Let Freedom Ring: Freedom from Pornography
At a word from You the devil and his minions flee in terror.
You are the source of all truth. You are the source of all strength.
By the power of your Cross and Resurrection, we beseech You, O Lord
To extend Your saving arm and to send Your holy angels
To defend us as we do battle with Satan and his demonic forces.
Exorcise, we pray, that which oppresses Your Bride, The Church,
So that within ourselves, our families, our parishes, our dioceses, and our nation
We may turn fully back to You in all fidelity and trust.
Lord, we know if You will it, it will be done.
Give us the perseverance for this mission, we pray.
Amen
St. Joseph...pray for us
St. Michael the Archangel...pray for us
(the patron of your parish )... pray for us
(your confirmation saint)...pray for us
Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being loved,
Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, etc.
From the desire of being honored,
From the desire of being praised,
From the desire of being preferred to others,
From the desire of being consulted,
From the desire of being approved,
From the fear of being humiliated,
From the fear of being despised,
From the fear of suffering rebukes,
From the fear of being calumniated,
From the fear of being forgotten,
From the fear of being ridiculed,
From the fear of being wronged,
From the fear of being suspected,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase
and I may decrease,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I go unnoticed,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I,
provided that I may become as holy as I should,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
__ Daily reflection and prayers
__ Litany of the day
__ Pray a Rosary
__ Divine Mercy Chaplet
__ Spiritual or corporal work of mercy
__ Fast/abstain (according to level)
__ Exercise (according to level/ability)
__ Refrain from conventional media (only 1 hr. of social)
__ Examination of conscience (confession 1x this week)
MARCH
The winds of March point to the power of God's Spirit working in us. We need to listen and respond to the gentle breezes of the Spirit; but will we, or will we be too distracted? The rebirth of spring reminds us of the energy of nature so that we ask ourselves whether we waste or wisely use energy –electricity, oil, gas, etc. Can we and should we continue to use nonrenewable fossil fuels, often with accompanying air pollution, at the rate we do? Or will the environmental ills we cause today call us in the future as a society to use wind and solar energy?
Overview of the Month of March[1]
The month of March is dedicated to St. Joseph. The entire month falls during the liturgical season of Lent which is represented by the liturgical color purple — a symbol of penance, mortification and the sorrow of a contrite heart. John Paul II further said, “Because St. Joseph is the protector of the Church, he is the guardian of the Eucharist and the Christian family. Therefore, we must turn to St. Joseph today to ward off attacks upon the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and upon the family. We must plead with St. Joseph to guard the Eucharistic Lord and the Christian family during this time of peril.”
As we continue our journey "up to Jerusalem" during the month of March, three prominent ideas are proposed for our contemplation by the liturgy of Lent: The Passion and Resurrection of Christ, baptism, and penance.
The Solemnity of St. Joseph is a special landmark this month in which we will celebrate the great honor bestowed upon the foster father of Jesus. And if you are Irish (who isn't), St. Patrick's feast is another cause for a joyful celebration. The feast of the Annunciation is celebrated on March 25.
The saints that we will focus on this month and try to imitate are St. Katharine Drexel (March 3), St. Casimir (March 4), Sts. Perpetua and Felicity (March 7), St. John of God (March 8), St. Frances of Rome (March 9), St. Patrick (March 17), St. Cyril of Jerusalem (March 18), St. Joseph (March 19) and St. Toribio de Mogrovejo (March 23).
A Time of Penance and
Promise
Here
and there in the stark March landscape, a few plants and trees are beginning to
give evidence of the new life that winter’s frost and chill had concealed from
our eyes. The Church’s vibrant new life has been obscured, too, by the
austerity of the penitential season of Lent. But that life is indisputable, and
it will burgeon forth on Easter as Christ coming forth from his tomb!
During
this month we will continue our journey to the cross with our acts of
penitence. We will reflect on our mortality ("Remember man thou art
dust") and the shortness of life ("and to dust thou shall return").
We will heed the call, "Now is the acceptable time, now is “the day of
salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2).” Just like Our Lord's earthly life every moment
of our lives is leading up to the last moment—when for eternity we will either
go to God or suffer the fires of hell. During this month we will go from the
suffering of Good Friday to the joy of Easter Sunday. We will trade the purple
of penance for the white of victory and resurrection.
Let us
not tire of doing our good works and penance, but continue with the enthusiasm
of the catechumens on their way to Easter and Baptism. May our Lenten
observance be a joyful journey — and not a forced march.
As the
weeks of Lent progress let us not tire of doing our good works and penance, but
continue with the enthusiasm of the catechumens on their way to Easter and
Baptism. May our Lenten observance be a joyful journey — and not a forced march.
MARCH 1 Monday 2nd
Week in Lent
LA FALLA
Deuteronomy, Chapter 1, Verse 21
See, the Lord, your God, has given
this land over to you. Go up and take possession of it, as the Lord, the God of
your ancestors, has promised you. Do not FEAR
or be dismayed.”
God gave the
land of Israel to the Israelites as an eternal possession; land could be leased
to pay debts, but it always reverted back to the family who owned it. In a
similar way Christ has given the possession of your eternal soul back over to
you after you leased it out to the evil one. Do not fear or be dismayed to take possession of it.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. (Luke 4:18-19)
As children of God, we must take possession of our soul just as the Israelites took possession of the land. A man in possession of his soul seeks to live in such a way that he does not lose possession of his soul. He strives to place first things first and he endeavors to follow God’s holy Will in his life. Conversion means turning to God and keeping the four last things in our mind when we are tempted: Death, Judgment, Heaven and hell. Immediately after death we will be judged, and our private judgment will be repeated on the Day of Judgment; when all men will know us for what we are. If we have done our best and followed Christ’s commandments (if you love me, you will keep my commandments) we will join Him in Heaven but if we have ignored His commandments and refused to make use of His help (via the church sacraments) we shall be condemned to hell. [2].
Therefore, strive to love God in
your daily life and make use of His grace. When you fall, immediately make a
prayer in honor of the Wound of His Holy Shoulder making use of His grace in
the sacrament of confession at the earliest opportunity and receive Holy Communion.
O Loving Jesus, meek Lamb of God, I a miserable sinner,
salute and worship the most Sacred Wound of Thy Shoulder on which Thou didst
bear Thy heavy Cross, which so tore Thy flesh and laid bare Thy Bones as to
inflict on Thee an anguish greater than any other wound of Thy Most Blessed
Body. I adore Thee, O Jesus most sorrowful; I praise and glorify Thee, and give
Thee thanks for this most sacred and painful Wound, beseeching Thee by that
exceeding pain, and by the crushing burden of Thy heavy Cross to be merciful to
me, a sinner, to forgive me all my mortal and venial sins, and to lead me on
towards Heaven along the Way of Thy Cross. Amen.
Imprimatur:
Thomas D. Beven, Bishop of Springfield
It is related in the annals of
Clairvaux that St. Bernard asked our Lord which was His greatest unrecorded
suffering, and Our Lord answered: "I had on My Shoulder, while I bore My
Cross on the Way of Sorrows, a grievous Wound, which was more painful than the
others, and which is not recorded by men. Honor this wound with thy devotion,
and I will grant thee whatsoever thou dost ask through its virtue and merit.
And in regard to all those who shall venerate this Wound, I will remit to them
all their venial sins, and will no longer remember their mortal sins."[3]
Monday 2nd week in Lent[4]
Prayer. BE propitious, O Lord, to our
prayers, and heal the desires of our souls, that, having received forgiveness,
we may ever rejoice in Thy benediction.
EPISTLE, in. Kings
xvii. 8-16.
In
those days: The word of the Lord came to Elias, the Thesbite, saying: Arise,
and go to Sarephta a city of the idonians, and dwell there: for I have
commanded a widow woman there to feed thee. He arose and went to Sarephta. And
when he was come to the gate of the city, he saw the widow woman gathering
sticks, and he called her, and said to her: Give me a little water in a vessel,
that I may drink. And when she was going to fetch it, he called after her,
saying: Bring me also, I beseech thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand. And she
answered: As the Lord thy God liveth, I have no bread, but only a handful of
meal in a pot, and a little oil in a cruse: behold I am gathering two sticks
that I may go in and dress it, for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.
And Elias said to her: Fear not but go and do as thou hast said: but first make
for me of the same meal a little hearth-cake, and bring it to me: and after
make for thyself and thy son. For thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: The
pot of meal shall not waste, nor the cruse of oil be diminished, until the day
wherein the Lord will give rain upon the face of the earth. She went and did according
to the word of Elias: and he ate, and she and her house: and from that day the
pot of meal wasted not, and the cruse of oil was not diminished, according to
the word of the Lord, which He spoke in the hand of Elias.
GOSPEL. Matt, xxiii.
1-12.
At that time
Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: The scribes and the
Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever
they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not:
for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy and insupportable burdens and lay
them on men’s shoulders: but with a finger of their own they will not move
them. And all their works they do for to be seen of men. For they make their
phylacteries broad and enlarge their fringes. And they love the first places at
feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues, and salutations in the marketplace,
and to be called by men, Rabbi. But be not you called Rabbi. For One is your
master, and all you are brethren. And call none your father upon earth: for One
is your father Who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for One is your
master, Christ. He that is the greatest among you shall be your servant. And
whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and he that shall humble
himself shall be exalted.
Explanation. The law of God imposes certain
obligations on us. The priest and the teacher teach God’s Gospel in His name,
and we shall be judged if we refuse to believe God’s truth and, in His Church,
because our teachers may not practice what they preach.
Notice:
the 2021 Las Fallas is suspended. Dates are yet to be confirmed but the main
events are from the 14th to the 19th of March (expect 2021), when gigantic
mannequins take over the city streets for four full days to mark the end of
Winter and the beginning of Spring.
Italy is not the only
country that claims great love for Saint Joseph. Here's an explanation of the
festivities in Valencia, Spain.
·
Among
the many folk festivals of Spain which each year attract large numbers of
tourists, Saint Joseph's Day in Valencia takes a unique position. La Falla
de San Chusep, as it is called in the local dialect, has been celebrated
for centuries, and it is perhaps the most spectacular, the most colorful of all
Spanish holidays. It starts on March 13 and attains its gala climax six days
later, after a solid week of fun and festivities.
·
San
Chusep (St. Joseph) is the patron saint of Valencia, and since the sixteenth
century his day has been celebrated by the city's artisans and craftsmen with a
great deal of zest, humor, and originality. In the Valencian dialect, falla
means "pyre." It seems that the term originated in the annual custom
of the carpenters who cleaned their shops of shavings and discarded wood at
this time of the year and burned the debris with a short ceremony. With the
scraps, a comical wooden figure depicting the most inept and backward of the
carpenter's apprentices was thrown into the flames. Eventually this developed
into a local tradition with all the guilds participating in the burning of
humorous and satirical effigies of animals, people, or subjects of local or
national ridicule and scorn. Apparently the falla figures are also a
product of Baroque art, with its emphasis on painting on wood, for which
Valencia's craftsmen became justly famous.
·
Today,
each guild, club, or association builds a falla of wood or papier-mâché.
A queen, la reine del Falla, is chosen, and a band accompanies the
queen, her court, and the falla to the contest on the main plaza of
Valencia. The lavish preparations for the festival attract artists and
musicians from the provinces who help the various groups build and exhibit
their entries to the contest of falla During the week, bullfights are
held every day. The streets are jammed with visitors admiring the fallas.
In decorated booths and pavilions food and drinks are being served. And in the
streets and on the city squares people dance to the music of the innumerable
bands which accompany the fallas.
·
The
best productions in art and music are judged for subject-matter and
presentation and awarded prizes. The most outstanding falla is
transferred to a special museum which harbors the prize winners of previous
years. On March 19, at midnight, all the other fallas, some towering three
stories in height, are burned in huge bonfires. Strings of firecrackers explode
around the plaza, and elaborate fireworks illuminate the scene with brilliant
flashes of color. As each falla crumbles into ashes, the crowds shout
with glee amidst the furiously burning pyres. As the fires slowly burn down to
the last embers, the merrymakers leave the scene, exhausted and jubilant,
already dreaming of next year, of the next falla.
Preparing for Battle[6]
Know Your Enemy
Be sober, be watchful! For
your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking someone to
devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith. (1 Peter 5: 8– 9)
Like it
or not, you are at war. No matter who you are— whether or not you know it— you
have a mortal enemy who wants to destroy you, not just in this life, but in the
next. No matter where you live on this planet— whether or not you can see it—
you live on a hotly contested battlefield, and you can’t escape the conflict.
It’s a spiritual war with crucial consequences in your everyday life. And the
outcome of that war will determine your eternal destiny. The first rule of any
type of warfare is to know your enemy.
·
Your
adversary is the Devil, with his army of demons. Your battle with him rages not
only all around you, but also within you, a fierce conflict for control of your
mind, your heart, and your ultimate destiny.
·
Those
who deny the devils existence are easy prey.
Examination of Conscience
(Daily)[7]
We should along with our morning
offering to God and reception of the sacraments of confession and Holy
Communion do some daily accounting if we are going to make improvements. We
should try to see ourselves and ask God to help us see our day as He sees it by
examining our conscience. Spiritual writers usually divide the daily examination
into two parts general and particular. The general exam is an
overall review of the day and should be done in the evening and the particular
exam is done throughout the day on how we are doing in those areas where our
rebellion is the greatest or in acquiring a certain virtue. The general examination is a weapon of
defense. The particular exam is of attack. The first is the shield. The second
is the sword (St. Josemaria Escriva). Most people make their general exam
near bedtime (This should cure any sleeping problems). Some people make their
particular exam at noon so they can redouble efforts for the rest of the day.
In the evening when we do the general exam, we should consider the whole day
both the big things and the little. I
always ask our Lord, what Have I done NOT SO well today; and listen? Next comes
the question, “Lord, what have I done well? Finally, I ask, Lord, what are your
concerns? One aspiration we should have in our arsenal that we can use at
the end is “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a
sinner.” One thing not to do is give up. Ask Him for help. Gaining a virtue or
losing a habit of sin might take time; but we will WIN.
Daily
Devotions/Activities
·
Eat waffles and Pray for the assistance of the Angels
·
Manhood of
the Master-week 2 day 6-Joy
·
Monday: Litany of
Humility
·
Rosary
[2] Paone, Anthony J., S.J. My Daily
Bread, Confraternity of the Precious Blood.
[3] http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=31
[4] Goffine’s Devout Instructions, 1896
[6]Thigpen, Paul. Manual for Spiritual Warfare
(Kindle Locations 115-124). TAN Books. Kindle Edition.
[7] Hahn, Scott, Signs of Life; 40
Catholic Customs and their biblical roots. Chap. 15. Examination of Conscience.
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