The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1953-11-20
Just Among Ourselves


the final week of the Church Year And the follow
ing Sunday November %, will be the first of Ad-
vent, the beginning of the new year. The Church
does not number her years she is content to use the
civil calendar for that The civil calendar is itself
ecclesiastical than most folk realize not only
because Popes have emended it, but because every
one of its days is sanctfied by being dedicated TO
God in the commemoration of a multitude of saints.
There are thousands of canonized saints, and
only 365 days in the year On most of these days
the Church reads the Office of one or a small group
of saints On some days, particular feast is OBJ
served. But every day, in the solemn chant of the
Office, there is reading from the ancient book
called the MdrtyroIogg which is described by Web
ster IAN official catalogue of martyrs and saints,
with some details of their lives, arranged by the
dates of their anniversaries
The MdrtwoLogy is itself far from complete list.
II is sampling And more special sampling is the
list of notable feast days of saints throughout the
year. The Church keeps us reminded of our priv
Hege and duty 10 make ready to become worthy
citizens Of heaven. She puts before us for consid-
Grafton suitable models of solid heavenly citizenship.
She reminds us of the Communion Of Saints. She
gives us selected examples of the proper pattern
for human lives earth.
But in the nature of things the Church cannot
bring every individual saint to attention. there
er we have the Feast of All Saints together when we
honor all who are in heaven whether officially
onzed or not. And in many of our accustomed daily
prayers we call on the intercession of all who are
with God in heaven. For example, in the prayer
cited daily after Low Mass,-the prayer which be
gins, 20 God, our Refuge and our Strength )"
we ask God to convert sinners and to prosper the
Church earth, through the ntercession of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. Mother of God, of her spouse
ST. Joseph of the holy Apostles, Peter and Paul and
Of NIL the saints
Frequently during the year those who are re-
qured to recite the Divine Office which is the
official and public prayer of the Church say the
prayer called the Suffrage Of the Saints" This is
prayer TO all the saints, asking God through their
intercesson to give spiritual health and peace
and TO safeguard the work of Holy Church
1t is interesting, in passing TO notice the name
Of this prayer. II is called suffrage. Now suffrage
is really vote. When we do some good work for
the souls in purgatory, for instance a work which
gains them an indulgence, we call it suffrage.
Such work is like valuable vote cast for
didate to help him into office. And vote"
the suffering souls out of temporal punishment into
heaven by giving them the benefit of our good
works
AS the name of prayer to all the saints suffrage
is rather seeking of their votes our own behalf
in their honor-for we honor God in honoring those
who have done His will and triumphant with
Him in heaven But our suffrage is strong prayer
of petition and IL ensts the Votes" dhe effective
prayers of the saints to further election"
The Church, then, uses the calendar year with
its dates for the purpose of sanctifying and saving
souls She also has her own year of cycles or sea
sons beginning very properly with that season of ex
pectation which we call Advent that is the coming.
Advent represents the time from Adam to Christ.
Right after the first sin, God promised the Redeem
The race of men had to wait long time for the
Redeemer TO come. And this was wise dispense
ton of Providence Theologians point out to us the
fact that If the Redeemer had come soon after the
Fall, human pride would not have given place TO
humility would not have known,-for they
could know only by prolonged experience,-what
they had cast away by sin; they could not have un
derstood the extent of their need; they could not
have been prepared to take full advantage of re
habtation for the task of getting on to heaven
50
On the other hand the Redemption was not to
be too long delayed, lest humbled pride and devout
longing for the Redeemer should turn into despair
ing disappointment. lie was to come, and He came
in "the midst OF years" and "in the fullness of
time" In Advent we call TO mind that long, long
time of waiting, with contrtion for sin and the
deep desire for the coming of God In human nature
TO redeem mankind We truly take the lesson of the
strong desire for Christ, whose coming We solemnly
commemorate on Christmas Day.
N%@
We give four weeks out of ffty-two TO the recall
ing Of those thousands of years of expectation;
give forty-eght weeks to the appreciation of what
the Coming means to This is just For the treas
that Christmas means TO is the Great Reality
in which always rejoice. We use but short
time of the year to take what benefit exists for us
in the remembering of what the world was without
Our Blessed Lords presence BY far the greater part
of the year belongs to appreciation of what His
presence means For the winter is and gone,
and flowers have appeared in our land" we are
those upon whom the ends of the world have come
We ought to enter Advent with the strong spirit
of the Church in this season. We should stir up
desire for Christ and should satisfy il in receiving
the Blessed Sacrament. We should renew with
energy our appreciation of Christ and His Church.
II is season, for our blessed times, not only of
longing. but Of resolute doing. AS the Holy Ghost
Himself admonishes US, it il now the time for Us
TO rise from sleep