Text taken from The Liturgical Year,
by Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Translated from the French by Dom Laurence Shepherd, O.S.B.
Volume 3.
Christmas - Book II.
Adoration of the Magi.
Artist: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682).
Date: 1655 - 1660.
Current location: Toledo Museum of Art,
Ohio, United States.
Source/Photographer: JAFwsBSXui7rdg at Google Cultural Institute.
(Wikimedia Commons)
The Star, foretold by Balaam, having risen in the East, the Three Magi, whose hearts were full of the expectation of the promised Redeemer, are immediately inflamed with the desire of going in search of Him. The announcement of the glad coming of the King of the Jews is made to these holy Kings in a mysterious and silent manner; and, hereby, it differs from that made to the Shepherds of Bethlehem, who were invited to Jesus's Crib by the voice of an Angel.
But the mute language of the Star was explained to them by God, Himself, for He revealed His Son to them; and this made their Vocation superior in dignity to that of the Jewish Shepherds, who, according to the dispensation of the Old Law, could know nothing save by the ministry of Angels.
The Divine Grace which spoke, directly and by itself, to the Souls of the Magi, met with a faithful and unhesitating correspondence. Saint Luke says of the Shepherds, that they came with haste to Bethlehem; and the Magi show their simple and fervent eagerness by the words they addressed to Herod: We have seen His Star in the East, they say, and we are come to adore Him.
When Abraham received the command from God to go out of the land of Chaldea, which was the land of his fathers and kindred, and go into a strange country, he obeyed with such faithful promptitude as to merit being made the Father of all them that believe, so, likewise, the Magi, by reason of their equally docile and admirable faith, have been judged worthy to be called the Fathers of the Gentile Church.
English: The Magi Journeying.
Français: Les rois mages en voyage.
Artist: James Tissot (1836–1902).
Date: Between 1886 and 1894.
Current location: Brooklyn Museum, United States.
Credit line: Purchased by public subscription.
Source/Photographer: Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum;
Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2006, 00.159.30_PS1.jpg.
(Wikimedia Commons)
They, too, or at least one or more of them, went out from Chaldea, if we are to believe Saint Justin and Tertullian. Several of the Fathers, among whom are the two just mentioned, assert that one, if not two, of these holy Kings was from Arabia. A popular tradition, now for centuries admitted into Christian Art, tells us that one of the three Magi was from Ethiopia; and, certainly, as regards this last option, we have David and other Prophets telling us that the coloured inhabitants of the banks of the Nile were to be objects of God's special mercy.
The term, Magi, implies that they gave themselves to the study of the heavenly bodies, and that, too, for the special intention of finding that glorious star whose rising had been prophesied. They were of the number of those Gentiles who, like the Centurion, Cornelius, feared God, had not been defiled by the worship of idols, and maintained, in spite of all the ignorance which surrounded them, the sacred traditions of the religion that was practised by Abraham and the Patriarchs.
The Gospel does not say that they were Kings, but the Church applies to them those verses of the Psalm, where David speaks of the Kings of Arabia and Saba, that should hereafter come to the Messias bringing their offerings of gold.
The tradition of their being Kings rests on the testimony of Saint Hilary of Poitiers, of Saint Jerome, of the poet, Juvencus, of Saint Leo, and several others; and it would be impossible to controvert it by any well-grounded arguments. Of course, we are not to suppose them to have been Monarchs, whose kingdoms were as great as those of the Roman Empire; but we know that the Scripture frequently applies this name of King to petty princes, and even to mere governors of provinces.
Photo: Alexander R. Pruss.
Current location: National Gallery of Art,
Washington, DC. America.
This File: 23 November 2007.
User: User:Jan Arkesteijn.
(Wikimedia Commons)
The Magi, therefore, would be called Kings if they exercised authority over a considerable number of people; and that they were persons of great importance, we have a strong proof in the consideration and attention showed them by Herod, into whose palace they enter, telling him that they are come to pay their homage to the new-born King of the Jews.
The City of Jerusalem is thrown into a state of excitement by their arrival, which would scarce have occurred had not the three strangers, who came for a purpose which few heeded, been attended by a numerous retinue, or had they not attracted attention by their imposing appearance.
These Kings, then, docile to the Divine Inspiration, suddenly leave their country, their riches, their quiet, in order to follow a star; the power of that God, who had called them, unites them in the same path, as they were already one in faith. The star goes on before them, marking out the route they were to follow; The dangers of such a journey, the fatigues of a pilgrimage which might last for weeks or months, the fear of awakening suspicions in the Roman Empire towards which they were evidently tending —all this was nothing to them; they were told to go, and they went.
Their first stay is at Jerusalem, for the star halts there. They, Gentiles, come into this Holy City, which is soon to have God's curse upon it, and they come to announce that Jesus Christ is come ! With all the simple courage and all the calm conviction of Apostles and Martyrs, they declare their firm resolution of going to Him and adoring Him.
Mont Sainte-Odile,
Alsace, France,
also known as Hohenburg Abbey.
The following image of The Three Magi (see, below)
was originally created in Hohenburg Abbey.
Photo: 29 June 2009.
Source: Own work.
Author: Mattana.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Their earnest inquiries constrain Israel, who was the guardian of the Divine Prophecies, to confess one of the chief marks of the Messias — His Birth in Bethlehem. The Jewish Priesthood fulfils, though with a sinful ignorance, its sacred ministry, and Herod sits restlessly on his throne, plotting murder.
The Magi leave the faithless City, which has turned the presence of the Magi into a mark of its own reprobation. The Star reappears in the heavens, and invites them to resume their journey. Yet a few hours, and they will be at Bethlehem, at the feet of the King of whom they are in search.
O dear Jesus ! We also are following Thee; we are walking in Thy light, for Thou hast said, in the Prophecy of Thy beloved Disciple: I am the bright and Morning Star. The meteor that guides the Magi is but Thy symbol, O Divine Star ! Thou art the Morning Star; for Thy Birth proclaims that the darkness of error and sin is at an end.
Thou art the Morning Star; for, after submitting to death and the tomb,, Thou wilt suddenly arise from that night of humiliation to the bright morning of Thy glorious Resurrection. Thou art the Morning Star; for, by Thy Birth and the Mysteries which are to follow, Thou announcest unto us the cloudless day of eternity.
Herrad of Landsberg (1130 - 1195) was a 12th-Century Alsatian Nun and Abbess of Hohenburg Abbey, in the Vosges mountains, France. She is known as the author of the pictorial encyclopaedia Hortus Deliciarum (The Garden of Delights). Herrad of Landsberg was born about 1130 at the Castle of Landsberg, the seat of a noble Alsatian family. She entered Hohenburg Abbey in the Vosges mountains, about fifteen miles from Strasbourg, at an early age. She became Abbess there in 1167 and continued in that Office until her death.
These illustrations are from a reproduction by Christian Maurice Engelhardt, 1818. The original perished in the burning of the Library of Strasbourg during the siege of 1870 in the Franco-Prussian War. The text was copied and published by Straub and Keller, 1879-1899.
Date: 1818.
Source: Hortus Deliciarum.
Author: Made at the Hohenburg Abbey, France, 1185 by Herrad of Landsberg (1130 - 1195) These illustrations are from a reproduction by Christian Maurice Engelhardt, 1818.
(Wikimedia Commons)
May Thy light ever beam upon us ! May we, like the Magi, be obedient to its guidance, and ready to leave all things in order to follow it ! We were sitting in darkness when Thou didst call us to Thy grace, by making this Thy light shine upon us. We were fond of our darkness, and Thou gavest us a love for the Light !
Dear Jesus ! Keep up this love within us. Let not sin, which is darkness, ever approach us. Preserve us from the delusion of a false conscience. Avert from us that blindness into which fell the City of Jerusalem and her king, and which prevented them from seeing the Star. May Thy Star guide us through life, and bring us to Thee, our King, our Peace, our Love !
The Magi wonder at the emergence
of the bright new Star.
We salute thee, too, O Mary, thou Star of the Sea that shinest on the waters of this life, giving calm and protection to thy tempest-tossed children who invoke thee ! Thou didst pray for the Magi as they traversed the desert; guide also our steps, and bring us to Him who is thy Child and thy Light eternal.
Let us close this day with the expressions of Divine Praise offered us by the ancient Liturgies. Let us begin with the continuation of the Hymn of Prudentius, on the vocation of the Gentiles.
Then follows a beautiful Prayer from the Mozarabic Missal and, also, a Sequence from the ancient Paris Missal of 1584. Then follows a Hymn, composed by Saint Ephrem, for the Syrian Church, and a Hymn, composed by Saint Joseph the Hymnographer, to honour the Blessed Virgin-Mother, from within the Menaea of the Greek Church.
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