Mercy; Reading 1, Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46; Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 32:1-2, 5, 11; Reading 2, First Corinthians 10:31--11:1; Gospel, Mark 1:40-45; Pope Francis Angelus; Inspirational Hymns - Gregorian Chants; Our Lady of Medjugorje Message; Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes ; The History of the Sanctuary of Lourdes; Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary; Acts of Reparation (Morning Offering, First Friday and First Saturday Devotions); Mystical City of God - Book 4 Chapter 8 the Flight to Egypt; Catholic Catechism - Part Four - The Christian Prayer - Section One - Prayer in the Christian Life - Chapter 4 The Lords of Prayer - Article 2 Our Father Who art In Heaven; RECHARGE: Heaven Speaks to Young Adults
Consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ Zarya Parx 2017
JESUS I TRUST IN YOU (Year of Mercy). "Always Trust in Jesus, He the beacon of light amongst the darkest clouds" ~ Zarya Parx 2016
"Where There is a Will, With God, There is a Way", "There is always a ray of sunshine amongst the darkest Clouds, the name of that ray is Jesus" ~ Zarya Parx 2014
The world begins and ends everyday for someone. We are all human. We all experience birth, life and death. We all have flaws but we also all have the gift of knowledge, reason and free will, make the most of these gifts. Life on earth is a stepping stone to our eternal home in Heaven. The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, wonder and awe (fear of the Lord) , counsel, knowledge, fortitude, and piety (reverence) and shun the seven Deadly sins: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony...Its your choice whether to embrace the Gifts of the Holy Spirit rising towards eternal light or succumb to the Seven deadly sins and lost to eternal darkness. Material items, though needed for sustenance and survival on earth are of earthly value only. The only thing that passes from this earth to the Darkness, Purgatory or Heaven is our Soul...it's God's perpetual gift to us...Embrace it, treasure it, nurture it, protect it...~ Zarya Parx 2013
"Raise not a hand to another unless it is to offer in peace and goodwill." ~ Zarya Parx 2012
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Liturgical Cycle: B - Gospel of Mark - 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Morning Offering
O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I
offer You the prayers, works, joys and sufferings of
this day, for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart,
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, and
for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen.
Morning Offering
O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I
offer You the prayers, works, joys and sufferings of
this day, for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart,
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, and
for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen.
Daily Rosary
(MON, SAT) - Joyful Mysteries
(TUES, FRI) - Sorrowful Mysteries
(WED,SUN) - Glorious Mysteries
(THURS) - Luminous Mysteries
(MON, SAT) - Joyful Mysteries
(TUES, FRI) - Sorrowful Mysteries
(WED,SUN) - Glorious Mysteries
(THURS) - Luminous Mysteries
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Inspirational Hymns
Illumination: Peaceful Gregorian Chants
**Copyright Disclaimer - Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research under the term "fair use", which is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, and personal use also tips the balance in favor of fair use.
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Our Lady of Medjugorje Monthly Messages
February 2, 2018 message from Our Lady of Medjugorje:
Dear children, you whom my Son loves, you whom I love with an immeasurable motherly love, do not permit for selfishness, for self love, to rule the world. Do not permit for love and goodness to be hidden. You who are loved, who have come to know the love of my Son, remember that to be loved means to love.
My children, have faith. When you have faith you are happy and are spreading peace; your soul trembles with joy. My Son is in such a soul. When you are giving yourself for the faith, when you are giving yourself for love, when you are doing good to your neighbor, my Son smiles in your soul.
Apostles of my love, I am turning to you as a mother. I am gathering you around myself and I desire to lead you on the way of love and faith, on the way which leads to the light of the world.
I am here for the sake of love, for the sake of faith, because with my motherly blessing I desire to give you hope and strength on your way – because the way which leads to my Son is not easy. It is full of renunciation, giving, sacrifice, forgiveness and much, much love. But this way leads to peace and happiness.
My children, do not believe lying voices which speak to you about false things, false glitter. You, my children, return to the Scripture. I am looking at you with immeasurable love, and through God’s grace am making myself evident to you. My children, set out with me. May your soul tremble with joy. Thank you. ~Blessed Mother Mary
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Papam Franciscus
(Pope Francis)
Pope Francis's Angelus
(Vatican Radio)
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
The Sunday Gospel, according to Mark, present us with Jesus healing the sick of all kinds. The World Day of the Sick is well placed in this context, which is why we celebrate it today, February 11th, the feast-day of Our Lady of Lourdes.
With our hearts turned toward the cave of Massabielle, therefore, we contemplate Jesus as the true physician of our bodies and souls – Jesus, whom God the Father sent into the world to heal humanity, marked by sin and its consequences.
Today's Gospel presents us with the healing of a man suffering from leprosy, a disease which in the Old Testament was considered a serious impurity and involved the separation of the leper from the community. His condition was particularly painful, because the mentality of the time made him feel impure before God and other people. That is why the leper in the Gospel begs Jesus with these words: "If you want to, you can purify me!".
When He hears this, Jesus feels compassion. It is very important to focus our attention on this interior resonance of Jesus, as we did for a long time during the Jubilee Year of Mercy. We can never understand the work of Christ, we can never understand Christ Himself, if we do not enter His heart full of compassion. This is what drives Him to reach out to the man suffering from leprosy, to touch him and to say to him: "I want to: be cleansed!".
The most disturbing fact is that Jesus touches the leper, because this was absolutely forbidden by the Law of Moses. Touching a leper meant you were infected, interiorly as well, spiritually: in other words, you become impure. But in this case the impurity does not flow from the leper to Jesus to transmit the disease, but from Jesus to the leper to purify him. In this act of healing we admire both Jesus’ compassion, and His audacity: He is not worried about the disease or the law. He is moved only by the desire to free that man from the curse that oppresses him.
No illness causes impurity. Disease certainly involves the whole person, but in no way does it affect or impede that person’s relationship with God. On the contrary, a sick person can be even more united to God. Instead, it is sin that makes us unclean! Selfishness, pride, entering the world of corruption, these are diseases of the heart from which we need to be cleansed, turning to Jesus like the leper did: "If you want to, you can cleanse me!".
Every time we approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation with a repentant heart, the Lord repeats to us too: "I want to: be cleansed!" Thus the leprosy of sin disappears, we return to live with joy our filial relationship with God and we are readmitted fully into the community.
Through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, our Immaculate Mother, we ask the Lord, who brought healing to the sick, to heal our inner wounds with His infinite mercy, to give us back hope and peace in our hearts.
Pope Francis' Remarks after the Angelus
Following the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis opened registration for World Youth Day and greeted pilgrims and visitors present in St Peter's Square
Dear brothers and sisters,
Registration opens today for World Youth Day, which will take place in Panama in January 2019. Right now, along with two young people, I too will register on the internet...
There. I am now enrolled as a pilgrim to World Youth Day. I invite all young people around the world to live this event of grace and fraternity with faith and enthusiasm, either by going to Panama or by participating in their communities.
On February 15th, in the Far East and in various parts of the world, millions of men and women will celebrate the Lunar New Year. I send my cordial greetings to all their families, with the hope that they will live ever more in solidarity, fraternity, desiring to do good, to help create a society in which every person is welcomed, protected, promoted and integrated. I invite you to pray for the gift of peace, a precious treasure to be pursued with compassion, foresight and courage.
I greet families, parishes, associations and all those who come from around Italy and from many parts of the world: in particular, pilgrims from Murcia (Spain) and the children of Guimarães (Portugal). I greet the Congolese Community in Rome and I join in its prayer for peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I remind you that this intention will be particularly present on the Day of Prayer and Fasting that I have called for February 23rd.
Today there are many Italian parishes present and many young people who have received the Sacrament of Confirmation, your profession of faith and the catechism. I cannot name each group, but I thank you all for your presence and I encourage you to continue to journey with joy and generosity, witnessing to the goodness and mercy of the Lord everywhere.
I wish everyone a pleasant Sunday. Please do not forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch!
Reference:
- Vatican News. From the Pope. © Copyright 2018 Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Accessed - 02/211/2017
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Today's Word - mercy [merh-cee]
Origin: 1125-75; Middle English merci < Old French, earlier mercit < Latin mercēd- (stem of mercēs) wages ( Late Latin, Medieval Latin: heavenly reward), derivative of merx goods
1. compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an
enemy, or other person in one's power; compassion, pity, or
benevolence: Have mercy on the poor sinner.
2. the disposition to be compassionate or forbearing: an adversary wholly without mercy.
3. the discretionary power of a judge to pardon someone or to
mitigate punishment, especially to send to prison rather than invoke the
death penalty.
4. an act of kindness, compassion, or favor: She has performed countless small mercies for her friends and neighbors.
5. something that gives evidence of divine favor; blessing: It was just a mercy we had our seat belts on when it happened.
6. at the mercy of, entirely in the power of; subject to: They were at the mercy of their captors.
Also, at one's mercy.
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Today's Reading 1 - Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46
1 Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron,2 'If a swelling or scab or spot appears on someone's skin, which could develop into a contagious skin-disease, that person must then be taken to the priest, either Aaron or one of his sons.
44 the person has such a disease: he is unclean. The priest will declare him unclean; he has a contagious skin-disease of the head.
45 'Anyone with a contagious skin-disease will wear torn clothing and disordered hair; and will cover the upper lip and shout, "Unclean, unclean."
46 As long as the disease lasts, such a person will be unclean and, being unclean, will live alone and live outside the camp.
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Today's Psalms - Psalms 32:1-2, 5, 11
1 [Of David Poem] How blessed are those whose offence is forgiven, whose sin blotted out.2 How blessed are those to whom Yahweh imputes no guilt, whose spirit harbours no deceit.
5 I made my sin known to you, did not conceal my guilt. I said, 'I shall confess my offence to Yahweh.' And you, for your part, took away my guilt, forgave my sin.
11 Rejoice in Yahweh, exult all you upright, shout for joy, you honest of heart.
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Today's Reading 2 - First Corinthians 10:31--11:1
31 Whatever you eat, then, or drink, and whatever else you do, do it all for the glory of God.32 Never be a cause of offence, either to Jews or to Greeks or to the Church of God,
33 just as I try to accommodate everybody in everything, not looking for my own advantage, but for the advantage of everybody else, so that they may be saved.
1 Take me as your pattern, just as I take Christ for mine.
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Today's Gospel Reading - Mark 1: 40-45
Jesus heals a leper. Reintroducing the marginalized into human society.
Mark 1:40-45
1. Opening prayer
Lord Jesus, send Your Spirit to help us
to read the Scriptures with the same mind that You read them to the
disciples on the way to Emmaus. In the light of the Word, written in the
Bible, You helped them to discover the presence of God in the
disturbing events of Your sentence and death. Thus, the cross that
seemed to be the end of all hope became for them the source of life and
of resurrection.
Create in us silence so that we may
listen to Your voice in creation and in the scriptures, in events and in
people, above all in the poor and suffering. May Your word guide us so
that we, too, like the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, may
experience the force of Your resurrection and witness to others that You
are alive in our midst as source of fraternity, justice and peace. We
ask this of You, Jesus, Son of Mary, who revealed the Father to us and
sent us Your Spirit. Amen.
2. Reading
a) A key to the reading:
The Gospel of this sixth Sunday of
Ordinary Time tells us how Jesus receives a leper. In those days, lepers
were the most excluded people of society, avoided by all. Lepers could
not take part in anything. In olden days, the lack of effective
medicines, the fear of contagion and the necessity of defending the life
of society led people to isolate and exclude lepers. Besides, among the
people of God whose defense of the gift of life was one of the most
sacred duties, they thought that the exclusion of lepers was a divine
duty because it was the only way to defend the community from deadly
contagion. Thus, in Israel, the leper felt impure and excluded not only
by society, but even by God (cf. Lev 14:1-32). Gradually, however, as
better remedies came to light and, above all, thanks to the deep
experience communicated to us by Jesus concerning God our Father, lepers
began to be accepted and reintegrated as brothers and sisters in human
society.
In spite of two thousand years of
Christianity, the exclusion and marginalization of some categories of
people goes on even today, whether in society or in the Church. For
instance, those suffering from AIDS, migrants, homosexuals, divorced
persons, etc. Today, in your society and in the Church, what are the
categories of excluded and avoided people? With these questions in mind,
let us read and meditate on the Gospel for this Sunday.
b) A division of the text as a help to our reading:
Mark 1:40: The state of abandonment and exclusion of a leper
Mark 1:41-42: Jesus welcomes and heals the leper
Mark 1:43-44: Reintroducing those excluded into fraternal society
Mark 1:45: The leper proclaims the good Jesus did to him, and Jesus becomes an excluded person
c) Text:
A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged Him and
said, "If you wish, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, he
stretched out His hand, touched him, and said to him, "I do will it. Be
made clean." The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning the him sternly, He dismissed him at once. He said to him,
"See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof
for them." The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He
spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a
town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept
coming to Him from everywhere.
3. A moment of prayerful silence
so that the Word of God may penetrate and enlighten our life.
4. Some questions
to help us in our personal reflection.
a) What did you like best and what touched you most in this text? Why?
b) How does this text express the exclusion of lepers?
c) How does Jesus welcome, heal and reinstate the leper? Try to observe each detail carefully.
d) How can we, today, imitate Jesus’ attitude towards those excluded?
5. For those who wish to go deeper into the theme
A) The context of then and of today:
Whether in the 70’s, when Mark was
writing, or today in our times, it was and still is very important to
hold to some criteria or models to know how to live and proclaim the
Good News of God and how to carry out our mission as Christians. In
verses 16 to 45 of the first chapter of Mark, in gathering together
eight episodes, describes how Jesus proclaimed the Good News. Each
episode contains the criterion for the community of His time, so that
people then could examine their own mission. This Sunday’s text makes
concrete the eighth criterion: reinstating those excluded. Here is the
overall scheme to clarify what follows:
TEXT ACTIVITIES OF JESUS AIM OF THE GOOD NEWS
Mark 1:16-20
Jesus calls His first disciples
forming community
Mark 1:21-22
The people are amazed at His teaching
creating a critical conscience
Mark 1:23-28
Jesus drives out an evil spirit
fighting against the power of evil
Mark 1:29-31
The healing of Peter’s mother-in-law
restoring life through service
Mark 1:32-34
The healing of the sick and those possessed by devils
welcoming the marginalized
Mark 1:35
Jesus gets up to pray while it is still dark
staying united with the Father
Mark 1:36-39
Jesus goes on proclaiming the Good News
not allowing results to stop us
Mark 1:40-45
Jesus heals a leper
reinstating those excluded
b) A commentary on the text:
Mark 1:40: The state of abandonment and exclusion of a leper
A leper approaches Jesus. He was an
excluded man, impure! He was to be sent away from human society. Anyone
who came close to him would also be impure. But the leper had much
courage. He broke the rules of religion so as to approach Jesus. He
says, “If You are willing, You can cleanse me!” In other words,
“There is no need for You to touch me! If You are just willing that is
enough to heal me!” This sentence reveals two evils: 1) the evil of the disease called leprosy that made him impure; 2) the evil of solitude to which he was condemned by society and religion. It also reveals the great faith people had in the power of Jesus.
Mark 1:41-42: By receiving and healing the leper, Jesus reveals a new face of God
Deeply compassionate, Jesus heals both
evils. Firstly, to heal the evil of solitude, He touches the leper. It
is as though He says to him, "For Me you are not an outcast. I welcome
you as a brother!" Secondly, He heals the disease called leprosy,
saying, “I am willing. Be cleansed!” In order to come into
contact with Jesus, the leper had broken the rules of the law. For Jesus
to be able to help this excluded one and thus reveal a new face of God,
He breaks the laws of His religion and touches the leper. In those
days, anyone who touched a leper became impure in the sight of the
religious authorities and before the law of that time.
Mark 1:43-44: Reinstating those excluded into fraternal life
Not only does Jesus heal, but He wills
that the healed person be able to live with others. Reinstating a person
to society. In those days, for a leper to be received within the
community, he or she had to have a declaration of healing from a priest.
Thus it was written in the law concerning the purification of a leper
(Lev 14:1-32). This still happens today. The sick person leaves the
hospital with a letter signed by the doctor of a particular section.
Jesus obliges the leper to get the document from the competent authority
so that he may be reinstated into normal society. He is thus obliging
the authorities to confirm that the man has been healed.
Mark 1:45: The leper proclaims the good that Jesus worked for him and Jesus becomes excluded.
Jesus had forbidden the leper from speaking of his healing. But the leper did speak. The leper started
freely proclaiming the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer
go openly into any town, but stayed away in desert places. Why did
Jesus stay away in desert places? Jesus had touched the leper. Thus,
according to opinion in those days, now He was impure and had to live
away from all. He could not enter any city. But Mark implies that people
did not much care about official rules, because people from all around kept coming to Him! A complete turn around!
The double news that Mark conveys to the
communities of his time and to all of us is this: 1) that proclaiming
the Good News means witnessing to the concrete experience that one has
of Jesus. What does the leper proclaim? He proclaims to others the good
that Jesus did to him. That’s all! And it is precisely this witness that
drives others to accept the Good News that Jesus proclaims. Anyone who
has no experience of Jesus will have little to proclaim to others. 2) To
take the Good News to others one need not fear breaking religious rules
that are contrary to God’s plan and that render communication, dialogue
and a life of love difficult, even if such an attitude may create
difficulties for people as it did for Jesus!
c) Further information:
The eight criteria for evaluating the mission of the Community
A double slavery marked the situation of
people at the time of Jesus: the slavery of the official religion,
upheld by the religious authorities of the time, and the slavery of
Herod’s politics, upheld by the Roman Empire and supported by the whole
organized system of exploitation and repression. Because of all this,
many of the people were excluded by religion and by society: the very
contrary of the fraternity that God dreamt of for all! And it is
precisely in this context that Jesus begins to carry out His mission of
proclaiming the Good News of God.
This Sunday’s Gospel is part of a
broader literary unit (Mk 1:16-45). Apart from the description of the
preparation of the Good News (Mk 1:1-13) and of the proclamation (Mk
1:14-15), Mark brings together eight activities of Jesus to describe His
mission of proclamation of the Good News and to describe how the
mission of the community should be (Mk 1:16-45). This is the same
mission that Jesus received from the Father (Jn 20:21). Mark puts
together these episodes, which were passed on orally in the communities,
and links them together like old bricks in a new wall. These eight
episodes are eight criteria that serve the community to revise and check
whether they are carrying out their mission well. Let us see:
i) Mk 1:16-20: Creating community.
The first thing that Jesus does is to call people to follow Him. A fundamental task of mission is to gather people around Jesus in order to create community.
ii) Mk 1:21-22: Creating a critical conscience.
The first thing that people see is the difference between the teaching of Jesus and that of the . Part of mission is to create a critical conscience in people, even in the face of the official religion.
iii) Mk 1:23-28: Fighting the power of evil.
Jesus’ first miracle is the driving out of an impure spirit. Part of mission is fighting the power of evil that destroys life and alienates people from themselves.
iv) Mk 1:29-31: Restoring life through service.
Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law, and she gets up and begins to serve. Part of mission is the care of the sick, so that they may be able to get up and once more serve others.
v) Mk 1:32-34: Welcoming the marginalized
After the Sabbath, people bring to Jesus
the sick and the possessed that He may heal them, and, by laying His
hands, He heals them all. Part of mission is to welcome the marginalized.
vi) Mk 1:35: Staying united with the Father through prayer.
After a day of labor that extends far into the night, Jesus gets up quickly so that He may pray in a desert place. Part of mission is staying united with the source of the Good News, that is, the Father, through prayer.
vii) Mk 1:36-39: Keeping up an awareness of mission.
The disciples were happy with the results and wanted Jesus to return. But He carried on with His journey. Part of mission is not to be content with results, but to keep alive an awareness of mission.
viii) Mk 1:40-45: Reinstating the marginalized into human society.
Jesus heals a leper and asks him to
present himself to a priest so that he may be declared healed and may be
able to live among people. Part of mission is reinstating the excluded to human society.
These eight points, so well chosen by
Mark, indicate the purpose of Jesus’ mission: “I came that all may have
life, and may have it abundantly!” (Jn 10:10). These same eight points
may serve to evaluate our own community. Thus we can see how Mark built
up his Gospel - a beautiful structure that keeps in mind two things at
once: (1) it informs people of what Jesus did and taught; (2) and it
forms the community and people in the mission of proclaimers of the Good
News of God.
6. Praying a psalm: Psalm 125 (124)
Anyone who trusts in the Lord will not waver!
Whoever trusts in Yahweh is like Mount Zion:
unshakable, it stands for ever.
Jerusalem! The mountains encircle her:
so Yahweh encircles His people,
henceforth and forever.
The scepter of the wicked will not come to rest
over the heritage of the upright;
or the upright might set their own hands to evil.
Do good, Yahweh,
to those who are good,
to the sincere at heart.
But the crooked, the twisted, turn them away,
Yahweh, with evil-doers. Peace to Israel!
7. Final Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank You for the word
that has enabled us to understand better the will of the Father. May
Your Spirit enlighten our actions and grant us the strength to practice
what Your Word has revealed to us. May we, like Mary, Your mother, not
only listen to but also practice the Word. You who live and reign with
the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever and ev
Reference: Courtesy of Order of Carmelites, www.ocarm.org.
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Featured Item from Litany Lane
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Feast Day: Our Lady Of Lourdes
Feast Day: February 11
Patron Saint: Heavenly Mother, Patroness of the World
Attributes:
She was dressed all in white, apart from the blue belt fastened around
her waist and the golden yellow roses, one on each foot, the colour of
her rosary
Most prominently among these is the apparition of 11 February 1858, when Saint Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old peasant girl admitted to her mother that a "lady" spoke to her in the cave of Massabielle, (a mile from the town) while gathering firewood with her sister and a friend.[1] Similar appearances of the "lady" were reported on seventeen further occasions that year. Bernadette Soubirous was later canonized as a Saint, and Roman Catholics and some Protestants believe her apparitions have been validated by the overwhelming popularity and testament of healings claimed to have taken place at the Lourdes water spring. In 1862, Pope Pius IX authorized the Bishop Bertrand-Sévère Laurence to permit the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes. This Marian title, Our Lady of Lourdes has been widely copied and reproduced, often displayed in shrines or homes, most notably in garden landscape. History Three days later, Bernadette returned to the Grotto. She had brought holy water as a test that the apparition was not of evil provenance, and demanded that if she were from God, she must stay, but if she were evil, she must go away; however, she said the vision only inclined her head gratefully when the water was cast and she made her demands.[4] Bernadette's companions are said to have become afraid when they saw her in ecstasy. She remained ecstatic even as they returned to the village. On 18 February, she spoke of being told by the Lady to return to the Grotto over a period of two weeks. She quoted the apparition: I promise to make you happy, not in this world, but in the next.[3] After that the news spread and her parents took interest. Bernadette was ordered by her parents to never go there again. It was a shock when people heard her story as it was so unlikely. She went anyway, and on 24 February, Bernadette related that the apparition asked for prayer and penitence for the conversion of sinners. The next day, she said the apparition asked her to dig in the ground and drink from the spring she found there. This made her disheveled and some of her supporters were dismayed, but this act revealed the stream that soon became a focal point for pilgrimages.[5] Although it was muddy at first, the stream became increasingly clean. As word spread, this water was given to medical patients of all kinds, and many reports of miraculous cures followed. Seven of these cures were confirmed as lacking any medical explanations by Professor Verges in 1860. The first person with a “certified miracle” was a woman whose right hand had been deformed as a consequence of an accident. Several miracles turned out to be short-term improvement or even hoaxes, and Church and government officials became increasingly concerned.[6] The government fenced off the Grotto and issued stiff penalties for anybody trying to get near the off-limits area. In the process, Lourdes became a national issue in France, resulting in the intervention of emperor Napoleon III with an order to reopen the grotto on 4 October 1858. The Church had decided to stay away from the controversy altogether. Bernadette, knowing the local area well, managed to visit the barricaded grotto under cover of darkness. There, on 25 March, she said she was told: "I am the Immaculate Conception" ("que soy era immaculada concepciou"). On Easter Sunday, 7 April, her examining doctor stated that Bernadette, in ecstasy, was observed to have held her hands over a lit candle without sustaining harm.[6] On 16 July, Bernadette went for the last time to the Grotto. I have never seen her so beautiful before, she reported.[6] The Church, faced with nationwide questions, decided to institute an investigative commission on 17 November 1858. On 18 January 1860, the local bishop finally declared that: The Virgin Mary did appear indeed to Bernadette Soubirous.[6] These events established the Marian veneration in Lourdes, which together with Fátima, is one of the most frequented Marian shrines in the world, and to which between 4 and 6 million pilgrims travel annually. In 1863, Joseph-Hugues Fabisch was charged to create a statue of the Virgin according to Bernadette's description. The work was placed in the grotto and solemnly dedicated on 4 April 1864 in presence of 20,000 pilgrims. The veracity of the apparitions of Lourdes is not an article of faith for Catholics. Nevertheless, all recent Popes visited the Marian shine. Benedict XV, Pius XI, and John XXIII went there as bishops, Pius XII as papal delegate. Working with Le Pelerinage de Lourdes he also issued, an encyclical on the hundredth anniversary of the apparitions in 1958. John Paul II visited Lourdes three times. Position of the Catholic Church
Holy Mary, Mother of God, Virgin Immaculate, you appeared 18 times to Bernadette at the grotto in Lourdes to remind Christians of what the truths in the Gospel require of them. You call them to prayer, penance, the Eucharist and the life of the church. To answer your call more fully, I dedicate myself, through you, to your Son Jesus. Make me willing to accept what he said. By the fervour of my faith, by the conduct of my life in all its aspects, by my devotion to the sick, let me work with you in the comforting of those who suffer and in the reconciliation of people that the church may be one and there be peace in the world. All this I ask, confident that you, Our Lady, will fully answer my prayer. Blessed be the Holy and Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us. St. Bernadette, pray for us. [10] Popes and LourdesIn the past 150 years, popes have taken great interest in Marian apparitions such as Fatima and Lourdes. Pope Pius IX approved the veneration in Lourdes and welcomed and supported the building of the Cathedral in 1870 to which he donated several gifts. He approved the veneration and promoted Marian piety in Lourdes with the granting of special indulgences and the formation of local Lourdes associations.[11] Pope Leo XIII crowned Our Lady of La Salette and issued an apostolic letter Parte Humanae Generi in commemoration of the consecration of the new Cathedral in Lourdes in 1879.[12]Pope Benedict XV, when archbishop of Bologna, organized a diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes, asking for the veneration of the Immaculate Virgin there. In 1907, Pope Pius X introduced the feast of the apparition of the Immaculate Virgin of Lourdes. In the same year he issued his encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis, in which he specifically repeated the permission to venerate the virgin in Lourdes.[13] During the pontificate of Pope Pius XI reported apparitions occurred in Our Lady of Beauraing and Our Lady of Banneux. In 1937, Pius XI nominated Eugenio Pacelli as his Papal Delegate to personally visit and venerate in Lourdes. Pius XI actively furthered the venerations in Lourdes by beatifying Bernadette Soubirous on 6 June 1925. He canonized her on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December 1933 and determined her Feast Day to be 18 February.[14] Bernadette, who suffered from asthma and bone cancer, had lived on the borderline of social acceptance within the Church during her lifetime.[15] 18 February is the day the Virgin Mary reportedly told Bernadette that she did not promise to make me happy in this world, but in the next.[16] Pope Pius XII, commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the Immaculate conception dogma, announced a Marian year, the first one on Church history. In his encyclical Fulgens Corona, he described the events in Lourdes as follows:
Le Pelerinage de Lourdes,
the only encyclical written on Lourdes, was issued on the centenary of
the apparitions at Lourdes. The encyclical represents one of the
strongest pronouncements of the papal magisterium on Marian apparitions
in the history of the Catholic Church. The Pope presents Mary as the
model of alternative life-style. The school of Mary teaches everybody
selflessness and charity.
One of the churches built at the site, the Basilica of St. Pius X can accommodate 25,000 people. At the request of Pius XII, it was consecrated on 25 March 1958, by the Patriarch of Venice, cardinal Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII. Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI, had visited Lourdes as archbishop of Milan. He became the first pope to visit a 19th century Marian apparition site, when he went to Fatima at the fiftieth anniversary of the first apparition on 17 May 1967.[20] Pope John Paul II undertook three pilgrimages to Lourdes, the last one shortly before his death. Pope Benedict XVI visited Lourdes commemorating the 150th anniversary of the apparitions in September 2008. Lourdes water"anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never thirst again: the water that I shall give will turn into a spring within them, welling up to eternal life." (John 4:14) The location of the spring was described to Bernadette Soubirous by an apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes on 25 February 1858. Since that time many thousands of pilgrims to Lourdes have followed the instruction of Our Lady of Lourdes to "drink at the spring and wash in it". Although never formally encouraged by the Church, Lourdes water has become a focus of devotion to the Virgin Mary at Lourdes. Since the apparitions, many people have claimed to have been cured by drinking or bathing in it,[21] and the Lourdes authorities provide it free of charge to any who ask for it.[22] An analysis of the water was commissioned by Mayor Anselme Lacadé of Lourdes in 1858. It was conducted by a professor in Toulouse, who determined that the water was potable and that it contained the following: oxygen, nitrogen, carbonic acid, carbonates of lime and magnesia, a trace of carbonate of iron, an alkaline carbonate or silicate, chlorides of potassium and sodium, traces of sulphates of potassium and soda, traces of ammonia, and traces of iodine.[23] Essentially, the water is quite pure and inert. Lacadé had hoped that Lourdes water might have special mineral properties which would allow him to develop Lourdes into a spa town, to compete with neighbouring Cauterets and Bagnères-de-Bigorre.[21] Secular viewsMiracles are important events in the Christian Bible and are thus part of divine revelation for the faithful Christians. Yet the advent of rationalism and the social sciences renewed the search for natural explanations of miracles in general and the events in Lourdes in particular. Historical, psychological, natural analogies and other empirical explanations have been forwarded, all of which are welcomed by the Catholic Church, provided they are generally open-ended and unbiased.[24] Analogies are most common in Marian apparitions, they indicate that the person involved used popular images and common language. They do not by themselves support arguments for or against the apparition itself. Thus, Bernadette described the apparition as uo petito damizelo ("a tiny maiden") of about twelve years old. Bernadette insisted that the apparition was no taller than herself. At 1.40 m tall, Bernadette was diminutive even by the standards of other poorly nourished children.[25] Bernadette described that the apparition was dressed in a flowing white robe, with a blue sash around her waist. This was the uniform of a religious group called the Children of Mary, which, on account of her poverty, Bernadette was not permitted to join (although she was admitted after the apparitions).[26] Her Aunt Bernarde was a long-time member. The statue that currently stands in the niche within the grotto of Massabielle (illustrated above) was created by the Lyonnais sculptor Joseph-Hugues Fabisch in 1864. Although it has become an iconographic symbol of Our Lady of Lourdes, it depicts a figure which is not only older and taller than Bernadette's description, but also more in keeping with orthodox and traditional representations of the Virgin Mary. On seeing the statue, Bernadette was profoundly disappointed with this representation of her vision.[27] Historical contextMany Marian apparitions, although they may occur in different ages and cultures, share similarities. Bernadette's visions took place against a cultural backdrop of apparitions and other supernatural events that bear some resemblance to Bernadette's experiences. It is likely that Bernadette would have known of, and may even have been influenced by, such events, which were woven into the fabric of her society.For example, in nearby Lestelle-Bétharram, only a few kilometres from Lourdes, some shepherds guarding their flocks in the mountains observed a vision of a ray of light which guided them to the discovery of a statue of the Virgin Mary. Two attempts were made to remove the statue to a more prominent position; each time it disappeared and returned to its original location, at which a small chapel was built for it.[29] More importantly, in the early sixteenth century, a twelve-year-old shepherdess called Anglèze de Sagazan received a vision of the Virgin Mary near the spring at Garaison (part of the commune of Monléon-Magnoac), somewhat further away. Anglèze's story is strikingly similar to that of Bernadette: she was a pious but illiterate and poorly educated girl, extremely impoverished, who spoke only in the local language, Gascon Occitan, but successfully convinced authorities that her vision was genuine and persuaded them to obey the instructions of her apparitions. Like Bernadette, she was the only one who could see the apparition (others could apparently hear it); however, the apparition at Garaison's supernatural powers tended toward the miraculous provision of food, rather than healing the sick. Mid-nineteenth century commentators noted the parallels between the events at Massabielle and Garaison, and interestingly, interpreted the similarities as proof of the divine nature of Bernadette's claims.[30] At the time of Bernadette, Garaison was a noted center of pilgrimage and Marian devotion. There are also several similarities between the apparition at La Salette, near Grenoble, and Lourdes. La Salette is many hundreds of kilometres from Lourdes, and the events at La Salette predate those in Lourdes by 11 years. However, the lady of La Salette was large and maternal, not petite and girlish, and had a darker, more threatening series of messages. It is not certain if Bernadette was aware of the events at La Salette.[31] Contemporary Catholic interpreters had great difficulties explaining Bernadette's claim on the Immaculate Conception, of which she knew nothing. Ecclesiastical authorities tried unsuccessfully to ridicule her statement to that effect as not credible. Similarity to other visionsWhen comparing the various visions of Jesus and Mary, Saint Bernadette's vision in Lourdes is somewhat similar to the case of Saint Juan Diego's vision in 1531 in Mexico. Both saints reported visions in which a miraculous lady on a hill asked them to request that the local priests build a chapel at that site of the vision. Both visions had a reference to roses and led to very large churches being built at the sites. Like Our Lady of Lourdes in France, Our Lady of Guadalupe is a major Catholic symbol in Mexico. And like the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the largest and most visited Catholic churches in the Americas.The Sanctuary
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes or the Domain (as it is most commonly known) is an area of ground surrounding the shrine (Grotto)
to Our Lady of Lourdes in the town of Lourdes, France. This ground is
owned and administrated by the Church, and has several functions,
including devotional activities, offices, and accommodation for sick
pilgrims and their helpers.
The Domain includes the Grotto itself, the nearby taps which dispense the Lourdes water, and the offices of the Lourdes Medical Bureau, as well as several churches and basilicas. It comprises an area of 51 hectares, and includes 22 separate places of worship [1]. There are six official languages of the Sanctuary: French, English, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and German. The Lourdes Medical BureauTo ensure claims of cures were examined properly and to protect the town from fraudulent claims of miracles, the Lourdes Medical Bureau (Bureau Medical) was established at the request of Pope Pius X. It is completely under medical and not ecclesiastical supervision. Approximately 7000 people have sought to have their case confirmed as a miracle, of which 68 have been declared a scientifically inexplicable miracle by both the Bureau and the Catholic Church.[32]The officially recognized miracle cures in Lourdes are among the least controversial in the Catholic world, because Lourdes from the very beginning was subject to intense medical investigation from skeptical doctors around the world. All medical doctors with the appropriate specialization in the area of the cure have unlimited access to the files and documents of the Lourdes Medical Bureau (Bureau Medical),[33] which also contains all approved and disapproved miracles. Most officially recognized cures in Lourdes were openly discussed and reported on in the media at the time. Nevertheless, there were a few instances where medically ascertained incomprehension turned out not to be miracles, because the illness reappeared in later years. In the vast number of cases however, the judgement of the medical and ecclesiastical authorities was upheld as beyond medical explanation in later on critical investigations.[34] PilgrimagesThe pilgrimage site is visited by millions of Catholics each year, and Lourdes has become one of the greatest pilgrimage sites of the world. Various unusual occurrences are reported to take place, not onlysubsequent to bathing in or drinking the water of the Lourdes Spring, but also during the dailyEucharistic procession. Miraculous healings have been claimed, and a number of these have been documented by the Lourdes Medical Commission. Large numbers of sick pilgrims travel to Lourdes each year in the hope of physical healing or spiritual renewal.In popular culture
Contents
The Song of Bernadette
is a 1943 drama film which tells the story of Saint Bernadette
Soubirous, who from February to July 1858 in Lourdes, France, reported
eighteen visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was directed by Henry
King. The film was adapted by George Seaton from a novelization of
Bernadette's story, written by Franz Werfel. The plot follows the novel
by Franz Werfel, which is not a documentary but a historical novel
blending fact and fiction. Posted as Fair Use for educational viewing.
**Copyright Disclaimer - Under
Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for
purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching,
scholarship, and research under the term "fair use", which is a use
permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
Non-profit, educational, and personal use also tips the balance in
favor of fair use.
References
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Today's Snippet I:
Sanctuary of our Lady of Lourdes
Grottos intended as replicas of the one at Our Lady of Lourdes, and other grottos in honour of Our Lady of Lourdes, are often described as "Lourdes grottos".
Administration
The Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes is responsible for the spiritual governance of the Domain. He appoints a local representative, who is called the Rector. The Domain is run independently of the parish of Lourdes, which is responsible for the spiritual needs of the Lourdais themselves.Thirty full-time chaplains work in the Domain, from dioceses and religious communities worldwide. As of 2010 there were 292 full-time lay employees and a further 120 seasonal employees working in 63 different divisions, with an annual running budget of €18 million, 90% from donations.[7]
The Domain is open all year round. In winter there are many fewer visitors, a reduced timetable of services and devotional activity, and no processions. The winter season runs from 1 November (the feast of All Saints) until Easter.[8] On 11 February, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, a full programme of activities usually takes place.
The Domain is fully active between Easter and All Saints each year, and has a programme of devotional activities including Mass, processions (see below), Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Many activities are carried out in several languages; in some services the liturgy is repeated in different languages.
The grounds are open daily from 5am until midnight;[9] outside these times the Grotto is accessible via the Lacets Gate behind the Upper Basilica.
An estimated 200 million people have visited the shrine since 1860 [3]. The Roman Catholic Church has officially recognized 67 miracle healings, the 67th of which was the cure of Anna Santaniello in 1952, recognised on 9 November 2005. [4]
About 800 tonnes of wax is burnt annually in devotional candles.[10] The Domain publishes the monthly Lourdes Magazine, with news and featured articles about the Domain and Lourdes generally
Lourdes water
Lourdes water flows from a spring at the same spot where it was discovered by Bernadette. The original spring can be seen within the Grotto, lit from below and protected by a glass screen.
Pilgrims drink Lourdes water due to its reputed healing power. The water from Lourdes was thoroughly analysed by independent chemists in 1858 and 1859, and does not appear to have a latent power to cure and has no special scientific or medicinal properties.
Despite this, the water is itself a strong symbol of devotion for Lourdes pilgrims, and many buy statues and rosary beads containing small vials of it, and take home large plastic containers of it.
Baths
Each year about 350,000 pilgrims bathe in the water at the baths (Piscines).[11]Processions
Who comes to Lourdes?
Pilgrimss, Tourists, children, teenagers, parents, grand-parents,
healthy people, sick or disabled people, God seekers or believers from
different religions...
For over 150 years, the crowd is always there, coming from all the continents . The world success of Lourdes, however,was not written in advance. In the Pyrenees, a young poor and ignorant visionnary girl transmits penance messages that she doesn't always understand. She says a "beautiful lady" gives her these messages. During the first apparition, on 11th February 1858, Bernadette is only accompanied by her sister: Toinette and her friend: Jeanne Abadie. In a few weeks, Lourdes becomes the “city of miracles”. Hundreds, then thousands of curious people come from the surroundings.
At the period of the apparitions, many people laugh at the sick and healthy believers coming to pray in this dirty place- the Grotto is out of the town - and rather inaccessible. After the official recognition of the Apparitions in 1862, the first local pilgrimages get organized. "The fact of Lourdes" becomes very controversial. Medias come to Lourdes. So do the crowd.
The celebrity of Lourdes becomes international in the early years of the twentieth century. After World War 2, the world needs reconciliation. And in Lourdes, all differences are overcome: those that are linked with the color of the skin, language, culture, age, wealth, poverty, handicap, and disease.
For over 150 years, the crowd is always there, coming from all the continents . The world success of Lourdes, however,was not written in advance. In the Pyrenees, a young poor and ignorant visionnary girl transmits penance messages that she doesn't always understand. She says a "beautiful lady" gives her these messages. During the first apparition, on 11th February 1858, Bernadette is only accompanied by her sister: Toinette and her friend: Jeanne Abadie. In a few weeks, Lourdes becomes the “city of miracles”. Hundreds, then thousands of curious people come from the surroundings.
At the period of the apparitions, many people laugh at the sick and healthy believers coming to pray in this dirty place- the Grotto is out of the town - and rather inaccessible. After the official recognition of the Apparitions in 1862, the first local pilgrimages get organized. "The fact of Lourdes" becomes very controversial. Medias come to Lourdes. So do the crowd.
The celebrity of Lourdes becomes international in the early years of the twentieth century. After World War 2, the world needs reconciliation. And in Lourdes, all differences are overcome: those that are linked with the color of the skin, language, culture, age, wealth, poverty, handicap, and disease.
Processions are held in the Domain, with the Torchlight Procession being perhaps the best-known and most visually impressive.
The Blessed Sacrament procession
is held daily at 4.30pm. The procession begins at the open-air altar
in the Prairie, and is usually led by a priest or bishop carrying a
monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament. Typically the bearer of the
Blessed Sacrament is sheltered from the elements by a mobile awning
carried by four assistants.
The exact order of the procession varies from time to time. The Blessed Sacrament may be preceded by bearers carrying leafy branches, incense burners or other devotional items. These bearers are usually lay people who may be invited specially. The Blessed Sacrament is usually followed by a group of priests who concelebrate the rite. Following these are groups of pilgrims, usually under a group banner, and in no particular order, although larger groups tend to dominate the procession near the front.
The procession makes its way across the Gave, alongside the ramps, and past the Crowned Statue, along the Esplanade to the Cross at the far end, and then around it, and down into the Underground Basilica (where participants may be seated). Pilgrims in wheelchairs are brought to the front in each case.
During the procession there are meditations, prayers, hymns and chants, in several languages. When all the participants have assembled, there follows a period of Eucharistic Adoration, and the Blessing of the Sick.[12]
The Torchlight Marian Procession
takes place daily at 8.45pm. It begins outside the Grotto and follows
the same route as the Blessed Sacrament Procession. In extreme weather
an indoor ceremony may be held in the Underground Basilica instead.
The procession is led by pilgrims bearing a replica of the Cabuchet Statue of the Virgin Mary. As before, groups usually proceed together under their group banner. Most participants carry a candle with a paper shade which diffuses the light and makes the candle less likely to blow out.
The focus of this procession is the rosary. All five decades are recited, usually in a variety of languages. The Lourdes Hymn is also sung, with verses in different languages. Intercessions may be invoked followed by the Laudate Mariam. There is a final blessing in Latin, and then an invitation to exchange the Sign of peace with fellow pilgrims.[13]
The nave is small and a notable feature are the enormous pillars which support the weight of the Upper Basilica, which was constructed on top of it. The Crypt is entered along a corridor, whose entrance is dominated by a large bronze statue of St. Peter, holding the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Opposite stands a statue of Pius X. The walls of the corridor and nave are lined with small marble plaques, known as ex voto plaques, donated in thanks of spiritual favours received.[14]
The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, known widely as the Upper Basilica,
was the second of the churches to be completed, consecrated in 1876.
It is an impressive, elaborate building in Gothic style, designed by
architect Hyppolyte Durand, and on one side seems to emerge directly
from the rock of Massabielle (the sanctuary is directly above the
Grotto). The walls are lined with ex voto plaques, and banners
from official National Pilgrimages of the past. It has a series of
stained-glass windows depicting various events in the story of Lourdes;
the clerestory windows depict Mary as the Second Eve.
The exterior is dominated by a 70m spire, and two lesser spires (not completed until 1908). Above the entrance is a mosaic depicting Pope Pius IX, who defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854.[15]
The Rosary Basilica
is the third of the churches to be completed, in 1899 and designed by
architect Leopold Hardy. It was consecrated in 1901 and has a capacity
of 1,500 worshippers. Its style is influenced by Byzantine
architecture. The nave is open and circular, surmounted by a dome. The
exterior of the dome is surmounted by a dramatic gilded crown and
cross, which were a gift from the people of Ireland in 1924. The
exterior facade of the basilica was modified in 2007 to include a
depiction of the Luminous Mysteries, which were added to the traditional fifteen by Pope John Paul II in 2002.
Blessed Sacrament Procession
The exact order of the procession varies from time to time. The Blessed Sacrament may be preceded by bearers carrying leafy branches, incense burners or other devotional items. These bearers are usually lay people who may be invited specially. The Blessed Sacrament is usually followed by a group of priests who concelebrate the rite. Following these are groups of pilgrims, usually under a group banner, and in no particular order, although larger groups tend to dominate the procession near the front.
The procession makes its way across the Gave, alongside the ramps, and past the Crowned Statue, along the Esplanade to the Cross at the far end, and then around it, and down into the Underground Basilica (where participants may be seated). Pilgrims in wheelchairs are brought to the front in each case.
During the procession there are meditations, prayers, hymns and chants, in several languages. When all the participants have assembled, there follows a period of Eucharistic Adoration, and the Blessing of the Sick.[12]
Torchlight Procession
 |
| Rosary Basilica at night, looking across Rosary Square during the Torchlight Procession |
The procession is led by pilgrims bearing a replica of the Cabuchet Statue of the Virgin Mary. As before, groups usually proceed together under their group banner. Most participants carry a candle with a paper shade which diffuses the light and makes the candle less likely to blow out.
The focus of this procession is the rosary. All five decades are recited, usually in a variety of languages. The Lourdes Hymn is also sung, with verses in different languages. Intercessions may be invoked followed by the Laudate Mariam. There is a final blessing in Latin, and then an invitation to exchange the Sign of peace with fellow pilgrims.[13]
Main churches of the Domain
Crypt
The Crypt was the first of the churches to be completed in the Domain, and is today among the smallest. Construction was started by Abbé Peyramale and Mgr. Laurence. Bernadette's father worked on its construction and was present at its official opening, on Pentecost Sunday, 1866.The nave is small and a notable feature are the enormous pillars which support the weight of the Upper Basilica, which was constructed on top of it. The Crypt is entered along a corridor, whose entrance is dominated by a large bronze statue of St. Peter, holding the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Opposite stands a statue of Pius X. The walls of the corridor and nave are lined with small marble plaques, known as ex voto plaques, donated in thanks of spiritual favours received.[14]
Upper Basilica
The exterior is dominated by a 70m spire, and two lesser spires (not completed until 1908). Above the entrance is a mosaic depicting Pope Pius IX, who defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854.[15]
Rosary Basilica
Crowned Statue and Rosary Square
 |
| Looking out onto Rosary Square from the roof of the Basilica |
The open space in front of the Rosary Basilica is known as Rosary Square.
The entrances to the Crypt and the Upper Basilica, both of which are
built on top of Massabielle, are far above ground level. To facilitate
access, two enormous ramps were constructed, which curve down either
side of Rosary Square. The image of the entrance of the Rosary Basilica,
flanked by the two ramps and surmounted by the spires of the Upper
Basilica, has become one of the iconic symbols of Lourdes, and a
stylised form of this image has been adopted by the Domain itself as its
logo.
The Statue of the Crowned Virgin, often known as the "Crowned Statue" (French: La Vierge Couronnée), stands across Rosary Square from the Rosary Basilica and faces the entrance. This prominent statue is a familiar landmark and a traditional meeting point. The statue is 2.5m high and cast in bronze, painted white and blue in the traditional colours. Her rosary is of the Birgittine style and incorporates six decades.[16] Behind the Crowned Statue is the Esplanade, a large open walkway which is used in the processions.
The Basilica of St. Pius X, known as the Underground Basilica,
is the largest and most controversial of the Domain's churches. It was
designed by the architect Pierre Vago and completed in 1958 in
anticipation of the enormous crowds expected in Lourdes for the
centenary of the Apparitions. A modern, concrete building, it is almost
entirely underground (part of the building lies beneath the Boulevard
Père Rémi Sempé above). When full it can accommodate 25,000
worshippers.
The Underground Basilica is stylistically very different from the previous two basilicas. The concrete of its construction has been left bare throughout, making it gloomy and uninviting inside, and it draws comparisons with an underground carpark. Therefore, although it provided a practical solution to the problem of accommodating very large numbers, it remains unpopular with many visitors to Lourdes.
The Church of St. Bernadette is a modern building with comparatively little adornment. It was designed to allow as much natural light as possible into the nave, and light-coloured materials have been used, making it noticeably brighter than the Underground Basilica. It was designed by the architect Jean-Paul Felix.
It is also a more versatile building. The nave has provision for 5,000 seated worshippers and 350 wheelchairs, but partitions can be drawn which divide the nave into smaller sections. In addition, it includes the Hemicycle, a large lecture room which may be used for worship, and an assortment of conference rooms and smaller rooms which may be used for devotional or non-devotional activity.[17]
The Chapel of Reconciliation is somewhat unusual in that no masses or other services take place there; instead it is given over entirely to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Priests from different countries observe a duty roster, which means that, at almost any time of day, pilgrims from Europe (and occasionally further away) can find a priest who will hear their confession in their own language.
The Bible tells us that God is our rock. He is the rock on whom we can rely.
"My God is the rock where I take refuge. Long life to the Lord, my rock"
In contrast to the grandness of Rosary Square and the various basilicas, the grotto at Massabielle where St Bernadette's visions took place is very simple and stark. The recess of the grotto itself is undecorated, although a plain stone altar and lectern have been placed there so that Mass can be said. Above the main recess is the niche where the apparitions took place and Fabisch's statue now stands. A large stand of candles next to the altar is kept burning during the season.
The spring Bernadette is said to have dug can be seen at the rear of the grotto, shielded by a glass cover. Pilgrims can process through the grotto and it is traditional to touch the rocks directly under the statue; indeed so many people have done this that the stones have become polished. Also at the rear of the grotto is a metal box into which written prayers or petitions may be deposited; they are collected daily and burnt.
Rows of benches allow visitors to sit and pray or contemplate. Pilgrims are asked to remain silent while in the vicinity to create an atmosphere of devotion. One of the spots where Bernadette prayed to the Virgin is marked by a special paving slab.
Some of the rock walls around the grotto bear clear signs of deliberate alteration, presumably to improve access for pilgrims. It is no longer clear what the original configuration of the grotto was.
At least one contemporary account describes a series of chambers behind the statue's niche, which can only be reached by climbing "like a lizard" through clefts in the rocks.[19]
The actions that Bernadette carried out were the actions of freeing something. The Grotto was choked with grass and mud. But why does she free this Grotto? Because it hides an immense treasure, which must be brought out into the open. Thus, at the ninth Apparition, "the Lady" asked Bernadette to scrape the ground, at the back of this "pigs’ shelter", saying to her: "Go to the spring, drink of it and wash yourself there". There is only a little muddy water to begin with, enough for Bernadette to drink. At first this water is muddy and dirty then, little by little, it becomes clear.
By these actions, the mystery of the heart of Jesus is revealed for us: "A soldier pierced his heart with his lance and there immediately flowed out blood and water." It is, as well, the depths of the mystery of the heart of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God: "The water that I shall give you will become, in you, a spring welling up to eternal life". The grass and the mud signify the human heart, wounded by sin. But in the bottom of this heart, there is the life of God, as signified by the spring
Bernadette was asked: 'Did the Lady say something to you?' She replied: 'Yes, now and again she would say: "Penance, penance, penance, pray for sinners". By penance we understand conversion. Conversion in the Church, as we learn from Christ, involves turning our heart towards God and towards others. "Pray for sinners". Praying brings us to the Spirit of God. Thus we understand that sin does not make us happy. We must understand that sin is something that is contrary to the love of God that is revealed to us through the Gospel.
Across the river from the grotto and the churches is the Accueil Notre Dame, a modern facility built in 1996 to house sick pilgrims during their time in Lourdes.
The Accueil Notre Dame was built to replace the two older Accueils that were present within the Domain. The old Accueil Notre Dame stood opposite the Underground Basilica, and has been extensively remodelled, being divided into two buildings by removing a section. One building now contains the Chapel of Reconciliation, which used to be the refectory, and also houses the convent of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers. The other section is now known as the Accueil John Paul II, and contains several chapels (e.g. St Cosmos & St Damien), the First Aid post and Dispensary, and the offices of the Hospitalité. The other was the Accueil St. Bernadette, which stood across the river from the old Accueil Notre Dame, and was demolished to make way for the new one.
Since Easter 1997 sick pilgrims from all over the world have been housed in the Accueil Notre Dame, an airy modern building. The Accueil is organised into two wings, each consisting of six storeys, with the Reception area on the ground floor and the Transit Lounge on the fifth. Each floor from one to four is named after a specific saint, with female saints honoured on one side and male ones on the other. Each floor has a central refectory area where pilgrims congregate to eat.
The rooms, each with bathroom and shower, accommodate from one to six people. Each room has a window, with some fortunate ones having a view of the Grotto, and storage cupboards and a table and chairs. Each room opens onto a communal area.
Linking the two sides is the Administration Area, with two panoramic lifts bringing visitors to each floor. The administration offices are on the sixth and seventh floors, and there are kitchens for each side.
Typically pilgrims arrive at the Accueil Notre Dame in buses from Lourdes airport or train station, and will be welcomed in the transit lounge on the 5th floor. From there they are taken to their rooms. Pilgrims also depart from the transit lounge.
Another accueil, the Accueil Marie St. Frai, is located a short distance outside the domain; it is similar in design and atmosphere to the Accueil Notre Dame.
In the corner of the prairie is the tent-like Chapel of Adoration, consecrated in 1995 and given over entirely to veneration of the Blessed Sacrament, and there is an open-air altar for outdoor ceremonies in fine weather.
In 2002 the Water Walk was introduced, across the Gave and slightly downstream from the Grotto. It consists of a series of nine stations at which there is a small Lourdes water font.
This is the Light of Christ.
"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in the darkness but will have the light of life" (John 8:12)
A further iconic image of Lourdes is the tall, conical stand containing votive candles which are burnt constantly in the Grotto. Pilgrims may purchase candles (white, with a blue base) to be burnt here as a devotional gesture, or bring their own. Candles of many different sizes may be burnt in the Domain; the largest are two metres tall and require more than one person to lift them—such candles are usually bought by groups of pilgrims, and typically burn continuously for over a week.
Near the Grotto, millions of candles continuously burn since 19th February 1858. That day, Bernadette arrived at the Grotto with a blessed candle that kept burning in her hand until the end of the apparition. Before she left, the Virgin Mary asked her to let the candle burn at the Grotto. The same day, a few people came to the Grotto to burn candles. This tradtion has never ceased.The candles offered by the pilgrims keep burning day and night. Burning a candle at the Grotto does not replace a prayer, but it's a tangible sign supporting a secret demand, an offering or an acknowledgement.
Each year, 700 tons of candles burn for you and those who have not been able to come . The volutes of smoke represent millions of intentions of prayers and wishes. Also, light is a very important sign in the sacred history. The bible talks about sin as captivity and darkness. On the opposite, Jesus-Christ brings deliverance and illumination. This is why priests bless the flame and the light of the candles during the celebration of Easter, before blessing the water for baptism. Even if they are not aware of this, the pilgrims and visitors in procession with a candle in their hand know it expresses a kind of hope.
For safety as well as convenience, candles are burnt together in large metal stands called brulières. Pilgrims may light their own candles, or leave candles to be burnt later. The brulières are tended by feutiers, attendants whose job is to ensure candles are burnt safely and evenly, and to remove the trays of melted wax which collects under each brulière.
The apparitions at Lourdes took place against the backdrop of a rich network of popular piety, which was common throughout the Pyrenean region in the 19th century. In the decades leading up to 1858, several children in small Pyrenean villages (on both sides of the border) claimed to see apparitions of the Virgin Mary in remote locations. Some consider that Bernadette was simply repeating a well-tried trick to gain attention and notoriety. Others argue that this is not likely, since Bernadette claimed the Lady called herself "the Immaculate Conception", a name which she had no way of knowing.
Although Bernadette herself shunned attention and personal gain from the apparitions, it is clear that her family, previously in severe poverty, became very wealthy and influential as a result. Critics argue that the family encouraged Bernadette in order to escape their poverty.
Modern Lourdes has no shortage of glitz on display. Some visitors may dislike the commercialism of parts of Lourdes, with neon-emblazoned gift shops overflowing with what Malcolm Muggeridge, a supporter of the shrine, called "tawdry relics, the bric-a-brac of piety".[20] Lourdes has been called the "Disneyland of the Catholic Church". Critics argue that the Lourdes phenomenon is nothing more than a significant money-spinner for the town and the region, which therefore has a strong vested interest in keeping the pilgrims coming.[21] The church, however, distances itself from commercialisation. The many trinket stalls are privately owned, and hawkers are strictly forbidden inside the sanctuary.
Many people remain sceptical about Lourdes and its supposed healing power, arguing that any improvement offered by the shrine is no more than the placebo effect, and that the ceremonies and processions are no better than faith-healing on a grand scale. Richard Dawkins, British evolutionary biologist and atheist, expressed scepticism about the healing ability of Lourdes in his documentary The Root of All Evil?, noting the lack of statistical evidence that there have been any miraculous healings. Dawkins also points out that the cures are invariably for ailments that may have healed naturally (nobody has reported a miraculous regrowing of a missing limb, for example).[22]
Official Website of the Sanctuary if our Lady of Lourdes: http://en.lourdes-france.org/
The Statue of the Crowned Virgin, often known as the "Crowned Statue" (French: La Vierge Couronnée), stands across Rosary Square from the Rosary Basilica and faces the entrance. This prominent statue is a familiar landmark and a traditional meeting point. The statue is 2.5m high and cast in bronze, painted white and blue in the traditional colours. Her rosary is of the Birgittine style and incorporates six decades.[16] Behind the Crowned Statue is the Esplanade, a large open walkway which is used in the processions.
Underground Basilica
The Underground Basilica is stylistically very different from the previous two basilicas. The concrete of its construction has been left bare throughout, making it gloomy and uninviting inside, and it draws comparisons with an underground carpark. Therefore, although it provided a practical solution to the problem of accommodating very large numbers, it remains unpopular with many visitors to Lourdes.
Church of St. Bernadette
The most recent of the major centres of worship is the Church of St. Bernadette, which was consecrated in 1988. It was built opposite the Grotto across the Gave, on the spot where Bernadette stood during the final (18th) Apparition.The Church of St. Bernadette is a modern building with comparatively little adornment. It was designed to allow as much natural light as possible into the nave, and light-coloured materials have been used, making it noticeably brighter than the Underground Basilica. It was designed by the architect Jean-Paul Felix.
It is also a more versatile building. The nave has provision for 5,000 seated worshippers and 350 wheelchairs, but partitions can be drawn which divide the nave into smaller sections. In addition, it includes the Hemicycle, a large lecture room which may be used for worship, and an assortment of conference rooms and smaller rooms which may be used for devotional or non-devotional activity.[17]
Chapel of Reconciliation
The Chapel of Reconciliation formerly occupied a site slightly more remote, at the entrance of the Upper Stations of the Cross. It was moved several years ago into a more prominent position, into the building previously known as the Accueil Notre Dame, near the Crowned Statue and facing the Esplanade.The Chapel of Reconciliation is somewhat unusual in that no masses or other services take place there; instead it is given over entirely to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Priests from different countries observe a duty roster, which means that, at almost any time of day, pilgrims from Europe (and occasionally further away) can find a priest who will hear their confession in their own language.
St. Joseph's Chapel
St. Joseph's Chapel is situated at the far end of the Esplanade, near St. Michael's Gate. It is a modern, concrete church, mostly underground, with little natural light. It was also designed by Pierre Vago, and was consecrated on 1 May 1968. It has provision for 450 seated worshippers and 80 wheelchairs.[18]Grotto
 |
| The Grotto of Massabielle |
"My God is the rock where I take refuge. Long life to the Lord, my rock"
In contrast to the grandness of Rosary Square and the various basilicas, the grotto at Massabielle where St Bernadette's visions took place is very simple and stark. The recess of the grotto itself is undecorated, although a plain stone altar and lectern have been placed there so that Mass can be said. Above the main recess is the niche where the apparitions took place and Fabisch's statue now stands. A large stand of candles next to the altar is kept burning during the season.
The spring Bernadette is said to have dug can be seen at the rear of the grotto, shielded by a glass cover. Pilgrims can process through the grotto and it is traditional to touch the rocks directly under the statue; indeed so many people have done this that the stones have become polished. Also at the rear of the grotto is a metal box into which written prayers or petitions may be deposited; they are collected daily and burnt.
Rows of benches allow visitors to sit and pray or contemplate. Pilgrims are asked to remain silent while in the vicinity to create an atmosphere of devotion. One of the spots where Bernadette prayed to the Virgin is marked by a special paving slab.
Some of the rock walls around the grotto bear clear signs of deliberate alteration, presumably to improve access for pilgrims. It is no longer clear what the original configuration of the grotto was.
At least one contemporary account describes a series of chambers behind the statue's niche, which can only be reached by climbing "like a lizard" through clefts in the rocks.[19]
The actions that Bernadette carried out were the actions of freeing something. The Grotto was choked with grass and mud. But why does she free this Grotto? Because it hides an immense treasure, which must be brought out into the open. Thus, at the ninth Apparition, "the Lady" asked Bernadette to scrape the ground, at the back of this "pigs’ shelter", saying to her: "Go to the spring, drink of it and wash yourself there". There is only a little muddy water to begin with, enough for Bernadette to drink. At first this water is muddy and dirty then, little by little, it becomes clear.
By these actions, the mystery of the heart of Jesus is revealed for us: "A soldier pierced his heart with his lance and there immediately flowed out blood and water." It is, as well, the depths of the mystery of the heart of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God: "The water that I shall give you will become, in you, a spring welling up to eternal life". The grass and the mud signify the human heart, wounded by sin. But in the bottom of this heart, there is the life of God, as signified by the spring
Bernadette was asked: 'Did the Lady say something to you?' She replied: 'Yes, now and again she would say: "Penance, penance, penance, pray for sinners". By penance we understand conversion. Conversion in the Church, as we learn from Christ, involves turning our heart towards God and towards others. "Pray for sinners". Praying brings us to the Spirit of God. Thus we understand that sin does not make us happy. We must understand that sin is something that is contrary to the love of God that is revealed to us through the Gospel.
Accueils and hospitals
A quote from the Bible dealing with the sick and the hospitaliers
"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
Gospel of Matthhew (25:40)
"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
Gospel of Matthhew (25:40)
The Accueil Notre Dame was built to replace the two older Accueils that were present within the Domain. The old Accueil Notre Dame stood opposite the Underground Basilica, and has been extensively remodelled, being divided into two buildings by removing a section. One building now contains the Chapel of Reconciliation, which used to be the refectory, and also houses the convent of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers. The other section is now known as the Accueil John Paul II, and contains several chapels (e.g. St Cosmos & St Damien), the First Aid post and Dispensary, and the offices of the Hospitalité. The other was the Accueil St. Bernadette, which stood across the river from the old Accueil Notre Dame, and was demolished to make way for the new one.
Since Easter 1997 sick pilgrims from all over the world have been housed in the Accueil Notre Dame, an airy modern building. The Accueil is organised into two wings, each consisting of six storeys, with the Reception area on the ground floor and the Transit Lounge on the fifth. Each floor from one to four is named after a specific saint, with female saints honoured on one side and male ones on the other. Each floor has a central refectory area where pilgrims congregate to eat.
The rooms, each with bathroom and shower, accommodate from one to six people. Each room has a window, with some fortunate ones having a view of the Grotto, and storage cupboards and a table and chairs. Each room opens onto a communal area.
Linking the two sides is the Administration Area, with two panoramic lifts bringing visitors to each floor. The administration offices are on the sixth and seventh floors, and there are kitchens for each side.
Typically pilgrims arrive at the Accueil Notre Dame in buses from Lourdes airport or train station, and will be welcomed in the transit lounge on the 5th floor. From there they are taken to their rooms. Pilgrims also depart from the transit lounge.
Another accueil, the Accueil Marie St. Frai, is located a short distance outside the domain; it is similar in design and atmosphere to the Accueil Notre Dame.
Prairie
Across the Gave from the Grotto is a wide, open, uncluttered space covered with grass and known in French as the 'prairie, or in English, the meadow.In the corner of the prairie is the tent-like Chapel of Adoration, consecrated in 1995 and given over entirely to veneration of the Blessed Sacrament, and there is an open-air altar for outdoor ceremonies in fine weather.
In 2002 the Water Walk was introduced, across the Gave and slightly downstream from the Grotto. It consists of a series of nine stations at which there is a small Lourdes water font.
Candles and Brulières
 |
| A brulière full of devotional candles |
"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in the darkness but will have the light of life" (John 8:12)
A further iconic image of Lourdes is the tall, conical stand containing votive candles which are burnt constantly in the Grotto. Pilgrims may purchase candles (white, with a blue base) to be burnt here as a devotional gesture, or bring their own. Candles of many different sizes may be burnt in the Domain; the largest are two metres tall and require more than one person to lift them—such candles are usually bought by groups of pilgrims, and typically burn continuously for over a week.
Near the Grotto, millions of candles continuously burn since 19th February 1858. That day, Bernadette arrived at the Grotto with a blessed candle that kept burning in her hand until the end of the apparition. Before she left, the Virgin Mary asked her to let the candle burn at the Grotto. The same day, a few people came to the Grotto to burn candles. This tradtion has never ceased.The candles offered by the pilgrims keep burning day and night. Burning a candle at the Grotto does not replace a prayer, but it's a tangible sign supporting a secret demand, an offering or an acknowledgement.
Each year, 700 tons of candles burn for you and those who have not been able to come . The volutes of smoke represent millions of intentions of prayers and wishes. Also, light is a very important sign in the sacred history. The bible talks about sin as captivity and darkness. On the opposite, Jesus-Christ brings deliverance and illumination. This is why priests bless the flame and the light of the candles during the celebration of Easter, before blessing the water for baptism. Even if they are not aware of this, the pilgrims and visitors in procession with a candle in their hand know it expresses a kind of hope.
For safety as well as convenience, candles are burnt together in large metal stands called brulières. Pilgrims may light their own candles, or leave candles to be burnt later. The brulières are tended by feutiers, attendants whose job is to ensure candles are burnt safely and evenly, and to remove the trays of melted wax which collects under each brulière.
Scepticism and criticism
Since the earliest of the apparitions, Lourdes has been the subject of intense debate regarding their nature. The earliest investigators, including the priest Abbé Dominique Peyramale and the Chief of Police, Dominique Jacomet, were both initially convinced they were dealing with a hoax (each later changed his mind), and several researchers have since called several aspects of the Lourdes phenomenon into question.The apparitions at Lourdes took place against the backdrop of a rich network of popular piety, which was common throughout the Pyrenean region in the 19th century. In the decades leading up to 1858, several children in small Pyrenean villages (on both sides of the border) claimed to see apparitions of the Virgin Mary in remote locations. Some consider that Bernadette was simply repeating a well-tried trick to gain attention and notoriety. Others argue that this is not likely, since Bernadette claimed the Lady called herself "the Immaculate Conception", a name which she had no way of knowing.
Although Bernadette herself shunned attention and personal gain from the apparitions, it is clear that her family, previously in severe poverty, became very wealthy and influential as a result. Critics argue that the family encouraged Bernadette in order to escape their poverty.
Modern Lourdes has no shortage of glitz on display. Some visitors may dislike the commercialism of parts of Lourdes, with neon-emblazoned gift shops overflowing with what Malcolm Muggeridge, a supporter of the shrine, called "tawdry relics, the bric-a-brac of piety".[20] Lourdes has been called the "Disneyland of the Catholic Church". Critics argue that the Lourdes phenomenon is nothing more than a significant money-spinner for the town and the region, which therefore has a strong vested interest in keeping the pilgrims coming.[21] The church, however, distances itself from commercialisation. The many trinket stalls are privately owned, and hawkers are strictly forbidden inside the sanctuary.
Many people remain sceptical about Lourdes and its supposed healing power, arguing that any improvement offered by the shrine is no more than the placebo effect, and that the ceremonies and processions are no better than faith-healing on a grand scale. Richard Dawkins, British evolutionary biologist and atheist, expressed scepticism about the healing ability of Lourdes in his documentary The Root of All Evil?, noting the lack of statistical evidence that there have been any miraculous healings. Dawkins also points out that the cures are invariably for ailments that may have healed naturally (nobody has reported a miraculous regrowing of a missing limb, for example).[22]
Official Website of the Sanctuary if our Lady of Lourdes: http://en.lourdes-france.org/
References
- ^ http://www.lourdes-france.org/index.php?goto_centre=ru&contexte=en&id=431&id_rubrique=431
- ^ Ruth Harris, Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age, Penguin Books, 1999, p. 52.
- ^ Ruth Harris, Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age, Penguin Books, 1999, p. 53.
- ^ Oliver Todd, The Lourdes Pilgrim, Matthew James Publishing, 2003, p. 41.
- ^ Ruth Harris, Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age, Penguin Books, 1999, p. 365.
- ^ Ruth Harris, Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age, Penguin Books, 1999, p. 365.
- ^ Lourdes website: The Domain, accessed 17 March 2010
- ^ Oliver Todd, The Lourdes Pilgrim, Matthew James Publishing, 2003, p. 52-3.
- ^ Oliver Todd, The Lourdes Pilgrim, Matthew James Publishing, 2003, p. 77.
- ^ Oliver Todd, The Lourdes Pilgrim, Matthew James Publishing, 2003, p. 41.
- ^ http://www.lourdes-france.org/index.php?goto_centre=ru&contexte=en&
- ^ Oliver Todd, The Lourdes Pilgrim, Matthew James Publishing, 2003, p. 151.
- ^ Oliver Todd, The Lourdes Pilgrim, Matthew James Publishing, 2003, p. 155.
- ^ Oliver Todd, The Lourdes Pilgrim, Matthew James Publishing, 2003, p. 42-3.
- ^ Oliver Todd, The Lourdes Pilgrim, Matthew James Publishing, 2003, p. 43.
- ^ Oliver Todd, The Lourdes Pilgrim, Matthew James Publishing, 2003, p. 41.
- ^ Oliver Todd, The Lourdes Pilgrim, Matthew James Publishing, 2003, p. 45.
- ^ Oliver Todd, The Lourdes Pilgrim, Matthew James Publishing, 2003, p. 46.
- ^ Ruth Harris, Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age, Penguin Books, 1999.
- ^ Muggeridge contrasts the "tawdry relics, the bric-a-brac of piety" with the spiritual phenomena he describes experiencing in Lourdes. (Jesus Rediscovered, A Visit To Lourdes, Fontana 1969.[1]
- ^ "Consuming Visions--Mass Culture and the Lourdes Shrine, Suzanne Kaufman", Book reviewed by Lawrence S. Cunningham University of Notre Dame, Commonweal 23 September 2005.[2]
- ^ BBC collective: Review of "The Root of all Evil?
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Snippet IV: Devotion to The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
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| Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Scapular |
The Sacred Heart (also known as Most Sacred Heart of Jesus) is one of the most famous religious devotions to Jesus' physical heart as the representation of his divine love for humanity.
This devotion is predominantly used in the Catholic Church and among some high-church Anglicans and Lutherans. The devotion especially emphasizes the unmitigated love, compassion, and long-suffering of the heart of Christ towards humanity. The origin of this devotion in its modern form is derived from a French Roman Catholic nun, Marguerite Marie Alacoque, who said she learned the devotion from Jesus during a mystical experience. Predecessors to the modern devotion arose unmistakably in the Middle Ages in various facets of Catholic mysticism.
In the Roman Catholic tradition, the Sacred Heart has been closely associated with Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ. In his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor, Pope Pius XI stated: "the spirit of expiation or reparation has always had the first and foremost place in the worship given to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus". The Golden Arrow Prayer directly refers to the Sacred Heart. Devotion to the Sacred Heart is sometimes seen in the Eastern Catholic Churches, where it remains a point of controversy and is seen as an example of Liturgical Latinisation.
The Sacred Heart is often depicted in Christian art as a flaming heart shining with divine light, pierced by the lance-wound, encircled by the crown of thorns, surmounted by a cross and bleeding. Sometimes the image shown shining within the bosom of Christ with his wounded hands pointing at the heart. The wounds and crown of thorns allude to the manner of Jesus' death, while the fire represents the transformative power of divine love.
The Feast of the Sacred Heart has been in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar since 1856, and is celebrated 19 days after Pentecost. As Pentecost is always celebrated on Sunday, the Feast of the Sacred Heart always falls on a Friday.
History of Devotion
Early devotion
 |
| Sacred Heart of Jesus Ibarrará, 1896 |
From the time of John the Evangelist and Paul of Tarsus there has always been in the Church something like devotion to the love of God, but there is nothing to indicate that, during the first ten centuries of Christianity, any worship was rendered to the wounded Heart of Jesus. It is in the eleventh and twelfth centuries that the first indications of devotion to the Sacred Heart are found. It was in the fervent atmosphere of the Benedictine or Cistercian monasteries, in the world of Anselmian or Bernardine thought, that the devotion arose, although it is impossible to say positively what were its first texts or who were its first devotees. It was already well known to St. Gertrude, St. Mechtilde, and the author of the Vitis mystica (previously ascribed to St. Bernard, now attributed to St. Bonaventure).
From the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, the devotion was propagated but it did not seem to have developed in itself. It was everywhere practised by individuals and by different religious congregations, such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, Carthusians, etc. It was, nevertheless, a private, individual devotion of the mystical order. Nothing of a general movement had been inaugurated, except for similarities found in the devotion to the Five Wounds by the Franciscans, in which the wound in Jesus's heart figured most prominently.
In the sixteenth century, the devotion passed from the domain of mysticism into that of Christian asceticism. It was established as a devotion with prayers already formulated and special exercises, found in the writings of Lanspergius (d. 1539) of the Carthusians of Cologne, the Louis of Blois (Blosius; 1566), a Benedictine and Abbot of Liessies in Hainaut, John of Avila (d. 1569) and St. Francis de Sales, the latter belonging to the seventeenth century.
The historical record from that time shows an early bringing to light of the devotion. Ascetic writers spoke of it, especially those of the Society of Jesus. The image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was everywhere in evidence, largely due to the Franciscan devotion to the Five Wounds and to the habit formed by the Jesuits of placing the image on their title-page of their books and the walls of their churches.
Nevertheless, the devotion remained an individual, or at least a private, devotion. Jean Eudes (1602–1680) made it public, gave it an Office, and established a feast for it. Père Eudes was the apostle of the Heart of Mary; but in his devotion to the Immaculate Heart there was a share for the Heart of Jesus. Little by little, the devotion to the Sacred Heart became a separate one, and on August 31, 1670, the first feast of the Sacred Heart was celebrated in the Grand Seminary of Rennes. Coutances followed suit on October 20, a day with which the Eudist feast was from then on to be connected. The feast soon spread to other dioceses, and the devotion was likewise adopted in various religious communities. It gradually came into contact with the devotion begun at Paray, and resulting in a fusion of the two.
Visions of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
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| St Margaret Mary Alacoque, Giaquinto 1765 |
The most significant source for the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the form it is known today was Visitandine Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690), who claimed to have received visions of Jesus Christ. There is nothing to indicate that she had known the devotion prior to the revelations, or at least that she had paid any attention to it. The revelations were numerous, and the following apparitions are especially remarkable:
- On December 27, probably 1673, the feast of St. John, Margaret Mary reported that Jesus permitted her, as he had formerly allowed St. Gertrude, to rest her head upon his heart, and then disclosed to her the wonders of his love, telling her that he desired to make them known to all mankind and to diffuse the treasures of his goodness, and that he had chosen her for this work.
- In probably June or July, 1674, Margaret Mary claimed that Jesus requested to be honored under the figure of his heart, also claiming that, when he appeared radiant with love, he asked for a devotion of expiatory love: frequent reception of Communion, especially Communion on the First Friday of the month, and the observance of the Holy Hour.
- During the octave of Corpus Christi, 1675, probably on June 16, the vision known as the "great apparition" reportedly took place, where Jesus said, "Behold the Heart that has so loved men ... instead of gratitude I receive from the greater part (of mankind) only ingratitude ...", and asked Margaret Mary for a feast of reparation of the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi, bidding her consult her confessor Father Claude de la Colombière, then superior of the small Jesuit house at Paray. Solemn homage was asked on the part of the king, and the mission of propagating the new devotion was especially confided to the religious of the Visitation and to the priests of the Society of Jesus.
A few days after the "great apparition", Margaret Mary reported everything she saw to Father de la Colombière, and he, acknowledging the vision as an action of the Spirit of God, consecrated himself to the Sacred Heart and directed her to write an account of the apparition. He also made use of every available opportunity to circulate this account, discreetly, through France and England. Upon his death on February 15, 1682, there was found in his journal of spiritual retreats a copy in his own handwriting of the account that he had requested of Margaret Mary, together with a few reflections on the usefulness of the devotion. This journal, including the account and an "offering" to the Sacred Heart, in which the devotion was well explained, was published at Lyons in 1684. The little book was widely read, especially at Paray. Margaret Mary reported feeling "dreadful confusion" over the book's contents, but resolved to make the best of it, approving of the book for the spreading of her cherished devotion. Outside of the Visitandines, priests, religious, and laymen espoused the devotion, particularly the Capuchins, Margaret Mary's two brothers, and some Jesuits. The Jesuit Father Croiset wrote a book called The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a book which Jesus is said to have told Margaret to tell Fr. Croiset to write, and Fr. Joseph de Gallifet, also a Jesuit, promoted the devotion.
Papal Approvals
The Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart was a nun from Sisters of the Good Shepherd Congregation who requested, in the name of Christ Himself, to Pope Leo XIII that he consecrate the entire World to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The death of Margaret Mary Alacoque on October 17, 1690, did not dampen the zeal of those interested; on the contrary, a short account of her life published by Father Croiset in 1691, as an appendix to his book "De la Dévotion au Sacré Cœur", served only to increase it. In spite of all sorts of obstacles, and of the slowness of the Holy See, which in 1693 imparted indulgences to the Confraternities of the Sacred Heart and, in 1697, granted the feast to the Visitandines with the Mass of the Five Wounds, but refused a feast common to all, with special Mass and Office. The devotion spread, particularly in religious communities. The Marseilles plague, 1720, furnished perhaps the first occasion for a solemn consecration and public worship outside of religious communities. Other cities of the South followed the example of Marseilles, and thus the devotion became a popular one. In 1726 it was deemed advisable once more to importune Rome for a feast with a Mass and Office of its own, but, in 1729, Rome again refused. However, in 1765, it finally yielded and that same year, at the request of the queen, the feast was received quasi-officially by the episcopate of France. On all sides it was asked for and obtained, and finally, in 1856, at the urgent entreaties of the French bishops, Pope Pius IX extended the feast to the Roman Catholic Church under the rite of double major. In 1889 it was raised by the Roman Catholic Church to the double rite of first class.
After the letters of Mother Mary of the Divine Heart (1863–1899) requesting, in the name of Christ Himself, to Pope Leo XIII consecrate the entire World to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Holy Father commissions a group of theologians to examine the petition on the basis of revelation and sacred tradition. This investigation was positive. And so in the encyclical letter Annum Sacrum (on May 25, 1899) this same pope decreed that the consecration of the entire human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus should take place on June 11, 1899. In this encyclical letter the Pope attached Later Pope Leo XIII encouraged the entire Roman Catholic episcopate to promote the devotion of the Nine First Fridays and he established June as the Month of the Sacred Heart. Leo XIII also composed the Prayer of Consecration to the Sacred Heart and included it in Annum Sacrum.
Pope Pius X decreed that the consecration of the human race, performed by Pope Leo XIII be renewed each year. Pope Pius XI in his encyclical letter Miserentissimus Redemptor (on May 8, 1928) affirmed the Church's position with respect to Saint Margaret Mary's visions of Jesus Christ by stating that Jesus had "manifested Himself" to Saint Margaret and had "promised her that all those who rendered this honor to His Heart would be endowed with an abundance of heavenly graces." The encyclical refers to the conversation between Jesus and Saint Margaret several times[2] and reaffirmed the importance of consecration and reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Finally, Venerable Pope Pius XII, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Pope Pius IX's institution of the Feast, instructed the entire Roman Catholic Church at length on the devotion to the Sacred Heart in his encyclical letter Haurietis aquas (on May 15, 1956). On May 15, 2006, also Pope Benedict XVI sent a letter to Father Peter Hans Kolvenbach, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, on the 50th Anniversary of the encyclical Haurietis Aquas, about the Sacred Heart, by Pope Pius XII. In his letter to Father Kolvenbach, Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed the importance of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Worship and Devotion
The Roman Catholic acts of consecration, reparation and devotion were introduced when the feast of the Sacred Heart was declared. In his Papal Bull Auctorem Fidei, Pope Pius VI praised devotion to the Sacred Heart. Finally, by order of Leo XIII, in his encyclical Annum Sacrum (May 25, 1899), as well as on June 11, he consecrated every human to the Sacred Heart. The idea of this act, which Leo XIII called "the great act" of his pontificate, had been proposed to him by a religious woman of the Good Shepherd from Oporto (Portugal) who said that she had supernaturally received it from Jesus. Since c. 1850, groups, congregations, and States have consecrated themselves to the Sacred Heart. In 1873, by petition of president Gabriel García Moreno, Ecuador was the first country in the world to be consecrated to the Sacred Heart, fulfilling God's petition to Saint Margaret Mary over two hundred years later.
Peter Coudrin of France founded the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary on December 24, 1800. A religious order of the Roman Catholic Church, the order is best known for its missionary work in Hawaii. Mother Clelia Merloni from Forlì (Italy) founded the Congregation of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Viareggio, Italy, May 30, 1894. Worship of the Sacred Heart mainly consists of several hymns, the Salutation of the Sacred Heart, and the Litany of the Sacred Heart. It is common in Roman Catholic services and occasionally is to be found in Anglican services. The Feast of the Sacred Heart is a solemnity in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar, and is celebrated 19 days after Pentecost. As Pentecost is always celebrated on Sunday, the Feast of the Sacred Heart always falls on a Friday.
The Enthronement of the Sacred Heart is a Roman Catholic ceremony in which a priest or head of a household consecrates the members of the household to the Sacred Heart. A blessed image of the Sacred Heart, either a statue or a picture, is then "enthroned" in the home to serve as a constant reminder to those who dwell in the house of their consecration to the Sacred Heart. The practice of the Enthronement is based upon Pope Pius XII's declaration that devotion to the Sacred of Jesus is "the foundation on which to build the kingdom of God in the hearts of individuals, families, and nations..."
Alliance with the Immaculate Heart of Mary
The Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary is based on the historical, theological and spiritual links in Catholic devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The joint devotion to the hearts was first formalized in the 17th century by Saint Jean Eudes who organized the scriptural, theological and liturgical sources relating to the devotions and obtained the approbation of the Church, prior to the visions of Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque.
In the 18th and 19th centuries the devotions grew, both jointly and individually through the efforts of figures such as Saint Louis de Montfort who promoted Catholic Mariology and Saint Catherine Labouré's Miraculous Medal depicting the Heart of Jesus thorn-crowned and the Heart of Mary pierced with a sword. The devotions, and the associated prayers, continued into the 20th century, e.g. in the Immaculata prayer of Saint Maximillian Kolbe and in the reported messages of Our Lady of Fatima which stated that the Heart of Jesus wishes to be honored together with the Heart of Mary.
Popes supported the individual and joint devotions to the hearts through the centuries. In the 1956 encyclical Haurietis Aquas, Pope Pius XII encouraged the joint devotion to the hearts. In the 1979 encyclical Redemptor Hominis Pope John Paul II explained the theme of unity of Mary's Immaculate Heart with the Sacred Heart. In his Angelus address on September 15, 1985 Pope John Paul II coined the term The Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and in 1986 addressed the international conference on that topic held at Fátima, Portugal.
The Miraculous Medal
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| The Miraculous Medal |
The Sacred Heart has also been involved in (and been depicted) in saintly apparitions such as those to Saint Catherine Labouré in 1830 and appears on the Miraculous Medal.
On the Miraculous Medal, the Sacred Heart is crowned with thorns. The Immaculate Heart of Mary also appears on the medal, next to the Sacred Heart, but is pierced by a sword, rather than being crowned with thorns. The M on the medal signifies the Blessed Virgin at the foot of the Cross when Jesus was being crucified.
Religious imagery depicting the Sacred Heart is frequently featured in Roman Catholic, and sometimes Anglican and Lutheran homes. Sometimes images display beneath them a list of family members, indicating that the entire family is entrusted to the protection of Jesus in the Sacred Heart, from whom blessings on the home and the family members are sought. The prayer "O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in Thee" is often used. One particular image has been used as part of a set, along with an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In that image, Mary too was shown pointing to her Immaculate Heart, expressing her love for the human race and for her Son, Jesus Christ. The mirror images reflect an eternal binding of the two hearts.
The Scapular of the Sacred Heart and the Scapular of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary are worn by Roman Catholics.
In Eastern Catholicism
Devotion to the Sacred Heart may be found in some Eastern Catholic Churches, but is a contentious issue. Those who favour purity of rite are opposed to the devotion, while those who are in favour of the devotion cite it as a point of commonality with their Latin Catholic brethren.
Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Jesus Christ, in his appearances to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, promised these blessings to those who practice devotion to his Sacred Heart. This tabular form of promises was not made by Saint Margaret Mary or her contemporaries. It first appeared at 1863. In 1882, an American businessman spread the tabular form of the promises profusely throughout the world, the twelve promises appearing in 238 languages. In 1890, Cardinal Adolph Perraud deplored this circulation of the promises in the tabular form which were different from the words and even from the meaning of the expressions used by St. Margaret Mary, and wanted the promises to be published in the full, authentic texts as found in the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque:
- I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
- I will give peace in their families.
- I will console them in all their troubles.
- I will be their refuge in life and especially in death.
- I will abundantly bless all their undertakings.
- Sinners shall find in my Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
- Tepid souls shall become fervent.
- Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection.
- I will bless those places wherein the image of My Sacred Heart shall be exposed and venerated.
- I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.
- Persons who propagate this devotion shall have their names eternally written in my Heart.
- 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.
The last promise has given rise to the pious Roman Catholic practice of making an effort to attend Mass and receive Communion on the first Friday of each month.
Great efficacy of converting people has been attached to the use of the image of the Sacred Heart.
"Even at the hour of death, incredulous, indifferent, hardened souls have been converted by simply showing them a picture of the Sacred Heart, which sufficed to restore these sinners to the life of hope and love, in a word, to touch the most hardened. It would, indeed, be a great misfortune to any apostolic man to neglect so powerful a means of conversion, and in proof of this I will mention a single fact which will need no comment. A religious of the Company of Jesus had been requested by the Blessed Margaret Mary to make a careful engraving of the Sacred Heart. Being often hindered by other occupations, there was much delay in preparing this plate. ' This good father,' writes the saint, 'is so much occupied by Mon- signor d'Autun in the conversion of heretics, that he has neither time nor leisure to give to the work so ardently desired by the Heart of our Divine Master. You cannot imagine, my much-loved mother, how greatly this delay afflicts and pains me. I must avow confidently to you my belief that it is the cause of his converting so few infidels in this town. I seem constantly to hear these words : ' That if this good father had acquitted himself at once of his promise to the Sacred Heart, Jesus would have changed and converted the hearts of these infidels, on account of the joy He would have felt at seeing Himself honoured in the picture He so much wishes for. As, however, he prefers other work, even though to the glory of God, to that of giving Him this satisfaction, He will harden the hearts of these infidels, and the labours of this mission will not be crowned with much fruit.'
Scapular of the Sacred Heart
The devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus also involve the Scapular of the Sacred Heart. It is a Roman Catholic devotional scapular that can be traced back to Saint Margaret Marie Alacoque who herself made and distributed badges similar to it. In 1872 Pope Pius IX granted an indulgence for the badge and the actual scapular was approved by the Congregation of Rites in 1900. It bears the representation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on one side, and that of the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Mother of Mercy on the other side. Prayer, Almighty and everlasting God, look upon the Heart of Thy well-beloved Son and upon the acts of praise and satisfaction which He renders unto Thee in the name of sinners; and do Thou, in Thy great goodness, grant pardon to them who seek Thy mercy, in the name of the same Thy Son, Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, world without end.
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Featured Item from Litany Lane
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Snippet V: Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
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| Immaculate heart of Mary Scapular |
The Immaculate Heart of Mary (also known as The Sacred Heart of Mary) is a devotional name used to refer to the interior life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love for God the Father, her maternal love for her son Jesus, and her compassionate love for all persons. The consideration of Mary's interior life and the beauties of her soul, without any thought of her physical heart, does not constitute the traditional devotion; still less does it consist in the consideration of the heart of Mary merely as a part of her pure body. In 1855 the Mass of the Most Pure Heart formally became a part of Catholic practice. The two elements are essential to the devotion, just as, according to Roman Catholic theology, soul and body are necessary to the constitution of man.
Eastern Catholic Churches occasionally utilize the image, devotion, and theology associated with the Immaculate Heart of Mary. However, this is a cause of some controversy, some seeing it as a form of liturgical instillation. The Roman Catholic view is based on Mariology, as exemplified by Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae which builds on the total Marian devotion pioneered by Louis de Montfort.
Traditionally, the heart is pierced with seven wounds or swords, in homage to the seven dolors of Mary. Consequently, seven Hail Marys are said daily in honor of the devotion. Also, roses or another type of flower may be wrapped around the heart
Veneration and devotion
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| Immaculate Heart Mary, Seven Dolors |
Veneration of the Heart of Mary is analogous to worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is, however, necessary to indicate a few differences in this analogy, the better to explain the character of Roman Catholic devotion to the Heart of Mary. Some of these differences are very marked, whereas others are barely perceptible. The Devotion to the Heart of Jesus is especially directed to the "Divine Heart" as overflowing with love for humanity, presented as "despised and outraged". In the devotion to the Mary, on the other hand, the attraction is the love of this Heart for Jesus and for God. Its love for humans is not overlooked, but it is not so much in evidence nor so dominant.
A second difference is the nature of the devotion itself. In devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Roman Catholic venerates in a sense of love responding to love. In devotion to the Heart of Mary, study and imitation hold as important a place as love. Love is more the result than the object of the devotion, the object being rather to love God and Jesus better by uniting one's self to Mary for this purpose and by imitating her virtues. It would also seem that, although in the devotion to the Heart of Mary the heart has an essential part as symbol and sensible object, it does not stand out as prominently as in the devotion to the Heart of Jesus; devotion focuses rather on the thing symbolized, the love, virtues, and sentiments of Mary's interior life.
The Immaculate Heart has also been involved in (and been depicted) in saintly Marian apparitions such as those to Saint Catherine Labouré in 1830 and appears on the Miraculous Medal. On the Miraculous Medal, the Immaculate Heart is pierced by a sword. The Sacred Heart of Jesus also appears on the medal, next to the Immaculate Heart, but is crowned with thorns, rather than being pierced by a sword. The M on the medal signifies the Blessed Virgin at the foot of the Cross when Jesus was being crucified.
Our Lady of Fatima asked that, in reparation for sins committed against her Immaculate Heart, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months the Catholic:
- Go to Confession (within 8 days before or after the first Saturday)
- Receive Holy Communion
- Recite five decades of the Rosary
- Keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary
She promised that, whoever would ever do this, would be given at the hour of his death, the graces necessary for salvation.
History of devotion
The history of the devotion to the Heart of Mary is connected on many points with that to the Heart of Jesus. The attention of Christians was early attracted by the love and virtues of the Heart of Mary. The gospels recount the prophecy delivered to her at Jesus' presentation at the temple: that her heart would be pierced with a sword. This image (the pierced heart) is the most popular representation of the Immaculate Heart. The St. John's Gospel further invited attention to Mary's heart with its depiction of Mary at the foot of the cross at Jesus' crucifixion. St. Augustine said of this that Mary was not merely passive at the foot of the cross; "she cooperated through charity in the work of our redemption".
Statue depicting the Immaculate Heart of Mary as described by Sister Lucia of Fátima.
Another Scriptural passage to help in bringing out the devotion was the twice-repeated saying of Saint Luke, that Mary kept all the sayings and doings of Jesus in her heart, that there she might ponder over them and live by them. A few of Mary's sayings, also recorded in the Gospel, particularly the Magnificat (the words Mary is reported to have said to describe the experience of being pregnant with Jesus), disclose new features in Marian psychology. Some of the Church Fathers also throw light upon the psychology of Mary, for instance, Saint Ambrose, when in his commentary on The Gospel of Luke he holds Mary up as the ideal of virginity, and Saint Ephrem, when he poetically sings of the coming of the Magi and the welcome accorded them by the humble mother. Some passages from other books in the Bible are interpreted as referring to Mary, in whom they personify wisdom and her gentle charms. Such are the texts in which wisdom is presented as the mother of lofty love, of fear, of knowledge, and of holy hope. In the New Testament Elizabeth proclaims Mary blessed because she has believed the words of the angel who announced that she would become pregnant with Jesus, although she was still a virgin; the Magnificat is an expression of her humility. In answering the woman of the people, who in order to exalt the son proclaimed the mother blessed, Jesus himself said: "Blessed rather are they that hear the word of God and keep it." The Church Fathers understood this as an invitation to seek in Mary that which had so endeared her to God and caused her to be selected as the mother of Jesus, and found in these words a new reason for praising Mary. St. Leo said that through faith and love she conceived her son spiritually, even before receiving him into her womb, and St. Augustine tells us that she was more blessed in having borne Christ in her heart than in having conceived him in the flesh.
It is only in the twelfth, or towards the end of the eleventh century, that slight indications of a regular devotion are perceived in a sermon by St. Bernard (De duodecim stellis), from which an extract has been taken by the Church and used in the Offices of the Compassion and of the Seven Dolours. Stronger evidences are discernible in the pious meditations on the Ave Maria and the Salve Regina, usually attributed either to St. Anselm of Lucca (d. 1080) or St. Bernard; and also in the large book "De laudibus B. Mariae Virginis" (Douai, 1625) by Richard de Saint-Laurent, Penitentiary of Rouen in the thirteenth century. In St. Mechtilde (d. 1298) and St. Gertrude (d. 1301) the devotion had two earnest adherents. A little earlier it had been included by St. Thomas Becket in the devotion to the joys and sorrows of Mary, by Blessed Hermann (d.1245), one of the first spiritual children of Saint Dominic, in his other devotions to Mary, and somewhat later it appeared in St. Bridget's "Book of Revelations". Johannes Tauler (d. 1361) beholds in Mary the model of a mystical soul, just as St. Ambrose perceived in her the model of a virginal soul. St. Bernardine of Siena (d.1444) was more absorbed in the contemplation of the virginal heart, and it is from him that the Church has borrowed the lessons of the second nocturn for the feast of the Heart of Mary. St. Francis de Sales speaks of the perfections of this heart, the model of love for God, and dedicated to it his "Theotimus."
During this same period one finds occasional mention of devotional practices to the Heart of Mary, e.g., in the "Antidotarium" of Nicolas du Saussay (d. 1488), in Julius II, and in the "Pharetra" of Lanspergius. In the second half of the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth, ascetic authors dwelt upon this devotion at greater length. It was, however, reserved to Saint Jean Eudes (d. 1681) to propagate the devotion, to make it public, and to have a feast celebrated in honor of the Heart of Mary, first at Autun in 1648 and afterwards in a number of French dioceses. He established several religious societies interested in upholding and promoting the devotion, of which his large book on the Coeur Admirable (Admirable Heart), published in 1681, resembles a summary. Jean Eudes' efforts to secure the approval of an office and feast failed at Rome, but, notwithstanding this disappointment, the devotion to the Heart of Mary progressed. In 1699 Father Pinamonti (d. 1703) published in Italian a short work on the Holy Heart of Mary, and in 1725, Joseph de Gallifet combined the cause of the Heart of Mary with that of the Heart of Jesus in order to obtain Rome's approbation of the two devotions and the institution of the two feasts. In 1729, his project was defeated, and in 1765, the two causes were separated, to assure the success of the principal one.
Alliance with the Sacred Heart
The Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary is based on the historical, theological and spiritual links in Catholic devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The joint devotion to the hearts was first formalized in the 17th century by Saint Jean Eudes who organized the scriptural, theological and liturgical sources relating to the devotions and obtained the approbation of the Church, prior to the visions of Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque.
In the 18th and 19th centuries the devotions grew, both jointly and individually through the efforts of figures such as Saint Louis de Montfort who promoted Catholic Mariology and Saint Catherine Labouré's Miraculous Medal depicting the Heart of Jesus thorn-crowned and the Heart of Mary pierced with a sword. The devotions, and the associated prayers, continued into the 20th century, e.g. in the Immaculata prayer of Saint Maximillian Kolbe and in the reported messages of Our Lady of Fatima which stated that the Heart of Jesus wishes to be honored together with the Heart of Mary.
Popes supported the individual and joint devotions to the hearts through the centuries. In the 1956 encyclical Haurietis Aquas, Pope Pius XII encouraged the joint devotion to the hearts. In the 1979 encyclical Redemptor Hominis Pope John Paul II explained the theme of unity of Mary's Immaculate Heart with the Sacred Heart. In his Angelus address on September 15, 1985 Pope John Paul II coined the term The Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and in 1986 addressed the international conference on that topic held at Fátima, Portugal.
Feast days
Fatima Statue of Pope Pius XII, who consecrated Russia and the World: Just as a few years ago We consecrated the entire human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, so today We consecrate and in a most special manner We entrust all the peoples of Russia to this Immaculate Heart...
In 1799 Pius VI, then in captivity at Florence, granted the Bishop of Palermo the feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary for some of the churches in his diocese. In 1805 Pius VII made a new concession, thanks to which the feast was soon widely observed. Such was the existing condition when a twofold movement, started in Paris, gave fresh impetus to the devotion. The two factors of this movement were, first of all, the revelation of the "miraculous medal" in 1830 and all the prodigies that followed, and then the establishment at Notre-Dame-des-Victoires of the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Refuge of Sinners, which spread rapidly throughout the world and was the source of numberless alleged graces. On 21 July 1855, the Congregation of Rites finally approved the Office and Mass of the Most Pure Heart of Mary without, however, imposing them upon the Universal Church.
During the third apparition at Fátima, Portugal on 13 July 1917, the Virgin Mary allegedly said that "God wishes to establish in the world devotion to her Immaculate Heart" in order to save souls from going into the fires of hell and to bring about world peace, and also asked for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. Pope Pius XII, in his Apostolic Letter of 7 July 1952, Sacro Vergente consecrated Russia to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.
On 25 March 1984, Pope John Paul II fulfilled this request again, when he made the solemn act of consecration of the world, and implicitly Russia, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary before the miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary of Fatima brought to Saint Peter's Square in the Vatican for the momentous occasion. Sister Lucia, OCD, then the only surviving visionary of Fatima, confirmed that the request of Mary for the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was accepted by Heaven and therefore, was fulfilled. Again on 8 October 2000, Pope John Paul II made an act of entrustment of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the new millennium.
Roman Catholic feast days
Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1944 to be celebrated on 22 August, coinciding with the traditional octave day of the Assumption. In 1969, Pope Paul VI moved the celebration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to the day, Saturday, immediately after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This means in practice that it is now held on the day before the third Sunday after Pentecost.
At the same time as he closely associated the celebrations of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Pope Paul VI moved the celebration of the Queenship of Mary from 31 May to 22 August, bringing it into association with the feast of her Assumption.
Those who use the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal or an earlier one (but not more than 17 years before 1962) observe the day established by Pius XII.
References:
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.
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Today's Snippet VI: Acts of Reparation
(Morning offering First Friday and First Saturday Devotions)
In the Roman Catholic tradition, an Act of Reparation is a prayer or devotion with the intent to repair the "sins of others", e.g. for the repair of the sin of blasphemy, the sufferings of Jesus Christ or as Acts of Reparation to the Virgin Mary.[1] These prayers do not usually involve a petition for a living or deceased beneficiary, but aim to repair sins.
In his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor Pope Pius XI defined reparation as follows:
The creature's love should be given in return for the love of the Creator, another thing follows from this at once, namely that to the same uncreated Love, if so be it has been neglected by forgetfulness or violated by offense, some sort of compensation must be rendered for the injury, and this debt is commonly called by the name of reparation.[2]
Pope John Paul II referred to reparation as the "unceasing effort to stand beside the endless crosses on which the Son of God continues to be crucified".[3]
Theological basis and history
The Catechism of the Catholic Church 2157 states:
- The Christian begins his day, his prayers, and his activities with the Sign of the Cross: "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen." The baptized person dedicates the day to the glory of God and calls on the Savior's grace which lets him act in the Spirit as a child of the Father.
"All that we do without offering it to God is wasted," Saint John Mary Vianney preached. According to Catholic theology, the worth of an action in the eyes of God is found in the intention, i.e. what takes place in the heart of each person, on whether the person lives based on the love for God (the greatest commandment) or love for self. Thus, Catholic spirituality encourages the practice of fixing one's intention towards loving God at the very beginning of the day, through the morning offering. Catholic authors also encourage repeating this offering throughout the day, especially at the start of one's professional work which takes a large part of each day.
The morning offering is an essential part of the theology of sanctification of work, or the use of work, secular or otherwise, as a means of arriving at personal sanctity. The other element in this theology is the actual work done with spirit of excellence in consonance with the intention of offering something "worthy" to the sanctity, majesty and the goodness of the Father God.
"All that we do without offering it to God is wasted." - Saint John Mary Vianney
This theology is also supported by private revelation to some saints. For example, Sister Josefa Menéndez (1890-1923) reported that she heard Jesus Christ tell her: "When you awake, enter at once into My Heart, and when you are in it, offer My Father all your actions united to the pulsations of My Heart . . . If [a person is] engaged in work of no value in itself, if she bathes it in My Blood or unites it to the work I Myself did during My mortal life, it will greatly profit souls . . . more, perhaps, than if she had preached to the whole world. You will be able to save many souls that way."
Saint Mechtilde (1241-1298), a popular saint during the time of Dante and who was mentioned in his Divine Comedy, also had visions of Jesus Christ and transmitted the following words of Jesus: "When you awake in the morning, let your first act be to salute My Heart, and to offer Me your own . . . Whoever shall breathe a sigh toward Me from the bottom of his heart when he awakes in the morning and shall ask Me to work all his works in him throughout the day, will draw Me to him . . . For never does a man breathe a sigh of longing aspiration toward Me without drawing Me nearer to him than I was before." It is also said that the morning offering helps "refresh and recharge" the soul, preparing the soul to face each day with the help of God himself.[1]
The morning offering has been an old practice in the Church but it started to spread largely through the Apostleship of Prayer, started by Fr. Francis X. Gautrelet, S.J, and specially through the book written by another Jesuit, Reverend Henry Ramière, S.J., who in 1861, adapted the Apostleship of Prayer for parishes and various Catholic institutions, and made it known by his book "The Apostleship of Prayer", which has been translated into many languages.
Duty of Reparation and Devotion
In the encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor Pope Pius XI called acts of reparation a duty for Roman Catholics:We are holden to the duty of reparation and expiation by a certain more valid title of justice and of love, of justice indeed, in order that the offense offered to God by our sins may be expiatedThe pontiff further emphasized, "Moreover this duty of expiation is laid upon the whole race of men"
Prayers of Reparation
A number of prayers as an Act of Reparation to the Virgin Mary appear in the Raccolta Catholic prayer book (approved by a Decree of December 15 1854, and published in 1898 by the Holy See). The Raccolta includes a number of diverse prayers for reparation.[4]
- The Rosary of the Holy Wounds (which does not include the usual rosary mysteries) focuses on specific redemptive aspects of Christ's suffering in Calvary, with emphasis on the souls in purgatory.[5]
- A well known Act of Reparation to Jesus Christ and for the reparation of blasphemy is The Golden Arrow Holy Face Devotion (Prayer) first introduced by Sister Marie of St Peter in 1844. This devotion (started by Sister Marie and then promoted by the Venerable Leo Dupont) was approved by Pope Leo XIII in 1885.[6]
- A frequently offered Act of Reparation to The Holy Trinity is based on the messages of Our Lady of Fatima and is usually called the Angel Prayer.[7][8]
Morning Offering Devotion
John Paul II: Morning Offering is “of fundamental importance in the life of each and every one of the faithful."
In Roman Catholicism, the Morning Offering is a prayer said by an individual at the start of the day in order to consecrate the day to Jesus Christ. It serves the purpose of preparing the Catholic to focus completely on Christ and give to him all that he or she does during the day. There are several different forms of Offering.
Pope John Paul II said that the Morning Offering is “of fundamental importance in the life of each and every one of the faithful."
The Morning offering is meant to be prayed first thing in the morning, upon waking up. Throughout the day, a Christian offers up everything – joys and successes, difficulties and sacrifices, to Jesus, uniting them to His sufferings and merits so that one’s works gain the merit they can never have apart from Him.
The Morning Offering is suggested to be renewed many times throughout the day with simple short prayers (called "aspirations"), e.g. "I will serve!"; "I offer my work unto you."
A specific Morning offering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was composed by Fr. François-Xavier Gautrelet in 1844. It reflects the Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and is also an Acts of reparation for sins:
- O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
- I offer you my prayers, works, joys, sufferings of this day,
- in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world.
- I offer them for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart;
- the salvation of souls, the reparation for sin, the reunion of all Christians;
- I offer them for the intentions of our bishops and of all members of the Apostleship of Prayer,
- and in particular for those recommended by the Holy Father this month.
- Amen.
First Friday Devotions
The First Friday Devotions are a set of Catholic devotions to especially recognize the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and through it offer reparations for sins. In the visions of Christ reported by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 17th century, several promises were made to those people that practiced the First Fridays Devotions, one of which included final perseverance.[1]
According to the words of Christ through His apparitions to St. Margaret Mary, there are several promises to those that practice the First Friday Devotions:
"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."[2]
The devotion consists of several practices that are performed on the first Fridays of nine consecutive months. On these days, a person is to attend Holy Mass and receive communion.[3] If the need arises in order to receive communion in a state of grace, a person should also make use of the Sacrament of Penance before attending Mass. In many Catholic communities the practice of the Holy Hour of meditation during the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament during the First Fridays is encouraged. [4]
First Friday - Communion of Reparation
Receiving Holy Communion as part of First Friday Devotions is a Catholic devotion to offer reparations for sins through the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the visions of Christ reported by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 17th century, several promises were made to those people that practiced the First Fridays Devotions, one of which included final perseverance.[9]
The devotion consists of several practices that are performed on the first Fridays of nine consecutive months. On these days, a person is to attend Holy Mass and receive communion.[10] In many Catholic communities the practice of the Holy Hour of meditation during the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament during the First Fridays is encouraged. [11]
First Friday Promises
- I will give them all of the graces necessary for their state of life.
- I will establish peace in their houses.
- I will comfort them in all their afflictions.
- I will be their strength during life and above all during death.
- I will bestow a large blessing upon all their undertakings.
- Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy.
- Tepid souls shall grow fervent.
- Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection.
- I will bless every place where a picture of my heart shall be set up and honored.
- I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.
- Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be blotted out.
- I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who communicate on the First Friday in nine consecutive months the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving their sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment.[5]
First Saturday Devotions
The First Saturdays Devotion (or Act of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Blessed Virgin Mary) is a Catholic practice which, according to the visionaries, has been requested by the Virgin Mary in several visitations, notably Our Lady of Fátima and the subsequent Pontevedra apparitions. This devotion, and the marian apparitions, have been officially embraced by the Roman Catholic Church.The devotion fits on the Catholic tradition to venerate the Virgin Mary particularly on Saturdays, which originated in the scriptural account that, as the Mother of Jesus Christ, her heart was to be pierced with a sword, as prophesied during the presentation of Jesus in the temple; such sword was the bitter sorrow during the Crucifixion of Jesus (which Catholic devotees understand as the union of the Immaculate Heart and the Sacred Heart of Jesus -- see Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Apparitions). Such sorrow is particularly bitterly endured on Holy Saturday after Jesus was placed on the Sepulcher (before the Resurrection on Easter). Devotees of Fátima believe that the First Saturdays help to console the sorrows of God, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary for the sins against Her Immaculate Heart.
The Act of First Saturday Reparation
When Lúcia Santos experienced the Pontevedra apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she heard her promise to grant great graces, especially at the hour of death, in particular the salvation of the soul, for the believer who for Five Consecutive First Saturdays of Month (5 Saturdays in 5 months) receives Holy Communion and practices the following exercises as an Act of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Queen of Heaven:- Sacramental confession
- To receive Holy Communion
- A 5 Decades Rosary is recited
The activities of the Five First Saturdays devotions are different from similar devotions on other days in that all should be done with the specific intention in the heart of making reparation to the Blessed Mother for blasphemies against her, her name and her holy initiatives.
Sister Lúcia, the only Fátima visionary to survive into adulthood reported that the Blessed Mother came to her in her convent at Pontevedra, Spain with the following statement:
- Look, my daughter, at my Heart encircled by these thorns with which men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, strive to console me, and so I announce: I promise to assist at the hour of death with the grace necessary for salvation all those who, with the intention of making reparation to me, will, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, go to confession, receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the beads, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary.
Acts of Reparation to The Holy Trinity
Roman Catholic tradition include specific prayers and devotions as Acts of Reparation for insults and blasphemies against the Holy Trinity and the Blessed Sacrament. Similar prayers as Acts of Reparation to the Virgin Mary and Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ also existFatima prayer to the Holy Trinity
This prayer is based on the 20th century apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, and is attributed to an angel who appeared to the visionaries. It is sometimes called the Angel Prayer. The apparitions of Fatima have been approved by the Holy Catholic Church, thus deemed worthy of belief.In Catholic tradition, Saint Michael is the prince of the church of Jesus Christ and also the defender of Israel. Having revealed the Chaplet of Saint Michael to a Portuguese nun in the 18th Century, Saint Michael is often associated with being the angel that prepared the children shepherds for the visit of the Blessed Mother of God in Fatima, and thus to him it is attributed the prayer.
Words of the prayer:
- 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 indifferences by which He is offended. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary I beg the conversion of poor sinners.
Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ
Roman Catholic tradition includes specific prayers and devotions as Acts of Reparation for insults and blasphemies against Jesus Christ and the Holy Name of Jesus. These include the sufferings during the Passion of Jesus. Similar prayers as Acts of Reparation to the Virgin Mary and Acts of Reparation to The Holy Trinity also exist.These prayers are recited with the intent to repair the sins of others, e.g. when the name of Jesus Christ is taken in vain, for the repair of the sin of blasphemy or the insults against and sufferings of Jesus in Calvary. Pope John Paul II referred to reparation as the "unceasing effort to stand beside the endless crosses on which the Son of God continues to be crucified".
Specific Roman Catholic organizations with this purpose exist. For instance, the Archconfraternity of Reparation for blasphemy and the neglect of Sunday was founded by Msgr. Pierre Louis Parisis in 1847 and the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face was founded in 1851 by the Venerable Leo Dupont, the "Holy Man of Tours". In 1950, the Venerable Abbot Hildebrand Gregori formed the organization "Prayerful Sodality" which in 1977 became the Pontifical Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face.
The Golden Arrow Holy Face Devotion
Sister Marie of St Peter with the Golden Arrow. The three rings symbolize the Holy Trinity
On March 16, 1844 Jesus reportedly told Sr. Marie:
"Oh if you only knew what great merit you acquire by saying even once, Admirable is the Name of God , in a spirit of reparation for blasphemy."
Sister Mary stated that Jesus told her that the two sins which offend him the most grievously are blasphemy and the profanation of Sunday. He called this prayer the "Golden Arrow", saying that those who would recite it would pierce Him delightfully, and also heal those other wounds inflicted on Him by the malice of sinners. Sr. Mary of St. Peter saw, "streaming from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, delightfully wounded by this 'Golden Arrow,' torrents of graces for the conversion of sinners.[2][1][3]
The Golden Arrow Holy Face Devotion (Prayer)
This prayer is part of the Roman Catholic devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and appears in the book “The Golden Arrow”, the autobiography of Sr. Marie of St Peter. In her book she wrote that in her visions Jesus told her that an act of sacrilege or blasphemy is like a "poisoned arrow", hence the name “Golden Arrow” for this reparatory prayer. [1] Words of the prayer:[2][1]- May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable,
- most incomprehensible and ineffable Name of God
- be forever praised, blessed, loved, adored
- and glorified in Heaven, on earth,
- and under the earth,
- by all the creatures of God,
- and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
- in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
- Amen.
Rosary of the Holy Wounds
Venerable Marie Martha Chambon.
She reported that Jesus Christ appeared to her asked her to unite her sufferings with His as an Act of Reparation for the sins of the world. It also has special applicability to the souls in purgatory.[6][7]
Prayer of reparation for insults and blasphemies
Words of the prayer:[8]- O Jesus, my Savior and Redeemer, Son of the living God, behold, we kneel before Thee and offer Thee our reparation; we would make amends for all the blasphemies uttered against Thy holy name, for all the injuries done to Thee in the Blessed Sacrament, for all the irreverence shown toward Thine immaculate Virgin Mother, for all the calumnies and slanders spoken against Thy spouse, the holy Catholic and Roman Church. O Jesus, who hast said: "If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you", we pray and beseech Thee for all our brethren who are in danger of sin; shield them from every temptation to fall away from the true faith; save those who are even now standing on the brink of the abyss; to all of them give light and knowledge of the truth, courage and strength for the conflict with evil, perseverance in faith and active charity! For this do we pray, most merciful Jesus, in Thy name, unto God the Father, with whom Thou livest and reignest in the unity of the Holy Spirit world without end. Amen
Acts of Reparation to the Virgin Mary
Roman Catholic tradition and Mariology include specific prayers and devotions as acts of reparation for insults and blasphemies against the Blessed Virgin Mary. Similar prayers as Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ and Acts of Reparation to The Holy Trinity also exist.m Some such prayers are provided in the Raccolta Roman Catholic prayer book, first published in association with the Roman Catholic Congregation of Indulgences in 1807.The Raccolta is a book, published from 1807 to 1950, that listed Roman Catholic prayers and other acts of piety, reparation, such as novenas, for which specific indulgences were granted by Popes. The Raccolta (literally meaning "collection" in Italian) is an abbreviation of its full title: Raccolta delle orazioni e pie opere per le quali sono sono concedute dai Sommi Pontefici le SS. Indulgenze ("Collection of Prayers and Good Works for Which the Popes Have Granted Holy Indulgences"). The text was in Italian, with the prayers themselves given in Latin. By his bull Indulgentiarum Doctrina of 1 January 1967, Pope Paul VI ordered a revision of the collection of indulgenced prayers and works "with a view to attaching indulgences only to the most important prayers and works of piety, charity and penance". In 1968 it was replaced by the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, listing fewer specific prayers but including new general grants that apply to a wide range of prayerful actions.
The Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, which is in Latin, differs from the Italian-language Raccolta in listing "only the most important prayers and works of piety, charity and penance". On the other hand, it includes new general grants of partial indulgences that apply to a wide range of prayerful actions, and it indicates that the prayers that it does list as deserving veneration on account of divine inspiration or antiquity or as being in widespread use are only examples of those to which the first these general grants applies: "Raising the mind to God with humble trust while performing one's duties and bearing life's difficulties, and adding, at least mentally, some pious invocation". In this way, the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, in spite of its smaller size, classifies as indulgenced an immensely greater number of prayers than were treated as such in the Raccolta.
Reparation for insults to the Blessed Virgin Mary
Words of the Prayer from Raccolta:- O blessed Virgin, Mother of God, look down in mercy from Heaven, where thou art enthroned as Queen, upon me, a miserable sinner, thine unworthy servant. Although I know full well my own unworthiness, yet in order to atone for the offenses that are done to thee by impious and blasphemous tongues, from the depths of my heart I praise and extol thee as the purest, the fairest, the holiest creature of all God's handiwork. I bless thy holy name, I praise thine exalted privilege of being truly Mother of God, ever Virgin, conceived without stain of sin, Co-Redemptrix of the human race. I bless the Eternal Father who chose thee in an especial way for His daughter; I bless the Word Incarnate who took upon Himself our nature in thy bosom and so made thee His Mother; I bless the Holy Spirit who took thee as His bride. All honor, praise and thanksgiving to the ever-blessed Trinity who predestined thee and loved thee so exceedingly from all eternity as to exalt thee above all creatures to the most sublime heights. O Virgin, holy and merciful, obtain for all who offend thee the grace of repentance, and graciously accept this poor act of homage from me thy servant, obtaining likewise for me from thy Divine Son the pardon and remission of all my sins. Amen.
Reparation for blasphemy against the Blessed Virgin Mary
Words of the Prayer from Raccolta:
- Most glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, turn thine eyes in pity upon us, miserable sinners; we are sore afflicted by the many evils that surround us in this life, but especially do we feel our hearts break within us upon hearing the dreadful insults and blasphemies uttered against thee, O Virgin Immaculate. O how these impious sayings offend the infinite Majesty of God and of His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ! How they provoke His indignation and give us cause to fear the terrible effects of His vengeance! Would that the sacrifice of our lives might avail to put an end to such outrages and blasphemies; were it so, how gladly we should make it, for we desire, O most holy Mother, to love thee and to honor thee with all our hearts, since this is the will of God. And just because we love thee, we will do all that is in our power to make thee honored and loved by all men. In the meantime do thou, our merciful Mother, the supreme comforter of the afflicted, accept this our act of reparation which we offer thee for ourselves and for all our families, as well as for all who impiously blaspheme thee, not knowing what they say. Do thou obtain for them from Almighty God the grace of conversion, and thus render more manifest and more glorious thy kindness, thy power and thy great mercy. May they join with us in proclaiming thee blessed among women, the Immaculate Virgin and most compassionate Mother of God.
- Recite Hail Mary three times.
Acts of Reparation Mentioned in Apparitions
The need for reparation has been mentioned in some Marian apparitions. The messages of Our Lady of Akita, which were formally approved by the Holy See in 1988 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) include the following statement attributed to the Blessed Virgin Mary:
Roman Catholic theology asserts that it was by voluntary submission that Jesus Christ died on the cross to atone for man's disobedience and sin and that his death made reparation for the sins and offenses of the world. Catholicism professes that by adding their prayers, labours, and trials to the redemption won by Christ's death, Christians can attempt to make reparation to God for their own offenses and those of others. Protestant Christians believe that the prize is already won by Christ for those who believe, wholly apart from their merit, or lack thereof, and that obedience and service to Christ is an outflowing of the new life that he purchased for them in his death on the cross.
The theological doctrine of reparation is the foundation of the numerous confraternities and pious associations which have been founded, especially in modern times, to make reparation to God for the sins of men. The Archconfraternity of Reparation for blasphemy and the neglect of Sunday was founded 28 June, 1847, in the Church of St. Martin de La Noue at St. Dizier in France by Mgr. Parisis, Bishop of Langres. With a similar object, the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face was established at Tours, about 1851, through the piety of M. Dupont, the "holy man of Tours". In 1883 an association was formed in Rome to offer reparation to God on behalf of all nations. The idea of reparation is an essential element in the devotion of the Sacred Heart, and acts of reparation were once common public devotions in Roman Catholic churches. One of the ends for which the Eucharist is offered is for reparation. A pious widow of Paris conceived the idea of promoting this object in 1862. By the authority of Pope Leo XIII the erection of the Archconfraternity of the Mass of Reparation was sanctioned in 1886.
- "Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair by their suffering and their poverty for the sinners and ingrates."
Organizations for Reparation
Specific Catholic organizations (including Pontifical Congregations) whose focus is reparation have been formed:[13][14]- The Archconfraternity of Reparation for blasphemy and the neglect of Sunday was founded by Msgr. Pierre Louis Parisis in 1847.
- The Archconfraternity of the Holy Face was founded in 1851 by the Venerable Leo Dupont, the "Holy Man of Tours".
- In 1886 Pope Leo XIII authorized the formation of the Archconfraternity of the Mass of Reparation in Rome.
- In 1950, the Venerable Abbot Hildebrand Gregori formed the organization "Prayerful Sodality" which in 1977 became the Pontifical Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face.
Theological issues
From a theological view, reparation is closely connected with those of atonement and satisfaction, and thus belonging to some of the deepest mysteries of the Christian Faith. Christian theology teaches that man is a creature who has fallen into original sin from an original state of grace in which he was created, and that through the Incarnation, Passion, and Death of Jesus Christ, he has been redeemed and restored again in a certain degree to the original condition.Roman Catholic theology asserts that it was by voluntary submission that Jesus Christ died on the cross to atone for man's disobedience and sin and that his death made reparation for the sins and offenses of the world. Catholicism professes that by adding their prayers, labours, and trials to the redemption won by Christ's death, Christians can attempt to make reparation to God for their own offenses and those of others. Protestant Christians believe that the prize is already won by Christ for those who believe, wholly apart from their merit, or lack thereof, and that obedience and service to Christ is an outflowing of the new life that he purchased for them in his death on the cross.
The theological doctrine of reparation is the foundation of the numerous confraternities and pious associations which have been founded, especially in modern times, to make reparation to God for the sins of men. The Archconfraternity of Reparation for blasphemy and the neglect of Sunday was founded 28 June, 1847, in the Church of St. Martin de La Noue at St. Dizier in France by Mgr. Parisis, Bishop of Langres. With a similar object, the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face was established at Tours, about 1851, through the piety of M. Dupont, the "holy man of Tours". In 1883 an association was formed in Rome to offer reparation to God on behalf of all nations. The idea of reparation is an essential element in the devotion of the Sacred Heart, and acts of reparation were once common public devotions in Roman Catholic churches. One of the ends for which the Eucharist is offered is for reparation. A pious widow of Paris conceived the idea of promoting this object in 1862. By the authority of Pope Leo XIII the erection of the Archconfraternity of the Mass of Reparation was sanctioned in 1886.
References
- ^ Acts of Reparation http://catholicism.about.com/od/prayers/qt/Reparation_HN.htm
- ^ Miserentissimus Redemptor Encyclical of Pope Pius XI [1]
- ^ Vatican archives http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/letters/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_20001021_riparatrici_en.html
- ^ Joseph P. Christopher et al., 2003 The Raccolta, St Athanasius Press ISBN 978-0-9706526-6-9
- ^ Michael Freze, 1993, Voices, Visions, and Apparitions, OSV Publishing ISBN 0-87973-454-X
- ^ Dorothy Scallan. The Holy Man of Tours. (1990) ISBN 0-89555-390-2
- ^ Our Lady of Fatima http://www.fatima.org/
- ^ Story of Fatima http://www.salvemariaregina.info/SalveMariaRegina/SMR-104.html
- ^ Peter Stravinskas, 1998, OSV's Catholic Encyclopedia, OSV Press ISBN 0-87973-669-0 page 428
- ^ Roman Catholic worship: Trent to today by James F. White 2003 ISBN 0-8146-6194-7 page 35
- ^ Meditations on the Sacred Heart by Joseph McDonnell 2008 ISBN 1-4086-8658-9 page 118
- ^ Lucia Santos, Memoir 1, pp. 45-48, and Memoir 2, p. 82 and 93, in Fatima in Lucia's Own Words, entire text online.
- ^ Catholic Encyclopedia
- ^ Byzantine Catholic Church in America - Hildebrand Gregori a Step Closer to Canonization
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THE MYSTICAL CITY OF GOD
Mystical City of God, the miracle of His omnipotence and the abyss of His grace the divine history and life of the Virgin Mother of God our Queen and our Lady, most holy Mary expiatrix of the fault of eve and mediatrix of grace. Manifested to Sister Mary of Jesus, Prioress of the convent of the Immaculate Conception in Agreda, Spain. For new enlightenment of the world, for rejoicing of the Catholic Church, and encouragement of men. Completed in 1665.
THE DIVINE HISTORY AND LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOD
Venerable Mary of Agreda
Translated from the Spanish by Reverend George J. Blatter
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Translation from the Original Authorized Spanish Edition by Fiscar Marison (George J. Blatter). Begun on the Feast of the Assumption 1902, completed 1912.
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Book 4, Chapter 8
THE
FLIGHT TO EGYPT
Our heavenly Pilgrims left Jerusalem
and entered upon their banishment while yet the silence and obscurity
of night held sway. They were full of solicitude for the Pledge of
heaven, which they carried with them into a strange and unknown land.
Although faith and hope strengthened them (for in no other beings
could these virtues be more firmly and securely established than in
our Queen and her most faithful spouse), nevertheless the Lord
afforded them occasion for anxiety. Their love for the Infant Jesus
would naturally excite in them anxiety and suffering on an occasion
like this. They knew not what would happen during such a long
journey, nor when it should end, nor how they would fare in Egypt,
where they would be entire strangers, nor what comfort or convenience
they would find there for raising the Child, nor even how they would
be able to ward off great sufferings from Him on the way to Egypt.
Therefore the hearts of these holy Parents were filled with many
misgivings and anxious thoughts when they parted with so much haste
from their lodging–place; but their sorrow was much relieved
when the ten thousand heavenly courtiers above mentioned again
appeared to them in human forms and in their former splendor and
beauty, and when they again changed the night into the brightest day
for the holy Pilgrims. As they set forth from the portals of the city
the holy angels humiliated themselves and adored the incarnate Word
in the arms of the Virgin Mother. They also encouraged Her by again
offering their homage and service, stating that it was the will of
the Lord that they guide and accompany Her on the journey.
In this town of
Gaza they remained two days, for saint Joseph and the beast of burden
which carried the Queen were worn out by the fatigue of the journey.
From that place they sent back the servant of saint Elisabeth, taking
care to caution him not to tell any one of their whereabouts. But God
provided still more effectually against this danger; for He took away
from this man all remembrance of what saint Joseph had charged him to
conceal, so that he retained only his message to saint Elisabeth.
Most holy Mary expended the presents sent by Elisabeth in
entertaining the poor; for She, who was Mother of the poor, could not
bear to pass them by unassisted. Of the clothes sent to Her She made
a cloak for the divine Infant, and one for saint Joseph, to shelter
Them from the discomforts of the season and of the journey. She also
used other things in their possession for the
comfort of her Child and of saint Joseph. The most prudent Virgin
would not rely on miraculous assistance whenever She could provide
for the daily needs by her own diligence and labor; for in these
matters She desired to subject Herself to the natural order and
depend upon her own efforts. During the two days which they spent in
that city the most pure Mary, in order to enrich it with great
blessings, performed some wonderful deeds. She freed two sick persons
from the danger of death and cured their ailments. She restored to
another person, a crippled woman, the use of her limbs. In the souls
of many, who met Her and conversed with Her, She caused divine
effects of the knowledge of God and of a change of life.
All of them felt themselves moved to praise their Creator. But
neither Mary nor Joseph spoke a word about their native country, nor
of the destination or object of their journey; for if this
information had been added to the public notice caused by their
wonderful actions, the attention of Herod’s agents might have
been drawn toward them, and they might have found sufficient
inducement to follow them after their departure.
On the third day after our Pilgrims
had touched Gaza, they departed from that city for Egypt. Soon
leaving the inhabited parts of Palestine, they entered the sandy
deserts of Bersabe, which they were obliged to traverse for sixty
leagues in order to arrive and take their abode in Heliopolis, the
present Cairo in Egypt. This journey through the desert consumed a
number of days, for the distance they could travel each day was but
short, not only on account of the laborious progress over the deep
sand, but also on account of the hardships occasioned by the want of
shelter. There were many incidents on their way through this
solitude; I will mention some of them, from which others can be
conjectured; for it is not necessary to relate all of them. In order
to understand how much Mary and Joseph and also the Infant Jesus
suffered on their pilgrimage, it must be remembered that the Almighty
permitted his Onlybegotten, with his most holy Mother and saint
Joseph, to suffer the inconveniences and hardships naturally
connected with travel through this desert. And although the heavenly
Lady made no complaints, yet She was much afflicted, which was also
true of her most faithful husband. For both of them suffered many
personal inconveniences and discomforts, while the Mother, in
addition thereto, was afflicted still more on account of the
sufferings of her Son and of saint Joseph; and the latter was deeply
grieved not to be able by his diligence and care to ease the
hardships of the Child and his Spouse.
During all this journey of sixty
leagues through desert they had no other night–shelter than the
sky and open air; moreover, it was in the time of winter, for journey
took place in the month of February, only six days after the
Purification, as was indicated in the last chapter. In the first
night on these sandy plains they rested at the foot of a small hill,
this being the only protection they could find. The Queen of heaven
with the Child in her arms seated Herself on the earth, and with her
husband She ate of the victuals brought with them from Gaza. The
Empress of heaven also nursed the Infant Jesus at her breast and He
on his part rejoiced his Mother and her husband by his contentment.
In order to furnish them with some kind of shelter against the open
air; however narrow and humble it might be, saint Joseph formed a
sort of tent for the divine Word and most holy Mary by means of his
cloak and some sticks. During that night the ten thousand angels who,
full of marvel, assisted these earthly Pilgrims in visible human
shapes, formed a guard around their King and Queen. The great Lady
perceived that her divine Son offered up to the eternal Father the
hardships and labors both of Himself and of Mary and Joseph. In these
prayers and in the other acts of his deified Soul, the Queen joined
him for the greater part of the night. The divine Infant slept for a
short time in her arms, while She continued wakeful and engaged in
heavenly colloquies with the Most High and his angels. Saint Joseph
slept upon the ground, resting his head upon the chest, which
contained the clothing and other articles of their baggage.
On the next day they pursued their journey and
their little store of fruit and bread was soon exhausted, that they
began to suffer great want and to feel the hunger. Although Joseph
was more deeply concerned, yet both of them felt this privation very
much. On one of the first days of their journey they partook of no
sustenance until nine o’clock at night, not having any more
even of the coarse and poor food which until then had sustained them
in their hardships and labor. As nature demanded some refreshment
after the exertion and weariness of travel, and as there was no way
of supplying their want by natural means, the heavenly Lady addressed
Herself to the Most High in these words: “Eternal, great and
powerful God, I give Thee thanks and bless Thee for thy magnificent
bounty; and also that, without my merits, only on account of thy
merciful condescension, Thou gavest me life and being and preservest
me in it, though I am but dust and a useless creature. I have not
made a proper return for all these benefits; therefore how can I ask
for myself what I cannot repay? But, my Lord and Father; look upon
thy Onlybegotten and grant me what is necessary to sustain my natural
life and also that of my spouse, so that I may serve thy Majesty and
thy Word made flesh for the salvation of men.”
In order that the clamors of the
sweetest Mother might proceed from yet greater tribulation, the Most
High permitted the elements to afflict them more than at other times
and in addition to the sufferings caused by their fatigue,
destitution and hunger. For there arose a storm of wind and rain,
which harassed and blinded them by its fury. This hardship grieved
still more the tender–hearted and loving Mother on account of
the delicate Child, which was not yet fifty days old. Although She
tried to cover and protect Him as much as possible, yet She could not
prevent Him from feeling the inclemency of the weather, so that He
shed tears and shivered from the cold in the same manner as other
children are wont to do. Then the anxious Mother, making use of her
power as Queen and Mistress of creatures, commanded the elements not
to afflict their Creator, but to afford Him shelter and refreshment,
and wreak their vengeance upon Her alone. And, as related once
before, at the occasion of the birth of Christ and of the journey to
Jerusalem, again the wind immediately moderated and the storm abated,
not daring to approach Mother and Child. In return for this loving
forethought, the Infant Jesus commanded his angels to assist his
kindest Mother and to serve Her as a shield against the inclemency of
the weather. They immediately complied and constructed a resplendent
and beautiful globe round about and over their incarnate God, his
Mother and her spouse. In this they were protected and defended more
effectually than all the wealthy and powerful of the world in their
palaces and rich garments. The same they did several times during the
journey through the desert.
Nevertheless, they were in want of
food, and they were destitute of other things unprovidable by their
own mere human effort. But the Lord allowed them to fall into this
need in order that, listening to the acceptable prayers of his
Spouse, He might make provision also for this by the hands of the
angels. They brought them delicious bread and well–seasoned
fruits, and moreover a most delicious drink; all of which they
administered and served with their own hands. Then all of them
together sang hymns of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, who gives
food to all creatures at opportune times, in order that the poor may
eat and be filled (Ps. 135, 25) whose eyes and hopes are fixed upon
his kingly Providence and bounty. Of such a kind was the delicate
feast, with which the Lord regaled his three exiled Wanderers in the
desert of Bersabe (III Ivings 19, 3), for it was the same desert in
which Elias, fleeing from Jezabel, was comforted by the hearth cake,
brought to him by the angel in order that he might travel to Horeb
mount.
So then the Infant Jesus, with his
Mother and saint Joseph, reached the inhabited country of Egypt. On
entering the towns the divine Infant, in the arms of his Mother,
raised his eyes and his hands to the Father asking for the salvation
of these inhabitants held captive by satan. And immediately He made
use of his sovereign and divine power and drove the demons from the
idols and hurled them to the infernal abyss. Like lightning flashed
from the clouds they darted forth and descended to the lowermost
caverns of hell and darkness (Luke 10, 4). At the same instant the
idols crashed to the ground, the altars fell to pieces, and the
temples crumbled to ruins. The cause of these marvelous effects were
known to the heavenly Lady, for She united her prayers with those of
her most holy Son as Co–operatrix of his salvation. Saint
Joseph also knew this to be the work of the incarnate Word; and He
praised and extolled Him in holy admiration. But the demons, although
they felt the divine power, knew not whence this power proceeded.
The Egyptian people were astounded at
these inexplicable happenings; although among the more learned, ever
since the sojourn of Jeremias in Egypt, an ancient tradition was
current that a King of the Jews would come and that the temples of
the idols would be destroyed. Yet of this prophecy the common people
had no knowledge, nor did the learned know how it was to be
fulfilled: and therefore the terror and confusion was spread among
all of them, as was prophesied by Isaias (Is. 9, 1). In this
disturbance and fear, some, reflecting on these events, came to our
great Lady and saint Joseph; and, in their curiosity at seeing these
strangers in their midst, they also spoke to them about the ruin of
their temples and their idols. Making use of this occasion the Mother
of wisdom began to undeceive these people, speaking to them of the
true God and teaching them that He is the one and only Creator of
heaven and earth, who is alone to be adored, and acknowledged as God;
that all others are but false and deceitful gods, nothing more than
the wood, or clay, or metal of which they are made, having neither
eyes, nor ears, nor any power; that the same artisans that made them,
and any other man, could destroy them at pleasure; since any man is
more noble and powerful than they; that the oracles which they gave
forth were answers of the lying and deceitful demons within them; and
that the latter had no power, since there is but one true God.
The heavenly Lady was so sweet and
kind in her words, and at the same time so full of life and force;
her appearance was so charming, and all her interaction was
accompanied by such salutary effects, that the rumor of the arrival
of these strange Pilgrims quickly spread about in the different
towns, and many people gathered to see and hear Them. Moreover, the
powerful prayers of the incarnate Word wrought a change of hearts,
and the crumbling of the idols caused an incredible commotion among
these people, instilling into their minds knowledge of the true God
and sorrow for their sins without their knowing whence or through
whom these blessings came to them. Jesus, Mary and Joseph pursued
their way through many towns of Egypt, performing these and many
other miracles driving out the demons not only from the idols, but
out of many bodies possessed by them, curing many that were
grievously and dangerously ill, enlightening the hearts by the
doctrines of truth and eternal life. By these temporal benefits and
others, so effectual in moving the ignorant, earthly–minded
people, many were drawn to listen to the instructions of Mary and
Joseph concerning a good and salutary life.
The traditions, which in many parts of Egypt kept
alive the remembrance of wonders wrought by the incarnate Word, gave
rise to differences of opinion among the sacred and other writers in
regard to the city, in which our Exiles lived during their stay in
Egypt. Some of them assert that they dwelt in this city, some in
another. But all of them may be right and in accordance with facts,
since each one may be speaking of a different period of the sojourn
of our Pilgrims in Memphis, or Babylon of Egypt, or in Matarieh; for
they visited not only these cities, but many others. I for my part
have been informed that they passed through these and then reached
Heliopolis, where they took up their abode. Their holy guardian
angels instructed the heavenly Queen and saint Joseph, that They were
to settle in this city. For, besides the ruin of the temples and
idols, which, just as in other places, took place at their arrival
here, the Lord had resolved to perform still other miracles for his
glory and for the rescue of souls; and the inhabitants of this city,
(according to the good fortune already prognosticated in its name as
“City of the Sun”), were to see the Sun of justice and
grace arise over them and shine upon them. Following these orders,
saint Joseph sought to purchase for a suitable price some dwelling in
the neighborhood; and the Lord ordained that he should find a poor
and humble, yet serviceable house, at small distance from the city,
just such as the Queen of heaven desired.
The most prudent Lady and her spouse,
forsaken and destitute of all temporal help, accommodated themselves
joyfully to the poverty of their little dwelling. Of the three rooms,
which it contained, they assigned one to be the sanctuary or temple
of the Infant Jesus under the tender care of the most pure Mother;
there they placed the cradle and her bare couch, until, after some
days, by the labor of the holy spouse, and through the kindness of
some pious women, they could obtain wherewith to cover it. Another
room was set aside for the sleeping place and oratory of saint
Joseph. The third served as a workshop for plying his trade. In view
of their great poverty, and of the great difficulty of sufficient
employment as a carpenter, the great Lady resolved to assist him by
the work of her hands to earn a livelihood. She immediately executed
her resolve by seeking to obtain needlework through the intervention
of the pious women, who, attracted by her modesty and sweetness, were
beginning to have interactions with Her. As all that She attended to
or busied Herself with was so perfect, the reputation of her skill
soon spread about, so that She never was in want of employment
whereby to eke out the slender means of livelihood for her Son, the
true God and man.
In order to obtain the indispensable victuals and
clothing, furnish the house ever so moderately, and pay the necessary
expenses, it seemed to our Queen that She must employ all day in work
and consume the night in attending to her spiritual exercises. This
She resolved upon, not for any motives of gain, or because She did
not continue in her contemplations during the day; for this was her
incessant occupation in the presence of the infant God, as I have so
often said and shall repeat hereafter. But some of the hours, which
She was wont to spend in special exercises, She wished to transfer to
the night–time in order to be able to extend the hours of
manual labor, not being minded to ask or expect God’s
miraculous assistance for anything which She could attain by greater
diligence and additional labor on her own part. In all such cases we
ask for miraculous help more for our own convenience than on account
of necessity. The most prudent Queen asked the eternal Father to
provide sustenance for her divine Son; but at the same time She
continued to labor. Like one who does not trust in herself, or in her
own efforts, She united prayer with her labors, in order to obtain
the necessities of life like other men.
On account of the excessive heat prevailing in
Egypt, and on account of many disorders rampant among the people, the
distempers of the Egyptians were wide–spread and grievous.
During the years of the stay of the Infant Jesus and his most holy
Mother, pestilence devastated Heliopolis and other places. On this
account, and on account of the report of their wonderful deeds,
multitudes of people came to them from all parts of the country and
returned home cured in body and soul. In order that the grace of the
Lord might flow more abundantly, and in order that his kindest Mother
might have assistance in her works of mercy, God, at the instance of
the heavenly Mistress, ordained saint Joseph as her helper in the
teaching and healing of the infirm. For this purpose He was endowed
with new light and power of healing. The holy Mary began to make use
of his assistance in the third year of their stay in Egypt; so that
now he ordinarily taught and cured the men, while the blessed Lady
attended to the women. Incredible was the fruit resulting from their
labors in the souls of men for her uninterrupted beneficence and the
gracious efficacy of her words drew all toward our Queen, and her
modesty and holiness filled them with devoted love. They offered her
many presents and large possessions, anxious to see Her make use of
them: but never did She receive anything for Herself, or reserve it
for her own use; for they continued to provide for their wants by the
labor of her hands and the earnings of saint Joseph. When at time the
blessed Lady was offered some gift that seemed serviceable and proper
for helping the needy and the poor, She would accept it for that
purpose. Only with this understanding would She ever yield to the
pious and affectionate importunities of devout persons; and even then
She often made them a present in return of things made by her own
hands. From what I have related we can form some idea how great and
how numerous were the miracles wrought by the holy Family during
their seven years’ stay in Egypt and Heliopolis; for it would
be impossible to enumerate and describe all of them.
Neither the tongue
of creatures can describe nor intellect comprehend, the vast merits
and increase of sanctity accumulating in the most holy Mary through
these continued and wonderful works; for in all things She acted with
a prudence more than angelic. What moved Her to the greatest
admiration, love and praise of the Almighty
was to see how, at the intercession of Herself and her Son for the
holy Innocents, his providence showed itself so liberal toward them.
She knew as if She were present the great number of children that
were killed and that all of them, though some were only eight days,
two or six months old, and none of them over two years, had the use
of their reason; that they all received a high knowledge of the being
of God, perfect love, faith and hope, with which they performed
heroic acts of faith, worship, and love of God, reverence and
compassion for their parents. They prayed for their parents and, in
reward for their sufferings, obtained for them light and grace for
advance in spiritual things. They willingly submitted to martyrdom,
in spite of the tenderness of their age, which made their sufferings
so much the greater and consequently augmented their merits. A
multitude of angels assisted them and bore them to limbo or to the
bosom of Abraham. By their arrival they rejoiced the holy ancients
and confirmed them in the hope of speedy liberation. All these were
effects of the prayers of the divine Child and his Mother. Aware of
all these wonders, She was inflamed with ardor and exclaimed: “Praise
the Lord, ye children”; and joined with them in the praise of
the Author of these magnificent works, so worthy of his Goodness and
Omnipotence. Mary alone knew of them and appreciated them properly.
WORDS OF THE QUEEN
The Virgin Mary
speaks to Sister Mary of Agreda, Spain
My daughter, in what thou hast
written I wish that thou learn a lesson from the very sorrow and
apprehension with which thou hast performed this task. Well–founded
is thy sorrow to see how such a noble creature as man, made according
to the likeness and image of the Lord, endowed with such divine
qualities, and gifted with the power of knowing, loving, seeing, and
enjoying God eternally, should allow himself to be degraded and
defiled by such brutal and abominable passions as to shed the
innocent blood of those who can do no harm to any one. This should
induce thee to weep over the ruin of so many souls; especially in the
times in which thou livest, when that same ambition which incited
Herod has kindled such great hatred and enmity among the children of
the Church, occasioning the ruin of countless souls and causing the
waste and loss of the blood of my most holy Son, poured out for the
salvation of men. Do thou bitterly deplore this loss.
But likewise be
warned by what thou hast seen in others; ponder the effects of
passions admitted into the heart; for if once they have mastered the
heart, they will either smother it in lust when it finds success, or
consume it with wrath at meeting any opposition. Fear thou, my
daughter, this danger, not only on account of the results thou seest
of ambition in Herod, but also on account of what thou
seest going on every hour in other persons. Be very careful not to
allow thyself to be mastered by anything, be it ever so small; for in
order to start a great conflagration the smallest spark is
sufficient. I have often repeated to thee this same warning, and I
shall continue to do so more often in the future; for the greatest
difficulty in practicing virtue consists in dying to all
that is pleasurable to the senses. Thou canst not be a fit instrument
in the hands of the Lord, such as He desires thee to be, if thou dost
not cleanse thy faculties even of the images of all creatures, so
that they do not find entrance into thy desires. I wish it to be to
thee an inexorable law that all things,
except God, his angels and saints, be to
thee as if they did not exist. These should be thy sole possession;
on this account the Lord has opened to thee his secrets, honors thee
with his familiarity and intimacy, and for this purpose also do I
honor thee with mine, that thou neither live nor wish to live without
the Lord.
Book 4, Chapter 9
THE
SWEET AND INTIMATE COMMUNICATIONS OF JESUS AND MARY; THEIR RETURN
FROM EGYPT
During one of the conversations of
Mary with Joseph concerning the mysteries of the Lord, the Infant
Jesus, having reached the age of one year, resolved to break the
silence and speak in plain words to Joseph, who so faithfully
fulfilled the duties of a foster–father. As I have already
mentioned in chapter the tenth, He had thus conversed with his
heavenly Mother from the time of his Birth. The two holy Spouses were
speaking of the infinite being of God, of his goodness and excessive
love, which induced Him to send his Onlybegotten Son as the Teacher
and Savior of men, clothing Him in human form in order that He might
converse with them and suffer the punishments of their depraved
natures. Saint Joseph was lost in wonder at the works of the Lord and
inflamed by affectionate gratitude and exaltation of the Lord.
Seizing upon this occasion the infant God, resting upon the arms of
his Mother as upon the seat of wisdom, began to speak to saint Joseph
in an intelligible voice, saying: “My father, I came from
heaven upon this earth in order to be the light of the world, and in
order to rescue it from darkness of sin; in order to seek and know my
sheep as a good Shepherd, to give them nourishment of eternal life,
teach them the way of heaven, open its gates, which had been closed
by their sins. I desire that you both be children of the Light, which
you have so close at hand.”
These words of the
Infant Jesus, being full of divine life, filled the heart of the
patriarch saint Joseph with new love, reverence and joy. He fell on
his knees before the infant God with the profoundest humility and
thanked Him for having called Him “father” by the very
first word spoken to him. He besought the Lord with many tears to
enlighten him and enable him to fulfill entirely his most holy will,
to teach him to be thankful for the
incomparable benefits flowing from his generous hands. Parents who
love their children very much are touched with consolation and pride
to see their children show great signs of wisdom and virtue; and even
when this is not the case, they are naturally inclined to extol and
make much of their childish pranks and sayings; for all this is the
result of their tender affection for their young offspring. Although
saint Joseph was not the natural, but the foster–father of
Jesus, his love for Him exceeded by far all the love of parents for
their children, since in him grace, or even natural love, was more
powerful than others, yea than in all the parents together. Hence the
joy of his soul is to be measured by this love and appreciation of
saint Joseph as being the foster–father of the Infant Jesus.
For he at the same time heard himself called the father of the Son of
the eternal Father, and saw Him so beautiful in grace, while
listening to such exalted wisdom and knowledge in the Child.
During the whole
of this first year his sweetest Mother had wrapped the infant God in
clothes and coverings usual with other children; for He did not wish
to be distinguished in this from others, and He wished to bear
witness to his true humanity and to his love for
mortals, enduring this inconvenience otherwise not required of Him.
His boundless love for mortals inflamed Her with loving gratitude
toward the Lord and produced in her heroic
acts of many virtues. Seeing that the Child Jesus desired no footgear
and only one garment, She said to Him: “My Son and my Lord, thy
Mother has not the heart to allow Thee to go barefoot upon the ground
at thy tender age; permit me, my Love, to provide some kind of
covering to protect them. I also fear that the rough garment, which
Thou askest of me, will wound thy tender body, if thou permit no
linen to be worn beneath.” “My Mother, I will permit a
slight and ordinary covering for my feet until the time of my public
preaching shall come, for this I must do barefooted. But I do not
wish to wear linen, because it foments carnal pleasures, and is the
causes of many vices in men. I wish to teach many by my example to
renounce it for love and imitation of Me.”
Immediately the great Queen set
diligently about fulfilling the will of her most holy Son. Procuring
some wool in its natural and uncolored state, She spun it very finely
with her own hands and of it She wove a garment of one piece and
without any seam, similar to knitted stuff, or rather like twilled
cloth; for it was woven of twisted cords, not like smooth–woven
goods. She wove it upon a small loom, by meshes, crocheting it of one
seamless piece in a mysterious manner (John 19, 23). Two things were
wonderful about it: that it was entirely even and uniform, without
any folds, and that, at her request, the natural color was changed to
a more suitable one, which was a mixture of brown and a most
exquisite silver–gray, so that it could not be called either,
appearing to be neither altogether brown, nor silvery, nor gray, but
having a mixture of them all. She also wove a pair of sandals of
strong thread, like hempen shoes, with which She covered the feet of
the infant God. Besides these She made a half tunic of linen, which
was to serve as an undergarment. In the next chapter I shall tell
what happened when She clothed the Infant Jesus.
From the time the Child Jesus was on his feet He
commenced to retire and spent certain hours of the day in the oratory
of his Mother. As the most prudent Mother was anxious to know his
wishes in regard to her interactions with Him, the Lord responded to
her mute appeal, saying: “My Mother, enter and remain with Me
always in order that thou mayest imitate Me in my works for I wish
that in thee be modeled and exhibited the high perfection which I
desire to see accomplished in the souls. For if they had not resisted
my first intentions (I Tim. 2, 4), they would have been endowed with
my most abundant and copious gifts; but since the human race has
hindered this, I have chosen thee as the vessel of all perfection and
of the treasures of my right hand, which the rest of the creatures
have abused and lost. Observe me therefore in all my actions for the
purpose of imitating Me.”
Thus the heavenly Lady was installed
anew as the Disciple of her most holy Son. Thenceforward passed such
great and hidden mysteries between these Two, that not until the day
of eternity will they be known. Many times the divine Child
prostrated Himself on the ground, at others He was raised from the
ground in the form of a cross, earnestly praying to the eternal
Father for the salvation of mortals. In all this his most loving
Mother imitated Him. For to Her were manifest the interior operations
of his most holy soul, just as well as the exterior movements of his
body. Of this knowledge of most pure Mary I have spoken in other
parts of this history and it is necessary to point it out often,
because this was the source of the light which guided Her in her holy
life. It was such a singular blessing that all creatures together
will not be able to understand or describe it by their united powers.
The great Lady did not always enjoy visions of the Divinity; but
always the sight of the most holy humanity and soul of her Son with
all their activities. In a special manner She was witness of the
effects of the hypostatic and beatific union of the humanity with the
Divinity. Although She did not always see this glory and this union
substantially; yet She perceived the interior acts by which his
humanity reverenced, loved and magnified the Divinity to which it was
united; and this privilege was reserved solely to most holy Mary.
On these occasions it often happened
that the Child Jesus in the presence of his most holy Mother wept and
perspired blood, for this happened many times before his agony in the
garden. Then the blessed Lady would wipe his face interiorly
perceiving and knowing the cause of this agony, namely the loss of
the foreknown and of those who would be ungrateful for the benefits
of their Creator and Redeemer and in whom the works of the infinite
power and goodness of the Lord would be wasted. At other times the
blessed Mother would find Him refulgent with heavenly light and
surrounded by angels that sang sweet hymns of praise; and She was
made aware, that the heavenly Father was pleased in his beloved and
Onlybegotten Son (Matth. 17, 5). All these wonders commenced from the
time when at the age of one year He began to walk, witnessed only by
his most holy Mother, whose heart was to be the treasure–house
of his wonders. The works of love, praise and worshipful gratitude,
his petitions for the human race, all exceed my ability to describe.
I must refer the understanding of it to the faith and piety of the
Christians.
Many of the children of Heliopolis
gathered around the Child Jesus, as it is natural with children of
similar age and condition. Since they were free from great malice and
were not given to inquire, whether He was more than man, but freely
admitted the heavenly light, the Master of truth welcomed them as far
as was befitting. He instilled into them the knowledge of God and of
the virtues; He taught and catechised them in the way of eternal
life, even more abundantly than the adults. As his words were full of
life and strength. He won their hearts and impressed his truths so
deeply upon them, that all those, who had this good fortune,
afterwards became great and saintly men; for in the course of time
they ripened in themselves the fruit of this heavenly seed sown so
early into their souls.
The Child Jesus
reached the end of his seventh year while
in Egypt, which was also the term set by the eternal Wisdom for his
mysterious sojourn in that land. In order that the prophecies might
he fulfilled, it was necessary that He return to Nazareth. This
decree the eternal Father intimated to his
most holy Son on a certain day in the
presence of his holy Mother and while She was with Him in prayer. She
saw it mirrored in his deified soul and She saw how He submitted to
it in obedience to the Father. Therein the great Lady joined Him,
although they had already become better acquainted and habituated to
their present abode than to their own native city of Nazareth.
Neither the Mother nor the Son made known to saint Joseph this new
decree of heaven. But in that very night the angel of the Lord spoke
to him in his sleep, as Matthew relates (Matth. 2, 19), and bade him
take the Child and its Mother and return to the land of Israel for
Herod and those who with him had sought the life of the Child, were
dead. So much value does the Almighty set on the proper order in
created things, that, though Jesus was the true God and his Mother so
highly exalted above saint Joseph in sanctity, He did not permit the
arrangements of this journey to proceed from his Son nor from his
Mother, but from saint Joseph, who was the head of this Family. God
intended to teach all mortals, that He wishes all things to be
governed by the natural order set up by his Providence; and that the
inferiors and subjects of the mystical body of the Church, even
though they may excel in virtue and in certain other respects, must
obey and submit to their superiors and prelates in the visible order.
They departed for Palestine in the
company of angels as on their way thence. The great Queen sat on the
ass with the divine Child on her lap and saint Joseph walked afoot,
closely following the Son and Mother. On account of the loss of such
great Benefactors their acquaintances and friends were very sorrowful
at the news of their departure; with incredible weeping and sighing
they saw Them leave, knowing and loudly complaining, that they were
now losing all their consolation and refuge in their necessities. If
the divine power had not interfered, the holy Family would have found
great difficulty in leaving Heliopolis; for its inhabitants began to
feel the night of their miseries secretly setting upon their hearts
at the parting of the Sun, which had dispersed and brightened its
darkness (John 1, 9). In traversing the inhabited country they passed
through some towns of Egypt, where They scattered their graces and
blessings. The news of their passage spreading about, all the sick,
the afflicted and disconsolate gathered to seek Them out, and they
found themselves relieved in body and soul. Many of the sick were
cured, many demons were expelled without their knowing who it was
that thus hurled them back to hell. Yet they felt the divine power,
which compelled them and wrought such blessings among men.
They reached
Nazareth, their home, for the Child was to be called a Nazarene. They
found their former humble house in charge of the devout cousin of
saint Joseph, who, as I have mentioned in the twelfth chapter of the
third book, had offered to serve him while our Queen was absent in
the house of Elisabeth. Before They had left Judea for Egypt, saint
Joseph had written to this woman, asking
her to take care of the house and what it contained. They found it
all in good condition and his cousin received Them with great joy on
account of her love for the great Queen,
though at the same time she did not know of
her dignity. The heavenly Lady entered with her Son and saint Joseph,
and immediately She prostrated Herself in adoration of the Lord and
in thanksgiving for having led Them, safe from the cruelty of
Herod, to this retreat, and preserved Them in the
dangers of their banishment and their long and arduous journeys.
Above all did She render thanks for having returned in company with
her Son, now grown both in years and in grace and virtue (Luke 2,
40).
Taking counsel with her divine Child
She proceeded to set up a rule of life and regulate her pious
practices; not that She had failed to observe a rule of life on her
journey; for the most prudent Lady, in imitation of her Son, had
always observed the most perfect order according to circumstances.
But being now peacefully settled in her home She wished to include
many exercises, which on the journey were impossible. Her greatest
solicitude was always to cooperate with her most holy Son for the
salvation of souls which was the work most urgently enjoined upon her
by the eternal Father. Toward this most high end our Queen directed
all her practices in union with the Redeemer, and this was their
constant occupation, as we shall see in the course of this second
part. The holy Joseph also ordered his occupations and his work so as
most worthily to earn sustenance for the divine Child and his Mother
as well as for himself. That which in other sons of Adam is
considered a punishment and a hardship was to this holy Patriarch a
great happiness. For while others were condemned to sustain their
natural life by the labor of their hands in the sweat of their brows,
saint Joseph was blessed and consoled beyond measure to know, that he
had been chosen by his labor and sweat to support God himself and his
Mother, to whom belonged heaven and earth and all that they contain
(Esther 13, 10).
The Queen of the angels herself
undertook to pay the debt of gratitude due to saint Joseph for his
labors and solicitude. Accordingly She provided his meals and
attended to his comforts with incredible care and most loving
gratitude. She was obedient to him in all things and humbled Herself
before Him as if She were his handmaid and not his spouse, or, what
is more, not the Mother of the Creator and Lord of all. She accounted
Herself unworthy of existence and of being suffered to walk upon the
earth; for She thought it just, that She should be in want of all
things. In the consciousness of having been created out of nothing
and therefore unable to make any return for either this benefit or,
according to her estimation, for any of the others, She established
in Herself such a rare humility, that She thought Herself less than
the dust and unworthy to mingle with it. For the least favor She gave
admirable thanks to the Lord, as to the first cause and origin of
them all, and to creatures as to the instruments of his bounty. To
some She gave thanks because they conferred favors upon Her, to
others because they had denied them; and to others again because they
bore with Her in patience. She acknowledged Herself as indebted to
all of them, though She filled them with the blessings of sweetness
and placed herself at the feet of all, seeking ingenious means and
artifices to let no instant and no occasion pass for practicing the
most perfect and exalted virtues to the Admiration of the angels and
the pleasure and the delight of the Most High.
WORDS OF THE QUEEN
The Virgin Mary
speaks to Sister Mary of Agreda, Spain
My daughter, while
journeying at the command of the Lord from one country to another and
during the works enjoined upon me, my heart
was never troubled nor my spirit cast down; for I always held myself
prepared to fulfill entirely the will of God. Although the Lord made
known to Me his high ends, yet this was not always done at the
beginning, thus permitting me to endure so
much the greater sufferings; for in obeying the Lord no further
reason is necessary than that the Lord Creator so commands and
disposes. The souls must accustom themselves to look for this motive
alone and to learn solely to please the Lord, without distinguishing
between fortunate or unfortunate events and without looking to their
own inclinations. In this kind of wisdom I wish that thou advance. In
imitation of me and to satisfy thy obligations toward my most holy
Son, do thou receive prosperity or adversity in this mortal life with
unmoved countenance and with equanimity and peace or mind. Let not
the one grieve, nor the other vainly rejoice thee; but attend only to
all that which the Almighty ordains according to his pleasure.
Human life is interwoven thus
variously with both kinds of events; some of them according, others
contrary to the likings of mortals; some which they, abhor others
which they desire. As the human heart is limited and narrow it
immoderately inclines to extremes, boundlessly desiring what it loves
and likes, and, on the other hand, grieving and sorrowing at what it
abhors and dislikes. These changeful moods and fluctuations create
danger for all or many virtues. The disorderly love for one creature
which it cannot attain, moves the soul presently to desire another,
expecting a balm for its disappointment in the former. And if it is
successful, the soul becomes involved and flurried in the desire of
retaining what it possesses, thus casting itself by these velleities
into still greater disorders and passions. Attend, therefore,
dearest, to this danger and attack it at the root by preserving thy
heart independent and riveted only on the divine Providence, without
ever allowing it to incline toward what it desires or longs for, or
to abhor what is painful to it. Let the will of the Lord be thy only
delight and joy. Let neither thy desires draw thee on, nor thy fears
dishearten thee. Let not thy exterior occupations, and much less thy
regard or attention to creatures, ever impede thee or divert thee
from thy holy exercises, attending always to my example. Seek thou
lovingly and diligently to follow in my footsteps.
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Catholic Catechism
PART FOUR - CHRISTIAN PRAYER
SECTION TWO - THE LORD'S PRAYER
ARTICLE 2
OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN"
I. "WE DARE TO SAY"
2777 In the Roman liturgy, the Eucharistic assembly is invited to pray to our heavenly Father with filial boldness; the Eastern liturgies develop and use similar expressions: "dare in all confidence," "make us worthy of. . . . " From the burning bush Moses heard a voice saying to him, "Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."26 Only Jesus could cross that threshold of the divine holiness, for "when he had made purification for sins," he brought us into the Father's presence: "Here am I, and the children God has given me."27
II. ABBA - "FATHER!"
2779 Before we make our own this first exclamation of the Lord's Prayer, we must humbly cleanse our hearts of certain false images drawn "from this world." Humility makes us recognize that "no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him," that is, "to little children."30 The purification of our hearts has to do with paternal or maternal images, stemming from our personal and cultural history, and influencing our relationship with God. God our Father transcends the categories of the created world. To impose our own ideas in this area "upon him" would be to fabricate idols to adore or pull down. To pray to the Father is to enter into his mystery as he is and as the Son has revealed him to us.
2781 When we pray to the Father, we are in communion with him and with his Son, Jesus Christ.33 Then we know and recognize him with an ever new sense of wonder. The first phrase of the Our Father is a blessing of adoration before it is a supplication. For it is the glory of God that we should recognize him as "Father," the true God. We give him thanks for having revealed his name to us, for the gift of believing in it, and for the indwelling of his Presence in us.
2782 We can adore the Father because he has caused us to be reborn to his life by adopting us as his children in his only Son: by Baptism, he incorporates us into the Body of his Christ; through the anointing of his Spirit who flows from the head to the members, he makes us other "Christs."
First, the desire to become like him: though created in his image, we are restored to his likeness by grace; and we must respond to this grace.
2786 "Our" Father refers to God. The adjective, as used by us, does not express possession, but an entirely new relationship with God.
2787 When we say "our" Father, we recognize first that all his promises of love announced by the prophets are fulfilled in the new and eternal covenant in his Christ: we have become "his" people and he is henceforth "our" God. This new relationship is the purely gratuitous gift of belonging to each other: we are to respond to "grace and truth" given us in Jesus Christ with love and faithfulness.45
2788 Since the Lord's Prayer is that of his people in the "end-time," this "our" also expresses the certitude of our hope in God's ultimate promise: in the new Jerusalem he will say to the victor, "I will be his God and he shall be my son."46
2789 When we pray to "our" Father, we personally address the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By doing so we do not divide the Godhead, since the Father is its "source and origin," but rather confess that the Son is eternally begotten by him and the Holy Spirit proceeds from him. We are not confusing the persons, for we confess that our communion is with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, in their one Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is consubstantial and indivisible. When we pray to the Father, we adore and glorify him together with the Son and the Holy Spirit.
2790 Grammatically, "our" qualifies a reality common to more than one person. There is only one God, and he is recognized as Father by those who, through faith in his only Son, are reborn of him by water and the Spirit.47 The Church is this new communion of God and men. United with the only Son, who has become "the firstborn among many brethren," she is in communion with one and the same Father in one and the same Holy Spirit.48 In praying "our" Father, each of the baptized is praying in this communion: "The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul."49
2791 For this reason, in spite of the divisions among Christians, this prayer to "our" Father remains our common patrimony and an urgent summons for all the baptized. In communion by faith in Christ and by Baptism, they ought to join in Jesus' prayer for the unity of his disciples.50
2792 Finally, if we pray the Our Father sincerely, we leave individualism behind, because the love that we receive frees us from it. The "our" at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer, like the "us" of the last four petitions, excludes no one. If we are to say it truthfully, our divisions and oppositions have to be overcome.51
2793 The baptized cannot pray to "our" Father without bringing before him all those for whom he gave his beloved Son. God's love has no bounds, neither should our prayer.52 Praying "our" Father opens to us the dimensions of his love revealed in Christ: praying with and for all who do not yet know him, so that Christ may "gather into one the children of God."53 God's care for all men and for the whole of creation has inspired all the great practitioners of prayer; it should extend our prayer to the full breadth of love whenever we dare to say "our" Father.
IV. "WHO ART IN HEAVEN"
2794 This biblical expression does not mean a place ("space"), but a way of being; it does not mean that God is distant, but majestic. Our Father is not "elsewhere": he transcends everything we can conceive of his holiness. It is precisely because he is thrice holy that he is so close to the humble and contrite heart.
2796 When the Church prays "our Father who art in heaven," she is professing that we are the People of God, already seated "with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" and "hidden with Christ in God;"60 yet at the same time, "here indeed we groan, and long to put on our heavenly dwelling."61
2797 Simple and faithful trust, humble and joyous assurance are the proper dispositions for one who prays the Our Father.
2798 We can invoke God as "Father" because the Son of God made man has revealed him to us. In this Son, through Baptism, we are incorporated and adopted as sons of God.
2799 The Lord's Prayer brings us into communion with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. At the same time it reveals us to ourselves (cf. GS 22 § 1).
2800 Praying to our Father should develop in us the will to become like him and foster in us a humble and trusting heart.
2801 When we say "Our" Father, we are invoking the new covenant in Jesus Christ, communion with the Holy Trinity, and the divine love which spreads through the Church to encompass the world.
2802 "Who art in heaven" does not refer to a place but to God's majesty and his presence in the hearts of the just. Heaven, the Father's house, is the true homeland toward which we are heading and to which, already, we belong.
26 Ex 3:5.
27 Heb 1:3; 2:13.
28 St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermo 71,3:PL 52,401CD; cf. Gal 4:6.
29 Cf. Eph 3:12; Heb 3:6; 4:16; 10:19; 1 Jn 2:28; 3:21; 5:14.
30 Mt 11:25-27.
31 Tertullian, De orat. 3:PL 1,1155.
32 Cf. Jn 1:1; 1 Jn 5:1.
33 Cf. 1 Jn 1:3.
34 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. myst. 3,1:PG 33,1088A.
35 St. Cyprian, De Dom. orat. 9:PL 4,525A.
36 Cf. GS 22 § 1.
37 St. Ambrose, De Sacr. 5,4,19:PL 16:450-451.
38 St. Cyprian, De Dom. orat. 11:PL 4:526B.
39 St. John Chrysostom, De orat Dom. 3:PG 51,44.
40 St. Gregory Of Nyssa, De orat. Dom. 2:PG 44,1148B.
41 Mt 18:3.
42 Cf. Mt 11:25.
43 St. John Cassian, Coll. 9,18:PL 49,788C.
44 St. Augustine, De serm. Dom. in monte 2,4,16:PL 34,1276.
45 Jn 1:17; cf. Hos 2:21-22; 6:1-6.
46 Rev 21:7.
47 Cf. 1 Jn 5:1; Jn 3:5.
48 Rom 8:29; Cf. Eph 4:4-6.
49 Acts 4:32.
50 Cf. UR 8; 22.
51 Cf. Mt 5:23-24; 6:14-15.
52 Cf. NA 5.
53 Jn 11:52.
54 St. Augustine, De serm. Dom. in monte 2,5,18:PL 34,1277.
55 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. myst. 5:11:PG 33,1117.
56 Cf. Gen 3.
57 3:19-4:1a; Lk 15:18,21.
58 Cf. Isa 45:8; Ps 85:12.
59 Jn 3:13; 12:32; 14:2-3; 16:28; 20:17; Eph 4:9-10; Heb 1:3; 2:13.
60 Eph 2:6; Col 3:3.
61 2 Cor 5:2; cf. Phil 3:20; Heb 13:14.
62 Ad Diognetum 5:PG 2,117
OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN"
I. "WE DARE TO SAY"
2777 In the Roman liturgy, the Eucharistic assembly is invited to pray to our heavenly Father with filial boldness; the Eastern liturgies develop and use similar expressions: "dare in all confidence," "make us worthy of. . . . " From the burning bush Moses heard a voice saying to him, "Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."26 Only Jesus could cross that threshold of the divine holiness, for "when he had made purification for sins," he brought us into the Father's presence: "Here am I, and the children God has given me."27
- Our awareness of our status as slaves would make us sink into the ground and our earthly condition would dissolve into dust, if the authority of our Father himself and the Spirit of his Son had not impelled us to this cry . . . 'Abba, Father!' . . . When would a mortal dare call God 'Father,' if man's innermost being were not animated by power from on high?"28
II. ABBA - "FATHER!"
2779 Before we make our own this first exclamation of the Lord's Prayer, we must humbly cleanse our hearts of certain false images drawn "from this world." Humility makes us recognize that "no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him," that is, "to little children."30 The purification of our hearts has to do with paternal or maternal images, stemming from our personal and cultural history, and influencing our relationship with God. God our Father transcends the categories of the created world. To impose our own ideas in this area "upon him" would be to fabricate idols to adore or pull down. To pray to the Father is to enter into his mystery as he is and as the Son has revealed him to us.
- The expression God the Father had never been revealed to anyone. When Moses himself asked God who he was, he heard another name. The Father's name has been revealed to us in the Son, for the name "Son" implies the new name "Father."31
2781 When we pray to the Father, we are in communion with him and with his Son, Jesus Christ.33 Then we know and recognize him with an ever new sense of wonder. The first phrase of the Our Father is a blessing of adoration before it is a supplication. For it is the glory of God that we should recognize him as "Father," the true God. We give him thanks for having revealed his name to us, for the gift of believing in it, and for the indwelling of his Presence in us.
2782 We can adore the Father because he has caused us to be reborn to his life by adopting us as his children in his only Son: by Baptism, he incorporates us into the Body of his Christ; through the anointing of his Spirit who flows from the head to the members, he makes us other "Christs."
- God, indeed, who has predestined us to adoption as his sons, has conformed us to the glorious Body of Christ. So then you who have become sharers in Christ are appropriately called "Christs."34 The new man, reborn and restored to his God by grace, says first of all, "Father!" because he has now begun to be a son.35
- O man, you did not dare to raise your face to heaven, you lowered your eyes to the earth, and suddenly you have received the grace of Christ all your sins have been forgiven. From being a wicked servant you have become a good son. . . . Then raise your eyes to the Father who has begotten you through Baptism, to the Father who has redeemed you through his Son, and say: "Our Father. . . . " But do not claim any privilege. He is the Father in a special way only of Christ, but he is the common Father of us all, because while he has begotten only Christ, he has created us. Then also say by his grace, "Our Father," so that you may merit being his son.37
First, the desire to become like him: though created in his image, we are restored to his likeness by grace; and we must respond to this grace.
- We must remember . . . and know that when we call God "our Father" we ought to behave as sons of God.38 You
cannot call the God of all kindness your Father if you preserve a cruel
and inhuman heart; for in this case you no longer have in you the marks
of the heavenly Father's kindness.39
We must contemplate the beauty of the Father without ceasing and adorn our own souls accordingly.40
- [The prayer is accomplished] by the contemplation of God alone, and by the warmth of love, through which the soul, molded and directed to love him, speaks very familiarly to God as to its own Father with special devotion.43 Our Father: at this name love is aroused in us . . . and the confidence of obtaining what we are about to ask. . . . What would he not give to his children who ask, since he has already granted them the gift of being his children?44
2786 "Our" Father refers to God. The adjective, as used by us, does not express possession, but an entirely new relationship with God.
2787 When we say "our" Father, we recognize first that all his promises of love announced by the prophets are fulfilled in the new and eternal covenant in his Christ: we have become "his" people and he is henceforth "our" God. This new relationship is the purely gratuitous gift of belonging to each other: we are to respond to "grace and truth" given us in Jesus Christ with love and faithfulness.45
2788 Since the Lord's Prayer is that of his people in the "end-time," this "our" also expresses the certitude of our hope in God's ultimate promise: in the new Jerusalem he will say to the victor, "I will be his God and he shall be my son."46
2789 When we pray to "our" Father, we personally address the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By doing so we do not divide the Godhead, since the Father is its "source and origin," but rather confess that the Son is eternally begotten by him and the Holy Spirit proceeds from him. We are not confusing the persons, for we confess that our communion is with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, in their one Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is consubstantial and indivisible. When we pray to the Father, we adore and glorify him together with the Son and the Holy Spirit.
2790 Grammatically, "our" qualifies a reality common to more than one person. There is only one God, and he is recognized as Father by those who, through faith in his only Son, are reborn of him by water and the Spirit.47 The Church is this new communion of God and men. United with the only Son, who has become "the firstborn among many brethren," she is in communion with one and the same Father in one and the same Holy Spirit.48 In praying "our" Father, each of the baptized is praying in this communion: "The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul."49
2791 For this reason, in spite of the divisions among Christians, this prayer to "our" Father remains our common patrimony and an urgent summons for all the baptized. In communion by faith in Christ and by Baptism, they ought to join in Jesus' prayer for the unity of his disciples.50
2792 Finally, if we pray the Our Father sincerely, we leave individualism behind, because the love that we receive frees us from it. The "our" at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer, like the "us" of the last four petitions, excludes no one. If we are to say it truthfully, our divisions and oppositions have to be overcome.51
2793 The baptized cannot pray to "our" Father without bringing before him all those for whom he gave his beloved Son. God's love has no bounds, neither should our prayer.52 Praying "our" Father opens to us the dimensions of his love revealed in Christ: praying with and for all who do not yet know him, so that Christ may "gather into one the children of God."53 God's care for all men and for the whole of creation has inspired all the great practitioners of prayer; it should extend our prayer to the full breadth of love whenever we dare to say "our" Father.
IV. "WHO ART IN HEAVEN"
2794 This biblical expression does not mean a place ("space"), but a way of being; it does not mean that God is distant, but majestic. Our Father is not "elsewhere": he transcends everything we can conceive of his holiness. It is precisely because he is thrice holy that he is so close to the humble and contrite heart.
- "Our Father who art in heaven" is rightly understood to mean that God is in the hearts of the just, as in his holy temple. At the same time, it means that those who pray should desire the one they invoke to dwell in them.54 "Heaven" could also be those who bear the image of the heavenly world, and in whom God dwells and tarries.55
2796 When the Church prays "our Father who art in heaven," she is professing that we are the People of God, already seated "with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" and "hidden with Christ in God;"60 yet at the same time, "here indeed we groan, and long to put on our heavenly dwelling."61
- [Christians] are in the flesh, but do not live according to the flesh. They spend their lives on earth, but are citizens of heaven.62
2797 Simple and faithful trust, humble and joyous assurance are the proper dispositions for one who prays the Our Father.
2798 We can invoke God as "Father" because the Son of God made man has revealed him to us. In this Son, through Baptism, we are incorporated and adopted as sons of God.
2799 The Lord's Prayer brings us into communion with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. At the same time it reveals us to ourselves (cf. GS 22 § 1).
2800 Praying to our Father should develop in us the will to become like him and foster in us a humble and trusting heart.
2801 When we say "Our" Father, we are invoking the new covenant in Jesus Christ, communion with the Holy Trinity, and the divine love which spreads through the Church to encompass the world.
2802 "Who art in heaven" does not refer to a place but to God's majesty and his presence in the hearts of the just. Heaven, the Father's house, is the true homeland toward which we are heading and to which, already, we belong.
26 Ex 3:5.
27 Heb 1:3; 2:13.
28 St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermo 71,3:PL 52,401CD; cf. Gal 4:6.
29 Cf. Eph 3:12; Heb 3:6; 4:16; 10:19; 1 Jn 2:28; 3:21; 5:14.
30 Mt 11:25-27.
31 Tertullian, De orat. 3:PL 1,1155.
32 Cf. Jn 1:1; 1 Jn 5:1.
33 Cf. 1 Jn 1:3.
34 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. myst. 3,1:PG 33,1088A.
35 St. Cyprian, De Dom. orat. 9:PL 4,525A.
36 Cf. GS 22 § 1.
37 St. Ambrose, De Sacr. 5,4,19:PL 16:450-451.
38 St. Cyprian, De Dom. orat. 11:PL 4:526B.
39 St. John Chrysostom, De orat Dom. 3:PG 51,44.
40 St. Gregory Of Nyssa, De orat. Dom. 2:PG 44,1148B.
41 Mt 18:3.
42 Cf. Mt 11:25.
43 St. John Cassian, Coll. 9,18:PL 49,788C.
44 St. Augustine, De serm. Dom. in monte 2,4,16:PL 34,1276.
45 Jn 1:17; cf. Hos 2:21-22; 6:1-6.
46 Rev 21:7.
47 Cf. 1 Jn 5:1; Jn 3:5.
48 Rom 8:29; Cf. Eph 4:4-6.
49 Acts 4:32.
50 Cf. UR 8; 22.
51 Cf. Mt 5:23-24; 6:14-15.
52 Cf. NA 5.
53 Jn 11:52.
54 St. Augustine, De serm. Dom. in monte 2,5,18:PL 34,1277.
55 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. myst. 5:11:PG 33,1117.
56 Cf. Gen 3.
57 3:19-4:1a; Lk 15:18,21.
58 Cf. Isa 45:8; Ps 85:12.
59 Jn 3:13; 12:32; 14:2-3; 16:28; 20:17; Eph 4:9-10; Heb 1:3; 2:13.
60 Eph 2:6; Col 3:3.
61 2 Cor 5:2; cf. Phil 3:20; Heb 13:14.
62 Ad Diognetum 5:PG 2,117
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RE-CHARGE: Heaven Speaks to Young Adults
To all tween, teens and young adults, A Message from Jesus: "Through you I will flow powerful conversion graces to draw other young souls from darkness. My plan for young men and women is immense. Truly, the renewal will leap forward with the assistance of these individuals. Am I calling you? Yes. I am calling you. You feel the stirring in your soul as you read these words. I am with you. I will never leave you. Join My band of young apostles and I will give you joy and peace that you have never known. All courage, all strength will be yours. Together, we will reclaim this world for the Father. I will bless your families and all of your relationships. I will lead you to your place in the Kingdom. Only you can complete the tasks I have set out for you. Do not reject Me. I am your Jesus. I love you...Read this book, upload to your phones/ipads.computers and read a few pages everyday...and then Pay It Forward...
Reference
- Recharge: Directions For Our Times. Heaven Speaks to Young Adults. recharge.cc.
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