[Rank]
S. Antonii Mariae Zacharia Confessor;;Duplex;;3;;vide C5

[Rule]
vide C5;
9 lectiones

[Oratio]
Make us able, O Lord God, in the Spirit of Thy blessed Apostle Paul, to know the~
love of Christ which passeth knowledge, wherein Thy blessed servant Anthony Mary~
was so wonderfully taught when he gathered together in thy Church new households~
of clerks and of virgins.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio4]
Anthony Mary Zaccaria was born (in 1502) of a noble family, at Cremona, on the~
Pau. Even in his childhood marks of his future holiness became manifest. There~
shone brightly in him, signs of excellent graces of childlike love toward God~
and the blessed Virgin, and more especially of tenderness toward the poor, for~
the relief of whose needs he was ready more than once to strip off his own~
costly dress. He studied arts at his own home, philosophy at Ticino, and~
medicine at Padua, and as he excelled all others in goodness, so did he surpass~
all his companions in intellectual power. After taking his degree he returned~
home, and there understood from God that his call was to the healing of souls,~
rather than to that of bodies. He therefore began earnestly to study theology~
while he continued in the meantime to visit the sick, to teach Christian~
doctrine to children, to excite godliness among the young, and oftentimes even~
to exhort the aged to amend their ways. It is said that when he first said Mass~
after his ordination a light broke from heaven, and he seemed to the astonished~
bystanders to be surrounded by a circle of angels : from that time forth he~
laboured more earnestly for the salvation of souls, and the struggle against~
evil living. His fatherly love for strangers, for the needy, and for the~
afflicted, and the godly exhortations and alms wherewith he entertained them,~
made his house to become a refuge for the wretched, and earned for himself from~
his fellow -citizens the title of father of the fatherland and of angels.

[Lectio5]
While he was at Milan he bethought him that greater Christian good might be done~
if he gathered round him some fellow -labourers in the Lord's vineyard, and when~
he had conferred thereon with those noble and holy men Bartholomew Ferrari and~
James Morigia, he founded the brotherhood of Clerks Regulars, to whom on account~
of his own great love for the Apostle of the Gentiles he gave the name of Clerks~
of St Paul. Under the approbation of the Supreme Pontiff Clement VII. and the~
confirmation of Paul III. this brotherhood was in a short time widely spread~
abroad. The Congregation of nuns who are called Angelicals also regard Anthony~
Mary as their Father and Founder. His own thought of himself was so lowly that~
he never would be at the head of his own Order. In great long-suffering he bore~
with patience the violent storms which were raised against his Institute. In the~
greatness of his charity he never ceased to enkindle the members of religious~
orders to love toward God, to exhort priests to live Apostolic lives, and to~
found guilds of married men, to the bringing forth of much fruit. Somewhiles he~
and his disciples would walk through the streets and squares with a Cross~
carried before them, and there by burning and vehement harangues call to~
salvation the wandering and the wicked.

[Lectio6]
It is to be remembered that in his burning love for Jesus Crucified he reminded~
all men of the Mystery of the Cross by the sound of a bell every Friday evening,~
and himself as a true disciple of Paul always bore about in his body the dying~
of the Lord Jesus, (2 Cor. iv. 10.) The holy Name of Christ is found everywhere~
in his writings and was ever in his mouth. He was moved by a singular love~
toward the Holy Eu charist. He established a custom of receiving it often, and~
is said to have brought in the practice of exposing the same upon a lofty throne~
for three days' adoration. Of his earnest modesty the appearance of life which~
was seen even in his dead body seemed a witness. Together with all these things~
he possessed the gifts of trance, of tears, of knowledge of things to come, of~
reading the thoughts of the heart, and of power against the enemy of mankind. He~
was worn out with toil when he was seized with his last illness at Guastalla,~
whither he had been called as a peacemaker. He was carried to Cremona amid the~
tears of his brethren and the embraces of his devoted mother, whose imminent~
death he foretold. He was comforted by a vision of the Apostles above, and~
predicted the increase of his Brotherhood. On the th day of July, in the year~
1539, he died a holy death at the age of thirty-six. Christians forthwith began~
to honour him for his eminent sanctity and the number of his signs and wonders,~
which honour the Supreme Pontiff Leo XIII. approved and confirmed, and on the~
Feast of the Lord's Ascension in the year 1897 solemnly enrolled his name among~
those of the Saints.

[Lectio7]
From the Holy Gospel according to Mark,
!Mark 10:15-21
At that time : Jesus said unto His Disciples : Whosoever shall not receive the~
Kingdom of God as a little child : he shall not enter therein. (And He took them~
up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them.) And when He was gone~
forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to Him, and asked Him.~
And so on.
_
Homily by St Austin, Bishop (of Hippo.)
!Sermon 47 : various.
That which the Lord commandeth hard and heavy seemeth : (Come, take up the Cross,~
and follow Me ; and as it is written elsewhere,) If any man will come after Me,~
let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. (Matth. xvi. 24.)~
But neither hard nor heavy is that which He commandeth when He that commandeth~
giveth help to fulfil. That is true which is said in Ps. xvi. 5, By the words of~
Thy lips I have kept me to strait paths. That which is hard in the commandment~
love maketh easy. How great is the power of love, we know. And what signifieth~
this, let him deny ? Let him put no trust in himself, let him feel that he is~
man, and let him have regard unto that which was spoken of the prophet, (Jer.~
xvii. 5,) saying, Cursed be the man that trusteth in men. Let him mistrust~
himself, but not to sink; let him mistrust himself, that he may cleave unto God.

[Lectio8]
Whither are we to follow the Lord? Whither He is gone, we know. He is risen from~
the dead, and is gone up into heaven. Thither we must follow Him. And we must~
not despair of so doing, not because man is able to do anything, but because He~
is faithful That promised. (Heb. xi. n.) Why, then, should we despair, since we~
are members of His Body, of His Flesh, and of His Bones, Who is the Head of the~
Church, and He is the Saviour of the body, (Eph. xxx. 23.) Good is it to follow~
Him, but whither we are to follow Him we must see. When the Lord JESUS uttered~
those words bidding us to follow Him, He had not Himself as yet arisen from the~
dead, He had not as yet suffered, there lay still before Him the cross, shame,~
mockery, scourging, thorns, wounds, outrages, insults, death. After He uttered~
those words, His way became very rough. Art thou slothful? wiliest thou not to~
follow Him, but follow Him all the same, for who would not follow unto glory?.~
All men love exaltation, but lowliness is the step to rise withal.

[Lectio9]
Take up thy cross, and follow the Lord, and the cross that the Lord commandeth~
us to carry after Him, that we may follow Him most speedfully, what is it but~
the death of this flesh? For it is this flesh that crucifieth us until death is~
swallowed up in victory, (i Cor. xv. 55.) Therefore must this our own cross~
itself be crucified and pierced with the nails of the fear of God, lest if it be~
free it hamper thee, in the carrying of it, and thou canst nowise follow the~
Lord save in carrying it. For how canst thou follow Him if thou be none of His.~
And they that are Christ's, saith the Apostle, have crucified the flesh with the~
affections and lusts, (Gal. v. 24.)
