March 9: St Frances of Rome OSB, Memorial

The martyrology entry for St Frances reads:

"At Rome, St. Frances, widow, renowned for her noble family, holy life, and the gift of miracles."

Famed both as a mystic and for her charitable works, St Francis is co-patron of Benedictine Oblates. 

St Frances (1394-1440) was a married woman who founded a congregation of oblates (third order without religious vows), following the Benedictine Rule living in community, but not cloistered.

Renowned as a mystic, she was married for forty years, was devout but attentive to the duties of her state in life, and had six children.

She and her sister, together with other wealthy women she inspired prayed, visited the poor, and took care of the sick. After her husband's death in 1436 she entered and became prioress of the congregation she had founded.

Her monastery still exists today.

Ash Wednesday, Class I

Ash Wednesday is a day of fasting and abstinence.

As the ashes are imposed, the priest says "Remember, O man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return." (Genesis 3:19)

As the Matins readings each day are generally Patristic commentaries on the Gospel of the day, I will try and post the relevant Gospel here in advance so you can re-familiarise yourself with it!  For Ash Wednesday, the Gospel is Matthew 6:15-21:

"And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Notes on the rubrics for Lent, Part I - Ash Wednesday to Passion Sunday

During Lent the liturgy becomes much more elaborate, and the Office reflects that. 

In particular, there are specific readings set for each day of the week at (EF) Mass.  So at Matins the readings are general patristic commentaries on the Gospel for the day, and the canticle antiphons also generally pick up the key messages from the Gospel.

Lent in the Benedictine Office actually encompasses a number of quite diverse sets of rubrics:

• Ash Wednesday to first Vespers of the First Sunday of Lent, when the Office basically stays as if it were still Septuagesimatide;
• First Sunday of Lent up until first Vespers of First Passion Sunday - the rubrics of Lent;
• Passiontide (First Passion Sunday to Palm Sunday); and
• Holy Week (up until the Easter Vigil). 

Note that psalms used do not change - they are the same throughout the year, except on major feasts at Lauds and Vespers and a few other very limited exceptions such as the Sacred Triduum.  It is, however, particularly appropriate to use the ferial canticle at Lauds during the penitential season.

The notes here cover the first two of these parts of Lent.

Ash Wednesday to the First Sunday of Lent

This period was something of a later add-on to Lent to make up the correct number of days (given that Sundays are not counted for fasting and other purposes, although in reality we still don't quite make it to forty days, due to the several first class feasts that normally intervene).  The liturgy does intensify, with canticle antiphons for both Lauds and Vespers, but the rest of the Office at Lauds to Vespers remains that of  'throughout the year'.

First Sunday to (First) Passion Sunday

The Ordinary of the ferial Office in Lent is set out in the Farnborough edition of the Monastic Diurnal at MD 190*ff.

For those saying Matins (not in the Diurnal):

• the invitatory antiphon on weekdays is the same as throughout the year;
• the hymn is for the season of Lent and is the same each day (Ex more);
• the readings during the week are usually patristic, relating to the Gospel of the Mass set for that day;
• the chapter verse for Nocturn II is for the season (Is 1:16-18).

At Lauds and Vespers:

• chapters, hymns, etc of the season replace those in the psalter section;
• the canticle antiphons are proper for each day.

Each day there are two sets of collects: the first for use from Matins to None; the second for Vespers.

It is also important to be aware that when a feast displaces the Lent texts, a commemoration of the day is made at both Lauds and Vespers using the respective collects, canticle antiphon and versicle that occurs before the relevant canticle at that hour.

March 7: St Thomas Aquinas, Memorial

Few saints have had as much ongoing influence as St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274).  The Angelic Doctor remains a model on how to approach theology, as well as a major source for it, while his purity of life presents a model for us all.

For all of his learning, all the importance of the Summa and other of his works, for me, it is prayers and hymns he composed that are the most important legacy of the saint, such as this wonderful prayer:   "Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you".

Pope Benedict XVI actually devoted three General Audiences to him in 2010, all of which are well worth reading:

• the first provides a sketch of his life;
• the second part introduces us to the great saints' theological and philosophical approach;
• the third part provides an overview and some key extracts from St Thomas' Summa Theologica.

 Here is an extract from the first of these talks:

"...today I wish to speak of the one whom the Church calls the Doctor communis namely, St Thomas Aquinas. in his Encyclical Fides et Ratio my venerable Predecessor, Pope John Paul II, recalled that "the Church has been justified in consistently proposing St Thomas as a master of thought and a model of the right way to do theology" (n. 43). It is not surprising that, after St Augustine, among the ecclesiastical writers mentioned in the Catechism of the Catholic Church St Thomas is cited more than any other, at least 61 times! He was also called the Doctor Angelicus, perhaps because of his virtues and, in particular, the sublimity of his thought and the purity of his life.

Thomas was born between 1224 and 1225 in the castle that his wealthy noble family owned at Roccasecca near Aquino, not far from the famous Abbey of Montecassino where his parents sent him to receive the first elements of his education. A few years later he moved to Naples, the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily, where Frederick II had founded a prestigious university. Here the thinking of the Greek philosopher Aristotle was taught without the limitations imposed elsewhere. The young Thomas was introduced to it and immediately perceived its great value. However, it was above all in those years that he spent in Naples that his Dominican vocation was born. Thomas was in fact attracted by the ideal of the Order recently founded by St Dominic. However, when he was clothed in the Dominican habit his family opposed this decision and he was obliged to leave the convent and spend some time at home.

In 1245, by which time he had come of age, he was able to continue on the path of his response to God's call. He was sent to Paris to study theology under the guidance of another Saint, Albert the Great, of whom I spoke not long ago. A true and deep friendship developed between Albert and Thomas. They learned to esteem and love each other to the point that Albert even wanted his disciple to follow him to Cologne, where he had been sent by the Superiors of the Order to found a theological studium. Thomas then once again came into contact with all Aristotle's works and his Arab commentators that Albert described and explained.

In this period the culture of the Latin world was profoundly stimulated by the encounter with Aristotle's works that had long remained unknown. They were writings on the nature of knowledge, on the natural sciences, on metaphysics, on the soul and on ethics and were full of information and intuitions that appeared valid and convincing. All this formed an overall vision of the world that had been developed without and before Christ, and with pure reason, and seemed to impose itself on reason as "the" vision itself; accordingly seeing and knowing this philosophy had an incredible fascination for the young. Many accepted enthusiastically, indeed with a-critical enthusiasm, this enormous baggage of ancient knowledge that seemed to be able to renew culture advantageously and to open totally new horizons. Others, however, feared that Aristotle's pagan thought might be in opposition to the Christian faith and refused to study it. Two cultures converged: the pre-Christian culture of Aristotle with its radical rationality and the classical Christian culture. Certain circles, moreover, were led to reject Aristotle by the presentation of this philosopher which had been made by the Arab commentators. Avicenna and Averroës. Indeed, it was they who had transmitted the Aristotelian philosophy to the Latin world. For example, these commentators had taught that human beings have no personal intelligence but that there is a single universal intelligence, a spiritual substance common to all, that works in all as "one": hence, a depersonalization of man. Another disputable point passed on by the Arab commentators was that the world was eternal like God. This understandably unleashed never-ending disputes in the university and clerical worlds. Aristotelian philosophy was continuing to spread even among the populace.

Thomas Aquinas, at the school of Albert the Great, did something of fundamental importance for the history of philosophy and theology, I would say for the history of culture: he made a thorough study of Aristotle and his interpreters, obtaining for himself new Latin translations of the original Greek texts. Consequently he no longer relied solely on the Arab commentators but was able to read the original texts for himself. He commented on most of the Aristotelian opus, distinguishing between what was valid and was dubious or to be completely rejected, showing its consonance with the events of the Christian Revelation and drawing abundantly and perceptively from Aristotle's thought in the explanation of the theological texts he was uniting. In short, Thomas Aquinas showed that a natural harmony exists between Christian faith and reason. And this was the great achievement of Thomas who, at that time of clashes between two cultures that time when it seemed that faith would have to give in to reason showed that they go hand in hand, that insofar as reason appeared incompatible with faith it was not reason, and so what appeared to be faith was not faith, since it was in opposition to true rationality; thus he created a new synthesis which formed the culture of the centuries to come..."

March 6: Felicity and Perpetua, martyrs, memorial

The martyrology entry for today's saints reads:

"SS Perpetua and Felicity, who on the day following this, received from  the Lord the glorious crown of martyrdom."

Tomorrow's entry adds:

"At Carthage, the birthday of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, martyrs.  St. Augustine relates that Felicity being with child, her execution was deferred , according to the law, until after her delivery.  He states that while she was in labour, she mourned, and when cast to the beasts, she rejoiced.  With them suffered Satyrus, Saturninus, Revocatus, and Secundulus, the last of whom died in prison; the others were delivered to the beasts, all during the reign of Severus.  The feast of Saints Perpetua and Felicity was celebrated yesterday."

St Perpetua (born in 181) was a 22-year old married noble, and a nursing mother. She was martyred along with St Felicity, an expectant mother and her slave, at Carthage in the Roman province of Africa, and five other catechumens.

They are particularly fascinating saints because of the survival of St Perpetua's autobiographical account of the persecutions she and her fellow Christians suffered in the year 203.  The book was widely read amongst the early Christians and deserves to be better known today.  Here are the opening paragraphs of the work:

"The young catechumens, Revocatus and his fellow-servant Felicitas, Saturninus and Secundulus, were apprehended. And among them also was Vivia Perpetua, respectably born, liberally educated, a married matron, having a father and mother and two brothers, one of whom, like herself, was a catechumen, and a son an infant at the breast. She herself was about twenty-two years of age. From this point onward she shall herself narrate the whole course of her martyrdom, as she left it described by her own hand and with her own mind.

"While" says she, "we were still with the persecutors, and my father, for the sake of his affection for me, was persisting in seeking to turn me away, and to cast me down from the faith — 'Father,' said I, 'do you see, let us say, this vessel lying here to be a little pitcher, or something else?' And he said, 'I see it to be so.' And I replied to him, 'Can it be called by any other name than what it is?' And he said, 'No.' 'Neither can I call myself anything else than what I am, a Christian.' Then my father, provoked at this saying, threw himself upon me, as if he would tear my eyes out. But he only distressed me, and went away overcome by the devil's arguments. Then, in a few days after I had been without my father, I gave thanks to the Lord; and his absence became a source of consolation to me. In that same interval of a few days we were baptized, and to me the Spirit prescribed that in the water baptism nothing else was to be sought for bodily endurance. After a few days we are taken into the dungeon, and I was very much afraid, because I had never felt such darkness. O terrible day! O the fierce heat of the shock of the soldiery, because of the crowds! I was very unusually distressed by my anxiety for my infant. There were present there Tertius and Pomponius, the blessed deacons who ministered to us, and had arranged by means of a gratuity that we might be refreshed by being sent out for a few hours into a pleasanter part of the prison. Then going out of the dungeon, all attended to their own wants. I suckled my child, which was now enfeebled with hunger. In my anxiety for it, I addressed my mother and comforted my brother, and commended to their care my son. I was languishing because I had seen them languishing on my account. Such solicitude I suffered for many days, and I obtained for my infant to remain in the dungeon with me; and forthwith I grew strong and was relieved from distress and anxiety about my infant; and the dungeon became to me as it were a palace, so that I preferred being there to being elsewhere.

"Then my brother said to me, 'My dear sister, you are already in a position of great dignity, and are such that you may ask for a vision, and that it may be made known to you whether this is to result in a passion or an escape.' And I, who knew that I was privileged to converse with the Lord, whose kindnesses I had found to be so great, boldly promised him, and said, 'Tomorrow I will tell you.' And I asked, and this was what was shown me. I saw a golden ladder of marvellous height, reaching up even to heaven, and very narrow, so that persons could only ascend it one by one; and on the sides of the ladder was fixed every kind of iron weapon. There were there swords, lances, hooks, daggers; so that if any one went up carelessly, or not looking upwards, he would be torn to pieces and his flesh would cleave to the iron weapons. And under the ladder itself was crouching a dragon of wonderful size, who lay in wait for those who ascended, and frightened them from the ascent. And Saturus went up first, who had subsequently delivered himself up freely on our account, not having been present at the time that we were taken prisoners. And he attained the top of the ladder, and turned towards me, and said to me, Perpetua, I am waiting for you; but be careful that the dragon do not bite you.' And I said, 'In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he shall not hurt me.' And from under the ladder itself, as if in fear of me, he slowly lifted up his head; and as I trod upon the first step, I trod upon his head. And I went up, and I saw an immense extent of garden, and in the midst of the garden a white-haired man sitting in the dress of a shepherd, of a large stature, milking sheep; and standing around were many thousand white-robed ones. And he raised his head, and looked upon me, and said to me, 'Thou are welcome, daughter.' And he called me, and from the cheese as he was milking he gave me as it were a little cake, and I received it with folded hands; and I ate it, and all who stood around said Amen. And at the sound of their voices I was awakened, still tasting a sweetness which I cannot describe. And I immediately related this to my brother, and we understood that it was to be a passion, and we ceased henceforth to have any hope in this world."

Lent in the Rule of St Benedict III - Fasting and abstinence

According to the 1983 Code of Canon Law, all the days of Lent (ie excluding Sundays and solemnities) are, like all Fridays throughout the year, days of penance.  Traditionally, this meant that they were all days of fasting and partial or full (on Fridays) abstinence.  These days fasting and abstinence are only required on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and some other penance can be substituted on other days.

Still, fasting is the traditional discipline, so we should perhaps give it serious consideration in considering our options.  Thus, it may be helpful to look at what St Benedict envisaged his monks would do during Lent.

Food in the Rule during the year

St Benedict's monks lived a fairly tough regime by modern standards (though not by contemporary ones) when it came to food.

For much of the year, they ate only one meal a day, and although wine, fish and fowl were allowed, red meat wasn't.

Still, it wasn't as tough as it might have been - St Benedict specifies providing a choices of dishes so that everyone could eat something they like for example.

And on 'monastic fast days' what changes is the time that the meal was served (so on Wednesdays and Fridays from noon to mid-afternoon after None), not the amount served.  Fasting in the Rule is about refraining from food for a longer period of time, not changing what is eaten or how much is eaten.

 St Benedict also made it clear that there should be some flexibility, for example when more was warranted because of the demands of heavy labour.

It is important to note though, that in the Rule he distinguishes (albeit in passing, in reference to guests) between the monastic fasts, and those imposed by the Church for all.  The Rule covers off the monastic fasts, but doesn't deal with the generally applying rules at all, it just assumes that they apply.

Meals during Lent in the Rule

So the Rule makes only two provisions for fasting during Lent:

• the one meal served is to be taken in the evening (Chapter 41); and
• abstinence in food and drink is mentioned as one of the possible things that the monk could offer (with the abbot's approval) over above their usual ascetic practices (Chapter 49).

Presumably, though the monastery did also follow the much stricter contemporary rules about what could be eaten during Lent - which would have excluded eggs, dairy products and so forth.

Fasting rules over time

Over the history of the Church, few disciplines have changed as much as those relating to fasting!

Although its value as an ascetic practice has always been emphasized, what is actually required of both monks and laity has changed substantially, with numerous concessions to weakness granted at various times. 

Fasting for example, is now generally defined as a reduction in the amount eaten, rather than a delayed meal as in the Rule.  In the 1917 Code of Canon Law, while the Fridays of Lent required fasting and abstinence, the other days were of fasting and partial abstinence (ie one meat meal permitted).  And today of course, fasting and abstinence are only required on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, with all other Fridays (as always) days of abstinence.

So what can/should we do?

Whatever we give up has to be doable - which means a step up from whatever it is we normally do, but not an altogether radical change in our regime. 

The 1917 regime is probably within most families' reach.

Or one could adapt some of St Benedict's provisions.

St Benedict for example shifts the one meal a day from after None of the 'monastic Lent' that applies from November until Lent proper, to the evening.  So perhaps we could consider shifting our usual lunchtime to a few hours later where that is feasible, or something similar for the evening meal depending on when we normally eat it.

We could certainly consider cutting out meat (with appropriate care, particularly for women, to making sure we get enough iron etc) and alcohol.

And we could cut out food between meals, deserts and other treats...

Lent in the Rule of St Benedict II - Refrain from sin and apply ourselves to prayer

So to continue this little mini-series on Lent in the Rule of St Benedict, a look at Chapter 49 in the Rule, which is entitled the 'Of Observance of Lent'.

The chapter recaps the idea of extra reading (covered in the previous part of this series), and mentions abstaining from food and drink, which I'll come back to in the third part of this series.  But its main focus is on prayer and other forms of offering we can make during this period.

Chapter 49: Of the Observance of Lent

Here is the relevant text of the Rule (trans J McCann):

"The life of a monk ought at all times to be lenten in its character; but since few have the strength for that, we therefore urge that in these days of Lent the brethren should lead lives of great purity, and should also in this sacred season expiate the negligences of other times.

This will be worthily done if we refrain from all sin and apply ourselves to prayer with tears, to reading, to compunction of heart, and to abstinence.

In these days, therefore, let us add something beyond the wonted measure of our service, such as private prayers and abstinence in food and drink. Let each one, over and above the measure prescribed for him, offer God something of his own free will in the joy of the Holy Spirit.

That is to say, let him stint himself of food, drink, sleep, talk, and jesting, and look forward with the joy of spiritual longing to the holy feast of Easter.

Let each one, however, tell his abbot what he is offering, and let it be done with his consent and blessing; because what is done without the permission of the spiritual father shall be ascribed to presumption and vainglory and not reckoned meritorious. Everything, therefore, is to be done with the approval of the abbot."

Approval of a spiritual director or confessor?

The Rule mentions that whatever should be done, should be done with the approval of the abbot.  That is consistent with the whole Benedictine concept that for the monk, obedience is the higher virtue.

So ideally lay people too, should consult their spiritual director.

That isn't always possible though, and perhaps isn't necessary if what is chosen is something moderate and appropriate to one's state of life.  Stinting one's self of sleep, for example, might be possible and even desirable if you are in a monastery - but rather less so if you are a truck driver!  But many of us could for example decide to get up half an hour earlier and, say pray the penitential psalms, even if we then go to bed earlier to compensate.

Stirring up that compunction of heart

There are of course any number of things you could do by way of a suitable offering here, such as giving up or cutting back on tv or other leisure activities.  But I think St Benedict's injunction to focus on compunction of heart, or contrition, is well worth keeping in mind, and a very good positive way of achieving that is to pray the penitential psalms.

So, just in case anyone is interesting in praying the penitential psalms during Lent (you could for example just do one a day...), I plan to offer a series on them here, focusing on one a week...