First Friday
FEAST OF SAINTS PHIILLIP and JAMES
Stay
with me. Do not be afraid; whoever
seeks your life must seek my life also. You are under my protection.”
David said this to Abiathar:
the sole survivor of Eli’s household which Saul killed for giving aid to David.
David now has in his service the only priest of the Lord left in the land and
exclusive access to the ephod for consulting the Lord. David later appoints
Abiathar co-high priest with Zadok in Jerusalem.
Yet, when I read this verse, I hear the Lord saying
this to us all: Stay with me-do not be
afraid. Today go to the Blessed Sacrament and spend some time with the
Lord. There our Lord will pull us to Himself and transform us into warriors and
conquerors. Draw near to Him and He will transform your disenchantment with the
world and help you along the road to holiness and sainthood.
Our
lives are songs; God writes the words and we set them to music at pleasure; and
the song grows glad, or sweet or sad, as we choose to fashion the measure.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
ALTHOUGH many pious souls had been accustomed, in the
silence of their secluded lives, to venerate the sacred Heart of Jesus with
great devotion, still our divine Savior desired that the boundless love of His
Heart might be known by all men, and that a new fire of love should thereby be
kindled in the cold hearts of Christians. For this purpose, He made use of a
frail and little-known instrument in the person of Margaret Mary Alacoque, a
nun of the Order of the Visitation, at Parayle-Monial, France. One day, when,
according to her custom during the octave of Corpus Christi, she was deeply
engaged in devotions before the Blessed Sacrament, the divine Savior appeared
to her, showed her His Heart burning with love, and said: “Behold this Heart,
which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and
consuming itself, in order to testify its love. In return I receive from the
greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the
coldness and contempt they have for Me in this sacrament of love. And what is
most painful to Me is that they are hearts consecrated to Me. It is for this
reason I ask thee that the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi be
appropriated to a special feast to honor My Heart by communicating on that day
and making reparation for the indignity that it has received. And I promise
that My Heart shall dilate to pour out abundantly the influences of its love on
all that will render it this honor or procure its being rendered. Margaret
obeyed, but met everywhere the greatest opposition, until finally, when she
became mistress of novices, she succeeded, by the help of her divine Spouse, in
animating her young charges to venerate the sacred Heart of Jesus. But this was
not sufficient for her zeal. She persevered until she softened the opposition
of the nuns and kindled in all an equal devotion towards the most sacred Heart.
Thence the devotion spread to the adjoining dioceses, where confraternities in
honor of the most sacred Heart of Jesus soon sprung up. Pope Clement XIII.,
after having instituted a most rigorous examination of the whole affair, commanded
that the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus should be solemnly celebrated
throughout the whole Catholic Church every year, on the first Friday after the
octave of Corpus Christi.
The
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
1.
Object
of this Devotion.
In the divine Heart of Our Savior we must not imagine an inanimate heart,
separated from the person of Christ, but the living heart of the God-Man, the center
of all His affections, the fountain of all His virtues, the most touching
emblem of His infinite love to man. The Church venerates the cross, the blood,
and the wounds of the divine Savior, by feasts which have their proper masses
and lessons, in order, by meditation upon these objects, to awaken in us a more
fervent devotion to the Redeemer. How much more worthy, then, of our devotion
is the sacred Heart of Our Savior, since all its thoughts, movements, and
affections aim at our salvation, and it is always ready to receive truly
penitent sinners, to pardon them, to restore them again to God s favor, and
make them partakers of eternal happiness!
2. Excellence of this Devotion.
It is, writes the venerable P. Simon Gourdan:
a. A holy devotion, for therein men
venerate in Christ those affections and motions of His Heart by which He
sanctified the Church, glorified His Heavenly Father, and showed Himself to men
as a perfect example of the most sublime holiness.
b. An ancient devotion of the Catholic
Church, which, instructed by St. Paul, the great apostle, has at all times
acknowledged the great beneficence of the divine and sacred Heart of Jesus.
c. An approved devotion, for the Holy
Scriptures everywhere admonish us to renew the heart, by changing our lives; to
penetrate it with true sorrow, to inflame it with divine love, and to adorn it
by the practice of all virtues. When, therefore, a new heart is promised us, by
which to direct our lives, that can be no other than the Heart of Jesus, which
is to us the pattern of all excellence, and which we must follow if we would be
saved.
d. A perfect devotion, as being the
origin of all other devotions. For the Heart of Jesus is the inexhaustible
treasury from which the blessed Mother of God, and all other saints have
derived their graces, their virtues, their life, their spiritual goods. Filled
first with treasures from this source, different servants of God have
instituted and established other devotions.
e. A profitable devotion, for thereby
we have brought before our eyes the very fountain of life and grace, and can
draw directly from it, increasing in ourselves all virtues, by adoring this
divine Heart, meditating on its holy affections, and endeavoring to imitate
them.
f.
A
devotion pleasing to God, for thus we adore God, as Christ requires, in spirit
and in truth, serving Him inwardly in our hearts, and endeavoring to please
Him. Finally it is:
g. A useful devotion, since its whole
object is to unite us most intimately with Christ as members of Him, her head,
to make us live by and according to His spirit, to have one heart and soul with
Him, and through grace finally to become one with Him, which is and must be the
object of all devotions.
As
this devotion is, then, so excellent, we cannot sufficiently recommend it to all
who are anxious for their salvation. While everyone can practice this devotion,
and adore the sacred Heart of Jesus, by himself, there is a greater blessing
when pious souls unite and form a confraternity for practicing the devotion.
Hesitate not, Christian soul, to engage in this devotion, and to join in the
adoration of that sacred Heart of Jesus in which all men find propitiation, the
pious, confidence; sinners, hope; the afflicted, consolation; the sick,
support; the dying, refuge ; the elect, joy and delight.
An
Offering to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Whoever
says the following prayer before the image of the most sacred Heart of Jesus,
with sincere sorrow for his sins, gains each time an indulgence of one hundred
days; and by saying it daily for a month, he can on any one day gain a plenary
indulgence, if he makes his confession, receives communion, and prays according
to the intention of the Church:
“My
loving Jesus, I (N.N.) give Thee my heart; and I consecrate myself wholly to
Thee, out of the grateful love I bear Thee, and as reparation for all my
unfaithfulness; and with Thy aid I purpose never to sin again.”
PHILIP, born at Bethsaida, was one
of the first followers of Our Lord. After receiving the Holy Ghost he preached
the Gospel in Scythia and Phrygia (Turkey, Syria and Iran), converting great
numbers to the faith, and was finally crucified and then stoned at Hierapolis,
in Phrygia.
Prayer
to St. Philip
O St. Philip, chosen disciple of
the Lord, who brought Nathaniel to Christ, who most zealously preached thy
Lord, Jesus Christ, and out of love to Him willingly gave thyself to be nailed
to the cross, and put to death, obtain, I beseech thee, for me, and for all
men, grace with zeal to bring others to the practice of good works, to have a
great desire after God and His truths, and, in hope of the eternal blissful
contemplation of God, to bear patiently the adversities and miseries of this
life. Amen.
JAMES, the son of Cleophas, called
the Less, and on account of his sanctity surnamed the Just, and for his kinship
with Christ known as His brother, was, with his brother Judas Thaddeus, chosen
an apostle in the second year of Christ’s ministry. St. James was the first
Bishop of Jerusalem. One day, being requested to preach against Christ, he
publicly proclaimed Him to be the Messiah, in Whom men were bound to believe,
at which the Jewish priests became so enraged that they threw him down from a
pinnacle of the temple, cast stones upon him, and finally killed him outright
with a fuller’s rod (tool used in wool making)
Prayer
to St. James
O St. James, who lived so
temperately and strictly, who, like thy master, prayed so earnestly and
constantly for thy tormentors, I beseech thee that thou wouldst procure us from
Jesus grace, after thy example, to live sober and penitential lives, and to
worship God in spirit and in truth. Obtain for us, therefore, the spirit with
which thou didst write thine epistle, that we may follow thy doctrine, be diligent
in good works, and, like thee, love and pray for our enemies. Amen.
St James TL / St Philip Facts &
Quotes
·
The
mother of St James, Mary was either a sister or a close relative of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, and for that reason, according to Jewish custom, he was sometimes
called the brother of Jesus.
·
In
the Orthodox Church, St. James is commemorated on October 22. St. Philip
is revered on November 14.
·
The
Roman Catholic feast day of St. Philip and St. James, Apostles, is held May 3.
It honors James, traditionally considered to be the brother of Jesus, and
Philip, considered by scripture to be one of Jesus' earliest disciples (John:
1:43).
·
Philip
teaches us ... to let ourselves be won over by Jesus, to be with him and also
to invite others to share in this indispensable company; and in seeing, finding
God, to find true life. - St. Benedict XVI
St James TL/St Philip Top Events
and Things to Do
·
Read
the Epistle of James. This is a letter that addresses several problems
occurring in the early church involving the rich, lack of humility, and other
issues.
·
Read
the first chapter of the Gospel of John. Philip invites others to come
and see what Jesus was teaching, a common theme in the Gospel of John.
·
Bake
a pastry in honor of St. Philip since he is the patron saint of bakers.
·
Say
a prayer for the dying in honor of St. James, who is the patron saint of those
living their last days of mortal life.
Daily Devotions
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