Monday after the Eighth Sunday after Trinity

Persistence in Seeking Conversions.

Read Thess. ii: 2; iii: 7 ff; 2 Thess. iii: 1

I

I. Even the heroic St. Paul was depressed by the rejection, persecution and apparent failure which he often encountered. It was hard for him to attempt the evangelization of Thessalonica, after his scourging and imprisonment at Philippi. "Even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi," he wrote to the Thessalonians, "we were bold in our God to speak unto you the Gospel of God in much conflict [with ourselves]." No doubt it was only after a great struggle with himself that he conquered his reluctance to preach the Gospel, while the wounds of his flogging at Philippi were yet unhealed. It is but natural then that, when I have suffered contumely, perhaps, in a previous effort to instruct or help another soul, I also should be loath to try again either with it or with others. But as I share St. Paul's struggle with himself, let me also participate in his victory.

II. He has handed down to me the two great incentives by which he was drawn irresistibly to make a fresh effort, after every disaster in his ministry. "Now we live," that is, "we are full of the joy of life," he declared to the Thessalonians, "if ye stand fast in the Lord." Let the most interesting of all my plans be to win souls; let success in these enterprises bring me more happiness than aught else in my life, and I shall certainly never desist from my ministry, no matter what disappointments and failures may attend it.

III. The other motive by which St. Paul was filled with fresh energy after every calamity to the churches

under his care, was his zeal "that the word of the Lord might run and be glorified with men" (R. V.). In contrast to this free course of the divine word was its 'being bound' (2 Timothy ii: 9); and Christ's great minister could rejoice in its freedom, although he himself was a prisoner facing his death. Moreover, all succeeding generations of Catholics have caught from him a great burning zeal for the "cursus Evangelii," or "course of the Gospel," through the whole world. Let me give my very life itself, if so I can add a little to the freedom and speed of its running.

Tuesday after the Eighth Sunday after Trinity Mary's Assumption and Durs.

Read Rev. xii.

I. Many of the Fathers, notably St. Epiphanius, interpreted the first verses of our chapter as being a revelation of the Blessed Virgin's assumption. St. John, it seems, was thinking of that sorrowful hour when he had knelt beside the dead body of his adopted mother, and then suddenly she had been rapt away from the lowly dwelling, and in Spirit he had beheld her with her head among the stars and the moon already under her feet, "clothed," that is “enveloped," by the Arms of the Sun of Righteousness. Yet, in his vision, she was held by her Son's fervent love midway between heaven and earth, as being in union with Him and a partaker of His own great work of intercession for souls.

II. As St. John proceeds in the records of his vision, it becomes apparent that the Blessed Virgin is in her assumption a type of the Church on earth. We also are, even now, caught up in the Arms of Divine Love out of this perishing world. We live in

two worlds, our feet treading on the earth, but our heads among the stars. For we are dead: "Ye are dead," declares St. Paul, "and your life is hid with Christ in God." We are risen: 'Ye are then risen with Christ,' the Apostle says, again. And we are ascended to "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, . . and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus."

III. An ancient title of the event upon which we are reflecting is "the repose of the Blessed Virgin.” Now, our Lord has granted us a real measure of spiritual repose which we claim when we allow ourselves to rest in His Divine Arms, realizing our union with Him. 'God hath given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord' (1 Cor. xv: 57): (a) "I have overcome the world"; (b) 'God sent His Son and condemned sin in the flesh, that righteousness might be revealed in us'; (c) "The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting Arms. And He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee." "In Christ" I am made to be more than conqueror of the world, the flesh and the devil, that I may become a mediator with Christ and His blessed mother.

Wednesday after the Eighth Sunday after Trinity The Court of the King of Kings.

Read Psalm xlv.

I. David has "in Spirit" painted us a wonderful picture of our Lord reigning in glory. Jesus is brought before us as the God-man: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever," exclaims the Psalmist; and then addressing Christ in His Humanity, he continues: "God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil

of gladness above Thy fellows." Let me also, with my spiritual vision, behold my ascended Saviour, seated at the Right Hand of His Father.

II. Now we are allowed to see the court of King Jesus, and, first of all the saints, the Blessed VirginMother: "Upon Thy Right Hand," David sings, “doth stand the Queen in gold of Ophir." She is bidden to adore her Blessed Son: "He is thy Lord God, and worship thou Him," the Holy Spirit directs her, through the Psalmist. Yet he plainly declares her to be preeminent among all her fellow-creatures, saying, "The richest among the peoples shall entreat thy favor." The Church, spoken of as the "King's Daughter," now enters. She is conducted before her Heavenly Father in "raiment of needle work," that is, ornamented with various devices, signifying the various degrees and kinds of holiness, secular and religious, lay and clerical, to which the saints have attained. And the Religious, "the virgins her companions that follow her," are brought to the Queen, no doubt to receive her maternal blessing; and with her they enter the King's palace.

III. The spiritual meaning of the Psalm is, therefore, that the Blessed Virgin has been caught up into Christ's long labor of saving souls. Her throne in Heaven is not, any more than His, an ornamental sinecure. As he "ever liveth to make intercession for us," so she lifts up her pleading hands in our behalf. Let me often seek the prayer of this most righteous one, for it 'availeth much in its working' (St. James v: 16, R. V.).

Thursday after the Eighth Sunday after Trinity

Mary's Mediatorship and Durs.

I.

Read Exodus xxxii: 7-14

The principle that underlies human mediatorship is clearly revealed in our passage. The episode wonderfully exemplifies the truth that our Lord helps souls mediately, showing mercy upon one at the prayer of another. He might have destroyed the worshippers of the golden calf without permitting any intervention by Moses; He might, on the other hand, have forgiven the idolaters out of His own infinite love for them. But, in fact, He did neither of these things. He revealed the sin of His people to His saintly servant there before Him on the mount, in order that He might incite Moses to intercede for his brethren. "He would have destroyed them," the Psalmist says, "had not Moses, His chosen, stood before Him in the gap, to turn away His wrathful indignation, lest He should destroy them." How much more shall she avail, standing in the breach between divine wrath and sinners, who is the Daughter, Spouse and Mother of God!

II. Yet every Christian partakes of this same power to intercede, and labor, for the salvation of souls. The twelve stars which form her diadem (Rev. xii: 1) are around our heads also, since we have the twelve apostles praying for us. The moon is under our feet, for she, who is the faithful witness in Heaven and draws all her radiance from the Sun of Righteousness, can refuse us nothing which she can obtain from her Divine Son. We, like her, are heart to Heart with Him Who is a very Furnace of divine charity. His Arms are around us, as they were around the Cross, not only because He loves our