Kindness and truth shall meet...

Day of Penance* for Violations

to the Dignity of the Human Person

*In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22
(or January 23, when the 22nd falls on a Sunday) shall be
observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the
dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion,
and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the
right to life. --- General Instruction of the Roman Missal (U.S.), 2003, n. 373

Kindness and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,

and justice shall look down from heaven. - Ps 85:10,11

“Devotion to the Eucharist leads one to a devotion to life

and a devotion to life leads one to the Eucharist….

We receive our strength for our labors for life from the 
Good News of Jesus Christ and from the Holy Eucharist.

This is the food that nourishes us for the tasks at hand….

The Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith

and respect for life is our faith's first precept.”

Justin Cardinal Rigali

"If people spent one hour per week in Eucharistic Adoration,

abortion would be ended."~ St Teresa of Calcutta

"In the Bread which came down from heaven, the family will 
be able to find the support that will keep it united in the face 
of today's threats and will preserve it as a bastion of life, 
steadfast against the culture of death." - St John Paul II 

"Our own belief is that the renovation of the world will be

brought about only by the Holy Eucharist." - Pope Leo XIII

 

        Lord Jesus, I firmly believe that the Blessed Sacrament is Your very Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. Senses cannot grasp this marvel. Faith, however, reaches beyond what the eyes can see and assures us that You are present.

        Grant, O Lord, that our faith in the Eucharist may also strengthen our ability to recognize the dignity of every human life. We know that the senses can fool us there as well. Some may not be attractive, others may seem too small, some may appear as less than human.  But we, who can see You in the Sacred Host, can certainly see you in our brothers and sisters. We can also see You, O Lord, in the children in the womb. In a day when so many have forgotten these children, and dismiss them as less valuable than those who are born, grant that we may grow all the more convinced of their dignity and worth. Then grant, O Lord, that we may act accordingly. Amen. (Priests for Life)

All Souls Day...

All Souls Day*

Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed

November 2

*The commemoration of All Souls is rooted in the Church's 
strong conviction that we, the living, have a serious responsibility 
in love to accompany with prayer those who have died but who 
must yet complete the purificatory preparation every human being 
needs to be able to dwell in the all-encompassing love of God. 
(From Magnificat, November 2014, Vol 16, No 9)

 

"Eternal Father, I offer You the most precious Blood

of Your Divine Son, Jesus, in union with

the Masses said throughout the world today,

for all the Holy Souls in purgatory.  Amen."

St Gertrude the Great

"I would go so far as to say that if there was no purgatory, then we would have to invent it, for who would dare say to himself that he was able to stand directly before God. .... (God) can cleanse us in such a way that we are able to be with Him and can stand there in the fullness of life.  Purgatory strips off from one person what is unbearable and from another the inability to bear certain things, so that in each of them a pure heart is revealed, and we can see that we all belong together in one enormous symphony of being."  ~ Pope Benedict XVI

LITTLE LITANY OF THE HOLY SOULS

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. 

Holy Souls, Pray for us. For the souls of our families, We pray Thee, O God. For the souls of our friends, We pray Thee, O God. For the souls of our enemies, We pray Thee, O God. For the souls of all pagans, We pray Thee, O God. For the souls of all priests, We pray Thee, O God. For the souls of all religious, We pray Thee, O God. For the souls of the just, We pray Thee, O God. For the souls of all sinners, We pray Thee, O God. For the Holy Souls in Purgatory, We pray Thee, O God. For those who have none to pray for them, We pray Thee, O God. O almighty and eternal God, we beg Thee to have mercy on the Holy Souls in Purgatory, especially those for whom we  are bound to pray; and we ask Thee also to listen to the prayers of the Blessed Souls in our behalf. Amen.

All Souls Day ~ Jakub Schikaneder (1888)

  PRAYER FOR A HAPPY DEATH…written by Bl John Henry Cardinal Newman

O my Lord and Savior, support me in my last hour by the strong arms of Thy sacraments, and the fragrance of Thy consolations. Let Thy absolving words be said over me, and the holy oil sign and seal me; and let your own body be my food, and Thy blood my sprinkling; and let Thy Mother Mary come to me, and my angel whisper peace to me, and Thy glorious saints and my own dear patrons smile on me, that in and through them all I may die as I desire to live, in Thy Church, in Thy faith, and in Thy love. Amen.   

My Jesus, mercy.

*MORE on All Souls Day...   Click here: All Souls Day

Click here: Spiritualdirection.com Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed: All Souls' Day

 

Remember those, O Lord,

Who in Your peace have died,

Yet may not gain love's high reward

Till love is purified 

With You they faced death's night

Sealed with Your victory sign;

Soon may the splendor of Your light

On them forever shine!

  

“Grant, O Lord, that I may experience a reasonable sorrow at the death of those who are dear to me, shedding tears of resignation over our mortal condition, yet soon restraining them by this consoling thought of the faith: that in dying, the faithful have only withdrawn a little from us to go into a better world.

May I not weep as do the pagans who are without hope. I may have reason to be sad, but in my affliction hope will comfort me. With hope so great, it is not fitting, O my God, that Your temple should be in mourning. You dwell there, You who are our Consoler; and You cannot fail in Your promises.” ~ St. Augustine

Death by love... (Good Friday)

O crux, ave spes unica! 

(Hail, O cross, our only hope!)

GOOD FRIDAY

Sweet the timber, sweet the iron,

Sweet the burden that they bear! (Hymn:  Faithful Cross)

"Holy Friday is the culminating moment of love. The death of Jesus, who

on the cross abandons Himself to the Father to offer salvation to the whole world, expresses the love given to the end, without end.  A love that intends

to embrace all, no one excluded. A love that extends to every time and place:

an inexhaustible source of salvation from which each one of us, sinners,

can draw. If God has shown His supreme love in Jesus’ death, then we also,

regenerated by the Holy Spirit, can and must love one another."

 - Pope Francis, Wednesday Audience, 23 March 2016

"Nature is in mourning covered with darkness during the Holy Hour of the first Good Friday.  The chants of the heavenly Jerusalem are interrupted.  The entire court of Heaven waits in order to receive the last throb of the Heart of the Man-God, the victim of Golgotha.

Fervent loving souls, 

we are truly at the summit of Calvary: 

it is the Holy Hour!

A loud voice resounds in the heights, a voice that says: "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.'  And bending His lacerated Head, Jesus Crucified dies of love.  It is His Heart which out of love for us has brought Him to death.  All glory to His loving Heart which gave us life and which now is stilled in death!"- Fr Mateo Crawley-Boevey  

Image above:  Christ Crucified ~ Viktor Vasnetsov (1896)

Souls have all the same price,

which is that of the Precious Blood of Jesus."

Blessed Charles de Foucauld

"Do grant, oh my God,

that when my lips approach Yours to kiss You, 
I may taste the gall that was given to You;

when my shoulders lean against Yours,

make me feel Your scourging; 
when my flesh is united with Yours, in the Holy Eucharist, 

make me feel Your passion;

when my head comes near Yours,

make me feel Your thorns;
when my heart is close to Yours,

make me feel Your spear."

St. Gemma Galgani

“We adore Thee, O Christ, and we praise Thee ...

because by Thy Holy Cross Thou has Redeemed the World.”

"Your love is my only martyrdom.
The more I feel it burning in me,
The more my soul desires you…
Jesus, make me die of love for you." 

St Thérèse of Lisieux

Divine Mercy Novena begins today
 Click here: DIVINE MERCY NOVENA PRAYERS

Purity of soul...

"Never fear that your past faults and infidelities will prevent 

you reaching the degree of union that God intends for you; 

in an instant He can repair all that." - Dom Marmion

“The saints  applied to perfection the directive of the Holy Spirit, “Let everyone first examine himself and then eat of that bread and drink of that Chalice; because he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks unto his own condemnation” (I Cor 11:28-29).

To examine themselves, to repent, to accuse themselves in Confession and to ask pardon of God, and in this way even every day profit from the Sacrament of Confession, was something natural for the saints.  How fortunate they were to be capable of so much!  The fruits of sanctification were constant and abundant because the purity of soul with which each saint welcomed into himself Jesus, "the Wheat of the elect." (Zach 9:17) was like the good ground "... which brings forth fruit in patience" (Luke 8:15).

St Anthony Mary Claret illustrates this fact very well:  "When we go to Holy Communion, all of us receive the same Lord Jesus, but not all receive the same grace nor are the same effects produced in all. This comes from our greater or lesser disposition.  To explain this fact, I will take an example from nature. Consider the process of grafting.  The more similar the one plant is to the other, the better the graft will succeed.  Likewise, the more resemblance there is between the one that goes to Communion and Jesus, so much the better will the fruits of Holy Communion be."  The Sacrament of Confession is in fact the excellent means whereby the similarity between the soul and Jesus is restored.

For this reason St Francis de Sales taught his spiritual children "Go to Confession with humility and devotion... "

Fr Stefano Manelli, O.F.M. Conv., S.T.D.

Full text: Click here: The Purity of Soul Necessary for Holy Communion  

"...when the door starts closing a bit because of our weakness and sins, 

confession reopens it." - Pope Francis

May kindness and truth meet

Day of Penance* for Violations

to the Dignity of the Human Person

 

*In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22
(or January 23, when the 22nd falls on a Sunday) shall be
observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the
dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion,
and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the
right to life. --- General Instruction of the Roman Missal (U.S.), 2003, n. 373

 

 

Kindness and truth shall meet;

justice and peace shall kiss.

Truth shall spring out of the earth,

and justice shall look down from heaven. - Ps 85:10,11

 

Federico Barocci ~ Ultima Cena - The Last Supper

 

“Devotion to the Eucharist leads one to a devotion to life

and a devotion to life leads one to the Eucharist….

We receive our strength for our labors for life from the

Good News of Jesus Christ and from the Holy Eucharist.

 

This is the food that nourishes us for the tasks at hand….

The Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith

and respect for life is our faith's first precept.”

 

Justin Cardinal Rigali

3 October 2004 

 

"In the Bread which came down from heaven, the family will 

be able to find the support that will keep it united in the face 

of today's threats and will preserve it as a bastion of life, 

steadfast against the culture of death." - St John Paul II

"If people spent one hour per week in Eucharistic Adoration,

abortion would be ended."~ Blessed Teresa of Calcutta