Divine Mercy Novena - begins Good Friday

JESUS gave St. Faustina an intention to pray for on each day of the Novena. for instance on the last day, JESUS asked her to pray for 'lukewarm and indifferent', of whom He said: "These souls cause Me more suffering than any others;...' The last hope of salvation for them is to flee to My Mercy."

In her diary, St. Faustina noted that Jesus told her:

"On each day of the novena you will bring to My heart a different group of souls and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy ... On each day you will beg My Father, on the strength of My passion, for the graces for these souls."

The Little Known Purple Scapular

The Amazing new Scapular of Benediction and Protection for Powerful Graces and Protection

The Mother of God and her Son Jesus gave the Purple Scapular to the approved Catholic mystic, Marie-Julie Jahenny, to protect your family from the worst possible natural disasters and supernatural dangers. Jahenny foretold (along with other approved Catholic visionaries) that a worldwide "judgment-in-miniature" known as the Warning is coming to the entire world, followed by great chastisements.

Mary: "Divine wrath will not strike."
Our Lady urged all of us to prominently display this "unknown" Purple Scapular on a wall in our homes. Those who do this "will see their family and home protected... from fires, chastisements, storms, and darkness. They will have light as if it were as plain as day."

She said it is "like a lightning rod beneath which the blows of divine wrath will not strike." Even intruders bent on harm will be struck down.

Word-for-Word from Our Lady

I hail Thee, Jesus crucified,
for granting me life.

I hail Thee with all the joy
of the angels and saints during
Your descent from the Cross.

I hail Thee with the sadness
of Your mother while You rested
on her Immaculate heart and lap.

Repeat 5 times:

O Crux Ave, spes unica,
et Verbum caro factum est.
O Jesus, conqueror of death, save us!

Amen.

This is what the Holy Virgin shows me on Her Immaculate Heart, it is a large scapular, larger than ordinary scapulars, it is a little larger than the palm of the hand. It is a pretty violet, nearly the color of a violet. Here is what is on top: -- in the middle are the three nails which crucified Our Lord on the Cross, they are placed above each other, not quite in the shape of the Cross, and at the point of each nail, there is a drop of purple blood. Above the heads of the nails, there is a kind of large sponge which has pieces of bark that stand out, it is a little like bales of oats. The three drops of blood join to fall into a small chalice painted red, and the chalice is surrounded by a crown of thorns, there are three little Crosses engraved on the front of the chalice. That is the side of the scapular which is on the middle cloak of the Holy Virgin.

I notice that this scapular is held with two violet ties which go over each shoulder, there are three knots on the left shoulder and two on the right.

The other side of the scapular represents the Holy Virgin Mary sitting, holding Her Adorable Son in Her arms, the mouth and the head of Our Lord rest on the heart of the Holy Virgin.

At the bottom of the scapular, and nearly at the feet of Our Lord, is an Angel dressed in white, with curly hair; he has on his head a white crown, his belt is red. He holds in his hands a white cloth with which he wipes the feet of Our Lord. Next to the Angel, on the right side of the scapular, there is an engraved ladder. Behind Our Lord, on the left, is the reed of the Passion painted red, but there is no sponge. The tears of the Holy Virgin flow onto Her breast, to the right and fall to the feet of the Angel. The scapular is edged with a red band and the cords are made of wool.

"Let Me now my dear child" the Virgin Mother said to me, "give you the explanation of this scapular. I am addressing you, My victim and My servant (most likely the spiritual director of Marie-Julie).

"My children of the Cross, for a long time My Son and I have wished to make known this scapular of benediction. This scapular, My children, is modeled on My Heart, because My Heart is the emblem of simplicity and humility, which explains the color of violet. The nails which have pierced the feet and the hands of My Son are barely venerated and are venerable, that is why My Son, in His Divine Wisdom, has had three nails painted on the front of the scapular.

"Those three drops of blood and the chalice represent the generous hearts gathering the blood of My Divine Son. The red sponge will represent My Divine Son drinking, in a certain sense, the sins of His children, but which His adorable mouth refuses.

"I wish that the background (usually) black of the scapular should be violet, but I wish that the nails, the chalice, the sponge and the crown should be on a dark red piece of flannel.

Promises

This first appearance of this scapular will be a new protection for the times of the chastisements, the calamities and the famines. All those who will wear it will be able to go through storms, tempests and darkness, they will have light as in broad daylight. Such is the power of this unknown scapular."

The Holy Virgin presents the scapular to Our Lord who, in His turn says: "I address you My victim and also My victims and My servant, My children of the Cross, I wish to and I come to give you an idea and a deep thought: When taking Me down from the Cross, I was given to My Mother, that descent, that thought, that devotion is little known. I wish that by the reproduction of this scapular, it should enter the hearts of My children of the Cross, and that they hail Me by these three greetings:

(The Crux Ave):

--I hail Thee, Jesus crucified, to let me live.

--I hail Thee with all the joy of the Angels and of the Saints on bringing Thee down from the Cross.

--I hail Thee with all the sorrow of Thy Mother when Thou rested on Her Immaculate heart and on Her lap.

"My children, very few souls think of wiping the adorable wounds on My feet when the blood flows and I wish this representation to be known. Little thought is also given to the tears shed by My Mother during My Passion: those tears are at the feet of the Angel who wipes My sacred feet. By this scapular, I wish you to think about that ladder, that reed and those nails of My Passion.

Promises

"My children, any soul, any person who will possess this scapular, will see his family protected, his house will also be protected, firstly from conflagrations, which will never penetrate it.

"This scapular will crush the ungrateful who will blaspheme My Name in the house where it will be exposed. If an impious enters, he will be so struck that his conversion will occur. All those who will wear it will be protected from thunder, sudden death and accidents. During the chastisements they will be protected.

Whoever places it in the Holy Temple, will drive out the impious and the profanations. Our Lord also adds that by reminding an obstinate soul about this scapular at the time of death, it will reawaken in it faith and conviction, that all those who will think about it and love it, will be spared the pains of the soul, that those who will wear it will be sheltered from all danger as if they possessed Heaven.

"And finally that this scapular will be like a lightning conductor beneath which the blows of just Divine Anger will not strike."
(Translation: O hail to the Cross! Our only hope! And the Word was made flesh.) The first part must be said in Latin as it was given in Latin.

Crux Ave - Prayer 2

I hail you, I adore you, I embrace you, oh adorable Cross of My Savior. Protect us, keep us, save us. Jesus loved you so much, by His example, I love you. By your holy image calm my fears, so that I may only feel peace and confidence.

Informative video:
https://youtu.be/q8-RVxD3JuY

Marie-Julie bio parts 1&2 

https://youtu.be/rhJQX5Nsn10

https://youtu.be/5nBYtuMPlS8

Info primarily from: Catholic City

Holy Thursday

This day, Maundy Thursday (also "Holy Thursday" or "Shire Thursday") commemorates Christ's Last Supper and the initiation of the Eucharist. Its name of "Maundy" comes from the Latin word mandatum, meaning "command." This stems from Christ's words in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give unto you." It is the first of the three days known as the "Triduum," and after the Vigil tonight, and until the Vigil of Easter, a more profoundly somber attitude prevails (most especially during the hours between Noon and 3:00 PM on Good Friday). Raucous amusements should be set aside...

The Last Supper took place in "the upper room" of the house believed to have been owned by John Mark and his mother, Mary (Acts 12:12). This room, also the site of the Pentecost, is known as the "Coenaculum" or the "Cenacle" and is referred to as "Holy and glorious Sion, mother of all churches" in St. James' Liturgy. At the site of this place -- our first Christian church -- a basilica was built in the 4th century. It was destroyed by Muslims and later re-built by the Crusaders. Underneath the place is the tomb of David.

After the Supper, He went outside the Old City of Jerusalem, crossed the Kidron Valley, and came to the Garden of Gethsemani, a place whose name means "Olive Press," and where olives still grow today. There He suffered in three ineffable ways: He knew exactly what would befall Him physically and mentally -- every stroke, every thorn in the crown He would wear, every labored breath He would try to take while hanging on the Cross, the pain in each glance at His mother; He knew that He was taking on all the sins of the world -- all the sins that had ever been or ever will be committed; and, finally, He knew that, for some people, this Sacrifice would not be fruitful because they would reject Him. Here He was let down by His Apostles when they fell asleep instead of keeping watch, here is where He was further betrayed by Judas with a kiss, and where He was siezed by "a great multitude with swords and clubs, sent from the chief Priests and the ancients of the people" and taken before Caiphas, the high priest, where he was accused of blasphemy, beaten, spat upon, and prepared to be taken to Pontius Pilate tomorrow morning.

As for today's liturgies, in the morning, the local Bishop will offer a special Chrism Mass during which blesses the oils used in Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders, Unction, and the consecration of Altars and churches.

At the evening Mass, after the bells ring during the Gloria, they are rung no more until the Easter Vigil (a wooden clapper called a "crotalus" is used insead). Parents explain this to their children by saying that the all the bells fly to Rome after the Gloria of the Mass on Maundy Thursday to visit the Popes. Children are told that the bells sleep on the roof of St. Peter's Basilica, and, bringing Easter eggs with them, start their flight home at the Gloria at the Easter Vigil, when when they peal wildly. 

Then comes the Washing of the Feet after the homily, a rite performed by Christ upon His disciples to prepare them for the priesthood and the marriage banquet they will offer, and which is rooted in the Old Testament practice of foot-washing in preparation for the marital embrace (II Kings 11:8-11, Canticles 5:3) and in the ritual ablutions performed by the High Priest of the Old Covenant (contrast Leviticus 16:23-24 with John 13:3-5). The priest girds himself with a cloth and washes the feet of 12 men he's chosen to represent the Apostles for the ceremony.

The rest of the Mass after the Washing of the Feet has a special form, unlike all other Masses. After the Mass, the priest takes off his chasuble and vests in a white cope. He returns to the Altar, incenses the Sacred Hosts in the ciborium, and, preceded by the Crucifer and torchbearers, carries the Ciborium to the "Altar of Repose," also called the "Holy Sepulchre," where it will remain "entombed" until the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday.

Then there follows the Stripping of the Altars, during which everything is removed as Antiphons and Psalms are recited. All the glorious symbols of Christ's Presence are removed to give us the sense of His entering most fully into His Passion. Christ enters the Garden of Gethsemani; His arrest is imminent. Fortescue's "Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described" tells us: "From now till Saturday no lamps in the church are lit. No bells are rung. Holy Water should be removed from all stoups and thrown into the sacrarium. A small quantity is kept for blessing the fire on Holy Saturday or for a sick call." The joyful signs of His Presence won't return until Easter begins with the Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday evening.

Customs

As to customs, many families have a practice of visiting the tabernacles of three or seven nearby churches after the Mass on this day as a sort of "mini-pilgrimage" (any nearby Catholic churches will do). Some families visit the churches directly after the evening Mass; others go home and wake up in the middle of the night to make the visits (though since churches are rarely open all night these days, this would be hard to do). The spirit of the visits to the churches is keeping vigil in the Garden of Gethsemani while Jesus prayed before His arrest. Matthew 26:36 "Then Jesus came with them into a country place which is called Gethsemani; and he said to his disciples: Sit you here, till I go yonder and pray."

In Germany, Maundy Thursday is known as "Green Thursday" (Grundonnerstag), and the traditional foods are green vegetables and green salad, especially a spinach salad. In Latin countries, Jordan almonds ("confetti") are eaten today and also throughout Eastertide.

Back when Kings and Queens of England were Catholic, they, too, would wash the feet of 12 subjects, seeing the footwashing rite also as an example of service and humility. They would also give money to the poor on this day, a practice is said to have begun with St. Augustine of Canterbury in A.D. 597, and performed by Kings since Edward II. Now the footwashing isn't done (it was given up in the 18th c.), but a special coin called "Maundy Money" is minted and given to the selected elderly of a representative town. 

On this day, one may gain a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, by reciting the Tantum Ergo (Down in Adoration Falling).

Tantum ergo sacramentum
Veneremur cernui
Et antiquum documentum
Novo cedat ritui
Praestet fides supplementum
Sensum defectui

Genitori, genitoque
Laus et jubilatio
Salus, honor, virtus quoque
Sit et benedictio
Procedenti ab utroque
Compar sit laudatio, amen
Read more at http://www.songlyrics.com/charlotte-church/tantum-ergo-lyrics/#T8jDJRG3zAvMKZqf.9

Tantum ergo sacramentum
Veneremur cernui
Et antiquum documentum
Novo cedat ritui
Praestet fides supplementum
Sensum defectui
 

 Genitori, genitoque
Laus et jubilatio
Salus, honor, virtus quoque
Sit et benedictio
Procedenti ab utroque
Compar sit laudatio, 

Amen

How Do We Know There Is An Afterlife?

One alternative to the Christian view of death is the atheistic in or materialistic view of death. According to this view, just as the information on a computer ceases to exist when the computer is destroyed (provided the information hasn’t been backed up anywhere else), the information in our brains that makes us “us” ceases to exist when our brain dies. Since humans lack the ability to back up their mental experiences, it follows that once the body dies, or even if just a vital part of the brain dies, the person as a whole forever ceases to exist (v).

But there are several aspects of the human experience that contradict this materialistic view of man and its subsequent denial of the afterlife.

First, if humans have free will and can choose to be moral or immoral, then a person’s actions can’t merely be the result of chemical reactions in his brain. If they were, then no one could freely choose a course of action any more than a rock at the mercy of gravity and friction can choose which way to roll down a hill. Just as we don’t hold landslides or tigers morally responsible for the harm they cause, equally, physical humans would also lack moral responsibility. But humans are morally responsible for their actions (or, we rightly say that human acts can be good or evil), which means human actions are not purely the result of physical processes.

However, a critic could say that moral reasoning and other distinctly human behaviors like rational thought emerge from the right mixture of physical molecules, just as the Mona Lisa emerges from the right mixture of paint colors. Tigers and lightning don’t have this mixture but humans do, which is why humans have distinct features like consciousness, the capacity for abstract thought, and moral awareness. An immaterial “soul” then becomes unnecessary to explain these uniquely human behaviors.

The problem with this argument is that uniquely human behaviors aren’t only unexplained from a materialist perspective, they are inexplicable from that viewpoint, as no physical explanation can ever account for these behaviors. Consider, for example, the difference between an image and a concept. A dog may see a cat, but he never sees the concept “cat” and so he doesn’t understand it. Likewise, primates may see an object as a useful tool, but they can’t apprehend the concept “tool” and so they don’t produce tools for others to use. Tools only exist as these creatures come across them and not as ideas in the mind that can be fashioned out of what exists (vi).

Humans, on the other hand, can both know abstract concepts and communicate them to others through language. This is important because abstract concepts only exist in an immaterial way. They are real, but they cannot be discovered through sensory or other material means. Humans must, therefore, possess an immaterial way of coming to know these real entities—what we call an immaterial soul. Because the soul is immaterial it has no parts, and if death involves the reduction of a thing to its component parts, then this means that the soul cannot die and so survives the death of the body.

Even atheistic philosophers understand the problem inherent in a physical brain thinking about things that lie beyond the brain’s immediate interactions. For example, if our brains were just lumps of matter, then how could anything about frozen Antarctica be inside my brain cells, which have never been there? When my brain is thinking “about” Antarctica, you can examine it with all kinds of instruments, but nothing from the frozen continent will be visible. The atheistic philosopher Alex Rosenberg wrote:

Consciousness is just another physical process. So, it has as much trouble producing aboutness as any other physical process . . . it’s got to be an illusion, since nothing physical can be about anything . . . the clumps of matter that constitute your conscious thoughts can’t be about stuff either.

As a result, Rosenberg rejects the idea that our “selves” really exist and argues that our consciousness, or internal mental life, is just an illusion. But if our self really is “real,” then we have good evidence that our mind is not the same thing as our physical brain. We can know that an immaterial principle of being, or the soul, organizes our physical body and gives rise to our rational abilities (vii).

Finally, we have evidence that death is not the end of our existence, because someone has come back from the dead to testify that this isn’t the case—Jesus Christ. As St. Paul wrote, “If the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins . . . But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:16, 17, 20).

  
​​​*TAKEN FROM - 20 ANSWERS: DEATH & JUDGEMENT*