JUNE
Wildlife fills our life with joy and refreshment.
Songbirds and birds of prey, squirrels and rabbits, butterflies and lightning
bugs all carry a message worth discovering in early summer. Do we see and hear
them, or do we overlook them, even despise them? Are they simply an annoyance,
or do we come to know, love, and even serve these fellow creatures by providing
protection and habitat?
June: The Sacred
Heart of Jesus –
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the revelation of God’s immense love for us. It is
often depicted as a fiery furnace, pierced and broken, but beating with love.
The Sacred Heart is also a profound reminder of the humanity of our Lord, for
his heart is not a mere symbol, but a true physical reality.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus. The beginning
of the month falls within the liturgical season of Easter,
which is represented by the liturgical color white — the color of light, a symbol of joy,
purity and innocence (absolute or restored). The remainder of the month falls
within the liturgical season of Ordinary Time,
which is represented by the liturgical color green. This symbol of hope is the
color of the sprouting seed and arouses in the faithful the hope of reaping the
eternal harvest of heaven, especially the hope of a glorious resurrection. It
is used in the offices and Masses of Ordinary Time. The last portion of the
liturgical year represents the time of our pilgrimage to heaven during which we
hope for reward.
As
we begin to feel the warmth of summer, we can reflect that we celebrate the
feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (June 28). God is Love and the Sacred Heart
of Jesus — present on earth in the Blessed Sacrament — is the human
manifestation of God's Love for men. Appropriately June is considered the month
for weddings where human hearts join and cooperate with the Creator in bringing
forth new life. The family they create is a human reflection of the Blessed
Trinity.
Other principle feasts of this month are St. Justin (June 1), St. Norbert (June 6), St. Boniface (June 5), St. Barnabas (June 11), St. Anthony of Padua (June 13), St. Romuald (June 19), St. Aloysius Gonzaga (June 21), Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More (June 22), the Birth of St. John the Baptist (June
24), St. Josemaria Escriva (June
26), St. Cyril of Alexandria (June
27), St. Irenaeus (June 28) and
the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul
(June 29).
The feasts of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter
(June 2), St. Ephrem (June 9)
and the First Martyrs of the Church
(June 30) are superseded by the Sunday liturgy. The feast of the Immaculate
Heart of Mary is superseded by the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul.
The Iceman plans to fast on Fridays and the days
before Feasts
June
·
1st Saturday:
FEAST Mary Queen of the Apostles-MASS
·
2nd Sunday:
MASS of the Ascension
·
6th Thursday
Fast before feast
·
7th Friday
FEAST First Friday-Confession-MASS
·
8th Saturday
Fast before feast
·
9th Sunday
FEAST of the Pentecost-MASS
·
10th Monday
FEAST Mary Mother of the Church-MASS
·
11th Tuesday
family member RIP Donna[2]
MASS
·
Wednesday 12th
Fast Ember Day
·
Friday 14th
Fast Ember Day
·
Saturday 15th
Fast Ember Day
·
Sunday 16th
FEAST Most Holy Trinity-MASS
·
Wednesday 19th
Midweek MASS
·
Friday 21st
Fast
·
Saturday 22nd
Fast before feast
·
Sunday 23rd
FEAST Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
·
Monday 24th
Nativity St. John Baptist MASS
·
Tuesday 25th
Octave of Corpus Christi MASS
·
Wednesday 26th
Octave of Corpus Christi MASS
·
Thursday 27th
Octave of Corpus Christi MASS
·
Friday 28th
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus MASS
·
Saturday 29th
FEAST SS Peter and Paul MASS
·
Sunday 30th
Third Sunday after Pentecost
Following
Pentecost, the Church begins her slow descent from the great peaks of the
Easter Season to the verdant pastures of Ordinary Time, the longest of the
liturgical seasons. Like the lush June growth all around us, the green of the
liturgical season points to the new life won for us by the Redemption of Jesus
Christ, the new life of Charity. For Our Lord came to cast the fire of His love
on the earth, and to that end, sent His Holy Spirit at Pentecost in the form of
tongues of fire. Ordinary Time is the hour to “go out to all the world and tell
the good news.” The feasts of June highlight this expansion of the Church. At
least ten times, the Church vests in the red of the martyrs whose blood is the
very seed of her growth. She also celebrates the feasts of the apostles Peter
and Paul, and the birth of St. John the Baptist, proto-disciple and prophet. We
too are called to be witnesses like the apostles and martyrs. May the Heart of
Jesus inflame our hearts so that we may be worthy of our Baptismal call to
holiness. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.
JUNE 1 First Saturday
FEAST OF MARY QUEEN OF APOSTLES
John, Chapter 16, Verse 27
For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved
me and have come to believe that I came from God.
“The Father Himself Loves You” – Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI, reminded us of
the Father’s love in his first Encyclical Letter, “Deus
Caritas Est” (God is Love): “True, no one has ever seen God as he is. And
yet God is not totally invisible to us; he does not remain completely
inaccessible. God loved us first, says the Letter of St John, and this love of
God has appeared in our midst. He has become visible in as much as he ‘has sent
his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him’ (1 John 4:9).
God has made himself visible: in Jesus we are able to see the Father (cf. John
14:9). Indeed, God is visible in a number of ways. In the love-story recounted
by the Bible, he comes towards us, he seeks to win our hearts, all the way to
the Last Supper, to the piercing of his heart on the cross, to his appearances
after the Resurrection and to the great deeds by which, through the activity of
the apostles, he guided the nascent Church along its path” (Encyclical Letter
Deus Caritas Est [God Is Love], December 25, 2005).[3]
"God is not Solitude[4], but Communion; he is
Love, and therefore communication, because love always communicates; indeed, it
communicates itself in order to encounter the other."— Pope
Francis, Message
for World Communications Day 2019.
The
feast of the Queen of Apostles was established on the first Saturday after the
Ascension by the Sacred Congregation of Rites at the request of the Pallottine
Fathers. Mary initiated her mission as Queen of Apostles in the Cenacle. She
gathered the apostles together, comforted them, and assisted them in prayer.
Together with them she hoped, desired and prayed; with them her petitions were
heeded, and she received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
Mary
is Queen of Apostles because she was chosen to be the Mother of Jesus Christ
and to give him to the world; she was made the apostles' Mother and our own by
our Savior on the cross. She was with the apostles while awaiting the descent
of the Holy Spirit, obtaining for them the abundance of supernatural graces
they received on Pentecost. The most holy Virgin was and always will be the
wellspring for every apostolate.
·
She
exercised a universal apostolate, one so vast that it embraced all others. The
apostolate of prayer, the apostolate of good example, the apostolate of suffering--Mary
fulfilled them all. Other people have practiced certain teachings of the
Gospel; Mary lived them all. Mary is full of grace, and we draw from her
abundance.
·
Mary
attracts the zealous to the various apostolates, then protects and defends all these
works. She sheds on each the warmth of her love and the light of her
countenance. She presented Jesus in a manner unparalleled throughout the ages.
Her apostolate is of the highest degree--never to be equaled, much less
surpassed.
·
Mary
gave Jesus to the world and with Jesus came every other blessing. Thus, because
of Mary we have the Church: "Mary is the Mother of the Church not only
because she is the Mother of Christ and his most intimate associate in 'the new
economy when the Son of God took a human nature from her, that he might in the
mysteries of his flesh free man from sin,' but also because 'she shines forth
to the whole community of the elect as a model of the virtues' (Lumen
Gentium. 55, 65).
·
She
now continues to fulfill from heaven her maternal function as the cooperator in
the birth and development of the divine life in the individual souls of the
redeemed" (The Great Sign, by Paul VI). What do we have of value that we
have not received through Mary? It is God's will that every blessing should
come to us through her.
·
Because
the Blessed Mother occupies a most important position in God's plan of
salvation, all humanity should pay homage to her. Whoever spreads devotion to
the Queen of Apostles is an apostolic benefactor of the human race, because
devotion to Mary is a treasure. Blessed is the person who possesses this
treasure! Mary's devotees will never be without grace; in any danger, in every
circumstance they will always have the means to obtain every grace from God.
963 Since the Virgin Mary's role
in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is fitting now to
consider her place in the mystery of the Church. "The Virgin Mary. . .
is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the
redeemer. . . . She is 'clearly the mother of the members of
Christ’. . . since she has by her charity joined in bringing about
the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its
head.""Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church."
Mary's
Motherhood with Regard to the Church
Wholly united with her Son. . .
964 Mary's role in the Church is
inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. "This
union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from
the time of Christ's virginal conception up to his death";504 it is
made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion:
Thus, the Blessed Virgin advanced in her
pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto
the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her
only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his
sacrifice in her mother's heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of
this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the
cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: "Woman, behold your
son."
965 After her Son's Ascension,
Mary "aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers." In her
association with the apostles and several women, "we also see Mary by her
prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in
the Annunciation."
966 "Finally the Immaculate
Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her
earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and
exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more
fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and
death." The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular
participation in her Son's Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection
of other Christians:
In giving birth you kept your virginity;
in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined
to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will
deliver our souls from death.
967 By her complete adherence to
the Father's will, to his Son's redemptive work, and to every prompting of the
Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church's model of faith and charity. Thus
she is a "preeminent and.. . Wholly unique member of the
Church"; indeed, she is the "exemplary realization" of the
Church.
968 Her role in relation to the
Church and to all humanity goes still further. "In a wholly singular way
she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the
Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason, she is
a mother to us in the order of grace."
969 "This motherhood of Mary
in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she
loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering
beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to
heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold
intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation.
. . . Therefore, the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under
the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix."
970 "Mary's function as
mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ,
but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin's salutary influence on men
. . . flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ,
rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from
it." "No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate
Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various
ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is
radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of
the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation
which is but a sharing in this one source."
971 "All generations will
call me blessed": "The Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is
intrinsic to Christian worship." The Church rightly honors "the
Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed
Virgin has been honored with the title of 'Mother of God,' to whose protection
the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs. . . . This very
special devotion . . . differs essentially from the adoration which
is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit,
and greatly fosters this adoration." The liturgical feasts dedicated
to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an "epitome of
the whole Gospel," express this devotion to the Virgin Mary.
972 After speaking of the Church,
her origin, mission, and destiny, we can find no better way to conclude than by
looking to Mary. In her we contemplate what the Church already is in her mystery
on her own "pilgrimage of faith," and what she will be in the
homeland at the end of her journey. There, "in the glory of the Most Holy
and Undivided Trinity," "in the communion of all the
saints," the Church is awaited by the one she venerates as Mother of
her Lord and as her own mother.
In the meantime, the Mother of Jesus, in the glory
which she possesses in body and soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of
the Church as it is to be perfected in the world to come. Likewise she shines
forth on earth until the day of the Lord shall come, a sign of certain hope and
comfort to the pilgrim People of God.
973 By pronouncing her
"fiat" at the Annunciation and giving her consent to the Incarnation,
Mary was already collaborating with the whole work her Son was to accomplish.
She is mother wherever he is Savior and head of the Mystical Body.
974 The Most Blessed Virgin Mary,
when the course of her earthly life was completed, was taken up body and soul
into the glory of heaven, where she already shares in the glory of her Son's
Resurrection, anticipating the resurrection of all members of his Body.
975 "We believe that the Holy
Mother of God, the new Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven to
exercise her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ" (Paul
VI, CPG § 15).
(Saturday, 6th Week of Easter)
Come. Father of
the poor. Come, treasures which endure; Come, Light of all that live!
The Gift of Fear
Prayer Come, O blessed Spirit of Holy Fear, penetrate my inmost heart, that I may set you, my Lord and God, before my face forever, help me to shun all things that can offend You, and make me worthy to appear before the pure eyes of Your Divine Majesty in heaven, where You live and reign in the unity of the ever Blessed Trinity, God world without end. Amen.
Our Father and Hail Mary
ONCE.
Glory be to the Father SEVEN TIMES.
Act of Consecration, Prayer for the Seven Gifts
Glory be to the Father SEVEN TIMES.
Act of Consecration, Prayer for the Seven Gifts
Daily Devotions
·
I
will have no sweets or junk food (Exception Sundays, Holidays and Feast Days
that you fast the day before).
First Saturday Devotion[1]
Five consecutive Saturdays in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
The practice of the First Saturday devotion was requested by Our Lady of Fatima, who appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal, multiple times starting in 1917. She said to Lucia, the oldest of the three children: “I shall come to ask . . . that on the First Saturday of every month, Communions of reparation be made in atonement for the sins of the world.” Years later she repeated her request to Sr. Lucia, the only one still living of the three young Fatima seers, while she was a postulant sister living in a convent in Spain: “Look, my daughter, at my Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce me at very moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the rosary, and keep me company for 15 minutes while meditating on the 15 mysteries of the rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.”
Conditions to Fulfill the First Saturday
Devotion
1. Have the intention of consoling the Immaculate Heart in a spirit of reparation.
2. Go to confession (within eight days before or after the first Saturday).
3. Receive Holy Communion.
4. Say five decades of the Holy Rosary.
5. Meditate for 15 minutes on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary with the goal of keeping Our Lady company (for example, while in church or before an image or statue of Our Lady).
Read How to Make Your First Saturday Rosary Meditation According to Sr. Lucia
Why Five Saturdays?
1. Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception
2. Blasphemies against Our Lady’s perpetual virginity
3. Blasphemies against her divine maternity, in refusing at the same time to recognize her as the Mother of men
4. Blasphemies of those who publicly seek to sow in the hearts of children, indifference or scorn or even hatred of their Immaculate Mother
5. Offenses of those who outrage Our Lady directly in her holy images
Never think that Jesus is indifferent to whether or not His mother is honored!
[2]
Family Member
[3]https://www.regnumchristi.org/en/june-1-2019-confidence-in-the-fathers-love/
[4]http://www.usccb.org/catholic-giving/opportunities-for-giving/catholic-communication-campaign/index.cfm
[7]https://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/pentecost/seven.htm
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