Devout Adress to the Holy Face
by VP
Posted on Monday December 14, 2020 at 11:00PM in Poetry
O Face Divine!
O Face most sorrowful yet so benign!
So beauteous still in grief, towards me incline!
O Sacred Eyes!
On which the weight of dreaded anguish lies,
That look must break the heart which Christ denies.
O Lips so meek!
Unless their all absolving word I seek,
Those lips one day eternal doom will speak.
O Sacred Face!
Which mortal hand has dared with prayer to trace,
Thee on my heart with throbs of awe I place.
O Face Divine!
Give me of love returned some blissful sign;
O Face Divine, in grief towards me incline.
Source: Sister Saint-Pierre and the Work of Reparation, Rev. P. Janvier
Devotion to the Holy Face
by VP
Posted on Tuesday October 27, 2020 at 12:00AM in Poetry
The principal object of the devotion to the Holy Face is to offer respectful love and homage to the Adorable Face of Jesus disfigured in the Passion; to make reparation for blasphemy and the neglect of Holy Days, which outrages Him afresh; and, lastly, to obtain of God the conversion of sinners and profaners of the Holy Day,
Holy Face
by VP
Posted on Tuesday October 20, 2020 at 10:23AM in Poetry
I salute, adore, and love Thee, O Jesus, my Savior, covered anew with outrages by blasphemers, and I offer Thee, through the heart of Thy blessed Mother, the worship of all the Angels and Saints, as an incense and a perfume of sweet odor, most humbly beseeching Thee, by the virtue of Thy Sacred Face, to repair and renew in me and in all men Thy image disfigured by sin. Amen
Source: Veronica, or the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ 1871
The Priest and the Altar
by VP
Posted on Monday October 05, 2020 at 12:00AM in Poetry
Enough the blood of victims flowed of old,
The shadows pass, and legal offerings;
Now higher Ministries, Thou, Lord, dost mold,
On which a holier shade Thy Priesthood flings.
Elias from the Heavens called down the flame;
One Greater than Elias, hid from sight,
Is here, obedient to His awful Name;
Of Him we make the dread memorial Rite.
Great Office, the mysterious Cup to bear,
In which the guilty world’s Salvation lies,
And with our trembling hands, full of deep fear,
To offer up the Bloodless Sacrifice.
Oh, more than all to ancient Prophets given,
More than to Angels, if but understood,
That in our trembling hands the God of Heaven
Doth give Himself to be our Spirits’ Food.
Grant, Christ, that we, fulfilling Thy Commands,
Of Thy blest Presence may approach the Seat,
With hearts by Thee made pure, and holy hands;
May love for Thy dread Altars make us meet.
Son of th’Eternal Father, God above,
May all the world beneath Thy Feet adore,
Who sendest down the Spirit, with Thy Love
Thy Priesthood to anoint for evermore.
Source: Lyra Eucharistica : hymns and verses on the Holy Communion, ancient and modern ; with other poems by Shipley, Orby, 1832-1916
Month of the Seven Dolors, The School of Sorrow.
by VP
Posted on Friday September 04, 2020 at 12:11PM in Poetry
I sat in the school of sorrow, The Master was teaching there; But my eyes were dim with weeping, And my heart was full of care. Instead of looking upward, And seeing His face Divine So full of the tenderest pity For weary hearts like mine. I only thought of the burdens, The cross that before me lay, So hard and heavy to carry That it darkened the light of day. So, I could not learn my lesson, And say, Thy will be done; And the Master came not near me As the weary hours went on. At last in my weary sorrow, I looked from the cross above, And I saw the Master watching With a glance of tender love. He turned to the cross before me, And I thought I heard Him say: "My child, thou must bear thy burden And learn thy task to-day. I may not tell the reason, ' Tis enough for thee to know That I, the Master, am teaching, And give this cup of woe." So I stooped to that weary sorrow; One look at that face Divine Had given me power to trust Him, And say, " Thy will, not mine." And thus I learnt my lesson, Taught by the Master alone; He only knows the tears I shed, But He has wept His own. And from them comes a brightness Straight from the Home above, Where the School Life will be ended, And the cross will show the love.
Lines on a Deceased Priest
by VP
Posted on Wednesday September 02, 2020 at 12:45AM in Poetry
Breathe not his honored name,
Silently keep it.
Hushed be the saddening theme,
In secrecy weep it.
Call not a warmer flow
To eyes that are aching:
Wake not a deeper throe
In hearts that are breaking.
Oh! “tis a placid rest;
Who could deplore it?
Trance of the pure and blest,
Angels watch o’er it!
Sleep of his mortal night,
Sorrow can’t break it;
Heaven’s own morning light
Alone shall awake it.
Noble thy course is run;
Splendour is round it.
Bravely thy fight is won,
Freedom hath crowned it
In the high warfare
Of heaven grown hoary,
Thou art gone like the summer sun,
Shrouded in glory.
Twine, twine the victor’s wreath,
Spirits that meet him!
Sweet songs of triumph breather,
Seraphs that greet him!
From his high resting-place
Who shall him sever?
With his God, face to face,
Leave him forever.
Source: Messenger of the Sacred Heart, 1891.
A Priest's Mother
by VP
Posted on Thursday August 27, 2020 at 12:11PM in Poetry
Athwart the sky dun clouds came drearily:
I saw friends gently lower into earth,
The blessed one who dowered me with birth;
With Christ I seemed in lone Gethsemane,
Who said: This cross of grief, I give to thee.
Of earthly joys, today, how great the dearth!
My faith transforms all sorrows, into mirth,
'Twas hers; she gave Me, thee; give her to Me.
Dear Lord, when I, in Holy Sacrifice,
Thy Precious Blood will shed with mystic knife,
Extinguish with it Purgatory's fire;
Thus aidance give, my mother's soul to rise
From out her prison to eternal life,
To gaze fore'er on Thee, her heart's desire.
Source: Sonnets an other verses, Rev. Fr. Francis A. Gaffney, O.P. 1916
RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS PROPOSED on the validity of Baptism
by VP
Posted on Thursday August 06, 2020 at 11:40AM in Poetry
conferred with the formula
«We baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit»
QUESTIONS
First question: Whether the Baptism conferred with the formula «We baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit» is valid?
Second question: Whether those persons for whom baptism was celebrated with this formula must be baptized in forma absoluta?
RESPONSES
To the first question: Negative.
To the second question: Affirmative.
The Supreme Pontiff Francis, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, On June 8, 2020, approved these Responses and ordered their publication.
Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, June 24, 2020, on the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist.
Luis F. Card. Ladaria, S.I.
Prefect
Source: Vatican Press