Immaculate Heart of Mary

Memorial (1969 Calendar): Saturday following the Second Sunday after Pentecost
Double of the II Class (1955 Calendar): August 22

May our Lady guard us while bringing us closer to the Heart of her Son. The image of the Immaculate Heart goes back to Luke 2:35, as we recall the sword of sorrow that pierced Mary's heart.

It was our sins that crucified Our Savior, which tore a sword of sorrow through his Mother Mary.
As Mary revealed at Fatima in 1917, the thorns surrounding her heart are a symbol of sins. Each time we offend our Lord and crucify Him, we further increase the pain His Mother felt beneath the Cross. At Fatima Mary said: "Jesus wishes to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world. I promise salvation to those who embrace it. Tell everybody that God grants graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and that they must ask them of her. Tell them that the Heart of Jesus wishes that by His side should be venerated the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Tell them to ask peace through the Immaculate Heart of Mary; God has placed it in her hands."

The history of the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as taken from the Traditional Breviary:

The liturgical worship, through which due honor is given to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, and for which many holy men and women have prepared the way, the Apostolic See itself first approved in the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Pope Pius VII instituted the feast of the Most Pure Heart of the Virgin Mary, to be piously and reverently celebrated by all the dioceses and religious families who had asked for it. Afterwards Pope Pius IX added an Office and a proper Mass to it. But an ardent desire and longing, which had arisen in the seventeenth century, grew day by day, that namely, the same Feast, given greater solemnity, might be spread to the entire Church. In 1942, Pope Pius XII, graciously acceding to this wish, and during the terrible war then ravaging almost the entire world, pitying the infinite hardships of men, and because of his devotion and confidence in our heavenly Mother, in solemn supplication earnestly entrusted the entire human race to her most generous Heart, and in honor of the same Immaculate Heart he ordered a Feast to be kept forever with its proper Office and Mass.

Today is the Octave Day of the Assumption in the pre-1955 Calendar.

Act of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

O Most Holy Virgin Mother, we listen with grief to the complaints of your Immaculate Heart surrounded with the thorns placed therein at every moment by the blasphemies and ingratitude of ungrateful humanity. We are moved by the ardent desire of loving you as Our Mother and of promoting a true devotion to your Immaculate Heart.

We, therefore, kneel before you to manifest the sorrow we feel for the grievances that people cause you, and to atone by our prayers and sacrifices for the offenses with which they return your love. Obtain for them and for us the pardon of so many sins. Hasten the conversion of sinners that they may love Jesus and cease to offend the Lord, already so much offended. Turn your eyes of mercy toward us, that we may love God with all our heart on earth and enjoy Him forever in heaven.

Amen.

Prayer:

Almighty everlasting God, Who in the heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary didst prepare a dwelling worthy of the Holy Ghost: grant in Thy mercy, that we who with devout minds celebrate the festival of that immaculate heart, may be able to live according to Thine own heart. Through our Lord...in the unity of the same Holy Ghost.

Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal

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The Community of the Monks of Adoration need donations

June 30, 2007 Update: The Monks of Adoration in the Venice diocese have been suppressed due to lack of vocations

While I was searching the Internet for the best site to find a copy of the Liturgy of Hours, I found the website for the Community of the Monks of Adoration. It is a contemplative order following the Rule of St. Augustine. They wear a gray tunic and scapular with a hood, a black rosary worn on the belt, and a medallion with the symbol of their community (the photo to the left).

While on the site, I read that the Monks of Adoration are in need of money for a new monastery building. They desperately need the money, so they are asking that everyone that visits their website to participate in the BUCK A BRICK program. They are asking readers to send them one dollar. That's all they ask for! Please, visit their website and send a dollar to them today. A dollar isn't worth much, but if everyone of their millions of visitors sends a dollar, they will have a new monastery.

Please send contributions to this address:

The Community of The Monks of Adoration
Saint Joseph the Worker Monastery Fund
2241 Englewood Road
Englewood, FL 34223.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal.But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be."

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Prayer to the Glorious Cross

I adore You, O glorious Cross, which was adorned with the Heart and Body of my Savior Jesus Christ, stained and covered with blood. I adore You, O Holy Cross, out of love for Him, Jesus, who is my Savior and my God.

(Pope Pius IX declared that reciting this prayer five times on Friday will free five souls from Purgatory and 33 souls by reciting it on Good Friday. This prayer should be recited before a crucifix with a contrite heart and praying a few minutes for the Pope).

Image Source: Photo Bucket

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Words of Inspiration: June 24, 2006

Blessed Mother Teresa: "When you accept a task, do it willingly. If not, don’t accept it!"

Padre Pio: "Jesus alone can understand what I suffer when the painful scene of Calvary is enacted before my eyes. It is equally incomprehensible how Jesus can be consoled not merely by those who sympathize with His torments, but when He finds a soul who, for love of Him, asks no consolations and only wants to be allowed to share in his sufferings" (Letters p 377).

"Man should tremble, the world should vibrate, all Heaven should be deeply moved when the Son of God appears on the alter in the hands of the priest" (St. Francis of Assisi)

Image Source: Pope Pius XI Enthroned at St. John Lateran Basilica

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The Nativity of St. John the Baptist

The Birth of Saint John the Baptist by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Oil on Canvas, Completed in 1655

Solemnity (1969 Calendar): June 24

Double of the I Class (1955 Calendar): June 24

Today is the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. Six months before the birth of Our Lord, we celebrate the birth of St. John the Baptist to Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary's cousin. It was St. John the Baptist who prepared the way for Our Lord and bore witness to Him.

 In "Christian Feasts and Customs," Father Weiser writes of the importance of the Feast of St. John's Nativity:

"The Council of Agde, in 506, listed the Nativity of Saint John among the highest feasts of the year, a day on which all faithful had to attend Mass and abstain from servile work. Indeed, so great was the rank of this festival that, just as on Christmas, three Masses were celebrated, one during the vigil service, the second at dawn, the third in the morning. In 1022, a synod at Seligenstadt, Germany, prescribed a fourteen-day fast and abstinence in preparation for the Feast of the Baptist. This, however, was never accepted into universal practice by the Roman authorities."

Today was, for some time, a Holy Day of Obligation.

Gospel Reading:

Now the time came for Elizabeth to be delivered, and she gave birth to a son. And her neighbors and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they would have named him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said, "Not so; he shall be called John." And they said to her, "None of your kindred is called by this name." And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, "His name is John." And they all marveled. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea; and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, "What then will this child be?" For the hand of the Lord was with him...And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel.

Luke 1:57-66, 80

Prayer:

O God, Who hast made this day worthy of honor by the birth of blessed John: grant to Thy people the grace of spiritual joys, and direct the minds of all the faithful into the way of eternal salvation. Through our Lord.

Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal

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Do the Laity Pray the Liturgy of the Hours?

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus comments on the growing practice of praying the Liturgy of the Hours among the laity. This is a great sign for the future of the Church:

"With, it seems, increasing frequency I come across lay people who are daily praying The Liturgy of the Hours. That is required for priests and members of religious communities. The daily office, as it is called, varies according to the traditions of some religious orders and in most communities is prayed in common or, as it is said, in choir. It is an encouraging thing that lay people, and especially younger lay people, are taking up this spiritual discipline. And even more encouraging when they are able to pray the office with others, as in the family."

Pray the Liturgy of the Hours!

Image Source: Solemn Traditional Divine Office with the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter/NLM

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Prayers for the Faithful Departed: In Paradisum

In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.

May angels lead you into Paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your coming and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem. May the ranks of angels receive you, and. with Lazarus, the poor man, may you have eternal rest.

Download The Order of Mass for the Dead in Latin and English

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Holy Trinity Prayer

Consecration to the Three Persons

In order that I may be a living act of perfect love, I offer myself as a whole burnt offering to Thy tender love, beseeching Thee to consume me continually, letting my soul overflow with the floods of infinite tenderness that are found in Thee, that so I may become a martyr of Thy love, O God! Let this martyrdom make me ready to appear before Thee and at last cause me to expire; let my soul cast itself without delay into the everlasting arms of Thy merciful love. With every beat of my heart I desire, O my dearly Beloved, to renew this offering an infinite number of times, until that day when the shadows shall vanish and I shall be able to retell my love in eternal union with Thee!  (Indulgence of 3 years)

In Praise of the Trinity 

 With our whole heart and voice we glorify Thee, we praise Thee, we bless Thee, God the Father unbegotten, the only-begotten Son, the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, the holy and undivided Trinity.  For Thou art great, and dost wonderful things: Thou alone art God. To Thee be praise, to Thee glory, to Thee thanksgiving forever and ever, O blessed Trinity!  (Roman Missal)

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Saints and Their Pets

I wanted to post about saints that had animals as pets. Of course, virtually all of us know of St. Francis' love for animals, but several other holy men and women had pets.

St. John Bosco had a pet dog in his youth while St. Philip Neri had a cat in his old age. St. Francis of Paola had a pet fish that was cooked one day. So, St. Francis of Paola raised it from the dead by the power of God.

Saint Brigid even tamed animals. Back in her time, the law stated that if a thief was in a Church no-one was allowed to arrest him. One day a group of hunters chased a wild boar into Church and wanted to come in and kill it. The men said that the Church refuge rule did not apply to animals. Saint Brigid said the rule did indeed apply, and so the hunters were forced to leave. She then gave the exhausted boar a drink and it ended up living on her personal farm with the cows she owned.

St. Rocco and St Lazarus the Beggar are pictured with a dog, and St. Anthony of Padua even preached to fish that listened to him. St. Francis negotiated with a wolf and even preached to birds telling them to glorify God. St. Jerome had a lion, and St. Giles had a deer.

As we can see, kindness towards animals and creation is a sign of holiness and respect for God. Whether or not if we can talk with animals like some saints, we all need to show them respect.

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Be Ready to Defend the Church: Quotations

"Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness" ~ Isaiah 5:20

"You shall be held responsible if you do not warn of evil" ~ Ezekiel 33: 7-9

"Not to oppose error, is to approve of it, and not to defendtruth is to suppress it, and indeed to neglect to confound evilmen, when we can do it, is no less a sin than to encourage them." ~ Pope Felix III

"The power of evil men lives on the cowardice of the good" ~ St. John Bosco

"To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamors are raised against truth, is a part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubts as to the truth of what he professes to believe. In both cases such a mode of behavior is base and insulting to God and both are incompatible with the salvation of mankind. This kind of conduct is profitableonly to the enemies of faith, for nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good very frequently, by a display of courage, our enemies lose heart and their designs are thwarted. Christians, moreover, are born for combat!" ~ Pope Leo XIII

Image: Pope Leo XIII

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