tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81838575778705123382024-03-19T00:00:33.750-04:00Battle Beads BlogBattle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.comBlogger810125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-71758856651150579882024-03-19T00:00:00.001-04:002024-03-19T00:00:00.127-04:00Feast of St. Joseph - the most forgotten Saint! <div align="left" class="style14">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Md9gENj_KkE/YFO4q6eJ-qI/AAAAAAAALvo/LzJJxmYMWAwl_r1UDmkz_Rrp7bYqSIrOQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1959/tempFileForShare_20200423-115906.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1959" data-original-width="1170" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Md9gENj_KkE/YFO4q6eJ-qI/AAAAAAAALvo/LzJJxmYMWAwl_r1UDmkz_Rrp7bYqSIrOQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/tempFileForShare_20200423-115906.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-large;">St.
Joseph, Patron of the Universal church is commemorated on On March 19.
He is one of the most important Saints in the Catholic Church, second to
the Blessed Mother. He was faithful, patient man, obedient to the
demands of God and willingly accepted the hardships. St. Matthew calls
him "a just man", illustrated by his loyalty in protecting and providing
for his family. In 1870, Pius IX declared him patron and protector of
the universal family of the Church.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="para"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">St. Joseph
was an ordinary manual laborer although descended from the royal house of David.
In the designs of Providence he was destined to become the spouse of the Mother
of God. His high privilege is expressed in a single phrase, "Foster-father of
Jesus." He was given the great privilege of taking care of God's own Son, Jesus.
He had to work very hard in his carpenter shop, but he did not mind. He was
happy to work for his little family. He loved Jesus and Mary so much. He took
Mary in the mystery of her motherhood and acted in obedient faith. He was humble
and pure, gentle and wise. Jesus and Mary loved him and obeyed him because God
had placed him as the head of their family.<br /><br />About him Sacred Scripture
has little more to say than that he was a just man-an expression which indicates
how faithfully he fulfilled his high trust of protecting and guarding God's
greatest treasures upon earth, Jesus and Mary. We place our confidence in his
protection because he protected the Church family just as he protected the Holy
Family. St. Joseph is a great saint.</span></span></span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="hasCaption"><br /></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Happy Death of Saint Joseph In the Visions of Venerable Mary Agreda from The Mystical City of God </span></b></u><br /> </span><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5R34f0HoSvc/YFO6aH_QyiI/AAAAAAAALvw/I5Nrh8xDey06T04mMsFOUkFh-Ee8ubtRgCLcBGAsYHQ/s356/662c3939f5f2e54feee1cfb054cb40c2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="278" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5R34f0HoSvc/YFO6aH_QyiI/AAAAAAAALvw/I5Nrh8xDey06T04mMsFOUkFh-Ee8ubtRgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/662c3939f5f2e54feee1cfb054cb40c2.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Already eight years saint Joseph had been exercised </div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">by his infirmities
and </span><span style="font-size: large;">sufferings, and his noble soul been purified more and more each day
in the crucible of affliction and of divine love. As the time passed his
bodily strength gradually diminished and he approached the unavoidable
end, in wh<span class="text_exposed_show">ich the stipend of death is
paid by all of us children of Adam (Heb. 9, 27). In like manner also
increased the care and solicitude of his heavenly Spouse, our Queen,
assisting and serving him with unbroken punctuality. Perceiving, in her
exalted wisdom, that the day and hour for his departure from this
cumbrous earth was very near, the loving Lady betook Herself to her
blessed Son and said to Him: "Lord God Most High, Son of the eternal
Father and Savior of the world, by thy divine light I see the hour
approaching which thou hast decreed for the death of thy servant Joseph.
I beseech Thee, by thy ancient mercies and by thy infinite bounty, to
assist him in that hour by thy almighty power. Let his death be as
precious in thy eyes, as the uprightness of his life was pleasing to
Thee, so that he may depart in peace and in the hope of the eternal
reward to be given to him on the day in which Thou shalt open the gates
of heaven for all the faithful. Be mindful, my Son, of the humility and
love of thy servant; of his exceeding great merits and virtues; of the
fidelity and solicitude by which this just man has supported Thee and
me, thy humble handmaid, in the sweat of his brow."</span></span></div></span></div>
<div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" id="id_532cf8e6f0df51d21226863"><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span class="text_exposed_show"><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EXJ1QijndDY/YFO7RpXCqbI/AAAAAAAALv4/sUxH0mxfvvgY56A6-wKWQlGMkImUPbQfACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/tempFileForShare_20191113-120440.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1352" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EXJ1QijndDY/YFO7RpXCqbI/AAAAAAAALv4/sUxH0mxfvvgY56A6-wKWQlGMkImUPbQfACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/tempFileForShare_20191113-120440.jpg" /></a></div>Our Savior
answered: "My Mother, thy request is pleasing to me, and the merits of
Joseph are acceptable in my eyes. I will now assist him and will assign
him a place among the princes of my people (Ps. 115, 15), so high that
he will be the admiration of the angels and will cause them and all men
to break forth in highest praise. With none of the human born shall I do
as with thy spouse." The great Lady gave thanks to her sweetest Son for
this promise; and, for nine days and nights before the death of saint
Joseph he uninterruptedly enjoyed the company and attendance of Mary or
her divine Son. By command of the Lord the holy angels, three times on
each of the nine days, furnished celestial music, mixing their hymns of
praise with the benedictions of the sick man. Moreover, their humble but
most precious dwelling was filled with the sweetest fragrance and odors
so wonderful that they comforted not only saint Joseph, but invigorated
all the numerous persons who happened to come near the house.</div> <br /><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iiekWiC-0yE/YFO8s3MqBjI/AAAAAAAALwA/0cl9zPqzqWgnyZ5R8blF3Me32jj4L0QyACLcBGAsYHQ/s442/Loverini3688DeathStJPompeiShrine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="442" data-original-width="301" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iiekWiC-0yE/YFO8s3MqBjI/AAAAAAAALwA/0cl9zPqzqWgnyZ5R8blF3Me32jj4L0QyACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Loverini3688DeathStJPompeiShrine.jpg" /></a></div>One day before he died, being wholly inflamed with <br /> divine love on
account of these blessings, he was wrapped in an ecstasy which lasted
twenty-four hours.</div></span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;">The Lord himself supplied Joseph the strength he
needed for this miracle. In this ecstasy he saw clearly the divine
Essence, and, manifested therein, all that he had believed by faith the
incomprehensible Divinity, the mystery of the Incarnation and
Redemption, the militant Church with all its Sacraments and mysteries.
The blessed Trinity commissioned and assigned him as the messenger of
our Savior to the holy Patriarchs and Prophets of limbo; and commanded
him to prepare them for their issuing forth from this bosom of Abraham
to eternal rest and happiness. All this most holy Mary saw reflected in
the soul of her divine Son together with all the other mysteries, just
as they had been made known to her beloved spouse and She offered her
sincerest thanks for all this to her Lord.</div><span class="text_exposed_show"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div> <div style="text-align: left;">When saint Joseph
issued from this ecstasy his face shone with wonderful splendor and his
soul was transformed by his vision of the essence of God. He asked his
blessed Spouse to give him her benediction; but She requested her divine
Son to bless him in her stead, which He did. Then the great Queen of
humility, falling on her knees, besought saint Joseph to bless Her, as
being her husband and head. Not without divine impulse the man of God
fulfilled this request for the consolation of his most prudent Spouse.
She kissed the hand with which he blessed Her and asked him to salute
the just ones of limbo in her name. The most humble Joseph, sealing his
life with an act of self-abasement, asked pardon of his heavenly Spouse
for all his deficiencies in her service and love and begged Her to grant
him her assistance and intercession in this hour of passing away. The
holy man also rendered humblest thanks to her Son for all the blessings
of his life and especially for those received during this sickness. The
last words which saint Joseph spoke to his Spouse were: "Blessed art
Thou among all women and elect of all the creatures. Let angels and men
praise Thee; let all the generations know, praise and exalt thy dignity;
and may in Thee be known, adored and exalted the name of the Most High
through all the coming ages; may He be eternally praised for having
created Thee so pleasing in his eyes and in the sight of all the blessed
spirits. I hope to enjoy thy sight in the heavenly fatherland."</div> <div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text_exposed_show"><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UhvNGQrQ_bM/YFO9QutnwaI/AAAAAAAALwI/JylRkd-sJaEWWD05G2oBRRjyQTX2Q3FcwCLcBGAsYHQ/s271/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="271" data-original-width="186" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UhvNGQrQ_bM/YFO9QutnwaI/AAAAAAAALwI/JylRkd-sJaEWWD05G2oBRRjyQTX2Q3FcwCLcBGAsYHQ/w220-h320/download.jpg" width="220" /></a></div>Then this man of God, turning toward Christ, our Lord, in profoundest
reverence, wished to kneel before Him. But the sweetest Jesus, coming
near, received him in his arms, where, reclining his head upon them,
Joseph said: "My highest Lord and God, Son of the eternal Father,
Creator and Redeemer of the World, give thy blessing to thy servant and
the works of thy hand; pardon, O most merciful King, the faults which I
have committed in thy service and interactions. I extol and magnify Thee
and render eternal and heartfelt thanks to Thee for having, in thy
ineffable condescension, chosen me to be the spouse of thy true Mother;
let thy greatness and glory be my thanksgiving for all eternity." The
Redeemer of the world gave him his benediction, saying: "My father, rest
in peace and in the grace of your eternal Father and Mine; and to the
Prophets and Saints, who await thee in limbo, bring the joyful news of
the approach of their redemption." At these words of Jesus, and
reclining in his arms, the most fortunate saint Joseph expired and the
Lord himself closed his eyes. At the same time the multitude of the
angels, who attended upon their King and Queen, intoned hymns of praise
in loud and harmonious voices. By command of the Lord they carried his
most holy soul to the gathering-place of the Patriarchs and Prophets,
where it was immediately recognized by all as clothed in the splendors
of incomparable grace, as the putative father and the intimate friend of
the Redeemer, worthy of highest veneration. Conformably to the will and
mandate of the Lord, his arrival spread inutterable joy in this
countless gathering of the saints by the announcement of their speedy
rescue.</div> <div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It is necessary to mention that the long sickness and
sufferings which preceded the death of saint Joseph was not the sole
cause and occasion of his passing away; for with all his infirmities he
could have extended the term of his life, if to them he had not joined
the fire of the intense love within his bosom. In order that his death
might be more the triumph of his love than of the effects of original
sin, the Lord suspended the special and miraculous assistance by which
his natural forces were enabled to withstand the violence of his love
during his lifetime. As soon as this divine assistance was withdrawn,
nature was overcome by his love and the bonds and chains, by which this
most holy soul was detained in its mortal body, were at once dissolved
and the separation of the soul from the body in which death consists
took place. Love was then the real cause of the death of saint Joseph,
as I have said above. This was at the same time the greatest and most
glorious of all his infirmities for in it death is but a sleep of the
body and the beginning of real life.</div> <div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The most fortunate of men,
saint Joseph reached an age of sixty years and a few days. For at the
age of thirty-three he espoused the blessed Virgin lived with Her a
little longer than twenty-seven years as her husband. When saint Joseph
died, She had completed the half of her forty-second year; for She was
espoused to saint Joseph at the age of fourteen (as stated in the first
part, book second, chapter twenty-second). The twenty-seven years of her
married life completed her forty-first year, to which must be added the
time from the eighth of September until the death of her blessed
spouse. The Queen of heaven still remained in the same disposition of
natural perfection as in her thirty-third year; for, as already stated
in the thirteenth chapter of this book, She showed no signs of decline,
or of more advanced age, or of weakness, but always in that same most
perfect state of womanhood. She felt the natural sorrow due to the death
of saint Joseph; for She loved him as her spouse, as a man pre-eminent
in perfection and holiness, as her protector and benefactor.</div> <div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I
perceive a certain difference in the graces given to this great
Patriarch and</div></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;">those vouchsafed to other saints; for many saints were
endowed with graces and gifts that are intended not for the increase of
their own sanctity, but for the advance of the service of the Most High
in other souls; they were, so to say, gifts and graces freely given and
not dependent upon the holiness of the receiver. But in our blessed
Patriarch all the divine favors were productive of personal virtue
perfection; for the mysterious purpose, toward which they tended and
helped along, was closely connected with the holiness of his own life.
The more angelic and holy he grew to be, so much the more worthy was he
to be the spouse of most holy Mary, the depository and treasure-house of
heavenly sacraments. He was to be a miracle of holiness, as he really
was. This marvelous holiness commenced with the formation of his body in
the womb of his Mother. In this the providence of God himself
interfered, regulating the composition of the four radical humors of his
body with extreme nicety of proportion and securing for him that evenly
tempered disposition which made his body a blessed earth fit for the
abode of an exquisite soul and well-balanced mind (Wisdom 8, 19). He was
sanctified in the womb of his mother seven months after his conception,
and the leaven of sin was destroyed in him for the whole course of
life, never having felt any impure or disorderly movement. Although he
did not receive the use of his reason together with this first
sanctification, which consisted principally in justification from
original sin, yet his mother at the time felt a wonderful joy of the
Holy Ghost. Without understanding entirely the mystery she elicited
great acts of virtue and believed that her Son, or whomever she bore in
her womb, would be wonderful in the sight of God and men.</div><span class="text_exposed_show"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div> <div style="text-align: left;">The
holy child Joseph was born most beautiful and perfect of body and caused
in his parents and in his relations an extraordinary delight, something
like that caused by the birth of saint John the Baptist, though the
cause of it was more hidden. The Lord hastened the use of his reason,
perfecting it in his third year, endowing it with infused science and
augmenting his soul with new graces and virtues. From that time the
child began to know God by faith, and also by natural reasoning and
science, as the cause and Author of all things. He eagerly listened and
understood profoundly all that was taught him in regard to God and his
works. At this premature age he already practiced the highest kinds of
prayer and contemplation and eagerly engaged in the exercise of the
virtues proper to his youth ; so that, at the time when others come to
the use of reason, at the age of seven years or more, saint Joseph was a
perfect man in the use of it and in holiness. He was of a kind
disposition, loving, affable, sincere, showing inclinations not only
holy but angelic, growing in virtue and perfection and advancing toward
his espousal with most holy Mary by an altogether irreproachable life.</div> <div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Umn92mN4uAM/YFO9sorBE5I/AAAAAAAALwQ/gSwRVjuPOO0ia6j0_Uwhe9ALX293x6KrgCLcBGAsYHQ/s450/1710132-bigthumbnail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="450" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Umn92mN4uAM/YFO9sorBE5I/AAAAAAAALwQ/gSwRVjuPOO0ia6j0_Uwhe9ALX293x6KrgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/1710132-bigthumbnail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>For the confirmation and increase of his good qualities was then added
the intercession of the blessed Lady; for as soon as She was informed
that the Lord wished Her to enter the married state with him, She
earnestly besought the Lord to sanctify saint Joseph and inspire him
with most chaste thoughts and desires in conformity with her own. The
Lord listened to her and permitted Her to see what great effects his
right hand wrought in the mind and spirit of the patriarch saint Joseph.
They were so copious, that they cannot be described in human words. He
infused into his soul the most perfect habits of all the virtues and
gifts. He balanced anew all his faculties and filled him with grace,
confirming it in an admirable manner. In the virtue and perfection of
chastity the holy spouse was elevated higher than the seraphim; for the
purity, which they possessed without body, saint Joseph possessed in his
earthly body and in mortal flesh; never did an image of the impurities
of the animal and sensible nature engage, even for one moment, any of
his faculties. This freedom from all such imaginations and his angelic
simplicity fitted him for the companionship and presence of the most
Pure among all creatures, and without this excellence he would not have
been worthy of so great a dignity and rare excellence.</div><span class="text_exposed_show"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div> <div style="text-align: left;">Also in
the other virtues he was wonderfully distinguished, especially in
charity; for he dwelt at the fountainhead of that living water, which
flows on to eternal life (John 4, 14); he was in close proximity to that
sphere of fire and was consumed without resistance. The best that can
be said of the charity of our saint is what I have already said in the
preceding chapter namely, that his love of God was really the cause of
his mortal sickness and of his death. The manner of his death was a
privilege of his singular love, for his sweet sighs of love surpassed
and finally put an end to those of his sickness, being far more
powerful. As the objects of his love, Christ and his Mother, were
present with him always and as both of Them were more closely bound to
him than to any of the woman-born, his most pure and faithful heart was
unavoidably consumed by the loving effects of such a close union.
Blessed be the Author of such great wonders and blessed be the most
fortunate of mortals, saint Joseph, who so worthily corresponded to
their love. He deserves to be known and extolled by all the generations
of men and all nations since the Lord has wrought such things with no
other man and to none has He shown such love.</div> <div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The divine
visions and revelations vouchsafed to saint Joseph, I have particularly</div></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;">mentioned in the course of this history (Vol. II 422, 423, 471); but
there were many more than can be described, and the greatest of them was
his having known the mysteries of the relation between Christ and his
Mother and his having lived in their company for so many years as the
putative father of the Lord and as the true spouse of the Queen of
heaven. But I have been informed concerning certain other privileges
conferred upon saint Joseph by the Most High on account of his great
holiness, which are especially important to those who ask his
intercession in a proper manner. In virtue of these special privileges
the intercession of saint Joseph is most powerful: first, for attaining
the virtue of purity and overcoming the sensual inclinations of the
flesh; secondly, for procuring powerful help to escape sin and return to
the friendship of God; thirdly, for increasing the love and devotion to
most holy Mary; fourthly, for securing the grace of a happy death and
protection against the demons in that hour; fifthly, for inspiring the
demons with terror at the mere mention of his name by his clients;
sixthly, for gaining health of body and assistance in all kinds of
difficulties; seventhly, for securing issue of children in families.
These and many other favors God confers upon those who properly and with
good disposition seek the intercession of the spouse of our Queen,
saint Joseph. I beseech all the faithful children of the Church to be
very devout to him and they will experience these favors in reality, if
they dispose themselves as they should in order to receive and merit
them.</div><span class="text_exposed_show"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span></span>
<span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span class="text_exposed_show" style="font-size: x-large;">
</span></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b>WORDS OF THE QUEEN.</b> (The Virgin Mary speaks to Sister
Mary of Agreda, Spain.) My daughter, although thou hast described my
spouse, saint Joseph, as the most noble among the princes and saints of
the heavenly Jerusalem; yet neither canst thou properly manifest his
eminent sanctity, nor can any of the mortals know it fully before they
arrive at the vision of the Divinity. Then all of them will be filled
with wonder and praise as the Lord will make them capable of
understanding this sacrament. On the last day, when all men shall be
judged, the damned will bitterly bewail their sins, which prevented them
from appreciating this powerful means of their salvation, and availing
themselves, as they easily could have, of this intercessor to gain the
friendship of the just Judge. The whole human race has much undervalued
the privileges and prerogatives conceded to my blessed spouse and they
know not what his intercession with God is able to do. I assure thee, my
dearest, that he is one of the greatly favored personages in the divine
presence and has immense power to stay the arms of divine vengeance.</div></span><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;">I desire that thou be very thankful to the divine condescension for
vouchsafing thee so much light and knowledge regarding this mystery, and
also for the favor which I am doing thee therein. From now on, during
the rest of thy mortal life, see that thou advance in devotion and in
hearty love toward my spouse, and that thou bless the Lord for thus
having favored him with such high privileges and for having rejoiced me
so much in the knowledge of all his excellences. In all thy necessities
thou must avail thyself of his intercession. Thou shouldst induce many
to venerate him and see that thy own religious distinguish themselves in
their devotion. That which my spouse asks of the Lord in heaven is
granted upon the earth and on his intercession depend many and
extraordinary favors for men, if they do not make themselves unworthy of
receiving them. All these privileges were to be a reward for the
amiable perfection of this wonderful saint and for his great virtues;
for divine clemency is favorably drawn forth by them and looks upon
saint Joseph with generous liberality, ready to shower down its
marvelous mercies upon all those who avail themselves of his
intercession.</div></span></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="arialbig"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><u><i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Prayers
through intercession of St. Joseph:</span></span></i></u></b></div>
<b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />Prayer for a Holy Death </span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GWTeZ6f3H98/YFO-YveA0PI/AAAAAAAALwY/igTX6TAxIRg9ohQjedbmOJkASELqsNm0ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1024/StJtable_square3-1024x1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GWTeZ6f3H98/YFO-YveA0PI/AAAAAAAALwY/igTX6TAxIRg9ohQjedbmOJkASELqsNm0ACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/StJtable_square3-1024x1024.jpg" /></a></div>O Christ, let me confess Your Name with my last breath. In Your great mercy receive me and do not disappoint me in my hope. Open the gates of life for me, and let the prince of darkness have no power over me. Protect me by Your kindness, shield me with Your might, and lead me by Your right Hand to the place of refreshment, the tabernacle You have prepared for Your servants and for those who revere You. Amen.</span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>Prayer To St. Joseph for Protection</u></b></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Gracious St. Joseph, protect me and my family from all evil as you
did the Holy Family. Kindly keep us ever united in the love of Christ,
ever fervent in imitation of the virtue of our Blessed Lady, your
sinless spouse, and always faithful in devotion to you. Amen. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>Prayer to Saint Joseph to Know One's Vocation</u></b></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
O Great Saint Joseph, you were completely obedient to the guidance
of the Holy Spirit. Obtain for me the grace to know the state of
life that God in his providence has chosen for me. Since my happiness
on earth, and perhaps even my final happiness in heaven, depends
on this choice, let me not be deceived in making it. </span></span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Obtain for me the light to know God's Will, to carry it out faithfully,
and to choose the vocation which will lead me to a happy eternity.
Amen.</span></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>Prayer To St. Joseph</u></b></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Blessed Joseph, husband of Mary, be with us this day.<br />
You protected and cherished the Virgin;<br />
loving the Child Jesus as your son,<br />
you rescued Him from danger of death.<br />
Defend the Church, the household of God,<br />
purchased by the blood of Christ. </span></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Guardian of the Holy Family,<br />
be with us in our trials.<br />
May your prayers obtain for us<br />
the strength to flee from error<br />
and wrestle with the powers of corruption<br />
so that in life we may grow in holiness<br />
and in death rejoice in the crown of victory.<br />
Amen. <br />
(A partial indulgence.)</span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><u><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"></span></u></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><u><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
</u><b><u>Prayer to St. Joseph as Consoler of the Afflicted</u></b></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen. </span></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.</span></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
O Saint Joseph, my patron and my advocate, to you do I have recourse
that you may obtain for me that grace for which I humbly pray. It
may well be that the disappointments and the bitterness in my life
may be the just punishment for my sins. But even If I should have
to recognize my own guilt, need I lose hope in obtaining the help
of the Lord? ‘Oh no,’ would be the answer of your devoted
client, Saint Theresa, ‘indeed, nor all you poor sinners.
No matter how great your needs, turn to the powerful help of Saint
Joseph. Go to Saint Joseph with sincere confidence and rest assured
that your pleas will be heard.</span></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Following the teaching of Saint Theresa, therefore, I present myself
before your glorious throne, 0 Holy Saint Joseph and beg for your
powerful intercession in my present tribulations. </span></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Bring my petitions before the throne of God, that by your power
and mercy I may obtain that which of myself I would not be worthy
to receive. And grant that having obtained the favorable answer
to my petition, I may return to your altar and there fulfill my
devotion of praise end thanksgiving for your Intercession. </span></span>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Remember O most merciful foster father of the Lord Jesus, that no
one who has ever had recourse to you was left unaided. Countless
are the graces and favors which you have obtained in answer to the
prayers addressed to you. The sick, the oppressed, those who suffer
injustice, the betrayed, the abandoned, in short, all who have had
recourse to your protection were aided in their afflictions. O Holy
Saint Joseph, do not leave me to be the only one to be deprived
of your help. Show yourself kindly and generously even to me, so
that my prayers of thanksgiving for your mercy may rebound for the
greater glory of God.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">O Saint Joseph, head of the Holy Family, I venerate you from the
profoundest depth of my heart. To the afflicted who have appealed
to you before me, you have granted comfort and peace. Console even
my own poor afflicted soul. You know all my needs, Saint Joseph,
even before I set them before you in prayers. O powerful Saint Joseph,
you know how important this petition is for me. I place all my hope
in your intercession.</span></span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Grant me the answer to the favor for which I so desperately pray
and I pledge myself to spread your devotion everywhere and to support,
within the limits of my abilities, those charities which, in your
name, aid the afflicted and the dying throughout the world.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Saint Joseph, consoler of the afflicted, have mercy on my sorrow.
Amen.</span></span><br />
<br />
<i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">"Imagine poor St. Joseph. He had to live with two perfect People." <span style="font-size: small;">~ Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel C.F.R. (rest in peace)</span></span></span></i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"></span></i></span><br /></span></span>Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-12875793094674701482024-03-06T00:00:00.004-05:002024-03-06T10:47:14.203-05:00 Chaplet of the Holy Will<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-8326874941484364370" itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4x6ykRoirAettNx-IS-Wbnim9jL3YDoQKNOPzF7KnvjriAyAn7rugTY3ZDiLqrSRETXUfVSb2HmRVKqbMpMpHccm_DjnQlGMd3H0aZsZaNIURKyayBDO0EV24DKB7g4QK0aT9Lbzr0CPC70xtZYzNJ6wtaVD59qUCLV9OxUZcjFP2QZJYy-MHm4sd9FM/s2927/20231222_154750.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1598" data-original-width="2927" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4x6ykRoirAettNx-IS-Wbnim9jL3YDoQKNOPzF7KnvjriAyAn7rugTY3ZDiLqrSRETXUfVSb2HmRVKqbMpMpHccm_DjnQlGMd3H0aZsZaNIURKyayBDO0EV24DKB7g4QK0aT9Lbzr0CPC70xtZYzNJ6wtaVD59qUCLV9OxUZcjFP2QZJYy-MHm4sd9FM/s320/20231222_154750.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>A few years ago it became increasingly more urgent to me to concentrate on praying for the conversion of souls. I began thinking of what Jesus left us for prayer and how perfect it is. </span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">SOOOOO</span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">...... After every rosary, before the Hail Holy Queen, I've been going around the loop again with this ... On the Aves, I pray: 'Your Kingdom come. Your Will be done on earth as It is in heaven.' On the Paters, I pray the Our Father as always, then The closing prayer (graphic below) and finally the closing rosary prayers. </span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">I think these are the 2 most important sentences in the prayer that Jesus gave us ... <b>Especially for today's world!</b></span></i></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
The Chaplet of the Holy Will is said on the regular rosary. The only
change is the decade Aves are changed to: "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be
done on earth as it is in heaven." The 'tail' of the rosary is said as
always. Then, at the end; (this came to me the same way as the ending
prayer to the USA Chaplet) the words of this graphic.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>(Or easier to read below,</i></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>without the graphic)</i></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 20px; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.125px; text-align: start; white-space: pre-wrap;">"My glorious Triune God we come before You to offer reparation to Your Most Sacred Heart for all the hatred and evils of the world. We beg You for the grace and strength to live in these days knowing all these things must come to pass before Your Glorious Second Coming. Increase our Faith and our trust. Please give us the grace to live in Your holy and perfect Divine Will here on Earth so that we may share Your glorious Presence in heaven. Help us to be attentive to the leanings of the Holy Spirit and to always bring you honor, glory and souls. Amen."</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It may also be said as a stand alone devotion according to the above directions. Very easy chaplet.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PXpJNWtzYNs/Xq4fRgWD0SI/AAAAAAAAKGA/QssyE2RM_vkr_WQMZGli-FahbtaHjsvTwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1581944001237.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1194" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PXpJNWtzYNs/Xq4fRgWD0SI/AAAAAAAAKGA/QssyE2RM_vkr_WQMZGli-FahbtaHjsvTwCLcBGAsYHQ/w297-h400/1581944001237.jpg" width="297" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">#HOLY WILL</span></div>
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Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-14812971823916902982024-03-02T00:00:00.001-05:002024-03-02T00:00:00.339-05:00First Saturday Devotion<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1535" data-original-width="1079" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigerTnrlXZw0HJ161S99L2uH2OYT40pn-4txKXxutatT5thLO4R0IHM1GwofF6lIeBemc8BJavHBGgfDvF-tRu7uqJZZD065B748AbnHFmbvETrMzTGJ65e_EgC3hy7F6dkRUzNL4VNjoM2FpuhmEr10xbxHjZB_lRIpPbHhf1j9xGCNB1wTLGoBYQ/s320/tempFileForShare_20220507-104136.jpg" width="225" /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><br />The History of the Five First Saturday’s of the Month<br /><br />On the 13th May 1917, Our Lady first mentioned devotion to her Immaculate Heart to the children of Fatima saying “You have seen hell, where souls of poor sinners go. To save them God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.”<br /><br />On the 10th December 1925, Our Lady appeared to Lucia detailing how devotion to her Immaculate Heart was to be practiced. These words are from Sr Lucia’s own account:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mdrevelation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/01/ImmaculateHeart-of-Mary.jpg"><img src="http://www.mdrevelation.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/01/ImmaculateHeart-of-Mary-191x300.jpg" /></a>“… by her side, elevated on a luminous cloud, was a child. The most holy Virgin rested her hand on her shoulder, and as she did so, she showed her a heart encircled by thorns, which she was holding in her other hand. At the same time, the Child said:<br /><br />“Have compassion on the Heart of your most holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation to remove them.”<br /><br />Then the most holy Virgin said: “Look, my daughter, at my Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce me every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.”<br /><br />How to Practice the Five First Saturday’s Devotion<br /><br />1) Confession: Make a good confession during the 8 days prior to the first Saturday with the intention of offering reparation for the offences against Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart.<br /><br />2) Communion. You should attend Holy Mass and receive Holy Communion with the intention of offering reparation for the offences against Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart<br /><br />3) The Communion should be received on the first Saturday of the month.<br /><br />4) The confession must be repeated for 5 consecutive months, without interruption, otherwise you must recommence from the beginning.<br /><br />5) Recite 5 decades of the Holy Rosary with the intention of making reparation to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart<br /><br />6) 15 minutes meditation on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary. Accompany Our Lady by meditating on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary. </span><p><span style="font-family: arial;"> Accompany Our Lady by meditating on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary. This can be done by reading the biblical texts of the mysteries of the Holy Rosary slowly thinking of their content. You could meditate on one mystery for 15 minutes at the end of the prayer as Sr Lucia did. This meditation is in addition to the recitation of the Rosary.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">7) Say the prayer to the Immaculate Heart of Mary to conclude the devotion.</span></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;">Why five Saturdays?</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Our Lord told Sr Lucia that the 5 Saturdays represent the offences against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">“My daughter, the reason is simple. There are five types of offenses and blasphemies committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">1. Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception;</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">2. Blasphemies against Her Virginity;</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">3. Blasphemies against Her Divine Maternity, in refusing at the same time to recognize Her as the Mother of men;</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">4. The blasphemies of those who publicly seek to sow in the hearts of children, indifference, or scorn or even hatred of this Immaculate Mother;</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">5. The offenses of those who outrage Her directly in Her holy images. Here, my daughter, is the reason why the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspired Me to ask for this little act of reparation. . (May 29,1930)</span></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;">Confession</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Sister Lucia clarified what should be done if confession cannot be made on the first Saturday of the month:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">“My Jesus! Many souls find it difficult to confess on Saturday. Will Thou allow a confession within eight days to be valid He replied:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Yes. It can even be made later on, provided that the souls are in the state of grace when they receive Me on the First Saturday and that they had the intention of making reparation to the Sacred Heart of Mary. – My Jesus!</span></p><p><b><u><span style="font-family: arial;">And those who forget to form this intention?</span></u></b></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">They can form it at the next confession, taking advantage of their first opportunity to go to confession. (February 15, 1926)”</span></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;">Communion</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Grace and Misericordia</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">During a revelation by Our Lord on the 29th May 1930, Sr Lucia clarified what one should do if all the conditions for the devotion, like the receipt of Holy Communion, could not be fulfilled on the first Saturday.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Our Lord said: “The practice of this devotion will be equally accepted on the Sunday following the first Saturday, when, for just reasons, My priests will allow it.”</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Spiritual Attitude towards the devotion</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Our Lady promised that She would “assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation” the souls who make the first five Saturdays. However, it is important that the desire to console Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart by making reparation and growing in holiness is the main motivation for the practice. To underline this fact, Our Lord told Sr Lucia:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">“It is true, my daughter, that many souls begin the First Saturdays, but few finish them, and those who do complete them do so in order to receive the graces that are promised thereby. It would please me more if they did Five with fervour and with the intention of making reparation to the Heart of your heavenly Mother, than if they did Fifteen, in a tepid and indifferent manner…” (15th February 1926)</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HNDxg2sEOF8" width="320" youtube-src-id="HNDxg2sEOF8"></iframe></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p><br /></p>Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-10866908864964928652024-03-01T00:00:00.001-05:002024-03-01T04:07:44.577-05:00First Friday Devotion<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Josefin Sans;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ulP09k5mkwGgOlegIMR7Cc2PgzopV7eGpydLiR9eBQ67ioL5sC6EzuOU14jcnAq4h2nvYc5lbWdD82Ia9d8k--5ql5YLuZSIHIpaCpDrXwkJfNrh13pAGZqq7Xb0A5pGqbba3gK8fzkeobIzrxkBRbYo49o7Bc9B2u2GqH93BBDwAKPYKG_A_BPd/s320/tempFileForShare_20220317-171242.jpg" /></span></div><span style="font-family: Josefin Sans;">At the end of the 17th century Our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alocoque (1647-1690) and asked her to spread devotion to His Most Sacred Heart. In a letter written to her Mother Superior in May 1688, St. Margaret Mary set out what is called The Great Promise Our Lord made regarding the Nine First Fridays and what we must do to earn it:<br /><br /><br />“On Friday during Holy Communion, He said these words to His unworthy slave, if I mistake not: ‘I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that Its all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on nine first Fridays of consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they will not die under My displeasure or without receiving their sacraments, My divine Heart making Itself their assured refuge at the last moment.'”<br /><br />First Friday Requirements: To meet the requirements for the First Friday Devotion a person must, on each First Friday for nine consecutive months:<br /><br />1. Attend Holy Mass<br />2. Receive Communion<br />3. Go to Confession*<br /><br />*Some Catholic resources on this devotion say that Confession is not strictly required unless you need the sacrament in order to receive a worthy Communion, in other words, you need to go to Confession so you can be in the state of grace before you can receive Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Other sources say you must go to Confession with in eight days before or after the Friday. Even if you are in the state of grace. If in doubt, consult your spiritual director. The more prevalent view prescribes the latter<br /><br />The communicant should have the intention, at least implicitly, of making reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for all the sinfulness and ingratitude of men.<br /><br />Our Lord made these promises to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque regarding those who practice the Nine First Fridays and have a deep devotion to His Sacred Heart. The Twelve Promises listed below includes the “Great Promise” (number 12).<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAkm4d9_OPE0M2JHaQ43-_JF21ajgBPtbyVRGRbtLi3LX25Ys3YOF4eqzDuRlv_JBi7A9OGhTJSkco81pBIzqiV98rB8iZ9mHOrBvXjf5uF1VRa2zwe9HJKmMuoiLhs26bJfrHXY-VhqBFPJeeY_zW8Il9mggDwOLzkebVf0JmT7Jg2Wv-DlNVXZdY/s1347/tempFileForShare_20210806-062020.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAkm4d9_OPE0M2JHaQ43-_JF21ajgBPtbyVRGRbtLi3LX25Ys3YOF4eqzDuRlv_JBi7A9OGhTJSkco81pBIzqiV98rB8iZ9mHOrBvXjf5uF1VRa2zwe9HJKmMuoiLhs26bJfrHXY-VhqBFPJeeY_zW8Il9mggDwOLzkebVf0JmT7Jg2Wv-DlNVXZdY/s320/tempFileForShare_20210806-062020.jpg" /></a></div><br />1. I will give them all of the graces necessary for their state of life. <br /><br />2. I will establish peace in their homes. <br /><br />3. I will comfort them in all their afflictions. <br /><br />4. I will be their strength during life and above all during death. <br /><br />5. I will bestow a large blessing upon all their undertakings. <br /><br />6. Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy. <br /><br />7. Tepid souls shall grow fervent. <br /><br />8. Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection. <br /><br />9. I will bless every place where a picture of my heart shall be set up and honored. <br /><br />10. I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts. <br /><br />11. Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be blotted out. <br /><br />12. I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant all to those who communicate on the First Friday in nine consecutive months the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving their sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment.<br /></span><br />Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-59936480642791370502024-02-23T18:14:00.001-05:002024-02-23T18:25:55.171-05:00How did the Church begin?<p><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW19_2iX_GlJDrgHIEBz0kV2q3VIr020RMeJ2JCpjX1UlSXjbIK4KdrE9334ruI01GgRHF13k0sajfbedl6yUSQlJ7SUsSfu5lxgZC52pYMu_fIj_-miU2o5zpjsu4fHyW1PLP9AWnYnqWGbG8J8M0lFVLWJcHcim_RR_XbanyjiyOr6PwLoZZAYq8O90/s1080/tempFileForShare_20240223-181801.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="1080" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW19_2iX_GlJDrgHIEBz0kV2q3VIr020RMeJ2JCpjX1UlSXjbIK4KdrE9334ruI01GgRHF13k0sajfbedl6yUSQlJ7SUsSfu5lxgZC52pYMu_fIj_-miU2o5zpjsu4fHyW1PLP9AWnYnqWGbG8J8M0lFVLWJcHcim_RR_XbanyjiyOr6PwLoZZAYq8O90/s320/tempFileForShare_20240223-181801.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br />God planned the gathering of His faithful people together into a single community from the beginning of human history (Catechism of the Catholic Church 759). We see this plan played out over the various stages of humanity in Scripture. For example, God’s Old Testament covenant with Abraham leads eventually to the establishment of the kingdom of Israel, a precursor to the Church as it exists today. As God more fully reveals Himself to mankind, and human knowledge about God grows, the stage becomes set for God to fully reveal Himself in Christ, Who finally establishes a single community of believers, God’s one true Church. </span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Jesus prepares His Church by appointing twelve apostles. The Catechism (CCC) explains: “Representing the twelve tribes of Israel, they are the foundation stones of the new Jerusalem. The Twelve and the other disciples share in Christ’s mission and his power, but also in his lot. By all his actions, Christ prepares and builds His Church” (765). </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">During his ministry on Earth, Jesus singles out the apostle Simon Bar-Jona to be the head of His new Church, which will exist to the end of time: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18; see also John 1:42). With these words, Jesus changes Simon’s name to Peter, which means “rock.” In Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, Simon’s new name is Kepha (or Cephas), which means a sizable rock usable as a building’s foundation. Kepha is translated into Greek as Petros, from which we get Peter in English. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6n5Fz-3mBXkCthKkhVU9fP0uCjMIfz9f-vTDH70bFfOOQOR99pdnjYhdOzoXnIzCDkFodcG4_tuIiOoCcf72Gm1y8idMqqwweRzDV1Nmpu9HqQUwRbKkyzupJrZnxERvQmJa8mos0vEWnqE-2A2I6qZHqlD4OR_vST7-Q8__HK67d5G_G8QWMJ8OjrAA/s1076/tempFileForShare_20240223-182411.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="736" data-original-width="1076" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6n5Fz-3mBXkCthKkhVU9fP0uCjMIfz9f-vTDH70bFfOOQOR99pdnjYhdOzoXnIzCDkFodcG4_tuIiOoCcf72Gm1y8idMqqwweRzDV1Nmpu9HqQUwRbKkyzupJrZnxERvQmJa8mos0vEWnqE-2A2I6qZHqlD4OR_vST7-Q8__HK67d5G_G8QWMJ8OjrAA/s320/tempFileForShare_20240223-182411.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br />Jesus goes on to give Peter special authority over His Church: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (CONFESSION) (Matt. 16:19). Peter and the other apostles who hear this proclamation understand these symbolic keys to be Jesus’ Own Authority over His Church in His absence. Such a handing on of kingly authority was known to the Jews and is imaged in the Old Testament foretelling of Eliakim being given authority as King Hezekiah’s royal steward over the kingdom of Israel (Isa. 22:20-22). </span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Just as God gives Eliakim the keys to the kingdom of Israel, Jesus gives Peter the keys to his kingdom. And just as Eliakim “shall be a father” to Israel (Isa. 22:21), Peter (and his successors) leads the Church as a spiritual father—as papa, or pope. The authority to “bind and loose” (“open and shut”) is given first to Peter and later to the apostles under him as well. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><u>The Catechism explains: </u></b></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The “power of the keys” designates authority to govern the house of God, which is the Church. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, confirmed this mandate after his Resurrection: “Feed my sheep” (John 21:15-17). The power to “bind and loose” connotes the authority to absolve sins, to pronounce doctrinal judgments, and to make disciplinary decisions in the Church. Jesus entrusted this authority to the Church through the ministry of the apostles and in particular through the ministry of Peter, <i>the only one to whom he specifically entrusted the keys of the kingdom</i> (553). </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Having established an authoritative hierarchy for His Church, Jesus demonstrates that He intends the Church to be a community of believers with a continual, visible hierarchy here on earth. For example, He outlines a procedure involving sinners in the Church: </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the Church; and if he refuses to listen even to the Church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector (Matt. 18:15-17). </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Clearly, Jesus founded the Church as a tight-knit community of disciples with tangible access to the authority of Peter and the apostles. Shortly after the Ascension, this all became manifest to the world: “When the work which the Father gave the Son to do on earth was accomplished, the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost in order that he might continually sanctify the Church. Then the Church was openly displayed to the crowds and the spread of the gospel among the nations, through preaching, was begun” (CCC 767). </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">[TAKEN FROM - 20 ANSWERS: THE EARLY CHURCH]</span></i></b></span></p>Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-76712590489247203212024-02-11T00:00:00.001-05:002024-02-11T00:00:00.140-05:00Our Lady of Lourdes February 11th & Day of the Sick<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>History of Our Lady of Lourdes: </b><div>The Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France is the most visited pilgrimage site in the world -- principally because of the apparent healing properties of the waters of the spring that appeared during the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to a poor, fourteen-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubiroux.<br />
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The first apparition occurred February 11, 1858. There were eighteen in all; the last took place July 16, of the same year. Bernadette often fell into an ecstasy during these apparitions, as was witnessed by the hundreds who attended the later visions, though no one except Bernadette ever saw or heard the apparition.<br />
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The mysterious vision Bernadette saw in the hollow of the rock Massabielle, where she and friends had gone to gather firewood, was that of a young and beautiful lady. "Lovelier than I have ever seen" said the child. She described the Lady as clothed in white, with a blue ribbon sash and a Rosary hanging from her right arm. Now and then the apparition spoke to Bernadette.<br />
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One day, the Lady told the girl to drink of a mysterious fountain within the grotto itself, the existence of which was unknown, and of which there was no sign. But Bernadette scratched at the ground, and a spring immediately bubbled up and soon gushed forth. On another occasion the apparition bade Bernadette go and tell the priests she wished a chapel to be built on the spot and processions to be made to the grotto. At first the clergy were incredulous. The priest said he would not believe it unless the apparition gave Bernadette her name. After another apparition, Bernadette reported that the Lady told her, "I am the Immaculate Conception". Though the girl was unfamiliar with the term, the Pope had declared the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary in 1854.<br />
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Four years after Bernadette's visions, in 1862, the bishop of the diocese declared the faithful "justified in believing the reality of the apparition" of Our Lady. A basilica was built upon the rock of Massabielle by M. Peyramale, the parish priest. In 1873 the great "national" French pilgrimages were inaugurated. Three years later the basilica was consecrated and the statue solemnly crowned. In 1883 the foundation stone of another church was laid, as the first was no longer large enough. It was built at the foot of the basilica and was consecrated in 1901 and called the Church of the Rosary. Pope Leo XIII authorized a special office and a Mass, in commemoration of the apparition, and in 1907 Pius X extended the observance of this feast to the entire Church; it is now observed on February 11.<br />
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<a href="http://olrl.org/stories/lourdes.shtml">Miracles at Lourdes</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">World Day of the Sick, an observation introduced by Pope John Paul II as a way for believers to offer prayers for those suffering from illnesses. The day coincides with the commemoration of Our Lady of Lourdes and is an important opportunity for those who serve in Catholic health ministry to reflect on caring for those who are sick as well as those who provide care to them.</span></span></div>
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Entrusting Oneself to the Merciful Jesus like Mary: <br />
“Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5)</span><br />
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God of all goodness,<br />
Look with mercy on all who suffer any kind of infirmity, sickness or injury, <br />
that they may be comforted.<br />
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Let Your hand of healing and protection be upon them.<br />
When they are fearful, ease their fear and anxieties. <br />
When they are afraid, give them strength and courage.<br />
When they feel alone, send them someone to listen and to care.<br />
When they are confused, provide reassurance and direction.<br />
When they are in pain, ease their suffering.<br />
When they despair, give them hope. <br />
May they experience Your healing presence <br />
in the comfort of a caregiver's calm gaze and tender touch.</blockquote>
God of compassion and comfort,<br />
Help caregivers to see Your Face in the faces <br />
of those who suffer illness, pain or infirmity.<br />
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May they reach out with compassionate hearts and capable hands. <br />
May they have the ability to calm those who are anxious.<br />
May they be present to those who feel alone.<br />
May they offer hope to those in despair.<br />
May they bring comfort where there is pain. <br />
May they provide reassurance amidst confusion and doubt.</b></blockquote>
O Lord, enclose all who are sick and those who care for them in Your healing Embrace. <br />
We pray through the intercession of Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes.<br />
Amen.<br />
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</div>Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-9340034229664091432023-12-18T08:55:00.002-05:002023-12-18T08:58:23.378-05:00Arguing Catholics<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYPlqrvH3AAMUO6IKcyPxMVoLWz1RVP0vrtoAYM2xgSLSQomBO-RJ0xZ6Vv3O1Iv0LpKiB1qW0ZPc3lorKF-XUcq2EH4apq31H0N8ZgdrvQcBdPbjONIAG5sSCSxYeY15rSs-v8LW1y-zuty0zoQrSJPaAYhyphenhyphenKgKwD_r6OPQVbz9JPmhyphenhyphen34FHjHYo8Qaw/s1080/Screenshot_20231218_082143_Google.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="1080" height="98" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYPlqrvH3AAMUO6IKcyPxMVoLWz1RVP0vrtoAYM2xgSLSQomBO-RJ0xZ6Vv3O1Iv0LpKiB1qW0ZPc3lorKF-XUcq2EH4apq31H0N8ZgdrvQcBdPbjONIAG5sSCSxYeY15rSs-v8LW1y-zuty0zoQrSJPaAYhyphenhyphenKgKwD_r6OPQVbz9JPmhyphenhyphen34FHjHYo8Qaw/w200-h98/Screenshot_20231218_082143_Google.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I see a lot of Christians arguing lately about many things. Especially things that are not only out of our control, but things we have no business sticking our noses into. Who's right? Who's wrong? Do you honestly think that arguing vehemently and trying to get another to change their mind to align with your opinions will change anything?</span><div><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></div><div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmjNcSUSK2KStlKwuLO8FA6np1tzrMay9m4cEw3N1F-Ue-4AQKiuS_BeCi4cF8oAxfyl2qZ61fHBuoWpcq6K9I6iDmluJyanxrMkhiTCdTm1FS9poT8pdBGYOFlGjxiAdHkNjacciRR3YVjEoCkH66gi2qkkH56AJCQ9l-i46MgN_lRshqSVy0YLyZ8GU/s960/12573789_914840715296827_6109321343759135927_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="652" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmjNcSUSK2KStlKwuLO8FA6np1tzrMay9m4cEw3N1F-Ue-4AQKiuS_BeCi4cF8oAxfyl2qZ61fHBuoWpcq6K9I6iDmluJyanxrMkhiTCdTm1FS9poT8pdBGYOFlGjxiAdHkNjacciRR3YVjEoCkH66gi2qkkH56AJCQ9l-i46MgN_lRshqSVy0YLyZ8GU/s320/12573789_914840715296827_6109321343759135927_n.jpg" width="217" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">The one thing that </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jesus </span></span><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">always </span><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">prayed for is that we all be one as He is in the Father & the Father in Him. How arrogant is he who argues who is bad and who is good while disparaging their reputation and office? Whether true or false, is this not the sin of detraction?!</span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">We all want to believe we're on the right track and the path that leads to heaven. And this is a valid concern, however, as St. Bernadette has said, our job is not to convince; but simply inform.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="911" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitdfQ1EixrwxHljZc7oRoWfSOsCOUbHlqQkhVxnliie-IZH33KXOsTHKBRCI_ttT-NxsveFxpq9KEKysfA0CxLYkeOHyeKRLfQRgN3_hzeAsPzTiAi15l5KCrMMoSSPm6s_arN_TN-6CriKx9HsswAobXvNYAflklqP1VYginxTDPbj4aT4zpWWBK-2X0/s320/Screenshot_20231218_083016_Google.jpg" width="320" /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: 16pt; text-align: left;">The items that I see most Catholics Arguing about today are nothing that can be altered or changed by them. Yet they seem to want to fight to the death about these things that only God Himself has control over. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>WHY?</u></b></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Should we not take the two most important sentences in the prayer that Jesus gave us and pray without ceasing: <b><i>"THY KINGDOM COME. THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN." </i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3qyjVbr1S4yDXNumFhngfBAVGuJCVD7G2q8xi0wP9G5ofP0tJRcJKT6oPi5caBhJERbrp8QG6S-gGAdRN_hyphenhyphenTswcMDjzsurKjxQ1yRUOCO74gfguS6H0NWx4D4oOw-vjP5SJoj2SLmofQdAHm20PnzniHTk6ccdgg5eOHe-OOHeX5LYzf7nI3blpLPUs/s1200/Image16.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3qyjVbr1S4yDXNumFhngfBAVGuJCVD7G2q8xi0wP9G5ofP0tJRcJKT6oPi5caBhJERbrp8QG6S-gGAdRN_hyphenhyphenTswcMDjzsurKjxQ1yRUOCO74gfguS6H0NWx4D4oOw-vjP5SJoj2SLmofQdAHm20PnzniHTk6ccdgg5eOHe-OOHeX5LYzf7nI3blpLPUs/s320/Image16.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Please stop the arguing over things that are <u>God's alone</u>. Nothing can happen unless Jesus permits it and if He does, it's either in His Plan or He'll bring about a greater good from it. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimt8H9quIASeJQGbyou5H1muL_6NT7-5adFveJKGHpvEw7Qlq-TUhPrZb1VhRhcsb4zF2H1GtXPX_vDXerjk8S7BYq7m0eGD3pk1of0mvondOx2-okau24yKiiuOFDlbJtREJwUzIWPwLz4HcV87eX2Mu_h68s1mtsRm-76_7wcjvz-ELwewj2S21lxsw/s1272/Screenshot_20231218_083606_Google.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1272" data-original-width="1080" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimt8H9quIASeJQGbyou5H1muL_6NT7-5adFveJKGHpvEw7Qlq-TUhPrZb1VhRhcsb4zF2H1GtXPX_vDXerjk8S7BYq7m0eGD3pk1of0mvondOx2-okau24yKiiuOFDlbJtREJwUzIWPwLz4HcV87eX2Mu_h68s1mtsRm-76_7wcjvz-ELwewj2S21lxsw/w189-h224/Screenshot_20231218_083606_Google.jpg" width="189" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Arguing among ourselves and trying to change people's minds only fuels the devil's delight as he thoroughly enjoys all our contention for each other. </span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Did Jesus not promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church?</i> </b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrBNScQjZ-52-xKXr_RH0vBc5CXGG80tkLUPBYAeBYG2izxIwW6A0gKr77awsEKXLUMp-aAj53bRyZy46Hk_PrqUDOGebb3fgmBBCZNd7upFnSs_Csl62CgyeqfLxlerj6Q0iK3lxmiVPzBJdppUKvHR1uW32UbV7Gatp73I_KTiCG9u747oiCSaVfDfM/s1144/1556399971446.JPEG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1144" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrBNScQjZ-52-xKXr_RH0vBc5CXGG80tkLUPBYAeBYG2izxIwW6A0gKr77awsEKXLUMp-aAj53bRyZy46Hk_PrqUDOGebb3fgmBBCZNd7upFnSs_Csl62CgyeqfLxlerj6Q0iK3lxmiVPzBJdppUKvHR1uW32UbV7Gatp73I_KTiCG9u747oiCSaVfDfM/s320/1556399971446.JPEG" width="215" /></a></span></div><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Trust God and surrender to His Holy Will in all things ... Be patient and wait upon the Lord. He will never fail us! </b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7p-SIsZECPshyphenhyphenBdO0rN95tsVBUiegMbV0zmD3rTqFGkFECNBckcPbHnvrj_9jS1-yB01DvHmKc_HZoxv2nd4rauJDWt4IpyIsi7b7wSnZRLtJ9vz9rysrJcP7ajR5_b1yCLzYgwQM7iYe3tej9HoNTPz9F7CPzQd-uybK1BA0kq8lJNAXfrpFOziKzns/s600/god-the-father%20(14).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7p-SIsZECPshyphenhyphenBdO0rN95tsVBUiegMbV0zmD3rTqFGkFECNBckcPbHnvrj_9jS1-yB01DvHmKc_HZoxv2nd4rauJDWt4IpyIsi7b7wSnZRLtJ9vz9rysrJcP7ajR5_b1yCLzYgwQM7iYe3tej9HoNTPz9F7CPzQd-uybK1BA0kq8lJNAXfrpFOziKzns/s320/god-the-father%20(14).jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: "Google Sans"; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p></div>Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-19977118847468220202023-12-12T00:00:00.002-05:002023-12-12T01:56:21.935-05:00Our Lady of Guadalupe<img align="right" height="300" src="http://www.catholic.org/images/about/guad.gif" width="161" /><b>Our Lady of Guadalupe - Guadalupe, Mexico (1531)<br /> Patroness of the Americas </b> <br />
Feast Day in the USA - December 12th <br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><br />
The opening of the New World brought with it both fortune-seekers and religious preachers desiring to convert the native populations to the Christian
faith. One of the converts was a poor Aztec Indian named Juan Diego. On
one of his trips to the chapel, Juan was walking through the Tepayac hill
country in central Mexico. Near Tepayac Hill he encountered a beautiful
woman surrounded by a ball of light as bright as the sun. Speaking in
his native tongue, the beautiful lady identified herself:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">"My dear little son, I love you. I desire you to know who I am.
I am the ever-virgin Mary, Mother of the true God who gives life and maintains
its existence. He created all things. He is in all places. He is Lord
of Heaven and Earth. I desire a church in this place where your people
may experience my compassion. All those who sincerely ask my help in their
work and in their sorrows will know my Mother's Heart in this place. Here
I will see their tears; I will console them and they will be at peace.
So run now to Tenochtitlan and tell the Bishop all that you have seen
and heard." </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><br />
</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe.JPG" width="240" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Juan, age 57, and who had never been to Tenochtitlan, nonetheless immediately
responded to Mary's request. He went to the palace of the Bishop-elect
Fray Juan de Zumarraga and requested to meet immediately with the bishop.
The bishop's servants, who were suspicious of the rural peasant, kept
him waiting for hours. The bishop-elect told Juan that he would consider
the request of the Lady and told him he could visit him again if he so
desired. Juan was disappointed by the bishop's response and felt himself
unworthy to persuade someone as important as a bishop. He returned to
the hill where he had first met Mary and found her there waiting for him.
Imploring her to send someone else, she responded:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">"My little son, there are many I could send. But you are the one
I have chosen."<br />
She then told him to return the next day to the bishop and repeat the
request. On Sunday, after again waiting for hours, Juan met with the bishop
who, on re-hearing his story, asked him to ask the Lady to provide a sign
as a proof of who she was. Juan dutifully returned to the hill and told
Mary, who was again waiting for him there, of the bishop's request. Mary
responded:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">"My little son, am I not your Mother? Do not fear. The Bishop shall
have his sign. Come back to this place tomorrow. Only peace, my little
son."</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="http://www.womenofgrace.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/OL-Guadalupe1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.womenofgrace.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/OL-Guadalupe1.jpg" width="190" /></a><a href="http://www.womenofgrace.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/OL-Guadalupe1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><div><br /></div>
Unfortunately, Juan was not able to return to the hill the next day. His
uncle had become mortally ill and </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Juan stayed with him to care for him.
After two days, with his uncle near death, Juan left his side to find
a priest. Juan had to pass Tepayac Hill to get to the priest. As he was
passing, he found Mary waiting for him. She spoke: "Do not be distressed, my littlest son. Am I not here with you who
am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Your uncle
will not die at this time. There is no reason for you to engage a priest,
for his health is restored at this moment. He is quite well. Go to the
top of the hill and cut the flowers that are growing there. Bring them
then to me."</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">
While it was freezing on the hillside, Juan obeyed Mary's instructions
and went to the top of the hill where he found a full bloom of Castilian
roses. Removing his tilma, a poncho-like cape made of cactus fiber, he
cut the roses and carried them back to Mary. She rearranged the roses
and told him: </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">"My little son, this is the sign I am sending to the Bishop. Tell
him that with this sign I request his greatest efforts to complete the
church I desire in this place. Show these flowers to no one else but the
Bishop. You are my trusted ambassador. This time the Bishop will believe
all you tell him."</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQTao34_8i3EaSB8xwpPwh1yHBhlrpla8Ae-uPbX7JOHsXkSeN8zV0RepfpL1bb4JO3B-znZbCShw_Yro20HFFzN6HgFnjNLroP1qpdXUYXhIakSCqsl23Lb062rojdMbusvmNjWeFaQIOe3lDCpcGCD-vU_oiNiYNCi01gbDD34y7gqO-FBOEOiIaOEY/s968/Screenshot_20231212_013148_Google.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="676" data-original-width="968" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQTao34_8i3EaSB8xwpPwh1yHBhlrpla8Ae-uPbX7JOHsXkSeN8zV0RepfpL1bb4JO3B-znZbCShw_Yro20HFFzN6HgFnjNLroP1qpdXUYXhIakSCqsl23Lb062rojdMbusvmNjWeFaQIOe3lDCpcGCD-vU_oiNiYNCi01gbDD34y7gqO-FBOEOiIaOEY/w200-h139/Screenshot_20231212_013148_Google.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;">At the palace, Juan once again came before the bishop and several of his advisers. He told the bishop his story and opened the tilma letting the
flowers fall out. But it wasn't the beautiful roses that caused the bishop
and his advisers to fall to their knees; for there, on the tilma, was
a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary precisely as Juan had described her.
The next day, after showing the Tilma at the Cathedral, Juan took the
bishop to the spot where he first met Mary. He then returned to his village
where he met his uncle who was completely cured. His uncle told him he
had met a young woman, surrounded by a soft light, who told him that she
had just sent his nephew to Tenochtitlan with a picture of herself. She
told his uncle: "Call me and call my image Santa Maria de Guadalupe".</div></span></span></span></div>
<a href="http://www.monasteryicons.com/guadalupe/i/guadalupe_face_607.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbxSpdyEWmDe7rgczm_Zz-2m7mDHiwHmISdRs5A2oEc410OFgUr1GVsm8CAzvlPc4gNHdSr8E4qogmJLCrHQA4Wc6435Tths-j4n4DRfFXUaPbHwareZGJWxknChsXNM127zc2l29uHjunFPUB00Tc7L1bUpF0KiKLeNd0N1s_KrgMhSaf6DwQztaxqfw/s1414/Screenshot_20231212_012620_Google.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1414" data-original-width="772" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbxSpdyEWmDe7rgczm_Zz-2m7mDHiwHmISdRs5A2oEc410OFgUr1GVsm8CAzvlPc4gNHdSr8E4qogmJLCrHQA4Wc6435Tths-j4n4DRfFXUaPbHwareZGJWxknChsXNM127zc2l29uHjunFPUB00Tc7L1bUpF0KiKLeNd0N1s_KrgMhSaf6DwQztaxqfw/s320/Screenshot_20231212_012620_Google.jpg" width="175" /></a></div>It's believed that the word Guadalupe was actually a Spanish mis-translation
of the local Aztec dialect. The word that Mary probably used was Coatlallope
which means "one who treads on snakes"! Within six years of
this apparition, six million Aztecs had converted to Catholicism. The
tilma shows Mary as the God-bearer - she is pregnant with her Divine Son.
Since the time the tilma was first impressed with a picture of the Mother
of God, it has been subject to a variety of environmental hazards including
smoke from fires and candles, water from floods and torrential downpours
and, in 1921, a bomb which was planted by anti-clerical forces on an altar
under it. There was </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">also a cast-iron cross next to the tilma and when
the bomb exploded, the cross was twisted out of shape, the marble altar
rail was heavily damaged and the tilma was ... untouched! Indeed, no one
was injured in the Church despite the damage that occurred to a lae
part of the altar structure.</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmDgByHAOcHMsgcjOQjF0uCQGK6rjBE7aaTa9HCv77M5TYTcxfot_K3enKnxGvxUsreaPHqWGXvR4qY8A5vMPs_5Gmt3bxL5ddP6Hfr232aRo8LWZKjvS46Nf5pnUxgis1KF-ruuQnvu7zcgucdi2W0W3-m3QeT7L_Cbe60QGCBujR37ckJ0cqV7UD4qI/s1192/Screenshot_20231212_012815_Google.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1192" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmDgByHAOcHMsgcjOQjF0uCQGK6rjBE7aaTa9HCv77M5TYTcxfot_K3enKnxGvxUsreaPHqWGXvR4qY8A5vMPs_5Gmt3bxL5ddP6Hfr232aRo8LWZKjvS46Nf5pnUxgis1KF-ruuQnvu7zcgucdi2W0W3-m3QeT7L_Cbe60QGCBujR37ckJ0cqV7UD4qI/s320/Screenshot_20231212_012815_Google.jpg" width="290" /></a></div><br />In 1977, the tilma was examined using infrared photography and digital enhancement techniques. Unlike any painting, the tilma shows no sketching or any sign of outline drawn to permit an artist to produce a painting. Further, the very method used to create the image is still unknown. The image is inexplicable in its longevity and method of production. It can be seen today in a large cathedral built to house up to ten thousand worshipers. It is, by far, the most popular religious pilgrimage site in the Western Hemisphere.Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-69799252491865228152023-12-08T00:00:00.005-05:002023-12-08T00:00:00.278-05:00Special hour of Grace on the feast of the Immaculate Conception<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><u>The Hour of Grace</u></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4VbpQ2tiZhogyPC_raW55F7K2gYdoz7uB5GiXmvR5GV99z5NmL7d1EJ1_anLOEF39NdQIFR6jrgqZtj9PK9hD3fXs6LuwMOMyQSzPdLzw0Rx3_bWioIMcVz42UkABrireLl9yrP7FlV5pxhnQpkLyUJgd_UUmIsbV-aY__Y_FpS84J5tkJ4iqOKi/s650/15127508397881984378303.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="374" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT4VbpQ2tiZhogyPC_raW55F7K2gYdoz7uB5GiXmvR5GV99z5NmL7d1EJ1_anLOEF39NdQIFR6jrgqZtj9PK9hD3fXs6LuwMOMyQSzPdLzw0Rx3_bWioIMcVz42UkABrireLl9yrP7FlV5pxhnQpkLyUJgd_UUmIsbV-aY__Y_FpS84J5tkJ4iqOKi/s320/15127508397881984378303.jpg" width="184" /></a></div>The 8th of December is an important day - the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It is also the day on which in 1947 Our Blessed Mother gave us the Hour of Grace.<br />
<br />
Our Lady said as follows: "It is my wish that every year, on 8th December, at noon, the HOUR OF GRACE FOR THE WORLD be celebrated. Many divine and bodily graces will be received through this devotion. Our Lord, my Divine Son Jesus, will send His overflowing mercy if good people will pray continuously for their sinful brother.... it is my wish that the HOUR OF GRACE FOR THE WORLD be made known and spread throughout the world. If anyone is unable to visit his church, yet will pray at home, he will also receive graces through me.... will find a secure heavenly ladder and receive protection and grace through my motherly heart."<br />
<br />
Our Lady promised she will hear any prayer we make at this time.<br />
<br />
<b>THE REQUEST OF OUR BLESSED MOTHER FOR THE HOUR OF GRACE:</b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><b><i>Day and time of the Hour of Grace: December 8th, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, to be started at 12:00 noon and continuing until 1:00 p.m. for one full hour of prayer.</i></b></span><br />
<br />
During this hour, the person making the Hour of Grace either at home or at church must put away all distractions (do not answer the telephones, or answer any doors, or do anything but totally concentrate on your union with God during this special Hour of Grace).<br />
<br />
Begin the Hour of Grace by praying three times the 51st Psalm with out-stretched arms. (Psalm 51 appears below).<br />
<br />
The rest of the Hour of Grace may be spent in silent communication with God meditating upon the Passion of Jesus, saying the Holy Rosary, praising God in your own way, or by using favorite prayers, singing hymns, meditating upon other psalms, etc.<br />
<br />
Please copy and distribute this message. Remember to pray for your country during this hour. The Blessed Virgin has requested that her important message be sent throughout the entire world. Please help her Mission: that all souls be drawn to God, and that Jesus will be loved in every heart. This is the perpetual song of her heart. Let it also be yours.<br />
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<b>PSALM 51</b><br />
<br />
Have mercy on on me, God, in Your goodness; in Your abundant compassion blot out my offense.<br />
Wash away all my guilt; from my sin cleanse me. For I know my offense; my sin is always before me. Against You alone have I sinned; I have done such evil in Your sight that You are just in Your sentence, blameless when You condemn. True, I was born guilty, a sinner, even as my mother conceived me. Still, You insist on sincerity of heart; in my innermost being teach me wisdom. Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure; wash me, make me whiter than snow. Let me hear sounds of joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice. Turn away Your Face from my sins; blot out all my guilt. A clean heart create for me, God; renew in me a steadfast spirit. Do not drive me from Your Presence, nor take from me Your Holy Spirit. Restore my joy in your salvation; sustain in me a willing spirit. I will teach the wicked Your ways, that sinners may return to You. Rescue me from death, God, my saving God, that my tongue may praise Your healing power. Lord, open my lips; my mouth will proclaim Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice; a burnt offering You would not accept. My sacrifice, God, is a broken spirit; God, do not spurn a broken, humbled heart. Make Zion prosper in Your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Then You will be pleased with proper sacrifice, burnt offerings and holocausts; then bullocks will be offered on Your altar.<br />
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<a href="http://communio.stblogs.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Immaculate-Conception-with-the-Fathers.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="564" height="320" src="http://communio.stblogs.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Immaculate-Conception-with-the-Fathers.jpg" width="225" /></span></a><span style="font-family: arial;">Few doctrines of the Catholic Church are as misunderstood as the dogma of the <b>Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary</b>, which Catholics celebrate every year on December 8. Many people, including many Catholics, think that the Immaculate Conception refers to the conception of Christ through the action of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That event, though, is celebrated at the feast of the <a data-component="link" data-ordinal="1" data-source="inlineLink" data-type="internalLink" href="http://catholicism.about.com/od/holydaysandholidays/p/Annunciation.htm">Annunciation of the Lord</a> (March 25, nine months before <a data-component="link" data-ordinal="2" data-source="inlineLink" data-type="internalLink" href="http://catholicism.about.com/od/holydaysandholidays/p/Christmas.htm">Christmas</a>). What is the Immaculate Conception?<br />
</span><h3><span style="font-family: arial;">
Conceived Without Sin</span></h3><span style="font-family: arial;">
The Immaculate Conception refers to the condition that the Blessed Virgin Mary was free from <a data-component="link" data-ordinal="3" data-source="inlineLink" data-type="internalLink" href="http://catholicism.about.com/od/baltimorecatechism/f/Question_47_BC.htm">Original Sin</a> from the very moment of her conception in the womb of her mother, <a data-component="link" data-inlink="qgBqVzHGjrnpntRKeUoK3Q==" data-ordinal="4" data-source="inlineLink" data-type="internalLink" href="http://catholicism.about.com/od/prayers/qt/To_Saint_Anne.htm">Saint Anne</a>. We celebrate the <a data-component="link" data-ordinal="5" data-source="inlineLink" data-type="internalLink" href="http://catholicism.about.com/od/holydaysandholidays/p/Birth_of_Mary.htm">Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary</a>—her birth—on September 8; nine months before that is December 8, the <a data-component="link" data-ordinal="6" data-source="inlineLink" data-type="internalLink" href="http://catholicism.about.com/od/holydaysandholidays/p/Imm_Conception.htm">Feast of the Immaculate Conception</a>.<br />
</span><h3><span style="font-family: arial;">
The Development of the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception</span></h3><span style="font-family: arial;">
Fr. John Hardon, S.J., in his <i>Modern Catholic Dictionary</i>, notes that "Neither the Greek nor Latin Fathers explicitly taught the Immaculate Conception, but they professed it implicitly." It would take many centuries, though, for the Catholic Church to recognize the Immaculate Conception as a doctrine—as something which all Christians must believe—and many more before Pope Pius IX, on December 8, 1854, would declare it a dogma—that is, a doctrine that the Church teaches was revealed by God Himself.<br />
The Declaration of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception In the Apostolic Constitution <a data-component="link" data-ordinal="7" data-source="inlineLink" data-type="externalLink" href="http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius09/p9ineff.htm" rel="nofollow"><i>Ineffabilis Deus</i></a>, Pope Pius IX wrote that "We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of <a data-component="link" data-inlink="eikuM1fstE7AX4M0xfaBjA==" data-ordinal="8" data-source="inlineLink" data-type="internalLink" href="http://christianity.about.com/od/newtestamentpeople/p/jesuschrist.htm">Jesus Christ</a>, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful."<br />
As Father Hardon further writes, the Blessed Virgin's "freedom from sin was an unmerited gift of God or special <i>grace</i>, and an exception to the law, or <i>privilege</i>, which no other created person has received."<br />
</span><h3><span style="font-family: arial;">
The Immaculate Conception Anticipates Christ's Redemption of All Mankind</span></h3><span style="font-family: arial;">
Another misconception people have is that Mary's Immaculate Conception was necessary to ensure that <a data-component="link" data-inlink="E_679df6YmwXuGB7YIyI0g==" data-ordinal="9" data-source="inlineLink" data-type="internalLink" href="http://catholicism.about.com/od/beliefsteachings/p/Who-Was-Born-Without-Original-Sin.htm">Original Sin</a> would not be passed on to Christ. This has never been a part of the teaching on the Immaculate Conception; rather, the Immaculate Conception represents Christ's saving grace operating in Mary in anticipation of His redemption of man and in God's foreknowledge of Mary's acceptance of His Will for her.<br />
In other words, the Immaculate Conception was not a precondition for Christ's act of redemption but the result of that act. It is the concrete expression of God's love for Mary, who gave herself fully, completely, and without hesitation to His service.<br />
For more on the development of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, see the <a data-component="link" data-ordinal="10" data-source="inlineLink" data-type="internalLink" href="http://catholicism.about.com/od/holydaysandholidays/p/Imm_Conception.htm">Feast of the Immaculate Conception</a>.<br />
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Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-76070838839931896242023-11-21T00:00:00.001-05:002023-11-21T00:28:45.922-05:00Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary<br />
<a href="http://saints.sqpn.com/wp-content/gallery/presentation-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary/presentation-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://saints.sqpn.com/wp-content/gallery/presentation-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary/presentation-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-03.jpg" height="400" width="231" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://emailer.cosmoservices.com/go2.shtml?jIeDbeH4QBmaX6Mz/531c243bad6ec116/6d3058f5cb7945f5/marywel@roadrunner.com" target="_blank"><span style="color: #333333; text-decoration: none;"></span></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On November twenty-first the Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This feast finds its origins as early as the second century according to apocryphal source, the Protoevangelium or the book of James. This feast was already commemorated in the East by the sixth century. Pope Gregory XI heard of this feast being kept in Greece in 1372 and introduced it at Avigon. In 1585 Pope Sixtus extended to the universal Church. This feast refers to Our Lady's presentation at the temple in Jerusalem as a small child. When she was only three years old, the Blessed Virgin Mary was taken to the Temple in Jerusalem by her parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne. There she was taught, lived with other little girls and was cared for by pious women. The Blessed Virgin was happy to begin serving God in the Temple. Even as a little Child Mary's life was centered on God. She studied the Sacred Scriptures and awaited and hope for the coming of the Messiah. On this feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary let us ask Our Lady to help us to consecrate ourselves entirely to God.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W24NFIjBOz8/W_WtiGAJAqI/AAAAAAAAICs/FBXjmOoNaMclI40lI6yQUP6SfhfugzH5gCLcBGAs/s1600/Screenshot_20181121-140739_Google.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1241" data-original-width="1425" height="278" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W24NFIjBOz8/W_WtiGAJAqI/AAAAAAAAICs/FBXjmOoNaMclI40lI6yQUP6SfhfugzH5gCLcBGAs/s320/Screenshot_20181121-140739_Google.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"></span><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Hail, holy throne of God, divine sanctuary, house of glory, jewel most fair, chosen treasure house, and mercy seat for the whole world, heaven showing forth the glory of God. Purest Virgin, worthy of all praise, sanctuary dedicated to God and raised above all human condition, virgin soil, unplowed field, flourishing vine, fountain pouring out waters, virgin bearing a Child, mother without knowing man, hidden treasure of innocence, ornament of sanctity, by your most acceptable prayers, strong with the authority of motherhood, to our Lord and God, Creator of all, your Son who was born of you without a father, steer the ship of the Church and bring it to a quiet harbor." </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">--St. Germanus, homily on the Presentation of the Mother of God</span></span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></i> Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-10673818833142420172023-10-15T00:00:00.001-04:002023-10-15T17:22:07.436-04:00Feast Day SAINT TERESA OF AVILA VIRGIN, FOUNDRESS—1515-1582 A.D.<a href="https://www.lucepedia.nl/lucepedia/static/images/v1/dossiers/teresavanavila/saintteresaavila.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a>
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<a href="http://biografieonline.it/img/bio/Teresa_D_Avila_1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rnxvqk5jVMQ/UYg7EkHsbVI/AAAAAAAAKZk/hCrMUWaqIgA/s400/santa+teresa+de+avila+2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a>
<a href="https://catholicjournaling.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/saint-teresa-of-avila.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://catholicjournaling.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/saint-teresa-of-avila.jpg" /></a><div style="text-align: left;">In the Autobiography which she completed towards the end of her life, Saint Teresa of Avila gives us a description of her parents, along with a disparaging estimate of her own character. "The possession of virtuous parents who lived in the fear of God, together with those favors which I received from his Divine Majesty, might have made me good, if I had not been so very wicked." A heavy consciousness of sin was prevalent in sixteenth-century Spain, and we can readily discount this avowal of guilt. What we are told of Teresa's early life does not sound in the least wicked, but it is plain that she was an unusually active, imaginative, and sensitive child. Her parents, Don Alfonso Sanchez de Capeda and Dona Beatriz Davila y Ahumada, his second wife, were people of position in Avila, a city of Old Castile, where Teresa was born on March 28, 1515. There were nine children of this marriage, of whom Teresa was the third, and three children of her father's first marriage. </div>
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Piously reared as she was, Teresa became completely fascinated by stories of the saints and martyrs, as was her brother Roderigo, who was near her own age and her partner in youthful adventures. Once, when Teresa was seven, they made a plan to run away to Africa, where they might be beheaded by the infidel Moors and so achieve martyrdom. They set out secretly, expecting to beg their way like the poor friars, but had gone only a short distance from home when they were met by an uncle and brought back to their anxious mother, who had sent servants into the streets to search for them. She and her brother now thought they would like to become hermits, and tried to build themselves little cells from stones they found in the garden. Thus we see that religious thoughts and influences dominated the mind of the future saint in childhood.<br />
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Teresa was only fourteen when her mother died, and she later wrote of her sorrow in these words: "As soon as I began to understand how great a loss I had sustained by losing her, I was very much afflicted; and so I went before an image of our Blessed Lady and besought her with many tears that she would vouchsafe to be my mother." Visits from a girl cousin were most welcome at this time, but they had the effect of stimulating her interest in superficial things. Reading tales of chivalry was one of their diversions, and Teresa even tried to write romantic stories. "These tales," she says in her Autobiography, "did not fail to cool my good desires, and were the cause of my falling insensibly into other defects. I was so enchanted that I could not be happy without some new tale in my hands. I began to imitate the fashions, to enjoy being well dressed, to take great care of my hands, to use perfumes, and wear all the vain ornaments which my position in the world allowed." Noting this sudden change in his daughter's personality, Teresa's father decided to place her in a convent of Augustinian nuns in Avila, where other young women of her class were being educated. This action made Teresa aware that her danger had been greater than she knew. After a year and a half in the convent she fell ill with what seems to have been a malignant type of malaria, and Don Alfonso brought her home. After recovering, she went to stay with her eldest sister, who had married and gone to live in the country. Then she visited an uncle, Peter Sanchez de Capeda, a very sober and pious man. At home once more, and fearing that an uncongenial marriage would be forced upon her, she began to deliberate whether or not she should undertake the religious life. Reading the ,[1] helped her to reach a decision. St. Jerome's realism and ardor were akin to her own Castilian spirit, with its mixture of the practical and the idealistic. She now announced to her father her desire to become a nun, but he withheld consent, saying that after his death she might do as she pleased<br />
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This reaction caused a new conflict, for Teresa loved her father devotedly. Feeling that delay might weaken her resolve, she went secretly to the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation[2] outside the town of Avila, where her dear friend Sister Jane Suarez was living, and applied for admission. Of this painful step, she wrote: "I remember . . . while I was going out of my father's house—the sharpness of sense will not be greater, I believe, in the very instant of agony of my death, than it was then. It seemed as if all the bones in my body were wrenched asunder.... There was no such love of God in me then as was able to quench the love I felt for my father and my friends." A year later Teresa made her profession, but when there was a recurrence of her illness, Don Alfonso had her removed from the convent, as the rule of enclosure was not then in effect. After a period of intense suffering, during which, on one occasion, at least, her life was despaired of, she gradually began to improve. She was helped by certain prayers she had begun to use. Her devout Uncle Peter had given her a little book called the , by Father Francis de Osuna, which dealt with "prayers of recollection and quiet." Taking this book as her guide, she began to concentrate on mental prayer, and progressed towards the "prayer of quiet," with the soul resting in divine contemplation, all earthly things forgotten. Occasionally, for brief moments, she attained the "prayer of union," in which all the powers of the soul are absorbed in God. She persuaded her father to apply himself to this form of prayer.<br />
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After three years Teresa went back to the convent. Her intelligence, warmth, and charm made her a favorite, and she found pleasure in being with people. It was the custom in Spain in those days for the young nuns to receive their acquaintances in the convent parlor, and Teresa spent much time there, chatting with friends. She was attracted to one of the visitors whose company was disturbing to her, although she told herself that there could be no question of sin, since she was only doing what so many others, better than she, were doing. During this relaxed period, she gave up her habit of mental prayer, using as a pretext the poor state of her health. "This excuse of bodily weakness," she wrote afterwards, "was not a sufficient reason why I should abandon so good a thing, which required no physical strength, but only love and habit. In the midst of sickness the best prayer may be offered, and it is a mistake to think it can only be offered in solitude." She returned to the practice of mental prayer and never again abandoned it, although she had not yet the courage to follow God completely, or to stop wasting her time and talents. But during these years of apparent wavering, her spirit was being forged. When depressed by her own unworthiness, she turned to those two great penitents, St. Mary Magdalen and St. Augustine, and through them came experiences that helped to steady her will. One was the reading of St. Augustine's ; another was an overpowering impulse to penitence before a picture of the suffering Lord, in which, she writes, "I felt Mary Magdalen come to my assistance.... From that day I have gone on improving in my spiritual life."<br />
<a href="http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/pics/Teresa_of_Avila.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/__AzizMxMEu05Mc5Z6q0_iiqPKmhK1BcslszRyyhEiXHtMsc3U_5E9VyYhTUjLOFE4qedyH4Cdmwbg86rx9C7NL0evFKRkuFHyaBF1QFjv0" /></a><br />
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When finally Teresa withdrew from the pleasures of social intercourse, she found herself able once more to pray the "prayer of quiet," and also the "prayer of union." She began to have intellectual visions of divine things and to hear inner voices. Though she was persuaded these manifestations came from God, she was at times fearful and troubled. She consulted many persons, binding all to secrecy, but her perplexities nevertheless were spread abroad, to her great mortification. Among those she talked to was Father Gaspar Daza, a learned priest, who, after listening, reported that she was deluded, for such divine favors were not consistent with a life as full of imperfections as hers was, as she herself admitted. A friend, Don Francis de Salsedo, suggested that she talk to a priest of the newly formed Society of Jesus. To one of them, accordingly, she made a general Confession, recounting her manner of prayer and extraordinary visions. He assured her that she experienced divine graces, but warned her that she had failed to lay the foundations of a true spiritual life by practices of mortification. He advised her to try to resist the visions and voices for two months; resistance proved useless. Francis Borgia, commissary-general of the Society in Spain, then advised her not to resist further, but also not to seek such experiences.<br />
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Another Jesuit, Father Balthasar Alvarez, who now became her director, pointed out certain traits that were incompatible with perfect grace. He told her that she would do well to beg God to direct her to what was most pleasing to Him, and to recite daily the hymn of St. Gregory the Great, "!" One day, as she repeated the stanzas, she was seized with a rapture in which she heard the words, "I will not have you hold conversation with men, but with angels." For three years, while Father Balthasar was her director, she suffered from the disapproval of those around her; and for two years, from extreme desolation of soul. She was censured for her austerities and ridiculed as a victim of delusion or a hypocrite. A confessor to whom she went during Father Balthasar's absence said that her very prayer was an illusion, and commanded her, when she saw any vision, to make the sign of the cross and repel it as if it were an evil spirit. But Teresa tells us that the visions now brought with them their own evidence of ,authenticity, so that it was impossible to doubt they were from God. Nevertheless, she obeyed this order of her confessor. Pope Gregory XV, in his bull of canonization, commends her obedience in these words: "She was wont to say that she might be deceived in discerning visions and revelations, but could not be in obeying superiors."<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rnxvqk5jVMQ/UYg7EkHsbVI/AAAAAAAAKZk/hCrMUWaqIgA/s400/santa+teresa+de+avila+2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rnxvqk5jVMQ/UYg7EkHsbVI/AAAAAAAAKZk/hCrMUWaqIgA/s400/santa+teresa+de+avila+2.jpg" /></a>In 1557 Peter of Alcantara, a Franciscan of the Observance, came to Avila. Few saints have been more experienced in the inner life, and he found in Teresa unmistakable evidence of the Holy Spirit. He openly expressed compassion for what she endured from slander and predicted that she was not at the end of her tribulations. However, as her mystical experiences continued, the greatness and goodness of God, the sweetness of His service, became more and more manifest to her. She was sometimes lifted from the ground, an experience other saints have known. "God," she says, "seems not content with drawing the soul to Himself, but he must needs draw up the very body too, even while it is mortal and compounded of so unclean a clay as we have made it by our sins."<br />
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It was at this time, she tells us, that her most singular experience took place, her mystical marriage to Christ, and the piercing of her heart. Of the latter she writes: "I saw an angel very near me, towards my left side, in bodily form, which is not usual with me; for though angels are often represented to me, it is only in my mental vision. This angel appeared rather small than large, and very beautiful. His face was so shining that he seemed to be one of those highest angels called seraphs, who look as if all on fire with divine love. He had in his hands a long golden dart; at the end of the point methought there was a little fire. And I felt him thrust it several times through my heart in such a way that it passed through my very bowels. And when he drew it out, methought it pulled them out with it and left me wholly on fire with a great love of God." The pain in her soul spread to her body, but it was accompanied by great delight too; she was like one transported, caring neither to see nor to speak but only to be consumed with the mingled pain and happiness.[3]<br />
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Teresa's longing to die that she might be united with God was tempered by her desire to suffer for Him on earth. The account which the gives of her revelations is marked by sincerity, genuine simplicity of style, and scrupulous precision. An unlettered woman, she wrote in the Castilian vernacular, setting down her experiences reluctantly, out of obedience to her confessor, and submitting everything to his judgment and that of the Church, merely complaining that the task kept her from spinning. Teresa wrote of herself without self-love or pride. Towards her persecutors she was respectful, representing them as honest servants of God.<br />
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Teresa's other literary works came later, during the fifteen years when she was actively engaged in <a href="http://biografieonline.it/img/bio/Teresa_D_Avila_1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/7tyVqHwKtkHvrCmUnac3s3UzDqiaq_XSwT4xMKYznD7PMymPQnX2ErXYPkaJwXNRIb3hxQdaqPweSL9bwaY94_SEDJEyIk2TxZI" width="400" /></a>funding new convents of reformed Carmelite nuns. They are proof of her industry and her power of memory, as well as of a real talent for expression. she composed for the special guidance of her nuns, and the for their further edification. was perhaps meant for all Catholics; in it she writes with authority on the spiritual life. One admiring critic says: "She lays bare in her writings the most impenetrable secrets of true wisdom in what we call mystical theology, of which God has given the key to a small number of his favored servants. This thought may somewhat lessen our surprise that an unlearned woman should have expounded what the greatest doctors never attained, for God employs in His works what instruments He wills."<br />
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We have seen how undisciplined the Carmelite nuns had become, how the convent parlor at Avila was a social gathering place, and how easily nuns might leave their enclosure. Any woman, in fact, who wanted a sheltered life without much responsibility could find it in a convent in sixteenth-century Spain. The religious themselves, for the most part, were not even aware of how far they fell short of what their profession demanded. So when one of the nuns at the House of the Incarnation began talking of the possibility of founding a new and stricter community, the idea struck Teresa as an inspiration from Heaven. She determined to undertake its establishment herself and received a promise of help from a wealthy widow, Dona Guiomar de Ulloa. The project was approved by Peter of Alcantara and Father Angelo de Salazar, provincial of the Carmelite Order. The latter was soon compelled to withdraw his permission, for Teresa's fellow nuns, the local nobility, the magistrates, and others united to thwart the project. Father Ibanez, a Dominican, secretly encouraged Teresa and urged Dona Guiomar to continue to lend her support. One of Teresa's married sisters began with her husband to erect a small convent at Avila in 1561 to shelter the new establishment; outsiders took it for a house intended for the use of her family.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oxHsZklspSc/UHxJyztmL6I/AAAAAAAAAV8/jZq9vhOhmvc/s1600/ToA1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oxHsZklspSc/UHxJyztmL6I/AAAAAAAAAV8/jZq9vhOhmvc/s320/ToA1.jpg" /></a>An episode famous in Teresa's life occurred at this time. Her little nephew was crushed by a wall of the new structure which fell on him as he was playing, and he was carried, apparently lifeless, to Teresa. She held the child in her arms and prayed. After some minutes she restored him alive and sound to his mother. The miracle was presented at the process for Teresa's canonization. Another seemingly solid wall of the convent collapsed during the night. Teresa's brother-in-law was going to refuse to pay the masons, but Teresa assured him that it was all the work of evil spirits and insisted that the men be paid.<br />
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A wealthy woman of Toledo, Countess Louise de la Cerda, happened at the time to be mourning the recent death of her husband, and asked the Carmelite provincial to order Teresa, whose goodness she had heard praised, to come to her. Teresa was accordingly sent to the woman, and stayed with her for six months, using a part of the time, at the request of Father Ibanez, to write, and to develop further her ideas for the convent. While at Toledo she met Maria of Jesus, of the Carmelite convent at Granada, who had had revelations concerning a reform of the order, and this meeting strengthened Teresa's own desires. Back in Avila, on the very evening of her arrival, the Pope's letter authorizing the new reformed convent was brought to her. Teresa's adherents now persuaded the bishop of Avila to concur, and the convent, dedicated to St. Joseph, was quietly opened. On St. Bartholomew's day, 1562 the Blessed Sacrament was placed in the little chapel, and four novices took the habit.<br />
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The news soon spread in the town and opposition flared into the open. The prioress of the Incarnation convent sent for Teresa, who was required to explain her conduct. Detained almost as a prisoner, Teresa did not lose her poise. The prioress was joined in her disapproval by the mayor and magistrates, always fearful that an unendowed convent would be a burden on the townspeople. Some were for demolishing the building forthwith. Meanwhile Don Francis sent a priest to Madrid, to plead for the new establishment before the King's Council. Teresa was allowed to go back to her convent and shortly afterward the bishop officially appointed her prioress. The hubbub now quickly subsided. Teresa was hence. forth known simply as Teresa of Jesus, mother of the reform of Carmel. The nuns were strictly cloistered, under a rule of poverty and almost complete silence; the constant chatter of women's voices was one of the things that Teresa had most deplored at the Incarnation. They were poor, without regular revenues; they wore habits of coarse serge and sandals instead of shoes, and for this reason were called the "discalced" or shoeless Carmelites. Although the prioress was now in her late forties, and frail, her great achievement still lay in the future.<br />
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Convinced that too many women under one roof made for relaxation of discipline, Teresa limited the number of nuns to <a href="http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x45/kswasson44/Tavila.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/54mAFSGb9Y1WJhO_y9jyzyS1N5CXEERS46dFIiJEOzvxZ5q8WN34woRzgaEgkqkJE5loE3aXH6iEgReeeGhjIjyClfz8s_32ekkkLiq4yXs" /></a>thirteen; later, when houses were being founded with endowments and hence were not wholly dependent on alms, the number was increased to twenty-one. The prior general of the Carmelites, John Baptist Rubeo of Ravenna, visiting Avila in 1567, carried away a fine impression of Teresa's sincerity and prudent rule. He gave her full authority to found other convents on the same plan, in spite of the fact that St. Joseph's had been established without his knowledge.<br />
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Five peaceful years were spent with the thirteen nuns in the little convent of St. Joseph. Teresa trained the sisters in every kind of useful work and in all religious observances, but whether at spinning or at prayer, she herself was always first and most diligent. In August, 1567, she founded a second convent at Medina del Campo. The Countess de la Cerda was anxious to found a similar house in her native town of Malagon, and Teresa went to advise her about it. When this third community had been launched, the intrepid nun moved on to Valladolid, and there founded a fourth; then a fifth at Toledo. On beginning this work, she had no more than four or five ducats (approximately ten dollars), but she said, "Teresa and this money are nothing; but God, Teresa, and these ducats suffice." At Medina del Campo she encountered two friars who had heard of her reform and wished to adopt it: Antony de Heredia, prior of the Carmelite monastery there, and John of the Cross. With their aid, in 1568, and the authority given her by the prior general, she established a reformed house for men at Durelo, and in 1569 a second one at Pastrana, both on a pattern of extreme poverty and austerity. She left to John of the Cross, who at this time was in his late twenties, the direction of these and other reformed communities that might be started for men. Refusing to obey the order of his provincial to return to Medina, he was imprisoned at Toledo for nine months. After his escape he became vicar-general of Andalusia, and strove for papal recognition of the order. John, later to attain fame as a poet, mystic confessor, and finally saint, became Teresa's friend; a close spiritual bond developed between the young friar and the aging prioress, and he was made director and confessor in the mother house at Avila.<br />
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The hardships and dangers involved in Teresa's labors are indicated by a little episode of the founding of a new convent at Salamanca. She and another nun took over a house which had been occupied by students. It was a large, dirty, desolate place, without furnishings, and when night came the two nuns lay down on their piles of straw, for, Teresa tells us, "the first furniture I provided wherever I founded convents was straw, for, having that, I reckoned I had beds." On this occasion, the other nun seemed very nervous, and Teresa asked her the reason. "I was wondering," was the reply, "what you would do alone with a corpse if I were to die here now." Teresa was startled, but only said, "I shall think of that when it happens, Sister. For the present, let us go to sleep."<br />
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At about this time Pope Pius V appointed a number of apostolic visitors to inquire into the relaxations of discipline in religious orders everywhere. The visitor to the Carmelites of Castile found great fault with the Incarnation convent and sent for Teresa, bidding her to assume its direction and remedy the abuses there. It was hard to be separated from her own daughters, and even more distasteful to be brought in as head of the old house which had long opposed her with bitterness and jealousy. The nuns at first refused to obey her; some of them fell into hysterics at the very idea. She told them that she came not to coerce or instruct but to serve and to learn from the least among them. By gentleness and tact she won the affection of the community, and was able to reestablish discipline. Frequent callers were forbidden, the finances of the house were set in order, and a more truly religious spirit reigned. At the end of three years, although the nuns wished to keep her longer, she was directed to return to her own convent.<br />
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Teresa organized a nunnery at Veas and while there met Father Jerome Gratian, a reformed Carmelite, and was persuaded by him to extend her work to Seville. With the exception of her first convent, none proved so hard to establish as this. Among her problems there was a disgruntled novice, who reported the nuns to the Inquisition,[4] charging them with being Illuminati.[5]<br />
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The Italian Carmelite friars had meanwhile been growing alarmed at the progress of the reform in Spain, lest, as one of their number said, they might one day be compelled to set about reforming themselves, a fear shared by their still unreformed Spanish brothers. At a general chapter at Piacenza several decrees were passed restricting the reform. The new apostolic nuncio dismissed Father Gratian from his office as visitor to the reformed Carmelites. Teresa was told to choose one of her convents and retire to it, and abstain from founding others. At this point she turned to her friends in the world, who were able to interest King Philip II[6] in her behalf, and he personally espoused her cause. He summoned the nuncio to rebuke him for his severity towards the discalced friars and nuns. In 1580 came an order from Rome exempting the reformed from the jurisdiction of the unreformed Carmelites, and giving each party its own provincial. Father Gratian was elected provincial of the reformed branch. The separation, although painful to many, brought an end to dissension.<br />
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Teresa was a person of great natural gifts. Her ardor and lively wit was balanced by her sound judgment and psychological insight. It was no mere flight of fancy when the English Catholic poet, Richard Crashaw,[7] called her "the eagle" and "the dove." She could stand up boldly and bravely for what she thought was right; she could also be severe with a prioress who by excessive austerity had made herself unfit for her duties. Yet she could be gentle as a dove, as when she writes to an erring, irresponsible nephew, "God's mercy is great in that you have been enabled to make so good a choice and marry so soon, for you began to be dissipated when you were so young that we might have had much sorrow on your account." Love, with Teresa, meant constructive action, and she had the young man's daughter, born out of wedlock, brought to the convent, and took charge of her upbringing and that of his young sister.<a href="http://www.turnbacktogod.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/St.-Teresa-of-Avila.jpg"></a><br />
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One of Teresa's charms was a sense of humor. In the early years, when an indiscreet male visitor to the convent once praised the beauty of her bare feet, she laughed and told him to take a good look at them for he would never see them again-implying that in the future he would not be admitted. Her method of selecting novices was characteristic. The first requirement, even before piety, was intelligence. A woman could attain to piety, but scarcely to intelligence, by which she meant common sense as well as brains. "An intelligent mind," she wrote, "is simple and teachable; it sees its faults and allows itself to be guided. A mind that is dull and narrow never sees its faults even when shown them. It is always pleased with itself and never learns to do right." Pretentiousness and pride annoyed her. Once a young woman of high reputation for virtue asked to be admitted to a convent in Teresa's charge, and added, as if to emphasize her intellect, "I shall bring my Bible with me." "What," exclaimed Teresa, "your Bible? Do not come to us. We are only poor women who know nothing but how to spin and do as we are told."<br />
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<a href="http://www.turnbacktogod.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/St.-Teresa-of-Avila.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/d6G0fSRooJ5vyq_f7B_N4PiJ97sLYcP4_PuUuAPgY9wpFQp9S7as1w0FlXRFrLOdLkqUzUGH8-GOqRTbXaePjVERgT6XNaMXLwXDTnoNhBCNCL2InL56M9EHp4AP7xnluJUZ" /></a>In spite of a naturally sturdy constitution, Teresa continued throughout her life to suffer from ailments which physicians found baffling. It would seem that sheer will power kept her alive. At the time of the definitive division of the Carmelite Order she had reached the age of sixty-five and was broken in health. Yet during the last two years of her life she somehow found strength to establish three more convents. They were at Granada, in the far south, at Burgos, in the north, and at Soria, in Portugal. The total was now sixteen. What an astounding achievement this was for one small, enfeebled woman may be better appreciated if we recall the hardships of travel. Most of this extensive journeying was done in a curtained carriage or cart drawn by mules over the extremely poor roads; her trips took her from the northern provinces down to the Mediterranean, and west into Portugal, across mountains, rivers, and arid plateaus. She and the nun who accompanied her endured all the rigors of a harsh climate as well as the steady discomfort of rude lodgings and scanty food.<br />
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In the autumn of 1582, Teresa, although ill, set out for Alva de Tormez, where an old friend was expecting a visit from her. Her companion of later years, Anne-of-St. Bartholomew, describes the journey. Teresa grew worse on the road, along which there were few habitations. They could get no food save figs, and when they arrived at the convent, Teresa went to bed in a state of exhaustion. She never recovered, and three days later, she remarked to Anne, "At last, my daughter, I have reached the house of death," a reference to her book, . Extreme Unction was administered by Father Antony de Heredia, a friar of the Reform, and when he asked her where she wished to be buried. she plaintively replied, "Will they deny me a little ground for my body here?" She sat up as she received the Sacrament, exclaiming, "O my Lord, now is the time that we shall see each other! " and died in Anne's arms. It was the evening of October 4. The next day, as it happened, the Gregorian calendar came into use. The readjustment made it necessary to drop ten days, so that October 5 was counted as October 15, and this latter date became Teresa's feast day. She was buried at Alva; three years later, following the decree of a. provincial chapter of Reformed Carmelites, the body was secretly removed to Avila. The next year the Duke of Alva procured an order from Rome to return it to Alva de Tormez, and there it has remained.<br />
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Teresa was canonized in 1662. Shortly after her death, Philip II, keenly aware of the Carmelite nun's contribution to Catholicism, had her manuscripts collected and brought to his great palace of the Escorial, and there placed in a rich case, the key of which he carried on his person. These writings were edited for publication by two Dominican scholars and brought out in 1587. Subsequently her works have appeared in uncounted Spanish editions, and have been translated into many languages. An ever-spreading circle of readers through the centuries have found understanding and courage in the life and works of this nun of Castile, who is one of the glories of Spain and of the Church. Teresa's emblems are a heart, an arrow, and a book.<br />
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<a href="https://www.lucepedia.nl/lucepedia/static/images/v1/dossiers/teresavanavila/saintteresaavila.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://www.lucepedia.nl/lucepedia/static/images/v1/dossiers/teresavanavila/saintteresaavila.jpg" width="210" /></a><b>Interior Castle</b><br />
This body has one fault, that the more people pamper it, the more its wants are made known. It is strange how much it likes to be indulged. How well it finds some good pretext to deceive the poor soul! . . . Oh, you who are free from the great troubles of the world, learn to suffer a little for the love of God without everyone's knowing it! . . .<br />
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And remember our holy fathers of past times and holy hermits whose life we try to imitate; what pains they endured, what loneliness, what cold, what hunger, what burning suns, without having anyone to complain to except God. Do you think that they were of iron? No, they were as much flesh as we are; and as soon as we begin, daughters, to conquer this little carcass, it will not bother us so much.... If you don't make up your mind to swallow, once and for all, death and loss of health, you will never do anything....<br />
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God deliver us from anybody who wishes to serve Him and thinks about her own dignity and fears to be disgraced.... No poison in the world so slays perfection as these things do....<br />
<br />
There are persons, it seems, who are ready to ask God for favors as a matter of justice. A fine sort of humility! Hence He who knows all does well in giving it to them hardly ever; He sees plainly they are not fit to drink the chalice....<br />
<br />
Sometimes the Devil proposes to us great desires, so that we shall not put our hand to what we have to do, and serve our Lord in possible things, but stay content with having desired impossible ones. Granting that you can help much by prayer, don't try to benefit all the world, but those who are in your company, and so the work will be better for you are much bounden to them.... In short, what I would conclude with is that we must not build towers without foundations; the Lord does not look so much to the grandeur of our works as to the love with which they are done; and if we do all we can, His Majesty will see to it that we are able to do more and more every day, if we do not then grow weary, and during the little that this life lasts—and perhaps it will be shorter than each one thinks—we offer to Christ, inwardly and outwardly, what sacrifice we can, for His Majesty will join it with the one He made to the Father for us on the Cross, that it may have the value which our will would have merited, even though our works may be small.<br />
<br />
Although, as I told you, I felt reluctant to begin this work, yet now it is finished I am very glad to have written it, and I think my trouble is well spent, though I confess it has cost me but little.<br />
<br />
Considering your strict enclosure, the little recreation you have, my sisters, and how many conveniences are wanting in some of your convents, I think it may console you to enjoy yourselves in this Interior Castle, where you can enter, and walk about at will, at any hour you please, without asking leave of your superiors.<br />
<br />
It is true you cannot enter all the mansions by your own power, however great it may appear to you, unless the Lord of the Castle Himself admits you. Therefore I advise you to use no violence if you meet with any obstacle, for that would displease Him so much' that He would never give you admission to them. He dearly loves humility: if you think yourselves unworthy to enter the third mansion, He will grant you all the sooner the favor of entering the fifth. Then if you serve Him well there, and often repair to it, He will draw you into the mansion where He dwells Himself, where you need never depart, unless called away by the Prioress, whose commands the sovereign Master wishes you to obey as if they were His own. If, by her orders, you are often absent from His presence chamber, whenever you return He will hold the door open for you. When once you have learned how to enjoy this Castle, you will always find rest, however painful your trials may be, in the hope of returning to your Lord, which no one can prevent.<br />
<br />
Although I have only mentioned seven mansions, yet each one contains many more rooms, above, below, and around it, with fair gardens, fountains, and labyrinths, besides other things so delightful that you will wish to consume yourself in praising the great God for them, Who has created the soul in His own image and likeness. If you find anything in the plan of this treatise which helps you to know Him better, be certain that it is sent by His Majesty to encourage you, and whatever you find amiss in it is my own.<br />
<br />
In return for my strong desire to aid you in serving Him, my God and my Lord, I implore you, whenever you read this, to praise His Majesty fervently in my name, and to beg Him to prosper His Church, to give light to the Lutherans, to pardon my sins, and to free me from purgatory, where perhaps I shall be, by the mercy of God, when you see this book, provided it is given to you after having been examined by the theologians. If these writings contain any error, it is through my ignorance; I submit in all things to the teachings of the Holy Catholic Roman Church, of which I am now a member, as I protest and promise both to live and die. May our Lord God be forever praised and blessed. Amen. Amen.<br />
<br />
<br />
The writing of this was finished in the convent of Saint Joseph of Avila, in the year 1577, on the vigil of Saint Andrew, to the glory of God, Who liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen<br />
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSgiL9A5ojjRvBb0rKJEHaV8mkLZUBHFcZpGzVQP50--ifHoY7s" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSgiL9A5ojjRvBb0rKJEHaV8mkLZUBHFcZpGzVQP50--ifHoY7s" width="235" /></a></div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Many things have been written on The Little Flower, St. Thérèse. No need to hit anything but the highlights of her beautiful yet short life which will always be an example to us all. So just to remind folks that she's part of the communion of Saints and not to forget to beg her intercession, I post this for us all.</span>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Thérèse</span> lived at the end of the 19th century and entered a Carmelite Monastery
at the age of 15. She had to have special permission to enter. She died in 1897
at the age of 24, and was canonized just 28 years later. </span><br />
<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Her life seemed to be rather unremarkable as religious life goes: she was
faithful to her prayer life, to her rule and lived day in and day out the life
she had freely chosen. Her focus was to "save souls and to pray for priests."
During her short time in Carmel at the direction of her superiors, she wrote her
autobiography "The Story of a Soul" ~ which is absolutely MARVELOUS. (Free audible version on my blog here) When she died, few knew of her life. In
fact, the story was passed to other Carmelite Monasteries and normally no one
else except the nuns would have read it. Two thousand copies were originally
printed for this purpose and it was published on September 30, 1898. </span><br />
<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Within
twelve years of its publication, 47,000 copies were sold. Surprise Surprise! God
takes little known works and can bring great things from them. In St. </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Thérèse</span>'s
words:
</span><br />
<b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i>"Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are
forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and
these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing
of the least actions for love."</i></span></b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RKhgV67AB6w/YVQYQ0OZyiI/AAAAAAAANl0/GnkcQ-VxBU8di_9ozXC6s7rAXopu7zdmgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1126/tempFileForShare_20210929-033642.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1126" data-original-width="1077" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RKhgV67AB6w/YVQYQ0OZyiI/AAAAAAAANl0/GnkcQ-VxBU8di_9ozXC6s7rAXopu7zdmgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/tempFileForShare_20210929-033642.jpg" width="306" /></a></div><span style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;">Her little way of doing small things well, for the love of God, appeals to
Catholics of all ages and walks of life as we strive to find holiness in our
ordinary daily lives. Therese' story shows us that even if we aren't called to
be famous saintly people, we don't have to do huge, difficult things to attain
sanctity. By being true to our state in life and living out our Catholic life on
a day to day basis, we can attain holiness in our own lives. Today millions have
read her autobiography, countless miracles have been attributed to her
intercession and she has even been named a Doctor of the Church. </div></span></div>
<br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">As she said: </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">"O Jesus my love, at last I have found my calling: my call is love.
Certainly I have found my proper place in the Church, and You gave me
that place, my God. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be
love, and thus I will be all things, as my desire finds its direction."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"> <b><i>St. Therese, please pray for us.</i></b></span></span></div>
Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-25696365821058718412023-09-23T10:07:00.001-04:002023-09-23T10:07:18.153-04:00SEPTEMER 23 - Saint Padre Pio's Feast Day<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://caccioppoli.com/Padre%20Pio%20add%205/photo034.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156" src="http://caccioppoli.com/Padre%20Pio%20add%205/photo034.jpg" width="200" /></a>Padré Pio was born of simple, hardworking farming people on May 25, 1887 in Pietrelcina, southern Italy. He was tutored privately until his entry to the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars at the age of 15. Of feeble health but strong will, with the help of grace he completed the required studies and was ordained a priest in 1910.</span></span><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">On September 20, </span></span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e5uoaO-SHXY/XYkN-VsnHUI/AAAAAAAAIuE/i7iZI-wT1GQIqomZA2RRbaD5e-SzP2f0QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/12705653_10208794309762047_5922876773470940656_n.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e5uoaO-SHXY/XYkN-VsnHUI/AAAAAAAAIuE/i7iZI-wT1GQIqomZA2RRbaD5e-SzP2f0QCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/12705653_10208794309762047_5922876773470940656_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">1918 the five wounds of Our Lord's Passion appeared on his body, making him the first stigmatized priest in the history of the Church. Countless numbers were attracted to his confessional and many more received his saintly counsel and spiritual guidance through correspondence. His whole life was marked by long hours of prayer and continual austerity. His letters to his spiritual directors reveal the ineffable sufferings, physical and spiritual, which accompanied him all through life. They also reveal his very deep union with God, his burning love for the Blessed Eucharist and Our Blessed Lady. Worn out by over half a century of intense suffering and constant apostolic activity in San Giovanni Rotondo, he was called to his heavenly reward on September 23, 1968. After a public funeral, which attracted almost 100,000, his body was entombed in the crypt of Our Lady of Grace Church. Increasing numbers flock to his tomb from all parts of the world and many testify to spiritual and temporal graces received. On May 2, 1999 Pope John Paul II beatified Padre Pio in ceremonies at the Vatican.</span></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #993333;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="style20"> </span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: small;"><span class="style20"><i><b>June 16,
2002, </b></i><b><i>Padre Pio of Pietrelcina was solemnly </i></b></span></span></span><span style="color: orange;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: small;"><span class="style20"><b><i>canonized
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<h1 class="article-title" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br />John Paul II was the only pope who Padre Pio entrusted with the most private detail of his stigmata</span></span></h1><div class="article-featured"><div class="featured-caption">
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vS53icrwnEo/XYkOOBRGInI/AAAAAAAAIuI/88s8eAXnmkk2GwSgh1jdsNE7ucksi2ELACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/2017-09-15%2B06.22.27.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1070" height="239" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vS53icrwnEo/XYkOOBRGInI/AAAAAAAAIuI/88s8eAXnmkk2GwSgh1jdsNE7ucksi2ELACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/2017-09-15%2B06.22.27.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">The exhumed body of St. Padre Pio lies in a glass sepulchre in the
crypt of the saint's shrine in San Giovanni Rotondo, southern Italy,
April 24. The body of Padre Pio, who died in 1968, will be on display
until at least September. (CNS photo/Alessandro Bianchi, Reuters) (April
24, 2008) </span></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Fr Wojtyla was the only person that Padre Pio ever told about his most painful and bloody wound</span></span></div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">In the years after World War II, the young Fr Karol Wojtyla was
doing further study in Rome. He journeyed into rural Italy so that he
could spend nearly a week in San Giovanni Rotondo and be in the company
of Padre Pio. At the time, swarms of people did not buzz around Padre
Pio, so the young Fr Wojtyla had the opportunity to speak at length with
the Franciscan who called himself the ‘humble friar who prays’. </span></span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Decades later, when Fr Wojtyla became the Holy Father, people
speculated as to whether Padre Pio had told him that he would be Pope.
Pope John Paul II clarified that Padre Pio did not tell him that he
would be Pope. </span></span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">But Padre Pio went further than reading the future for Fr
Wojtyla, and did something much more decisive and significant. When Fr
Wojtyla asked Padre Pio which one of his wounds (from the stigmata)
caused him the most suffering, Padre Pio divulged, “it is my shoulder
wound, which no one knows about and has never been cured or treated.”
After the most diligent analysis of Padre Pio’s life, it was revealed
that Fr Wojtyla was the only person that Padre Pio ever told about his
most painful and bloody wound. </span></span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;">Padre Pio had his reasons, which are unknown, for not telling the
young Pole that he would be the Holy Father. But it’s certain that Padre
Pio bore the wounds of Christ, and deliberately confided in the priest
who would be the Vicar of Christ. It’s like Padre Pio was talking
directly to the soul of one who God had ordained would be Pope. </span></span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
But there’s something even more unique. From what we know, Padre Pio
did not tell other Popes, such as Paul VI (the reigning Pope when Padre
Pio died) about his most excruciating wound. From all ruling popes and
all future popes, Fr Wojtyla was the one entrusted with this secret. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">~by <b><a href="http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/author/mary-oregan/" rel="author" title="Posts by Mary O'Regan">Mary O'Regan</a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">from: <a class="publisher-nav-color" data-action="community-sidebar" data-forum="cherald" href="https://disqus.com/home/forums/cherald/" id="community-tab"><span class="community-name"><b>CatholicHerald.co.uk</b>
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Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-66641054316638103452023-09-12T02:43:00.001-04:002023-09-12T02:43:14.811-04:00Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary - Sept.12th<p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4of0gV7xD-CKmwWCxM7QhPOE_AMdagu-Y-747bQ1hORYntbCLd-vW_jeAnpxaAIPjVNi8mxMineuLVDlZeQ-f4ZMK0KYBLeIVQCeh8_mM8lobthWmjilsBbXntHMuMYwwniftZhKHmjiZ7Vz_7VPXhslmGkhlN0dkvzxRvkq1m6ZKnn6jqSTXjYvCy7Q/s960/Image4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="444" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4of0gV7xD-CKmwWCxM7QhPOE_AMdagu-Y-747bQ1hORYntbCLd-vW_jeAnpxaAIPjVNi8mxMineuLVDlZeQ-f4ZMK0KYBLeIVQCeh8_mM8lobthWmjilsBbXntHMuMYwwniftZhKHmjiZ7Vz_7VPXhslmGkhlN0dkvzxRvkq1m6ZKnn6jqSTXjYvCy7Q/s320/Image4.jpg" width="148" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">The feast of the Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary originated in Spain and was approved in 1513. In 1683, Pope Innocent XI extended the celebration of the feast day to the universal Church, to be celebrated on September 12th, four days after the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Mother. With the revisions of the Roman Missal in 1970 following the Vatican Council II, the feast day was removed from the universal calendar, although the Votive Mass remained. However, Pope John Paul II in the third edition of the Roman Missal, issued in 2003, reinstituted the feast day, technically as an “optional memorial.”</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWYmbhkI37SNseDsI0kXE3k-QfuKqv8GsPNUIH6bYjiC_x979XqRWfquDTrUa4KyHWmE1DPxdfrVmQmFBRXvbHzIX8M_bEH24VmCgmm-pC9YB1SKPodX-AEOjTIoHX9oGeA3nSh4y7ubO2eC90b0nKt7Jd6U-waXQ8Gx9aAX5XLk4KDIBvLhPYwNWH30k/s1594/tempFileForShare_20221209-092248.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1594" data-original-width="1079" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWYmbhkI37SNseDsI0kXE3k-QfuKqv8GsPNUIH6bYjiC_x979XqRWfquDTrUa4KyHWmE1DPxdfrVmQmFBRXvbHzIX8M_bEH24VmCgmm-pC9YB1SKPodX-AEOjTIoHX9oGeA3nSh4y7ubO2eC90b0nKt7Jd6U-waXQ8Gx9aAX5XLk4KDIBvLhPYwNWH30k/s320/tempFileForShare_20221209-092248.jpg" width="217" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />The name Mary is rooted in various ancient languages: in Hebrew Myriam; in Aramaic Maryam; in the Greek Old Testament, Mariam; and in Greek and Latin New Testament, Maria.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRqIVLM339fwTEnK9kTBMzpw99VwFJ0OywOc3axPfPM7OEVUqOmeFvOtOGA5jlCX_7IyzPqZ8N02jxjLStdwajj4zwKQmT-n9E-VWvSw9X39EwAYunR_lJ9Uhf1yoaFtbk5kmHuK5WT1wwaR56Li6czioT2IoP9b3WiSHtP_z2dmEg1dN9aCOENHYxPKg/s1080/tempFileForShare_20210908-223003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRqIVLM339fwTEnK9kTBMzpw99VwFJ0OywOc3axPfPM7OEVUqOmeFvOtOGA5jlCX_7IyzPqZ8N02jxjLStdwajj4zwKQmT-n9E-VWvSw9X39EwAYunR_lJ9Uhf1yoaFtbk5kmHuK5WT1wwaR56Li6czioT2IoP9b3WiSHtP_z2dmEg1dN9aCOENHYxPKg/w200-h200/tempFileForShare_20210908-223003.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">Modern philological studies of ancient Egyptian suggest that Mary means “lady, beautiful one, or well-beloved.” Some scholars of Ugaritic texts (ancient Syrian) suggest the name mrym derives from the verb rwn, thereby rendering the meaning of “high, lofy, exalted, or august.” These root meanings fit well with the message of the Archangel Gabriel: “Hail, Mary, full of grace [or Rejoice, O highly favored daughter]! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women” (Luke 1:28).</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkYM6cKTORqsVJYBnbmnxoUt7uF1HMdmdhSNIUQR3iBwCwrrRXBOLFRAWOrhnLO7IX-9_h282bDwZi5UMqcK4RZuMdoBn6WUzpWSeyPwpGTBYNilbOrE9ixoniqEr4HJdnndOdYtjPnQbdOlTUFCjzIJ58vcl0paxb2o3VrdB2p_Bs7ENhOrL0sN73_uw/s1710/tempFileForShare_20220118-121226.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1710" data-original-width="1079" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkYM6cKTORqsVJYBnbmnxoUt7uF1HMdmdhSNIUQR3iBwCwrrRXBOLFRAWOrhnLO7IX-9_h282bDwZi5UMqcK4RZuMdoBn6WUzpWSeyPwpGTBYNilbOrE9ixoniqEr4HJdnndOdYtjPnQbdOlTUFCjzIJ58vcl0paxb2o3VrdB2p_Bs7ENhOrL0sN73_uw/s320/tempFileForShare_20220118-121226.jpg" width="202" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Of course, the name “Mary,” being the name of the Blessed Mother, deserves special respect and devotion, and is thereby celebrated in four ways: First, Mary is a name of honor, since the faithful praise Mary as the Mother of our Divine Savior; she is rightfully called “Mother of God,” for Jesus true God, second person of the Holy Trinity entered this world becoming also true man through Mary who had conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Second, Mary is a most holy name, because the very mention of her name reminds us she is full of grace, has found favor with God, and is blessed among all women. Third, Mary is a maternal name, because she is our Mother, whom our Lord gave to us a He was dying on the cross (cf. John19:26-27). Finally, Mary is a name of the mother who responds to all of our needs, protects us from evil, and prays “for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.”</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV2yeE5J9oYLzxH0g5Qqlu3Dr_R4jv3ne4pont66DnNGmoMbTyF5sn746MAYJxBi6sxTTOorXJfCQc0hNO-1mM0L-rbPcUXHApHUfMYSsslKLZTyEQV553A28uF0DcqO_-ej-hyD75yMBBO4E0RPlh2mBUPOrUfSVf-N46rUjDOn-ARXU2ZqMuDVyx0gQ/s1080/tempFileForShare_20230325-043915.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="712" data-original-width="1080" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV2yeE5J9oYLzxH0g5Qqlu3Dr_R4jv3ne4pont66DnNGmoMbTyF5sn746MAYJxBi6sxTTOorXJfCQc0hNO-1mM0L-rbPcUXHApHUfMYSsslKLZTyEQV553A28uF0DcqO_-ej-hyD75yMBBO4E0RPlh2mBUPOrUfSVf-N46rUjDOn-ARXU2ZqMuDVyx0gQ/s320/tempFileForShare_20230325-043915.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />The holy name of Mary has been revered in many ways. St. Louis de Montfort (d. 1716) said, “The whole world is filled with her glory, and this is especially true of Christian peoples, who have chosen her as guardian and protectress of kingdoms, provinces, dioceses, and towns. Many cathedrals are consecrated to God in her name. There is no church without an altar dedicated to her, no country or region without at least one of her miraculous images where all kinds of afflictions are cured and all sorts of benefits received. Many are the confraternities and associations honoring her as patron; many are the orders under her name and protection; many are the members of sodalities and religious of all congregations who voice her praises and make known her compassion. There is not a child who does not praise her by lisping a ‘Hail Mary.’ There is scarcely a sinner, however hardened, who does not possess some spark of confidence in her. The very devils in hell, while fearing her, show her respect.”</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIWeRnusniNTJbXD1tP6IqJGy-OVD3dfhfRlNVNf9p75O3odlPPBhBnpStJ29k5qdqfGIwPUijUt0teE-quX0WvkRm8mIXOWVAnVZ01r9QEXRMn_wzEIARdgyVO09n8JC3fSmBlhGlkAHRBYCu717jYVFZvD3eLTgBbx-jpwfsoL_Q5PTeDHT87RG3fvE/s500/1530128962056.JPEG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="373" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIWeRnusniNTJbXD1tP6IqJGy-OVD3dfhfRlNVNf9p75O3odlPPBhBnpStJ29k5qdqfGIwPUijUt0teE-quX0WvkRm8mIXOWVAnVZ01r9QEXRMn_wzEIARdgyVO09n8JC3fSmBlhGlkAHRBYCu717jYVFZvD3eLTgBbx-jpwfsoL_Q5PTeDHT87RG3fvE/s320/1530128962056.JPEG" width="239" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">Finally, the feast date of September 12th also has special significance. In 1683, the Moslem Turks, under the leadership of Sultan Mohammed IV, once again began their aggression against Christian Europe. Just a few years earlier, they had been stopped at Poland. A huge army of Muslim Turks, estimated at around 300,000, marched through Hungary (parts of which had been under their control for 150 years) towards Austria. They ravaged Hungary, and were partly successful because of a Calvinist named Thokoly who incited rebellion against the Catholic rulers; for his traitorous dealings, Mohammed IV named Thokoly “King of Hungary and Croatia,” but with the understanding that he was simply a vassal to his Moslem overlord.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTOvfzu9h7gEb9dDOvV0NnDukJDDFkfca1iJJZ0dboozOCPjvBcRfl3XA9q_XL1oSbMAxGu9cpgqwp5gpPyLvPYFviwiWfiyMRLgz-IMUGouqW3x-UwQyRD3ErR9-571PYox21d1F7fe3vN7C_gg4e8U5WvMlA1w2xN_5nCcRgaq92yLODqZiDR_IGpSE/s1942/Screenshot_20180714-120709_Samsung%20Internet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1942" data-original-width="1300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTOvfzu9h7gEb9dDOvV0NnDukJDDFkfca1iJJZ0dboozOCPjvBcRfl3XA9q_XL1oSbMAxGu9cpgqwp5gpPyLvPYFviwiWfiyMRLgz-IMUGouqW3x-UwQyRD3ErR9-571PYox21d1F7fe3vN7C_gg4e8U5WvMlA1w2xN_5nCcRgaq92yLODqZiDR_IGpSE/s320/Screenshot_20180714-120709_Samsung%20Internet.jpg" width="214" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">The Moslem aggression continued on to Austria. Emperor Leopold fled from Vienna. By July, 1683, the Grand Vizier Kara Mustapha laid siege to Vienna, defended by an army of only 15,000 Christians. The papal nuncio as well as Emperor Leopold begged King Jan Sobieski, who had defeated the Moslem Turks at the Polish borders and had earned the title “Unvanquished Northern Lion,” to come to their aid. Sobieski did not hesitate.</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbhVs9EXDtbDBQgh7-slSLh0Z2lByn0XpGNyxmJl7Dn5HoIOZIpnbK0sBTgb92zegxTK0_Dfdi_40t5CD4SXcfegA5RnH6CeRoWQ1lwY36s5v58rP5w2szvg9Wg8v1BYSsShcjtOaF1VLuL5dGeIsaXiI1TfyWg6pLf3hw9_3F3d2oK2vnKvNw3CYC1D8/s500/13310423_1016137428451655_3214505589860009625_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbhVs9EXDtbDBQgh7-slSLh0Z2lByn0XpGNyxmJl7Dn5HoIOZIpnbK0sBTgb92zegxTK0_Dfdi_40t5CD4SXcfegA5RnH6CeRoWQ1lwY36s5v58rP5w2szvg9Wg8v1BYSsShcjtOaF1VLuL5dGeIsaXiI1TfyWg6pLf3hw9_3F3d2oK2vnKvNw3CYC1D8/w200-h200/13310423_1016137428451655_3214505589860009625_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div>In August, Sobieski began his campaign. As he and his troops passed the Shrine to Our Lady of Czestochowa, they begged the Blessed Mother’s blessing and intercession. At the beginning of September, they crossed the Danube and met with the German armies. On September 11, Sobieski was outside of Vienna with an army of about 76,000 men. The hussars lured the Moslem Turks into thinking they were on retreat, and then with reinforcements attacked. The Moslem Turks retreated, but were followed by Sobieski’s calvary. The vanquished Moslem Turks fled Austria (but only after slaughtering hundreds of hostages). Vienna and Christian Europe were saved. The Moslem standard proclaiming “Death to the Infidel” was taken by Sobieski and delivered to the Pope.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP2XU1l0mdEsvptw_ufcrdCJHOBDUfcAWn52YvHcXcZzp4qjURNGaf_VKBySKNaCr78UCqIBf2y5q3KhwWx8K6oECzMhQ2Wkha8dCvAdi6z8f3CGAuek58hq9tZp9m8KLT2TH70d5nSbT1Ms7vh6ZDb5PVFmbhEsWhMiadUMo57uvrjtrUObQmcDENmdo/s700/legion-of-mary-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="478" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP2XU1l0mdEsvptw_ufcrdCJHOBDUfcAWn52YvHcXcZzp4qjURNGaf_VKBySKNaCr78UCqIBf2y5q3KhwWx8K6oECzMhQ2Wkha8dCvAdi6z8f3CGAuek58hq9tZp9m8KLT2TH70d5nSbT1Ms7vh6ZDb5PVFmbhEsWhMiadUMo57uvrjtrUObQmcDENmdo/s320/legion-of-mary-1.jpg" width="219" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">Worshiping at a Holy Mass of Thanksgiving, Sobieski fell prostrate and with outstretched arms declared it was God’s cause and praised Him for the victory saying, “Veni, vidi, Deus vicit.” meaning “I came, I saw, God conquered,” which he also wrote in a letter to Pope Innocent XI. On September 12th, Sobieski triumphantly entered Vienna. Pope Innocent XI thereupon declared September 12th as a date to honor Mary, whose maternal intercession had saved Christendom just has it had over 100 years earlier at the Battle of Lepanto. As for Kara Mustapha, Mohammed IV had him strangled for being defeated by the Christians. Pause for a moment: Only the ignorant would not see the connection between September 11, 1683 and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.</span></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUbYMpWt5K-4nuJXJveoYZe3NSpKMOV-Bwln2Kr8B8jb8mG-o-RGvvpmZKi76xXT4OEjFRwYSHUZztorLdALIR0pK5UfVuhbsYm21MOpv-_AFyFmKO8lYkTKKi6jXny6m9BbXYdvcjKhdkx3XiOm5ohFmlhGsbXakFh599QsPHe44sA8yeCBPeO5dtnQA/s690/th.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="474" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUbYMpWt5K-4nuJXJveoYZe3NSpKMOV-Bwln2Kr8B8jb8mG-o-RGvvpmZKi76xXT4OEjFRwYSHUZztorLdALIR0pK5UfVuhbsYm21MOpv-_AFyFmKO8lYkTKKi6jXny6m9BbXYdvcjKhdkx3XiOm5ohFmlhGsbXakFh599QsPHe44sA8yeCBPeO5dtnQA/w221-h320/th.jpg" width="221" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">As we celebrate this feast day, let us remember the opening prayer for the Mass: “Lord, our God, when your Son was dying on the altar of the cross, He gave us as our mother the one He had chosen to be His own mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary; grant that we who call upon the holy name of Mary, our mother, with confidence in her protection may receive strength and comfort in all our needs.” May our Blessed Mother continue to protect us, especially those Christians suffering under Islamic persecution this very day.</span><p></p></div>Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-90619669684769681182023-09-08T00:00:00.001-04:002023-09-08T00:00:00.150-04:00Nativity of our Blessed Mother Sept 8th<p></p><div class="page-image mb-5" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2f222a; font-family: Inter, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary" class="responsive" src="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/images/saints/Nativity_8September.jpg" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></div><div class="page-image mb-5" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2f222a; font-family: Inter, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 1.125em;">The Catholic Church celebrates today the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on its traditional fixed date of September 8, nine months after the December 8 celebration of her Immaculate Conception as the child of Saints Joachim and Anne.</span></div><p></p><div class="page-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2f222a; font-family: Inter, sans-serif; font-size: 1.125em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;">The circumstances of the Virgin Mary's infancy and early life are not directly recorded in the Bible, but other documents and traditions describing the circumstances of her birth are cited by some of the earliest Christian writers from the first centuries of the Church.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;">These accounts, although not considered authoritative in the same manner as the Bible, outline some of the Church's traditional beliefs about the birth of Mary.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;">The “Protoevangelium of James,” which was probably put into its final written form in the early second century, describes Mary's father Joachim as a wealthy member of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Joachim was deeply grieved, along with his wife Anne, by their childlessness. “He called to mind Abraham,” the early Christian writing says, “that in the last day God gave him a son Isaac.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;">Joachim and Anne began to devote themselves extensively and rigorously to prayer and fasting, initially wondering whether their inability to conceive a child might signify God's displeasure with them.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;">As it turned out, however, the couple were to be blessed even more abundantly than Abraham and Sarah, as an angel revealed to Anne when he appeared to her and prophesied that all generations would honor their future child: “The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth, and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;">After Mary's birth, according to the Protoevangelium of James, Anne “made a sanctuary” in the infant girl's room, and “allowed nothing common or unclean” on account of the special holiness of the child. The same writing records that when she was one year old, her father “made a great feast, and invited the priests, and the scribes, and the elders, and all the people of Israel.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;">“And Joachim brought the child to the priests,” the account continues, “and they blessed her, saying: 'O God of our fathers, bless this child, and give her an everlasting name to be named in all generations' . . . And he brought her to the chief priests, and they blessed her, saying: 'O God most high, look upon this child, and bless her with the utmost blessing, which shall be for ever.'”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;">The protoevangelium goes on to describe how Mary's parents, along with the temple priests, subsequently decided that she would be offered to God as a consecrated Virgin for the rest of her life, and enter a chaste marriage with the carpenter Joseph.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;">Saint Augustine described the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary as an event of cosmic and historic significance, and an appropriate prelude to the birth of Jesus Christ. “She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley,” he said.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;">The fourth-century bishop, whose theology profoundly shaped the Western Church's understanding of sin and human nature, affirmed that “through her birth, the nature inherited from our first parents is changed."</p></div>Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-31168828848898968932023-08-22T00:00:00.000-04:002023-08-22T20:12:45.803-04:00The Queenship & Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary August 22<a href="http://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/images/xgenericmary.jpg.pagespeed.ic.Pe727aKA0L.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-pin-media="http://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/images/genericmary.jpg" src="http://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/images/xgenericmary.jpg.pagespeed.ic.Pe727aKA0L.jpg" style="max-width: none;" width="183" /></a>Since Our Lady’s whole life was a life of her Heart, the Immaculate Heart
represents her life, her love, herself. From the moment of Conception, Mary offered
acts of faith, hope, love, praise, adoration, thanksgiving to the God who
created her. Her one ambition was union with God, her desire to do His will;
the light of grace found no obstacle in her pure soul. Her immaculate Heart was
the throne of all virtue. Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the
complement of devotion to the Sacred Heart; in the one we honor Christ, the
Redeemer; in the other, Mary, co-redemptrix. Thus we honor Christ's mother with the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.<br />
<br />
God was so pleased with His Masterpiece of creation, Mary, that He willed to
be born of her pure flesh and blood. By giving her consent, Mary became the
channel through which Christ came to men; and this channel is the surest way to
lead us back to God. It was Mary’s love for man, joined with and flowing from
her love of God, that made her utter her “Fiat” – that Fiat meant consent to
the Incarnation and to the Redemption. So also the Salvation of the world
depends on Mary.<br />
<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGfrc_JTSzQY4NFrJeprD_aMYwI1pf5-5Z3vfAFlndm-kpQfo2Izg1_Tmbdg89iH9cc39JQWplUGvh4wd8WmY7y1Mt1uXYz139zaHr6Sq8yQhFUs2-5SEo8OiOFJf4EN7WVoFvbn-Pt5KVpruc9syCQ_mKjppyU7ufRprnDzqMbgX3uJcoUdsNvv9qP-Q/s1328/Screenshot_20171009-121750.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1328" data-original-width="1052" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGfrc_JTSzQY4NFrJeprD_aMYwI1pf5-5Z3vfAFlndm-kpQfo2Izg1_Tmbdg89iH9cc39JQWplUGvh4wd8WmY7y1Mt1uXYz139zaHr6Sq8yQhFUs2-5SEo8OiOFJf4EN7WVoFvbn-Pt5KVpruc9syCQ_mKjppyU7ufRprnDzqMbgX3uJcoUdsNvv9qP-Q/s320/Screenshot_20171009-121750.jpg" width="253" /></a></div>Among Our Lady’s urgent requests at Fatima was the plea for devotion and
consecration to her Immaculate Heart – our devotion to Mary is neither complete
nor true, unless we are willing to give ourselves over to the object of our
love; true devotion culminates in dedication or consecration. Consecration
consists in an act, by which we promise Our Lady not only everything we
possess, but our very selves as well; and this, not for a time, but forever;
secondly, it is a state whereby we recognize God’s sovereign dominion by
acknowledging Christ as our King, and Our Lady as our Queen, pledging them
complete service and devotion.<br /><br />
Our consecration, then, must be more than a well-written prayer, recited and
then forgotten; it must be a vital, living state in which we recognize the
importance of habitually belonging to Our Lady; to be fruitful it must inspire
imitation. We must try to reshape our lives according to Our Lady’s, setting up
a whole new pattern, studied at her feet, learned from the Rosary mysteries and
modeled after her own Immaculate Heart.<br />
<br />
To consecrate means to remove from the profane and set apart as sacred; renouncing
self-love; doing all in union with and for our Heavenly Queen; removing sin and
all obstacles to perfect union of heart with hers. If we do this, Mary will
teach us all virtue and the way that will lead us to God. If men become slaves
to an art which ends with death, should we not become slaves of Mary, the music
of whose Heart will sing out for all Eternity?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_AoRaivfDVsE/RnFv1iRMhtI/AAAAAAAAAFA/Mpp-G5mJyLg/s400/immaculate-heart.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_AoRaivfDVsE/RnFv1iRMhtI/AAAAAAAAAFA/Mpp-G5mJyLg/s400/immaculate-heart.jpg" width="213" /></a>Love will prompt this total submission, solid love of the will, ending in
imitation and surrender. Our love for Mary must be so<br />
intense that we chain our
hearts to hers by golden links of love, stronger than any base metal of earth;
Mary will then govern our thoughts, words, deeds. Our life will have but one
purpose – God’s glory. Our hearts will yearn only for her interests and her
honor – which is God’s honor, too; all her intentions and dispositions will
become ours. Her humility will replace our pride; her purity efface our
impurity; her selflessness, wipe out our self-love; and all her virtues replace
our sins. From her we will learn the meaning of prayer, mortification, and
penance. Resting close to her Immaculate Heart, our own cold hears will become
enkindled with the Divine Fire and grow ablaze with her burning love.<br />
Our lives thus surrendered to her can become like that of the angels, one
continual song of praise; our hearts annihilated and lost within the sanctuary
of her Immaculate Heart, will be able to sing truly, “My soul magnifies the
Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”<br />
The Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary<br />
<br /><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Memorial of the Queenship of Mary</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="HippetsweilerKapelleGemaldeMarienkronungCoronationOfMaryQueenshipVirgin" class="aligncenter wp-image-45359" height="584" src="http://www.spiritualdirection.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/HippetsweilerKapelleGemaldeMarienkronungCoronationOfMaryQueenshipVirgin.jpg" width="439" /></div>
In 1954, Venerable Pope Pius XII formally promulgated the memorial of the Queenship of Mary with his encyclical <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_11101954_ad-caeli-reginam.html" target="_blank"><em>Ad Caeli Reginam</em> (<em>Queen of Heaven</em>).</a>
It was initially celebrated on May 31st but subsequently transferred to
August 22nd, seven days after the Solemnity of the Assumption. In this
encyclical, Pope Pius set down in writing what had long been part of our
Catholic faith: that Mary is Queen, as seen in Scripture and the
ancient Tradition of the Church, especially because of the words of the
Archangel, who announced her royal position to her at the Annunciation.
St. Gabriel foretold that her Son would reign forever (cf Luke 1:33). As
well, St. Elizabeth’s words to Mary at the Visitation confirmed her as
“Mother of my Lord” (cf Luke 1:43), the form of address for the mother
of a king in the 1st century. And, the mother of a king is, of course,
the queen mother.<div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsV8rNq2w34Cv4iBn4mj51mn8cLvZRAhn-HD7VJKXxwsgflnBZOEHXDJAPIW3aTbWnUnsr7_4YKcRmzXDy3g0r61gO-u9mR334sBp_6pkYRIhtRM2_CFEmw-rGgf3dFLbg8FOa_ewYrkiyET8NpD6aMMrnldsj6iJkLmBC0JEw9QN8COpCL13aaqHL/s1252/tempFileForShare_20220822-045944.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsV8rNq2w34Cv4iBn4mj51mn8cLvZRAhn-HD7VJKXxwsgflnBZOEHXDJAPIW3aTbWnUnsr7_4YKcRmzXDy3g0r61gO-u9mR334sBp_6pkYRIhtRM2_CFEmw-rGgf3dFLbg8FOa_ewYrkiyET8NpD6aMMrnldsj6iJkLmBC0JEw9QN8COpCL13aaqHL/s320/tempFileForShare_20220822-045944.jpg" /></a><div>Dr. Edward Sri brings out the subtle scriptural allusion to Mary as Queen in Matthew 2:11:</div>
“All throughout the narrative in Matthew 1–2, Joseph is much more prominent than Mary. Matthew traces <br />Jesus’ genealogy through Joseph. The angel appears to Joseph three times. It is Joseph who leads the Holy Family to Bethlehem, to Egypt, and back to Israel. From this we can see Joseph often takes the spotlight in the first few scenes of Matthew’s Gospel. However, in this particular episode when the Magi come to honor Jesus, Mary takes center stage and Joseph fades into the background. Why? Because it shows the importance of Mary as queen mother.”* </div><div><br /><a href="http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/78/83/6b/78836b1e56e3925baa826ae8a9e27efe.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/78/83/6b/78836b1e56e3925baa826ae8a9e27efe.jpg" width="245" /></a>In addition to the Gospel references above, and the Old Testament
prophecy of the virgin from whom would come a royal son (cf Isaiah 7),
we know that the Blessed Mother is full of grace (cf Luke 1:28) and that
nothing unclean may enter heaven (Revelation 21:27). Therefore, it’s no
surprise, that Mary makes an appearance in Revelation 12 as Queen, as
the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and, on her
head, a crown of twelve stars (cf Revelation 12:1).<br />
All who call her Queen and Lady express the consent of faith to this teaching. And, Pope Pius XII wrote that:<br />
<blockquote>
“…it is easily concluded that she is a Queen, since she
bore a son who, at the very moment of His conception, because of the
hypostatic union of the human nature with the Word, was also as man King
and Lord of all things. So with complete justice St. John Damascene
could write: ‘When she became Mother of the Creator, she truly became
Queen of every creature.'”</blockquote>
The Blessed Virgin Mary has been celebrated and honored as Queen from
the earliest history of the Church. Every honor and devotion we give to
her “redounds to the glory of her Divine Son, not only because all
graces and all gifts, even the highest, flow from Him as from their
primary source, but also because ‘The glory of children [is their
parentage]’ (<i>Book of Proverbs</i>, 17:6)” (Fulgens Corona — Radiant Crown).<div><br /> It is interesting to reflect on Mary’s
title “Mother of Mercy” (or “Queen of Mercy”). We hear her called that
in various Church prayers. Although she has the title “Mirror of
Justice” which we address her by in the <em></em><em><a href="http://www.spiritualdirection.com/2014/09/08/litany-of-loreto" target="_blank">Litany of Loreto,</a></em> St. Alphonsus Liguori, in his famous treatise <em>The Glories of Mary</em>,
points out that she is never called the Mother of Justice. “Mary,
then, is Queen,” he writes, “but let all learn for their consolation
that she is a mild and merciful Queen, desiring the good of all sinners…
Kings… should principally occupy themselves with works of mercy, but
they should not neglect the exercise of justice toward the guilty when
it is required. But Mary is not a queen of justice, intent on the
punishment of the guilty, but rather a Queen of Mercy, intent only on
compassion and pardon for sinners. Accordingly, the Church calls her
Queen of Mercy.”
So, let us invoke our Blessed Mother this day, frequently, just as is
done in the beautiful prayer said at the end of the rosary, and sung
often after Compline, or Night Prayer, in the Liturgy of the Hours,
“Hail, Holy Queen.” “Salve Regina!”<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #d5a6bd;"><b>PLEASE ... PRAY FERVENTLY THAT OUR LADY'S IMMACULATE HEART TRIUMPHS SOON & THAT ALL BE SAVED & NONE BE LOST ACCORDING TO GOD'S HOLY WILL! </b></span></div>
</div></div></div>Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-23481353044264565792023-08-15T00:00:00.001-04:002023-08-15T00:00:00.142-04:00THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BmwNXZjab2A/Ti6JuIUxOJI/AAAAAAAAMxY/i3I6R_1_Ir4/s400/Assumption+of+Mary%252C+PALMA+VECCHIO+1512.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BmwNXZjab2A/Ti6JuIUxOJI/AAAAAAAAMxY/i3I6R_1_Ir4/s400/Assumption+of+Mary%252C+PALMA+VECCHIO+1512.jpg" /></span></a><span style="font-family: arial;">The Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary on August 15 has been a part of Christian faith-tradition from the earliest centuries. This feast emphasizes the universal dimensions of Mary’s role in God’s plan of salvation. We do not celebrate her exaltation in the sense of a removal from us, but as the fulfillment of what we all are called to be.<br />
<br />
In 1950, Pope Pius XII defined Mary's Assumption into heaven as a dogma of Roman Catholicism: "the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven." The proclamation of this dogma was made in the encyclical: Munificentissimus Deus. After entering heaven, Mary has remained active in the life of the Church.<br />
<br />
This feast of Mary celebrates a special privilege of Mary, our Mother. The Assumption means that she entered into the glory of heaven not only with her soul, but also with her body. The Son of God took His Body from Mary's pure womb. It was fitting, then, that her body should be glorified as soon as her life here on earth was ended.<br />
<br />
Now Mary is in heaven. She is Queen of heaven and earth. She is the Mother of Jesus' Church and Queen of apostles. Every time Mary asks Jesus to give us graces, He listens to her request. <br />
<br />
After the resurrection from the dead, we, too, can go to heaven with our bodies. If we use our bodies now to do good, those bodies will share in our heavenly reward.<br />
<br />
After the resurrection, our bodies will be perfect. They will not be subject to illness anymore. They will not need any more food and drink to keep alive. They will be able to go every place without time or effort. They will be beautiful and splendid!<br />
<br />
</span><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Let us not forget our dear Mother!</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">And still go to Mass or at least watch it on TV or Internet for those that are house bound <br />.... <i>and PLEASE don't forget to pray your ROSARY!</i></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
"Thank you Most Pure Mother for soiling your feet on the earth again and again to bring us Jesus and to lead us to Jesus. I praise your love and mercy that flows to us through your Flame of Love directly from the Source of Divine Mercy. I thank you for never giving up on us. Lead all souls to heaven, Beloved Mother, especially those God has given us to pray for, and especially those most in need of God's mercy. Amen." <i>~Janet Klasson</i><b><i><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #ffd966;"><b><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">DAILY ROSARIES PLEASE!!!! </span></span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #f6b26b; font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><b>(Along with the Chaplet of Divine Mercy & the Chaplet of Unity and the Chaplet of the HOLY WILL) <span style="color: #cfe2f3;"><i><br />The door of MERCY has already closed! But we can still pray for our friends and relatives that have turned lukewarm or left the Faith! Mercy will soon be over and then comes JUDGEMENT. Do you think that the centennial of Fatima, the locution that Pope Leo had, the Jubilee Year of Mercy, and all the signs in the sky are coincidental? God put us in this place in history for a REASON. We BEST get crackin' on the main objective which is still the same as it has been always ..... " LEAD ALL SOULS TO HEAVEN"!!!! </i></span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #f1c232;"><b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">PLEASE! Pray for the martyrs in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, India, the Ukraine and all Muslim and Communist countries! </span></span></b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #f1c232;"><u><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Read: <a href="http://www.usccb.org/bible/revelation/6" target="_blank">Revelation 6:10-11</a></span></b></span></u></span><br />
<span style="color: #f1c232;"><u><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></u></span>
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Father Bourdaloue, a famous preacher of the 17th century French court, said in a sermon on the Assumption:</i></b><br />
<br />
Never was there a death more precious in the sight of God than that of the Virgin, because there was never a life more filled with merits than Hers. The death of the Blessed Virgin was precious not only by the merits which preceded it, but also by the graces and favors which accompanied it. But what made it precious in God's sight is above all the dispositions of mind and heart with which She received it... What then was Her disposition of mind? She envisaged death in the light of the purest faith, as the fulfillment of her wishes, as the means of being promptly reunited with Her Son and Her God, whose absence had for so long been a source of sorrow for Her. Her disposition of heart? Seeing death in this light, She desired it with all the ardor of the most fervent charity. Far more fervently than Saint Paul She longed to be disengaged from the bonds of the flesh, to live with Jesus Christ...<br />
<br />
The bishop of Meaux, Bossuet, preaches in the same vein: If the great Apostle wants to break the bonds of the flesh to go to meet his Master at the Father's right hand, what must the emotion of a maternal heart be? ... And what regret had the Virgin not experienced, seeing Herself separated for so long from a Son whom She loved as She alone could love? ... She prayed, Ah, my Lord! permit my love to act! It will soon detach my soul from my mortal body, and transport me to You, in whom alone I live.' If you believe me, holy souls, you will not labor long to seek any other cause for Her death. This love, so ardent, so strong, so inflamed, could not utter a single sigh incapable of breaking all the bonds of that body; it did not send forth a single desire to heaven which did not take with it the soul of Mary. Ah! I said earlier that the death of Mary was miraculous; now I speak a little differently, and say that it is not so much Her death that is a miracle; Her death is rather the cessation of a miracle. The continuous miracle was that Mary could live, separated from Her Beloved.<br />
<br />
We see from these texts why the departure of the soul of Our Lady is not termed a death like that of other mortals, but rather a dormition — a falling asleep in the Lord, as the early Christians called it. (Cf. Acts 7:60) All writers on the subject are unanimous — it was Her supreme love for God, nothing else, which was its cause. Tradition affirms that She knew in advance that Her departure was at hand, and prepared with incredible fervor for the holy moment, when She would hear the voice of Her Son say: Come to Your eternal repose, O blessed Mother: arise and come, You who are My Heart's friend, the most beautiful of women. The winter is over, the springtime begins; come, My all-beautiful one, My beloved; there is no stain in You; I prefer Your perfumes to all others.</span></div>
Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-65858012521614867602023-08-06T00:00:00.004-04:002023-08-06T03:42:39.567-04:00Feast of the Transfiguration - August 6th<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<i>While Jesus was praying His Face changed in appearance and His clothing became dazzling white. And behold two men were conversing with Him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of His exodus that He was going to accomplish in Jerusalem." <span style="font-size: x-small;">~Luke 9:28-31</span></i></blockquote>
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The event of the Transfiguration marks a decisive moment in the ministry of Jesus. It is a revelatory event which strengthens the faith in the disciples' hearts, prepares them for the tragedy of the Cross and prefigures the glory of the Resurrection. This mystery is constantly relived by the Church, the people on its way to the eschatological encounter with its Lord. Like the three chosen disciples, the Church contemplates the transfigured Face of Christ in order to be confirmed in faith and to avoid being dismayed at His disfigured Face on the Cross. In both cases, she is the Bride before her Spouse, sharing in His mystery and surrounded by His light.<br />
<br />
This light shines on all the Church's children. All are equally called to follow Christ to discover in Him the ultimate meaning of their lives, until they are able to say with the apostle: 'For to me, to live is Christ' (Phil. 1:21). But those who are called to the consecrated life have a special experience of the light which shines forth from the Incarnate Word. For the profession of the evangelical counsels makes them a kind of sign and prophetic statement for the community of the brethren and for the world; consequently they can echo in a particular way the ecstatic words spoken by Peter: "Lord, it is well that we are here" (Mt. 17:4). These words bespeak the Christocentric orientation of the whole Christian life. But they also eloquently express the radical nature of the vocation to the consecrated life: How good it is for us to be with you, to devote ourselves to you, to make you the one focus of our lives! Truly those who have been given the grace of this special communion of love with Christ feel as it were caught up in His splendor: He is "the fairest of the sons of men" (Ps 45:2), the One beyond compare. <span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>~Pope John Paul II - March 1996</i></span><br />
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Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-84249963641255665392023-08-06T00:00:00.003-04:002023-08-06T03:41:50.066-04:00Feast of the Sacred Heart - Plenary Indulgence Available<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #cfe2f3;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWTCFGvUdfVqHWwH0IrcQ2j5UjMohn4zriie2-AvO1hSBD0aE_69ZIP_0PXep_GHDqgGSgw-HNMKOvvl9oUHUCeBRg1G6MSitqEM0NQ13Y2uaio461-rnucfXfrlcgzMGcNsnay-tk1OfafKuzJLTj6Tbq9XIu-hQVGHlqv49ym2tsEF22c-sybaGKlMk/s480/12237478_494476047389181_2069164965_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWTCFGvUdfVqHWwH0IrcQ2j5UjMohn4zriie2-AvO1hSBD0aE_69ZIP_0PXep_GHDqgGSgw-HNMKOvvl9oUHUCeBRg1G6MSitqEM0NQ13Y2uaio461-rnucfXfrlcgzMGcNsnay-tk1OfafKuzJLTj6Tbq9XIu-hQVGHlqv49ym2tsEF22c-sybaGKlMk/s320/12237478_494476047389181_2069164965_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="letter-spacing: 0.24px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; letter-spacing: 0.24px;">Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus goes back at least to the 11th century, but through the 16th century, it remained a private devotion, often tied to devotion to the Five Wounds of Christ. The first feast of the Sacred Heart was celebrated on August 31, 1670, in Rennes, France, through the efforts of Fr. Jean Eudes (1602-1680). From Rennes, the devotion spread, but it took the visions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) for the devotion to become universal.</span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; letter-spacing: 0.24px;">In all of these visions, in which Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary, the Sacred Heart of Jesus played a central role. The “great apparition,” which took place on June 16, 1675, during the octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi, is the source of the modern Feast of the Sacred Heart. In that vision, Christ asked St. Margaret Mary to request that the Feast of the Sacred Heart be celebrated on the Friday after the octave (or eighth day) of the Feast of Corpus Christi, in reparation for the ingratitude of men for the sacrifice that Christ had made for them. The Sacred Heart of Jesus represents not simply His physical heart but His love for all mankind.</span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; letter-spacing: 0.24px;">The devotion became quite popular after St. Margaret Mary’s death in 1690, but, because the Church initially had doubts about the validity of St. Margaret Mary’s visions, it wasn’t until 1765 that the feast was celebrated officially in France. Almost 100 years later, in 1856, Pope Pius IX, at the request of the French bishops, extended the feast to the universal Church. It is celebrated on the day requested by our Lord—the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi, or 19 days after Pentecost Sunday.</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px;"><b>ACT OF REPARATION TO THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS (IESU DULCISSIME – REPARATIONIS ACTUS)</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px;">A partial indulgence is granted to the faithful, who piously recite the act of reparation.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px;">A plenary indulgence is granted if it is publicly recited on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px;">Requirements for obtaining a plenary indulgence:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px;">Do the work while in a state of grace</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px;">Receive sacramental confession within 20 days of the work (several plenary indulgences may be earned per reception)</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px;">Receive Eucharistic communion (one plenary indulgence may be earned per reception of Eucharist)</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px;">Pray for the pope’s intentions (an Our Father and Hail Mary, or other appropriate prayer, is sufficient)</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px;">Have no attachment to sin (even venial)</span></span></div><ul style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 22px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px; text-align: start; vertical-align: top;"><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; line-height: 19.2px; margin: 12px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">— i.e., the Christian makes an act of the will to love God and despise sin.</span></li></ul><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: top;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Prayer:</span></strong></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Most sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before you, eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries to which your loving Heart is everywhere subject.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Mindful, alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask your pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation, not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those, who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow you, their Shepherd and Leader, or, renouncing the promises of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of your law.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against you; we are now determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holy-days, and the shocking blasphemies uttered against you and your Saints. We wish also to make amends for the insults to which your Vicar on earth and your priests are subjected, for the profanation, by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very Sacrament of your divine love, and lastly for the public crimes of nations who resist the rights and teaching authority of the Church which you have founded.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Would that we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood. We now offer, in reparation for these violations of your divine honor, the satisfaction you once made to your Eternal Father on the cross and which you continue to renew daily on our altars; we offer it in union with the acts of atonement of your Virgin Mother and all the Saints and of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make recompense, as far as we can with the help of your grace, for all neglect of your great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the past. Henceforth, we will live a life of unswerving faith, of purity of conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the Gospel and especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to prevent others from offending you and to bring as many as possible to follow you.</span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.24px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: none; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother, our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of this act of expiation; and by the crowning gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to you, so that we may all one day come to that happy home, where with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, God, forever and ever. Amen.</span></p></div>Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-13589446896941012132023-08-02T00:00:00.011-04:002023-08-02T00:00:00.141-04:00Portiuncula Indulgence & Feast of Our Lady of the Angels<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>Event Name:</b> Portiuncula Indulgence & Feast of Our Lady of the Angels </span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>Date(s):</b> Aug 1 - Aug 2</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>Time: Starts:</b> 12:00 PM Ends: 11:59 PM </span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://myfranciscan.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Portiuncula-resized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="644" height="429" src="https://myfranciscan.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Portiuncula-resized.jpg" width="644" /></a></div></span></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;">
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://catholicherald.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/friary1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></a></div><i>The following is an excerpt from Major Life of St. Francis by St. Bonaventure</i>.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large; text-align: left;">What is Portiuncula?</b></div><span style="font-family: arial;">
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> ”The Portiuncula was an old church dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God which was abandoned . Francis had great devotion to the Queen of the world and when he saw that the church was deserted, he began to live there constantly in order to repair it. He heard that the Angels often visited it, so that it was called Saint Mary of the Angels, and he decided to stay there permanently out of reverence for the angels and love for the Mother of Christ.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> He loved this spot more than any other in the world. It was here he began his religious life in a very small way; it is here he came to a happy end. When he was dying, he commended this spot above all others to the friars, because it was most dear to the Blessed Virgin.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> This was the place where Saint Francis founded his Order by divine inspiration and it was divine providence which led him to repair three churches before he founded the Order and began to preach the Gospel.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> This meant that he progressed from material things to more spiritual achievements, from lesser to greater, in due order, and it gave a prophetic indication of what he would accomplish later.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> As he was living there by the church of Our Lady, Francis prayed to her who had conceived the Word, full of grace and truth, begging her insistently and with tears to become his advocate. Then he was granted the true spirit of the Gospel by the intercession of the Mother of mercy and he brought it to fruition.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> He embraced the Mother of Our Lord Jesus with indescribable love because, as he said, it was she who made the Lord of majesty our brother, and through her we found mercy. After Christ, he put all his trust in her and took her as his patroness for himself and his friars.”</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> Today the chapel of Portiuncula is situated inside the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels roughly 5 km from Assisi, Italy.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b>The Indulgence:</b></span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">“The Portiuncula indulgence is the first<b> plenary indulgence </b>that was ever granted in the Church. There were indeed indulgences at all times, but they were only partial, and only a partial remission of the temporal punishments could be obtained by them. But, as already remarked, he who gains the Portiuncula indulgence is freed from all temporal punishments and becomes as pure as after holy baptism. This was also the reason why Pope Honorius was astonished when St. Francis petitioned for the confirmation of this indulgence, for such an indulgence, up to that time, had been entirely unknown. It was only after he had come to the conviction that Jesus Christ Himself wished it, that he granted the petition of the saint and confirmed the indulgence”</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><b>August 2nd is the feast of Portiuncula. A plenary indulgence is available to anyone who will:</b></span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">1. Receive sacramental confession (8 days before of after)</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">2. Receive the Holy Eucharist at Holy Mass on August 2nd</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">3. Enter a parish church and, with a contrite heart, pray the Our Father, Apostles Creed, and a pray of his/her own choosing for the intentions of the Pope.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5311/1228/400/Portiuncula.jpg" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial;">The Portiuncula indulgence then is a great grace of which we should
avail ourselves every year. Try to gain it. See above all, that you make
a humble, contrite and sincere confession, for a good confession is the
first and most necessary requisite for the forgiveness of sins and the
gaining of the indulgence. Receive Holy Communion with the most profound
humility and adoration. Say the prayers for an indulgence with devotion
and sentiments of repentance, according to the intention of the Holy
Father, and relying on the merits of Jesus Christ, on the intercession
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Francis, and the other saints, beseech
God with confidence to impart to you the indulgence and to deliver you
from all temporal punishments. Promise to be thankful to him for this
grace all the days of your life by carefully keeping your conscience
free from even small faults. Visit the church several times and after
repeating the prayers for an indulgence apply it to the poor souls that
they may partake of the grace thereof. Thus the Portiuncula indulgence
will be to you a key with which you will open heaven, both for
yourselves and for many poor souls.</span></div>Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-17915087552039721132023-07-01T17:59:00.011-04:002023-07-01T18:11:20.833-04:00Battlebeads Sales<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> Hi folks! Websites, domains, renewals et cetera are becoming too much for this old lady lol. So I've decided, after some deliberation, to sell a few things here and there through my blog.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Since Carl died in 2016 I haven't much kept up the website anyway and have mostly been filling orders of chaplets and special design rosaries, along with the occasional jewelry/novelty items. If I concentrate on a few things at a time, or themed for a particular season, I think it will be much more manageable and I won't have to worry about paying for any space, hosting fees and domain renewals.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">SO.... We'll see how this goes before I decide permanently, later this month </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">My 1st offering will be this St. Michael Chaplet. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJywEe7S-IaC6gOST_YLJnseNOxzhsu2rblNf95OYet_0bw6nmkZsPi-vfz553wh0voT9muanAR35qP4FNQB2ahnDde-OxN1bCGRAKmOjGNHAtGR9sT3QufDZ_Aa4hz-oA4caYQ9Bt0SSaid7Xn_Rm4kRfREZz_plo4Rd66pSMOoh7f0-WwEMHT25DF6A/s2972/20230701_144709.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1971" data-original-width="2972" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJywEe7S-IaC6gOST_YLJnseNOxzhsu2rblNf95OYet_0bw6nmkZsPi-vfz553wh0voT9muanAR35qP4FNQB2ahnDde-OxN1bCGRAKmOjGNHAtGR9sT3QufDZ_Aa4hz-oA4caYQ9Bt0SSaid7Xn_Rm4kRfREZz_plo4Rd66pSMOoh7f0-WwEMHT25DF6A/s320/20230701_144709.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">8mm glass & acrylic faux pearls</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">in the traditional nine colors,</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">(depicting the nine choirs of angels).</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This design incorporates 22 gauge non-tarnish wire and chain with 20 gauge jump rings for added strength. The center medal is the Sacred Heart with our Lady of Mount Carmel on the reverse side. The beginning medal is the traditional St Michael medal; both medals are silver oxidized, silver plated alloys. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I am only shipping to the Continental United States to keep things simple. The cost of this piece is $20 plus shipping and handling (determined by weight, but likely not more than $5.95 or $6.95).</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">If you prefer, this can also be constructed with #9 or #7 white or black waxed and bonded cord, making it virtually indestructible. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">If you would like this offering, please private message me on <a href="https://m.facebook.com/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> or leave a comment here on the blog with your Facebook persona or your email and I will send a payment link that will let you pay with a credit card through PayPal even if you do not have a PayPal account.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I'm hoping this works out to make my life a little bit easier in my later years lol</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Also, if you would like me to construct a special rosary according to your specifications or chaplet please let me know.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">For right now, you may look at my previous work on the website that is still up: <a href="http://www.battlebeads.com">www.battlebeads.com</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">BLESSINGS!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p><br /></p>Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-91061440073514232422023-06-11T00:00:00.001-04:002023-06-11T00:00:00.140-04:00Feast of Corpus Christi<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p3371LL44Hs/XQ9TWsYuLxI/AAAAAAAAIo8/CF2tUfEUQRMJNXm-OGx4KCMVYOw9qK5mgCLcBGAs/s1600/12043049_159884941062777_2155356591809120713_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p3371LL44Hs/XQ9TWsYuLxI/AAAAAAAAIo8/CF2tUfEUQRMJNXm-OGx4KCMVYOw9qK5mgCLcBGAs/s400/12043049_159884941062777_2155356591809120713_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.holytrinitygerman.org/images/Chalice-G.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.holytrinitygerman.org/images/Chalice-G.jpg" /></a><span class="pagetitle3">The feast of the Corpus Christi celebrates the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. During the last 700 years, the Feast of the Corpus Christi has been celebrated throughout the world. The feast brings about great joy and celebrations. It was originally observed on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. However, in 1970, it was changed to the following Sunday for the United States and most of the world.<br />
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<span class="pagetitle3"></span><span class="pagetitle3"><b><u>History</u></b><br />
Imagine at the age of sixteen seeing a vision above you of a silver moon with a small section altered. After seeing the vision, it faded. This actually happened to a young teenager, Juliana, in the 12th century. She was from Beligian. Juliana tried to make the image stop coming back, but it wouldn’t.</span><br />
<span class="pagetitle3">Juliana decided to join the convent at Mont Cornillion. She had a deep devotion to the Blessed Sacrament; however, she never thought the images were related to it. Then one day Juliana finally was told the meaning of the image. While deep in prayer, the Lord explained that the moon was the ritual year of the Church, and the altered area meant something was incomplete. The missing part was that there wasn’t a feast to celebrate the Blessed Sacrament.<br />
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<span class="pagetitle3">God continued His explanation to Juliana by giving her three reasons why He wanted a feast day. The first reason was to strengthen the Catholic belief of the Eucharist. Secondly, it would encourage people to be virtuous and draw strength from the Sacrament. Lastly, it would be a compensation for abuse and sacrilegious acts against the Eucharist.</span><br />
<span class="pagetitle3">God informed Juliana that he wanted her to create this feast day. She immediately felt scared and overwhelmed. She pleaded with God not to give her this task, but He chooses her. For years, Juliana put off doing anything about it. Twenty years went by and she became the Superior of her order. Juliana constantly had the urge to speak about the feast, and finally did. She told Robert de Thorte, he was the Bishop of Liege. Thankfully, he believed her and discussed it with Jacques Pantaleon who served as Archdeacon in Liege. He later became Pope Urban IV. They liked the idea of the feast, and it was celebrated in 1246.</span><br />
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<span class="pagetitle3">Juliana died in 1258, and the solemnity hadn’t reached the entire world. Later on, Juliana was named a saint. There was some controversy in the Church about the feast. Some people felt that the sacrifice daily was enough to celebrate the Blessed Sacrament. However, God wanted a feast day. A miracle occurred in 1263 at a town called Bolsena.</span><br />
<span class="pagetitle3">During his journey Rome, Father Peter of Prague, stopped in at Bolsena to serve Mass. He was a Godly man, but he never truly understood that Christ was present in the Blessed Sacrament. Blood began to seep from the Host as he was speaking the words of the Consecration over the tomb of St. Christina. The blood went down his arms and on the altar.</span><br />
<span class="pagetitle3">He was very confused, and he requested to leave Mass to see Pope Urban IV who was in a town close by called Orvieto. The Pope listened and did research about the situation. The Pope considered this a great miracle and created a papal bull starting the Feast of the Corpus Christi on September 8, 1264.</span><br />
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<h1 style="text-align: center;">
The Historical Origin of the Feast of<br />
CORPUS CHRISTI</h1>
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<a href="https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.M5e9786881c8069dd30659009aa4244f4o0&pid=15.1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.M5e9786881c8069dd30659009aa4244f4o0&pid=15.1" /></a>This Feast of the Sacred Body of Our Divine Lord is celebrated in the Latin Church on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday to solemnly commemorate the Institution of the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist. This great event is also commemorated on Maundy Thursday, mentioned as <i>Natalia Calicis (Birth of the Chalice)</i> in the Calendar of Polemius (448) for the 24th of March, the 25th of March being recognized in some places as the day of the Death of Christ. This day, however, occurs in Holy Week, a season of sadness, during which the minds of the faithful are expected to be occupied with thoughts of Our Lord's Passion. Moreover, so many other mysteries relative to the Passion are commemorated on this day that the principal event, the Institution of the Holy Eucharist, is deserving of a particular festival. This is mentioned as the chief reason for introducing the feast of Corpus Christi in the Papal Bull <i>Transiturus</i>.</div>
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The instrument in the hand of Divine Providence was St. Juliana of Mont Cornillon, in Belgium. She was born in 1203 at <br />
Retinnes near Liège. Orphaned at an early age, she was educated by the Augustinian nuns of Mont Cornillon. In time she made her religious profession and later became Superior. Intrigues and persecutions of various kinds drove her from her own convent several times. She died on the fifth of April, 1258, at the House of the Cistercian nuns at Fosses, and was buried at Villier.</div>
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From her early youth, Sr. Juliana had a great veneration for the Blessed Sacrament, and always longed for a special feast in Its honor. This holy desire was given further impetus by an authentic vision which she was shown of the Church, whose liturgical cycle appeared as an almost-full moon, yet having one dark void, signifying the absence of such a solemnity. She humbly submitted this revelation to Msgr. Robert de Thorete, then Bishop of Liège; to the learned Dominican Hugh, later Cardinal Legate in the Netherlands; and finally to Jacques Pantaléon, at that time Archdeacon of Liège, who afterwards was successively made the Bishop of Verdun, Patriarch of Jerusalem (after the First Crusade), and finally elected to the Papacy as Urban IV. Bishop Robert was favorably inclined to promote a greater devotion to our Eucharistic King. Since bishops had the right of ordering feasts for their respective jurisdictions, he called a synod in 1246, and ordered the celebration to be held in the following year; also, that a monk whose name was John should write the special Office for the occasion. The episcopal decree is still preserved in Binterim (Denkwürdigkeiten, V, 1, 276), together with parts of the Office. The pious Bishop did not live to see the fulfillment of his command, for he died on October 16, 1246. Nevertheless, the feast was celebrated for the first time by the obedient canons of the Cathedral of St. Martin at Liège.</div>
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<a href="http://radiocristiandad.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/media-402670-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://radiocristiandad.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/media-402670-2.jpg" width="320" /></a>Meanwhile, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Jacques Pantaléon, was elected Pope on August 29, 1261. There was at that time in Liège a devout recluse in whom St. Juliana had inspired a fervent devotion of the Holy Eucharist, who spent her time in adoration of Our Divine Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. She besought the Bishop of Liège, Heinrich of Guelders, to request the Sovereign Pontiff to extend this beautiful celebration to the entire Catholic world. Pope Urban IV, who had long cherished a fervent devotion for the feast of Corpus Christi, granted the petition on September 8, 1264, by publishing the Bull <i>Transiturus</i>. Having extolled the love of Our Savior manifested in the Holy Eucharist, he ordered the annual celebration of Corpus Christi on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday, and at the same time granted many Indulgences to the faithful for the attendance at Mass and at the Office. This Office, composed at the request of the Pope by the Angelic Doctor St. Thomas Aquinas, is one of the most beautiful in the Roman Breviary, and has been admired not only for its wonderful devotion, but also for its literary excellence.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xAtnpPNZevY/TBp7-42DLJI/AAAAAAAACFI/1cRuIRbQTTw/s320/Avignon_Pope_Clement_V_of_Rome_1305-1314.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xAtnpPNZevY/TBp7-42DLJI/AAAAAAAACFI/1cRuIRbQTTw/s320/Avignon_Pope_Clement_V_of_Rome_1305-1314.jpg" /></a>The death of Pope Urban IV on October 2, 1264, shortly after the publication of the decree, somewhat impeded the spread of the new feast. But Pope Clement V again took the matter in hand, and at the General Council of Vienne (1311), took <br />
measures to implement the feast of Corpus Christi. His new decree embodied that of Pope Urban IV, and his successor, Pope John XXII (of Sabbatine Privilege fame) also urged its observance. The Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, which was already held in some places, was endowed with rich indulgences by Popes Martin V and Eugene IV. The pious Bishops of the German Empire were the first to accomplish a uniform observance of the new feast (instituted at Köln in 1306, at Worms in 1315, and in Strasbourg in 1316). In England it was introduced from the continent between 1320 and 1325.</div>
Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-8145868226964937782023-06-04T00:00:00.001-04:002023-06-04T00:00:00.131-04:00Feast of the Most Holy Trinity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<img height="640" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/ulSnzRPjr9o_TO258guZoPi-OW9nDJyFP70GXTc-AYX9V_XArdBq-xXp-0-lzgudV3Fwk-hW-H6EdhIPpRhQSMKYSLj7oj3wOkMgtav5AShwPAXMyCy7K4YTbDOMc3GPHNE9bzAEmXkjoQ" width="590" /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7JdJpqvFQZg" width="320" youtube-src-id="7JdJpqvFQZg"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;">Holy Trinity Hymn</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
On the day of Pentecost the Holy Apostles received, as we have seen, the grace of the Holy Ghost. In accordance with the injunction of their Divine Master, they will soon start on their mission of teaching all nations, and baptizing them in the Name of the Holy Trinity. It was but right, then, that the solemnity which is intended to honor the mystery of One God in Three Divine Persons should immediately follow that of Pentecost, with which it has a mysterious connection. And yet, it was not until after many centuries that it was inserted in the cycle of the Liturgical Year, whose completion is the work of successive ages.<br />
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Every homage paid to God by the Church’s Liturgy has the Holy Trinity as its object. Time, as well as eternity, belongs to the Trinity. The Trinity is the scope of all religion. Every day, every hour, belongs to It. The feasts instituted in memory of the mysteries of our Redemption center in It. The feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints are but so many means for leading us to the praise of God, Who is One in essence, and Three in Persons. The Preface for most Sunday Masses, in a very special way, gives us, each week, a most explicit expression of adoration and worship of this mystery, which is the foundation of all others, and the source of all grace.<br />
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This explains to us how it is that the Church was so long in instituting a special feast in honor of the Holy Trinity. The ordinary motive for the institution of feasts did not exist in this instance. A feast is the memorial of some fact which took place at a certain time, and of which it is well to perpetuate the memory and influence. How could this be applied to the mystery of the Trinity? From all eternity, before any created thing existed, God lives and reigns, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. If a feast in honor of that mystery were to be instituted, it could only be by fixing some one day in the year, whereon the faithful would assemble for offering a more than usually solemn tribute of worship to the mystery of Unity and Trinity in the one same Divine Nature.<br />
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The idea of such a feast was first conceived by some of those pious and recollected souls, who are favored from on high with a sort of presentiment of the things which the Holy Ghost will achieve, at a future period, in the Church. So far back as the eighth century, the learned monk Alcuin had the happy thought of composing a Mass in honor of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. It would seem that he was prompted to this by the apostle of Northern Germany, Saint Boniface. That this composition is a beautiful one, no one will doubt who knows, from Alcuin’s writings, how full its author was of the spirit of the sacred liturgy; but, after all, it was only a votive Mass, a mere help to private devotion, which no one ever thought would lead to the institution of a feast. This Mass, however, became a great favorite, and was gradually circulated through the several Churches; for instance, it was approved of for Germany by the Council of Seligenstadt, held in 1022.<br />
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In the previous century, however, a feast properly so-called of the Holy Trinity had been introduced into one of the Churches of Belgium—the very same that was to have the honor, later on, of procuring to the Church’s calendar, one of the richest of its solemnities. Stephen, Bishop of Liege, solemnly instituted the Feast of the Holy Trinity for his Church, in 920, and had an entire Office composed in honor of the mystery. Riquier, Stephen’s successor in the See of Liege, kept up what his predecessor had begun.<br />
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The feast was gradually adopted. The Benedictine Order took it up from the very first. We find, for instance, in the early part of the 11th century, that Berno, the Abbot of Reichenau, was doing all he could to propagate it. At Cluny, also, the feast was established at the commencement of the same century, as we learn from the Ordinarium of that celebrated monastery, drawn up in 1091, in which we find mention of Holy Trinity Day as having been instituted long before.<br />
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<a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/FJq7GV8bt2-qIV2vr8HUpEFgx9ZG57x_8bNYw72hQN9JRziwCOx5b9UgFdowXe-3Ys5pPGqUgn8LsL8pi1VdmSY8ZAtoer5LJ8C9iPwaCUu-FBq501BO4Q" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/FJq7GV8bt2-qIV2vr8HUpEFgx9ZG57x_8bNYw72hQN9JRziwCOx5b9UgFdowXe-3Ys5pPGqUgn8LsL8pi1VdmSY8ZAtoer5LJ8C9iPwaCUu-FBq501BO4Q" width="395" /></a>In England it was the glorious Martyr, St. Thomas a Becket, who established the Feast of the Holy Trinity. He introduced it into his archdiocese of Canterbury in the year 1162, in memory of his having been consecrated Bishop on the First Sunday after Pentecost. Some Churches celebrated this feast, not on the First, but on the Last Sunday after Pentecost; some on both the First and Last Sundays.<br />
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It was evident, from all this, that the Apostolic See would finally give its sanction to a practice, whose universal adoption was being prompted by Christian instinct. Pope John XXII, who sat in the Chair of St. Peter as early as the year 1334, completed the work by a decree, wherein the Church of Rome accepted the Feast of the Holy Trinity, and extended its observance to all Churches.<br />
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As to the motive which induced the Church, led as She is in all things by the Holy Ghost, to fix one special day in the year for the offering of a solemn homage to the Blessed Trinity, whereas all our adorations, all our acts of thanksgiving, all our petitions, are ever being presented to It: such motive is to be found in the change which was being introduced, at that period, into the liturgical calendar. Up to about the year 1000, the Feasts of the Saints, marked on the general calendar and universally kept, were very few. From that time, they began to be more numerous; and it was evident that their number would go on increasing. The time would come, when the Sunday’s Office, which is specially consecrated to the Blessed Trinity, must make way for that of the Saints, as often as one of their Feasts occurred on a Sunday. As a sort of compensation for this celebration of the memory of God’s servants on the very day which was sacred to the Holy Trinity, it was considered right that once, at least, in the course of the year, a Sunday should be set apart for the exclusive and direct expression of the worship which the Church pays to our great God, Who has vouchsafed to reveal Himself to mankind in His ineffable Unity and in His eternal Trinity.<br />
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It was God’s good pleasure to make known to us His essence, in order to bring us into closer union with Himself, and to prepare us, in some way, for that Face-to-face vision of Himself which He intends to give us in eternity. But His revelation is gradual: He takes mankind from brightness unto brightness, fitting it for the full knowledge and adoration of Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. During the period preceding the Incarnation of the Eternal Word, God seemed intent on inculcating the idea of His Unity, for polytheism was the infectious error of mankind; and every notion of there being a spiritual and sole cause of all things would have been effaced from the earth, had not the infinite goodness of God watched over its preservation.<br />
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Not that the Old Testament Books were altogether silent on the Three Divine Persons, Whose ineffable relations are eternal; only, the mysterious passages, which spoke of them, were not understood by the people at large; whereas, in the Christian Church, a child of seven will answer those who ask him, that in God, the Three Divine Persons have but one and the same Nature, but one and the same Divinity. When the Book of Genesis tells us that God spoke in the plural, and said: "Let Us make man to Our image and likeness" (Gen. 1: 26), the Jew bows down and believes, but he understands not the sacred text; the Christian, on the contrary, who has been enlightened by the complete revelation of God, sees under this expression, the Three Persons acting together in the formation of man. The light of Faith develops the great truth to him, and tells him that, within himself, there is a likeness to the Blessed Three in One. Power, understanding, and will, are three faculties within him, and yet he himself is but one being.<br />
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In the Books of Wisdom, Solomon speaks, in sublime language, of Him Who is Eternal Wisdom; he tells us— and he uses every variety of grand expression to tell us—of the Divine Essence of this Wisdom, and of His being a distinct Person in the Godhead; but how few among the people of Israel could see through the veil! Isaias heard the voice of the Seraphim, as they stood around God’s throne; he heard them singing in alternate choirs, and with a joy intense because eternal, this hymn: "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord!" (Is. 6: 3) But who will explain to men this triple Sanctus, of which the echo is heard here below, when we mortals give praise to our Creator? So again, in the Psalms, and the prophetic Books, a flash of light will break suddenly upon us; a brightness of some mysterious Three will dazzle us; but it passes away, and obscurity returns seemingly all the more palpable; we have but the sentiment of the Divine Unity deeply impressed on our inmost soul, and we adore the Incomprehensible, the Sovereign Being.<br />
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The world had to wait for the fullness of time to be completed; and then, God would send into this world His only Son, begotten of Him from all eternity. This His most merciful purpose has been carried out, and the Word made Flesh hath dwelt among us (John 1: 14). By seeing His glory, the glory of the only-begotten Son of the Father, we have come to know that, in God, there is Father and Son. The Son, Who had been sent by the Father, ascended into Heaven, with the human Nature which He had united to Himself for all future eternity; and lo, the Father and the Son send into this world the Spirit Who proceeds from Them both. It was a new Gift, and it taught man that the Lord God was in Three Persons. The mystery of the Trinity has become to us, not only a dogma made known to our mind by revelation, but, moreover, a practical truth given to us by the unheard-of munificence of the Three Divine Persons: the Father, Who adopted us; the Son, Whose brethren and joint-heirs we are; and the Holy Ghost, Who governs us, and dwells within us.<br />
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Let us, then, begin this day, by giving glory to the one God in three Persons. For this end, Holy Mother Church in Her Office of Prime recites on this solemnity the magnificent Athanasian Creed. It gives us, in a summary of much majesty and precision, the doctrine of the Holy Doctor, St. Athanasius, regarding the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation. <br />
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<b>We give here an excerpt:</b><br />
Whosoever would be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith.<br />
Which Faith, except everyone doth keep It entire and inviolate, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.<br />
Now the Catholic Faith is this: that we worship One God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;<br />
Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance.<br />
For one is the Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost.<br />
But the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all One; the glory equal, the majesty coeternal…<br />
So, the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Ghost is God.<br />
And yet They are not three Gods, but One God.<br />
So, the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Ghost is Lord.<br />
And yet They are not three Lords, but One Lord.<br />
For, as we are compelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge each Person, by Himself, to be God and Lord; so we are forbidden, by the Catholic Religion, to say there are three Gods or three Lords.<br />
The Father is made of no one, neither created nor begotten.<br />
The Son is from the Father alone; not made, nor created, but begotten.<br />
The Holy Ghost is from the Father and the Son; not made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding…</blockquote>
Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation, that he also believe rightly of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the right Faith is, that we believe and confess that Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is both God and Man.<br />
He is God, of the Substance of His Father, begotten before the world; and He is Man, of the substance of His Mother, born in the world…<br />
At Whose coming, all men shall rise again with their bodies; and shall give an account of their own works.<br />
And they that have done good, shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.<br />
This is the Catholic Faith; which except every man believe faithfully and steadfastly, he cannot be saved.<br />
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Adoration, then, and love, be to Thee, O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, O perfect Trinity, Who hast vouchsafed to reveal Thyself to mankind; O eternal and infinite Unity, Who hast delivered our forefathers from the yoke of their false gods! Glory be to Thee, as it was in the beginning, before any creature existed; as it is now, at this very time, while we are living in the hope of that true life, which consists of seeing Thee face to face; and as it shall forever be, in those everlasting ages, when a blissful eternity shall have united us in the bosom of Thine infinite majesty. Amen.<br />
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<a href="http://www.salvemariaregina.info/Images/pentecst.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://www.salvemariaregina.info/Images/pentecst.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB3M0g1viHAYiJ08swQ6Hiy9IRXN7OjchQY0nQKnbTKKaJGEjQEso6bswg_aNxE1yGBB7AwMoZZc_GBIUzzrN3rvycPI49Ff6zARciDOFCcOkzYbIHewdwnDu9c75PC0SJ1No2RRiCC5tBUMJ419Zm4wYNVN2w6xjy09BUgaI5cxDlJypOpF4qXb7t/s612/istockphoto-495684983-612x612.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="413" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB3M0g1viHAYiJ08swQ6Hiy9IRXN7OjchQY0nQKnbTKKaJGEjQEso6bswg_aNxE1yGBB7AwMoZZc_GBIUzzrN3rvycPI49Ff6zARciDOFCcOkzYbIHewdwnDu9c75PC0SJ1No2RRiCC5tBUMJ419Zm4wYNVN2w6xjy09BUgaI5cxDlJypOpF4qXb7t/s320/istockphoto-495684983-612x612.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><br />The Pentecost Novena is the first of all novenas, nine days of prayer. After
Jesus' Ascension into heaven, He commanded His disciples to come together in
the upper room to devote themselves to constant prayer (Acts 1:14). They prayed
for nine days before receiving the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">On May 4, 1897, Pope Leo XIII proclaimed: "We decree and command that
throughout the whole Catholic Church, this year and in every subsequent year, a
novena shall take place before Whit-Sunday (Pentecost), in all parish
churches." It has been reported that Pope Leo XIII was inspired to mandate the
Pentecost novena because of a letter from a housewife in Italy. Pope John Paul
II has reiterated Pope Leo XIII's command for a worldwide Pentecost novena,
although the novena can be prayed at any time — not only before
Pentecost.</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">Try to go to Mass daily throughout the novena. Go to Confession during the
novena. Make visits to church to adore the Eucharistic Jesus throughout the
novena. The Church has not written any official prayers for the novena. The
following prayers are suggested.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"> The novena in honor of the Holy Spirit is the oldest of all novenas
since it was first made at the direction of Our Lord Himself when He
sent His apostles back to Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy
Spirit on the first Pentecost. It is still the only novena officially
prescribed by the Church. Addressed to the Third Person of the Blessed
Trinity, it is a powerful plea for the light and strength and love so
sorely needed by every Christian. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">Begin with the prayer below, pray and meditate on the prayer for the given day, end each day with the closing prayer.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span id="title"></span></span></span>
</span><h3>
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">ACT OF CONSECRATION TO THE HOLY SPIRIT</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">
Before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses, I offer myself, soul
and body to You, Eternal Spirit of God. I adore the brightness of Your
purity, the unerring keenness of Your justice, and the might of Your
love. You are the Strength and Light of my soul. In You I live and move
and am. I desire never to grieve You by unfaithfulness to grace and I
pray with all my heart to be kept from the smallest sin against You.
Mercifully guard my every thought and grant that I may always watch for
Your light, and listen to Your voice, and follow Your gracious
inspirations. I cling to You and give myself to You and ask You, by Your
compassion to watch over me in my weakness. Holding the pierced Feet of
Jesus and looking at His Five Wounds, and trusting in His Precious
Blood and adoring His opened Side and stricken Heart, I implore You,
Adorable Spirit, Helper of my infirmity, to keep me in Your grace that I
may never sin against You. Give me grace, O Holy Spirit, Spirit of the
Father and the Son to say to You always and everywhere, "Speak Lord for
Your servant heareth." Amen. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">1</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i>Holy Spirit, Lord of Light, from heaven above, give us Your pure beaming radiance.</i></b></span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="title"><b>The Holy Spirit</b> </span>
Only one thing is important -- eternal salvation.
Therefore, only one thing is to be feared--sin.
Sin is the result of weakness and indifference.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Light, of Strength, and of Love.
With His sevenfold gifts <i>He enlightens the mind, strengthens the will, and inflames the heart with God's love. </i>
To ensure our salvation we ought to invoke the Divine Spirit daily, for "The Spirit helps our infirmity.
When we do not know how to pray as we should, The Holy Spirit speaks for us."
</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span>
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="title"><b>Prayer</b> </span>
Almighty and eternal God, You have regenerated us by water and the Holy Spirit, and have given us forgiveness of all sins,
send forth from heaven your sevenfold Spirit and bestow His gifts upon us. The gifts of: Wisdom and Understanding,
Right Judgement and Courage, Knowledge and Reverence, and a Spirit of Wonder and Awe.
</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="title">Pray</span></b> The Our Father once, The Hail Mary once, and The Glory be to the Father seven times.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">2</span></span><br />
</span><h3>
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><i> Come, Father of the poor. Come, treasure which endures. Come, Light of all that lives.</i></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span>
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="title">The Gift of Fear</span></b>
The gift of Fear (Wonder and Awe) fills us with a sovereign respect for
God, and makes us dread anything that offends Him. It is a fear that
arises, not from the thought of hell,
but from thoughts of reverence and loving submission to The One Heavenly
Father.
It is the fear that is the beginning of Wisdom.
A longing for God that detaches us from worldly pleasures that could
separate us from God.
"They that fear the Lord will prepare their hearts, and in His sight
will sanctify their souls."
</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span>
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="title"><b>Prayer</b> </span>
Come, O blessed Spirit of Holy Fear, penetrate my inmost heart,
that I may set you, my Lord and God, before my face always,
help me to shun all things that offend You,
and make me worthy to appear before the pure eyes of Your Divine Majesty in heaven,
where You live and reign in the unity of the Blessed Trinity.
</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">
<b><span class="title">Pray</span></b> The Our Father once, The Hail Mary once, and The Glory be to the Father seven times.
</span></span><br />
<br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"> 3</span></span><br />
</span><h3>
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><i> Thou, of all consolers best, visiting the troubled breast, Dost refreshing peace bestow.</i></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span>
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="title">The Gift of Reverence</span></b>
The gift of Reverence fills in our hearts a loving affection for God as our most Heavenly Father.
It inspires us to love and respect, simply for His sake, persons and things consecrated to Him,
as well as those who are vested with His authority: His Blessed Mother and the Saints,
the Church and the Pope, our parents and superiors.
Those filled with the gift of Piety find the practice of their religion a delightful service, an enjoyable endeavour.
Where there is love, there is no labor.
</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="title"><b>Prayer</b> </span>
Come, O Blessed Spirit of Piety, completely fill my heart. Inflame in me such a love for God,
that I only find satisfaction in His service, and for His sake, lovingly submit to all legitimate authority.
</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="title">Pray</span></b> The Our Father once, The Hail Mary once, and The Glory be to the Father seven times. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">4</span></span>
<br />
</span><div class="start_scroll">
<h3>
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><i>Thou in toil art comfort sweet, Pleasant coolness in the heat, solace in the midst of woe.</i></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="title">The Gift of Courage</span></b>
With the gift of Courage, the soul is strengthened against natural fear,
and supported to the end in the performance of duty.
Courage gives to the will an energy which moves it to undertake, without hesitancy, the most arduous tasks,
to face dangers, and to endure without complaint life's trials and tribulations.
"He that perseveres unto the end, he shall be saved."
</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="title"><b>Prayer</b> </span>
Come, O Blessed Spirit of Courage, uphold my soul in times of trouble and adversity,
support my efforts for holiness,
strengthen my weaknesses, grant me courage against all assaults of my enemies,
that I may never be overcome and separated from God the greatest Good.
</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="title">Pray</span></b> The Our Father once, The Hail Mary once, and The Glory be to the Father seven times. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="start_scroll">
</div>
<div class="start_scroll">
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">5
</span></span><br />
</span><div class="start_scroll">
<h3>
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><i>Light immortal, Light Divine, Visit our hearts and fill our inmost being.</i></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="title">The Gift of Knowledge</span></b>
The gift of Knowledge enables the soul to evaluate created things at their true worth--in their relation to God.
Knowledge unmasks the pretense of creatures, reveals their emptiness, and points out their only true purpose:
instruments in the service of God.
Knowledge shows us the loving care of God even in adversity, and teaches us to glorify Him in every circumstance of life.
Guided by Knowledge's light, we put first things first, and prize the friendship of God beyond all else.
"Knowledge is a fountain of life to him that possesseth it."
</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="title"><b>Prayer</b> </span>
Come, O Blessed Spirit of Knowledge, and grant that I may perceive the will of the Father.
Spirit of Knowledge, show me the nothingness of earthly things, that I may realize their vanity and use them only for
the Glory of God and as a means to achieve salvation.
</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="title">Pray</span></b> The Our Father once, The Hail Mary once, and The Glory be to the Father seven times. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="start_scroll">
</div>
<div class="start_scroll">
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">6 </span></span><br />
</span><div class="text" id="toggle6" style="top: 315px;">
<div class="start_scroll">
<h3>
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><i>Heal our wounds--our strength renews; On our dryness pour Thy dew, Wash the stains of guilt away.</i></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="title">The Gift of Right Judgement</span></b>
The Gift of Right Judgement endows the soul with heavenly prudence,
enabling the individual to judge promptly and rightly what must done,
specially in difficult circumstances
or in times of exteme pressue. Right Judgement applies the principles
furnished by Knowledge, and the discipline furnished by Courage,
to the innumerable situations that confront us in the course of our
daily lives as disciples of Christ.<i>
Right Judgement is supernatural common sense.</i> "Above all these things, pray to the Most High, that He may direct your path in truth."
</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="title"><b>Prayer</b> </span>
Come, O Spirit of Right Judgement, help and guide me in all my ways,
that I may always do Thy Holy Will.
Incline my heart to that which is good; to turn it away from all that is evil,
and direct me by the straight path of Thy commandments to that goal of eternal life with you.
</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="title">Pray</span></b> The Our Father once, The Hail Mary once, and The Glory be to the Father seven times. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="start_scroll">
</div>
<div class="start_scroll">
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">7 </span></span><br />
</span><div class="text" id="toggle7" style="top: 315px;">
<div class="start_scroll">
<h3>
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><i>If Thou take Thy grace away, nothing pure in man will stay, All his good is turn'd to ill.</i></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="title">The Gift of Understanding</span></b>
The Gift of Understanding helps us to comprehend the meaning of the truths of our Holy Religion.
Through faith we come to know them, but through Understanding we learn to appreciate and greatly enjoy them.
Understanding enables us to penetrate the inner meaning of these truths,
and through them be engergized to newness of life and purpose.
Our participation ceases to be sterile and inactive,
but becomes an inspired mode of life that bears eloquent testimony to the faith that GOd has gifted us;
we begin to "walk worthy of God in all things pleasing, and increasing in the knowledge of God."
</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="title"><b>Prayer</b> </span>
Come, O Spirit of Understanding, and enlighten our minds, that we may
know and believe all the mysteries of salvation; and may merit at last
to see the eternal light in Thy Light; and in the light of glory to have
a clear vision of Thee and the Father and the Son. Amen.
</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="title">Pray</span></b> The Our Father once, The Hail Mary once, and The Glory be to the Father seven times. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="start_scroll">
</div>
<div class="start_scroll">
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">8
</span></span><br />
</span><h3 style="width: 900px;">
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><i>Bend the stubborn heart and will, melt the frozen warm the chill, guide the steps that go astray.</i></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="title">The Gift of Wisdom </span></b>Wisdom is the most perfect of the gifts. Just as love embraces
all other virtues, Wisdom emobodies all the other gifts of the Holy
Spirit Wisdom strengthens our faith, fortifies hope, perfects love, and promotes the practice of virtue in the highest degree. Wisdom enlightens the mind to discern and relish things divine, in the appreciation of which earthly promises lose their savor. Of wisdom it is written "all good things came to me with her, and innumerable riches through her hands." Wisdom enables the Cross of Christ to provide a divine sweetness according to the words of the Saviour:
"Take up thy cross and follow me, for my yoke is sweet and my burden light."</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="title"><b>Prayer</b> </span>
Come, O Spirit of Wisdom, and reveal to my soul the mysteries of
heavenly things. May I comprehend the exceeding greatness and beauty of
heavenly things, and teach me to love them above and beyond all the
passing happiness and satisfactions of earthly things.
Help me to attain the gifts of heaven and possess them for ever.
</span></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="title">Pray</span></b> The Our Father once, The Hail Mary once, and The Glory be to the Father seven times. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">9 </span></span><br />
</span><div class="text" id="toggle9" style="top: 315px;">
<div class="start_scroll">
<h3 style="width: 870px;">
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><i>Thou, on those who evermore Thee confess and Thee Adore, in Thy sevenfold gift, Descend; <br />Give Them Comfort when they die; Give them Life with Thee on high; <br />Give them joys which never end. Amen</i></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="title">The Fruits of the Holy Spirit </span>
</b>The Gifts of the Holy Spirit perfect the supernatural virtues in us by enabling us to practice them with divine inspiration.
As we grow in the knowledge and love of God under the direction of the Holy Spirit,
our service becomes more sincere, more generous, and the practice of virtue more perfect.
Such acts of virtue leave the heart filled with supreme happiness (beatitude) and lead us to the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.<br /><span class="title"><b>Prayer</b> </span>
Come Holy Ghost, fill my heart with Thy heavenly fruits of
charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity
that I may never tire in my service of God, but by continued faithful submission to Thy inspiration
I may merit to be united eternally with Thee in the love of the Father and the Son.
</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="title">Pray</span></b> The Our Father once, The Hail Mary once, and The Glory be to the Father seven times. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="start_scroll">
</div>
<div class="start_scroll">
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span class="title" style="font-family: arial;">PRAYER FOR THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT </span></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="title"><b>
Dear Lord Jesus Christ,</b></span> before you ascended into heaven, you
promised to send the Holy Spirit into the souls of your apostles and
disciples, graciously grant me the same Holy Spirit. Grant that He may
perfect in my soul your grace and love and graciously fill me with your
spirit of:
</span></span><br />
</span><ul>
<li><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><b>Wonder and Awe,</b> that I may be filled with an infinite and loving reverence towards God, and dread in any way to displease Him.
</span></span></li>
<li><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><b>Reverence,</b> that I may find service of God sweet and amiable.
</span></span></li>
<li><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><b>Knowledge,</b> that I may know God and myself to grow perfect in holiness.
</span></span></li>
<li><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><b>Courage,</b> that I may joyfully bear my cross with you and overcome all obstacles that oppose my salvation.
</span></span></li>
<li><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><b>Right Judgment,</b> that I may gain beatitude by always choosing the surest way of pleasing God.
</span></span></li>
<li><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><b>Understanding,</b> that I may enlighten my mind with Your divine truth.
</span></span></li>
<li><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><b>Wisdom,</b> that I may aspire only for the things that are eternal and despise the things of this world.
</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
</span><pre id="line1"><span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">Mark me Lord with the sign of Your true disciple, animate me in all things with Your Spirit, and grant that I may achieve the Fruits of the Holy Spirits in my lifetime.</span></span></pre>
</div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
<br />
</span><div style="text-align: center;">
<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Come, Holy Ghost (Veni Creator Spiritus)</b></span> </i><br />
Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest, and in our hearts take up Thy rest;<br />
come with Thy grace and heav’nly aid, To fill the hearts which Thou hast made.<br />
O Comforter, to Thee we cry, Thou heav’nly gift of God most high,<br />
Thou Fount of life, and Fire of love, and sweet anointing from above.<br />
O Finger of the hand divine, the sevenfold gifts of grace are thine;<br />
true promise of the Father thou, who dost the tongue with power endow.<br />
Thy light to every sense impart, and shed thy love in every heart;<br />
thine own unfailing might supply to strengthen our infirmity.<br />
Drive far away our ghostly foe, and thine abiding peace bestow;<br />
if thou be our preventing Guide, no evil can our steps betide.<br />
Praise we the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit with them One;<br />
and may the Son on us bestow the gifts that from the Spirit flow.</span></span></div>
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<span face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">V. Send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created.<br />
R. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.</span></span></div>
Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8183857577870512338.post-92097963893147024872023-05-18T00:00:00.003-04:002023-05-18T19:56:04.750-04:00Ascension Thursday - HOLY DAY OF OBLIGATION!<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
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Forty days after the Resurrection, Our Lord Jesus Christ, attended by Angels, ascended into Heaven, in the sight of His most holy Mother Mary, His Apostles, and disciples, to the great wonder of them all. He entered into possession of the Kingdom of Heaven which He had gained by His sufferings, and St. Paul declares that God “hath made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus.” “There where the Head has gone, the Body is called to follow!” The liturgical festival of the Ascension, whilst less ancient than that of Pentecost, is one of the oldest of the cycle, was already so universally observed that St. Augustine was able to attribute its institution to the Apostles themselves. At Rome, the Pope, after the night Office was concluded, and after Mass had been celebrated at the altar of St. Peter, was crowned by the cardinals, and towards the sixth hour was accompanied by bishops and clergy to the Lateran.<br />
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On this day Jesus was taken up into Heaven; <br />
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His faithful disciples continued to gaze heavenward. The contemplative vision of Paradise is reserved, however, for those who have already passed into the Church Triumphant. The supreme glorification of the Head who is this day enthroned at the right hand of the Father in Heaven affects the members also, like the precious balsam which, as the psalmist tells us, descended from the head of Aaron on to his flowing beard and on to his gorgeous pontifical vestments. This spiritual unction is the gift of the Holy Ghost, which Christ obtains to-day from Heaven for his Church. Hence the connection between the Ascension and Pentecost is very close, nor can we understand the one without the other.<br />
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Battle Beadshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14434532264609898908noreply@blogger.com0