Novena to Our Lady of the Rosary – Day Three – 30 September
Day Three – We Pray for the Priesthood and Consecrated Life and our personal intention:
To Our most holy Mother. To you do we pray first with heartfelt thanks for those who have said YES to the Father. Help them to trust in you and your Son, Jesus, in all the challenges that they face. Teach them patience in all things and to accept all that happens and when it happens, in God’s time. We join them in total consecration to you. Reclaim us all as you own and mould us in all ways necessary to conform to God’s will. We love you, Mother Mary, Help us all!
Daily Prayer along with our Daily Rosary:
My dearest Mother Mary, behold me, your child, in prayer at your feet. Accept this Holy Rosary, which I offer you in accordance with your requests at Fatima, as a proof of my tender love for you, for the intentions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in atonement for the offenses committed against your Immaculate Heart and for this special favour which I earnestly request in my Rosary Novena: ………………………….. (Mention your request).
I beg you to present my petition to your Divine Son. If you will pray for me, I cannot be refused. I know, dearest Mother, that you want me to seek God’s holy Will concerning my request. If what I ask for should not be granted, pray that I may receive that which will be of greater benefit to my soul.
I offer you this spiritual Bouquet of Roses because I love you. I put all my confidence in you, since your prayers before God are most powerful. For the greater glory of God and for the sake of Jesus, your loving Son, hear and grant my prayer. Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation.
Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for our Holy Mother Church and for our country.
Sweet Heart of Jesus, be my love.
Sweet Heart of Mary, at the hour of my death, lead me home.
Thought for the Day – 30 September – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
The Death of the Just
Consider now the death of the just man. Through his dying tears, he also will see the world slipping away from him. But, one thing will remain to comfort him, namely, the memory of his good actions, of the virtues he acquired, of his fervent prayers and of his voluntary mortifications. Above all, there will remain his great love of God, for Whom he has lived, worked and drawn breath. In that moment, this love will even increase the flaming desire consuming his poor, frail body, to be united to God. He will be able to say, as some of the Saints have said – “I never thought it would be so sweet to die.” With St Louis, he will be able top say: “I am going joyfully to meet my God.” He will be able to exclaim with St Charles: “I long for my body to be dissolved, so that I may be with Christ!” (Phil 1:23)
In the sight of God, the death of the good man is a very precious thing. “Precious in the eyes of the Lord, is the death of His faithful ones” (Ps 115:6)
One Minute Reflection – 30 September – Readings: Nehemiah 8: 1-12; Psalm 19: 8-11; Luke 10: 1-12 – The Memorial of St Jerome (347-419) Father and Doctor
“Like lambs among wolves”– Luke 10:3
REFLECTION – “As He sent out disciples into His harvest – which had, in truth, been sown by the Father’s Word but, which required to be worked over, cultivated and carefully tended, if the birds were not to ravage the seed – Jesus said to them: “Behold, I send you out like lambs among wolves”. … The Good Shepherd could not but fear wolves in His flock – these disciples were sent to spread grace abroad, not to become a prey. But the Good Shepherd’s care prevented the wolves from doing anything against the lambs He sends out. He sends them that Isaiah’s prophecy might be fulfilled: “The wolf and the lamb shall graze alike” (Is 65:25) … And besides, were not the disciples who were sent out ordered not even to carry a staff? …
What our humble Lord laid down, His disciples also accomplished by practising humility. For He sends them out to broadcast the faith, not by force but by their teaching; not by exerting force of will but by exalting the doctrine of humility. And He thought it good to link patience to humility since, according to Peter’s testimony: “When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten” (1 Pt 2:23).
This amounts to saying: “Be imitators of Me – let go of your thirst for revenge; respond to the blows of pride, not by returning evil for evil but, with the patience that forgives. No-one should perform on their own account, what they reprehend in others, gentleness confronts the arrogant with far greater strength.” – St Ambrose (340-397) Bishop of Milan Father and Doctor of the Church (Commentary on St Luke’s Gospel, 7, 45.59).
PRAYER – Almighty, ever-living God, You endowed Saint Jerome with a deep reverence and understanding of Holy Scripture, which he loved with all his heart. Sustain us evermore with Your word and teach us by their precepts. Help us to follow each word which Jesus, Your Son, our Redeemer, uttered that we may find therein the source of life. May the prayers of St Jerome assist us in our love and faithfulness. We ask this through Jesus our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, one God forever, Amen.
Our Morning Offering – 30 September – The last day of the Month of the Seven Sorrows of the Mother Mary
My Sorrowful Mother, Help Me to Bear My Crosses By St Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) Doctor of the Church
My sorrowful Mother, by the merit of that grief which you felt at seeing your beloved Jesus led to death, obtain for me the grace to bear with patience, those crosses which God sends me. I will be fortunate if I also shall know how to accompany you with my cross until death. You and Jesus, both innocent, have borne a heavy cross and shall I, a sinner who has merited hell, refuse mine? Immaculate Virgin, I hope you will help me to bear my crosses with patience. Amen
Saint of the Day – 30 September – St Honorius of Canterbury (Died 653) The Fifth Successor of St Augustine as Archbishop of Canterbury, Confessor, Missionary. Born at Rome, Italy and died in 653 at Canterbury, England of natural causes. Also known as Honoratus.
From St Bede we gather that he was a Roman Monk, a disciple of St. Gregory the Great and probably a Benedictine Monk. He either accompanied St.Augustine in 596 or was one of the second band of Missionaries sent by Pope Gregory in 601.
As a member of that apostolic company, he must have led that life of fervent piety, which, we are told, had so much effect in converting the inhabitants of Kent. When Honorius’s predecessor, Justus died, St Paulinus of York, fresh from the conversion of Northumbria, was the only English Bishop left to Consecrate him.
From two letters of Pope Honorius I, preserved in the writings of St Bede, it appears that Honorius and his Consecrator, in applying to Rome, asked that, in order to avoid the delays and uncertainties then involved in a journey to Italy, whenever the occupant of one of the metropolitan Sees should die, the survivor should have power to Consecrate the successor, a request which the Pope granted and sent a pallium.
The chief act of Honorius’s episcopate was the mission of St. Felix, whom he consecrated and sent to convert the East Angles, an expedition which was crowned with complete success. He administered his own Diocese with great zeal and energy. The Pope’s letter to him shows that his life was spent in the vigorous exercise of the duties of his office and in the faithful observance of the rule of his master, St. Gregory the Great. On the overthrow of the flourishing Kingdom and Church of Northumbria by Cadwalla of Wales and Penda of Mercia in 633, he received St Paulinus and appointed him to the vacant See of Rochester. On the death of Paulinus in 644, Honorius Consecrated Ithamar, a native of Kent, as his successor. And some years later, he Consecrated a deacon of Mercia, Thomas, to succeed Felix in East Anglia,and in or about 652 Beretgils or Boniface, a native of Kent, to succeed Thomas. The following year, 653, our Saint himself died and was buried with his predecessors in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, founded by Saint Augustine.
Nostra Signora di Loreto di Forno / Our Lady of Loreto of Forno, Alpi Graie, Italy (1629) – 30 September:
At the beginning of the Vallone di Sea, at about 1340 metres above sea level, in the Forno di Groscavallo hamlet, stands the Sanctuary dedicated to the Madonna di Loreto, built around 1630, after the apparition occurred to Pietro Garino, a native of Forno. In those times, the region was tormented by the wars fought by Carlo Emanuele of Savoy against the neighbouring states; by the increasingly high taxes that weighed on the poor people, by hunger and the plague.
It was customary for devotees to go annually to the Chapel of the Virgin on Rocciamelone. On that occasion, Pietro Garino found the small pictures, which are still preserved in the Church, depicting the Madonna of Loreto and San Carlo Borromeo, leaning against the facade of the Chapel. They were in bad shape. Pietro took them with him to have them restored and promised himself to bring them back to the Chapel the following year, keeping them in the meantime at his home in Forno. Twice the pictures eluded his custody – the first time he found them right up there, at the mouth of the Vallone di Sea, where he had gone to collect leaves for the litter intended for livestock. On that occasion he had an apparition – the Virgin appeared to him between two women and promised him to stop the plague that claimed victims among the population of the plain. Brought home by Pietro, the paintings again disappeared from his home and were found in the same place as the apparition – it was a precise indication of the Virgin’s desire to see a Chapel built in that place. A Chapel was built at the spot of the apparition, of which the remains have recently been found. The current building dates back to the second half of the 1700s; it is the work of Luigi Baretta; internally it has elements of considerable artistic and historical interest. The marvelous Altar by Prinotto, a masterpiece of eighteenth-century cabinet-making; the baroque reliquary, in which the pictures are kept; hundreds of ex-votos, including some of considerable value. Historically, a Madonna with black features did not appear but the Sanctuary is known as such, as the faces of the Madonna and the Child she holds in her arms are ebony. The current Statue is the work of Raimondo Santifaller, from Ortisei and replaces the original one from the 18th century, stolen in 1977.
To access the Sanctuary it is necessary to climb the 440 steps that must be taken to reach the small square where the Sanctuary stands and which, pilgrims climb on their knees and in prayer.
The Sanctuary is open from July to September and Our Lady is celebrated annually on the Feast of the Assumption (16 August), the Nativity of Mary (8 September) and the Apparition of the Virgin Mary (30 September). The video below shows this beautiful Sanctuary very clearly.
St Antoninus of Piacenza St Castus of Piacenza St Colman of Clontibret St Desiderius of Piacenza St Enghenedl of Anglesey St Eusebia of Marseilles Bl Frederick Albert
St Honorius of Canterbury (Died 653) Archbishop of Canterbury St Ismidone of Die Bl Jean-Nicolas Cordier St Laurus St Leopardus the Slave Bl Ludwik Gietyngier St Midan of Anglesey St Simon of Crépy St Ursus the Theban St Victor the Theban — Martyrs of Valsery Abbey: An unknown number of Premonstratensian monks at the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Valsery, Picardie, France who were martyred by Calvinists. They were martyred in 1567 at Valsery, Pircardy, France.
AnaStpaul 
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