The Catholic World, Vol. 23, April, 1876-September, 1876.: A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and ScienceVarious
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 23, April, 1876-September, 1876.: A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
We find a similar confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament at Touget,
another village of Gascony, which suffered horribly from the religious
wars. It was for a long time in possession of the Huguenots, who
abolished the Catholic religion and ruined the churches. To repair
these profanations the association was established, the statutes of
which are still extant in the Gascon tongue. By these we learn that
there were nine chaplains in honor of the nine choirs of angels;
twelve laymen in honor of the twelve apostles; seventy-two other lay
members in memory of the seventy-two disciples (husband and wife being
counted as one); and seven pious widows in honor of the seven Dolors
of the Blessed Virgin. They were all to be natives of the place, but
“no ruffian, renegade, public usurer, or vicious person admitted among
them.” Every Thursday all the members were to attend High Mass in the
parish church, robed in their surplices. They were to accompany the
Host in solemn procession through the village, at stated times, tapers
in hand; sing the Office of the Dead before the door of any deceased
member, and attend the requiem Mass for his soul. These and various
other pious obligations were encouraged by the bishop of Lombez, who
granted certain indulgences of _vray perdon_, especially on the
festivals of St. Germain, St. George, St. Vincent, and St. Fritz,
whose relics were honored in the church.
Such is the spirit of love, sorrow, and reparation which perfumes a
few of the countless chapels of Our Lady of Pity in southwestern
France, where so many hearts have forgotten their own grief before
that of Mary! In all these sanctuaries, wan and desolate, she seems to
plead for the nation. So pleads she all over the earth. Every mystery
of religion is perpetuated in the church. Christ is always crucified
somewhere on the earth. Mary is always sorrowing over his bleeding
wounds.
We have seen her weeping over the door of many a tabernacle in Italy,
as if over the Saviour wounded anew in the sacrament of his love. Who
can turn away from the affecting appeal in this day of profanations in
that unhappy land, where the very angels of the church veil their
faces before the agony of the divine Sufferer—before Mary’s woes?…
Around the altar sacred to her grief let us echo the ancient _Planh_
referred to at the beginning of this article:
“I conceived thee without corruption; to-day my heart is
broken with grief: thy Nativity was exempt from all
suffering; now is the day of my travail—
“Alas! my Son, on account of thy torments!
“When thou wert born the shepherds came singing with joy,
dancing to the sound of their pipes; now traitorous and
cruel Jews come to seize thee with horns and cries, staves
and swords.
“Alas! my Son, loving and beautiful.”
_Ay filh! amaros e bel!_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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