On
Death and Life
"Man Needs
Eternity -- and Every
Other Hope, for
Him, Is All Too Brief"
Saints of this Day December
01 Kaléndis Decémbris
The saints “a cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.
As the Church prepares to welcome seven
new saints this month remarkable servants of God.
Catholic saints are
holy people and human people who lived extraordinary lives.
Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to
use his or her unique gifts. God calls each one of
us to be a saint in order to get into heaven: ONLY Saints
are allowed into heaven.
The more "extravagant" graces bestowed NOT
for the benefit of the recipients so much as FOR
the benefit of others.
BENEDICT XVI'S PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR
December 2012
General
Intention: That migrants throughout the
world may be welcomed
with generosity and authentic love, especially by Christian communities.
Missionary
Intention: Christ, light for all humanity.
That Christ may reveal himself to all humanity with the light that shines
forth from Bethlehem and is reflected in the face of his Church.
The Rosary
html
Mary
Mother
of GOD -- Her Rosary
Here
Mary
Mother
of GOD 15
Promises of
the Virgin
Mary to those
who recite the Rosary
Fatima Prayer,
Angel of Peace
My God, I believe,
I adore, I trust and I love Thee. I beg pardon for those who do not
believe, do not adore, do not.
O most Holy
trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
I adore Thee profoundly.
I
offer Thee the most precious
Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity
of Jesus Christ, present in
all the Tabernacles of the world, in reparation
for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by
which He is offended,
and
by the infite
merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
I
beg the conversion of poor sinners.
Pope Benedict XVI Catholic
Church In China {article
here}
1648
to1930 St. Augustine
Zhao Rong and 120 Companions
Christianity arrived in China by
way of Syria -- 600s.
Depending
on China's relations with outside
world,
Christianity for centuries was free
to grow or forced to operate secretly.
How do I start the Five First Saturdays?
Called in the Gospel “the Mother of Jesus,” Mary
is acclaimed
by Elizabeth,
at the prompting of
the Spirit and even
before the birth of her
son, as “the Mother
of my Lord” (Lk 1:43;
Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf.
Mt 13:55; et al.). In
fact, the One whom she conceived
as man by the Holy Spirit,
who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was
none other
than the Father's
eternal Son, the
second person
of the Holy Trinity.
Hence the Church confesses
that Mary is truly
“Mother of God” (Theotokos).
Catechism of the Catholic Church 495, quoting
the Council
of Ephesus (431):
DS 251.
“The Blessed
Virgin was
eternally predestined,
in conjunction
with the incarnation
of the divine
Word, to be the Mother
of God. By decree of divine
Providence, she served
on earth as the loving mother of the
divine Redeemer,
an associate of
unique nobility, and the
Lord's humble handmaid. She
conceived, brought
forth, and nourished
Christ.”
(Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 61).
Mary Mother of GOD Mary's
Divine Motherhood:
FEASTS OF OUR LADY
of the Virgin
Mary to those who recite
the Rosary
Saints of this Day December
01 Kaléndis Decémbris
The
voice of the
Father is heard, the Son enters
the water, and the Holy Spirit
appears in the form of a dove.
THE spirit
and example of the world imperceptibly
instil the error
into the minds of many that there is
a kind of middle way of going to
Heaven; and so, because the world does
not live up to the gospel, they bring
the gospel down to the level of the world.
It is not by this example that we are to measure
the Christian rule, but words and life of Christ.
All His followers are commanded to labour to
become perfect even as our heavenly Father is
perfect, and to bear His image in our hearts that
we may be His children. We are obliged by
the gospel to die to ourselves by fighting self-love
in our hearts, by the mastery of our passions,
by taking on the spirit of our Lord.
These
are the conditions under which
Christ makes His promises
and numbers us among His children,
as is manifest from His words
which the apostles have left us in their
inspired writings. Here is no
distinction made or foreseen between
the apostles or clergy or religious and
secular persons. The former, indeed, take
upon themselves certain stricter
obligations, as a means of accomplishing
these ends more perfectly; but the law
of holiness and of disengagement of
the heart from the world is general and
binds all the followers of Christ.
breviary.net/martyrology/mart11
01 stlukeorthodox.com/html/saints/
usccb.org
ewtn.com
S t Patricks
12 01
d omcentral.org/life/martyr
Mar syriac
oca.org
gl aubenszeugen.de/tage/kai/01
Serbian
http://www.copticchurch.net
M elkite
Monthly
Saints with pics here
http://www.stfrancisenid.com/memorials.htm
a ntiochian.org/AW-WomenSaints--wonderful
icons
L utheran
Saints
One Saint per day stthomasirondequoit.com/ SaintsAlive/index.htm
stj ohndc.org God's Humourous
Saints
http://www.worldpriest.com/
Morning
Prayer
and Hymn
Meditation
of
the Day
Prayer
for Priests
Our
Bartholomew
Family Prayer List
Here
How
to Stay Out of PURGATORY -- How
to
Get others Out
POPES html
Parents of Saints
html
The_Litany_of_the_Blessed_Virgin.html
Patron_Saints.html
Angels
and Archangels
html
Marian
Apparitions. html Doctors_of_the_Church
Feasts of Our Lady.html
January to December
Acts
of the Apostles
We
are called upon with the
whole Church militant
on earth to join in
praising and thanking
God for the grace and glory
he has bestowed on
his saints. At the same time we
earnestly implore Him to exert His
almighty power and mercy in
raising us from our miseries
and sins, healing the disorders
of our souls and leading
us by the path of repentance to
the company of His saints, to which
He has called us.
They were once
what we are now, travellers
on earth they
had the same weaknesses,
which we have. We have
difficulties to encounter
so had the saints,
and many of them far greater
than we can meet with;
obstacles from kings and whole
nations, sometimes from the
prisons, racks and swords of persecutors.
Yet they surmounted
these difficulties, which
they made the very means
of their virtue and victories. It
was by the strength they received
from above, not by their own,
that they triumphed. But the blood
of Christ was shed for us as it was
for them and the grace of our Redeemer
is not wanting to us; if we fail,
the failure is in ourselves.
THE saints and just,
from
the beginning of time
and throughout the world,
who have been made perfect,
everlasting monuments
of God’s infinite
power and clemency, praise
His goodness without
ceasing; casting their crowns
before His throne they
give to Him all the glory of
their triumphs: “His gifts alone
in us He crowns.”
|
“The saints must be honored as friends of Christ
and children and
heirs of God, as John the theologian
and evangelist says:
‘But as many as received him,
he gave them the power to be made
the sons of God....’ Let us carefully
observe the manner of life
of all the apostles, martyrs,
ascetics and just men who announced
the coming of the Lord. And
let us emulate their faith, charity,
hope, zeal, life, patience under
suffering, and perseverance
unto death, so that we may also share
their crowns of glory” Exposition
of the Orthodox Faith
Called in the Gospel “the Mother of Jesus,” Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at
the prompting of the
Spirit and even before
the birth of her son, as “the Mother of my Lord” (Lk 1:43; Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf. Mt 13:55;
et al.). In fact, the
One whom she conceived as
man by the Holy Spirit, who
truly became her Son according
to the flesh, was none other than
the Father's eternal Son,
the second person of the
Holy Trinity.
Hence
the Church confesses that Mary is truly “Mother of God” (Theotokos).
Catechism
of the Catholic Church 495,
quoting the Council of Ephesus (431):
DS 251.
|
Nine First Fridays Devotion
to the Sacred Heart
... From the writings of
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
On Friday
during Holy Communion,
He said these words
to me, His unworthy slave, if
I mistake not:
“I promise you
in the excessive mercy
of my Heart that its all-powerful
love will grant to all
those who receive Holy Communion
on nine first Fridays
of consecutive months the grace
of final repentance; they
will not die under my displeasure
or without receiving their
sacraments, my divine Heart
making itself their assured refuge
at the last moment.”
Margaret Mary
was inspired by Christ
to establish the Holy
Hour and to pray lying prostrate
with her face to the ground
from eleven till midnight on
the eve of the first Friday of each
month, to share in the mortal sadness.
He endured
when abandoned
by His Apostles in His Agony,
and to receive holy Communion
on the first Friday of every
month. In the first great
revelation, He made known to her
His ardent desire to be loved
by men and His design of manifesting
His Heart with all Its treasures
of love and mercy, of sanctification
and salvation.
He appointed
the Friday after
the octave of the feast of Corpus
Christi as the feast
of the Sacred Heart; He called
her “the Beloved Disciple of the Sacred Heart”, and the heiress of all Its treasures.
The love of the Sacred
Heart was the fire which
consumed her, and devotion
to the Sacred Heart is the
refrain of all her writings.
In her last illness she
refused all alleviation, repeating
frequently: “What have
I in heaven and what
do I desire on earth, but Thee
alone, O my God”, and
died pronouncing the Holy Name of Jesus.
With
regard to this promise
it may be remarked:
(1) that our Lord required
Communion to be received
on a particular day chosen by Him;
(2) that the nine Fridays must be consecutive;
(3) that they must be made
in honor of His Sacred Heart,
which means that those who make the nine
Fridays must practice the devotion
and must have a great love for our Lord;
(4) that our Lord does not say that those
who make the nine Fridays will be dispensed
from any of their obligations or from
exercising the vigilance necessary
to lead a good life and overcome temptation;
rather He implicitly promises
abundant graces to those who make the
nine Fridays to help them to carry out these
obligations and persevere to the end; (5)
that perseverance in receiving Holy Communion
for nine consecutive First Firdays helps
the faithful to acquire the habit
of frequent Communion, which our Lord eagerly
desires; and (6) that the practice of the
nine Fridays is very pleasing to our
Lord He promises such great reward, and all
Catholics should endeavor to make nine
Fridays.
|
How do I start the Five
First Saturdays?
by Fr. Tom
O'Mahony
On July 13,1917, Our Lady appeared
for the third time
to the three children of
Fatima an showed them
the vision of hell and
made the now - famous thirteen prophecies.
In this vision Our
Lady said that 'GOD WISHES TO
ESTABLISH IN THE WORLD DEVOTION
to Her Immaculate Heart and that
She would come TO ASK FOR THE
COMMUNION OF REPARATION ON THE
FIRST SATURDAYS...'
Eight years
later, on December 10, 1925, Our
Lady did indeed come back.
She appeared (with the Child
Jesus) to Lucia in the convent of
the Dorothean Sisters in Pontevedra.
The Child
Jesus spoke first:
'HAVE COMPASSION
ON THE HEART OF YOUR
MOST HOLY MOTHER WHICH
IS COVERED WITH THORNS WITH
WHICH UNGRATEFUL MEN PIERCE
IT AT EVERY MOMENT, WHILE
THERE IS NO ONE TO REMOVE THEM
WITH AN ACT OF REPARATION.'
THE GREAT
PROMISE
Our Lady then
said: 'MY
DAUGHTER
LOOK AT MY HEART SURROUNDED
WITH THORNS WITH WHICH
UNGRATEFUL MEN PIERCE
IT AT EVERY MOMENT BY THEIR BLASPHEMIES
AND INGRATITUDE.
YOU, AT LEAST, TRY TO CONSOLE
ME, AND SAY THAT I PROMISE TO
ASSIST AT THE HOUR OF DEATH WITH
ALL THE GRACES NECESSARY FOR SALVATION,
ALL THOSE WHO, ON THE FIRST
SATURDAY OF FIVE CONSECUTIVE
MONTHS GO TO CONFESSION AND RECEIVE
HOLY COMMUNION, RECITE FIVE
DECADES OF THE ROSARY AND KEEP
ME COMPANY FOR A QUARTER OF AN HOUR WHILE
MEDITATING ON MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY,
WITH THE INTENTION OF MAKING REPARATION
TO ME.'
The
Five Reasons
Lucia once asked this question
of Our Lord and received
as an answer: 'MY DAUGHTER,
THE MOTIVE IS SIMPLE,
THERE ARE FIVE KINDS
OF OFFENCES AND BLASPHEMIES
UTTERED AGAINST THE IMMACULATE
HEART OF MARY: (1) BLASPHEMIES
AGAINST THE IMMACULATE
CONCEPTION: (2) BLASPHEMIES
AGAINST HER VIRGINITY: (3) BLASPHEMIES
AGAINST HER DIVINE MATERNITY:
(4) BLASPHEMIES OF THOSE
WHO OPENLY SEEK TO FOSTER IN THE
HEARTS OF CHILDREN INDIFFERENCE
OR EVEN HATRED FOR THIS IMMACULATE
MOTHER: (5) THE OFFENCES OF THOSE WHO
DIRECTLY OUTRAGE HER IN HOLY IMAGES.'
From the
above, it is easy to see
that each of the Five Saturdays
can correspond to
a specific offence. By offering
the graces received during
each First Saturday as reparation
for the offence being prayed
for, the participant can hope
to help remove the thorns from
Our Lady's Heart.
What Do I
Have To Do?
The devotion
of First Saturdays,
as requested by Our Lady
of Fatima, carries with
it the assurance of salvation.
However, to derive
profit from such a great promise
of Our Lady, the devotion must
be properly understood and duly
performed.
The requirements
as stipulated by
Our Lady are as follows:
(1) CONFESSION,
(2) COMMUNION,
(3) FIVE DECADES OF THE
ROSARY, (4) MEDITATION
ON ONE OR MORE OF THE ROSARY
MYSTERIES FOR FIFTEEN
MINUTES, (5) TO DO ALL THESE
THINGS IN THE SPIRIT OF REPARATION
TO THE IMMACULATE
HEART OF MARY, and (6) TO OBSERVE
ALL THESE PRACTICES ON THE FIRST
SATURDAY OF FIVE CONSECUTIVE MONTHS.
(1) CONFESSION: A reparative confession means
that the confession
should not only be good
(valid and licit), but
also be offered in the spirit
of reparation, in this
case, to Mary's Immaculate
Heart. This confession
may be made on the First Saturday
itself or some days before or
after the First Saturday within
the preceding octave would suffice.
(2) COMMUNION:
The communion of
reparation must be sacramental
duly received
with the intention of
making reparation. This offering,
like the confession,
is an interior act and
so no external action to express
the intention is needed.
(3) THE ROSARY: The Rosary mentioned
here was indicated
by the Portuguese word
'terco' which is commonly
employed to denote a Rosary
of five decades, since it
forms a fourth of the full Rosary
of 20 decades. This too must
recited in a spirit of reparation.
(4) MEDITATION
FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES:
Here the meditation on
one mystery or more is to be
made without simultaneous
recitation of the Rosary
decade. As indicated, the meditation
may be either on one mystery
alone for 15 minutes, or
on all 20 mysteries, spending about
one minute on each mystery, or
again, on two or more mysteries during
the period. This can also be made before
each decade spending three minutes
or more in considering the mystery
of the particular decade. This meditation
has likewise to be made in the
spirit of reparation to the Immaculate
Heart.
(5) THE SPIRIT
OF REPARATION: All
these acts, as said above,
have to be done with the
intention of offering reparation
to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary for the offences
committed against Her. Everyone
who offends Her commits,
so to speak, a two-fold offence,
for these sins also offend
her Divine Son, Christ, and so endanger
our salvation. They give
bad example to others and weaken
the strength of society to
withstand immoral onslaughts. Such
devotions therefore make us consider
not only the enormity of the offence
against God, but also the effect of
sins on human society as well as the need
for undoing these social effects
even when the offender repents and is converted.
Further, this reparation emphasises
our responsibility towards sinners
who, themselves, will not pray
and make reparation for their sins.
(6) FIVE CONSECUTIVE FIRST SATURDAYS: The
idea of the Five First
Saturdays is obviously
to make us persevere
in the devotional acts for these
Saturdays and overcome initial
difficulties. Once this
is done, Our Lady knows that the
person would become devoted
to Her immaculate Heart and persist
in practising such devotion
on all First Saturdays,
working thereby for personal self-reform
and for the salvation of others.
Unless Russia
is converted, the movement
against God and
for sin will continue to spread,
promoting wars and persecutions,
and making the
attainment for peace and justice
impossible for this world.
One means of obtaining Russia's
conversion is to practise the Fatima
Message. The stakes are so
great that to encourage Catholics
to practise the devotion of the First
Saturdays, Our Lady has assured
us that She will obtain salvation for
all those who observe the first Saturdays
for five consecutive months in accordance
with Her conditions.
At the supreme
moment the departing
person will be either
in the state of grace
or not. In either case Our Lady
will be by his side. If
in the state of grace, She
will console and help him to resist whatever
temptations the devil might
put before him in his last attempt
to take the person with him to hell. If
not in the state of grace, Our Lady
will help the person to repent in a manner
agreeable to God and so benefit by the fruits
of redemption and be saved.
|
Miracles
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 Lay Saints |
The POPES HTML
Pius IX
1846--1878
•
Leo XIII 1878-1903 • Pius X 1903-1914• Benedict
XV 1914-1922
• Pius XI 1922-1939 • Pius XII 1939-1958
• John XXIII
1958-1963 • Paul
VI 1963 to 1978 • John Paul • John Paul II 10/16/1975-4/2/2005 Benedict XVI
"The answers
to many of life's questions
can be found by reading
the Lives of the
Saints. They teach us how
to overcome obstacles and difficulties,
how to stand firm in our
faith, and how to struggle against evil
and emerge victorious."
1913
Saint
Barsanuphius
of Optina
The more "extravagant" graces
are bestowed NOT
for the benefit of the recipients
so much as FOR
benefit of others.
Non est inventus
similis
illis
God calls each one of us to be a saint in
order to get into
heaven.
Popes mentioned
in articles of Saints
Quote: Pope
Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction
on the Contemplative
Life includes
this passage:
"To
withdraw into the
desert is for Christians
tantamount to associating
themselves more intimately with
Christ’s passion, and it enables them,
in a very special way, to share in the
paschal mystery and in the passage
of Our Lord from this world to the heavenly
homeland" (#1).
Cross Not
Optional, Says
Benedict XVI
Reflects on
Peter's "Immature" Faith CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 31, 2008 (Zenit.org).-
Taking
up one's cross
isn't an option,
it's a mission all Christians
are called to, says
Benedict XVI.
The
Pope said this today
before reciting
the midday Angelus with
several thousand people
gathered in the courtyard of the papal
summer residence
at Castel Gandolfo,
south of Rome.
Referring to the Gospel reading for today's
Mass, the Holy
Father reflected on the
faith of Peter, which is
shown to be "still immature and
too much influenced by the
'mentality of this world.'”
He
explained that when Christ
spoke openly about
how he was to "suffer much, be
killed and rise again, Peter protests,
saying: 'God forbid, Lord!
No such thing shall ever happen to
you.'"
"It
is evident that the Master
and the disciple follow
two opposed ways of thinking,"
continued the Pontiff.
"Peter, according
to a human logic, is convinced
that God would never allow
his Son to end his mission
dying on the cross.
"Jesus,
on the contrary, knows
that the Father, in his great
love for men, sent him to give
his life for them, and if this
means the passion and the cross,
it is right that such should happen."
Christ also
knew that "the resurrection
would be the
last word," Benedict XVI added.
Serious illness
The
Pope continued, "If
to save us the Son of
God had to suffer and
die crucified, it certainly
was not because of
a cruel design of the heavenly
Father. "The cause
of it is the gravity of the sickness
of which he must cure us:
an evil so serious and deadly
that it will require all of his blood.
"In fact, it is with his death
and resurrection
that Jesus defeated
sin and death, reestablishing
the lordship of
God."
Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction
on the Contemplative Life
includes
this passage:
"To
withdraw into the
desert is for Christians
tantamount to associating
themselves more
intimately with Christ’s
passion, and it enables them, in
a very special way, to share in the
paschal mystery and in the
passage of Our Lord from this world
to the heavenly homeland" (#1).
God calls each one of
us to be a saint in order
to get into heaven.
"The answers
to many of life's questions can be found by
reading the Lives of the Saints.
They teach us how to overcome
obstacles and difficulties,
how to stand firm in our faith, and
how to struggle against evil and emerge
victorious." 1913 Saint
Barsanuphius of Optina
The more "extravagant" graces
are bestowed NOT for the
benefit of the recipients
so much as FOR benefit of
others.
Non est inventus
similis
illis
Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction
on the Contemplative Life
includes
this passage:
"To
withdraw into the
desert is for Christians
tantamount to associating
themselves
more intimately with Christ’s
passion, and it enables them,
in a very special way, to share
in the paschal mystery and
in the passage of Our Lord from this world
to the heavenly homeland" (#1).
"Christianity
is not a moral
code or a philosophy,
but an encounter
with a person" -- Benedict
XVI
"To
withdraw into the desert
is for Christians tantamount
to associating themselves
more intimately with Christ’s
passion, and it enables
them, in a very special way,
to share in the paschal mystery
and in the passage of Our Lord from
this world to the heavenly homeland"
(#1).
Paul VI_Athenagoras_05_01_1964
Quote:
Pope Paul VI’s
1969 Instruction
on the Contemplative
Life includes
this passage:
"To
withdraw into the
desert is for Christians
tantamount to associating
themselves more
intimately with Christ’s
passion, and it enables them, in
a very special way, to share in
the paschal mystery and in the passage
of Our Lord from this world to the
heavenly homeland" (#1).
Christianity is not a moral code or a philosophy,
but
an encounter
with a person”
--
Benedict
XVI
Benedict_XVI_Patriarch_Bartholomew
Benedict
XVI_Archbishop_Hilarion
Benedict
XVI
receives Orthodox
Archbishop
Hilarion n September
18th, Pope Benedict XVI;
Archbishop
Hilarion, president of
the Department for External
Church Affairs of the Patriarchate
of Moscow.
The Orthodox
Archbishop is
currently visiting
the Vatican at
the invitation
of Cardinal Kasper,
president of the Pontifical
Council for Promoting
Christian Unity.
This Pontifical
Council underlined
that the visit
will confirm the
ties of friendship
between the Catholic
Church and the Russian
Orthodox Church,
with a view to closer collaboration
and to favor
the presence of the
Church in the lives of the peoples
of Europe and the world.
In addition,
a further step
in ecumenical relations
is scheduled
for the month of October
in Cyprus: the
meeting of the Joint
International Commission
for the Theological
Dialogue between
the Catholic Church
and the Orthodox Church,
which will address the
theme of Petrine Primacy.
Benedict
XVI met with Aram
I Catholicos
of Cilicia, the highest
authority of
the Orthodox Church.
The Pope
remembered the martyrs
of the Armenian Church
and the Armenian genocide,
without explicitly
mentioning it,
and denounced the persecution
of Christians
in modern times.
Benedict
XVI
That testimony
culminated
in the twentieth
century, which
proved a time of Unspeakable
suffering for
your people.
Most recently
we have all been
saddened by the escalation
of persecution
and violence against
Christians in parts
of the Middle East
and elsewhere.
The Catholicos
is based in
Lebanon. That is why,
the Pope said,
he prays every day
for peace in this country
and throughout the
Middle East. Benedict
XVI said there will only
be peace in the region
when each country is free to
decide its own destiny and
when every ethnic and religious
group accepts and respects
the others. Aram I emphasized
that the churches must
be means for peace and to achieve
that they must recognize
“all” genocides, even the
Armenian.. The Catholicos recalled his meeting with John Paul II, adding
that this visit represents a new step for ecumenical dialogue.
Our meeting
is an opportunity
to pray and reflect
together, and
to renew our commitment
and efforts for
Christian unity.
Armenian church
members from
all over the world
join with Catholicos
in making pilgrimages
to Rome.
|
The
great psalm
of the
Passion, Chapter
22,
whose first verse
“My God, my God, why
hast thou
forsaken me?”
Jesus
pronounced on the
cross, ended with
the vision: “All the ends of
the earth shall
remember and turn
to the Lord;
and all the
families of the nations
shall worship before him”
For kingship
belongs
to the LORD, the ruler
over the nations.
All who sleep in the earth
will bow low before God; All who
have gone down into the dust
will kneel in homage. And I will live for the LORD;
my descendants
will serve you.
The generation to come will
be told of the Lord, that
they may proclaim to a people yet
unborn the deliverance you
have brought.
|
Pope Benedict XVI to The Catholic
Church
In China {whole
article
here} 2000
years of the Catholic Church
in
China
The saints “a cloud of witnesses over our head”, showing us life of Christian perfection is possible.
THE PSALTER OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
MARY
PSALM 101
O Lady, hear my prayer: and let my cry come unto thee.
Turn not thy sacred countenance away from me: nor hate me because of my
uncleanness.
Forsake me not in the thought and counsel of mine enemies: and permit me
not to fall in their wicked attacks.
Those who trust in thee, will not fear the tortuous snake:
and those who exalt thee in praises will escape the hand of Acheron.
By thy virginal conception give me a good confidence in thee: and by thy
admirable delivery rejoice my soul.
Glory
be to the Father who
created Heaven and earth; His only
Son who lived and died for all of us;
and
the Holy Spirit the Lord
giver of life, Who proceeds
from the Father and Son,
with the Father and Son
He is Worshiped and Glorified,
and He has spoken through the prophets:
Amen.
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Saint Frances Xavier Seelos Practical Guide
to
Holiness
1.
Go to Mass
with deepest devotion.
2. Spend a half hour
to reflect upon your
main failing & make
resolutions to avoid
it.
3.
Do daily spiritual
reading for at least
15 minutes, if a
half hour is not possible.
4. Say the
rosary every day.
5.
Also daily, if at all
possible, visit the
Blessed Sacrament;
toward evening, meditate
on the Passion
of Christ for a half hour,
6. Conclude the
day with evening prayer &
an examination of conscience
over all the faults
& sins of the day.
7.
Every month make
a review of the month
in confession.
8.
Choose a special patron
every month &
imitate that patron
in some special virtue.
9.
Precede every great
feast with a novena
that is nine days of
devotion. 10. Try to begin
& end every activity
with a Hail Mary
My God, I believe, I adore, I trust and I love
Thee.
I beg pardon for
those who do not believe,
do not adore, do not
O most Holy trinity, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly.
I offer Thee the most
precious Body,
Blood, Soul and Divinity
of Jesus Christ,
present in all the Tabernacles
of the world, in reparation
for
the outrages, sacrileges and
indifference by which He
is offended, and by the
infite merits
of the Sacred Heart
of Jesus and the Immaculate
Heart of Mary.
I beg the conversion of poor sinners, Fatima Prayer, Angel of Peace
The
voice
of the Father is heard,
the Son enters the water,
and the Holy Spirit
appears in the form of a dove.
THE
spirit
and example of the world
imperceptibly instil
the error into the
minds of many that there
is a kind of middle way of going
to Heaven; and so, because
the world does not live up to the gospel,
they bring the gospel down to
the level of the world. It is not by
this example that we are to measure
the Christian rule, but words
and life of Christ. All His followers
are commanded to labour to
become perfect even as our heavenly
Father is perfect, and to bear His
image in our hearts that we may
be His children. We are obliged by
the gospel to die to ourselves
by fighting self-love in our hearts,
by the mastery of our passions, by taking
on the spirit of our Lord.
These
are the conditions
under which Christ makes
His promises and numbers
us among His children,
as is manifest from His words
which the apostles have left
us in their inspired writings.
Here is no distinction
made or foreseen between
the apostles or clergy or religious
and secular persons. The
former, indeed, take upon themselves
certain stricter obligations,
as a means of accomplishing
these ends more perfectly;
but the law of holiness and of
disengagement of the heart from
the world is general and binds all the
followers of Christ.
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God loves variety.
He
doesn't mass-produce
his saints. Every saint
is unique each the
result of a new idea.
As the liturgy says: Non est inventus
similis illis--there are no two exactly alike.
It
is we with our lack of
imagination, who
paint the same haloes
on all the saints.
Dear Lord, grant us a spirit not
bound by our own ideas and preferences.
Grant
that we may be able to
appreciate in others
what we lack in ourselves.
O Lord,
grant that we may
understand that every
saint must be a unique
praise of Your glory.
Catholic saints are holy people
and
human people who lived
extraordinary lives.
Each saint the Church honors
responded
to God's invitation
to use his or her unique
gifts.
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The 15 Promises of the Virgin Mary to those who recite
the
Rosary )
Revealed to St. Dominic
and Blessed Alan)
1. Whoever shall faithfully
serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive
signal graces. 2. I promise my special protection and
the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it
will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. 4. It
will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for
souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people
from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to
the desire of eternal things. Oh, that soul would sanctify them
by this means. 5. The soul that recommends itself to me
by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish. 6. Whoever
shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying themselves to the consideration
of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune.
God will not chastise them in His justice, they shall not perish by
an unprovided death; if they be just, they shall remain in the grace
of God, and become worthy of eternal life. 7. Whoever shall
have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments
of the Church. 8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall
have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude
of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the
merits of the Saints in Paradise. 9. I shall deliver from purgatory
those who have been devoted to the Rosary. 10.
The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory
in Heaven. 11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the
recitation of the Rosary. 12. I shall aid all those who
propagate the Holy Rosary in their necessities. 13.
I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary
shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their
life and at the hour of death. 14. All who recite the Rosary are
my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ.
15.
Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
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His Holiness Aram I, current (2008) Catholicos of Cilicia of Armenians, whose
See is located in Lebanese
town of Antelias. The
Catholicosate was founded
in Sis, capital of Cilicia,
in the year 1441 following
the move of the Catholicosate
of All Armenians back to its original
See of Etchmiadzin in Armenia.
The Catholicosate of Cilicia enjoyed
local jurisdiction, though
spiritually subject to the authority
of Etchmiadzin. In 1921 the See
was transferred to Aleppo in Syria,
and in 1930 to Antelias.
Its
jurisdiction currently
extends to Syria,
Cyprus, Iran and Greece.
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Aramaic dialect of Edessa, now known as Syriac
The exact date of the introduction
of Christianity
into Edessa {Armenian
Ourhaï
in Arabic Er Roha, commonly
Orfa or Urfa, its present
name} is not known.
It is certain, however,
that the Christian
community
was at first made up from
the Jewish population
of the city. According to an
ancient legend, King Abgar
V, Ushana, was converted
by Addai,
who was one of the
seventy-two disciples.
In fact,
however, the first King of
Edessa to embrace
the Christian Faith was Abgar
IX (c. 206) becoming official
kingdom religion.
Christian
council
held at Edessa
early
as 197 (Eusebius,
Hist. Eccl.,
V,xxiii).
In 201 the city was devastated
by a great
flood, and the Christian
church was
destroyed (“Chronicon
Edessenum”,
ad. an. 201).
In 232 the relics of the Apostle St. Thomas were brought from India,
on which
occasion his Syriac
Acts were written.
Under Roman domination martyrs
suffered
at Edessa:
Sts. Scharbîl
and Barsamya,
under Decius;
Sts.
Gûrja,
Schâmôna, Habib,
and others
under Diocletian.
In the meanwhile Christian
priests from Edessa evangelized Eastern Mesopotamia and Persia, established
the first Churches in the kingdom of the Sassanides. Atillâtiâ, Bishop of Edessa,
assisted
at the Council of Nicæa
(325).
The
“Peregrinatio
Silviæ”
(or Etheriæ) (ed.
Gamurrini, Rome,
1887, 62 sqq.) gives
an account of the many
sanctuaries at
Edessa
about
388.
Although Hebrew had been the
language
of the ancient Israelite
kingdom, after
their return from
Exile the Jews turned
more and more to Aramaic,
using it for
parts of the books
of Ezra and Daniel in the Bible.
By the time of
Jesus,
Aramaic
was the main language
of Palestine,
and quite a number of
texts from the Dead Sea
Scrolls are also written in
Aramaic.
Aramaic continued
to be an
important language
for Jews, alongside
Hebrew, and parts
of the Talmud are
written in it.
After Arab conquests of the
seventh century, Arabic quickly replaced Aramaic as the main language of
those who converted to Islam, although in out of the way places, Aramaic
continued as a vernacular language of Muslims.
Aramaic, however, enjoyed its
greatest success
in Christianity.
Although
the
New Testament
wins written in Greek,
Christianity had come
into existence in an
Aramaic-speaking
milieu, and it was the Aramaic
dialect of Edessa,
now known as Syriac,
that became the literary
language of a large number
of Christians living in
the eastern provinces of the Roman
Empire and in the Persian
Empire, further east.
Over the course of the centuries
the influence of
the Syriac Churches spread
eastwards to China (in
Xian, in western China,
a Chinese-Syriac
inscription dated
781
is still to be
seen); to southern India
where the state of Kerala
can boast more Christians
of Syriac liturgical tradition
than anywhere else in the
world.
680 Shiite saint Imam Hussein, grandson of Islam's Prophet Muhammad Known as Ashoura and observed
by Shiites across the world,
the 10th day of the lunar
Muslim month of Muharram:
the anniversary
of the 7th century death
in battle of one of Shiite Islam's
most beloved saints.
Imam Hussein died in the 680 A.D.
battle fought on the plains outside
Karbala, a city in modern Iraq
that's home to the saint's shrine.
The battle over a dispute about
the leadership of the Muslim faith
following Muhammad's death in 632 A.D.
It is the defining event in Islam's
split into Sunni and Shiite branches.
The occasion is the source
of an enduring moral lesson. "He sacrificed
his blood to teach us not to give in to
corruption, coercion, or use of force
and to seek honor and justice." According
to Shiite beliefs, Hussein and companions
were denied water by enemies
who controlled the nearby Euphrates.
Streets get partially covered
with blood from slaughter of hundreds
of cows and sheep. Volunteers cook the
meat and feed it to the poor. Hussein's
martyrdom recounted through
a rich body of prose, poetry and song remains
an inspirational example of sacrifice
to many Shiites, 10 percent of the world's
estimated 1.3 billion Muslims.
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Meeting
of the Saints
walis
(saints
of Allah)
Great men covet to embrace martyrdom
for a cause
and principle.
So was the
case with
Hazrat
Ali.
He could have made a compromise
with the evil
forces of his
time and, as a result,
could
have led a very comfortable,
easy and
luxurious life.
But he was not
a person who would
succumb to such temptations.
His upbringing,
his education and his
training in the lap of the
holy Prophet made him refuse
such an offer.
Rabia Al-Basri (717–801
C.E.) She
was first to set forth
the doctrine
of mystical
love
and who is widely
considered to be the
most important
of the early Sufi
poets. An elderly
Shia pointed out
that during his pre-Partition
childhood it was
quite common to find
pictures and portraits
of Shia icons in Imambaras
across the country.
Shah
Abdul Latif:
The Exalted Sufi
Master born
1690 in a Syed family;
died 1754. In ancient
times, Sindh
housed the exemplary
Indus Valley Civilisation
with Moenjo Daro
as its capital,
and now, it is the land of
a culture which evolved
from the teachings of eminent
Sufi saints. Pakistan
is home to the mortal remains
of many Sufi saints,
the exalted among them
being Shah Abdul Latif
Bhittai,
a practitioner of the real Islam,
philosopher, poet, musicologist
and preacher. He presented
his teaching through
poetry and music - both instruments
sublime - and
commands a very large
following, not only among Muslims
but also among Hindus
and Christians. Sindh
culture: The Shah is synonymous
with Sindh. He is the very
fountainhead of Sindh's
culture. His message remains
as fresh as that of any present
day poet, and the people of Sindh
find solace from his writings.
He did indeed think for Sindh.
One of his prayers, in exquisite
Sindhi, translates thus: “Oh
God, may ever You on Sindh bestow abundance
rare! Beloved! All the world
let share Thy grace, and fruitful
be.”
Shia
Ali al-Hadi,
died 868
and son Hassan al-Askari
874.
These saints are the 10th
and 11th of Shia's 12 most
revered Imams.
Baba Farid Sufi
1398 miracle,
Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki renowned Muslim
Sufi saint
scholar miracles
569 A.H. [1173
C.E.] hermit gave to
poor, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti greatest
mystic of his time born 533 Hijri (1138-39 A.D.), Hazrat Ghuas-e Azam, Hazrat Bu Ali Sharif, and Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia
Sufi Saint Hazrath Khwaja Syed Mohammed Badshah
Quadri
Chisty Yamani Quadeer
(RA)
1236-1325
welcomed people of all
faiths & all walks
of life |
801 Rabi'a
al-'Adawiyya Sufi One of the most famous Islamic mystics
(b. 717). This
8th century saint was an early
Sufi who had a profound influence
on later Sufis, who in turn deeply
influenced the European mystical
love and troubadour traditions.
Rabi'a was a woman of Basra, a seaport
in southern Iraq. She was born
around 717 and died in 801 (185-186).
Her biographer, the great medieval poet
Attar, tells us that she was "on fire with
love and longing" and that men accepted her "as
a second spotless Mary" (186). She was,
he continues, “an unquestioned authority
to her contemporaries" (218).
Rabi'a began her ascetic life
in a small desert cell near
Basra, where she lost herself
in prayer and went straight to God
for teaching. As far as
is known, she never studied under
any master or spiritual director.
She was one of the first of the Sufis to
teach that Love alone was the guide on the
mystic path (222). A later Sufi taught
that there were two classes of "true
believers": one class sought a master
as an intermediary between them and
God -- unless they could see the footsteps
of the Prophet on the path before them,
they would not accept the path as valid.
The second class “...did not look before
them for the footprint of any of God's creatures,
for they had removed all thought of what
He had created from their hearts, and concerned
themselves solely with God. (218)
Rabi'a was of this second kind.
She felt no reverence even
for the House of God in Mecca:
"It is the Lord of the house
Whom I need; what have I to do with the house?"
(219) One lovely spring morning a friend
asked her to come outside to see the works
of God. She replied, "Come you
inside that you may behold their Maker.
Contemplation of the Maker has turned
me aside from what He has made" (219).
During an illness, a friend asked this woman
if she desired anything.
"...[H]ow can you ask me such
a question as 'What do I desire?'
I swear by the glory of God
that for twelve years I have desired
fresh dates, and you know that in Basra
dates are plentiful, and I have
not yet tasted them. I am a servant
(of God), and what has a servant to do with desire?"
(162)
When a male friend once suggested
she should pray for relief
from a debilitating illness,
she said,
"O Sufyan, do you not know Who
it is that wills this suffering
for me? Is it not God Who
wills it? When you know this,
why do you bid me ask for what is contrary
to His will? It is not
well to oppose one's Beloved." (221)
She was an ascetic. It was
her custom to pray all night,
sleep briefly just before dawn,
and then rise again just as dawn "tinged
the sky with gold" (187).
She lived in celibacy and poverty, having
renounced the world. A friend
visited her in old age and found that
all she owned were a reed mat, screen, a
pottery jug, and a bed of felt which doubled
as her prayer-rug (186), for where she
prayed all night, she also slept briefly
in the pre-dawn chill. Once her friends
offered to get her a servant; she replied,
"I should be ashamed to ask for
the things of this world from
Him to Whom the world belongs,
and how should I ask for them from
those to whom it does not belong?"
(186-7)
A wealthy merchant once wanted
to give her a purse of gold.
She refused it, saying
that God, who sustains even those who dishonor
Him, would surely sustain her,
"whose soul is overflowing with love"
for Him. And she added an
ethical concern as well:
"...How should I take the wealth
of someone of whom I do not
know whether he acquired it lawfully
or not?" (187)
She taught that repentance was
a gift from God because no one
could repent unless God had already
accepted him and given him this
gift of repentance. She
taught that sinners must fear the punishment
they deserved for their sins,
but she also offered such sinners far more
hope of Paradise than most other ascetics
did. For herself, she held
to a higher ideal, worshipping God neither from
fear of Hell nor from hope of Paradise, for she
saw such self-interest as unworthy of God's
servants; emotions like fear and hope
were like veils -- i.e., hindrances to the vision
of God Himself. The story is told that
once a number of Sufis saw her hurrying on her
way with water in one hand and a burning torch
in the other. When they asked her to explain,
she said:
"I am going to light a fire in
Paradise and to pour water on
to Hell, so that both veils may
vanish altogether from before the
pilgrims and their purpose may
be sure..." (187-188)
She was once asked where she
came from. "From that other
world," she said. "And
where are you going?" she was asked.
"To that other world," she replied
(219). She taught that the
spirit originated with God in "that other
world" and had to return to Him in the
end. Yet if the soul were sufficiently
purified, even on earth, it could look upon
God unveiled in all His glory and unite with him
in love. In this quest, logic and reason
were powerless. Instead, she speaks
of the "eye" of her heart which alone could
apprehend Him and His mysteries (220).
Above all, she was a lover, a
bhakti, like one of Krishna’s
Goptis in the Hindu tradition.
Her hours of prayer were not so
much devoted to intercession as to
communion with her Beloved. Through
this communion, she could discover
His will for her. Many of her
prayers have come down to us:
"I have made Thee the Companion
of my heart,
But my body is available
for those who seek its company,
And my body is friendly
towards its guests,
But the Beloved of
my heart is the Guest of my soul."
[224]
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Eternal Word Television
Network 5817 Old
Leeds
Rd. Irondale,
AL 35210 USA
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Supported
entirely by donations from viewers help spread the Eternal Word,
online Here
Colombia
was
among the countries
Mother
Angelica
visited.
In
Bogotá, a Salesian
priest - Father
Juan Pablo Rodriguez
- brought Mother and
the nuns to the Sanctuary
of the Divine Infant Jesus
to attend
Mass. After Mass,
Father Juan Pablo took them
into a small Shrine which housed
the miraculous statue
of the Child Jesus. Mother Angelica
stood praying at the
side of the statue when
suddenly the miraculous image came
alive and turned towards
her. Then the Child Jesus
spoke with the voice of a young
boy: “Build Me a Temple
and I will help those who
help you.”
Thus
began a great adventure
that would eventually
result in the
Shrine of the Most Blessed
Sacrament, a Temple
dedicated to the Divine
Child Jesus, a place of refuge
for all. Use this
link to read
a remarkable story
about The Shrine
of the Most Blessed
Sacrament
Father Reardon, Editor of The Catholic
Bulletin
for 14 years Lover of the poor;
“A very Holy Man of God.”
Monsignor
Reardon
Protonotarius
Apostolicus
Pastor 42 years
BASILICA OF SAINT MARY Minneapolis
MN
America's First Basilica Largest Nave in the World
August 7, 1907-ground broke for the foundation
by
Archbishop Ireland-laying cornerstone May
31, 1908
James
M. Reardon
Publication History of
the
Basilica
of Saint Mary 1955 {update}
Brief
History of our
Beloved
Holy
Priest Here and his
published books of Catholic
History in
North America
Reardon,
J.M. Archbishop
Ireland; Prelate, Patriot,
Publicist,
1838-1918.
A Memoir
(St. Paul; 1919);
George Anthony
Belcourt Pioneer
Catholic Missionary
of the Northwest
1803-1874
(1955);
The
Catholic Church IN
THE DIOCESE OF ST. PAUL
from earliest origin
to centennial achievement
1362-1950
(1952);
The
Church of Saint Mary
of Saint Paul 1875-1922;
(1932)
The Vikings in the American
Heartland;
The Catholic Total Abstinence Society in Minnesota;
James Michael Reardon
Born
in Nova Scotia, 1872;
Priest, ordained by Bishop
Ireland;
Member -- St. Paul Seminary
faculty.
Affiliations
and
Indulgences
Litany of Loretto in Stained glass
windows
here. Nave
Sacristy
and Residence Here
Sanctuary
spaces between
them filled with
grilles of hand-forged
wrought iron the life of our Blessed
Lady
After
the
crucifixon
Apostle statues Replicas of those in St John Lateran--Christendom's
earliest
Basilica.
Ordered
by Rome's first
Christian Emperor,
Constantine the
Great, Popes' cathedral
and official residence
first millennium
of Christian history.
The only replicas ever made: in order from
west
to east {1932}.
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Mary Mother of GOD 15 Promises
of the Virgin Mary to those who recite the Rosary 
Saints of this Day December
01 Kaléndis Decémbris
7th v bc The Holy Prophet
Nahum,
whose name means "God consoles," was from the village of Elkosh (Galilee)
