Day 34. Lent with the Cure d'Ars: Follow one Master only
by VP
Posted on Monday March 23, 2026 at 02:00AM in Lenten Sermons
"What a sad life does he lead who wants both to please the world and to serve God! It is a great mistake to make, my friends.
Apart from the fact that you are going to be unhappy all the time, you can never attain the stage at which you will be able to please the world and please God. It is as impossible a feat as trying to put an end to eternity.
Take the advice that I am going to give you now and you will be less unhappy: give yourselves wholly to God or else wholly to the world.
Do not look for and do not serve more than one master, and once you have chosen the one you are going to follow, do not leave him.
You surely remember what Jesus Christ said to you in the Gospel: you cannot serve God and Mammon; that is to say, you cannot follow the world and the pleasures of the world and Jesus Christ with His Cross. Of course you would be quite willing to follow God just so far and the world just so far!
Let me put it even more clearly: you would like it if your conscience, if your heart, would allow you to go to the altar in the morning and the dance in the evening; to spend part of the day in church and the remainder in the cabarets or other places of amusement; to talk of God at one moment and the next to tell obscene stories or utter calumnies about your neighbor; to do a good turn for your next-door neighbor on one occasion and on some other to do him harm; in other words, to do good and speak well when you are with good people and to do wrong when you are in bad company"
Source: The Sermons of the Cure d'Ars 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 CAPGThe Devil
by VP
Posted on Monday March 23, 2026 at 12:00AM in Quotes
Traditional Latin Mass, Holy Name Cathedral Raleigh, NC
"Saint Bonaventure says, that in the Mass God manifests to us all the love which he has borne us, and includes in it, as in a compendium, all His benefits. (...)
On this account the devil has always endeavored to abolish the Mass throughout the world by means of heretics, making them the precursors of Antichrist, who before all things will endeavor to abolish, and in fact will, in punishment of sins of men, succeed in abolishing the holy sacrifice of the altar, according to the prediction of Daniel: And strength was given him against the continual sacrifice, because of sins: and truth shall be cast down on the ground, and he shall do and shall prosper. (Daniel 8,12)."
Source: Sacerdos sanctificatus; or, Discourses on the Mass and Office Alphonsus Liguori
Passion Sunday: Behavior At Mass
by VP
Posted on Sunday March 22, 2026 at 03:00AM in Sunday Sermons
“But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple." -St. John viii. 59.
"We gather from the Gospels that our Divine Saviour frequented the Jewish Temple. Whenever He came to Jerusalem, His first visit was to the Temple, and while He remained in the City of Sion most of His time was passed in the Temple. This, the great sanctuary of the Old Dispensation, was, without doubt, the true Temple of God, and our Blessed Lord loved its courts; for here alone was His Heavenly Father truly known and glorified among men. And, although the Old Law was soon to be superseded by the New, and the Temple and its sacrifices were to pass away for ever, yet the Divine Redeemer jealously guarded its honor to the last. He could not tolerate the least irreverence or profanation within its sacred precincts.
If you recollect, the only time that our meek and gentle Lord gave way to angry indignation, and acted with downright severity, was when He found the buyers and sellers in the Temple. Inflamed with holy zeal at the sight of such profanation, He at once turned upon the sacrilegious traffickers and drove them and their wares out of the Temple, using a scourge and saying: "Take these things hence, and make not the house of My Father a house of traffic." Nor did they stand on the order of their going, for they recognized in the indignant countenance and commanding presence of Jesus Christ the manifestation of Divine displeasure.
Now, the attitude of our Lord Jesus Christ towards the old Jewish Temple teaches us two very important lessons-first, to love the House of God and to frequent it; and second, to behave with the greatest reverence within its walls. Surely the Lord of the Temple did not need to honor it. Yet, behold, His attachment for it, how often He visited it, and how incensed He was against all who profaned it! And if the sanctuary of the Old Law was so sacred in the eyes of our Lord Jesus Christ, how much more so the sanctuaries of the New Law? Was it not said of Him that "zeal for God's house hath consumed Him?" And do we not find that those amongst us who have most of the Spirit of Christ imitate Him in this also? Good Christians love the House of God; they visit it often, and they are full of reverence for it. While, on the other hand, there is no more infallible sign of a coarse and tepid Christian spirit than irreverence in the Temple of God. People whom you see enter the church laughing and talking, have little or no sense of worship; they come rather for appearance' sake, like the Sadducees of old.
People whom you find neglecting church Sunday after Sunday, have nothing of the Spirit of Christ; they are merely baptized heathens. There is no truer test of our religious spirit than this.
What is our attitude towards the House of God? Do we love to frequent it? Do we act with due reverence in it? If we are indifferent or irreverent, our religion is a mere sentiment, and our worship worse than a pretence. Let those who talk in church, the slothful Christians who straggle in late to church, the negligent Christians who seldom enter the church at all, ask themselves how our Lord Jesus Christ must regard their conduct. Surely He would use the lash upon them, or He would withdraw from them as He did from the sacrilegious Jews in the Temple. I greatly fear our Blessed Saviour would find much to displease Him in our churches. He might, perhaps, even find a den of thieves, and in many of the organ galleries He would find dens of impious flirts and gossipers.
Oh! my dear brethren, let us imitate the Blessed Saviour in His love and reverence for the Temple of God; let us frequent its sacred precincts, and never, by word or act, be guilty of the slightest irreverence within its walls. Let us teach our children to behave with the utmost decorum before the altar; let them understand that no word should there be spoken that is not addressed to the throne of God. And then we shall not grieve the Sacred Heart of Jesus, so soon to bleed for us on Calvary." Passion Sunday- Five Minute Sermons by the Paulist Fathers 1893
Saint Lea of Rome, Widow, A.D. 384
by VP
Posted on Sunday March 22, 2026 at 03:00AM in Saints
"She was a rich Roman lady. After the death of her husband, entering into a monastery, she was chosen abbess; and by her exemplary piety promoted all good. She had now sackcloth to succeed that rich attire, which she had worn in her conjugal state, and haircloth to take the place of her fine linen. The nights formerly wasted in entertainments, she now employs in prayer, and having been attended by many servants, she is now the servant of all. In this state of penance and humility, without any mixture of affectation, she lived till God called her to the possession of what she had sought. St. Jerome has recorded the virtues of this holy widow. He observes that in her austerities and good works, she carefully avoided all ostentation, lest she might receive her reward in this world, and not in the next. Now however she enjoys eternal rest for her short labour; she is received by choirs of angels, and cherished in Abraham's bosom.
The present season of Lent is a time of penance proper for following such an example. Look upon your sins, and see if justice does not demand it of you: there will be trouble in the practice; but this is one of those troubles, which will be turned into joy. Let this example be always before you. Take necessity for your rule, and keeping your eye upon it, come as near it as you can. Let it be before you at your table, in your clothing, sleeping, and diversions. You cannot depart many degrees from it, but with the danger of sin. To exceed in sleep is sloth and laziness; it has no great horror in its appearance, but is the forerunner of all evils. To exceed, or be nice in diet, is self-love and luxury; to exceed in dress, is pride and injustice, seeking honour for what deserves contempt. Think of this seriously, taking your measures not from the world, but from the Gospel; and you will soon find reason to retrench. Ask grace to follow the dictates of such reason. Look well to your own state; and as far as you see penance and forsaking any part of this world necessary for your amendment, resolve heartily upon undertaking it. Let no niceness or self-love link you to your sins, and hinder the effects of mercy. Who knows if you shall have another opportunity given you?" Source: The Catholic Year by Rev. Fr. John Gother 1861
Day 33. Lent with the Cure d'Ars: Catechism on Suffering
by VP
Posted on Sunday March 22, 2026 at 02:00AM in Lenten Sermons
"Whether we will it or not, we must suffer. There are some who suffer like the good thief, and others like the bad thief. They both suffered equally. But one knew how to make his sufferings meritorious, he accepted them in the spirit of reparation, and turning towards Jesus crucified, he received from His mouth these beautiful words: "This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise. " The other, on the contrary, cried out, uttered imprecations and blasphemies, and expired in the most frightful despair. There are two ways of suffering - to suffer with love, and to suffer without love. The saints suffered everything with joy, patience, and perseverance, because they loved. As for us, we suffer with anger, vexation, and weariness, because we do not love. If we loved God, we should love crosses, we should wish for them, we should take pleasure in them. . . . We should be happy to be able to suffer for the love of Him who lovingly suffered for us. Of what do we complain? Alas! the poor infidels, who have not the happiness of knowing God and His infinite loveliness, have the same crosses that we have; but they have not the same consolations. You say it is hard? No, it is easy, it is consoling, it is sweet; it is happiness. Only we must love while we suffer, and suffer while we love.
On the Way of the Cross, you see, my children, only the first step is painful. Our greatest cross is the fear of crosses. . . . We have not the courage to carry our cross, and we are very much mistaken; for, whatever we do, the cross holds us tight - we cannot escape from it. What, then, have we to lose? Why not love our crosses and make use of them to take us to Heaven? But, on the contrary, most men turn their backs upon crosses, and fly before them. The more they run, the more the cross pursues them, the more it strikes and crushes them with burdens. . . . If you were wise, you would go to meet it like St. Andrew, who said, when he saw the cross prepared for him and raised up into the air, "Hail O good cross! O admirable cross! O desirable cross! receive me into thine arms, withdraw me from among men, and restore me to my Master, who redeemed me through thee."
Listen attentively to this, my children: He who goes to meet the cross, goes in the opposite direction to crosses; he meets them, perhaps, but he is pleased to meet them; he loves them; he carries them courageously. They unite him to Our Lord; they purify him; they detach him from this world; they remove all obstacles from his heart; they help him to pass through life, as a bridge helps us to pass over water. . . . Look at the saints; when they were not persecuted, they persecuted themselves. A good religious complained one day to Our Lord that he was persecuted. He said, "O Lord, what have I done to be treated thus?" Our Lord answered him, "And I, what had I done when I was led to Calvary?" Then the religious understood; he wept, he asked pardon, and dared not complain any more. Worldly people are miserable when they have crosses, and good Christians are miserable when they have none. The Christian lives in the midst of crosses, as the fish lives in the sea.
Look at St. Catherine; she has two crowns, that of purity and that of martyrdom: how happy she is, that dear little saint, to have chosen to suffer rather than to consent to sin! There was once a religious who loved suffering so much that he had fastened the rope from a well round his body; this cord had rubbed off the skin, and had by degrees buried itself in the flesh, out of which worms came. His brethren asked that he should be sent out of the community. He went away happy and pleased, to hide himself in a rocky cavern. But the same night the Superior heard Our Lord saying to him: "Thou hast lost the treasure of thy house." Then they went to fetch back this good saint, and they wanted to see from whence these worms came. The Superior had the cord taken off, which was done by turning back the flesh. At last he got well.
Very near this, in a neighboring parish, there was a little boy in bed, covered with sores, very ill, and very miserable; I said to him, "My poor little child, you are suffering very much!" He answered me, "No, sir; today I do not feel the pain I had yesterday, and tomorrow I shall not suffer from the pain I have now:' "You would like to get well?" "No; I was naughty before I was ill, and I might be so again. I am very well as I am. " We do not understand that, because we are too earthly. Children in whom the Holy Ghost dwells put us to shame.
If the good God sends us crosses, we resist, we complain, we murmur; we are so averse to whatever contradicts us, that we want to be always in a box of cotton: but we ought to be put into a box of thorns. It is by the Cross that we go to Heaven. Illnesses, temptations, troubles, are so many crosses which take us to Heaven. All this will soon be over. . . . Look at the saints, who have arrived there before us. . . . The good God does not require of us the martyrdom of the body; He requires only the martyrdom of the heart, and of the will. . . . Our Lord is our model; let us take up our cross, and follow Him. Let us do like the soldiers of Napoleon. They had to cross a bridge under the fire of grapeshot; no one dared to pass it. Napoleon took the colours, marched over first, and they all followed. Let us do the same; let us follow Our Lord, who has gone before us.
A soldier was telling me one day that during a battle he had marched for half an hour over dead bodies; there was hardly space to tread upon; the ground was all dyed with blood. Thus on the road of life we must walk over crosses and troubles to reach our true country. The cross is the ladder to Heaven. . . . How consoling it is to suffer under the eyes of God, and to be able to say in the evening, at our examination of conscience: "Come, my soul! thou hast had today two or three hours of resemblance to Jesus Christ. Thou hast been scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified with Him!" Oh what a treasure for the hour of death! How sweet it is to die, when we have lived on the cross! We ought to run after crosses as the miser runs after money. . . . Nothing but crosses will reassure us at the Day of Judgment. When that day shall come, we shall be happy in our misfortunes, proud of our humiliations, and rich in our sacrifices!
If someone said to you, "I should like to become rich; what must I do?" you would answer him, "You must labor". Well, in order to get to Heaven, we must suffer. Our Lord shows us the way in the person of Simon the Cyrenian; He calls His friends to carry His Cross after Him. The good God wishes us never to lose sight of the Cross, therefore it is placed everywhere; by the roadside, on the heights, in the public squares - in order that at the sight of it we may say, "See how God has loved us!" The Cross embraces the world; it is planted at the four corners of the world; there is a share of it for all. Crosses are on the road to Heaven like a fine bridge of stone over a river, by which to pass it. Christians who do not suffer pass this river by a frail bridge, a bridge of wire, always ready to give way under their feet.
He who does not love the Cross may indeed be saved, but with great difficulty: he will be a little star in the firmament. He who shall have suffered and fought for his God will shine like a beautiful sun. Crosses, transformed by the flames of love, are like a bundle of thorns thrown into the fire, and reduced by the fire to ashes. The thorns are hard, but the ashes are soft. Oh, how much sweetness do souls experience that are all for God in suffering! It is like a mixture into which one puts a great deal of oil: the vinegar remains vinegar; but the oil corrects its bitterness, and it can scarcely be perceived.
If you put fine grapes into the wine press, there will come out a delicious juice: our soul, in the wine press of the Cross, gives out a juice that nourishes and strengthens it. When we have no crosses, we are arid: if we bear them with resignation, we feel a joy, a happiness, a sweetness! . . . it is the beginning of Heaven. The good God, the Blessed Virgin, the angels, and the saints, surround us; they are by our side, and see us. The passage to the other life of the good Christian tried by affliction, is like that of a person being carried on a bed of roses. Thorns give out a perfume, and the Cross breathes forth sweetness. But we must squeeze the thorns in our hands, and press the Cross to our heart, that they may give out the juice they contain.
The Cross gave peace to the world; and it must bring peace to our hearts. All our miseries come from not loving it. The fear of crosses increases them. A cross carried simply, and without those returns of self-love which exaggerate troubles, is no longer a cross. Peaceable suffering is no longer suffering. We complain of suffering! We should have much more reason to complain of not suffering, since nothing makes us more like Our Lord than carrying His Cross. Oh, what a beautiful union of the soul with Our Lord Jesus Christ by the love and the virtue of His Cross! I do not understand how a Christian can dislike the Cross, and fly from it! Does he not at the same time fly from Him who has deigned to be fastened to it, and to die for us?
Contradictions bring us to the foot of the Cross, and the Cross to the gate of Heaven. That we may get there, we must be trodden upon, we must be set at naught, despised, crushed. . . . There are no happy people in this world but those who enjoy calmness of mind in the midst of the troubles of life: they taste the joys of the children of God. . . . All pains are sweet when we suffer in union with Our Lord. . . . To suffer! what does it signify? It is only a moment. If we could go and pass a week in Heaven, we should understand the value of this moment of suffering. We should find no cross heavy enough, no trial bitter enough. . . . The Cross is the gift that God makes to His friends.
How beautiful it is to offer ourselves every morning in sacrifice to the good God, and to accept everything in expiation of our sins! We must ask for the love of crosses; then they become sweet.
I tried it for four or five years. I was well calumniated, well contradicted, well knocked about. Oh, I had crosses indeed! I had almost more than I could carry! Then I took to asking for love of crosses, and I was happy. I said to myself, truly there is no happiness but in this! We must never think from whence crosses come: they come from God. It is always God who gives us this way of proving our love to Him."
Source: The Blessed Curé of Ars in His Catechetical Instructions, 1951
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 CAPGFifth Sunday of Lent: Passion Sunday
by VP
Posted on Sunday March 22, 2026 at 12:00AM in Tradition
A cross veiled during Passiontide in Lent (Pfarrkirche St. Martin in Tannheim, Baden Württemberg, Germany).
Passion Sunday: This Sunday is called Passion Sunday because the Church begins on this day to make the Sufferings of our Redeemer her chief thought. It is called also Judica from the first word of the Introit of the Mass and again Neomania that is the Sunday of the new or the Easter moon, because it always falls after the new moon, which regulates the Feast of Easter Day. Dom Gueranger.
Roman Missal: “In the Dioceses of the United States, the practice of covering crosses and images throughout the church from [the fifth] Sunday [of Lent] may be observed. Crosses remain covered until the end of the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday, but images remain covered until the beginning of the Easter Vigil.”
Source: Why Passion Sunday and Palm Sunday were once two different Sundays (Aletia)
On Passion Sunday.
"The whole Lent is consecrated particularly to honor and commemorate the adorable sufferings and death of our Divine Redeemer, which are indeed at all times, by His express institution and command, the daily great object in all our devotions, which can only be made acceptable through this great mystery; and the Holy Mass and Communion are nothing else but its unbloody exhibition. But the two last weeks of Lent, and particularly the latter, being the annual commemoration of these most adorable of all mysteries, the church makes them the entire object of her public office. To conform to her pious views, we must in them redouble our fervor, especially in our spirit of holy mourning and penance, adapted to this season. Before the first vespers of Passion Sunday, the cross, and all pictures and images in the churches are covered with purple, or at least dark colored veils, on which no image ought to be represented. By this nakedness in her ornaments the church appears more solemnly mournful. It is likewise represented, that Christ, before His passion, did not walk in public; but lay for some time hid for fear of His enemies, as we read in the Gospel on Passion Sunday. The church also omits the Gloria Patri, and the like doxologies, in many parts of her public office, to express the excess of her mourning, and excite her children to attend on her solemn prayers in the most serious spirit of compunction, that, bowed down under the weight of our sorrows and iniquities, (Baruch. ii.) we may offer to God the sacrifice of our tears, which are as it were the blood of the heart, immolated by holy grief, and poured forth before God, according to the beautiful expression of S. Austin. In proportion to the fervor of our penitence, will be the earnestness of our desires and endeavors to rise from sin, in which we shall spare no pains or care to destroy it in our hearts, and exert our strength in our utmost efforts, in waging war against, and in subduing our irregular appetites, and in crying to God for mercy, in the words of the royal penitent and prophet. (Ps. vi.; xxxiv.) The soul which sees herself the object of His anger, and considers, that though His very essence is goodness and mercy, and His divine heart nothing but love and charity itself; yet by sin He is frozen toward her, and His omnipotence armed to take revenge on her rebellions, by which she has provoked His indignation, must be alarmed and terrified. Therefore, she must be solicitous, especially at this holy time, by every means which God in His infinite mercy has instituted, to engage Him to reinstate her in His favor, and to enrich her with His most precious graces, through the mediatorship of Christ, and through His holy sufferings and death, which the church now especially commemorates, and by which pardon and all graces are purchased for us, and offered to us." Source: The Moveable Feasts, Fasts, and Other Annual Observances of the Catholic Church by Rev. Alban Butler 1839
Saint Benedict, Abbot and Confessor A.D. 543.
by VP
Posted on Saturday March 21, 2026 at 03:00AM in Saints
"Having received a good education, and observed the corruption of the world, he resolved to withdraw from it. He entered into a deep cave, and continued there for three years in prayer, mortification and fasting. No one was acquainted with his retreat, but one religious man, whose care it was to supply him with bread. Offer up your prayers for all who are engaged in the corruptions of the world, and beseech God to inspire them with the thoughts of retiring from it. Though all cannot hide themselves in deserts, there are none who have it not in their power to withdraw from so much of the world, at least, as is to them an occasion of sin.
Being discovered at length in that retirement, he was obliged to quit it; but still lived in solitude, with his usual rigours. God permitted him to be assaulted with most violent temptations; but being truly apprehensive of the danger in which he was, he resolved to repel force by force, and going into a field, laid himself down in the midst of nettles and briars, till the pain had extinguished that fire which his enemy had kindled; and thus the wounds of his body became the eure of his soul: for from that time he was never molested with the like temptations. Pray for all in these difficulties, that God would be their protector and comfort. And if you are at present in peace, prepare at least, against the day of battle.
This holy man was, after this, importuned by some religious to be their abbot. But they, not relishing the discipline in which he obliged them to live, resolved to remove.him by putting poison into his drink. But God was pleased to disappoint their malice, and deliver his servant by miracle; for, upon his making the sign of the cross over the glass, it fell in pieces. St. Benedict therefore took leave of them, and going into a desert, was soon followed by many holy men, and after having established a rule, which has since brought forth many great bishops and popes, and having wrought many miracles, he made a happy end in the year 543. Give God thanks for his favours to this his servant, and pray for all the religious of his order, that the example of their founder may be the rule of their lives, and that the discipline which he established may be exactly preserved among them." The Catholic Year by Rev. Fr. John Gother
"THE AVOIDANCE OF SIN.-We are here "to live in all purity," by which he means the avoiding not only of all grave sin, but of even those which are usually looked upon as mere trivial defects. Without this, bodily abstinence will be but little worth. Therefore, in these days of Lent, let the Monk repress the curiosity of his eyes; the itching of his ears to catch whatever news may be afloat; the volubility of his tongue in speech; the affection of his heart to cling to creatures. Let him look to his sluggishness in obedience, reluctance of will to submit, and rebellion of heart against the ordinances of rule.
THE DOING OF GOOD.—This is the time in which to devote himself more especially to his duty of prayer, and to banish from it all the defects which have been suffered to creep in. It must not be a sleepy, listless, inattentive, distracted prayer, but energetic, vigilant, absorbing the whole mind in the intensity of its fervour. By tearful prayer, St. Benedict does not mean that we should weep material tears, but that our tears should be the tears of the heart; a sorrow founded upon reason; not evanescent, but abiding in the fixed resolve never again to betray Jesus Christ. Besides giving himself up to prayer, the Monk must apply his mind to reading, in order to acquire that sound doctrine which will save him from error, and fill his mind with a store of learning profitable alike both to himself and to others. In prayer he speaks to God; but while reading, it is God Who speaks to him, and whispers into the ear of his heart the suggestions of the Holy Spirit, by Whose guidance he is led onward from one degree of perfection to another, till at last he stands upon the topmost round of the ladder which enables him to reach the gate of heaven." The Teaching of St. Benedict by Rev. Fr. Francis Cuthbert Doyle 1887
PRAYER OF SAINT BENEDICT
O Lord, I place myself in your hands and dedicate myself to you. I pledge myself to do your will in all things: To love the Lord God with all my heart, all my soul, all my strength.
Not to kill. Not to steal. Not to covet. Not to bear false witness. To honor all persons. Not to do to another what I would not wish done to myself. To chastise the body. Not to seek after pleasures. To love fasting. To relieve the poor. To clothe the naked. To visit the sick. To bury the dead. To help in trouble. To console the sorrowing. To hold myself aloof from worldly ways. To prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
Not to give way to anger. Not to foster a desire for revenge. Not to entertain deceit in the heart. Not to make a false peace. Not to forsake charity. Not to swear, lest I swear falsely. To speak the truth with heart and tongue. Not to return evil for evil. To do no injury: yea, even to bear patiently any injury done to me. To love my enemies. Not to curse those who curse me, but rather to bless them. To bear persecution for justice's sake.
Not to be proud. Not to be given to intoxicating drink. Not to be an over-eater. Not to be lazy. Not to be slothful. Not to be a murmurer. Not to be a detractor. To put my trust in God.
To refer the good I see in myself to God. To refer any evil in myself to myself. To fear the Day of Judgment. To be in dread of hell. To desire eternal life with spiritual longing. To keep death before my eyes daily. To keep constant watch over my actions. To remember that God sees me everywhere. To call upon Christ for defense against evil thoughts that arises in my heart.
To guard my tongue against wicked speech. To avoid much speaking. To avoid idle talk. To read only what is good to read. To look at only what is good to see. To pray often. To ask forgiveness daily for my sins, and to seek ways to amend my life. To obey my superiors in all things rightful. Not to desire to be thought holy, but to seek holiness.
To fulfill the commandments of God by good works. To love chastity. To hate no one. Not to be jealous or envious of anyone. Not to love strife. Not to love pride. To honor the aged. To pray for my enemies. To make peace after a quarrel, before the setting of the sun. Never to despair of your mercy, O God of Mercy. Amen.
"The Medal of St. Benedict: This highly indulgenced medal bears a likeness of the great "Father of the Monastic Life." In his right hand is a cross, beside which are the words: "Crux Patric Benedicti" (The Cross of the Father Benedict"); in his left hand is the book of the Benedictine rule. At his feet are represented a chalice and a raven, symbols of the priesthood and of hermit life. Around the edge are the words: "Ejus in Obitu Nostro Praesentia Muniamur" ("At our death may we be fortified by his presence"). On the reverse side is a cross, on the vertical bar of which are the initial letters of the words "Crux Sacra Sit Mihi Lux" ("The holy Cross be my light"); on the horizontal bar are the initials of "Non Draco Sit Mihi Dux" ("Let not the Dragon be my guide"); and around are other letters signifying other Latin mottoes. At the top is usually the word "Pax" ("Peace") or the monogram IHS.
This form of the Benedict medal commemorates the 1400th anniversary of the birth of St. Benedict, celebrated in 1880. (...)
The medal of St. Benedict was first approved by Benedict XIV in 1741, an further indulgences were granted by Pius IX in 1877 and by Pius X in 1907."
Source:The Externals of the Catholic Church, By Rev. Fr. John Francis Sullivan from the Diocese of Providence p 226. 1918
The Medal Or Cross of St. Benedict: Its Origin, Meaning, and Privileges by Prosper Guéranger
Day 32. Lent with the Cure d'Ars: Catechism on the Word of God
by VP
Posted on Saturday March 21, 2026 at 02:00AM in Lenten Sermons
"My Children, the Word of God is of no little importance! These were Our Lord's first words to His Apostles: "Go and teach" . . to show us that instruction is before everything.
My children, what has taught us our religion? The instructions we have heard. What gives us a horror of sin? What makes us alive to the beauty of virtue, inspires us with the desire of Heaven? Instructions. What teaches fathers and mothers the duties they have to fulfill towards their children and children the duties they have to fulfill towards their parents? Instructions.
My children, why are people so blind and so ignorant? Because they make so little account of the Word of God. There are some who do not even say a Pater and an Ave to beg of the good God the grace to listen to it attentively, and to profit well by it. I believe, my children, that a person who does not hear the Word of God as he ought, will not be saved; he will not know what to do to be saved. But with a well-instructed person there is always some resource. He may wander in all sorts of evil ways; there is still hope that he will return sooner or later to the good God, even if it were only at the hour of death. Instead of which a person who has never been instructed is like a sick person - like one in his agony who is no longer conscious: he knows neither the greatness of sin nor the value of virtue; he drags himself from sin to sin, like a rag that is dragged in the mud.
See, my children, the esteem in which Our Lord holds the Word of God; to the woman who cries, "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the paps that gave Thee suck!" He answers, "Yea, rather blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it!" Our Lord, who is Truth itself, puts no less value on His Word than on His Body. I do not know whether it is worse to have distractions during Mass than during the instructions; I see no difference. During Mass we lose the merits of the Death and Passion of Our Lord, and during the instructions we lose His Word, which is Himself. St. Augustine says that it is as bad as to take the chalice after the Consecration and to trample it underfoot.
My children, you make a scruple of missing holy Mass, because you commit a great sin in missing it by your own fault; but you have no scruple in missing an instruction. You never consider that in this way you may greatly offend God. At the Day of Judgment, when you will all be there around me, and the good God will say to you, "Give Me an account of the instructions and the catechisms which you have heard and which you might have heard," you will think very differently.
My children, you go out during the instructions, you amuse yourselves with laughing, you do not listen, you think yourselves too clever to come to the catechism . . . Do you think, my children, that things will be allowed to go on so? Oh no, certainly not! God will arrange matters very differently. How sad it is! We see fathers and mothers stay outside during the instruction; yet they are under obligation to instruct their children; but how can they teach them? They are not instructed themselves. . . . All this leads straight to Hell. . . . It is a pity!
My children, I have remarked that there is no moment when people are more inclined to sleep than during the instructions. . . . You will say, I am so very sleepy. . . . If I were to take up a fiddle, nobody would think of sleeping; everybody would be roused, everybody would be on the alert. My children, you listen when you like the preacher; but if the preacher does not suit you, you turn him into ridicule. . . . We must not think so much about the man. It is not the body that we must attend to. Whatever the priest may be, he is still the instrument that the good God makes use of to distribute His holy Word. You pour liquor through a funnel; whether it be made of gold or of copper, if the liquor is good it will still be good.
There are some who go about repeating everywhere, "Priests say just what they please. " No, my children, priests do not say what they please; they say what is in the Gospel. The priests who came before us said what we say; those who shall come after us will say the same thing. If we were to say things that are not true, the Bishop would very soon forbid us to preach. We say only what Our Lord has taught.
My children, I will give you an example of what it is not to believe what priests tell you. There were two soldiers passing through a place where a mission was being given; one of the soldiers proposed to his comrade to go and hear the sermon, and they went. The missionary preached upon Hell. "Do you believe all that this priest says?" asked the least wicked of the two. "Oh, no!" replied the other, "I believe it is all nonsense, invented to frighten people. " "Well, for my part, I believe it; and to prove to you that I believe it, I shall give up being a soldier, and go into a convent. " "Go where you please; I shall continue my journey. " But while he was on his journey, he fell ill and died. The other, who was in the convent, heard of his death, and began to pray that God would show him in what state his companion had died. One day, as he was praying, his companion appeared to him; he recognized him, and asked him, "Where are you?" "In Hell; I am lost!" "O wretched man! do you now believe what the missionary said?" "Yes, I believe it. Missionaries are wrong only in one respect; they do not tell you a hundredth part of what is suffered here. "
My children, I often think that most of the Christians who are lost for want of instruction - they do not know their religion well. For example, here is a person who has to go and do his day's work. This person has a desire to do great penances, to pass half the night in prayer; if he is well instructed, he will say, "No, I must not do that, because then I could not fulfill my duty tomorrow; I should be sleepy, and the least thing would put me out of patience; I should be weary all the day, and I should not do half as much work as if I had rested at night; that must not be done. "
Again, my children, a servant may have a desire to fast, but he is obliged to pass the whole day in digging and ploughing, or whatever you please. Well, if this servant is well instructed, he will think, "But if I do this, I shall not be able to satisfy my master." Well, what will he do? He will eat his breakfast, and mortify himself in some other way. That is what we must do - we must always act in the way that will give most glory to the good God.
A person knows that another is in distress, and takes from his parents what will relieve that distress. He would certainly do much better to ask than to take it. If his parents refuse to give it, he will pray to God to inspire a rich person to give the alms instead of him. A well-instructed person always has two guides leading the way before him - good counsel and obedience."
Source: The Blessed Curé of Ars in His Catechetical Instructions, 1951
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 CAPGThe Divine Office
by VP
Posted on Saturday March 21, 2026 at 12:00AM in Quotes
" If Priests and Religious did all recite the Office as it ought to be recited, the Church would not behold herself in the miserable state to which she is reduced. How many sinners would be delivered from the slavery of the devil, and how many souls would love God with much greater fervor! And how would priests themselves not find themselves ever the same, imperfect, irritable, jealous, attached to their own interests, and led away by vanities! Our Lord has promised to hear every one who prays to him. (Luke xi. 10).
And how comes it that a priest offering up so many prayers in a day, were it only in the Office which he recites, is yet never heard? He is always the same, as weak and prone as ever to fall not only into slight sins (to which he is habituated, and takes neither pains nor care to correct himself of them,) but into grievous sins against charity, justice, or chastity; hence when he recites the Office, he pronounces sentence of condemnation against himself, in these words: Maledicti qui declinant a mandatis tuis. And what is still worse, he feels little remorse, excusing himself as being of the same flesh and blood as other men, and not able to restrain himself.
But if he said the Office with fewer distractions and less negligence, accompanying with his heart the many prayers which he offers to God in reciting it, he certainly would not be so weak but would acquire fortitude and strength to resist all temptations, and to lead a holy life, such as becometh a Priest of God."
Source: Sacerdos sanctificatus; or, Discourses on the Mass and Office by Saint Alphonse de Liguori
St. Cuthbert, Bishop and Confessor, A.D. 687
by VP
Posted on Friday March 20, 2026 at 03:00AM in Saints
The Journey by Fenwick Lawson, showing the
coffin of Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne being carried by 6 monks,
eventually to Durham, UK.
"This saint was particularly devoted from his childhood to the love and service of God. While keeping sheep on the mountains of Northumberland, he saw one night a multitude of angels carrying up to heaven the soul of St. Aidan, bishop of Lindisfarne, which had just departed. This vision moved him to great compunction, and a strong desire of quitting the world. He soon after took the monastic habit in the monastery of Mailros. Here he applied himself continually to reading, working, watching, and praying; wholly abstaining from wine and all strong drink. After some time he was chosen prior; and afterwards prior of a larger monastery at Lindisfarne. He was a man of extraordinary patience, preserving a cheerful countenance under all adversities. He was a great lover of watching and praying, often passing nights together without sleep, employed in praying, singing psalms, and working.
Aspiring to a closer union with God, St. Cuthbert built himself a cell in the uninhabited island of Farne, intending to dedicate the remainder of his days to divine contemplation. But he was called from his solitude, and consecrated bishop of Lindisfarne. He adorned this dignity by every episcopal virtue, without changing his former method of life, being as sparing to himself as ever, whilst he was liberal to others, in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and exercising all other duties of his station. After governing the church of Lindisfarne for two years in a most saintly manner, he resigned his bishopric, and returned to his beloved cell in the island of Farne; and after two months he was seized with his last illness, and gave up his soul, intent on the divine praises, to take her flight to heavenly joys, on the 20th of March, 687.
Pray for your country, and all the pastors of it; that being watchful in the concerns of their flocks, and their own souls, they may live to edification, and do good to all. Imitate the spirit of prayer of St. Cuthbert, whose life was a continual prayer. Whatever he saw seemed to speak to him of God, and invite him to his holy love." The Catholic Year by Rev. Fr. John Gother
- "So devout and zealous was he in his desire after heavenly things, that when saying Mass, he could never come to the conclusion thereof without a plentiful shedding of tears. When celebrating the mysteries of our Lord's Passion, he would, very appropriately, imitate the action that he was performing, ie. in contrition of heart he would sacrifice himself to the Lord; and he exhorted those present to "lift up their hears," and " to give thanks to the Lord," more by raising up his heart than his voice, and more by his groans then his singing."
A Prayer to Saint Cuthbert
Hail, father of thy country! Hail, man of renown! Hail, thou who often bestowest upon the miserable the comforts of health! Hail, lovely glory! Hail, great hope of thy servants! Farewell merit of our own! Do thou act, thou man of piety! To thee be praise! To thee let worthy honour, to thee let thanks be given, who frequently bestowest blessings upon me, undeserving though I be. Thou art my mighty help; often hast thou been my glory. Always dost thou cherish me with thy sweetly-flowing love. Oh from how many evils, from what enemies and dangers, my father, hast thou rescued me, and still nourishest thou me in prosperity! What worthy return can I make to thee, my father? Oh thou pious Bishop! Oh Father! Oh merciful Pastor! give me thy aid. As it pleases thee, O Father, and as thou knowest my wants, give help to thy petitioner. I pray thee to remember me, thou sweet friend of God.
