a candle is lighted

8/7/2019 A CANDLE IS LIGHTED

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A CANDLE IS LIGHTED

P. Stewart Craig

THE GRAIL

FIELD END HOUSE, EASTCOTE, MIDDX.

First published August, 1945

Printed in Great Britain

at the BURLEIGH PRESS, Lewin's Mead, BRISTOL

"Bank holidays are a poor exchange for the feasts of the Church. It

means that people's noses are now kept much longer to the

grindstone than they ever were in the days when the civil year was

based on the liturgy. It means too that a popular, vivid, visual way

of teaching the faith has almost disappeared. Those who work with

young people, in schools or any sort of youth organizations, or

those with families of young children are the only ones who can

ensure that this way of making religion real does not vanishcompletely. Many of the Church's feasts were celebrated in a

childish, obvious even crude way. This ought to be a

recommendation, rather than a drawback. When boys and girls

drift away from their faith the reason almost always is that this

faith has never been a reality to them. The popular celebrations

that obtained so long in this country did indeed help to make the

faith real then to those who took part; it could do so again."

In this book the Grail sets out to help everyone who works with

young people by showing how these feasts of the Church were

once celebrated, how they could be revived, adapted, selected, and

how, in some cases, entirely new methods of celebration can be

created.

CONTENTS

1. THE FAMILY

2. ADVENT TO CHRISTMAS

3. CHRISTMAS TO LENT

4. LENT TO EASTER

5. EASTER TO WHITSUN

6. WHITSUN TO ADVENT

7. REMEMBER TOMORROW

Footnotes in a book of this sort would be inappropriate and wouldalso give an impression of false learning. While the information

given here has been taken from various sources there are five

books to which acknowledgment must be made. They are: Brand's

"Popular Antiquities," Hone's "Every-day Book," Fosbrooke's "British

Monachism." Gueranger's "Liturgical Year" and Strutt's "Sports and

Pastimes of the People of England."

THE FAMILY

THERE is a whole school of thought that sniffs at the idea of


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encouraging Catholic customs in the home--or anywhere else, for

that matter. Customs like the saying of the rosary together, the

decorating of an altar in May seem to them too childish for

consideration. For them the doctrines of the Church are sufficient,

without these extras. And indeed the doctrines of the Church are

enough for anyone. They are like straight, unwinding roads that

lead into eternity; only on either side of these roads are hedges

and ditches and meadows and all sorts of flowers. The ultra-

catholic Catholic is not interested in these flowers or fields. Still,

such things are to a road what Catholic customs are to the faith;

they adorn it, enliven it, they help to keep one on the journey.

It is not strange that all sorts of devotional practices have sprung

up round Catholicism, sometimes practices that may seem rather

trifling until one realizes that customs cannot be worthless that

have evolved from the faith of the people through many hundreds

of years, sometimes through well over a thousand years. What

family is there that does not use certain sayings and phrases that

have significance only for those belonging to the circle? What

family exists that has no peculiar customs, nicknames, rites,

birthday ceremonial that outsiders cannot be expected to

appreciate? I can remember an unfailing ritual that was observed

among us as children when we ate porridge. First, you ate it all

round the edge until half of it was gone and then straight acrossuntil the red and blue figure of Tom the piper's son showed

himself on the bottom of the plate, complete with pig and

pursuing policeman. Why we did that I have no idea and I doubt if

anyone can account for the curious rites they observed as

children. Those rites are not necessary for family life, but they

adorn it and enliven it. And since the Church is not an institution

but a family that ranges from God and God's mother and thence to

the saints and thence to the souls in purgatory and from them to

ourselves, is it astonishing that spiritual family rites and customs

have sprung up? It is surprising how few people think of this. But

the parents who do enter into these spiritual family customs can

give their children treasures, whose value they may not realize

until eternity. And not only parents can do this, but anyone who

works with young people and children, whether in school or clubsor any type of organization.

There is nothing forced in this idea: why does the church in her

liturgy allot the various days to the honor of her saints, or to

events in the lives of Christ and of Mary, if she does not wish us to

celebrate them in some way?

These feasts are fixed, but the way they can be celebrated can

vary--and does vary tremendously from place to place. With the

passing of time the festivities and the customs of the day have

also changed, still the essence remains the same. At Christmas, for

instance, Jesus is the center of the day, and everywhere in the

world Christians will show their love to the new-born Child in theirown way, whether this be with carol singing, erecting cribs,

hanging Advent wreaths, placing lighted candles in the windows,

leaving empty places at the table for the holy Family, or by making

it a special festive day for children, their own or other people's.

Before the reformation we had in this country a vast number of

celebrations springing from the Church's feasts and days of

devotion, while much more of the civil year than one realizes is

still conducted according to the liturgical calendar. Before the

reformation the smallest things all had their connection with a

feast day. Holy Rood day, September 14th, was the first day to go

nutting. On St. James's day the first apples of the crop were


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blessed and the first oysters might be eaten. St. Martin's day was

the signal for the slaughter of all cattle to be dried for winter meat.

In the days of SS. Simon & Jude, and of St. Barnabas you took good

notice of the weather, because storms were always expected on

these days. On the feast of St. Bartholomew the fairs began.

Many customs like these were swept away at the reformation, and

of those which survived--and in the remoter parts of the country

naturally much more survived than in the towns--people came at

last to forget the origin. Not unnaturally, a certain amount of

superstition had certainly been present in some of those who hadcelebrated these feasts before, but now, when the liturgy and the

faith were swept aside, superstition swelled until one finds St.

Luke's day for instance celebrated in this country in the early 19th

century in this way: "Let any number of young women, not

exceeding seven, assemble in a room by themselves just as the

clock strikes eleven at night. Take a sprig of myrtle, fold it in a

piece of tissue paper; then light up a small chafing-dish of

charcoal and let each maiden throw in it nine hairs from her head

and a paring of each of her toe and finger nails. Then let each

sprinkle a small quantity of myrrh and frankincense in the

charcoal, and while the vapor rises fumigate the myrtle with it. Go

to bed in silence while the clock strikes twelve, and place the

myrtle under your head. Say:

'St. Luke, be kind to me,

In dreams, let me my true love see.'"

St. Mark's day fared worse than St. Luke's. In Yorkshire, the people

would sit and watch in the church porch on the eve of his feast,

watching from eleven o'clock until one in the morning. The third

year (for it must be done three times), they were supposed to see

the ghosts of all who would die in the next year pass by into the

church in the order of time in which they were doomed to depart.

Those who would not die, but have a long sickness, would go into

the church, but presently return. "When anyone sickens that is

thought to have been seen in this manner, it is presently

whispered about that he will not recover, that such-and-such a one,who has watched St. Mark's eve, says so. This superstition is in

such force that if the patients themselves hear of it they almost

despair of recovery."

Because the origin of many of the customary celebrations of feast

days was forgotten one can find ludicrous explanations

vouchsafed to various rustic ceremonies, some of which have

survived practically to our own days. The Oxfordshire May

procession, for instance, in which the village girls would walk in

procession bearing a garland of flowers and affixed to it two dolls,

a large and a small doll, dressed in contemporary clothes, is given

a pagan Roman origin; as though there had never been hundreds

of years in which the most natural thing in the world in the monthof May would have been a procession with the images of Mary and

her Son! Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth Night, on

which a plough bedecked with ribbons was borne through the

streets, a custom surviving until a hundred years ago, is certainly

a relic of the time when ploughs were blessed, just as crops were

blessed and hounds and fishing boats and herb gardens.

There are many places in England now where May processions still

take place; where cart-horses, be-ribboned and be-decked, walk

proudly, with stiffly-plaited manes; where farmers' carts, newly

painted and adorned, vie with each other; where anyone may walk

in some sort of festive tress, where the local bands play, the boy


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scouts and the girl guides walk, and all the local organizations.

They collect money, and now it goes to the neighboring hospitals.

But it is all a relic of processions in honor of our Lady, though now

she has no place in it. And what else is the crowning of the May

queen but the transference to the handsomest girl of the district of

a ceremony that once centered round our Lady's statue?

It is, however, entirely in keeping with the Church's custom that

where she found pagan festive days with a deep hold on the people

she christianized these days. Thus in some cases the feasts and

the celebrations around them can indeed spring from a paganorigin. Christmas day itself was chosen to coincide with a pagan

festival. Certainly the one-time celebration of St. Valentine's day in

this country, marked by the drawing of lots bearing the name of

your patron saint for the year, is derived from Roman festivities in

honor of Juno. All Souls day, Halloween, Soulmass, All-hallow even

also christianized the pagan custom of giving food to the dead.

Some of the customs once generally observed are easy to

understand. Fire has always been a symbol of immortality, so it is

not strange that on All Souls' day bonfires were lighted all over the

hillside. Nor is it unusual that on this day the people of the

Western Islands of Scotland should paint crosses of tar on their

cottages and on their fishing boats: nor that the boys of Lanarkused on Palm Saturday to parade the streets with a willow tree in

blossom ornamented with daffodils and box-branches.

Not all the traditional celebrations woven round the liturgy and

corrupted after the reformation are easy to explain. Who knows

what Hoke day is, or Mace Monday, the first Monday after St.

Anne's day? Or why St. Luke's day was called in Yorkshire "Whip-

dog day"? Or what the origin was of going "a-gooding" on St.

Thomas's day? Or why the country people spent Easter Monday

"lifting" or "heaving," as it is variously called, when everyone who

met the chosen lifters was seized by the arms and raised high into

the air three times? It is said to have been derived from

celebrating Christ's resurrection, but no one really knows.

Similarly, why should bushes of gorse and furze be set on fire tocelebrate St. Peter's feast, or St. John the Baptist's, and why did all

the village men leap over the flames until the fires sank? Or why

did all the people of Western Scotland bake St. Michael's bread at

Michaelmas and insist that all the strangers they met should share

it with them?

Far back, all such customs must have arisen in the liturgy, even

though they became, some of them, absurd and gross, and now are

forgotten almost entirely. That they did corrupt, apart from the

Church, is not surprising, but that they should be left in oblivion

is wrong. There are many feasts of the Church which could be

celebrated now in a much more lively fashion than they are.

Obviously, no one can press for an artificial revival of all thatprevailed in the fourteenth century. Fairs and theaters will never

open again only when St. Bartholomew comes round. No one will

wait for Holy Cross day before picking the first nuts. But what one

can do, and what an attempt is made here to do is to revive some

of these celebrations as they stand, to take what seems best from

some, to adapt others, or even in some cases to create new ways of

celebration.

ADVENT TO CHRISTMAS


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ONE hardly thinks of things like holly and mince pies as having

any religious significance. Yet they have. Churches and houses,

particularly the windows of houses, were decorated the week

before Christmas with ivy, bay, holly, rosemary, cypress, and any

evergreen. And this, say some, as a reminder of the prophetical

description of our Lord as the branch, the stem rising from the

root of Jesse, the thirsty plant. Others, however, hold that it is

reminiscent of the branches cut down by the Jews and strewn in

front of Christ when they hailed him as the Son of David, and

indeed, in many parts of the country these branches were left until

Good Friday.

Mince meat, with its spices, fruit and peels, is supposed to remind

one of the gifts brought from the east by the Wise Men. Be that as

it may, it was for long the custom to make mince pies in the form

of a manger. What is more, every boy and girl used to be given the

Christmas dough, a little pastry figure representing the Christ

child, a figure no doubt as crude as the gingerbread man who can

still be seen, but for all that, serving some purpose of instruction.

That the innocuous mince pie did help to remind people of Christ's

being born in a stable and being adored by the kings is plain

enough when one reads of the puritans who "inveigh against the

mince pie as an invention of the scarlet whore of Babylon, an

hodge-podge of superstition, popery, the devil and all his works."

In view of this sour attitude, it is not surprising to find occasional

protests, like this written in 1661:

"Christmas, farewell; thy days, I fear,

And merry days are done.

If thus they keep feasts all the year

Our Savior shall have none.

Gone are those golden days of yore

When Christmas was a high day,

Whose sports we now shall see no more;

'Tis turned into Good Friday."

THE ADVENT WREATH

This could once be found hanging up in homes all over Christian

Europe. Its symbolism is obvious enough--a wreath bearing four

candles, which are gradually lighted as advent advances and the

birthday of the Light of the world draws closer. The wreaths are

not difficult to make. Twist some wire into a strong circle about a

foot or 18 ins. across. If you have no wire, roll newspapers into

spirals, bind them with string and make the circle from that. Then

twist strips of evergreen round the circle, the more the better, and

secure it with purple ribbon (have also white ribbons ready, for

later the purple ribbons give place to white). Yew is the best

evergreen to use because of its feathery leaves, but box, privet, ivycypress, holly, will do. Laurel is often used because of its

association with victory, and Christ's coming is a victory over sin.

Tie at equal distances round the wreath the four purple ribbons

and tie the ends together. It is from this that the wreath should be

suspended from the ceiling.

On the first Sunday in Advent the wreath is hung and four candles

are fixed among the green. Someone explains to the others the

meaning of it. "Advent lasts four weeks. Each week brings us closer

to Christ, who is the light of the world. The little flame of the

candle is the symbol of his coming. We could also think of the

people who do not realize that Christ is coming and who do not


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believe it, even if they know." The youngest person present lights

the candle and an Advent hymn is sung.

On the second Sunday of Advent this is repeated, only two candles

are lighted, on the third Sunday three, on the fourth four; and on

Christmas-day the purple ribbons change to white. The waiting is

over, Christ has come upon earth.

ST. NICHOLAS DAY

This saint is the patron of schoolboys. It is well known that his

feast is celebrated in many European countries by children putting

out their shoes in the evening, only to find them in the morning

filled with sweets and little gifts, presumably by St. Nicholas. In

some countries St. Nicholas visits families himself on December

6th and holds a cross-examination of the children, and those who

in his opinion deserve it, receive a present, while those who do

not, go without. In Rumania on this day parents would have a talk

with each of their children in turn, telling them all the good things

they had noticed in them, praising them generously where praise

was earned, and with equal justice pointing out the faults in them

that needed to be corrected.

In this country the festivities in honor of St. Nicholas took a

somewhat different turn. Here they centered round the boy

bishops--boys chosen from the church choirs, who on December

6th were allowed to rule over their fellows, who led processions

round the villages, singing and dancing, who were given a place of

honor in the village church during this season, and who even went

about complete with cope and miter and episcopal staff. It is clear

that though its origin became obscured, and ultimately the boy

bishops were forbidden, the custom is based on the truth that a

little child shall lead us: that Christ, though a child in the manger,

yet held the whole world in the hollow of his hand. In any family or

any school or youth group one of the younger members might well

be given the powers and privileges of the boy bishop for that day

while all the others should undertake to obey him and to followhim. It was customary- and could still be--to have a boy bishop not

only on St. Nicholas but also on Childermas, that is on Holy

Innocents-day, December 28th.

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

In mediaeval days when the building of a great church or cathedral

was a work of love and devotion on the part of all the craftsmen

who took part in it, it was very often the practice to make a window

of stained glass, called a Jesse window, which portrayed the

lineage of Christ from Jesse, the father of David, through Mary, the

one spotless human creature. Nowadays it is not generally possiblefor us actually to take part in the making of such a beautiful and

lasting act of homage, but it would be possible to give honor to our

Lady on the feast of her Immaculate Conception in a similar way

by planting a rose bush or tree, which would also symbolize the

root which rose out of Jesse and flowered through the agency. of

the mystic rose, Mary. The Jesse windows showed the ancestors of

Christ as the leaves and branches coming from the central stem

and then at the top of the stem there were shown Mary and her

Child. At the ceremony of the planting of the rose tree the

symbolism of root, stem and flower should be explained and the

caring for the plant through winter and spring until the time of

flowering should be the responsibility of one or a group of the


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family or club members.

CAROL SINGING

A great many people seem to think that no carols exist beyond

"Good King Wenceslaus" and one or two others. "The Oxford Carol

Book" would be a revelation to them with its collection of lesser

known songs for all the liturgical seasons--for carols are not

necessarily Christmas songs--there are others for Easter, for

Passion-tide as well. Many of the old, lesser known carols have asimple rhythm and if necessary they could easily be sung to tunes

more familiar.

It is worth a little trouble to find some of these obscure carols and

it is surprising how often one's local public library can help in the

matter. Here for example is a translation of a carol, which comes

from Carmichael's translation of "Ortha Nan Gaidheal," the

standard collection of Hebridean folk songs.

That night the star shone

Was born the Shepherd of the flock.

Of the Virgin of the hundred charms,

The Mary Mother.

The Trinity eternal by her side,

In the manger cold and lowly.

Come and give to her of thy means,

To the healing Man.

The foam-white breastling beloved.

Without one home in the world,

The tender holy Babe forth driven,

Immanuel!

Ye three angels of power,

Come ye, come ye down;

To the Christ of the peopleGive ye salutation.

Kiss ye His hands,

Dry ye his feet

With the hair of your heads;

And O! Thou world-pervading God,

And ye, Jesu, Michael, Mary,

Do not ye forsake us.

Where there is a large family, or in any youth group, it should be

easy enough to get together a party of carol singers. Traditionally,

they should sing on the three Thursdays before Christmas and on

Christmas-eve. It is worth mentioning that there are other placesthan people's houses at which carols could be sung--why not in

orphanages, hospitals, institutions of one sort or another?

Christmas is the feast of lights, so all the singers should be armed

with candles. What is more they ought to take with them a crib, or

at least two figures, our Lady and the Child. These could be fixed

securely on a shelf set on a pole, which one of the singers carries.

This custom of bearing the images with the carol singers, so

obviously Catholic, was flourishing in this country as late as the

middle of the nineteenth century. It is mentioned too, by

Archbishop Ullathorne, when he describes the old women in

Yorkshire who used to trudge from house to house, collecting


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halfpennies while they showed their images to the families and

sang "The Seven Joys of Mary." This song, which is included in "The

Oxford Carol Book" might well form an essential feature in any

caroling expedition.

THE CRIB

It is curious that the fascination of the crib never fades, even

though the figures grow old and chipped and the background, with

its brown paper rocks, sprinkled with glittering silver, becomesmore fantastic every year. It is a fascination that few can resist.

Though people may smile at the extravagances and tinsel and

silver paper of some church cribs, yet they still take their turn in

the queue to light a candle and to gaze into the manger. Children

never try to resist the lure of the crib. To them its chief attraction

lies in the fact that it tells a story, and a story with a baby in it.

Children, left to themselves, are perfectly at home at the crib.

They will lift out the bambino to nurse and kiss it--often with the

disapproval of the sacristan--for by Epiphany the bambino's face

will be kissed quite colorless and his swaddling clothes smeared

with finger-marks. Children hardly see the figures in the grotto as

puppets; for them it is all real, as real as it was to the peasants of

14th century Germany, who used to take turns at rocking theChrist-child to sleep in his crib, or like the little Dutch boy who

took the bambino for a ride on his bicycle.

In some churches, and in some countries, cribs are judged simply

by their size and magnificence, so that the Christmas crib is not

complete unless it grows in grandeur every year. The retinue of

the three kings becomes more magnificent, the shepherds grow in

number, their flocks increase rapidly. But the curious thing is that,

despite all this distraction the three central figures are hardly ever

dwarfed. Fashions in cribs have come and gone, but the human

trinity round which they center never changes.

It is often thought that St. Francis made the first crib, but the

devotion is far older than that. It goes back to the first days of theChurch, when the actual site of Christ's birth and the clay manger

in which he lay were venerated in Bethlehem. In time a silver

manger was substituted for the clay one, and a basilica was built

over the site. Copies of this crib spread to Rome and over the

Christian world.

Veneration expanded with the centuries. The crib that was used at

Christmas might be a model of the clay manger, or a painting or a

mosaic of the Nativity. Various ceremonies grew up around it, until

by the 13th century they had evolved into theatrical drama and

opera combined, with a snatch of folk-dancing thrown in. Then

Pope Honorius stopped the whole thing, and sixteen years

afterwards St. Francis of Assisi was allowed to make a woodenmanger, to fill it with hay, to tether an ox and ass nearby, and to

gather round it a group of people who sang songs and carols in

honor of the birth of the Christ-child. That is the beginning of the

crib as we know it.

Nowadays the custom of having a crib in the home has been

considerably revived. What might more often be seen however, is

the crib made at home by the different members of the family,

instead of the repository article. It is possible to buy designs for

cribs, and to make them up yourself. What is better is to try to

design your own crib figures and to make them entirely. They may

be drawn and glued on wood, carved or modeled; they may be


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made after the fashion of puppets; if there are children in the

family, then their dolls may be utilized.

What is important is to have some means whereby the crib-makers

are represented at the crib they have set up. This may be done by

adding additional figures; or small flags bearing the makers'

names can fly outside the crib. There have even been cribs in

which ingenious people have stuck among the straw cut-out, full-

length photographs of themselves. Not that that particular effect

was very beautiful, but at any rate it did convey something of the

truth which the setting up of any crib should convey--that wenumber ourselves among the people who acknowledge Christ and

who worship him.

THE CHRISTMAS CANDLE

It seems to have been the habit on Christmas-eve to try to turn

night into day. Before candles came into general use, enormous

logs, Christmas blocks, as they were called, were lighted and so

long as they burned, all meals taken in their light and warmth were

as festive as the family purse allowed. With the coming of candles

the light of the Christmas block was added to by outsize candles

which decorated the dining tables. These candles were lighted formeals every day until Twelfth-day, the official end of Christmas.

There is no reason why we should not substitute as many candles

as we can get for electric light during these twelve Christmas days.

Christmas is the feast of lights, and the very novelty of having all

meals at a candle-lit table cannot help but bring it more clearly to

one's mind. During these twelve days, too, it can be a regular

reminder of the coming of Christ, if at all meals one place is left

empty for Christ, and the largest candle of all burns before it.

THE CHRISTMAS PLAY

As children we were all able to concoct plays of one sort or

another. They were plays with plenty of dressing up, muchsinging, little scenery or props. But there is something about these

plays--crude, pitiful, absurd as they were--that keeps them in the

mind when memories of real plays, with real actors, in real

theaters, have long since gone.

There were two reasons for this, I think. The first and obvious one

is that as children we did not merely act the story, we lived it; it

meant something to us, we were in deadly earnest about it. And the

second reason--which helped to make possible the first--is that

there was no audience looking on. The play was not given for the

sake of an audience, but for its own sake. It ceased to be a play,

impersonation; it became reality.

The only requirements for making a home-produced nativity play

a success are the very ones that went to make the success of the

children's plays--that the story you are acting should be real to

you, should mean something. If you want to have a nativity play at

home, with all the family joining in, then it is no good trying to

deal objectively with the story of the first Christmas. An impartial

play about Christmas will be a useless play.

Then, be firm and have no audience, no one to watch and criticize

how you acquit yourself. Audiences spell self-consciousness to

those who act, and self-consciousness makes impossible any real

"living" of the play. It is only when everyone present is joining in


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that it can become real, that it can be lived, that it can indeed

become real adoration.

But how to set about the actual play?

First, cut the cast to suit your circumstances. If need be you can

act it with three people--a narrator, one angel, one shepherd. But if

your family or friends run to it you can have angels and shepherds

by the dozen. If you insist, get people to represent our Lady and

Saint Joseph. However, it is generally far more satisfactory to use

the Christmas crib as the center of the play. If you are at allinterested in producing a Christmas play at home, then it is fairly

certain that you will already have a crib put up somewhere in the

house. So this does not call for any difficulty. Then divide up the

available people into angels, shepherds, wise men, people of

Palestine--and on these last you can ring enough changes to suit

any sort of family, with members of any age.

Dress up for the play. The most stolid and bovine people can be

transformed into new beings simply by dressing up. Whether the

dresses look at all oriental is of no importance; in any case, few of

us have more than a vague idea of what was worn in the days of

Christ. The main thing is that those who take part are helped to get

out of their ordinary, everyday selves; and few things are morehelpful for this than setting aside the dress of everyday. With the

new dress a new character is put on.

The basis of the play lies ready in the words of St. Luke. One

person might read the story slowly and with care while the others

act what is being read. No one can lay down rules about this. In

one family they may like to mime the Gospel story; in another the

narrator will have to be content with lengthy pauses while angels

and shepherds and Palestinians hold impromptu conversation for

as long as the spirit moves them. It is important to keep as much

of the dialogue as possible spontaneous. This is not a stage play;

there is no audience to satisfy. This is really an act of prayer. And

though indeed a stage play can also be a prayer, still all the same,

a stage play must be practiced, rehearsed, perfected. Not so theplay at home. Let it be rough and ready, with little or no stage

craft, certainly with no conscious striving for polish or perfection.

Sing as many carols as you know. Putting it at the lowest level, a

carol will always fill up any unexpected hitch in the play. Putting it

higher, carols can make the play into a real prayer. Here the story

is acted for its own sake, to make it a reality, so that those who are

joining in may live it and make an adoration of it.

There is plenty of precedent for this sort of homely play. When St.

Francis of Assisi re-introduced the crib into Europe he did it with a

little play, acted spontaneously by a group of brothers and

himself. St. Teresa of Avila often acted the Christmas story with

her nuns. Every Christmas-eve St. John of the Cross and the friarsheld a nativity procession in the monastery. They took a statue of

our Lady, and two of them carried it from cell door to cell door,

asking for shelter for Mary and her Child. Those within had to

refuse, and would join on to the end of the procession as it went

from door to door, always being refused. Then at last the

procession wended its way into the chapel and presently the statue

of the Christ-child would be laid in the straw of the manger. So

immersed were those who took part, so much did they live the

story, that it is related that on more than one occasion John of the

Cross, unable to contain himself for joy that Christ was born,

plucked the child from the manger and danced round the chapel,

holding it in his arms.


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CHRISTMAS TO LENT

THE feast of Christmas continues until Twelfth-night, though in

many parts of the country people spoke of "the twenty days of

Christmas." At any rate, those twenty days were full of celebrations

of one kind or another. A popular tag summed up the ordinary

person's feelings at this time:

"Blessed be Saint Stephen,

There's no fast upon his even!"

Between Christmas and Candlemas there seems to have been only

one somber day. This, curiously enough, was "Childermas,"--

Innocents' day. It is true that the boy bishop might be leading his

troop through the streets, but all the same this was everywhere

considered a day of ill-omen. No one would dream of marrying on

Childermas, nor of buying nor wearing new clothes, nor, indeed, of

beginning any new undertaking. The coronation of Edward IV was

even postponed so as to avoid Childermas. Nor could this be

considered a cheerful day for the children themselves: "...it hath

been a custom, and yet is elsewhere, to whip the children uponInnocents' day, that the memory of Herod's murder of the

Innocents might stick the closer; and in a moderate proportion to

act over the crueltie in kind...."

Still, apart from this, feast days followed on each other's heels--St.

Stephen's; the Circumcision (called "Singene'en" in Scotland,

because it was celebrated by much caroling and when, according

to popular belief, even the bees could be heard singing in their

hives); Saint Agnes' day, when girls prayed to get husbands, and at

whose Mass it was once the custom to bring a lamb into the church

at the Agnus Dei of the Mass; a custom still obtaining now on

Easter Sunday in some parts of the world; Twelfth-night, the

festival of the kings; Candlemas--our Lady's churching-day, when

again one sees how great a part is played in the celebrating offeasts by lights, lanterns, candles and fires; St. Valentine's day, the

feast of lovers, one which has survived in a corrupted form

practically to our own day.

Rejoicing gathered itself for a last fling on Collop Monday, when

all the meat and bacon that might not be eaten in Lent were

finished off. On the egg feast, the Saturday before Shrove Tuesday,

eggs were similarly treated. On Shrove Tuesday itself further Lent-

forbidden foods were eaten, and on this day the pancake bell rang

early in the morning as a signal for the first frying and again at

night, after which second bell no more pancakes were eaten, and

the bell called people to confession, to be shriven before the fast

of Lent should start.

NEW YEAR'S EVE

In the fruit-growing counties of England "apple-howling" was

regularly observed. Boys went from orchard to orchard,

surrounding the trees, singing to the accompaniment of a pipe:--

"Stand fast, root, bear well, top,

Pray God send us a good howling crop;

Every twig, apple big,

Every bough, apple enow."


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Then they shouted in chorus, and rapped the trees with their

sticks. This, again, was probably a pagan rite that the Church took

over and turned into the blessing of fruit trees, since popular

belief lingered persistently that the wind of New Year's-eve was

responsible for the fruitfulness of orchards, and that an east wind

meant much fruit. The Church has many prayers for every sort of

crop, and there seems no reason why people with a garden and

fruit trees or fruit bushes of any kind should not ask on this last

day of the year for a good crop. Here is the Church's prayer for the

fruits of the earth, which could be said:

"Pour down Thy blessing, we beseech Thee, O Lord, upon Thy

people, and on all the fruits of the earth, that when collected they

may be mercifully distributed to the honor and glory of Thy Holy

Name."

CIRCUMCISION: NEW YEAR'S DAY

This was the day of the giving of gifts, husbands to wives, masters

to servants, parishioners to their priests. Moreover, it was a day to

go visiting. "On the first day of this month will be given more gifts

than will be kindly received or gratefully rewarded. Children, totheir inexpressible joy, will be drest in their best bibs and aprons,

and may be seen handed along streets, some bearing Kentish

pippins, others oranges stuck with cloves, in order to crave a

blessing of their godfathers and godmothers." It is pleasant to

think that the day of Christ's naming should be the occasion of

honoring godparents; and it would be easy enough in any family

with small children to invite the godparents to some celebration,

or in the case of grown-ups, to visit or to write to those who have

been their sponsors. Godparents undertake a considerable

responsibility at the font, so what could be more appropriate than

some sort of acknowledgment of it on this day?

TWELFTH DAY, EPIPHANY

In Staffordshire, fires were lighted on this day "in memory of the

blazing star that conducted the three magi to the manger in

Bethlehem." In Irish homes there was the same insistence on light.

In a sieve of oats, surrounded by twelve burning candles, a single

large candle was lighted. But generally speaking, all the festivities

of the day were based on the idea of kingship and bent on

honoring the three kings, so that lots were drawn to determine who

should be the king for the day. Here was one way of marking the

day. An Epiphany cake was made, traditionally of flour, honey,

pepper and ginger, and a halfpenny put in it. When it was baked it

was cut into as many pieces as there were members of the family,

while portions were also assigned to our Lord, to Mary and to thethree Magi. These were given to strangers, preferably to people in

need. Whoever found the halfpenny in his piece of cake was

saluted as king, placed in a chair of honor, and three times raised

up to the ceiling, on which with his right hand he drew a cross. A

carol was sung and the king ruled the party that followed.

An Epiphany party might easily become a feature of this day in

any Catholic youth club or school or family. After a brief re-telling

of the story of the Wise Men, those arranging the party could

follow the custom of having in the cake three beans, each of which

will represent a king. On their being chosen, the three kings rule

the party, which should end with a carol-singing procession and


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the giving away to someone in need of some food which had been

held back for this purpose.

CANDLEMAS

This is one of the oldest feasts of our Lady, and in Rome in the 7th

century it ranked next to the Assumption. Everyone received a

candle, which had been blessed at Mass, and afterwards walked in

procession with it. The procession recalled the journey of Mary

and Joseph to the temple, the burning candles, Simeon's wordsthat the child in his arms was a "light for the revelation of the

gentiles." And how appropriate is this symbolic burning candle! "A

candle is made of wick and wax; so was Christ's soul hid within the

manhood; also the fire betokeneth the Godhead; also it betokeneth

our Lady's motherhood and maidenhood, lighted with the fire of

love."

If anything still remained of the Christmas candle, or the

Christmas block, it was lighted on this day. Now-a-days, one could

light up the Christmas candle and these smaller candles whenever

the family are together, or at meal-times, or let them burn before a

statue of our Lady.

This day was called the "Wives' feast," and "our Lady's-churching,"

and it is in memory of this that even today women carry a candle

at their churching, even though of course theirs is a ceremony of

thanksgiving, and Mary's was that of ritual purification.

ST. VALENTINE'S DAY

There are records of St. Valentine's-day being celebrated in the

country as long ago as 1446, but how St. Valentine came to be the

patron of lovers no one seems to know.

On this day "an equal number of maids and bachelors get together,

each writes their true or feigned name upon separate billets, whichthey roll up and draw by lots, the girls taking the men's billets, the

men the maids; so that each of the young men lights upon a girl

that he calls his valentine and each of the girls upon a young man

whom she calls her valentine. Fortune having thus divided the

company into so many couples, the men give balls and treats to

their valentines and wear their billets several days upon their

sleeves,"--possibly giving rise to the saying that so-and-so wears

his heart upon his sleeve. In Scotland it was not only the men who

gave gifts to their valentines; the giving was mutual.

This is a feast that has been, and still can be, celebrated in

adapted form. In a family or group lots are drawn for a valentine,

but the names of various saints are written on papers and lotsdrawn. The saint then becomes one's patron for the day or the

octave. Where children draw lots one should tell them something

of their saints; where older people are concerned they should

discover all they can about their patron, because during the octave

they ought in some way to imitate their valentine.

SHROVE TUESDAY, FASTEN EVEN

This day was a general holiday, particularly for apprentices, and it

would have been strange if it had not frequently become a day into

which people tried to cram all the pleasure they would soon have


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to forego.

In Norwich, as probably in other cities, processions were made to

symbolize the rapid approach of Lent. In 1440, say the Norwich

records, such a procession was instigated by a certain John

Gladman, who was known "as a man ever trewe and feythfilll to

God." Crowned as king of Christmas, his horse bedecked with gilt

and every sort of finery and tinsel he was preceded in the

procession by twelve other horsemen, each representing a month

of the year and each dressed appropriately. Last in the procession,

following after the glittering king of Christmas, came Lent, ahorseman dressed from head to foot in white cloth and herring

skins, mounted on a horse with trappings of oyster shells--and this

"in token that sadnesse shulde folowe, and a holy tyme." Thus they

rode through Norwich, and many others of the townspeople joined

in, dressed in every sort of fantastic dress, all of them "making

myrth, disportes and playes."

That they ate pancakes everywhere is merely because eggs and

butter and milk had to be finished off before the fasting began,

and the making of pancakes, the beating of the batter, the frying

and tossing of the pancakes, could be a festive affair.

There seems no reason why one should not have a party on ShroveTuesday. Few people have the faintest idea why pancakes are

eaten, so these could be made and the reason for them explained.

Now, when butter and eggs and milk are all allowed in Lent one

might let the party include a last ceremonial tasting of whatever

those taking part intend to give up during these forty days--sweets,

sugar, cigarettes, whatever it may be. In Kent, it was once the

custom to make two effigies on Shrove Tuesday, and to burn them

to ashes as a sign that good living was now over and done with and

that a stricter time was at hand, and at a Shrove-tide party there

could be a short explanation of Lent, while it might very well end

up with the whole group going to confession.

LENT TO EASTER

ALL Fools' day" hardly springs to mind as having the slightest

connection with Lent. All the same, it seems reasonable enough to

believe that it alludes to the mockery of Christ by the Jews, and

"that as the passion of our Savior took place about this time of the

year, and as the Jews sent Jesus backwards and forwards to mock

and torment him, i.e. from Annas to Caiphas, from Caiphas to

Pilate, from Pilate to Herod and from Herod back again to Pilate,

this ridiculous or rather impious custom took its rise from thence,

by which we send about from one place to another such persons as

we think proper objects of our ridicule." It is worth remembering

that the commonest way of making "April fools" of people is bysending them on absurd errands.

Mothering Sunday, Shere Thursday or Maundy Thursday are names

of which not everyone knows the origin. Mothering Sunday is so

called because the Mid-Lent Sunday Mass likens the Church to a

mother. The meaning of Shere Thursday, if shere were spelt

"shear" in the modern way would not surprise us: "The people

would that day shere theyr hedes and clypp theyr berdes, and so

make them honest ayenst Easter Day," thus suggesting, perhaps,

that the Lenten austerities included abstinence from shaving or

hair-dressing as well as from certain foods. The word "maundy" is

derived from "mandatum," a command, and it was in virtue of


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Christ's command at the Last Supper that we should imitate him

that on this day kings and queens and bishops undertook to wash

the feet of poor people, as Christ had washed his apostles' feet,

and at the same time to give them gifts. In 1530, when Cardinal

Wolsey washed the feet of 59 poor men, he gave each one "twelve

pence in money, three ells of good canvas to make them shirts, a

pair of new shoes, a cast of red herrings and three white herrings."

Dried herrings, indeed, together with dried peas and beans, seem

to have been the staple food of Lent, and Passion Sunday in the

north of England was even called "Carle Sunday" from theinvariable custom of eating carlings, or dried peas. On Good

Friday, after the veneration of the cross, when people brought

offerings of eggs and wheat to the church, they made a herb

pudding, whose chief ingredient was the passion dock, and which

could hardly have been intended as a palatable dish. Neither could

the buns, baked with a cross, which they ate, since they were

originally unleavened and certainly reminiscent of the bread used

at the Last Supper. On this day, in Gonnaught and in central

Ireland, it was quite common for children, even babies, to fast, so

that from midnight on Maundy Thursday to midnight on Good

Friday they ate nothing, and in the case of babies, drank nothing at

all, while their parents did a hard day's work on only a drink of

water and a small piece of dry bread. It is entirely in keeping withthe human understanding of the Church that no one was shocked

when these same people at midday on Holy Saturday clapped their

hands loudly, shouted: "Out with the Lent!" and set to on a piece of

bacon, or a chicken, or whatever their family purse allowed!

MOTHERING SUNDAY

It is St. Paul's words in the Mass of the day that gives Mothering

Sunday its name. He speaks of "that Jerusalem which is above...

which is our mother," On this day, everyone paid a solemn visit to

his mother church, and left an offering there at the high altar.

The introit, communion and tract of the Mass speak of theheavenly Jerusalem where Christians will raise their songs of joy.

Heaven, the heavenly Jerusalem, has so often been likened to and

represented as a garden full of flowers, that on this day the Church

used to bless the loveliest of flowers, the rose.

The word "mothering" came to have other associations; it became a

feast day for the mothers of families. All the children who were

away from home went back on that day to visit their mothers,

taking with them "a present of money, a trinket, or some nice

eatable, and they are all anxious not to fail in this custom." The

"nice eatable" was often a mothering cake. Exactly what this was

made of seems uncertain, but at any rate it was highly ornamented

and adorned. In return, the mother seems to have provided for thevisitors a dish of furmety, a sort of rice pudding, only made with

grains of wheat instead of rice.

There are relics of the observance of Mothering Sunday still left,

but there is no reason why it should not be more widely noted, and

given as much attention in every family as is the mother's

birthday. All children could give gifts to their mothers; where she

is dead they can have a Mass said; otherwise they can begin the

Sunday by offering their Mass for her. They could link up their gift

with the one-time blessing of the roses, and give her flowers; or

they could arrange some entertainment or amusement for her; they

could even try their hand at a mothering cake. And in return, of


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course, the mother would certainly be only too glad to give her

children a modern equivalent of furmety!

PASSION SUNDAY

Today, in the church, all the statues, pictures and even the

crucifixes are veiled until Easter Saturday. That the crucifix is also

hidden is the remains of the custom of hanging a curtain between

sanctuary and nave during the whole of Lent. In most homes there

will be a crucifix, perhaps pictures or statues. On Passion Sundaywe might remove them all, and their very absence will bring our

minds much more often to the thought of the Passion than would

their familiar presence.

ST. BENEDICT'S DAY: MARCH 21ST

St. Benedict is the patron of bee-keepers, and those who

themselves have bees could not do better than mark his day by

praying for their hives. Farmers can pray for their cattle and their

barns; fishermen for their fishing boats and the fish in the sea,

why should bee-keepers do less? In some parts of France it was,

and may still be, customary for bee-keepers to have a medal of St.Benedict affixed to their hives:

"O Lord, God almighty, who hast created heaven and earth and

every animal existing over them and in them for the use of men,

and who hast commanded through the ministers of holy Church

that candles made from the products of bees be lit in church

during the carrying out of the sacred office in which the most holy

Body and Blood of Jesus Christ thy Son is made present and is

received; may thy holy blessing descend upon these bees and

these hives, so that they may multiply, be fruitful and be

preserved from all ills and that the fruits coming forth from them

may be distributed for thy praise and that of thy Son and the holy

Spirit and of the most blessed Virgin Mary."

PALM SUNDAY

"It is called Palm Sunday because the palm betokeneth victory,

wherefore all Christian people should bear palms in processions to

signify that the Lord hath fought with the fiend, our enemy, and

hath the victory over him." But palms are also used on this day in

memory of the acclamations of the Jewish crowds on Christ's

journey into Jerusalem and their waving of palm branches before

him. Once it was the custom to have a palm procession with the

Blessed Sacrament, before which the people waved green branches

and sang hosannahs. Occasionally, instead of the Blessed

Sacrament the priest bore a copy of the New Testament which wasintended to represent our Lord.

Actual palm, of course, was not used. Box and willow branches,

and sometimes yew, were all called palm. On this day, parties of

boys or girls used to go out collecting willow. Everyone decorated

their houses with it on Palm Sunday, while the church too was

adorned. Generally the countryside is beautiful now, and nothing

there is lovelier than the willow tree. This day could see family or

school or club expeditions into the spring countryside to find

willow branches both for their homes and for their parish church.

Just before beginning the decorating of the house all could say

this prayer, adapted from the ceremony of the blessing of the


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palms:

"O God who didst bless the people who carried branches to meet

Jesus; bless also these branches which we have gathered and with

which we mean to honor thy name, so that wherever they are

placed people may obtain thy blessing and may be protected from

all adversity by thy right hand. Through Christ our Lord."

MAUNDY THURSDAY, SHERE THURSDAY

The last king in this country who performed the office of washing

the feet of the poor, in imitation of Christ, was James II. In the

Catholic Church the custom has never died out and the Mandatum

may be seen in many churches on Maundy Thursday. When Christ

said to the apostles: "I have been setting you an example, which

will teach you in your turn to do what I have done for you," he

spoke to all Christians. Maundy Thursday therefore could be a

special day when all Catholics deliberately set out to give their

services to someone who needs help, and to do it in the spirit of

Christ's self-forgetfulness. Such service should include the

seeking out of someone who needs help. It might be looking after a

child so that the mother could have a free evening, undertaking

some mending or darning, humble, unostentatious things like that.What is more, such service might very well begin at close quarters,

for in every home or school or club there must be someone who

needs help, and such people, just because they are so close to us,

can easily be overlooked.

GOOD FRIDAY

Today the crucifix, which each home is certain to possess and

which was put away on Passion Sunday in unison with the custom

in the churches, could be brought out again, and this time, during

the whole day, placed in the most prominent position in the house.

Until very recent times Good Friday was a day of strict fasting, andmany people alive now can remember that as children they were

allowed no milk and no butter. This, however, was mild in

comparison with the fasts of their grandparents. Today, when

fasting in Lent has been, temporarily at least, abolished, one could

still make some sacrifice. One of Christ's sufferings on the cross

was that of thirst; we could all go without drinking anything on

this day; or we could sacrifice one meal. But one has to realize that

any outward thing like fasting has to be equaled by an attempt at

interior fasting from deliberate failings or imperfections;

otherwise it is simply hypocrisy.

THE WAY OF THE CROSS

It was a Spanish Dominican who first set up in his Church pictures

of Christ's journey to Calvary and who thus began one of the most

popular practices of the Church and one which most people follow

in Lent and Holy week, even if erratically.

To make the way of the cross pictures are not essential it is only

the wooden crosses over the pictures that are necessary. Not only

are pictures unessential but so are any set prayers, such as the our

Father, Hail Mary and Gloria commonly said at each station. The

essence of the practice lies simply in uniting yourself with Christ

in his passion, pondering on all that took place on the road to


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Calvary, and on moving from one station to the next as you do so.

This is not so difficult. The devotion is not meant to be a pious

lamentation nor an emotional wallowing. One can think how Mary

and the apostles must have made the way of the cross after

Christ's death. Their little pilgrimage must have been simplicity

itself, the silence hardly broken "here is where he fell...here is

where Simon helped him...here is where he died." That is the way

to make the stations, simply, directly and without much speaking.

It can even become a joyful devotion. There is the true story of the

Passionist lay brother who always made the stations on EasterSunday. Asked why he continued such an essentially Lenten

practice into the joyful time of Easter, he said simply "I think of

each station and all that happened, and then I say to our Lord 'Now

all that is over, now you are happy.'"

EASTER TO WHITSUN

THE time from Easter Sunday to the Saturday after Whitsun is not

misnamed "the feast of feasts." Take away St. Mark's day and the

three Rogation days and it is a series of celebrations of one sort or

another--and even the Rogation days, despite themselves, seem tohave been drenched by the general tide of joyfulness.

During these fifty days there was no fasting; no prayers of the

divine office were said kneeling, and the alleluia was sung on

every possible occasion. Round Easter itself centered numberless

general and local festivities, many of them apparently trivial

enough and yet sometimes springing from a deeper source than

one might have expected--the Easter standard, Easter candle,

Easter garden, Pasch eggs, Easter heaving.

Every possible excuse was found for the using of lights and

candles, and even more of flowers and leaves. The days of May

which fall between Easter and Whitsun saw green branches strewn

everywhere, and men and women decked with sprigs ofwhitethorn; the Sunday within the octave of the Ascension was

Rose Sunday and all the Church pavements were strewn with rose

petals. Pentecost itself was often called "the Pasch of Roses."

"Going processioning" on Rogation days, though it was called in

some places, perhaps with a certain grudging "grass week" because

salads, eggs and green sauce formed the main food, still gave

enough occasion for the display of flowers; all the streets were

decorated with birch branches and all the girls and children who

took part adorned themselves with flower garlands.

THE EASTER CANDLE

"Lumen Christi!" sings the priest, holding the paschal candle on

Holy Saturday. In memory of this light of Christ we can have a

candle burning in the home, rather as we did at Christmas. This

time, the candle, which should be as large as we can get it, should

be set in a vase containing flowers, and can burn during meals

during the octave of the feast. The significance could be explained

the first time it is lighted, and one could also mention that the

flowers as well are emblems of the resurrection, since they, too,

have risen from the earth, though the coldness of winter might

have seemed to overcome them.


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EASTER EGGS

In some parts of the country these eggs are called paste or pace

eggs, a corruption of the name "Pasch egg." Their symbolism is

obvious enough, since the apparently lifeless egg contains the

elements of new life. "It is an emblem of the rising up out of the

grave, in the same manner as the chick, entombed, as it were, in

the egg, is in due time brought to life."

Almost everyone eats eggs on Easter day, and this blessing of eggs

might well form the grace before meals on that day:

"We beseech Thee, O Lord, to give the favor of thy blessing to

these eggs; that so they may be a wholesome food for thy faithful

who gratefully take them in honor of the resurrection of our Lord

Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee, for ever and ever."

It is not surprising, in view of their symbolism, that eggs were

decorated. Some were stained scarlet in honor of the blood Christ

had shed in his passion, but generally they were painted yellows

and browns, and sometimes gilded. There are more ways of

decorating eggs than by boiling them with cochineal. Onion peel

gives a beautiful yellow ochre, furze gives yellow, nettle roots give

a dark brown. One can stain the eggs and afterwards with apenknife scrape a design upon the shell: or a pattern, or perhaps

someone's name, may be written on the egg with the end of a

candle, before the egg is cooked. On being boiled the greased

parts of the shell remain uncolored.

One cannot suggest a revival of the custom of giving eggs away at

Easter when eggs are still rationed. But anyone who has hens might

decorate a small basket with flowers, place in it however many

eggs she can spare, eggs stained and greased so that they shine,

and she could even set in the midst of the eggs an unlighted Easter

candle.

THE EASTER GARDEN

Just as one makes a crib at Christmas, so one can make an Easter

garden during Lent and set it up on Easter Saturday, adding and

removing the figures, according to the Gospel story. This time one

needs more figures--soldiers, angels, holy women, the apostles,

Christ himself, and a sepulcher--but they can all be made in the

same way as the Christmas figures, drawn on paper, glued on wood

and cut out. If they are crude, never mind; an Easter garden is only

a small demonstration of affection for Christ, not a test of skill.

Where this differs from the cribs, however, is that the figures

should all be contained in a shallow box, in which one puts small

flowers, roots and all. Here in this way one brings in some symbol

of new life that has risen from the death of winter.

THE EASTER STANDARD

Just as one hangs up flags and decorations to celebrate victory

over an enemy, so now Christians raise a standard to honor the

victory of Christ over death. Such a standard could be simply a tall

home-made cross, say 5-foot high, which could be set up formally

in the garden and decorated with laurel, the emblem of victory--in

fact with any flowers or branches or lanterns or ribbons. The

Easter standard is something which could be explained to the

children in a family, and which they could be given the task of


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setting up and decorating.

EASTER PRAYERS

From Easter Sunday until Whitsun one could follow the old custom

of not kneeling to pray. Thus, grace before meals, night and

morning prayers, could all be said standing, as a reminder of two

things--first that Christ rose from the dead and that no power of

man was able to keep him prostrate in his tomb; second that after

the Ascension our Lord will be sending the Holy Spirit to us, whomwe should be ready and willing to receive. Our standing to pray

could thus symbolize our readiness.

One might also, instead of grace before meals, sing a simple

alleluia.

EASTER PLAYS

There was an old tradition that the second coming of Christ would

be on Easter eve, and the practice of watching before the sepulcher

was partly based upon that. In the Abbey Church at Durham

between 3 and 4 in the morning of Easter day some of the eldestmonks came to the sepulcher "out of which they took a marvelous

beautiful image of the resurrection, with a cross in the hand of the

image of Christ, in the breast whereof was enclosed in bright

crystal, the Host, so as to be conspicuous to the beholders. Then

after the elevation of the said picture it was carried by the said

monks upon an embroidered cushion, the monks singing the

anthem of Christus resurgens." A procession formed behind the

blessed Sacrament in this strange monstrance and proceeded to

the high altar and thence round the church, "The whole choir

following, with torches and great store of other lights; all singing,

rejoicing and praying."

This was a primitive enough practice, a practice perhaps that was

not without its dangers, but it must certainly have impressed uponeveryone in the congregation the fact that Christ had risen and had

conquered death.

So with the more deliberately dramatic presentations in the Church

at Easter, no one had any reason for being unfamiliar with the

great doctrines of faith. This drama grew out of the liturgical

responses of the divine office. One of the most obvious things to

present dramatically was the Easter Sequence: "Tell us Mary, what

did you see on your way to the tomb? "

"In some Churches it was ordained, that Mary Magdalen, Mary of

Bethany and Mary of Naim, should be represented by three

deacons clothed in dalmatics and amices, and holding a vase intheir hands. These performers came through the middle of the

choir, and hastening towards the sepulcher, with downcast looks,

said together this verse, "Who will remove he stone for us?" Upon

this a boy, clothed like an angel, in alb, and holding an ear of

wheat in his hand, before the sepulcher said, "Whom do you seek

in the sepulcher?" The Maries answered, "Jesus of Nazareth who

was crucified." The boy-angel answered, "He is not here, but is

risen"; and pointed to the place with his finger. The boy-angel

departed very quickly, and two priests in tunics, sitting without

the sepulcher, said, "Women, whom do ye mourn for? Whom do ye

seek?" The middle one of the women said, "Sir, if you have taken

him away, say so." The priest, showing the cross, said, "They have


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taken away the Lord." The two sitting priests said, "Whom do you

seek, women?" The Maries, kissing the place, afterwards went from

the sepulcher. In the meantime a priest, in the character of Christ,

in an alb, with a stole, holding a cross, met them on the left side of

the altar, and said, "Mary!" Upon hearing this, the mock Mary threw

herself at his feet, and with a loud voice, cried "Rabboni!" The

priest representing Christ replied, nodding, "Noli me tangere,"

touch me not. This being finished, he again appeared at the right

side of the altar, and said to them, as they passed before the altar,

"Hail! do not fear." This being finished, he concealed himself; and

the women-priests, as though joyful at hearing this, bowed to thealtar, and turning to the choir, sang "Alleluja, the Lord is risen."

Nowadays plenty of Easter plays are produced in schools and

youth groups of all kind. Most of these could benefit by observing

some of the formalism and austerity that marked the primitive

Easter plays.

EASTER MONDAY

In the early ages of the Church Easter was the time for the baptism

of the catechumens, to whose benefit, indeed, many of the Easter

ceremonies were directed.

Easter Monday for many years was regarded as the special feast

day of all those who had just finished their first year as Christians.

Whereas the pagans made much ado about the anniversary of their

physical birth, so Christians attached a similar importance to the

anniversary of their spiritual birth, their baptism.

One would not suggest the giving up of birthdays, but what one

could do is to introduce into a home or school an equal celebration

for the baptismal days. The family could all offer Mass, give

presents and entertain each other as these baptismal days came

round. It means, of course, a doubling of rejoicings, but no child

will mind that; and what is more, it can be a means by which a

child is taught to value the faith he has received.

LOW SUNDAY

In the early ages of the Church many people were baptized during

the long ceremonies which nowadays are held early on Easter

Saturday morning, but which were then held during the night of

Easter Saturday. After the blessing of the font came the baptism of

the neophytes, who afterwards dressed themselves in white

garments as a sign of their new cleanness of soul. They wore these

garments all day and every day until Low Sunday, which came to

be called: "The Sunday for the leaving-off of white garments." It is

believed that the day came to be called Low Sunday in this countrybecause of the insistence on lowliness and childlikeness in the

introit of the day's Mass.

Low Sunday could be an occasion in any club or youth group for

the renewing of baptismal vows. The story of this Sunday, "in albis

depositis" could first be explained to them, then the ceremony of

baptism, then the promises that were undertaken on their behalf

by their godparents. By arrangement with the priest the whole

group could go into the church and make the baptismal promises

once more, this time on their own behalf.

For assistance in the explanation to be given to the group material


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may be found in the C.T.S. pamphlet: "Baptisms and Churchings,"

by C. C. Martindale, S.J..

The ceremony could be arranged in this way:--

RENEWAL OF BAPTISM

The Priest, in surplice and white stole, stands in the sanctuary: the

group stand in one row at the Communion rail.

Priest and group sing an appropriate hymn. Then the priest, facing

the group, makes the sign of the cross, and says:--

Pr.: What do you ask of the Church of God?

M(embers): Faith.

P.: What does faith bring you to?

M.: Life everlasting.

P.: If, then, you desire to enter into life, keep the commandments:

You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, yourwhole soul, and with your whole mind, and your neighbor as

yourself.

M.: Amen.

P.: Do you renounce Satan?

M.: I do renounce him.

P.: And all his works?

M.: I do renounce them.

P.: And all his pomps?

M.: I do renounce them.

P.: Do you believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven

and earth?

M.: I do believe.

P.: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was

born into this world and suffered for us?

M.: I do believe.

P.: Do you believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the

communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of

the body, and life everlasting?

M.: I do believe.

P.: Pray, then, kneel down and say the "Our Father."

(Kneeling, they say slowly together the "Our Father." The priest

gives to everyone a candle, that one of the group lights, then he

says):--


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P.: Receive this burning light, and without fail be true to your

baptism, that when our Lord shall come to claim his own you may

be worthy to meet him, together with all the saints in the heavenly

court, and live for ever and ever.

M.: Amen.

P.: Receive the sign of the cross upon your forehead and also in

your heart, and in your manners be such that you may now be the

temple of God.

M.: Amen.

P.: Peace be with you.

M.: And with your spirit.

They all stand with the burning candles in their hands and

conclude with a hymn.

ROGATION DAYS: CROSS DAYS

The first Rogation procession was made 1,500 years ago, and itslitanies and antiphons were meant to avert God's anger from his

people and to call down his blessing on the fruits of the fields. It is

not strange that the procession came gradually to make its way

over fields and meadows and ploughed land, in fact throughout

the whole of the parish. In seaside parishes these processions

included prayers for the harvest of the sea and they probably

made their way along the sands or cliffs.

In some places the Rogation days were called the Cross days,

probably because the procession halted every so often at certain

crosses or at certain trees marked with a cross, at which the priest

read from the New Testament before the crowd took up the litanies

and antiphons once more.

Children in the procession carried green boughs, the girls

decorated themselves with flower garlands, the men carried

banners and a cross. All the streets were hung with green

branches.

In Staffordshire by the early 18th century, the processioning had

taken a rather different form; the whole village went out on the

three days, led by the children, who bore long poles decorated

with every sort of flower, and all together they sang over and over

again the psalm: "All ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord."

There are not many processions now over the fields on Rogation

days; still, after our answering the litanies at Mass, we might spendthe days in something of the old spirit. In a school or club we

could have a procession like that once prevailing in Staffordshire,

and thus call on all the created things of God to bless him.

Certainly night or morning prayers might include one or more of

the Church's prayers for the fruits of the earth; particularly if

those who pray have a garden:

"We implore thy blessing, Almighty God, that thou wilt deign to

nourish this earth with temperate winds, to pour over it like a

shower of rain thy gracious blessings, granting to thy people to

give thanks to thee eternally for thy gifts."


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ASCENSION DAY

St. Luke tells us that Christ, after he had eaten a meal in the

Cenacle, led the whole troop of apostles through the city on the

last journey he would make upon earth, and "...when he had led

them as far as Bethany he lifted up his hands and blessed them;

and even as he blessed them he parted from them and was carried

up into heaven." It is easy to understand why on Ascension day the

priest led the people in solemn procession before Mass, that thislast walk of Christ's might be remembered.

Since this procession has fallen into disuse, one could make a

solitary visit to a church during the day. The apostles, of course,

saw Christ going before them. But if we cannot, we have no less

certainty that he is with us, closer than he was to any of the

apostles on that first Ascension day. During that walk to the

church we can do what the apostles did--praise and bless God and

thank him for the holy Spirit whom he is going to send us.

A custom has survived in some parts of this country of opening

the New Testament at random on this day, considering that in the

page chosen there may be, as it were, some final message fromJesus as he makes his way back into heaven. Each one in turn

opens the New Testament and reads the whole chapter he has

lighted on, while the rest of the family or group help him to make

that chapter practical for himself.

THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

On this day we commemorate the protection that St. Joseph

bestows upon the whole family of the Church; this is a recent

feast, for only in 1847 was it ordered to be kept throughout the

world, but years before, St. Teresa of Avila had said all that needed

to be said about devotion to St. Joseph: "I took for my patron and

lord the glorious St. Joseph, and recommended myself earnestly tohim. I saw clearly that he rendered me greater services than I knew

how to ask for. I cannot call to mind that I have ever asked him at

any time for anything he has not granted. I am full of amazement

when I consider the great favors which God has given me through

this blessed saint, the dangers from which he has delivered me,

both of body and soul. To other saints our Lord seems to have

given grace to succor men in some special necessity: but to this

glorious saint, I know by experience, to help us in all! and our Lord

would have us understand that, as he was himself subject upon

earth--for St. Joseph, having the title of father, and being his

guardian, could command him--so now in heaven he performs all

his petitions."

St. Joseph, being the head and protector of the family of Nazareth,

is fittingly the protector of the whole Church and no less of all the

single families that go to make up the Church. He is the pattern of

family life. Why should this Sunday not be celebrated in an

appropriate way? All the members of the family could come home

and they could arrange some sort of entertainment or festivity for

themselves. And before the day is out various family affairs might

be recommended to St. Joseph by the whole family together; it is

only fitting that any family difficulties or trials or joys should be

shared with the saint who shared such things with Jesus and Mary.


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WHIT SUNDAY

This feast has been called the Pasch of Roses, because red roses

are thought to be emblems of the tongues of fire that descended

upon Mary and the apostles. It is for the same reason that red

vestments are worn at the Whitsun Masses.

In the thirteenth century in some parts of Europe a dove was set

free inside the church during the Mass, while pieces of lighted tow

were dropped from the roof. Childish enough, one may say, but at

least it attempted to drive home the reality of what happened onthe first Whitsun. Doves and lighted rope are hardly possible

nowadays, but there is a way of impressing the significance of

Whitsun on ourselves. Just as we make a crib at Christmas and an

Easter garden at Easter so we can make a cenacle at Whitsun. We

shall need figures of eleven apostles and our Lady, while the Dove

can hang over all of them and the tongues of fire radiate from the

Dove. We can link up the cenacle with the old name for Whit

Sunday by decorating it with red roses, the symbolism of which

should be explained. Morning and evening during the octave of

Whitsun this prayer to the Holy Spirit could be said near the

cenacle:

"O Holy Spirit, soul of my soul, I adore thee: enlighten, guide,strengthen and console me. Tell me what I ought to do, and

command me to do it. I promise to be submissive to everything

that thou shalt ask and to accept all that thou permittest to happen

to me; only show me what is thy will."

MAY DAY

No other month would seem to be better fitted for dedication to

our Lady than May, the month that finally conquers winter and that

sees all the spring flowers in blossom. How close the common

association of Mary with the hedgerow flowers has always been

one can see by the very names we still give to these flowers. Lady's

smock, marigold, lady's thistle, lady's bedstraw, may blossom, areall called after Mary. Early, on the first day of her month--"the

merry month"--it was once universal in this country to go maying,

when "every man, except impediment, would walk in the sweet

meadows and green woods, there to rejoice their spirits with the

beauty and savor of sweet flowers and with the harmony of birds

praising God in their kind," while they collected branches of

hawthorn or may, so that there was no house door nor window, no

church nor street that was not decorated with green branches. Men

wore sprigs of may in their hats; women who had risen long before

dawn to pick cowslips, primroses and wild violets made them into

garlands and hung them up in the churches.

Why should the first of May not be the day when all Catholics wearflowers in honor of Mary? May blossom is probably one of the

easiest blossoms to get hold of, but if it is impossible, then any

spring flower could be worn. After all, people wear flowers and

vegetation to the honor of St. George, St. Patrick, St. David and St.

Andrew, so why should they not do so in our Lady's honor?

In some families it might be possible to arrange a maying

expedition on the first day of the month; in clubs or schools the

first Sunday of the month would probably have to be substituted.

During the expedition everyone could gather as many different

sorts of flowers as possible and the most perfect branches of may

blossom. Formerly any member of a family who succeeded in


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finding a branch of may in full blossom was entitled to a prize and

this element of competition could enter into the maying

expedition. The flowers, when brought home, could either be given

to the parish church or they could be used to decorate the statue

of our Lady which most homes possess. Incidentally, anyone who

organized such a maying day would immediately come up against-

-and have a chance to destroy--the still rampant superstition

against may blossom, by which it is believed that such flowers in a

home are a portent of death.

MAY PILGRIMAGES

Anyone who takes the trouble to use her local library to discover

something of local history is almost certain to find that within a

reasonable distance there was once a shrine dedicated to our Lady.

There may be ruins of it left; it may have vanished. All the same, it

is possible to arrange in any school or club a pilgrimage to the

shrine. Someone should tell the pilgrims the story of that

particular shrine and the purpose of shrines in general, before

they set out. If there are not even ruins left, the pilgrims could

take a statue of Mary with them and place it on the site that was

once dedicated to her. A pilgrimage like this can mean a whole day

in the country and it ought to be enlivened with games and songsand outdoor cooking if possible. In some cases where records

remain, no matter how fragmentary, of the shrine and yet it exists

no longer, a club or youth group could attempt to reproduce on a

small scale in their own meeting place the lost shrine. Or they

could even create an entirely new shrine to replace the lost one. In

this way the statue of our Lady which is so familiar because of its

perpetual presence might be given a certain air of unfamiliarity,

and it would then be not just "our Lady," but "our Lady of

Missenden," "our Lady of Willesden," "our Lady of Sudbury," our

Lady of our own district.

WHITSUN TO ADVENT

FROM Whitsun to Advent, in comparison with the long holiday of

Eastertide, one enters a more sober time, though here and there

the feasts of Mary, particularly the great feast of the Assumption

(once called: our Lady in harvest-time) interrupt it. Again one

cannot help but see on these days the perpetual inclination to

mark all the feasts of our Lady with some sort of flower ceremony.

Saints' feasts and angels' feasts follow on each other; guardian

angels, Michael, prince of angels, and Raphael, are all honored

during this time. In parts of England Michaelmas was celebrated as

a sort of general sports day in which one man would lead a gang of

followers across country, through the roughest ways he could find,a crude symbolism, probably, of Michael leading the host of

angels.

If all the angels have their festive day, so too do all the saints, on

November 1st. The vigil of this day, once probably given to

invoking one's patron saints, turned in later days into a

superstitious festivity in which love-charms such as nuts, apples,

and glowing embers were credulously invoked and fortunes told,

and future lovers seen in vision.

If all the saints have their festive day during these days, so too

have all the souls. Theirs is on November 2nd, on which day the


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bells used to be rung almost unceasingly as a reminder that the

members of the Church-family who were yet in prison needed to

be rescued. Thus by the first Sunday of Advent, the first day of the

liturgical year, there is almost no type of person who has not been

celebrated by the Church in one way or another.

ST. ALBAN'S DAY: JUNE 22ND

St. Alban's death came to him through the hospitality he gave to a

stranger, so he is surely the model of hosts and an inspiration ofhospitality. When he was still a pagan Alban gave shelter to a

priest who was being hunted by pagan perse

a candle is lighted

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