• St. Gregory of Nazianzen (389). Bishop, Doctor of the Church. (Traditional) “The Theologian”
• St. Pachomius (348). Abbot or Abbess, Founder or Foundress. (Historical) considered the founder of Christian monasticism

THE ASCENSION.

THE mystery which the Church honors on this day is at the same time that of the triumph of Jesus Christ and the hallowed hope of His disciples. The Saviour, after having accomplished His mission on earth, ascends to heaven to put His manhood in possession of the glory due to it, and to prepare for us an abiding-place. He ascends thither as our King, Liberator, Chief, and Mediator. Our King, because He has purchased us at the cost of His blood; our Liberator, because He has conquered death and sin, and has ransomed us from the thralldom of Satan; our Chief, because He wishes that we should follow in His footsteps, and that we should be where He is, even as He has Himself declared; our Mediator, because we can have access to the Father only through Him. He ascends thither as our High Priest, in order to offer unceasingly to God the blood which He has shed for us in His character of man, and to obtain for us through the merits of His sacrifice the remission of our sins.

Let us, then, by means of faith, follow Him in His ascension to heaven, and abide there henceforth in heart and spirit. Let us remember that heaven is wholly ours, as our inheritance; and amid the temptations and miseries of this life, let us think often of this home of peace, of glory, and bliss eternal. We must not flatter ourselves, however, that, without earnest efforts on our part, we shall have any share in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. There are many mansions in the house of our heavenly Father, but there are not many roads leading thither. Jesus Christ has traced out for us the way of humiliation and suffering, and it is the only one that conducts to eternal peace. If the hardships of the journey and the sight of our own weakness strike us with dread, we should gather energy by leaning on the promises of the God-Man. He will be with us even unto the end, and if we love Him, all will become easy.

REFLECTION: Let us cherish hope: “Christ being come, a High Priest of the good things to come, hath entered into the holy of holies, by His own blood having obtained eternal redemption.

ST. GREGORY NAZIANZEN.

GREGORY was born of saintly parents, and was the chosen friend of St. Basil. They studied together at Athens, turned at the same time from the fairest worldly prospects, and for some years lived together in seclusion, self-discipline, and toil. Gregory was raised, almost by force, to the priesthood; and was in time made Bishop of Nazianzum by St. Basil, who had become Archbishop of Cæsarea. When he was fifty years old, he was chosen, for his rare gifts and his conciliatory disposition, to be Patriarch of Constantinople, then distracted and laid waste by Arian and other heretics. In that city he labored with wonderful success. The Arians were so irritated at the decay of their heresy that they pursued the Saint with outrage, calumny, and violence, and at length resolved to take away his life. For this purpose they chose a resolute young man, who readily undertook the sacrilegious commission. But God did not allow him to carry it out. He was touched with remorse, and cast himself at the Saint’s feet, avowing his sinful intent. St. Gregory at once forgave him, treated him with all kindness, and received him amongst his friends, to the wonder and edification of the whole city, and to the confusion of the heretics, whose crime had served only as a foil to the virtue of the Saint. St. Jerome boasts that he had sat at his feet, and calls him his master and his catechist in Holy Scripture. But his lowliness, his austerities, the insignificance of his person, and above all his very success, drew down on him the hatred of the enemies of the Faith. He was persecuted by the magistrates, stoned by the rabble, and thwarted and deserted even by his brother bishops. During the second General Council, he resigned his see, hoping thus to restore peace to the tormented city, and retired to his native town, where he died A.D. 390. He was a graceful poet, a preacher at once eloquent and solid; and as a champion of the Faith so well equipped, so strenuous, and so exact, that he is called St. Gregory the Theologian.

REFLECTION: “We must overcome our enemies,” said St. Gregory, “by gentleness; win them over by forbearance. Let them be punished by their own conscience, not by our wrath. Let us not at once wither the fig-tree, from which a more skillful gardener may yet entice fruit.

WORD OF THE DAY

COUNSELS. Good actions that are not prescribed by any law. They are morally better than the corresponding precepts, as fasting is higher than temperance. Among the counsels the most important are the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience. They are called evangelical because they were taught and practiced by Christ in the Gospels. Moreover, they are especially proposed by the Church as means for attaining Christian perfection. A person can freely bind oneself to practice the evangelical counsels, as in the religious life, and then they become obligatory according to the conditions of the vow or promises assumed.

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!)

EASTER MEDITATIONS

Enjoy daily meditations this Easter from Fr. Richard Clarke, SJ. Short and powerful, written in 1880 for busy lay people to reap rewards through Eastertide: 40 — The Return to Jerusalem.

May, Month of the Immaculate Heart

Maria Magnificata. Short Meditations for May, the Month on Our Lady’s Life. 9th Day — The Marriage of Mary.