Childermass

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. It is a very bittersweet feast. If one looks at it from the over-arching viewpoint of Last Ends and Eternity, then it is a happy feast day, for the little martyrs of Israel attained heaven after very brief lives, in which they were spared the sort of suffering and sinfulness that the rest of us must endure-- however bitter the deaths they died. But from the human point of view, what pain for their mothers, and fathers, and sisters and brothers... One of the most heartbreaking lines in the Bible (or, indeed, any written work) is the line which Jeremiah spoke in prophecy: A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. 

I thought of trying to find another version of The Coventry Carol to post today, it being the song of the Holy Innocents, but it seemed worthwhile to try finding something a little different. So I present to you Salvate Flores Martyrum:

And I strongly recommend you visit Traditional Catholic Priest for the Latin lyrics and the English translation. 

I am also, rather shamelessly, going to post a poem which I wrote today. It is in a for called ottava rima, an Italian form, consisting of 8 lines. You can use the 8 lines as stanzas and add to it, but I love the challenge of getting big ideas into a few words, so I keep to the ottava bit:

REFLECTIONS UPON THE FEAST OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS

Oh Little Ones, whom the World deems,

But dedritus, to be thrown away,

Lest you upset the selfish dreams

Of modern Herods, bent on play:

They are desolate. For all their schemes

they die alone-- Yet on this day,

The Little Martyrs of the Infant King,

Stand before His throne-- and sing