This pierces My Heart

“The confidence that I truly have the power, the wisdom
and the goodness to aid a soul faithfully in all her miseries,
is the arrow which pierces My Heart,
and does such violence to My love that I can never abandon her.”

Our Lord to St. Gertrude the Great

St. Margaret of Scotland

Born around the year 1046, Margaret was a pious and virtuous English princess of the House of Essex. She and her family fled north to the court of the Scottish King Malcolm Canmore to take refuge from William the Conqueror. Malcolm was captivated by Margaret’s goodness and beauty, and in the year 1070, they were married at the castle of Dunfermline.

A veritable blessing for the people of Scotland, Margaret brought civilization, culture and education to the rough Scots. She benefited her adopted country both academically and spiritually by obtaining good priests and educators for her people. She softened her husband’s temper, cultivated his manners, and helped King Malcolm to become known throughout the land as one of the most virtuous kings of Scotland.

Margaret bore Malcolm six sons and two daughters and reared them with utmost attention to their Christian faith. One of her daughters later married Henry I of England and three of her sons occupied the Scottish throne. Margaret lived a most austere life, giving herself mostly to God by fasting often, denying herself sleep and praying for long periods of time, the king often sharing in her prayers.

In 1093, King William Rufus of England attacked Scotland, and Malcolm was killed in battle. Margaret, already on her deathbed, died four days later. She was buried in the Abbey of Dunfermline, one of the many churches she and her husband had founded. Canonized in 1250, she was named patroness of Scotland in 1673.

By the path of love

It is by the path of love, which is charity, that
God draws near to man and man to God.
But where charity is not found, God cannot dwell. 
If, then, we possess charity, we possess God,  
for “God is Charity” (1 John 4:8).

St. Albert the Great

St. Albert the Great

Albert Bollstadt was born at the German castle of Lauinger on the River Danube in 1206. Nothing is known of his youth, but he studied at the University of Padua and in 1222, became a Dominican, much to the anger of his family. He taught at Cologne in 1228, and later, at a University in Paris, where he received his doctorate in 1245. He returned to Cologne in 1248 upon the request of his Dominican superiors to establish a school of advanced learning. He became regent of the school there, and during that time taught St. Thomas Aquinas.

Albert was well learned in physics, geography, astronomy, mineralogy, chemistry and biology, and authored many writings on these subjects. His reputation as a scientist grew from his endeavors at Cologne. He carried on experiments in chemistry and physics created a large collection of plants, insects and chemical compounds. However, he is most renowned for allowing the philosophies of Aristotle to become acceptable to Catholicism: with his learned background, he rewrote the works of the great man using the science of theology.

In 1260, he was appointed Bishop of Regensburg but resigned after less than three years. However, he was still called upon to advise Pope Urban IV and was sent on several diplomatic missions. He lived the rest of his life in Cologne, traveling to Lyons in 1274 to take part in the council there.  His final appearance in public was in Paris where he defended the teaching of his late student, Thomas Aquinas.

He died in Cologne on November 15, 1280 and is buried in the Church of St. Andrea. He was canonized and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1931 by Pope Pius XI. For his great knowledge and scientific writings, he is considered the patron of scientists.

No less a sin

Not to oppose error is to approve it;
and not to defend truth is to suppress it;
and indeed to neglect to confound evil men, when we can do it,
is no less a sin than to encourage them.

Pope St. Felix III

St. Laurence O'Toole

Born in 1128 in County Kildare, Ireland, Laurence was the son of Murtagh, chieftain of the Murrays. When he was ten years old, Laurence was taken hostage by King Dermot McMurrogh of Leinster in a raid and, after two years of mistreatment by his captor, was sent to live with the Bishop of Glendalough.

Guided by the bishop, Laurence became a monk, and in 1161, was consecrated as the Archbishop of Dublin. His first act as archbishop was to begin the reform of the clergy under his charge and require the canons of his church to receive the rule of the regular canons of Arrouaise, a rule reputed for its sanctity and austerity. Laurence himself followed this rule, and as an act of charity, had over thirty poor people dine with him every night. He became beloved for his charity, and was much sought after for his fatherly wisdom and advice.

In 1175, Laurence traveled to England to negotiated a treaty between King Henry II and Rory O’Conor, the new monarch of Ireland who succeeded to the throne after the death of Dermot McMurrogh. Henry was impressed by the holy man’s piety, and Laurence successfully negotiated peace.

Laurence died on November 4, 1180, and was canonized in 1225.
Photo by: Andreas F. Borchert

This is what the powers of hell fear

Men do not fear a powerful hostile army
as much as the powers of hell fear the name and protection of Mary.

St. Bonaventure

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

Born on July 15, 1850 into a family of Italian farmers near Lombardi, Frances was the youngest of thirteen children. Her parents, Augustine and Stella Cabrini, died in 1870 when she was eighteen, and Frances lived with her sister, Rosa. Though she was always a devout child, Frances became truly close to God as she grew older, and she became renowned for her holiness.

Around the year 1874, Frances was invited by her parish priest to assist at the House of Providence, an orphanage where she remained for six years. In 1877, she and seven of her close friends took their first vows. That same year, the Bishop asked her to found the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children in schools and hospitals. She and her seven followers organized themselves at an old Franciscan friary at Codogno, and there Frances wrote a rule for the sisters to follow. By 1887, the process for the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to become officially recognized by the Church had begun, and houses were founded all over Italy.

In 1889, Pope Leo XIII asked Frances to travel to New York with six of her sisters to work among the Italian immigrants. When she arrived on March 31, she discovered the plan had fallen through: there was no building in which to teach, no orphanage and no home for the hard-traveled nuns to stay. Archbishop Corrigan apologized and suggested the nuns return to Italy, to which Frances replied, “No, Monsignor, not that. The Pope sent me here, and here I must stay,” and within a few weeks, she made progress with her mission, ultimately establishing schools, hospitals, and orphanages.

In 1892, Frances completed her most well-known achievement: the Columbus Hospital in New York. This success led to houses and schools being opened in Brazil, Chile and Europe. By 1907, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart were officially recognized by the Catholic Church. Their small community had grown to over a thousand, and free schools, orphanages and convents had been established in eight countries.

Her body had been failing for six years, but Frances’s death came suddenly. She died in the convent in Chicago on December 22, 1917. She was canonized in 1946.

As the struggles increase...

Without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace.
The gift of grace increases as the struggles increase.

St. Rose of Lima

St. Josaphat Kunsevich

John Kunsevich was born in Lithuania around the year 1580. His father, a burgess for a wealthy family, raised his son as a Catholic and instilled in him a great love for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. As a young man John spent much of his time learning Church Slavonic as he desired to assist and participate more fully in the divine worship that he loved so much. In 1604, he entered the Monastery of the Holy Trinity at Vilna taking the name Josaphat, and dedicated his life to uniting the Ruthenians with the Roman Church.

Josaphat was ordained a deacon and soon after, a priest, becoming widely known as a Catholic reformer. While retaining unity with Rome, Josaphat opposed the total Latinization of the Ruthenian peoples and the suppression of Byzantine traditions. He was beloved for his great sermons and preaching, eventually becoming abbot of the monastery in Vilna. By 1617, he was consecrated Bishop of Vitebsk, and after the death of the archbishop a year later, succeeded him. He immediately sought unity with Rome, and began to reinstate Catholic practices that had fallen into disuse. By 1620, he succeeded in the endeavor.

Soon after Josaphat’s great victory, however, his work began to unravel. Meletius Smotritsky, the Archbishop of Polotsk, claimed that Josaphat’s goal was to completely eliminate Byzantine traditions in the name of Catholic unity, and Latinize all Ruthenians. Meletius gained a number of followers and so frenzied was the agitation against him that a plan was contrived to kill Josaphat. As he walked to church for morning prayers, he was attacked by the group of Meletius’ followers. He was beaten and shot as his attackers cried, “Kill the papist!” His mutilated body was dragged to the river Dvina and carelessly thrown into the water.

St. Josaphat was canonized in 1867, the first saint of the Eastern churches to be officially canonized.

What we need most

 What we need most in order to make progress is
to be silent before this great God with our appetite and with our tongue,
for the language He best hears is silent love.

St. John of the Cross

St. Martin of Tours

Martin was born in German Sabaria about the year 316. His father, a military tribune, was transferred to Pavia when Martin was still quite young and the boy accompanied him to Italy. Upon reaching adolescence, Martin was enrolled in the Roman army in accordance with the recruiting laws of the time. Touched by grace at an early age, he was among the first attracted to Christianity, which had been in favor in the military camps since the conversion of Emperor Constantine.

Martin's regiment was soon sent to Amiens in Gaul, and this town became the scene of the celebrated "legend of the cloak." One bitterly-cold winter day, Martin met a shivering and half-naked beggar at the gates of the city. Moved with compassion, Martin divided his coat into two parts and gave one to the poor man. The part he kept for himself became the famous relic preserved in the oratory of the Frankish kings and known to all as “Saint Martin’s cloak.”

Martin, who was still only a catechumen, soon received Baptism and was finally released from military service at Worms on the Rhine. Freed from his obligations, he hastened to set out to Poitiers to enroll himself among the disciples of St. Hilary, the wise and pious bishop whose reputation as a theologian was already spreading beyond the frontiers of Gaul. However, he desired to see his parents again and returned to Lombardy across the Alps. The inhabitants of this region were infested with Arianism and bitterly hostile towards Catholicism. Martin did not conceal his faith and was very badly treated by order of Bishop Auxentius of Milan, the leader of the heretical sect in Italy. He was very desirous of returning to Gaul, but learning that the Arians also persecuted their opponents in that country and had even succeeded in exiling St. Hilary to the Orient, he decided to seek shelter on the island of Gallinaria, now Isola d’Albenga, in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

As soon as Martin learned that an imperial decree had authorized St. Hilary to return to Gaul, he hastened to the side of his chosen master at Poitiers in 361. After having obtained permission from him to embrace the life of a hermit, which he had adopted in Gallinaria, he settled in a deserted region now called Ligugé. His example soon drew a great number of monks who settled near him. Such was the beginning of the celebrated Benedictine Abbey of Ligugé. Martin remained about ten years in this solitude and often left it to preach the Gospel in the central and western parts of Gaul where the rural inhabitants were still plunged in the darkness of idolatry and given up to all sorts of gross superstitions. The memory of these apostolic journeys survives to our day in the numerous local legends where Martin is the hero and which roughly indicate the routes that he followed.

When St. Lidorius, second Bishop of Tours, died in 371 or 372, the clergy of that city desired to replace him by the famous hermit of Ligugé. But, as Martin remained deaf to the prayers of the deputies who brought him this message, it was necessary to resort to a ruse to overcome his resistance. A rich citizen of Tours by the name of Rusticius went and begged him to come to attend to his wife who was in the throes of death. Without suspicion, Martin followed him in all haste, but hardly had he entered the city when, in spite of the opposition of a few ecclesiastical dignitaries, popular acclamation constrained him to become Bishop of Tours.
Consecrated on July 4, Martin fulfilled the duties to his office with all the energy and dedication that he had demonstrated in the past. He did not however change his way of life. He fled from the distractions of the large city and settled himself in a small cell a short distance from Tours, beyond the Loire. Other hermits soon joined him there and thus was gradually formed a new monastery that surpassed the Ligugé and came to be known as the Majus Monasterium, the “great monastery” or Marmoutier.

Thus, by an untiring zeal and great simplicity Martin administered to his pastoral duties and so succeeded in sowing Christianity throughout the region of Touraine. Nor was it a rare occurrence for him to leave his diocese when he thought that his appearance in some distant locality might produce some good. He even went several times to Trier, where the emperors had established their residence in order to plead the interests of the Church or to ask pardon for some condemned person.

His role in the matter of the Priscillianists and Ithacians was especially remarkable. Martin hurried to Trier, not to defend the Gnostic and Manichaean doctrines of Priscillian, but to remove him from the secular jurisdiction of the emperor. The Council of Saragossa had justly condemned the Spanish heresiarch Priscillian and his partisans and angry charges were brought before Emperor Maximus by some orthodox bishops of Spain, led by Bishop Ithacius.

Maximus at first consented to Martins’s request but when he departed, Maximus yielded to the solicitations of Ithacius and ordered Priscillian and his followers to be beheaded. Deeply grieved, Martin refused to communicate with Ithacius. However, when he went again to Trier a little later to ask pardon for two rebels, Narses and Leucadius, Maximus would only pardon them on the condition that Martin make his peace with Ithaeius. To save the lives of his clients, Martin consented to this reconciliation, but afterwards reproached himself bitterly for this act of weakness.

After a last visit to Rome, Martin went to Candes, one of the religious centers created by him in his diocese and there he was stricken with a malady, which ended his life. Ordering himself to be carried into the presbytery of the church, he died there at the age of about eighty-one, with the same exemplary spirit of humility and mortification that he had always practiced in life.

The Rosary Saves Soldiers in Kuwait

Veronica first learned of the Rosary as a small girl watching her father fingering the beads. At first she thought he was “playing” with the shiny strand, but later, realizing the full meaning of her father’s action, and under the promptings of Grace, she became a devotee of the Rosary as well.
The recitation of the Rosary was always a great help to Veronica, who felt the Blessed Mother’s protection in her life. But then, when her youngest son, Randy, was stationed in Kuwait during Desert Storm, the devotion was to play a crucial role.
While attending a convention of Catholic Women, and greatly concerned for her son’s safety, she confided to a presiding priest that Randy was serving overseas. The good priest then suggested she and others in the group join him in praying a Rosary for Randy’s safety and other pressing intentions. Something compelled Father and the ladies not only to say five decades, but to persevere for several hours.
Two weeks later Veronica received a letter from her son in which he described that he and fellow soldiers had been in a harrowing conflict. As the bullets whizzed by, he feared for his and his buddies’ lives and prayed with all his heart. Suddenly, a great calm came over him and he heard a voice, “from the sky” that assured him they would be alright.
Conferring dates and times, mother and son marvelled at finding that the time in which he and the others were in dire peril was the same day and hour Father, Veronica and her friends were persevering in reciting the Rosary.

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Note: Based on a story from 101 Inspirational Stories of the Rosary by Sister Patricia Proctor, OSC

No one is beyond the help of this

No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross.
No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ.

Pope St. Leo the Great

Pope St. Leo the Great

Although he descended of a noble Tuscan family, Leo was born in the Eternal City. He was already known outside of Rome even as a deacon under Pope Celestine I, and had some relations with Gaul during this period. During the pontificate of Pope Sixtus III, Leo was sent to Gaul by the Emperor Valentinian III to settle a dispute and bring about a reconciliation between Aëtius, the chief military commander of the province, and the chief magistrate, Albinus. This commission is a proof of the great confidence placed in the clever and able deacon by the Imperial Court. While Leo was away in Gaul, the Pope died on August 19, 440 and the deacon-delegate was chosen as his successor. Returning to Rome, Leo was consecrated as Vicar of Christ on September 29 of the same year, and governed the Church for the next twenty-one years.

Whilst the Eastern Empire was distracted by heretical factions, the Western was harassed by barbarian hordes. Halted in his ruinous advance through Gaul by the Roman general Aëtius, Attila the Hun turned south into Italy. Leaving blood and desolation in his wake, he sacked Milan, razed Pavia and laid waste whole provinces. The weak Emperor Valentinian III shut himself up in Ravenna, and the Romans, in the utmost terror, expected to see the barbarian invaders speedily before their gates. Such was the state of affairs when Pope Leo went to meet Attila.

They found the proud tyrant near Ravenna and contrary to the general expectation he received the pope with great honor, gave him a favorable audience, and, at his suggestion, concluded a treaty of peace with the empire on the condition of an annual tribute. It is said that Attila saw two venerable personages, supposed to be the apostles Peter and Paul, standing on the side of the pope whilst he spoke. The barbarian king immediately commanded his army to forbear all hostilities, and soon after recrossed the Alps, and retired beyond the Danube. On his way home “the Scourge of God” was seized with a violent vomiting of blood, of which he died in 453.

It was the glory of this saintly pope to have checked Attila’s fury and protected Rome, when it was in no condition to be defended. Pope Leo rose to its defense once again in the year 455, this time prevailing upon the Arian Vandal king Genseric to restrain his troops from slaughter and burning, and to content himself with the plunder of the city, thus demonstrating by his example that even in the worst of times, a holy pastor is the greatest comfort and support of his flock.

His militant vigilance was not limited to the defense of merely earthly treasures, but was above all active in the spiritual realm. Leo’s chief aim was to sustain the unity of the Church. Not long after his elevation to the Chair of Peter, he saw himself compelled to combat energetically the heresies which seriously threatened church unity even in the West.

Former adherents of Pelagius (who denied original sin and its effects and believed in man’s self-justification without grace) who had been admitted to communion without an explicit abjuration of their heresy were directed to do so publicly before a synod and to subscribe to an unequivocal confession of Faith.

He emphatically warned the Christians of Rome to be on their guard against the Gnostic teachings of the Manichæans who, among other tenets, denied the divinity of Jesus Christ, taught an elaborate form of dualism, professed salvation through knowledge and repudiated marriage as evil. His pastoral zeal in waging war against Manichæism was ably followed up by a number of imperial decrees and the edict of June, 445 establishing civil punishments for the obdurate adherents of the sect.

In Spain, the heresy of Priscillianism still survived, and for some time had been attracting fresh adherents. In response to a letter from Bishop Turibius of Astorga regarding the spread of its false teachings in his jurisdiction, Pope Leo wrote a lengthy refutation of its errors and ordered that a council of neighboring bishops should be convened to determine to what extent the heresy had contaminated the hierarchy of the surrounding provinces. He also called for a universal synod of all the main pastors in the Spanish provinces. These two synods were in fact held in Spain to deal with the Gnostic-Manichæan doctrines of the Priscillianists.

In 448, Eutyches appealed to the pope after he had been excommunicated by Flavian, the Patriarch of Constantinople, on account of his Monophysite views which denied the hypostatic union of Christ and the fact that Jesus was both fully God and fully man. In response, Pope Leo wrote a sublime dogmatic letter to Flavian, concisely setting forth and confirming the doctrine of the Incarnation, and the union of the Divine and human natures in the one Person of Christ.

In Leo’s conception of his duties as supreme pastor, the maintenance of strict ecclesiastical discipline occupied a prominent place. This was particularly important at a time when the continual ravages of the barbarians were introducing disorder into all conditions of life, and the rules of morality were being seriously violated. Leo used his utmost energy in maintaining this discipline, insisted on the exact observance of the ecclesiastical precepts, and did not hesitate to rebuke when necessary.

The primacy of the Roman Church was thus manifested under this pope in the most various and distinct ways and we cannot but admire the clear, positive, and systematic manner in which Leo, fortified by the primacy of the Holy See, took part in this difficult entanglement.

Leo was no less active in the spiritual formation of souls, and his sermons are remarkable for their profundity, clearness of diction, and elevated style. Five of these discourses, delivered on the anniversaries of his consecration, manifest his lofty conception of the dignity of his office, as well as his thorough conviction of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome.

Leo died on November 10, 461, and was buried in the vestibule of Saint Peter’s on the Vatican. In 688 Pope Sergius had his remains transferred to the basilica itself, and a special altar erected over them. They rest today in Saint Peter’s, beneath the altar specially dedicated to St. Leo. In 1754 Benedict XIV exalted him to the dignity of Doctor of the Church.

Our Lady’s Power at the Time of Death

In her City of God, Venerable Maria of Agreda, a XVII Century Conceptionist nun and mystic, to whom the Blessed Mother dictated her life, writes of a marvelous event in the early Christian Church.
After the first Pentecost, one of the five thousand first converts was a girl called Lillian. One day she fell gravely ill, and the devil, capitalizing on her bodily weakness, and the fact that she had given in to a few sins, took the form of a woman, and paid her sick-calls.
Little by little, by slandering the disciples of Jesus and the Christian community, the fiend introduced doubts in Lillian’s mind about her new-found Faith. At first the sick girl resisted, speaking of the peace and kindness of the beautiful lady who was Jesus’ Mother. But the devil assured Lillian that she was the worst of all. In the end, Lillian gave up her Faith.

Free 8x10 Picture of Our Lady of Fatima

One of the disciples of Jesus on visiting and finding Lillian’s attitude changed, tried to win the girl back to Christ, but to no avail. Deeply concerned, he informed the Apostle John.
St. John immediately visited the young woman and was able to see legions of devils surrounding her sick bed. Though the devils recoiled at his sight, so deceived was the girl, that he could not make a difference.
He then had recourse to the Blessed Mother, who, at the time was living in Jerusalem. On hearing of the case, Mary Most Holy implored her divine Son for the welfare and salvation of this young strayed lamb. She then made ready to visit the girl with St. John.
Just then, several angels appeared, and gallantly ushering Holy Mary onto a throne of clouds, carried her to Lillian’s side.
As soon as the great lady set foot on the threshold of the sufferer’s door, the demons infesting the room took chaotic flight, tripping over each other in their haste, and seeking refuge in the depths of Hell.
With the air cleared, Holy Mary sat by the dying girl, and with gentle words sweetly brought her back into her Son’s fold. Lillian wept tears of repentance and asked for the last Sacraments, which St. John administered. Thus, with her Mother holding her hand, Lillian expired.
As if not enough, Our Lady, with her prayers, made up for the girl’s time in Purgatory, and summoning one of her angels, bid him deliver the purified soul to heaven.
So, when saying the Hail Mary, may we stress: “…pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
By A.F. Phillips

Free 8x10 Picture of Our Lady of Fatima

Without noise of words

Jesus needs neither books nor Doctors of Divinity
in order to instruct souls; He, the Doctor of Doctors,
He teaches without noise of words.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Dedication of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome

Although most Catholics believe the Basilica of St. Peter’s to be the main church of the Pope, it is not: St. John Lateran, also called the Church of Holy Savior or the Church of St. John the Baptist, is the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, or the Pope’s church. “The Lateran” was built on land that the Emperor Constantine received from the wealthy and virtuous Lateran family. He, in turn, gave the land to the Church, who constructed the first basilica there in the early fourth century.

Consecrated in 324 by Pope Sylvester, the Lateran Basilica was where cardinals were consecrated to the papacy until the fourteenth century when Pope Gregory XI returned the papal enclave from Avignon in France to Rome and arrived to find the Lateran and the nearby papal palace ruined beyond repair. The Lateran was not restored until many years later, when Pope Innocent X built the current structure in 1646. One of the most marvelous and imposing churches in Rome, it has five large statues of Christ, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist and twelve Doctors of the Church, and holds beneath the high altar what is left of the wooden table which St. Peter himself used as an altar to celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Since the Basilica of the Lateran is officially the Pope’s cathedral, it is also considered the parish church of all Catholics. It is called “omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput,” or "the mother and mistress of all the churches of Rome and of the world."

Photo by: Grenouille vert

Have confidence

Confession heals, confession justifies, confession grants pardon of sin.
All hope consists in confession. In confession there is a chance for mercy. Believe it firmly.
Do not doubt, do not hesitate, never despair of the mercy of God.
Hope and have confidence in confession.

St. Isidore of Seville

St. Godfrey of Amiens

Godfrey was born about the year 1065 in Soissons, France. When he was only five years old, he was placed in the care of his godfather, the abbot of the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Quentin. Here he grew up and, in due course, became a monk and was ordained to the priesthood. In 1096 he was made the abbot of Nogent-sous-Coucy, a dilapidated abbey in the province of Champagne, where the community numbered a mere half a dozen monks who had become very lax in their discipline.

He rebuilt, restored and revitalized the abbey. Under Godfrey’s direction, monastic discipline and order were restored and the community began to flourish. News of his success spread and Godfrey was urged to accept the position of superior of the renowned Abbey of Saint-Remi. This he refused, saying “God forbid I should ever desert a poor bride by preferring a rich one!”

In 1097, Godfrey was offered the archbishopric of Rheims. This he likewise refused, counting himself as unworthy of this new honor as the previously-offered one.

When, in 1104, he was offered the bishopric of Amiens and once more refused the ecclesiastical dignity, he was ordered by the papal prelate to accept it.

A zealous reformer, as Bishop of Amiens, his strict discipline and rigid austerity – first with himself and then with those under his charge – his insistence upon clerical celibacy and his unrelenting struggle against drunkenness and simony, aroused bitter opposition among the lax clergy and even caused attempts upon his life. Godfrey ardently desired to resign and retire as a Carthusian monk during this time, nevertheless, he persevered. Finally, in 1114, he withdrew to the Grand-Chartreuse but, within a few months, the demands of his people won out and he was ordered by a Council held at Soissons and by King Philip himself to return to his diocese. Resigned to the will of God, Godfrey returned to his episcopal see.

While on his way to visit his metropolitan in 1115, Godfrey died at the Abbey of Saint-Crépin near Soissons. He was buried at the abbey and his tomb became renowned for the many miracles wrought there

November is the Month of the Holy Souls

The powerful intercession of the souls in purgatory

Besides being a spiritual work of mercy and a powerful reminder of the afterlife, devotion to souls in Purgatory also affords us invaluable intercession as demonstrated by Church Tradition.
According to the dogma of the Communion of Saints, they form a part of the Church (called the Church Suffering) and are therefore united to us, and can intercede for us.

Click here:  Prayer to Our Lady to Overcome Temptation

Examples of this abound in Church History and many readers have undoubtedly experienced such intercession. We will relate a few examples below.
The Countess of Stratford, an English protestant, having doubts about the existence of Purgatory, consulted the Bishop of Amiens, France. Hearing her objection, he answered, "Tell the Bishop of London (an Anglican) that I will leave the Faith and become an Anglican if he can prove that Saint Augustine never celebrated Mass or prayed for the dead, especially his mother."
Following his advice, the Countess wrote the Anglican bishop of London. Seeing that he did not respond, she converted.
At a certain point during her reform of the Carmelites, Saint Teresa was in need of a convent. A noble named Bernadine of Toledo responded to her need and donated a place for the convent. He died shortly afterwards. Saint Theresa received the revelation that he would remain in Purgatory until the first Mass was celebrated in the convent he had donated. She thus hastened to establish its foundation. During communion of this first Mass, she saw his soul radiant with splendor at the side of the priest. Thanks to that Mass which had been said for him, he was freed from Purgatory.
Whenever Saint Catherine of Bologna's prayers seemed unanswered, she would call upon the intercession of the souls in Purgatory. She affirmed that these prayers were always answered.

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Few souls understand

Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them
if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him
and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly.

St. Ignatius Loyola

St. Willibrord

Willibrord was born in 658 in Northumbria. When he was seven he was sent to a monastery governed by St. Wilfrid, where he remained for thirteen years until he traveled to Ireland to join St. Egbert and St. Wigbert to study in monastic schools.

He studied in Ireland for the next twelve years, receiving ordination and extensive missionary training. In 690, he set out with a dozen companions for Friesland, or Frisia, to evangelize. In 693, he visited Rome to seek approval from Pope Sergius for his labors. Approval was granted and Willibrord was given relics to be used for the consecration of new churches. In 695, Willibrord again visited the Eternal City, this time with a letter of recommendation from the Frankish leader Pepin of Heristal. Willibrord returned to Frisia a consecrated archbishop, built the Church of Our Savior in Utrecht and in the year 696, established his episcopal see there.

Some years later, Willibrord founded the monastery of Echternach in Luxembourg to serve as a center of missionary endeavors and extended the efforts of missionaries into Denmark and Upper Friesland. Daily he faced menacing dangers from outraged pagans, including one who nearly murdered him after he tore down a pagan idol. In 714, the pagan Radbod reclaimed the extensive territories acquired by Pepin, and Willilbrord watched as all of the progress he had made become nearly undone. However, after Radbod's death, Willibrord began again with great enthusiasm, receiving invaluable assistance from St. Boniface (who spend three years in Friesland before going to Germany) and other colleagues, this time expanding into Holland, Zeeland and the Netherlands.

Willibrord died on retreat at the monastery of Echternach on November 7, 739 when he was eighty-one years old. For his apostolic efforts, he is called the Apostle of the Frisians.

I am worried about America!

I am worried about America! I am not so much
worried about its politics and economics,
important though they be: I am worried about its soul.
After all, politics and economics are determined
by the sense of values which underlies them.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

St. Illtud

Brittany, on the west coast of France, was so named for the Britons – primarily from Wales, Cornwall and Devon – that settled there from the island of Britain during the fifth to the seventh centuries. When the Roman legions withdrew from Gaul in the middle of the fifth century, the long-established trade connections between the two peoples were reinforced by religious links from the mainland and the migrant Britons that settled in the region left a lasting impression of themselves upon the language, place-names and traditions of Brittany.

Illtud was the son of a minor Breton prince named Bican Farchog who lived with his wife in Brittany during the sixth century. His father was King Arthur’s uncle on his mother’s side, thus making him and Illtud cousins. It was while visiting his royal cousin that the young Illtud met and married a woman named Trynihid. Later, he crossed over to Britain while serving in Arthur’s army, and subsequently joined the military services of a chieftain in Glamorgan in southern Wales. As a warrior he distinguished himself and gained renown for his military prowess earning for himself the title of “Illtud the Knight.”

Grief-stricken by the loss of several of his closest friends in a hunting accident, the soldier-knight was miraculously converted by St. Cadoc, who advised Illtud to leave the military and become a hermit. For a short time he lived with his wife in a reed hut by the river Nadafan, before an angel appeared to him, counseling him to leave her. He received the monk’s tonsure and was ordained by Dubricius and lived in austerity and solitude until disciples began to gather round about him. He then established a monastery, which soon flourished and became the first great monastic school of Wales, known as Llanilltud Fawr.

According to legend, this school was situated on a small waste island, which, at his prayer, was miraculously reunited with the mainland. The story of the miracle may have been inspired by the fact that the saint was skilled in agriculture, for he is supposed to have introduced the Welsh to better methods of farming and to have helped them reclaim land from the sea.

Renowned for his wisdom and piety, Illtud is considered one of the greatest of the Welsh saints.

How to deal with evil

To tolerate an evil is to consent to its existence.
Just as good produces good, evil yields evil.
When we are obliged to tolerate something evil, we must limit
the evil effects of this tolerance to the greatest degree possible
and diligently prepare the conditions for eradicating the evil,
rendering further toleration unnecessary.

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

St. Bertilla

The future abbess was born of devout parents in Soissons, France in the first half of the seventh century. From an early age, she felt drawn to God and resolved to renounce the world in pursuit of eternal truths. In this resolution she was encouraged by St. Ouen the Bishop of Rouen. With the consent and support of her parents she entered the monastery of Jouarre, near the city of Meaux, recently founded under the rule of St. Columban.
Here she was formed in the strictest practice of monastic perfection and became a model of perfect obedience and piety. She was also remarkable for her prudence and tact and the duties of hospitality, ministering to the sick and infirm, and the care of the children educated at the monastery were in turn committed to her charge. Bertilla, however, had also a very strong temperament with a serious flaw: a temper. Her eighth-century biographer recounts the following incident in the life of the Saint:

“Once, when a troubled sister spoke angry words to her, Bertilla called down divine judgment upon her. Although the fault was forgiven, Bertilla worried about her curse. Then the sister died unexpectedly, choked by asthma. Not having heard the signal for the funeral, Bertilla asked the reason for the resounding chorus of psalms. When she learned of the sister’s death, she trembled fearfully. She hurried to the place where the little body lay lifeless and with great faith laid her hand on the dead nun’s breast. Bertilla ordered her receding soul through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, not to leave, but before she spoke with Him, to forgive her anger against her. And God permitted the spirit that had left the body to return to the corpse. To the amazement of all, the revived cadaver drew breath. Looking at the servant of God, she said: “What have you done, sister? Why did you retrieve me from the way of light?”
“I beg you sister,” said Bertilla humbly, “to give me words of forgiveness, for once I cursed you when you had a troubled spirit.”
“May God forgive you,” said the nun. “I harbor no resentment in my heart against you now and I love you. Please entreat God for me and permit me to go in peace and don’t hold me back. For I am ready for the bright road and now I cannot start without your permission.”
“Go then in the peace of Christ,” said Bertilla, “and pray for me, sweet sister.”

When St. Bathildis, the wife of King Clovis II, founded the Benedictine Abbey of Notre-Dame-des-Chelles about the year 658, Bertilla became its first abbess. She governed the abbey with austerity and virtue, attracting many by her example. The saintly queen herself retired to Chelles in 664 and died there in 680. Attracted by the news of the holy abbess, Hereswitha, the sister of St. Hilda and widow of the king of the East Angles, also joined. Having served as Abbess of Chelles for forty-six years, during which time her reputation for humility and gentleness spread widely, Bertilla died around the year 705.

The Truth About Purgatory

 By Luis and Gustavo Solimeo

"Oh! If people only knew what Purgatory is!"

In 1870, Belgium fought as an ally with France against Germany.
In September of that year, Sister Maria Serafina, a Redemptorist nun in Malines, Belgium, was suddenly seized with inexplicable sadness.
Soon after, she received the news that her father had died in that war.
From that day on, Sister Maria repeatedly heard distressing groans and a voice saying, "My dear daughter, have mercy on me!"
Subsequently, she was besieged with torments, which included unbearable headaches. While laying down one day, she saw her father surrounded with flames and immersed in profound sadness.
He was suffering in Purgatory and had received permission from God to beseech prayers from his daughter and relate Purgatory's suffering to her. Thus he said:

I want you to have Masses, prayers and indulgences said on my behalf. Look how I am immersed in this fire-filled hole! Oh! If people knew what Purgatory is, they would suffer anything to avoid it and alleviate the suffering of souls here. Be very holy, my daughter, and observe the Holy Rule, even in its most insignificant points. Purgatory for religious is a terrible thing!

Sister Maria saw a pit full of flames, spewing black clouds of smoke. Her father was immersed in the pit where he was burning, horribly suffocated and thirsty. Opening his mouth she saw that his tongue was entirely shriveled.

"I am thirsty, my daughter, I am thirsty."

The next day, her father visited her again saying, "My daughter, it has been a long time since I saw you last."

"My father, it was just yesterday . . ."

"Oh! It seems like an eternity to me. If I stay in Purgatory three months, it will be an eternity. I was condemned for many years, but, due to Our Lady's intercession, my sentence was reduced to only a few months."

The grace of coming to earth was granted to him through his good works during his life and because he had been devoted to Our Lady receiving communion on all her feast days.
During these visions, Sister Maria Serafina asked her father several questions:

"Do souls in Purgatory know who is praying for them, and can they pray for us?"

"Yes, my daughter."

"Do these souls suffer, knowing that God is offended in their families and in the world?"

"Yes."

Directed by her confessor and her superior, she continued to question her father:

"Is it true that the sufferings of Purgatory are much greater than all the torments of earth and even of the martyrs?"

"Yes, my daughter, all this is very true."

Sister Serafina then asked if everyone who belongs to the Scapular Confraternity of Carmel (those who wear the scapular), is freed from Purgatory on the first Saturday after death:

"Yes," he answered, "but only if they are faithful to the Confraternity's obligations."

"Is it true that some souls must stay in Purgatory for as long as five hundred years?"

"Yes. Some are condemned until the end of the world. These souls are very guilty and entirely abandoned."

"Three main things draw God's malediction over men: failure to observe the Lord's Day through work, the very widespread vice of impurity, and blasphemy. Oh my daughter, how these blasphemies provoke the wrath of God!"

For over three months, Sister Serafina and her community prayed and offered penance for the soul of her tormented father who often appeared to her. During the elevation of the Host at Christmas Mass, Sister Maria saw her father shining like a sun with matchless beauty.

"I finished my sentence, and have come to thank you and your sisters for your prayers and pious exercises. I will pray for you in Heaven."

If Purgatory did not exist to remove the stain of sin from imperfect souls, the only alternative would be Hell. Therefore, Purgatory is a necessary place of expiation.
All personal sin carries two consequences: blame (which, in the case of mortal sin, destroys sanctifying grace and leads to Hell) and temporal punishment warranted by the offense to God. Although Confession frees us from blame and part of the punishment, we must still make additional reparation to God. In this life, this can be done through prayer, Mass intentions, alms, penance and acquiring indulgences. One who dies in a state of venial sin or without sufficient reparation goes to Purgatory.

A Place of Expiation
We have seen that Purgatory is a place of expiation.
Souls in Purgatory endure a two-fold suffering: they experience a temporary pain of loss, since they are temporarily deprived of the Beatific Vision and they also feel sensible sufferings, or pain of sense. Unlike the damned in Hell where punishments provoke hatred, those in Purgatory find punishment evokes a profound love of God.
According to Saint Thomas and Saint Augustine, the least pain of Purgatory is worse than the greatest of this life. This is due to the intensity of the desire souls have for God, Whose privation is extremely painful, and the magnitude of sensible pain, which, touching the soul directly, is worse than anything felt by the senses.

Suffering Encouraged by Hope
However rigorous the punishments of Purgatory may be, they are soothed by hope.
Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510), a mystic who suffered Purgatory's torments on earth explained that one suffers simultaneously unspeakable torment and indescribable happiness.
She described the torment as stemming from a continually consuming interior fire, kindled by separation from God, for Whom the soul is aflame with love. This suffering is so intense that it transforms each instant into a martyrdom of pain.
Although surpassing all earthly suffering, it cannot be compared with the anguish of Hell where suffering is a despairing fruit of hatred while the suffering of Purgatory is a hope-filled suffering of love.
Consequently, Saint Catherine said that only in Heaven itself is there greater happiness than that amidst the torments of Purgatory. This is because the soul knows it is saved, in friendship with God, surrounded by holy souls, and thus aflame with love of God.
Saint Catherine explained:

I believe no happiness can be found worthy to be compared with that of a soul in Purgatory except that of the saints in Paradise; and day by day this happiness grows as God flows into these souls, more and more as the hindrance to His entrance is consumed. Sin's rust is the hindrance, and the fire burns the rust away so that more and more the soul opens itself up to the divine inflowing. A thing which is covered cannot respond to the sun's rays, not because of any defect in the sun, which is shining all the time, but because the cover is an obstacle; if the cover be burnt away, this thing is open to the sun; more and more as the cover is consumed does it respond to the rays of the sun.

It is in this way that rust, which is sin, covers souls, and in Purgatory is burnt away by fire; the more it is consumed, the more do the souls respond to God, the true sun. As the rust lessens and the soul is opened up to the divine ray, happiness grows; until the time be accomplished the one wanes and the other waxes. Pain however does not lessen but only the time for which pain is endured. As for will: never can the souls say these pains are pains, so contented are they with God's ordaining with which, in pure charity, their will is united.

The Duration of Purgatory

The amount of time spent in Purgatory is very difficult to express in human terms. In accounts of private visions, we read of souls condemned for a number of years or even until the end of the world. Indeed, Our Lady revealed to the seers of Fatima that a girl who died shortly before the apparitions would remain there until the end of time.
Theologians explain that time in Purgatory can be gauged in two ways. The first is positive and corresponds to time as we measure it on earth; the other is fictitious or imaginary since it corresponds to the amount of time that souls judge they suffered which is distorted since this very suffering causes them to lose track of time.
Thus, we see souls, who after mere hours in Purgatory complain about years or even centuries of suffering.
Saint Anthony tells the story of a sick person who suffered so atrociously that he considered it beyond human nature and thus continually prayed for death. One day, an angel appeared to him and said, "God sent me here to offer you a choice. You can spend one year of suffering on earth, or one day in Purgatory." Choosing the latter, he died and went to Purgatory.
When the angel went to console him, he was greeted with this groan of pain, "Deceitful angel! At least twenty years ago, you said that I would spend only one day in Purgatory . . . My God, how I suffer!"
To this the Angel responded, "Poor deluded soul, your body is not even buried yet."

Devotion to the Souls in Purgatory

Devotion to souls in Purgatory originated in the early Church, based on the dogma of the Communion of Saints. Although these souls cannot gain merit, they are in friendship with God, Who willingly applies merits offered for them.
Therefore it is an act of charity to pray, offer Masses, sacrifices and indulgences for them.
This devotion was ingrained so deeply in the faithful that even Luther dared not abolish it. He understood the importance of proceeding towards his insidious goals with caution.
Supported by Scripture and Tradition, the Church defined the dogma of the Communion of Saints, which encourages devotion to the holy souls. This devotion not only encourages the practice of charity but also enlivens faith and consoles those who have lost loved ones.

The Powerful Intercession of the Souls in Purgatory

Besides being a spiritual work of mercy and a powerful reminder of the afterlife, devotion to souls in Purgatory also affords us invaluable intercession as demonstrated by Church Tradition.
According to the dogma of the Communion of Saints, they form a part of the Church (called the Church Suffering) and are therefore united to us, and can intercede for us.
Examples of this abound in Church History and many readers have undoubtedly experienced such intercession. We will relate a few examples below.
The Countess of Stratford, an English protestant, having doubts about the existence of Purgatory, consulted the Bishop of Amiens, France. Hearing her objection, he answered, "Tell the Bishop of London (an Anglican) that I will leave the Faith and become an Anglican if he can prove that Saint Augustine never celebrated Mass or prayed for the dead, especially his mother."
Following his advice, the Countess wrote the Anglican bishop of London. Seeing that he did not respond, she converted.
At a certain point during her reform of the Carmelites, Saint Teresa was in need of a convent. A noble named Bernadine of Toledo responded to her need and donated a place for the convent. He died shortly afterwards. Saint Theresa received the revelation that he would remain in Purgatory until the first Mass was celebrated in the convent he had donated. She thus hastened to establish its foundation. During communion of this first Mass, she saw his soul radiant with splendor at the side of the priest. Thanks to that Mass which had been said for him, he was freed from Purgatory.
Whenever Saint Catherine of Bologna's prayers seemed unanswered, she would call upon the intercession of the souls in Purgatory. She affirmed that these prayers were always answered.

A Moving Example

The cases of intercession of the souls in Purgatory are so numerous that several books would not be enough to relate them all.
The following one, which is among the best known and most moving, happened in Paris in 1817.
A domestic servant, who had the pious habit of having a Mass said every month for the souls in Purgatory, became ill and having to be hospitalized, lost her job.
Upon leaving the hospital, she went to a church to pray, where she remembered that she had failed to have Mass said for the poor souls that month. However due to her unemployment, she could not afford a Mass offering since it would leave her penniless. After hesitating, she gave the offering.
Leaving the church, she met a young man who seemed to be a noble. He unexpectedly asked her if she needed employment and gave her the address of a house, which needed a maid.
When she arrived at the house, the owner, who had just dismissed her maid, wondered who could have known that she needed help. While describing the young man at the Church, the servant saw a painting of him on the wall.
Hearing this, the owner exclaimed, "That is my son, who died two months ago!"
Then both realized that God wanted to reward the maid's charity and reveal the power of a suffering soul's intercession.
 

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 *Taken from “Life After Death” by Luis and Gustavo Solimeo

 

 

 

  

Be sure this is first

If teaching and preaching is your job,
then study diligently and apply yourself
to whatever is necessary for doing the job well.

Be sure that you first preach by the way you live.

St. Charles Borromeo

St. Charles Borromeo

Charles was born into a family both noble and devout and divided his early years between the family’s Castle of Arona on Lake Maggiore and their palace in Milan. At twelve he was admitted to minor clerical orders and received the revenues from a wealthy abbey nearby, but he showed his upright character by assigning the money to the poor except for those funds needed for his education. His college career paralleled that of St. Peter Canisius in that he avoided all circumstances and friendships that would compromise his purity of life. It differed, however, by receiving his doctorate in canon law at the University of Pavia.

Due to his extraordinary talent and seriousness, Charles took charge of all family business at the request of his father and older brother despite his youth. He even found time to restore the ancient monastic discipline in the abbey of which he was titular abbot. One week into his pontificate, Pius IV summoned him to Rome. Promotions and responsibilities soon followed, all leading to his appointment as Papal Secretary of State and Archbishop of Milan, although he was not permitted to reside in Milan during his uncle’s lifetime. His thoroughness, modesty, and zeal for work had the effect of concealing his capacity for superior judgment in handling the affairs of both the Church and the State, especially when he refused to enrich himself in the manner of the Renaissance era prelates. Virtually all diplomatic correspondence passed through his hands, to the point that historians cannot determine which instructions originated with the Pope and which came from his young administrator. William T. Walsh believes the reform of the Church during Pius IV’s pontificate was chiefly accomplished through the effort of his nephew, whose body is incorrupt to this day. Despite the uprightness of his life and self-sacrificing devotion to Church affairs, Charles did not practice the strict austerities and self-denial of his later years. He was exceptionally fond of hunting and paid much attention to the magnificence of his own household, which consisted of 150 servants. The improvement of his family’s circumstances also occupied much of his attention. His brother had married the daughter of the Duke of Urbina, a member of the illustrious della Rovere family, and his sisters made wealthy marriages with the Gonzaga and Colonna. Then with the family rising to the heights of the Farnese and de Medici, his brother died after a short illness at the age of twenty-seven. Although a Cardinal and administrator of the vacant diocesan see of Milan, Papal Secretary of State, and entrusted with the government of the Papal States, as well as supervisor of the Franciscans, the Carmelites and the Order of Malta, Charles was still only a sub-deacon at the time, which nevertheless precluded marriage. Many of his more worldly-minded relatives thought that he would certainly seek a dispensation and pursue fame and fortune to maintain his family’s position. But his brother’s sudden death opened his eyes to the vanity of such ambitions and Charles resolved instead to embrace his ecclesiastical state entirely. He was ordained a priest on September 4, 1563 and consecrated a bishop on December 7 the same year. He adopted a strict, ascetic life of prayer and fasting after making the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, now intent upon fulfilling the duties of his ecclesiastical office with dignity and without reserve.

Pope Pius IV had reopened the third and last period of the Council of Trent at the beginning of 1562 against strong opposition from numerous prelates who saw that their unwarranted privileges and incomes would be curtailed and many sovereigns who saw that their authority over Church matters would be contested. Yet the bark of Saint Peter steered through all the obstacles to bring the Council to a successful conclusion two years later.

Retained in Rome by the Pope and the heavy duties incumbent upon him by the work of the Council, Charles governed his diocese my means of personal representatives through whom he convoked a diocesan synod for the promulgation of the decrees of the Council. He began the much-needed reform of the clergy by fulfilling all things required in himself first, thus leading by example. The widespread clerical abuses required skilful and tactful treatment. Ecclesiastical discipline and the education of youth were foremost in his thoughts but his pastoral solicitude encompassed every detail involved in the monumental work: repression of avaricious priests, the founding and staffing of seminaries for the proper formation of the clergy, liturgical ceremony and church music, the manner of preaching, the renewal of strict observance of rule in the convents, etc. This last mentioned brought down upon him the wrath and displeasure of some of his own relatives, two Dominican aunts, sisters of Pope Pius IV. Notwithstanding the opposition and difficulties, Charles persevered, sparing himself in nothing. The apostolic zeal and charity with which he reformed his own household bore fruit in the remarkable number of its members who became distinguished bishops and prelates. The austerities which he practiced amidst the incredible fatigues of his apostolic life seem almost excessive.

Doctrinal and disciplinary controversies and heated disputes of every kind, both ecclesiastical and temporal; complicated questions of spiritual and civil jurisdictions; fierce attacks upon the rights of the Church and life-threatening physical attacks upon himself; heresy, witchcraft, sorcery and wickedness of every sort, libelous personal accusations and epidemic plagues – he faced them all with a moral courage and equanimity that won the grudging admiration of even his most bitter enemies. Ravaged by relentless attacks from every side, the Church weathered the fierce storm of the pseudo-Reformation. From the bosom of the Church, God called forth great saints in that era and they rallied to Her defense like ardent lions – souls of grandeur, on fire with the love of God and zeal for souls. The Church and Faith under attack brought forth unparalleled sanctity. Among these great saints of the sixteenth century is St. Charles Borromeo.

Physically worn out by the crushing weight of his many duties and responsibilities, he seemed to know when death was at hand and yet was determined to work as long as he had strength left. Towards the end of 1584, his health took a definite turn. In October he began his annual retreat and began his preparation for death with a general confession. Plagued with recurrent bouts of high fever, he carried on: visitations, correspondence, consultations. Indefatigable to the end, his ardent soul wore out his frail body. He died at Milan on November 3, 1584 at the age of forty-six. He was canonized in 1610 by Pope Paul V.

Second Photo by: Sailko

God gives this to those whom he wishes to save

Devotion to you, O Blessed Virgin, is a means of salvation
which God gives to those whom he wishes to save.

St. John Damascene

St. Martin de Porres

Born in Lima, Peru on December 9, 1579, Martin was the illegitimate son of Juan de Porras, a noble Spanish knight, and Ana Velázquez, a freed black slave from Panama. To his father’s great displeasure, Martin had inherited his mother’s features and dark skin, and while he acknowledged him as his son, soon after the birth of Martin’s sister Juana, Juan de Porras left the children to the care of their mother.

At the age of twelve, his mother apprenticed Martin to a barber-surgeon from whom he learned not only the duties of a barber but also how to draw blood and to prepare and administer medicine. Three years later, he entered the Dominican Priory of the Holy Rosary in Lima where he applied himself to the lowliest tasks. After many years, under obedience to his religious superiors, he was compelled to accept the habit of a professed lay brother, an honor that he had considered too great for himself.

Devoted to Our Lord’s Passion from his childhood, he lived a life of almost constant prayer. His charity, humility and obedience were extraordinary and he practiced unbelievable austerities. As almoner, Martin was charged with distributing the Priory’s alms to the poor. Oftentimes, it was noted that when the food was insufficient for the needs at hand, it miraculously increased. His skills as a surgeon were also in great demand within and outside the Priory walls and he was put in charge of caring for the sick, a duty he exercised with unfailing patience. With equal charity he ministered to Spanish nobles and the lowliest slaves, recently arrived from Africa. Cures became too numerous to count. But it was as much by his prayers as through his medical ability that he cured the most daunting diseases. Although he never left Lima once he entered the Dominican Order, Martin was seen in foreign countries by people who knew him well. He was known to bilocate to the bedside of the sick, consoling them in their sufferings, often curing them of their infirmities; he reserved his most tender solicitude for the dying. During prayer, he was often seen in ecstasy before the Blessed Sacrament, suspended in midair and surrounded by light.

St. Martin was a contemporary and close friend of both St. John Massias and St. Rose of Lima. Before his death, among other works of charity, he who had been abandoned by his own father founded a residence for orphans and abandoned children. He died on November 3, 1639 after a long and painful illness. The entire population of Lima, high-born and low, flocked to his funeral, at which the Prior himself officiated. Four of the humble lay brother’s closest friends – the Viceroy, the Archbishop of Mexico, the Bishop of Cuzco and the Judge of the Royal Court – carried his body to its resting place. Martin was beatified in 1837 and canonized in 1962.

First Saturday devotion

The Five First Saturdays devotion is one of the principal points of the Fatima message. It centers on the urgent need for mankind to offer reparation and expiate for the many injuries that the Immaculate Heart of Mary suffers from the hands of both impious and indifferent men.

On the First Saturday during 5 Consecutive Months, the Devotion consists of:

1. Going to Confession,
2. Receiving the Sacrament of Holy Communion,
3. Saying five decades of the Rosary,
4. Meditating for 15 minutes on the mysteries of the Rosary.

All this offered in REPARATION for the sins of blasphemy and ingratitude committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. 

History
During the third apparition on July 13, 1917, Our Lady revealed that she would come to ask for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart and for the Communion of Reparation of the Five First Saturdays. Consequently, she asked for the devotion in 1925 and the consecration in 1929.
While staying at the House of the Dorothean Sister in Pontevedra, Portugal, Sister Lucia received a vision on December 10, 1925 where the Blessed Mother appeared alongside a Boy who stood over a luminous cloud. Our Lady rested one hand on the Boy’s shoulder while she held on the other hand a heart pierced with thorns around it.
Sister Lucia heard the Boy say, "Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother which is covered with thorns with which ingrate men pierce it at every moment with no one to make an act of reparation to pull them out."
Our Lady expressed her request in the following words,
"See, my daughter, My Heart surrounded with thorns with which ingrates pierce me at every moment with blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, make sure to console me and announce that all those who for five months, on the first Saturdays, go to confession, receive Communion, say five decades of the Rosary and keep me company for 15 minutes meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the purpose of making reparation to Me, I promise to assist them at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for the salvation of their souls."
A few days afterward, Sister Lucia detailed this vision in a letter addressed to Monsignor Manuel Pereira Lopes, her confessor when she resided in the Asylum of Vilar in the city of Oporto, Portugal.

Why Five Saturdays?     
Sister Lucia’s confessor questioned her about the reason for the five Saturdays asking why not seven or nine. She answered him in a letter dated June 12, 1930. In it she related about a vision she had of Our Lord while staying in the convent chapel part of the night of the twenty-ninth to the thirtieth of the month of May, 1930. The reasons Our Lord gave were as follows:
The five first Saturdays correspond to the five kinds of offenses and blasphemies committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. They are:
  a.    Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception
  b.    Blasphemies against her virginity
  c.    Blasphemies against her divine maternity, at the same time the refusal to accept her as the Mother of all men
  d.    Instilling , indifference, scorn and even hatred towards this Immaculate Mother in the hearts of children
  e.    Direct insults against Her sacred images
Let us keep the above reasons firmly in our minds. Devotions have intentions attached to them and knowing them adds merit and weight to the practice.



Modifications to the Five First Saturdays Devotion to facilitate its observation
The original request of Our Lady asks one to confess and receive Communion on five consecutive first Saturdays; to say five decades of the Rosary; to meditate during 15 minutes on the mysteries of the Rosary for the purpose of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in reparation for the sins of men.
In subsequent private visions and apparitions however, Sister Lucia presented to Our Lord the difficulties that devotees encountered in fulfilling some conditions. With loving condescension and solicitude, Our Lord deigned to relax the rules to make this devotion easy to observe:

• Confession may be done on other days other than the First Saturdays so long as one receives Our Lord worthily and has the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
• Even if one forgets to make the intention, it may be done on the next confession, taking advantage of the first occasion to go to confession.
• Sister Lucia also clarified that it is not necessary to meditate on ALL mysteries of the Rosary on each First Saturdays. One or several suffice.

With much latitude granted by Our Lord Himself, there is no reason for the faithful to hesitate or delay this pious practice in the spirit of reparation which the Immaculate Heart of Mary urgently asks.

This devotion is so necessary in our days
The culture of vice and sin remains unabated even as one reads this. Abortion, blasphemy, drug abuse, pornography, divorce and bad marriages, religious indifference, the advances of the homosexual agenda and others are just some of society’s many plagues that cut deeply into the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
We must console Our Lady amidst all these insults and injuries to her and her Divine Son. She asks for reparation, she pleads for our prayers, she hopes for our amendment of life. Let us listen to her maternal pleas and atone for the ingratitude of men.
The First Five Saturdays devotion stimulates the spirit of reparation; it instills a tender love for the Holy Sacraments of Confession and the Blessed Eucharist. It nurtures a holy affection for the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Rosary. Above all, it is an excellent means to maintain one in the state of grace while immersed in the daily spiritual battles and prosaic existence in the neo-pagan world that we live in.
Let us not delay in observing this devotion for it too gives us hope for eternal salvation.

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REFERENCE:
Solimeo, Luiz Sergio, Fatima, A Message More Urgent than Ever 
(Spring Grove, PA: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property-TFP, 2008.)

  

Also Read:

• Why Devotion to the Immaculate Heart is so Crucial
• Our Lady Kept Her Promise

Even now I can pray for the happy death of my great-grandfather

Padre Pio was asked why he prayed for the happy death
of his great-grandfather who had already passed away.
He said, “For the Lord, the past doesn’t exist; the future doesn’t exist.
Everything is an eternal present.
Those prayers had already been taken into account.
And so I repeat that
even now I can pray for the happy death of my great-grandfather.”

– from the book, The Holy Souls by Alessio Parente, OFM Cap.

Solemnity of All Souls

The “Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed” is founded upon the Catholic Church’s doctrine that those faithful who have not been cleansed from the temporal punishment due to sin and from their attachment to sin cannot enjoy the Beatific Vision in heaven immediately upon their death and that they may be assisted by the prayers, almsgiving, and sacrifices of the living.

This duty of charity observed by the people of God in the Old Testament was continued by the Church in the New Testament. Over time, it found expression not only in the public and private prayers of the faithful and in their cultural and religious traditions, but particularly in the singing of the Office for the Dead and in the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the “Poor Souls in Purgatory”.

In the eleventh century, the tradition established by St. Odilo of Cluny for the monasteries  of his order, spread to other religious congregations and thence to the universal Church. Thus, the many different regional dates for commemorating the dead that had arisen throughout the Church gave way to the universal observance of “All Souls’ Day” on November 2.

The Church grants many indulgences to the prayers and devout practices of the faithful on this feast day and during the entire month of November when they are offered for the relief and the release of the Holy Souls.


Saint Mary in Hafnerberg, Lower Austria.
Altar of the Holy Cross (detail): Holy Souls in Purgatory.
Photo by: Wolfgang Sauber

Tomorrow is First Friday

“I promise you, in the excessive mercy of my Heart that my all powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the first Friday for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance; they shall not die in my disgrace nor without receiving the sacraments; my divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in that last moment.”  — Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary

How to complete the First Friday’s Devotion:

1. Receive Holy Communion on each First Friday;
2. The nine Fridays must be consecutive;
3. They must be made in honor and in reparation to His Sacred Heart.

ACT OF REPARATION TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS
Sacred Heart of Jesus, animated with a desire to repair the outrages unceasingly offered to Thee, we prostrate before Thy throne of mercy, and in the name of all mankind, pledge our love and fidelity to Thee!
The more Thy mysteries are blasphemed, the more firmly we shall believe them, O Sacred Heart of Jesus!
The more impiety endeavors to extinguish our hopes of immortality, the more we shall trust in Thy Heart, sole hope of mankind!
The more hearts resist Thy Divine attractions, the more we shall love Thee, O infinitely amiable Heart of Jesus!
The more unbelief attacks Thy Divinity, the more humbly and profoundly we shall adore It, O Divine Heart of Jesus!
The more Thy holy laws are transgressed and ignored, the more we shall delight to observe them, O most holy Heart of Jesus!
The more Thy Sacraments are despised and abandoned, the more frequently we shall receive them with love and reverence, O most liberal Heart of Jesus!
The more the imitation of Thy virtues is neglected and forgotten, the more we shall endeavor to practice them, O Heart of Jesus, model of every virtue!
The more the devil labors to destroy souls, the more we shall be inflamed with desire to save them, O Heart of Jesus, zealous Lover of souls!
The more sin and impurity destroy the image of God in man, the more we shall try by purity of life to be a living temple of the Holy Spirit, O Heart of Jesus!
The more Thy Holy Church is despised, the more we shall endeavor to be her faithful children, O Sweet Heart of Jesus!
The more Thy Vicar on earth is persecuted, the more we will honor him as the infallible head of Thy Holy Church, show our fidelity and pray for him, O kingly Heart of Jesus!
O Sacred Heart, through Thy powerful grace, may we become Thy apostles in the midst of a corrupted world, and be Thy crown in the kingdom of heaven.  Amen.

12 Promises of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary

1.  I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.

2.  I will give peace in their families.

3.  I will console them in all their troubles.

4.  I will be their refuge in life and especially in death.

5.  I will abundantly bless all their undertakings.

6.  Sinners shall find in my Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.

7.  Tepid souls shall become fervent.

8.  Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection.

9.  I will bless those places wherein the image of my Sacred Heart shall be exposed and venerated.

10. I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.

11. Persons who propagate this devotion shall have their names eternally written in my Heart.

12. In the excess of the mercy of my heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: they will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour.

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Also Read:

• First Fridays Devotion Confirmed at Death
• Sacred Heart, Bridge and Refuge