Sunday Within the Octave of The Ascension

 It's Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension. The newfangled (Novus Ordo) calendar calls this the "Seventh Sunday of Easter." But it's Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension. (Duly noted.)

Of course, there's no Octave in the newfangled. As we've discussed many times in the past, most Octaves were jettisoned after Vatican II because...well, just because, I suppose.

What were the calendar tinkerers thinking? Maybe it was just because Octave's were too "old fashioned." You know, the "new" was going to really improve things, keep us Catholics more aligned with the "modern" world - or something like that. So out with the old, right?

Which means that we who observe the Octave of the Ascension must be out of touch, ready for the junk-heap of history - or something like that. 

Okay, let's set all that aside. However you think about all this, at least we can agree on this being the Sunday between the Ascension and Pentecost. There, hard to argue with that, right?

And that means we're coming up on the end of the Easter Season and all those glorious "Alleluias" that add a holy sparkle to the liturgy. (At least that's true in the Latin Rite. The Byzantine Liturgy keeps the Alleluias coming throughout the year - even during Lent.) We'll miss them.

Easter or not, one thing remains the same whether it's Latin Rite, Byzantine (or any other) Rite, traditional or newfangled calendar, etc.: Assuming we're Catholics who practice our religion, we all agree that each of us needs to take seriously the struggle to become a saint. Not when we die and (by God's mercy and grace) eventually wind up in Heaven - but here and now.

And if we do take this seriously, the Easter Season has provided us with special graces to assist us in our endeavor. Thanks be to God.

Now, Easter Season or not, it's one thing to understand and take seriously this becoming a saint thing, quite another to know just how to go about it. Just reading about saints can help, but given how different one saint might be from another, it may not provide concrete, practical guidance to me or to you. That's where Fr.Victorino Osende, O.P can help. He wrote the following and it's worth reading and meditating on.

“St. Paul called the first faithful ‘saints,’ and very likely the generality of them were such. Why? Because the early Christians surrendered wholeheartedly to Christ from their conversion. He was their ideal, the object of all their aspirations, the incentive of all their actions. Complete surrender to Christ was their law, and upon it they based the whole science of perfection. This total surrender, practiced with a lively faith, complete trust, and an ardent love for Christ, sufficed to sanctify them. However, with the passage of time and the cooling of charity in the hearts of men, it became necessary to multiply the means and methods of perfection in order to entice men to seek it and to sustain them in that pursuit. In this way the procedure eventually became inverted: the neophyte was introduced very gradually into the ways of prayer and the gift of self to God, and only after a long period did he arrive at complete surrender, which at one time had been the starting point.

In the doctrine of the Little Flower (St. Therese of Lisieux), the right order of procedure is again established and the life of perfection begins where it should: in the total surrender of the heart to God. Everything else comes as a necessary consequence of that surrender. Her Little Way facilitates the attainment of sanctity, not by taking away or diminishing any of the essentials of perfection, but by making sanctity the work of love, and thus giving it the ease with which love always operates. Wherefore, let no one deceive himself by thinking that her Little Way is a marvelous secret for attaining sanctity without any labor or struggle…No other way to sanctity has been found, nor ever will be found, save the way of the cross and the following of Christ. Neither will anything or anyone ever be able to except us from its burden and yoke. All that we can desire and hope is that its burden be light and its yoke sweet, as Christ Himself has promised.”

One thing about St. Therese's view is that it's pretty much accessible to all. There's nothing confusing or complicated here. If we've got the intention to become a saint, and we're not sure where to start, St. Therese may prove our best coach.

So consider spending some time on this Sunday within the Octave of Easter thinking about, even meditating on the Little Flower's advice. It's a good start to our becoming saints while we're still struggling here in this Valley of Tears. Why wait?

Happy Easter!