Category: DEVOTIO

Posted in CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, DEVOTIO

Monthly Catholic Devotions: What has happened to the tradition of honouring the Holy Name of Jesus?

Posted on by AnaStpaul

What has happened to the tradition of honouring the Holy Name of Jesus?

Question Time with Fr John Flader
When I was growing up I was taught to bow my head whenever I said or heard the name “Jesus”.  I have noticed that some priests still bow their heads in Mass but no one else seems to do it anymore except for some brought up within Convent Schools and homes of “the latin countries” and these will persist regardless. How has this come about?”
I TOO belong to the generation that learned to bow our heads at the name of Jesus, but, as you say, the custom seems to be falling into disuse.
So important is respect for the divine name that God chose to give us a separate commandment regarding it: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” (Deuteronomy 5:11).
Elsewhere in the Old Testament there are numerous passages that speak of the holiness of God’s name, among them: “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth”. (Psalm 8:1; cf. Zechariah 2:13; Psalm 29:2; 96:2; 113:1-2).
In the New Testament St James denounces those “who blaspheme that honourable name by which you are called” (James 2:7).
And St Paul, referring to Jesus emptying himself to take the form of a servant and then becoming obedient unto death, writes: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).
By way of concretising respect for the name of Jesus in a formal way the Second Council of Lyons in 1274 decreed that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow; whenever that glorious name is recalled, especially during the sacred mysteries of the Mass, everyone should bow the knees of his heart, which he can do even by a bow of his head”.
As regards what is to be done in Mass today, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal says: “A bow of the head is made when the three Divine Persons are named together and at the names of Jesus, of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the saint in whose honour Mass is being celebrated” (GIRM 275).
The importance of honouring the holy name of Jesus is seen too in the feast of that name, which has been celebrated, at least at the local level, since the end of the 15th century.   The feast was inserted into the universal calendar by Pope Innocent XIII in 1721 and is now celebrated on 3 January.

Given the widespread misuse of the names of God and Jesus today in ordinary life, as well as on television, in films and in other forms of entertainment, it is especially important to do all we can to restore respect for the name of God.
Bowing our head when we pronounce or hear the name of Jesus is a good way to do this.
Also important is to make an internal act of reparation whenever we hear the name of God or Jesus blasphemed.
It should hurt us that the object of our love is mistreated in this way.
It may very well be that the custom of bowing the head at the name of Jesus will pass out of general use, as have other laudable customs in recent times but that does not prevent us personally from continuing to live it and passing on to our children this ancient custom.

LET US EACH ONE BRING IT BACK for the very Angels in Heaven bow at the name of Jesus. And even the demons in Hell.

catholic-do-this

Posted in DEVOTIO, MORNING Prayers

1 January 2017 – The Holy Father’s Monthly Intentions

Posted on by AnaStpaul

1 January – The Holy Father’s Monthly Intentions

Starting in 2017 the Pope will present only one prepared prayer intention per month, rather than the two presented before this year. He plans, however, to add a second prayer intention each month related to current events or urgent needs, like disaster relief. The urgent prayer request will help mobilize prayer and action related to the urgent situation. The Apostleship of Prayer will publish these urgent prayer intentions on this website as soon as we receive them from the Vatican.

What is the process in the preparation of the prepared prayer intentions? The faithful from around the world suggest papal prayer intentions to the international office of the Apostleship of Prayer in Rome. Through prayerful discernment the Apostleship selects a large number of them and submits them to the Vatican for further selection, with the Pope making the final selection. The Vatican then entrusts to the Apostleship of Prayer the official set of monthly prayer intentions, which the Apostleship then translates into the major world languages and publishes in print and digital formats.

JANUARY: – Christian Unity

That all Christians may be faithful to the Lord’s teaching by striving with prayer and fraternal charity to restore ecclesial communion and by collaborating to meet the challenges facing humanity.

holy-father-jan-intentions

 

Posted in CONSECRATION Prayers, DEVOTIO, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, MORNING Prayers, SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 30 December

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Saint of the Day – 30 December – The Holy Family

The Feast of the Holy Family is a liturgical celebration in the Catholic Church in honour of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary and his foster father, Saint Joseph, as a family. The primary purpose of this feast is to present the Holy Family as a model for Christian families. Since the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar, the feast is celebrated on the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, the Sunday between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day (both exclusive), or if both Christmas Day and the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God are Sundays, on 30 December (always a Friday in such years). It is a holy day of obligation only if it falls on a Sunday.

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Correggio
the-holy-family-currier-museum-in-manchester-new-hampshire-by-joos-van-cleve-c-1520
The Holy Family (Currier Museum in Manchester, New Hampshire ) by Joos van Cleve

The members of the Holy Family are the patrons of the Congregation of Holy Cross. The Holy Cross Sisters are dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Holy Cross Brothers to St. Joseph and the Priests of Holy Cross to the Sacred Heart. The Sons of the Holy Family is another religious congregation devoted to the Holy Family

A pious practice among Catholics is to write “J.M.J.” at the top of letters and personal notes as a reference to Jesus, Mary and Joseph as the Holy Family.

The feast was instituted by Pope Leo XIII in 1893

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Rubens
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Michelangelo The Doni Tondo, The Holy Family with the infant St. John the Baptist

There are few private devotions associated with this day, though the blessing of children by their parents, the renewal of marriage vows (even if just privately) and consecration of the family to the Holy Family are a few.

Consecration to the Holy Family

O Jesus, our most loving Redeemer, who having come to enlighten the world with Your teaching and example, willed to pass the greater part of Your life in humility and subjection to Mary and Joseph in the poor home of Nazareth, thus sanctifying the Family that was to be an example for all Christian families, graciously receive our family as it dedicates and consecrates itself to You this day.  Please protect us, guard us and establish among us Your holy fear, true peace and concord in Christian love: in order that by living according to the divine pattern of Your holy family we may be able, all of us without exception, to attain to eternal happiness.

Mary, dear Mother of Jesus, Mother of God and Mother of us all, by the kindly intercession make this our humble offering acceptable in the sight of your Son and obtain for us His graces and blessings.

O Saint Joseph, most holy Guardian of Jesus and Mary, help us by your prayers in all our spiritual and temporal needs; that so we may be enabled to praise our divine Saviour Jesus the Christ, together with Mary and yourself, for all eternity. Amen.

Say an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be three times.

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Unknown Flemish Artist 1601
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Giulio Romano (Giulio Pippi) 1499

 

Posted in CHRISTMASTIDE!, DEVOTIO, MORNING Prayers

The Benedictus

Posted on by AnaStpaul

It is appropriate that today, Christmas Day 2016, we adopt the practice of praying this great prayer, EVERY DAY!

The Benedictus was the song of thanksgiving uttered by Zechariah on the occasion of the birth of his son, John the Baptist.
In the Roman Catholic Church, the Benedictus is part of Lauds because it is the song of thanksgiving for the coming of the Redeemer in the first part of the canticle.
It is believed to have been first introduced by Benedict of Nursia. According to Durandus, the allusion to Christ’s coming under the figure of the rising sun had also some influence on its adoption. It also features in various other liturgical offices, notably at a funeral, at the moment of interment, when words of thanksgiving for the Redemption are specially in place as an expression of Christian hope.

The Benedictus

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
He has come to His people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior,
born of the house of His servant David.
Through His holy prophets He promised of old
that He would save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember His holy covenant.
This was the oath He swore to our father Abraham:
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship Him without fear,
holy and righteous in His sight all the days of our life.
You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare His way,
to give His people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever, amen

benedictus

Posted in ADVENT, CATHOLIC-PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH, DEVOTIO, LENT, MORNING Prayers, PRAYERS of the CHURCH, QUOTES on SUFFERING

Our Morning Offering – 13 December

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 13 December

Lord Jesus Christ,
by Your patience in suffering
You made holy earthly pain
and gave us the example
of obedience to Your Father’s will:
Be near me
in the trials of my day
and in time of weakness;
sustain me by Your grace,
that my strength and courage
may not fail;
bless me according to Your will;
and help me always to believe
that what happens to me here
is of little account
if You hold me in eternal life,
my Lord and my God. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer, 1979, adapted

13-dec-prayer

Posted in DEVOTIO, The BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Act of Consecration to Our Lady of Loreto – 10 December

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Act of Consecration to Our Lady of Loreto

O Immaculate Virgin Mary, we come to thee with confidence: welcome this day our humble prayer and our act of consecration.

O Mother, thou didst carry thy Divine Saviour in thy most pure womb: receive our homage of faith and filial love as we come in spirit into thy Holy House. It iso, by the presence of the Holy Family, the holy home par excellence. And it is our wish that every Christian family be inspired by it.

From Jesus, all children learn to obey and to work. From thee, O Mary, all women learn humility and the spirit of sacrifice. From Joseph, who didst live for Jesus and for thee, all men learn to believe in God, to live in and for you, all men learn to believe in God, to live in the family and in society with fidelity and honesty. O Mary, we pray for our Pope and for the Universal Church, for our country and for all the nations of the world, for the suffering souls for all sinners. And we all wish to consecrate ourselves to thee.

Spiritually present in the Holy House, where thou didst conceive by the Holy Spirit, we want to repeat with lively faith the words of the Archangel Gabriel: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee!” We want to invoke thee still, saying: “Hail Mary, Mother of Jesus, Mother of God and Mother of the Church!”

We turn to thee O Mary. Receive our consecration to thine Immaculate heart. Totally thine, we wish to confirm by this act of love our unlimited love for Jesus, thy Son and our hope in thee, our Mother. And thou, O Queen and Mother of Mercy, grant to thy children an abundance of heavenly blessings. Amen.

UNIVERSAL CONGREGATION OF THE HOLY HOUSE

loreto-image2

Posted in DEVOTIO

Devotion of The Three Hail Mary’s

Posted on by AnaStpaul

HEAVEN OPENED BY THE PRACTICE OF THE  THREE HAIL MARYs

One of the greatest means of salvation and one of the surest signs of predestination, is unquestionably, the devotion to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. All the holy doctors of the Church are unanimous in saying with St. Alphonsus Liguori: “A devout servant of Mary shall never perish.”

The chief thing is to persevere faithfully until death in this devotion.

Can there be an easier or more adaptable practice for all than the recitation each day of three Ave Marias in honour of the privileges conferred by the Adorable Trinity on the Blessed Virgin?

One of the first to say the three Hail Marys and to recommend them to others was the illustrious St. Anthony of Padua. His special aim in this practice was to honour the spotless Virginity of Mary and to preserve a perfect purity of mind, heart and body in the midst of the dangers of the world. Many, like him, have felt its salutary effects.

Later on, St. Leonard of Port-Maurice, the celebrated missionary, had the three Ave Marias recited morning and evening in honour of Mary Immaculate, to obtain the grace of avoiding all mortal sins during the day or and night; moreover, he promised in a special manner eternal salvation to all those who proved constantly faithful to this practice.

After the example of these two great Franciscan Saints, St. Alphonsus Liguori adopted this pious practice and gave it his most ardent and powerful support. He counseled its use and even imposed it as a penance on those who had not adopted this good habit. The holy Doctor exhorts, in particular, parents, and confessors to watch carefully that children be faithful in reciting each day their three Hail Marys, morning and evening and recommended it to  all the devout young or old.

It is this Saint who suggested adding the aspiration after each Hail Mary: “By thy Immaculate Conception, O Mary, make my body pure and my soul holy.”

This practice has been revealed to St. Melchtilde with the promise of a good death, if she was faithful to it every day.

It is also written in St. Gertrude’s revelations:

“While this Saint sang the Hail Mary, at the matins of the Annunciation, she suddenly saw spring out from the Heart of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, three bright flames which penetrated the Heart of the Holy Virgin.” Then she heard the following words:

“After the Power of the Father, the Wisdom of the Son, and the
merciful Tenderness of the Holy Spirit, nothing approaches the
Power, the Wisdom and the merciful Tenderness of Mary.”

His Holiness, Benedict XV raised the Confraternity of the Three Hail Marys to an Archconfraternity and accorded it indulgences.

Our Lady requested the daily recitation of three Hail Marys, revealing the following to St. Melchtilde:

“The first Hail Mary will be in honour of God the Father, Whose omnipotence raised my soul so high above every other creature that, after God, I have the greatest power in Heaven and on earth. In the hour of your death I will use that power of God the Father to keep any hostile power from you.

“The second Hail Mary will be in honour of God the Son, Who communicated His inscrutable wisdom to me . . . In the hour of your death I will fill your soul with the light of that wisdom so that all the darkness of ignorance and error will be dispelled.

“The third Hail Mary will be in honour of God the Holy Ghost, Who filled my soul with the sweetness of His love and tenderness and mercy . . . In your last hour I will then change the bitterness of death into Divine sweetness and delight.”

PROMISE:
During an apparition to St. Gertrude, the Blessed Mother promised, “To any soul who faithfully prays the Three Hail Marys I will appear at the hour of death in a splendour of beauty so extraordinary that it will fill the soul with Heavenly consolation.”

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