Sunday, September 20, 2020

 

DAY 37 - MARY, HELP OF CHRISTIANS, PRAY FOR US

ALERT! Today begin's the Novena to St. Michael (See below)

SET THE WORLD ABLAZE

The word "courage" actually derives its meaning from a Latin root word "cor" which means "heart." It means we are never more courageous than when we "have the courage of our convictions," that is, when we live from the heart, remaining true to who we really are. Lombardi was courageous because he simply yielded to his raison d'être, his reason for existence. St. Catherine of Siena put it this way: "If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!"

Who are we, then, and what is our reason for existence? Sometimes the message escapes us in its simplicity. Jesus said, "I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike" (Mt 11:25). The Baltimore Catechism states who we are quite plainly: "We were made to the image and likeness of God ... to know him, to love him, and to serve him in this world, and to be happy with him forever in heaven." The spiritual master, Fr. Thomas Merton, wrote: "To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name."

It was on the gridiron in the 1960s that Coach Vince Lombardi, fully grounded in this superior ideal, compelled his men to strive for greatness, never settling for second best. At the very same time, the Church Fathers of the Second Vatican Council were calling upon all of us to engage a spiritual heroism - the universal call to holiness - not settling for a second - or third-rate spiritual life. The challenge is to move "ALL IN" for God and his plan for our life. (Excerpt from Church Militant Field Manual).

PRAY A ROSARY

Choose either:

1. Rosary of the Day: Glorious Mysteries
2. Traditional 54 Day Rotation: Joyful Mysteries

PRAYERS FOR TRADITIONAL 54 DAY NOVENA

THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES OF THE HOLY ROSARY

Prayer before the recitation: Sign of the cross. Hail Mary.

In petition (first 27 days): Hail, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, my Mother Mary, hail! At thy feet I humbly kneel to offer thee a Crown of Roses, snow white buds to remind thee of thy joys, each bud recalling to thee a holy mystery, each 10 bound together with my petition for a particular grace. O Holy Queen, dispenser of God's graces, and Mother of all who invoke thee, thou canst not look upon my gift and fail to see its binding. As thou receivest my gift, so wilt thou receive my petition; from thy bounty thou wilt give me the favor I so earnestly and trustingly seek. I despair of nothing that I ask of thee. Show thyself my Mother!

In thanksgiving (last 27 days): Hail, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, my Mother Mary, hail! At thy feet I gratefully kneel to offer thee a Crown of Roses snow white buds to remind thee of thy joys each bud recalling to thee a holy mystery; each ten bound together with my petition for a particular grace. O Holy Queen, Dispenser of God's graces. and Mother of all who invoke thee! thou canst not look upon my gift and fail to see its binding. As thou receivest my gift, so wilt thou receive my thanksgiving; from thy bounty thou hast given me the favor I so earnestly and trustingly sought. I despaired not of what I asked of thee, and thou hast truly shown thyself my Mother.

Say: The Apostles' Creed, Our Father, 3 Hail Marys, Glory Be.

The Annunciation - Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, Glory Be.

Concluding Prayer: I bind these snow-white buds with a petition for the virtue of humility and humbly lay this bouquet at thy feet.

The Visitation - Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, Glory Be.

Concluding Prayer: I bind these snow-white buds with a petition for the virtue of charity and humbly lay this bouquet at thy feet.

The Nativity - Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, Glory Be.

Concluding Prayer: I bind these snow-white buds with a petition for the virtue of detachment from the world and humbly lay this bouquet at thy feet.

The Presentation - Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, Glory Be.

Concluding Prayer: I bind these snow-white buds with a petition for the virtue of purity and humbly lay this bouquet at thy feet.

Finding the Child Jesus in the Temple - Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, Glory Be.

Concluding Prayer: I bind these snow-white buds with a petition for the virtue of obedience to the will of God and humbly lay this bouquet at thy feet.

Say: The Hail Holy Queen.

Spiritual Communion: My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.

In petition (first 27 days): Sweet Mother Mary, I offer thee this spiritual communion to bind my bouquets in a wreath to place upon thy brow. O my Mother! Look with favor upon my gift, and in thy love obtain for me (specify request, see below). Hail Mary ...

In thanksgiving (last 27 days): Sweet Mother Mary, I offer thee this Spiritual Communion to bind my bouquets in a wreath to place upon thy brow in thanksgiving for (specify request, see below) which thou in thy love hast obtained for me. Hail, Mary, etc.

PETITION: For the protection and provision for the USA and the world. Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us!

Pray Chaplet of St. Michael (Sept. 20 - Sept. 28) (See HERE)

(You can order a Chaplet of St. Michael anywhere online. Here is where you can find the "Combat

Chaplet of St. Michael" - Order HERE)

Conclude Chaplet with this Novena Prayer:

St. Michael the Archangel, we honor you as a powerful protector of the Church and guardian of our souls. Inspire us with your humility, courage and strength that we may reject sin and perfect our love for our Heavenly Father.

 

In your strength and humility, slay the evil and pride in our hearts so that nothing will keep us from God.

 

St. Michael the Archangel, pray that we may be blessed by God with the zeal to live our lives in accordance with Christ's teachings.

 

St. Michael the Archangel, you are the prince of angels but in your humility,  you recognized that God is God and you are but His servant. Unlike Satan, you were not overcome with pride but were steadfast in humility. Pray that we will have this same humility.

 

It is in the spirit of that humility that we ask for your intercession for our petitions... (Petition: Protect our nation from unGodly liberals gaining power and control)

 

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

All of the daily Novena Prayers and Reflections are also posted at usgraceforce.com

Spanish language Novena prayers and reflections are available at https://rosarycoasttocoast.com/nfon-espanol/.

Those who would like to pray with others via The Telephone Rosary, call 1-951-799-9866 daily at 6 pm Eastern.

Sixteen Sunday aft. Pentecost (25^th S. Ord. Time)

103 KOREAN MARTYRS

 2 Corinthians, Chapter 7, Verse 5

For even when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted in every way—external conflicts, internal FEARS. 

The devil is the author of fear. The opposite of fear is not bravery but love. Christ showed his love for us by breaking the power of the devil by overcoming death.  He showed us His love by sharing our human nature. He asks us in the gospel to love as He loved. ”I give you a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34) Christ therefore restores Gods original intend to give man life eternal and voiding the death that the devil had brought into the world. 

The fear of death is a fear based on the false conception that death marks the end of a person’s kindred with God. Jesus deliberately allied himself with us in order to be a merciful and faithful high priest in our behalf; expiating our sins as one who experienced the same tests as we. 

We usually give in to our sinfulness when we are Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired (HALT). To halt sinful behaviors, we must practice acts of love so that when we are hungry let us give food to the hungry; when we are angry let us remember to secure justice for the oppressed; when we are lonely let us remember to keep faith with our brethren; and when we are tired let us take up the yoke of Christ; for his yoke is easy and his burden is light. 

Ponder this day if the Lord is calling you to the Priesthood or the religious life. 

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost^[1] Do good works with humility 

IN the Introit of the Mass let us implore, with great confidence, the mercy of God. “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I have cried to Thee all the day; for Thou, O Lord, art sweet, and mild, and plenteous in mercy, to all that call upon Thee. Bow down Thy ear to me, O Lord, and hear me, for I am needy and poor”. (Ps. Ixxxv.). 

Prayer. May Thy grace, O Lord, ever precede and follow us, and make us ever intent upon good works. 

EPISTLE. Eph. iii. 13-21. 

Brethren: I pray you not to faint at my tribulations for you: which is your glory. 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, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened by His Spirit with might 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: to know also the charity of Christ, which surpasseth all knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fulness of God. Now to Him Who is able to do all things more abundantly than we desire or understand, according to the power that worketh in us: to Him be glory in the Church, and in Christ Jesus, unto all generations, world without end. Amen. 

Explanation. St. Paul was in prison at Rome when he wrote this epistle, and was anxious lest the Ephesians might think that the faith, the proclaimers of which were thus persecuted, was not from God. He therefore exhorts them to remain firm in their belief; assures them that his sufferings would be for their glory if they remained as firm as he: and prays that they may be enlightened to know the love of God that is, what Christ had done and suffered for us. Hence, we learn to ask earnestly of God grace to understand the mysteries of faith. 

Aspiration. O heavenly Father, according to the example of St. Paul, I humbly pray that Thy spirit, Thy knowledge, Thy charity, may be deeply implanted in us, that Thou mayest possess our hearts, and that we, filled with all the fulness of Thy grace, may serve Thee more perfectly, and give Thee thanks forever. 

GOSPEL. Luke xiv. 1-11. 

At that time, when Jesus went into the house of one of the chief of the Pharisees, on the Sabbath-day, to eat bread, they watched Him. And behold there was a certain man before Him that had the dropsy. And Jesus answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day? But they held their peace. But He, taking him, healed him, and sent him away. And answering them, He said: Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a pit, and will not immediately draw him out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer Him to these things. And He spoke a parable also to them that were invited, marking how they chose the first seats at the table, saying to them: When thou art invited to a wedding, sit not down in the first place, lest perhaps one more honorable than thou be invited by him, and he that inviteth thee and him, come and say to thee: Give this man place: and then thou begin with shame to take the lowest place: but when thou art invited, go sit down in the lowest place: that when he who invited thee cometh, he may say to thee: Friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have glory before them that sit at the table with thee. Because everyone that exalteth himself shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. 

Why did the Pharisees watch Jesus so closely? To discover something in Him for which they might censure and accuse Him. How like them are those Christians who watch every step of their neighbors, and particularly of priests, hoping to find something for which to blame them, and represent them as evil persons! 

Who is, spiritually, like the man with the dropsy? The avaricious man; for as a dropsical person is never satisfied with drinking, so the avaricious man never has enough; and like the dropsy, too, avarice is hard to cure, since it grows worse with age, and generally does not leave a man till he comes to the grave. 

Why is avarice reckoned among the seven deadly sins? Because it is the root of many evils; for it leads to usury, theft, the use of false weights and measures, to the retaining of unjustly gotten goods, to the oppression of the poor, of widows and orphans, to the denial and suppression of justice, to apostasy from the faith, and to despair. Hence the Apostle says, “They that will become rich fall into temptation and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition” (i.Tim. vi. 9). An efficacious remedy for avarice is the consideration that we are only the stewards, and not the owners of our goods, of which we can take nothing with us at the hour of our death (i. Tim. vi. 7); and that one-day God will require of us a strict account of what we have had. 

Commentary

"'For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted".

Jesus reveals His Love by curing the victim of dropsy^[2]. Love overcomes all human obstacles. The humble man does not, of course, expose his talents to the contempt of others. But he does recognize that every best gift is from above, loaned not for himself alone, but for his less favored neighbor as well. For this reason, I bend my knees to the Father, exclaims St. Paul, as he reflects on His glorious riches: how Divine love PURGES us by strength through His Spirit, ILLUMINATES us through our faith and then UNITES us in Christ's love. . .unto. . .the fullness of God. Humbly must we recognize the power that is at work in us.

Korean Catholics[3] 

During the 17th century the Christian faith was brought to Korea through the zeal of lay persons. From the very beginning these Christians suffered terrible persecutions and many suffered martyrdom during the 19th century. Today's feast honors a group of 103 martyrs. Notable of these were Andrew Kim Taegon, the first Korean priest, and the lay apostle, Paul Chong Hasang. Also, among the Korean martyrs were three bishops and seven priests, but for the most part they were heroic laity, men and women, married and single of all ages. They were canonized by Pope John Paul II on May 6, 1984. 

St. Andrew Kim Taegon and St. Paul Chong Hasang and their companions

This first native Korean priest was the son of Korean converts. His father, Ignatius Kim, was martyred during the persecution of 1839 and was beatified in 1925. After baptism at the age of fifteen, Andrew traveled thirteen hundred miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home again, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured and finally beheaded at the Han River near Seoul, the capital. Paul Chong Hasang was a lay apostle and a married man, aged forty-five. Christianity came to Korea during the Japanese invasion in 1592 when some Koreans were baptized, probably by Christian Japanese soldiers. Evangelization was difficult because Korea refused all contact with the outside world except for an annual journey to Beijing to pay taxes. On one of these occasions, around 1777, Christian literature obtained from Jesuits in China led educated Korean Christians to study. A home church began. When a Chinese priest managed to enter secretly a dozen years later, he found four thousand Catholics, none of whom had ever seen a priest. Seven years later there were ten thousand Catholics. Religious freedom came in 1883.

When Pope John Paul II visited Korea in 1984, he canonized Andrew, Paul, ninety-eight Koreans and three French missionaries who had been martyred between 1839 and 1867. Among them were bishops and priests, but for the most part they were laypersons: forty-seven women, forty-five men. Among the martyrs in 1839 was Columba Kim, an unmarried woman of twenty-six. She was put in prison, pierced with hot awls and seared with burning coals. She and her sister Agnes were disrobed and kept for two days in a cell with condemned criminals but were not molested. After Columba complained about the indignity, no more women were subjected to it. The two were beheaded. A boy of thirteen, Peter Ryou, had his flesh so badly torn that he could pull off pieces and throw them at the judges. He was killed by strangulation. Protase Chong, a forty-one-year-old noble, apostatized under torture and was freed. Later he came back, confessed his faith and was tortured to death.

Today there are approximately four million Catholics in Korea.

35 Promises of God[4] cont.

“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
-Luke 11:9-13

Daily Devotions

·         Today in honor of the Holy Trinity do the Divine Office giving your day to God. To honor God REST: no shopping after 3pm till Monday. Don’t forget the internet.

·         Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus

·         Make reparations to the Holy Face

·         Drops of Christ’s Blood

·         Rosary

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[1]Goffine’s Devout Instructions, 1896.

[2] It was called hydropsy or dropsy. It is a generalized swelling due to accumulation of excess water. And you can see a patient that you know quite well today, too. This is not a new thing. But that is the way heart failure was known: dropsy. https://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/557959

[3]https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2018-09-20

[4]http://www.aggiecatholicblog.org/2014/12/35-promises-of-god/