Thought for the Day – 10 June – “Month of the Sacred Heart” – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
The Sacred Heart of Jesus Surmounted by a Flaming Cross
“This flaming Heart surmounted by a Cross represents, not only the infinite love of Jesus, the obedient victim of love but indicates also, that if we wish to follow our divine Redeemer as far as Heaven, our true country, we must follow Him along the path of love and of the Cross. There is only one way of perfection and that is, the way of the Cross.
Jesus has told us this and has set us an example. “If anyone wishes to come after me,” He said, “let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23). He gave us an example by allowing Himself, innocent as He was, to be burdened with our sin. He staggered as far as Calvary beneath the weight of the Cross and there, He shed His Precious Blood to the last drop.
We must take the road of the Cross also. If we do not love our own cross, we do not love the Cross of Jesus. The Saints looked for humiliation and suffering in order to prove their love for Jesus. We must, at least, accept with resignation, those sufferings and humiliations which Providence has allowed to us.
We must embrace our cross daily and carry it with faith and love in the footsteps of Jesus. The Cross is the standard of Christ – it is the ladder which leads us to Heaven. If anyone does not want to have anything to do with it, he does not want to have anything to do with Jesus!”
Quote/s of the Day – 10 June – “Month of the Sacred Heart” – Readings: First: Second Corinthians 3: 15 — 4: 1, 3-6, Psalm: Psalms 85: 9ab and 10, 11-12, 13-14, Gospel: Matthew 5: 20-26
“Go first and be reconciled with your brother”
Matthew 5:24
“Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times but seventy times seven.”
Matthew 18:21-22
“There are three things, my brethren, by which faith stands firm, devotion remains constant and virtue endures. They are prayer, fasting and mercy. Prayer knocks at the door, fasting obtains, mercy receives. Prayer, mercy and fasting, these three are one and they give life to each other.”
“If you want God to know that you are hungry, know that another is hungry. If you hope for mercy, show mercy. If you look for kindness, show kindness. If you want to receive, give. If you ask for yourself what you deny to others, your asking is a mockery.”
St Peter Chrysologus (400-450) Bishop of Ravenna, Father & Doctor of the Church
“To the extent that you pray, with all your soul, for the person who slanders you, God will make the truth known to those who have been scandalised by the slander.”
St Maximus the Confessor (c 580–662)
“See to it that you refrain from harsh words. But if you do speak them, do not be ashamed to apply the remedy from the same lips, that inflicted the wounds.”
“Go first and be reconciled with your brother” – Matthew 5:24
REFLECTION – “In heaven there is a mercy that we attain by mercy here on earth… And there are two kinds of almsgiving: one good, the other better. The first consists in offering a morsel of bread to the poor; the other in at once forgiving the brother who has sinned against you. With our Lord’s help let us hasten to put into practice these two kinds of almsgiving that we may be fit to receive eternal pardon and the true mercy that is Christ’s. For He Himself has said: “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you will not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions” (Mt 6,14-15). And elsewhere the Holy Spirit cries aloud: “Should a man nourish anger against his fellows and expect healing from the Lord? Should a man refuse mercy to his fellows yet seek God’s pardon for his own sins?” (Sir 28,3-4)…
Let us make haste as much as we can and, for as long as we live, to acquire these two kinds of alms and distribute them to others. Then, on the day of judgement, we shall be able to say with full assurance: “Give, Lord, because we have given.” – St Caesarius of Arles (470-543) Bishop and Monk – Sermons to the people no 25
PRAYER – Lord God, true light and creator of light, grant that faithfully following the instructions of Your Son and pondering all that is holy, we may ever live in the splendour of Your presence. By the gifts of the Holy Spirit, may we always be light to our neighbour. Mary, Mother of Love and our loving mother, by your prayers, may we grow in charity and love. We make our prayer through Christ, our Lord amen. SACRED Heart of JESUS, I trust in Thee. 300 Days Indulgence Once a Day – Plenary, Once a month. Raccolta 175 – St Pius X, 19 August 1905; 27 June 1906.
Our Morning Offering – 10 June – “Month of the Sacred Heart”
May Your Heart Dwell Always in our Hearts! By St Francis de Sales (1567-1622) Doctor of Charity
May Your Heart dwell always in our hearts! May Your Blood ever flow in the veins of our souls! O sun of our hearts, You give life to all things by the rays of Your goodness! I will not go, until Your Heart has strengthened me, O Lord Jesus! May the Heart of Jesus be the King of my heart! Blessed be God. Amen
Saint of the Day – 19 June – Blessed Bogumilus of Gniezno (c 1135-c 1182) Archbishop of Gniezno, Camaldolese Hermit . Bornin c 1135 bear Dobrow, Poland and died in c 1182 near Uniedow, Poland of natural causes. Also known as Bogimilus, Bogumil Piotr, Bogumilo, Theophilus. Patronage – Archdiocese of Gniezno.
Bogumilus and his twin brother, Boguphalus, were born into a noble family in about 1135 at Dobrów, Poland. They studied in Paris, France. Having completed his studies Bogumilus was Ordained a Priest near Dobrów. His Uncle, who was the Archbishop of Gniezno, made him the Chancellor of Gniezno. Bogumilus succeeded his Uncle as Archbishop of Gniezno in 1167. Bogumilus founded a Cistercian Abbey at Koronowo.
Gniezno Cathedral
He resigned his See in 1172, possibly due to opposition by his clergy to what they viewed as his excessive strictness. Bogumilus then joined the Camaldolese Hermits at Uniedow, Poland, where he remained until his death. While on his deathbed, Bogumilus saw a vision of the Virgin Mary and Child, surrounded by a throng of angels, who were inviting him to Heaven.
The cult and veneration of Bogumilus began almost immediately after his death, especially in Eastern Poland. Many people prayed for his intercession. When their prayers were answered, many faithful visited his tomb in the Cathedral of Gniezno and it became a place for local pilgrimage. Yet it was not until 1625 that the formal process of Beatification began under the Primate of Poland, Archbishop Maciej Łubieński.
Statue of Blessed Bogumił on the Gniezno Cathedral.
The files were sent to Rome in 1651, however the process was never completed as the Book of Miracles, which was in the hands of a Count, by the name of Sebastian Głębocki, was burned at his Court in Głębokie, Kruszwica. In 1788 a small wooden Chapel dedicated to Bogumilus was built, near Dobrów. The process of Beatification would remain dormant until 1908, when Stanislaw Zdzitowiecki, the Bishop of Kujawy, reactivated the process. On 27 May 1925 Pope Pius XI proclaimed Bogumilus, as Blessed.
Nossa Senhora da Lapa / Our Lady of the Grotto, Sernancelhe, Viseu, Douro, Norte, Portugal, 1498 – 10 June:
In 1498, a mute girl was herding her flock in the hills of Quintela, outside the Town of Sernancelhe in north central Portugal, when she found a Statue of the Virgin and Child in the cleft of a rock. Young Joana made the Statue an object of personal devotion, carrying it back and forth from home, where she made clothes for it, to the hills, where she would set it on a rock, surround it with flowers and pray, while the sheep grazed nearby. Her mother began to feel the “doll” was distracting the girl from her chores and one day threw it in the fireplace. Suddenly Joana spoke, for the first time in her life: “Mother! That’s Our Lady of the Grotto! What are you doing?”The girl grabbed the unburnt image out of the fire. She was cured but her mother’s arm became paralysed! After they both prayed, the mother regained use of her arm. As word spread through the area, people began coming to venerate the Statue, and the Parish Priest suggested moving it to the Church. But three times, the image vanished from the Church, reappearing in its original place between the rocks. So, a Chapel was built there, enclosing the location where Joana found the Statue. People believed that in 982, nuns fleeing the Islamic conqueror Almanzor, had hidden the image there.
Nossa Senhora da Lapa became one of Portugal’s major pilgrimage destinations, attracting devotion from colonies in Brazil and India, as well as from the Portuguese aristocracy. In 1575, Pope Gregory XIII approved the request of King Sebastian to transfer the Shrine to the Society of Jesus. Between 1610 and 1635, the Jesuits rebuilt the Church, decorating the interior with azulejo tilework. Later, they added a college and housing for pilgrims, students and themselves. From the 1700s to the 1900s, the complex changed hands several times, repeatedly taken over by the state then returned to the Church. Since 1929, it has belonged to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lamego.
n addition to the huge boulders within the Sanctuary, another unusual feature of the Shrine is a crocodile hanging from the ceiling (as in the Church of Our Lady of the Cherry Tree in Belgium)—a wooden replica of the long-decayed stuffed skin, which some say a pilgrim brought to thank the Virgin for her help against the beast in India. A more fanciful local story relates that a monstrous lizard menaced a girl who was spinning by hand while watching her flock. After invoking Our Lady of Lapa, she was able to subdue the animal by stuffing its mouth with balls of wool, then lead it home by a thread to be killed and mounted.
Although the Shrine’s fame has been eclipsed by that of Fatima, it still hosts three big pilgrimages annually: on 10 June Portugal Day, on `15 August Feast of the Assumption (preceded by novenas) and on 8 September Feast of Mary’s Birth.
Bl Amata of San Sisto St Amantius of Tivoli St Asterius of Petra St Bardo of Mainz Blessed Bogumilus of Gniezno (c 1135-c 1182) Bishop, Camaldolese Hermit St Caerealis of Tivoli St Censurius of Auxerre St Crispulus of Rome
Bl José Manuel Claramonte Agut Bl Joseph Kugler St Landericus of Novalese St Landericus of Paris Bl Mary Magdalene of Carpi St Maurinus of Cologne St Primitivus of Tivoli St Restitutus of Rome Bl Thomas Green St Timothy of Prusa Bl Walter Pierson St Zachary of Nicomedia — Martyrs of North Africa – 17 saints: A group of seventeen Christians martyred together in North Africa; the only surviving details are two of their names – Aresius and Rogatius. Both the precise location in North Africa and the date are unknown.
Martyrs of the Aurelian Way – 23 saints: A group of 23 martyrs who died together in the persecutions of Aurelian. The only details that survive are three of their names – Basilides, Mandal and Tripos. c.270-275 on the Aurelian Way, Rome, Italy.
AnaStpaul 
You must be logged in to post a comment.