Christ, have pity on us.

Let us adore God, calling into existence on the first day of creation myriads of blessed spirits, filled with all kinds of perfections, and destined to compose the court of Heaven and to sing the praises of the great King. Let us beg the good angels to inspire our minds and direct our hearts during this meditation.

1st POINT. — REVOLT OF THE BAD ANGELS; SUBMISSION OF THE GOOD.

On a certain day there was a great combat in heaven. St John tells us. Michael and his angels strove against Lucifer, surnamed the Dragon; but the strength of the rebels failed them, and they were precipitated out of the realm of glory, and cast into abysses of darkness, to be tormented and kept in reserve against the day of judgment.

Theologians teach that God having revealed to his angels the future incarnation of his Word, and having shown them in the distant ages the Face of his Christ humiliated and wearing the sign of opprobrium and of suffering, Lucifer, comparing the excellence of his angelic nature with this example of suffering humanity, exclaimed in his pride— Non serviam! “I will not serve!”

To this cry of revolt, which shook the celestial courts, there soon succeeded a cry of reparation— Quis ut Deus? “Who is like unto God?” Michael and his angels, perceiving the features of the Divinity beneath the veil of the humanity of the Man-God, had prostrated themselves in the silence of adoration, and had immediately raised on high the standard of obedience and fidelity.

At the same moment, one glance cast upon them by the Face of the Word thrust into the abysses the third of the stars which had fallen from heaven with their chief, and at the same time strengthened the good angels in their submission and love. What a subject of meditation for us!

2nd POINT.— SUBMISSION OF THE CHRISTIAN SOUL.

Let us learn from this profound mystery the secret of the recompense reserved to humility. In these days of sorrow and persecution, Jesus appears to us under the lineaments of grief, forgotten, misunderstood, outraged and forsaken. Contemplating him in this state, the wise and powerful of the world exclaim— “How can we serve him?” Is he not the most worthless of men, and are we not the princes of this world?”

Pardon, oh Lord, pardon for these impieties, for these blasphemies. As for me, oh my Savior, keeping my eyes fixed on thy Face, where thou art pleased to hide the splendor of thy divinity beneath a veil of ignominy, I will exclaim aloud with the chief of the celestial army— “Who is like unto God in greatness, in virtue, in goodness, and in love?” Grant me grace, oh my God, to persevere to my last hour in these holy dispositions, and to find in the contemplation of thy adorable Face the light of my life, and the assurance of going one day to contemplate it in heaven.

SPIRITUAL BOUQUET.

Quis ut Deus?

“Who is like unto God?”

THE VEIL OF SAINT VERONICA AT ROME

The miraculous veil impressed with the features of the Savior was not destined to remain private property. In the designs of God, it was fore-ordained to become one of the precious treasures of the Church, to be kept at Rome, in the capital of the Christian world, and to excite the compassionate love of the faithful of all centuries.

Tradition relates that Veronica was summoned from Jerusalem to Rome, and directed to bring with her the effigy of the Holy Face, by order of Tiberius. The Emperor had been attacked by leprosy. Already informed of the miracles worked by Jesus Christ in Judea, he sent ambassadors to him to obtain his cure. When they arrived at Jerusalem, Jesus had just been crucified. The Jews endeavored to deceive them by trying to persuade them that Jesus was a false prophet, and by telling them the fable of the taking away of his body by his disciples. But Veronica showed them the effigy of the Holy Face, and consented to go with them to Rome, assuring them that the Emperor would be cured by looking at the picture. She therefore went with the ambassadors, and in fact, as soon as Tiberius had seen and touched the veil, he was completely cured. In his pagan ignorance, he also wished to place Jesus Christ among divinities, and raised a statue to him in the interior of his palace, in the place where the gods of the domestic hearth were venerated. The name of the officer who brought Veronica to Rome has been preserved. He was called Volusien, and he died in the odor of sanctity. Memory of him is made in the church of Milan on the 24th of February, the day of the feast of St Veronica.

INVOCATION.

Oh adorable Face, whose features imprinted upon the veil of St Veronica were sufficient to give health to the sick, cure my soul of the hideous leprosy of sin, and make me worthy to resemble thee by the purity of my heart and the ardor of my love.