Rosary Roadmap of Salvation

Monday, February 3, 2025

 Monday Night at the Movies

Norman Stone-Shadowlands

February 3 Monday

feast of st. blaise 

Psalm 31, Verse 20

How great is your goodness, Lord, stored up for those who FEAR you. You display it for those who trust you, in the sight of the children of Adam. 

Reviewing this verse one wonders, what exactly does “stored up mean”. A little research reveals that stored up means to gather or amass something. King David is professing here that just as in the natural world there are laws that if followed lead to exponential growth so it follows that if a believer but trust in the Lord and retain a Godly fear versus the fear of man; there will be a great abundance in spiritual growth. 

This growth will be so great that it will be accompanied by physical abundance, so that all may see, as stated in the verse “in the sight of the children of Adam” that God has blessed those who love and trust him.  Fear not, for God is with you!  Trust in Him as you would a mighty fortress in harsh conditions.

Feast of St. Blaise[1]

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[2]

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. 

Feast of St. Blaise—Invoking Against Diseases of the Throat 

A physician of Sebaste in Cappodocia, where he was later named Bishop, St. Blaise was martyred about the year 320. He is venerated as a patron to protect us against diseases of the throat, mainly because of the story told that he cured a boy choking from a fishbone.

As a doctor Blaise went into every home, at all hours of the day and night, knew both the rich and poor of the neighborhood, comforted and cured and advised all. As a bishop, he did the same thing. It was said that people had to look for him in the prisons, in the caves with hermits, in the mountains and the valleys, so fast were his steps to search out and to help each member of his flock.

Blaise also had the reputation for curing sick and wounded animals, it was while he tended an animal that some of the governor's hunters found him and announced him as a Christian. This was their best catch, a bishop; and Blaise was ready, for he had been warned in prayer to prepare himself as a sacrifice. On his way to prison, Blaise greets his people along the way, says goodbye to them, evangelizes them and baptizes. As he speaks, a voice is heard on the streets:

"Stop," says a woman, "my child is dying!"

"And what is the matter with this child?"

"There is a fishbone in his throat, and it is strangling him."

Is it a physician or a bishop that is needed? Blaise does not hesitate medicine is too long, faith is shorter. He touches the elbow of the little boy, and commands the fishbone in the name of its maker:

"Go down or come out, by the law of the All-Powerful!"

The fishbone disappears and the child is returned safe and sound to his mother.

Blaise is thrown into prison, from which there is no exit except by adoration of the pagan gods. Upon his first refusal to worship, Blaise is whipped; and this achieves nothing, attempts are made to buy him off: he must keep his faith to himself and simply appear at the official ceremonies of the state. Again, he refuses, and is tortured, beaten and thrown into prison again.

"You punish my body," says Blaise, "but there is nothing you can do to my soul. If he wished, my God could snatch my body from your hands. His will be done."

"Do you think he could save you, if I had you drowned like cat in a pond?" asked the governor. Thereupon he orders Blaise to be thrown into a nearby lake and is astonished to find the waters remain frozen like ice, unwilling to be an accomplice in the death of this holy man. In a frenzy, a soldier draws his sword, and with a single blow delivers Blaise from the hands of his tormentors into those of the living God. Excerpted from The Encyclopedia of Catholic Saints, Volume 2

THE RACCOLTA[3]

387. Prayer to St Blaise. 

300 Days, once a day. (See Instructions.) 387 Leo XIII, May 13, 1903. 

O GLORIOUS St Blaise, who with a short prayer didst restore to perfect safety a child at the point of death from a fishbone fixed in its throat, grant that we may all feel the power of thy patronage in every malady of the throat and may have the special grace to mortify the dangerous sense of taste by observing faithfully the precepts of the Church. Thou also, who in thy martyrdom hast left to the Church the testimony of a glorious faith, grant that we may keep this divine gift intact, and that in these times we may be enabled, by word and deed, without fear of man, to defend the truths of faith, so grievously obscured and attacked.


Catechism of the Catholic Church

 

Day 237 1762-1775

PART THREE: LIFE IN CHRIST

SECTION ONE-MAN'S VOCATION LIFE IN THE SPIRIT

                        CHAPTER ONE-THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

Article 5-THE MORALITY OF THE PASSIONS

1762 The human person is ordered to beatitude by his deliberate acts: the passions or feelings he experiences can dispose him to it and contribute to it.

I. Passions

1763 The term "passions" belongs to the Christian patrimony. Feelings or passions are emotions or movements of the sensitive appetite that incline us to act or not to act in regard to something felt or imagined to be good or evil.

1764 The passions are natural components of the human psyche; they form the passageway and ensure the connection between the life of the senses and the life of the mind. Our Lord called man's heart the source from which the passions spring.

1765 There are many passions. The most fundamental passion is love, aroused by the attraction of the good. Love causes a desire for the absent good and the hope of obtaining it; this movement finds completion in the pleasure and joy of the good possessed. The apprehension of evil causes hatred, aversion, and fear of the impending evil; this movement ends in sadness at some present evil, or in the anger that resists it.

1766 "To love is to will the good of another." All other affections have their source in this first movement of the human heart toward the good. Only the good can be loved. Passions "are evil if love is evil and good if it is good."

II. Passions and Moral Life

1767 In themselves passions are neither good nor evil. They are morally qualified only to the extent that they effectively engage reason and will. Passions are said to be voluntary, "either because they are commanded by the will or because the will does not place obstacles in their way." It belongs to the perfection of the moral or human good that the passions be governed by reason.

1768 Strong feelings are not decisive for the morality or the holiness of persons; they are simply the inexhaustible reservoir of images and affections in which the moral life is expressed. Passions are morally good when they contribute to a good action, evil in the opposite case. The upright will orders the movements of the senses it appropriates to the good and to beatitude; an evil will succumbs to disordered passions and exacerbates them. Emotions and feelings can be taken up into the virtues or perverted by the vices.

1769 In the Christian life, the Holy Spirit himself accomplishes his work by mobilizing the whole being, with all its sorrows, fears and sadness, as is visible in the Lord's agony and passion. In Christ human feelings are able to reach their consummation in charity and divine beatitude.

1770 Moral perfection consists in man's being moved to the good not by his will alone, but also by his sensitive appetite, as in the words of the psalm: "My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God."

IN BRIEF

1771 The term "passions" refers to the affections or the feelings. By his emotions man intuits the good and suspects evil.

1772 The principal passions are love and hatred, desire and fear, joy, sadness, and anger.

1773 In the passions, as movements of the sensitive appetite, there is neither moral good nor evil. But insofar as they engage reason and will, there is moral good or evil in them.

1774 Emotions and feelings can be taken up in the virtues or perverted by the vices.

1775 The perfection of the moral good consists in man's being moved to the good not only by his will but also by his "heart."

Daily Devotions

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

·         Saturday Litany of the Hours Invoking the Aid of Mother Mary

·         Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus

·         Drops of Christ’s Blood

·         Iceman’s 40 devotion

·         Universal Man Plan

·         Rosary


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