The Living Spirit and the Liturgical Calendar

Unnatural, frantic, anxious work, work done under pressure of greed or fear or any other inordinate passion, cannot properly speaking be dedicated to God, because God never wills such work directly. He may permit that through no fault of our own we may have to work madly and distractedly, due to our sins, and to the sins of the society in which we live. In that case we must tolerate it and make the best of what we cannot avoid. But let us not be blind to the distinction between sound, healthy work and unnatural toil.

THOMAS MERTON

FROM SEEDS OF CONTEMPLATION (NEW DIRECTIONS, 1961)

The Son of God enters into the depths of this world, coming down from his heavenly throne, yet not leaving his Father’s glory, begotten into a new order by a new birth. I say a new order, because he was in his own nature invisible, but was made visible in ours. He is incomprehensible, yet he willed to be comprehended. Enduring before time began, he began to be in time. The Lord of the universe took on the form of a slave, veiling his infinite majesty. The God who cannot suffer did not disdain to be a man who can, and, immortal though he was, to subject himself to the laws of death.

POPE ST LEO I (C.391–461)

FROM THE LETTERS OF POPE ST LEO THE GREAT

Everyone who comes to God must come through his personal experience. His particular temperament and its difficulties are all part of God’s plan for the making of his soul. Witness the tears of spiritual travail that assailed Cardinal Newman, of storm and passion that buffeted St Augustine, and in contrast, the split second in which Saul became Paul. Go back to the midnight of the Incarnation in History and see the different ways in which God leads different men to Himself. The simple shepherds who could hear the angels’ voices and find the infant close at hand, the sages who could only find their way through long, scientific study of the stars and must journey from far-distant countries to find the King.

CARYLL HOUSELANDER

FROM ESSENTIAL WRITINGS, EDITED BY WENDY M. WRIGHT (ORBIS, 2005)

Calendar

Sunday 9 November:
The Dedication of the
Lateran Basilica
(Remembrance Sunday)
Monday 10 November:
St Leo the Great, Pope & Doctor
Tuesday 11 November:
St Martin of Tours, Bishop
Wednesday 12 November:
St Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr
Thursday 13 November:
Feria
Friday 14 November:
Feria
Saturday 15 November:
Feria or St Albert the Great,
Bishop & Doctor
Sunday 16 November:
Thirty-Third Sunday of the Year

For the calendar for the Missal of 1962, go to www.lms.org.uk