The oil: Christ's gift

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The oil: Christ's gift

The oil of gladness with which Christ was anointed was a spiritual
oil; it was in fact the Holy Spirit himself, who is called the oil of
gladness because he is the source of spiritual joy. But you also have
been anointed with oil, and by this anointing you have entered into
fellowship with Christ and have received a share in his life. Beware
of thinking of this chrism as merely ordinary oil. As the Eucharistic
bread after the invocation of the Holy Spirit is no longer ordinary
bread but the body of Christ, so also the oil after the invocation is
no longer plain ordinary oil but Christ's gift which by the presence
of his divinity becomes the instrument through which you receive the
Holy Spirit. While symbolically, on your foreheads and organs of
sense, your bodies are anointed with this oil that we see, your souls
are sanctified by the holy and life-giving Spirit.
--St. Cyril of Jerusalem

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March 8th – Saint Veremundus of Irache
Also known as Veremund, Veremondo, Veremundo, Vermund
d. 1092

OF the religious houses in the kingdom of Navarre in the 11th century
the chief in importance was the Benedictine abbey of Hyrache, which
under the direction of St. became second to none in all Spain. He had
entered the monastery as a mere boy under his uncle, Abbot Munius,
from whom he afterwards received the habit. He grew up an exemplary
monk, distinguished especially for his boundless love of the poor. In
illustration of this, a story appears amongst the chronicles of the
abbey. When serving as doorkeeper Veremundus was sometimes carried
away by his zeal to distribute to the poor more than the prescribed
allowance of food, and the abbot, meeting him one day as he was going
to the door with a great number of pieces of bread gathered up in his
tunic, asked him what he was carrying. “Chips”, replied the young
man--“pieces of bread being, as it were, like chips for warming the
poor within”, explains the chronicler. When, at the abbot’s command,
Veremundus opened out his tunic the bread had been changed into
chips--“God thus showing through this miracle”, to quote the words of
the narrative, “that the liberality of Veremundus to the poor was
pleasing in His eyes and that his ambiguity was not a lie but a
mystery.”

Upon the death of Munius, St. Veremundus succeeded him as abbot and
led his brethren on by precept and example to ever higher degrees of
perfection. He appears to have possessed the gift of healing the sick,
and is said to have arrested in a marvellous way a fire which was
about to destroy the crops of the abbey. His care for the reverent and
accurate recitation of the Divine Office won for him high approval and
praise from Rome, and he was an upholder of the particular Spanish
usages, called Mozarabic. The kings of Navarre made grants to his
abbey, and the rise of the town of Estella was due to one of these
donations. One night shepherds watching their flocks were amazed to
see a shower of stars fall on a hill which was afterwards known in the
local dialect as Yricarra, “Starry”. A search at the spot where the
meteorites had fallen was rewarded by the find of a remarkable statue
of our Lady with the Holy Child, and King Sancho Ramirez was so much
impressed that he started to build a city to be called Estella upon
the same spot. He presented the site to Veremundus, with the request
that he would dedicate the new town to the Mother of God. Thus it came
to pass that practically every building in Estella paid rent or
tribute to the abbey.

At one time there arose a great famine in Navarre, and the poor
flocked to their good friend the abbot, and the numbers were increased
by pilgrims on their way to or from Compostela. The monks’ granaries
and store-houses were bare, but 3000 persons had collected and their
wailing rent the air. Veremundus had gone up to the altar to celebrate
Mass, and when he reached that part where the priest prays for the
people, he made intercession with tears for the starving crowd.
Suddenly there appeared a white dove, which flew down low over the
heads of the people, seeming to touch them in its passage, and then
disappeared as sud­denly as it had come. Meanwhile the people
experienced a wonderful feeling of contentment: not only was their
hunger appeased, but their mouths were filled with a delicious taste,
as though they had been regaled with some heavenly and invigorating
food. In their joy and relief they cried aloud and gave thanks and
glory to God for His goodness.

See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. i, and Mabillon.


Saint Quote:
To bear abasement and reproach is the touchstone of humility, and, at
the same time, of true virtue. For in this, one becomes conformed to
Jesus Christ, Who is the true model of all solid virtues.
--St. Francis de Sales

Bible Quote:
Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, And I
will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, Through which the
righteous shall enter. [Psalm 118:19-20]


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PRAYER FOR THE GIFT TO SEEK GOD AND LIVE IN HIM.

Father, in your goodness
grant me the intellect to comprehend you,
the perception to discern you,
and the reason to appreciate you.
In your kindness endow me
with the diligence to look for you,
the wisdom to discover you,
and the spirit to apprehend you.
In your graciousness
bestow on me a heart to contemplate you,
ears to hear you, eyes to see you,
and a tongue to speak of you.
In your mercy confer on me a conversation pleasing to you,
the patience to wait for you,
and the perseverance to long for you.
Grant me a perfect end, your holy presence.