6th Rose
Saturday in the Octave of the
Assumption
ST.
BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX
John,
Chapter 19, Verse 7-9
7 The
Jews answered, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die,
because he made himself the Son of God.” 8 Now when Pilate heard this
statement, he became even more AFRAID, 9and went back into
the praetorium and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” Jesus did not answer
him.
Pilate was afraid of diabolical and fanatical men but not of God.
Let us not be like Pilate. How often are we like Pilate when we go about our daily business? Pilate symbolically washed his hands to remove his guilt. Did it work?
To remind myself of this as I wash my hands throughout the day during the washing, I say the Hail Mary and ask our Lady to help me not betray the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I try to remember He became hopeless to give us hope.
Bernard of Clairvaux[1]
Bernard, the second founder of the Cistercians, the Mellifluous Doctor, the apostle of the Crusades, the miracle-worker, the reconciler of kings, the leader of peoples, the counselor of popes! His sermons, from which there are many excerpts in the Breviary, are conspicuous for genuine emotion and spiritual unction. The celebrated Memorare is ascribed to him. Bernard was born in 1090, the third son of an illustrious Burgundian family. At the age of twenty-two he entered the monastery of Citeaux (where the Cistercian Order had its beginning) and persuaded thirty other youths of noble rank to follow his example. Made abbot of Clairvaux (1115), he erected numerous abbeys where his spirit flourished. To his disciple, Bernard of Pisa, who later became Pope Eugene III, he dedicated his work De Consideratione. Bernard's influence upon the princes, the clergy, and the people of his age was most remarkable. By penitential practices he so exhausted his body that it could hardly sustain his soul, ever eager to praise and honor God.
Patron:
beekeepers; bees; candlemakers; chandlers; wax-melters; wax refiners;
Gibraltar; Queens College, Cambridge.
Things to
Do
·
Because St. Bernard is the patron of
candlemakers, a great project would be to learn how to make candles. Candles
101 discusses in brief about making homemade candles, rolled, dipped and
molded. Practicing making candles now will help in preparing to make a family
Christ Candle for Advent and Paschal Candle for Easter.
·
From the Catholic Culture library: Preaching Conversion Through The Beatitudes: Bernard Of
Clairvaux's Ad Clericos De Conversione and Pope Pius XII On St. Bernard Of Clairvaux, The Last Of The Fathers.
·
Though of a rich and noble family St. Bernard
continually asked the question: "For what purpose are you on earth?"
Spend some time today in front of the Blessed Sacrament and ask yourself this
question.
·
This
site — complete with words and midi files — features hymns written by St.
Bernard.
·
When you fall into sin ask for help of Christ
via His “Shoulder
Wound”.
·
Learn more about the Cistercian Order founded by
St. Bernard.
· Read more about the life of St. Bernard.
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
PART TWO: THE CELEBRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERY
SECTION TWO-THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH
Article 4-THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE AND
RECONCILIATION
VI. The
Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation
1440 Sin is before all else an offense against God, a rupture
of communion with him. At the same time it damages communion with the Church.
For this reason conversion entails both God's forgiveness and reconciliation
with the Church, which are expressed and accomplished liturgically by the
sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.
Only God forgives sin
1441 Only God forgives sins. Since he is the Son of God,
Jesus says of himself, "The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive
sins" and exercises this divine power: "Your sins are forgiven." Further,
by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his
name.
1442 Christ has willed that in her prayer and life and action
his whole Church should be the sign and instrument of the forgiveness and
reconciliation that he acquired for us at the price of his blood. But he
entrusted the exercise of the power of absolution to the apostolic ministry
which he charged with the "ministry of reconciliation." The
apostle is sent out "on behalf of Christ" with "God making his
appeal" through him and pleading: "Be reconciled to God."
Reconciliation with the Church
1443 During his public life Jesus not only forgave sins, but
also made plain the effect of this forgiveness: he reintegrated forgiven
sinners into the community of the People of God from which sin had alienated or
even excluded them. A remarkable sign of this is the fact that Jesus receives sinners
at his table, a gesture that expresses in an astonishing way both God's
forgiveness and the return to the bosom of the People of God.
1444 In imparting to his apostles his own power to forgive sins
the Lord also gives them the authority to reconcile sinners with the Church.
This ecclesial dimension of their task is expressed most notably in Christ's
solemn words to Simon Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of
heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever
you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." "The office of
binding and loosing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the college
of the apostles united to its head."
1445 The words bind and loose mean: whomever you exclude from
your communion, will be excluded from communion with God; whomever you receive
anew into your communion, God will welcome back into his. Reconciliation with
the Church is inseparable from reconciliation with God.
The sacrament of forgiveness
1446 Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful
members of his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into
grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial
communion. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility
to convert and to recover the grace of justification. the Fathers of the Church
present this sacrament as "the second plank [of salvation] after the
shipwreck which is the loss of grace."
1447 Over the centuries the concrete form in which the Church
has exercised this power received from the Lord has varied considerably. During
the first centuries the reconciliation of Christians who had committed
particularly grave sins after their Baptism (for example, idolatry, murder, or
adultery) was tied to a very rigorous discipline, according to which penitents
had to do public penance for their sins, often for years, before receiving
reconciliation. To this "order of penitents" (which concerned only
certain grave sins), one was only rarely admitted and in certain regions only
once in a lifetime. During the seventh century Irish missionaries, inspired by
the Eastern monastic tradition, took to continental Europe the
"private" practice of penance, which does not require public and
prolonged completion of penitential works before reconciliation with the
Church. From that time on, the sacrament has been performed in secret between
penitent and priest. This new practice envisioned the possibility of repetition
and so opened the way to a regular frequenting of this sacrament. It allowed
the forgiveness of grave sins and venial sins to be integrated into one
sacramental celebration. In its main lines this is the form of penance that the
Church has practiced down to our day.
1448 Beneath the changes in discipline and celebration that
this sacrament has undergone over the centuries, the same fundamental structure
is to be discerned. It comprises two equally essential elements: on the one
hand, the acts of the man who undergoes conversion through the action of the
Holy Spirit: namely, contrition, confession, and satisfaction; on the other,
God's action through the intervention of the Church. the Church, who through
the bishop and his priests forgives sins in the name of Jesus Christ and
determines the manner of satisfaction, also prays for the sinner and does
penance with him. Thus the sinner is healed and re-established in ecclesial
communion.
1449 The formula of absolution used in the Latin Church
expresses the essential elements of this sacrament: the Father of mercies is
the source of all forgiveness. He effects the reconciliation of sinners through
the Passover of his Son and the gift of his Spirit, through the prayer and
ministry of the Church:
God, the Father of mercies,
through the death and the resurrection of his Son
has reconciled the world to himself
and sent the Holy Spirit among us
for the forgiveness of sins;
through the ministry of the Church
may God give you pardon and peace,
and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Daily
Devotions
·
30 DAY TRIBUTE TO MARY 6th ROSE: The
Extraordinary Preacher, St Louis de Montfort, on the Rosary
o
30
Days of Women and Herbs – Frauendreissiger
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Reparations
for offenses and blasphemies against God and the Blessed Virgin Mary
·
Saturday Litany of the Hours
Invoking the Aid of Mother Mary
·
Religion
in the Home for Preschool: August
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
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