Saint Cyril
by VP
Posted on Tuesday January 28, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
"HOLY MARY, MOTHER OF GOD, PRAY FOR US."-The im pious Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, was spreading his false doctrine through the world. According to his teaching, Jesus Christ possessed a twofold personality. It was needful to distinguish, in God made man, the person divine and the person human; and Mary, although Mother of Christ, was not Mother of God, because she had only given birth to the person human. St. Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, who was already renowned for the greatness of his intellect and his zeal for, the faith, was charged by Pope Celestine I. to refute these baneful errors. He accomplished this to the great contentment of the universal Church; and the two councils, of Rome in 430, and of Ephesus in 431, confirmed his doctrine, which was withal that which the Church had ever taught. The town of Ephesus, on this occasion, gave free course to its abounding joy and holy enthusiasm. The fathers of the council were borne aloft in triumph, amid the exclamations of the inhabitants: "Blessed be ye who have restored to us our Mother." Cyril died in peace at Alexandria, in 444.
MORAL REFLECTION.-In all our troubles, temptations,
and dangers, let us have often on our lips, and pronounce with
confidence, faith, and love, the pious invocation of the Church: "Holy
Mary, mother of God, pray for us!" Half Hour with the Saints by Abbe Le Canu
Taking Courage
by VP
Posted on Saturday January 25, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons
"Sometimes, my brethren, we feel discouraged because we have not kept our good resolutions, and are even ready to say it is better not to make any at all, so often do we break them. I have no doubt there are some listening to me who began the new year courageously and with some sincere promises to God of leading a good life, and have already slipped back into the bad old ways; and now they say, What was the matter with my good resolutions? I did not mean to lie to God, yet I have not kept my word with Him; I have relapsed; I am as bad as I was before, maybe I am worse. What, then, was the matter with my good resolutions?
Now, in considering this question let us not get into a panic. God knows us just as we are, and far better than we know ourselves. Therefore He is not so cruel as to hold us strictly to all our promises. "God is true and every man is a liar," says Holy Writ, and our experience of human nature demonstrates that although we are honestly determined to tell the truth, and do tell it, when we promise to God to behave ourselves properly, yet we know very well that in a moment of weakness we may break down, and that is understood when we make our promise. I remember reading of St. Philip Neri that sometimes on waking in the morning he would say, "O Lord, keep thy hand on Philip today or he will betray Thee."
Hence it is a great folly to say, "I do not want to make a promise for fear I could not keep it." That would be good sense if you were going to swear to your promise, or if you were to make a Vow. But a promise to attend Sunday Mass, to keep out of saloons, to stop stealing, to be more good-natured at home, and the like is a very different matter. In such cases we must shut our eyes and go ahead, and meantime pray hard for God's assistance.
There is such a thing as being too fidgety about the future, looking back too far into it or imagining temptations not likely to come up. Once there was an army officer who led an edifying life, and who came to a priest of his acquaintance and informed him that he was in great distress, and feared that he could not persevere. "What is the matter?" said the priest. "Why I know that duelling is a deadly mortal sin; yet if I were challenged to a duel I fear that I should not have the virtue to decline the challenge and suffer the disgrace which would be sure to follow." But," said the priest, "has any one challenged you or is any one likely to do so?"
"Oh, no! not at all;
but..." -
"But wait until the temptation comes. You have made up your mind not to commit mortal sin, and when this particular temptation comes God will give you grace to overcome it."
Do not cast your net too far out into the stream; do not be in a hurry to promise to abstain from any particular sin or to do any particular act of virtue for your whole life except in a general way. In a general way you are determined to keep God's law, honestly and firmly determined. As to this or that particular sin, you hate and detest it and have made up your mind against it; whenever the temptation comes you are resolved to resist it.
There are three things
about which one should make good resolutions rather than about any
others:
First, the practice of prayer;
Second, going to confession and Communion;
Third, avoiding the occasion of sins.
The first two fill our souls with God's grace and the third keeps us out of danger. Put all your good resolutions into company with prayer (and monthly, or at least quarterly), Communion; and you will have no great difficulty in pulling through. From month to month is not so long a time to keep straight, and a good confession and a worthy Communion is God's best help. Morning and night prayers are a mark of predestination to eternal life; keep away from bad company and dangerous places, and avoiding bad reading and all other dangerous occasions, has very much to do with an innocent life and a happy death."
Source: Five-minute Sermons, by the Priests of the Congregation of St. Paul 1893 (3rd Sunday after Epiphany)
To the Divine Infant
by VP
Posted on Tuesday January 14, 2025 at 12:00AM in Poetry
Infant of Prague: Mother Of Mercy, Washington NC)
Prayer to the Holy Infant for priests
Jesus, Divine Infant, I bless and thank
Your most loving Heart for the institution of the priesthood. Priests
are sent by You, as You were sent by the Father. To them You entrusted
the treasures of Your doctrine, of Your Law, of Your Grace, and souls
themselves.
Grant me the grace to love them, to listen to them,
and to let myself be guided by them in Your ways. Jesus, send good
laborers into Your harvest. May priests be the salt that purifies and
preserves; may they be the light of the world; may they be the city
placed on the mountain. May they all be formed after Your own Heart. And
in heaven may they be surrounded by a joyous throng of those they
shepherded on earth. Amen.
Glory Be three times.
Infant Jesus, make me love You more and more!
To the Divine Infant:
Sweet Infant - God! I humbly fly to Thee,
For I have heard Thy whisper all divine:
"Come all who labor, come with trust to me,"
"Your hearts can only rest in love of mine."
Sweet Infant - Jesus! I believe in Thee,
And hope for mercy from Thy loving Heart.
O may I love and serve Thee fervently!
"The Prince of peace," "Emmanuel" Thou art!
Sweet little Jesus! Souls so dear to Thee
Shall be the objects of my tender love.
O grant that we may all eternally
Rejoice and praise Thee in the land above.
Written by: Enfant de Marie (These lines were suggested by the beautiful prayer in honor of the Holy Infant of Prague, composed by the Carmelite, Father Cyril a Matre Dei.)The Carmelite review, 1898
Prayers of Reparation to the Holy Face of Jesus
by VP
Posted on Saturday January 04, 2025 at 12:00AM in Prayers
O God, by Thy Holy Name have pity on us, protect us, and save us.
O good Jesus, in the sweet Name guard our Sovereign Pontiff; breathe into his
soul the spirit of the Comforter.
Jesus, thy Church is menaced with great trials! Holy Father, by the virtue of
thy salutary Name protect the Church of Jesus Christ. This was the last will of
thy Divine Son; it is the holy prayer which love prompted towards the end of his
life. Holy Father, keep in thy Name those thou hast given me (St. John chap. xxxvii. 11)
O most holy and worthy Mother, refuge of the Church, intercede for us and save us by
the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
St. Michael and the Holy Angels, guard the bark of Peter; disperse its enemies
by the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Source: Sister Saint-Pierre and the Work of Reparation.
Manual of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face
Act of Reparation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
by VP
Posted on Friday January 03, 2025 at 12:00AM in Prayers
"If it is true that by contemplating Christ, sinners learn from Him the
“sorrow for sins” needed to bring them back to the Father, this is even
more the case for sacred ministers.
How can we forget, in this
regard, that nothing causes more suffering for the Church, the Body of
Christ, than the sins of her pastors, especially the sins of those who
become “thieves and robbers” of the sheep (cf. Jn 10:1 ff.), lead them
astray by their own private teachings, or ensnare them in the toils of
sin and death? Dear priests, the summons to conversion and to trust in
God’s mercy also applies to us; we too must humbly, sincerely and
unceasingly implore the heart of Jesus to preserve us from the
terrifying risk of endangering the very people we are obliged to save."
-- Pope Benedict XVI, Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 19 June 2009
Act of Reparation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Most Sweet Jesus, whose overflowing
charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and
contempt, behold us prostrate before Thee, eager to repair by a special
act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries to which Thy loving
Heart is everywhere subject.
Mindful, alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such great
indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we
humbly ask Thy pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary
expiation, not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins
of those, who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse in their
obstinate infidelity to follow Thee, their Shepherd and Leader, or,
renouncing the promises of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke
of Thy law.
We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage
committed against Thee; we are now determined to make amends for the
manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and
behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the
innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holy days, and the
shocking blasphemies uttered against Thee and Thy Saints. We wish also
to make amends for the insults to which Thy Vicar on earth and Thy
priests are subjected, for the profanation, by conscious neglect or
terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very crimes of nations who resist the
rights and teaching authority of the Church which Thou hast founded.
Would that we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood.
We now offer, in reparation for these violations of Thy divine honor,
the satisfaction Thou once made to Thy Eternal Father on the cross and
which Thou continuest to renew daily on our altars; we offer it in union
with the acts of atonement of Thy Virgin Mother and all the Saints and
of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make
recompense, as far as we can with the help of Thy grace, for all neglect
of Thy great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the
past. Henceforth, we will live a life of unswerving faith, of purity of
conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the Gospel and
especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to
prevent others from offending Thee and to bring as many as possible to
follow Thee.
O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother,
our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make
of this act of expiation; and by the crowning gift of perseverance keep
us faithful unto death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to Thee,
so that we may all one day come to that happy home, where with the
Father and the Holy Spirit Thou livest and reignest, God, forever and
ever. Amen.
From the Raccolta, #256 (S. P. Ap., June 1, 1928 and March 18, 1932); Enchridion of Indulgences #26.
This prayer was prescribed to be recited on this feast by Pope Pius XI
The Circumcision of Our Lord
by VP
Posted on Wednesday January 01, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sermons
"THIS being the first day of the new year, consecrate it all to God. Offer to him your thoughts, words, and actions : beg grace for the exact performance of all your obligations, to be supported in dangers, and preserved from sin.
On this day, Christ our Lord subjected himself to the law of Circumcision. Give him thanks; pray for grace, for the ready compliance with all the laws of God, and resolve to comply, even at the expense of your blood. On this day of his humiliation, was given to him the holy name of Jesus; offer yourself to Jesus; beseech him to make you a true follower of him, in all humility, that you may be of the number of those who are saved by him. Beg pardon for the many times you have abused or profaned his sacred name, and be careful to do it no more.
It being on the day of Christ's circumcision that he received the adorable name of Jesus, or Saviour, we have in this a great instruction given us, of the necessity of a Christian or spiritual circumcision, and that he will be a Saviour to none in whom this is not found. This is the condition of the salvation which he offers. He begins the work by a legal circumcision, and we are to partake of his redemption by circumcision of the heart.
This imports a duty, in the first place, of retrenching all habitual sin; because this is an engagement contrary to the law and will of God; and therefore living in any such engagement, is living in wilful disobedience and contempt of God, and rebellion against his law. Such a state can have no other fruit but destruction, in being eternally separated from God. Secondly, all who design to live as they profess, are obliged to renounce all the immediate occasions of these sins. Because these occasions have such a connexion with the sins themselves, that there can be no sincerity in pretending to admit the one, and avoid the other. It is impossible to conceive that a soul can be truly converted to God, and have a hearty detestation of sin, as the gospel requires, which is pleased with the familiarity of such dangers, as are a violence upon it, and almost inseparable from sin. All the thoughts then of such unhappy sinners, of repentance and returning to God, can be no other than treacherous delusions: whilst they pretend to be sorry for having offended, and yet think nothing of quitting that company, and those practices, which have been the continual occasions of all their past offences. Therefore, the omitting to retrench these, is what excludes them from any part in the mercies of a Redeemer.
Thirdly, they are obliged to free themselves from other more remote occasions of sin. But then, as there are different degrees in these, so there is likewise in the obligation of retrenching them; it being in some more absolute and pressing than in others, according to the connection they have with sin. As this differs according to tempers and circumstances, it must be determined in particular by conferring with spiritual directors. However, sine general rules may be proposed as the obligation which every one has of cutting off whatever helps considerably to heighten those inclinations and passions, which alienate the mind from the love of God, and lead to sin. Hence the good Christian is very careful in the choice of his company and conversation. For since the general discourse of the world is a communication of worldly principles, the effusion of error and pride, and other passions, a soul that indifferently exposes herself to company, is in danger of being infected with all this poison. The same caution the good Christian uses in reading books; because too many of these favour concupiscence and corruption so much, that frequent reading them must make impressions, and insensibly work upon the soul, to the great prejudice of all its spiritual concerns. It is the same, as to all manner of shows and diversions; because he sees the great danger and mischief of these things, inasmuch as they are the common ways by which the devil deludes souls into all kinds of sinful liberties and wickedness. Whatever therefore his affections or inclinations may be, he carefully removes so much of all that, to which these lead him, as he has reason to suspect dangerous to his eternal welfare.
This care of the good Christian extends likewise to whatever considerably disturbs that good order and discipline, which ought to be observed in his own person or family. For though these are not numbered among the virtues, yet they have place among the Christian duties; inasmuch as it is the obligation of every Christian to be watchful in that, which is the best security of a Christian life, and without which it must be exposed to be wholly overthrown. Indeed, it is as great an absurdity to think of maintaining a Christian life without order and discipline, as to support any civil or military government without it. Therefore, though it be often necessary to interrupt the order of praying, eating, working, sleeping, &c., yet whoever loses all regard to this order, and lets every humour and inclination take place of it, it is to be feared, that if he be not already lost, it cannot be very long before he will be so. For this going out of all method involves such variety of neglects, draws so many ill consequences after it, and betrays so great a stock of selflove, and desire of satisfying one's own inclinations, and preferring them to ordinary duties, that it cannot be long consistent with a Christian life.
For this reason, the good Christian, ever apprehensive of being insensibly carried out of the way, is not only careful to prevent it, by keeping up discipline, and observing good order in himself and family; but is likewise very watchful in retrenching whatever he perceives of this world apt to possess his heart and likely to turn it from God. And this, not only in respect of sinful objects, but also of all love of the world, love of temporal or secular things, in a word, of all love of creatures. This he undertook in baptism, when becoming the child of God, he promised to renounce all those inclinations, which he brought with him into the world, which naturally and violently carry him to sin, to earth, and to creatures; and solemnly engaged to follow those new impressions which he then received, which lead him to the love of God, to religion, and to the search of heavenly things, by a separation from creatures. Though, from that corruption which is in him, he cannot follow the new impressions, without violence to nature; yet having taken this obligation upon him, he considers it his duty ever to use this violence. This is his exercise, as long as he is in this life. He finds in it great difficulties; but he who undertook to be his Redeemer, has taught him that he is not to expect any part in this redemption without trouble and difficulties. Therefore, encouraged by his example, he resolutely offers himself to all these, and looks for them as part of his portion to which he is called. Though frail of himself, he yet hopes, through the grace of his Redeemer, and the assistance of his holy spirit, to hold out to the end, with cheerful submission, and untired patience, till that happy hour comes when he may say: All is finished. For this end, he puts himself this day under the covert of the sacred name of Jesus, hoping under that protection daily to receive a constant supply of courage and comfort; that he may go on in the practice of a spiritual circumcision, in the same spirit with him who taught it. Grant us, O Jesus, this thy holy spirit, that we may ever remember this lesson, and duly practise it. And whenever our corrupt nature is carrying us to sin, to the love of this world, or of creatures, powerfully check our inclinations, and say to our souls: I am thy salvation." The Catholic Year for Rev. Fr. John GotherFrom the Past: A Bishop
by VP
Posted on Wednesday January 01, 2025 at 12:00AM in From the Past
2nd Bishop of Raleigh, NC (1937-1944)
"A Bishop is the supreme ecclesiastical ruler of the Diocese. Bishops are successors of the Apostles as the Pope is the Successor of St. Peter. They govern their flocks, in the name of God, as representatives of Christ; they are not delegates of the Holy See, though they are subject to its authority. They experience their own powers by virtue of their office. They can note act against common law; but subject to this a Bishop can enact those laws which he considers for the good of his Diocese, and he is in the first instance in all ecclesiastical trials. He has the direction of his clergy, the conduct of divine worship, the administration of ecclesiastical property, building of churches, erection of parishes. It is the duty of Bishops to enforce the observance of Canon law, safeguard the faith, and correct abuses. Bishops are bound to reside in the Diocese and are to preach in person. They offer Masses for the people on prescribed days, and as the first opportunity offers, they complete the pastoral visitation of the Diocese.
[...]
In the centuries-old history of the Catholic Episcopate, men of faith and men without faith have alike paid tribute to that noble succession of priestly leaders who have ever shared the lot of the people entrusted to their care.
From that pulpit shall be defended the sanctity of marriage, the dignity and responsibility of marriage, the dignity and responsibility of parenthood, the loving care of little children in the holiness of home life. There will be expounded the conscientious duty of a faithful laborer and his right to a fair share in the product to his work that he may care well for those he loves. Yet, on the other hand, there will be defended, the right of private property and wealth rightly gained be safeguarded, in the possession of its owner, while he is taught that over what he needs for prudent provision for himself and his loved ones, his possession is a stewardship from God for which his charity must answer. Such the preaching of a Catholic Bishop.
This attitude of a Catholic Bishop is the Church's guarantee to the State of the fidelity and loyalty of the Catholic people to their duties, both as citizens and Christians. These significance, so heartening in these distressing times, make clear why Bishops, priests, and people, led by a Cardinal of Holy Church, have flocked to your City of Raleigh for the installation to a new Bishop latest proof of the vitality in the life and work of the Church of Christ."
Monsignor Corrigan, January 29, 1938 on the Eve of the installation of Bishop McGuinness. Source: The Bulletin
