From the Breviary according to the use of the Roman Curia, 1529, the continuation of the sermon for the seventh day in the Octave of All Saints.
The reddened drops of sweat that came forth from all of Jesus’ body signified in prophecy the passions of the martyrs that were to come forth from His whole (mystical) body, (which is the Church among the predestined), unto which He Himself, the head of the martyrs, Jesus Christ, by the example of His passion stirred on those who bear their cross. With the men in their triumph come also the women, who, as they overcame both the devil and the world, with double rejoicing are martyrdom and the glory of virginity united. Let us consider, brethren, how great is the splendor of glory (in heaven) for those who have died for Christ, how eminent their rejoicing. In the meanwhile, let each one of us, fulfilling our own vocation, gladly bear his own cross and follow Christ, so that at the last, we may be brought to life by mortification, and joined in heaven to the assembly of those that bear the palm of victory.
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| The frontispiece of the first post-Tridentine edition of the Roman Martyrology, edited by the great Oratorian scholar Cardinal Cesare Baronio and published at Rome in 1586. (Card. Baronio was one of the first fathers of the Roman Oratory; it was he who read the Commendation of the Dying at the bedside of St Philip.) |
