The Feast Of The Dormition Of Mother Mary

August 13

August 13 is the Feast day of  The Dormition of Mary.

The Account of St. John the Theologian
of the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God

AS THE ALL-HOLY glorious Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, as was her wont, was going to the holy tomb of our Lord to burn incense, and bending her holy knees, she was importunate that Christ our God who had been born of her should return to her. And the Jews, seeing her lingering by the divine sepulchre, came to the chief priests, saying: Mary goes every day to the tomb. And the chief priests, having summoned the guards set by them not to allow any one to pray at the holy sepulchre, inquired about her, whether in truth it were so. And the guards answered and said that they had seen no such thing, God having not allowed them to see her when there. 

And on one of the days, it being the preparation, the holy Mary, as was her wont, came to the sepulchre; and while she was praying, it came to pass that the heavens were opened, and the archangel Gabriel came down to her and said: Hail, thou that didst bring forth Christ our God! Thy prayer having come through to the heavens to Him who was born of thee, has been accepted; and from this time, according to thy request, thou having left the world, shall go to the heavenly places to thy Son, into the true and everlasting life.

    

And having heard this from the holy archangel, she returned to holy Bethlehem, having along with her three virgins who ministered unto her. And after having rested a short time, she sat up and said to the virgins: Bring me a censer, that I may pray. And they brought it, as they had been commanded. And she prayed, saying: My Lord Jesus Christ, who didst deign through Thy supreme goodness to be born of me, hear my voice, and send me Thy apostle John, in order that, seeing him, I may partake of joy; and send me also the rest of Thy apostles, both those who have already gone to Thee, and those in the world that now is, in whatever country they may be, through Thy holy commandment, in order that, having beheld them, I may bless Thy name much to be praised; for I am confident that Thou hearest Thy servant in everything.

     

And while she was praying, I John came, the Holy Spirit having snatched me up by a cloud from Ephesus, and set me in the place where the mother of my Lord was lying. And having gone in beside her, and glorified Him who had been born of her, I said: Hail, mother of my Lord, who didst bring forth Christ our God, rejoice that in great glory thou art going out of this life. And the holy mother of God glorified God, because I John had come to her, remembering the voice of the Lord, saying: Behold thy mother, and, Behold thy son. And the three virgins came and worshipped. And the holy mother of God says to me: Pray, and cast incense. 

And I prayed thus: Lord Jesus Christ, who hast done wonderful things, now also do wonderful things before her who brought Thee forth; and let Thy mother depart from this life; and let those who crucified Thee, and who have not believed in Thee, be confounded. And after I had ended the prayer, holy Mary said to me: Bring me the censer. 

And having cast incense, she said, Glory to Thee, my God and my Lord, because there has been fulfilled in me whatsoever Thou didst promise to me before thou didst ascend into the heavens, that when I should depart from this world Thou wouldst come to me, and the multitude of Thine angels, with glory. And I John say to her: Jesus Christ our Lord and our God is coming, and thou seest Him, as He promised to thee. And the holy mother of God answered and said to me: The Jews have sworn that after I have died they will burn my body. And I answered and said to her: Thy holy and precious body will by no means see corruption. And she answered and said to me: Bring a censer, and cast incense, and pray. 

And there came a voice out of the heavens saying the Amen. And I John heard this voice; and the Holy Spirit said to me: John, hast thou heard this voice that spoke in the heaven after the prayer was ended? And I answered and said: Yes, I heard. And the Holy Spirit said to me: This voice which thou didst hear denotes that the appearance of thy brethren the apostles is at hand, and of the holy powers that they are coming hither to-day. And at this I John prayed.

     

 And the Holy Spirit said to the apostles: Let all of you together, having come by the clouds from the ends of the world, be assembled to holy Bethlehem by a whirlwind, on account of the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ; Peter from Rome, Paul from Tiberia, Thomas from Hither India, James from Jerusalem. Andrew, Peter's brother, and Philip, Luke, and Simon the Cananaean, and Thaddaeus who had fallen asleep, were raised by the Holy Spirit out of their tombs; to whom the Holy Spirit said: Do not think that it is now the resurrection; but on this account you have risen out of your tombs, that you may go to give greeting to the honour and wonder-working of the mother of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, because the day of her departure is at hand, of her going up into the heavens. 

And Mark likewise coming round, was present from Alexandria; he also with the rest, as has been said before, from each country. And Peter being lifted up by a cloud, stood between heaven and earth, the Holy Spirit keeping him steady. And at the same time, the rest of the apostles also, having been snatched up in clouds, were found along with Peter. And thus by the Holy Spirit, as has been said, they all came together.

      

 And having gone in beside the mother of our Lord and God, and having adored, we said: Fear not, nor grieve; God the Lord, who was born of thee, will take thee out of this world with glory. And rejoicing in God her Saviour, she sat up in the bed, and says to the apostles: Now have I believed that our Master and God is coming from heaven, and I shall behold Him, and thus depart from this life, as I have seen that you have come. 

And I wish you to tell me how you knew that I was departing and came to me, and from what countries and through what distance you have come hither, that you have thus made haste to visit me. For neither has He who was born of me, our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of the universe, concealed it; for I am persuaded even now that He is the Son of the Most High.

     

And Peter answered and said to the apostles: Let us each, according to what the Holy Spirit announced and commanded us, give full information to the mother of our Lord. And I John answered and said: Just as I was going in to the holy altar in Ephesus to perform divine service, the Holy Spirit says to me, The time of the departure of the mother of thy Lord is at hand; go to Bethlehem to salute her. And a cloud of light snatched me up, and set me down in the door where thou art lying. Peter also answered: And I, living in Rome, about dawn heard a voice through the Holy Spirit saying to me, The mother of thy Lord is to depart, as the time is at hand; go to Bethlehem to salute her. And, behold, a cloud of light snatched me up; and I beheld also the other apostles coming to me on clouds, and a voice saying to me, Go all to Bethlehem. And Paul also answered and said: 

And I, living in a city at no great distance from Rome, called the country of Tiberia, heard the Holy Spirit saying to me, The mother of thy Lord, having left this world, is making her course to the celestial regions through her departure; but go thou also to Bethlehem to salute her. And, behold, a cloud of light having snatched me up, set me down in the same place as you. And Thomas also answered and said: And I, traversing the country of the Indians, when the preaching was prevailing by the grace of Christ, and the king's sister's son Labdanus by name, was about to be sealed by me in the palace, on a sudden the Holy Spirit says to me, Do thou also, Thomas, go to Bethlehem to salute the mother of thy Lord, because she is taking her departure to the heavens. And a cloud of light having snatched me up, set me down beside you. And Mark also answered and said: 

And when I was finishing the canon of the third day in the city of Alexandria, just as I was praying, the Holy Spirit snatched me up, and brought me to you. And James also answered and said: While I was in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit commanded me, saying, Go to Bethlehem, because the mother of thy Lord is taking her departure. And, behold, a cloud of light having snatched me up, set me beside you. And Matthew also answered and said: I have glorified and do glorify God, because when I was in a boat and overtaken by a storm, the sea raging with its waves, on a sudden a cloud of light overshadowing the stormy billow, changed it to a calm, and having snatched me up, set me down beside you. And those who had come before likewise answered, and gave an account of how they had come. And Bartholomew said: I was in the Thebais proclaiming the word, and behold the Holy Spirit says to me, The mother of thy Lord is taking her departure; go, then, to salute her in Bethlehem. And, behold, a cloud of light having snatched me up, brought me to you.

     

The apostles said all these things to the holy mother of God, why they had come, and in what way; and she stretched her hands to heaven and prayed, saying: I adore, and praise, and glorify Thy much to he praised name, O Lord, because Thou hast looked upon the lowliness of Thine handmaiden, and because Thou that art mighty hast done great things for me; and, behold, all generations shall count me blessed. And after the prayer she said to the apostles: Cast incense, and pray. And when they had prayed, there was thunder from heaven, and there came a fearful voice, as if of chariots; and, behold, a multitude of a host of angels and powers, and a voice, as if of the Son of man, was heard, and the seraphim in a circle round the house where the holy, spotless mother of God and virgin was lying, so that all who were in Bethlehem beheld all the wonderful things, and came to Jerusalem and reported all the wonderful things that had come to pass. 

And it came to pass, when the voice was heard, that the sun and the moon suddenly appeared about the house; and an assembly of the first-born saints stood beside the house where the mother of the Lord was lying, for her honour and glory. And I beheld also that many signs came to pass, the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame walking, lepers cleansed, and those possessed by unclean spirits cured; and every one who was under disease and sickness, touching the outside of the wall of the house where she was lying, cried out: Holy Mary, who didst bring forth Christ our God, have mercy upon us. And they were straightway cured. 

And great multitudes out of every country living in Jerusalem for the sake of prayer, having heard of the signs that had come to pass in Bethlehem through the mother of the Lord, came to the place seeking the cure of various diseases, which also they obtained. And there was joy unspeakable on that day among the multitude of those who had been cured, as well as of those who looked on, glorifying Christ our God and His mother. And all Jerusalem from Bethlehem kept festival with psalms and spiritual songs.

    
And the priests of the Jews, along with their people, were astonished at the things which had come to pass; and being moved with the heaviest hatred, and again with frivolous reasoning, having made an assembly, they determine to send against the holy mother of God and the holy apostles who were there in Bethlehem. And accordingly the multitude of the Jews, having directed their course to Bethlehem, when at the distance of one mile it came to pass that they beheld a frightful vision, and their feet were held fast; and after this they returned to their fellow-countrymen, and reported all the frightful vision to the chief priests. And they, still more boiling with rage, go to the procurator, crying out and saying: 

The nation of the Jews has been ruined by this woman; chase her from Bethlehem and the province of Jerusalem. And the procurator, astonished at the wonderful things, said to them: I will chase her neither from Bethlehem nor from any other place. And the Jews continued crying out, and adjuring him by the health of Tiberius Caesar to bring the apostles out of Bethlehem. And if you do not do so, we shall report it to the Caesar. Accordingly, being compelled, he sends a tribune of the soldiers against the apostles to Bethlehem. And the Holy Spirit says to the apostles and the mother of the Lord: Behold, the procurator has sent a tribune against you, the Jews having made an uproar. Go forth therefore from Bethlehem, and fear not: for, behold, by a cloud I shall bring you to Jerusalem; for the power of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit is with you. 

The apostles therefore rose up immediately, and went forth from the house, carrying the bed of the Lady the mother of God, and directed their course to Jerusalem; and immediately, as the Holy Spirit had said, being lifted up by a cloud, they were found in Jerusalem in the horse of the Lady. And they stood up, and for five days made an unceasing singing of praise. And when the tribune came to Bethlehem, and found there neither the mother of the Lord nor the apostles, he laid hold of the Bethlehemites, saying to them: Did you not come telling the procurator and the priests all the signs and wonders that had come to pass, and how the apostles had come out of every country? Where are they, then? Come, go to the procurator at Jerusalem. 

For the tribune did not know of the departure of the apostles and the Lord's mother to Jerusalem. The tribune then, having taken the Bethlehemites, went in to the procurator, saying that he had found no one. And after five days it was known to the procurator, and the priests. and all the city, that the Lord's mother was in her own house in Jerusalem, along with the apostles, from the signs and wonders that came to pass there. And a multitude of men and women and virgins came together, and cried out: Holy virgin, that didst bring forth Christ our God, do not forget the generation of men. And when these things came to pass, the people of the Jews, with the priests also, being the more moved with hatred, took wood and fire, and came up, wishing to burn the house where the Lord's mother was living with the apostles. 

And the procurator stood looking at the sight from afar off. And when the people of the Jews came to the door of the house, behold, suddenly a power of fire coming forth from within, by means of an angel, burnt up a great multitude of the Jews. And there was great fear throughout all the city; and they glorified God, who had been born of her. And when the procurator saw what had come to pass, he cried out to all the people, saying: Truly he who was born of the virgin, whom you have thought of driving away, is the Son of God; for these signs are those of the true God. And there was a division among the Jews; and many believed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in consequence of the signs that had come to pass.

    

And after all these wonderful things had come to pass through the mother of God, and ever-virgin Mary the mother of the Lord, while we the apostles were with her in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit said to us: You know that on the Lord's day the good news was brought to the Virgin Mary by the archangel Gabriel; and on the Lord's day the Saviour was born in Bethlehem; and on the Lord's day the children of Jerusalem came forth with palm branches to meet him, saying, Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord; and on the Lord's day He rose from the dead; and on the Lord's day He will come to judge the living and the dead; and on the Lord's day He will come out of heaven, to the glory and honour of the departure of the holy glorious virgin who brought Him forth. 

And on the same Lord's day the mother of the Lord says to the apostles: Cast incense, because Christ is coming with a host of angels; and, behold, Christ is at hand, sitting on a throne of cherubim. And while we were all praying, there appeared innumerable multitudes of angels, and the Lord mounted upon cherubim in great power; and, behold, a stream of light coming to the holy virgin, because of the presence of her only-begotten Son, and all the powers of the heavens fell down and adored Him. And the Lord, speaking to His mother, said: Mary. 

And she answered and said: Here am I, Lord. And the Lord said to her: Grieve not, but let thy heart rejoice and be glad; for thou hast found grace to behold the glory given to me by my Father. And the holy mother of God looked up, and saw in Him a glory which it is impossible for the mouth of man to speak of, or to apprehend. And the Lord remained beside her, saying: Behold, from the present time thy precious body will be transferred to paradise, and thy holy soul to the heavens to the treasures of my Father in exceeding brightness, where there is peace and joy of the holy angels,–and other things besides. And the mother of the Lord answered and said to him: Lay Thy right hand upon me, O Lord, and bless me. 

And the Lord stretched forth His undefiled right hand, and blessed her. And she laid hold of His undefiled right hand, and kissed it, saying: I adore this right hand, which created the heaven and the earth; and I call upon Thy much to be praised name Christ, O God, the King of the ages, the only-begotten of the Father, to receive Thine handmaid, Thou who didst deign to be brought forth by me, in a low estate, to save the race of men through Thine ineffable dispensation; do Thou bestow Thine aid upon every man calling upon, or praying to, or naming the the name of, Thine handmaid. And while she is saying this, the apostles, having gone up to her feet and adored, say: O mother of the Lord, leave a blessing to the world, since thou art going away from it. For thou hast blessed it, and raised it up when it was ruined, by bringing forth the Light of the world. 

And the mother of the Lord prayed, and in her prayer spoke thus: O God, who through Thy great goodness hast sent from the heavens Thine only-begotten Son to dwell in my humble body, who hast deigned to be born of me, humble as I am, have mercy upon the world, and every soul that calls upon Thy name. And again she prayed, and said: O Lord, King of the heavens, Son of the living God, accept every man who calls upon Thy name, that Thy birth may be glorified. And again she prayed, and said: O Lord Jesus Christ, who art all-powerful in heaven and on earth, in this appeal I implore Thy holy name; in every time and place where there is made mention of my name, make that place holy, and glorify those that glorify Thee through my name, accepting of such persons all their offering, and all their supplication, and all their prayer. And when she had thus prayed, the Lord said to His mother: Let thy heart rejoice and be glad; for every favour and every gift has been given to thee from my Father in heaven, and from me, and from the Holy Spirit: every soul that calls upon thy name shall not be ashamed, but shall find mercy, and comfort, and support, and confidence, both in the world that now is, and in that which is to come, in the presence of my Father in the heavens.

     

And the Lord turned and said to Peter: The time has come to begin the singing of the hymn. And Peter having begun the singing of the hymn, all the powers of the heavens responded with the Alleluiah. And then the face of the mother of the Lord shone brighter than the light, and she rose up and blessed each of the apostles with her own hand, and all gave glory to God; and the Lord stretched forth His undefiled hands, and received her holy and blameless soul. And with the departure of her blameless soul the place was filled with perfume and ineffable light; and, behold, a voice out of the heaven was heard, saying: Blessed art thou among women. And Peter, and I John, and Paul, and Thomas, ran and wrapped up her precious feet for the consecration; and the twelve apostles put her precious and holy body upon a couch, and carried it. And, behold, while they were carrying her, a certain well-born Hebrew, Jephonias by name, running against the body, put his hands upon the couch; and, behold, an angel of the Lord by invisible power, with a sword of fire, cut off his two hands from his shoulders, and made them hang about the couch, lifted up in the air. And at this miracle which had come to pass all the people of the Jews who beheld it cried out: Verily, He that was brought forth by thee is the true God, O mother of God, ever-virgin Mary. 

And Jephonias himself, when Peter ordered him, that the wonderful things of God might be showed forth, stood up behind the couch, and cried out: Holy Mary, who broughtest forth Christ who is God, have mercy upon me. And Peter turned and said to him: In the name of Him who was born of her, thy hands which have been taken away from thee, will be fixed on again. And immediately, at the word of Peter, the hands hanging by the couch of the Lady came, and were fixed on Jephonias. And he believed, and glorified Christ, God who had been born of her.

     

And when this miracle had been done, the apostles carried the couch, and laid down her precious and holy body in Gethsemane in a new tomb. And, behold, a perfume of sweet savour came forth out of the holy sepulchre of our Lady the mother of God; and for three days the voices of invisible angels were heard glorifying Christ our God, who had been born of her. And when the third day was ended, the voices were no longer heard; and from that time forth all knew that her spotless and precious body had been transferred to paradise.

     
And after it had been transferred, behold, we see Elisabeth the mother of St. John the Baptist, and Anna the mother of the Lady, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and David, singing the Alleluiah, and all the choirs of the saints adoring the holy relics of the mother of the Lord, and the place full of light, than which light nothing could be more brilliant, and an abundance of perfume in that place to which her precious and holy body had been transferred in paradise, and the melody of those praising Him who had been born of her–sweet melody, of which there is no satiety, such as is given to virgins, and them only, to hear. 

We apostles, therefore, having beheld the sudden precious translation of her holy body, glorified God, who had shown us His wonders at the departure of the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose prayers and good offices may we all be deemed worthy to receive. under her shelter, and support, and protection, both in the world that now is and in that which is to come, glorifying in every time and place her only-begotten Son, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. 

Credits : Regina Magazine with some editing by Me.

Feast Of The Immaculate Heart Of Mary

We know that Our Lady by right is the Queen of Heaven and Earth. She has this right for two reasons: First, because she is the Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the King of all creation. Her situation is somewhat similar to a queen mother in countries with a monarchical structure. Second, Our Lady is Queen because God granted her an actual rule over Heaven and earth. She has power over the Angels, Saints, souls in Purgatory, everyone on earth, and even over the devils and condemned souls in Hell.

A queen mother is not properly speaking a reigning queen. She receives royal honors, but she does not reign. For example, Queen Elizabeth in England, the late mother of Queen Elizabeth II, was the Queen-Consort because she was married to George VI. When the King passed away, the royal power passed to her daughter, and she became the Queen-Mother. Her whole life she received royal honors, but she never exercised royal power. On the other hand, Queen Elizabeth II is a Queen who reigns; that is to say, she reigns with that small amount of power still remaining to the Sovereign of England.

Our Lady is not only a Queen-Mother because she is the Mother of Our Lord, but also she is a Queen who reigns because God granted her this royal power.

A power exercised from heart to heart

How does she exercise this power? She applies it by the action of her heart over the hearts of all rational creatures. The heart, as you know, is a physical organ that symbolizes the mentality of a person, the way a person sees and does all things.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary is an expression of the most wise and pure mentality of Our Lady that, among other things, symbolizes her ineffable goodness, her incomparable sweetness and her endless mercy. For these reasons, the Angels and Saints of Heaven love her intensely, as much as it is proper to love someone other than God.

The result of this love is such that she reigns over them, her heart wields a power over their hearts, her mentality exerts an influence over their mentality so that her way of seeing and doing things become a norm of wisdom for them to follow. Her most pure will, immaculate and spotless, becomes the rule to guide their wills, so that even if God’s command to obey her should cease to exist, they would continue to love her with the same intensity.

By an action of her heart over other hearts, Our Lady dominates Heaven. She also dominates Purgatory. Indeed, the souls of Purgatory also can no longer sin. They have the guarantee of Heaven. There is no risk that a soul in Purgatory could revolt against the extreme sufferings it endures. Those souls are confirmed in grace and strive to model their lives on Our Lady, to think what she thinks and to wish what she wishes. They live for her, and when at times she appears in Purgatory, they have an indescribable joy and sing her glory amidst their sufferings. 

 She always returns to Heaven with many of these souls in Purgatory, and leaves behind for the souls who remain a supernatural dew that diminishes their chastisements, increases their hope and softens their pains. It is also from heart to heart that Our Lady reigns over those souls, and not just by a decree of God.

The authority of the Immaculate Heart over the world

What about things on this earth? On earth we have the sad liberty, which in fact is slavery, to not do the will of God. Like tyrants, our passions drag us to do things we know we should not do. They generate that sad liberty we have to say ‘no’ to God.

Notwithstanding, these passions exist and we have to fight against them. We can only be liberated from our slavery to these passions by a grace coming from Our Lady. Only with her help can we diminish and even extinguish the dominion of our passions over our wills. Without it, we are the slaves of our defects and vices.

On earth, then, there is the fight between those who obey and those who do not obey Our Lady. She has the right, however, to be obeyed by everyone. She is by right the Queen of the entire world. But because of free will, persons can choose to disobey her, and many actually do so.
How does the Immaculate Heart of Mary make its authority effective throughout the world? Our Lady touches the hearts of people, sending them abundant graces so that many will follow her. This is not an automatic process, of course. Many persons resist those graces; but countless others, because of those graces, stop sinning and move toward the service of Our Lady.

These graces invite our hearts to see the Heart of Mary, to know and love the wisdom and adamantine purity that emanates from her entire person. 

This is the way she makes herself obeyed by us.

Her Heart, therefore, is the scepter by which she governs all those who obey her on this earth.

Her power over the Devil and his cohorts

It is clear that Our Lady also exerts her power over the Devil. For example, Anne Catharine Emmerich reports this horrible fact. When Our Lord was crucified, the Devil wanted to impose a final humiliation on Him. After Our Lord had been nailed on the Cross and as it was being raised up to stand before the sight of all, for a moment the Cross vacillated and seemed as if it might fall forward. The Devil was planning to push the Cross down to the ground so that with the weight of His Person plus the heavy wood, Our Lord would fall on His Face and completely smash it.

When Our Lady realized the plan of the Devil, she simply gave the command: “No. This I do not permit.” That is, the case was finished. There was no more discussion. Satan was forbidden to make this affront, and so the horrible deed was not done. She permitted everything that was necessary for the Redemption of mankind, but that supreme humiliation was not necessary. So she gave the command that the Devil had no choice but to obey. She has power over the Devil and his cohorts.

By right Our Lady has power over all. At times, she compels this empire by her will and none can resist. At other times her rule becomes effective not by an action of her will over the evil ones, but through the love she communicates to many good souls.

The devotion of the Counter-Revolution

This is how Our Lady reigns through her Immaculate Heart. When her reign over the good spreads throughout the world, we will have the triumph predicted in Fatima. This will be the victory of the Royal, Wise and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Being wise, Our Lady is against all vain pride; being immaculate, she is against sensuality. Therefore, devotion to the Heart of Mary from this perspective is par excellence the devotion of the Counter-Revolution, since the Revolution is moved forward by pride and sensuality. Those two points that the Revolution hates most, wisdom and purity, must be the points that are most strongly affirmed by counter-revolutionaries.
Our prayer on this feast day should be: “Make our hearts like unto thy Heart.” This does not imply some vague similarity. It means to make our hearts as closely identified as possible to her Immaculate Heart, insofar as it is in the plans of God. “Make me wise, according to thy wisdom. Make me pure with a purity partaking of thy own purity.”

We may add: “My Mother, I am not strong enough to give myself to thee. Enter into my soul with graces that I am unable to resist, shatter this door that in my misery I do not want to open. I will be awaiting thee behind that door with all my appreciation and gratitude.”
Specific Devotions

Mary appeared to St. Catherine Labouré standing on a globe, rays of light streaming from her fingers, enframed in an oval frame inscribed with the words, “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” The whole vision “turned” showing the back of the oval inscribed with the letter “M” entwined with a Cross, and the hearts of Jesus and Mary, the former surrounded with thorns, the latter pierced with a sword. 12 stars circled this oval frame. Mary told her to strike a medal in this form — a medal now known as the “Miraculous Medal” — and that all who wore it properly after having it blessed would receive graces. The wearing of the Miraculous Medal has become one of the most common devotions to the Immaculate Heart.

Devotion to the Immaculate Heart became even more popularized after Mary's appearing to the three young shepherd children at Fatima, Portugal in 1917 (before the Russian Revolution), when she asked that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart to prevent the spread of “the errors of Russia.” Eight years later, in 1925, Mary appeared to one of the visionaries — Lucia, who'd since become a nun — and requested reparations for the various ways in which her Immaculate Heart was offended — such as attacks against her Immaculate Conception, virginity and divine maternity, and for those who teach their children contempt of Mary or who insult her by desecrating her images.

To make these reparations, she asked that we do 5 things, all with the intention of making reparation to her Immaculate Heart:
 

• recite at least Five Decades of the Rosary every day
• wear the Brown Scapular
• offer our daily duty to God as an act of sacrifice (ie., make the Morning Offering)
• make Five First Saturdays of Reparation to Her Immaculate Heart (see below)
• the Pope, in union with all the bishops of the world, must consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart. Russia would be converted through this means, and a period of peace to be given to the world. If this is not done (and it hasn't been done), Russia will “spread her errors throughout the world.” This consecration must be of Russia — not “the world,” but Russia by name.

The “First Saturdays of Reparation” was not a new devotion, but it was even more popularized after Our Lady appeared at Fatima. It consists of, on the first Saturday of each month for five consecutive months:

• going to Confession (may be 8 days before the Saturday as long as one stays in a state of grace)
• receiving the Eucharist
• praying 5 decades of the Rosary, including the Fatima Prayer
• “keeping her company” for 15 minutes while meditating on all of the Mysteries of the Rosary with the intention of making reparation to her. This can be done by reading Scripture or other writings relevant to the Mysteries, meditating on pictures of the Mysteries, or simple meditation.

The promise given by Mary to those who make the First Saturday devotion is her assistance at the hour of their death. 

Credits : Regina Magazine With Some Editing By Me 

The Feast Of The Sacred Heart Of Jesus

The  Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Friday that follows the Second Sunday in Time After Pentecost is the Feast of the Sacred Heart. 

Many Catholics prepare for this Feast by beginning a Novena to the Sacred Heart on the Feast of Corpus Christi, which is the Thursday of the week before. On the Feast of the Sacred Heart itself, we can gain a plenary indulgence by making an Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart.

Sacred Heart of Jesus

by Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger, 1877

“This is life everlasting that they may know Thee, and whom
Thou hast sent, Jesus Christ.”–John xvii, 3.

As the pulpit text which I have just read for you, dearly beloved in Christ, admonishes us, more is necessary for our salvation than faithfully to confess God the Father, and whom He has sent, Jesus Christ; for, if this confession is to deliver and save us, we must follow Christ by obeying the teachings of the faith He brought into the world. The devils also confess God, and yet they remain devils; they also confess Jesus Christ, yet they are damned forever. Therefore, St. Paul so expressly declares to the early Christians: 

“And what else do I require of you, by all I have told you, by word and by our epistle, than that you advance in the knowledge and love of Christ?” which means that, in proportion as this knowledge and love takes root in your heart, and increases and fructifies, so also will you, together with me, follow Jesus, and be saved through Him. These are the words of the Apostle of nations.

But it is precisely in this regard that a very great deficiency is generally manifested. Not to speak of those who know nothing of Jesus save what they have learned from history, and who are not members of the true faith, how many, even among those who call themselves Catholics, and, perhaps, live exteriorly as such, in reality know Him not! They know Him, as it were, only by name; they know Him not personally; and the “knowledge they have of the divine Saviour exercises no beneficial influence upon their lives.

In this meditation, therefore, my dear brethren, I will endeavor to demonstrate, that a true veneration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the portal through which we must enter into the sanctuary of a sweet, a loving union, with Christ, an intimate, personal knowledge of the Saviour. O Mary, who, as His Mother, didst know and love the Son of God, following Him with devoted care even to the foot of the cross, we pray thee, obtain for us the grace to know and love Him too. I speak in the most holy name of Jesus, for the greater glory of God!

Christ is, as holy faith teaches, the incarnate Son of God. That this knowledge may enkindle within us, and fan the fire of divine love, in so ardent a manner that we may imitate our divine Saviour, we must often meditate on the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, of which a tender devotion to the Sacred Heart can not fail to remind us. The Angels cherish the most profound veneration, and yet God did not become an angel–but a man. To this He was impelled by no other consideration than His love for us.

“I have loved thee with an eternal love, and drawn thee with merciful love to Me.” What a powerful motive for love and gratitude! God was pleased to create us, not only after His own image, but to take upon Himself our very nature, inexpressibly inferior as it is, and thus elevate it above the angelic nature. They possess not, like us, the privilege of calling him brother. Should not this urge us to listen to our Lord when He speaks thus to our hearts: “And now what else does thy God require of thee, than that thou shouldst love Him?”

Christ, as God and man at the same time, is our Redeemer, Who shed His precious blood for us in that atoning sacrifice, completed through the infinite merits which accompanied all His divine actions; and He offered it as an expiation to the infinite justice of God. But if we wish fully to understand this tremendous sacrifice which Christ presented to His heavenly Father for every human soul, the love of Christ, and His character as Saviour of the world, must arise clearly before us, and this will be attained by looking into the depths of the Sacred Heart.

For “the redemption of the world” would have been realized by the first aspiration to which Christ gave utterance in His mother's womb, at His Incarnation, when He confessed before His Father: “Behold, here am I, and Thy law is in the midst of my heart.” I have come to reconcile the human race with Thee. This prayer was, as St. Paul assures us, already sufficient for the salvation and redemption of every member of the human family, for it was of an infinite value. 

But the overwhelming love of Jesus for us demanded something more than our mere redemption, for He wished to deliver us in a manner indicative of that love, so that our hearts might the more readily turn to Him. O how He wished us to follow His divine example, and make the merits of His life and death our own, no matter how great the cost!

And now, to understand this in the most effective manner, let us glance at His heart, and remember, at the same time, that Christ offered His life, sufferings, and death, to His heavenly Father, not only for all mankind, but for every individual soul; as if that soul had been the only one He came to save, as will be manifested, in the clearest light, by a glance at the Sacred Heart. You have a right to say this very heart beat in the breast of the Infant Jesus as He lay in the manger at Bethlehem, and offered the pains and griefs of infancy for me. The circumcision, the flight into Egypt, the weary toil which marked His daily life at Nazareth, He offered for me! 

This Sacred Heart throbbed for me in every phase of His Apostolic life, and offered all for me! This same heart throbbed for me in His breast at the Last Supper, and throbbed for me when Jesus resolved to offer Himself daily in the Sacrament of His love, until the very end of time, to remain with me, to unite Himself with me, body and soul, divinity and humanity, in every holy Communion which it would be my privilege to receive.

It throbbed for me when, with prophetic vision, the Redeemer saw the many temptations which would surround me in life, and His precious blood burst forth from every pore, as Gethsemane's groves witnessed His terrible agony there. And, oh, how bitterly it throbbed when the cruel scourge laid open the quivering flesh to the very bone, and the aching brow was made to feel a keener pang from the pressure of the sharp thorns, put on in mockery of a crown, and the heavy cross was laid upon those weary shoulders until all that was human in the Son of God was well nigh crushed to earth. And at last the weary walk was over, but only to give place to new and bitter pain as the nails were driven through the sacred hands and feet. 

And now behold the Creator of heaven and earth hanging on the cross, a bleeding victim for our sins. Ah, then His Sacred Heart throbbed for me as He cried out to the eternal Father: “Father, forgive!” Then, when he yielded up the Ghost, behold, a soldier opened His heart, and from it fell the last drop of His precious blood– for me. I am redeemed, and with a Redemption superabundant indeed!
“They will see Whom they have pierced.” These are the inspired words of the prophet; yes, and they will adore the triumph of infinite mercy by which the greatest crime which a creature can commit, Deicide, became a source for the pardon of every sin, as St. Paul implies when he says: “Christ destroyed sin through sin upon the cross.” 

This open heart, this sacred wound, removed the vail which rested upon the work of Redemption. To glance at it, nay, to look into its depths, we can see the glimmer of a lovely light which illumines the work of the Saviour's mercy and love, penetrating our hearts with a longing to reciprocate that love which led Him to purchase our salvation at the cost of life.

 This Jesus is, as Saviour, the founder of that Church to which He confided His infinite merits, and the dispensation of the means of salvation. She rose from His heart in the symbol of blood and water, even as from the side of the sleeping Adam God called our mother Eve into existence. And behold us, without any merit of our own, members of this Church so holy and divine. What a motive for us, as children of this loving mother, to grow in the grace of God, and by constant intercourse with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, to grow also in His personal knowledge.

Yes! to look into the Heart of Jesus, gives us a glimpse, in all its splendor, of the majesty and sanctity of the one true Church, and can not fail to excite in us the most ardent desire and longing to live as her faithful children, grateful that we are so highly favored as to be children of that glorious mother. It animates us to more earnest efforts to propagate the faith, over the whole world, according to the desire of the Sacred Heart. This Lord and Saviour is, according to His Person, at once our Father, Friend, and Brother; the Spouse of our souls–Christ! 

He it is Who regained for us the right to enter heaven. He is our Brother, Who took upon Himself our nature; our Friend, Who provided for us as for Himself; and the Spouse of our souls–infinite goodness and greatness–Christ!

To behold all this we must look into the depths of His Sacred Heart. The world is full of brothers, friends, and spouses, but how different are they in the measure of love they bear to their own! In the open Heart of Jesus we behold, united, the hearts of loving fathers, brothers, and friends; and yet His love is greater than all! Did He not give the very last drop of blood from that heart, and am I not, therefore, right when I say: If we wish to attain to a knowledge of this dear Redeemer, in all His divine sweetness, we must cast frequent glances into the Sacred Heart, and seek refuge in its bleeding wound? 

We will then adorn our own hearts, so that we will one day be worthy to enter into an abode of eternal blessedness. Blessed St. Gertrude, devoted adorer of the Sacred Heart, obtain for us the grace to love it with your fervent love, and through a like imitation of its virtues, to share with you the glorious reward of its faithful servants.–Amen.

“For this cause I bow my knees to the Father, that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of this mystery.”–Eph. iii, 14, 18.

“To me, the least of all the saints, is given this grace to preach among the Gentiles, and to enlighten all men what is the dispensation of the mystery which hath been hidden from eternity in God, Who created all things. For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of Whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named, That He would grant you the grace to be strengthened by the power of His Spirit unto the inward man; That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts: that being rooted and founded in charity, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of this mystery; To know also the charity of Christ, which surpasseth all human knowledge.”

With these words to the Ephesians, and similar assurances in many passages of the Epistles which St. Paul wrote–not only for the faithful of his own day, but for those of all future time–the Apostle of nations exhorts us in the most expressive manner to advance in the knowledge of Christ. And if we wish to comprehend the total height and depth, the entire breadth and length, of the love of Jesus, we can only do so by looking into the depths of His Sacred Heart; and to make this clear, will be the object of my words today. O Mary, Mother of the Divine Heart, obtain for us the grace to enter into the full knowledge of Christ's love for us, that we may meet it with faithful reciprocal love! I speak in the holy name of Jesus, for the greater honor and glory of God!

To contemplate in its entire extent the love of Jesus Christ, and to open our hearts in true reciprocal love to the Lord, that He may dwell therein, we must go to the Sacred Heart and look into its depths. There, ah! there, we can behold in all its immensity a love so mighty that it drew Him away from the throne of His glory in heaven to earth, and urged Him not only to assume human nature, but by so doing, as St. Paul assures us, to annihilate Himself and take the form of a slave. For, appearing as a man among men, He concealed His divinity before them; and although He wrought miracles, other men, with the Divine assistance, performed wonders still greater:–Moses, for instance, at the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt.

Men in general acknowledged Him so little as God, that they threatened to stone Him when He declared that He was. They persecuted at every occasion this meek Lamb of God, and at last nailed Him to the cross. And what brought to such depths of humility the King of kings and Lord of lords? Because He chose not to appear as a powerful monarch, as a ruler over the whole universe, before whom all nations would tremble, but as a slave; for He entered this world as the subject of an emperor who governed only the Romans as free men, while those nations he had conquered were held in subjection. And therefore Christ suffered the death of the slave–crucifixion.

Why did He humble Himself so deeply? One glance into the Divine Heart will tell us that it was His merciful love to us. Great God! what misery overwhelmed the human race, and what would have become of us if the arm of Thy infinite justice had not been stayed! But Christ the Son of God, equal in essence and nature to His eternal Father, wished, through love, to celebrate the triumph of His infinite mercy; and this love urged Him not only to grant pardon to penitent sinners, but to make satisfaction for them, and take upon Himself the justification for sin.

Not only, beloved in Christ, did He mean to pardon this or that sin, to forgive this or that sinner, but for every sin that would ever be committed, and for every sinner, if he were truly contrite, a gracious pardon would be found. Christ requires but one thing of the sinner–that he avails himself of those efficacious means of salvation to be found in the true Church, and takes refuge in His Sacred Heart.

Dearly beloved Christians, souls redeemed by the blood of a God, reflect upon this precious truth; and that you may realize the depth of His love for you, look at the Sacred Heart — look into its bleeding wound. The Almighty, the Omnipotent God, the gracious and merciful Saviour, comes from the heaven of His glory to afford us a certain refuge therein–to save us from that pit which the malice of sin has prepared for us in hell.

The Deluge prefigured the spiritual ruin which overwhelmed the whole human race. Now, Holy Scripture testifies that the waters thereof rose to the height of fifteen cubits above the loftiest mountains. This indicates the degree of malice which characterized the wickedness of mankind, it being greater than that of the fallen angels. 

Their sin was that pride which led them to wish to be like God; while man, on the contrary, committed Deicide, as St. Peter, in his first sermon, called the Crucifixion, when he said: “The Author of life you have killed.”

This reproach applies not only to those Jews who personally laid hands on Christ, but to all men as sinners; for St. Paul asserts: “Whosoever sins, crucifies God in his heart, tramples His precious Blood under foot.” And yet God forgives on account of the merits of Christ! Whom? The greatest sinner if he but repent.

Glance at the Heart of Jesus, opened after His death: by this He opened His arms to every soul, with the loving words: “I have loved thee unto death, and presented the last drop of My heart's blood for thee to draw thee from the abyss of destruction which thy sins prepared for thee in hell.” Oh, what a depth, and, at the same time, what a height of love! 

The work of Redemption as consummated by this love, made fast the gates of hell, and rescued us from that fiery pit; but not content with this, our loving Saviour would open the portals of a heaven more beautiful than the one which would have been our portion had Adam never sinned.

And now, as brothers of the Son of God, we may enter that region of bliss, and become as precious stones set in the celestial crown of the world of angels. We may, by our zeal in the exercise of good works, and their union with the merits of Christ, ascend higher and higher, through new and more brilliant merits, to an immeasurable degree of glory. Look at Mary, whose throne is next to that of Jesus: she was, like us, a child of man, and her glory by far outshines that of the brightest angel. 

We, as her children, may hope to attain a place in heaven, near that of our gracious Queen; for from the Heart of Jesus came forth the cry: “To him that shall overcome I will grant to sit with Me on My throne.”

And how shall we learn the breadth of this love? I answer: By contemplating the generosity which marked its course, and so animated the Sacred Heart in the breast of the Infant Saviour in the crib and of the Redeemer on the cross. Even now it beats for us in the Most Holy Sacrament over the whole globe. Think of the generosity of that love by which Jesus has communicated to us the whole merit of His life, passion, and death.

The words of St. Augustine refer to this in the explanation and answer given by him of the words of Christ: “What price could man give for his soul?” “Remember,” exclaims St. Augustine, “the price which Christ paid for you through the work of Redemption; you have been purchased by the life, passion, and death of Christ the Son of God.” 

What He gave for you He did not give even for the angels. Oh, how sweetly are we reminded of all this by one loving glance at the Sacred Heart of Jesus! It beats indeed today on earth for each one of us. Go before the tabernacle and ask what is that which Jesus confers upon you in every Holy Communion. It is Himself.

And the length of this enduring love may be discerned by the unwearied forbearance He shows to man. From the first moment of your conception, Christian soul, He has loved you with an everlasting love. He has thought of you, and longed to bless you for all eternity. 

And it will be your own fault if He does not remain, until your very latest breath, the same faithful, loving Jesus, Who will assist you in that last dread passage where time is merged into eternity.

Yes, it is an article of faith that when the greatest sinner turns with a repentant heart to Jesus, even in his dying hour, he will still be saved through Him. And is this really so? Christian, look at the wounded Heart in the breast of your Redeemer. It has ceased to beat–it is dead! Yet from the wound came blood and water, the symbol of the Church to which Christ gave power to pardon the dying sinner whose heart cries out for mercy–for forgiveness through the merits of Christ.

Dearly beloved, who have listened to my words today, reflect upon what I have told you of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus–of the height, depth, breadth, and length of the love of Christ. Consider it daily, and the wish of St. Paul, of which I have already spoken to you, will certainly be fulfilled in you. You will become so strengthened in the love of God, through the Spirit of Christ, that He will abide in your heart, and, finding therein so firm a faith, earnest a hope, and ardent a love, will there take up His abode forever. Amen!

“Is thy heart right as my heart is with thy heart? “–4 Kings x, 15.

Centuries have passed since our Lord and Saviour, the loving Jesus, in His visible presence, walked the earth; and as the years roll on, He asks of every Catholic soul the same question which He put to the prince of the Apostles: “Lovest thou Me?” and every one should reply as did the ardent Peter: “Yes, Lord, I love Thee;” and yet the answer is not the same, for St. Peter not only assured the Lord of his love, but added: “Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee.”

If our divine Lord possessed not the power to read what is written in the inmost recesses of our hearts, He might be deceived by the assurance of a love which has no place therein, and indiscriminately bestow those rich treasures of grace which He loves so well to give, and which we require to work out our salvation in that state of life to which we have each one been assigned. But the Lord searcheth the heart of man, and knoweth if his lips speak truth. 

And too often, my dearest Christians, the lives, even of those who possess the gift of faith, so directly contradict their professions, that to them might be applied the words of Isaac: “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are those of Esau.”

The lips say: “I love my Jesus who died for me,” but as “actions speak louder far than words,” they often proclaim the falsity of the assertion. We can not sufficiently appreciate the necessity of examining ourselves carefully on this point, and it were well to do so in presence of the Sacred Heart, as it beats in our midst, in the Most Holy Sacrament. What answer could we make to this question of our Lord? Could we truly say with St. Peter: “Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee.” 

 Beloved in Christ, in this regard I will put into the mouth of our Saviour those words of Holy Scripture. “Is thy heart right as my heart is with thy heart?” and after you have listened attentively to my words today, let each one make answer to his soul and his God. O Mary, Mother of Jesus, who lovedst Him with the most sincere and maternal love, grant that we also may love Him with sincere and filial love! I speak in the most holy name of Jesus, for the honor and glory of God!

The first mark of sincere love is the silent testimony of the heart itself, which is felt only by those who love. The little child, which never even heard the word love, feels it in the depths of its tender heart toward its mother, who lavishes upon it every fond endearment as it lovingly clings about her neck. Question your own heart as to its feelings whenever you pronounce the sacred name of Jesus, or even think of Him.

St. Bernard sometimes, after he had uttered that holy name, tasted a sweetness upon his lips as though he had eaten honey. Can you say, O Christian! that your feelings are like his? Is it with you, as St. Augustine declares of himself, that you find every thing, wherein the name of Jesus does not occur, insipid and without interest? You love Jesus, you say, but if His name leaves you insensible and cold, I am forced to doubt the sincerity of your love. But as it is also true that mere feeling is very deceptive, therefore show, by your life, that you really speak the truth.

The second mark of sincere love is the care one takes not to grieve or offend the object of his love. Thus it may happen that a wife says to her husband: “Do you love me?” and what is his probable reply? “Silly question; would I have married you had I not?” But evening comes, and the charms of home are powerless to keep him there. So he goes to the tavern, where the midnight hour finds him still, yet he knows how much he will grieve his faithful wife by this evil course. Is she not perfectly right, therefore, if she says within herself: “Thy lips say I love thee; but thy life says it is a lie. Thy love is not sincere, or thou wouldst not be so ready to grieve my heart.”

Christian, your Saviour asks: “Do you love Me?” How does your life answer this question of the Lord? With what care do you endeavor, not only not to commit a mortal sin, which would at once banish Christ from your heart; but to avoid committing even one deliberate venial sin which grieves and afflicts your Lord? Do you watch over your conscience by the most assiduous practice of the particular examen? If so, then, indeed, you speak the truth. But if it would seem that you are careless in regard to the trifling sins and imperfections,–if you neglect the particular examen, you place yourself in the greatest danger of sinning, even grievously, and your lips would utter a lie: your love is only an illusion.

Even if you would read from your book the most ardent affections of love, while your lips say: “Yes, Lord Jesus, I love You;” your life cries out: “It is false.” But how is it, then, if you live with the guilt of mortal sin upon your soul? Ah! then, indeed, you deeply grieve your Saviour, and banish Him from your heart.
The third mark of sincere love is the desire to please the beloved, and to do with zeal what is required of us by the one whom we love. A well known proverb says that “love can read in the eyes of the beloved the desire of his heart.” The same is true of a sincere love towards Jesus. 

A wife needs not to ask her husband whether he loves her, although he is of a very undemonstrative nature,–never expressing his love,–if his actions show that he does, if he is quick to anticipate every wish of her heart; and fulfill it, if possible; therein lies the real test of love. The same is true of the sincerity of our love towards Jesus. What He requires of us is made known by His admonition: “Follow Me!–Be ye holy, as your Father in heaven is holy.” Ask your heart, with what zeal you walk in the path of Christian perfection, whether it is your earnest wish to become holy.

And not only that, but what zeal do you manifest in assisting Jesus to extend His kingdom on earth, through zeal in the exercise of the spiritual and corporeal works of mercy? With what solicitude do you endeavor to prevent others from offending God, particularly those whom the Lord has confided to your care, watching that they fulfill their duties as faithful and zealous children of the Church?

Do you try earnestly to lead infidels and heretics to the way of salvation, and the knowledge of the true and only Church wherein salvation is to be found; and to support over the whole earth the kingdom of God, that zealous missionaries may be enabled to preach the gospel among the heathens? Can you say with truth that you are zealous in each of the above duties? If so, then you may indeed rejoice, for it is well with you; and your life replete with holy deeds shows that you sincerely love your God. 

But, on the contrary–and oh, with how many is not this the case! –if you are satisfied to live an ordinary Christian life, and, even this merely from the force of habit; if you do not at the very moment you awake from sleep, resolve to let your aim be to grow always better and better; to constantly multiply the good works you perform, to never lose an opportunity to save and sanctify others;–if, I repeat, beloved in Christ, it is thus with you, then your love for Jesus is far from being sincere.

And if you are content to be solicitous only for your immediate family or your own parish Church, as far as necessity requires; and even if you show yourself an active parish child, yet neglect every thing in regard to caring for the salvation of souls, as if it were a duty belonging only to priests, then the sincerity of your love towards Jesus is rather self-deception. Whosoever loves Jesus sincerely provides for the salvation of souls, even though he be not a Paul nor a Priest, remembering the admonition of the disciple of love: “As He has shed His blood for us, so we should be ready to shed ours for each soul.”

The fourth mark of sincere love is that magnanimity and fidelity which leads us to make sacrifices, even if we should have to suffer by assisting others. Behold a married couple blessed with the goods of the world, with health and happiness, because prosperity has smiled upon their lives. You ask me whether they love one another, and to what degree? 

A question difficult to answer, while they continue to lead such a delightful life. On the contrary, suppose a youth and maiden to enter the married life with every prospect of health and happiness, and behold! after a few months, the hand of the Lord is laid heavily upon her, and He calls her to pass under His chastening rod. The wife becomes incurably ill, the husband loses his entire wealth, yet their love remains the same; yes, its flame burns even more brightly than before. Ah, yes! they love each other truly.

You say: “Yes, I love Jesus;” show it by your love for the cross, by your patience, if the Lord imposes His chastening hand upon you. If then your affections of love multiply towards Jesus, and you esteem yourself happy that He has drawn you to Himself by the royal way of the cross, we know that you really have a sincere love towards Him. 

And what in all this world so effectively conduces to this condition of sincere love, as one glance at the most Sacred Heart of Jesus and an assiduous cultivation of that beautiful devotion; for that Heart shed the last drop of blood for you on the cross, in sincere love. You have this Sacred Heart present in the Blessed Sacrament. Go then before the tabernacle, and think of Him who nourishes you so often with the Holy Sacrament, and gives it to you as food.

The better to illustrate this I will relate the following event: It happened that a ship was lost at sea, and those of the passengers who escaped the wreck were cast upon a desert island. Among them was a mother with a nursing infant. However, the joy of the passengers at their rescue was of brief duration, for they discovered that the soil was bleak and barren, and afforded no food whatever. And no vessel appeared to bear them away, the mother sat holding the starving child to her breast, from which it had drawn the very last drop of milk.
The mother had no nutriment, how could she nourish it? It drew with such force that it took from her veins the life blood, yet she uttered no word of complaint. 

The mother becoming weaker and weaker, the passengers entreated her to let the child die, and, perhaps, her own life might be saved. But she was deaf to their prayers, and still allowed the babe to drink her blood; yes, to the very last moment of her life, which was indeed at hand, for her head drooped upon that faithful breast; and when the prayers of wrecked passengers, that they might be rescued, were heard and a vessel came in sight, she was dead. 

The child lived and grew to man's estate, and when the youth heard what his mother had done for him, and how she had nourished him with her blood, the heroic act filled his heart with such ardent love for her, that from the very depths of his yearning heart he often cried: “O mother! mother! could I but once behold you, if even for one moment, only to thank you for your devoted maternal love. Oh, how happy would I not feel!”

Christians, what that mother did, the Sacred Heart of Jesus is doing daily in the Most Holy Sacrament, and has done it for nineteen hundred years, by nourishing us with His precious blood. As children of God, as members of the Church, we can thank Him for it personally. Oh, then, make good use of His Presence on your altars, particularly by frequent and worthy Communions. No doubt that will enkindle and nourish in your hearts the, fire of divine love, as nothing else could in the world; and you will find your dearest joy in cherishing a sincere, ardent, and faithful love towards the Sacred Heart of Jesus.–Amen! 

Credits : Regina Magazine With Some Editing By Me 

Feast Of Corpus Christi 2019 The Most Holy Body and Blood Of Jesus Christ

The Feast of Corpus Christi.

This Feast of the Sacred Body of Our Divine Lord is celebrated in the Latin Church on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday to solemnly commemorate the Institution of the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist. 

This great event is also commemorated on Maundy Thursday, mentioned as Natalia Calicis (Birth of the Chalice) in the Calendar of Polemius (448) for the 24th of March, the 25th of March being recognized in some places as the day of the Death of Christ. This day, however, occurs in Holy Week, a season of sadness, during which the minds of the faithful are expected to be occupied with thoughts of Our Lord's Passion. 

Moreover, so many other mysteries relative to the Passion are commemorated on this day that the principal event, the Institution of the Holy Eucharist, is deserving of a particular festival. 

This is mentioned as the chief reason for introducing the feast of Corpus Christi in the Papal Bull Transiturus.

The instrument in the hand of Divine Providence was St. Juliana of Mont Cornillon, in Belgium. She was born in 1203 at Retinnes near Liège. Orphaned at an early age, she was educated by the Augustinian nuns of Mont Cornillon. In time she made her religious profession and later became Superior. Intrigues and persecutions of various kinds drove her from her own convent several times. She died on the fifth of April, 1258, at the House of the Cistercian nuns at Fosses, and was buried at Villiers.

From her early youth, Sr. Juliana had a great veneration for the Blessed Sacrament, and always longed for a special feast in Its honor. This holy desire was given further impetus by an authentic vision which she was shown of the Church, whose liturgical cycle appeared as an almost-full moon, yet having one dark void, signifying the absence of such a solemnity. 

She humbly submitted this revelation to Msgr. Robert de Thorete, then Bishop of Liège; to the learned Dominican Hugh, later Cardinal Legate in the Netherlands; and finally to Jacques Pantaléon, at that time Archdeacon of Liège, who afterwards was successively made the Bishop of Verdun, Patriarch of Jerusalem (after the First Crusade), and finally elected to the Papacy as Urban IV. Bishop Robert was favorably inclined to promote a greater devotion to our Eucharistic King. Since bishops had the right of ordering feasts for their respective jurisdictions, he called a synod in 1246, and ordered the celebration to be held in the following year; also, that a monk whose name was John should write the special Office for the occasion. The episcopal decree is still preserved in Binterim (Denkwürdigkeiten, V, 1, 276), together with parts of the Office. 

The pious Bishop did not live to see the fulfillment of his command, for he died on October 16, 1246. Nevertheless, the feast was celebrated for the first time by the obedient canons of the Cathedral of St. Martin at Liège.

Meanwhile, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Jacques Pantaléon, was elected Pope on August 29, 1261. There was at that time in Liège a devout recluse in whom St. Juliana had inspired a fervent devotion of the Holy Eucharist, who spent her time in adoration of Our Divine Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. She besought the Bishop of Liège, Heinrich of Guelders, to request the Sovereign Pontiff to extend this beautiful celebration to the entire Catholic world. Pope Urban IV, who had long cherished a fervent devotion for the feast of Corpus Christi, granted the petition on September 8, 1264, by publishing the Bull Transiturus. Having extolled the love of Our Savior manifested in the Holy Eucharist, he ordered the annual celebration of Corpus Christi on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday, and at the same time granted many Indulgences to the faithful for the attendance at Mass and at the Office. 

This Office, composed at the request of the Pope by the Angelic Doctor St. Thomas Aquinas, is one of the most beautiful in the Roman Breviary, and has been admired not only for its wonderful devotion, but also for its literary excellence.

The death of Pope Urban IV on October 2, 1264, shortly after the publication of the decree, somewhat impeded the spread of the new feast. But Pope Clement V again took the matter in hand, and at the General Council of Vienne (1311), took measures to implement the feast of Corpus Christi. His new decree embodied that of Pope Urban IV, and his successor, Pope John XXII (of Sabbatine Privilege fame) also urged its observance. The Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, which was already held in some places, was endowed with rich indulgences by Popes Martin V and Eugene IV. The pious Bishops of the German Empire were the first to accomplish a uniform observance of the new feast (instituted at Köln in 1306, at Worms in 1315, and in Strasbourg in 1316). In England it was introduced from the continent between 1320 and 1325.

Feast of Corpus Christi

by Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger, 1877

The same reason which caused the Festival of the Holy Trinity, induced the Catholic Church to institute the festival of Corpus Christi, which we celebrate today. She requires that we shall confess and renew today the faith which we have in the Blessed Eucharist, and that we bestow all possible honors upon the Most Holy Sacrament and give due thanks to our Saviour for its institution. In order that this just requirement of the Church may be more fully complied with, we shall here give some explanation of the above reasons. In regard to the first reason, the following are the facts, which the church especially desires to call to our memory by this joyous festival. Our dear Saviour, on the same evening when His bitter suffering for the redemption of man began, instituted the Blessed Eucharist, out of His immeasurable love for us. In it He is truly and substantially present with body and soul, with flesh and blood, as God and Man, under the form of bread and wine. 

Under the form of bread, not only His holy body, but also His holy blood is present; because a living body cannot exist without blood. Hence he receives it, who partakes of holy communion only in the form of bread, not less than he who receives it in two forms, as the priests, when they say holy Mass. The latter partake of holy communion under two forms, in order that the passion and death of our Saviour, during which His blood flowed from His wounds, might be more vividly represented.

From the moment that the priest speaks the prescribed holy words, in the name of Christ, over the bread and wine, the Lord is present in the Holy Sacrament. Bread and wine change their substance miraculously into the true body and blood of the Saviour, in such a manner, that all that remains of the bread and wine is their form, color and taste. The presence of Christ lasts so long as the bread and the wine are unconsumed. It is further to be considered that our Lord is present in a small host as well as in a large one, as well in a portion of a host as in a whole one. Hence he who receives an entire host, has no more than he who receives only a part of one, the latter has just as much as the former. 

The same is the case with those who by inadvertence receive more than one Host, while others receive only one. It is only to be remarked that in case a consecrated Host is broken or divided, the holy body of the Saviour is not broken nor divided, but the form of the bread only: even as Christ will not again die, so his holy body can neither be broken nor divided. All these points are articles of faith in the Catholic Church, and are explained in sermons, in religious instructions and in many books, and are especially demonstrated by the word of God. 

All true Catholics believe this without any doubt, as the Almighty, who is eternal and infallible truth, has revealed it, and as that Church assures us, which on account of the assistance of the Holy Ghost, promised to her by Christ, cannot err.

Those who are not Catholics teach in many points quite differently. They especially reject the real presence of Christ in the form of bread and wine, and also the transubstantiation of these latter into the real body and blood of the Lord. 

They maintain it to be impossible that bread and wine can be changed into the body and blood of Christ, or that Christ can be really present at the same time, in so many different places, in so small a compass as the holy Host. If we ask them why they consider it impossible, they answer: “because we cannot conceive, cannot comprehend, how it can be possible.” But if they believe impossible all which they cannot understand, they must, besides many other articles of faith, reject the creation of the world; the humanity and resurrection of Christ; the Holy Trinity; because all these are just as inconceivable for the mind of man, as the transubstantiation of the bread and wine and the substantial presence of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. It matters not in articles of faith whether we are able to comprehend them or not so long as they are revealed by God.

That which the Almighty has revealed must be true, whether I can understand it or not: for He is omniscient, hence infallible, and cannot be deceived, while our understanding can as easily be deceived as our senses. God is truth: therefore can not deceive. He is omnipotent; hence He can do more than the human mind can comprehend. “With God all things are possible,” said Christ Himself. “Let us admit that God can do more than we are able to fathom,” says St. Augustine, while St. Cyril of Alexandria writes; “The Lord says by the prophet Isaias: ‘My counsel is not like yours, neither are my ways like your ways: for as the heaven is above the earth, so are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.' Cannot therefore the works of Him, who stands so high above us in wisdom and power, exceed in their greatness the limits of our understanding?”
The same is taught by all the Holy Fathers. 

They also refer to many occurrences in nature, which, although we cannot comprehend them, nevertheless take place. They speak of the creation of the world, and say, if we believe that God created a whole world out of nothing, how can we hesitate to believe that He can change bread and wine, or that He can be present in that form? The water at Cana was changed into wine: why then should He not possess the power to transform bread and wine into His holy body and blood? Truly, whoever believes that God is omnipotent, infallible and infinite, cannot doubt this article of faith. 

We Catholics believe so, and hence we cannot doubt any of the above mentioned points of the true faith. This faith we this day renew and confess publicly. The Catholic Church requires it, and has for this reason instituted today's Festival. She further demands that we unanimously, bestow today all possible honor upon the Blessed Sacrament, and that we praise and glorify with all the powers of our soul, the Saviour therein concealed. And is not this justly demanded of us? of us who firmly believe that our Lord is present in His double nature as God and as man, in the Blessed Sacrament? 

All honor, all praise belongs to the true God.

King David, in the Old Testament, bestowed great honor upon the Ark of the Covenant, in which a part of the manna was preserved, as Holy Writ relates. The manna of the Old Testament was only a feeble type of our Most Holy Sacrament, as Christ Himself teaches: hence we owe so much greater honor to it. The wise man said, many thousand years ago: “Glorify the Lord, as much as you can . . . Bless ye the Lord, exalt Him as much as you can.” (Eccl. xliii.) As we are assured by our faith that our God and Lord is truly and substantially present in the Blessed Sacrament, it is natural that we honor, praise and glorify Him with all our strength. We are bound to do this not merely today, but during the whole year. Who is there, however, that can say of himself that he has not sometimes been remiss in this sacred duty? Hence the Holy Church requires that we, remembering our duty this day, kindle anew our zeal, if it has abated, and thus with united hearts, honor, praise and exalt the Most Holy Sacrament. For this purpose she has also ordained that the Blessed Sacrament shall be carried through the streets in solemn processions.

Everything connected with this ceremony is intended to honor our Lord in every possible manner. The Church tries, by this public manifestation, to atone somewhat for the many and great wrongs to which the Blessed Sacrament is so frequently subjected by heretics as well as by Catholics. One cannot, without horror, think how this sacred mystery has been assailed and dishonored in centuries gone by, and down to our days. A pious Christian dares not even relate the wrongs done to it, which are great enough to deserve hell. And what does our Saviour, concealed in the Blessed Sacrament, suffer from those who believe in his presence? 

The irreverence and levity with which many Christians conduct themselves in presence of the Blessed Eucharist, tend to dishonor and disgrace our Saviour. The unworthy communions which unhappily take place, offend Him in a most grievous manner. The misuse of the body, especially of the tongue and mouth, which are so often sanctified by partaking of the true body and blood of Christ, cannot but excite the wrath of the Lord. For these, as well as other wrongs done to the Blessed Sacrament, the Church of Christ seeks to make amends by these solemn processions, and by all the other pious exercises she has ordained for this festival and during the whole octave. Hence, every pious Christian should be solicitous to conform to the ordinances of the Church, and not only assist in the procession and all other devout exercises, but also endeavour to contribute to render them what the Church desires.


Those who are not Catholics disapprove of every thing that we do today in honor of the blessed Sacrament, and accuse us of idolatry, as we according to them, worship bread. They say also that all that we do in this regard cannot be agreeable to God, because it was not ordained by Him. We, Catholics, are, however, not disturbed by this, for we know that we do not worship bread, but Him whom three wise men worshipped in the manger, namely, Jesus Christ, true God and Man. 

We know also that though what we do this day in honor of the blessed Sacrament is not especially and expressly ordained in Holy Writ, still we are assured that a voluntary worship of it is in accordance with reason and the laws of God, pleasing and agreeable to His Majesty. And this is made clear to us from the above-mentioned example of the three Wise Men, and from the acts with which King David honored the Most High, on the solemn return of the Ark of the Covenant; not to mention that Christ gave us a general command to worship God, in the words: “The Lord thy God shalt thou adore and him only shalt thou serve.” (Matth. iv.) This command we fulfil today by our actions, as they all aim at one end, namely, the honor of the Lord, who is concealed in the Blessed Sacrament. The more we are blamed and derided by the heretics for our adoration of the Holy Eucharist, the more fervent should we become in our zeal. 

When King David was derided by Michol, on account of his devotion at the return of the Ark of the Covenant, he said: “Before the Lord who chose me . . . . I will both play and make myself meaner than I have done, and I will be little in my own eyes.” (II. Kings vi.)

 We will still add in a few words, what the true Church further demands of us. We today give humble thanks to the Lord for the institution of the Blessed Eucharist. This is no more than our duty: for if we are obliged to thank God for the smallest benefit He confers upon us, we are surely under much greater obligation when the benefit is great and of especial importance. 

Who can tell, who can comprehend the greatness of the benefit, which Christ our Saviour and Lord bestowed upon us by the institution of the Blessed Eucharist. It is as great as it is unfathomable: great as He who devised it; as Christ our Lord, true God and man, the King of all Kings, the Lord of all who reign. Great and inconceivable is the miracle by which the substance of bread and wine is changed into the substance of the body and blood of Christ, and the miraculous presence of the Lord in the form of bread and wine. St. Thomas of Aquinas calls the Blessed Sacrament a miracle, and the greatest that Christ ever wrought.
Inexpressibly great must have been the love which induced the Saviour not only to institute it at the time He chose for it, namely, the evening before His Passion. Since the world was created, there has never been found a parent willing to nourish his children with his own body, much as he may have loved them. Such excess of love Christ alone manifested. 

“Having loved His own, He loved them unto the end,” writes St. John (John, xiii.). Already had He loved them and had given them many indubitable proofs of His love; but at the end of His life, He gave them one which surpassed all others, namely, having nourished them with His own body and blood, He instituted a sacrament, by means of which all the faithful might partake of this divine food. And when did He institute this?

 St. Paul writes: “In the night when He was delivered into the hands of the embittered Jews.” The last night of His life was approaching, and the time when his enemies would seize Him, scourge Him most cruelly, crown Him with thorns, and nail Him like the greatest malefactor to the Cross. All this was known to the Lord. He knew also the wrong which would be done to Him in the Blessed Eucharist to the end of time: and yet this was not sufficient to prevent Him from instituting it.

Truly, a love which surpasses all the bounds, not only of human, but angelic understanding. Love seeks to be always with the loved ones and to enjoy their presence. Jesus Christ, who out of love to us had descended from heaven upon earth, had remained with us for 33 years: and it was the will of His heavenly Father that, after having accomplished our Redemption, He should return to heaven. This also took place; but His infinite love for us found a means by which He will remain with us in the world until the end of time. This means is the Blessed Sacrament, which He instituted before the commencement of His bitter passion. In it He is God and Man, as He is in heaven, truly and substantially present in every Church where the Blessed Sacrament is kept. 

By this same blessed Sacrament, He unites Himself most closely with us, when we partake of it, because He gives Himself to us as food, and nourishment. And this union with us is, according to the opinion of the Holy Fathers, a still greater proof of His love for us, than His presence in the Sacrament. It is the property of love to unite closely those who love one another: can there be a more intimate union than ours is with Christ, by virtue of the Holy Sacrament?

When Christ became man, He united His divine nature, in an incomprehensible manner, with humanity. When we partake of the Blessed Eucharist, He unites His divine and human natures with our nature, although not in the same manner as when He became Man. “He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood,” says He, “abideth in me, and I in him.” (John, vi.) How wonderful a union! How incomprehensibly great a love!

Besides the love which induced our Lord to institute the Most Holy Sacrament, the end for which He instituted it, and with which we have already become partly acquainted, is also great and most excellent. Our adorable Saviour would leave us in it an eternal memorial of His love and of His bitter passion and death, as His own words make clear to us: “Do this for a commemoration of me.” (Luke, xxn.) He desired to remain constantly with us, in order that we might, in all our cares, go to Him with greater confidence, and opening our hearts to Him, request and receive from Him, comfort, strength and help. It was His wish that His holy flesh and blood should nourish and strengthen our souls. 

This was the intention, the end and aim of our Lord in instituting the Most Holy Eucharist. As the religion He founded is holy and most perfect, and as no true religion can exist without sacrifice, He would leave us for evermore the most divine sacrifice, namely, His own flesh and blood that we might sacrifice it in holy Mass in honor of the Majesty of God, as a thanks-offering for all graces and benefits bestowed upon us; for the pardon of our sins, for the obtaining of new grace, and for the comfort of all, living and dead. 

How high, how admirable an end and aim! Had Christ been willing to remain among us, in the Blessed Eucharist, only in one place on earth, in order that we might there lay our burdens more trustingly at His feet, He would then have conferred on us a favor, which we could never sufficiently esteem, and for which we could never be sufficiently thankful. How much greater, therefore, is the grace that He dwells among us in so many different places of the world, to nourish our souls and to serve as sacrifice, and this not once only, but as often as we desire. How inexpressibly great a favor! How wonderful an invention of truly Divine love!

 Just as great and excellent are the results of the Blessed Sacrament. Our Lord expressed it all in a few words when He said: “If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever.” (John, vi.) Which means: Whoever worthily partakes of this holy Sacrament, shall receive the special grace of God to preserve the life of his soul, or to remain in the sanctifying grace of God, and hence obtain life everlasting. By virtue of this Sacrament, man receives strength to abstain from sin, to resist temptation and to serve the Most High with constant fidelity. Therefore it is called by the Council of Trent, a medicine, by the strength of which we are freed from our daily iniquities, and protected and guarded against great crimes. 

“This divine mystery,” says Albert the Great, “strengthens man in grace and succors him when he is in danger of committing sin.” The pious Thomas a Kempis writes: “This most holy and venerable Sacrament conduces to the well-being of body and soul. It is the remedy for spiritual weakness. It heals the wounds of vice, it keeps within bounds all evil inclination, it conquers temptations, gives more abundance of grace, multiplies virtue, strengthens faith, augments hope, and inflames love.”

Other teachers say, that Christ instituted the Blessed Sacrament under the form of a bodily food, that we might more easily perceive its effects. For, as bodily food preserves the life of the body, renews strength, refreshes man: thus is the spiritual life of the soul preserved by the holy Eucharist, the soul is strengthened, and all the inner faculties of man inflamed with new zeal in the service of the Almighty. The true Church has not hesitated, for causes already mentioned, to call it a pledge of future glory, so that those who worthily partake of Holy Communion, receive, so to speak, an assurance of eternal salvation. 

I say, who partake worthily of the Holy Communion; for, one who receives it when not in the state of grace, will not only fail to share in the benefits it imparts, but becomes guilty of eternal punishment, according to the words of St. Paul: “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself” (i Cor. xi.) that is, as St. Chrysostom and other holy fathers teach, damnation.

Whoever reflects on what we have said, cannot but come to the conclusion, that the Lord, by instituting the Blessed Eucharist, has bestowed upon us an inexpressibly great gift. Hence, it is only our duty to give Him our most humble thanks, to which effect the Church has ordained today's festival, demanding of us to give thanks to the Lord for the institution of this Blessed Gift.

So much for the reason which gave rise to the ordinance of the festival of Corpus Christi. 

Credits : Regina Magazine With Editions By Me