• St. Ambrose (397). Bishop, Doctor of the Church. Patron of candlemakers. (Current, Traditional)

AMBROSE was of a noble family, and was governor of Milan A.D. 374, when a bishop was to be chosen for that great see. As the Arian heretics were many and fierce, he was present to preserve order during the election. Though only a catechumen, it was the will of God that he should himself be chosen by acclamation; and, in spite of his utmost resistance, he was baptized and consecrated. He was unwearied in every duty of a pastor, full of sympathy and charity, gentle and condescending in things indifferent, but inflexible in matters of principle. He showed his fearless zeal in braving the anger of the Empress Justina, by resisting and foiling her impious attempt to give one of the churches of Milan to the Arians, and by rebuking and leading to penance the really great Emperor Theodosius, who in a moment of irritation had punished most cruelly a sedition of the inhabitants of Thessalonica. He was the friend and consoler of St. Monica in all her sorrows, and in 387 he had the joy of admitting to the Church her son, St. Augustine. St. Ambrose died A.D. 397, full of years and of honors, and is revered by the Church of God as one of her greatest doctors.

REFLECTION: Whence came to St. Ambrose his grandeur of mind, his clearness of insight, his intrepidity in maintaining the faith and discipline of the Church? Whence but from his contempt of the world, from his fearing God alone?

WORD OF THE DAY

CHINESE RITES. Ancient Catholic rites practiced by the Chinese whom the Jesuits converted to Christianity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These rites allowed the honoring of ancestors and the paying of token respect to Confucious. The Jesuit missionaries, notably Matteo Ricci, S.J. (1552-1610), considered these rites essentially cultural and not religious and consequently not compromising to the purity of the Christian religion. It was also believed that their practice would make the people more tolerant of Christianity. Other missionaries objected and much misunderstanding developed. In the Apostolic Constitution Ex illa die, Pope Clement XI in 1715 and Pope Benedict XIV in 1742 forbade these rites to be continued among the converts on the ground that they had a basis of superstition that could not be overlooked. The Holy See, feeling that Ricci’s error was one of judgment and not of faith or morals, forbade anyone from saying that the good missionary had approved idolatry.

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

Advent & The Great Truths

Advent: Short Meditations and The Great Truths Day 11 (Dec 7) The Forerunner’s Message & The Models to be imitated