Friday, October 28, 2022

THE VIRGIN AT NOON


By Paul Claudel


It is noon. I see the church is open. I must go in.

Mother of our Lord, I have not come to pray.

I have nothing to offer and nothing to ask.

I am here only, my Lady, to look at you.


To say nothing, to look at your face.

To let my heart sing in its own language.

Because you are beautiful, because you are immaculate,

The woman of Grace finally restored.


The creature in its first honor and in its final blossoming,

As it came out of God in the morning of its original splendor.

Ineffably intact because you are the Mother of Jesus Christ,

Who is the truth in your arms, and the only hope and the only fruit.


Because you are the woman, the Eden of the old forgotten tenderness.

May all creation sing to you in gratitude, Mother of Jesus Christ, simply because you exist!


Tuesday, October 25, 2022

MARY’S POWER


“Mary’s power over all demons will shine in a particular way in the end times, when Satan will undermine her heel, that is, her poor slaves and humble children whom she will raise up to wage war against him. These will be small and poor according to the world, as low to all as the heel, trampled and abused as the heel is in comparison to the other limbs of the body. In exchange they will be rich in divine grace, which Mary will communicate to them in abundance; great and elevated in holiness before God; superior to any other creature because of their ardent zeal; and so strongly supported by divine help, that with the humility of their heel, united with Mary, they will crush the head of the devil and make Jesus Christ triumph”.

Saint Louis Marie de Montfort


Saturday, October 22, 2022

IMMODESTY AND PORNOGRAPHY WITHIN THE REACH OF CHILDREN AND ADULTS


After a century of struggle, modesty has now disappeared in millions of women, who do not hesitate to exhibit themselves semi-naked every summer, to which must be added others -men and women- who undress for money on television sets and in pornographers' studios. The result is a meat market turned into a lucrative business —cinema, television and the Internet through— within the reach of all budgets and of all ages. 

Those responsible for the corruption of children should be reminded Christ’s words:

"And whosoever shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me: it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the sea." Mark 9: 42.


Thursday, October 20, 2022

DO NOT ERR


“Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers. Nor the effeminate nor liers with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor railers nor extortioners shall possess the kingdom of God. The body is not for fornication, but for the Lord: and the Lord for the body. Fly fornication. Every sin that a man doth is without the body: but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. Or know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God: and you are not your own?

For you are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body.” (1 Cor. 6, 9-20).


Friday, October 14, 2022

TRUE HONOR


"You fear dishonor, slander, humiliation, and very often, in order to preserve an imaginary honor before men, you offend God! Wretched, don't you know that true honor is based on virtue? What does it matter to you what men think of you, as long as God esteems you and rewards you? Strange blindness! Human laws are feared and the Gospel is despised as if the orders of Jesus Christ were not worth what the decrees of princes are worth."

Saint Jerome


Saturday, October 8, 2022

DON'T FORGET THE HOLY SOULS IN PURGATORY

 


Those who die in the grace and friendship of God, but not completely clean, although sure of their eternal salvation, undergo a purification after death, in order to obtain the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

This doctrine is also based on the practice of praying for the dead, of which the Holy Scripture speaks. That is why Judas Maccabaeus made a sacrifice of atonement for the dead, so that they might be delivered from their sins (2 Mac 12, 46). From the earliest times, the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered suffrages in their favor, especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, so that they might be purified and reach the beatific vision of God. The Church also recommends alms, indulgences and works of penance in favor of the deceased.

Prayer of Saint Gertrude

Eternal Father, I offer You the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.

Let us pray for the souls in purgatory!


Thursday, October 6, 2022

"MY VOCATION IS LOVE!": SAINT THERESE OF LISIEUX


"I thought of the Mystical Body of the Church, but I could not recognise myself in any of its members listed by St Paul - or rather I wanted to recognise myself in all of them. Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I realised that if the Church was a body made up of different members, she would not be without the greatest and most essential of them all. I realised that love includes all vocations, that love is all things, and that, because it is eternal, it embraces every time and place. I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood that only love is what drives the members of the Church to act and that, if this love were lacking, neither would the apostles announce the Gospel, nor would the martyrs shed their blood. I clearly recognized and convinced myself that love encompasses all vocations, that love is everything, that it encompasses all times and places, in a word, that love is eternal. 

 Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: 

 O Jesus, my Love...my vocation, at last I have found it...My vocation is Love! Yes, I have found my own place in the Church, and this place is the one you have pointed out to me, my God. In the heart of my Mother, the Church, I will be love; then I will be everything and my desire will be fulfilled.” 


Sunday, October 2, 2022

THE WORST DANGER


"The worst danger for a wounded foot is that it no longer hurts, because it means that blood is not circulating anymore and gangrene will set in. The most terrible and dreadful evil for a sinful soul is that she no longer feels remorse for having sinned. If she doesn’t feel it, she will be hopelessly lost. But if her conscience pricks her and she listens to her conscience, she still has hope of amendment and salvation."

Saint Augustine quoted in the book "The Spiritual Combat" by Father Lorenzo Scupoli.