From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Wonderful Effect of Divine Love  (1)   
      
   The Disciple   
    I BLESS You, O heavenly Father, Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, for   
   having condescended to remember me, a poor creature. Thanks to You, O   
   Father of mercies, God of all consolation, Who with Your comfort   
   sometimes refresh me, who am not worthy of it. I bless You always and   
   glorify You with Your only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, the   
   Paraclete, forever and ever.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ-- Book 3, Chapter 5   
      
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   December 28th – The Holy Innocents   
      
   The slaughter the Holy Innocents marred the mood created by the birth   
   of the Prince of Peace. If the Child was hailed appreciatively by the   
   simple shepherds and the wise Magi, his death was soon sought by the   
   local king.   
      
   Herod in no way deserved the obsequious title bestowed on him: “The   
   Great.” He was a petty tyrant who would stop at no cruelty to preserve   
   his throne and retain the support of the Roman Emperors, although even   
   they barely tolerated him. When he learned of the birth of the Messiah   
   from the Magi, he pretended to show kindly interest in this newborn   
   “king of the Jews”. But to prevent Jesus from ever becoming his   
   political rival, he ordered that all boy-children in Bethlehem up to   
   the age of two be massacred.   
      
   Jesus, of course, escaped the blood-letting. His hour to die had not   
   yet come, so God through an angel told Joseph to hurry the Mother and   
   Child out of the country. But the other boy infants of Bethlehem were   
   slain. The number of victims may not have been more than a dozen since   
   Bethlehem was a small village. But for that village the decimation was   
   a disaster, and the “sobbing and loud lamentations” of its mothers   
   rose to high heaven.   
      
   Since those days, many Christian mothers have lost children who for   
   one reason or another were never baptized, or could not be baptized   
   because of circumstances. This has been for them a true anxiety,   
   because of the official teaching of the Church, following Christ, that   
   “no one can enter into God’s Kingdom without being begotten of water   
   and Spirit” (John 3:5). It is also a general concern of Christians in   
   these days of the new Holocaust, the slaying of infants – by abortion   
   – in the womb. Will those who suffer death before birth also be   
   deprived by God of heaven because nobody baptized them?   
      
   People who are sincerely worried about the fate of unbaptized infants   
   can find consolation in the feast of the Holy Innocents. These little   
   victims were not old enough to receive baptism by desire. Although the   
   Church venerates them as martyrs, they were certainly not typical   
   martyrs. The typical martyr is one who chooses to obey God rather than   
   man; and the Holy Infants had no such choice. Yet the Church has   
   always held that they are in heaven, despite the lack of baptism of   
   water or blood or desire. As St. Augustine said, they are the “flowers   
   of the martyrs” – “the first buds of the Church killed by the frost of   
   persecution; they died not only for Christ but in His stead.”   
      
   If Jesus demanded that all men – including infants – be baptized by   
   water or at least by blood or by desire, we must heed that rule, and   
   be most careful to have our children baptized as quickly as possible.   
   That is vital. But the fact that God laid down this rule does not mean   
   that He himself cannot make exceptions to it. Other passages in   
   Scripture testify that Jesus died for all mankind, and that He wanted   
   all mankind to be saved. These passages must be balanced with the   
   passage on baptism; for they show the mercy of the Creator.   
      
   So let those who have lost children before their baptism, and those   
   who worry about the salvation of the victims of abortion, console   
   themselves with the thought that God does not forget any of His   
   children. Who are we to place limits on His special generosity?   
      
   Since Vatican II there has been a lovely new Mass in our missal called   
   “Funeral Mass of a child who died before Baptism.” The opening prayer   
   will give comfort to the Rachels of today: “Father of all consolation,   
   from whom nothing is hidden, You know the faith of these parents who   
   mourn the death of their child. May they find comfort in knowing that   
   he (she) is entrusted to your loving care.”   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   “Nowhere does Jesus   
   hear our prayers   
   more readily than   
   in the Blessed Sacrament.”   
   --Blessed Henry Suso O.P. (1290-1365)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Father, the Holy Innocents offered you praise   
   by the death they suffered for Christ.   
   May our lives bear witness   
   to the faith we profess with our lips.   
   We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ,   
   your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,   
   one God, for ever and ever. Amen   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Lully, Lullay, thou little tiny child.   
      
   Bye, bye, lully, lullay.   
   Lullay thou little tiny child   
   Bye, bye, lully, lullay   
      
   O sisters, too, how may we do,   
   For to preserve this day;   
   This poor Youngling for whom we sing   
   Bye, bye lully, lullay   
      
   Herod the King, in his raging,   
   Charged he hath this day;   
   His men of might, in his own sight,   
   All young children to slay.   
      
   Then woe is me, poor child, for thee,   
   And ever mourn and say;   
   For thy parting neither say nor sing,   
   Bye, bye lully, lullay.   
   (The Coventry Carol, a mournful lullaby to the Holy Innocents)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)