How do YOU take back St. Valentine’s Day?

By Tonia Long

No sooner have the Christmas decorations been taken down than we are surrounded by pink hearts and red roses – St. Valentine’s Day is upon us. Labeled a “Hallmark holiday,” the feast named after a martyr of the Church has lost much of its true meaning.
Holy Mother Church has instituted these special days for our edification and sanctification. They are part of our Catholic heritage and are being stripped of their meaning – especially for our younger generation.
And what I propose is this: Let’s take back our Catholic holidays!
It can be as simple as what my mother used to do. You can do it too, for your family and friends.

Click here and become a Rosary Rally Captain for Traditional Marriage in March!

Take St. Valentine’s Day, for example.



What I looked forward to the most was the candy – what child wouldn’t?!? My mom would hide chocolate hearts all around our living room. Each heart had a Scripture quote taped to it. We would have sooo much fun searching for our candy! Then, using much restraint, we would read out our Scripture quote (which always had something to do with God’s love for us) before eating the chocolate.
Lessons learned:

**Good things come to those who search for them.
**If you are looking for love, you will find it in the Holy Scriptures.

After the excitement, Mom would settle us down for story time (no small task!). It was the same story every time, but it never got old. By the end of it, we knew just whose feast day it was and why! He was our Super Hero!
And last, but not least, came the Valentine cards. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and neighbors looked forward to these homemade gems every year. By the time we finished making them, there was paper, glue, glitter and holy cards everywhere!

So, how do YOU take back St. Valentine’s Day?
It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3:

1.Share the Holy Scriptures: There’s a lot of love in there!
2.Tell a short story about St. Valentine. (see below)
3.Click on the link or any of the cards you see below and spread TRUE LOVE – No true love is sustained without the help of grace. 

This is your Catholic Faith – your children’s heritage! Don’t let it become just another “Hallmark holiday.”

Click here to print these cards(Instructions are included)

                                 

(click on each card below to print)

   

(click any card below to print all three)

---

SAINT VALENTINE

Saint Valentine, priest and martyr, lived nearly 1,700 years ago in pagan Rome.
Father Valentine answered God’s call to the priesthood at a time when it wasn’t easy to be a Catholic, and it was downright dangerous to be a priest or bishop.
The infant Catholic Church was being brutally persecuted by Emperor Claudius II. But that didn’t scare young Valentine! He knew that the Christian Faith was the only remedy for the sick and permissive society in which he lived. Especially when it came to Her teachings about the relationship that should exist between a man and a woman as husband and wife.
Polygamy was the norm in pagan Rome. And to make matters worse, the Emperor issued an edict that prohibited the marriage of young people. This was based on the hypothesis that unmarried soldiers fought better than married soldiers because married soldiers might be afraid of what might happen to their wives or families if they died in battle.
Saint Valentine took that edict as a challenge. He made it his own personal mission to share the Catholic vision of marriage and the graces of the Sacrament with all those who would listen. And he would go one step further; he would secretly marry as many couples as he could.
Father Valentine was eventually caught, imprisoned and tortured for performing marriage ceremonies against the edict of Emperor Claudius II. But even while in prison, Father Valentine found ways to carry on his mission.
One of the men who was to judge him was a man called Asterius, whose daughter was blind. Saint Valentine prayed with her and healed the young girl with such charity and compassion that Asterius himself became a Christian as a result.
In the year 269 AD, Valentine was sentenced to execution all because of his stand for Christian marriage. The last words he wrote were in a note to Asterius' daughter. He inspired today's romantic missives by signing it, "from your Valentine."
So what does it REALLY mean to be a “Valentine”? Simply this: that there comes a time when you have to lay your life on the line for what you believe. And with the power of the Holy Spirit we can do that – just like Saint Valentine.

---

 

Jesus alone

We must pray without tiring, for
the salvation of mankind does not depend on material success;
nor on sciences that cloud the intellect.
Neither does it depend on arms and human industries, but
on Jesus alone.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

St. Catherine dei Ricci

Catherine’s father, Pier Francesco dei Ricci, was of an old and respected family of Florence. Her mother died when she was a small child, and Catherine was brought up by a devoted stepmother, Fiammetta da Diacceto. Her stepmother soon observed the child's unusual tendency to holiness, and did her utmost to foster and develop it.

At the age of thirteen, Catherine entered a Dominican convent at Prato, where she suffered from a number of diseases for two years. She sanctified her suffering with great patience, and often meditated on the Passion of Our Lord as she endured her illnesses.

In February of 1542, when she was just twenty years old, Catherine began to experience ecstasies of the Passion. Every Thursday and Friday, she beheld and enacted the scenes preceding Our Lord’s Crucifixion. Her holiness soon attracted visits from many people of every rank and calling – including three cardinals who later became Pope Marcellus II, Pope Clement VIII, and Pope Leo XI.  Catherine’s reputation attracted so many people, that the peace and strict observance of the order began to suffer. The ecstasies of the Passion ceased after twelve years in answer to the prayers of Catherine and the Dominican community.

Catherine was also known for her friendship with St. Philip Neri. Though she never met him in person, she often appeared to him in visions from her convent in Prato. This was expressly stated by St. Phillip and five witnesses, and aided in her beatification.

St. Catherine dei Ricci died the prioress of the Dominican Convent on February 2, 1590, after a long illness. Her body remains incorrupt.

How to approach Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament

I find consolation in the one and only friend who will never leave me,
that is, our Divine Savior in the Holy Eucharist …
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the most tender of friends
with souls who seek to please Him.
His goodness knows how to proportion itself
to the smallest of His creatures as to the greatest of them.
Be not afraid then in your solitary conversations, to tell Him
of your miseries, your fears, your worries, of those who are dear to you,
of your projects, and of your hopes.
Do so with confidence and with an open heart.

St. Damien of Moloka’i

St. Meletius of Antioch

Meletius was born a Melitene, and belonged to one of the most distinguished families of Lesser Armenia. He was a kind and gentle man, and a great lover of peace. His virtue gained him the confidence and esteem of both the Catholics and Arians, and he was made Bishop of Antioch. However, the patriarchal Church of Antioch had been oppressed by the Arians, who denied the divinity of Christ, since 331, and some among the Catholics refused to acknowledge the new bishop, distrusting him because he had the support of the Arians.

The Arians hoped that the new bishop would declare himself a supporter of their heretical beliefs, but were undeceived when the Emperor Constantius ordered Meletius, along with two other men of faith, to explain the wisdom of God.

The first prelate explained it in an Arian sense, and the next explanation boarded on heresy, but Meletius proclaimed the truth, supported by Catholicism, and explained the Eternal Wisdom while linking it to the Incarnation of the Word. This public statement angered the Arians, and they banished the holy man and stripped him of his position.

Meletius was banished to Lesser Armenia and the Arians introduced Euzoius into the position. Euzoius was a former deacon of Alexandria, who with the priest and arch-heretic Arius had been previously exiled by St. Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria.

Meletius was eventually reinstated as bishop after the Arian persecution ended in 378, and he died while presiding over an ecumenical council in the year 381.

I'll be getting broiled on a grill in purgatory

They think I'm a saint...
When I'm dead, they'll come and touch holy pictures and rosaries to me, and
all the while I'll be getting broiled on a grill in purgatory.
At least promise me you'll pray a lot for the repose of my soul.

St. Bernadette Soubirous

Incorruptible!

"You will not allow your holy one to see corruption" - Psalm 16:10

The Catholic Church is full of mystery and miracles; those supernatural occurrences in time that display the power of God for eternity.
Incorruptibility is one of those miracles. And Saint Bernadette (feast day: April 16) is one of the saints chosen by God to show forth His power.
Every Ash Wednesday we hear “You are dust and unto dust you shall return.” Death and decay are a fact of life for us mere mortals; all of us, that is, except for God’s chosen few – the Incorruptibles. These are the saints throughout the history of the Church whose bodies have not decayed over time. Even millennia have passed, as in the case of St. Cecelia, without their bodies turning to dust.
The light of Christ has always shone brightest in times of darkness, and the 20th century was no exception. Certainly a dark time of apostasy and the disintegration of customs, one light that shone brightly was the canonization of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the visionary of Lourdes, France.
 
The Life of Saint Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879)
It could be viewed as ironic that the messenger of Our Lady at Lourdes, a place of healing, should be so burdened by illness throughout her natural life. It seems the miracle of Lourdes was not for her. As a matter of fact, in a vision Our Lady said to Saint Bernadette, “I cannot promise you happiness in this life, only in the next.”
Born into a humble family which little by little fell into extreme poverty, Bernadette had always been a frail child. Quite young, she had already suffered from digestive trouble, then after having just escaped being a victim of the cholera epidemic of 1855, she experienced painful attacks of asthma, and her ill health almost caused her to be cut off forever from the religious life. When asked by Monsignor Forcade to take Bernadette, the Mother Superior of the Sisters of Nevers replied: "Monsignor, she will be a pillar of the infirmary."
She lived in the convent for thirteen years, spending a large portion of this time, as predicted by the Mother Superior, ill in the infirmary. When a fellow nun accused her of being a “lazybones,” Bernadette said, “My job is to be ill.” She was gradually struck by other illnesses as well as asthma: among them, tuberculosis of the lung and a tubercular tumor on her right knee.
On Wednesday, April 16, 1879, her pain got much worse. Shortly after 11:00 a.m. she seemed to be almost suffocating and was carried to an armchair, where she sat with her feet on a footstool in front of a blazing fire. She died at about 3:15 in the afternoon. She was thirty-five.

Doctor Declares: “Not a Natural Phenomenon”
Over the course of the next 46 years, Saint Bernadette’s body was exhumed no less than three times: the first time in 1909, then again in 1919 and finally in 1925.
At the first exhumation, it was quickly evident that a miracle had taken place; Saint Bernadette’s skin tone was perfectly natural. The mouth was open slightly and it could be seen that the teeth were still in place. Although the rosary in her hands had decayed, showing rust and corrosion in some spots, the virginal hands that still grasped it were perfect! The sisters present thoroughly washed the body and clothed it in a new habit before placing it in an officially-sealed double casket.
The second exhumation, in 1919, showed no further evidence of decomposition, though her hands and face had become somewhat discolored due to the well-intended washing given by the nuns ten years prior. A worker in wax was commissioned to create a light wax mask of Saint Bernadette’s hands and face. It was feared that, although the body was preserved, the blackish tinge to the face and the sunken eyes and nose would make an unpleasant impression on the public.
That brings us to 1946 and the final disturbing of Saint Bernadette’s resting place. One of the doctors overseeing the final exhumation, Doctor Comte, writes: "From this examination I conclude that the body of the Venerable Bernadette is intact, the skeleton is complete, the muscles have atrophied, but are well preserved; only the skin, which has shriveled, seems to have suffered from the effects of the damp in the coffin. … the body does not seem to have putrefied, nor has any decomposition of the cadaver set in, although this would be expected and normal after such a long period in a vault hollowed out of the earth."
The doctor was amazed by the state of preservation of the liver: "What struck me during this examination, of course, was …the totally unexpected state of the liver after 46 years. One would have thought that this organ, which is basically soft and inclined to crumble, would have decomposed very rapidly or would have hardened to a chalky consistency. Yet it was soft and almost normal in consistency. I pointed this out to those present, remarking that this did not seem to be a natural phenomenon."

Final Considerations
This is truly the body of Bernadette, lifelike in her attitude of meditation and prayer.
This is the face which was lifted eighteen times to the Lady of Lourdes, the very same hands which fingered her rosary during the apparitions, and the fingers which scratched the earth in obedience to Our Lady’s request and made the miraculous spring appear.
It seems only right that Our Lord would preserve perfectly those ears which heard the message of Lourdes and the lips which repeated “the Lady's” name to Father Peyramale; "I am the Immaculate Conception." This is the heart, too, which bore so much love for Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and sinners.
There is a profound understanding in this heart which would one day write, "I was nothing, and of this nothing God made something great. In Holy Communion I am heart to heart with Jesus. How sublime is my destiny."
Yes, how very sublime is the destiny of any Catholic who embraces the call of Christ to be a light shining in the darkness of whatever century he finds himself in. And how sublime the destiny of those who find healing in the arms of she who is “the Immaculate Conception.”

---

 by Tonia Long

Our Lady of Lourdes

On February 11, 1858 in the Pyrenean village of Lourdes, France, a beautiful young lady appeared to a poor, fourteen-year-old girl named Bernadette Soubirous.
Bernadette and her sister were searching for firewood near the Grotto of Massabielle. Bernadette was often ill, so when her sister removed her stockings in order to wade across the river, the frail girl remained where she was. Soon, a strange silence filled the air.
She turned her head towards the grotto and saw in the opening of the rock a young and beautiful lady. "The Lady" was dressed in white with a yellow rose at each foot and a rosary draped over her arm. Removing her own rosary from her pocket, Bernadette knelt down before "the Lady" and began to pray.
This was the first of eighteen apparitions of the Blessed Mother to the young girl. During the sixteenth apparition on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, Our Lady identified herself as "the Immaculate Conception."
Bernadette ran to her pastor’s house, repeating to herself over and over again the strange name that "the Lady" had given her so as not to forget it. At that time, the "Immaculate Conception" was not a well known term: just four years earlier, on December 8, 1854, Blessed Pope Pius IX had proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus.
Although unknown to the young illiterate Bernadette, the name that "the Lady" had given her was to her dumbfounded pastor more confirmation than he had ever expected.
Complying with Our Lady’s request, there is now a church at the grotto. Our Lady asked that people come in procession, and persevere with prayer and personal conversion.
During the ninth apparition, Our Lady asked Bernadette to kneel and wash in the spring. Confused, because there was no spring near Massabielle, she began to scratch the loose gravel off the ground inside the grotto. As she did so, a small pool formed, and she cupped her hands together and drank, and then washed her face.
The next day, the pool was overflowing and water was dripping down over the rock. To this spring are attributed countless cures, though only 67 are officially recognized by the Church and medicine.
The shrine is considered the most visited place of pilgrimage and healing in the world.
The celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes was extended to the universal Church in 1907.

---

 First Photo by: Manuel González Olaechea

How do you learn to love?

You learn to speak by speaking,
to study by studying, to run by running,
to work by working, and just so,
you learn to love by loving.
All those who think to learn in any other way
deceive themselves.

St. Francis de Sales

St. Scholastica

Scholastica, the twin sister of St. Benedict, consecrated her life to God when she was very young. After her brother established his monastery at Mount Cassino, she resided in the neighborhood at Plombariola, about five miles from where her brother lived. Scholastica founded a monastery of nuns that was governed by Benedict, though still under her own direction.

She visited her brother once a year, and as she was not allowed to enter his monastery, he went with a few of his brothers to meet her at a house some distance away to pray together and speak of spiritual matters. On one such occasion in 543, they had passed the time as usual in prayer and holy conversation and in the evening sat down to eat supper. Scholastica begged her brother to remain until the next day, deviating from their usual custom, so that they might continue their conversation. Benedict refused to spend the night outside his monastery as it was contrary to his order’s rule.

Scholastica turned to God in prayer, and a thunderstorm erupted. The rain and lightning was so violent, that Benedict and his companions were prevented from returning home. "May God forgive you, sister" said Benedict, "for what you have done." "I asked a favor of you," she replied simply, "and you refused it. I asked it of God, and He has granted it!" Thus, they spent the night speaking of holy things. In the morning, they parted ways, never to see one another on earth again: just three days later, Scholastica died.

Love implies sacrifice

Love is not just an affirmation,
but a negation.
It implies sacrifice – a surrender of our will,
of our selfish interests, for the good of the other. It looks not to the lover’s pleasure, but to the happiness of the beloved.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

St. Michael Febres Cordero

Michael was born in Cuenca, Ecuador in 1854 to a wealthy family. From birth he had a deformity that disabled him and prevented him from walking. One day, as he sat in his wheelchair, he saw a rose in the garden. Above the flowers, he saw a beautiful lady wearing a white and blue dress, calling his name. His family, who could see nothing other than the rose, was astonished when he proceeded to get up and walk. From then on, Michel spoke with Our Lady and Jesus on a regular basis.

When the De LaSalle Brothers arrived in Ecuador in 1863 and set up a seminary, Michael enrolled, though his parents objected to his plans to become a lay brother rather than a priest. Instead, they sent him to the seminary where his father taught, but within a few months he became seriously ill and had to return home. His mother finally agreed to let him become a lay brother. In 1868, Michael entered the order of the De LaSalle Brothers and a year later was assigned to the Beaterio, a congregation of lay sisters dedicated to prayer and charitable work in Quito, where he specialized in preparing children for their First Communion for the next 26 years.

Transferred to Spain to assist in the translation of sacred documents, he caught a cold that developed into pneumonia, and he died on February 9, 1910. His body was returned to Ecuador, and his tomb in Quito soon became a shrine and place of pilgrimage. The Ecuadorian government issued stamps bearing his likeness and erected a bronze and marble monument to him in Quito’s central park. Upon the statue’s dedication in June, 1965, there was a huge parade in which 30,000 school children participated.

The proof of love

The proof of love is in the works.
Where love exists, it works great things.
But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.

St. Gregory the Great

 

St. Jerome Emiliani

Jerome was born in Venice in 1481. As a military commander who prided himself on the strength of his army, he was not a man of God. Yet when he was taken prisoner and thrown in a dungeon, the proud leader turned to God and miraculously escaped his captors. After his conversion, Jerome dedicated himself to Our Lady and the work of God, and was eventually ordained to the priesthood in 1518.

At that time, famine and plague were rampant in Northern Italy, and Jerome devoted himself to caring for sick orphans, housing and teaching them Catholicism. After contracting the plague and recovering, Jerome decided to wholly devote himself to caring for others. In 1531, he established multiple orphanages and a shelter for penitent prostitutes, and just a year later, along with two other priests, a congregation for men. The congregation, named The Clerks Regular of Somascha, mainly saw to the care of orphans and the instruction of youths and young clerics.

In 1537, Jerome caught an infectious disease while caring for the sick, and died on February 8. The Clerks Regular of Somascha still exist today, and it is said Jerome Emiliani was the first to introduce the idea of teaching catechism to children.

In Your Time of Need, Turn to the Rosary for Help!

More than ever, Catholics need to grab on to the Rosary and to pray with all our might.  Because we are faced with situations in our private lives and in the Church that are very serious and confusing.
Let us take comfort in the fact that, for centuries, Catholics have turned to the Rosary to overcome problems big and small.
It has won battles, fought off heresies and wrought countless miracles. A multitude of saints and popes have endorsed it. Pope Pius IX declares, "Among all the devotions approved by the Church,  none has been so favored by so many miracles as the Rosary devotion." 

Click here and sign up to become a Rosary Rally Captain for Traditional Marriage! 

The Rosary’s efficacy proven in history
We need only to recall how Pope Pius V convoked the Christian world to pray the Rosary to ask God for victory in the crusade against the Ottoman Turks which culminated in a famous sea battle at Lepanto in 1571. And when the Turkish fleet were repulsed and vanquished, the elated pontiff established the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary on October 7 in thanksgiving to the Mother of God.
There is also the story of eight German Jesuits who lived just a kilometer away from ground zero when the A-bomb exploded in Hiroshima, Japan in August 1945. They attributed their miraculous survival to observing the message of Fatima by praying the Rosary daily.[¹]
And how can one explain the sudden pullout of the Russians from Austria in 1948? A striking quandary to military experts and historians, but not to men of faith who know that 70,000 Austrians under the leadership of Father Petrus Pavlicek prayed daily rosaries to drive the militant forces of atheistic Marxism from their country.[²]

Never out of fashion
Nihil sub sole novum.( Ecclesiastes 1:10.) There is nothing new under the sun as the famous line goes. What more can be added to the glories of the Rosary?
This most revered of Catholic devotions never goes out of vogue. As one website reveals, personal testimonies show the power and relevance of the Rosary in our days. From something trivial as passing a driving test to escaping a horrendous vehicular accident unscathed, people keep having recourse to the Rosary.

Baghdad horror
A survivor’s gripping account gives yet again another convincing testimony of the power of the Rosary. A 25 year-old female student who lost her brother and her mother in the terrorists attack in the Chaldean Catholic Church in Baghdad on October 31, 2010 relates[³],

“Next to my brother, there was also a woman who was bleeding profusely.  She asked the terrorist: ‘Kill me, please, do not let me suffer any more.’ He answered her: "No, suffer; that way you will experience hell on earth and after your death."  And he repeated: "You are infidels, Allah ou akbar!"   And I, then, prayed the rosary, with my head bent down towards the floor.  A terrorist came and asked me: "What are you praying?  What do you venerate?  Do you venerate Christ?"  And then, some grenades exploded and we truly had the impression that the church was going to collapse on us.  I myself absolutely did not think that I would survive.  I prayed as if I was about to die.  It is Our Mother who saved us.”

Needed more than ever in our times
Amid that horrific bedlam and terrible carnage, the student courageously hung on to her rosary and prayed even as the Islamic terrorist accosted her. By the grace of God, she was spared from death.
That was chaos on a smaller scale. On a grander scale we find ourselves amid the turmoil and moral corruption of our times, mankind continues to flaunt the sins of abortion, homosexuality, pornography, drug abuse and many more grave offenses against God with wanton abandon.
Our Lady gave her maternal warnings at Fatima. And like a true mother, she also gave the solution. She asked for the daily recitation of the Rosary and requested the establishment of the devotion to Her Immaculate Heart as well as the Five First Saturday devotion. Sadly her maternal warnings remain largely unheeded.

Message of Hope
Our Lady also assured us that “In the end, my immaculate Heart will triumph.” But at a time when all seems lost humanly speaking, when events turn for the worst, we must not give in to the temptation that her promises are empty. We must confide in her and reject that temptation with all our hearts and minds.
We do have a powerful weapon in the Rosary. Let us cling to it and ask our heavenly Mother to intercede for us and intervene for the greater glory of God. Historical antecedents show how the Rosary gave victory to those who prayed it assiduously with faith. Let us expect no less during our tumultuous times. Let us pray the Rosary daily and look forward to a glorious Catholic Civilization in the Reign of Mary as St. Louis Grignion de Montfort prophesied.

"Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world." Pope Pius IX

Click here and sign up to become a Rosary Rally Captain for Traditional Marriage!

---

Notes:

[1] Donal Anthony Foley, “The Priests Who Survived The Atomic Bomb,” http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/features/2010/08/05/the-priests-who-survived-the-atomic-bomb/ [back to text]

[2] Charles E. Schaffer, “Expelled By The Rosary,”  https://americaneedsfatima.org/The-Holy-Rosary/expelled-by-the-rosary.html [back to text]

[3]Iraq: A survivor of the attack in Baghdad tells her story, DICI – Documentation Information Catholiques Internationales, http://www.dici.org/en/news/iraq-a-survivor-of-the-attack-in-baghdad-tells-her-story/ [back to text]

---

What does it mean to love God?

To love God as He ought to be loved, we must be
detached from all temporal love.
We must love nothing but Him, or
if we love anything else, we must love it only for His sake.

St. Peter Claver

St. Luke the Younger

Born on the Greek island of Aegina, Luke belonged to a family of farmers. Saracen raiders forced his family to leave their homeland for Thessaly, where Luke worked in the fields and tended sheep. He was a dutiful child, but his charity towards the poor often frustrated his parents: Luke would often give his own food and clothing to those less fortunate. He was so charitable that God blessed him, and his family’s crops flourished, but his parents still did not approve.

After his father's death, Luke decided to become a hermit. The decision angered his mother, who wanted her son at home. He left Thessaly to find a monastery, but was captured by soldiers who mistook him for a runaway slave. Imprisoned for a short time, he then returned to his mother after he convinced his captors of his true identity.

Later, two monks on their way to the Holy Land persuaded Luke's mother to allow him to join a monastery in Athens. After only a short time, Luke’s superior claimed that his mother had appeared to him in a vision calling for help, and Luke was sent home.

Eventually, Luke's mother understood her son's call to religious life and no longer opposed him. Luke built his hermitage on Mount Joannitsa, near Corinth when he was only eighteen. At times, Luke was seen suspended above the ground in prayer. After his death, his cell was transformed into an oratory and named the Place of Healing.

To conquer the devil

The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is
humility.
For, as he does not know at all how to employ it,
neither does he know how to defend himself from it.

St. Vincent de Paul

St. Paul Miki and Companions

By 1549, St. Francis Xavier had begun the evangelization of Japan. After he left to spread the faith elsewhere, a Catholic community flourished. The community grew, and eventually expanded to include Paul Miki, a high-born Jesuit priest who became well-known as a preacher. Paul followed St. Francis’ footsteps and continued the spread of Christianity, along with missionaries and priests from various countries and orders.

In 1597, Hideyoshi, a powerful Japanese official, listened to the gossip and lies of a Spanish merchant. The merchant said that Paul and the missionaries were traitors of Japan, and were spies for Spain and Portugal. Hideyoshi cut off the left ears of twenty-six Catholics, including Paul Miki, smeared their cheeks with blood as a warning to others and paraded them through towns before executing them. Priests, brothers, laymen, catechists, doctors, servants, old men and innocent children were bound to crosses and raised into the air, a lance trust into their sides, killing them. Hideyoshi crucified the martyrs on a hill, now known as the Holy Mountain, above Nagasaki. They were canonized in 1862.

Our Lady Rewards the Public Use of the Rosary

Alphonsus, King of Leon and Galicia, very much wanted all his servants to honor the Blessed Virgin by saying the Rosary. So he would hang a large rosary on his belt and always wear it, but unfortunately never said it himself. Nevertheless, his wearing it encouraged everyone to say the Rosary very devoutly.
One day he fell seriously ill and was given up for dead. He found himself, in a vision, before the judgment seat of Our Lord with many devils accusing him of his sins and Our Sovereign Judge about to condemn him to hell. But Our Lady appeared to intercede for him. She called for a pair of scales and had his sins placed in one of the balances and the rosary he had always worn on the other, together with all the Rosaries that had been said because of his example. It was found that the Rosaries weighed more than his sins.
Looking at him with great kindness Our Lady said, "As a reward for this little honor you paid me in wearing my Rosary, I have obtained a great grace for you from my Son. Your life will be spared for a few more years. See that you spend them wisely and do penance."
When the King regained consciousness he cried out, "Blessed be the Rosary of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, by which I have been delivered from eternal damnation!"
Having recovered his health, he spent the rest of his life spreading devotion to the Holy Rosary and said it faithfully every day.
People who love the Blessed Virgin should follow the example of King Alphonsus so they too may win other souls to say the Rosary. They will receive great graces on earth and eternal life. "They that explain me shall have life everlasting." [1] Ecclus. 24:31
Adapted from Saint Louis de Montfort’s The Secret of the Rosary (Hanover, Pa: America Needs Fatima, 2008), 12.

The Rosary: The Great Weapon of the 21st CenturyClick here to order your Free Rosary Guide Booklet

What does it mean to belong to the Church?

Belonging to the Church is a very great and very demanding thing.
We must think as the Church thinks, have the mind of the Church,
proceed as the Church wishes in all the circumstance of our lives.
This supposes a real Catholic sense,
an authentic and complete purity of customs, and
a profound and sincere piety.
In other words,
it supposes the sacrifice of an entire lifetime.

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

St. Agatha

Very little is known about St. Agatha, other than that she was martyred in Sicily during the persecution of Emperor Decius in 251. According to legend, Agatha dedicated her life to Our Lord at a young age and refused any man who wanted to marry her. Agatha was arrested after refusing the advances of Quintian, a powerful man of high rank, and was imprisoned in a brothel. Throughout the month she spent being tortured in the brothel, Agatha would pray, “Jesus Christ, Lord of all, you see my heart, you know my desires. Possess all that I am. I am your sheep: make me worthy to overcome the devil," and was preserved from being violated.

Agatha was removed from the brothel and again advanced upon by her captor. Again, she refused him, saying she was dedicated to God alone. Her captor then sent her to prison, and had her tortured repeatedly. He refused her any medical care, but God comforted her in the form of a vision of St. Peter. Agatha was tortured yet again, and this time her body was grossly mutilated. She died with this prayer on her lips: "Lord, my Creator, you have always protected me from the cradle; you have taken me from the love of the world and given me patience to suffer.”

About a year after her death, Agatha was attributed with calming an erupting volcano, and is revered as a protector against fires. Because of the way her body was mutilated before her death, she is also known as the patroness of breast cancer patients.

Photos by: Hermetiker

Begin every day like this

If we wish to make any progress in the service of God
we must begin every day of our life with new eagerness.
We must keep ourselves in the presence of God as much as possible and
have no other view or end in all our actions
but the divine honor.

St. Charles Borromeo

St. John de Britto

John de Britto, was born in Lisbon on March 1, 1647 to a noble Portuguese family. His father died while serving as Viceroy of Brazil. Growing up, John was a playmate to the future King of Portugal, Pedro II. At fifteen, the young nobleman applied to join the Society of Jesus into which he was duly accepted. His talent for academic excellence was soon noted by his superiors; however, John’s great admiration and devotion to St. Francis Xavier urged him to apply to serve in the Indian missions. Amid strong opposition from his family, in 1673 John traveled to Madura in southern India.

As he traveled throughout India on foot, John lived austerely. He dressed himself in the saffron cloak and turban of the native Indians, abstained from eating meat and lived humbly. Through his holy efforts, John soon became well-known, and developed a group of catechists. Though the practice of Catholicism was not illegal in India, John was hated by many because of his faith. He and his followers were often subjected to agonizing torture, but each time John miraculously recovered.

In 1683, John was banished from India, and departed for Portugal. Returning soon after, the ardent missionary continued in his apostolate for three more years. In 1693, he was again arrested, tortured and once more commanded to leave India. When he refused, John was sentenced to death. “I await death, and I await it with impatience,” he wrote to his superior. “It has always been the object of my prayers. It forms today the most precious reward of my labors and my sufferings.”

On February 4, John de Britto was executed. As he knelt at the execution block, the rajah's order of death was read aloud. The executioner hesitated, but John said to him, "My friend, I have prayed to God. On my part, I have done what I should do. Now do your part.”

John de Britto was canonized in 1947.

Lust

Lust indulged became habit,
and habit unresisted
became necessity.

St. Augustine of Hippo

St. Blaise

Very few facts are known about St. Blaise. It is believed that he lived in the early fourth century, and was of a noble and wealthy Christian Armenian family. While he was still very young, Blaise was made a bishop. Although the Edict of Toleration (311), granting freedom of worship in the Roman Empire was already five years old, there was still much persecution of Christians in Armenia. God instructed Blaise to escape his enemies by fleeing to the mountains, where he lived as a hermit.

Then, one day in 316, a hunting party stumbled upon the solitary hermit and took him back to Cappadocia. Agricolaus, governor of Cappadocia, tried to persuade Blaise to worship pagan idols. The first time Blaise refused, and he was beaten. The second time, he was hung from a tree and his flesh torn with iron hooks. The third time he refused, he was beheaded.

As legend has it, a mother brought her young son, who was slowly dying of suffocation due to a bone lodged in his throat, to be blessed by Blaise. But at Blaise’s command the child was able to cough up the bone and lived. On his feast day, the blessing of St. Blaise is given: two candles are consecrated and then held by a priest in a crossed position either over the heads or at the throats of the faithful.

What Saint’s love for God can match Mary’s?

Think of what the Saints have done for their neighbor because they loved God.
But what Saint’s love for God can match Mary’s?
She loved Him more in the first moment of her existence
than all the Saints and angels ever loved Him or will love Him.
Just as there is not one among all the Blessed who loves God as Mary does,
so there is no one, after God, who loves us as much as this most loving Mother does.

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

Presentation of the Christ Child in the Temple

In Israel the Law of Moses considered the first-born male child to belong to God. The same law considered the mother “unclean” after giving birth. For forty days she could not go out or touch anything sacred. In order to “ransom” the child and “cleanse” the mother, a visit to temple was required, which involved a sacrificial offering of a lamb and a dove. If the family had limited means, the lamb could be exchanged for a dove. Thus, two doves were sufficient to fulfill the precept.
Forty days after the birth of Jesus, St. Joseph again helped his virgin wife onto the donkey only now she carried the creator of the universe in her arms. Slowly they made their way to Jerusalem to comply with the Mosaic Law. In their case, there was really no need for “ransom” or “cleansing”, Jesus being God, and Mary being a virgin before, during and after the birth of her divine Son (CCC 496-507, 510). Yet, before the eyes of men, unaware of these circumstances, the holy family wished to give an example of humility and obedience by submitting to the age-old mandate. The fact that St. Joseph offered two doves is evidence of their poverty.

At that time there was a priest, a venerable old man named Simeon to whom the Holy Ghost had revealed that he would not die before seeing Christ the Redeemer (Luke 2:26).

As the holy family entered the temple, Simeon was inspired to meet them, and taking the Child in his arms exclaimed: “Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace; because my eyes have seen thy salvation…” (Luke 2:29-30)

And turning to Mary Most Holy, he prophesized, “Behold this child is set for the fall and resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted…and thy own soul a sword shall pierce…” (Luke 2:34-35)

An eighty-four year old woman, the holy prophetess Anna, who lived in the temple, also gave thanks to God and spoke of Him to all present. (Luke 2:36-38)

The feast of the Presentation of the Lord was celebrated in the Church of Jerusalem as early as the mid-fourth century and probably earlier. Throughout the history of the Church this feast has been called The Presentation, the Purification of Mary and also Candlemas, as, traditionally, candles were blessed on February 2.

The Five First Saturdays 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.

---

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

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.

---

 

Also Read:

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

The voice of the heart

When we pray, the voice of the heart
must be heard more
than that proceeding from the mouth.

St. Bonaventure

St. Henry Morse

Henry Morse was born to protestant parents in Suffolk, England, in 1595, and left his home to study law in London where he learned of the Catholic Faith and converted at the age of 23. Henry traveled to Rome where he was ordained a priest.

He made his way back home to England, where he was immediately arrested and imprisoned at York with a fellow priest, a Jesuit. The three years of his imprisonment became for the young ordained priest an intense novitiate, and by the time he was released, he had made his final vows as a Jesuit.

Upon his release from prison, Henry was banished from England, but returned in 1633 under a false name. During the plague of 1636, Henry would travel to the homes of Catholics and Protestants alike, caring for the sick. He caught the plague from his patients three times, but miraculously recovered each time. The people of England were so touched by Henry’s zeal and goodness, over 100 people converted to Catholicism in less than a year.

He was then betrayed by a friend, arrested by the authorities and again banished from England. Instead, he traveled to Southern England and ministered to the people there. Then, in 1645, Henry was arrested for the last time and sent to London for execution. After celebrating a final Mass, Fr. Henry Morse proclaimed his faith to the crowd, prayed aloud for himself and for his executioners and was executed. “I am come hither to die for my religion.” He said to the crowd, “…I pray that my death may be some kind of atonement for the sins of this kingdom.” Then, striking his breast three times, he gave a signal to a priest hidden in the crowd to give him absolution and said: “Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”

Henry Morse was canonized as a martyr in 1970.

How to make the devil powerless

Do you want Our Lord to give you many graces?
Visit Him often.
Do you want Him to give you few graces?
Visit him seldom.
Visits to the Blessed Sacrament are powerful and
an indispensable means of overcoming the attacks of the devil.
Make frequent visits to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament
and the devil will be powerless against you.

St. John Bosco

St. John Bosco

The youngest of a poor farming family of Piedmont in northern Italy, John Melchior Bosco was born on August 16, 1815. He lost his father at the age of two, and his saintly “Mamma” Margarita brought up three sons in extreme poverty and want.

When he was nine, John had the first of a series of vivid dreams that left a profound impression upon him for the rest of his life. Standing in a field filled with fighting, cursing and blaspheming lads, he tried in vain to pacify them with arguments and fists. Then he saw a beautiful lady who said, “Softly, softly does it…if you wish to win them! Take your shepherd’s staff and lead them to pasture.” At this the boys were transformed into wild beasts and then into lambs.

Intelligent and talented, John Bosco received his first instruction from a priest who, perceiving his gifts, took him under his wing. Supported by his mother and facing many difficulties, he pursued the priesthood, and at twenty-two was ordained in the diocese of Turin.

Turin, a vast industrialized city of 117,000 inhabitants, had seen an influx of migrants from the country in search of work. Many young men, some as young as 11 and 12, lived in the streets, under bridges or in bleak public dormitories. Visiting prisons in the city, Don Bosco was heartsick at the condition of many of these youth who ended up behind bars. In 1842 he began to gather these social outcasts, befriend them and instruct them in the Catholic faith. By 1846 the numbers of this young flock had risen to 400. Despite the anti-clerical government’s opposition to new religious orders, Don Bosco went on to found the Oratory of Saint Francis de Sales, known as the Salesians, where boys learned the faith, Christian morality, academics and a trade.

A teacher, spiritual director, mystic and miracle worker, Don Bosco knew how to mingle the spiritual with the human so as to win these young souls. He was beloved of his students, guiding them out of darkness and hopelessness into light and hope.

At the time of Don Bosco’s death on January 31, 1888 the Salesians had 250 houses dispersed throughout the world.