By JAMES MONTI
On a recent visit to the chapel of a Catholic nursing facility I observed an elderly resident arriving with her walker to spend time in the presence of the Lord. With her infirmity she obviously could not be expected to offer anything more than a gentle nod toward the Tabernacle before transferring herself into a chair to begin her prayers. But for her this was not enough. Before going to her chair, she stopped directly in front of the Tabernacle, and slowly, carefully, with every fiber of her feeble frame, she lowered herself down upon both knees to worship her God with a genuflection. I thought to myself, “O woman, great is your faith!” (Matt. 15:28).
Later, when it was time for her to leave, she repeated this heroic gesture of love. For her, nothing was too much to do for God. Here before my very eyes was the widow’s mite (Mark 12:41-44). She gave from the severe poverty of her frail health; she gave all she had of her failing strength for the glory and honor of Christ.
I have related this incident that I might introduce to you a prelate and saint who believed that in the sacred liturgy nothing is too much to do for God — St. Juan de Ribera, the archbishop of Valencia, Spain (1532-1611). A man whose interests ranged from Scripture studies to zoology, who in his spare time loved to play the lute and the viola de gamba, Juan was before all else a man of God, known to devote an hour to his thanksgiving following Mass and spending up to six hours at a time on his knees before the Blessed Sacrament.
There is a distinctive quality to Juan de Ribera’s devotion to the Holy Eucharist; it can perhaps best be described as a passionate awe for the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament. His words about the Eucharist express a sense of breathless wonder that Almighty God would give Himself to us and remain with us in such an intimate manner. Hence he firmly believed that in the celebration of the sacred liturgy no labor or expense should be spared to make the holy rites as splendid and glorious as humanly possible.
And as an archbishop of a large and important see, he considered it his solemn duty to inculcate this sense of the Holy Eucharist and the sacred liturgy in the future priests of Valencia. So he founded an entirely new institution for this very purpose — the Royal College and Seminary of Corpus Christi.
The crown jewel of this place of ecclesiastical learning and spiritual formation was to be a chapel that in almost every stone of its walls was to teach and proclaim to those who would worship within it the unutterable majesty of Our Lord in the Mass, in Holy Communion, in the Tabernacle, and in the timeless doctrines of Holy Mother Church, employing for this purpose a team of great artists to create a vast schema of imagery specifically designed both to instruct and to inspire. He also hired a leading musician of his time, Juan Bautista Comes (+1643), to direct the chapel choir.
So important did the archbishop consider the watch of Eucharistic adoration that takes place each year on Holy Thursday that he built a separate chapel of considerable size specifically designed to serve as the Repository for this annual Holy Week rite.
For the seminary chapel the archbishop composed a magnificent declaration of purpose and code of sacred conduct in the form of a book of constitutions, completed in 1610, inspired by “the supreme and most humble veneration which is owed to the immense and infinite Majesty of the Most Holy Sacrament” (Constitutions, chapter 32).
From the outset the archbishop states that for the service of God “this city should have a church, in which praises should be given to Him with the respect, attention, and veneration which is due to such an infinite Majesty” (ibid., chapter 1). He envisioned the chapel as creating a sense of the sacred that would set an example for the other Catholic churches of Valencia and beyond:
“One of the things which we most affectionately desire and entreat from our Lord God, is that there should be introduced in this our church so notable a decorum and refinement in the celebration of the Divine Offices, particularly in that which respects the sovereign mystery of the Mass . . . that it should be distinguished among all the churches of Christendom . . . and that in this poor and humble Temple this admirable Sacrifice should be offered with the greatest propriety that should be possible.
“For which we have dedicated to His Divine Majesty all the faculties which we have received from His blessed hand, which although they are greater than that which we deserve, are very little, compared with that which we would have desired, which is to adorn with gold and precious stones, not only the altars, but even the floor that the priests are to tread upon, after having received the Most Precious and Divine Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our King and Lord, our Redeemer, our Glorifier, our Father and Shepherd, and lastly our Supreme Good, and of utmost and infinite grandeur, and majesty, because of whom, and for whom there are gold, and silver, and precious stones” (ibid., chapter 41).
Every cleric, he mandates, should undertake the liturgy with a clean heart and with exterior decency and devotion, “celebrating the Divine Offices with all silence, moderation, and respect, attention, composure, and modesty” (ibid., chapter 39).
He exhorts priests celebrating Mass to exercise “particular attention and reverence” when elevating the consecrated Eucharist, fracturing the Host and making the requisite signs, bearing in mind that what is before them after the consecration is no longer bread but “the living Body of Jesus Christ our Lord, the natural Son of the Eternal Father, as infinite and mighty as He” (ibid.). In regard to the clergy’s recitation of the Breviary, he observes, “. . . they should consider that the ministry which they have of singing the Offices in the church is the same that the angels have in Heaven, which is to praise and bless our Lord God” (ibid., chapter 78, n. 5).
In a conscious imitation of the description from the Book of Revelation of the elders who “with golden bowls full of incense” prostrated themselves before the Lamb and sang a “new song” (Rev. 5:8-14), the archbishop prescribed a special ceremony of Eucharistic adoration to be observed on Thursdays throughout the year.
Four priests, accompanied by four acolytes carrying four sets of censers and incense boats, would approach the high altar in three stages, with their heads bare and their hands folded, “inasmuch as they are going to adore the infinite and immense majesty of God.” At the pause for each stage, they all kneel and prostrate themselves as one priest says in an audible voice, “Blessed be the Most Holy Sacrament.”
Upon arriving before the high altar, the four priests, remaining on their knees, take the censers from the four acolytes kneeling behind them and bow their heads down to the floor, after which one of them (the hebdomadarian) says “those words that Azariah said, as the prophet Daniel relates, being in the midst of the furnace of Babylon (Daniel 3:40 — Douay-Reims trans.), ‘As in holocausts of rams, and bullocks, and as in thousands of fat lambs: so let our sacrifice be made in thy sight this day;’” all four priests now incense the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar three times, after which they again bow their heads to the floor.
Two more rounds of bowing to the floor and incensing the Eucharist follow, with the hebdomadarian saying for the second round “the words that the thousands upon thousands of angels and the ancients said (with a loud cry), remaining prostrate before the throne of the Majesty of God (Rev. 5:12 — Douay-Reims trans.), ‘The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and benediction’.” For the third and final triple incensation the hebdomadarian says the words “that the multitude of angels also said prostrate before the Lamb (Rev. 7:12 — Douay-Reims trans.), ‘Benediction, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, honor, and power, and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen’” (ibid., chapter 32).
When in the days leading up to Juan de Ribera’s death it was determined that he should be given the Viaticum, a magnificent candlelight procession was quickly arranged to bring the Blessed Sacrament from the cathedral of Valencia to his bedside, borne beneath a canopy carried by six priests.
When the Holy Eucharist arrived amid clouds of incense, with flower petals strewn before it, Juan, having knelt, bowed down to kiss the floor, and exclaimed, “You, O Lord? You, O Lord, come to visit me? You with so much mercy for me? Was not redeeming me once enough, my God? O my Lord! May the Seraphim praise you for such mercy; may all the Saints augment them, and I also, although I am so great a sinner, let me bless you….” He died on January 6, 1611. Saint Juan de Ribera, pray for us.
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