Wednesday, November 29, 2023

 


NOVEMBER 29 - DECEMBER 7

NOVENA IN HONOR OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Join us in prayer each day of the Novena

NOVENA

International Relay of the Rosary for the World

NewsNews

In the face of the URGENCY of the world situation, LET US UNITE, from all countries, to implore the HELP of the Lord through the intercession of Mary, during the Advent season until Epiphany!

Why is it URGENT to pray the Rosary for the world?

In the face of the onslaught of Evil on our current world: expanding wars, numerous natural disasters, scandalous laws against Life, the inversion of values and the attacks against the Church, there is an urgent need to unite us in an international movement of prayer for the world!

Why an INTERNATIONAL RELAY of the Rosary for the world?

Considering the gravity of the situation on a global scale , the prayer of the Rosary in each country is very important to build together a great bulwark of protection for our world .

Do you really know the full power of the Rosary?

The Rosary is undoubtedly the most powerful prayer that we know. Since the Middle Ages, many dramatic events have been avoided thanks to the prayer of the Rosary. Like, for example, in 1870 when Prussian troops invaded France. The very day after some children prayed the Rosary in Pontmain, in the presence of the Virgin Mary, the Prussian Army, however dominant, incomprehensibly turned back. This is just an example among many others, just as real and extraordinary …

 

Concretely, how to do it?

You can pray alone or with your family.

From December 1 to 7: daily Rosary for French-speaking people
From December 8 to 14: daily Rosary for English-speaking people
From December 15 to 21: daily Rosary for Spanish-speaking people
From December 22 to 28: daily Rosary in portuguese and other languages
From December 29 to January 6: daily Rosary in every country.

Of course, everyone can unite with the others by praying the Rosary throughout the month.

On December 1, to launch this International Relay, we propose a night of prayer and adoration, in union with us who will be gathered at the foot of the Blessed Sacrament, in the Carmelite monastery in Chambéry. The International Relay will close on January 6, 2024, the day of the Epiphany, when all nations come to adore the Lord.

We invite you to join us in prayer during a great night of adoration that will unite all peoples to the Lord, from Friday January 5 to Saturday January 6. For those who cannot go to an all-night vigil, you can pray the Rosary at home or spend some time in church during those specific days. We are sure that God will be touched by this unity of prayer, and will grant graces to our world.



Wednesday in the Octave of Christ the King

 

Job, Chapter 3, Verse 25

For what I feared overtakes me; what I dreaded comes upon me.

 

Job is not just experiencing self-fulfilling prophecy here; he is under a real attack. In chapter two of Job, we see[1]:

·         God bragging about Job, and Satan, once again, doesn't buy it.

·         God gives Satan permission to hurt Job physically, something he wouldn't let him do last time. Just don't kill him.

·         Satan's method of choice? Give Job sores from his tippy-toes to his noggin. 

·         Job's wife apparently doesn't find this attractive, because she suggests that he curse God and die. But Job refuses to be disloyal.

·         Job's buddies Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad come to visit and chill with him while he rolls around in ash and sackcloth. This is all standard procedure, don't worry.

Then in this chapter Job cries out that he is in pain, and rues the day he was born—poetically, of course.

Wednesday in the Octave of Christ the King 

·         attend Mass daily or via EWTN or the internet.

·         Mediate on the virtues of Mary (Humility, Generosity, Chastity, Patience, Temperance, Understanding/love and Wisdom. One for each day.

·         Fast doing the Daniel fast (Monday-Saturday).

·         Exercise-Universal Man Plan.

The Virtue of Patience[2]

CHRIST tells you:

MY CHILD, I came down from Heaven for your salvation and perfection. Not only did I make reparation for your sins, but I also gave you an example of the virtues which you need in order to gain eternal life. I took upon Myself your daily trials and difficulties, in order to show you how to deal with them.

One of the virtues which you often need in your daily life is patience. I had to practice a great deal of patience with the people around Me during My earthly life. I had to bear the same things which annoy and irritate you. I bore these trials with patience. Meditate on My patience and pray for the wisdom and strength to imitate Me in this holy virtue.

Consider how I treat My loyal followers. I do not send them an easy life, but one which demands great patience, not many earthly joys, but many trials; not honors, but contempt and hatred; not ease, but endless labors. Through their unwavering patience they earn a crown of unending glory.

Some are willing to suffer only what they choose to endure. Others can be patient with certain people, but not with everyone. A truly patient man, however, makes no exceptions and sets no conditions as to when, or with whom he will be patient. One who possesses supernatural patience does not consider what kind of people cause his trial; whether they are superiors, equals, or inferiors, whether they are well meaning or malicious. He is interested only in taking this trial as though I were handing it to him. As long as the matter does not require him to defend his rights, or to correct the people involved, he is willing to bear his trial for My sake.

THINK: The supernatural virtue of patience is an act of love for God shown by the disregard of one’s own convenience or inconvenience. It is another form of self-giving. Jesus could have saved me with far less inconvenience to Himself. He endured much more for me than He needed to. That was His way of showing His love for me. If I fix my eyes on Him, I shall never again say that I can take anything except this or that. I shall be willing to suffer anything for Jesus. I shall lose sight of the people involved and see only Jesus.

PRAY: Dear patient Jesus, who can describe the boundless love with which You suffered so many trials in Your daily life? Can I think of this and still refuse to practice greater patience in my own life? You are still practicing patience with me, as You wait for me to come to my senses and start practicing a bit of humility in my daily life. If I were truly humble, I would find it easy to be patient. I deserve far worse than what I now suffer in my daily life. Therefore, I shall be patient with the trials which come along. Someday I may rise to a higher generosity with You. I may even reach the joy which Your saints had in suffering for You. I must, however, begin today. I hope to face my problems and annoyances with patience, for Your sake, my Jesus. Amen.

Mass Proper’s for the Vigil of St. Andrew: 

INTROIT. Dominus secus mare. St. Matt. 4.

JESUS our Lord walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brethren, Peter and Andrew, and he called them saying: Follow me; and I will make you fishers of men. Ps. 19. The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament sheweth his handy work.

V. Glory be.

COLLECT.

GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God: that as we do prevent the festival of thy holy Apostle Saint Andrew, so he may implore thy mercy for us; that we, being delivered from all our iniquities, may likewise be defended against all adversities. Through.

EPISTLE Ecclus. 44: 25-27; 45, 2-4; 6-9 1-6

Lesson from the Book of Wisdom. The blessing of the Lord was upon the head of the just man. Therefore, the Lord gave him an inheritance, and divided him his portion in twelve tribes: and he found grace in the eyes of all flesh. He magnified him in the fear of his enemies, and with his words He made prodigies to cease. He glorified him in the sight of kings and gave him commandments in the sight of his people and showed him His glory. He sanctified him in his faith and meekness and chose him out of all flesh. And He gave him commandments before His face, and a law of life and instruction: and He exalted him. He made an everlasting covenant with him and girded him about with a girdle of justice: and the Lord crowned him with a crown of glory. Thanks be to God.

GOSPEL John 1: 35-51

At that time, John stood, and two of his disciples: and beholding Jesus walking, he saith, "Behold the Lamb of God." And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turning, and seeing them following Him, He saith to them, "What seek you?" Who said to Him, "Rabbi (which is to say, being interpreted, Master), where dwellest Thou?" He saith to them, "Come and see." They came, and saw where He abode, and they stayed with Him that day: now it was about the tenth hour. And Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who had heard of John, and followed him. He findeth first his brother Simon, and saith to him, "We have found the Messias" (which is, being interpreted, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus; and Jesus, looking upon him, said, "Thou art Simon the son of Jona; thou shalt be called Cephas," which is interpreted, Peter. On the following day, He would go forth into Galilee: and He findeth Philip. And Jesus saith to him, "Follow Me." Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathamel, and saith to him, "We have found Him of Whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus, the son of Joseph of Nazareth." And Nathanæl saith of him, "Can anything of good come from Nazareth?" Philip saith to him, "Come, and see." Jesus saw Nathanæl coming to Him: and He said to him, "Behold an Isrælite indeed, in whom there is no guile." Nathanæl saith to Him, Whence knowest Thou me? Jesus answered, and said to him, "Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the flg-tree, I saw thee." Nathanæl answered Him, and said, "Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Isræl." Jesus answered, and said to him, "Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, thou believest: greater things than these shalt thou See." And He saith to him, "Amen, amen I say to you, you shall see the Heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." 

OFFERTORY. Ps. 8. 

Thou hast crowned him with glory and worship: thou hast made him to have dominion of the works of thy hands, O Lord.

SECRET.

GRANT, O Lord, that this oblation, which we, remembering the festival of thy blessed Apostle Saint Andrew, do offer to be hallowed unto thee, may likewise avail to the cleansing of our souls from all evil. Through.

COMMUNION. St. John 1:41. 

Andrew saith unto his brother Simon: We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ: and he brought him to Jesus.

POSTCOMMUNION.

O LORD, who hast vouchsafed to feed us with these holy sacraments, we humbly pray thee: that, at the intercession of thy holy Apostle Saint Andrew, the mysteries which we have offered in remembrance of his glorious passion may be profitable unto us for the healing of our souls. Through.

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.

·         Devotion to the 7 Joys and Sorrows of St. Joseph

 

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

§  PART TWO: THE CELEBRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERY

§  SECTION TWO THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH

§  CHAPTER FOUR OTHER LITURGICAL CELEBRATIONS

§  Article 2-CHRISTIAN FUNERALS

§  II. The Celebration of Funerals

1684 The Christian funeral confers on the deceased neither a sacrament nor a sacramental since he has "passed" beyond the sacramental economy. It is nonetheless a liturgical celebration of the Church. The ministry of the Church aims at expressing efficacious communion with the deceased, at the participation in that communion of the community gathered for the funeral and at the proclamation of eternal life to the community.

1685 The different funeral rites express the Paschal character of Christian death and are in keeping with the situations and traditions of each region, even as to the color of the liturgical vestments worn.

1686 The Order of Christian Funerals (Ordo exsequiarum) of the Roman liturgy gives three types of funeral celebrations, corresponding to the three places in which they are conducted (the home, the church, and the cemetery), and according to the importance attached to them by the family, local customs, the culture, and popular piety. This order of celebration is common to all the liturgical traditions and comprises four principal elements:

1687 The greeting of the community. A greeting of faith begins the celebration. Relatives and friends of the deceased are welcomed with a word of "consolation" (in the New Testament sense of the Holy Spirit's power in hope). The community assembling in prayer also awaits the "words of eternal life." the death of a member of the community (or the anniversary of a death, or the seventh or fortieth day after death) is an event that should lead beyond the perspectives of "this world" and should draw the faithful into the true perspective of faith in the risen Christ.

1688 The liturgy of the Word during funerals demands very careful preparation because the assembly present for the funeral may include some faithful who rarely attend the liturgy, and friends of the deceased who are not Christians. the homily in particular must "avoid the literary genre of funeral eulogy" and illumine the mystery of Christian death in the light of the risen Christ.

1689 The Eucharistic Sacrifice. When the celebration takes place in church the Eucharist is the heart of the Paschal reality of Christian death. In the Eucharist, the Church expresses her efficacious communion with the departed: offering to the Father in the Holy Spirit the sacrifice of the death and resurrection of Christ, she asks to purify his child of his sins and their consequences, and to admit him to the Paschal fullness of the table of the Kingdom. It is by the Eucharist thus celebrated that the community of the faithful, especially the family of the deceased, learn to live in communion with the one who "has fallen asleep in the Lord," by communicating in the Body of Christ of which he is a living member and, then, by praying for him and with him.

1690 A farewell to the deceased is his final "commendation to God" by the Church. It is "the last farewell by which the Christian community greets one of its members before his body is brought to its tomb." The Byzantine tradition expresses this by the kiss of farewell to the deceased:

By this final greeting "we sing for his departure from this life and separation from us, but also because there is a communion and a reunion. For even dead, we are not at all separated from one another, because we all run the same course and we will find one another again in the same place. We shall never be separated, for we live for Christ, and now we are united with Christ as we go toward him . . . we shall all be together in Christ."

Daily Devotions 

·         Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them in fasting: Today's Fast: The Sick Afflicted and Infirmed.

·         Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus

·         Make reparations to the Holy Face

·         Drops of Christ’s Blood

·         Rosary 



[2]https://catholic-restoration.com/2019/11/30/the-virtue-of-patience/



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