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Transcript of 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