Octave of Pentecost + (Queenship of The Blessed Virgin Mary)

It's a beautiful day. haha. :) It's because it's the Queenship of Dearest Mother Mary!

And here are links to a very good article (in 3 parts) with the running title: What Jesus Owes To His Mother , According to Biblical Theology and the Middle Ages Theologians, Conférence Albert le Grand, 1959 By Rev. Fr. C. Spicq, O.P. (+ 1992)

Part I

Part II

Part III

Regina mundi dignissima, Maria Virgo perpetua, intercede pro nostra pace et salute, quae genuisti Christum Dominum, Salvatorem omnium. (T.P. Alleluia)

And here's something from Alone with God on the Queenship of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary:

Alone with God
By Father J. Heyrman, S.J.

THE QUEENSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

1. The liturgical feast of Mary’s Queenship was established during the Marian Year 1954, on the 11th of October. In this manner the Vicar of Christ solemnly sanctioned a title, which the Christian people had given to Mary during the centuries. In the 15th century the devout Dominican painter, Fra Angelico, many a time painted on the walls of his monastery at Florence, the coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven. We behold our Lady, on bended knees, with folded hands, bowing slightly before her divine Son, who places the crown on His Mother’s brow. Even at the moment, when she is being crowned Queen of heaven and earth, her attitude is as humble and as meek as when she said to the angel, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord”.

The Painting of the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Fra Angelico.

2. Petition: The grace to join the heavenly court in paying homage to our Queen.
Hail, Queen of heaven enthroned,
Hail by angels Mistress owned.

I. Mary Our Queen

In the Litany of Loreto Christian piety has, with the exception of the middle group of invocations, divided Mary’s titles into three groups; Mother, Virgin, Queen. These are the most exalted and the most honourable titles one can give to a woman: and all three together, in the worthiest sense, belong only to one Woman, our Blessed Lady.

The first two, Mother and Virgin, refer to what is most sacred about a woman; and here, where Mary is concerned, they are ranked in the order of their dignity. These two titles are at the head of the entire series, and will be enlarged upon in various ways: “Holy Mother of God, and Holy Virgin of Virgins.” Kind as a mother, but more than any other mother, because she is Mother of God; inviolate as a virgin, but more than any other virgin, because she is the Virgin Mother of the Son of God.

In the third series we salute her as Queen: her “style and title”, her rank and office in the Kingdom of her Son. We salute her as Queen of every angelic choir, and of every group of Saints. To these titles several have been added during the last century, as shining jewels in her royal diadem: the last, Queen assumed into heaven!

II. Mary’s Right to the Title

No earthly title is glorious enough to express Mary’s exalted dignity. Queen, princess, ruler, refer to social relations among men. Mary is in all truth Mother of God and this implies a natural relation between her, and Him, who is God and man. Her dignity is unique, immeasurable, and, as St. Thomas says, in a certain sense infinite. “The Humanity of Jesus, which is united with the Deity; the bliss of the Saints, which is the possession of God; the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is Mother of God; all these, because of the infinite Good, Which is God, are in a certain sense infinite.”

When the angel had delivered his message, and Mary had given her consent, Mary became the Mother of the Son of the Most High. “The Lord God shall give him the throne of his father, and he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” And to His Mother He gives a royal dignity, of which likewise there shall be no end.

Mary furthermore deserves this title, because as Mother of the Saviour she received from Him a most intimate and unique share in the work of our salvation. The Encyclical of Oct. 11, 1954 said, “It is true that, in the real and strictest sense, the title of King belongs exclusively to Christ, God and man. However Mary, in a limited sense, shares His royal dignity; because she is the Mother of Christ, our God, and because she was associated with Christ’s work of salvation.”

And therefore in the liturgical office of this day the Church sings:

“By the Cross of Christ His Mother stood,
Sharing in His sufferings, of all
the world Queen;
The Virgin Mary was taken up to heaven;
She reigns with
Christ for all eternity…
Together with her Son in the glory of His Father.”

III. Our Queen’s Power

The King, at times, is obliged to us His power to chastise; not so the Queen. She uses her influence and her power only to scatter favours, to intercede, to plead, to obtain mercy, to save. Painters of the last Judgment were wont to represent this in the following manner: Christ, the Supreme Judge, appears on the clouds with a stern countenance; close to Him, but a little lower, in the attitude of a suppliant, Mary looks up to her divine Son. This is not an inappropriate way to represent to our sense how our Queen, Mother of Mercy, deigns to use her “omnipotentia supplex”, her boundless power of intercession, to plead for us, poor banished children of Eve, to whom she longs to show one day the blessed fruit of her womb.

Prayer: On Nov. 1, 1954, in his address on the Queenship of Mary, Pope Pius XII said, “Anxious to interpret the feelings of all Christians, We thus pray fervently to the Blessed Mary, ever Virgin:

To Thee, O Mary, most dear Mother, we raise our hearts from the depths of this vale of tears, where distressed mankind struggles against the rising waves of an ocean, lashed into the fury by the violent tempests of our passions; we hope to be strengthened by the contemplation of thy glory; we salute thee as Queen and Ruler of heaven and earth, as our Queen and Mistress … Be thou indeed our Queen, and show us the way to holiness … Reign thou over the whole human race, and lead into the fold those that do not yet know the name of thy Son. Reign over the Church, especially in those lands where the Church suffers persecution. Reign over each one of us, over families, over realms and nations. Grant that all those who this day acclaim thee as their Queen and their Mistress, may one day enjoy the plenitude of bliss in thy Kingdom, where they shall behold thy Son, who with the Father and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth for ever, world without end. Amen.”

Jesus, Mary, I love Thee; Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!

Pentecost! - DONVM DEI (The Gift of God)

:) Good Day All:

It's the Feast of Pentecost! :) We are now in the octave of the Feast.

In a while, I will change the background mp3 to that of Veni Creator or something else suitable when the Angelus is being said instead of the Regina Caeli. (The Regina Caeli replaced the Angelus from Easter Sunday morning until noon of the Saturday after Pentecost inclusive. It is also sung or recited at Compline with its verse and prayer during Paschal Time)

Veni Creator Spiritus

Veni Creator Spiritus
Mentes tuorum visita:
Imple superna gratia
Quae tu creasti pectora.

Qui diceris Paraclitus,
Altissimi donum Dei,
Fons vivus, ignis, caritas
Et spiritalis unctio.

Tu septiformis munere,
Digitus paternae dexterae,
Tu rite promissum Patris
Sermone ditans guttura.

Accende lumen sensibus,
Infunde amorem cordibus,
Infirma nostril corporis
Virtute firmans perpeti.

Hostem repellas longius,
Pacemque dones protinus,
Ductore sic te praevio
Vitemus omne noxium.

Per te sciamus da Patrem,
Noscamus atque Filium,
Teque utriusque Spiritum
Credamus omni tempore.

Deo Patri sit Gloria,
Et Filio qui a mortuis,
Surrexit, ac Paraclito,
In saeculorum saecula.
Amen.

V. Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur.
R. Et renovabis faciem terrae.

Oremus
Deus qui corda fidelium Sancti Spiritus illustratione docuisti, da nobis in eodem Spiritu recta sapere, et de eius simper consolatione gaudere. Per Christum, Dominum nostrum.
Amen.

GOSPEL (John XIV. 23-31) At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him. He that loveth me not, keepeth not my words: and the word which you have heard is not mine, but the Father's, who sent me. These things have I spoken to you, abiding with you: but the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. You have heard that I said to you, I go away, and I come unto you. If you loved me, you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have ;told you before it came to pass, that when it shall come to pass you may believe. I will not now speak many things with you; for the prince of this world cometh, and in me he hath not anything. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father hath givers me commandment, so do I.

If thou didst know the gift of God. (John IV:10)

Alone with God
By Father J. Heyrman, S.J.

DONVM DEI – The Gift of God
Whit Monday

1. It is a moving spectacle, at High Mass on Pentecost day, to see the celebrant, the sacred ministers, the acolytes, and the whole congregation, falling on their knees, when the choir intones the Veni Sancte Spiritus: with burning hearts and ardent desire all listen to the hallowed melody and the pleading alleluias. “Come, O Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful.”

2. Petition: That the Holy Ghost may fill our hearts and kindle in them divine love.

I. The Gift of God

“Donum Dei,” the Gift of God: this is the proper name of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, who is the bond of love between the Father and the Son, and “the charity of God, poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us” (Rom. 5:5). Every gift is a pure token of love, not due from the giver, not merited by the recipient. This is the true of “every best gift, and every perfect gift from above, coming from the Father of lights” (Jas. 1:17); it is true most of all of Charity Itself, the primordial gift, whence all other flow. God’s love (for us) was poured into our souls in holy Baptism. In this Sacrament the Holy Ghost was given to us, “poured forth into our hearts”, as St. Paul says, like a rushing flood that pervades our whole being. The gift of sanctifying grace accomplishes a fundamental change in the soul, a new creation; we cease to be slaves, imbued with the spirit of fear and servitude. “You have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba (Father). For the Spirit giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of God” (Rom. 8: 15,16). This is the spontaneous cry from the child’s heart, into which the Holy Ghost has entered, dwells, works and prays.

II. The Gifts of the Holy Ghost

The influence of the Holy Ghost on the soul is profound and subtle. Through His seven gifts – wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, the fear of the Lord – He pervades our every faculty, our intellect, our will, and renders them fit to receive God’s grace.

So often we pray that we may recta sapere, that is, relish what is right in things spiritual and supernatural. The gifts of the Holy Ghost – wisdom, understanding, counsel and knowledge – give keenness and insight to the intellect. The Saints possess this right relish: the holy Cure of Ars was well known not as a man of learning; his fellow priests were aware of this and expressed to the Bishop their doubts as to his fitness to hear confession and to preach the word of God. “I do not know,” answered the Pastor, “whether he has much learning, but I know that he is enlightened.” The Imitation of Christ points out this difference: “There is a great difference between the wisdom of a devout and enlightened servant of God, and the learning of a cultured and studious scholar. Far nobler is that knowledge which flows from above, from God Himself, than that which is painfully acquired by human intellect” (Book 3, 31:2).

The gifts of understanding, wisdom, counsel and knowledge enlighten the mind and give it supernatural intuition; the gifts of fortitude, piety and the fear of the Lord strengthen the will, and enable it to obey readily God’s will and to persevere therein.

The gifts of the Holy Ghost are of many kinds; but He Himself is THE Gift of the Father and of the Son to us: and in bestowing that Gift on us they have given us all things. That Gift is “the charity of God, poured forth in our hearts” (Rom. 5:5).

While the entire congregation, kneeling before the altar prays, “Come, O Holy Ghost; fill the hearts of Thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Thy love,” the Spirit Himself prays in us, according to the words of St. Paul, “The Spirit also helpeth our infirmity. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings. And he that searcheth the hearts (the Father) knoweth what the Spirit desireth: because he asketh for the saints according to God” (Rom. 8: 26,27).

These words of the Apostle show what a profound mystery the Church and her children commemorate this day. They make us realize that the Spirit animates the Mystical Body, gives life to every member and to the entire Body, abides in it, is active in it, and will be active until the last day.

Prayer to the Father: Send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

Prayer to the Holy Ghost: Come, O Holy Ghost; fill the hearts of Thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Thy Love.

Jesus, Mary, I love Thee; Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!

The Heart of Jesus in His Farewell Discourse

=) Here's a beautiful excerpt from Alone with God, on the Sacred Heart:

Alone with God
By Father J. Heyrman, S.J.

THE HEART OF JESUS IN HIS FAREWELL DISCOURSE

1. In His farewell discourse after the Supper, Jesus lays bare the most intimate feelings of His Heart. St. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, had kept His Lord’s words in his heart, had pondered over them during long years, ever gaining a deeper insight into their meaning; finally, in his old age prompted by the Holy Ghost, he set them down in his Gospel. In this meditation we shall try to understand what Jesus gave us in this last conversation with His own, what He promised us, what He asked of us. Hence we shall come to realize that truly He loved us unto the end.

2. Petition: The grace to understand better the Heart of our Saviour, which “has made us partakers of His infinite riches”.

I. What Does Jesus Give Us?

He gives us peace. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you” (John 14:27). No one can give what he does not have; and therefore the world cannot give the peace which it does not possess. “And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people disgracefully saying peace, peace; and there was no peace” (Jer. 6:14). “For all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life.” (1 John 2:16). These are the never-failing sources of strife and discord among men.

Jesus gives us peace: At His cradle the angels sang, “Peace to men of good will”; and Zacharias prophesied that He would “direct our feet into the way of peace”. He is the “Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). He Himself is our Peace. Among the Jews the customary greeting was “Peace be to you” (Pax tecum). Coming from the lips of Jesus, these were not mere words: they issued from the depths of His Heart, in which dwells all the fullness of peace; and of this fullness He gives us generously. We must carefully preserve that peace and foster its growth around us. “And the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7).

Jesus gives us joy: “That my joy may be in you” (John 15:11). His joy also is a joy that the world knows not and cannot give; for it is the result of true peace, a peace so secure that nothing on earth can disturb it. Here again we come face to face with that “gigantic secret of the Christian”, who may suffer trial and temptation, but ever remembers that his hope will not be disappointed.

Jesus gives us love: “That the love, where with thou hast loved me, may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26). These are the concluding words of our Lord’s priestly prayer to His Father, imploring the Father to love us with the love with which He loves the Son. This is His parting gift. St. John is the only Evangelist who does not record the institution of the Eucharist: instead he has preserved for us the burning words spoken by Jesus after He had given them His Body and His Blood as a pledge of His Love, words that flowed straight from Christ’s Heart, “glowing furnace of charity”.

These three gifts of Jesus are also fruits of the Holy Ghost, for whose coming we are at present preparing our hearts. “But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace” (Gal. 5:22).

II. What Does Jesus Promise Us?

“I will not leave you orphans” (John 14:18). He will send them an Advocate, a Consoler, “the Spirit of truth, who will teach them all truth” and who will abide with them.

But He also remains with them, not only through His Spirit, who will enlighten their minds, but sacramentally, whenever they do what He asked them to do “for a commemoration of Him”; truly will He be present with them, within them, and will be their food unto eternal life.

“And if you shall ask me anything in my name that I will do” (John 14:14).

All this Jesus promised to His Apostles when He bade them farewell; all this He promises to those who, through the ministry of the Apostles, will believe in Him.

He gives us Divine gifts, divine promises, coming straight from the Heart of Jesus, “full of goodness and love”.

III. What Does Jesus Ask of Us?

It all can be summed up in one word. “Abide in Me”. And we abide in Him when we observe His commandment that we “love one another as he has loved us” (John 13:34); and secondly, when we do what He bade us do in commemoration of Him namely when, with the whole Church, we offer Him to the Father and, partaking of His Flesh and His Blood, we become one with Him and with each other.

Prayer: Unto Thy Church, we beseech Thee, O Lord, do Thou graciously grant the gifts of unity and peace, which in the gifts offered are mystically signified, through our Lord (Secret, Corpus Christi).

A little trivia: Since this is May, the month of Mother Mary, Here is the Ave Maria in different languages! :)

Latin

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

Italian

Ave Maria, piena di grazia, il Signore è con te. Tu sei benedetta fra le donne, e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno, Gesú. Santa Maria, Madre di Dio, prega per noi peccatori, adesso e nell'ora della nostra morte. Amen.

French

Je vous salue, Marie, pleine de grâce, Le Seigneur est avec vous. Vous êtes bénie entre toutes les femmes, et Jésus, le fruit de vos entrailles, est béni. Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu, priez pour nous, pauvres pécheurs, maintenant et à l'heure de notre mort. Amen.

German

Gegrüßet seist du, Maria, voll der Gnade, der Herr ist mit dir. Du bist gebenedeit unter den Frauen, und gebenedeit ist die Frucht deines Leibes, Jesus. Heilige Maria, Mutter Gottes, bitte für uns Sünder jetzt und in der Stunde unseres Todes. Amen.

Jesus, Mary, I Love Thee; Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!

Bishop Fellay on YouTube

H.E. Bishop Fellay on May 16 2007,

Part #1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WieXocVu1hg / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS-7LeNqrq4
Part #2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CJcaQ9KNUM / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgnCDqv6m20
Part #3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wJU-O1-QkI
Part #4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlE6swL0Blw
Part #5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWdaw1B6n14
Part #6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGQOD0BIPGE
Part #7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHyghM0pIbk
Part #8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OislOHWCzYw
Part #9: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gLKTyyO4q4
Part #10: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDbT6h_V7qg
Part #11: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uQF7Us9tos
Part #12: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjLRd7WIElQ
Part #13: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdNb_HULbdY
Part #14: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhqsXbFK1Z8

http://www.traditionalcatholicmedia.com/flash/ - for the full (in Part I and Part II).

Jesus, Mary, I love Thee; Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!

Sunday after the Ascension

Here's something from the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ by St. Alphonsus, on Jesus upon the Cross. Dear Saint Alphonsus sure has a way about writing! His Glories of Mary and Passion and Death of Jesus Christ are two of my most favourite books! :)

St. Alphonsus de Ligouri’s
The Passion and the Death of Jesus Christ

Pg 267
V.
Jesus upon the Cross

Jesus upon the Cross was a spectacle which filled heaven and earth with amazement, at the sight of an Almighty God, the Lord of all, dying upon an infamous gibbet, condemned as a malefactor between two other male-factors. It was a spectacle of justice, in displaying the Eternal Father, in order that his justice might be satisfied; punishing the sins of men in the person of his only-begotten Son, loved by him as himself. It was a spectacle of mercy, displaying his innocent Son dying a death so shameful and so bitter, in order to save his creatures from the punishment that was due to them. Especially was it a sight of love, in displaying a God who offered and gave his life to redeem from death his slaves and enemies.

It is this spectacle which ever was and ever will be the dearest object of the contemplations of the saints, through which they have counted it little to strip themselves of all earthly pleasures and goods, and to embrace with desire and joy both pain and death, in order to make some return of gratitude to a God who died for love of them.

Comforted by the sight of Jesus derided upon the Cross, the saints have loved contempt more than worldly people have loved all the honors of the world. At the sight of Jesus naked and dying upon the Cross, they have sought to abandon all the good things of this earth. At the sight of him all wounded upon the cross, while the blood flowed forth from all his limbs, they have learnt to abhor sensual pleasures, and have sought to afflict their flesh as much as they could, in order to accompany with their own sufferings the sufferings of the Crucified. At the sight of the obedience and conformity of will retained by Jesus Christ to the will of his Father, they have labored to conquer all those appetites which were not conformed to the divine pleasure; while many, though occupied in works of piety, yet, knowing that to be deprived of their own will was the sacrifice the most welcome to the heart of God which they could offer, have entered into some religious Order, to lead a life of obedience, and subject their own will to that of others. At the sight of the patience of Jesus Christ, in being willing to suffer so many pains and insults for the love of us, they have received with satisfaction and joy injuries, infirmities, persecutions, and the torments of tyrants. At the sight of the love which Jesus Christ has shown to us in sacrificing to God his life upon the Cross for us, they have sacrificed to Jesus Christ all they possessed, - their property, their pleasures, their honours, and their life.

How is it, then, that so many Christians, although they know by faith that Jesus Christ died for love of them, instead of devoting themselves wholly to love and serve him, devote themselves to offend and despise him for the sake of brief and miserable pleasures? Whence comes this ingratitude? It comes from their forgetfulness of the Passion and death of Jesus Christ. And, O my God, what will be their remorse and shame at the day of judgement, when the Lord shall reproach them with all that he has done and suffered for them?

Let us not, then, cease, O devout souls, ever to keep before our eyes Jesus crucified, and dying in the midst of torments and insults through love of us. From the Passion of Jesus Christ all the saints have drawn those flames of love which made them forget all the good things of this world, and even their own selves, to give themselves up wholly to love and please this divine Saviour, who has so loved men that it seems as if he could not have done more in order to be loved by them. In a word, the cross, that is, the Passion of Jesus Christ, is that which will gain for us the victory over all our passions and all the temptations that hell will hold out to us, in order to separate us from God. The cross is the road and ladder by which we mount to heaven. Happy he who embraces it during his life, and does not put it off till the hour of death. He that dies embracing the cross has a sure pledge of eternal life, which is promised to all those who follow Jesus Christ with their cross.

O my crucified Jesus! To make Thyself loved by men Thou has spared nothing; Thou hast even given Thy life with a most painful death; how, then, can men who love their kindred, their friends, and even animals from whom they receive any token of affection, be so ungrateful to Thee as to despise Thy grace and Thy love, for the sake of miserable and vain delights! Oh, miserable that I am, I am one of those ungrateful beings who, for things of no worth, have renounced Thy friendship, and have turned my back upon Thee. I have deserved that Thou shouldst drive me from Thy face, as I have often banished Thee from my heart. But I know that Thou dost not cease to ask my heart of me: Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God. (Diliges Dominum Deum tuum – Deut. Vi.5.) Yea, O my Jesus, as Thou desirest that I should love Thee and offerest me pardon, I renounce all creatures, and henceforth I desire to love Thee alone, my Creator and my Redeemer. Thou dost deserve to be the only object of my soul’s love.

O Mary, Mother of God, and refuge of sinners, pray for me; obtain for me the grace of loving God, and I ask of nothing more.

Jesus, Mary, I Love Thee; Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!

The Ascension...

Thou, through the starry orbs this day,

Didst to Thy throne ascend;

Thenceforth to reign in sovereign power

And glory without end.

There, seated in Thy Majesty,

To Thee submissive bow

The heaven of heavens, the earth beneath,

The realms of hell below.

With trembling there the angels see

The changed estate of men;

The flesh which sinn'd by Flesh redeem'd;

Man in the Godhead reign!

-Aeterne Rex Altissime

Jesus, Mary, I love Thee; Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!

The Ascension of Our Lord

It's the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord! :)

And here's more you can read on the Ascension from The Catechetical Instructions of St. Thomas Aquinas. :)

And here's some stuff from Alone with God:

Alone with God
By Father J. Heyrman, S.J.

THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD – I
(Acts 1:1-11)

1. Let us hear our Lord speaking with His Apostles for the last time. We are one of the group that accompanies the Saviour as He goes to the Mount of Olives; we see Him slowly, majestically rise to Heaven, “and a cloud received Him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9).

2. Petition: The grace that the “wonderful and glorious ascension” of Jesus may fill our hearts with joy; that our faith may be confirmed, our confidence strengthened, our love rendered more ardent.

I. The Last Conversations

The last apparition took place in the holy city of Jerusalem, in the Cenacle, where He had instituted the Blessed Sacrament. “And He said to them: Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).

“All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world” (Matthew 28:18-20).

“Without me you can do nothing” (John 15:15). With Him they can overcome the world and convert the nations – not they but Jesus through them. Nor should they expect immediate success, or spectacular results: they will have to face persecution, and many trials shall befall them; but slowly the Kingdom will be established.

We are rather astonished to hear one of the disciples, at this moment (as we read in the Epistle of the Mass), ask Jesus, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Poor men, it was so hard to let go the dreams of national power and greatness that had fascinated the mind of the chosen people all these centuries, and to give their allegiance to a universal Kingdom, which Jesus had inaugurated. Our Lord, patient as He had always been with them, did not rebuke them, “but He opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures”; and He bade them stay in the city until He “send upon them the promise of His Father, and that they should be endowed with power from on high” (Luke 24: 45-49).

Heart of Jesus, patient and rich in mercy, have mercy on us.

II. The Ascension

“And He led them out as far as Bethania; and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. And it came to pass, whilst He blessed them, He departed from them and was carried up to heaven” (Luke 24:50,51). And the Acts (1:9) add: “and a cloud received Him out of their sight.”

In all the other apparitions Jesus disappeared suddenly but here He departs gradually. In its simplicity the scene is solemn and impressive. The prophet Elias had been taken to heaven in a fiery chariot, drawn by fiery steeds, in the midst of a whirlwind (4 Kings 2:11).

“And while He blessed them, He departed from them.” His farewell to His disciples and to our earth was a blessing. “Peace on earth” was the song of the angels when He was born at Bethlehem, and when the heavenly messengers brought tidings of great joy, that a Saviour had been born. And on this day, we too, with a full heart, say, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.”

Be Thou our guide, Be Thou our goal;
Be Thou our pathway to the skies;
Our
joy when sorrow fills the soul:
In death our everlasting prize.
- Salutis Humanae Sator

III. Back to Jerusalem

“And while they were beholding Him going up to heaven, behold two men stood by them in white garments, who said to them, Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so some, as you have seen Him going into heaven” (Acts 1:10,11).

It may be noted that in the work of our salvation on every important occasion, God was pleased to use the ministry of Angels. The Archangel Gabriel (Strength of God) is sent as a messenger to Mary: “Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son.” At Bethlehem angels announce the tidings of great joy: “This day is born to you a Saviour. You shall find Him wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger.” After the resurrection the women at the sepulchre meet an angel, who says to them, “Why seek you the living with the dead? He is not here, but he is risen.” And on mount Olivet two heavenly spirits tell the Apostles, “This Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen Him going into heaven”: this will be His final solemn return in power and majesty, of which Jesus had said before the high priest, “I say to you, hereafter you shall see the Son of man, sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64).

“And they went back to Jerusalem with great joy.” In this parting here was neither sadness nor distress; neither did they feel that here was the end of a glorious day and of a thrilling experience. With joy in their hearts they came down from the mountain, remembering His words, “If you loved me, you would indeed be glad because I go to the Father” (John 14:28). His presence with them had been a glorious day, followed now by a still more glorious one, because He was now with the Father and would send them the Paraclete, who would for ever abide with them. Soon they would see Him again, in the glory of heaven. The final triumph was assured.

Prayer: Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that just as we believe in the Ascension into heaven on this day of Thine only-begotten Son, our Saviour, so we too, in spirit may make our dwelling in heaven. Through the same Lord (Collect, Mass of today).

Jesus, Mary, I love Thee; Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!

Happy Mothers' Day!

O Sweet Heart of Mary, Be My Salvation! Immaculate Heart of Mary, convert sinners, save souls from hell! - Jacinta (one of the 3 children depicted in the above picture, whom Mother Mary appeared to at Fatima in 1917, before the October Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.)

Happy Mothers' Day to all mummies and grandmummies etc. :)

And also, a really Happy and Blessed Mothers' Day to Mother Mary :), our Dearest Mummy in heaven.

Today, is the 5th Sunday after Easter and also the 90th Anniversaire of the start of the Fatima apparitions of Our Lady to the 3 blessed children. Being May 13th, here's a series of links to articles/resources that might make up good reading materiel on Fatima. Please feel free to add to this list by placing the links on the comments section of this post. :) gratias.

1) "Who Remembers Fatima?", SiSiNoNo English Reprint, June 1996, no.16

2) SSPXasia District Newsletter “They Have put Our Lady of Fatima in the closet!”, July-Aug 2000

3) SSPXasia District Newsletter Editorial, Jan-Feb 2000

4) SSPXasia District Newsletter Fatima Pilgrimage of Reparation, August 20 - 22, 2005

5) Audio Conference by Fr. D. Couture from Pilgrimage of Reparation to Fatima

Part 1 22MB mp3 55 min and Part 2 29MB mp3 31 min, August 2005

6) The Online Fatima Network: www.fatima.org

7) Here's something that I wrote on making Decisions with a little bit on Fatima.

God Bless!

Prayer of Reparation of the Angel at Fatima:

O My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love Thee. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee.

Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I adore Thee profoundly, and I offer Thee the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended, and by the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and through the merits of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.

Jesus, Mary, I love Thee, Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!

A Prayer to Mary

Tomorrow's the 90th Anniversary of the start of the apparitions of Our dearest Lady to the 3 seers of Fatima! (Our Lady appeared, after the Angel of Portugal appeared to the 3 children in 1916 to prepare them for the apparitions, on 13th May 1917).

Here's a beautiful reading from Alone with God by Fr Heyrman:

A PRAYER TO MARY

1. The prayer which forms the subject of this meditation was composed by the French writer and theologian L. de Grandmaison, in 1888 when he was twenty years old and a Jesuit novice. Throughout a long and fruitful life He used to say that prayer frequently, and he induced many others to recite it. It is the prayer of a generous, upright, pious young man. What he asks from the Mother of God can be summed up thus: a childlike heart, a generous heart, a valiant heart.

2. Petition: Fixing our gaze on the immaculate Virgin, Mother of God, with humility and confidence we beg of her to obtain for us those graces.

I. A Childlike Heart

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Preserve in me a childlike heart;
Pure and sparkling as the fountain.
Obtain for me a simple heart,
That does not relish being sad.

“Unless you become like little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of God.” By those words our Saviour warned the Apostles against ambition. They had asked Him, “Who thinkest thou is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus, calling unto Him a little child, set him in the midst of them” and proposed him to them as an example. (Matthew 18:1-3).

A little child is by nature simple, devoid of ambition and not inclined to envy. It is innocent and has nothing to hide; a childlike heart knows no secrets nor dark corners, and therefore a child’s eye is clear and transparent.

Someone said, “If I owned all the world’s wealth, gladly would I barter it for a child’s heart.”

The heart of the Mother of Jesus is the purest and the most sinless that ever beat: she was conceived without sin, and full of grace. Of her the liturgy sings: “When I was little I was pleasing in the sight of the Most High.” Everything in her was directed straight to God; she gladly received every grace that was offered her, she believed every word that was spoken to her in the name of the Lord; she said “Yea” to whatever God asked of her, and her Fiat knew neither limit nor reservation; in her wise and faithful childlike Heart she preserved and pondered over all that God had done to her.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, preserve in us a childlike heart.

II. A Generous Heart

A heart that royally can give itself,
That tenderly feels
others’ pain,
A loyal heart, and prompt to give,
That ne’er forgets a
favour received,
Nor ever resents an injury.
Make my heart meek and
humble,
Loving, wanting no return.
Ready to yield its place in another’s
heart,
So that Thy son may take that place.

A generous heart abhors all petty selfishness; it gives itself without counting, without seeking profit for itself.

Mary is the Mother of fair and generous love (Ecclus. 24:24). Her Fiat was a complete, loving, self-forgetting surrender to God. When the hour had come, she saw Jesus leaving her for good. From her watchful and generous Heart sprang her request at Cana, “They have no wine.” When on a certain occasions she desired to speak to Jesus, who was indoors, teaching a group of people, she heard Him say, “Who is My Mother and who are My brethren?” And stretching forth his hand towards his disciples He said, “behold my mother and my brethren; for whosoever shall do the will of my Father, that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister and mother” (Matthew 12: 46-50). Possibly those words caused her pain; they did not humiliate her, for she gladly gave way to the brethren of her divine Son.

Even like Jesus, she forgave from the bottom of her heart: Peter, who three times had denied her son; the apostles who during the awful night had deserted Him; the executioners who had nailed Him to the Cross.

Most generous Heart of Mary, make our hearts like unto thine.

III. A Valiant Heart

A great heart, and undaunted,
Which no ingratitude can close;
By no unkindness hardened.
A heart aflame for the Master’s glory,
A
heart where bleeds the wound of love,
That only can be healed in heaven.

A stout or valiant, heart is not cast down even by severe trials; it fearlessly faces all troubles; it perseveres silently; it needs no witnesses to be valiant. Mary’s Heart was a valiant Heart, as was evident at the time of the Angel’s message, and when Simeon spoke to her in prophecy. She always had before her eyes the sword which the old man said would pierce her heart. The prophecy was fulfilled on Calvary, when she stood by the cross of her dying Son. After having seen Him gloriously ascending into heaven, Mary still lived for some years, the support and solace of the new-born Church, bearing in her Heart a wound that love had made, and which heaven alone could heal.

Mary, Queen of martyrs, pray for us.

Prayer: Fully conscious of our frailty and our cowardice, we pray with confidence to the Mother of Mercy: Holy Mary, Mother of God …

Jesus, Mary, I love Thee, Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!

A Must Read - On Limbo

On the feast day of St. Antoninus, comm. of Sts. Gordian and Epimachus,

And with all the hoo-haas over the question of limbo, I'm rather sad to hear about the new and modernist teaching on limbo - as it all boils down again to an analogy: a slippery slope - i.e. if you say this well it might just lead to that and more and more errors, going down that horrible slippery road to nowhere. etc. Anyway, here's something to read:

St. Thomas Aquinas' Teaching on the Limbo of Children (via SSPXAsia.com ,Nov 1997 Newsletter)

This question is particularly interesting in our modern circumstances. The existence of the Limbo of Children (distinct from the Limbo of the Fathers, in the Old Testament) on the one hand, is denied by modernists and on the other is misunderstood by many Catholics, either believing that souls detained there suffer or that we can ‘baptise’ them ‘at a distance’! The truth is always a summit between opposite errors. This issue is also important in the question of aborted babies. Let us examine it in three parts:

1) Whether these souls suffer fire like the souls in hell;

2) Whether they suffer from the privation of the Beatific Vision;

3) Whether we can pray or do anything for them.

St. Thomas dwells on this subject in the Supplement of the Summa Theologica, Questions 70bis and 71 (Art.7). In the following article, he explains that these souls do not suffer a sensible pain since this pain is due to actual sins and, having died before having committed any actual sin, they do not deserve that suffering. The punishment for original sin is merely the privation of the Beatific Vision.

(for the full article: please follow this link)

DICI #154 in its editorial also asks this question: Why such anxiety to have infants receive baptism?

The Catechism of Saint Pius X answers: “There should be the greatest anxiety to have infants baptized because, on account of their tender age, they are exposed to many dangers of death, and cannot be saved without Baptism.” And it adds: “Fathers and mothers who, through negligence, allow their children to die without baptism sin grievously, because they deprive their children of eternal life; and they also sin grievously by putting off baptism for a long time, because they expose them to danger of dying without having received it.”

Jesus, Mary, I Love Thee; Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!

St. Stanislaus of Cracow

Today's the feast of St. Stanislaus of Cracow, Patron of Poland. Here's another link to the Transalpine Redemptorists at Home, also on St. Stanislaus.

And here's an audio conference by Fr. Davide, on the study of holy scripture - on Exodus, Moses given on May 2005 in Singapore - which is very good. We haven't "heard" Fr. Davide in a long time since he became the District Head of Italy, we all miss him! :)

And from the Offertory of the Mass on Sunday (4th Sunday after Easter), taken from Psalm 65: 1,2,16:

Shout with joy to God, all the earth, sing ye a psalm to His name: come and hear, and I will tell you, all ye that fear God, what great things the Lord hath done for my soul, alleluia!

Jubilate Deo, universa terra, psalmum dicite nomini ejus: venite, et audite, et narrabo vobis, omnes qui timetis Deum, quanta fecit Dominus animae meae, alleluia!

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom and O How tall is the man who Kneels!

Jesus, Mary, I Love Thee; Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!

On St. Pius V, Dearest Mother Mary

Today's St. Pius V, and also First Saturday.

I found the meditation, from Alone with God, today on Mother Mary, Our All-Powerful Intercessor very beautiful. Here's it: O Mother Dearest, Mother Fairest!

Alone with God
By Father J. Heyrman, S.J.

Saturday, Third Week after Easter

OUR ALL-POWERFUL INTERCESSOR

1. During the Month of May, a mighty wave of devotion seems to sweep over the entire Church. Not only in countries where Christ has reigned for centuries, but also in lands where the name of Jesus was preached only yesterday, whole cities and villages are astir to proclaim their love for, and their confidence in, the Mother of their Saviour, who is their own Mother. Remember Lourdes, and Fatima, and Loreto, and so many other hallowed sanctuaries in every part of the world, where Christians gather to honour the Queen of heaven.

2. Petition: O God, may we dearly love our Mother, and place our trust in her intercession.

May she be Queen, wherever Christ is King.

I. Close to Our Mother

Really and truly Mary is Mother of God. This is her most glorious title. We may call her “Queen of heaven and earth”, and thus proclaim that she has been raised high above all other creatures; but that title does not express how closely she has approached the Deity. She is the master-piece of God’s creative power: in Mary the Divinity has, in a mysterious and most incomprehensible manner, established contact with our world of matter. Through Mary the Word of God became One of our race. At the Council of Ephesus, in the first part of the fifth century, after mature deliberation and fervent prayer, the Church defined that “the Holy”, that was born of Mary, is true God as well as true Man, (after the Arian Heresy as in an earlier post) and that, therefore, Mary is indeed the Mother of God.

Still, notwithstanding this supreme dignity bestowed on her, Mary remains human, a mere human being, just as we are: and by the will of Jesus, expressed by His dying lips on the cross, she is our Mother. This double truth – that Mary is Mother of God, and Mother of all believers, the Christian professes when he has recourse to “our Blessed Lady”, Our Mother! “Behold thy mother”: these words were spoken by Jesus to all those who were to believe in Him. “All of you are her children,” He seems to say, “love her, place your trust in her, as little children love and trust their mother.”

Children love both their father and mother; and they know by instinct that through their mother, they readily find a way to the heart of their father. For the mother is closest to the children, and at the same time closest to the father. She stands between the father and the children, not as though she would usurp the father’s place in the affection of the children, nor as though love for their mother would make the children forget the father.

The father is delighted to grant every request, made by the mother in the children’s name, for thus he tastes a double pleasure: he is glad to pay homage to her power with him, and he is delighted to give happiness to his children, who are as well her children.

However different these purely human relations may be from those that obtain in the divine and supernatural order, yet the comparison is right and guaranteed by God Himself. One day St. Gertrude felt a scruple about her immense love for Mary. Was she not preferring the Mother, a mere human being, above the Son, who is God? Jesus Himself enlightened and consoled her. “Be not anxious, my daughter. Thine is the way I want things: when thou payest honour to my Mother, thou payest honour to me.”

II. Mary’s Power

The Gospel itself tells us how incomprehensibly far Mary’s power reaches. At her request, and because she was insistent, Jesus performed His first miracle. At a wedding feast, in order to spare poor people a painful humiliation, she obtains that Jesus should change a decision He had taken – that is a human way of putting it. Theologians and exegetes are faced here with one or two knotty problems, but the fact remains: Mary prayed, she insisted, she won! And that, even though “His Hour was not yet come”.

To scripture scholars, “His Hour” signifies the hour of His death and of His triumph over death, the hour also when, just as at Cana, Jesus solemnly addressed His mother as “Woman”, and appointed her Mother of all the living, thus making her play a part in the great work of salvation.

The History of the Church, the progressive development of the Christian doctrine of Mary’s motherhood, the lives of all the Saints, and the daily experience of all those who invoke her, bear witness to her power, now that she is enthroned in heaven in the glory of her divine Son.

III. What Do They Ask?

Why are children drawn to their mother? Because with her they are always welcome, because to her they can unburden themselves of whatever is in their hearts, because from her they may ask everything: the very little ones ask for sweets, the older ones want counsel; those that are in trouble seek solace; those who are in need crave for help. As long as she is on earth, they carry all their troubles to her, and all their needs. A Mother’s blessing is God’s blessing.

Mary is our heavenly Mother, most powerful, most bountiful, most merciful. Into her Heart we pour all our desires, all our needs of body and soul.

Little Thérèse of Lisieux, with the child like simplicity that was so natural to her, said, shortly before her death, “I would love to die a beautiful death. I have prayed for that favour from our Lady. You know, it is not the same thing to ask something from our Lady and to ask it from our Lord. She knows so well what to do with my requests, which of them she should passion to Jesus, and which she should keep back.” And so we pray that “by the glorious intercession of the Blessed Mary, ever Virgin, we may enjoy perpetual health of soul and body.” But when we ask her for the conversion of sinners, the spread of God’s kingdom, peace among nations, the sanctification of priests and of all those that are consecrated to God, then she “passes on” our prayers to Jesus, because we ask what is most pleasing to her Son.

As from the Father we ask all things “through Christ our Lord, His Son”, so from Jesus we ask all things through Mary, our Lady, His Mother and our Mother! Above all we ask her that “after this our exile she show unto us the blessed Fruit of her womb, Jesus.”

Prayer:

Still as on we journey,
Help our weak endeavour,
Till with thee and
Jesus
We rejoice for ever.
- Ave Maris Stella

Jesus, Mary, I Love Thee; Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!

Queen of the May, O Mother Dearest!

Our Lady of Good Counsel

Here's a favourite hymn of mine, Queen of the May, on our dearest Lady. Very beautiful hymn, I found it on the Transalpine Redemptorists At Home blog yesterday, together with the picture above, on Our Lady of Good Counsel, here's the hymn:

Queen of the May

Bring flowers of the rarest,
Bring blossoms the fairest,

From garden and woodland and hillside and dale,

Our full hearts are swelling,

Our glad voices telling

The praise of the loveliest Flower of the Vale.

O Mary, we crown Thee with blossoms today
Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May
O Mary, we crown Thee with blossoms today
Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May

Their Lady they name Thee,
Their Mistress proclaim Thee,
Oh grant that thy children on earth be as true

As long as the bowers

Are radiant with flowers,

As long as the azure shall keep its bright hue

Sing gaily in chorus,
The bright angels o’er us

Re-echo the strains we begin upon earth;

Their harps are repeating

The notes of our greeting,

For Mary Herself is the cause of our mirth.

Jesus, Mary, I love Thee; Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!

Our Lady with an O so beautiful bouquet of Roses, sometime last year, at the priory in Singapore.

(picture courtesy of The Sleepless Eye)

Our Faith, It is the Victory that overcometh the world II

This is a re-post of: Our Faith, It is the Victory that overcometh the world, with additions high-lighted in orange. Please click on the link to get to the post. :) Deo gratias et Mariae, God Bless!

Happy Feast Day of St. Athanasius! A True Defender of the Faith in the 4th Century, he fought for the faith against the Arian Heresy enduring all sorts of persecutions. Archbishop Lefebvre has often been compared to this dear Saint Athanasius.

Jesus, Mary, I love Thee; Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!

St. Joseph the Worker

and today is the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker! (St. Joseph has 2 feast days!) :)

He's great, as you will see in the post ;) Deo gratias et Mariae et Joseph!

Alone with God
By Father J. Heyrman, S.J.

May 1

ST. JOSEPH THE WORKER
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God” (Matt. 6:33)

1. The institution of the feast of St. Joseph the Worker was announced by Pope Pius XII on the 1st of May 1955, in an address to the Italian Catholic Labour Unions. The Father of all the faithful desired to give a proof of his deep concern for the lot of the Catholic workers. If they lose the faith, dark days are in store for the Church and for the world. So far the 1st of May had been “Labour Day” a purely secular festival. The institution of this feast has christened Labour Day, and placed it in the Church’s calendar. God grant that it may be not merely a day of liturgical ceremonies, but also a day of prayer for our brothers, on whose loyalty to Christ the future depends.

2. Petition: We behold Joseph in his workshop at Nazareth, in the sweat of his brow earning the daily bread of his family. We pray that we may recognize in this village carpenter the holiest labourer that ever bent over a tool-bench. May we imitate his virtues.

Hail mightiest of Saints,
To whom submissive bent
He, whose creator-hand
outstretch’d
The starry firmament.

I. Joseph Had to Work

In Genesis, it is said that God made man “and put him in a paradise of pleasure, to dress it and to keep it” (Gen. 2:15). This was before the fall; but even then man had to use his mental and his physical faculties to discover, as it were, and to develop the riches of God’s creation, to perfect his own personality, and to give praise to the Creator.

After the fall, he himself, as well as nature, has lost this pristine integrity, and now labour becomes toil. “Thorns and thistles shall the earth bring forth … In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread” (Gen. 3: 18,19). It is a law of nature, therefore of God, that man shall work, and every man must obey that law; he that does evade it thereby becomes a parasite, and a cause of disorder.

Joseph was a manual labourer, probably a carpenter, who with his daily earnings supported his family. It was rough, monotonous work, with fairly primitive tools. He was a village carpenter, not a cabinet-maker. Many years he stood alone in his shop; but later he taught the trade to his Son, and had His help. When Joseph died Jesus continued His father’s work, until He began His public ministry.

Therefore Joseph, and also Jesus, shared the lot of the vast majority of men, and lived by the labour of their hands. But the Patron of workers will be, not Jesus, who is “the way, the truth and the life”, but His foster father, St. Joseph, the bridegroom of the Virgin Mother of God.

II. Saint Joseph Happy in His Work

In those days there did not exist at Nazareth those crying, scandalous, social and economic maladjustments of our modern world.

The village carpenter at Nazareth was not a pauper, and managed to make both ends meet. But he was not rich, which is proved by the fact that, at the time of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, he offered two turtle doves. Surely all around him there were people that were more comfortable, people that worked less and earned more. Inequality has always existed and always will exist. It existed in the day of Cain; and then “shall sin forthwith be present at the door” of man’s heart as God told Cain before he slew his brother Abel (Gen. 4:7).

Joseph was perfectly happy in his humble avocation: did he not enjoy domestic happiness, hardly less intense than the bliss of heaven? To this healthy, wise, upright man it was an immense joy to labour for the support of such a family. He was about “his Father’s business”; He was the guardian of the Father’s only-begotten Son, and of that Son’s Mother.

Our Holy Father the Pope (Pope Pius XII), who declared St. Joseph patron and model of the modern workman, knew only too well that many workers today have to fulfill their Christian duties in conditions and surroundings far less favorable than those in which St. Joseph worker; he therefore exhorted all his children to bear a compassionate heart and, whenever possible, to contribute by prayer and sacrifice to a better understanding among men, and to the practice of brotherly love in our society.

III, Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God (Mt. 6:33)

Social, economic, political conditions are in perpetual flux. “Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice” is one of the words of which Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass, but my words shall not pass” (Mt. 24:35). St. Joseph, the just man, in all things sought to fulfill his duty perfectly, that is, to do the will of the Father. And in this manner did the carpenter of Nazareth contribute to the establishment of the Kingdom of God, of which Jesus, the carpenter’s Son, was to be the Founder and the King.

The Kingdom of Christ, the future of which so largely depends on the faith of the working classes, is a “kingdom of justice, love and peace”. First of all of justice: for God’s Kingdom cannot be based on injustice. But even justice is not supreme quality of God’s kingdom. “God is love” (Deus caritas est), and love which never runs counter to justice, goes far beyond it. Love never divides, it always unites, reconciles, spreads peace and harmony.

Let us strive to maintain in our religious communities Christ’s Kingdom of justice, love and peace, each “doing from the heart what he does”, content and happy to be permitted to serve God in the place and office which He has allotted to us. In this way we shall, like St. Joseph, help “to re-establish all things in Christ” (Eph. 2:10) (Instaurare Omnia in Christo! as also with Pope Saint Pius X).

Prayer: O God, Creator of all things, who hast laid the obligation to work upon the human race; mercifully grant that through the example and patronage of St. Joseph we may accomplish the works that Thou dost command, and obtain the rewards Thou dost promise. Through our Lord (Collect of the Feast).

Sancte Joseph, Ora pro nobis!

Jesus, Mary, I Love Thee; Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!

St. Catherine of Sienna (one day late)

... Whoosh, and time does fly since the exams have ended. (lol) :) I'm back.

Here's something that I wanted to post yesterday but was too exhausted to do so. Hence, the title of the post, (yesterday's feast day of St. Catherine de Sienna (one day not too late)) :)

It's from my favourite book by St. Alphonsus Ligouri, on the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ:

St. Alphonsus de Ligouri’s
The Passion and the Death of Jesus Christ

Pg 411

Second Meditation – The Great Obligation by which we are Bound to love Jesus Christ

Forget not the kindness of thy surety; for He hath given His life for thee (Gratiam fidejussoris ne obliviscaris; dedit enim pro te animam suam) – Ecclus. Xxix. 20. By this surety, commentators commonly understand Jesus Christ, who, seeing that we were unable to atone to the divine justice, offered Himself because it was His own will. (Oblatus est, quia ipse voluit) – Isa. Liii.7. He offered to make satisfaction for us, and He actually paid our debts by His blood and by His death. He hath given His life for thee.

To repair the insults which we offered to the divine majesty, the sacrifice of the life of all men was not sufficient: God alone could atone for an injury done to a God; and this Jesus Christ has accomplished. By so much, says St. Paul, is Jesus made a surety of a better testament. (In tantum melioris testamenti sponsor factus est Jesus) – Heb. Vii. 22. By making satisfaction, as his surety, in behalf of man, our Redeemer, says the Apostle, obtained by His merits a new compact, - that if man should observe the law, God would grant him grace and eternal life. This is precisely what Jesus Christ himself expressed in the institution of the Eucharist when He said, This chalice is the new testament in my blood. (Hic calix novum testamentum est in meo sanguine) – I Cor. Xi.25. By these words He meant, that the chalice of His blood was the instrument or written security by which was established the new covenant between God and Jesus Christ, that to men who were faithful to Him should be given the gift of grace and of eternal life.

Hence, by suffering the penalties due to us, the Redeemer, through the love which He bore us, made in our behalf a rigorous atonement to the divine justice. Surely, says he Prophet, He hath borne our infirmities, and carried our sorrows. (Vere languores nostros ipse tulit, et Dolores nostros ipse portavit.) – Isa. Liii, 4. And all this was the fruit of His love. Christ hath loved us, and hath delivered Himself for us. (Dilexit nos, et tradidit semetipsum pro nobis) – Eph. V.2. St. Bernard says that to pardon us, Jesus Christ has not pardoned Himself. “To redeem a slave He spared not Himself.” (Ut servum redimeret, sibi Filius ipse non pepercit.) O miserable Jews, why do you wait for the Messiah promised by the Prophets? He has already come: you have murdered Him; but, in spite of your guilt, your Redeemer is ready to pardon you; for He has come to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel: The Son of Man came to save that which was lost. (Venit enim Filius hominis salvare quod perierat) – Matt. Xviii.II.

St. Paul has written that, to deliver us from the malediction due to our sins, Jesus Christ has charged Himself with all the maledictions which we merited; and therefore He wished to suffer the death of the accursed, that is, the death of the cross: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. (Christus nos redemit de maledicto legis, factus pro nobis maledictum: quia scriptum est: Maledictus omnis qui pendet in lingo.) – Gal. iii.13.

What a source of glory would it be to a poor peasant, captured by pirates, and reduced to slavery, to be ransomed by his sovereign at the cost of a kingdom! But how much greater glory do we derive from having been redeemed by Jesus Christ at the expense of His own blood, a single drop of which is worth more than a thousand worlds! You were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver, … but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled. (Non corruptibilibus auro vel argento redempti estis … sed pretioso sanguine quasi Agni immaculati Christi.) – 1 Pet. i.18,19. Hence, St. Paul tells us that we commit an act of injustice against our Saviour if we dispose of ourselves according to our own, and not according to His, will, or if we reserve anything to ourselves, or, what is worse, if we indulge our inclinations so as to offend our God. For we belong not to ourselves, but to Jesus Christ who has purchased us with a great price. Know you not that … you are not your own? For you are bought with a great price. (An nescitis quoniam … non estis vestri? Empti enim estis pretio magno.) – 1 Cor. Vi. 19,20.

Ah, my Redeemer, if I had shed all my blood for Thee, and even given for Thee a thousand lives, what compensation would it be for the love of Thee, who hast given Thy blood and Thy life for me? Give me strength, O my Jesus, to be entirely Thine during the remainder of my life.

Mary, my Mother, my Hope after Jesus, please pray for me and intercede for me.

Dearest Angels and Saints, please guide me and help me.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!

Jesus, Mary, I love Thee, Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!