Prayer to the True God « BellesHeures's Weblog

This is the feast of the Epiphany which is the twelfth day of Christmas wherein we celebrate the Magi coming to worship the new born King of Israel, Jesus Christ Our Lord. Also, we celebrate today the baptism of Christ in the Jordan by St. John the Baptist. For Christ's Baptism see below at: Concerning the Truth - Who is God and the witness to His Son, Jesus Christ, baptized in the Jordan by St. John the Baptist.

Link: Prayer to the True God « BellesHeures's Weblog

[excerpt]

Prayer to the True God

Prayer to the True God

GRANT US TO BE FAITHFUL TO YOU
O LORD JESUS CHRIST OUR ONLY LORD
AND SAVIOUR LIVING AND REIGNING
AND RULING WITH GOD OUR FATHER IN
THE UNITY AND POWER OF THE HOLY
SPIRIT OUR PARACLETE,
WITH AND BY THE PRAYER AND
COMPANY OF ALL YOUR ELECT ANGELS
AND SAINTS FOR AND WITH US
UNCEASINGLY, ESPECIALLY SAINT
MICHAEL AND SAINT GABRIEL, SAINT
ENOCH IN THE FLESH AND SAINT ELIJAH
IN THE FLESH, YOUR HOLY PROPHETS
YET TO COME, WITH ALL THANKSGIVING,
WE LOVE YOU FOR YOU FIRST LOVED US, WITH ALL THANKSGIVING FOR ALL YOUR
GIFTS AND MERCIES TO US
UNCEASINGLY: ESPECIALLY YOUR ALL
HOLY ALMIGHTY GIFTS OF OUR
CREATION,
REDEMPTION,
YOUR GIFTS OF YOUR CREATION TO US
CHRIST JESUS OUR ONLY LORD AND
SAVIOUR,
YOUR LIFE AND TEACHING,
YOUR INCARNATION BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE ONLY IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, AND BIRTH TRULY BORN IN THE FLESH FROM MARY,
YOUR EPIPHANY,
YOUR TRANSFIGURATION,
YOUR MOST HOLY CROSS, HOLY BLOOD,
HOLY SPIRIT OF YOU OUR ONLY LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST THE SON OF THE FATHER,
YOUR RESURRECTION, THE ONLY FIRST
BORN FROM THE DEAD IN THE FLESH,
YOUR ASCENSION ASSUMPTION IN THE
SAME FLESH BACK TO THE FATHER’S
BOSOM IN THE THIRD HEAVEN AT HIS
RIGHT HAND IN THE UNITY AND POWER
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT OUR PARACLETE,
THE GIFT OF YOUR HOLY SPIRIT OUR
PARACLETE AT PENTECOST AND
THROUGHOUT ALL TIME AND CREATION INDWELLING US FROM THE FIRST ADAM TO THE LAST SAINT, BRINGING WITH HIM YOU GOD OUR FATHER AND THE SON JESUS CHRIST OUR ONLY LORD AND SAVIOUR UNCEASINGLY AND NOW AND ALWAYS AND UNTO THE ENDLESS AGES OF AGES TO COME, YOUR MOST HOLY EUCHARIST WHICH YOU ALONE GOD OUR FATHER AND THE SON JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR AND THE HOLY SPIRIT OUR PARACLETE GIVE TO US, JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR INFINITELY PURE AND UNDEFILED TRULY MADE MANIFEST AGAIN IN THE BREAD THE WINE AND THE WATER WHOM WE RECEIVE IN FAITH WITH ALL THANKSGIVING, YOUR PAROUSIA, CHRIST JESUS, IN THE FLESH IN THE FUTURE AT THE END OF THIS AGE AT THE TIME KNOWN TO YOU ALONE O HOLY HOLY HOLY
LORD GOD ALMIGHTY BLESSED TRINITY HOLY UNITY, WITH ALL YOUR ELECT ANGELS, OUR RESURRECTION IN THE FLESH AT THE FIRST RESURRECTION OF THE JUST, OUR SAME SPIRITS SOULS AND BODIES REUNITED, WE WITH ALL YOUR ELECT ANGELS AND SAINTS WORSHIPPING YOU JCOLS IN THE GLORY OF GOD OUR FATHER IN THE UNITY AND POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT OUR PARACLETE FACE TO FACE UNCEASINGLY UNTO THE ENDLESS AGES OF AGES TO COME,
FOR YOUR SIMPLE GIFTS OF FOOD AND DRINK,
FOR ALL YOUR GIFTS AND MERCIES AND THIS NEW DAY, WITH ALL THANKSGIVING WE LOVE YOU FOR YOU FIRST LOVED US WITH ALL THANKSGIVING UNCEASINGLY AND NOW
AND ALWAYS AND UNTO THE ENDLESS AGES OF AGES TO COME,
BIND AND CAST FROM US FOREVERMORE ALL SPIRITS VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE OF: THE DRAGON, THE DEVIL, THE SERPENT OF OLD, THE SON OF PERDITION, THE FALSE PROPHET, CALLING YOUR
CREATION EVIL, CLAIMING THAT MEN ARE CREATED EVIL,
EVOLUTION, THEURGY, CLAIMING TO HAVE CONTROL OVER YOU, BABYLON, THE GREAT APOSTASY, THE UNHOLY ROMAN APOSTASY, THE PROTESTANT/EVANGELICAL APOSTASY, ALL APOSTASY, ALL THOSE WHO CLAIM
YOUR COMMANDMENTS ARE OF NO
REGARD,
UNCEASINGLY AND NOW AND ALWAYS AND UNTO THE ENDLESS AGES
OF AGES TO COME.

At the end of Vespers every day is sung the famous Phos Hilaron, as the evening light disappears, and the lamps are lit: –

Hail, gladdening Light, of his pure glory poured
Who is the immortal Father, heavenly, blest,
Holiest of Holies, Jesus Christ, Our Lord.
Now we are come to the sun’s hour of rest,
The lights of evening round us shine,
We hymn the Father, Son and Holy Spirit divine,
Worthiest art Thou at all times to be sung
With undefiled tongue,
Son of our God, giver of life alone.
Therefore in all the world, thy glories, Lord, they own.

Concerning the Truth - Who is God and the witness to His Son, Jesus Christ, baptized in the Jordan by St. John the Baptist.

Jesus Christ is the Truth « BellesHeures's Weblog

Jesus Christ is the Truth

GOD is the Truth. The Most Holy Trinity is God and none other is God. The Most Holy Trinity is Three Persons Who are One God. These Three Persons are The Father and the Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. The Father is the fountainhead of the Trinity, the Son proceeds from His engendering in the Father’s bosom, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father in the unity of the engendering of the Son from the Father. This procession of the Son and the Holy Spirit from the Father is immortal from before all time and creation and unto eternity never-ending. This Triune God alone has Aseity, that He is immortal without beginning and without end, self sustained in His existence which preceded all time and creation and, His existence, continues forever; God’s existence is infinite. This God is above all that He has created and transcendent in all that He has created. There is nothing apart from nor outside of God that He has not created. He created all that has been created ex nihilo, that is from nothing by His infinite power. Nothing that is created has aseity. Time is only an aspect of that which has been created by God. Time is therefore part of God’s creation. God is not limited by His creation, this includes that God is not limited by time. God is Omnipotent and Omniscient and Ubiquitos and with eternal complete foresight: Almighty and All seeing and knowing and equally present everywhere and knowing all things before their creation and all events before they come to pass unto eternity. There is no way to God but through the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity Who is the Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom alone there is salvation by His Most Holy Cross and Resurrection. Creation had a beginning but will continue unto the eternal ages to come. At the return of Jesus Christ from God the Father’s right hand in the third heaven and the just judgement of Christ of His creatures, creation will be cleansed by fire (the damned, both angels and men consigned to hell forever) and renewed with paradise restored, with the presence around God of all His elect angels and saints, and continue in this way forever.

Jesus Christ said to count the cost,

Lk:14:
27 And whosoever doth not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
28 For which of you, having a mind to build a tower, doth not first sit down and count the cost that is necessary, whether he have wherewithal to finish it:
33 So likewise every one of you that doth not renounce all that he possesseth cannot be my disciple.
34 Salt is good. But if the salt shall lose its savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?
35 It is neither profitable for the land nor for the dunghill: but shall be cast out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is saying that if we do not put Him ahead of everything that we possess – even our lives, then He is not our Saviour. Only if we put Him ahead of everything, including our lives, and only then He is our Saviour.

In none of the below where I have cited condemnation of false priests or conversely cited the priesthood of the faithful should it be thought that I am condemning good presbyters from among the priesthood of the faithful (St. Irenaeus was one such and a bishop without pretense) who are called priests today. That is those who hold to and teach the truth of Christ.
God bless them.

This site is humbly offered to Jesus Christ and dedicated to all the faithful of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches and all traditional Trinitarian believing faithful Christians and especially all of Christ’s sheep that He, the Good Shepherd seeks to bring unto Him in His salvation; He Who is the Only Saviour. Who warned us not to have anything to do with the wolves in sheep’s clothing. To confirm the utter importance of not having anything to do with the wolves in sheep’s clothing the Lord especially had St. John the Apostle and Evangelist remain until the Lord had especially appeared to him and had him record that appearance and the visions Our Lord showed St. John at that time, in the last book of the bible, the Apocalypse. The message throughout it is absolutely clear, we are to have nothing to do with paganism or man made conventions that try to change what Our Lord taught us. Such as men forgiving the sins of other men. Only God forgives sin. Note that in the book of the Apocalypse that the keys (the Davidic key) that Christ promised Peter are still with Christ, that He, Jesus Christ alone locks and unlocks. This is extremely important. It means that every believing individual receives the keys that Christ gave to the Apostles, including Peter.
Only two times in history have the synchretist hypocrites reached the current level of complete misrepresentation of the truth, once 2000 years ago and now today.
Any Christian who knows the witness and preaching of St. John The Forerunner and Baptist of The Christ and any Christian who knows Christ’s denunciation of the hypocrites (see below from the Gospel of St. Matthew) knows that it is the hypocrites who are going to hell.
Most professing Christians do not understand the importance of St. John The Baptist and Forerunner of Christ. He was the last of the Old Testament prophets and the first of the New Testament prophets. He was the last of the Old Testament martyrs and the first of the New Testament martyrs. He is the only Old Testament and New Testament Apostle (one who saw Christ in the flesh and was commissioned by God to preach Christ!). In short, as St. Irenaeus reminds us constantly and rightly so (against Marcion and the rest of the apostate Gnostics), there is NO difference between Old Testament and New Testament faith. It is in the same God, period. It was Our Lord Jesus Christ Who taught us that there is no communion of light with dark; that either our eye is full of light or it is full of darkness, that a tree bears good fruit or bad fruit but not both.
There is a new version of Catholic, nowadays, one who believes that God is too maudlin to not save all men; there is a new version of Orthodox Church believer who believes that light and dark can indeed be combined, in fact, he believes God commands it; there is a new version of Protestant who doesn’t protest any heresy but only a lack of tolerance, especially if it gets in the way of his making money; there is a new version of what Our Lord meant by “born again”, now supposedly according to those calling themselves evangelical, you can’t lose your salvation no matter what you do (obviously they never had what their free will can’t forfeit so their comments, as utterly self serving as they are, mean absolutely nothing). It was the unswerving uncompromising Baptist that God the Holy Trinity, yes all three Persons, chose to baptize Jesus Christ in the Jordan. Christ commanded (not suggested) our baptism to show forth our unswerving uncompromising faith we are commanded to have. St. John The Forerunner is our model of following Christ, we decrease and He increases; NOT blessed are the puffed up. The whining self congratulating pseudochristians mentioned above, the false Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Evangelical of unbelief, who have the diabolic audacity to accuse those who take Our Lord’s commandments and Our Lord’s denunciation of sin as well as St. John’s, and the Apostles commandments, to separate from the unbeliever and the disorderly seriously, of hypocrisy and an unrighteous judgmentalism are the Pharisee from hell that both Our Lord and St. John condemned as a brood of vipers (nasty little backbiting serpents) who cannot escape being sent to hell for eternity. As Jesus said, they compass heaven and earth to make one convert and only make him twice as much a son of hell as themselves! This is Our Lord speaking! take ye heed lest you make a dog in the manger the tyrant of the universe, take ye heed, Jesus said He came not to bring peace but a sword to divide, take ye heed lest you betray the Lord as did Judas Iscariot — even if the price has changed from thirty pieces of silver, take ye heed if you think like the Gnostics of old that morals are for sissies, Christ gave us morals and He is NO sissy. Nowadays things have gone so far downhill that the murder of babies is accepted by people as a right. Something that hasn’t plagued society since Moloch was a demon goddess worshipped in the middle east.

For instance.

Alan Guttmacher Institute Mission: “The Institute’s mission is to protect the reproductive choices of all women and men in the United States and throughout the world. It is to support their ability to obtain the information and services needed to achieve their full human rights, safeguard their health and exercise their individual responsibilities in regard to sexual behavior and relationships, reproduction and family formation.”

From Mary Meehan’s “The Road to Abortion” Copyright © 1998, 1999 & 2002 by Mary Meehan. In 1966 Dr. Alan Guttmacher, apparently trying to be witty, wrote from Africa to a U.S. colleague: “My trip has been great. I believe I converted the Jews in Israel and now I am working on the pigmented savages.” This private comment from Guttmacher (who was Jewish, but not observant) came soon after his Planned Parenthood group gave an award to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.(32)
32. William H. Draper, Jr., to P. A. Gorman, [8 or 11] Sept. 1967, Guttmacher Papers; Alan F. Guttmacher to Frank Notestein, 13 June 1966, PPFA (II), box 125; and Congressional Record (10 May 1966), vol. 112, part 8, 10164-10165. In his statement accepting the Margaret Sanger Award, Dr. King praised Sanger and family planning and spoke of “the modern plague of overpopulation.” Unfortunately, he seemed unaware of the eugenics connections of Sanger and of population control in general. Ibid.

NO WONDER SWASTIKAS ARE SO POPULAR IN JERUSALEM (CITY OF PEACE?)

We could ask: ‘Do you think the demon goddess Lilith will have any appreciable following in Israel amongst Israeli women?’ Answer: ‘Most assuredly. Obviously the demon goddess Moloch has returned to the center of Israeli worship and that for export to Africa and the U.S.’

From the Gospel of St. Matthew chapter 23:
24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel.
25 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you make clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but within you are full of rapine and uncleanness.
26 Thou blind Pharisee, first make clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, that the outside may become clean.
27 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men’s bones, and of all filthiness.
28 So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just; but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites that build the sepulchres of the prophets, and adorn the monuments of the just,
30 And say: If we had been in the days of our Fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets
31 Wherefore you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the sons of them that killed the prophets.
32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
33 You serpents, generation of vipers how will you flee from the judgment of hell?
34 Therefore behold I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you will put to death and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city:
35 That upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth
from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar.
36 Amen I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation.
37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not?
38 Behold; your house shall be left to you, desolate.
39 For I say to you, you shall not see me henceforth till you say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Also see:

AGAINST ECUMENISM WHICH IS THE OECUMENICAL RULE OF CAESAR AND THE APOSTATES

• Jesus Christ is the Truth
• Prayer to the True God
• The Study Bible - Book of the Revelation - verse by verse
• True to the Faith
• The Creed of the Whole and Undivided Church as Given by the Apostles stands unalterably OPPOSED to ecumenism
• The Mark, the Name, the Number of the beast and the Tower of Babel = Ecumenism: FOURTH BOWL - Rv:16 -- energian planes - four elements
• THE LAW OF NOAH: ONE WORLD RELIGION?
• Photius
• THE VARIATIONS OF POPERY. BY REV, SAIUEL EDGAR, D, D,
• ECUMENIZM

Good versus evil: December 28 The Holy Innocents Matthew, xi. 16.

Good versus evil: December 28 The Holy Innocents Matthew, xi. 16.

December 28 The Holy Innocents Matthew, xi. 16.

• Right to Life: Anti-God and Anti-Life are the same thing
• The War of Antichrist against the Church and Christian Civilization
• The War of Antichrist against the Church and Christian Civilization
• The Plot Against the Church by Maurice Pinay
• The Plot Against the Church, Part 1
• The Plot Against the Church, Part 2
• The Plot Against the Church, Part 3
• The Plot Against the Church, Part 4
• The Plot Against the Church, Part 4
• The Plot Against the Church, Part 4
• The Plot Against the Church, Part 4
• The Plot Against the Church, Appendix
• The Broken Cross
• The Broken Cross - Part One
• The Broken Cross - Part Two
• The Broken Cross - Part Three
• The Broken Cross - Part Four
• The Broken Cross - Part Five
• The Broken Cross - Part Six
• The Broken Cross - Part Seven
• The Broken Cross - Part Eight
• The Broken Cross - Part Nine
• The Broken Cross - Part Ten
• The Broken Cross - Part Eleven
• The Broken Cross - Part Twelve
• The Broken Cross - Part Thirteen
• The Broken Cross - Part Fourteen
• The Broken Cross - Appendix

Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume XII: December.
The Lives of the Saints. 1866.

December 28

The Holy Innocents

Matthew, xi. 16.

Matthew Chapter 2

The offerings of the wise men: the flight into Egypt: the massacre of the Innocents.

2:1 When Jesus therefore was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of king Herod, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem,
2:2 Saying: Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and are come to adore him.
2:3 And king Herod hearing this, was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
2:4 And assembling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ should be born.
2:5 But they said to him: In Bethlehem of Juda. For so it is written by the prophet:
2:6 And thou Bethlehem the land of Juda art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come forth the captain that shall rule my people Israel.
2:7 Then Herod, privately calling the wise men learned diligently of them the time of the star which appeared to them;
2:8 And sending them into Bethlehem, said: Go and diligently inquire after the child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore him.
2:9 Who having heard the king, went their way; and behold the star which they had seen in the East, went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was.
2:10 And seeing the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
2:11 And entering into the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they adored him: and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts; gold, frankincense, and yrrh.
2:12 And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country.
2:13 And after they were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and fly into Egypt: and be there until I shall tell hee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him.
2:14 Who arose, and took the child and his mother by night, and retired into Egypt: and he was there until the death of Herod:
2:15 That it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: Out of Egypt have I called my son.
2:16 Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry: and sending killed all the menchildren that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from wo years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.
2:17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying:
2:18 A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.
2:19 But when Herod was dead, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph in Egypt,
2:20 Saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel. For they are dead that sought the life of the child.
2:21 Who arose, and took the child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.
2:22 But hearing that Archclaus reigned in Judea in the room of Herod his father, he was afraid to go thither: and being warned in sleep retired into the quarters of Galilee.
2:23 And coming he dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was said by the prophets: That he shall be called a Nazarene.

OUR Divine Redeemer was persecuted by the world as soon as he made his appearance in it; for he was no sooner born than it declared war against him. We cannot expect to be better treated than our great Master was before us. He himself bids us remember that if it hated him first, it will likewise hate us, though we have more reason to fear its flatteries and smiles than its rage. The first make a much more dangerous and more violent assault upon our hearts. Herod, in persecuting Christ, was an emblem of Satan and of the world. That ambitious and jealous prince had already sacrificed to his fears and suspicions the most illustrious part of his council, his virtuous wife Mariamne, with her mother Alexandra, the two sons he had by her, and the heirs to his crown, and all his best friends. Hearing from the magians who were come from distant countries to find and adore Christ, that the Messias, or spiritual king of the Jews, foretold by the prophets, was born among them, he trembled lest he was come to take his temporal kingdom from him. So far are the thoughts of carnal and worldly men from the ways of God; and so strangely do violent passions blind and alarm them. The tyrant was disturbed beyond measure, and resolved to take away the life of this child, as if he could have defeated the decrees of heaven. He had recourse to his usual arts of policy and dissimulation, and hoped to receive intelligence of the child by feigning a desire himself to adore him; but God laughed at the folly of his short-sighted prudence, and admonished the magians not to return to him. St. Joseph was likewise ordered by an angel to take the child and his mother, and to fly into Egypt. Is our Blessed Redeemer, the Lord of the universe, to be banished as soon as born! What did not he suffer! What did not his pious parents suffer on his account in so tedious and long a journey, and during a long abode in Egypt, where they were entirely strangers, and destitute of all succour under the hardships of extreme poverty! It is an ancient tradition of the Greeks mentioned by Sozomen, 1 St. Athanasius, 2 and others, that at his entrance into Egypt all the idols of that kingdom fell to the ground, which literally verified the prediction of the prophet Isaiah. 3 Mary and Joseph were not informed by the angel how long their exile would be continued; by which we are taught to leave all to divine providence, acquiescing with confidence and simplicity in the adorable and ever holy will of Him who disposes all things in infinite goodness, sanctity, and wisdom.

Herod, finding that he had been deluded by the magians, was transported with rage and anxious fears. To execute his scheme of killing the Messias, the desired of all nations and the expectation of Israel, he formed the bloody resolution of murdering all the male children in Bethlehem and the neighbouring territory which were not above two years of age. In this example we admire how blind and how furious the passion of ambition is. Soldiers are forthwith sent to execute these cruel orders, who, on a sudden, surrounded the town of Bethlehem, and massacred all the male children in that and the adjacent towns and villages, who had been born in the two last years. This more than brutish barbarity, which would almost have surpassed belief, had not Herod been the contriver, and ambition the incentive, was accompanied with such shrieks of mothers and children, that St. Matthew applies to it a prophecy of Jeremiah, which may be understood in part to relate more immediately to the Babylonish captivity, but which certainly received the most eminent completion at this time. A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning: Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. Rama is a village not far from this town, and the sepulchre of Rachel was in a field belonging to it. The slaughter also was probably extended into the neighbouring tribe of Benjamin, which descended from Rachel. The Ethiopians in their liturgy, and the Greeks in their calendar, count fourteen thousand children massacred on this occasion; but that number exceeds all bounds, nor is it confirmed by any authority of weight. Innocent victims became the spotless Lamb of God; and how great a happiness was such a death to these glorious martyrs! They deserved to die for Christ, though they were not yet able to know or invoke his name. They were the flowers and the first fruits of his martyrs, and triumphed over the world, without having ever known it, or experienced its dangers. They just received the benefit of life, to make a sacrifice of it to God, and to purchase by it eternal life. Almost at the same time they began to live and to die; they received the fresh air of this mortal life forthwith to pass to immortality; and it was their peculiar glory not only to die for the sake of Christ, and for justice and virtue, but also in the place of Christ, or in his stead. How few perhaps of these children, if they had lived, would have escaped the dangers of the world, which, by its maxims and example, bear everything down before it like an impetuous torrent! What snares, what sins, what miseries were they preserved from by this grace! With what songs of praise and love do they not to all eternity thank their Saviour, and this his infinite mercy to them! Their ignorant foolish mothers did not know this, and therefore they wept without comfort. So we often lament as misfortunes many accidents which in the designs of heaven are the greatest mercies.

In Herod we see how blind and how cruel ambition is, which is ready to sacrifice every thing, even Jesus Christ, to its views. The tyrant lived not many days longer to enjoy the kingdom which he feared so much to lose. 4 About the time of our Lord’s nativity he fell sick, and as his distemper sensibly increased, despair and remorse followed him, and made him insupportable both to himself and others. The innumerable crimes which he had committed were the tortures of his mind, whilst a slow imposthume, inch by inch, gnawed and consumed his bowels, feeding principally upon one of the great guts, though it extended itself over all the rest, and, corroding the flesh, made a breach in the lower belly, and became a sordid ulcer, out of which worms issued in swarms, and lice were also bred in his flesh. A fever violently burnt him within, though outwardly it was scarcely perceptible; and he was tormented with a canine appetite, which no victuals could satisfy. Such an offensive smell exhaled from his body, as shocked his best friends; and uncommon twitchings and vellications upon the fibrous and membraneous parts of his body, like sharp razors, cut and wounded him within; and the pain thence arising overpowered him, at length, with cold sweats, tremblings, and convulsions. Antipater in his dungeon, hearing in what a lamentable condition Herod lay, strongly solicited his jailer to set him at liberty, hoping to obtain the crown; but the officer acquainted Herod with the whole affair. The tyrant groaning under the complication of his own distempers, upon this information, vented his spleen by raving and beating his own head, and calling one of his guards, commanded him to go that instant and cut off Antipater’s head. Not content with causing many to be put to barbarous deaths during the course of his malady, he commanded the Jews that were of the principal rank and quality to be shut up in a circus at Jericho, and gave orders to his sister Salome and her husband Alexas to have them all massacred as soon as he should have expired, saying, that as the Jews heartily hated him, they would rejoice at his departure; but he would make a general mourning of the whole nation at his death. 5 This circumstance is at least related by the Jewish historian Josephus. Herod died five days after he had put his son Antipater to death. Macrobius, a heathen writer of the fifth century, relates, 6 that Augustus, “when he heard that, among the children which Herod had commanded to be slain under two years old, his own son had been massacred, said: ‘It is better to be Herod’s hog than his son.’” By this he alluded to the Jewish law of not eating, and consequently not killing swine. Probably the historian imagined the son to have been slain amongst the children, because the news of both massacres reached Rome about the same time.

Parents, pastors, and tutors are bound to make it their principal care, that children, in their innocent age, be by piety and charity consecrated as pure holocausts to God. This is chiefly to be done by imprinting upon their minds the strongest sentiments of devotion, and by instructing them thoroughly in their catechism. We cannot entertain too high an idea of the merit and obligation of teaching God’s little ones to know him, and the great and necessary truths which he has revealed to us. Without knowing him no one can love him, or acquit himself of the most indispensable duties which he owes to his Creator. Children must be instructed in prayer and the principal articles of faith as soon as they attain to the use of reason, that they may be able to give him his first fruits by faith, hope, and love, as by the law of reason and religion they are bound to do. The understanding of little children is very weak, and is able only to discover small glimpses of light. Great art, experience, and earnestness are often required to manage and gradually increase these small rays, and to place therein whatever one would have the children comprehend. The lessons must be very short, and the truths which are taught made sensible when possible, by examples, images, and comparisons, adapted to the capacities of those that are to be instructed. The catechist, without demeaning himself, must become a little one with those that are little. This he must do with suitable gravity and seriousness; and it is only by his own earnestness and application that he can make them attentive and earnest. Were he at the same time to joke, or attend to, or be employed in any other thing, he would in vain recommend seriousness and attention to those that hear him. O how great ought to be the zeal of children and others to attend to that saving doctrine, without which man is a riddle to himself, and no one can attain to salvation and the love of God! That sublime science which the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, came from heaven 7 to declare to us. The queen of the South came from the bounds of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: behold more than Solomon is here? 8 When the Athenians had forbidden any citizen of Megara to set foot in Athens under pain of death, one Euclides, an inhabitant of Megara, went disguised many miles in the night to assist at the lectures of Socrates the next morning, and returned the night following; and this he continued to do a long time with the hazard of his life. 9 If such was the earnestness of this heathen to learn a profane philosophy, with what zeal ought a Christian to study the true and sublime science of faith, which leads to eternal life! The most ardent desire of this instruction is the surest mark of true virtue, and of that vehement hunger and thirst of God’s just and holy love, which is the very soul of sincere piety. The solicitude and diligence of parents and pastors to instruct others in this sacred science, ought not to lessen; neither must any one regard the function as mean or contemptible. It is the very foundation of the Christian religion. By this function the seeds of piety and religion are planted in the hearts of the faithful, which produce their fruit according to the manner in which they are received. A good catechist contributes more towards maintaining public peace, than all the laws and magistrates; as inferior ties of duty are far more binding than coercive force. Hence Pope Paul III. in a bull in which he recommends this employment, declares that “nothing is more fruitful or more profitable for the salvation of souls.” No pastoral function is more indispensable, none more beneficial, and generally none more meritorious; we may add, or more sublime. For under a meaner exterior appearance, without pomp, ostentation, or show of learning or abilities, it joins the exercise of humility with the most zealous and most profitable function of the pastoral charge. Being painful and laborious, it is, moreover, an exercise of patience and penance. Neither can any one think it beneath his parts or dignity. The great St. Austin, St. Chrysostom, St. Cyril, and other most learned doctors, popes, and bishops, applied themselves with singular zeal and assiduity to this duty of catechising children and all ignorant persons; this they thought a high branch of their duty, and the most useful and glorious employment of their learning and talents. What did the apostles travel over the world to do else? St. Paul said: I am a debtor to the wise and to the unwise. 10 We became little ones in the midst of you, as if a nurse would cherish her children; so desirous of you, that we would gladly have imparted to you not only the gospel of God, but even our own souls. 11 Our Divine Lord himself made this the principal employment of his ministry. The spirit of the Lord is upon me: he hath sent me to preach the gospel to the poor. 12 He declared the pleasure he found in assisting that innocent age, when he said: Suffer little children to come unto me, for the kingdom of God is for such. And embracing them, and laying his hands upon them he blessed them. 13 John Gerson, the most pious and celebrated chancellor of Paris, esteemed an oracle for his learning, testified his zeal for this sacred function by his book entitled, On drawing Little Ones to Christ. All his life he employed a considerable part of his time in teaching little children their catechism. Upon his return from the general council of Constance, he retired to the city of Lyons, where he every day assembled the children in St. Paul’s church, and taught them the Christian doctrine, till he was confined to his bed by his last illness. When he drew near his death, he caused all the little children to be called together into the church, and there to repeat with one voice: “My God, my Creator, have mercy on thy poor servant, John Gerson.” 14

Note 1. Sozomen, l. 5, c. 21, p. 213, ed. Cantabar. per Reading.

Note 2. S. Athan. l. de Incarn. Verbi. Calmet, Vie de Jesus C. c. 7, p. 21.

Note 3. Isaiah xix. 1.

Note 4. Antipater, whom Herod had by his wife Doris, and who had, by wicked artifices, engaged his father to put to death his two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, (the two last princes of the Asmonean family by their mother Mariamne,) formed a conspiracy against the life of his father. Of this crime he was convicted before Quintilius Varus, who had succeeded Saturninus in the government of Syria, and whom Herod had entreated to preside in this trial at Jerusalem.

Note 5. Jos. Ant. l. 17, c. 7.

Note 6. Macrob. Saturn. l. 2, c. 4.

Note 7. John i. 18.

Note 8. Matt. xii. 42.

Note 9. Aul. Gell. Noct. Attic. l. 6, c. 10.

Note 10. Rom. i. 14.

Note 11. 1 Thess. ii. 7, 8.

Note 12. Luke iv. 18.

Note 13. Mark x. 14, 16.

Note 14. Vita Gerson. t. 1, op. p. 169.

Against Heresies

MYSTERIES OF THE HOLY CHILDHOOD.

V. Incline unto my aid, O God.
R. O Lord, make haste to help mc.
V. Glory be to the Father, &c.

Pater noster.

The Incarnation.
i. Jesu, sweetest Child, who didst come down from the bosom of the Father for our salvation, who wast conceived by the holy Ghost, who didst not abhor the Virgin's womb, and, as the Word made flesh, didst take upon Thee the form of a servant; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us.

Ave Maria.

The Visitation.
ii. Jesu, sweetest Child, who, through Thy Virgin Mother, didst visit Saint Elisabeth, and fill Thy forerunner the holy Baptist with the Holy Ghost, sanctifying him whilst yet in his mother's womb; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy, &c.

Ave Maria.

The Expectation of the Birth.
iii. Jesu, sweetest Child, who, shut up for nine months in lily Mother's womb, wast looked for with eager expectation by Mary and by Joseph, and wast offered to God the Father for the salvation of the world; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy, &c.
Ave Maria.

The Birth.
iv. Jesu, sweetest Child, born in Bethlehem of Mary ever Virgin, swathed in rags, laid in the manger, announced by angels, visited by shepherds ; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy, &c.

Ave Maria.

O, Jesu, born of Virgin bright,
Immortal glory be to Thee;
Praise to the Father Infinite,
And Holy Ghost eternally.

V. Christ is at hand.
R. Come, let us worship.

Pater noster.

The Circumcision.
v. Jesu, sweetest Child, wounded in Thy circumcision the eighth day, called by the glorious Name of Jesus, and at once by Thy Name and Thy Blood foreshown as thin Saviour of the world ; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy, &c.

Ave Maria.

The Adoration of the Magi.
vi. Jests, sweetest Child, made known to the three Magi by a star, adored in the arms of Thy Mother, presented with the mystic gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy, &c.

Ave Maria.

The Presentation.
vii. Jesu, sweetest Child, who wrist presented in the Temple by Thy Virgin Mother, who wast embraced by Simeon, and revealed to Israel by Anna the prophetess; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy, &c.

Ave Maria.

The Flight into Egypt.
viii. Jesu, sweetest Child, whom wicked Herod sought to slay, whom Joseph carried with Mary into Egypt, who wast withdrawn from a cruel death and wast glorified by the blood of innocents; have mercy upon us.
B. Have mercy, &c.

Ave Maria.

O Jesu, &c. as above. V. and R. as above. Pater noster, &c.

The Sojourn in Egypt.
ix. Jesu, sweetest Child, who didst dwell in Egypt with most holy Mary and the Patriarch holy Joseph until the death of Herod; have mercy upon us.
B. Have mercy, &c.
Ave Maria.

The Return out of Egypt.
x. Jesu, sweetest Child, who, after Herod's death, didst return out of Egypt into the hand of Israel, who didst suffer many toils by the way, and didst enter into thin city of Nazareth; have mercy upon us.
B. Have mercy, &c.

Ave Maria.

Early Life.
xi. Jesu, sweetest Child, who, in time holy house at Nazareth, subject to Thy parents, didst dwell most holily, wast wearied by poverty and labours, and didst advance iii wisdom, age, and grace; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy, &c.

Disputation with the Doctors.
xii. Jesu, sweetest Child, at twelve years old brought to Jerusalem, sought for by Thy parents with sorrow, and found with joy after three days amongst the doctors; have mercy upon us.
R. Have mercy, &c.

Ave Maria.

O Jesu, &c. as above.

For Christmas-day and its Octave.

V. The Word was made flesh. Alleluia.
R. And dwelt amongst us. Alleluia.

For the Epiphany and its Octave.

V. Christ hath manifested Himself to us. Alleluia.
R. Come, let us adore. Alleluia.

Let us pray.
Almighty and everlasting God, Lord of Heaven and earth, who dost reveal Thyself to little ones; grant, we beseech Thee, that we, duly honouring the holy mysteries of Thy Son the infant Jesus, and daily imitating Him in our lives, may come to the kingdom of heaven promised by Thee to little children. Through the same Jesus Christ, &c.

St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book V.

Chapter XXIV.-Of the Constant Falsehood of the Devil, and of the Powers and Governments of the World, Which We Ought to Obey, Inasmuch as They are Appointed of God, Not of the Devil.

1. As therefore the devil lied at the beginning, so did he also in the end, when he said, "All these are delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give them."²⁰⁶ For it is not he who has appointed the kingdoms of this world, but God; for "the heart of the king is in the hand of God."²⁰⁷ And the Word also says by Solomon, "By me kings do reign, and princes administer justice. By me chiefs are raised up, and by me kings rule the earth."²⁰⁸ Paul the apostle also says upon this same subject: "Be ye subject to all the higher powers; for there is no power but of God: now those which are have been ordained of God."²⁰⁹ And again, in reference to them he says, "For he beareth not the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God, the avenger for wrath to him who does evil."²¹⁰ Now, that he spake these words, not in regard to angelical powers, nor of invisible rulers-as some venture to expound the passage-but of those of actual human authorities, [he shows when] he says, "For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, doing service for this very thing."²¹¹ This also the Lord confirmed, when He did not do what He was tempted to by the devil; but He gave directions that tribute should be paid to the tax-gatherers for Himself and Peter;²¹² because "they are the ministers of God, serving for this very thing."

2. For since man, by departing from God, reached such a pitch of fury as even to look upon his brother as his enemy, and engaged without fear in every kind of restless conduct, and murder, and avarice; God imposed upon mankind the fear of man, as they did not acknowledge the fear of God, in order that, being subjected to the authority of men, and kept under restraint by their laws, they might attain to some degree of justice, and exercise mutual forbearance through dread of the sword suspended full in their view, as the apostle says: "For he beareth not the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God, the avenger for wrath upon him who does evil." And for this reason too, magistrates themselves, having laws as a clothing of righteousness whenever they act in a just and legitimate manner, shall not be called in question for their conduct, nor be liable to punishment. But whatsoever they do to the subversion of justice, iniquitously, and impiously, and illegally, and tyrannically, in these things shall they also perish; for the just judgment of God comes equally upon all, and in no case is defective. Earthly rule, therefore, has been appointed by God for the benefit of nations,²¹³ and not by the devil, who is never at rest at all, nay, who does not love to see even nations conducting themselves after a quiet manner, so that under the fear of human rule, men may not eat each other up like fishes; but that, by means of the establishment of laws, they may keep down an excess of wickedness among the nations. And considered from this point of view, those who exact tribute from us are "God's ministers, serving for this very purpose."

3. As, then, "the powers that be are ordained of God," it is clear that the devil lied when he said, "These are delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will, I give them." For by the law of the same Being as calls men into existence are kings also appointed, adapted for those men who are at the time placed under their government. Some of these [rulers] are given for the correction and the benefit of their subjects, and for the preservation of justice; but others, for the purposes of fear and punishment and rebuke: others, as [the subjects] deserve it, are for deception, disgrace, and pride; while the just judgment of God, as I have observed already, passes equally upon all. The devil, however, as he is the apostate angel, can only go to this length, as he did at the beginning, [namely] to deceive and lead astray the mind of man into disobeying the commandments of God, and gradually to darken the hearts of those who would endeavour to serve him, to the forgetting of the true God, but to the adoration of himself as God.

4. Just as if any one, being an apostate, and seizing in a hostile manner another man's territory, should harass the inhabitants of it, in order that he might claim for himself the glory of a king among those ignorant of his apostasy and robbery; so likewise also the devil, being one among those angels who are placed over the spirit of the air, as the Apostle Paul has declared in his Epistle to the Ephesians,²¹⁴ becoming envious of man, was rendered an apostate from the divine law: for envy is a thing foreign to God. And as his apostasy was exposed by man, and man became the [means of] searching out his thoughts (et examinatio sententiae ejus, homo factus est), he has set himself to this with greater and greater determination, in opposition to man, envying his life, and wishing to involve him in his own apostate power. The Word of God, however, the Maker of all things, conquering him by means of human nature, and showing him to be an apostate, has, on the contrary, put him under the power of man. For He says, "Behold, I confer upon you the power of treading upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy,"²¹⁵ in order that, as he obtained dominion over man by apostasy, so again his apostasy might be deprived of power by means of man turning back again to God.