DAY 12 - MOTHER OF GOOD COUNSEL, PRAY THAT WE RECEIVE THE GIFT OF FORTITUDE!
GOD'S WORD
HEROES' WORDS
MEDITATION
PRAY A ROSARY
- Rosary of the Day: Glorious Mysteries
- Traditional 54 Day Rotation: Glorious Mysteries
Those who would like to pray with others via The Telephone Rosary, call 1-951-799-9866 daily at 6 pm Eastern.
OUR LADY OF CZESTOCHOWA
1
Blessed are all who FEAR the LORD,
and who walk in his ways. 2 What your hands
provide you will enjoy; you will be blessed and prosper: 3 Your wife will be
like a fruitful vine within your home, your children like young olive plants
around your table.4
Just so will the man be blessed who FEARS
the LORD.
Those who fear the Lord work to not react to
their feelings but act from the principle of God’s unconditional love to
empower others even at personal cost. They practice the three cardinal virtues
of Faith, Hope and Charity. The act of blessing works both ways and bless’ all;
both those who receive and those who give.
This
psalm is a statement that the ever-reliable God will bless the reverent. God’s
blessing is concrete: satisfaction and prosperity, a fertile spouse and
abundant children. The perspective is that of the adult male, ordinarily the
ruler and representative of the household to the community. The last verses
extend the blessing to all the people for generations to come.[1]
Our Lady of Czestochowa (The Black
Madonna)[2]
While
stationed in the Army I was responsible for the security and protection of ammunition
depots which for the most part was protected by the Polish Labor Service. Interacting with men who always
professed great devotion to Our Lady of Czestochowa.
The image of Our Lady of Czestochowa,
also known as the Black Madonna, was traditionally believed to have been
painted by St. Luke the Evangelist on a cypress wood panel from a table used by
the Holy Family in Nazareth. It was said to have been brought from Jerusalem by
St. Helen and was enshrined in Constantinople for 500 years. It was given to a
Greek princess married to a Ruthenian nobleman and it was housed in the royal
palace at Belz in the Ukraine for the next 600 years. Art historians believe it
is a Byzantine icon of the Hodigitria type dating from the 6th - 9th Century. The
image was brought to Poland in 1382 by Ladislaus of Opole who rescued the
painting from Belz while escaping an attack by the Tartars who had damaged the
painting with an arrow. On his way to Silesia, Ladislaus stopped to rest in the
town of Czestochowa near the church on Jasna Góra (Bright Hill). He believed
that it was Our Lady’s desire for her image to remain in Czestochowa so he left
the image at the church and invited the Pauline monks from Hungary to be its
guardians.
On April 14, 1430, robbers, sometimes
associated with the Hussites of Bohemia, looted the monastery and made three
slashes on the face of Our Lady in an attempt to remove valuable stones,
finally smashing the image into three pieces. In order to repair the icon, the
original paint was removed, and the icon was repainted. Although the icon was
restored, the slashes in Our Lady’s face remain visible today.
The image of Our Lady of Czestochowa
is associated with several miraculous events. One of the most spectacular
occurred in 1655 during the height of the Protestant Revolution. The Swedish
Lutheran army invaded Poland winning victories over the city after city
including Cracow and Warsaw. The Polish King fled the country. When the Swedish
army came to Jasna Góra hoping to plunder the sacred site, the monks refused to
surrender although they were greatly outnumbered. The following account is from
the Polish historian Norman Davies as quoted in Warren Carroll’s series on
Christianity.
“When negotiations brought no result,
the Swedes began a violent bombardment of the walls. Then, in order to spread
fear among the defenders, they started to hurl blazing firebrands, setting the
monastery’s barn alight together with a great quantity of corn. Next, all
around the monastery, they set up a camp with wooden palisades and gun
emplacements…But their attack had little effect. The walls were banked with
earth on the inside, and only the cannon displaced a few bricks. Before long,
the defenders opened fire in reply. The aim of their gunners was so accurate
that after three hours the Swedes were obliged to pull back with great loss.
Meanwhile, the inhabitants of houses adjacent to the monastery, where the enemy
had found shelter, set their homes on fire, not counting the cost. The Swedes
renewed their attack on the 19th of November, the day of the Transfiguration of
the Virgin…the official printed a description of this siege, which records that
bullets and missiles fell so thick on the church and tower that they seemed to
be in flames. But…the cannon balls bounced off the walls and tiles or flew over
the church roof, causing no damage….Muller (the Swedish commander) was most
angered by the monks, who would climb to the top of the tower and in full choir
pour down pious hymns on his soldiers…Jasna Góra was not saved by men…A thick
mist screened the monastery from attack…Muller himself saw a Lady in a shining
robe on the walls, priming the cannon and tossing shells back in the direction
from which they came…He (General Muller) launched this last attack on Christmas
Day, firing off all his guns in one salvo, and sending his entire army to storm
the walls…But at that very moment, he suffered a fatal accident. He was eating
breakfast in a fairly distant house, and cursing Jasna Góra with blasphemies,
when suddenly an iron shot penetrated the wall, knocked down all the plates,
bottles and glasses from the table, scattered the guests, and struck him in the
arm…At last, in the night before St. Stephen’s Day, the Swedes started to drag the
guns from their emplacements, to collect their equipment, and to direct their
wagons in the direction of Klobuck…Of course, no heretic will believe that
cannon balls were repulsed from the walls of Jasna Góra by supernatural
means…but all that I have described is true.”
The victory of Our Lady of Czestochowa
at Jasna Góra turned the tide of the war. In 1656, the Polish King Jan Casimir
proclaimed the Mother of God the “Queen of the Polish Crown” and the shrine at
Jasna Góra, the “Mount of Victory” and the spiritual capital of Poland. In
recognition of the miraculous image, Pope Clement XI donated a crown to be
placed on the image in 1717. Thieves stole the bejeweled crown in 1909. Pope
St. Pius X replaced the 1717 crown with a crown of gold.
Our Lady intervened again in 1920 when
the Russian army was about to invade Warsaw. As they were about to cross the
Vistula River on September 15th, the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, the image of
Our Lady of Czestochowa appeared in the clouds over Warsaw and the Russian Army
retreated. Shortly after this Miracle of the Vistula, in 1925, Pope Pius XI
designated May 3rd as the feast day of Our Lady of Czestochowa.
After the liberation of Poland from
Nazi occupation, 1.5 million people gathered at Jasna Góra in 1945 to rededicate
the nation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Pope John Paul II visited the image
of Our Lady of Czestochowa four times during his pontificate. Our Lady’s
intercession is credited with the liberation of Poland from Communist rule.
The holy painting enshrined at
Czestochowa has been a lighthouse of hope during centuries of hardship and
defeat. Today, the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa attracts millions of who
love and honor Our Lady’s intercession.
Things to Do:
- Make
a virtual visit to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa
- Read
A Brief History of the Image of Czestochowa
- Read
Who is 'the Black Madonna' and why is she so important?
- Listen
to this sermon on the story of Our Lady Czestochowa
Every Wednesday is
Dedicated to St. Joseph
The Italian culture has
always had a close association with St. Joseph perhaps you could make
Wednesdays centered around Jesus’s Papa. Plan an Italian dinner of pizza or
spaghetti after attending Mass as most parishes have a Wednesday evening Mass.
You could even do carry out to help restaurants. If you are adventurous you
could do the Universal Man Plan: St. Joseph style. Make the evening a family
night perhaps it could be a game night. Whatever you do make the day special.
·
Do the St.
Joseph Universal Man Plan.
·
Do Day 1 of the
Consecration to St. Joseph.
Daily
Devotions
·
Litany
of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face
·
Rosary
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