Angeli et amici: In festo S. Genovefae Virginis, Parisiorum Patronae

Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Saint Genevieve is one of the unofficial patrons of Mister Screwtape’s Official Holy Hunny Discernment Novena ™ not because of any particular incident in her Legend but due to the fact that one of the primary protagonists in the jolly genesis of the pious imprecation bore the name of the Patroness of Paris. That lovely lass, once suppliantly seeking, one is proudly pleased to report, is now a marvelous matron sweetly solicitous of both her beguiling boys (as every wife can testify, the husband is always the first child of the family). How much the inscrutable designs of Divine Providence were swayed by the quaint collection of bridal beseeching will, like the invoice for the Last Supper, be revealed at that last trumpet blast but right now there are matters of more immediate import.

Attila the Hun, that infamous interloper, was righteously repulsed from Paris by the prayers of Saint Genevieve. In a little more than a fortnight a pious procession will take place in our nation’s capital seeking to exorcise the spirit of a modern day “Flagellum Dei” afflicting our commonweal. Indeed the ecclesiastical implosion replicated in diocese after diocese has been portended by the gestational implosion imposed upon the Union over a generation (what involuntary irony!) ago.

So let’s get back to that Holy Hunny thing. As we all know, Our Lord raised Matrimony to the dignity of a Sacrament of the New Covenant in order to sanctify fecundity. In order to properly receive the graces attendant from the Sacred Mysteries we must be prepared remotely, proximately and immediately. The remote preparation for Matrimony is the good example and education of one’s own family and parish during one’s adolescence. The immediate preparation for Matrimony consists of the regimen of instruction (optimally imparted over the course of a complete year before ceremony) mandated by the Ordinary and the Pastor. The proximate preparation, that is the selection process, one thought, needed a little work on. At the aforementioned prompting, many sources, ancient and modern, were scoured. Thus the pithy prayers were redacted and disseminated. And apparently was surprisingly successful.

Maybe it’s time to apply for an imprimatur?

P. S.: It may be that, for whatever exigent circumstance, a sacred wedlock might not produce offspring naturally. Heroically then do the bride and bridegroom trust in Divine Providence and open their hearts and lives to adoption. What a beautiful example of Love.