Father Carlos Hamel of The Fraternity of Saint Joseph the Guardian will preach a Retreat, based on The Ignatian Exercises, at the Church of Saint John the Baptist, 1282 Yardville-Allentown Road, Allentown, New Jersey.
The Spiritual Exercises comprise an ordered series of Meditations and Contemplations, born from the profound Spiritual experience Saint Ignatius gained from his Conversion and his time as the first Superior General of The Society of Jesus. These Exercises purpose to help the Retreatant discern God’s Will for his own life.
The Retreat will begin on the early afternoon of Friday, 17 February 2017, and finish on the afternoon of Sunday, 19 February 2017 (Presidents’ Day weekend).
In order to cover the expenses (Fr. Carlos’ travel from France, food, donation to the Parish, etc) we suggest a donation of $60. Also, please bring a sleeping bag.
In addition to the Meditations, The Traditional Mass will be sung each day, as well as parts of The Divine Office; there will also be plenty of opportunities for Spiritual Direction and Confession.
Saint Polycarp, a disciple of Saint John, was by him invested with full Sacerdotal powers (Introit) and made Bishop of Smyrna [Editor: Known, today, as Izmir, Turkey.]. In a Letter, that he writes to the Philippians, he quotes the first Epistle of his Master (Saint John, of which a passage is read in today's Liturgy.
"Whoever," he declares after Saint John, "does not confess that Christ has come in the flesh, is an Anti-Christ." He claims for Jesus the reality of His quality of Son of God against the heretics of his day, who affirmed that The Incarnation of The Word was only a semblance.
One day, when the heretic Marcion asked him if he was known to him, the Holy Bishop replied: "That he knew him as the eldest son of Satan".
And today's Epistle enables us to distinguish "The Sons of God from those who are the sons of Satan". Those who, like Christ, love their brethren, and, like Him, give their lives for them, are of God. That is what Saint Polycarp will do.
Martyred in the Persecution under Emperor Commodus, he bore testimony to Christ (Gospel). He was burned in the middle of the amphitheatre and then struck with the sword, in the year 166 A.D. He was 86 years old.
Like Polycarp (which name signifies "much fruit"), let us produce much fruit by loving our neighbour for Jesus's sake.
It is recorded by Irenaeus, who heard him speak in his youth, and by Tertullian, that he had been a disciple of Saint John the Apostle. Saint Jerome wrote that Polycarp was a disciple of Saint John and that Saint John had Ordained him Bishop of Smyrna.
The early Tradition that expanded upon the Martyrdom to link Polycarp in competition and contrast with Saint John the Apostle, who, though many people had tried to kill him, was not Martyred but died of old age after being exiled to the island of Patmos, is embodied in The Coptic language fragmentary papyri (the "Harris fragments") dating to the 3rd- to 6th-Centuries A.D.
Frederick Weidmann, their editor, interprets the "Harris fragments" as Smyrnan hagiography addressing Smyrna–Ephesus Church rivalries, which "develops the association of Polycarp and Saint John to a degree unwitnessed, so far as we know, either before or since". The fragments echo The Martyrology, and diverge from it.
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 A.D.; 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.
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.
Mass: Scio cui crëdidi. Commemoration: Of Saint Peter.
