Day 7 of Novena to San Gennaro
and the Feast of St. Hildegard plus Ember Days begin tomorrow...
Please join us in prayer as we countdown to our celebration of the Feast Day of San Gennaro on Thursday, September 19th!
Novena to San Gennaro
Oh San Gennaro, brave of faith in Jesus Christ, glorious patron of Catholic Naples, looks upon us benignly and accepts our vows, that today we lie at your feet with total confidence in your powerful patronage.
How many times have you run to help your fellow citizens, now stopping in the path of the destructive lava of Vesuvius, and now saving us from plague, earthquakes, famine and many other divine punishments that terrify us.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The perpetual miracle of the liquefaction of your blood is a sure and extremely eloquent sign that you live among us, that you know our needs and that you protect us in a singular way.
Oh, we pray you to pray for us, sure that we will be answered; and saved from all the evils that oppress us from all directions.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Save us from unbelief, and you will see that the faith, by which you have generously sacrificed your life, always, always produces fertile fruits of saints made among us. Amen!
Merciful God, through the labors and sacrifices of San Gennaro, You brought about the sanctification of believers and the conversion of pagans. From his place in heaven San Gennaro continues to watch over those who call upon him as a chosen intercessor. Each year You confirm his desire to remain with his people by the miracles which take place at his tomb.
We honor Your great martyr and call upon him for heavenly assistance and protection.
May he continue to be a channel of divine grace, may he obtain from You success for the endeavors of our yearly feast. May we be blessed with a fruitful celebration and harmony. Lord, grant us a spirit of true joy doing Your work and an increased sense of dedication to Your body on earth, the Catholic Church.
May San Gennaro present our humble efforts to Your Divine Throne of Mercy and may our good works help to obtain the remission of our sins and blessings for our parish and our families.
We ask all this through Jesus Christ, Your Son, Our Lord, who lives and reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God, for ages unto endless ages.
Amen.
At Bingen, in the diocese of Mayence, Saint Hildegarde, Virgin. Let us salute the “great prophetess of the New Testament.” What St. Bernard’s influence over his contemporaries was in the first half of the twelfth century, that in the second half was Hildegarde’s; when the humble virgin became the oracle of popes and emperors, of princes and prelates. Multitudes from far and near flocked to Mount St. Rupert, where the doubts of ordinary life were solved, and the questions of doctors answered. At length, by God’s command, Hildegarde went forth from her monastery to administer to all alike, monks, clerics, and laymen, the word of correction and salvation.
The Spirit indeed breatheth where he will. To the massy pillars that support his royal palace, God preferred the poor little feather floating in the air, and blown about, at his pleasure, hither and thither in the light. In spite of labors, sicknesses, and trials, the holy Abbess lived to the advanced age of eighty-two, in the shadow of the living light.
PRAYER
O God, who didst adorn thy blessed virgin Hidlegarde with heavenly gifts: grant, we beseech thee, that walking in her footsteps and according to her teachings, we may deserve to pass from the darkness of this world into thy lovely light. Through our Lord.
— Dom Prosper Gueranger, The Liturgical Year
The German recipe for these "Cookies of Joy," which are known as Hildegardplätzchen in Germany:
Hildegardplätzchen
12 tablespoons butter (1 1/2 sticks or 3/4 cup)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
4 egg yolks
2 1/2 cups spelt flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
Melt the butter, then add it to a medium bowl with the sugar, honey, and egg yolks. Beat gently, then fold in the rest of the ingredients. Refrigerate the dough for an hour.
Flour a surface and roll out the cookie dough until about 1/4 inch thick. Cut the dough into 3" rounds and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 375F for 10 minutes, or until golden-brown.
Anyone oppressed by melancholy with a discontented mind, which then harms his lungs, should cook violets in pure wine. He should strain this through a cloth, add a bit of galingale, and as much licorice as he wants, and so make spiced wine. When he drinks it, it will check the melancholy, make him happy, and heal his lungs.
Violet Wine
1/2 cup dried violets
2 cups white wine
1 slice galingale root (ginger root is the closest thing easily found in most places if you must substitute)
1/4 tsp powdered licorice
Mix violets and wine and simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes. Strain. Add the galingale and licorice and let sit for two hours.1
Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, 14 September, 1 are known as "Michaelmas Embertide," and they come near the beginning of Autumn (September, October, November). The Lessons focus on the Old Covenant's Day of Atonement and the fast of the seventh month, but start off with this prophecy from Amos 9:13-15:
Behold the days come, when the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed, and the mountains shall dop sweetness, and every hill shall be tilled. And I will bring back the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build the abandoned cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine of them; and shall make gardens and eat the fruits of them; and I will plant them upon their land: and I will no more pluck them out of their land which I have given them; saith the Lord thy God.
Like all Embertides but Whit Embertide, the Lessons end with the story of the three boys in the fiery furnace, as told by Daniel.
Psalm 144:15-16
"The eyes of all hope in thee, O Lord:
and thou givest them meat in due season.
Thou openest thy hand,
and fillest with blessing every living creature."
Oh, delicious Autumn! Trees lavish with spice colors... the earthy smell of their leaves burning in hypnotic flames... the rich colors of grapes, apples, pumpkin, and squash, of gold and scarlet flowers... the invigorating air inviting warm sweaters... The season is marked by a bounty that lends itself well to some wonderful holidays, especially Martinmas and the secular American and Canadian Thanksgivings (the fourth Thursday in November and October 2, respectively). This delightful poem, written in an old Hoosier dialect by James Whitcomb Riley (October 7, 1849 - July 22, 1916), conveys the feeling of Autumn so well:
When the Frost is on the Pumpkin
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it's then's the times a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bare-headed, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;
But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pitcur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin' of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries --kindo' lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin' sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below -- the clover overhead!
O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!
Then your apples all is getherd, and the ones a feller keeps
Is poured around the cellar-floor in red and yeller heaps;
And your cider-makin' 's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and sausage, too!
I don't know how to tell it -- but ef sich a thing could be
As the Angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me
I'd want to 'commondate 'em -- all the whole-indurin' flock --
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!
In the midst of this beautiful time, things wizen and seem to begin to die. The air grows cooler, the earth stiffens, the trees tire of holding their leaves. And during this waning we remember our dead -- on 1 November, the victorious dead (All Saints, or All Hallows Day), and on 2 November, the dead being purified (All Souls Day). These Days of the Dead begin with the eve of All Hallows, or "Hallowe'en," an unofficial evening of remembering the frightening fate of the damned and how we can avoid it. There can't be a more appropriate time for such a night than Autumn, when foggy mists are likely, and bonfires helpful.2
Associations and Symbols
Autumn is characterized by "dry and cold," and is associated with maturity, the humour of black bile, the melancholic temperament, and the element of earth. Giuseppe Arcimboldo's fascinating portraits of the season and its associated element lead the imagination in all directions:
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