Angeli et amici: Mulierem fortem quis inveniet?

Holy Mother Church reserves this lection from the thirty first chapter of the Proverbs of Solomon to be chanted during the Nocturns of the Office of Matins of Sainted Matrons. 

"Who shall find a valiant woman? far and from the uttermost coasts is the price of her. The heart of her husband trusteth in her, and he shall have no need of spoils.  She will render him good, and not evil, all the days of her life. She hath sought wool and flax, and hath wrought by the counsel of her hands. She is like the merchant' s ship, she bringeth her bread from afar. And she hath risen in the night, and given a prey to her household, and victuals to her maidens. She hath considered a field, and bought it: with the fruit of her hands she hath planted a vineyard. She hath girded her loins with strength, and hath strengthened her arm.  She hath tasted and seen that her traffic is good: her lamp shall not be put out in the night. She hath put out her hand to strong things, and her fingers have taken hold of the spindle. She hath opened her hand to the needy, and stretched out her hands to the poor. She shall not fear for her house in the cold of snow: for all her domestics are clothed with double garments. She hath made for herself clothing of tapestry: fine linen, and purple is her covering. Her husband is honourable in the gates, when he sitteth among the senators of the land. She made fine linen, and sold it, and delivered a girdle to the Chanaanite merchant. Strength and beauty are her clothing, and she shall laugh in the latter day.She hath opened her mouth to wisdom, and the law of clemency is on her tongue. She hath looked well to the paths of her house, and hath not eaten her bread idle. Her children rose up, and called her blessed: her husband, and he praised her. Many daughters have gathered together riches: thou hast surpassed them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: the woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands: and let her works praise her in the gates."

Not to mention that it would be amazingly appropriate for the civil celebration kept on the second Sunday of May. Happy Mother's Day!

Mr. Screwtape

Angeli et amici: In Ascensione Domini

The Society of Saint Hugh of Cluny, once upon a fictional time, in order to raise funds for their worthy apostolic endeavors raffled off a brand new Lexus. Stu and Jill really wanted to win so they decided to ask some revered priests to pray a novena. The Benedictine monk said: "Ut In Omnibus Glorificetur Dei! Yes, my children, I will gladly pray a novena. But please tell me what is a Lexus?". The Franciscan friar said: "Pax et bonum! Sure I'll pray a novena but what's this Lexus thing?" The Jesuit priest said: "Wow! Lexus. What a great car! But what's a novena?"

The primordial, prototypical and primary Novena in the Catholic Church is the one begun on the Friday after Ascension Thursday addressed to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity preparatory for the great feast of Pentecost which throughout the centuries has been richly indulgenced by the Sovereign Pontiffs and is recounted in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.  A favored formulary that may be fortuitously followed follows: 

First Day: Almighty and eternal God, Who hast vouchsafed to regenerate us by water and the Holy Ghost, and hast given us forgiveness of all our sins, vouchsafe to send forth from heaven upon us Thy sevenfold Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel and Fortitude, the Spirit of Knowledge and Piety, and fill us with the Spirit of Holy Fear. Amen. Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and seven Glory Be's

Second Day: Come, O blessed Spirit of Holy Fear, penetrate my inmost heart, that I may set Thee, my Lord and God, before my face forever; help me to shun all things that can offend Thee, and make me worthy to appear before the pure eyes of Thy Divine Majesty in heaven, where Thou livest and reignest in the unity of the ever Blessed Trinity, God world without end. Amen. Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and seven Glory Be's

Third Day: Come, O Blessed Spirit of Piety, possess my heart. Enkindle therein such a love for God, that I may find satisfaction only in His service, and for His sake lovingly submit to all legitimate authority. Amen. Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and seven Glory Be's

Fourth Day: Come, O Blessed Spirit of Fortitude, uphold my soul in times of trouble and adversity, sustain my efforts after holiness, strengthen my weakness, give me courage against all the assaults of my enemies, that I may never be overcome and separated from Thee, my God and greatest Good. Amen. Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and seven Glory Be's

Fifth Day: Come, O Blessed Spirit of Knowledge, and grant that I may perceive the will of the Father; show me the nothingness of earthly things, that I may realize their vanity and use them only for Thy glory and my own salvation, looking ever beyond them to Thee, and Thy eternal rewards. Amen. Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and seven Glory Be's

Sixth Day: Come, O Spirit of Understanding, and enlighten our minds, that we may know and believe all the mysteries of salvation; and may merit at last to see the eternal light in Thy light; and in the light of glory to have a clear vision of Thee and the Father and the Son. Amen. Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and seven Glory Be's

Seventh Day: Come, O Spirit of Counsel, help and guide me in all my ways, that I may always do Thy holy will. Incline my heart to that which is good; turn it away from all that is evil, and direct me by the straight path of Thy commandments to that goal of eternal life for which I long. Amen. Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and seven Glory Be's

Eighth Day: Come, O Spirit of Wisdom, and reveal to my soul the mysteries of heavenly things, their exceeding greatness, power and beauty. Teach me to love them above and beyond all passing joys and satisfactions of the earth. Help me to attain them and possess them for ever. Amen. Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and seven Glory Be's

Ninth Day: Come, O Divine Spirit, fill my heart with Thy heavenly fruits, Thy charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, faith, mildness, and temperance, that I may never weary in the service of God, but by continued faithful submission to Thy inspiration, may merit to be united eternally with Thee in the love of the Father and the Son. Amen. Recite one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and seven Glory Be's

In the Cenacle the Apostolic College, singularly and sacredly selected by the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, was marvelously maternally ministered to by the Mother of God who thereby earned the sublime dignity Queen of the Apostles, which is liturgically celebrated on the Saturday within the Octave of the Ascension. A range of Religious ranks  practice devotion to Our Blessed Lady under the title Regina Apostolorum, including the Pallotines, the Marianists, and particularly the branches of the Pauline Family founded by Blessed James Alberione viz., the religious congregations of the Society of St. Paul, the Daughters of St. Paul, the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master, the Sisters of Jesus Good Shepherd, and the Sisters of Mary Queen of Apostles; the secular institutes of Jesus Priest, Saint Gabriel Archangel, Our Lady's Annunciation, and Holy Family; and last but not least the Union of Pauline Cooperators. An altogether appropriate appeal authored by Alberione appears appended:  "Hail, Mary, our Mother, Teacher and Queen. In your goodness, listen to the petition which we present to you according to the will of Jesus: "Pray, therefore, the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest." Turn your merciful eyes upon the five billion people living on this earth. Many of them are wandering in darkness without a father, a shepherd, a teacher. God made you an apostle to give Jesus, Way and Truth and Life, to the world. By having recourse to you, they will find the road that leads to Jesus. Through you may all Catholics work with all their strength for all vocations, for all apostolates! Through you, may all the faithful work for all unbelievers, all the fervent for all the indifferent, all the Catholics for all non-Catholics. Through you, may all those called correspond, may all apostles be holy, may they be welcomed by all men and women. At the foot of the cross, your heart expanded to welcome us all as your children. Obtain for us an apostolic heart, modeled after your heart, the hearts of Jesus and St. Paul, so that one day you may have us all, apostles and faithful, around you in heaven. Bless your spiritual son and daughters, Mary, Teacher and Queen."

Preparing this package of potent imprecations reminds one that it is customary for the Faithful on Ascension Thursday, in commemoration of the summit of the Mount of Olives from which the Only Begotten forty days after His Resurrection returned to the First Person of the Blessed Trinity, to climb a hilltop for a picnic and enjoy some scrumptious sort of fine feathered friend at the holy day repast for upon this day unto Heaven Christ "flew"!  

Mr. Screwtape

Angeli et amici: In Tempus Rogationibus

In a lamentably lost hallowed halcyon age before the scurrilous scourge of invading immigrants known as yuppies, the noble neighborhoods of the fabulous Five Boroughs were, ofttimes intrepidly indeed in spite of the infernal interfering inconveniences of the Master Builder,  divinely defined by the blessed boundaries of its parish church.

The Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday preceding Ascension Thursday form a special triduum known as the Rogation Days wherein the Faithful are commanded to fast and the Litany of the Saints is chanted "to ask God's mercy, appease His anger, avert His chastisements manifest through natural disasters, and ask for His blessings, particularly with regard to farming, gardening, and other agricultural pursuits."

The marvelously merry medieval English had a quaint custom on these days known as beating the bounds.  "In former times when maps were rare it was usual to make a formal perambulation of the parish boundaries during Rogation Week. Knowledge of the limits of each parish needed to be handed down so that such matters as liability to contribute to the repair of the church building, and the right to be buried within the churchyard were not disputed. The priest of the parish with the churchwardens and the parochial officials headed a crowd of boys who, armed with green boughs, usually birch or willow, beat the parish boundary markers with them. Sometimes the boys were themselves whipped or even violently bumped on the boundary-stones to make them remember. The object of taking boys along is supposed to ensure that witnesses to the boundaries should survive as long as possible since sometimes boundary markers would be moved, or lines obscured, therefore a folk memory of the true extent of the parish was necessary to maintain integrity of borders by embedding [seems like sometimes, literally!-Editor] knowledge in oral traditions.  Village and parish were coterminous." 

Upon the conclusion of the the pious perambulation the return to the placid precincts of the parsonry would feature the obligating opportunity for the church wardens to raise revenue by hospitably hosting the mirthful merriment known as the parish-ale!

Mr. Screwtape

Angeli et amici: In festo Inventione Sanctae Crucis

Manhattan in the 1970s was quite a dreary place to live as evidenced by the intriguingly iconic  yet amply anomalous subway map designed by Massimo Vignelli with its beige waters and grey parks. While the map very purposely did not seek accuracy in geography,  in popular imagination it wasn't that far off in describing the actual state of the environmental aesthetic. Decades of benign neglect turned beauteous Beaux-Arts buildings into harried haunted hulks of an alien age. The local ragged rugrats played in an abandoned lot whose haphazard layer of black asphalt barely covered the jutting slabs of ashen concrete foundations of the old razed building. But on the rusty fire escapes the Puerto Rican mothers had a hint of home: colorful potted plants full of flowers and even fruits and vegetables.

 

The term 'Roodmas' comes, like its sainted  siblings Christmas, Candlemas, Michaelmas, et cetera, from Middle English with 'rood' or 'rod' meaning the cross, and 'mas', of course, for the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The feast, historically kept on May 3rd, commemorates the finding,  in the year of Our Lord 355, of the True Cross upon which hung the Body of our blessed Redeemer in Jerusalem by that pious princess, her imperial majesty, Saint Helena. Since in the Northern Hemisphere the Spring planting season is commenced around this time the Roman Ritual maternally provides a Blessing of Crosses to be Placed in Fields and Vineyards:

 

V. Our help is in the name of the Lord. R. Who made heaven and earth. V. The Lord be with you. R. And with your spirit.

Let us pray. Almighty, everlasting God, Father of goodness and consolation, in virtue of the bitter suffering of thy Sole-Begotten Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, endured for us sinners on the wood of the Cross, bless these crosses which thy faithful will erect in their vineyards, fields, and gardens. Protect the land where they are placed from hail, tornado, storm, and every assault of the enemy, so that their fruits ripened to the harvest may be gathered to thy honor by those who place their hope in the holy Cross of thy Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, Who liveth and reigneth with thee eternally. Amen.

 

And maybe that will keep away that pesky Pablo the Pigeon and his persnickety pecking!

Mr. Screwtape