FOURTH DAY (Monday, 7th Week of Easter)
Thou in toil art comfort sweet, Pleasant coolness in the heat, solace in the midst of woe.
Special Intention
"Johanninise the souls of our priests and bishops. Please, Lord, grant a Priestly Pentecost."
The Gift of Fortitude
By the gift of Fortitude the soul is strengthened against natural fear, and supported to the end in the performance of duty. Fortitude imparts to the will an impulse and energy which move it to under take without hesitancy the most arduous tasks, to face dangers, to trample under foot human respect, and to endure without complaint the slow martyrdom of even lifelong tribulation. "He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved."
Prayer
Come, O Blessed Spirit of Fortitude, uphold my soul in time of trouble and adversity, sustain my efforts after holiness, strengthen my weakness, give me courage against all the assaults of my enemies, that I may never be overcome and separated from Thee, my God and greatest Good. Amen.
Our Father and Hail Mary ONCE. Glory be to the Father SEVEN TIMES.
ACT OF CONSECRATION TO THE HOLY SPIRIT
On my knees I before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses I offer myself, soul and body to You, Eternal Spirit of God. I adore the brightness of Your purity, the unerring keenness of Your justice, and the might of Your love. You are the Strength and Light of my soul. In You I live and move and am. I desire never to grieve You by unfaithfulness to grace and I pray with all my heart to be kept from the smallest sin against You. Mercifully guard my every thought and grant that I may always watch for Your light, and listen to Your voice, and follow Your gracious inspirations. I cling to You and give myself to You and ask You, by Your compassion to watch over me in my weakness. Holding the pierced Feet of Jesus and looking at His Five Wounds, and trusting in His Precious Blood and adoring His opened Side and stricken Heart, I implore You, Adorable Spirit, Helper of my infirmity, to keep me in Your grace that I may never sin against You. Give me grace O Holy Spirit, Spirit of the Father and the Son to say to You always and everywhere, "Speak Lord for Your servant heareth." Amen.
PRAYER FOR THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
O Lord Jesus Christ Who, before ascending into heaven did promise to send the Holy Spirit to finish Your work in the souls of Your Apostles and Disciples, deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me that He may perfect in my soul, the work of Your grace and Your love. Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom that I may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal, the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten my mind with the light of Your divine truth, the Spirit on Counsel that I may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining heaven, the Spirit of Fortitude that I may bear my cross with You and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, the Spirit of Piety that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, and the Spirit of Fear that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God and may dread in any way to displease Him. Mark me, dear Lord with the sign of Your true disciples, and animate me in all things with Your Spirit. Amen.
FR. Z AUDIO: HERE
Read about this Pentecost Novena asking God for a "Priestly Pentecost" HERE
Daily Pentecost Novena Prayers Found by (I will post the daily novena prayers here) ...
- Joining the Grace Force email list: HERE
- Going to usgraceforce.com
- Joining the Grace Force Facebook group: HERE
Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter
MEMORIAL DAY
Baruch, Chapter
6, Verse 64
Know,
therefore, that they are not gods; do not fear
them.
Christ calls us to a greater purpose:
No
man or woman of good will can renounce the struggle to overcome evil with good.
This fight can be fought effectively only with the weapons of love. When
good overcomes evil, love prevails and where love prevails, there peace
prevails. This is the teaching of the Gospel, restated by the Second
Vatican Council: "the fundamental law of human perfection, and
consequently of the transformation of the world, is the new commandment of
love"…Christians must be convinced witnesses of this truth. They should
show by their lives that love is the only force capable of bringing fulfillment
to persons and societies, the only force capable of directing the course of
history in the way of goodness and peace…By Christ's death and resurrection,
made sacramentally present in each Eucharistic celebration, we are saved from
evil and enabled to do good. Through the new life which Christ has bestowed on
us, we can recognize one another as brothers and sisters, despite every
difference of language, nationality and culture. In a word, by sharing in the
one bread and the one cup, we come to realize that we are "God's
family" and that together we can make our own effective contribution to
building a world based on the values of justice, freedom and peace.[1]
Aids in Battle [2] The
Enemy’s Strategies
·
The
adversary of our human nature examines from every side all our virtues:
theological, cardinal, and moral. Wherever he discovers the defenses of eternal
salvation to be the weakest and most lacking, there he attacks and tries to
take us by storm. ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA
·
[St.
Catherine of Siena reports that Our Lord said to her:] I have told you that the
Devil invites men to the water of death— that is, to the things he has. Then,
blinding them with the pleasures and circumstances of the world, he catches
them with the hook of pleasure through the lure of something good. He could
catch them in no other way; they would not allow themselves to be caught if
they saw that no good or pleasure for themselves could be obtained in this
manner. For the soul, by her very nature, always relishes good. Yet it is true
that the soul, blinded by self-love, does not know and discern what is truly
good and profitable to the soul and to the body. So the Devil, seeing them
blinded by self-love, wickedly places before these souls diverse and various
delights, colored so as to have the appearance of some benefit or good. He
tempts each one, according to his condition, to those principal vices to which
that soul seems to be most disposed.
·
When
the sly demon, after using many devices, fails to hinder the prayer of the
diligent, he desists for a little while. But when the man has finished his
prayers, the demon takes his revenge. He either fires the man’s anger and thus
destroys the good condition produced by prayer, or he excites an impulse toward
some animal pleasure and thus mocks the man’s mind. ST. NILUS OF SINAI
Give me
the ability to see as Christ sees
As gentiles who are God-fearing, we must accept our
salvation by living the Shema Israel daily seeking to love Him with our whole
heart, mind, soul and strength. This morning as I said the Shema Israel, I
thought Lord I don’t understand how to love you with my whole soul, but I
decided to say the prayer looking in the mirror at myself. I then said,
“Hear O Israel that the Lord our God is one, and you shall love the Lord your
God with your whole heart, (I touched my heart) and with your whole mind, (I touched
the side of my temple) with your whole soul (I instinctively touched my eyes;
which are the windows of the soul) and flexed my arms and said with my whole
strength.
It was then
that I realized what the Lord had revealed to me. My eyes: with my eyes I
see things as a child of God, or as a selfish clot. With my eyes I see the good
in the world or I see things that I want. With my eyes I see another human as a
beloved or as an object to be used. Yes, indeed with my eyes my soul does exist
and I will now love the Lord my God with my whole eyes which are the windows of the soul.
·
“The
truly mediocre man admirers everything a little and nothing with warmth… He considers every
affirmation insolent, because every affirmation excludes the contradictory
proposition. But if you are slightly friendly and slightly hostile to all
things, he will consider you wise and reserved. The mediocre man says there is
good and evil in all things, and that
we must not be absolute in our
judgments.
·
If you strongly
affirm the truth, the mediocre man will say that you have too much confidence
in yourself.
·
The mediocre man
regrets that the Christian religion has dogmas. He would like it
to teach ethics, and if you tell him that its code of morals comes from its
dogmas as the consequence comes from the principle, he will answer that you
exaggerate…If
the word ‘exaggeration’ did not exist, the
mediocre man would invent it.
·
The mediocre man appears habitually
modest. He cannot be humble, or he would cease to be mediocre.
·
The humble man scorns all lies, even where
glorified by the whole earth, and he bows the knee before every truth…If the naturally mediocre
man becomes seriously Christian, he ceases absolutely to be mediocre…
·
The man who
loves is never mediocre.”
Today is Memorial Day and we honor those who have paid
the supreme sacrifice of devotion watching our nation. Pray today for the souls
of those taken in battle. In the communion of saints, it is our duty; no, our
honor to pray for the souls of those in our company who have died; especially
those who have passed through the valley of fear in the heat of battle.
Memorial Day, first established in 1866 to honor Union
soldiers of the Civil War, is now a day set aside to remember all of
the American soldiers who have died in war in the subsequent 15 decades --
about 1.2 million in all. This number, while representing a tremendous loss,
pales in comparison to the number of war-related deaths globally for the same
time period. Estimates run from 60 to 85 million for the number of lives lost
during World War II alone.
While
stationed in Mons, Belgium I learned there is the legend of the Angels of Mons, where it was
reported the British soldiers were saved by heavenly forces.
One
thing is certain: There are no atheists in foxholes.
To honor our fallen let us stop what we
are doing at 1500 hrs. (3 pm) and offer the Divine Mercy Prayer for those who
have fallen in service of our nation.
God
of power and mercy,
you destroy war and put down earthly pride.
Banish violence from our midst and wipe away our tears,
that we may all deserve to be called your sons
and daughters.
Keep in your mercy those men and women
who have died in the cause of freedom
and bring them safely
into your kingdom of justice and peace.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
R/. Amen[4]
you destroy war and put down earthly pride.
Banish violence from our midst and wipe away our tears,
that we may all deserve to be called your sons
and daughters.
Keep in your mercy those men and women
who have died in the cause of freedom
and bring them safely
into your kingdom of justice and peace.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
R/. Amen[4]
Memorial
Day Top Events and Things to Do
·
Attend a Memorial Day parade. One popular
parade is the National Memorial Day Parade in Washington DC.
·
All Americans are encouraged to pause for
one minute at 3:00 pm (local time). Think of the sacrifices made by U.S.
soldiers to provide freedom for all.
·
Visit the grave of a fallen soldier.
·
Have a picnic or go boating.
·
There have been over 2.7 million US
military deaths since 1775.
·
The deadliest US War was the Civil War
with about 600,000 US deaths.
·
It is customary to fly a US flag at
half-staff till noon on Memorial Day.
·
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men
who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived. - George S.
Patton
Today in
honor of Memorial Day I remembered my friend Paul Wolff.
The
Wolff of the Ardennes
Men are
frequently blinded by fear and as a result often harmed themselves. The grace
of God gives confidence to see the right and to stand when called. Father Paul
was called to stand and became General Patton’s guide during the “Battle of the
Bulge” while he was still a teen. Father Paul Wolff was 15 years old when he
first joined the Belgium resistance during the years of the Nazi occupation of
World War II. He was the youngest member of the Belgium resistance.
Unfortunately, he and other members of his group were captured and at 17 he was
tortured, condemned to death and imprison in the Nazi Prison in Liege, Belgium.
There he languished yet his faith would not allow him to lose all hope and the
resistance still worked to get him and the others (256) out. Part of the plan
was to get a radio to the prisoners. To do this the resistance secreted small
parts of a crystal radio inside bars of soap. Interestingly these were “Lever”
brother bars of soap and were large about the size of a brick. Father Paul
related that during the Nazi occupation not all Jews were in German prisons if
they were of use to the Nazi’s. In this case the soap bars were made by the
Lever Jews and the radio parts were easily hidden inside the soap bars. Father
Paul stated that when they received the soap, they then washed their hands raw
in wearing away the soap to get to the radio part. Then after several bars they
constructed the radio which was the Morse code type. Father Paul typed in code
in English which he spoke along with German and French the words over and over
“SOS SOS 256 prisoners in Liege prison condemned to death SOS SOS.” They hoped
someone would get the message and somehow, they would be rescued. All they had
was hope.
Father also
related that it drove the Nazi’s crazy because they intercepted the message but
never suspected it was coming from the prison. Father Paul said that in the
cell they were in there was only one barred window, but it was so high that to
look out it required a person to stand on the shoulders of a fellow prisoner.
He further relayed that they when they would see women that were friendly with
the guards coming and going, they would call them the nastiest things they
could think of calling them. Yet one day during an air raid while the guards
were hiding as deep as they could go; one of these young women (secret agent)
came and taking the heel of her shoe wrote on the pavement that during the air
raid they are going to be rescued by commandoes and they were. Father Paul
stated neither he nor the others ever lost hope.
After
his escape he went underground. He was a friend of King Leopold III. He served
as General Patton's Belgian guide during the battle of the bulge.
December 24, 1944
Father
Paul communicated to me the tale about the battle of the bulge that has not
been recorded in history. During WWII the US Army was segregated and black men
were not mixed with white men. Black men mostly served in support roles such as
transportation and as cooks, etc. During the course of the Battle of the Bulge’
Hitler sent in a special operations team to confuse and destroy the American
Army. It was composed of American NAZI’s and German’s, who spoke perfect
American slang, knew the culture, baseball stuff, etc. These Spec Ops were
equipped with American Uniforms and equipment that was captured by Gen. Rommel
from North Africa. Father Wolff was at a meeting with Gen. Patton, Bradley,
Eisenhower and the English Gen. Montgomery in Luxembourg City on the evening of
Dec. 24th, 1944. The Generals were very excited and afraid because of the
effect these NAZI spec ops were having in the warzone and due to the fact that
they had murdered many men. They did not know what to do. Patton who was a
visionary, suddenly stood up and said, I know exactly what to do. From this time
forward, nothing in the American Army will move without a black American in the
group. Patton knew there were no black NAZI’s. As a result, black units were
moved forward and integrated and as far as I know this was the first time in
American History since the Civil War. As a result, the NAZI spec ops team was
neutralized.
My daughter Candace Faith in light of Memorial Day
invited me to participate in the annual Murph. The Murph Challenge is the
Official annual fundraiser of the LT. Michael P. Murphy Memorial Scholarship
Foundation, presented by Forged®. It is also one of the primary means of
funding for the Foundation on an annual basis. YOUR support is what drives our
success!
Since 2014, Forged® has raised over $1,000,000+ for
the LT. Michael P. Murphy Memorial Scholarship Foundation through The Murph
Challenge campaign. In 2018, The Murph Challenge Fundraiser provided a vehicle to
raise nearly $250,000 in order to begin construction on the LT Michael P. Murphy Navy SEAL Museum/Sea Cadet Training Facility in Long Island, NY! In addition to
that, and ONLY with such overwhelming support and success, the Foundation was
also able to add four additional scholarships in 2018, now providing the
opportunity to award 27 or more scholarships each and every year!
Please
pray for the intentions of my youngest son Vincent Michael (Conqueror-Who is
like God) whose birthday is today.
Daily
Devotions
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