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Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M. - December 8th

12/7/2019

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                                              THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
                "O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee"

With such a glorious feast as this during the month of December, we are almost tempted to give up all hope of doing much penance during the season of Advent. On December 8th we celebrate the wondrous moment when the Blessed Virgin began her existence in this world. At the same time we celebrate the sublime privilege by which Mary, alone among all human beings and in virtue of the future merits of Christ, was preserved at the very first moment of conception from the stain of original sin. It is true, of course, that in origin and in principle this great feast does not have any relationship with the time of Advent. It was fixed on December 8 in order to separate the feast by nine months from the date of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin on September 8.

However, in celebrating this feast we may easily enter into the spirit of Christmastide, for the feast is like the dawn of the Sun of Christmas. Mary is our hope, guide, and mother along the path of salvation.

The vigil of the Immaculate Conception is an opportune time to introduce the children to the practice of lighting a special Advent candle in Mary's honor. The Advent candle expresses symbolically the words of Isaias, "There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of this root." A beautiful candle is placed in a candleholder, which is covered with a white silk cloth tied together with ribbon. The candle is then placed before an image, statue or icon of our Lady before which the family prays to the Mother of God. This ancient custom preaches its lesson with an eloquent simplicity which is comprehensible to little children. The covered candle holder represents the rod out of the root of Jesse, Our Lady, from whose womb will come the Saviour of the world. The candle represents Christ, the Light of the World, who shall come to dispel all darkness and stain of sin. In conjunction with this little ceremony, one of the family could tell of the purity and childlike simplicity of our Blessed Mother, and of how she came to be the mother of us all.

Some of the prophetic lessons of Isaias could also be read, along with Gertrude von le Fort's poem to Our Lady of Advent, from "Hymns to the Church." The singing of the "Alma Redemptoris Mater," or the beautiful "Tota Pulchra Es" of Dom Pothier would be a suitable conclusion for the little ceremony.

Several remarks may be added concerning the hymns which we teach children in honor of Our Lady. Much bad taste, musical and theological, has entered into the praises of Our Lady. It would indeed be wise always to teach children only the best, and that which is always truthful and in accord with reality. Would we dare to compare "Macula non est in te," "Mother Dear, O Pray for Me," "On This Day, O Beautiful Mother," or "Bring Flowers of the Rarest," with the "Ave, Maris Stella" (sung in English, perhaps; but you will find that the children easily come to love and understand the Latin); the "Ave Maria," as edited by Solesmes; the sequence "Inviolata"; the hymn "Maria Mater Gratiae," or the "Tota Pulchra Es" of Dom Pothier?

Mother Church recommends the "Ave Maris Stella," which is the vesper hymn of the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Compare the theology of this hymn with the sentimental ballads which are customarily taught to children in honor of their heavenly Mother and Mediatrix:

          Ave, Star of ocean,
          Child divine who bearest,
          Mother, ever Virgin,
          Heaven's portal fairest.

          Taking that sweet Ave
          Erst by Gabriel spoken,
          Eva's name reversing,
          Be of peace the token.

          Break the sinner's fetters,
          Light to blind restoring,
          All our ills dispelling,
          Every boon imploring.

          Show thyself a mother
          In thy supplication,
          He will hear who chose thee
          At His Incarnation.

          Maid all maids excelling,
          Passing meek and lowly,
          Win for sinners pardon,
          Make us chaste and holy.

          As we onward journey
          Aid our weak endeavor,
          Till we gaze on Jesus
          And rejoice forever.

          Father, Son, and Spirit,
          Three in One confessing,
          Give we equal glory
          Equal praise and blessing.

                         --Ethelstan Riley translation

Should we desire other hymns in honor of the Immaculate Conception, we may choose such hymns and carols as "A Child Is Born in Bethlehem," or the superb German Advent carol "Behold, a Branch Is Growing." The latter, a fifteenth-century carol harmonized by Praetorius, is given below:

          Behold a branch is growing
          Of loveliest form and grace.
          As prophets sung, foreknowing;
          It springs from Jesse's race.
          And bears one little flower.
          In midst of coldest winter,
          At deepest midnight hour.
          Isaiah hath foretold it
          In words of promise sure,
          And Mary's arms enfold it,
          A Virgin meek and pure.
          Through God's eternal will,
          This Child to her is given
          At midnight calm and still.

Even the cook is not allowed respite during the octave of the Immaculate Conception, for it is time to make Moravian "Spritz" for the children. Ordinarily these gingerbread cookies are made for the vigil of the Immaculate Conception since Mary, too, "gave forth sweet smell like cinnamon and aromatic balm and yielded a sweet odor like the best myrrh." These cookies are loaded with fine, aromatic spices, tempting the appetites of any child of Mary. The spirit of mortification enters in readily, for the cookies must stand for ten days in the refrigerator before baking, and are then shaped into Christmas figures, especially hearts and liturgical symbols. Later on in the season, when we come to Candlemas, we could cut the cookies into the form of candles and turtle-doves.

The Immaculate Conception is the Patroness of the United States. How often our Holy Father has stated in recent years that the hope of peace in the world does not lie in force of arms, but rather in prayers and recourse to the intercession of Our Lady. 

                                                      ~ True Christmas Spirit, Imprimatur 1955 ~

You can find a coloring picture of the Immaculate Conception here.
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The Immaculate Conception - December 8th

12/6/2019

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"Thou art all beautiful, Mary! and no stain of original sin is in thee; thou art the glory of Jerusalem, the joy of Israel, the honor of our people."

Such is the anthem of the Church in today's festival in honor of Mary. Today we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin and we are therefore full of joy.
From time immemorial the Church has conceded this privilege to Mary; the ancient doctors and saints taught it; but it was only in our day that it was made an article of faith, when Pius IX., in the year 1854, supported and surrounded by two hundred cardinals and bishops assembled in Rome from all parts of the world, proclaimed it as a dogma that Mary the Mother of God was preserved from original sin from the first instant of her conception; that she did not need to be purified from stain of sin; that God had created her pure and immaculate. The decree was applauded by all, amid demonstrations of the most profound respect and liveliest enthusiasm.

No less should be our joy at the recurrence of a festival that marks so wondrous a grace. But will you content yourselves with joy and exultation? Do you think it will suffice to Mary to know that you are happy? Mary desires above all that you imitate her purity. If your souls have been stained with sin she wants you to seek pardon at once, and in order that you may succeed the better she is anxious to come to your assistance. She herself wants to intercede for your pardon at the throne of the Most High. She herself wishes to be your advocate, for she is the refuge of sinners. Under this title invoke her today; with the grace of God I will prove to you how well she merits that title. Mary, who is all pure and all holy, deserves that we all should be pure and free from sin. Sin renders us abominable in the sight of God. Our soul is like a horrid desert filled with wild beasts; the vile passions of anger, revenge, and impurity dwell in it. Mary sees our unhappy condition, feels the greatest pity for us, and seeks to make us know the miserable state we are in. Many feel this and are converted, but, on the contrary, many, and among them a larger number of young people, have hardened their hearts and live in the indulgence of their vices because they prefer to walk in the broad road of sin which eventually leads to eternal death.

They get further and further away from that influence which could lead them back to conversion; they avoid the church, the sacraments, the word of God, the counsels of pious people and associates, and give up the little devotion they had to the Blessed Virgin. Mary has great compassion on even the most wicked men, and she does not desert them. She is the refuge of sinners, and provided they have a wish to lay aside the habit of sin, provided they say at least a little prayer, that bright immaculate Queen will strike off their fetters and they will be converted to God. St. Bridget says that this sweet Mother is a bait to catch souls for heaven. Honor her then, ye sinners! Find a joy in doing it and she will obtain for you grace and salvation.

A criminal once said, "What has the Blessed Virgin ever done for me?" "What has she ever done for you, ungrateful creature!" answered an interior voice. " Do you remember the sudden death of this and that sinner? It might have been the same with you, but she obtained for you the grace of a longer life and an opportunity to do better." She thus does good, even to those who are ungrateful. 

Mary of Egypt, when twelve years old, went to the wicked city of Alexandria against the express command of her mother, and there she lived a most sinful life for seventeen years. One day she saw a big crowd going to the shore to embark for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. She took a notion to go along. On the ship she behaved most scandalously and led many of the pilgrims into sin. The feast came, and she wished to witness these festivals also. When she arrived before the church she made an attempt to enter, but she felt a hand restraining her. Three times she attempted to cross the threshold, and though she made the greatest effort she could not succeed. Then she understood that her great sins were the cause of the mysterious force that prevented her from entering the church; that in her condition she was not worthy to enter the house of God and look upon the sacred relics of the Cross of Christ. She wept at the remembrance of her sins; she did not know what to do, when by the side of a house she saw a painting of the Blessed Virgin. Throwing herself at the feet of Mary she exclaimed, "Holy Virgin, who didst conceive an omnipotent God, I know well that since thou lovest purity so much and wert so pure thyself, thou oughtest to abhor such a person as I am. But 0, most merciful Mother, have mercy on me! The greater my misery, the greater is my right to thy intercession. Obtain for me the grace of seeing that holy wood of the cross; and I will go where thou leadest me to do penance." Mary heard her prayer, and obtained for her the grace to enter the church and adore the holy cross. Having come out of the church the sinner went to the desert and there did penance and became a great saint through the intercession and help of the Blessed Virgin. Thus you see that Mary feels compassion for the greatest and most disgusting sinners.

A youth of twenty-five years was dying. He had led a most sinful life, but having been converted, he was very devout to the Blessed Virgin, and became a model young man. He was on his sick-bed and held in one hand a crucifix and in the other an image of the Blessed Virgin. He looked from one to the other and in turn kissed them. When he had received the last sacraments he confidently said: "Father, I am going to heaven, for Mary has obtained for me this grace." You also, my dear young friends, if you commend yourselves to Mary, if you are converted with a sincere heart and abandon sin, you will surely go to heaven.

But you, my dear young friends who are still innocent, do not forget on this beautiful day of the Immaculate Conception to pray to Mary. You, too, have need of Mary's protection that you may preserve your baptismal purity. Pray to her in this wise: "Obtain for me, immaculate Virgin, that no sin may come into my soul. Obtain for me that my eyes may be preserved from the contamination of impurities; obtain for me that my ears may not hear any impious discourses against religion, purity, or charity; obtain for me that my tongue may not utter bad words, that my hands may do nothing wrong. Obtain for me, immaculate Virgin, that my whole heart and my body may be the temple of the Holy Ghost fitted for this divine habitation by the most scrupulous purity."

"Thou art all fair, Mary, and no stain of sin is to be found in thee."

                                                   Source: Sermons for Children's Masses, Imprimatur 1900

Below you will find coloring pages for the children. On our download page there is also an entire coloring book filled with images of our dear Blessed Mother. 
immaculate_conception_1.pdf
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immaculate_conception__december_8th.pdf
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A Little about St. Nicholas - and Some Coloring Pics

12/5/2019

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                               ST. NICHOLAS
                                (December 6)
Even though we resolve not to celebrate Christmas parties during  the season of Advent, Mother Church always seems to find some  reason or other to rejoice even during her most solemn penitential seasons. The Spouse just cannot be unhappy and joyless as long as the Bridegroom is present each day at Holy Mass. Even during Holy Week we hear of the "happy fault" of Adam, the "blessed Passion" of Christ, and the Cross becomes a symbol of triumph, the joy of Christians. Almost at the very outset of Advent, we gather the children together on the eve of St. Nicholas to celebrate the feast of this famous bishop.

St. Nicholas is the patron of many different groups of people, and for hundreds of years has been a popular saint in the East and in the West, greatly venerated as a wonder-worker. He is the patron of mariners, bankers, pawn-brokers, scholars and thieves!

One legend tells of an occasion when the saints were gathered in heaven to converse and drink a little wine together. St. Basil filled the golden cups from a golden jug, and while all were engaged in conversation, it was noticed that St. Nicholas was nodding. One of the blessed nudged him until he awoke, and asked the cause for his slumbers. "Well, you see," he told them, "the enemy has raised a fearful storm in the Aegean. My body was dozing, perhaps, but my spirit was bringing the ships safe to shore."

He is especially the saint of children, and is known in various countries as Santa Claus, Kris Kringle and Pelznickel. Servants have been invented to accompany him and to deal with those children who have been disobedient and naughty. Since St. Nicholas is considered too kind to give scoldings and punishments, in Austria it is Krampus, in Germany Knecht Ruprecht, and in Holland Black Peter who goes along with him armed with a stout switch, while St. Nicholas merely hands gifts to the children without even noticing the bad little boys and girls. A very old legend tells of his kindness to three daughters of a poor nobleman. Since they had no dowry, they were to be sold into slavery. St. Nicholas learned of this and on three successive nights dropped a bag of gold for them down the chimney. This is said to explain the three balls over the shops of pawnbrokers, and why St. Nicholas drops his gifts for children down the chimney.

Nicholas was born at Patara in Lycia in the third century. His parents, who had been growing old without having a child, are said to have obtained him by force of prayer. Nicholas, losing his father and mother at an early age, devoted his life to the poor and afflicted of every kind. Late in his life, after he had been made Bishop of Myra in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey) Nicholas suffered imprisonment for his faith. He died tranquilly in his episcopal city pronouncing the words, "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit"--words which have become the short responsory of Compline. Since 1087 his relics have been preserved at Bari in Italy.

Devotion to St. Nicholas began in his native Asia Minor, and was brought to Russia by an emperor who was witness to his miraculous works. The devotion spread through Lapland and into Scandinavia, thence to all Europe and across to the New World. In early times, Nicholas was pictured as a kind, lean, ascetic bishop, but in America he became fat and jolly. His miter turned into a winter bonnet, his vestments became a snow suit. He retained his reindeer from Lapland, his love for chimneys from his own Asia Minor, and his love of children from all time.

A French legend relates that Our Lady once gave him the whole of the province of Lorraine as a reward for his kindness. As the children of that province hang up their stockings, they say:

          "Saint Nicholas, mon bon patron,
          Envoyez-moi quelqu'chose de bon."

In Holland, St. Nicholas puts in an appearance on the eve of his feast, accompanied by Black Peter. As the children sing, the door flies open and candies and nuts begin to fly all over the floor. After the jolly saint leaves, hot punch, chocolate and boiled chestnuts with butter and sugar are served. The following morning children find their shoes filled with candy hearts spice cakes, letter bankets (candies or cake bearing the child's initials), ginger cakes, or taii-taii in patterns of birds and fish, and even in the form of the saint.

In Switzerland, St. Nicholas parades the streets with his arms full of red apples, cookies and prunes for the children. In Austria and Germany he throws gilded nuts in at the door while Krampus or Rupprecht may throw in a few birch twigs. In Poland, if there is a red sunset on Saint Nicholas' day, it is said to be because angels are busy baking the saint's honey cakes.

With this much background of legend and adventure, all sorts of ideas could be brought to the fore for a celebration and party for the children on the eve or on the feast of St. Nicholas Ordinarily, it would be well to have the party on the vigil as a preparation for the Mass of St. Nicholas on the following day. After Mass the children could return home to find their stockings filled with all sorts of good things. The person who takes the part of St. Nicholas should really look like a bishop, and preferably be dressed in the costume of an early Oriental bishop. What a wonderful opportunity to study ecclesiastical attire in the early Church as mothers and friends make vestments for St. Nicholas and the costume of his servant! Each child may be addressed personally by name by the bishop, praised for his good deeds, given a little gift. The party could continue with appropriate games and songs, with the story of St. Nicholas, and explanations of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. There is no longer any need for mothers and fathers to delude their children with nonsense about mythical Santas in outlandish snowsuits. Let us christianize our children's lives by retaining veracity and reality and substituting for Santa Claus the lean and kind ascetic bishop St. Nicholas. For inspiration and variety a little imagination and a prayer to St. Nicholas will do the trick. Perhaps at the party a prayer could be offered for the poor and orphan children of the world.

 Recipes for the feast are never wanting. Florence Berger's "Cooking for Christ," mentioned above, and Katherine Burton and Helmut Ripperger's "Feast Day Cookbook" supply the need for "speculatius," "ciastka miodowe" (honey cakes), and "rozijnon hoekies" (raisin cookies). A little "bishopwyn" for the cold vigil makes the parents glow with happiness. "Dutch Treat," an Advent cooky, goes well with that.

                                                             "True Christmas Spirit," Imprimatur 1955

You can find Coloring pictures of St. Nicholas here.
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Saint Nicholas Day - December 6th

12/5/2019

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V:  The Lord led the just man in right paths
R:  And showed him the kingdom of God.
Ant:  The Lord loved him and adorned him;
He clothed him with splendid apparel,
and crowned him at the gates of paradise 
                                              ~ from Vespers of St. Nicholas
The following was taken from, "Cooking for Christ" by Florence Berger, 1949

The children of the house have smelled the good smells of spices, and they are dancing around the table with mixing spoons and cookie cutters in their hands. "Don't forget St. Nicholas, Mother. Don't forget he comes tomorrow night."

There will be no forgetting St. Nicholas at our house, I can assure you. That is the eve when we all hang up our stockings. The hanging of stockings on the fireplace is great fun for the children. Most of the real sport, though, comes the day before when we make the treats to fill those stockings. One of our favorites is a spice cookie that came from the Netherlands, the land that loved St. Nicholas best. This Dutch cookie is called speculatius.

                                                                            SPECULATIUS
      1 cup butter                                                                         4 teaspoons cinnamon
      1 cup vegetable shortening                                           1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
      2 cups brown sugar                                                        1/2 teaspoon cloves
   1/2 cup sour cream                                                        4 1/2 cups sifted flour
   1/2 teaspoon baking soda                                                1/2 cup slivered almonds
      
 Cream the butter, shortening and sugar. Add sour cream alternately with sifted dry ingredients. Stir in the nuts. Knead the dough into rolls. Wrap the rolls in wax paper and chill them in the refrigerator overnight. Roll the dough very thin and cut into shapes. Bake at 375° for 10 to 15 minutes.

Sometimes, after the dough is chilled, we roll it very thin and try to cut it into the shape of good St. Nicholas himself. It is great fun to use a sharp knife as a stiletto and see how artistic you can be. The very best ginger cake figure is always named St. Nicholas. The others are good, bad and indifferent — until we call the worst of all the devil, which is about what it looks like. But if you have been good all year, you have nothing to fear when St. Nicholas comes knocking at your door.

Part of the dough can be cut into the shapes of birds or fish or animals. This is a feast day for school children — and what pleases them is the order of the day. Sometimes we frost these ginger cakes with white or pink icing, and decorate them with dried or candied fruits.

Waiting for the speculatius to chill is very trying for the fifty anxious fingers in our house. While we are waiting, we mix up a batch of raisin cookies that we can taste right now. These are drop cookies, and even a tiny child can drop bits of dough on a greased cookie sheet. What if a few miss the pan? What if they are all sizes, from dibs to dabs? The crumbs are the important things — the crumbs and enough whole ones to fill our stockings. (Bloggers note: We fill our stockings with these cookies, an orange, some nuts and of course a bag of gold the chocolate variety that is ;)

On the evening of December 5, the whole house is filled with the good smells of baking as we tell the beautiful legends of the charity of St. Nicholas. To give gifts in secret so that people would render him no thanks was surely a saintly act. With the people of the Netherlands, let us toast his memory with bishopwyn.

BISHOPWYN (BISHOP'S WINE)
1 bottle claret or other dry red wine
6 cloves
4 inches stick cinnamon, broken into pieces
Simmer wine and spices for about 5 minutes. Strain the wine.
Serve it hot. (In the chill of the night vigil,
it makes you feel like a bishop!)

I am sure it was the discretion and reticence of St. Nicholas that won him an extra high crown in Heaven. The children like his idea of throwing gold into an open window on the sly. In imitation, the older children put extra treats in the little ones' stockings. You will find traditions very easy to begin with children. When they are grown, they will be loath to cast them aside.

                                             INTRODUCTION TO COOKING FOR CHRIST

Of all the rooms in a house, the friendly, comforting kitchen is mother to us all. It is the source of our food, our learning and our virtue. Here the first pale green streaks of dawn find coffee brewing; the aroma wakes the family with a kindly call. Here the baby spills his milk with impunity. All during the day little helpers find new adventure here in the tasks which teach and amuse — even though it means sifting flour on the cat. Here the older children run, as soon as school is out to raid the apple bin or cookie jar. Even the high school gang prefers to kick off their shoes in the kitchen. At night there are lessons to do here, while debates and philosophizing split the ceiling. When the rest of the rooms are asleep at last, the light in the kitchen comforts a newborn baby or a visiting neighbor.
Thus the kitchen remains first and last in our affections and memories.

There is, I believe, a reason for this, and it lies in the woman who is the mistress of that kitchen. Cook, you may call her. I prefer to call her "Christian in Action." She herself is Christ-centered because she brings Christ home to her kitchen and, in corollary, her kitchen reflects the Christ within her.

To some it may seem sacrilegious to connect cookery and Christ, but that is exactly what this book means to do. If I am to carry Christ home with me from the altar, He will have to come to the kitchen because much of my time is spent in there. I shall welcome Him on Easter and He shall eat new lamb with us. I shall give him Homage to Him on Epiphany and shall cook a royal feast for Him and my family. I shall mourn with Him on Holy Thursday, and we shall taste the bitter herbs of the Passover and break unleavened bread. Then the cooking that we do will add special significance to the Church Year and Christ will sanctify our daily bread. That is what is meant by the liturgical year in the kitchen.

If I am to be creative, and I believe God made me to be just that, why can't I create feast day specials from eggs and milk and butter? These are materials which I know. I once tried to paint a picture, but the colors ran and the perspective was poor. I tried to write music, but even the dog howled to hear it. I tried to weave a piece of cloth, but the warp broke and the woof tangled. So I have resolved to stick to my cooking and beat my way into heaven.

The idea of serving certain foods on certain feast days is a very old one. You can go all the way back to Exodus and see how specific God was in giving instructions to the Jewish cooks who were to prepare the Passover meal. Christ and His family were careful to follow the letter of the law as they celebrated the Jewish festivals.

As the celebration of Christian feast days spread throughout Europe and the East, each group of people created their finest foods in celebration and used them over and over; in this way a tradition of feast day cookery grew up. The custom was so widespread during the Middle Ages that the Church had to call a halt to the many days of fine eating. After all, the people were not getting their work done and, I suppose, gout was on the increase.

With the Protestant revolt the saints' days were scattered. Instead of six or seven days in honor of Christ's mother, we of very recent date have drummed up a so-called Mother's Day. Instead of the holy thrill of the white garment of baptism given at Easter, we have silly little Easter bonnets to cover our silly little heads. If we are Christians, why must we de-Christianize things? When we encourage secularism, it is not a case of being neither fish nor fowl — we soon become all foul and no fish. Remember the fish was the one of the first signs of the Christian.

A cry has gone forth to revitalize our Christianity. Analysts have pointed to the lethargy that has crept upon the Christian spirit like a slow paralysis. Liturgists have called us back to a vision of the early Christian worship and have begged for more active lay participation in the Lord's service. Theologians have rewritten our New Testament in Modern English. Commentators lead us though Old Testament
pathways so we may come to know the ancient prophets. Now perhaps mothers and daughters can lead their families back to the Christ-centered living and cooking. Foods can be symbols that lead the mind to spiritual thinking. After Christ had preached to the multitude, He fed them. If our family is to hear the Gospel, I shall first feed them on symbols and then on more substantial meat. The one will help the digestion of the other.

Yet this book is not a part of a backward-looking movement. We do not revive past Catholic customs merely because they are antique. We use them because they are filled with the Christian spirit, which our modern days have sidetracked. We have tested the recipes, which we ask you to try, in a modern kitchen fully equipped with modern gadgets. We have changed the old procedure of measuring ingredients by weight and used our present quantitative system of cups and spoons. We have sweetened or enriched several of the recipes to suit America's sweet tooth. But, above all, the acid test
came when we asked a very real, growing matter-of-fact family to eat our feast day specials. If the feast was to be a day of joy, we should not mar it, but magnify it with our cooking. This tells you how our book was built, how the idea was sown and watered; only God can give the increase.

                                                                                                                                Florence S. Berger,
                                                                                                                                Hill Country House,
                                                                                                                                Exaltation of the Holy Cross,
                                                                                                                                September 14,1949

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Prayers for the Advent Wreath

12/1/2019

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Below is a printable file for the Advent prayers we say during Advent when lighting our wreath at dinner.
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First Sunday of Advent - The Last Judgment

12/1/2019

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They shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with great power and majesty. ST. LUKE xxi. 27.

I. As fear is the beginning of wisdom, the Church upon this day opens her ecclesiastical year, by recalling to the minds of her children the terrors of the great accounting-day, upon which neither saint nor sinner can reflect without a thrill of shuddering horror. It is no wonder that they fill us with dread; for the very shadows which that day of wrath shall cast before it, will be enough to make the strong man wither away with fear, and expectation of what shall come upon the earth. The great globe beneath his feet shall rock to its very centre; the sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall not give their light; the sea shall pile up its tumultuous billows to rush in over the land; and the fires hidden in the bowels of the earth shall break forth to consume and to destroy. It is, of course, uncertain whether you will be living when these things shall come to pass.  Yet, though it is uncertain whether you will live to see the signs which shall precede the coming of the Almighty Judge, of this one thing you may be perfectly certain that you, together with all the men who have ever breathed the breath of life, will be standing in the valley of judgment when the sign of the Son of man shall appear in the clouds of heaven.

Your eyes will look upon Jesus Christ, coming with great power and majesty to judge the living and the dead. You will stand there, surrounded by those who have sat by your side in the study and in the classroom. You will be seen by the professors who taught you, and whom you loved so well. Your parents, your brothers, your sisters, your relatives, will all be there with you. You will be there, not as an indifferent spectator, but as a prisoner at the bar, to answer to Almighty God for all the deeds done in the body, whether they have been good or evil.

II. You may perhaps ask the reason why God, Who at the moment of death has already decided the eternal doom of each of us, shall once again cite the human race collectively before His dread tribunal. Many and grave reasons are given by theologians; but let this one suffice, for it is sound, and calculated, moreover, to inspire us with salutary fear: God shall summon the whole human race to a general judgment, because each of us owes to his fellow-men a debt of truth.* His life ought to have been so blameless as to have enabled him to throw open the secret recesses of his soul to the gaze of all around him, and to bear their scrutiny without a blush. Has this debt of truth been paid by us to our brethren?

With sorrow we must confess that it has not. For nearly everyone bears about with him two personalities: one which is known to God and to himself, the other which is known to men. The man, as he stands before the eyes of God, is most studiously concealed from view, and little more than a mask is presented to the gaze of his neighbour. Hence it often happens that a scoundrel goes down to his grave with the reputation of an honest man; a libertine wears the garb of unspotted virtue; and pride the most detestable lies concealed beneath the cloak of humility. As a matter of fact, there is oftentimes as great a difference between the man as he really is, and the man as he appears to be, as there is between a smoothly-polished marble monument, and the rottenness and corruption which lie festering beneath it. God, therefore, has decreed that there shall be a great accounting-day, on which this debt of truth must be paid to humanity. He will then tear down the lying epitaph, and overturn the marble monument, and lay bare before the eyes of the whole world the rottenness and corruption of the soul.

The deeds which have been done in darkness shall be dragged forth into the light; the words which have been whispered in the ear shall be thundered forth by the Archangel's voice; the thoughts and the desires of the heart, springing into existence quick as the lightning-flash, multitudinous as the sands of the sea, shall all be made manifest and brought to judgment.

III. You are going this day to approach the Holy Altar, to partake of the victim which is there offered up for the sins of the world. You are going to receive into the tabernacle of your heart Him, before Whom you will one day stand in fear and trembling, to hear the sentence of your eternal doom. Therefore, look well into yourself, and see whether your soul is able to bear the searching glance of His all-seeing and all-holy eyes.

Is your life so pure that you could stand up fearlessly in the presence of your companions and professors, and let their eyes see you as you appear to the eyes of your God? Just examine into the nature of the thoughts which pass through your mind as you sit poring over your books. See
whether your words are so blameless that you would not fear to utter them before your masters. Are your desires always lawful? Are your actions always so innocent that they might be done in the light of day? If, after a careful scrutiny, you find that you have not harboured evil thoughts and desires, nor spoken wicked words, nor done anything that you would be ashamed of, you need not fear to approach the banquet in which Christ is received. For before God you are that which outwardly you appear to be before men, and therefore there is no debt of truth due from you unto them. But if you cannot do this if you are conscious to yourself of not being what you seem to be if you feel that you are like the whited sepulchre, fair without and foul within stand back! Go, first, and pay your debt of truth. Reveal yourself before man, and let him see you just as you are before God.

Our merciful Lord does not require you to do this before all men, but only before one who holds His place. Before him you must manifest yourself as you are. At his feet weep over your sins, and your kind, merciful God will blot them all out for you. Then you need fear nothing; for on the dreadful Judgment-day the sins of the just shall not be made a spectacle to Angels and to men, because, having been washed away by repentant tears, they are, before God, as if they had never been. Do not fail, while Jesus dwells within you, to ask for grace to lead so pure and holy a life, that you will never be ashamed to let the whole world look into the most secret recesses of your heart. If you can do this, the day of wrath will not have any terrors for you.

You will fear no evil, because you know no sin.
*Nicolas, Etudes Philosophiques, torn, iii., chap. xvi.
 
Source: Lectures for Boys, Volume I, Imprimatur 1896
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1st Sunday of Advent - The Day of Judgment

12/1/2019

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The day will surely come when there will be an end to all the wickedness that exists in the world, and no more insults will be offered to God. On this day almighty God will appear in all His glory and terrible majesty as the just Judge of the living and the dead. It will be a day of terror; the sun will be obscured, covered with a thick black veil; the moon will not give light, she will shine blood red; the stars will fall from the heavens, the whole universe will be shaken to its very foundations. On that day it will rain fire from the skies; burning coals will descend and destroy all that is on this earth. That day has been called by the prophets a cruel day, the day of wrath, the day of darkness, of tribulation and of no mercy. On that day God will pour out His wrath, and sinners will have to drink this chalice of bitterness to the dregs. Of this terrible day the Gospel of this Sunday speaks. It ought to be enough for Christians to hear the announcement of these dreadful occurrences once to make them sin no more, but, on the contrary, they hear these threats repeated several times during the year, and still they do not repent of their sins nor amend their lives.

I hope, my dear young people, that you are not of this number, but reflecting today on these solemn words, you will make a firm resolution not to commit a single mortal sin; and thus that dreadful day, so terrible for the sinner, will be for you a day of joy, of glory, of triumph, and the beginning of your eternal reward. When the hour of the great judgment shall arrive, St. Michael, accompanied by many other angels, will give a blast from his trumpet which shall be heard in all parts of the earth; because the sound shall be winged forth by the power of God's omnipotence. "And they shall hear the voice of the Son of God:" Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment." Great and small, kings and princes, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, all shall obey that summons. At the first sound of this blast, the bodies which for centuries have been reduced to dust will return to their former shapes, and will be reanimated by the voice of the Son of God. All shall come forth from their graves, but there will be a great difference among them. The elect will rise with bodies more brilliant than the stars and like to the angels; as St. Matthew says, "Then the just shall shine like the sun." The wicked shall be there in their former bodies too, but so loathsome that it will be to them as well as to their companions a day of horror. No wonder, for the just have risen to a new life but the wicked to eternal death.

Dear children, what would be your feelings if you should see yourselves in such an abominable body? And yet how many there are among the young who, through an inordinate love of their body, never go contrary to their passions, because they wish to indulge in unlawful pleasures. Then the angels will separate the good from the bad. Oh, what a dreadful separation! the wicked to the left, the good to the right; the good father to the right, the wicked son to the left, the good brother to the right, the wicked one to the left; now is the time to separate the wheat from the cockle. Now is the time to bind the cockle into bundles to burn. That young man who looked so deceptively innocent in his life, who appeared so good to his parents, is now the cockle because he was wicked, he and his companions; another seemed so devout, but he, too, is the cockle because his heart was full of sin. All the most hidden sins will then be manifest; those sins which were committed in the dark and in secret places, those sins which through shame were withheld from the knowledge of the confessor, and those sins, mark it well, which were confessed, but without sorrow and without the resolution to do better. Yes, father, mother, sisters, brothers and friends shall know all our secrets. Nahum the prophet says: "I will discover thy shame to thy face, and will show thy [wickedness] to the nations, and thy shame to kingdoms."

But now heaven opens, and the holy cross appears, carried by angels; the cross, the sign of redemption and of life; the wicked shall fall on their faces as if struck by lightning. What cries and shrieks will they utter! But the good will rejoice when they see the cross, and falling on their knees they will cry out: ''holy cross, we hail thee, our only hope! cross, our comfort in life and now our glory and triumph, we adore thee! '' But behold, in this tumult of voices, amid all this thunder and lightning, in the midst of these fiery clouds, appears the dread Judge, clothed in garments of revenge. The terrible Majesty, with eyes burning like coals of fire. What anger, what menacing looks! His anger shall burn like a fire (Ps. Ixxxviii. 47). A red mantle on His shoulders; from His mouth proceeds a two-edged sword. The sinner shall tremble at the sight; the eyes of Christ, the Judge, shall meet the terrified looks of the sinner. The guilty shall also see, but not for his consolation, the sweet face of Mary, the Mother of sinners, and he will exclaim: "Mary, help me! Mother, have pity on me, throw a glance of mercy toward me! Cover me, Mary, with thy mantle! '' But Mary shall turn from him and say: "No longer call me Mother; you are no son of mine: there is no longer time for mercy, but for justice and divine vengeance; I feel no pity for you; when in your life I wished you to be my son, you refused to come to me; now it is too late."

The angels, too, and all the saints of heaven will reaffirm God's dreadful damnation, and turn from you in disgust: ''He will speak to them in His anger." The great Judge will then speak in His wrath to the sinner, and call him to a rigorous account for all his sinfulness, even for the most secret deeds. 'Up to the present I have been silent and patient; now is My time to render you punishment for all your iniquities; give back what thou owest.' If I were your father where was the honor due Me as such? Hardly did you come to the use of reason when you began to insult Me. You arose in the morning and went to bed at night like an animal, without remembering your Creator; you did not know your prayers, but learned early to curse My holy name. Look at your youthful waywardness, your disobedience to your superiors. From your earliest childhood you took a pride in being unruly; you know your thefts, your quarrels, your lies, your filthy practices, by which you rent and soiled the white garment of your Baptism. You went to church only to dishonor Me; at Mass you laughed, talked, and did not pray, but disturbed others in their devotions. Give an account of all this; not only of this, but give an account, too, of the sins which you made others commit. Your companion was innocent, but you corrupted him, and you are guilty of the sins which he afterwards committed. How many souls redeemed by My precious blood you have destroyed! "Give back what thou owest, rise and give an excuse for all this, if you can. Tell Me if thou hast anything to justify thyself. "(Isaias xliii. 26). Will you plead ignorance? Were you not born in a Christian family, where you received holy teachings, and saw many examples of virtue? What advice did your parents, your teachers, and also your confessor give you? You knew the malice of sin, still you persisted in committing it; you knew there would be a judgment, when you would have to give an account of even an idle word; you knew that in your surroundings in the school and on the street that there was cockle sown among the wheat, but you would not be edified by good example. Will you give as an excuse, weakness: that your passions were too strong for you? You could, if you had wished, have made yourself strong, for you had at hand prayer and the sacraments; I gave you My Body as food and My Blood as drink, but they became a poison to you because you received them unworthily. You had the help of the saints, of the angels and of Blessed Mary. How many youths with less strength than you, weaker than you, more tempted than you, and more exposed to dangers, have preserved themselves from the contamination of vice. There is a young man who at home saw nothing but bad example, whose parents had no love for God, still he remained good. After your first communion you were pious for a while. Why did you cease to be pious? Why did not your piety last for life, as it should? Ah, wretch! you shall feel the effects of My anger; the blood which I shed for you will condemn you." The trembling sinner, convicted by the all-wise Judge, will not be able to open his mouth in his defence; he will call upon the mountains to cover him, the flames to destroy him; yes, he will even call upon hell itself to hide him in its bosom.

Then Christ, the Judge, with a sweet smile upon His face, will turn to the elect and say to them: "My beloved and faithful ones, now is the time come when I will reward you for the services which you have so faithfully rendered Me. Yes, I remember the good examples you have shown, the good advice given to your companions, the crust of bread and the glass of water given to the poor in My name. I remember that from your tenderest years you offered Me your innocent hearts. I remember your many acts of love, and while others have forgotten and offended Me, you have always honored, loved, and visited Me. Now has the time come for the great feast in paradise. "Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' Come now to eternal rest, come away from poverty to wealth, from tears to joy, from the cross to the crown.'' What joy there will be! Indeed you are the glory of God, for He will acknowledge you before the whole world as His faithful children; worthy of the delights and glory of heaven. Can you imagine a greater honor? "Thou art My servant Israel, for in thee will I glory" (Isaias xlix. 3). You are very happy, my dear young people, when a compliment is paid you by some great personage, and you never forget it. How great then will be your happiness to receive praise from God Himself !

Then again the eternal Judge will change His demeanor,and turning to the wicked will say: "Ah! you miserable beings, what have you to expect from Me? You did not love nor reverence Me in your life; I will not now acknowledge you. I know you not. You did not wish to have part with Me, and now you shall not. Go from my presence; you are objects of my hatred; go, ye damned, into eternal fire. "Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire" (Matt. XXV. 41). Cursed by My divine Father, cursed by Me, cursed by the Holy Ghost, cursed by Mary, by the angels and all the saints." What dreadful cries will these wretches send forth on hearing these maledictions! The saints will repeat the curses of God: "Away from here, ye accursed, away from here, ye accursed! "Then the saints will praise God for His justice. These wretches would throw themselves into hell if they could, but God wants them to be witnesses of the triumph of the good; and they must stand there to see it to their own great punishment. These good people whom they ridiculed during life: "They were those whom you held in derision formerly." They will burst with envy, "The sinner shall witness this and gnash his teeth." Ah! indeed we were fools, we were wrong! See that youth whom we laughed at so often because he was pious, and called him scrupulous or a bigot, because he never took part in our wicked talks, plays, and pastimes. There he is now, covered with glory and in triumph, while we are bound in chains, captives of the devil, and prisoners of hell. How foolish were we who considered their life absurd and their end without honor, but now we see them counted among the children of God and among the saints is their lot. The wicked will say, "Yes, we have enjoyed the world and all its vanities, but what has it given us in return? Not happiness, not contentment; what a life of restlessness was ours! There is no peace for the wicked; we surfeited our souls and bodies with sin. Oh! had we done half as much to save our souls as we did to enjoy the illusive joys of our life on earth, we would be saints. "We have grown tired in the way of iniquity and perdition, we have walked in difficult paths."

Then the saints, all robed in white, with palm branches in their hands in sign of triumph, will go joyfully to heaven, there to begin the eternal chant of paradise. The wicked, howling, blaspheming, and despairing, are caught in a terrible whirlpool that starts beneath their feet, sucking them down into eternal perdition: "And these shall go to eternal perdition but the just into life eternal." In this way the great judgment will be accomplished; we shall all see one another in the valley of Jehosophat. I shall see you and you shall see me. Shall we be on the right united with the saints, or shall we be found among the wicked, on the left? Alas, what a misfortune it would be if one of us were to be found among the ranks of the wicked! Shall I, your preacher, be found on the left, arrayed in sacerdotal garments, with the mark of the character of the priesthood impressed on my forehead? St. Jerome so feared this possibility that he retired into a cave and there meditated on the terrible sound of the trumpet which was to call him to judgment, and beat his breast with a rock till it became all livid with blows. "That dreadful voice rings still in my ears, I tremble with my whole body." Should not I, who am not a saint, but a humble priest, fear much more? Jesus, trembling in every limb in fear of that day, I throw myself at Thy feet to implore mercy for myself and for my young hearers. Now Thou art the Father of mercy; then Thou shalt be the inexorable Judge; then it will be too late to ask for mercy. What am I, miserable wretch, going to say; whom will I engage as my patron, when even the just will tremble? Look upon us now, humble and contrite, asking for the pardon of our sins. Never again will we commit a sin, never again will we utter bad words or blasphemies or curses, nor go with bad companions.

Dear Jesus, in Thy goodness make us faithful to Thee and let us not be separated from Thee. Remember, sweet Jesus, that for our salvation Thou didst come down from heaven. By the many sufferings Thou didst endure we pray Thee to have mercy on us and save us; we have cost Thee too much to be abandoned by Thy mercy. Yes; save us, save us, good God, God of mercy, of infinite goodness, save us! Remember, dear Jesus, that Thou didst come to save me: do not then destroy me on that day: Fountain of all goodness,
save me!

Sermons for Children's Masses, Imprimatur 1900
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Advent to Christmas in a Catholic Home

12/1/2019

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Christmas is a liturgical season of great joy. It lasts forty days, from December 25 to February 2, during which the birth of Jesus Christ our Savior, is celebrated as one continuous festival. The finale comes with His presentation in the temple. A season most dear to Christian hearts, Christmas is as distinct in the liturgy as Advent, Lent, Easter, or Pentecost.

Four weeks of Advent are scarcely enough to "prepare the way of the Lord" for His coming to us as King. However, if we have used that season as a preparation, we are ready now to receive the Redeemer who will deliver us from sin in answer to our requests. Christ's coming must be, not a lovely idyll or a pastoral scene, but a reality accomplished in our lives and our children's. Forty days of rejoicing are not too long a celebration for so great an event.

The early Church selected December 25, the date of the winter solstice when God the Creator gives the sun an increase of natural light in northern hemispheres, as the day on which to celebrate the birth of the Sun of Justice, Light of the world. Radiating from the Divine Child are a galaxy of wonderful saints whose lives afford a continuing interest in celebrating the feast of His birth. Micheas, who lived in the days of Isaias, prophesied the birthplace of the Messiah: "Thou, Bethlehem, art a little one among the thousands in Judah; out of thee shall He come forth unto me that is to be the Ruler of Israel; and His going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity."

The name Bethlehem signifies House of Bread. To it at Christmas - comes the Savior, who is the Bread of Life. By our participation in this mystery the divine transformation takes place whereby He "reshapes the body of our lowliness after the body of His splendor." Our forbearers gave the name Christmas to the feast of our Lord's birth because they kept the "Christ Mass" as the heart of their celebrations. Following closely the liturgy of the Church, they centered their customs and wrote their hymns and carols on her practices of the season, adoration, love, joy, and gratitude. Those practices also increased their admiration for His Virgin Mother Mary, who gave Almighty God His human form. He had created heaven and earth by His Word, but His becoming Man depended on a creature's FIAT, Be it done unto me according to Thy Word. Mary consented. Our forebearers honored her in their great masterpieces because she is God's Mother. For the same reason the world in our day honors her as Queen of Heaven.

It is to our Lady that Christian families must look for help to reestablish Christmas as a season of festivities marking Christ's birth. Either we live the liturgical year with its varying seasons of joy and sorrow, work and rest, or we follow the pattern of the world. Nor is it an easy task to break with the world and the powerful influence of advertising. Their season of Christmas begins around Thanksgiving Day when stores display wares for holiday gift-giving. It lasts until December 24. Families, who would not dream of eating their Thanksgiving turkey a week in advance or of having their 4th of July picnic in June, give no thought to the fact that, when they awake on December 25, there is not a shred of Christmas left. Every present has been opened. Every carol has been sung. The tree has dried out Christmas is apt to be a dull day given to over-eating. There was no fast in Advent, so it follows that there can be no feast.

It is difficult to keep one's home dark in Advent penance; to keep a tree fresh outside the door; to refrain from singing carols until Christmas eve. We see their friends' trees shimmering with ornaments a week before Christmas. Their houses are bedecked with lights. Television and radio blare carols. Not only is it difficult to keep from celebrating beforehand, it is even more difficult to begin forty days of the Christmas season when all around people are concluding their festivities. How
then do families return to the spirit of the Church and begin the season of joy and grace on Christmas eve?

The simplest way is by keeping Advent. Advent is the beginning of the new liturgical year. It is a season of spiritual preparation, marked by eager longing for the coming of the Saviour through grace at Christmas, and for His second and final coming. It is also an ideal time to establish in our homes liturgical customs which will restore our children to Christ.
 
These age-old Advent practices help our children live closer to Christ and His Church during the pre-Christmas season. Time-tested and proven, the customs teach the doctrines of redemption and develop a generosity with God and a coordination of the family's spiritual efforts as effectively now as they did for our forebears. Their strong and living faith will be the heritage of our children if family religious practices, centered in the Liturgy, "The Normal School of Sanctity for the Laity," are established in our homes- Secularism has invaded our households. The Bishops of the United States have warned us that "The Christian must make his home holy - the Christian must realize the Christian ideal." Father Edgar Schmiedler, O.S.B., in his three excellent pamphlets, Your Home A Church in Miniature, says of family customs and blessings: "They are a relatively simple, but highly important, means of union between altar and home. They are a media for channeling from one great spiritual reservoir, given into then Church's keeping by Christ, the living and transforming waters of grace from the Saviour's fountain."

Children love to anticipate. When there are empty mangers to fill with straws of small sacrifices, when the Mary-Candle is a daily reminder on the dinner table, when Advent hymns are sung in the candlelight of a graceful Advent wreath, children are not anxious to celebrate Christmas before time. That would offend their sense of honor. Older children who make Nativity sets, cut Old Testament symbols to decorate a Jesse tree, or prepare costumes for a Christmas play will find Advent all too short a time to prepare for the coming of Christ the King.

Children, who love the beauty and simplicity of family religious practices, make the traditions easy to establish. As a rule it is best to begin with one or two customs and others in years to come. It is also highly desirable that families develop their own special customs, at least by adapting traditional ones to their personal circumstances. Once established, customs recall to older members of the family long forgotten practices of their own childhood. These have a special appeal because they belonged to our forefathers and link us to the wealth of national customs now fallen into disuse.

Celebrating Christmas in its season can be accomplished more easily when several families try it together. Frequently there are families who, if only for sentimental reasons, would like to keep the joy and surprise of Christmas for the eve. Christians of the Eastern rite wait until their particular feast of Christmas comes in January. We should likewise begin ours on its proper day. We also need time for our festivities. As difficult as it may be, we should decline invitations to celebrate Christmas
at the various parties sprinkled throughout the Advent season. The Church gives us a period of forty days for rejoicing. Instead invite friends and family to your own joyous celebration of Christ's birth during the many days following December 25th, when for others it is otherwise a disappointing and barren time.

If during Advent we open our souls fully, the Heavens will rain the Just One." St. Pius X, whose burning desire was to restore all things to Christ, might well become the patron of parents who wish to restore their children to Christ through these practices. Our Blessed Lady and St. Joseph too will send inspiration from the Holy Spirit, for theirs was a home where feast day cooking, family customs, family prayers and singing abounded, according to prescribed Jewish law. It is to them we must look for help in order to train our children "to live temperately, justly, reverently, in this world, awaiting the Advent of the glory of the great God."

May you all have a blessed and fruitful Advent Season!
                 Source:  Advent and Christmas in a Catholic Home, Imprimatur 1950
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Christmas Sale at Bellas Little Shoppe

11/25/2019

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We are having a Christmas sale through December 7th .  We are offering 10% off all of our Saint doll outfits as well as FREE SHIPPING.  Discount will be automatically applied. You can fine our shoppe here.

In order to receive orders in time for Christmas delivery the order must be placed no later than December 7th. 

Thank you so very much for all your orders.  God bless you!
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24th Sunday after Pentecost - The Trials of the Church

11/24/2019

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"THERE shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be."

FIRST POINT - There is nothing more remarkable than the destiny of the Church of God on earth. She is a vessel launched on the ocean of time, and destined to be buffeted constantly by wind and storm. The persecution which she shall suffer at the end of time shall be, it is true, the most terrible of all, although in every century of her existence persecutors have arisen against her. The first enemy with which she had to contend was Judaism. The Jews, who had put Jesus to death, wished to stifle His religion in its very cradle; the high-priests, the doctors, the scribes, the Pharisees, and the chiefs of all the people were against her. But it may be asked: Was it necessary that so much opposition should be raised against her who was so weak, so small, and on the first day of her existence? The answer is No, emphatically No, if she had been a human institution. But she was not a human institution; she was divine, and God who had founded her sustained her. And far from falling a victim by persecution, she acquired countless disciples. Driven from Jerusalem and Palestine, she sends her apostles to all parts of the world, and to the conquests she had already made she shall add new ones; but she shall purchase them as she did the first — at the price of the best blood of her children. Hardly had the Church spoken to pagan nations that word which announced the glad tidings, than she counted innumerable disciples — at Athens, as well as at Rome; among the Scythians, Arabians, and Persians, as well as among the Egyptians. At the sight of these triumphs idolatry trembled for its false deities. The emperors took up arms against this new power and began the era of blood and persecution. From one corner to the other of the Roman empire the Christians were tracked by savage beasts; denounced as traitors, placed under the ban of the empire as infamous people, they were put to the rack and the flames and the lions; every citizen was ordered to denounce them, and every governor of a province was charged to put them to death. It was a prodigy unheard of, and history would not believe it if it were not compelled to record it in its annals. But the order of things was reversed. Causes have produced effects opposite to those which they should have produced. The Caesars, instead of stifling religion, had given it a new life. Edicts of proscription propagated it more rapidly than it would have done by the peaceful preaching of millions of apostles; the blood of the martyrs had become the seed of Christianity. Who cannot see here the finger of God? But it was not enough for the Church to have combated against Judaism and idolatry. Intestine strife, more terrible for a society and a kingdom than external foes, arose to show clearly that God sustained His Church. The great heresy which threatened the Church with ruin commenced in the fourth century. It was propagated and came to life under different names until the sixteenth century, when it made its grand development. The apostles of heresy were sometimes powerful in words and works. Has it not produced an Arius and a Luther? Heresy opposed the Church more terribly than the Roman emperors. Arius found assistance in the legions of the Emperor Constance. Luther was supported by the German princes and the revolting peasants. But the same power which caused the Church to triumph over the Jews and pagans made her triumph over heresy, and the new triumph was another proof of her divine origin. Rationalism in its turn declared war against the Church, and what a war! As bold as the prince of Jewish priests and Roman emperors, it attacked individuals and went so far as to shed blood. It was more impious than heresy, since it was not limited, to a contest on some disputed point of doctrine. Rationalism attacked everything. Rousseau denied revelation; Hume held that the distinction between good and evil was arbitrary; Helvetius preached materialism; Diderot made Atheists; Voltaire combined them all — at the head of the philosophic cohort he was soldier and general. At this epoch everything was employed to destroy religion — resources of genius and admi- rable talents, scientific studies and historical evidences, calumnies and sarcasm, but the Church triumphed over them all. The triumph she has won in the sequence of ages over all her enemies must assure us, in the midst of trials which assail her now, that she shall rise from them, as ever, purer and more glorious.

SECOND POINT — What we should do in time of persecution. Our first duty is to humble ourselves before God and strive to appease His anger. All the evils which bring sorrow to the Church, all the trials by which human society is afflicted come from the sins of men. Perhaps these trials are provoked by our own personal iniquities. We should then strike our breast, and by our tears appease the tempests which our crimes have unchained. This was the conduct of the saints. The prophet Daniel was not responsible for the sins which occasioned the captivity of the Jews in Babylon; however, he numbered himself among the guilty ones. ''We have sinned," he said;  "we have committed iniquities. We merit only confusion for our sins, we, our kings, and our princes, and our fathers.'' The holy priest Esdras thus spoke to God: "My God, I am covered with shame and I do not dare to lift my eyes to Thee, because our iniquities have ascended to heaven." Strive  to entertain these sentiments so suitable to a Christian heart, and in the trials which beset the Church here below be careful lest you regard yourself guiltless. In the troubles which afflict the Church we should not content ourselves with being humble; but we should pray for her. This duty our blessed Saviour points out in the Gospel of today, when He says: "Pray that your flight be not in the winter." This He recommends most formally in the words of Ezechiel: "I have sought for a man who would restrain my anger against my people, and I have not found him, and I have been forced to give full vent to my vengeance." These words, "I have sought for a man," should make us tremble. Alas, perhaps you are that unthinking soul who betrays the cause of the Church by neglecting its interests and by doing nothing for her glory. When God seeks some one to arrest His anger, it is a sign He wishes to pardon, and if He does not pardon it is our own fault; we have not prayed, or we have prayed without suitable dispositions. Henceforth, fulfil this duty with greatest fidelity. Pray with a pure heart, with fervor, with perseverance, that God may shorten the days of trial for good Christians. Ask that His Church may increase and flourish more and more every day, until the coming of the great day, which shall see all the enemies of our divine Saviour conquered. Our third duty in the time of trouble and scandal is to cling most tenaciously to the teachings of the Church. "There shall arise" says the Saviour, "false Christs and false prophets; if then some one tells you Christ is here, or there, do not believe it.  To follow this warning remember these two principles:

First, the faith of the Church is invariable; that which was believed in the days of the apostles is still believed, and shall be believed to the end of the world. Thus every novelty should be rejected, every new doctrine should be condemned beforehand and should not seduce us. To believe and to be saved: this is all the Christian should know and practice.

The second principle which shall preserve you from all error is that the Church is Catholic, that is to say, is universal. It follows that Christ is neither in this or that sect. Be on your guard against every particular doctrine; remain firmly attached to the Church which is Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman; whose faith is as old as herself and as extended as the world. She is the pillar of truth on which you must stand in the midst of the fluctuating and uncertain teachings of the times in which we live. She is the bark of Peter which has lived through tempest and storm, and which shall securely conduct you to the haven of safety.

Source: Short Instructions for Every Sunday of the Year and the Principal Feasts, Imprimatur 1897
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24th Sunday After Pentecost - Jesus on Mount Olivet

11/24/2019

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There shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be. (ST. MATT. xxiv. 21)

I. AFTER a day of more than usual contention with His bitter enemies, Jesus turned His back upon them and left the Temple, never again to enter within its hallowed courts. But before He did so, He first completely silenced and confounded the Scribes, the Pharisees, and the Herodians, and launched forth against them those well-merited anathemas, which brought matters to an open rupture between Him and them, and raised in their hearts that thirst for His blood, which eventually brought Him to the disgraceful Cross.

As He left the sacred precincts of the Temple, His disciples called His attention to the beauty of its architecture, and to the richness of the material out of which it had been built. Turning to them, He bade them mark these things well, for that the day drew now close at hand when not one stone of this magnificent structure should be left upon another. Then, while the evening came on apace, He led the way to the summit of Mount Olivet, followed by His sad and dejected Apostles. There they sat down, and looked upon the city which lay beneath them. What a scene of beauty must have met their eyes, as the setting sun bathed with its splendour the public buildings and the glorious Temple one of the world's wonders, and their own nation's proudest boast. With aching hearts they looked upon all this magnificence, and asked, with fear, when these things of which He had spoken should come to pass. Then Jesus told them the signs which were to precede the overthrow of their nation, and put before their eyes that terrible picture of their city girt round by a besieging army, and torn by bloody factions within the walls. He spoke of the famine and the pestilence, which were to consume what the sword of civil discord should spare. He told them of the assault, the capture, and the destruction of their city; of the burning of the Temple; of the overthrow, the subjugation, and the dispersion of their race.

Passing next to the still more distant future, He spoke to them of the final destruction of all earthly things; of the signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars; of the famines, the wars, the pestilences; of the sea rushing in upon the land; the earth bursting asunder and vomiting forth fire; men withering away for fear and expectation of what should come upon the world. Then, said He, shall they see the Son of Man now despised, rejected, and soon to be crucified coming in the clouds of heaven, with great power and majesty. The Angels shall go before His face, to summon from the four corners of the world all the dead, and call them to judgment. For every man, without exception, shall manifest himself before the throne of Jesus Christ, to give an account of all the deeds done in the body, whether they have been good or evil.

II. From both these terrible predictions, you may gather much that will teach you lessons of spiritual wisdom, on this the last Sunday of the ecclesiastical year. Your soul, like Jerusalem, is the city and temple of the living God. Upon it have been lavished multitudinous favours and graces, from the treasury of His mercy. To it there have been granted secret inspirations of the Holy Spirit, urging it on to greater perfection. God's servants and God's ministers have carried His message to it, and have been sent to guide and direct it. It has been a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up, and protected on every side against evil. Nay, God Himself has come down and taken up His abode in it. He has set a seal upon it, by the unction of His Holy Spirit, and given the care of it to His Angels, that they may keep and defend it from evil.

All this has God done for your soul. What return have you made for His loving condescension? Just reflect a little! Can you say that you have gratefully received all these favours, and that you have tried to make Him some little return? Alas ! how many are there whose conscience will force them to strike their breasts with sorrow, and to acknowledge with bitter remorse, that they have abused the grace of God, and trampled it under foot, by profaning the channels which conveyed it to their souls. When the Holy Spirit either gently pleaded with them to follow the lead of grace, or sternly reproved them for their sins, they drowned His voice amid the tumult of unruly passions. When God's servants and ministers instructed them in their duties, and warned them against the snares of the devil, they laughed them to scorn. When either duty, or the great festivals of  the year, brought them to the Holy Table, they gave Jesus the traitor's kiss in that banquet of love, and received Him into their polluted hearts. Those hearts were once the temples of God, but now they are the abodes of furious passions. They have broken down the gates of the Sanctuary; they have suffered every unclean beast to enter; they have set up the abomination of desolation where once there stood the throne of God. They have done all these things, and God has been silent.

III. But will God be silent for ever ? No; for there is no evil deed committed for which a reckoning of some kind or other has not to be made. Though the accounting-day is long a-coming, yet it comes at last. At present it seems but a mere speck in the far-off future, for you are now in the heyday of youth. You have health, and strength, and buoyant spirits; you fear nothing; no unpleasant consequences follow; and therefore, like the fool in the Scripture, you begin to think that there is no reckoning to be made, that there is no God to notice these things.

But what says the Wise Man ? With the bitterest irony he thus addresses the youthful sinner: Young man, give a loose rein to thy passions. Refuse thine eye nothing that it covets, nor thy heart aught that it desires. Satisfy to the full all the base passions of thy nature, but remember that for all these things thou shalt answer before God. When the measure of iniquity has been filled up, and while the wicked repose in fancied security, dreaming only of still further gratification the Son of Man will come to judgment. There will perhaps be no warning. But as lightning coming out of the east, and, in the twinkling of an eye flashing across the whole expanse of the heavens unto the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.

What would be your lot for all eternity if He were to come at this very instant ? What would it have been, had He come at a certain time which you can well remember ? The very thought of this makes, you shudder ! If you desire never to be taken unawares, let the memory of the day of wrath be ever present to your mind. Think frequently of it how the heavens shall roll aside, like the curtains of a tent, and disclose to your view the Son of Man, Christ Jesus, coming with great power and majesty. You will be standing in the valley of judgment, awaiting His coming, either among the blessed or among the reprobate. If among the blessed, you will fear nothing; but if among the reprobate, you will call upon the mountains and the hills to fall upon you and hide your turpitude from your fellow-men and from the piercing glance of God s all-seeing eye.

Keep this dreadful scene before your mind, and it will keep you out of all evil. If you should now be in the state of sin, reflect that for you personally the judgment-day may come at any time; for if death were to strike you with his merciless dart, your eternal lot would be decided in a moment, and your position fixed for that last great day of terror and of wrath. You have now to blot out, by tearful sorrow, the black catalogue which is written up against you. Do not allow this season of grace to slip through your hands. Be converted to the Lord, turn away from the wickedness of your sin, and ask God to fill your heart with so salutary a fear of that day of calamity and of misery, that it may keep your feet for ever in the narrow way which leads to life.

Say to Him from the depth of a contrite heart: Pierce, O Lord, my flesh with Thy fear, and direct my steps in Thy sight. That fear will teach you to tame your unruly passions and bring them into subjection ; that guidance will support your tottering footsteps and lead you to the golden gates of His eternal Kingdom.
                                     Source: Lectures for Boys, Volume I, Imprimatur 1896
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Catholic Family Calendar for the Year of Our Lord 2020

11/23/2019

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~ I have placed a PDF for our 2020 Catholic family calendar on our download page.  Feel free to print it and use it if you like.  You can view the calendar below.
~ This is not an official calendar of the Catholic Church. It was put together by a lay person for her own family using the Saint Andrew Daily Missal, Imprimatur 1951. All quotes taken from: Whom the Lord Loveth,” Imprimatur 1919

~ PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE double check days of fast and abstinence. We are human and we make mistakes even with the best of intentions and a lot of proof reading. We feel guilty when someone doesn't fast or abstain because of an oversight or mistake on our part!
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23rd Sunday after Pentecost - Resurrection of Jairus Daughter

11/17/2019

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IN the miracle which Jesus wrought in favor of the daughter of Jairus we should especially consider three things: of whom is this young girl the image, the conditions of the sinner's return to grace, and the marks of a true return to God.
First Point—Of whom is this young girl the image? She is yours; because she was young, full of health, loved by her father, adored by her mother. She promised herself long years, and in her gracious carelessness she smiled on the world, which extended its arms to her. However, she dies—this only daughter, this rich heiress, this youthful beauty. Neither the nobleness of her blood, nor the dignities of her family, nor wealth, nor youth, were able to preserve her from death. She is your image, because you yourself, from one moment to another, may fall under the stroke of death, as the fragile flower falls under the scythe of the harvester.

Woe to this young girl, if, captivated by the pleasures of the world, she has loved it to the detriment of her eternal interests; if the desire to please it made her forget God; if the care of her body made her forget her soul; if she has cultivated her beauty to attract adorers; if, proud of her advantages, she has opened her heart to pride and allowed it to fall into vain projects—what a misfortune for her, and what a folly ! Death has destroyed everything, and her projects and her desires have perished. What misfortune also for you, if you imitate her in her ardor for the things of the world and her carelessness for the things of heaven. Death shall come to destroy everything, both the vanity of your projects and the folly of your illusions. On seeing her, Jesus exclaimed: "The girl is not dead, but sleepeth." It was impossible better to express the effect of sin in a soul hitherto innocent. This first fault, it is true, brings her death, but the return to life is so easy that this death is rather a sleep than a real death. The heart cannot be corrupted ; conscience has not lost its first delicacy; all the principles of life, so to speak, are living—the breath of grace is all that is needed to reanimate them. See also in what this young girl is your image. You have sinned, but your heart is not perverted; every sentiment is not extinguished; the habit is not formed. All the happy impressions of virtue which you have received still live, and a little good will is all that is necessary to restore you to grace. May you understand and profit by all these elements of sanctification.

Second Point.—Jesus begins by sending away the band of musicians who make a great tumult in this house where life must re-enter. He thus indicates to us the ordinary cause which leads to neglect in the souls of sinners, of whom this young girl is the image; also the first condition of a return to God. There carelessness has commenced with a taste for pleasures. There is in worldly diversions—in parties, balls, spectacles—a deadly vapor which penetrates the heart and excites it. Do not hope to return to the fervor of your first piety as long as you shall live in the midst of the agitation of the world. The cloud of dust which envelops the worldly soul hides from it the sight of God and the sight of duty. In retreat, on the contrary, the heart looks upon itself; it sees its state, it hears the voice of God, and nothing can hinder it from responding to His appeal. If, then, you wish to preserve grace, or to recover it, fly every occasion, all society, all reading calculated to lead you to dissipation. Do you hope to resist your passions in the midst of all that nourishes and develops them ? Do you think that you can preserve your virtue for a long time, when you expose it to the seductions which corrupt it? Do you think you can remain pious, recollected, fervent, and devoted to duty in the midst of objects which dissipate the heart, excite the imagination, and bring distaste for every duty? To believe it is the saddest of illusions. Alas, how many victims this illusion has already made!

Jesus, having dismissed the clamorous crowd which surrounded the young girl, approached her, and taking her by the hand said to her: "Young girl, arise! it is I who command you." Thus it is that God approaches the sinner in the measure that he separates from the world; He takes him by the hand. This is the grace which comes to assist our weakness. "Return to God," said Cardinal Wiseman, "and do not fear the difficulties; when you would sincerely return to good, God shall place His hand in yours and you shall overcome every obstacle." O powerful Hand, Thou unitest Thyself to a hand which is cold in death; Thou deignest to touch a corpse, and Thou givest it warmth, movement, and life! O vivifying Voice, Thou piercest the depths of the abyss; the empire of Death is shaken by Thee; she recognizes her Conqueror, and Thou compellest her to restore the prey of which she took possession. Speak to my heart, O Jesus, and if it resists speak to it more loudly and its life shall be restored. It is only Thou, O my God, who, by the application of Thy merits and  the interior voice of Thy grace, can recall me to life.

Third Point.—Signs of resurrection to grace. At this word of Jesus, "Arise!" the soul re-entered the body which she had abandoned, and "immediately the young girl arose and walked. And Jesus commanded that they should give her food to eat." As the soul is the principle of human life, the Holy Spirit is the principle of the supernatural life. If the soul has truly risen, the Holy Spirit dwells there again. His presence is revealed by signs which cannot be mistaken. Upon entering the heart He spreads there a certain recollection, a taste for the things of God, which contrast with the old habits of dissipation and the pleasures which made up her worldly life. The spirit of pride has given place to the spirit of modesty and humility; charity succeeds hatred; liberality succeeds selfishness. The habits of life are as different as the dispositions of the heart. He who only frequented worldly assemblies is pleased in the midst of sacred assemblies; virtuous friends surround him whom corrupting friends had seduced and led away; charity pours into the hands of the poor the money which vanity dispensed in foolish ornaments; words of salvation and edification fall from his lips, which were opened only in falsehood and frivolity; visits to the amiable Guest of the Tabernacle replace the useless visits which begot idleness; the Spirit of God has re-entered this soul.

Jesus commands that food shall be given the young girl whom He has just restored, and thus compels the most obstinate minds to Recognize the miracle which His power had just wrought. The divine Master has prepared for us in the Holy Eucharist the food which is best suitable to sustain and develop our life as Christians. He who approaches it, and approaches it often, shall find the strength to combat, lights in his doubts, consolations in his sorrows, and supernatural life shall flow in on him with superabundance. The careless soul who remains away from it exposes herself to see the life of grace languish and little by little become completely extinct in her. The desire of this heavenly bread and the eagerness to be nourished by it are the index of the soul whom the Holy Spirit animates by His breath and enlightens by His lights.

O divine Jesus, Thou givest life to the sinner, and Thou makest even the dead hear. Speak to my
heart as Thou spoke to the daughter of Jairus. Grant that I may arise and walk, that I may receive with spiritual hunger the food Thou presentest to me, in order that I may live by Thy spirit and be nourished by Thy flesh, and that by a holy life I may come to share Thy glory.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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- Union of Our Will With God During Tribulations -       St Francis de Sales

11/12/2019

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THAT THE UNION OF OUR WILL WITH THE GOOD-PLEASURE OF GOD TAKES PLACE PRINCIPALLY IN TRIBULATIONS.

PAINFUL things cannot indeed be loved when considered in themselves, but viewed in their source, that is, in the Divine Will and Providence which ordains them, they are supremely delightful.

Look at the rod of Moses upon the ground, and it is a hideous serpent; look upon it in Moses’s hand, and it is a wand of miracles. Look at tribulations in themselves, and they are dreadful; behold them in the will of God, and they are love and delights. How often have we turned in disgust from remedies and medicines when the doctor or apothecary offered them, which, being offered by some well-beloved hand (love surmounting our loathing), we receive with delight. In truth, love either takes away the hardship of labour, or makes it dear to us while we feel it.
It is said that there is a river in Bœotia wherein the fish appear golden, but taken out of those their native waters, they have the natural colour of other fishes: afflictions are so; if we look at them outside God’s will, they have their natural bitterness, but he who considers them in that eternal good-pleasure, finds them all golden, unspeakably lovely and precious. If Abraham had seen outside God’s will the necessity of slaying his son, think, Theotimus, what pangs and convulsions of heart he would have felt, but seeing it in God’s good-pleasure, it appears all golden, and he tenderly embraces it.
 If the martyrs had looked upon their torments outside this good-pleasure, how could they have sung, in chains and flames? The truly loving heart loves God’s good-pleasure not in consolations only but in afflictions also; yea, it loves it better upon the cross in pains and difficulties, because the principal effect of love is to make the lover suffer for the thing beloved.
The Stoics, especially good Epictetus, placed all their philosophy in abstaining and sustaining, bearing and forbearing; in abstaining from and forbearing earthly delights, pleasures and honours; in sustaining and bearing wrongs, labours and trials: but Christian doctrine, which is the only true philosophy, has three principles upon which it grounds all its exercises,—abnegation of self, which is far more than to abstain from pleasures, carrying the cross, which is far more than tolerating or sustaining it, following Our Lord, not only in renouncing our self and bearing our cross, but also in the practice of all sorts of good works. But at the same time there is not so much love shown in abnegation or in action, as in suffering.
The Holy Ghost in Holy Scripture certainly signifies the death and passion which our Saviour suffered for us, to be the highest point of his love towards us.
1. To love God’s will in consolations is a good love when it is indeed God’s will that is loved, and not the consolation which is the form it takes: however, this is a love without contradiction, repugnance and effort: for who would not love so worthy a will in so agreeable a form?
2. To love the will of God in his commandments, counsels and inspirations is a second degree of love, and much more perfect, for it leads us to the renouncing and quitting of our own will, and makes us abstain from and forbear some pleasures, though not all.
3. To love sufferings and afflictions for the love of God is the supreme point of most holy charity, for there is nothing therein to receive our affection save the will of God only; there is great contradiction on the part of nature; and we not only forsake pleasures, but embrace torments and labours.
 Our mortal enemy knew well what was love’s furthest and finest act, when having heard from the mouth of God that Job was just, righteous, fearing God, hating sin, and firm in innocence, he made no account of this, in comparison with bearing afflictions, by which he made the last and surest trial of the love of this great servant of God.
To make these afflictions extreme, he formed them out of the loss of all his goods and of all his children, abandonment by all his friends, an arrogant contradiction by his most intimate associates and his wife, a contradiction full of contempt, mockery and reproach; to which be added the collection of almost all human diseases, and particularly a universal, cruel, offensive, horrible ulcer over all his body.
And yet behold the great Job, king as it were of all the miserable creatures of the world, seated upon a dunghill, as upon the throne of misery, adorned with sores, ulcers, and corruption, as with royal robes suitable to the quality of his kingship, with so great an abjection and annihilation, that if he had not spoken, one could not have discerned whether Job was a man reduced to a dunghill, or the dunghill a corruption in form of a man.
Now, I say, hear the great Job crying out: If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, why shall we not receive also evil? O God! How this word is great with love! He ponders, Theotimus, that it was from the hand of God that he had received the good, testifying that he had not so much loved goods because they were good, as because they came from the hand of the Lord; whence he concludes that he is lovingly to support adversities, since they proceed from the hand of the same Lord, which is equally to be loved when it distributes afflictions and when it bestows consolations.
Every one easily receives good things, but to receive evil is a work of perfect love, which loves them so much the more, inasmuch as they are only lovable in respect of the hand that gives them. The traveller who is in fear whether he has the right way, walks in doubt, viewing the country over, and stands in a muse at the end of almost every field to think whether he goes not astray, but he who is sure of his way walks on gaily, boldly, and swiftly: even so the love that desires to walk to God’s will through consolations, walks ever in fear of taking the wrong path, and of loving (in lieu of God’s good-pleasure) the pleasure which is in the consolation; but the love that strikes straight through afflictions towards the will of God walks in assurance, for affliction being in no wise lovable in itself, it is an easy thing only to love it for the sake of him that sends it.
The hounds in spring-time are at fault at every step, finding hardly any scent at all, because the herbs and flowers then smell so freshly that their odour puts down that of the hart or hare: in the spring-time of consolations love scarcely recognizes God’s good-pleasure, because the sensible pleasure of consolation so allures the heart, that it troubles the attention which the heart should pay to the will of God.
St. Catherine of Siena, having from our Saviour her choice of a crown of gold or a crown of thorns, chose this latter, as better suiting with love: a desire of suffering, says the Blessed (St.) Angela of Foligno, is an infallible mark of love: and the great Apostle cries out that he glories only in the cross, in infirmity, in persecution.

Treatise on the Love of God ~ St. Francis De Sale ~ Page 275-277
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All Souls Day - November 2nd

11/2/2019

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ALL SOULS DAY: SOULMASS: NOVEMBER 2nd

Fire has always been a symbol of immortality, and the immortality  of the soul was symbolized by lighting fires during the night of All  Souls; perhaps the simpler people thought that their little furze fires dotted over the hillsides would show the way to souls who were that day making their journey from purgatory to heaven!

Long after the Catholic faith had been cast out of this country, relics remained at Soulmass of the once universal praying for the dead, though, as was inevitable, these became empty and corrupt.  Even in the 19th century girls still went "souling" from door to  door; people baked and ate soul cakes, people, who would have  abhorred the idea that the dead can be helped by prayers, would  say on this day: "A soul cake, a soul cake, God have mercy on all Christian souls for a soul cake." A soul cake was a sort of oat cake,  which, in Catholic times was baked specially as a gift for poor and  needy people, and these people on receiving it would pray for the  dead belonging to those who gave it.

All Souls' day could be made the feast day of the dead members of  any family. One could pray in general for all the souls in  purgatory, but surely the members of the family have first claim.  Where there are children in a family one can make a soul cake for each one and ask each to undertake to pray particularly for one dead member of the family.

When the dead are buried not too far away an annual expedition could be made to the churchyard with flowers, or to tidy and clear their graves. One has only to walk through any churchyard to wish that All Souls' day could be celebrated in such a way by the whole country! In this way, starting from a quite unambitious level, children could be taught to take a real interest in the welfare of the dead members of their family and could come to have a real devotion to the souls in Purgatory.
                                               Source:  A Candle is Lighted, 1945

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The Feast of All Saints - The Making of a Saint

11/1/2019

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The Feast of All Saints, on the 1st of November, was celebrated as early as the fourth century by the Greeks, who kept a feast of all the martyrs and saints, on the first Sunday after Pentecost; and we still possess a sermon delivered on that day by St. Chrysostom. In the West, this feast was introduced by Pope Boniface IV. after he had dedicated, as the Church of the Blessed Virgin and the Martyrs, the Pantheon, which had been made over to him by the Emperor Phocas.  The feast of this dedication was kept on the thirteenth of May.

About 731 Gregory III. consecrated a chapel in St. Peter's church in honor of all the saints, from which time All Saints' Day has been kept in Rome, as now, on the first of November. From about the middle of the ninth century the feast came into general observance throughout the West. It ranks as a double of the first class, with an octave. That none of the elect might be omitted in the honor and veneration due them, this feast was established.

During the course of the year the Church offers for our contemplation the feast of one saint after another, but on this day she shows us the heavens opened and the countless multitude of the Elect from all nations, races and states of life. The Church celebrates her harvest feast on this day, showing herself the true Church that leads her children to eternal bliss. The true Christian, especially should feel on this day that he also is created for heaven. The sight of so many saints that were once human, like himself, enlivens the hope within him of reaching his eternal goal. Renewed courage and strength invigorates his heart. Penetrated with a lively faith in the Communion of Saints, he confidently calls upon the inhabitants of heaven for their powerful assistance.

By far the greater number of the Elect who have attained to the beatific vision are unknown to us. The Church honors only those as saints who either have suffered martyrdom, or whose sanctity has been indisputably confirmed. In former times bishops could declare a deceased person worthy of veneration, but now this right is reserved exclusively for the Pope. For this purpose the Church has established an exceedingly strict and deliberate process, which usually develops into three degrees,—that of Venerable, Blessed, and Saint. The first step of the process
is a formal inquiry as to whether the deceased practiced the virtues in an heroic degree. If this is
attested in the affirmative, then the deceased is declared venerable. The second degree is that of beatification. The person who is to be beatified must have practiced, in the heroic degree, chiefly, the three theological virtues,—Faith, Hope and Charity, and the four cardinal virtues,—Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance, with all that these suppose and involve. It must also be proved that four or at least two miracles have been wrought by the intercession of the person whose virtues are under debate; upon which the Pope declares him or her Blessed (Beatus), by virtue of which a limited public veneration is permitted. Canonization is the third and final degree in the recognition and estimation of the virtues of a servant of God, preparatory to his or her being elevated to the altars, and commended to the perpetual veneration and invocation of Christians throughout the Catholic Church. Before proceeding to canonization it must be proved that at least two miracles have been wrought through the intercession of the blessed person since the beatification. This proof is attended with the same formalities and surrounded by the same rigorous conditions as in the case of the miracles proved before beatification, whereupon the Pope declares, that the servant of God in question shall be inscribed on the register of the Saints. Though Rome from century to century, has established many miracles with the greatest judicial rigor and exactitude still the unbelieving world persist in denying, without further examination, the truth of these miracles; even going so far as to dispute their possibility. For the thoughtful Christian, these authenticated miracles are an indisputable proof that the Catholic Church is the sanctifying Ciurch of Christ. This proof is confirmed anew at every process of beatification or canonization.

Source: The Ecclesiastical Year for Schools and Institutions, Imprimatur 1903
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All Saints Day

10/28/2019

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      Instruction on the Feast of All Saints

 Source: Goffine's Devout Instruction, Imprimatur 1874           

                                                                         November 1st
Why has the Church instituted this festival?
1. To give praise to God in His saints, (Ps. cl.) and to pay to the saints themselves the honor which they merit for having made it the work of their earthly life to promote the honor of God.
2. To impress vividly upon our minds that we are members of that holy Catholic Church which believes in the communion of saints, that is, in the communion of all true Christians, who belong to the Church triumphant in heaven, to the Church suffering in purgatory, or to the Church militant upon earth; but, more particularly, to cause us earnestly to consider the communion of the saints in heaven with us, who are yet battling on earth.
3. To exhort us to raise our eyes and hearts, especially on this day, to heaven, where before the throne of God is gathered the innumerable multitude of saints of all countries, times, nationalities and ranks of life, who have faithfully followed Christ and left us glorious examples of virtues, which we ought to imitate. This we can do, for the saints, too, were weak men, who fought and conquered only by the grace of God, which will not be denied to us.
4. To honor those saints, for whom during the year there is no special festival appointed by the Church. Finally, that in consideration of so many intercessors God may grant us perfect reconciliation, may permit us to share in their merits, and may grant us the grace to enjoy with them, one day, the bliss of heaven.
 
Who first instituted this festival?
    Pope Boniface IV. first suggested the celebration of this festival, when in 610 he ordered that the Pantheon, a pagan temple at Rome, dedicated to all the gods, should be converted into a Christian church, and the relics of the saints, dispersed through the different Roman cemeteries, taken up and placed therein. He then dedicated the Church to the honor of the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs, and thus for the first time celebrated the Festival of All Saints, directing that it should be observed in Rome every year.
Pope Gregory IV. extended this feast to the whole Catholic Church, and appointed the 1st of November as the day of its celebration.
    At the Introit the Church sings: "Let us all rejoice in the Lord, celebrating a festival day in honor of all the saints; at whose solemnity the angels rejoice, and give praise to the Son of God. Rejoice in the Lord, ye just: praise becometh the upright. Glory Be, etc.

PRAYER OF THE CHURCH. Almighty everlasting God, who givest us to venerate in one solemnity the merits of all Thy saints: we beseech Thee to bestow upon us, through our multiplied intercessors, the fulness of Thy propitiation. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, Who livest and reignest with Thee in union with the Holy Ghost, now and forever.  Amen.

LESSON. (Apoc. vii. 2 12.) IN THOSE DAYS, behold, I, John, saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the sign of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying: Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we sign the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them that were signed, and hundred and forty-four thousand were signed, of every tribe of the children of Israel. Of the tribe of Juda were twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Ruben twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Aser twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Nephtali twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Manasses twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Zabulon twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand signed. Of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand signed. After this I saw a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and in sight of the Lamb , clothed with white robes , and palms in their hands: and they cried with a loud voice, saying: Salvation to our God who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and the ancients, and the four living creatures; and they fell down before the throne upon their faces, and adored God, saying: Amen. Benediction, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, honor, and power, and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen.

EXPLANATION:
    The words of this lesson relate immediately to the divine punishment on Jerusalem and the Jewish people, as they were revealed in spirit to John; in a higher and particular sense they refer to the general judgment. At this judgment there will be chosen ones, from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. But that it might not be thought that the elect are principally Christian converts from Judaism, St. John was shown a countless multitude of Christians from heathen lands, by which it is seen, that it is the pagans who will principally fill the Church of Christ and heaven. This multitude clothed in white and carrying palms in their hands, stand before the throne of God and before the Lamb, that is, Christ. The white robes are tokens of their innocence; the palm is the emblem of their glory and of their victory over the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil. They shall adore God, and forever sing to Him, in communion with all the heavenly spirits, a canticle of praise for the power and glory which He has bestowed upon them.
    Let us strive so to live, that we may one day be among these chosen ones.
GOSPEL. (Matt. v. i 12.)
    AT THAT TIME, Jesus seeing the multitudes, went up into a mountain. And when he was sat down, his disciples came unto him. And opening his mouth, he taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land. Blessed' are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall have their fill. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you untruly, for my sake: be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven.

Why is the Gospel of the Eight Beatitudes read on this day?
    Because they form, so to speak, the steps on which the saints courageously ascended to heaven. If you desire to be with the saints in heaven, you must also mount patiently and perseveringly these steps, then God's hand will assuredly aid you.

EXPLANATION OF THE EIGHT BEATITUDES.
1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
    THEY are poor in spirit who, like the apostles, leave all temporal things for Christ's sake and become poor; they who have lost their property by misfortune or injustice, and bear this loss with patience and resignation to the will of God; they who are contented with their poor and lowly station in life, do not strive for greater fortune or a higher position, and would rather suffer want than make themselves rich by unlawful means; they who though rich do not love wealth, nor set their hearts upon it, but use their riches to aid the poor; and especially they who are humble, that is, who have no exalted opinion of themselves, but are convinced of their weakness and inward poverty, have a low estimate of themselves, therefore, feel always their need, and like poor mendicants, continually implore God's grace and assistance.

2. Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land. He is meek who represses every rising impulse of anger, impatience and desire of revenge, and willingly puts up with every thing that God, td prove him, decrees or permits to happen to him, or men inflict upon him. He who thus controls himself, is like a calm and tranquil sea, in which the image of the divine Sun is ever reflected, clear and unruffled. He who thus conquers himself is mightier than
if he besieged and conquered strongly fortified cities, (Prov. xvi. 32.) and will without doubt receive this earth, as well as heaven, as an inheritance, enjoying eternally there the peace (Ps. xxxvi. n.) which is already his on earth.

3. Blessed are they that mourn , for they shall be comforted. The mourners here mentioned are not those who weep and lament over the death of relatives and friends, or over misfortune or loss of temporal riches, but those who mourn that God is so often offended, so little loved and honored by men, that so many souls, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, are lost. Among these mourners are also those who lead a strict and penitential life, and patiently endure distress; for sin is the only evil, the only thing to be lamented, and those tears only, which are shed on account of sin, are useful tears, and are recompensed by everlasting joy and eternal consolation.

4. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall have their fill. Hunger and thirst denote the ardent longing for those virtues which constitute Christian perfection. He who seeks such perfection with ardent desire and earnest striving, will be filled, that is, will be adorned by God with the most beautiful virtues, and will be abundantly rewarded in heaven.

5. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. They are merciful who assist the poor according to their means, who practice every possible spiritual and corporal work of mercy, who as far as they can, patiently endure the faults of others, strive always to excuse them, and willingly forgive the injuries they have received. They especially are truly merciful, who are merciful to their enemies, and do good to them, as written: Love your enemies, and do good to them that hate you. (Matt. v. 44.) Well is it for him who is merciful, the greatest rewards are promised him, but a judgment without mercy shall be passed on the unmerciful.

6. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. They are clean of heart, who carefully preserve the innocence which they received in baptism, and keep their heart and conscience free not only from all sinful words and deeds, but from all sinful thoughts and desires, and in all their omissions and commissions think and desire only good. These while yet on earth see God in all His works and creatures, because their thoughts are directed always to the Highest Good, and in the other world they will see Him face to face, enjoying in this contemplation a peculiar pleasure which is reserved for pure souls only; for as the eye that would see well, must be clear, so must those souls be immaculate who are to see God.

7. Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God. Those are peace-makers who guard their improper desires who are careful to have peace in their conscience and regulated tranquility in all their actions, who do not
quarrel with their neighbors, and are submissive to the will of God. These are called children of God, because they follow God who is a God of peace, (Rom. xv. 33.) and who even gave His only Son to reconcile the world, and bring upon earth that peace which the world does not know and cannot give.(Luke ii. 14.; John xiv. 27.)

8.  Blessed are they that suffer perseciition for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Those suffer persecution for justice' sake who by their words, writings, or by their life defend the truth, the faith and Christian virtues; who cling firmly to God, and permit nothing to turn them from the duties of the Christian profession, from the practice of their holy religion, but on its account suffer hatred, contempt, disgrace, injury and injustice from the world. If they endure all this with patience and perseverance, even, like the saints, with joy, then they will become like the saints and like them receive the heavenly crown. If we wish to be crowned with them, we must suffer with them: And all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution, (ii. Tim. v 111, 12.)

SUPPLICATION.
    How lovely, O Lord, are Thy tabernacles! My soul longeth for Thy courts. My body and soul rejoice in Thee, most loving God, Thou crown and reward of all the saints, whose temporal pains and sufferings Thou dost reward with eternal joy, filling them with good! How blessed are they who have faithfully served Thee, for they carry Thy name on their forehead, and reign with Thee for all eternity.
    Grant us, we beseech Thee, O God, by their intercession, Thy grace that we, after their example, may serve Thee in sanctity and justice, in poverty and humility, in meekness and repentance, in the ardent desire for all virtues, by mercy, perfect purity of heart, in peacefulness and patience, following them, and taking part, one day, with them in heavenly joy and happiness. Amen.
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20th Sunday after Pentecost - Jesus Heals the Son of the Officer

10/27/2019

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IN the Gospel of today we are called upon to consider the zeal and the ardor of the officer of Capharnaum. He hastens to the Saviour to ask the healing of his son, and we cannot fail to observe his lively faith and the graces he received from Our Lord Jesus Christ.

First Point.—"An officer whose son was sick at Capharnaum, having heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, went to Him and begged Him to come and heal his son." This officer had a son, the object of all his tenderness, who was sick; the malady was so violent that there was no hope of his restoration except by a miracle. Jesus had already done a great number of miracles in this city, but He had left it. What a sad plight for this unhappy father, on the point of losing all that was dearest to him in the world! In his sorrow he inquires and is informed where Jesus was; he had heard all that had been said of Him, and he learns that Jesus had left Judea and had gone to Galilee. Then, fearing that Jesus would arrive too late at Capharnaum, he determines to set out to meet Him and to ask Him to hasten His journey. He will not entrust this mission to any one, but leaves his son to seek assistance for him. He departs without thinking of the length of the journey or the fatigue.

Have for the salvation of your soul the eagerness which this father had for the health of his son, and you shall discover, as he did, all that contributes to your health, your sanctification, and your perfection; you shall not be arrested either by human respect or by shame of confessing your faults, or by the difficulties of the sacrifices you may make. If the officer of Capharnaum now gives you a lesson by his eagerness in going to find Jesus, he gives you another, no less important, by the fervor of his prayer. Hardly had he found Jesus than he begged Him to come and heal his dear sick one. But Jesus said to him, "Unless you see miracles and wonders you do not believe," and the officer insists by saying, "Come, Lord, before my son dies."

The prayer of this man was indeed defective, because he seemed to think that Jesus could not heal his son except He was near him; but how admirable are his fervor, his humility, and especially his perseverance! A confidence less solid should fail before a reproach which had all the appearances of a refusal; but, far from being disconcerted, he humbles himself and gives to his prayer a fresh energy. He exclaimed: "Lord, my son is near dying; hasten, I conjure you; come quickly before he dies." O happy father, not to be rejected ! His perseverance is rewarded. Jesus said to him: "Go, your son is healed." Strive to know the Master whom you serve. If He defers hearing you, if He seems to reject you, it is His love which prompts Him to act so and for your greater good. Ask Him, therefore, in confidence, but ask Him with an entire resignation to the designs of Providence, for all temporal goods, health of body, success in your studies, success in your enterprises; if He refuse you, then believe it is for your interest and bow down to His holy will. Ask Him for spiritual goods. God owes them to you. Ask them of Him eagerly and with perseverance, and rest assured He shall grant you always more than you ask of Him.

Second Point.—Consider the beginning, the progress, and the recompense of this man who comes to implore the healing of his son. His faith is not an enlightened one; the idea which he had formed of Jesus after what he had heard of Him in Capharnaum was very imperfect. He believed, it is true, that Jesus could heal his son, but he did not believe He could heal him without seeing him, touching him, and speaking with him. He did not know that Jesus could work miracles at a distance as well as near at hand, when absent as well as when present, and that a single act of His will was sufficient. He was far from believing that Jesus was the Son of God, God Himself, the Creator and Master of the universe. Have you a more precise idea of Jesus? Have you such an idea as faith gives and demands? Should the divine Master address you as He once addressed the apostles, "What think you of Me?" could you respond without hesitation and with the same assurance as St. Peter: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"? The progress of his faith. The reprimand of the Saviour had made an impression on this man; and when he heard Jesus in tones of authority pronounce these words of hope, "Your son is healed," he believed in the words of Jesus, and departed fully persuaded his son should be restored to him.

Therefore he believed in this miracle without having seen it; he ceased to be of the number of those of whom Jesus had just spoken, who did not believe unless they had seen. On his return the servants, who had been witnesses of the sudden healing of their young master, met him and said: "Your son liveth." At this happy news, he does not permit his heart to indulge in vain joy. He forgets himself and thinks only of his Benefactor. This prodigious eventshall have for him practical and important consequences. He asks of the servants at what hour his son got better, and recognized it was at that very moment that Jesus said: "Your son is healed." "He believed, and his whole house with him." Then it was that he understood that Jesus had not only predicted the healing, but had also accomplished it. He was struck at the sight of a power so divine, and he believed not only in the words of Jesus, but in Jesus Himself. He recognized Him
as the Son of God, the promised Messias, and the Saviour of the world. May your faith in Jesus likewise grow in proportion to the benefits you receive from Him.

Recompense of his faith. The first recompense which this happy father received was the restoration of his son to health. What reward for his long journey, his fatigues, and his sacrifices ! And for us, also, our first and sweetest recompense when we shall sincerely seek Jesus shall be the healing of our soul. We shall recover the beauty of virtue, peace of heart, and the friendship of God and our rights to heaven. What a happiness ! Can we ever do too much to merit this? The second recompense he received was the perfection of his faith. The faith of this man which came from seeking Jesus was indeed generous; but, observe, it was also an enlightened faith. When he had left Jesus it had received a wonderful increase which exalted it to the very perfection of faith. He believed without reserve the words of Jesus, regarding Him as the Messias, the one by whom alone we can have access to God. And not content with believing in Him, he inspired his whole household with his faith, and gained for Jesus all those hearts over whom he had authority. God does not cease to lavish His blessings on you, but shall they serve to increase your love for Him and your zeal for His glory?

Who could not grieve for this man when he saw his son, whom he loved so much, at the point of
death! And still, that very circumstance which made him an object of compassion in the eyes of
men was the means of leading him and his household to Jesus. Oh, how little we understand our true interests when we complain of God and murmur against the dispositions of His providence!

Ah, rather than murmur, let us adore the profound wisdom of God, directing us in all things. After the example of the model we have just studied, let us also profit by sickness and afflictions. They should prompt us to have recourse to God, to unite us with Him intimately, and to detach us from the world more and more.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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18th Sunday after Pentecost - Jesus Cures the Paralytic

10/13/2019

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IN the paralytic healed so miraculously by Jesus, the holy doctors see the image of spiritual paralytics, in whom sin has exhausted the sources of  supernatural life, or in whom tepidity has stopped its activity. In the zeal which these men display who are so afflicted, they find two circumstances worthy of our meditations, viz., the conditions and the signs of a sincere return to God.
First Point.—Conditions of a sincere return to God. These men whom the Holy Spirit here presents
to us as models have with difficulty come to Jesus. They are stopped at the door of the house by a multitude whom all their efforts cannot resist. But their zeal is not lessened. Their ingenious charity finds another way to Him. Rather, He to whom faith conducts them suggests the way they must follow. And you also must expect to find obstacles in your return to Jesus. The enemy of your salvation shall oppose your return by the illusions of the world, the seductions of pleasures, the authority of examples, vain words, the fear of opinions, and foolish railleries. But it is in yourself especially that you shall find the most dangerous arms. They are the ardent passions which you must repress, agreeable inclinations which you must reform, flattering tastes which you must abandon, cherished associations which you must break, and inveterate habits which you must overcome. Imagination, which still more increases the difficulty, terrifies you; only the idea of efforts to be made prevents even the first step. Alas! how much this sad fear of contest against one's self puts to flight the courageous resolutions and renders void the most salutary projects.

If the sick man of whom there is now question was discouraged; if, yielding to obstacles, he stopped short; if, despairing of reaching Jesus, he had ceased to seek Him, the unfortunate man would have been a victim to his infirmity during his life; and, what is more deplorable still, he would die laden by his sins. This is the condition of sinners whom sloth restrains at the very outset of their penitential career, or whom weakness prevents from performing it. Indeed, we should mistrust ourselves, but can we not confide in God? He has promised us His assistance; shall we doubt His fidelity? Implore this assistance with which you cannot fail to triumph, but think that it is to your efforts that God shall grant it. He wishes to supply for your weakness, but not for your will. He consents to aid you, but He commands that you shall begin to act. He adds to your strength what is wanting, but He requires that such as it is you must employ it. See the paralytic who is presented for your model. He strives to come to Jesus with all the strength of which he is capable; in his inability to go and cast himself at the feet of Jesus he puts himself in the hands of charitable persons who carry him there. Imitate him; if your soul, paralyzed by a long sequence of sins, feels no longer able to endure their weight and can only give forth vain desires, entrust yourself to a zealous director. He shall guide you, he shall carry you if it is necessary, even to the feet of your Redeemer. His science shall enlighten you, his experience shall guide you, and his charity shall sustain you. What you think you are unable to do he shall teach you ; and what you really cannot do he shall do for you. His prayers, which are agreeable to God, shall make yours heard. He shall be at once the happy mediator who shall obtain your pardon and the merciful judge who shall pronounce it.

Second Point.—Signs of a true conversion. In healing the paralytic, Jesus gives him three different commands which announce the different characters of the conversion of a sinner. He commands him to arise, to take up his bed, and to return into his house.

The first mark by which we recognize that a sinner is truly converted is when his soul, once lifted up to God, is no longer grovelling in the things of earth, and, strongly maintaining itself, it remains' with constancy in the state of rectitude in which grace has placed it. We do not consider the sick man cured when each time he strives to rise he falls back through want of vigor. We must pronounce the same judgment on a soul whose feeble efforts to arise, not having the necessary strength, are continually followed by relapses. Is not this the judgment we must pronounce on you—you who make of your life a continual alternation of penance and sin ? You have not the courage to cut loose entirely from the world; you have not the generosity to give yourself entirely to God; you are tossed about successively from your fears to your weakness. Do you think you have recovered health when you take in the way of salvation only wavering steps and when the least obstacle disturbs you and casts you down? "Arise," said the Saviour; but remember that a relapse is worse than the original malady, because, already weakened, you have less strength to bear this and to accept the remedies.

In the bed which Jesus commanded the paralytic to take away, the fathers see the symbol of habits, affections, and the passions to which the soul was addicted while she was paralyzed. There she rests, there she languishes, there she remains, incapable of movement. After her conversion the objects of her affections become for her a burden. Her crime was to taste of the pleasure, and a part of her penance shall be to feel its burden. Sinful soul, do not hesitate to take up this bed of miseries to which you were so long confined. You must take it up, or you shall continue to lie upon it. But take courage. Your burden shall become less heavy in proportion to your willingness to carry it; your passions will continue to torment you, especially in the beginning of your conversion, but they will grow weaker in the measure you resist them, and you shall regain the dominion over yourself.

Jesus commanded the paralytic to return to his house. This is also the command He gives to a converted soul. By sin she went out from herself to give herself to creatures; her conversion should consist principally in re-entering herself and remaining there constantly recollected. This separation from dangerous objects, this interior retreat, are at once the precious effects, the manifest sign, and the assured guarantee of a solid penance.

Those sinners are not truly converted whom we see, after some equivocal marks of repentance, not avoiding the occasions which led them to sin, forming again those associations which were their ruin,and returning to the pleasures which corrupted them. You see the most perfect, just those innocent souls that have never been stained by a mortal sin, tremble at the approach of the world and fear its empoisoned breath lest the delicate flower of purity should be withered. And you, who with the knowledge of your weakness and the experience of all your falls should stand in fear and in continual circumspection—you imprudently expose yourself to the contagion by which you were so often attacked, and again expose yourself to the danger to which you have so often succumbed! How can you think that your desires of virtue are sincere?

Fly, therefore, from the world, where everything is a pitfall for your virtue; and, if you are obliged to live in it, make a solitude for yourself, where you can often enter—there to purify your soul from the vile dust by which the commerce of the world surely soils even the most religious hearts.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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Novena to Our Guardian Angel for the Holy Souls in Purgatory

10/12/2019

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NOVENA TO OUR GUARDIAN ANGEL FOR THE HOLY SOULS
TO BE SAID FOR NINE CONSECUTIVE DAYS

O HOLY ANGEL, whom God, by the effect of His goodness and His tender regard for my welfare, has charged with the care of my conduct, and who assists me in all my wants and comforts me in all my afflictions, who supports me when I am discouraged and continually obtains for me new favors, I return thee profound thanks, and I earnestly beseech thee, O most amiable protector, to continue thy charitable care and defense of me against the malignant attacks of all my enemies. Keep me away from all occasions of sin. Obtain for me the grace of listening attentively to thy holy inspirations and of faithfully putting them into practice, In particular, I implore thee to obtain for me the relief and deliverance of all the Souls in Purgatory, the ones who prayed for the Souls themselves while still on earth; the forgotten and abandoned Souls; the souls of my relatives and friends; the souls of priests and religious; the souls of all those to whom I am obligated by charity to pray for and may have neglected by laxity in memory; and most especially for the Soul I here name in this novena.

[Mention the person or think of him.]

Protect me in all the temptations and trials of this life. but most especially at the hour of my death, and do not leave me until thou hast conducted me into the presence of my Creator in the mansions of everlasting happiness. Amen.
                                                                                               
                                                                                                                     Source: Manual of Prayers, Imprimatur 1888

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Charity - The Churches Teaching on It

10/12/2019

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Below you will find the Catholic Churches teaching on True Charity.  We need this today more than ever.  The true meaning of Charity.  It is a long post but a good one. The following is taken from a book titled,
"An Illustrated Explanation of the Commandments," by Rev. H. Rolfus, D.D., Imprimatur 1897.

                       CHARITY
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength." The meaning of this commandment is this: We must love God by a deliberate act of the will (heart), we must reflect how we can put this love into action (soul), we must really love God with an ardent inward charity (mind), and what our will and our intellect have thus apprehended we must practise to the best of our ability (strength). And as the Israelites were always to have the law of God before their eyes, so it must ever be present to our soul, that its observance is the end for which we were created. It is impossible, however, for us to do this of our own selves, but only by means of a supernatural faculty which we receive in holy Baptism. Therefore we call charity, as well as faith, an infused virtue, and, because it has God for its object, a theological virtue. "The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given us" (Rom. v. 5).

1. God must be the object of our love, we must love God above everything else in the world. For the love of God we must, if necessary, sacrifice all the goods of this earth; we must leave father and mother, nay, even give our own life, if charity requires it. All we are allowed to love in this world, we may only love for the sake of God, and in so far as He permits it. We must rather lose everything than commit a sin, for sin separates us from God. " He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me ; and he that lovethson or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me"  (St. Matt. x. 37).

2. It it not at all opposed to the love of God that man love himself. He is a creature of God, a child of God, an heir of the kingdom of heaven, destined for eternal bliss. This high dignity confers on the Christian not only the right to love himself, but makes self-love a duty for him. Here, again, however, man may only love himself so far as this love coincides with the will of God, as no sin is committed, and as the honor of God is not offended. When charity is violated, all temporal gain, even the greatest, is a loss; but every loss we suffer for the love of God is a gain for us. " He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world keepeth it unto life eternal" (St. John xii. 25).

3. Although we must love God because He commands it, love from this motive would be a most imperfect love. We must rather love God because He is the Sovereign Good, because He is most worthy of our love, and because He contains in Himself all perfection. He is the most excellent, the most beautiful, the most perfect, and therefore the most amiable. He alone is the Sovereign and Eternal Good. Therefore Nehemias prays in these words: "O Lord God, Creator of all things, dreadful and strong, just and merciful, who alone art the good King, who alone art gracious, who alone art just, and almighty, and eternal" (2 Mach. i. 24, 25). But we also may and ought to love God for the sake of the many benefits which He has conferred on us and is still conferring every moment. Even before we began to live the Lord looked on us with an eye of mercy and called us to be His children. He says to us through the prophet : " I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee" (Jer. xxxi. 3).

From the very first moment of our life to our last breath the Lord loads us with undeserved benefits. And these benefits are at the same time the means of our salvation, for they sustain the life of the soul as well as that of the body, in order that we may fulfil both our earthly and our heavenly destiny. This love is called the love of gratitude. "Let us therefore love God, because God first hath loved us" (1 St. John iv. 19).

4. We must moreover love God, because He has prepared eternal beatitude for us. This beatitude consists in the possession and enjoyment of God Himself. Therefore those who love God feel a longing for God, which is thus described by the apostle : " I have a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ" (Phil. i. 23).

5. Charity does not only manifest itself in loving affections and emotions, but in an upright mind, instrong resolves, and above all in the observance of the commandments. It stands to reason that he who acts contrary to the will of God has no love for Him. Therefore Our Saviour says expressly: "He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me" (St. John xiv. 21).

Application.
1. Although charity does not consist in tender emotions, we must not omit to evoke loving affections in our hearts. Even when we are at work, and then more than ever, we can prove to God that for love of Him we are ready to do and suffer all, and to bear all hardships. Let us offer Him our thoughts, affections, desires, actions, toils, and privations, and let us unite them all with the great sacrifice of love which Our Saviour offered for us.

2. But let us also speak very often of the love of God, not only in order to animate ourselves, but also to enkindle divine love in the hearts of our fellow-men, for this is the will of God expressed in the following words: "I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?" (St. Luke xii. 49.)

Examples.
Abraham would have made the greatest sacrifice for the love of God: he would have killed his own son (Gen. xxii.). The three Israelites, Annias, Azarias, and Misael, allowed themselves to be thrown into the fiery furnace rather than adore the statue erected by Nabuchodonosor (Dan. iii. 20). Eleazar let himself be beaten to death with scourges, but he did not touch the swine's flesh which was put before him (2 Mach. vi.). The Machabean brothers and their mother showed equal fortitude (2 Mach. vii.). St. Stephen, the protomartyr, and all the other martyrs of Christ give us the same glorious example. All for the Love of God.

The heart of St. John of the Cross burned with such an ardent love of God that the hardest trials and privations seemed easy to him, because he bore all adversities with his eyes fixed on Him who first loved us. He went so far as never to accept an invitation to dine when he had preached in a strange place, for he said : " I do not want to accept pay from men for what I have done for the love of God." Once he was innocently imprisoned and even bodily ill-treated. But, when he was set free, he only complained that he had so little to suffer. To those who wondered at his lamentations, he answered: "Do not be astonished that I love suffering so much, for when I was in prison God gave me a great knowledge of the value of suffering borne for the love of Him." On his deathbed he kept on sighing for release. When askedby a brother whether he wished to be released on account of his pains, he answered with a smile: "No, dear brother, but because of my hearty desire to see God the hours seem so long to me." The Church therefore calls St. John of the Cross, in the
Collect of his feast, a lover of the Cross. Sins Against the Love of God*

Every sin violates charity. The effect of mortal sin is to kill the love of God in our soul, whereas venial sin only weakens its fervor. But there are sins which in themselves are opposed to the love of God. To these belongs above all:

1. Hatred of God. This is the devil's own sin. For he did not simply transgress a commandment, but he rebelled against God and would have deprived Him of His sovereignty, and put himself in His place, had he been able to do so. Then there is:

2. Impiety or contempt of God, when we turn away from God. An impious man of this kind is found in Pharao, who, on being asked by Moses in the name of God to let the Israelites depart, hardened his heart, and, in spite of all the divine judgments which he saw before his eyes, would not turn to God.

3. Forgetfulness of God, or indifference for God's honor. Of this sin those are chiefly guilty who know that their inferiors commit sin and do not interfere, or allow God to be blasphemed in their presence and do not raise their voice against it.

4. Murmuring against God's providence. In this way Jonas sinned, who tried to evade the command of God by taking ship for Tharsis, instead of going to Ninive. And when God spared the inhabitants of Ninive, because they did penance, put on sackcloth, and proclaimed a fast, he murmured against God and wished to die (Jonas i. 3; iv. 2-4).
The opposite virtue of these sins is zeal for God's honor, which boldly opposes all evil.

5. Lastly, we have to name idolatry in its extended sense, i.e., such an inordinate affection for creatures that we would rather transgress God's commandments and commit sin, or allow others to commit sin, than overcome the love of creatures or keep it in its proper bounds. Thus parents love their children more than God when they allow them to do as they like, and bring them up to vanity and pride, whereas God commands that they should be trained in modesty, obedience, and humility. So also many a one loves a person, and, in order to obtain her in marriage, he sacrifices his faith and the faith of his children if this is made a condition. Animals are often loved inordinately, and so much is spent on them that the poor would be glad to have only part of it. If anybody loves money and possessions so much that he strives to acquire them by unlawful means, or does not restore them when he has acquired them dishonestly, or if he becomes hard towards his fellow-men for the sake of worldly gain, he adores Mammon. The god of the glutton is his belly. This kind of idolatry is, moreover, committed by all those who trust more in man than in God. All the impious are guilty of it. Every inordinate affection leads to this creature worship, if we do not resist it from the very beginning. Zeal for the Honor of God.

In the time of Antiochus, king of Syria, there lived in the Jewish town of Modin a priest of the name of Mathathias. He was much honored in all Judea for his piety and zeal for the law of God. He had five sons, who, like their father, walked in the ways of the law ; Judas, who afterwards received the name of Machabeus the Hammer, was the greatest among them. To this man King Antiochus sent messengers to ask him and the inhabitants of Modin to sacrifice to heathen idols and eat swine's flesh, and to threaten him with death if he refused. If, on the contrary, Mathathias would offer sacrifice, he and his sons were to be counted among the friends of the king, and loaded with gold and silver and many presents. But Mathathias answered and said in a loud voice : " Although all nations obey King Antiochus, so as to depart every man from the service of the law of his fathers, and consent to his commandments, I and my sons, and my brethren, will obey the law of our fathers." And, when a Jew stepped forth in the sight of all to offer sacrifice on the altar which the messenger of Antiochus had erected, his wrath was kindled, and he slew him on the altar, and pulled down the altar. And he left the city with his sons and fled into the mountains, and many that sought after judgment and justice went up with him, and they went round about and threw down the altars, and they recovered the law out of the hands of the nations and yielded not the horn to the sinner (1. Mach. ii.).

Charity Towards Our Neighbor
The object of our love is God in the first place, but our neighbor in the second, and the commandment of charity towards our neighbor is expressly declared by Our Lord to be equivalent to the commandment of charity towards God. "And thesecond is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (St. Mark xii. 31).

1. The word neighbor does not only designate those who are nearly related to us by the ties of blood, or who live with us in the same house, not only our friends, our countrymen, our namesakes,but every one who has a claim on our help, whether he be of our faith or not, whether he be our friend or our enemy. Our Saviour clearly teaches this in the parable of the Good Samaritan (St. Luke x.). It is where the need is greatest that we must help first, and this is especially the case where the soul is in danger. But when the necessity is equally great, we may give the preference to our relatives, friends, and those of our own faith. We may also render greater assistance to those who are more worthy of charity, and we may refuse our help altogether to those who constantly abuse it. " Whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith" (Gal. vi. 10).

2. We must love our neighbor for the sake of God. In man we love and honor God Himself, for man is created after the image of God. Moreover, we are members of the same family, for we are children of God, we have God for our common Father, we have all the same vocation to attainheaven, whether we be rich or poor. The Prophet Malachias reproves the Jews for their want of charity when he says: "Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us ? Why then doth every one of us despise his brother?" (Mai. ii. 10).
Besides, love of our neighbor is the test by which we know whether love of God be genuine, for the Apostle says: " If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God, whom he seeth not? And this commandment we have from God, that he who loveth God love also his brother" (1 St. John iv. 20, 21).

3. When the commandment says: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," this does not imply that I am bound to love him in the same degree as myself, but that I must love him in the same manner as myself. St. Thomas Aquinas teaches expressly that the words " as myself" do not refer to the degree, but to the manner in which we must love. In the same way as we desire all good for ourselves and try to avoid all evil, we are to desire every blessing for our fellow-men, and grieve with them over their misfortunes. " Rejoice with them that rejoice, weep with them that weep" (Rom. xii. 15).
How we are to love our neighbor is summed up very simply in the following two precepts of the natural law : " Do not do to others what you do not wish them to do to you;" "Do to others as you wish to be done by." These precepts of the natural law are confirmed by Holy Scriptures. When the elder Tobias thought he was going to die, he exhorted his son in these words : " See thou never do to another what thou wouldst hate to have done to thee by another" (Tob. iv. 16). And Our Saviour teaches: "All things therefore whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them. For this is the law and the prophets" (St. Matt. vii. 12).

4. But charity must not be satisfied with empty words and wishes, it must show itself in works ofpractical help and assistance in corporal as well as in spiritual need. The apostle exhorts us in the name of God in these words : " Let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth (1 St. John iii. 18).

5. This precept of charity does not, however, give a right to the poor to claim our help and
assistance. They must look for charity and mercy, which they may invoke, but which they must try to merit by faith and confidence, by patience and content, by temperance and industry. The Apostle Paul could write of himself to the Christians: "When I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man : In all things I have kept myself from being burthensome to you, and so I will keep myself" (2 Cor. xi. 9).

6. Holy Scripture recommends to our charity above all widows and orphans, for they are those who have generally lost their protector and support. The impious take advantage of their helplessness, and injure and oppress them, because they have nobody to take up their cause. " Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation" (St. James i. 27).

7. How charity shows itself in our daily intercourse with our fellow-men is described by St. Paul in these words : " Charity is patient, is kind : charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (1 Cor. xiii. 4-7).

Examples.
Holy Scripture tells us the most beautiful and touching examples of charity. Abraham sat before his tent and saw three strangers come to him. He did not know them, but he adored them down to the ground, and said : " Lord, if I have found favor in Thy sight, pass not away from Thy servant; but I will fetch a little water and wash your feet, and rest ye under the tree. And I will send a morsel of bread, and strengthen ye your heart." Then Abraham hastened to the tent and said to Sara: "Make haste, temper together three measures of flour, and make cakes upon the hearth." He bade his servant to prepare a very tender calf; he himself took butter and milk, and the calf which he had boiled, and set it before his guests. (Gen. xviii. 2-8.) When Abraham's servant, Eleazar, asked Rebecca for a little water, she did not only give him to drink out of her pitcher, but she ran back to the well to draw water, and having drawn, she gave to all the camels (Gen. xxiv. 20). When the Israelites began to think that Moses had forsaken them, and made a golden calf in order to adore it, and God wanted to destroy the whole nation, Moses prayed thus to the Lord : "Either forgive them this trespass, or if Thou do not, strike me out of the book that Thou hast written" (Exod. xxxii. 31). He was ready to give up eternal bliss rather than let the people perish. Tobias daily went among all his kindred, and comforted them, and distributed to every one as he was able of his goods, so that he became poor himself (Tob. i. 19).
At the marriage of Cana, our Blessed Lady interceded for the guests when the wine failed (St, John ii. 3). The early Christians had all things in common, " neither did any one say that aught of the things which he possessed was his own" (Acts iv. 32). The pious Tabitha was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did. When she was dead, and they sent for St. Peter, all the widows stood about him weeping and showing him the coats and garments which Tabitha had made (Acts ix. 36-39)- How beautiful is the sympathy of the neighbors and kinsfolk of Elizabeth, who rejoiced when they heard that the Lord had showed His great mercy towards her (St. Luke i. 58). When the widow of Naim followed the body of her son to the grave, a great multitude of the city was with her. And when Our Lord had given back the son to his afflicted mother, they glorified God and rejoiced with her (St. Luke vii. 12-16). St. Paul says of himself that he had great sadness and continual sorrow in his heart, because his kinsmen would not receive the Gospel of Christ, and he wished, like Moses, to be anathema if only his brethren might be in union with Christ (Rom. ix. 23).

Love of Our Enemies
The commandment which God has given us to love our neighbor extends to our enemies. Nobody may be excluded from our love. This seems very hard to our poor human nature. But:

1. God has expressly commanded it, and this alone is sufficient for convincing us that we can love our enemies. Our Saviour says : " Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you. Bless them that curse you, and pray for them that calumniate you" (St. Luke vi. 27, 28).
He has, moreover, given us the example Himself: He did not only pray for His executioners, He also made excuses for them when He said : " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (St. Luke xxiii. 34). St. Leo says, in contemplating this wonderful love: "Our Lord did not remember that He was dying by His enemies, He only remembered that He was dying for them."

2. Our Lord has attached the pardon of our own sins to our readiness to forgive those who have injured us. He taught us to pray: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us." And He added expressly : "If you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences" (St. Matt. vi. 14, 15).
Whoever does not forgive his enemies draws down upon himself the curse of God in saying the Our Father, for he says: Do to me, O Lord, as I do to my enemies, and, because I do not forgive them, do Thou not forgive me either. We see how such an unforgiving man is dealt with in the parable of the unmerciful servant, who did not come out of prison till he had paid the last farthing, although his master had forgiven him his whole enormous debt before.

3. This precept of loving our enemies does not enjoin that we should love our enemies in the same way as we love our friends, parents, benefactors, i.e., not as sensibly and as tenderly, but we must not wish them any harm, but rather, as far as we can, shield them from evil. We must not only wish them all good from our hearts, we must do good unto them as far as we can. On no account may the Christian take revenge for injuries he has received. If he whom we deem our enemy has done us any injury, God will punish him, for He says: "Revenge is Mine, and I will repay them in due time" (Deut. xxxii. 35).
If we treat our enemy with charity, we imitate our heavenly Father, "who maketh His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust" (St. Matt. v. 45).

4. If we have been injured by any one, we may try to obtain just and legal reparation; when we are assaulted, we may defend ourselves as far as is necessary. On the other hand, we may not refuse to salute our adversary or to return his salute, we may not revile and insult him, or refuse him such services as usage and custom require, especially when he is in distress. We must altogether show by our outward conduct that we have no hatred or rancor in our heart, but are ready to be reconciled with our enemy, even should he himself not be willing to forgive.

Application.
1. Let us strive above all to banish all bitterness from our hearts, and let us consider that it is often mere thoughtlessness, and not malice, by which we have been offended. Let us pray forour adversaries, that God may give them a right understanding. But let us remember above all that, whatever men may do to injure us, their guilt towards us is only very small in comparison with the immense debt we have incurred by offending God.

2. As long as we harbor any enmity in our heart, all our good works are of no avail. Therefore Our Saviour exhorts us in these words: "If, therefore, thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother has anything against thee, leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother: and then coming, thou shalt offer thy gift" (St. Matt. v. 23, 24).

3. Let us render good for evil according to the words of the apostle: "If thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat : if he thirst, give him to drink. For, doing this, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head" (Rom. xii. 20).

Examples.
The sons of Jacob had treated their brother Joseph most cruelly and had deserved severe punishment. When Joseph held them in his power, he could easily have revenged himself on them. But he not only refrained from taking revenge, but moreover loaded them with benefits after the death of their father Jacob (Gen. 1. 21).
David was threatened with death by Saul, to whom he had rendered great service, and was obliged to flee. Saul pursued him with 3,000 men in the desert, and searched all the nooks and caves for him, but David knew the hiding-places in the desert better than he. Once he was so near Saul that he could have killed him, but he contented himself with cutting off the hem of his robe, and sent it to Saul in order to show him that he could have put him to death. Another time David went in the night with his armor-bearer Abisai into Saul's tent, and Abisai asked David to kill his persecutor. But David only took Saul's spear and his cup of water with him, and thus showed to the king that God had given him in his power, but that he had honored in Saul the anointed of the Lord (1 Kings xxiv. 1 -1 2). The proto-martyr St. Stephen gave us, like Our Saviour Himself, an example of love towards our enemies. He not only forgave, but he prayed with his dying breath for his murderers in these words : " Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" (Acts vii. 59).

I will continue this in another post - which talks of the Works of Mercy.
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The Feast of the Most Holy Rosary of the B.V.M.

10/7/2019

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Picture
Our Lady of the Rosary

Through thee, to us, our Savior came,
Through thee, to Him, we fain would go.
Our lives are marred by wrong and shame,
Yet, confidence in thee we know.
The friendship thou dost give to all
Who love thy name, shall ever be
Assurance thou wilt hear our call,
Sweet Lady of the Rosary!

Thou art our Strength upon the way,
Our Morning Star, to cheer and guide; with picture
Our Beacon Light to show the day,
And lead us to the Savior's Side;
A Comforter in ev'ry pain
We find, O Mother blest, in thee,
And seek we, never, thee in vain,
Fair Lady of the Rosary!

Thy praises, Mary, we would sing,
And all our faculties employ,
That unto thee our hearts might bring
A glory-crown of love and joy.
Bless thou each humble effort made
In thy regard, and grant that we
May by thy influence be swayed,
Our Lady of the Rosary!

Our Lady's Praise in Poetry, Imprimatur 1944.

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Prayer to be said before the Rosary

 We unite ourselves with all the saints in Heaven,
with all the just on earth and with all the faithful
we wish were here present. We unite ourselves with
Thee, Oh my Jesus, in order to praise worthily Thy
most Holy Mother and to praise Thee in her and
through her.

  We renounce all the distractions we may have
during this rosary which we wish to say with
modesty, attention and devotion, just as if it were
to be the last of our lives.

  We ask of Thee a lively faith, a firm hope and an ardent charity.
                                                                                Amen

Below you will find some coloring pictures for the children.  May you all have a blessed feast of the Most Holy Rosary.


queen_of_the_rosary.pdf
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rosary_1.pdf
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Marie's Rosary

10/7/2019

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        A lovely story for the children for this beautiful feast of the Most Holy Rosary.

                                                                                  I
THE lovely stars of early night were all a-twinkling in a glorious May sky. Marie Lesly, kneeling at the window of her little room, gazed rapturously upon the delightful scene. Down below was the blooming garden with its fragrant trees mirrored in the stone-encircled pond. Further on a leafy grove threw somber shadows, as the moon, big and nearly full, peeped slowly over the tree-tops, gushing out a flood of silver light Marie was praying. 'Twas her evening prayer. But now, because it was May, a decade of the rosary was lovingly added. How easy it was to pray to nature's God with nature all a-smiling before her! Arising, she kissed the cross of the neat little mother-of-pearl rosary in her hand. "My First Communion Rosary," she murmured softly as she unconsciously dropped it upon the sill and cast a last look at the starry heavens above.
     "Queen of May, O pray for me!"
     "Mother dear," cried Marie, upon entering the den early the next morning, "did you take my rosary away? I can't not find it anywhere, and only last night I had it in my room." No, mother had not taken it , nor had she seen it anywhere. "Perhaps Eddie has it," she suggested. In a moment Marie had found her brother.
     "Now, don't you begin to tease again, Eddie, but tell me where you hid it—my First Communion Rosary."
     "Really, Marie, honest now, I didn't take it. I didn't even see it , " said Eddie. "You'll soon find it somewhere, I'm sure. Don't worry." And for once Eddie looked so very innocent and sincere that Marie could not but believe him.  But search as they would, it could not be found. Turning everything topsy-turvy to mother's great discomfort  they explored the entire house and even the lawn around it. It was in vain. At last they gave up, but not to fret and complain. Oh, no; Marie was too truly a little lady for that. Beckoning Eddie, she whispered mysteriously into his ear: "Come up to my room with me. I have a wonderful plan." Up they went. Eddie's curiosity was wide-awake. What was about to happen? Closing the door quietly, Marie said with a bright smile:
     "Eddie, let's pray to Mother Mary, asking her in some way to bring my rosary back to me. The fifth joyful mystery, The Finding of Jesus in the Temple, is the best."
      Kneeling in simple faith, gazing fervently upon a picture of our Blessed Lady which hung over Marie's little white bed, and using Eddie's rosary, they trustfully prayed, "Hail, Mary, full of grace. Ten times their sweet little voices chimed out the beautiful prayer. Then they arose, joyful, confident.
     "Twill surely, surely come back," maintained Marie. "Our Lady's help is never asked in vain. 'Remember, O gracious Virgin Mary!' Now we'll wait. I'll get another rosary from Sister for the time." And away they went for a game before school.
                                                                                 II
October days, the sweetest of the year, had come. Glad in autumn's many-colored garb, the woods presented a beautiful sight. In the fields yellow pumpkins shone amid rugged shocks of golden-eared corn. All nature was aglow with the russet and gold of Indian summer days. 'Twas Mary's month again: the month of the Holy Rosary.
     "Eddie," said Marie, as they sported about in the frost-painted grove, "it's the first of October. I'm sure my rosary must come back soon. It simply must! Doesn't the Memorare say: 'never was it known?" Marie was ever thinking of her rosary still. She was
waiting patiently, trustingly.
     "Perhaps," Eddie ventured to say, " you'll never find it ."
     "There's no perhaps to it," replied Marie with sweet sauciness, "it's sure!" And laughing lightly, she added: "Let's pick a museum of leaves, all colors and sizes and shapes."
     This they at once proceeded to do. Suddenly Marie called excitedly: "Eddie, Eddie! come here. There's a lone robin's nest high up in this tree. And see! there
is something shiny in it , something bright; maybe it's a jewel." Eddie peeped through the brownish leaves.
     "Sure enough!" he burst out. "I'll have it down in a jiffy. What if it's a real gem," he added, his eyes glistening with excitement. With squirrel-like agility he climbed the tree.
     "Now
I have it," he cried, standing on a long branch and reaching out for the nest. "Catch it, Marie! Down it comes!"
     Down it came, falling on the velvet grass at Marie's feet. As she stooped to pick it up an exclamation of surprise and joy escaped her lips. Then kneeling beside it she breathed a grateful prayer:
     "O thanks, my darling Mother, Queen of the Holy Rosary!"
For there, neatly interwoven in the robin's nest, completely encircling the inner side, was a string of pearls—Marie's First Communion Rosary.
                                             Source:  Tell Us Another, Imprimatur 1925
Another coloring picture is below.

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The Guardian Angels

10/2/2019

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Picture
Guardian Angel

Your Guardian Angel is your companion and your friend. He is given to you at the first moment of existence and stays with you to the end. He inspires you with good and holy thoughts. He protects you from many dangers and accidents, and assists you in a thousand ways throughout your life. The Angels are most de- sirous to be our friends and they love us with all the intensity of their angelic natures. "He hath given His Angels charge over thee: to keep thee in all thy ways. In their hands they shall bear thee up lest thou dash thy foot against a stone" (Psalm 91).

The Angels are pure spirits, mighty Princes of Heaven who stand before God. They are burning fires of love, filled with the plenitude of happiness. No two Angels are alike and there are too many to be numbered. All of them are indescribably beautiful. "Thousands and thousands ministered to Him and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him" (Dan 7:10).

St. Frances of Rome saw her own Angel. She said the splendor of her Angel dimmed the light of the sun and moon and stars in comparison. Often she could read her prayers by the light of her Angel. When the Angel rolled back the stone from the holy sepulcher, Sacred Scriptures says that the countenance of the Angel was like lightning and his clothes white as snow. His appearance was so full of majesty that the soldiers at the tomb were terrified and could not look at him.  "For an Angel of the Lord descended from Heaven, and coming, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. And his countenance was as lightning and his raiment as snow" (Matt 28: 2,3).

Angelic intelligence is immeasurably superior to our own. We plod from truth to truth, studying, steadily investigating in order to understand a topic, but they understand the entire subject at a single glance. In that same glance, they immediately see all the nuances and consequences of a particular action. It is easy to see how important their assistance would be for us, who need help in
making decisions each day of our lives.

There are angels in Heaven and also on earth, each with different jobs to do. Nations, cities, families, towns - all have their special Angels. St Thomas Aquinas teaches us that there are Angels that guide the stars, the moon, the sun, and the planets, keeping everything in harmony according to God's plan. Scripture tells us of the Angels that perform duties that some attribute to chance.

It was an Angel that gave its medicinal quality to the pool at Bethesda; an Angel generated the fires on Mount Sinai; the thunder and lightning were the work of Angels; and in the Apocalypse we read of the Angels restraining the winds. Thus, we learn that the course of nature, so marvelous and at times so fearful, is moved by these unseen beings.

Angels act as messengers as in the Annunciation when the Archangel Gabriel came to Mary, or as protectors as when Archangel Raphael helped to guide young Tobias on a dangerous journey, or as avengers as when God sent an Angel who killed 70,000 Egyptians in one night as a punishment for the Pharaoh not releasing the Hebrews from slavery.

They are also powerful protectors against the tricks of the devil. They will fight by your side and inspire you on how to resist the temptations of the devil. "Be sober and watch: because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Pet 5: 8). The Angels protect us from falling into temptations and avert natural disasters from befalling us - often the person never even realizes the tragedy he narrowly missed.

It is interesting to note that at the time of the Renaissance, Angels began to be portrayed as fat, sweet babies with wings. This artistic style continues to our day. It is a shame for such militant warriors to be reduced to these weak, infantile representations. In the mind of the viewer, the role of the Angel as protector and avenger fades away, replaced by a different idea. It is a subtle way of gradually changing the notion of the principle that life is a war between good and evil with the agents of each side fighting to win the souls of men. There is no spirit of fight in the fat baby angels - in fact, they are so smiling and happy that it appears nothing is amiss in their world.

And yet, there are many incidences in the lives of the Saints that show the militant, protective mission of the Angels toward men. St John Bosco, for example, was a man who fought vigorously against the Waldensian heresy. Many of the heretics hated him for his unrelenting fight and tried to kill him many times. During this dangerous period of his life, a large grey dog appeared and
would accompany him as he walked the streets of the city, fighting off any attackers. When the danger passed, the dog disappeared. In his writings, Don Bosco called this dog Grigio [Grey], and he believed that it was an angelic intervention protecting him so many times over a period of 30 years.

Angels also reflect God's goodness, kindness, and generosity. He gave us these Angels to "level out the playing field." Man by himself is no match for the wily Devil, a fallen angel that still retains all his intellectual prowess and powers. Without some kind of supernatural help, we would be certain to make many mistakes, some irreparable.

God in His goodness gave us Angels. Knowing this, wouldn't it be foolish to ignore our Guardian Angels and not ask often for their help?

"Ask us and we will give you a share of all our treasures, all our graces, all our happiness," they seem to say. The only thing standing between us and these benefits is our forgetfulness of these wonderful beings.

                                                ~ Lift Up Your Hearts – Fr. Lasance - 1926 ~
Coloring pictures of the Guardian Angels can be found below:

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16th Sunday after Pentecost - Humility

9/29/2019

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OUR divine Saviour allowed no occasion to pass by without extolling humility; and it must be admitted that it is the base, the foundation of all the other virtues. We shall consider it today in its different kinds and in its object.

First Point.—The different kinds of humility. The first is the humility of the heart. It consists in voluntarily embracing the practices of humility in not taking offence at calumnies; in not being angered by humiliations; and in not being offended by injuries. It goes even farther in the most fervent Christians. We have seen the saints desire to be humiliated, to cherish affronts, and to rejoice at being contemned and despised. St. John of the Cross asked of Our Lord but one grace, viz., to suffer and to be despised for His love. Alas! how far you are from these sentiments, you who are so sensitive to an injury, so particular about preferences, and so susceptible when your self-love is wounded! Do not forget that self-love is the principle of almost all the faults which stain the soul in the eyes of God, of all the defects which make piety odious in the eyes of men, and of all the caprices which dishonor a Christian in the eyes of the world. Strive, therefore, to destroy, if not completely, at least to weaken, this terrible enemy, which has such a firm hold on your whole being. To accomplish this end, profit by the countless little occasions where your self-love is hurt to do violence to it; each humiliation generously borne is a blow which shall weaken your enemy and prepare you for a complete victory.

The second kind of humility is the humility of speech. The precepts of the Gospel and the maxims of the world equally recommend this; the sentiment of decent propriety should suffice to engage us to be faithful to it. He who extols himself should feel that he is doing just what degrades him. He seeks admiration, and he finds contempt only. He wishes to make himself important, and he renders himself only ridiculous. It is astonishing the disgust which boasting inspires—it is so universal and so common. How does it happen that the criticisms and railleries which are heard on every side concerning vain men do not correct their vanity? They are, therefore, very blind. Besides openly boasting, there is another manner of praising one's self which is more skilful but no less reprehensible. It consists in not naming one's self, but allowing every one to perceive who is praised. He does not eulogize his good works, but takes care to make them known. It is rarely that this refinement deceives men. Their own pride makes them see clearly the pride of others, and if instead of the esteem they craved for, the vain inspire only mistrust and contempt.

The third kind of humility is humility in actions. Our divine Saviour especially recommends this in the Gospel of today when He says: "When you are invited to a banquet take the last place." This precept finds its application not only at the banquet, but it extends to all the circumstances of life. It condemns the desire of self-exaltation and commanding, which is one of the most common sentiments and one of the most dangerous among men. They wish for the first place in the affections, and hence the love of dress and all the artifices of vanity. Not only do they wish for the affections, but they wish for them to the exclusion of every one else, and hence jealousies and bitter disappointments. They wish to excel all others by their success and triumphs, and hence rivalries among equals and accusations of injustice against superiors. It is to the desire of self-exaltation and of ruling we must attribute almost all the oppositions to authority in the family and almost all the crimes which are committed in society. Accustom your pride to submission, and your self-love to endure humiliations; then you shall destroy the
principle of many faults, and dry up the source of many bitter disappointments.

Second Point.—The object of humility. You should be humble in your own eyes. The first degree of humility is nothing else than the knowledge of yourself, of your frailty, of your inclination to evil, your passions, your vices. This knowledge of your misery which your experience gives and which faith reveals to you, should it not force you to be humble ? How can you be so presumptuous when you are so weak? How can you dare to nourish thoughts of pride when you have so much to blush for? How can you afford to resent some affront when you are so worthy of contempt? How can you love yourself when you are so unlovable ? Does this kind of humility consist in denying that there is something good in you and not seeing the advantages you have above others either in wealth or in mind? Not at all. Humility is not falsehood. The truly humble heart never forgets that its good qualities, its talents, and its virtues are the gifts of God. It knows that all that it is, all the good it has done, comes from God; consequently it cannot assume any vanity Whatever. Does it witness the fall of one of its friends? It thinks that if God had placed it in the same circumstances as this man, without giving it the most abundant graces, it would fall perhaps into the most criminal excesses. The two considerations of the concupiscence which it feels and the grace it experiences; concupiscence leading it to evil, and grace which alone retains it in well-doing; concupiscence which it can with difficulty resist and grace to which it is so difficult to respond—these two considerations retain the heart in humility and hinder it from rising above others less favored and committing greater sins than itself. Thus it is that the humble heart, while not forgetting that it is exalted above others, does not glorify itself, but refers all honor to God, the Source of all good.

You should be humble before God. This duty need only be exposed to be believed. You would strive in vain to form even a remote idea of the infinite distance which separates man from God.
How then can we express what it is not possible for us to conceive? We are but nothingness, while God is the Sovereign Being. We are only weakness; God is Omnipotence! We are only sinners; God is Sanctity itself. It is this last consideration which should especially profoundly humiliate us before Him. Yes, we should be more ashamed of our corruption than of our frailty; of our ingratitude than of our nothingness; everything should humiliate us before God; everything—even the remembrance of what He has done to exalt us. Have we not abused His very gifts? You should be humble in your thoughts with regard to your neighbor. Humility forbids all contempt for others and all pretension to superiority. To see the justice of this rule which humility imposes, consider that your thoughts of pre-eminence come from the superiority which you think you have over others, whether they are in the order of nature or the order of religion. If they are temporal advantages—riches, beauty, birth, talents which raise you above others in your thoughts, how futile they are? How small is the difference that these distinctions make between one man and another. They are like to the bubbles which children make and which ascend in the air; they are dissipated and dissolved in the moment they appear. If you esteem yourself more than others by reason of advantages in the religious order—virtue, good works, and piety—while the motive would, have some solidity, it would not have, in you, more justice. What have you, the Apostle asks, that you have not received ? And if you have received it, how do you dare to glory in it as if it had come from you? Your pride is more than ridiculous; it is unjust, since you rob God of the glory which is due to Him.

O my God, all that I am and all that I have come from Thy grace; do not permit that I abuse Thy gifts to offend Thee, but grant that all that is in me may serve to glorify Thee.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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