Marriage

Picture source

The world continues to cry out in victory.  Man's laws have made homosexual marriage the law of the land.  God's laws have been altered to suit misguided people.  It is a triumphant day for the world because they believe marriage equality has been achieved.

Is God weeping or is He seething in anger?  One wonders what is in store for us.  Will God punish such a personal attack?  God is the only one who knows but one thing is certain, He is still in control.

Those of us who follow Him are troubled and trying hard to make sense of this chaotic world turned upside down.  The warning signs were ignored by the majority it seems.  Civil unions were never enough to satiate a lust for control.  It was marriage that was the intended target.

It does appears the world has gone mad or drunk with power.

Christians, especially Catholics are now being targeted.  The world will not rest until the Christians are punished or wiped out.  Christians will continue to be intimidated, falsely accused of intolerance, bigotry and hate.  Ironically, that is exactly how the world reacts to those who do not agree with them or who do not blindly follow like lemmings. The world is very intolerant of those who oppose their wicked ways.  God help you if  one has deep held beliefs or try to defend God's laws.

This persecution has begun.

Churches are in danger of losing their tax-exempt status.  Pastors are being forced to perform so-called "same-sex marriages" or be punished by fines or lawsuits.  Marriage will become a free-for-all for those who want to marry as they please such as multiple spouses, marriage to animals or even inanimate objects.  And, it is frightening to think of the consequence that it will have on children.

Something good may come out of this darkness.  This mockery of marriage may make Christians  appreciate their own marriage vows.   We will see how precious this sacrament that we share with our spouse really is.  How many of us have foolishly taken our marriage for granted!  How many of us go through the motions of every day life without really working on strengthening our marriage?  Why is it that we start appreciate something when it is threatened?

Christians,  and all people of good-will, continue to fight for the sanctity of marriage with prayer, especially as a couple or as a family, by sharing inspirational quotes when emailing or on social networks, and by speaking out respectfully when needed, to defend what God has created and which the world cannot change, no matter what dubious laws they pass.

"We must never forge that only when love between human beings is put to the test can it's true value be seen." - St. John Paul II

Guide to Holiness

The following was written by Father Michael Muller, CSSR in his Book:  The Blessed Sacrament:  Our Greatest Treasure.

- make war against venial sins.

-  wean your heart from creatures.

-  endeavor to mortify your attachment to honors, riches and pleasures.

-  spare no trouble for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

-  practice little but frequent acts of self-denial.

-  keep yourself always in the fear of God.

- adorn yourself with virtues which Jesus loves:  humility, meekness, patience, prayer, charity, faith, peace and recollection.

The Just Complaint of Our Divine Savior

The following is from Father Michael Muller, CSSR, book The Blessed Sacrament:  Our Greatest Treasure.  It is a beautiful reflection on the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

"I hear Thee complain of us, O dear Jesus, as Thou didst one day complain to the Blessed Margaret Alacoque, when showing to her Thy heart crowned with thorns:  'Behold this heart of Mine, so full of love for men, that it has shed its last drop of blood for them, and has given them My own flesh and blood as food and drink for their souls; and consider how this heart receives from most men, in return for so great a love, nothing but ingratitude and contempt!  But what grieves Me most is, that I am thus treated even by good and just souls.'

Do you not understand, dear Christian, the just complaint of your Divine Saviour?  Is your heart not touched by it?

'Behold,' says He, 'behold this heart which loves men so excessively; this heart which is always pouring out graces upon them; this heart, so full of pity to receive sinners, to help the poor and indigent; to cure the sick; to console the afflicted; to hear the prayers of all men, at which I have so often entered in Holy Communion.'

Ah!  dear Christian, have you a heart?  Well, if it be not of stone or iron, let it be touched by this touching complaint of the heart of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.. Give to your God and Saviour what is due to Him.  Repay Him for the benefit of your creation; repay Him for the benefit of your redemption; for the benefit of the preservation of your life; for the pains of His scourging; for the agony of His crucifixion; but, above all, repay Him, yes, in some measure, repay Him for the excessive love and affection which He bears you in the Blessed Sacrament.

'But how,' you will ask: 'how shall I pay my Jesus for His love to me?  What can I give Him in return?'  Nothing but love.  Love demands love and is contented only with love..."

Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

O most holy Heart of Jesus, 

fountain of every blessing, 

I adore You, I love You, and 

with lively sorrow for my sins I offer You this poor heart of mine. 

Make me humble, patient, pure and wholly obedient to Your will. 

Grant, good Jesus that I may live in You and for You. 

Protect me in the midst of danger. 

Comfort me in my afflictions. 

Give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs, 

Your blessing on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death.

 Amen. 

via Laudete

Prayer to the Divine Will

O adorable and Divine Will, 

here I am, 

before the immensity of Your Light, 

that Your eternal Goodness may open to me the doors, and 

make me enter into It, to form my life all in You, Divine Will. 

Therefore, prostrate before Your Light, 

I, the littlest among all creatures, come, O adorable Will, 

into the little group of the first children of Your Supreme Fiat. 

Prostrate in my nothingness, 

I beseech and implore Your endless Light, 

that It may want to invest me and eclipse everything that does not belong to You,

 in such a way that I may do nothing other than look, comprehend and live in You, 

Divine Will. 

It will be my life, the center of my intelligence, the enrapturer of my heart and of my whole being.

In this heart the human will will no longer have life;

 I will banish it forever, and will form the new Eden of peace, of happiness and of love. 

With It I shall always be happy, 

I shall have a unique strength, 

and a sanctity that sanctifies everything and brings everything to God. Here prostrate, 

I invoke the help of the Sacrosanct Trinity,

 that They admit me to live in the cloister of the Divine Will, 

so as to restore in me the original order of Creation, just as the creature was created. 

Celestial Mother, Sovereign Queen of the Divine Fiat, 

take me by the hand and enclose me in the Light of the Divine Will. 

You will be my guide, my tender Mother; 

You will guard your child, and 

will teach me to live and to maintain myself in the order and in the bounds of the Divine Will. 

Celestial Sovereign, to your Heart I entrust my whole being; 

I will be the tiny little child of the Divine Will. You will teach me the Divine Will, 

and I will be attentive in listening to You. 

You will lay your blue mantle over me, 

so that the infernal serpent may not dare to penetrate into this Sacred Eden to entice me and 

make me fall into the maze of the human will. Heart of my highest Good, Jesus, 

You will give me Your flames, that they may burn me, consume me and nourish me, 

to form in me the life of the Supreme Will. Saint Joseph, 

You will be my Protector, 

the Custodian of my heart, and will keep the keys of my will in Your hands. 

You will keep my heart jealously, 

and will never give it to me again, that I may be sure never to go out of the Will of God. 

Guardian Angel, guard me, defend me, help me in everything, 

so that my Eden may grow flourishing, 

and be the call of the whole world into the Will of God. Celestial Court, come to my help, 

and I promise You to live always in the Divine Will. Amen. 

via Laudete

ACT OF REPARATION

O sweet Jesus, 
Whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence 
and contempt, 
behold us prostrate before Thy altar eager to repair by a special act of homage 
the cruel indifference and injuries, to which Thy loving Heart is everywhere subject. 
Mindful alas! That we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, 
which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, 
we humbly ask Thy pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation 
not only for our own personal offenses, 
but also for the sins of those, who, straying far from the path of salvation, 
refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow Thee, their Shepherd and Leader, 
or, renouncing the vows of baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of Thy Law. 
We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against Thee; 
we are determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behavior, 
for all the foul seduction laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, 
for the frequent violations of Sundays and holidays, 
and the shocking blasphemies uttered against Thee and Thy saints. 
We wish also to make amends for the insults to which Thy Vicar on earth and 
Thy priests are subjected, for the profanation, 
by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very Sacraments 
or Thy Divine Love; and 
lastly for the public crimes of nations who resist the rights and teaching authority of the Church which Thou hast founded. 
Would, O Divine Jesus, we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood. 
We now offer, in reparation for these violations of Thy divine honor, 
the satisfaction Thou didst once make to Thy eternal Father on the cross and 
which Thou dost continue to renew daily on our altars; 
we offer it in union with the acts of atonement of Thy Virgin Mother 
and all the Saints and of the pious faithful on earth; and 
we sincerely promise to make recompense, as far as we can with the help of Thy grace, 
for all neglect of Thy great love and 
for the sins we and others have committed in the past. 
Henceforth we will live a life of unwavering faith, 
of purity of conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the gospel and 
 especially that of charity. 
We promise to the best of our power to prevent others from offending Thee and 
to bring as many as possible to follow Thee. 
O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of his act of expiation; 
and by the crowning gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and 
the allegiance we owe to Thee, 
so that we may one day come to that happy home, 
where Thou with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest God, world without end. 
Amen. 

via Laudete

Month of June - The Sacred Heart of Jesus

June is traditionally the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

From among all the proofs of the infinite goodness of our Savior none stands out more prominently than the fact that, as the love of the faithful grew cold, He, Divine Love Itself, gave Himself to us to be honored by a very special devotion and that the rich treasury of the Church was thrown wide open in the interests of that devotion."  These words of Pope Pius XI refer to the Sacred Heart Devotion which in its present form dates from the revelations given to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1673-75. 

The devotion consists in the divine worship of the human heart of Christ, which is united to His divinity and which is a symbol of His love for us.  The aim of the devotion is to make our Lord king over our hearts by prompting them to return love to Him (especially through an act of consecration by which we offer to the Heart of Jesus both ourselves and all that belongs to us) and to make reparation for our ingratitude to God. 

ACT OF LOVE

Reveal Thy Sacred Heat to me,

O Jesus, and show me Its attractions. 

Unite me to It for ever.

Grant that all my aspirations and all the beats of my heart, which cease not even while I slepp, 

may be a testimonial to Thee of my love for Thee 

and may say to Thee:  Yes,

Lord, I am all Thine; the

pledge of my allegiance to Thee rests ever in my heart and will never cease to be there.

Do Thou accept the slight amount of good that I do and be graciously pleased to repair all

my wrong-doing; so that I may be able to bless Thee in time and in eternity.  Amen.

by Cardinal Merry del Val

 The Prayer Book

"...Thine isolation, the icy silence and the solitude which surround Thy forlorn Tabernacle accuse the world of the sin most keenly felt by Thy Heart--the sin of ingratitude."

"To love, O Jesus, as only Thou lovest and not be loved in return!...to bless and be cursed in return...to scatter favors freely and be repaid by forgetfulness or insults!...Behold sweet Savior, the very bitter bread of Thy voluntary exile in the midst of us; ...behold the price of Thy sublime captivity in the Tabernacle!  In the way Thy Gethsemane is prolonged through the centuries...Ah, in reparation, we insist on having our share in it...."

- First Friday in June meditation of Holy Hour by Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SSCC.

Reminder:  this Friday is First Friday in June.  Good time to make the 9 First Fridays.

Pentecost Sunday

Reminder - Novena to the Holy Spirit Begins Tomorrow

This is the oldest novena in the Catholic Church. It is also a very beautiful novena and it begins tomorrow. Novena to the Holy Spirit for the Seven Gifts

Our Lady of Fatima - Approved Apparitions

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Fatima!

The following is a talk given by Father Eric Bowman, pastor of the Church of the Transfiguration, in West Milton, Ohio.  It is a good talk on Our Lady's approved apparition and I hope you take the time to watch and listen. Note: I recently became good friends with Father Eric when he spend time here in our islands.  While in Hawaii, Father Eric gave an interesting talk on the Angel of Peace's message to the three shepherd children.

This particular talk will be of great interest to those wanting to learn more about Our Lady's appearance to Catherine Laboure, the Miraculous Medal and that time period.