Novena to St Benedict: Day 1 (March 12): St Benedict of Norcia

Here is the novena prayer to St Benedict:

"O glorious St. Benedict, sublime model of all virtues, pure vessel of God's grace! Behold me, humbly kneeling at thy feet. I implore thy loving heart to pray for me before the throne of God. To thee I have recourse in all the dangers which daily surround me. Shield me against my enemies, inspire me to imitate thee in all things. May thy blessing be with me always, so that I may shun whatever God forbids and avoid the occasions of sin.

Graciously obtain for me from God those favors and graces of which I stand so much in need, in the trials, miseries and afflictions of life. Thy heart was always so full of love, compassion, and mercy toward those who were afflicted or troubled in any way. Thou didst never dismiss without consolation and assistance anyone who had recourse to thee. I therefore invoke thy powerful intercession, in the confident hope that thou wilt hear my prayers and obtain for me the special grace and favor I so earnestly implore (mention your intentions here), if it be for the greater glory of God and the welfare of my soul.

Help me, O great St. Benedict, to live and die as a faithful child of God, to be ever submissive to His holy will, and to attain the eternal happiness of heaven. Amen."

About St Benedict...

St Benedict and his twin sister St Scholastica were born in the Italian town of Norcia, near Rome, in 480 AD.  The present-day Church, whose crypt dates back to this era, is pictured above.

St Gregory the Great relates that he was a serious young man of noble birth, who was sent to Rome, as was the norm, to receive a classical education:

"There was a man of venerable life, blessed by grace, and blessed in name, for he was called "Benedictus" or Benedict: who, from his younger years, carried always the mind of an old man; for his age was inferior to his virtue: all vain pleasure he contemned, and though he were in the world, and might freely have enjoyed such commodities as it yieldeth, yet did he nothing esteem it, nor the vanities thereof. He was born in the province of Nursia, of honourable parentage, and brought up at Rome in the study of humanity." (from the translation of the Dialogues, Book II, by Edmund G. Gardner)

These days Norcia is of course, the home of the excellent, rapidly growing international community, the Monks of San Benedetto, led by Prior Cassian.

And you can read the next part in this series on the Life of St Benedict for the Novena here.

March 12: Pope St Gregory I the Great, OSB, Class II

Pope St Gregory I (540-604), known as 'Dialogus' in the Eastern Churches because of his Dialogues, Book II of which is the Life of St Benedict, is one of those few popes who truly deserve the accolade 'the Great'.

St Gregory was born into a noble and pious Roman family.  He had two popes in his ancestry; both of his parents Gordian and Sylvia, are venerated as Saints; and his father's sisters, Aemiliana and Tharsilla, lived in their own home as consecrated virgins.

St Gregory he initially pursued a secular career, and at one time was Prefect of the city of Rome.  St Gregory's decision to became a monk around 574, and to convert his family home into a monastery, was almost certainly inspired by the arrival in Rome of Benedictine monks fleeing from the destruction of Monte Cassino around that time.  Indeed, St Gregory explicitly drew on their testimony when he came to write his famous Life of St Benedict.

In 578 the then pope appointed him a deacon, and he was sent as ambassador to Constantinople in 579, where he spent six years, embroiled in the complex ecclesiastical politics of the East.

He was elected pope in 590.

St Gregory's renown arises on several fronts: his theological works, homilies and commentaries on Scripture; his great liturgical reforms; his dispatch of a monastic mission to convert England and much more.

St Gregory's Life of St Benedict

From the point of view of Benedictine spirituality however his greatest importance lies in the composition of the Life of St Benedict. 

The Life has been much disdained in recent years: ignored and disparaged as mere hagiography intended to edify rather than actual fact by many; and even its very authorship impugned by a revival of sixteenth century protestant attacks enthusiastically embraced by many even of St Benedict's own order! 

Fortunately as even the most eager advocates of this conspiracy theory have been forced to admit, the case for St Gregory's authorship of the Life is actually clear cut.  Whether that will lead to a true revival in the use of the Life as one of the two foundational documents of the Order, as tradition has always held, or instead see modernist-rationalist attempts to undermine its historicity and validity remains to be seen, though there are some promising signs, as I've pointed out over at my other blog.

In any case, St Gregory the Great is an important saint for the Church in general and Benedictines in particular.  Pope St Benedict XVI has given two General Audiences on the saint, the first of which can be found here.

Novena to St Benedict - get ready for March 12

St Benedict's feast is coming up shortly and so if you wanted to do the Novena to the saint in the lead up, you need to start on March 12.

Watch this space....

March 10: The Forty Holy Martyrs, memorial

From the martyrology for March 9:

"At Sebaste in Armenia, under the governor Agricolaus, in the time of Emperor Licinius, the birthday of forty holy soldiers of Cappadocia.  After being chained down in foul dungeons, after having their faces bruised with stones, and being condemned to spend the night naked, in the open during the coldest part of winter, on a frozen lake where their bodies were benumbed and covered with ice, they completed their martyrdom by having their limbs crushed.  The most noteworthy among them were Cyrion and Candidus.  Their glorious triumph has been celebrated by St. Basil and other Fathers in their writings.  Their feast is kept tomorrow."

The story of their martyrdom in 320 is very well-attested to, being the subject of a sermon by St Basil of Caesarea around fifty or sixty years after the event. 

According to St Basil, forty soldiers who had openly confessed themselves Christians were condemned by the prefect to be exposed naked upon a frozen pond near Sebaste on a bitterly cold night, that they might freeze to death. Among the confessors, one yielded and, leaving his companions, sought the warm baths near the lake which had been prepared for any who might prove inconstant.

One of the guards set to keep watch over the martyrs beheld at this moment a supernatural brilliancy overshadowing them and at once proclaimed himself a Christian, threw off his garments, and joined the remaining thirty-nine. Thus the number of forty remained complete.

At daybreak, the stiffened bodies of the confessors, which still showed signs of life, were burned and the ashes cast into a river. Christians, however, collected the precious remains, and the relics were distributed throughout many cities; in this way, veneration of the Forty Martyrs became widespread, and numerous churches were erected in their honour.

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.