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"Yes, my dear brethren, in everything that we see, in everything that we hear, in all we say and do, we are conscious of the fact that we are drawn towards evil. If we are at table, there is sensuality, and gluttony, and intemperance. If we take a few moments of recreation, there are the dangers of flightiness and idle chatter. If we are at work, most of the time it is self-interest, or avarice, or envy which influences us -- or even vanity.

When we pray, there is negligence, distraction, distaste, and boredom. If we are in pain or any trouble, there are complaints and murmurings. When we are doing well and are prosperous, pride, self-love, and contempt for our neighbor take hold of us. Our hearts swell with pride when we are praised. Wrongs inflame us into rages.

There you see my dear brethren, the thing which made the greatest of the saints tremble. This was what made so many of them retire into the desert to live solitary lives; this was the source of so many tears, of so many prayers, of so many penances. It is true that the saints who were hidden away in the forests were not exempt from temptations, but they were far removed from so much bad example as that which surrounds us continually and which is the cause of so many souls being lost. But, my dear brethren, we see from their lives that they watched, they prayed, and they were in dread unceasingly, while we, poor, blind sinners, are quite placid in the midst of so many dangers which could lose us our souls!

Alas, my dear brethren, some of us do not even know what it is to be tempted because we hardly ever, or very rarely, resist. Which one of us can expect to escape from all these dangers? Which one of us will be saved? Anyone who wanted to reflect upon all these things could hardly go on living, so greatly terrified would he be!

However, my dear brethren, what ought to console and reassure us is that we have to deal with a good Father Who will never allow our struggles to be greater than our strength, and every time we have recourse to Him, He will help us to fight and to conquer."

source: Sermons of the Cure d'Ars, p.89, 1960 (Public Domain)

Prayer for Lent: O Lord who, for our sake, didst fast forty days and forty nights; give us grace to use such abstinence that, our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may worthily lament and acknowledge our wretchedness, and may obtain perfect remission and forgiveness of Thee, the God of all mercy, who livest and reignest with the Father and Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen

Source: Lent with the Cure d'Ars Compiled by the CAPG

4. We adore Thee, O most meek and merciful God! And to repair all the sins of anger, passion, and revenge, highly offensive in Thy sight, we offer up to Thee the peace, mildness and tranquility of the Thrones. Eternal praise and thanksgiving be to the Most Holy and Most Divine Sacrament.

O Queen of heaven and earth, hope of mankind, who adores thy Divine Son incessantly! We entreat thee, that, since we have the honor to be of the number of thy children, thou would interest thyself in our behalf and make satisfaction for us, and in our name, to our Eternal Judge, by rendering to Him the duties which we ourselves are incapable of performing. Amen.

Source: CAPG

"Whom does the devil pursue most? Perhaps you are thinking that it must be those who are tempted most; these would undoubtedly be the habitual drunkards, the scandalmongers, the immodest and shameless people who wallow in moral filth, and the miser, who hoards in all sorts of ways.

No, my dear brethren no, it is not these people. On the contrary, the Devil despises them, or else he holds onto them, lest they not have a long enough time in which to do evil, because the longer they live, the more their bad example will drag souls into Hell.

Indeed, if the Devil had pursued this lewd and shameless old fellow too closely, he might have shortened the latter's life by fifteen or twenty years, and he would not then have destroyed the virginity of that young girl by plunging her into the unspeakable mire of his indecencies; he would not, again, have seduced that wife, nor would he have taught his evil lessons to that young man, who will perhaps continue to practice them until his death. If the Devil had prompted this thief to rob on every occasion, he would long since have ended on the scaffold and so he would not have induced his neighbor to follow his example. If the Devil had urged this drunkard to fill himself unceasingly with wine, he would long ago have perished in his debaucheries, instead of which, by living longer, he has made many others like himself. If the Devil had taken away the life of this musician, of that dance hall owner, of this cabaret keeper, in some raid or scuffle, or on any other occasion, how many souls would there be who, without these people, would not be damned and who now will be? St. Augustine teaches us that the Devil does not bother these people very much; on the contrary, he despises them and spits upon them.

So, you will ask me, who then are the people most tempted? They are these, my friends; note them carefully. The people most tempted are those who are ready, with the grace of God, to sacrifice everything for the salvation of their poor souls, who renounce all those things which most people eagerly seek. It is not one devil only who tempts them, but millions seek to entrap them. We are told that St. Francis of Assisi and all his religious were gathered on an open plain, where they had built little huts of rushes. Seeing the extraordinary penances which were being practiced, St. Francis ordered that all instruments of penance should be brought out, whereupon his religious produced them in bundles. At this moment, there was one young man to whom God gave the grace to see his Guardian Angel. On the one side, he saw all of these good religious, who could not satisfy their hunger for penance, and, on the other, his Guardian Angel allowed him to see a gathering of eighteen thousand devils, who were holding counsel to see in what way they could subvert these religious by temptation. One of the devils said: "You do not understand this at all. These religious are so humble; ah, what wonderful virtue, so detached from themselves, so attached to God! They have a superior who leads them so well that it is impossible to succeed in winning them over. Let us wait until their superior is dead, and then we shall try to introduce among them young people without vocations who will bring about a certain slackening of spirit, and in this way we shall gain them." A little further on, as he entered the town, he saw a devil, sitting by himself beside the gate into the town, whose task was to tempt all of those who were inside. This saint asked his Guardian Angel why it was that in order to tempt this group of religious there had been so many thousands of devils while for a whole town there was but one -- and that one sitting down. His good angel told him that the people of the town had not the same need of temptations, that they had enough bad in themselves, while the religious were doing good despite all the traps which the Devil could lay for them.

The first temptation, my dear brethren, which the Devil tries on anyone who has begun to serve God better is in the matter of human respect. He will no longer dare to be seen around; he will hide himself from those with whom heretofore he had been mixing and pleasure seeking. If he should be told that he has changed a lot, he will be ashamed of it! What people are going to say about him is continually in his mind, to the extent that he no longer has enough courage to do good before other people. If the Devil cannot get him back through human respect, he will induce an extraordinary fear to possess him that his confessions are not good, that his confessor does not understand him, that whatever he does will be all in vain, that he will be damned just the same, that he will achieve the same result in the end by letting everything slide as by continuing to fight, because the occasions of sin will prove too many for him.

Why is it, my dear brethren, that when someone gives no thought at all to saving his soul, when he is living in sin, he is not tempted in the slightest, but that as soon as he wants to change his life, in other words, as soon as the desire to give his life to God comes to him, all Hell falls upon him? Listen to what St. Augustine has to say: "Look at the way," he tells us, "in which the Devil behaves towards the sinner. He acts like a jailer who has a great many prisoners locked up in his prison but who, because he has the key in his pocket, is quite happy to leave them, secure in the knowledge that they cannot get out. This is his way of dealing with the sinner who does not consider the possibility of leaving his sin behind. He does not go to the trouble of tempting him. He looks upon this as time wasted because not only is the sinner not thinking of leaving him, but the Devil does not desire to multiply his chains. It would be pointless, therefore, to tempt him. He allows him to live in peace, if, indeed, it is possible to live in peace when one is in sin. He hides his state from the sinner as much as is possible until death, when he then tries to paint a picture of his life so terrifying as to plunge him into despair. But with anyone who has made up his mind to change his life, to give himself up to God, that is another thing altogether."

While St. Augustine lived in sin and evil, he was not aware of anything by which he was tempted. He believed himself to be at peace, as he tells us himself. But from the moment that he desired to turn his back upon the Devil, he had to struggle with him, even to the point of losing his breath in the fight. And that lasted for five years. He wept the most bitter of tears and employed the most austere of penances: "I argued with him," he says, "in my chains. One day I thought myself victorious, the next I was prostrate on the earth again. This cruel and stubborn war went on for five years. However, God gave me the grace to be victorious over my enemy."

You may see, too, the struggle which St. Jerome endured when he desired to give himself to God and when he had the thought of visiting the Holy Land. When he was in Rome, he conceived a new desire to work for his salvation. Leaving Rome, he buried himself in a fearsome desert to give himself over to everything with which his love of God could inspire him. Then the Devil, who foresaw how greatly his conversion would affect others, seemed to burst with fury and despair. There was not a single temptation that he spared him. I do not believe that there is any saint who was as strongly tempted as he. This is how he wrote to one of his friends: "My dear friend, I wish to confide in you about my affliction and the state to which the Devil seeks to reduce me. How many times in this vast solitude, which the heat of the sun makes insupportable, how many times the pleasures of Rome have come to assail me! The sorrow and the bitterness with which my soul is filled cause me, night and day, to shed floods of tears. I proceed to hide myself in the most isolated places to struggle with my temptations and there to weep for my sins. My body is all disfigured and covered with a rough hair shirt. I have no other bed than the naked ground and my only food is coarse roots and water, even in my illnesses. In spite of all these rigors, my body still experiences thoughts of the squalid pleasures with which Rome is poisoned; my spirit finds itself in the midst of those pleasant companionship in which I so greatly offended God. In this desert to which I have condemned myself to avoid Hell, among these sombre rocks, where I have no other companions than the scorpions and the wild beasts, my spirit still burns my body, already dead before myself, with an impure fire; the Devil still dares to offer it pleasures to taste. I behold myself so humiliated by these temptations, the very thought of which makes me die with horror, and not knowing what further austerities I should exert upon my body to attach it to God, that I throw myself on the ground at the foot of my crucifix, bathing it with my tears, and when I can weep no more I pick up stones and beat my breast with them until the blood comes out of my mouth, begging for mercy until the Lord takes pity upon me. Is there anyone who can understand the misery of my state, desiring so ardently to please God and to love Him alone? Yet I see myself constantly prone to offend Him. What sorrow this is for me! Help me, my dear friend, by the aid of your prayers, so that I may be stronger in repelling the Devil, who has sworn my eternal damnation." These, my dear brethren, are the struggles to which God permits his great saints to be exposed.

Alas, how we are to be pitied if we are not fiercely harried by the Devil! According to all appearances, we are the friends of the Devil: he lets us live in a false peace, he lulls us to sleep under the pretense that we have said some good prayers, given some alms, that we have done less harm than others. According to our standard, my dear brethren, if you were to ask, for instance, this pillar of the cabaret if the Devil tempted him, he would answer quite simply that nothing was bothering him at all. Ask this young girl, this daughter of vanity, what her struggles are like, and she will tell you laughingly that she has none at all, that she does not even know what it is to be tempted. There you see, my dear brethren, the most terrifying temptation of all, which is not to be tempted. There you see the state of those whom the Devil is preserving for Hell. If I dared, I would tell you that he takes good care not to tempt or torment such people about their past lives, lest their eyes be opened to their sins. The greatest of all evils is not to be tempted because there are then grounds for believing that the Devil looks upon us as his property and that he is only awaiting our deaths to drag us into Hell. Nothing could be easier to understand. Just consider the Christian who is trying, even in a small way, to save his soul. Everything around him inclines him to evil; he can hardly lift his eyes without being tempted, in spite of all his prayers and penances. And yet a hardened sinner, who for the past twenty years has been wallowing in sin, will tell you that he is not tempted! So much the worse, my friend, so much the worse! That is precisely what should make you tremble -- that you do not know what temptations are. For to say that you are not tempted is like saying the Devil no longer exists or that he has lost all his rage against Christian souls."

If you have no temptations," St. Gregory tells us, "it is because the devils are your friends, your leaders, and your shepherds. And by allowing you to pass your poor life tranquilly, to the end of your days, they will drag you down into the depths." St. Augustine tells us that the greatest temptation is not to have temptations because this means that one is a person who has been rejected, abandoned by God, and left entirely in the grip of one's own passions."

Source: Sermons of the Cure d'Ars, p. 94, 1960. (public Domain)

Prayer for Lent: O Lord who, for our sake, didst fast forty days and forty nights; give us grace to use such abstinence that, our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may worthily lament and acknowledge our wretchedness, and may obtain perfect remission and forgiveness of Thee, the God of all mercy, who livest and reignest with the Father and Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen

Source: Lent with the Cure d'Ars Compiled by the CAPG

St Peter in Prayer Hendrick Bloemaer

"Our brethren of the laity often complain of the priest they get; I wonder, does it ever occur to them to pray for better? When the Ember seasons come round, how many people remember to pray for the priests who are being ordained? We pile the sanctuary with flowers, we make it a blaze of candles; but there is something else needed far more than lights or flowers for God's honor, that the hearts of his priests should be made a fit habitation for Himself. Of his priests? Not of His priests only, but our own hearts too." Source: Pastoral Sermons and Occasional Sermons, The Eucharist, Fr. Ronald Knox

• Ember days: The four ember-weeks in the year, are times of public prayers, fasting, and procession, partly instituted for the successful ordination of priests and other ministers of the Church; which is commonly performed at those seasons; and partly to thank God for the fruits of the earth and implore a continuance of them.
  
• Ember day derives its name from the ancient religious custom of eating nothing on those days till night, and then only a cake baked under the embers, called ember-bread.

The observance of ember-days is of great antiquity in the Church. Their connection with the ordination of the ministers of religion renders them particularly worthy to the regard of the faithful. We cannot be too deeply impressed with the blessing granted a people, whose priests are according to God's heart. To obtain such, no humiliation should be deemed too great; no supplication should be neglected. Whilst therefore we thank God for the fruits of the earth, and humble ourselves for the sins we have committed, we should beg God to supply his Church with worthy pastors. Source: Saint Vincent's Manual, A Selection of Prayers and Exercises for the Sisters of Charity 1856 p34

Mass Propers for Ember Wednesday

• Prayers for Ember Days:
  

Listen, Almighty God, we beseech Thee, to the prayers which Thy universal Church offers to Thee at this time, beseeching Thy blessing on those who are about to be admitted to Thy Holy Service of the Altar, in particular on ..... Give Thy grace to all who are called to any office and administration amongst Thy clergy, and so replenish them with the truth of Thy doctrine, and indue them with innocence of life, that they may faithfully serve Thee, to the glory of Thy great name and the benefit of Thy Holy Church. Amen

O God, of Whose mercies there is no number, and of Whose goodness the treasure is infinite, we humbly thank Thee for the gifts thou hast bestowed upon us. Continue Thy mercy to us, and give us also so much of Thy temporal blessings as Thou knowest to be for our good. Grant that the fruits of the earth may, by Thy holy favor, increase and multiply. Defend them from all drought, frosts or tempests, or whatever else may be hurtful to them. It is from Thy hand only that we look for succor, and to Thee we have recourse in all our necessities. Amen. Source: St. John's Manual 1856, Archbishop of New York John J. Hugues

Prayer for the Bishop in Assigning Priests:
God, Eternal Shepherd, You tend your Church in many ways and rule us with love. You have chosen your servant, Bishop (Name), to be the shepherd of Your flock. Give him a spirit of courage and right judgment, a spirit of knowledge and love. Inspire him to lay aside all worldly ambitions and concerns so that he may nurture us in the eternal truths of the Catholic Faith. May he be led by the Holy Ghost so that he will use wisdom and discernment in his choices in assigning new priests to the parishes of this diocese.
Blessed Virgin Mary, guard our bishop with your motherly care; bring him closer to your Son through your Immaculate Heart. Keep him pure and humble and grant that he may attain eternal life with those under his care. Holy Mary, Seat of Wisdom, pray for us.

Devotions for Ember days:

• Diving into the Catholic Treasury: A Revival of the Ember Days by Canon Huberfelt, ICRSS
  
• Renewal and the Penitential Life by Msgr. Ingham
• The Seven Penitential Psalms (Msgr. Ingham, audio)
• Seven Penitential Psalms (Latin/English)
  
• Litany of Saints
• Litany to Obtain Holy Priests
• Holy Hour of Adoration and Reparation for Priests
• Stations of the Cross for Priests (Especially for those who are suffering persecution)
• The Rosary to Our Lady of Sorrows dedicated for Priests, (by Fr. Scott McCaig,CC on the occasion of the Year for Priest, 2009)

"In the south Italian province of Basilicata lies the little town of Lauria in the diocese of Policastro. Here was born on November 20, 1770, the Blessed Dominic Lentini. On account of the extreme poverty of his parents the boy met with great difficulties in completing his studies. After his ordination Lentini became a professor in the Lyceum of his native town. He strove particularly to enlighten the young as to the false principles of the philosophy of the day by means of many discourses of a philosophy-apologetic kind.
In 1779 a liberty tree had been erected in Lauria. When the revolution reached its climax, the cooler hears desired to pull it down, but a crowd of furious revolutionists ranged themselves before it, ready to strike down any one who should dare to touch it. A great uproar ensued. Then the young priest Lentini stepped out before the crowd and resolutely ordered them to pull down the tree and bring it to the nearest hill. They involuntary obeyed him. Then he mad them fashion the wood into a cross and raise it aloft. Beneath it he addressed them with burning eloquence, telling them: "This is the tree of freedom and of salvation. We shall honor no other." Contrite and with hearts redeemed to the ancient Faith, the crowd dispersed. Lentini died on February 16, 1828. His grave continually attracts many pilgrims because of the extraordinary things which take place there."

Source: The Holiness of the Church in the Nineteenth Century: Saintly Men and Women of our own times ... By Rev. Fr. Konstantin Kempf, S.J.

"Priest of the Diocese of Tursi-Lagonegro (formerly Policastro); b. Nov. 20, 1770, at Lauria, Potenza, Italy;d. there Feb. 25, 1828. The youngest of the five children of Macario Lentini and Rosalia Vitarella, Domenico (Dominic) Lentini studied in the seminary at Salerno and was ordained in 1794. In addition to his ministry in Lauria, he taught literature, philosophy, and theology to young people in his home without monetary compensation. He preached and catechized throughout the diocese and spread the devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows. He is called the "precursor to the Curé d'Ars" (St. John vianney) because of his willingness to make himself available to hear confessions and his gift of reading hearts. He practiced personal austerity in order to provide charity to the poor, and frequent penances in the spirit of reparation. Lentini was beatified on Oct. 12, 1997 by Pope John Paul II."

Source: Encyclopedia.com

Biography: Blessed Dominic Lentini

Prayer:

O blessed Domenico Lentini listen to the prayers of supplication that we bring you, trusting in your intercession. Help us turn our life towards the Lord, to seek in everything, His taste, His will and His glory. You were in love with the Crucifix, teach us the way of brotherly love. Watch over our families, that they may be a place of prayer, peace and life. Arouse in the hearts of young people the desire to follow Christ and to serve Him in His Church. Be a refuge, comfort and hope for those experiencing suffering in body and spirit. Give us, following your example, the ability to abandon ourselves in the hands and heart of the Sorrowful Virgin, to proceed safely towards eternal life, the final destination of our pilgrimage, where you await us. Obtain for us the grace that we need the most. Amen

Translated from the Italian with the help of DC

"We are all inclined to sin, my children; we are idle, greedy, sensual, given to the pleasures of the flesh. We want to know everything, to learn everything, to see everything; we must watch over our mind, over our heart, and over our senses, for these are the gates by which the devil penetrates. See, he prowls round us incessantly; his only occupation in this world is to seek companions for himself. All our life he will lay snares for us, he will try to make us yield to temptations; we must, on our side, do all we can to defeat and resist him.

We can do nothing by ourselves, my children; but we can do everything with the help of the good God; let us pray Him to deliver us from this enemy of our salvation, or to give us strength to fight against him. With the Name of Jesus we shall overthrow the demons; we shall put them to flight. With this Name, if they sometimes dare to attack us, our battles will be victories, and our victories will be crowns for heaven, all brilliant with precious stones.

See, my children, the good God refuses nothing to those who pray to Him from the bottom of their heart. St. Teresa, being one day in prayer, and desiring to see the good God, Jesus Christ showed to the eyes of her soul His divine Hands; then, another day, when she was again in prayer, He showed her His Face. Lastly, some days after, He showed her the whole of His Sacred Humanity. The good God who granted the desire of St. Teresa will also grant our prayers. If we ask of Him the grace to resist temptations, He will grant it to us; for He wishes to save us all, He shed His Blood for us all, He died for us all, He is waiting for us all in heaven; we are two or three hundred here: shall we all be saved, shall we all go to heaven? Alas! my children, we know nothing about it; but I tremble when I see so many souls lost in these days. See, they fall into hell as the leaves fall from the trees at the approach of winter.

We shall fall like the rest, my children, if we do not avoid temptations; if, when we cannot avoid them, we do not fight generously, with the help of the good God, if we do not invoke His Name during the strife, like St. Anthony in the desert. This saint having retired into an old sepulcher, the devil came to attack him; he tried at first to terrify him with a horrible noise; he even beat him so cruelly, that he left him half dead and covered with wounds. "Well," said St. Anthony, "here I am, ready to fight again; no, thou shalt not be able to separate me from Jesus Christ, my Lord and my God." The spirits of darkness redoubled their efforts, and uttered frightful cries. St. Anthony remained unmoved, because he put all his confidence in God.

After the example of this saint, my children, let us be always ready for the combat; let us put our confidence in God; let us fast and pray; and the devil will not be able to separate us from Jesus Christ, either in this world or the next."

Source: The Spirit of the Cure d'Ars, by l'Abbe Monnin p.130, 1865.

Prayer for Lent: O Lord who, for our sake, didst fast forty days and forty nights; give us grace to use such abstinence that, our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may worthily lament and acknowledge our wretchedness, and may obtain perfect remission and forgiveness of Thee, the God of all mercy, who livest and reignest with the Father and Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen

Source: Lent with the Cure d'Ars Compiled by the CAPG

St. Matthias by Rubbens

“It behoves us to combat the flesh and make use of it without pampering it by unlawful gratifications. As to the soul, we must develop her power by faith and knowledge.” St. Matthias

Procession near Ploumanac'h, 1879 Léon Lhermitte (Brittany, France)

"Tis not a ship on the tossing waves
That the Old Church seems to me,
But a guide light set on a headland high
And gleaming over the sea.

Lit by the breath of Christ Our Lord,
As He sat with His friends to rest,
Where the waves of the blue Genesareth
Kissed the land that His presence blessed.

The powers of earth may chase the gleam 
Of will-o'-the-whisps that fly.
But their good ships reel on the sunken rocks,
and the false lights flickering die.

But Thou, white light of the breath of Christ,
Thou shinest across the foam,
Till the shoals are past and the anchor cast
The light is the light of home.
H.H.H., in Irish Catholic

Source: Our Young People, Volumes 39-40