Announcing a Novena in honour of the Immaculate Conception
Begins 1 DecemberAs the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is moved forward by one day this year, from 8 to 9 December, due to the 8th being the 2nd Sunday of Advent, we will start the Novena a day later than usual.
This year we will use Reflections and Meditations from St Maximillian Kolbe.
See you there!
Thought for the Day – 29 November – The Memorial of Blessed Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos SJ (1711-1735) – First apostle of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Spain.
Today’s young Saint and Mystic, Blessed Bernardo’s devotion led him to the most exquisite union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus … the spiritual marriage. Yes. It is no less strange however, that the Word, left His Father, to become one with man, to become Bread from Heaven.
I read someplace that Bl Bernardo’s intercession is especially helpful to those who struggle with the vice of impurity. I think Bernardo’s devotion to the Sacred Heart – the complete surrender of all his affections – is an antidote to all impurity. The grace of espousal seems to me, to be similar to the consummate love of Jesus in the Eucharist for us, whereby He gives us His body, blood, soul and divinity at every Communion. Isn’t it like that? Isn’t that total union what we are called to? At every Communion – even when I feel nothing, see nothing, hear nothing – it seems especially then, that faith supplies.
I never had experiences such as those Bl Bernardo participated in – I’m just grateful to be able to be recollected after each Communion and sometimes, to receive immense consolation too. Knowing He is there and I am with Him. I like the way Bl Bernardo put it: “I see that everything in my heart is moving towards God, drawn like iron to a magnet. It desires only God, searches only for God and longs only for God….” For Bernardo, that was his constant state – and he remained faithful to the graces he received. For me, perhaps this desire is only imperfectly experienced in the thanksgiving after Communion. Which is why I never want to waste those moments of recollection.
“Always holding my right hand, the Lord had me occupy the empty throne, then He fitted on my finger a gold ring…. “May this ring be an earnest of our love. You are Mine and I am yours. You may call yourself and sign Bernardo de Jesus, thus, as I said to my spouse, Santa Teresa, you are Bernardo de Jesus and I am Jesus de Bernardo. My honour is yours, your honor is Mine. Consider My glory that of your Spouse, I will consider yours, that of My spouse. All Mine is yours and all yours is Mine. What I am by nature you share by grace. You and I are one!” – The Visions of Bernard Francis De Hoyos, S.J. by Henri Bechard, S.J.
In the ascetic-mystical life of the saints, God Himself purifies the soul of disordered passions in and through purifying trials and temptations. Thus proving true Christ’s words, ‘what is impossible for man is possible for God.’ Blessed Bernardo was no exception.
As Catholics, we are not at all surprised by the ‘mystical marriage of today’s young Saint with Jesus’. However, it seems the rest are prone to think this an unusual and strange occurrence and regard it as an aberration, so please if you search Blessed Bernardo you might be horrified at some nasty statements – don’t be – you know the better part!
For “I am in You and You are in Me”
Quote/s of the Day – 29 November – Friday of the Thirty Fourth week in Ordinary Time, Year C, Gospel: Luke 21:29–33
“The issue is now clear.
It is between light and darkness
and every one must choose his side.”
“Each and everyone of us,
at the end of the
journey of life,
will come,
face to face
with either one
or the other
of two faces…
And one of them,
either, the
merciful face of Christ
or the
miserable face of Satan,
will say,
“Mine, mine.”
May we be Christ’s!”
“Many who plan
to seek God
at the eleventh hour
die at 10:30.”
Lord Jesus, May we Seek Your Face
By Pope Benedict XVI
Lord Jesus,
grant us restless hearts,
hearts which seek Your Face.
Keep us from the blindness of heart
which sees only the surface of things.
Give us the simplicity and purity
which allows us to recognise
Your Presence in the world.
When we are not able
to accomplish great things,
grant us the courage
which is born of humility and goodness.
Impress Your Face on our hearts.
May we encounter You along the way
and show forth Your image to the world.
Amen
One Minute Reflection – 29 November – Friday of the Thirty Fourth week in Ordinary Time, Year C, Gospel: Luke 21:29–33 and the Memorial of Blessed Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos SJ (1711-1735)
“But my words will not pass away….” …Luke 21:33
REFLECTION – “The Word of God makes us change our concept of realism. Indeed, the realist is the one who recognises in the Word of God, the foundation of all things. As you see these things happening, you know that the Kingdom of God is near (Lk 21:31). Now the word is not simply audible, not only does it have a voice, now the word has a face, one which we can see – that of Jesus of Nazareth.” …. Pope Benedict XVI
PRAYER – Lord God, open our hearts to Your grace and the Light of Your word. Let it go before us and be with us, open our eyes to see and our hearts to love, that we may always be intent upon doing Your will and following Your Word which has the Face of Your dearly beloved Son, Jesus our Saviour. Please hear the prayers of the beloved of Heart of Jesus, Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos on our behalf. We make our prayer through Jesus our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, God forever, amen.
Our Morning Offering – 29 November – Friday of the Thirty Fourth week in Ordinary Time, Year C and the Memorial of Blessed Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos SJ (1711-1735)
O Christ Jesus,
When All is Darkness
By St Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556)
O Christ Jesus,
when all is darkness
and we feel our weakness
and helplessness,
give us the sense of Your presence,
Your love
and Your strength.
Help us to have perfect trust
in Your protecting love
and strengthening power,
so that nothing may frighten or worry us,
for, living close to You,
we shall see Your hand,
Your purpose,
Your will through all things.
Amen
Saint of the Day – 29 November – Blessed Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos SJ (1711-1735) Professed Priest of the Society of Jesus, Mystic, Apostle of the Sacred Heart – born on 21 August 1711 at Torrelobatón, Valladolid, Kingdom of Spain (1711-08-21) and died on 29 November 1735, Valladolid, Spain of natural causes (typhoid), aged 24. The miracle for his Beatification involved a young lady with typhoid.
Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos de Seña was born on 21 August 1711 to Don Manuel de Hoyos and Doña Francisca de Seña. His father worked at the town hall at Torrelobatón near Valladolid. He was baptised on 6 September in his local parish church in the names of “Bernardo Francisco Javier.” He was named in honour of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and Saint Francis Xavier. He received his Confirmation in 1720.
On 11 July 1726, a not quite fifteen year old Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos y Seña crossed the threshold of the Jesuit novitiate of the Province of Castile. Straightaway he chose the Flemish Saint John Berchmans SJ as his model and intercessor. 
At his profession on 12 July 1728, he heard Our Lord say to him: “From today on I will unite Myself more intimately to you because of my love for you.” Our Lord, His Virgin Mother, Saint Ignatius, Saint Teresa of Avila and other celestial visitors manifested themselves to the young Jesuit, conversed with him, counselled him and encouraged him. In 1726 both Aloysius Gonzaga SJ and Stanislaus Kostka SJ were Canonised by Pope Benedict XIII. The two became models of holiness for the Jesuit priest, as well as John Berchmans who was already on the course for Canonisation.
On 10 August 1729, the Saviour, covered with His Precious Blood, appeared to Bernardo, and showing him the wound in His Side, said, “Rejected by humanity, I come to find my consolation with chosen souls.” Bernardo’s experience closely resembles that of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque fifty-three years earlier in the Visitation Monastery of Paray-le-Monial in France.
Bernardo was ordained a priest on 2 January 1735, for which he had to obtain special permission due to his young age. Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Francis de Sales, mystically present at the ordination, served as his “godfathers” in the priesthood. In that same year he wrote:
Hitherto I had great confidence in my prayers and petitions, depending on the intercession of the Heart of Jesus, at present I have no doubt about obtaining whatsoever I ask, if it is for the greater glory of God. I am convinced that at the altar, the Eternal Father can refuse me nothing . . . I find myself with views like that of Venerable Father La Colombière concerning the greatness of this sacrifice. Here I am as if I were triumphant, for it seems to me not only that I am making reparation for myself and for the whole world but that the Eternal Father is my debtor.
Now and again, during Mass . . . a word of the Eternal Father has assured me of the satisfaction He takes in His Son and in His Heart and how this satisfaction may embolden me, even at the sight of my sins and ingratitude, to presume as much as I fancy, for all is contained in the merits of Jesus, whose minister I am and whose place I take.”
Father Bernardo de Hoyos died on 29 November 1735 at the age of twenty-four. He left behind the memory of his brief but fruitful ministry as a priest, the reputation of a charism for delivering souls from the vice of impurity – his book, The Hidden Treasure, published under the name of Father John de Loyola and a wealth of detailed accounts of his mystical experiences of the Heart of Jesus.
On 17 January 2009, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, met with the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Archbishop Angelo Amato, S.D.B. The Pope authorised the promulgation of a number of decrees, among them the recognition of a miracle attributed to the Servant of God Bernardo Francisco Hoyos.
On 19 April 2010, Father Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos was beatified in Valladolid, Spain. The ceremony was presided over by Archbishop Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. In addition to nearly a 1,000 priests and more the 20,000 faithful, approximately fifty bishops and cardinals attended the ceremony. The new Blessed’s liturgical memorial was confirmed for today, the anniversary of his death.
All Saints of the Seraphic Order (Franciscan): the Church celebrates the many Franciscan saints who followed in the footsteps of St Francis. It is a special day for all Franciscans to celebrate the feast of ‘All the Saints of the Seraphic Order.’
St Francis of Assisi prayed the following prayer:
“O Lord Jesus Christ, two favours I beg of You before I die. The first is that I may, as far as it is possible, feel in my soul and in my body the suffering in which You, O gentle Jesus, sustained in Your bitter passion. And the second favour is that I, as far as it is possible, may receive in my heart that excessive charity by which You, the Son of God, were inflamed and which actuated You willingly to suffer so much for us sinners.”
In response to his earnest prayer, the Lord appeared in the form of a seraph, or a six-winged angel (They are usually considered the highest order of angelic beings, immediately above the Cherubim and their special duty is to love God).
Then Jesus bestowed on St Francis the wounds of His suffering. St Francis had been marked with the love of Christ, the stigmata. St Francis died two years later in 1226, leaving the world the Franciscan Order, which became synonymous with the Seraphic Order. To this day, seraph wings and seraphs are symbolic of the Franciscan Order.
The final Rule of life for Franciscan friars was also approved on this day in 1223. To commemorate this and all the saintly examples produced in the Franciscan Order, on this day all the saints of the Seraphic order are remembered at Franciscan churches.
Our Lady of Beauraing/Our Lady of the Golden Heart:
Appeared multiple occasions between 29 November 1932 and 3 January 1933 On 2 February 1943, Bishop Andre Marie Charue authorised public devotion to Our Lady of Beauraing. On 2 July 1949 the Bishop declared that the Queen of Heaven had truly appeared to the children. Pilgrims flock to the small town of Beauraing, province of Namur (Belgium) and many cures are claimed. She is celebrated under this title on 29 November.
Bl Alfredo Simón Colomina
Bl Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos Seña SJ (1711-1735)
St Blaise of Veroli
St Brendan of Birr
St Demetrius of Veroli
Bl Denis of the Nativity
Bl Edward Burden
St Francesco Antonio Fasani OFM Conv (1681 – 1742)
His story:
https://anastpaul.com/2018/11/29/saint-of-the-day-29-november-st-francesco-antonio-fasani-1681-1742-29-november/
Bl Frederick of Ratisbon
Bl George Errington
St Hardoin of Brittany
St Illuminata of Todi
St James of Saroug
Bl Jutta of Heiligenthal
St Paphnutius of Heracleopolis
St Paramon
St Philomenus of Ancyra
St Radbod of Utrecht
Bl Redemptorus of the Cross
St Sadwen of Wales
St Saturninus of Rome
St Saturninus of Toulouse
St Sisinius of Rome
St Walderic of Murrhardt
Bl William Gibson
Bl William Knight
AnaStpaul 
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