A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (52 page)

115.26–8
He had sinned … God’s child
: after the parable of the prodigal son: ‘I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants’ (Luke 15: 18–19).

115.31–3
he had dared … corruption
: see 88.8 (and n.), 93.6–8.

116.4–24
A field of stiff weeds … Help!
: cf. Joyce’s ‘epiphany’, no. 6 (
PSW
166).

117.4–14
He once had meant … guide us home
: virtually verbatim from Newman, ‘The Glories of Mary’ (
Mixed Congregations
, 359).

117.33
that part of the body
: in this particular instance, the penis.

117.34
serpent, the most subtle beast of the field
: see 99.25 n.

118.8
angel guardian
: in Catholicism, everyone has an angel assigned to them to help them away from evil and towards good.

118.10–12
his own soul … his own body
: a catechetical definition of ‘actual sin’.

118.37
Consciousness of place
: see 107.16–17 n.

119.4
Church Street chapel
: Capuchin Franciscan friary (see 119.34 n.); and see
PWJ
: ‘All through Ireland it is customary to call a Protestant place of worship a “church”, and that belonging to Roman Catholics a “chapel”’ (143); cf. ‘Findlater’s church’ (135.7).

119.28–9
those whom Jesus … His side
; the disciples, whose trust was ‘simple’ as they were common men, not men of rank.

119.34
brown habit of a capuchin
: the Capuchins (founded 1529): a branch of the Franciscans (the Order of Friars Minor, founded in 1209 by St Francis of Assisi (
c
. 1181–1226), a preaching and missionary order which originally included a vow of complete poverty); the strictest of three Franciscan orders; they take their name from the long cowl they wear in addition to the usual Franciscan brown, white-belted habit (from Italian
cappucio
: ‘cowl’) (
OERD
).

120.25
God’s yoke was sweet and light
: Matt. 11: 28–30: ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

120.27
God loved little children … to Him
: Mark 10: 14: Jesus to his disciples: ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.’

121.6–7
prayed of the priest to bless him
: see 106.33 n.

121.8
Confiteor
: see 65.25 n.

121.8
my most grievous fault
: words of the
Confiteor
; Stephen stops about a third of the way through (after ‘through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault’), before beseeching the Blessed Virgin and saints to intercede with God for him and before asking for forgiveness.

121.10
your last confession
: sins must be confessed at least once a year (hence, at 201.15–16, Stephen’s ‘easter duty’); a necessary part of confession is a statement of the length of time since one’s last confession.

121.27
sins of impurity
: see 83.2 n.

122.4–5
weary and old
: cf. ‘Portrait’ (
PSW
212 and n. 7).

122.27
grave words of absolution
: in Latin: ‘
Absolvo te in nominis Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, Amen
’ (‘I absolve you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’).

122.28
token of forgiveness
: the priest is blessing Stephen with the sign of the cross.

122.30
say his penance
: the priest would have required that Stephen repeat particular prayers as a sign of his penitence.

123.8
And life lay all before him
: cf. Milton,
Paradise Lost
, xii. 645–7, of Adam and Eve on their expulsion from Eden: ‘Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon; | The world was all before them, where to choose | Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.’

123.19
ciborium
: ‘a vessel with an arched cover used to hold the Eucharist’ (
OERD
).

123.20–3
Corpus Domini nostri … In vitam eternam. Amen
: Latin: ‘The body of our Lord’; ‘Unto eternal life. Amen.’ The first and last words spoken by the priest as he administers the Eucharist.

CHAPTER IV

124.1–5
Sunday … Blessed Virgin Mary
: Stephen has ordered his life in accordance with the plan for devotions outlined in
The Sodality Manual; or a Collection of Prayers and Spiritual Exercises for Members of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(Dublin: ‘Messenger’ Office, 1886), ‘Devotions for Every Day of the Week’, 301–13 (Sullivan, 135–6).

124.7
heroic offering
: one made for the benefit of others, as here, the pope.

124.8–9
the sovereign pontiff
: the pope.

124.11
interleaved prayerbook
: one between the pages of which devotional cards and notices have been inserted; see 51.27 n.

124.13–14
two candles … old and the new testaments
: those standing at either side of the crucifix on the altar.

124.15
catacombs
: in Rome, subterranean galleries used by the early Christians for the burial of their dead; Roman law made every burial place sacrosanct; the Christians exploited this and so were able to worship there undisturbed (
OERD
).

124.16–17
ejaculations
: suddenly uttered words of prayer.

124.17–18
stored up ungrudgingly … quarantines and years
:
JSA
suggests that Stephen here is following the ‘bank balance’ theory of indulgences whereby grace is stored up and may be used to relieve the suffering of souls in purgatory; ‘quarantines’: ‘the remission of as much punishment as would be obtained by forty days of canonical penance’ (
JSA
248). See 95.16 n.

124.23–4
purgatorial fire … everlasting
: hellfire is eternal, unending; purgatorial fire no less real but less long-lasting. See 95.16 n.

124.26
supererogation
: the performance of more than duty requires.

125.3
rosaries
: see 64.8 n.

125.7–8
three daily chaplets
: ‘chaplet’: one-third of a rosary (or the 55 beads (one-third of the total 165) used to count that number of prayers said); see 64.8 n.

125.8–9
three theological virtues
: as Stephen goes on to suggest, ‘faith, hope and love [or charity]’ after 1 Cor. 13: 13: ‘And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three.’

125.12–13
Mary … glorious mysteries
: Mary’s glorious mysteries, the contemplation of which is to be the occupation of one reciting the rosary, are divided into three (corresponding to each of the three chaplets): (1) the five joyful, (2) the five sorrowful, and (3) the five glorious mysteries (
G
lists them).

125.15
seven gifts of the Holy Ghost
: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Knowledge, Fear of the Lord; after Isa. 11: 2.

125.16
seven deadly sins
: see 89.20–1 n.

125.19
wisdom and understanding and knowledge
: see 125.15 n.

125.26
Paraclete
: from Greek:
παρáκλητος
in John 14: 26, meaning, strictly, ‘advocate’, but usually translated ‘Comforter’; one of the names of the Holy Spirit.

125.26–7
Whose symbols … mighty wind
: the ‘dove’ after e.g. Matt. 3: 16: ‘And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him’; the ‘mighty wind’ after Acts 2 (which gives an account of the Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles), esp. v. 2: ‘And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.’

125.27
a sin … beyond forgiveness
: see Mark 3: 29: ‘But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation’; the exact nature of this sin
has
been a source of much debate.

125.29–30
offered up mass … tongues of fire
: at the feast of the Pentecost (Whitsunday, the seventh Sunday after Easter), priests wear red robes; see Acts 2: 3: ‘And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.’

125.37
incomprehensibility
: as in the Athanasian creed (
c
. 4th–5th cent.
AD
): ‘And the Catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons: nor dividing the Substance … There are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated: but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible.’

126.38
constant mortification
: to bring the body, the flesh, the passions into subjection by self-denial and discipline.

127.11
twigging
: ‘twig’: ‘to beat with or as with a twig’ (
SOED
); here, with a brush or broom made of twigs.

127.20–1
all the fasts of the church
: of which there were many: Lent (40 days), Ash Wednesday, every Friday, vigils of important Holy Days, Ember Days (12).

127.27
except at the gospels
: when it is obligatory to stand.

128.9–10
actual reception of the eucharist
: the taking of communion at mass.

128.12
visit to the Blessed Sacrament
: Stephen’s individual visits to church to pray before the altar (other than at mass).

128.13–14
book written by saint Alphonsus Liguori
: probably
Visitations to the Blessed Sacrament
by St Alphonsus Liguori (1696–1787), founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (‘Redemptorists’, 1732), a missionary order. Liguori does quote the passages extracted here from the Song of Solomon (or in the Douay, Canticle of Canticles).

128.14
foxpapered
: pages that have been discoloured with brownish marks are said to be ‘foxed’.

128.17
canticles
: see 128.13–14 n.

128.18–22
telling her names … commorabitur
: cf. Joyce’s ‘epiphany’, no. 24 (
PSW
184).

128.19
bidding her arise as for espousal
: S. of S. 2: 13: ‘Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away’; Cant. 2: 10: ‘Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come’ (this latter quoted in Liguori, ‘Eighth Visit’ (repr. London: Burns and Oates, 1960), 35).

128.20–1
Amana … the leopards
: ‘Amana’: a mountain near Lebanon; from S. of S. 4: 8: ‘Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from
Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards’; cf. Cant. 4.8.

128.22
Inter uber mea commorabitur
: Latin: ‘He shall lie betwixt my breasts’ (S. of S. 1: 13).

129.13–14
bidden by his confessor … past life
: because no one has completed penance for past sins until the end of his or her life or time in purgatory, confession of past sins is urged.

129.21–2
Perhaps that first … had not been good?
: it would have been ‘good’ only if made in ‘perfect contrition’.

129.23–5
surest sign … amendment of his life
: an almost exact quotation from the
Maynooth Catechism
(1883): ‘The surest sign that our confessions were good and that we had sincere sorrow for our sins is the amendment of our lives’ (
A Companion to the Cathechism
[including
The Catechism ordered by the National Synod of Maynooth
] (Dublin: M. H. Gill, 1886), 302).

129.27
director
: the director of studies at Belvedere.

130.14
dominican and franciscan
: ‘dominican’: the Order of Friars Preachers, founded (1216) by St Dominic (
c
. 1170–1221), Spanish priest and friar; often called ‘Black Friars’ after their black cloaks; devoted to preaching and to study, to education and missionary work; historically, champions of Catholic orthodoxy. For ‘franciscan’, see 119.34 n.

130.15–16
friendship between saint Thomas and saint Bonaventure
: St Thomas Aquinas, Dominican (see 107.30–1 n.) and St Bonaventure, Franciscan (see 101.24–6 n.) taught at the same time at the University of Paris.