
ut his quoque donis ornati et a saeculi strepitu segregati,
tibi soli in caritate perfecta vivamus.

O God, who to thy faithful withdrawn in the Cenacle,
didst grant perseverance in prayer in oneness of heart
with Mary, Thy most holy Mother,
grant, we beseech Thee, that we also,
graced with the same gift
and separated from the noise of the world,
may live for Thee alone in perfect charity.

Drawing upon the traditional mysteries of the rosary — Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious, and the mysteries of Light proposed by Pope Saint John Paul II — it becomes possible to pray through seven mysteries that, in a special way, reveal the presence and work of the Holy Ghost. I find it practical to use my Seven Dolours Rosary, with its “seven times seven” series of beads for this persevering invocation of the Holy Ghost through Mary.

1. The Annunciation, the “Proto-Pentecost” in which the Virgin is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk 1:35). Ask for the Gift of Wisdom.

2. The Visitation in which Elizabeth, “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Lk 1:42), greets the Mother of her Lord. Ask for the Gift of Understanding.

3. The Baptism of Jesus, at which the Holy Ghost descended upon him “in bodily form, as a dove” (Lk 3:22). Ask for the Gift of Counsel.

4. The Wedding Feast at Cana (Jn 2:1-11) at which, in response to the intervention of his Mother, Jesus provides wine in abundance prefiguring the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Ask for the Gift of Fortitude.

5. The Death of Jesus Crucified who, “bowing his head, handed over his spirit” (Jn 19:30). Ask for the Gift of Knowledge.

6. The Resurrection of Jesus who, appearing to the disciples “on the evening of that day, the first day of the week” (Jn 20:19), “breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (Jn 20:22). Ask for the Gift of Piety.

7. The Descent of the Holy Ghost “when the day of Pentecost had come” (Ac 2:1). Ask for the Gift of Holy Fear.

I took this essay from Our Lady of the Cenacle by The Reverend Father Felix, S.J., published by the Lafayette Press (New York) in 1896. I edited the text (a translation from the French) slightly and tried to make it more intelligible. Father Felix explains masterfully the significance of the dedication of our little monastery.—Dom Mark Daniel Kirby

The Place of Divine Grace

The Cenacle was pre-eminently the place of Divine Grace, called therein by the prayer of the apostles and disciples, and especially by the all-powerful prayer of Our Lady, Mother of Grace and Queen of the Apostles.

The Cenacle and the Most Holy Eucharist

Men of God, worthy of attention by reason of their religious virtues and their theological and ascetic science have, to explain the uniquely graced atmosphere of the Cenacle, had recourse to pious suppositions, which, without being of the value of a demonstration, possess with a certain probability a value of edification. We content ourselves here with recalling them without pretending either to repudiate them or to approve them entirely. Among these suppositions, one of the most likely and the best authorized by tradition, one that is even admitted to be almost certain by serious theologians, is that the Apostles in the Cenacle consecrated the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, conformably to His divine recommendation: “Do this for a commemoration of me,” and that all the disciples present, with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, there participated in the holy mysteries. However more or less well founded may be this supposition, we have in no wise need of it to establish in a certain and incontestable manner what we have just affirmed, namely: that the primitive Cenacle was pre-eminently the place of Divine Grace.

It was in the Cenacle that our Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, or of the life of God communicated to men in a permanent manner by our High Priest and Divine Mediator. Consequently, the Cenacle was the first place on earth honored and consecrated by the presence of the Eucharistic God, that is to say by the very source of Divine Grace, our Lord Jesus Christ. This same mystery of the Cenacle was, is, and will be perpetuated in the Church even to the consummation of the ages.

The Cenacle and the Blessed Virgin Mary

It was in the Cenacle also, in the Cenacle especially, that Divine Grace was exhaled from all the souls there assembled, and especially from the soul of the most Holy Virgin, well called full of grace. There the breath of all those souls in contact and in communication with one another, formed necessarily in that blessed place, as it were, a supernatural atmosphere that permeated every recess of their being and influenced them in every possible way.

The Cenacle and the Holy Ghost

Finally, it was in the Cenacle that, on the morning of Pentecost at the Third Hours, Divine Grace made its most solemn manifestation and its most brilliant apparition in a great wind and in tongues of fire. Thus did the Holy Ghost enter into the souls of the Apostles so as afterwards to spread Himself abroad in the city of Jerusalem and from there throughout the universe.

The First of All Our Temples

Thus looked upon, the Cenacle is indeed what we have named it, the privileged place of Divine Grace. However modest it may have been by it’s dimensions and by its architecture, no place has ever equaled it in importance, and no Christian temple, however sacred, has ever been so filled with Divine Grace as was that first of all our temples.

The Prayer of the Cenacle

But by what mysterious power was Divine Grace attracted to the Cenacle? What was it that caused it to descend in all and in each one with that plenitude the Holy Scripture expresses by these prodigious words: “They were all filled with the Holy Ghost; repleti sunt omnes Spiritu Sancto ?” The Scripture in the same Book of the Acts of the Apostles answers this question and explains to us this mystery : “All these were persevering with one mind in prayer with the women and Mary, the Mother of Jesus; Hi omnes erant perseverantes unanimiter in oratione cum mulieribus, et Maria matre Jesu. (Acts 1:14)

It is true that already, as we have just said, the Cenacle had, by the single fact of the institution of the Eucharistic Mystery, become the sacred dwelling of Divine Grace. But it may be remarked that the Saviour preceded and accompanied the consecration of His Body and Blood by His own prayer, as though He wished himself to prelude by prayer what may be called the installation of Divine Grace in the Cenacle.

What caused Divine Grace and divine life to descend and enter the Cenacle abundantly and super-abundantly was prayer. And what kind of prayer?

• Universal prayer; for all prayed; all without exception.
• Unanimous and fraternal prayer; for all prayed with one same mind and heart: unanimiter.
• Persevering prayer: erant perseverantes in oratione.
• Prayer confident of the promise of the Divine Master.
• Omnipotent prayer: yes, omnipotent in Divine Grace and divine order by reason of its union with the prayer of Mary.

The Prayer of Our Blessed Lady

Mary, the Mother of Jesus, prayed in the Cenacle with the apostles, the disciples, and the holy women. She was there as the uniting centre of that collective prayer that mounted from the hearts of all, and especially from her maternal heart to the Heart of her Divine Son. She was there, an all-powerful suppliant; omnipotentia supplex, giving to that universal, unanimous, and persevering prayer the force to draw upon the Cenacle and upon all those abiding therein, with the coming of the Holy Ghost, Divine Grace in essence.

And the Holy Ghost, called down by that victorious prayer, came with the resplendent signs which the Scripture relates; He came bringing the very substance of the supernatural and the plenitude of the gifts it contains.

Sober Drunkenness in the Holy Ghost

Never had anything similar been accomplished in humanity. Those men, but now so subject to all human weaknesses and such slaves of all the miseries of nature, are suddenly so filled, so penetrated, so truly inebriated with the supernatural and the divine, that the Jewish people, witnesses of this incomprehensible phenomenon, judge it to be a natural and material inebriation, the only one they then had any knowledge of; for nothing had ever resembled either closely or remotely this phenomenon, absolutely unique in the history of our human race.

Christ in Us

Behold in its mysterious reality the Apostolic Cenacle having in its centre Mary, Mother of Jesus and Queen of the Apostles. The Cenacle is the type and abridgment of the great mystery of Christianity. What is Christianity considered in its principle and in its intimate life if not the life of Jesus Christ dilating and expanding itself throughout space and time in proportion as the baptized of all nations are incorporated with it? And what is Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, if not the life of God manifesting itself under the form of our humanity and by God and with God coming to dwell in us. By Him and in Him, truly, we have all that is supernatural and divine; omnia per ipsum et cum ipso. It is in this sense that Saint Paul could say with all truth: “Christ is all my life; mihi vivere Christus est; He is all the life with which I live as a Christian, that is all my divine and supernatural life.”

Prayer

In a word, our Christianity is, in essence and in its most intimate principle, Divine Grace, because real Christianity is the life of Jesus Christ living in us, and Jesus Christ is Divine Grace, living and personified in Himself. The Cenacle is the image and the living abridgment of true Christianity, in that the intimate core of Christianity is manifested in its visible form, the organization of the liturgical life and of ceaseless prayer. In each and in all, and in the whole universe, Divine Grace is born, grows, develops and fructifies by prayer. As Jesus Christ in His mortal life prayed and prayed again, so Christianity, which is Jesus Christ Himself dilated throughout the universe, prays. The whole of Christianity is an immense prayer; it is a ceaseless rhythm of prayer rising from all the parts of the universe where Christianity reigns.

As in the Cenacle, the prayer of the Church is persevering and permanent prayer, for the clock of time strikes not an hour when prayer does not spring forth from the hearts of millions and millions of Christians. Literally, that voice of prayer in the bosom of Christianity is not hushed day or night. As in the Cenacle, the Church’s universal and permanent prayer is magnificently unanimous, and, it may be added, divinely harmonious.

The Sacred Liturgy

Nothing in humanity equals the grandeur and the beauty of the Catholic liturgy, that is of the immense concert of organized prayer in the circle of Christianity, resounding everywhere: the voice of Christ the Head and of His Mystical Body, the Church. The Church prays at one same time in all parts of the world by those members whom she has hierarchically and officially charged with her prayer. From the rising of the sun to its setting, ascends that permanent, universal and harmonious prayer that is like a continuous aspiration by which the great Mystical Body of Jesus Christ draws to itself, develops and increases incessantly, the life of Divine Grace, the life of God in us.

The Ecclesia Orans

Such is the Church, living like the Cenacle by Divine Grace as by its own element, and inhaling Divine Grace by the power of prayer. The more a Christian institution, under whatever form, would represent and express in a more perfect manner the life of the Church and the life of the Cenacle, the more it should, like Christianity in the universe and like the Apostles in the Cenacle, immerse itself in Divine Grace and drawing Divine Grace to itself, by the enactment of the Sacred Liturgy and by ceaseless prayer.

Therefore all the religious institutions that from age to age have sprung from the ever fruitful womb of the Catholic Church, have in this respect been formed to the image of the Ecclesia Orans, the praying Church, as the praying Church herself was formed to the image of the Cenacle.

Sunday After the Ascension of the Lord

The Most Holy Face of Christ is celebrated on various days of the liturgical year. In the tradition of Carmel, especially in France, the feast of the Transfiguration, August 6th, is marked by loving attention to the Face of Christ. Blessed Maria-Pierina De Micheli and the Servant of God Abbot Ildebrando Gregori, O.S.B. promoted the feast of the Holy Face on Shrove Tuesday. The Congregation of the Benedictines of Jesus Crucified, founded by Mother Marie des Douleurs in 1930, has the custom of turning to the Holy Face in a special way on the Sunday after the Ascension of the Lord. The choice was motivated by the Introit of the Mass:

Listen to my voice, Lord, when I cry to Thee, alleluia.
True to my heart’s promise I have eyes only for Thy Face;
I seek Thy Face, O Lord!
Turn not Thy Face away from me, alleluia, alleluia” (Ps 26: 7-9).

A Longing to See Him Again

Blessed Cardinal Newman wrote somewhere that the Ascension of the Lord is “at once a source of sorrow, because it involves His absence; and of joy, because it involves His presence.” For Our Blessed Lady and the Apostles, standing on the Mount of Olives with their eyes riveted to the heavens, the Ascension was the last glimpse of the Face of Christ on earth. The disappearance of the beloved Face of Christ leaves in the heart of the Church a longing to see Him again, a burning desire for His return.

I Seek Thy Face

This is the reason for Exaudi, Domine, today’s incomparable Introit: “Listen to my voice, Lord, when I cry to Thee, alleluia. True to my heart’s promise I have eyes only for Thy Face; I seek Thy Face, O Lord! Turn not Thy Face away from me, alleluia, alleluia” (Ps 26: 7-9). The desire to contemplate the Face of Christ becomes a persistent longing; this is the experience of all the saints. The vitality of one’s interior life can be measured by the intensity of one’s desire to see the Face of Christ.

Saint John Paul II

Fourteen years ago in Novo Millennio Ineunte, Pope Saint John Paul II placed the new millennium under the radiant sign of the Face of Christ. Then again, at the beginning of the Year of the Eucharist, the year of his death, Pope Saint John Paul II again directed our eyes to the Face of Christ concealed and revealed in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The teaching of Pope John Paul II confirms, in a striking way, the spiritual patrimony left by Mother Marie des Douleurs to the Congregation she founded. “Devotion to the Holy Face,” she wrote, “is the particular aspect by which the Holy Spirit makes us learn again all that we need know to become the saints that Jesus desires. This devotion is of such central importance and so vital for us that we cannot live without it.”

The Holy Ghost and the Face of Christ

I am touched by the connection Mother Marie des Douleurs makes between the Holy Ghost and the Face of Christ. “Devotion to the Holy Face is the particular aspect by which the Holy Spirit makes us learn again all that we need know to become the saints that Jesus desires.” Recall the promise of Our Lord before His Passion: “He who is to befriend you, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send on my account, will in His turn make everything plain, and recall to your minds everything I have said you” (Jn 14:26). “It will be for Him, the truth-giving Spirit, when He comes, to guide you into all truth” (Jn 16:13).

The Holy Ghost teaches souls by referring them to the adorable Face of Jesus. The Sacred Scriptures themselves are illumined by the Holy Ghost who so opens our eyes that we perceive the Face of the Bridegroom shining through the text. “Now,” says the Bride of the Canticle, “He is looking in through each window in turn, peering through every chink” (Ct 2:9).

The Memory of the Church

Since His Ascension from the Mount of Olives, the Holy Face of Jesus fills the vision of the Church. The Holy Ghost brings to our remembrance all that Our Lord said by compelling us ceaselessly to seek His Face. This is why the Church sings on this Sunday After the Ascension: “Listen to my voice, Lord, when I cry to Thee, alleluia. True to my heart’s promise I have eyes only for Thy Face; I seek Thy Face, O Lord! Turn not Thy Face away from me, alleluia, alleluia” (Ps 26: 7-9).

The Cenacle

Yesterday, in the passage from the Acts of the Apostles that we repeated throughout the day, Saint Luke described the retreat of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the Apostles in the Cenacle. Today’s Holy Gospel also takes place in the Cenacle. The place of the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist and of the Priesthood is the very place wherein Mary’s Motherhood of the Church begins to unfold in a ceaseless prayer. At Pentecost, the same Cenacle becomes the place of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. These three mysteries are telescoped into one in every celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Today, after two thousand years, the Cenacle remains the Church’s home. The Church lives out of the Cenacle — Ecclesia de Eucharistia — and returns to the Cenacle to be renewed in the Holy Ghost through the intercession of Mary, the Mediatrix of All Graces.

The Eucharistic Face of Christ

In the Cenacle, together with Our Blessed Lady and the Apostles, one contemplates the Eucharistic Face of Christ. The commandment of the Lord on the night before He suffered, “Do this for a commemoration of me” (Lk 22:19), was certainly obeyed by the Apostles during the days that separated the Ascension of the Lord from Pentecost. The Mother of the Eucharist was there. The very Face that disappeared into the heavens over the Mount of Olives on the day of the Ascension re-appears in every Holy Mass, hidden, and yet shining, through the sacramental veils.

The Priestly Prayer

The priestly prayer of Christ to the Father is wondrously actualized in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is Christ who stands at the altar with His Face turned toward the Father and His pierced Heart open for all eternity, that out of it we may receive the life-giving torrent that is the Gift of the Holy Ghost. In some way, the seventeenth chapter of Saint John is contemplation of the Face of Jesus lifted to the Father. One who contemplates the Face of Jesus portrayed in the Fourth Gospel is drawn by the Holy Spirit into His filial and priestly prayer to the Father.

As the Spirit of the Lord Enables Us

Through the adorable mystery of the Eucharist, the Face we so long to contemplate is set before our eyes and burned into our souls. “It is given to us, all alike, to catch the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, with faces unveiled; and so we become transfigured into the same likeness, borrowing glory from that glory, as the Spirit of the Lord enables us” (2 Cor 3:18).

This photograph was taken on the day of my First Holy Communion. Left to right: my dear little neighbour friend Brigitte Folz, at that time recently come from Germany; myself; my little sister Donna Marie; my brother Daniel; and little Monika Folz.

A Certain Thursday in June

I received my First Holy Communion 55 years ago today, on June 4th, 1959, from the hands of the Right Reverend Monsignor Vincent J. McDonough in Saint Francis Church, New Haven, Connecticut. June 4th fell that year on Thursday, the Octave Day of Corpus Christi, and the day before the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I was far from imagining then the place that every Thursday — day of the Priesthood and of the Most Holy Eucharist — and the mystery of the pierced Heart of Jesus — would come to hold in my life.

We second graders had prepared for the great day by singing a little gregorianish hymn (in Latin!) from our “music readers.” I still remember it, and can still sing it lo all these years later:

Veni, Domine Jesu,
Veni, Domine, Jesu,
Veni, veni, veni,
Et noli tardare!

I remember the thrill and the fear of kneeling before the white marble neo-gothic high altar on a prie-dieu covered in white satin, and the glint of the large golden ciborium in Monsignor’s hands. Returning from the altar one had to keep one’s hands folded while walking straight on the white line inlaid in the church’s tile floor. The Sisters of Mercy prepared us well for our First Holy Communion, and even instructed on how to make a suitable thanksgiving with our little faces hidden in our hands. Inevitably, there was the temptation to “peek” through one’s fingers.

Adoration,Thanksgiving and Reparation

I celebrated this 55th anniversary in adoration, thanksgiving, and reparation, mindful of all the times I have received Holy Communion over the past 55 years. I am grateful to Our Lord for having brought me, after 55 years, to to this day in my life, and to this hour, and to this place. In spite of myself, my life these 55 years has been a Eucharistic life, not because I have made it so, but because Our Lord is faithful, and merciful, and relentless in the pursuit of the little ones upon whom He has set His Heart. I can only ask Him today, in His merciful love, to make the remaining years, or days, or hours of my life wholly Eucharistic. I count on Him to make me the adorer and the priest whom He created me and called me to be.

From The Journal of A Priest

A priest shares what was given him in prayer concerning a sacerdotal Pentecost, a Pentecost of priests, a revival of priestly holiness in the Church. I translated the text from the original French. The image shows Saint John the Apostle on Pentecost.

Aujourd’hui, je crois que c’était pendant les mystères glorieux du rosaire, le Seigneur m’a parlé dune Pentecôte sacerdotale, d’une grâce obtenue par l’intercession de la Vierge Marie pour tous les prêtres de l’Église. À tous sera offerte la grâce d’une nouvelle effusion de l’Esprit Saint pour purifier le sacerdoce des impuretés qui l’ont défiguré et pour redonner au sacerdoce un éclat de sainteté tel qu’il n’a jamais eu dans Église depuis le temps des apôtres.

“Today, I think it was during the glorious mysteries of the rosary, the Lord spoke to me of a sacerdotal Pentecost, of a grace obtained by the intercession of the Virgin Mary for all the priests of the Church. To all [priests] will be offered the grace of a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit to purify the priesthood of the impurities that have disfigured it, and to restore to the priesthood a brightness of holiness such as the Church has never had since the times of the Apostles.”

Cette Pentecôte sacerdotale se prépare déjà dans le silence et dans l’adoration du Saint Sacrement. Les prêtres qui aiment Marie et qui sont fidèles à prier leur chapelet seront les premiers à en bénéficier. Leur sacerdoce sera merveilleusement renouvelé et il leur sera donné une abondance de charismes pour vaincre le mal et guérir ceux qui sont sous l’emprise du Mauvais. Il m’est donné de comprendre que l’intercession du Pape Jean-Paul II a aussi joué un rôle en obtenant par Marie cette grâce de la Pentecôte sacerdotale.

“This sacerdotal Pentecost is being prepared already in silence and in the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The priests who love Mary and who are faithful to pray her rosary will be the first ones to benefit from it. Their priesthood will be wonderfully renewed and they will be given an abundance of charisms to vanquish evil and to heal those under the sway of the Evil One. It was given me to understand that the intercession of Pope John Paul II will also have played a role in obtaining through Mary this grace of the Pentecost of Priests.”

Certains prêtres refuseront cette grâce de la Pentecôte sacerdotale, soit par orgueil, soit par manque de confiance, soit par une absence de foi en la présence réelle du Christ au Saint Sacrement. Cette Pentecôte sacerdotale partira du tabernacle (ou des tabernacles du monde) comme d’un foyer ardent de charité. Les prêtres qui auront été trouvés fidèles à tenir compagnie à Jésus-Hostie se réjouiront. Ils comprendront tout de suite les merveilles qu’il voudra faire en eux et par eux. La Pentecôte sacerdotale rejoindra d’abord les prêtres qui sont de vrais fils de Marie, vivant comme Saint Jean, dans son intimité, tout près de son Cœur immaculé.

“Certain priests will refuse this grace of the sacerdotal Pentecost, out of pride, or a lack of confidence, or an absence of faith in the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. This sacerdotal Pentecost will begin from the tabernacle (or the tabernacles of the world) as from a burning hearth of charity. Priests who will have been found faithful in keeping company with Jesus the Host will rejoice. They will understand straightaway the wonders that He will want to do in them and through them. The sacerdotal Pentecost will affect first of all the priests who are true sons of Mary, living like Saint John, in her intimacy, very close to her Immaculate Heart.”

Fifth Grade

It was 1962. I was in 5th grade in Saint Francis School when, under the tutelage of the formidable Sister M. Raymond, we began reciting every day in class the prayer composed by Blessed John XXIII “for the success of the Ecumenical Council.” Folks were not altogether sure how to pronounce Ecumenical. That took some time. Though we were but ten and eleven years old, we had, I think, a very good idea of what we were saying. The prayer was printed on a glossy holy card bearing an image of the first Pentecost.

Around Mary and Guided by Peter

One mysterious phrase has come back to me again and again over the past fifty years: “Renew in our time Thy wondrous works, as in a new Pentecost, and grant that Holy Church, gathered together in unanimous, more intense prayer, around Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and guided by Peter.” Something about saying these words fascinated me. Little did I know then that one day, over fifty years later, I would live in a monastery under the patronage of Our Lady of the Cenacle.

As It Was

Fifth grade was a hard year for me. I couldn’t grasp long division. Math homework nearly drove me to despair. But music class I loved, and the mysterious phrases of the Pope’s Prayer for the Success of the Ecumenical Council. Here it is, as we said it back then:

O Divine Spirit, sent by the Father in the name of Jesus, Who dost infallibly assist and guide the Church, pour forth the fullness of thy gifts upon the Ecumenical Council.
Kind teacher and Comforter, enlighten the minds of our bishops, who, responding to the invitation of the Sovereign Roman Pontiff, will gather in solemn assembly.
Grant that from this Council there may come forth abundant fruits: that the light and strength of the Gospel may ever more widely influence human society: that new vigour may infuse the Catholic religion and its missionary task; that the Church’s teaching may be better known and Christian morality more widely practiced.
Sweet Guest of our souls, confirm our minds in truth, and dispose our hearts to obedience, so that the decisions of the council may find in us generous acceptance and prompt fulfillment.
We beseech Thee, too, on behalf of those sheep, who no longer belong to the one fold of Jesus Christ, that they also, glorifying as they do in the name of Christian, may finally regain unity under one Shepherd.
Renew in our time Thy wondrous works, as in a new Pentecost, and grant that Holy Church, gathered together in unanimous, more intense prayer, around Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and guided by Peter, may spread the kingdom of the Divine Saviour, which is the kingdom of truth, of justice, of love, and of peace. Amen.