Saints, Feast, Family
- Traditions passed down with Cooking, Crafting, & Caring -
June 8
Patron Saint of Russian Territories, Central Africa, Republic of the Congo, Angola, Ecuador, Panama, Philippines, Georgia
Saint of the day:
Patron Saint of the weather
The Moody Eagle
As a child, Saint Medardus was said to have once been sheltered from the rain by an eagle which hovered over him. This is how he was most commonly depicted, and is why he is associated with weather, good or bad, and why he is held to protect those who work in the open air.
Ingredients
-
Ice Cubes
-
⅓ Part Egg White
-
⅓ Part Lemon Juice
-
1½ Parts Gin
-
⅓ Part Violet Liqueur
-
1 ounce simple syrup
-
2 ½ ounces Champagne
How to make
-
Fill a shaker with ice cubes. Add all ingredients except for the champagne.
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass and top with champagne.
Immaculate Heart of
the Blessed Virgin Mary
FIRST SATURDAY
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 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. [1]. 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."[2]
Daily Devotions/Prayers
·
Drops of Christ’s Blood[3] St. Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary,
with St. Matilda and St. Bridget, wishing to know something of the Passion of
Jesus Christ, offered fervent and special prayers. Upon which Our Lord revealed
to them:
To all the faithful who shall
recite for 3 years, each day, 2 Our Fathers, 2 Hail Mary’s and
2 Glory Be’s in honor of the drops of Blood I lost, I will concede the
following 5 graces:
1.
The
plenary indulgence and remittance of your sins.
2.
You
will be free from the pains of Purgatory.
3.
If
you should die before completing the said 3 years, for you it will be the same
as if you had completed them.
4.
It
will be upon your death the same as if you had shed all your blood for the Holy
Faith.
5.
I
will descend from Heaven to take your soul and that of your relatives, until
the fourth generation.
Blessed by His Holiness Pope Leo XIII in Rome, April 5, 1890
The thought of saving souls should always be on our mind. St. John Bosco stated it well. "There is nothing more holy in this world than to work for the good of souls, for whose salvation Jesus Christ poured out the last drops of His blood." St. Vincent de Paul tells us that: "The salvation of men and our own are so great a good that they merit to be obtained at any price."
Sad to say, the great majority of Catholics put forth little or no effort in promoting the greater honor and glory of God and the salvation of souls. Let us keep in mind that if we manage to save one soul, we also ensure the salvation of our own. The Holy Ghost reveals this to us in the Holy Bible. [St. James 5: 19-20] This little practice gives us a very easy way to save our own soul as well as the ones dearest to us------our family.
First Saturday[4]
The following is an explanation of the conditions contained in Our Lady's request regarding the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays of the Month.
1.
Confess and
receive Holy Communion
On February 15, 1926,
the Child Jesus alone came to visit Sr. Lucia and asked if the devotion to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary was being propagated. Sr. Lucia spoke of the
difficulty some people have in confessing on the first Saturday and asked if
they might be allowed eight days in order to fulfill Our Lady's requests. Jesus
answered: "Yes, even more time still, as long as they receive Me in the
state of grace and have the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary."
2.
Recite the
Rosary
Five decades of the
Rosary may be recited at any time or place; yet, since one will be attending
Mass in order to receive Holy Communion, a very desirable time and place would
be before or after Mass in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. Meditation on
the mysteries according to one's capacity is an essential condition for praying
the Rosary. Yet, involuntary distractions do not rob the Rosary of fruit if one
is doing the best he can.
3.
"Keep me
company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the
Rosary."
The question is
often asked: Does the meditation while reciting the Rosary fulfill this
condition, or is there required an additional
fifteen minutes of meditation?
That
an additional 15 minutes of meditation is required was recently confirmed by
Sr. Lucia of Fatima. It is clear too from a statement by the first Bishop of
Fatima.
The last entry in the
chronology of Fatima, published in the official Calendar of the Sanctuary for
the year of 1940, and signed by Dom Jose Correia da Silva, the first Bishop of
Fatima, gave a summary of Our Lady's requests concerning the Five First Saturdays.
From that official statement in the Calendar of the Sanctuary, we read the
bishop’s enumeration of the various items that pertain to the devotion of the
five Saturdays:
It consists in going
to Confession, receiving Communion, reciting five decades of the Rosary and
meditating for a quarter of an hour on the mysteries of the Rosary on the first
Saturday of five consecutive months. The Confession may be made during the eight
days preceding or following the first Saturday of each month, provided that
Holy Communion be received in the state of grace. Should one forget to form the
intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, it may be
formed at the next Confession, occasion to go to confession being taken at the
first opportunity.
The meditation embraces
one or more mysteries; it may
even include all, taken together or separately, according to individual
attraction or devotion; but it is preferable to meditate on one mystery each month.
Speaking of the
requirement of "keeping me company for fifteen minutes while meditating
on the mysteries of the Rosary," the bishop’s comment that "it
is preferable to meditate on one mystery each month" could apply only
to an extra fifteen minutes, for each decade of the Rosary must have its own
particular meditation. This is clear from the definition of the Rosary given in
the official document of the Church on indulgences, the ENCHIRIDION OF INDULGENCES
published by Pope Paul VI in 1968. It describes the Rosary as follows:
"The Rosary is a
certain formula of prayer, which is made up of fifteen decades of HAIL MARYS
with an OUR FATHER before each decade, and in which the recitation of each decade is accompanied by pious
meditation on a particular mystery of our Redemption." (n. 48)
Like the Rosary, this
meditation may be made any time or place during the first Saturday. Yet again,
like the Rosary, a very fitting time and place would be in the presence of the
Blessed Sacrament before or after Mass.
The question has
been asked: "Would an extra Rosary, which would require about fifteen
minutes, fulfill this request?
It
would seem, if fruitfully meditated, that it would. Or again, the time could be
spent reading meditatively on
one of the fifteen mysteries, which is a form of mental prayer that involves
reading with frequent pauses to reflect on the matter read.
4.
With the
intention of making reparation.
All of the conditions
mentioned above - in numbers 1 to 3 - should be fulfilled with the intention of
making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. On the occasion of the visit
of the Child Jesus to Sr. Lucia (Feb. 16, 1926), she asked:
"My Jesus, what
about those who forget to make the intention?"
Jesus
answered: "They can do so at their next confession, taking advantage of
their first opportunity to go to Confession."
The above are the
minimum requirements for fulfilling the conditions of Our Lady's promise to
obtain for us "at the hour of death the graces necessary for
salvation." Yet, these Communions of reparation, as has been pointed
out, are only a portion of the devotion of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These
few pages are meant to help bring about a frame of mind and heart that will
make us aware of the need of reparation all through the month, and not just on
the first Saturday.
WHY FIVE SATURDAYS?
It
is sometimes asked why Our Lady asked for Communions of reparation on five
first Saturdays, instead of some other number. Our Blessed Lord answered that
question when He appeared to Sr. Lucia May 29, 1930. He explained that it was
because of five kinds of offenses and blasphemies against the Immaculate Heart
of Mary, namely: blasphemies against her Immaculate Conception, against her
perpetual virginity, against the divine and spiritual maternity of Mary,
blasphemies involving the rejection and dishonoring of her images, and the
neglect of implanting in the hearts of children a knowledge and love of this
Immaculate Mother.
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
PART ONE:
THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION ONE
"I BELIEVE" - "WE
BELIEVE"
CHAPTER ONE-MAN'S
CAPACITY FOR GOD
I.
The Desire for God
27
The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God
and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he
find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:
The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is
called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed
to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has
created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence.
He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love
and entrusts himself to his creator.
28
In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given
expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behavior: in
their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth. These forms of
religious expression, despite the ambiguities they often bring with them, are
so universal that one may well call man a religious being:
From one ancestor (God) made all nations to inhabit the
whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of
the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps
grope for him and find him - though indeed he is not far from each one of us.
For "in him we live and move and have our being."
29
But this "intimate and vital bond of man to God" can be forgotten,
overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by man. Such attitudes can have
different causes: revolt against evil in the world; religious ignorance or
indifference; the cares and riches of this world; the scandal of bad example on
the part of believers; currents of thought hostile to religion; finally, that
attitude of sinful man which makes him hide from God out of fear and flee his
call.
30
"Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice." Although
man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek
him, so as to find life and happiness. But this search for God demands of man
every effort of intellect, a sound will, "an upright heart", as well
as the witness of others who teach him to seek God.
You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised: great is
your power and your wisdom is without measure. and man, so small a part of your
creation, wants to praise you: this man, though clothed with mortality and
bearing the evidence of sin and the proof that you withstand the proud. Despite
everything, man, though but a small a part of your creation, wants to praise
you. You yourself encourage him to delight in your praise, for you have made us
for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
Apostolic Exhortation[5]
Veneremur
Cernui – Down in Adoration Falling
of The Most
Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted, Bishop of Phoenix,
to Priests, Deacons, Religious and the Lay Faithful of the Diocese of Phoenix
on the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist
My beloved Brothers and
Sisters in Christ,
Part III
Loving and Adoring the
Eucharistic Lord
IV. Invite a friend to join you
in adoration.
85. Call to mind a loved one
who feels himself or herself to be far from the Church. Think of a friend who
finds the Mass difficult to understand and to engage. Consider an acquaintance
in your life who does not believe in God or in Christ. Now imagine each of
these persons sitting quietly and peacefully next to you in a beautiful place
of adoration for ten minutes of Eucharistic adoration.
What gentle but profound effect
might it have in his or her heart?
86. The Gospels present a clear
pattern in which Jesus makes Himself present to people before He teaches, and
certainly long before He draws them into His act of worship in His Paschal
Mystery. We might say the general pattern is: first His presence, then His
worship. The Lord is present in many ways.
But do we trust that the
Eucharistic Christ can and will touch the hearts of our friends, if we but
invite them to be near Him there?
87. Of course, it takes
prudence and discernment to know when and how to offer such an invitation. But
the times for such friendly invitations do come! In the Gospels we see persons
bringing others into the bodily presence of Christ in various ways. I’ll mention
three different approaches which are instructive for us today: testimony,
invitation, and carrying.
To be continued…
Vinny’s Corner-Be on the
lookout for abandoned properties
Design house: A beautifully converted monastery in
southern France
At a long–neglected
abbey Lorenzo and Mariarosa Pellicioli have created a welcoming family home
with zeal and passion
·
Dragon Boat Races—June 8-10--Visit Hong Kong
to experience the excitement of the Duanwu Festival, celebrated on the fifth
day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar. The festival includes dragon boat races
in Aberdeen -- one of the first places to host these races in Hong Kong.
Fishermen believe that rowing dragon boats during the Duanwu Festival will
bring them luck.
§ Go to Chinese Buffet
§
And see how many turns you make around the buffet table
World Brain Tumor Day
·
Girl's brain tumor vanishes, and more medical miracles
that inspired us in 2018
Today
is World Oceans Day
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: : Protection
of Traditional Marriage
·
Saturday
Litany of the Hours Invoking the Aid of Mother Mary
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Rosary
[1] Paone, Anthony J., S.J. My Daily
Bread, Confraternity of the Precious Blood.
[2] http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=31
No comments:
Post a Comment