Friday, February 3, 2023

Meditation: Encounter with Christ

Live in expectancy. Await the coming of Jesus so that He may enrich us! We are like Simeon who implored the Lord unceasingly to come. When Mary and Joseph reached the temple one morning, carrying the Child Jesus, the saintly old man recognized in them, through interior inspiration, the parents of the Redeemer. They were simply dressed and they had come like all the others to make their purification offering. Taking the Child from their arms, Simeon raised Him to heaven, and he said the "Nunc dimittis..." "Now, Master, you can let your servant go in peace...!" Simon shows us the way of preparing for the coming of the Messiah. He lived a God-fearing life, certain that before his death he would see the salvation of Israel. Jesus will come and the priest, elevating the Host, will say: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." And we, raising our eyes to gaze on Him whom we have expected, will respond: "This is the awaited One, the Lord, the rich One, the Master, the Light!" Let us keep ourselves in these dispositions of suppliant expectancy.

—Excerpted from Saint and Thought for Every Day by Rev. James Alberione, SSP

CARDINAL BURKE CALLS FOR A HOLY LEAGUE!

Cardinal Burke believes “this is exactly what is needed in our times.” His Eminence, enthusiastically, agreed to be the Spiritual Head of the Holy League, as he is hopeful this Holy League movement will spread across the planet.

As Cardinal Burke states, “At this particular moment in time, the Church finds itself in a similar situation to that of the Church in the late Sixteenth Century. However, instead of a physical enemy on the horizon, the Church and the family (the domestic Church) are threatened daily by materialism, relativism, secularism, impurity, and confusion regarding Church teaching.”

The battle today “is not against human forces but against the principalities and powers, the rulers of this world of darkness, the evil spirits in the heavens” (Ephesians 6: 10-12).

To combat the forces of evil in today’s society, the Holy League strives to call men back to the supernatural Divine Life in the state of grace and to transforming the culture through prayer and inspired action.

The time is NOW to gather the remnant forces, put on our battle armor (sanctifying grace), pick up our spiritual weapons (Eucharist, Rosary) and stand united and strong against the forces of evil devouring the faith of our loved ones!

The Holy League is headquartered at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, WI.

THE HOLY LEAGUE, IN FIDELITY TO ITS MISSION AS A ROMAN CATHOLIC SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT:

Provides a Holy Hour format which incorporates: Eucharistic adoration, prayer, inspiring spiritual reflection, the availability of the Sacrament of Confession, Benediction and fraternity;
Encourages consecration to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Chaste Heart of Joseph;
Promotes the Precepts and Sacraments of the Church; especially through devotion to the Most Blessed Sacrament and the praying of the Most Holy Rosary;
Creates a unified front, made up of members of the Church Militant, for spiritual combat;
Strives to have a regular monthly Holy League Holy Hour available to men in parishes throughout the Roman Catholic Church.

First Friday

feast of st. blaise

Hebrews, Chapter 13, Verse 1-8

¹ Let mutual love continue. ²Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels. ³Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment, and of the ill-treated as of yourselves, for you also are in the body. ⁴Let marriage be honored among all and the marriage bed be kept undefiled, for God will judge the immoral and adulterers. ⁵Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never forsake you or abandon you.”d ⁶Thus we may say with confidence: “The Lord is my helper, [and] I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”

⁷Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their FAITH. ⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Hebrews, Chapter 13, Verse’ 1-6 show the following ways of living to demonstrate true love or charity.

The true meaning of love is to seek the good of the other as other.

· In all that you do be an agent of hospitality.

o That is to be generous. Even the poor can be rich in their praise and love of others. Share not only your time, talent and treasure but truly give of yourself to others of your intellect, emotional support, and physical presence. A good guide is the spiritual works of mercy: instruct the ignorant; counsel the doubtful; admonish sinners; bear wrongs patiently; forgive offences willingly; comfort the afflicted; pray for the living and the dead.

· Do what you can to free others of their prisons whether these are self-imposed i.e. addictions or through ignorance.

o A good guide is the corporal works of mercy: feed the hungry; give drink to the thirsty; clothe the naked; harbor the harbor-less; visit the sick; ransom the captive; bury the dead.

· Marriage is the physical reality of our soul’s marriage to God through the Holy Spirit; therefore.

o If married love and honor your wife; be chase in spirit whether married or single knowing that marriage is the physical sign of your union with God. Disdain any kind of sexual defilement.

· Avoid the love of money.

o Seek simplicity and contentment. Treat all the wealth you have as if it were Gods; on loan to you to build the Kingdom; which it is. You can do this if you know and trust God will never forsake you or abandon you.

Render unto Caesar[1]

This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.

John F. Kennedy

Have we become a soulless Nation? Have we in the pursuit of happiness; ignored the Gospel of Life. Realizing that if we put success or liberty as greater values than life that we are serving Caesar and not God. To understand this, we need to review the US Bishops “The Gospel of Life”.

The Gospel of Life[2]

Brothers and sisters in the Lord:

At the conclusion of the 1998 ad limina visits of the bishops of the United States, our Holy Father Pope John Paul II spoke these words:

Today I believe the Lord is saying to us all: do not hesitate, do not be afraid to engage the good fight of the faith (cf. I Tim 6:12). When we preach the liberating message of Jesus Christ we are offering the words of life to the world. Our prophetic witness is an urgent and essential service not just to the Catholic community but to the whole human family.

In this statement we attempt to fulfill our role as teachers and pastors in proclaiming the Gospel of Life. We are confident that the proclamation of the truth in love is an indispensable way for us to exercise our pastoral responsibility.

"Your country stands upon the world scene as a model of a democratic society at an advanced stage of development. Your power of example carries with it heavy responsibilities. Use it well, America!" --Pope John Paul II, Newark, 1995

When Henry Luce published his appeal for an "American century" in 1941, he could not have known how the coming reality would dwarf his dream. Luce hoped that the "engineers, scientists, doctors . . . builders of roads [and] teachers" of the United States would spread across the globe to promote economic success and American ideals: "a love of freedom, a feeling for the quality of opportunity, a tradition of self-reliance and independence and also cooperation."Exactly this, and much more, has happened in the decades since. U.S. economic success has reshaped the world. But the nobility of the American experiment flows from its founding principles, not from its commercial power. In this century alone, hundreds of thousands of Americans have died defending those principles. Hundreds of thousands more have lived lives of service to those principles -- both at home and on other continents -- teaching, advising and providing humanitarian assistance to people in need. As Pope John Paul has observed, "At the center of the moral vision of [the American] founding documents is the recognition of the rights of the human person . . ." The greatness of the United States lies "especially [in its] respect for the dignity and sanctity of human life in all conditions and at all stages of development."

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I consecrated you; a prophet to the nations I appointed you.
--Jeremiah 1:5

First Friday and the Sacred Heart of Jesus[3]

ALTHOUGH many pious souls had been accustomed, in the silence of their secluded lives, to venerate the sacred Heart of Jesus with great devotion, still our divine Savior desired that the boundless love of His Heart might be known by all men, and that a new fire of love should thereby be kindled in the cold hearts of Christians. For this purpose, He made use of a frail and little-known instrument in the person of Margaret Mary Alacoque, a nun of the Order of the Visitation, at Parayle-Monial, France. One day, when, according to her custom during the octave of Corpus Christi, she was deeply engaged in devotions before the Blessed Sacrament, the divine Savior appeared to her, showed her His Heart burning with love, and said: “Behold this Heart, which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, in order to testify its love. In return I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this sacrament of love. And what is most painful to Me is that they are hearts consecrated to Me. It is for this reason I ask thee that the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi be appropriated to a special feast to honor My Heart by communicating on that day and making reparation for the indignity that it has received. And I promise that My Heart shall dilate to pour out abundantly the influences of its love on all that will render it this honor or procure its being rendered. Margaret obeyed, but met everywhere the greatest opposition, until finally, when she became mistress of novices, she succeeded, by the help of her divine Spouse, in animating her young charges to venerate the sacred Heart of Jesus. But this was not sufficient for her zeal. She persevered until she softened the opposition of the nuns and kindled in all an equal devotion towards the most sacred Heart. Thence the devotion spread to the adjoining dioceses, where confraternities in honor of the most sacred Heart of Jesus soon sprung up. Pope Clement XIII., after having instituted a most rigorous examination of the whole affair, commanded that the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus should be solemnly celebrated throughout the whole Catholic Church every year, on the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi.

The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

1. Object of this Devotion.

In the divine Heart of Our Savior we must not imagine an inanimate heart, separated from the person of Christ, but the living heart of the God-Man, the center of all His affections, the fountain of all His virtues, the most touching emblem of His infinite love to man. The Church venerates the cross, the blood, and the wounds of the divine Savior, by feasts which have their proper masses and lessons, in order, by meditation upon these objects, to awaken in us a more fervent devotion to the Redeemer. How much more worthy, then, of our devotion is the sacred Heart of Our Savior, since all its thoughts, movements, and affections aim at our salvation, and it is always ready to receive truly penitent sinners, to pardon them, to restore them again to God s favor, and make them partakers of eternal happiness!

2. Excellence of this Devotion.

It is, writes the venerable P. Simon Gourdan:

a. A holy devotion, for therein men venerate in Christ those affections and motions of His Heart by which He sanctified the Church, glorified His Heavenly Father, and showed Himself to men as a perfect example of the most sublime holiness.

b. An ancient devotion of the Catholic Church, which, instructed by St. Paul, the great apostle, has at all times acknowledged the great beneficence of the divine and sacred Heart of Jesus.

c. An approved devotion, for the Holy Scriptures everywhere admonish us to renew the heart, by changing our lives; to penetrate it with true sorrow, to inflame it with divine love, and to adorn it by the practice of all virtues. When, therefore, a new heart is promised us, by which to direct our lives, that can be no other than the Heart of Jesus, which is to us the pattern of all excellence, and which we must follow if we would be saved.

d. A perfect devotion, as being the origin of all other devotions. For the Heart of Jesus is the inexhaustible treasury from which the blessed Mother of God, and all other saints have derived their graces, their virtues, their life, their spiritual goods. Filled first with treasures from this source, different servants of God have instituted and established other devotions.

e. A profitable devotion, for thereby we have brought before our eyes the very fountain of life and grace, and can draw directly from it, increasing in ourselves all virtues, by adoring this divine Heart, meditating on its holy affections, and endeavoring to imitate them.

f. A devotion pleasing to God, for thus we adore God, as Christ requires, in spirit and in truth, serving Him inwardly in our hearts, and endeavoring to please Him. Finally, it is:

g. A useful devotion, since its whole object is to unite us most intimately with Christ as members of Him, her head, to make us live by and according to His spirit, to have one heart and soul with Him, and through grace finally to become one with Him, which is and must be the object of all devotions.

As this devotion is, then, so excellent, we cannot sufficiently recommend it to all who are anxious for their salvation. While everyone can practice this devotion, and adore the sacred Heart of Jesus, by himself, there is a greater blessing when pious souls unite and form a confraternity for practicing the devotion. Hesitate not, Christian soul, to engage in this devotion, and to join in the adoration of that sacred Heart of Jesus in which all men find propitiation, the pious, confidence; sinners, hope; the afflicted, consolation; the sick, support; the dying, refuge; the elect, joy and delight.

An Offering to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Whoever says the following prayer before the image of the most sacred Heart of Jesus, with sincere sorrow for his sins, gains each time an indulgence of one hundred days; and by saying it daily for a month, he can on any one day gain a plenary indulgence, if he makes his confession, receives communion, and prays according to the intention of the Church:

“My loving Jesus, I (N.N.) give Thee my heart; and I consecrate myself wholly to Thee, out of the grateful love I bear Thee, and as reparation for all my unfaithfulness; and with Thy aid I purpose never to sin again.”

Feast of St. Blaise^{^[4]}

While he was in prison, the Armenian Bishop Blaise (who suffered martyrdom in the fourth century) miraculously cured a little boy choking on a fishbone lodged in his throat. Ever since then, St. Blaise has been the patron saint of throats. Saint Blaise Sticks (pan bendito) are distributed on his feast and kept in the home to be eaten for a sore throat. The most popular custom, however, is the Blessing of Throats.

Blessing of throats^{^[5]}

The rite of the blessing of throats may take place before or after Mass. The priest or deacon places the candles around the throat of whoever seeks the blessing, using the formula: "Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you free from every disease of the throat, and from every other disease. In the name of the Father and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit. R. Amen."

Things to Do

· Take your children to Mass to receive the blessing of throats today.

· Establish a home altar with the blessed candles (symbols of Saint Blaise) from the feast of the Presentation, February 2.

· Visit this website and learn more about St. Blaise and how he saved Dubrovnik in Croatia in the 12th century.

Fitness Friday

Recognizing that God the Father created man on Friday the 6^th day I propose in this blog to have an entry that shares on how to recreate and renew yourself in strength; mind, soul and heart.

Your Posture says a lot about you-stand tall have an erect bearing

Daily Devotions