Paul of Tarsus was a Jew of the Tribe of Benjamin. A most zealous Pharisee, he appears in the Epistle as full of hatred "for the Disciples of The Lord". He becomes a "Vessel of Election", so filled with The Holy Ghost (Epistle), "that all Nations shall drink of its fulness," says Saint Ambrose, and shall learn through him that "Jesus is The Son of God" (Epistle).
Saint Paul is, like The Twelve, an Apostle of Christ (Alleluia), "he shall sit in one of the twelve seats and shall judge the World when The Son of Man shall Himself be seated on The Throne which belongs to Him as Son of God" (Gradual and Gospel).
We owe it to today's Feast, which follows by a few days that of The Chair of Saint Peter at Rome, and which had for its origin a Translation of the body of Saint Paul, that we are enabled to see the whole Season after Epiphany represented in a picture [Editor: A Theoretical Picture], giving us an admirable vision of The Kingship of Jesus.
In the foreground [Editor: Of this Theoretical Picture] are the two witnesses of The Divinity of Christ, Saint Peter more especially sent to the sons of Israel and Saint Paul to the Gentiles (Collect, Gradual).
In the background [Editor: Of this Theoretical Picture], is Galilee with its verdant hills, where we perceive Cana, the Synagogue of Nazareth, and The Lake of Genesareth, where Jesus, by his Miracles, proved that He was The Son of God.
Following the example of Saint Paul, let us show by our Faith, and by a new life, that Jesus is God and that He is our King.
Saint Timothy (Greek: Τιμόθεος; Timótheos, meaning "Honouring God" or "Honoured by God") was a 1st - Century A.D.Christian Bishop, who died around 97 A.D. The New Testament indicates that Saint Timothy travelled with Saint Paul, who was also his mentor. Timothy is addressed as the recipient of the Epistles to Timothy.
Saint Timothy is mentioned in The Bible at the time of Paul's second visit to Lystra, in Anatolia, where Timothy is mentioned as a "Disciple". Paul calls him his "own son in The Faith". Timothy often travelled with Paul. Timothy's mother was Jewish and his father was Greek, but he had not been circumcised, and Paul now ensured that this was done, according to the Text, to ensure Timothy’s acceptability to the Jews.
According to McGarvey, Paul performed the operation "with his own hand", but others claim this is unlikely and nowhere attested. He was Ordained and went with Paul on his journeys through Phrygia, Galatia, Mysia,Troas, Philippi, Veria, and Corinth. His mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois, are noted as eminent for their piety and Faith, which indicates that they may have also been Christians. Timothy is praised by Paul for his knowledge of The Scriptures (in the 1st-Century A.D., mostly The Septuagint (Greek); See Development of The New Testament Canon - Clement of Rome), and is said to have been acquainted with The Scriptures since childhood.
English: Timothy and his grandmother. Artist: Rembrandt. Date: 1648.
Deutsch: Timotheus und seine Großmutter.
Current location: In The Collection of The Earl of Ellesmere, London.
Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002.
ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.
(Wikimedia Commons)
That Timothy was jailed at least once, during the period of the writing of The New Testament, is implied by the writer of Hebrews mentioning Timothy's release at the end of the Epistle. It is also apparent that Timothy had some type of stomach malady, owing to Paul's advice, in 1 Timothy 5:23, counselling Timothy to: "No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments."
Paul commanded Timothy to remain in Ephesus (1 Timothy 1): "I command you to stay there in Ephesus", to prevent heresy from infecting The Church in Ephesus. Paul also gave him instructions for establishing Elders and Deacons, there. These very guidelines have become the commonly-used guidelines among Churches across the World to this day.
According to later Tradition, Paul Consecrated Timothy as Bishop of Ephesus in 65 A.D., where he served for fifteen years. In 97 A.D., (with Timothy dying at age eighty), Timothy tried to halt a pagan procession of idols, ceremonies, and songs. In response to his Preaching of the Gospel, the angry pagans beat him, dragged him through the streets, and stoned him to death. In the 4th-Century A.D., his Relics were Transferred to The Church of The Holy Apostles, in Constantinople.
The following Text is from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal. Saint Timothy, born at Lystra (Asia Minor), of a pagan father and a Jewish mother, was already a Christian when Saint Paul came to that town. Saint Paul, whose conversion we Celebrate tomorrow, was struck by Timothy's Holiness and took him as a companion on his travels. Saint Timothy thereupon gave up everything and became his Disciple (Gospel).
Saint Paul conferred on him full Sacerdotal powers (Introit) and committed to his care the The Church of Ephesus. We read, in the Epistle, a passage of one of the two admirable Letters which his master wrote to him. Saint Timothy was stoned to death in his Episcopal City in 97 A.D.
Let us, with Timothy, confess The Divinity of Christ in this Season after Epiphany (in 2016, actually being Septuagesima), which is its Liturgical manifestation.
In order to understand fully the meaning of the Text of today's Mass, we must study it in connection with The Lessons of The Breviary, since, in The Church's mind, The Mass and The Divine Office form one whole.
The Lessons and Responses in The Night Office are taken this week from The Book of Genesis. In them is related the story of The Creation of the World and of man, of our first parents' fall and the promise of a Redeemer, followed by the murder of Abel and a record of the generations from Adam to Noah.
"In the beginning," we read, "God created Heaven and Earth and upon the Earth He made man . . . and He placed him in a garden of paradise to be mindful of it and tend it" (Third and Fourth Responses at Matins).
All this is a figure. Here is Saint Gregory's exposition. "The Kingdom of Heaven is compared to the proprietor who hires labourers to work in his vineyard. Who can be more justly represented as Head of a household than our Creator, Who governs all creatures by His Providence and Who, just as a Master has servants in his house, has His Elect in this World, from the Just Abel, to the last of His Chosen, destined to be born at the very end of time ?
De Profundis (Septuagesima Sunday, Tract).
Gregorian Chant notation from The Liber Usualis (1961), p. 499.
The vineyard which He owns is His Church, while the labourers in this vineyard are all those who, with a true Faith, have set themselves, and urged others, to the task of doing good. By those who came at the first, as well as at the third, sixth and ninth hours, are meant the ancient people of the Hebrews, who, from the beginning of the World, striving in the persons of their Saints to serve God with a right Faith, ceased not, as it were, to work in cultivation of the vineyard.
But, at the eleventh hour, the Gentiles are called and to them are spoken the words: "Why stand ye here all the day, idle ?" (Third Nocturn). Thus, all are called to work in The Lord's vineyard, by sanctifying themselves and their neighbour in glorifying God, since Sanctification consists in searching for our supreme happiness in Him, alone.
Adam failed in his task and God told him: "Because thou hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat, cursed is the Earth in thy work; with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee . . . In the sweat of thy face, shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the Earth out of which thou was taken."
Being exiled from Eden," says Saint Augustine, "the first man involved all his descendants in the penalty of death and reprobation, being corrupted in the person of him from whom they sprung. The whole mass of condemned humanity was, therefore, plunged in misery, enslaved and cast headlong from one evil to another" (Second Nocturn). "The sorrows of death surrounded me," says the Introit, and, as a matter of fact, it is in the Basilica of Saint Laurence-without-the-Walls, close to the cemetery at Rome, that the "Station" for this Sunday is made.
The Collect adds that we are "justly afflicted for our sins". In the Epistle, the Christian Life is represented by Saint Paul as an arena, where a man must take pains and strive to carry off the prize, while the Gospel bears witness that the reward of Eternal Life is only given to those who work in God's vineyard, where work is hard and painful since the entrance of sin.
"O God", prays The Church, "grant to Thy people, who are called by the name of vines and harvests, that they may root out all thorns and briars, and bring forth good fruit in abundance" (Prayer on Holy Saturday, after The Eighth Prophecy).
and remember to say three Hail Marys for the Priest
"In His Wisdom", says Saint Gregory, "Almighty God preferred rather to bring good out of evil than never allow evil to occur". For God took pity on men and promised them a Second Adam, who, restoring the order disturbed by the First Adam, would allow them to regain Heaven, to which Adam had lost all right, when expelled from Eden, which was "the shadow of a better life" (Fourth Lesson). "Thou, O Lord, art our helper in time of tribulation" (Gradual); "with Thee, there is merciful forgiveness" (Tract).
"Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant and save me in Thy mercy" (Communion). "Show Thy face, O Lord, and we shall be saved", The Church cries similarly in The Season of Advent, when calling upon her Lord. The truth is that God, "Who has wonderfully created man, has more wonderfully redeemed him" (Prayer on Holy Saturday after The First Prophecy), for "the Creation of the World in the beginning was not a more excellent thing than the Immolation of Christ our Passover at the end of time" (Prayer on Holy Saturday after The Ninth Prophecy).
This Mass, when studied in the light of Adam's fall, prepares our mind for beginning The Season of Septuagesima, and understanding the sublime character of The Paschal Mystery for which this Season prepares our hearts.
Español: El Monasterio de Santo Domingo de Silos es una abadía benedictina ubicada en el municipio de Santo Domingo de Silos, en la provincia de Burgos.
English: Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey is a Benedictine Monastery in the village of Santo Domingo de Silos in the Southern part of Burgos Province in Northern Spain. Its Cloister is a Magnum Opus of Romanesque art in Europe. [Editor: Listen to The Tract for Septuagesima Sunday, sung by the Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey. See, above.]
Deutsch: Kreuzgang - links eine der gedrehten Vierersäulen.
In response to the call of The Master, Who comes to seek us even in the depths wherein we are plunged, through our first parents' sin (Tract), let us go and work in The Lord's vineyard, or enter the arena and take-up with courage the struggle which will intensify during Lent.
The "Gloria in excelsis" is not said from this Sunday until Maundy Thursday, except when The Mass of a Feast is said.
From Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday, The Tract is said only on Sundays and Feast Days. On Ferias, when The Mass of The Sunday is said, The Gradual is said, without The Tract.
Every Parish Priest celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.
The Cloisters, with twisted Columns, Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey, Burgos, Spain.
The Cloister is a Magnum Opus of Romanesque art in Europe. [Editor: Listen to The Tract for Septuagesima Sunday, sung by the Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey. See, above.]
Photo: 15 January 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Mark Somoza.
(Wikimedia Commons)
THE HISTORY OF SEPTUAGESIMA.
The Season of Septuagesima comprises the three weeks immediately preceding Lent. It forms one of the principal divisions of The Liturgical Year, and is, itself, divided into three parts, each part corresponding to a week: The first week is called Septuagesima; the second week is called Sexagesima; the third week is called Quinquagesima.
All three are named from their numerical reference to Lent, which, in the language of The Church, is called Quadragesima, that is, "Forty", because the great Feast of Easter is prepared for by The Holy Exercises of forty days.
The words Quinquagesima, Sexagesima, and Septuagesima, tells us of the same great Solemnity as looming in the distance, and as being the great object towards which The Church would have us now begin to turn all our thoughts, and desires, and devotion.
Now, The Feast of Easter must be prepared for by forty days of recollectedness and Penance. Those forty days are one of the principal Seasons of The Liturgical Year, and one of the most powerful means employed by The Church for exciting, in the hearts of her children, the spirit of their Christian vocation. It is of the utmost importance that such a Season of Grace should produce its work in our Souls — the renovation of the whole Spiritual Life. The Church, therefore, has instituted a preparation for The Holy Time of Lent.
She gives us the three weeks of Septuagesima, during which she withdraws us, as much as may be, from the noisy distractions of the World, in order that our hearts may be more readily impressed by the Solemn Warning she is to give us at the commencement of Lent by marking our foreheads with Ashes.
This prelude to The Holy Season of Lent was not known in the early ages of Christianity: Its institution would seem to have originated in The Greek Church. Besides The Six Sundays of Lent, on which by universal custom The Faithful never Fasted, the practice of this Church prohibited Fasting on The Saturdays, likewise; consequently, their Lent was short by twelve days of the forty spent by Our Saviour doing Penance in the desert. To make up the deficiency, they were obliged to begin their Lent so many days earlier.
Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, unless otherwise stated. Saint Emerentiana. Virgin and Martyr. Feast Day 23 January. Simple. Red Vestments.
The Royal Gold Cup, or Saint Agnes Cup, is a Solid Gold Covered Cup, lavishly decorated with Enamel and Pearls. It was made for The French Royal Family at the end of the
14th -Century, and later belonged to several English Monarchs, before spending nearly 300 years in Spain. Since 1892, it has been in The British Museum, and is generally agreed to be
the outstanding survival of Late-Mediaeval French Plate.
Saint Emerentiana's likeness is shown, here, on The Royal Gold Cup.
A Foster-Sister of Saint Agnes, the Virgin, Emerentiana, while still a Catechumen, shed tears on the tomb of her friend, who had just been Martyred.
Some Pagans mocked her grief. She, full of The Divine Virtue of which Jesus is the source (Collect), reproached the idolaters with their cruelty towards Saint Agnes, and they, in their fury, stoned her on that very tomb. Baptised in her own blood, she went to join for every more her Spouse and her Sister, about 304 A.D.
Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, unless otherwise stated. Saint Raymund of Pennafort. Confessor. Feast Day 23 January. Semi-Double. White Vestments.
Saint Raymund of Pennafort.
Master-General of The Dominican Order (1238–1240).
Saint Raymund was born in 1175 of the noble Spanish family of Pennafort. Christ, by His teaching and Miracles, showed Himself to be the Son of God. The Church shows us, today, how, by the knowledge and Miracles of Saint Raymund, and thanks to her Saints, she also has a part in The Divinity of The Word.
Having given up everything to enter The Order of Saint Dominic, of which he is one of the glories, Saint Raymund "meditated on The Law of God" (Introit) and wrote the "Summa of cases of conscience", a summary of Christian morals which is much esteemed. Wherefore, The Church awarded him the title of "eminent Minister of The Sacrament of Penance" (Collect).
The Collect alludes to the Miracle by which, having spread out his cloak on the waters, Saint Raymund, in six hours, crossed the fifty-three Leagues of sea which separate the island of Majorca from Barcelona.
He persuaded Saint Peter Nolasco to sacrifice his fortune for the ransoming of Christians detained as captives in The Barbary States, and, with end in view, obtained The Institution of The Order of Our Lady of Ransom.
Saint Raymund, unwilling to be surprised by the sudden arrival of The Lord (Gospel), employed the last thirty-five years of his life in a very special manner in preparing himself for death. The Saint gave up his Soul to God in 1275 at the age of ninety-nine.
Through the intercession of Saint Raymund, who was the eminent Minister of The Sacrament of Penance, and who miraculously crossed the sea, may we obtain to produce worthy fruits of Penance and to reach the haven of Eternal Salvation (Collect).
Mass: Os justi.
Commemoration: Of Saint Emerentiana. Virgin and Martyr.
The authorship, by Saint Ambrose of Milan, for which Pimont contends, is not admitted by The Benedictine Editors, or by Luigi Biraghi. The Hymn is found in a Hymnary, in Irish script (described by Clemens Blume in his Cursus, etc.) of the 8th- or Early-9th-Century; but the classical Prosody of its two Stanzas (Solita in the third line of the original Text is the only exception) suggests a much earlier origin. In this Hymnary, it is assigned, together with the Hymn Christe qui splendor et dies (also known as Christe qui lux es et dies), to Compline.
An earlier arrangement (as shown by The Rule of Caesarius of Arles, circa 502 A.D.), coupled with the Christe qui lux, the Hymn Christe precamur adnue, and assigned both to the "Twelfth Hour" of the Day for alternate recitation throughout the Year. The later introduction of the Te lucis suggests a later origin.
The two Hymns, Te lucis and Christe qui lux, did not maintain everywhere the same relative position; the latter was used in Winter, the former in Summer and on Festivals; while many Cathedrals and Monasteries replaced the Te lucis, by the Christe qui lux, from The First Sunday of Lent to Passion Sunday or Holy Thursday - a custom followed by The Dominicans.
The old Breviary of The Carthusians used the Christe qui lux throughout the Year. The Roman Breviary assigns the Te lucis daily throughout the Year, except from Holy Thursday to The Friday after Easter, inclusively. Merati, in his notes on Galvanus's Thesaurus, says that it has always held, without variation, this place in The Roman Church. As it is sung daily, The Vatican Antiphonary gives it many Plainsong Settings for the varieties of Season and Rite (e.g. the nine Melodies, pp. 117–121, 131, 174, 356, 366).
The Text, given below, is the original version of the Hymn. It was altered by Pope Urban VIII. The 1974 Breviary of Pope Paul VI restores the earlier form of the first and last Verse, but replaces the second Verse with two additional Verses. Pope Urban's version is still used by some, especially since the Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum, authorised continued use of The Roman Breviary in its 1962 Form. Most Monasteries adopted Pope Paul's Form in the 1970s, meaning the original version is seldom sung in Monasteries. The following translation is by J. M. Neale (1818–1866).
The 1974 Revision replaces the second Strophe with the Text Te corda nostra somnient,/ te per soporem sentiant,/ tuamque semper gloriam/ vicina luce concinant. Vitam salubrem tribue,/ nostrum calorem refice,/ taetram noctis caliginem/ tua collustret claritas.
This Text has frequently been set to music. The earliest is the Plainsong version found in The Liber Usualis (used as the opening of Benjamin Britten's "Curlew River"); another, from The Sarum Rite, is much used in England. Thomas Tallis and Henry Balfour Gardiner both composed memorable settings of the Text, among many others.
Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, unless otherwise stated. Saint Vincent and Saint Anastasius. Martyrs. Feast Day 22 January. Semi-Double. Red Vestments.
English: The Church of Saint Vincent and Saint Anastasius, Rome, Italy.
Italiano: Chiesa dei Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio, a Roma, nel rione Trevi. Foto personale.
Vincent, the Deacon of Saragosa, and Anastasius, a Monk of Persia, died the same day, with an interval of 325 Years (303 A.D. and 628 A.D.). The head of Saint Anastasius was brought to Rome and deposited in a Church Dedicated to him and Saint Vincent. Therefore, their names are associated in one Worship. "Their name shall live for evermore" (Alleluia).
Under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, the Deacon Vincent, as formerly the Deacon Laurence, was placed on a gridiron over burning coals. "God has tried them, like Gold in the furnace (Epistle); wherefore the names of Laurence and Vincent follow one another, in The Litany of The Saints, for their "victorious" brows are wreathed with the same "laurels".
English: Interior view of the Church of Saint Vincent and Saint Anastasius,
Rome, Italy, with The Orthodox iconostasis and the Altar.
Italiano: Roma, ss. Vincenzo e Anastasio: altar maggiore e iconostasi.
Saint Anastasius was beheaded after suffering atrocious torments, but he was upheld by Christ, for Whose cause he was persecuted; "Thy Right-Hand, O Lord, hath broken the enemies" (Gradual).
English: View of the Church of Saint Vincent and Saint Anastasius, Rome, Italy, from The Trevi Fountain.
Italiano: Roma, piazza di Trevi e chiesa dei santi Vincenzo e Anastasio.
On the burning coals, Saint Vincent exclaims: "I thought your cruelty would go still further." Saint Anastasius also says: "I expected a more cruel kind of death."
Let us ask God, by the intercession of these Holy Martyrs, to help us to overcome our temptations and vices and work out our Salvation (Collect), Secret, Postcommunion).
Francisque Poulbot (6 February 1879, Saint-Denis – 16 September 1946, Paris) was a Frenchaffichiste(literally, "poster designer"), draughtsman and illustrator.
He was born into a family of teachers, with parents who were lecturers. Francisque Poulbot, the oldest of seven children, was a gifted draughtsman who shied away from The École des Beaux-Arts. Following 1900, his drawings started to appear in The Press. He moved to Montmartre, where, in February 1914, he married Léona Ondernard, before leaving for The Front; He was, however, sent back the following Year. During The First World War, his patriotic Posters and Postcards led him to House Arrest under The German Occupation of France during World War II.
Poulbot probably brought up his brother Paul's daughter, Paulette, known as Zozo, who lost her mother before she was three years old. She is often described as his adopted daughter. Paulette married the artist Jean Cheval, the son of Adrien Cheval, one of Poulbot's friends. Among other collaborations, there is a Postcard series by Poulbot and Cheval.
The French neologism, "poulbot", refers to illustrations representing Parisian "Titis" (Street Children). A perfect example is an illustration of Gavroche, the famous character from the novel, Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo.
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