Prayer of Consecration to the Immaculata

Picture Source

O Immaculata, Queen of Heaven and earth, refuge of sinners and our most loving Mother, God has willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to you. I, (name), a repentant sinner, cast myself at your feet, humbly imploring you to take me with all that I am and have, wholly to yourself as your possession and property. Please make of me, of all my powers of soul and body, of my whole life, death and eternity, whatever most pleases you.

If it pleases you, use all that I am and have without reserve, wholly to accomplish what was said of you: "She will crush your head," and "You alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world." Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful hands for introducing and increasing your glory to the maximum in all the many strayed and indifferent souls, and thus help extend as far as possible the blessed kingdom of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. For wherever you enter you obtain the grace of conversion and growth in holiness, since it is through your hands that all graces come to us from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Allow me to praise you, O Sacred Virgin
Give me strength against your enemies

Amen

Thanks to Sue Cifelli.

Salutation Of The Blessed Virgin

( by Saint Francis of Assisi )

Hail Holy Lady most holy Queen,
Mary Mother of God.
Chosen by the Father in heaven
consecrated by Him.
With His most beloved Son and
Holy Spirit comforter,
On you descended and still remains
fullness of grace
And every good.

Hail His palace and His robe,
Mary Mother of God.
Hail His handmaid lowly and pure,
Loving servant of the Lord.
Hail holy virtues given by God
to all the faithful in the world,
So that no longer we faithless be,
And may become the
servants of the Lord. - AMEN

Mary We Turn To You For Protection

We turn to you for protection,
holy Mother of God.

Listen to our prayers
and help us in our needs.
( mention your special request )
Save us from every danger,
glorious and blessed Virgin.

Thanks to Father Vince I.

Every Priestly Vocation Passes through the Heart of the Blessed Virgin

We cannot live, we cannot look at the truth about ourselves without letting ourselves be looked at and generated by Christ in daily Eucharistic Adoration, and the Stabat of Mary, "Woman of the Eucharist," beneath her Son's Cross, is the most significant example of contemplation and adoration of the divine Sacrifice that has been given to us. ...

Lastly, the Holy Mother of God remains an indispensable foundation of the whole of priestly life. The relationship with her cannot be resolved in pious devotional practice but is nourished by ceaseless entrustment to the arms of the ever Virgin of the whole of our life, of our ministry in its entirety. Mary Most Holy also leads us, like John, beneath the Cross of her Son and Our Lord in order to contemplate, with her, God's infinite Love: "He who for us is Life itself descended here and endured our death and slew it by the abundance of his Life" (St Augustine, Confessions, IV, 12).

(...) Pope St Pius X said: "Every priestly vocation comes from the heart of God but passes through the heart of a mother." This is true with regard to obvious biological motherhood but it is also true of the "birth" of every form of fidelity to the Vocation of Christ. We cannot do without a spiritual motherhood for our priestly life: Let us entrust ourselves confidently to the prayer of the whole of Holy Mother Church, to the motherhood of the People, whose pastors we are but to whom are entrusted our custody and holiness; let us ask for this fundamental support.



Excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI's Message on the
Day of Prayer for Priests for the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
May 30, 2008

Source. Thanks Brother John Samaha!

Blessed Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko - Polish Priest and Martyr

A God Who Feels Compassion

The End of the Year for Priests - The Grace of the Presence of Christ

Photo Source

Thanks to Father Vince Inghilterra for sharing the following.

Father Walter Ciszek, S.J.

The moment a priest appeared on the camp grounds by himself or with a fellow priest, he would be joined by passing prisoners. The moment it became known in a new brigade or new barracks or a new camp that a man was a priest, he would be sought out. He didn't have to make friends; they came to him instead. It was a very humbling experience, because you quickly came to appreciate that it was God's grace at work and had little to do with your own efforts. People came to you because you were a priest, not because of what you were personally. They didn't always come, either, expecting wise counsel or spiritual wisdom or an answer to their every difficulty; they came expecting absolution from their sins, the power of the sacrament.

To realize this was a matter of joy and of humility. You realized that they came to you as a man of God, a representative of God, a man chosen from among men and ordained for men in the things that are of God; you realized, too, that this imposed upon you an obligation of service, of ministry, with no thought of personal inconvenience, no matter how tired you might be physically or what risks you might be running in the face of official threats.

For my part, I could not help but see in every encounter with every prisoner the will of God for me, now, at this time and in this place, and the hand of providence that had brought me there by strange and torturous paths...

The things that are of God are all the joys and works and sufferings of each day, however burdensome and boring, routine and insignificant they may seem. It is the priest's function to offer these things back to God for his fellow men and to serve as an example, a witness, a martyr, a testimony before the men around him of God's providence and purpose.

The end of this particular jubilee year is bittersweet. I hope everyone remembers to pray for ALL our priests, every chance they get.

Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Painting of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Contemplating the Sacred heart of Jesus by Corrado Giaquinto
Picture Source

"The heart of God burns with compassion! On today’s solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus the Church presents us this mystery for our contemplation: the mystery of the heart of a God who feels compassion and who bestows all his love upon humanity. A mysterious love, which in the texts of the New Testament is revealed to us as God’s boundless and passionate love for mankind. God does not lose heart in the face of ingratitude or rejection by the people he has chosen; rather, with infinite mercy he sends his only-begotten Son into the world to take upon himself the fate of a shattered love, so that by defeating the power of evil and death he could restore to human beings enslaved by sin their dignity as sons and daughters." - Pope Benedict XVI, from his homily on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, June 19, 2009

Thank you Father Vince I.

Year for Priests: Interior Renewal

A Prayer for Priests Based on the Tenth Promise

Sacred Heart of Jesus, Eternal High Priest,
let Your love flow into the hearts of your priests
and transform them into living images of You.
By Your grace, make them true apostles of Your Sacred Heart.

I pray for the fulfillment of the promise You made to St. Margaret Mary:
"I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts".

May Your kingdom come to the hearts of all
through the ministry of holy priests!

Amen.

Mahalo to Eucharistic Adoration for Priests for sharing the prayer.

Pius XII's Letter to US President Roosevelt

From Zenit

"Spare Innocent Civil Populations and in Particular Churches"

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 9, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is the previously unpublished letter sent by Pope Pius XII to U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Aug. 30, 1943, after one of the several bombings of Rome by the Allied Forces.

* * *

Your Excellency,

Recent events have naturally focused the worlds attention for the moment on Italy, and much has been said and written on what policy she would or should now follow for her own best interests. Too many, we fear, take for granted that she is entirely free to follow the policy of her choice; and we have wished to express to Your Excellency our conviction that this is far from true. Of her desire for peace and to be done with the war, there can be no doubt; but in the presence of formidable forces opposing the actuation or even the official declaration of that desire she finds herself shackled and quite without the necessary means of defending herself.

If under such circumstances Italy is to be forced still to bear devastating blows against which she is practically defenseless, we hope and pray that the military leader will find it possible to spare innocent civil populations and in particular churches and religious institutions the ravages of war. Already, we must recount with deep sorrow and regret, these figure very prominently among the ruins of Italy's most populous and important cities.

But the message of assurance addressed to us by Your Excellency sustains our hope, even in the face of bitter experience, that God's temples and the homes erected by Christian charity for the poor and sick and abandoned members of Christ's flock may survive the terrible onslaught. May God in His merciful pity and love hearken to the universal cry of his children and let them hear once more the voice of Christ say: Peace!

We are happy of this occasion to renew the expression of our sincere good wishes to Your Excellency.

From the Vatican, August 30, 1943

Pius PP XII

Turkey: bishop's murder was political, Church leaders fear

Photo of Archbishop Padovese courtesy of Aid to the Church in Need

...An Italian Catholic journalist, Father Filippo di Giacomo, has said that Bishop Padovese had been warned by Turkish security officials that his driver was involved with radical Islamic groups. The bishop, who was preparing to travel to Cyprus to join Pope Benedict there, cancelled his plans because he feared Altun might be involved in an attempt on the Pope's life, the Italian journalist wrote...

Catholic Culture Article here

Photos: Mass to Celebrate the Closing of Year for Priests

On the official day the Church celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Diocese of Honolulu celebrated the closing of the Year for Priest. Thanks to the efforts of the Serra Club International, Honolulu, we were able to show support for our priests and our bishop, in a very special way.

Photos by Easter A., Joey G. and Esther G.

7 Things You Never Knew About the Pope, by Melissa Tamura

Here is one thing:

Did you know that Pope Benedict XVI love of cats was a gift from his mother?

The Holy See has loved cats since he was a little boy growing up in Germany. This fondness for cats stems from his mother’s own adoration for the creatures. She taught him that they can love people unconditionally and that they only ask for the simplest things in return. This special gift has followed Pope Benedict XVI wherever he has gone.

You can read the rest over at Sarah's blog.

After reading this post, I love our Holy Father even more!

Clerics gather in Rome for closing celebrations of the Year for Priests

Catholic priests from all around the world are gathering in Rome this week, at the invitation of Pope Benedict XVI, for the closing events of the Year for Priests.

The 3-day celebration begins on Wednesday, June 9, with a meditation on the priesthood by Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne, Germany, in the basilica of St. Paul-Outsid-the-Walls. After a period of Eucharistic adoration in that basilica, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, will preside at a Mass there. Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, the secretary of the same Congregation, will preside at another Mass in the basilica of St. John Lateran.

On Thursday, June 10, the schedule will be similar, with Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec preaching at St. Paul-Outsid-the-Walls and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, presiding at Mass there. Archbishop Robert Sarah, the secretary of the Congregation for Evangelization, will preside at the Mass in St. John Lateran. On both days, the meditations preached in the basilica of St. Paul will be relayed by video to St. John Lateran. Both basilicas are being used to allow the maximum number of priests to participate.

On Thursday evening the priests will gather in St. Peter's Square for a vigil or prayer and witness, Eucharistic adoration, and a discussion with Pope Benedict. This even will be simulcast to audiences in Jerusalem, Buenos Aires, Hollywood, and Ars, France-- where pilgrims will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Vianney, the patron of priests.

On Friday, June 11, which is the feast of the Sacred Heart, Pope Benedict will preside at a Mass in St. Peter's Square to close the Year for Priests. During that Eucharistic celebration the Pope will lead all the priests in renewing their vows.

Source: Catholic Culture

VIS News: Programme of Events for Closure of Year

what priest has influenced you the most?

For me, it would have to be Father Peter or any of the Capuchin Friars we were friends with in NJ. How about you?

On the Subject of Blog Comments

Recently, Matthew Warner broke down blog commenters into 10 different types. You can read it 10 Types of Blog Comments

I think he pretty much covered every type of comment.


Well, Matthew has once again posted about blog comments. This time he tackles  how to leave a good comment in 16 Ways to Be a Better and Holier Blog Commenter. My favorite is #10.

BTW, I never could understand how some people can be so verbose when I have trouble sometimes finding the right words to make my point.

Act of Reparation on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

America Needs Fatima is calling for everyone to pray the following prayer this Friday, Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus:

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, animated with a desire to repair the outrages unceasingly offered to Thee, we prostrate before Thy throne of mercy, and in the name of all mankind, pledge our love and fidelity to Thee.

The more Thy mysteries are blasphemed, the more firmly we shall believe them, O Sacred Heart of Jesus!

The more impiety endeavors to extinguish our hope of immortality, the more we shall trust in Thy Heart, sole Hope of mankind!

The more hearts resist Thy Divine attractions, the more we shall love Thee, O infinitely amiable Heart of Jesus!

The more unbelief attacks Thy Divinity, the more humbly and profoundly we shall adore It, O Divine Heart of Jesus!

The more Thy holy laws are transgressed and ignored, the more we shall delight to observe them, O most holy Heart of Jesus!

The more Thy Sacraments are despised and abandoned, the more frequently we shall receive them with love and reverence, O most generous Heart of Jesus!

The more the imitation of Thy virtues is neglected and forgotten, the more we shall endeavor to practice them, O Heart, model of every virtue!

The more the devil labors to destroy souls, the more we shall be inflamed with desire to save them, O Heart of Jesus, zealous Lover of souls!

The more sin and impurity destroy the image of God in man, the more we shall try by purity of life to be a living temple of the Holy Spirit, O Heart of Jesus!

The more Thy Holy Church is despised, the more we shall endeavor to be her faithful children, O Sweet Heart of Jesus!

The more Thy Vicar on earth is persecuted, the more will we honor him as the infallible head of Thy Holy Church, show our fidelity and pray for him, O kingly Heart of Jesus!

O Sacred Heart, through Thy powerful grace, may we become Thy apostles in the midst of a corrupted world, and be Thy crown in the kingdom of Heaven. Amen.

Large Families

I found the above video at an article which is also worth reading Surviving a Large Family Also Helps with College Survival

On Silence

Photo taken at Blessed Sacrament Church, Paterson, NJ

The Sinner's Guide has a very good post on silent prayer Calming the Storm: Working Toward the Silence a Prophet Needs

The following are tips in achieving this much sought for silence:

Practical:

- Make your time for silence the same time every day: This makes it a priority and a set part of your schedule. Make it a time when you don’t have to worry about the phone ringing or distractions. It also creates a rhythm in your life which can be important in your prayer life.

- Sit comfortably unless you are used to kneeling: Quieting our minds is one of the hardest parts and being uncomfortable will only fill your mind with complaints. Work to remove the selfishness that causes these complaints but don’t let them ruin your silence.

- Plan 10 minutes before to write down thoughts: Thoughts about things you need to do will rob your silence. Grab a notebook and write them all down before hand so you don’t have to worry. Each time you write it down think to yourself, “ Now I don’t have to worry about this.”

- Give it time: If you are striving for silent prayer you can’t expect it to happen in 10 minutes everyday. The silence needs time to develop.

Spiritual:

- Go to confession often: Sin robs our heart of silence. Many of the thoughts we can’t get rid of are because of sin in our life. After prayer time write down those thoughts that were interrupting your silence so that you can find out where they come from and take them captive.

- Cultivate a spirit of poverty and humility: The humble soul has nothing to say but comes to the Lord of heaven and earth poor and needy of His love. Pray for humility. Think of talking to an expert in your field. The expert will know what to say to you. He doesn’t need you to speak, you need to listen.

- Don’t stop knocking: This is not easy. Try again each and everyday. Struggle for silence. Battle for silence. Remember this Silence is love. Keep knocking on the door of the heart of Jesus.

- Don’t lead: So much of our spiritual life comes from our plans, words and deeds. Tell God that you surrender the time to Him and approach Him like the disciples saying, “Lord, teach me to pray.”

- Fall in love with Jesus: When you are in love you want to be in constant communication with your beloved. Fall head over heels in love with Jesus. He will take you to the prayer he desires you to have.

St. Bernard's Vision of the Angels

Source for the Vision of St. Bernard

While St. Bernard was in the church one night at matins, he had a vision, in which God made known to him the manner in which the religious were saying their prayers. He saw the angel guardians of the monks standing near them with pens in their hands. Some of these angels wrote in letters of gold, and others in letters of silver. Some were writing with common ink, and others with water, while a few stood sorrowfully, and did not write anything at all in their books.

As the Saint was gazing in wonder at the vision, and pondering in his mind what it signified, an angel said to him: "The religious whose guardian angels are writing in letters of gold are those who say their prayers with great attention, and are full of Divine love. Those whose angels are writing in silver letters love God well, and pray with great attention, but are less fervent and less perfect than the others. Those whose guardian angels are writing with ink have, indeed, a certain desire to please God, but there is not much fervor in their souls; while those whose angels are writing with water are honoring God only with their lips; their hearts are far from Him, and are full of distractions. Those beside whom the angels are standing with sad countenances, and are writing nothing in their books, have already lost the grace of God, and their prayers are only a mockery of Him."

The holy man made known to them in the morning what he had seen. Those who were fervent were encouraged to persevere, and those who had become negligent were aroused to serve God more faithfully.

The Catechism in Examples (Life of St. Salvi) by Rev. Chisholm, NAS Letter June 2010

Eucharistic Procession - God in the Streets of Honolulu

Yesterday, when the Diocese of  Honolulu celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi, The Holy Eucharist was processed, accompanied by priests, deacons, boy scouts the Knights of Columbus and the faithful, from St. Theresa, the Co-Cathedral to Our Lady of Peace Cathedral in Downtown.  In case you missed it, like I unfortunately had to, here are some highlights.

A big mahalo to Dann Ebina for sharing some of his beautiful photos with me so I can in turn share them with you.