Saints celebrated on the 24th of May
Prayer to the Angels and the Saints
Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.
In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.
Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.
Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.
ST VINCENT OF LERINS, CONFESSOR
(A.D. 450.) Saint Vincent was of Gaulish extraction, had a polite education, was afterwards for some time an officer in the army, and lived with dignity in the world. He informs us in his prologue, that having been some time tossed about in the storms of a bustling military life, he began seriously to consider the dangers with which he was surrounded, and the vanity and folly of his pursuits.
A REFUGE FROM THE FOLLY OF THE WORLD
He desired to take shelter in the harbour of religion, which he calls the safest refuge from the world. (1) His view in this resolution was that he might strenuously labour to divest his soul of its ruffling passions, of pride and vanity, and to offer to God the acceptable sacrifice of an humble and Christian spirit; and that being further removed from worldly temptations, he might endeavour more easily to avoid not only the wrecks of the present life but also the burnings of that which is to come.
A SMALL REMOTE ISLAND
In these dispositions he retired from the crowds of cities, and made for the desired haven with all the sail he could. The place he chose for his retirement was in a small remote island, sheltered from the noise of the world.
This Gennadius assures us to have been the famous monastery of Lerins, situated in the lesser of the two agreeable green islands which formerly bore the name of Lerins not far from the coast of Lower Provence towards Antibes.
THE NATURE OF TIME
In this place he shut himself up, that he might attend solely to what God commands us, and study to know him. Vincent reflected that time is always snatching something from us: its fleeting moments pass as quick as they come, never, never more to return, as water which is gone from its source runs to it no more. Our course is almost run out; the past time appears as a shadow; so will that which is now to come when it shall be once over, and no tears, no entreaties, no endeavours, can recall the least moment we have already let slip unimproved.
In these reflections the fervent servant of God assures us, that he earnestly strove to redeem time, and to be always turning it to the best account, that this invaluable grace might not rise up at the last day in judgment against him.
A COMMONITORY AGAINST HERETICS
He considered that true faith is necessary to salvation no less than morality, and that the former is the foundation of Christian virtue; and he grieved to see the Church at that time pestered with numberless heresies, which sucked their poison from their very antidote, the holy scriptures, and which by various wiles spread on every side their dangerous snares.
To guard the faithful against the false and perplexing glosses of modern subtle refiners, and to open the eyes of those who had been already seduced by them, he, with great clearness, eloquence, and force of reasoning, wrote a book, which he entitled, A Commonitory against Heretics, which he composed in 434, three years after the general council of Ephesus had condemned the Nestorians.
He had chiefly in view the heretics of his own times, especially the Nestorians and the Apollinarists, but he confuted them by general clear principles, which overturn all heresies to the end of the world. Together with the ornaments of eloquence and erudition, the inward beauty of his mind, and the brightness of his devotion, sparkle in every page of his book.
PEREGRINUS
Out of humility he disguises himself under the name of Peregrinus, to express the quality of being a pilgrim or stranger on earth, and one by his monastic state in a more particular manner estranged from the world. He styles himself, the least of all the servants of God, and less than the least of all the saints, unworthy to bear the holy name of a Christian.
UNIVERSALITY, ANTIQUITY, AND CONSENT
He layeth down this rule or fundamental principle, in which he found, by a diligent inquiry, all Catholic pastors and the ancient fathers to agree, that such doctrine is truly Catholic as hath been believed in all places, at all times, and by all the faithful. By this test of universality, antiquity, and consent, he saith, all controverted points in belief must be tried.
ALL NOVELTY IN FAITH IS A CERTAIN MARK OF HERESY
He showeth, that whilst Novatian, Photinus, Sabellius, Donatus, Arius, Eunomius, Jovinian, Pelagius, Celestius, and Nestorius expound the divine oracles different ways, to avoid the perplexity of errors, we must interpret the holy scriptures by the tradition of the Catholic Church, as the clue to conduct us in the truth. For this tradition, derived from the apostles, manifesteth the true meaning of the holy scriptures, and all novelty in faith is a certain mark of heresy; and in religion nothing is more to be dreaded than itching ears after new teachers.
He saith: “They who have made bold with one article of faith will proceed on to others; and what will be the consequence of this reforming of religion, but only that these refiners will never have done till they have reformed it quite away.” He elegantly expatiates on the divine charge given to the church, to maintain inviolable the sacred depositum of faith.
DESTRUCTIVE POISONS UNDER INSCRIPTIONS OF GOOD DRUGS
He takes notice that heretics quote the sacred writings at every word, and that in the works of Paulas Samosatenus, Priscillian, Eunomius, Jovinian, and other like pests of Christendom, almost every page is painted and laid on thick with scripture texts, which Tertullian also remarks. But in this, saith St Vincent, heretics are like those poisoners or quacks who put off their destructive potions under inscriptions of good drugs, and under the title of infallible cures.
PRIVATE OPINIONS
They imitate the father of lies, who quoted scripture against the Son of God when he tempted him. The saint adds, that if a doubt arise in interpreting the meaning of the scriptures in any point of faith, we must summon in the holy fathers who have lived and died in the faith and communion of the Catholic Church, and by this test we shall prove the false doctrine to be novel. For that only we must look upon as indubitably certain and unalterable which all, or the major part of these fathers have delivered, like the harmonious consent of a general council. But if any one among them, be he ever so holy, ever so learned, holds anything besides, or in opposition to the rest, that is to be placed in the rank of singular and private opinions, and never to be looked upon as the public, general, authoritative doctrine of the Church. After a point has been decided in a general council the definition is irrefragable. These general principles, by which all heresies are easily confounded, St Vincent explains with equal eloquence and perspicuity.
His diction is pure and agreeable, his reasoning close and solid; and no controversial book ever expressed so much, and such deep sense, in so few words. The same rules are laid down by Tertullian in his book of Prescriptions, by St Irenaeus and other fathers.
HIS HOLY DEATH
St Vincent died in the reigns of Theodosius II and Valentinian III, consequently before the close of the year 450. His relics are preserved with respect at Lerins, and his name occurs in the Roman Martyrology.
SOULS WHICH HAVE LOST THE ANCHORAGE OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH
St Vincent observes that souls which have lost the anchorage of the Catholic faith, “are tossed and shattered with inward storms of clashing thoughts, that by this restless posture of mind they may be made sensible of their danger; and taking down the sails of pride and vanity which they have unhappily spread before every gust of heresy, they may make all the sail they can into the safe and peaceful harbour of their holy mother the Catholic Church; and being sick from a surfeit of errors, may there discharge those foul and bitter waters to make room for the pure waters of life. There they may unlearn well what they have learned ill; may get a right notion of all those doctrines of the church they are capable of understanding, and believe those that surpass all understanding.”
Note (1). In portum religionis cunctis semper fidissimum. Prolog. Commonit.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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