CAPG's Blog 

Wikipedia

"Everything good that I have done, I owe to him" St. John Baptiste Vianney Catholic Encyclopedia p 465

"A sudden inspiration one day entered his mind, which, after consulting his director, he carried into effect. He made a vow to go on foot, asking alms as he went, to the tomb of St. John Francis Regis; to ask, through his intercession, the gift of sufficient learning to enable him to become a good and faithful labourer in the vineyard of the Lord. His prayer was heard. St. John Francis Regis, to who he ever afterwards bore a special devotion, obtained for him the grace he had asked in a measure which astonished his master and those who had felt most hopeless of his success."  Life of Saint John-Baptist Vianney, Curé d'Ars by  Monnin, Alfred, p22.

To St. John Francis Regis (June 16.)
[A.D. 1507-1640]

Few know thy name, St. Francis Regis! Few
Beyond thy native hills pay homage due,
Save those thy brothers and dear friends, who share
That slandered name it was thy pride to bear.
Nay, some who know thee need to ask thy claim
To shining aureole and saintly fame.
What wast thou? what hast suffered? what hast done,
That 'mid his heroes God hath ranked thee one?
No novice-prince who, yet a boy hath given
Honour, and wealth, and prouder hopes for heaven -
No hermit hoar, who long, long years hath passed
In lonely watching and in cruel fast;
No fiery martyr, who hath meek defied
The tyrant at the stake, and smiling died.

Thy story reads not like a wild romance,-
It never strays from polished modern France,
Where, 'mid the rudest of her southern steeps,
Its stream unseen, but fertilizing, creeps.
Yet in that homely sphere of some score miles,
What restless, tranquil zeal - what saintly wiles
For luring souls to God! Ah, wherefore roam?
The hero finds a hero's work at home.

Oh, thou hard-toiling missionary-saint!
Not thine in such dull martyrdom to faint.
The winter's ice, men's freezing doubts and sneers,
Chilled not thy glow, but thawed beneath thy tears.
Dauntless in labour, patient to endure,
The firm, the mild apostle of the poor.
Francis and Lewis here in one behold -
Xavier at home, Gonzaga twice as old.
Oh, gray-haired Aloysius! Yes, that name
When thou wast young, thy virtues well might claim,
Hadst thou, like him, been early snatched away,
Not left to bear the "burden of the day."
But thou liv'dst on, God spared thee to his earth,
Keeping thee innocent as at thy birth,
That first true birth when o'er thy baby-brow
The waters flowed, and left thee pure as snow-
Pure none the less when, after many a year
Of earnest faith, of humble, loving fear,
After great things for his sake done and borne,
God bade the peasant of the Velais mourn,
Mourn for thy loss.

   Oh, great St. Regis, pray
That we, thy brothers, in our meaner way
God's work may do: from many a soul to burst
The glittering fetters of the king accursed.
Teach us to share thy burning, melting love
For Him who on the right-hand reigns above,
Yet hides upon our altars. Oh, great heart!
In thy rich treasures gain for us a part:  -
The meekness of thy strength, so gay, so sure -
Thy wistful fondness for God's outcast poor -
Thy yearning for the sinner, hate of sin -
Thy filial pride in her whose breast within
Thy boyhood and thy manhood calmly sped.
Ah! may she lead us on as thou wast led.
She is the same great Mother still; but we,
St. Francis Regis! are not like to thee.

source: Madonna: Verses on Our Lady and the Saints, by the Rev. Matthew Russell, S.J. 1880

Prayer to Saint Paul

O Glorious Saint Paul, after persecuting the Church you became by Godʼs grace its most zealous Apostle. To carry the knowledge of Jesus, our divine Savior, to the uttermost parts of the earth you joyfully endured prison, scourgings, stonings, and shipwreck, as well as all manner of persecutions culminating in the shedding of the last drop of your blood for our Lord Jesus Christ.

May your example inspire our parish priests today to be zealous in their service to Godʼs people. Obtain for our priests the grace to labor strenuously to bring the faith to others and to accept any trials and tribulations that may come their way. Help them to be inspired by your Epistles and to partake of your indomitable love for Jesus, so that after they have finished their course they may join you in praising him in heaven for all eternity. Amen.

Peter and John Running to the Tomb  Eugène Burnand (1850 – 1921)

Christians, to the Paschal victim
offer your thankful praises!

A lamb the sheep redeemeth:
Christ, who only is sinless,
reconcileth sinners to the Father.

Death and life have contended
in that combat stupendous:
the Prince of life, who died,
reigns immortal.

Speak, Mary, declaring
what you saw, wayfaring:
"The tomb of Christ, who is living,
the glory of Jesus' resurrection;

"Bright angels attesting,
the shroud and napkin resting.
"Yea, Christ my hope is arisen;
to Galilee he will go before you."

Christ indeed from death is risen,
our new life obtaining;
have mercy, victor King, ever reigning!

Catholic Chant

"The claim that faith is the only requirement for worthy reception of the Holy Eucharist was condemned by the Council of Trent as a heresy. (...)

We, the undersigned, confess the Catholic faith concerning the worthy reception of the Eucharist as it is defined by the Council of Trent, according to which faith alone is not a sufficient preparation for receiving the sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist. We encourage all the bishops and clerics of the Catholic Church to publicly confess the same doctrine about the worthy reception of the Eucharist, and enforce the related canons in order to avoid grave and public scandal"

• Most Rev. Joseph Strickland, Bishop of Tyler
• Most Rev. René Henry Gracida, Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi
• Most Rev. Robert Mutsaerts, Auxiliary Bishop of S’Hertogenbosch in Netherlands
• Most Rev. Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of Astana, Kazakhsta

ect....

Source: Life site news. The Teaching of the Catholic Faith on the reception of the Holy Eucharist

HAIL, O Cross! tree of life! noble and noted!
Banner, throne, altar to Jesus devoted!
Cross! to unholy
Men both death and terror,
To Christians truly
Art thou virtue’s mirror,
Safety, victory, all-divine!

Thou, when he hurried
Against Maxentius’ horde;
Thou, when he carried
By Danube’s shores the sword,
Glory wast to Constantine!

Chosroes and his son
Through thee were overthrown,
For Heraclius fighting:
Well may Christians glory
In this tree’s true story,
In such balms delighting!

Length and breadth, Cross! blending
With height, depth, far-reaching,
Thou, four ways extending,
Precious truths thus teaching,
Savest earth’s four quarters.
Balm with true health gifted!

On the Cross-scales lifted,
Christ was there extended,
As the price expended
To redeem death’s charters.

The Cross the balance is to weigh our right,
Our Monarch’s scepter and His rod of might;
The sign of Heaven’s own victory in the fight,
Our strength in war and glory’s palm-branch bright!

Ladder! raft! upbearing
Hearts through grief despairing!
Their last plank, when drowning!
Thou Christ’s beauty sharest,
Since His limbs thou barest,
Cross! the crown kings crowning.

Through thee, Cross! with blessings freighted!
Cross, by Christ’s blood consecrated!
May the grace of God most high
Deathless joys to us supply!
Amen.


Source: The Liturgical Poetry of Adam of St. Victor From the Text of Gautier, Vol. III. Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co. (London: 1881).pp. 2-5.

Holy Deacon! by thy yearning
For the Martyr's glorious crown;
By thy tortures, by thy burning,
By thy death of bright renown;
When the world and flesh and devil
Tempt our souls to sin and evil,
Dear Saint Lawrence, pray for us!

By the love that thou didst ever
To thy Pontiff-Father bear,
Pray that no base act may sever
Us from Peter's loving care!
But when men would once more  lead us,
Into bonds from which Christ freed us,
Dear Saint Lawrence, pray for us!

By the Pontiff's words  of warning,
Bidding all thy sorrow cease,
Words foretelling bitter mourning
Leading unto lasting peace!
That to Jesus in our sadness
We may look for help and gladness,
Dear Saint Lawrence, pray for us!

By thy love, which knew no measure,
For the needy and the old,
Giving them the Church's treasure -
Dearer they than gems and gold!
Teaching us that alms well given
Are but treasures stored in heaven,
Dear Saint Lawrence, pray for us!

By thy fervent love for Jesus,
By thy strong and constant faith,
Or our sinful burdens ease us!
Help us at the hour of death!
When the fears of death confound us,
When the cleansing fires surround us!
Dear Saint Lawrence, pray for us!

Source: The Parochial Hymn Book 1881

Far from the world, far from delight,
Distinguishing not day from night ;
Vowed to one sacrifice of all
The happy things, that men befall ;
Pleading one sacrifice, before
Whom sun and sea and wind adore;
Far from earth's comfort, far away,
We cry to God, we cry and pray
For men, who have the common day.

Dance, merry world! and sing: but we.
Hearing, remember Calvary:
Get gold, and thrive you ! but the sun
Once paled ; and the centurion
Said : This dead man was Gods own Son,
Think you, we shrink from common toil,
Works of the mart, works of the soil ;
That, prisoners of strong despair,
We breathe this melancholy air;
Forgetting the dear calls of race,
And bonds of house, and ties of place;
That, cowards, from the field we turn.
And heavenward, in our weakness, yearn?
Unjust! unkind! while you despise
Our lonely years, our mournful cries:
You are the happier for our prayer;

The guerdon of our souls, you share.
Not in such feebleness of heart,
We play our solitary part;
Not fugitives of battle, we
Hide from the world, and let things be:
But rather, looking over earth,
Between the bounds of death and birth ;
And sad at heart, for sorrow and sin.

We wondered, where might help begin.
And on our wonder came God's choice,
A sudden light, a clarion voice,
Clearing the dark, and sounding clear :
And we obeyed: behold us, here!
In prison bound, but with your chains:
Sufferers, but of alien pains.

Merry the world, and thrives apace.
Each in his customary place:
Sailors upon the carrying sea.
Shepherds upon the pasture lea,
And merchants of the town ; and they,
Who march to death, the fighting way;
And there are lovers in the spring.
With those, who dance, and those, who sing:
The commonwealth of every day.
Eastward and westward, far away.
Once the sun paled; once cried aloud
The Roman, from beneath the cloud:
This day the Son of God is dead!
Yet heed men, what the Roman said?
They heed not : we then heed for them,

The mindless of Jerusalem ;
Careless, they live and die : but we
Care, in their stead, for Calvary.
O joyous men and women! strong,
To urge the wheel of life along.
With strenuous arm, and cheerful strain,
And wisdom of laborious brain:
We give our life, our heart, our breath,
That you may live to conquer death;
That, past your tomb, with souls in health,
Joy may be yours, and blessed wealth;
Through vigils of the painful night.
Our spirits with your tempters fight:
For you, for you, we live alone.
Where no joy comes, where cold winds moan:
Nor friends have we, nor have we foes ;
Our Queen is of the lonely Snows.
Ah! and sometimes, our prayers between.
Come sudden thoughts of what hath been :
Dreams! And from dreams, once more we fall
To prayer : God save, Christ keep, them all.
And thou, who knowest not these things,
Hearken, what news our message brings!
Our toils, thy joy of life forgot:
Our lives of prayer forget thee not.

Source: Dreams and Images: An Anthology of Catholic Poets by Joyce Kilmer (Boni and Liveright, 1917) p109

O Maid conceive without a stain,
O Mother bright and fair,
Come thou within our hearts to reign,
And grace shall triumph there.
Hail, Mary, ever undefiled!
Hail, Queen of purity!
O make thy children chaste and mild,
and turn their hearts to thee.

Thou art far purer than the snow,
Far brighter than the day;
Thy beauty none on earth can know,
No tongue of men can say.
O Mother of all mothers blest,
Who soothest every grief,
In thee the weary find their rest,
And anguished hearts relief.

O then for us, thy children, plead;
Thy pity we implore,
That we, from sin and sorrow freed,
May love thee more and more.
Hail, Mary, ever undefiled!
Hail, Queen of purity!
O make thy children chaste and mild,
and turn their hearts to thee.

Source: Manual of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary 1893

"Mary is the model of all Christian womanhood. Women are endowed by the Creator with fine sensibilities and a most noble love. They are meant to be the inspiration of men. If the ideal of womankind is high, if she is exalted in men's estimation, if she is loved for her virtue, then the opportunity for good that is afforded mankind is tremendously great.

Paganism degraded womanhood and robbed her of her native dignity with which the Creator had endowed her. Mary's advent into the world, bringing the Savior of mankind, changed all that. She is "our tainted nature's solitary boast." But alas, the new days of paganism are with us. This time again, the sad opportunity is afforded women to step down. A changing world in the guise of emancipation offers womankind an opportunity to lower her standards, to degrade her dignity, to debase her prerogatives for childbearing and motherhood.

The Church has through the centuries watched over and guided the noble prerogatives of womankind, not because the Church bestowed these sacred rights, but because she preserves what has been restored through our Lady and the Redemption. When woman is an ideal, man is, strictly speaking, a builder of the spirit. He builds within himself the great edifice of a spiritual character where the Holy Spirit dwells as in a temple. When woman is an ideal, men build homes, and children are received as the hope of a better world. The boy is looked up to so that he will carry on and build again as did his father, and the girl is cherished as the sweet daughter and mirror of the wife whose inward beauty grows more graceful with the passing years.

But the new paganism is threatening again! It is, of course, always in the name of emancipation women are to be freed from the very duties that make them beautiful with a lasting beauty - motherhood and sharing in creation!

Women are meant to be builders, too, in the strictest sense of the term. They are the heart of the home. It is through then that men learn to live and to love great ideals and to build character. It is through the mother, definitely closer to the child than any other living human, that young habits and fine characters are formed. Women are the cornerstone of civilization in this respect. They are the hope of the world! "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world."

Anyone who calls himself a Christian and a follower of Christ must think often of the Mother of Our Blessed Savior who was closest to Him all through the years that led up to Calvary. Anyone who respects women must know that it was Mary's role in Christian history to place women on the high pedestal they now enjoy. Anyone who has forebodings regarding the changes in our modern world will go to Mary and fervently pray that the rights, spiritual rights, of women be preserved, that they become modern Bethlehem's in which Christ comes to dwell and not worldly inns that refuse children's birth.

None of us can live through a social revolution and come out of it unchanged ourselves. The world changing simply means that men and women of our day are changing. We must hold fast to Christian ideals, particularly the ideal of womankind as it come to us from our Savior and from His Blessed Mother. If we loose this ideal, if women degrade themselves, they are not meeting, as we would have them meet the challenge of a pagan world. They are succumbing! They are delivering themselves to the enemies of Christian civilization. They are undoing the work of Redemption. They are despising our Lady. That is unthinkable! Women are the builders of a more secure world, where men may live as brothers because they have a common Father and a Blessed Mother.

Prayer: Our Lady of the hills and the valleys, look down from your throne in heaven an intercede with God in our behalf. As we live in a vale of tears preparing for the day when we may ascend the hill of heaven, pray for us, O Mary, that we may be worthy of the promises of Christ.

Intercede with God, that we may in imitation of you, follow Jesus along the way, though it be sorrowful - via dolorosa - out to the clear blue of the day, all the way up the hill, like you, to Calvary. We are sinners, like Magdalene. Accept us into your company. Few of us are like John, the beloved disciple. None of us is like you. Teach us to love Calvary and to see the sweet wood of the cross upon which hangs the Redeemer and our hope for eternal life."

Source: Spiritual Steps to Christmas by Very Rev. Msgr. Aloysius Coogan 1953